vegan Fridays – inspiration
Sometimes just a small action can make all the difference.
I really love it when you walk past someone on the street, and they make eye contact, smile, or even say Hello. It really is lovely, and such a simple thing to do. I reckon it’s much more effort to cast your eyes downwards and pretend the other person is not there…. really what is the point, when a quick smile is all it takes to connect and acknowledge.
Luckily, I live in a pretty darn friendly neighbourhood, and the fact that Misty tends to wave and babble and be stupidly cute at passers-by makes us hard to ignore. Except of course the rude bikers that yelled at us today for being on a path (which is in a large area designated for children) who told me to ‘Keep control of your child!’ I promptly yelled back ‘PISS OFF.’ And I have NO shame in doing so. (That’s me keeping my language “clean” too – someone has to think of the children).
Sigh.
My point is, that small positive actions can make all the difference. Take inspiration from the new Friday Soiree of Vegan Delicacies (Healthy Vegan Fridays) – perhaps you could instigate one vegan meal a week in your household? All the delicious recipes that are going to be pouring in at the end of every week shall be enough temptation for even the most hard-core carnivore I’m sure.
Chocolate Breakfast Brownies:
(Vegan, High RAW, wheat/soy/nut/corn/refined sugar free…. gluten free if you use certified oats)
This recipe is not limited to eating only at breakfast…. I called them breakfast brownies as me and Misty ate them for breakfast. Who doesn’t want chocolate for breakfast? Riddle me that. I’ve included various ideas to “super-charge” your breakfast with some super-foods…. entirely optional, but why not?
- 2C rolled oats
- 1/3C coconut butter
- 2T cacao powder
- 1T maca powder (or lucuma, mesquite, nopal etc – or just some of your favourite protein powder)
- 1C pitted dates soaked in 1/2C warm water
- 1/4t sea salt
- 1/2t vanilla extract
- Combine all ingredients (including date-soaking water) in a food processor and pulse until a soft, sticky “dough” is formed.
- You can shape the dough however you want – I find the easiest way to work with it, is let it “rest” for 10 minutes or so after pulsing (this helps the oats soak up a bit of the liquid and become more solid). Then sandwich the dough between 2 sheets of baking paper, and spread out either with your hands or a rolling pin. Alternatively you can push into little silicon moulds for fun shapes.
- Chill in the fridge for at least 30 minutes.
- Dollop with the following “jam” for good measure:
Berry Quick Jam
(Vegan, RAW, gluten/wheat/soy/nut/corn/refined sugar free)
- 1C mixed berries (fresh or frozen….. doesn’t matter)
- 3t agave/honey/coconut cyrup
- 1T super food (as listed above…. entirely optional!)
- 3T water
- 3T Chia seeds
- Blitz everything together in a food processor (if you don’t like the texture of chia, then grind these down to a fine meal before adding).
- Leave to “gel” for 10 minutes or so.
- Dollop on top of the brownies, or anything that welcomes a fruity jam.
- Store in the fridge.
These “brownies” are super dooper creamy thanks to the coconut butter…. a fresh berry jam is just the cherry on the top (but there were no cherries in this jam, you get what I mean though, right?)
Anyway, I hope you are up to the challenge of instigating a vegan meal in your household once a week – a small action that is great for your health, the environment AND animals. Not to mention delicious. You know what I am going to tell you to do if you try and argue with me that a vegan meal is too difficult (read story above about certain bike riders almost squashing my innocent child).
I am submitting this recipe to Healthy Vegan Fridays.
54 Responses to “vegan Fridays – inspiration”
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Vegan. Stay at home Mum of Misty. Yoga teacher in training. Passionate about REAL food - creating it, eating it, sharing it. I can never stick to a recipe.
Woo hoo! You are so wonderful for mentioning Healthy Vegan Fridays (you might notice the link-up is strange- will be fixed by next week hopefully!). You’re right, it’s a great opportunity for everyone to try out plant-based for at least one meal, whether it be readers or bloggers
And with a recipe like this, who wouldn’t want to? I love that you made Misty brownies for breakfast. I would gladly enjoy a couple of these with my morning tea!
Yay for Vegan Fridays! Such a great project, Gabby – thanks so much for starting it up. If it can encourage a few readers to include a couple of vegan meals in their diets than we WIN
Ahhh thank you for submitting this recipe- I really appreciate your support with HVF
THANK YOU, Gabby, for putting in the effort to start up such a fun little foodie-sharing party
xx
Yum! I’m drooling over these, they look absolutely gorgeous. That is a fantastic idea to make healthy jam. I have chia seeds but didn’t realise you could make jam out of them. Thank you so much for this amazing recipe.
Hey welcome, Katherine! You should totally try chia jam…. it’s awesome – thanks for reading
i would have chased the bikers down for you. They should know better.
Love you and love this recipe, as always. Come make it for us please!!!!
I really wanted to run them down…. wish you were there, you are fast and would probably have caught them
Yay! you’re doing healthy vegan fridays too!
Cyclists can suck (only some of them) but the one who ran me over and abused me sort of tainted my opinion of them…I love that you stood up to them, I think I just cried.
I’m totally with you on the human contact thing- when I need a giggle I play the smiling game. It’s really very simple and funny, all you do is make eye contact and smile broadly at everyone you meet on your walk (especially the grumpy looking ones) You will get the great range of returning beaming smiles, confused stares and utter fear! They can be great- I’ve often thought of buying a spy camera and making it into an artwork.
Your brownies look yum yum yum! I hope your son appreciates your deliciousness too.
Oh you poor thing, being run over – were you injured badly?
I TOTALLY think you should do you “spy-camera-human-contact” idea…. I reckon it would be a fantastic piece of artwork, and a nice little foray into the intricacies human nature
ooh, that biker got under MY skin all the way across the ocean. Why are people rude? A smile from a strange makes ALL the difference. It’s one of the things that made us want to stay in Flagstaff.
Love this Vegan Friday idea. You will have (& have) lots of good eats to share on the blog hop. This fudge thing is EXACTLY what I am craving right now…but no dates in the house <– Something very wrong with that statement – guess I'll remedy that today.
Enjoy your weekend!
Seriously I was annoyed ALL DAY after that. Kind of funny though
YEs yes, you NEED to remedy your date-less situation… very critical!
To me there are few things in life that go more perfectly together than berries and chocolate mmmm.
I find that people are a lot nicer to me since having a kid. It’s funny, I grew up in a VERY small town where EVERYONE said hello and held open doors, helped you with your bags etc. It was quite the culture shock when I moved to the city at 17. Since having Holden though ppl have started smiling as we walk by and holding doors for me again etc. It’s kinda nice lol.
All that being said I have had my fair share of rude encounters similar to your cranky biker! Living downtown in a city I get snide remarks and looks from people ALL the time when I take Holden out and about to restaurants, shops etc. Like if he isn’t sitting perfectly still the whole time or makes any noise than I MUST not be able to control him and be a lazy mother. I try to just remember the majority of ppl who have since become super friendly and sympathetic too me, rather than focus on the crabby ones.
Yes, yes I have had very similar experiences, Ami….. people are so nice when you are pregnant too (although it seems as though having a bump gives complete strangers the permission to come up and pat patting your belly?)
Flying on my own with Sid was a cool experience as people are SO helpful if you are on your own with a baby…. but then again, people do give you the death stare if your toddler is not perfectly behaved all the time!! I have so much more sympathy now when I see toddlers having tantrums at the shops…. having your own little terror really gives you some perspective on how HARD parenting is huh?
hooray for healthy vegan fridays!!!
ps how far away from the wedding day are you now??? i feel like its so close!?!?
It’s less than 4 weeks…. August 25th!! Arrrrrrrrgh!
i miss the friendliness of my small town where i grew up – new york can be a bit cold sometimes!
congrats on telling that dink on a bike to piss off – love it
I can imagine NYC feeling a bit like that…. generally where I live is awesome friendliness-wise BUT people telling me how to parent really drives me NUTS…. especially when THEY were at fault. Seriously, I wanted to chase them, but their bikes were faster than my little legs
I’ve been waiting for this recipe since you put the pic up on Facebook during the week. Looks good!
Seriously, it’s a GOODIE! I kind of- sort of ate pretty much the whole thing in a day. Ha.
These look amazing Lou! I’d have them for breakfast, lunch and dinner I think, very happily indeed. I love this new vegan Friday link up too – such a great initiative.
I started eating them at breakfast… then at morning tea… then after lunch…. then before dinner and Oh dear, they seem to have all gone
Misty had a few though!
LOVE Healthy Vegan Fridays… it’s going to be fun checking out all the ideas/recipes/new/blogs, wheeeeeee!
Yesterday, when I walked out to my car at the carpark yesterday, one of the older women who lives in my complex opened her car door to call out “hello!” to me. It was lovely, particularly because most of the people in the complex are…. of questionable character, shall we say.
It’s so nice when people make the effort to “connect” huh? I like the whole community-feel
So true – the random smile or hello really does make one’s day. Just that little connection.
Your bars/jam said peanut butter and jelly sandwich to me (which is a GREAT thing), but so much more interesting! I think I found my Saturday dessert.
Even little connections mean so much…. a random smile can totally turn your day around for the better
Hey YEAH I could even play around with a PB version of the brownie…. mmmmm sounds GOOD to me – happy weekend to you, Annie!
love the inspiration and vegan can totally be delicious! j and i ate at millennium (vegan fine dining) when we were in san francisco and he didn’t even know it was vegan! the power of flavorful spices, fresh veg, and inspiration!
Oh man I would love to check out San Fran – looks like a super fun place to hang. Whereabouts are you in the States?
such a beautiful recipe. I would love to try it. I am always impressed by the vegan food but I don’t make vegan dishes myself. my husband is just an ordinary American, burger and mash potatoes eater, not really willing to try new foods, especially vagan.
I might give it a try : )
With two kids it’s time consuming to just cook for myself and then cook something else for husband and something else for the little one. Sometimes I cook separately for me and him, anyway.
Your recipe, though, looks like really not that time consuming
Thank you for the lovely comment – and welcome! It IS tough when your family doesn’t share the same food-philosophy (I know how you feel as Viper + Misty both eat meat/eggs/dairy) so it can be a bit of a juggle sometimes. Luckily both Viper+ Misty are happy to eat whatever I make for them (as long as it’s tasty!) This recipe is really quick, so you totally should give it a go – I’m sure your little ones will like it (usually anything chocolate goes down a treat!)
Vegan food CAN seem intimidation at times, but seriously, I think it is the MOST exciting, creative and vibrant food you could possibly eat
Plus it makes you feel amazing!
I know what you mean. I’ve made a few vegan dishes before and they were all delicious. I often made vegan smoothies/puddings for breakfast and quite often my daughter eats them with me – it’s the only time when I can make her eat spinach or avocado
They are always so filling, taste delicious and I don’t feel bloated after eating them.
So, actually I make some vegan food, it seems like… lol
Ha
Smoothies are a great way to sneak in a bit of nutrition for the kiddos, huh? I can’t STOP my little one from eating avocados… seriously he munches about a whole one every day – crazy!
my daughter is a texture freak kid (she gets it from her father). she always touches her food first. if she likes the texture she’ll eat it, if not… oh well she goes hungry, then
she used to like avocados when I started solid foods with her but after that the whole touching started and avocado only in smoothies (altogether with many different veggies and fruits which she wouldn’t it by itself). thanks god for blenders!!!
Bahaha I love you!! I am so glad you told that biker to piss off.. what a douche. This recipe looks deeelicious. They are breakfast bars..but I would probably eat them allll dayyyy longgg.
Me and Misty DID eat them all day long, and now we need to make some more!
I found these via Healthy Vegan Fridays. I make a similar brownie into cookies and a similar quick jam, but hadn’t thought of putting them together! Thank you for sharing.
Hi Sarina! Welcome! And YES…. it’s all in the combination
vegan fridays- we should all start a little bloghop with vegan treats before the weekend! these little babies will definitely make their way in my belly next week! awww
Yummo indeed
These look SO good Lou – and I actually have all the ingredients foronce – these and your raw lemon treats are so on my hit list. Its just so difficult sometimes – with so many delicious things to eat, and to little time to eat in
. I also love the jam idea. And I do love having a little choc like sweet for breakfast too…!!
It’s getting to the point for me that it’s unusual if I DON”T have chocolate-something for breakfast (!) The rate I go through a tin of cacao is kind of ridiculous. My fridge is SO full of my experiments, yet I keep on cooking/baking. At least Misty + Viper dig what I make, as I need as much munching-help as I can get – come stay!!
This recipes look fabulous, Lou, and I’m so happy you joined Healthy Vegan Fridays. You had the top-rated recipe so congrats!!! I’m so happy to have discovered your blog, I can’t wait to read more.
Thanks so much Carrie – I’ve been an avid reader of your blog for quite some time now, so this is such a compliment coming from you
Massive thanks to YOU for putting on this little vegan-happy food party!
Yuuum! These look divine! Brownies + berry jam sounds heavenly!
Especially for breakfast, Victoria (!)
Welcome!
Hi there would you mind sharing which blog platform you’re using? I’m looking to start my own blog in the near future but I’m having a difficult time deciding between BlogEngine/Wordpress/B2evolution and Drupal. The reason I ask is because your design and style seems different then most blogs and I’m
looking for something unique.
P.S My apologies for getting off-topic but I had to ask!
Hey, not a problem! It’s a confusing thing setting up a blog (especially if you are technologically challenged like me!) I use WordPress (self-hosted) and it’s excellent, couldn’t fault it. Even if you aren’t going to go self-hosted, it’s easy to use and they provide excellent support. I also use Blue Host for my web hosting – hope this helps?
I am new at using Maca – I have some – but my question is is maca ok for toddlers? I would be making these for myself and my 3.5 yr old daughter…would love your thoughts!
I think in small amounts such as this recipe it would be fine…feel free to leave it out though, but I have given it to my 2 year old and it’s a-ok!