No bake, high raw banana bread bites - vegan and gluten free

These banana bread bites are a blatant rip off of my vegan brownie bites. Fortunately, I think it's acceptable to rip off your own recipes. Plus, when you're on to a good thing, why stop at one variation?

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Angel hair spaghetti with roast peppers, basil, and tofu bacon

After more than two years of blogging, this is the first spaghetti recipe to grace my pages. Prior to this, my pasta efforts have been limited to one (very dated, very early!) ginger noodle recipe, one chocolate pasta recipe, and one Thai and rice noodle salad recipe. There has also been a zucchini noodle dish, but that's not really the same.

What triggered this sudden welcoming of pasta? To be truthful, I don't even know. The idea of the dish just wafted to me. I followed the line of thought, and so it was made.

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Cardamom and date pumpkin scones - vegan, fat free, and swoon-worthy

I'm no longer obsessed with peanut butter and carob.

(Or at least, the obsession is back to its usual levels, which means I'm content to eat them a few times a week instead of a few times a day.)

Instead, I have fallen in love with these scones.

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Creamy smoothies: Peanut butter and carob (with broccoli!) and strawberry-mint-avocado (with cauliflower!)

I have given away the twist to these smoothies in the post's title. However, I figure that most of you are used to seeing odd things turn up in smoothies. It's not a big leap from spinach or kale to broccoli or cauliflower. So - I'm sharing the twist with you from the start and plan to use the rest of the post to convince you that these particular smoothie additions are worthwhile (and edible)!

I have a bit of an obsession with peanut butter and carob at the moment. To clarify: I have a bit of an obsession with peanut butter and carob together at the moment. I am obsessed with them on their own pretty much constantly. Now, I want them together in everything.

In smoothie form, this desire played out very well, in all ways except the photography aspect. To my shame, I snapped images on my phone only, and taking photos of a browny liquid in questionable lighting on my phone...well, the result wasn't great. I apologise. I was going to make another version before sharing this post, but I was so enamored with the drink that I thought you deserved to hear about it promptly.

The broccoli in this smoothie is limited to the broccoli stems. It's something I've been meaning to try it for some time, having seen the idea mentioned in various places over the years. The idea is that you have a container in your freezer that you add broccoli stems and/or other 'waste' vegetable or fruit components to, and then add them to your smoothies as desired. Once the broccoli stems are processed - and I use my food processor, not a high powered blender - they aren't noticeable at all. You end up with a creamy drink that is more like a thickshake than a smoothie, tasting as decadent as can be, but which incorporates broccoli that would otherwise be wasted. It's really quite brilliant.

Having used broccoli stems with success, the obvious next step was to try cauliflower stems. I added them to a variation of the strawberry, avocado and spearmint smoothie that Gena posted on Choosing Raw last week. 

As with the broccoli stems, the cauliflower wasn't noticeable once processed. This was also the first time I'd used avocado in a smoothie, and that wasn't noticeable either. It makes a nice change from bananas, in terms of thickening the texture and creating a creamy drink, and you could probably use water rather than milk for all of the liquid additions (I used half of each). Whilst I froze my avocado before blending, I'm not sure that's strictly necessary either.

Whether you make these particular drinks or just tuck the idea of broccoli and cauliflower stems away, I hope you end up with a smoothie that makes you as happy as these two made me!

Peanut butter and carob shake with broccoli

Serves one

Vegan

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Ingredients

1 medium banana, frozen

2 tsp carob powder (or cocoa powder; adjust to taste)

1 tbsp peanut butter (or any nut butter)

1/4 - 1/2 cup chopped broccoli stems, frozen

1/2 cup water

1/2 cup non-dairy milk (I used sweetened almond; or use coconut water or milk for a raw alternative)

Method

Add all ingredients to a blender or food processor, and process until smooth.

Strawberry-mint-avocado smoothie with cauliflower

Serves one

Vegan

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Ingredients

1/2 medium hass avocado, frozen

1 cup strawberries

1 small bunch mint leaves, removed from their stem

1 tsp vanilla

1/4 - 1/2 cup chopped cauliflower stems, frozen

1/2 cup water

1/2 cup non-dairy milk (I used sweetened almond; or use coconut water or milk for a raw alternative)

Method

Add all ingredients to a blender or food processor, and process until smooth.

Submitted to 5 ingredient Mondays, 
Raw Foods Thursdays, and
Ricki's Wellness Weekend

What do you like to add to your smoothies?

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