Vegan Chocolate Chip Peanut Butter Oatmeal Cookies!

I really thought I would post this EARLY in the week...but alas time escaped me! The cookies are all gone now...which is a good sign right?! These cookies are vegan...made with whole wheat flour, a blend of stevia and organic brown sugar and simply scrumptious!! They have a bit of a "cakey" consistency and texture that both Thor and I really enjoyed.... And since they are healthier you can have 2...or 4...

Ingredients:

2/3 cup natural peanut butter (crunchy or smooth)

4 tablespoons vegetable oil

1 cup Stevia

3/4 cup Brown Sugar
2/3 cup coconut milk (soy or almond will work too)

2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

2 cup whole wheat flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon salt
1.5 cups rolled oats

1 1/3 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips (ghirridelli)

1 Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

2 In a large mixing bowl, stir together first six ingredients.

3 In a small bowl, thoroughly stir together flour, soda and salt.

4 Stir into batter.

5 Stir in oats and chocolate chips.

6 Drop batter by rounded tablespoonfuls onto baking sheet. Flatten into desired cookie shape...they wont morph much as they bake!

7 Bake for 10 minutes or until set.

8 Remove sheet from oven and let cool on tray for 5 minutes.

SO.....My brother left for his first deployment to Afghanistan yesterday! I am so proud of him and he had been at the front of my mind these last few days...You can send him your words of encouragement to harrsion.read@gmail.com or

PFC Read

Operation Enduring Freedom
TF Spartan. HHC/2-34 AR
FOB Ram Rod
APOAE 09370

Also, I turn 26 tomorrow! Its funny... I know that 26 isn't old... BUT if you would of asked me when I was younger, I would have sworn that I would have a hubby and kiddos by 26.....and now I'm starring 30 down.... hmmm. Well as long as I keep up with the daily fresh juice Ill likely live to be 200 so the age thing really wont matter! I am excited to head out for some food and dancing tomorrow night....AND I am thinking of making myself a raw vegan cheesecake on Sunday!

Just a short 24 years ago..my cheeks are still that round!

Easter Weekend!

So this post will be a little bit of everything because this past weekend has been a little bit of everything! First, we had snow last week....I am not happy about that! "No Snow After March" is my official stand on the white stuff....

By Friday night the skies started to clear...I celebrated by making some sushi rolls for dinner! My Nori Roll recipe is here! I have a goal to make beautiful rolls with the rice on the outside...I'm getting closer but I still don't think I would trust myself to make them for company.... Oh darn, Ill have to practice and make more! 

On Saturday morning I headed to work for yoga and cross training....check out this awesome promo video we are creating...

Both Saturday and Sunday Thor and I got to take some beautiful bike rides! Can you believe the turn around in weather in just a few days??? These days remind me why I don't mind living in Spokompton.

Thor and I have been on a bit of a cookie kick lately and I made some fab Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies (vegan, whole wheat)....recipe coming soon!

Hope you all had a wonderful Easter weekend!

Yoga at FT!

So many of you know that I have been crazed at work lately with the expansion and adding group classes to what our services....well we just created a video for the yoga class and even though we are not done editing it yet I had to share it with you all!!!

This video was shot just yesterday and we already have this clip! How awesome! Don't you want to come take a yoga class with us now??

Kreativ Blogger Award!

Fun Time! I am honoured to be tagged by my friend Kate of A Kate Day in a little blogger fun. I am supposed to share ten things about myself that the world may not know, and tag ten others to recieve the award and do the same!

1. I have a weird thing about anything touching the front of my neck... I cant wear turtle necks and no one is allowed to touch my throat. I also have a weird thing about my eyes... no eye drops or glaucoma tests for me!

2. My favourite time of day is dusk.. I just love the lighting in that magical moment when day turns to night.

3, I have a teddy bear named Edward that I have had since I was about 9. He was named after the Richard Gere character in Pretty Women.

4. I cry when I watch Dirty Dancing. And I can quote the whole movie....

5. I get angry at how afraid of spiders I am... its so stupid! But I am so dramatically frightened by them!

6. I worry about how to raise my kids (unborn children of my daydreams) with a healthy lifestyle and diet, while allowing it to be a choice they make and not something that I push onto them.

7. When I am getting ready in the morning I listen to How Stuff Works podcasts. Stuff You Missed in History Class and Stuff You Should Know are my favourites.

8. I have undergarments that I have owned for years, maybe decades, that I have a hard time parting with...even though they are falling apart.

9. I cant go to sleep at night without reading first... Ive resorted to reading some random items like instruction or recipe books when Ive ran out of actual books...

10. I am a lot less hard headed, stubborn and confident than people think I am. But I do like to challenge people on their ideas and see what they will stand up for and defend.

The Ten People I would like to tag are...

Bitt of Raw

Planting Shade

Sweet Potato Soul

Peanut Butter Kisses

Knit Purl Gurl

Blaynes Recipes

Dassow Diapers

One Day at a Time

Andreas Easy Vegan Cooking

If Life is a Song, Love is the Lyrics

Calorimetry

Wow! I have not blogged in a while! Things have been a little bit crazy at my work... we just started including group exercise classes and it is so much fun but I have been working 12 hour days and teaching 2-3 yoga/ cross training classes a day to help get it going, all while training my own group of clients, conducting interviews, helping the other training with the new systems.... its been fun but exhausting! I actually finished this little knitting project a couple of weeks ago but am just now getting the chance to blog on it...

I may be the last person in the entire knitting world to make a calorimetry....but better late than never because I love this thing!! I actually made this one fairly true to the original pattern that is posted on Knitty. As many other knitters have reported it does knit up a bit large, but I put three buttons on mine and I love that its not suctioned to my head. I do have a scaled down version on the needle right now and I will report to you how that one turns out.

As an avid pony tail wearer, I LOVE the concept of a topless hat! I also found some great recycled sweater yarn made by a gal here in Spokane at a great little new store we have called Sun People Dry Goods. The yarn has some colour variations which creates a neat striping effect. Yes, I just used the word neat.

Also, don't forget to enter my earring giveaway at Planting Shade! Time is running out!

Planting Shade Give-Away!

VERY EXCITING NEWS!!!!!!!!!!!!! The lovely Shauna over at Planting Shade is doing a give-away of a pair of MY earrings! I am so excited to see who gets these earrings that are made using recycled goods and lots of love! Head over to Planting Shade to find out how to enter! Everyone who enters will automatically ger 25% off anything in my Etsy store and anyone who enters AND is a follower of my blog will get 40% off my Etsy store!!!!

The earrings that are up for grabs!

I have known Shauna since high school. We got to work together through dance and cheerleading. After high school Shauna and her family returned to their home, Hawaii. As chance would have it my brother Harrison went to university in HI, and I know he loved getting to seeing Shauna's friendly face while he was over there. Now Shauna is living the army wife life and it is so inspiring to hear about her adventures and experiences. Harrison is now a medic in the army and its so comforting to know the trials, hardships and joys that other military families experience. Planting Shade is a beautiful blog, that helps guide and inspire Christians in all walks of life, with a little humor and fun thrown into the mix!

Whole Wheat Vegan Choco Coco Cookies

Things have been a little crazy in my life lately. We are expanding at my fitness studio and adding group classes to our personal training. I am going to get to teach cross training and yoga classes! Yay! Very exciting but a lot of work pulling all of this together. Thank goodness for life's little pleasures like baking simple chocolate chip cookies!

These cookies do not taste nearly as healthy as their name implies. They are a fantastic indulgent treat with a little less guilt! Anyone who knows my bf Thor, knows that he is not one to shower you with compliments or even enjoy cookies, but last night he said to me..

Thor: "I'm thinking of sponsoring you."

Me: "Sponsoring me??? What for??"

Thor: "To make sure there is a never ending supply of these cookies in the house"

So hopefully this convinced you to try these cookies, you will not be disappointed!

Ingredients:

1 1/8 cups whole wheat flour

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon sea salt

1/2 cup Earth Balance*, softened (if not worried about being vegan, use any butter/margarine)

3/4 cup granulated brown sugar - can use any granulated sugar/sweetener

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Egg Replacer for 1 egg**

1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips (vegan)

1 cup unsweetened coconut

** I used a real egg because I saw the happy chickens running around a local farm that it came from :)**

1. Combine flour, baking soda and salt in small bowl.

2. Beat butter, sugar and vanilla in large bowl.

3. Add egg replacer beating well after addition; gradually beat in flour mixture.

4. Stir in chips and coconut.

5. Drop by rounded tablespoon onto ungreased baking sheets.

6. Bake in preheated 375-degree oven for 8 to 10 minutes or until golden brown.

7. Let stand for 2 minutes; remove to wire racks to cool completely.

Idea for this recipe came from Choose Veg.

Power Granola

I have been in a bit of a breakfast rut lately. I eat a whole grain English muffin with natural peanut butter every day. Don't get me wrong I LOVE my toasted muffin with PB...but I started thinking that maybe I should switch things up a little. So, on my next shopping trip I perused the granola options. To get some good, organic, naturally sweetened, high protein granola was so crazy expensive!!!! So I decided to make my own!

I found the base for this recipe at YumUniverse, and of course made a few modifications. This granola is organic, high in protein, naturally sweetened, vegan, easily made raw, and most importantly....delicious!

Ingredients:

3/4 cup, organic pumpkin seeds (soaked for 4-8 hours)*

1 cup, organic almonds, roughly chopped (soaked for 4-8 hours)*

1/3 cup organic flax seed, freshly ground

1 cup, organic shredded coconut

2 cups organic, rolled oats

1 tbsp organic vanilla extract

1 Scoop hemp seed protein

1 TBSP Sweetener, optional (agave, honey, brown sugar...whatever! :) )
1 cup dried berries

1 cup raisins

* Nuts and seeds do not need to be soaked but it does aid with the digestion of them if you do, especially if using raw nuts and seeds. If you do soak, I do recommend either dehydrating them or roasting in the oven with the coconut to add a little extra crunchiness and flavor to your granola.

**To make this granola raw, just select all raw ingredients and dehydrate until granola is golden brown.**

1. Preheat oven to 250. Mix all ingredients in a large bowl except for dried fruit. Press flat onto two cookie sheets.

2. Bake in over for 50-60 mins or until granola is golden brown.

3. Toss granola with dried fruit.

Enjoy a bowl with some almond or coconut milk!

Store granola in a airtight container.

 

Just a heads up....tomorrow I will be posting a delicious whole wheat vegan chocolate chip and coconut cookie recipe! It is so yummy and easy, I cant wait for you to try them!