Pat's (Vegan) Black & Raspy Muffins

This new recipe comes from one of my big brothers, Patrick. In addition to these muffins being vegan, they're lactose and dairy free! This is because my SIL is lactose intolerant and, well, it's just not fair making muffins your wife can't eat. Needless to say, cooking is a huge thing in our family and one of our favorite past times. The second is eating said food. Pat also has an AMAZING Raspberry Cheesecake with an Oreo crust recipe that I may be able to pry from his hands. We'll see. Anyways, prior to me posting the recipe to these I have to mention that I have not made these muffins yet, so I have no idea how they taste. But I have a lot of Pat's other baked goods and....they're delicious! So I think it's safe to assume, these will be too. But you guys be the judge and let me know what you think! I'll pass it on...

Pat's (Vegan) Black & Raspy Muffins

1⁄2 cup of vegan margarine 

1 cup raw sugar

1-1 1⁄4 pureed banana

8 oz. pureed blackberries 

1 tsp. vanilla

3⁄4 tsp. baking soda

1⁄4 tsp. salt

2 cups whole wheat flour 

1⁄2 cup almond milk

8 oz. raspberries (halved) 

Raw sugar for topping

Preheat oven to 375°. Grease or line 18 standard muffin cups (or 12 large muffin cups). In a large bowl, mix butter on high until creamy. Mix in sugar. Reduce mixer speed to medium, and add pureed banana. Reduce mixer speed again to low-medium, and mix in pureed blackberries and vanilla. Mix in baking soda and salt. Fold in half of the whole wheat flour and then half of the almond milk, then repeat with the other halves. Last, fold in the raspberries. Spoon into muffin cups and sprinkle with raw sugar immediately. Bake for 15- 20 minutes (closer to 15 for standard muffins and closer to 20 for large muffins), or until they start to turn golden brown and spring back when touched. 

There you go folks! This recipe is straight from my email. I did not alter it in any way. Except fix typos...Enjoy!

Photo by: Patrick Ryan

Vegan Chocolate Chip Cookies

So I'm just gonna get straight to the point here: THESE ARE AMAZING!!!! Ok, now that I got that out, we can get started. Another recipe I found on Pinterest, but jazzed up! This is also a simple recipe and is gluten free as well. Let's get to it:

Vegan Chocolate Chip Cookies

2 1/2 cups of almond flour

1/2 tsp of baking soda

1/4 tsp sea salt

1/2 tbsp cinnamon

1/2 cup chocolate chips (or raw cacao nibs, if you can get them)

1/2 cup grape seed oil

1/2 cup agave

1 tbsp vanilla extract

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. First, mix all the dry ingredients. I used Ghiradelli 60% Cacao chips because they actually didn't have any raw cacao nips at Fresh Market. Still just as good though. Second, mix all the wet ingredients. Then pour the wet ingredients in with the dry ingredients and mix everything together. I don't have a mixer so I just did this by hand, it's really not that difficult anyways and it all mixes together pretty quick.

Spoon dough onto a greased or lined cookie sheet. I used a teaspoon, and I'm glad I did as they expanded, tremendously, during baking.

Bake at 350 degrees for 8-10 mins. Let cool first, then remove from the sheet, it'll be easier.

Again, these are so freaking DELICIOUS!! Try these yourself and let me know what you think. I understand that if you do not have a gmail account you cannot reply or comment on my blog, but since I post these on Facebook and Pinterest, feel free to comment there and let me know. Enjoy and thanks for being healthy!!