Dark Chocolate Raspberry Smoothie

I came up with this delicious smoothie Sunday afternoon and just had to share it with you! My husband bought me a Ninja for my birthday a few weeks ago and it is perfect for making smoothies {among many other things}. It just blends it to a perfect consistency!

This is a fairly healthy smoothie so it's pretty much the perfect treat for a warm day. Down here in the Southeast, we've got a lot of those days ahead of us so I'm keeping the freezer and pantry stocked with these favorite ingredients.

Here's what you need:

a handful of ice cubes

1/2 banana, peeled

1 cup of frozen raspberries

1/2 cup of almond milk

a few dark chocolate chips or square of dark chocolate

and the secret weapon...... 2 tablespoons POM juice

Add them all to the Ninja or the blender and pulse or blend it til you get it to the consistency you want. Pour into a glass. Add your favorite straw and sip away!

Makes enough for one 12 oz glass.

This will have a thicker consistency. If you want it thinner, add more almond milk. Thicker, add more banana. If you'd like it to taste more chocolatey, add a tsp or two of pure cocoa powder.

Be prepared to share. Once the family finds out how delicious this is, you'll have to make more.

Hope you love this as much as I do! Thanks for stopping by!

Revolution Doughnuts {Atlanta, GA}

This past weekend, I went to Atlanta for a girls' weekend and found the best doughnut place ever! My friend texted me the night before we left and told me about this neat looking doughnut shop so I looked it up online. The website itself makes you want to get in the car and head right there. But there was one thing that really jumped out at me.

The little symbol (v) next to several of their doughnut flavors. That (v) is highly important to me because it stands for Vegan and in my world that means egg-free and dairy-free. So, it only took me a second to jump on board with adding Revolution Doughnuts to our bucket list for the weekend. Vegan doughnuts? Sign me up. And that's exactly where we went Sunday.

We arrived around noon to the shop in Decatur. We had thought about trying out the Revolution Doughnuts at one of the Farmer's Market locations (there are three of them), but because of the time, we decided to just hit the shop to be sure we could still get some fresh doughnuts.

When we arrived the line was out the door and that seemed to be the norm. Everyone patiently waited and believe me, it was completely worth the wait!

I chose to buy the Bacon & Salted Caramel and the Dark Chocolate for the Hubs and I and then I bought Raspberry Sprinkle doughnuts to bring home to my girls.

I had to try the Bacon & Salted Caramel in the shop. You just can't leave without trying one on the spot! It was heavenly.

I love that their doughnuts are a nice spongey texture and have some substance to them. I ate half of my doughnut there and brought the other half home with my others. It was delicious. I ate another the next day and it was still very good. Definitely better fresh from the store, but the next day was still yummy. They state on their website that they do not ship doughnuts because they are better fresh, so you'll have to find a way to get to Atlanta to have one of these delicious treats!

My daughter with the egg, dairy and peanut allergies LOVED her raspberry sprinkle doughnut! It was the very first 'real' doughnut she has ever eaten in her 8 1/2 years of life. I know there's always a fear of cross contamination, etc., but our experience was wonderful without any allergic reactions. I let her try a few bites of the doughnut the day I brought it home and then made her wait until morning to finish it just to be sure there was no reaction.

Revolution Doughnuts states that all of their doughs, glazes and fillings are made from scratch free of trans-fats, and made by people, not machines. They use organic flour and high quality ingredients.

You will love the unique flavors! And don't forget the yummy teas and coffees they have! It's such a cute place!

I plan on making this a definite stop on every trip I make to Atlanta in the future. I hope you'll give them a try, too!

Thanks for stopping by!

My Daughter's 1st Trip to a Pizza Place {Vegan Pizza}

About two weeks ago, my husband discovered a local pizza place that offers a vegan pizza. We are always looking for places to go out to eat with our 8 year old who has a dairy, egg, and peanut allergy. So, when we realized there was a pizza place she could actually eat at, we were so excited to try it out!

We have NEVER gone as a family to eat at a pizza place without bringing my girl her own food to eat, so this was a highly anticipated event. Not only that, but this place does Kids Eat Free on Sundays! Win, win situation! Your Pie is where we took her. They have a choice of two crusts, two sauces and a cheese that are all vegan. You pick your toppings accordingly. My girl isn't a fan of pepperoni or other meat toppings, so she chose cheese and black olives.

Here she is getting ready to eat her very first restaurant made vegan pizza:

And, here's her first bite:

The look on her face is a slight indication of how she felt about it. I only wish I would have gotten the next picture - think: face scrunched up, tongue sticking out. She did not like it. {Insert X-Factor Buzzer Sounds} We were all a little disappointed for her. She wanted to like it so bad, but she just couldn't handle it. The one lesson she learned today is that now she knows she isn't missing out on anything when people around her are eating pizza. She just plain didn't like it.
In defense of Your Pie, I did try it {and they warned me that most kids didn't like the Daiya cheese they use on their vegan pizza}. I consider myself an expert on pizza tasting. I love pizza just like 99% of the free world, so I tried it for myself to see how it compared to the taste of my own pizza. It was actually VERY good. There was no weird taste or smell about it. It looks like real cheese. It's a great dairy-free option!! I highly recommend it. My girl just clearly hasn't aquired a taste for cheese since she has never in her life tasted real cheese.
We drove down the street to her favorite place, Taco Bell, and got her favorite bean burrito with no cheese and no onions and she was all set.
Have you ever tried vegan pizza? Is there a restaurant you like that offers it? What's your favorite vegan cheese brand?

Thanks for stopping by!

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Chocolate Mousse {Dairy-Free, Vegan}

I recently came across a vegan blog I had never seen before and found a most delicious recipe! As soon as I saw it, I knew I was going to make it. Just a few ingredients? Healthy? Dairy-free & Egg-free?? Yes, yes I will. And I'm pretty sure you'll love this, too.

 *Use only the solid part of the chilled coconute milk for best results.

I'm linking with some of these parties!

Monkey Cupcakes

Tonight we were having a special snack in our children's class at church so I had to come up with an allergy-friendly version for my daughter. The theme was monkeys and the rest of the class was having cupcakes/cake, so naturally I chose to make my girl a monkey cupcake. It was actually fun and turned out pretty good, so I thought I'd share it with you. {Just don't pay too much attention to my lack of artistic ability in the cupcake decorating!}

Use your favorite cupcake recipe. I used a boxed yellow cake mix from Duncan Hines because it contains no milk or nuts and I substitute the 2 eggs with Ener-G Egg Replacer.

Buy or make your favorite chocolate frosting. I used Pillsbury Milk Chocolate which actually has no milk in it....go figure. Always check the label, don't take my word for it.

After you bake and frost your cupcakes, get out 3 solid color cookies that are allergy-friendly. I used graham crackers because that is all I had on hand. Round cookies are ready for use, but if you are using graham crackers, carve out two small half circles and one larger circle to use for ears and the nose/mouth area. See pic.

Next, use white frosting or mini marshmallows to make the whites of the eyes. Then, add a dark pupil on each side. {I used tiny hot chocolate style marshmallows because that's all I had on hand.} You can make the nose and mouth by piping chocolate frosting accordingly or by melting chocolate chips like I did and using a toothpick to draw it on. I didn't have much time, so I went the easy route.

I'm sure you could do a better job, so if you make these, post them on our facebook wall here. I'd love to see your version!

Vegan Chocolate Donut Muffins {Dairy-free, Egg-free, Vegan}

This afternoon I found out from my daughter's Sunday School teacher that the class is having donuts and orange juice in class tomorrow to celebrate the last Sunday of the summer schedule. I'm thankful for those who teach my daughter at church and care about her spiritual well-being, as well as, her food-allergy needs (i.e. letting me know ahead of time about special snacks). I just happened to be going through recipes looking for some good ones I could convert to allergy-free when I got the message and I came across this one. It is already a vegan recipe so I only changed a couple things to make it exactly how I wanted it. If you're interested in more allergy-friendly or vegan donut recipes click here and here. I picked this one because it
involves chocolate is quick and easy to make, and will be easy to store. It's also great for portion control and it's portable!

 

Vegan Chocolate Donut Muffins (Egg Free Dairy Free)

Makes 11-12 regular donut muffins, or 20-24 mini donut
muffins (mini muffins pictured above)

2/3 cup sugar
1 T ground flax seed + 3 T water (mix together)

1 T cornstarch

1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1/4 cup cocoa powder
2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 cup vegetable oil
3/4 cup almond milk OR soy milk OR coconut milk
1 tsp vanilla extract

1/2 cup
powdered sugar (confectioners)

Preheat oven to 350F. Lightly grease a muffin tin with cooking spray or vegetable oil. (Do not be tempted to use liners - the point of doing these directly in the muffin tin is to have them pop out and be able to get sugar to stick to the sides without the addition of butter)

In a large bowl, beat together sugar and ground flax seed mixture until well incorporated. Add 1 T cornstarch, mix well. Pour in vegetable oil, almond milk and vanilla extract. Mix to combine.

In a small bowl, whisk together flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, salt and cinnamon. Pour into wet mixture and stir to combine. Stir gently.

Divide batter evenly into 12 muffin cups or 24 mini muffin cups, filling each about 3/4 full. Bake for 15-20 minutes, until a tester inserted into the center comes out clean.

While muffins are baking, pour confectioners sugar into a small bowl.

When muffins are done, allow them to cool for about 15 minutes. Pop them out of the pan and then roll them in confectioners sugar, coating all the sides until it is completely covered. Repeat until all muffins are done.

*I just finished making these and they are very good! Almost no difference from a chocolate cake donut hole. YUM! Can't wait for my girl to try these in the morning!*

Vegan Queso {dairy-free}

Vegan Queso. Where has this been all my daughter's life??? I cannot tell you how hard I have tried to find a cheese that my girl can eat that doesn't contain milk/whey {or been processed around milk} and that tastes and smells good. This is going on the top of my grocery list because A) girlfriend needs to have some cheese in her life and B) this family loves some mexican food. I haven't personally tried it, but read a great review on it here.

Chocolate Muffins {Dairy-free, Egg-free, Nut-free}

I'm going to go ahead and post this today because I will be busy tomorrow! Saturday mornings at our house means a yummy, not-your-weekday breakfast! Tomorrow, we {the kids, at least} will enjoy these Chocolate-Chocolate Chip Muffins along with a protein like sausage or bacon to start our day. Without further ado...


Chocolate Chip Muffins {Dairy-, Egg- and Peanut Free}

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour {you can use whole wheat flour here, if you choose}

1 cup oats

1/3 cup sugar

1T baking powder

2T ground flax seed

1T cornstarch {this replaces the egg}

1 heaping Tablespoon of pure cocoa powder

1 cup almond milk {plain for less sugar content}

1/4 cup canola oil

1 tsp vanilla

3/4 cup vegan chocolate chips



Mix dry ingredients {except choc chips} together in mixing bowl. Mix liquid ingredients in a small bowl and then add them to the dry ingredients. Mix until moist. Fold in vegan chocolate chips. Fill greased muffin tins 3/4 full and bake @ 400 degrees for 12 minutes. Serve warm with Smart Balance Light {dairy-free buttery spread}.



Makes 12 muffins.

No-Dough 'Peanut' Butter Sandwich {Peanut-free, dairy-free, egg-free}

What do YOU do when you are packing lunchboxes before school and you realize there is not even one piece of bread in the house?? Maybe you do what I did this morning and improvised. I was going to make more PB&J Truffles, but decided it might be quicker to just grab a banana and pack it with soy butter and just a few Vegan Chocolate Chips. I don't know if you've ever tasted Soy Butter, but it tastes a lot like natural, non-sugary peanut butter {this opinion coming from a JIF fan}. So, I quickly sliced a banana in half length-wise, spread soy butter on one open side, strategically placed some yummy vegan choc chips on it and topped it with the other half of banana. Wrapped it in foil and sent my girl off to school.

This lunch idea did 3 things:

1. It gave my girl something different for lunch. Variety is the spice of life, you know!

2. It is providing her with a punch protein and a fruit serving all in one!

3. It saved me from having to run to the store early this morning. =)

Life is good.