Top

Beaming Vegan

Gluten Free Pumpkin Bread- Perfect Harmony

~The absolute sweetest~ gluten free, vegan pumpkin bread recipe here. Made from a semi-unusual pumpkin variety… The “Cinderella”. I used this pumpkin for baking because it’s so caramel-y sweet. More like a yam than a pumpkin, actually.

Cinderellas for baking:

When we delivered a load of pumpkins to a couple in North Idaho last weekend we stood in their driveway and chatted about used for the pumpkins they chose. I told them the Cinderella variety is my favorite for both decorating AND baking. Baking, of course, because they’re more like the pumpkin from the can you find at the store than actual pie pumpkins. I told them all about this bread recipe I’d been practicing with, and how it tastes so much like a pumpkin donut.

Nobody really acknowledged that, but minutes later Griffin said “they’re like yams, kind of”. Everyone lost their minds with excitement. HAH sometimes it’s all in the wording I guess! Whatever gets people eating the squash.

I’m going to say to you, hoping you share my enthusiasm: THIS BREAD TASTES LIKE DONUTS. K? That in itself is something to be excited about. It’s gluten free, made from scratch (including the pumpkin if you grew it yourself!), and doesn’t skimp on spice and sweetness.

Gluten free flour:

I’ve been using Bob’s Red Mill all purpose gluten free flour mix (the kind you add xanthan gum to, not the 1:1) for months now. Mostly in savory recipes like pot pies, biscuits, bread, and pizza dough. However, I started using it in SWEET recipes with this exact gluten free pumpkin bread recipe. I understand that there are tons of gluten free flour options out there, and using almond or coconut or WHATEVER else you’d normally bake with makes a lot of sense because of that sweet factor. Lemme tell ya though, this is the flour you want for this recipe. The texture, the flavor, everything is in such perfect balance. Use whatever you want, for sure! I haven’t tried this recipe with any subs yet though.

This recipe results in the best pairing I’ve found of sweet + spice, crisp + moist. I hope you’ll try it!

Gluten Free Pumpkin Bread

The best gluten free pumpkin bread with sweetness and spice in perfect harmony.
Print Recipe
Prep Time 5 mins
Cook Time 35 mins
Servings 1 loaf

Ingredients
  

  • 1 cup sugar
  • 1/2 cup brown sugar
  • 1 1/2 cups gluten free all purpose flour
  • 1 tsp baking soda
  • 1 tsp xanthan gum
  • 2 tsp pumpkin pie spice
  • 1 tsp ground ginger (for extra spice if you want it!)
  • 1 cup pumpkin puree
  • 1/4 cup aquafaba
  • 1/2 cup butter I use Earth Balance organic
  • 1/3 cup plant milk
  • 1 tsp vanilla

Instructions
 

  • Preheat oven to 375
  • In a large bowl, combine flour, baking soda, xanthan gum, spices, and sugars
  • Whisk in pumpkin puree, aquafaba, room temperature butter, milk, and vanilla
  • Butter a loaf pan and pour in the batter
  • Bake in preheated oven for 30-35 minutes or until the middle is firm to the touch

Butternut and Beyond Meat Enchiladas

Whip up restaurant quality enchiladas with butternut squash and Beyond meat using only FOUR main ingredients plus some spices. Basic has never smelled or tasted soo delicious…

I considered adding a topping of, like, two pounds of vegan cheese or dollops of plant based sour cream, but there’s something about the simplicity of these that wins me over big time. Plus, there’s already a vegan alternative in the recipe (Beyond beef), so I’m trying to take it easy and emphasize the two-ingred. filling. I mean if you wanna add cheese and sour cream and anything else that appeases you DO IT I fully support. You couldn’t go wrong with some whole-food avocado or guacamole either.

We’re huge Beyond fans ’round here, huge squash fans too. But we’ve yet to add butternut and beyond meat to enchiladas until now! I’ve never made enchiladas before at all, really. You can bet we’re hooked now though. I favor everything homemade, so if anyone has a tried and true enchilada sauce recipe to share I will use it next time over the store bought option! I’m dreaming of canning my own enchilada sauce in the coming years…

We used Beyond’s beef ground in the square package, but you could also cook and crumble some burger patties OR if you’re super adventurous (lol) use their taco seasoned beef crumbles in the bag!

Another vegan win:

This is another recipe for pleasing the non-vegan crowd. I haven’t laid it on them yet, but every Beyond-based dish has had rave reviews from the meat eaters! My favorite is the shock and surprise and the “it’s actually really good”. Actually! Like because it’s plant-based they thought it would be gross. Thank you, Beyond for changing the way people see vegan food. For making them NOT see vegan/non-vegan food, but just FOOD.

Butternut and Beyond Beef Enchiladas

Simplicity and deliciousness, and did I mention these smell incredible baking?
Print Recipe
Prep Time 15 mins
Cook Time 15 mins
Servings 4 people

Ingredients
  

  • 1 20 oz can red enchilada sauce
  • 1 package flour tortillas bonus points for gluten free!
  • 1 medium butternut squash peeled and cubed
  • 1 package Beyond beef ground
  • 1 tsp cumin
  • 1 tsp onion powder
  • 1 tsp chili powder
  • 1 tsp smoked paprika
  • 1 tsp onion powder
  • cilantro for topping
  • 1 tbsp organic earth balance butter

Instructions
 

  • Prepare butternut squash by peeling and cubing if you haven't yet, or if you aren't using pre-cut.
  • Melt butter in a large cast iron skillet over medium low heat
  • Add squash and cook for about 10 minutes
  • Add the Beyond and using a mix n' chop or spatula, chop the "beef" up finely and mix it in with the squash
  • Add spices and stir to combine
  • Let cook for another 5 minutes or so, until the Beyond meat is heated through, then remove from heat
  • Preheat oven to 375
  • Spoon some enchilada sauce into the bottom of a baking dish
  • Fill tortillas with the filling mixture one at a time, then roll and place in the dish
  • Once the baking dish is full as can be (smoosh some enchiladas together to make room if you have to!) smother them all with the remaining enchilada sauce
  • Bake for 15 minutes, cool, and then top with whatever you please (Cilantro for a fresh taste if you like it!)

Squash Chili – A Quick and Simple Vegan Meal

If you’re looking for a staple winter weeknight recipe, you found it. This is the easiest squash chili recipe you’ll find. I try to keep a focus on simple clean ingredients while utilizing prepared and canned foods for convenience purposes. Use what ingredients you will, but I’m opting to be slightly picky!

Flashback to nine-ish years ago, pre-veganism:

I was a wee little teen playing housewife at Griffin’s place. He and his friend/coworker were hanging out, starving, per usual. This is pertinent info because I was not a good cook… Yet they eagerly awaited and ALWAYS ate my meals. Hah!

On this particular day I was making chili. I think I was roughly following a recipe, but thought I was such a good cook that I could just kind of do whatever I wanted. The result was an extremely bean-y chili, containing who knows what other ingredients.

I served it up to two hungry naive fellas. They sat at the bar in Griffin’s kitchen (because bachelor pads don’t have dining tables, they have wet bars). One of them complimented the recipe, then the next. I remember reaffirming to myself that duh, I AM indeed a great chef.

They inhaled their first bowl and near the last spoonful, one of them said “wait, this chili doesn’t have any meat in it”. The other glanced down and said something along the lines of “how are you going to feed us chili with no meat?!” They proceeded to act dramatically perturbed.

Despite eating an omnivore diet at the time, I wasn’t a fan of eating meat. I triple-noted to myself that I can easily trick two omni men into loving meatless food. I’ve carried that with me through many a cooking experiences over the years!

Chili as a staple:

Now every time we have meat eaters over for dinner I make chili. I think I’ve honed my skills over the years. The key for giving vegan chili sustenance is adding squash! When you’re serving “squash chili” nobody expects meat (or a meat substitute), but they expect and focus on squash. Still a kicker to me- regardless of the recipe, it always gets compliments! When Griffin’s omni sister was staying with us she casually threw into dinner converstaion “this is some of the best chili I’ve had”. I played it cool on the outside but celebrated internally. I’m convinced I energy worked and manifested my way into being a good chili maker thanks to that humble beginning.

Quick Squash Chili

Easy weeknight chili with tips for keeping the focus on clean ingredients. This recipe is budget-friendly and can easily be doubled to feed a crowd!
Print Recipe
Prep Time 15 mins
Cook Time 30 mins
Servings 4 people

Ingredients
  

  • 1 28 oz can fire roasted crushed tomatoes organic – I use Muir Glen but Safeway has one with the exact same ingredients!
  • 1 cup organic vegetable broth use homemade for best flavor
  • 1 15 oz can pinto beans (rinsed and drained) Try to find salt-free with the least ingredients. Dry beans prepared in advance can be used in place of either of the beans for a healthier option
  • 1 15 oz can black beans (rinsed and drained) I use Eden Foods organic beans when using canned
  • 1 15 oz can corn (drained) organic, just water, salt-free if possible. Cook corn on the cob and cut kernels off cob once cool for healthiest option
  • 1 can chipotle rotel or organic diced green chiles whatever size can best suits your taste
  • 2 cups cubed butternut squash I use homegrown squash and cut it myself my I know places like Trader Joe's offer pre-cut
  • 2 tbsp nutritional yeast
  • 1/2 tsp applewood smoked sea salt I find this at Natural Grocers
  • 1 tsp chili powder
  • 1 tsp onion powder
  • 1 tsp garlic powder
  • 2 tbsp organic sunflower oil
  • 2 tbsp teriyaki sauce
  • 1 tsp liquid smoke
  • 1 tsp earth balance organic butter

Instructions
 

  • Melt butter in a large skillet over medium heat
  • Add diced butternut squash and cook most of the way but not completely, about 10 minutes. (should be mostly soft when poked with a fork, but not smooshy)
  • Add squash and all remaining ingredients to a large pot and simmer over medium low heat for 30 minutes, stirring occasionally. Turn heat to low if chili starts to boil or pop too aggressively
  • Taste chili and make sure the flavors didn't cook down too much. If necessary, add spices/seasonings to taste

Butternut Grilled Cheese on Sourdough

{Jump to Recipe}

How butternut squash ended up on grilled cheese: We grew hundreds of squash last year, and made it a point to eat every one. That meant getting creative with recipes! I think they lasted 10 months in our root cellar. That’s TEN months of cleaning* spaghetti after butternut after acorn after pumpkin after kabocha after delicata. You get the point. I’ve said it a million times when asked about zero-waste gardening; prepping the squash for cooking is my least favorite part of the whole shebang.

*Lol I use the term cleaning as in the hunting term for skinning/gutting animals because SAME SAME but vegan! I cut the squash as fit for whatever recipe I’m using during this phase. I also scoop and dry the seeds in this process. We grew our pumpkin patch/squash garden from 100% self-harvested seeds two years in a row!

Enter: *Bulk prepping*

To make this process a little easier on myself and set myself up for success in being most likely to eat the squash I grew over store-bought meals, I started peeling, slicing, dicing, baking, and frying them well in advance. Butternut has always been my favorite for eating. Now that I’m think about it, that could be due to the ease of prep. (I’m so sick of prepping squash that I base my favorites on how easily they go from garden to plate!)

The method: peel the skin, slice in half, scoop and dry the seeds, slice into 1/4″ ‘steaks’, fry in lightly buttered cast iron until fork tender.

I have infinite recipe repertoire for this method, but here’s a simple lunch idea… I LOVE this butternut grilled cheese with a kale salad. The butternut gives a creamy caramel flavor, the smoked gouda is perfection melted onto sourdough, and toasty slices of bread complete this ultimate comfort food.

Butternut Squash Grilled Cheese on Sourdough

A great recipe for meal-prepping squash!
Print Recipe
Prep Time 2 mins
Cook Time 10 mins
Servings 1 person

Ingredients
  

  • 2 slices sourdough bread
  • 1 tbsp Earth Balance organic butter
  • 1 slice pre-cooked butternut squash squash "steak"
  • 2 slices Follow Your Heart smoked gouda cheese

Instructions
 

  • Heat butter in a cast iron skillet over medium low heat, making sure butter coats the bottom of the skillet
  • Once all the butter is melted, lay one slice of bread in the skillet. Top with cheese slices and squash steak, then another slice of sourdough (if you really wanted to be fancy you could sandwich the squash between two slices of cheese so it sticks to both slices of bread. I was not fancy)
  • Let sit for about 5 minutes or until cheese is melted
  • Flip and let sit for another 5 minutes or until bread is toasty golden brown

Why Hiring a Pinterest Manager is the Best Way to Grow Your Business

I started blogging years ago as a hobby, with little growth seen for years. When I decided to stay home full time I chose to invest my time in expanding my knowledge on blogging, e-commerce, and the general digital nomad land.

The main thing I noticed when taking online courses, reading e-books, reading physical books, listening to podcasts, and talking with friends on the matter, was that everyone’s common source of business growth was Pinterest.

That amazing Etsy shop owner- Pinterest-made. The 6-figure blogger- Pinterest! The super successful food photographer- that was Pinterest too. Oh and let’s not forget the well-known online course instructor… DEFINITELY Pinterest!

When I started my first blog in 2016 I was forced to understand Pinterest on an even DEEPER level, and began utilizing tools like Tailwind for Pinterest, group boards, Canva, “tribes”, etc. to help my blog gain traction. Today I’m home blogging full-time, using Pinterest daily to tie together my blog’s content. I have EXCEEDED 1 million monthly views and the vast majority of my blog’s traffic comes from Pinterest. Over the course of my four years of blogging I’ve completed dozens and dozens of Pinterest-for-business trainings and online courses, wrapping up all my knowledge into one simple resource that I hope will make your life easier.

From the beginning, I knew Pinterest wasn’t just an inspiring, social-media like platform for the new mom or bride-to-be. It’s not that simple! Pinterest is a search engine. And it is THE search engine your target audience is most engaged with. Once I shifted my perspective to understand the potential of this platform, I started to see huge Pinterest growth success, directly reflective of my input.

I understand though that not everyone (myself included) has the time to be the backbone of every component of your business while still maintaining that Pinterest growth. If you were to outsource one component, I’d say make it this. Experienced virtual entrepreneurs would agree that a quality Pinterest Manager is the best investment you can make because your brand exposure will be increasing on an extreme upward slope in an automated fashion. While you’re busy creating, handling back-office tasks, and working directly with clients- a Pinterest Manager is working to constantly and rapidly grow your business as a whole.

“I’m doing all the things she taught me about using Pinterest for business right now and it’s made an enormous difference in just a couple days … Impressions up 25,000% and that’s only about a week or two of working at it … Highly recommend and I am excited about traffic to my website and blog from there!”

– Danika Lynn Co

So how does that work? Check out this post on Pinterest Management services to learn more, and utilize the chat box at the bottom to get in direct contact with me for an even better understanding of how this is going to get business booming for you in your unique situation!

Even if you’re not looking to outsource this task right away, get in touch. Let me help you figure out where to go from this point!

15 Ways to Make Your Plant Based Grocery Bill Cheaper

Some things have changed in our three years being vegan. A LOT has changed, actually. First of all, super delicious vegan meat and cheese alternatives have hit markets available to us. Our grocery bill has fluctuated through the years. Tons of restaurants are offering vegan options or plan to soon. We went from living two hours from a natural/health food store, to living one block away, to now living over an hour away again. We went from eating whole food plant-based meals to walking one block and grabbing vegan sandwiches, burgers, pizza, etc.

This is where the lesson lies: When we lived in Middle Of Nowhere, Kansas and were fresh off the meat-eating train, we didn’t have the slightest idea how to make a our newfound vegan diet budget-friendly! We also didn’t have many grocery options racking up a big bill. The only vegan alternative product available to us at the time was plant milk. We never really splurged on anything. We shopped at discount grocery stores and bought in bulk before we really even knew what buying in bulk meant. It was natural to us because we didn’t have another choice! We bought 0 vegan cheese, vegan meat, etc.

When we landed in the heart of Spokane, Washington we felt so at home with all the new vegan options available to us! We LITERALLY walked to Natural Grocers at least 4 times per week. We bought allllll the meat and chese alternatives, allll the processed snacks, pre-made dinners, organic foods, shopped at all the high-end grocery stores, ate out at all the vegan restaurants, and had the LUXURY of ORDERING OUT, something that had long been foreign to us. This (obviously) got expensive.

We once again cut ourselves off from these luxuries by moving back to the country (but in WA this time). With intentions to get our butts to (expensive) Seattle to establish residence for little a while, we realized the groceries were a really sneaky, drawn-out financial setback. It’s been two years out here now, and I’m pretty sure we’ve mastered the vegan grocery bill balancing act.

As I mention all the time, our health is a priority to us. Having an abundant fridge and pantry well-stocked with whole foods and vegan staples is always going to be non-negotiable for us. We truly recognize how much of a privilege it is to have access to these things and it’s something we’ll never take for granted. That being said, we will, without a doubt, 100% make whatever other cutbacks we need to make financially to achieve a well-stocked vegan kitchen. I know it sounds dramatic and like we’re making sacrifices others’ aren’t able to or willing to make, but we’re really not… It is not difficult to swap some budget-eaters for a grocery savings. It just comes down to what’s most important to you! (Just please don’t tell me your unhealthy habits are more important to you than having a vegan pantry!)

  1. Make one list for the health food store, and one list for your average grocery store. There’s tons of things we buy cheaper at WinCo or Trader Joe’s or Safeway or URM Cash and Carry, so we hit those spots for some staples and get everything else at Natural Grocers. You don’t have to make a million stops, just two will do!
  2. Buy in bulk! This saves sooooo much money! We get bulk oats, nutritional yeast, cashews, rice, beans/lentils, potatoes, and bananas.
  3. Buy ripe bananas. I cannot stress enough. I never understand seeing someone pay more for green bananas than for the half off nans with the few spots. For one thing, your body digests ripe bananas so much easier, making them more nutrient accessible and all around healthy. Also, I always come home and freeze them for the most part anyway! A smoothie is nothing without a frozen banana! Even when we don’t freeze them, they stay perfectly good on the shelf. Unless the skin is completely brown, the inside of the spotty banana is probably perfect for eating.
  4. Use the dirty dozen list to choose what organic produce to buy and what you could pass on.
  5. Refill/reuse containers for discounts. Griffin refills a glass growler with kombucha they have on tap at a local grocery store and saves a lot of kombucha money that way! Sometimes bulk stores, health stores, and coffee shops will give discounts for bringing your own containers as well.
  6. Make your own milk! Save waste and money by blending raw soaked cashews (that you bought in bulk) with water. The. Best. Milk. You could also use almonds, hemp hearts, walnuts, even peanuts if your budget is really tight! There’s a recipe for this in “Plant Based on a Budget” by Toni Okamoto.
  7. Cook as many of your meals at home as possible, and use simple whole-food ingredients. Rice, beans, potatoes, squash, greens, and some veggies are great bases for an infinite amount of cheap meals!
  8. Strive for zero food waste. We save veggie scraps and herb stems/pieces in a container in the fridge to use for veggie broth (or is it stock? I never know). Other things go in the compost for our garden. If the food is pet-safe it will also be mixed into the dogs’ breakfast as a special treat.
  9. Make your own dog food. A bag of vegan dog food to feed our two large dogs for a week costs upwards of $40! We buy their food when we need to (when we’re camping, traveling, hosting visitors, or in a time crunch) but for the most part their food is homemade. There’s a lot of great recipes online, but I usually do some combination of lentils or split peas with rice, potatoes, pumpkin, sweet potato, spinach, berries, cold-pressed flax oil, nutritional yeast, hemp seeds, natural peanut butter, and a teensy bit of liquid aminos. On doggo “cheat days” they’ll have oatmeal with hemp milk, flax oil, peanut butter, and bananas or berries. Super easy to prep on a Monday morning!
  10. Order your basics (TP, dish soap, shampoo, trash bags, etc.) on a subscription to save! You can do this through Target or Thrive Market.
  11. ALWAYS CHECK CLEARANCE. Natural grocers has a clearance section in the dairy cooler and we’re always able to get bases for meals or little luxuries there for half off or more. They also have a section for discounted produce at $2 for a randomly assorted bag. I found my favorite organic vegan dark chocolate bar selling for .50 at a Holiday gas station’s clearance, when I’ve been buying them for almost $2 at Nat Gro! Always check.
  12. Make your own bread. Invest in a bread machine, find one at a thrift store, or pop the dough in the oven directly. If bread is a staple on your list, definitely make it yourself. It can cost just pennies per loaf this way!
  13. Make your own snacks. Prep some healthy brownies for the week, pop your own popcorn, make your own hummus, whatever! Find some recipes you love and be smart about buying the ingredients.
  14. Buy store brands. Even if they’re the health food store’s brand, why pay more for the same product??
  15. Buy in season. This is really important and since gardening on a huge scale last year I’ve been really appreciative of in-season foods for gratitude, health, and affordability reasons.
  16. BONUS- Shop farmer’s markets! We hit a couple local produce stands regularly through the summer and got to know the owners really well. They ALWAYS gave us a huge discount on our purchases, often times even sending us home with free bags of cherries or tomatoes to try. Supporting local food growers while they support us… Win win!

One Pan Vegan Italian Sausage Bake

One pan vegan Italian sausage bake. All the “wins” are right in the title. One pan, three base ingredients (the rest is optional), and 30 minutes. Fair price to pay for a cozy dinner for two! Griffin is committed to a frugivorous diet this winter, so I’ll be prepping lots of squash… If anyone has any cozy frugivore meals please enlighten… I think lots of savory jackfruit, coconut curry, and squash will be staples! He could literally eat cold fruit all winter and be happy, the comfort foods are for myself. Haha! But when the ingredients are handy I fully intend to bake this as meal prep for a week of lunch for myself!

A few tips to make this meal a little easier on the budget: Buy brussels sprouts on the stalk (then save that stalk for vegetable broth!). You can find them at natural food stores with a good produce selection, or the bulk food stores like Winco usually have them at a great price! Plus the sprouts themselves are way larger on the stalk than pre-prepped.

Secondly, just use whatever potatoes are affordable/in season/available locally. We live in potato country, I’m not even kidding. There’s giant potatoes laying all over the sides of the highway from the trucks hauling them across the state, and we regularly see semi-loads of gigantic sweet potatoes. Fun fact: they smell completely awful! I’ve noticed that potatoes are significantly more affordably here than when we lived in Southeast Kansas, so I don’t feel so bad buying the pricier purple sweet potatoes. With herbs and butter though, there’s no bad potato for this recipe. Remember it’s a sausage bake recipe, not a purple potato bake 😉

My last tip is this; cut this recipe with salad or quinoa! If you’re serving a crowd there’s no need to spend more to up the ingredients listed here… Make this the focus of the meal but serve it on a bed of quinoa, pasta, rice, salad, etc. Have fun with it 🙂

Also, I should mention that Field Roast is my favorite sausage for this recipe. The pieces roast so nicely and pack sooo much flavor!

If you’re in need of some creative dinner ideas definitely check out my custom meal plan options!

One Pan Vegan Sausage Bake

An easy, cozy, delicious meal for prepping lunches in advance or warming up on chilly nights!
Print Recipe
Prep Time 5 mins
Cook Time 30 mins
Servings 2 people

Ingredients
  

  • 3 Field Roast Italian Sausages
  • 3 cups quartered brussels sprouts
  • 1 medium diced sweet potato
  • 1 tbsp plant based butter (I use Earth Balance or Melt)
  • 1 tbsp olive oil
  • a few sprigs of rosemary, thyme, or parsley

Instructions
 

  • Preheat oven to 365
  • Slice brussels sprouts, potato, and sausage
  • Toss brussels sprouts in olive oil
  • Arrange sprouts, potatoes, and sausage on pan/baking sheet
  • Place in the oven and bake for 15 minutes
  • Remove from oven and brush potatoes with butter and garnish with herbs
  • Place back in oven and bake for another 15 minutes

Quick Fall Harvest Granola Bars

These fall harvest granola bars were a spur of the moment idea I had, inspired by a Bob’s Red Mill ad for quinoa granola bars. I just saw the colors in the ad’s recipe and knew I’d recreate them eventually. When “eventually” arrived, Danika of Danika Lynn Co. and I planned a cooking/lifestyle shoot I saw this as not only my opportunity to test my recipe idea but to also have the pretty colors photographed. This post’s photos are courtesy of Danika!

If cinnamon rolls are the official breakfast of Christmas morning, these bars are like the official breakfast of Thanksgiving morning. Not that we need breakfast on a full day of binge eating, but hey. They’d fit the part.

Besides that they’re pretty for serving to friends and fam, they’re a pretty overall healthy and whole-food-ingredient recipe, which could be converted to a raw vegan recipe with a few easy swaps (raw nut butter, extra to compensate for the absent brown rice syrup, raw nuts and fruit, and raw chocolate)!

If you’re vegan and don’t have brown rice syrup as a pantry staple, you need to buy a jar and give it a shot. I bet you’ll be hooked. It’s the absolute closest thing to honey we’ve used and it works perfectly as a honey substitute for converting non-vegan recipes to vegan! I just used it in a bread recipe today, and while I’m not entirely sure what honey does for bread, the recipe turned out perfect, sooo… :’D Then again if you don’t find yourself using maple syrup or needing a honey replacement a lot you might not find a use for it. I’m one of those who love to make EVERY non-vegan recipe vegan, so I use it a lot!

Quick Fall Harvest Granola Bars

Print Recipe Pin Recipe
Prep Time 15 mins
Servings 8 bars

Ingredients
  

  • 1 fresh pear
  • 1/3 cup walnuts or pecans
  • 1/2 cup pistachios
  • 3 cups gluten free oats
  • 1/3 cup dried cranberries
  • 1 tbsp cinnamon
  • 1 oz chocolate Esspresso-infused dark chocolate is ideal if you can find it! Seattle Chocolate Company makes a bar.
  • 1 1/2 cups smooth nut butter
  • 1 cup brown rice syrup

Instructions
 

  • Dice pear into fine pieces. The smaller the dicing, the better the bars will hold together in the end
  • Lightly chop nuts
  • In a large bowl, toss together oats, nuts, pear, cranberries, and cinnamon
  • Add nut butter and brown rice syrup to the mixture
  • Combine thoroughly, ensuring all of the dry mixture is covered evenly
  • Prepare a 9" baking pan by lining with parchment paper, being careful to leave about an inch of overhang around the edges of the pan
  • Wet hands and press granola mixture into pan firmly
  • Melt chocolate by microwaving in 10 second intervals, stirring between each one
  • Drizzle chocolate generously over the mix
  • Refrigerate 10-15 minutes
  • Lift the pressed mix from pan using the parchment paper and carefully slice into 8 bars. Tip: Wetting the knife before slicing helps, as does using a large knife and pressing into bars then lifting directly up instead of dragging the knife.

If you make the fall harvest granola bars, tag me or send me a pic! I love seeing how you put your touch on these recipes!

Savory Vegan Sweet Potato Pizza

This sweet potato pizza is a cold weather recipe if I’ve ever seen one. Warm caramelized sweet potato pieces, savory tofu ricotta, and my secret ingredient pizza sauce all smothered on a toasty from-scratch crust. I don’t know what the weathers like as you’re reading this, but if it’s chilly outside I bet you just realized this is exactly what you didn’t know you needed!

I intended for this to be a butternut squash pizza, but somehow ended up preparing a sweet potatoe pizza instead. My brain knew what my heart wanted! They’re super close in taste and texture though, so I say if you’re feelin’ squash, go with squash. I’ll do that next time, but for now I’ll just take a breather from all the squash I’ve been eating from our garden. Trying to eat 300+ squash/pumpkins before they go bad is even harder than it sounds!

One of the key ingredients in this recipe is the homemade ricotta. I found this recipe over at From My Bowl and I’ve never found any vegan ricotta as close to the real deal as this one! I love how it bakes onto pizzas too, it adds such lovely sustenance.

*Blend blend blend blend blend with tofu, lemon, nutritional yeast, salt and peppa, and garlic*

Then walk away with this delicious treat… I spoon it out of the blender (no food processor here, just a Vitamix), leave it in this container, and store it in the fridge for quite a while. I can’t say for sure how long it’ll stay good, but you could definitely prep it in advance for the holidays. I think the longer it sits in the fridge the more the flavors meld. Definitely should be a staple in a vegan kitchen. It’s a great way to jazz up so many recipes! I use it alllllll the time!

Now about this sweet potato pizza’s CRUST, this is the one I’ve been sharing in my IG stories for like a year or more now. It’s a little clipping *I THINK* I found in a Rachael Ray magazine. It’s super easy if you skip the whole refrigerate forever thing! It’s for sure another card you’ll want in your vegan recipe box. I often make it with Bob’s Red Mill 1:1 Gluten Free Baking Flour or cut the regular flour with any other gluten free version. My favorite is making the recipe with 3 cups of all purpose flour and 1/2 cup of coconut flour, then rolling it out in coconut flour. So good!

Beaming Vegan: Savory vegan sweet potato pizza a cold weather recipe

Savory Vegan Sweet Potato Pizza

Warm caramelized sweet potato pieces, savory tofu ricotta, and my secret ingredient pizza sauce all smothered on a toasty from-scratch crust.
Print Recipe Pin Recipe
Prep Time 1 hr 15 mins
Cook Time 25 mins
Servings 2 8-inch pizzas

Ingredients
  

For the crust

  • 3 1/2 cups flour (see note above for GF)
  • 1 cup warm water
  • 1 packet quick rise yeast
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 2 tbsp olive oil

Toppings

  • 1 medium finely cubed sweet potato, cooked
  • pizza sauce
  • 2 tbsp maple syrup or brown rice syrup
  • 1 handful greens (fresh basil or spinach)
  • 1 cup vegan mozzarella shreds
  • 1/2 cup vegan cheddar shreds
  • 1/2 medium thin sliced red onion

1 recipe vegan ricotta (linked above)

    Instructions
     

    • To start the dough for the crust, combine water, 1/2 cup of flour, and yeast. Let sit for 10 minutes (until foamy on top)
    • Add olive oil, salt, then add remaining three cups of flour one cup at a time
    • Let rest in a warm place for 1 hour
    • Preheat oven to 375
    • On a lightly floured surface, knead dough until it becomes a smooth ball
    • Separate dough into 2 equal halves
    • Roll each piece of dough out on floured surface. Place both crusts on a baking sheet once they are the size/thickness desired for your pizzas
    • In a small bowl, whisk together pizza sauce and syrup
    • Spread sauce on pizzas and top with remaining ingredients
    • Bake in preheated oven for 25 minutes or until ricotta and crust turn slightly golden

    Just a little FYI in case you’re interested, I’ll be coming up with a fall/winter sample meal plan and sharing it here on the blog! Until then, you can find custom meal plan options here!

    Buttery Vegan Cutout Cookies

    I decorated my cutout cookies with plain white icing spread across the entire cookie again, plain and simple. It’s probably the third year in a row I’ve done that, and I started wondering why I like colored Christmas lights and minimally decorated cookies, while others like white Christmas lights and colorfully decorated cookies… Hmmmm.

    I can’t tell you where I got the recipe this one is based off of, because that’s top secret. Have no fear, I’m not infringing on anyone’s rights to their content. I got permission to share. 🙂 Consider yourself VERY lucky!

    Last year I posted these cannabis-infused sugar cookies which are soft and fluffy and have a light spice to them. Highly recommend trying the recipe, if you’re in a state where it’s legal to do so of course. You can always sub plant-based butter for the dosed coconut oil, you’ll still get a unique delicious cookie! These cutout cookies are comparable in that they hold their shape really well and get a bakery quality taste from my newest baking obsession, almond extract.

    The real MVPs of this entire recipe are, of course; vegan butter, egg replacer, and almond extract. Thanks to these heroes, any cookie recipe (basically) can be vegan-ized with a couple simple swaps. The almond extract isn’t for vegan-izing, but it does make a darn good final product. I called this company last year to confirm that the extract was vegan, and they informed me it is. So almond extract in every baked treat, please!

    Funny story: when I moved out of my mom’s house years ago, I took all her cookie cutters with me LOL. I didn’t need any other kitchen appliance or tool, I was just seriously concerned I’d have to go the rest of my life without the cookie cutters I grew up with. The metal ones pictured in the recipe’s image below have a sticker on them that says “2/$1” (it looks like a hobby lobby sticker). I can’t bring myself to buy new cookie cutters, not even at the thrift store, because I can’t find them this cheap! I did buy the house cutter from the Magnolia collection at Target a couple years ago because I thought I was going to decorate little gingerbread houses. I was ambitious, but wrong. Ha! I also bought a vintage rabbit cookie cutter at an antique store when I went with my mom years ago in Kansas, but I only use it at Easter.

    Decorating cutout cookies was always a tradition at my grandma’s house in Kansas and she had all the classic cookie cutter shapes…. Plus a squirrel. So every year we made and decorated “the Christmas squirrel”.

    Buttery vegan cutout cookies on cutting board with cookie cutters in the shape of a star and Christmas tree

    Buttery Vegan Cutout Cookies

    Soft, buttery, no-spread cutout cookies perfect for decorating for any holiday/event! Made with super simple ingredients, nothing weird.
    Print Recipe Pin Recipe
    Prep Time 45 mins
    Cook Time 20 mins
    Servings 24 cookies

    Ingredients
      

    • 6 cups all purpose flour
    • 2 cups Melt Organic vegan butter
    • 1 cup organic brown sugar
    • 1/3 cup egg replacer (Bob's Red Mill powdered egg replacer or aquafaba work well here)
    • 1 cup organic cane sugar
    • 1 tsp vanilla
    • 1 tsp almond extract
    • 1 pinch salt

    Instructions
     

    • In a large bowl cream butter, vanilla, almond extract, and sugars
    • Blend in egg replacer and salt
    • Add flour one cup at a time
    • Place bowl in freezer for 10 minutes
    • Preheat oven to 350
    • Prepare a surface for rolling out dough
    • Separate dough into two halves and roll out one half at a time
    • Cut cookie shapes out of dough and place on a cookie sheet. Spacing shouldn't be a concern as long as they're not touching, because they won't spread
    • Bake each batch of cookies for 7 minutes for a softer cookie or 10 minutes (until golden brown) for a crunchy final product.
    • Remove cookies from pan to avoid over cooking and rest on a cooling rack before frosting

    For a basic icing recipe: whisk 1/2 C vegan butter, 1/2 C shortening, 1tsp vanilla, 1 tbsp plant milk, and about 3 C organic powdered sugar (add more if icing is too runny). Separate into a few small bowls and add vegan food coloring to each (optional)

    I’d love to see how yours come out! Tag me on IG @beamingveganblog, message me, whatever! It warms my heart to see that you value these plant-based recipes 🙂