Pomegranate Smoothie

This is the first beverage I've ever posted about, and possibly the last. I like trying out different drinks but I don't really care that much about making them at home. Except for smoothies, which I make with yogurt, frozen fruit and fruit juice. Not that I've been making many recently due to the cold weather. (Where are you summer? And who ever thought I'd be wanting summer to come and not relishing the cold weather?)

Anyway, so I subscribe to Everyday Food magazine but haven't been looking through the issues recently. I came across this pomegranate smoothie recipe and was both sad that I had missed it in the issue, but also happy that I had stumbled across it on the internet. It's really quite a perfect, delicious and healthy smoothie. The silken tofu gives it this really nice mouthfeel (a term I've gleaned from my food technology program) - as though there's heavy cream in there or something and it doesn't taste like tofu at all. And it's full of antioxidants, especially if you use frozen berries.

Pomegranate Smoothie
Adapted from March 08 Everyday Food magazine (found on Husband Tested Recipes From Alice's Kitchen)

1/3 cup silken tofu (about 3 oz.)
1 cup frozen mixed berries
1/2 cup pomegranate juice
1 teaspoon honey (add more if you like it sweeter)
2 ice cubes (or just omit because the frozen berries make them kind of pointless)

In a blender, combine all ingredients. Puree until smooth. Serve immediately. (If the smoothie seems too thick, just add a bit more pomegranate juice.)

Mini Pear Loaves

This recipe is originally for pear ginger "bread" (not sure why it's called bread though as it's really more muffin/loaf-y). Anyway I thought - pear and ginger? That sounds good. Well I was wrong! The recipe calls for 3 tbsp fresh ginger which is a lot of ginger, too much for me and I love ginger. But I think I prefer it in savoury things like beet and tofu salad. Or at least in the dried form for baked goods, though I've never tried crystallized ginger.

Anyway, the great thing about these little loaves is that they're so deliciously soft and the pear in them is just perfect and doesn't make them mushy, as I've found apples can in muffin recipes. I tried a pear, cardamom and pumpkin seed muffin version of this recipe and while I liked the sound of it, I didn't really like the cardamom in there. I plan to try out other variations on this recipe adding different spices, nuts and fruit (and of course I'd like to try out a version that involves chocolate!) I modified the recipe to be healthier, as with most other muffin recipes I make (unless I just want to go all out).

If this sounds good, you might like:
Pumpkin Pecan Raisin Muffins
Lemon Poppy Seed Muffins
Almond Coconut Muffins
Chocolate Walnut Banana Bread

Mini Pear Loaves
adapted from The Garden of Vegan

Makes 8 mini loaves or 12 muffins.

1 cup whole wheat flour
1 cup whole wheat pastry flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
2 tbsp sugar
3/4 cup apple juice
1/3 cup applesauce
1 banana, mashed
1 large pear, cored and cubed
1/2 cup nuts or seeds (pecans, pumpkin seeds, etc)

Preheat oven to 350F. In a large bowl, sift together the flours, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Stir in sugar, apple juice, applesauce, banana, pear, and nuts/seeds. Stir together gently until "just mixed." Pour batter into a lightly oiled mini loaf pan or muffin pan and bake for 20 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.

My 100th Post! And Chocolate Walnut Banana Bread

This is my 100th post! I don't have anything exciting to celebrate it with but this banana bread was pretty delicious. I rarely make banana bread because when I was growing up my mom always made it. It was yummy but I guess lost its magical appeal. She never put walnuts or chocolate chips in it though, and this was actually my first time putting chocolate chips in banana bread. I like to maintain this image in my mind of banana bread being healthy and if I put chocolate chips in it, well it just makes it a little more difficult to believe! But I thought if I cut down the sugar a lot (to 2 tablespoons) and only put a small amount of chocolate chips, it wouldn't be a terribly unhealthy snack. And thus begins my love of this chocolate walnut banana bread.

I haven't used my mini loaf pans for a while and forgot how great little loaves are. In the recipe I wrote that you can use either oat flour or whole wheat pastry flour. The oat flour makes it much denser, but I loved it that way. If that's not quite for you, try the whole wheat pastry flour. It will still be a dense muffin but lightens it up a bit.

If this sounds good, you might also like:
Earl Grey White Chocolate Chunk Muffins
Healthy Banana Bran Muffins
Whole Wheat Blueberry Muffins
Pumpkin Pecan Raisin Muffins

Chocolate Walnut Banana Bread
Adapted from How It All Vegan!

Makes 1 loaf, 6 mini loaves, or 12 small-ish muffins

3 ripe bananas, mashed
1/2 cup applesauce
2 tbsp sugar
1 cup chopped walnuts
1 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 cup whole wheat pastry flour OR oat flour
1/2 cup wheat germ
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/3 cup chocolate chips, optional*

Preheat oven to 375F. In a small bowl, mash the bananas with a fork until very mushy, then add the applesauce, sugar, and walnuts and stir together.

In a separate large bowl, stir together the whole wheat flour, whole wheat pastry flour (or oat flour), salt, baking powder, and baking soda.

Add the banana mixture to the flour mixture and mix together gently until "just mixed". Gently stir in the chocolate chips.

Spoon into a lightly oiled loaf pan (or muffin pan) and bake for 40-50 minutes**. Test with a toothpick or a knife to see if done.

*Use nondairy chocolate chips or omit them to make this vegan.
**The first time I made these, I used mini loaf pans and I can't remember how long it took. I would check them around 25 minutes and see how they are. Maybe even 20 minutes.

Pumpkin Pecan Raisin Muffins

I've sadly never heard of the Weekend Breakfast Blogging event, even though it started over a year ago. I'm happy I stumbled across it though and can't wait to see the round up for this month's theme which is balanced breakfast meals. I'm always looking for new and healthy ideas for breakfast (that can be used for snacks too!) and the bonus is that everything for this challenge has to be vegetarian. I think my muffin does a good job of meeting the balanced meal requirements, especially if paired with a yogurt. It has pumpkin and raisins (vegetables and fruit), whole wheat flour (grains), and pecans (protein). And to top it all off, it's healthy!

I've been making a lot of things from Vegan with a Vengeance recently, including corn chowder. I'm trying to cut back on dairy and eggs, so I've been turning more often to my vegan cookbooks and finding yummy recipes. These pumpkin muffins are really moist and soft, and very delicious. Since a can of pumpkin is about 1 3/4 cups of pumpkin (and the recipe only calls for 1 cup), the second time I made these I attempted to replace the applesauce with extra pumpkin. That really did not work out so well. I need a pumpkin recipe that uses up the whole can! (Or I could approximately double this one.)

If this sounds good, you might also like:
Whole Wheat Blueberry Muffins
Healthy Banana Bran Muffins
Pumpkin Banana Muffins
Pumpkin Loaf

Pumpkin Pecan Raisins Muffins
Adapted from Vegan with a Vengeance

Makes 12 muffins.

1 cup whole wheat flour
3/4 cup whole wheat pastry flour*
1/4 cup sugar
1 tbsp baking powder
1/8 tsp salt
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
1/2 tsp ground ginger
1/4 tsp ground allspice
1/8 tsp ground cloves**
1 cup pureed pumpkin (fresh or from a can; do not use pumpkin pie mix)
1/2 cup soy milk
1/2 cup applesauce
1 tbsp molasses***
1 cup chopped pecans
1/2 cup raisins

Preheat oven to 400F. Lightly grease a 12 muffin tin.

Sift together flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, and spices. In a separate bowl, whisk together pumpkin, soy milk, applesauce and molasses. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry and mix.

Fill the muffin cups two-thirds full. Bake for 18 to 20 minutes, until a toothpick or knife inserted in the center comes out clean.

*I think I might've used 1 3/4 cups of whole wheat flour, no whole wheat pastry flour but I'm not sure. So to be on the safe side, I'd say use some whole wheat pastry flour so the muffin isn't too dense.
**If you have pumpkin pie spice, replace the cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, allspice and cloves with about 2 1/2 tsp of pumpkin pie spice.
***Original recipe called for 2 tbsp but I am not a huge molasses lover. I might cut it back to 1/2 tbsp next time.