Chocolate White Chocolate Chip Cookies with Coconut & Almonds (GF, Vegan)

These cookies are low sugar/glycemic and are flexible in several of the ingredients. If you don’t have the white chocolate chips, you can put in regular chocolate chips, or even some dried cranberries. If you don’t want to put in the flaked coconut, you can put all almonds, or replace the almonds for a different nut. I’ve made this before with chocolate chips, coconut and crushed pecans. Quite delish!! Use the sweeteners listed to make the cookies low glycemic, but if you don’t have some of them or don’t care I listed some subs on the ingredient list. Hope you enjoy!!
 




Makes 12-14 cookies

1 cup gluten free flour (I used Bob’s Red Mill)
1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp sea salt
1/4 cup coconut sugar (can sub brown sugar, no longer low GI)
3 tbsp coconut nectar (can sub maple syrup, agave or honey, no longer low GI)
3 tbsp brown rice syrup
3 tbsp almond butter
3 tbsp unrefined coconut oil
2 tbsp hot water
1 1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract
1/3 cup vegan white chocolate chips (can switch for chocolate chips if you don’t have white)
3 tbsp almonds (sliced, silvered, chopped, your pref)
3 tbsp coconut flakes

Preheat the oven to 350F. In a medium baking bowl mix all of the ingredients in italics (coconut sugar to vanilla). Once they are all smoothly mixed together, add in the rest of the ingredients and mix by hand all at once.
On a parchment lined baking sheet, spoon the batter into round shapes. The cookies will spread but only slightly, so have the shapes close to the way you want them.
Bake for 11 min (12 min if you have a gas oven). Remove from the oven & let the cookies sit on the sheet for 1 min, then slide the parchment paper along with the cookies off the baking sheet & allow to cool.

Almond Vanilla Macaroon Granola (GF, **Raw, Vegan)

I love granola, always have, but it seems like it's something that USED to be good for you, but is no longer. They add all sorts of sugar into them, and there is almost always wheat. One of my favorites is a vanilla almond macaroon granola, so, I thought I would make a healthier version of it.
I'm going to preface this recipe by saying, there are several different kinds of sweeteners in this, just to give it a more authentic taste with some depth. The only sweetener that isn't low glycemic though, is the honey. For those of you who don't know, brown rice syrup is sweet, but isn't much more subtle than agave or honey, it has more of a caramel taste to it. And stevia, that is really sweet, that's why it's only a few drops. If you don't have all of those sweeteners, you can go with just agave or just honey and put in 1/3 cup.

Makes about 5 cups

1 c shredded unsweetened coconut
1 c rolled oats
1 c quinoa flakes (you can use more oats if you would like)
1/4 c ground buckwheat groats or buckwheat flour
1/4 c ground flaxseed
2 TBS flaxseed
2/3 c chopped almonds (I did 1/3 chopped fine, 1/3 rough chopped)
1/2 tsp salt
2 TBS agave nectar
2 TBS honey
2 TBS brown rice syrup
8 drops vanilla stevia
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 tsp almond extract
1 mashed banana
1/4 c coconut oil
1/4 c coconut butter

Preheat the oven to 325F

Combine ingredients down to (and including) the salt, in a large bowl and mix.

Next in a cereal size bowl, combine the extracts and sweeteners (agave, honey, brown rice syrup and stevia) with the oil and mashed banana. If your banana is somewhat firm still, you may have to break out the beaters and beat until it is smooth. Otherwise, you can do it with a fork. Now pour it into the big bowl of dry ingredients.

Last, mix in the 1/4 cup coconut butter. If you don't have coconut butter, you can use almond butter, although it will give you a different taste. It is ALMOND Vanilla Macaroon Granola though, so it will work just lovely!

Once its mixed line a cookie sheet with foil and pour granola onto it. Make sure to get it evenly spread all over the pan. If your pan is large, you can use one, if it's small you will have to use two (otherwise the bottom and top will get toasty while the middle won't, and it will take longer to cook).

Cook for 20-25 min, or until browned slightly. Stir or flip every 5-7 min to cook evenly.
**If you want to make this raw, you can just dehydrate it instead of cooking it. It should take about 12 hours to dehydrate at 118F.

Carrot Cake with Coconut Cream Frosting (Vegan)

One of my dad's favorite cakes is carrot cake. So for Father's Day I made one for him that would be a healthier vegan version (so I could eat it too, because I love carrot cake!) The cake and frosting recipes I got from different sites and edited them. I like things like this to be low glycemic, so I don't get a major sugar high from it.

Cake
3 cups spelt flour
2 cups coconut sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1 Tbsp baking soda
1 Tbsp cinnamon
3/4 cup coconut oil
3/4 cup banana, mashed
4 Tbsp flaxseed, ground
12 Tbsp warm water
1 Tbsp vanilla extract
12 drops vanilla stevia
1 1/2 cups shelled walnuts, chopped (plus more for topping)
1 1/2 cups unsweetened, shredded coconut
2 cups of finely grated carrots
1 cup of drained crushed pineapple

Coconut Cream Frosting
1 cup coconut milk (canned)
1 cup agave nectar
pinch real salt
5 teaspoons arrowroot powder
1 tablespoon water (or coconut water)
1 1/4 cup coconut oil

Cake Instructions
Preheat oven to 350°F. Grease two 9 inch cake pans. Mix ground flax with warm water and allow to sit for 5 min. Sift dry ingredients into a bowl. If coconut oil is solid, submerge jar into hot water for 5-10 min to melt it. Add melted oil, flax mixture, vanilla and stevia. Beat well. Mix in chopped walnuts, coconut, carrots and pineapple. Pour batter into pans equally. Bake for 40-45 minutes (shift positions of cakes front-to-back if necessary about halfway through), or a little longer, until edges have pulled away from sides and a toothpick or fork inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean. Cool on rack. Once cakes have cooled, and the frosting has set up, frost. Sprinkle top with chopped walnuts or arrange walnut halves in a crown around the top.


Frosting Instructions
In a medium saucepan, heat coconut milk, agave and salt, simmer for 10 minutes
In a little bowl, combine arrowroot and water to form a smooth paste. Pour arrowroot mixture into saucepan. Mix them really well together with a fork or whisk, then bring to a boil, for a min or 2 until shiny. Remove pot from heat and very slowly blend in coconut oil with a hand blender, it splatters easily.
Allow pot to cool for 10 minutes
Put the pot in the fridge for 45-120 minutes, until frosting gets solid and turns white throughout.
Remove from fridge and blend again with a hand mixer, until fluffy.