Monthly Archives: July 2014

Berry Pie, ‘Nuff Said. (gf, vegan, and processed sugar free)

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IMG_9353Pie, my friends. Sweet, sweet pie. As the berry season cometh, so cometh delicious pie. I wanna be straight with you folks though, and this may sound like blasphemy to the pie purists of the world, but I don’t historically love traditional pie crust. So I made a different crust. Also, let’s be honest because we’re friends, regular crust from scratch is a huge pain in the ass and gluten-free and vegan crust is even more of one. Thankfully, the crust in this recipe is easy as, well, pie. 🙂IMG_9348Berry season (i.e. summer) in the northwest is the best. The berries are giant, sweet, and abundant. I literally spent 20 minutes just picking blackberries one block from my office yesterday and came home with 3 pints of juicy blackberries. One of my favorite memories is picking blackberries with my little brother and my folks at the beach. To this day, just taking a couple of minutes to slow down and pick a few blackberries brings the biggest smile to my face (pause for reverie about berries). Okay, resuming pie talk.IMG_9332So, crust. What you need:

2 cups of gluten-free oats

1.5 cups of almonds

2 heaping Tbsp coconut oil

1/4 -1/3 cup maple syrup

First, preheat your oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Will the preheating is happening, grind your oats and almonds. I did it in my Vitamix. If you don’t have a power blender (or a magic bullet is awesome here!) just buy oat flour and almond meal.IMG_9333Here’s my oat and almond flour all ground up and mixed. Don’t grind your almonds too long or you’ll have almond butter, which is delicious, but not our goal here. 🙂

Add your coconut oil and maple syrup. Mix well and press into a pie tin.IMG_9338Bake for about 15 minutes.

While your crust is baking, prepare the filling (this part is shockingly unchallenging). What you need:

1 pint strawberries, rinsed and sliced

1 pint blueberries, rinsed

1 tablespoon lemon juice.

Mix them berries! After your 15 minutes of crust baking, fill that thar pie crust!IMG_9351Bake for another 45 minutes-ish until the crust is golden brown and berries are cooked, but not mushy. The outside of the strawberries ends up almost roasted and was so tasty that it led to a future recipe about roasted strawberry ice cream. Prepare yourselves.IMG_9354Now eat a slice of pie! Or the whole pie! (brief pause for pie reverie).IMG_9361Yum. 🙂

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It Eats Like a Meal: Everyday Green Smoothie

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What do you get when you put all of these ingredients into a blender? Deliciousness, my friends. Pure deliciousness.  The fact that it’s an actual hearty green smoothie makes it even better, because unlike the situation I find myself in with many green smoothies, I don’t find myself ready to chew off my own arm an hour after drinking this one.

I apologize for being MIA for so long! Unfortunately work has been testing my stamina lately and I haven’t had much energy for a whole lot outside of work. I’ve missed my edible creative projects and interacting with you fine folks on the interwebs, so there will be very regular posts for the next few months.IMG_9312Let’s talk about the magic that is avocado. You’re reading a gluten-free and vegan blog, so I’m preaching to choir here, but bestill my heart when I open a perfectly ripe avocado. Does the fact that nature just makes these flabbergast anybody else? I recently visited my first avocado orchard and was speechless. IMG_5410Because why? Because, dudes, nature provides (and so does irrigation technology – California has had a real mess of a growing season).

Anyway, here’s what you need:IMG_93131 frozen banana

2 cups of spinach

1/3 of a cucumber, chopped

1/3 of a zucchini, chopped

1/4-1/2 avocado, depending on how thick you want your smoothie to be and how many you’re serving (I usually do 1/4 if it’s just for me)

1 scoop protein powder (totally option, but I use Sun Warrior Vegan Protein)

2 cups apple juice (more or less depending both on how thick and how sweet you like things)

A couple of ice cubes if you’re banana’s not frozen

Ready, set, BLEND!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

IMG_9320Sure, it looks a little like the slime from “You Can’t Do That on Television!” Ignore that.

Now drink up that sweet, sweet chlorophyll. 🙂 Enjoy, friends!IMG_9318