Soy-Maple Roasted Sweet Potatoes

By now you probably know that I have a weakness for sweet potatoes. They’re one of my favourite things ever and I’m always looking for new delicious ways that I can eat them. Usually they taste the best when they’re super caramelized and soft- and this recipe DEFINITELY gives you that. These potatoes have so much good flavour and colour, and go great in bowls or salads, or as a side for your dinner.

Usually I peel my sweet potatoes, but today I left the skin on for some extra textural action. All I did was cut my potato into little medallions, then tossed them with some olive oil and threw them in the oven. While they were becoming golden brown and amazing, I just mixed up the THREE INGREDIENT sauce that gets brushed on to the medallions, infusing them with deliciousness and also helping with the caramelization process. Just keep an eye on these because they can burn pretty quickly.

These Soy maple Roasted Sweet Potatoes were the PERFECT addition to my lunch bowl today. I then proceeded to eat the rest of them right off the pan. Be sure to try out this recipe and let me know what you think!!

Soy Maple Roasted Sweet Potatoes

Serves: 1

Total Time: 40 minutes

Ingredients:

  • 1 small sweet potato
  • 1 tbsp olive oil
  • 3 tbsp soy sauce
  • 1/2 tsp garlic powder
  • 1 tsp maple syrup

Directions:

  1. Preheat your oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit.
  2. Wash the sweet potato well, then proceed to cut it width-wise into small medallions, a little less than a centimetre thick.
  3. Place the medallions onto a parchment lined baking sheet and toss them with the olive oil, making sure that they’re evenly coated. Put the pan in the oven and roast for 10 minutes.
  4. Remove the pan, flip over the sweet potatoes, and roast for an additional 15 minutes.
  5. While the sweet potatoes are in the oven, mix together the soy sauce, garlic powder and maple syrup in a small bowl. Set aside.
  6. Take the pan out of the oven, flip the medallions over again, and use a pastry brush to brush on a layer of the soy sauce mixture onto each one. Put back into the oven for 5 minutes.
  7. Remove the pan, flip over the sweet potatoes (there’s lots of flipping going on), brush on some sauce, and then roast for another 5 minutes.
  8. For a last final crisp, flip the sweet potatoes once more and bake for 5 minutes again.
  9. Take the sweet potatoes out of the oven, let cool and enjoy!

I can’t wait for you to try this recipe! So simple and delish:)) Have a great weekend and I’ll see you Monday!!

Yours Truly,

Olivia:))

Peanut Butter Cluster Nice Cream

It’s summer so bring on the ice cold treats! Nice cream is one of my favourites because it’s super fast, tasty, and CREAMY, all without any dairy or refined sugar. I’ve made Neapolitan Nice Cream in the past, but today I made PEANUT BUTTER CLUSTER NICE CREAM. There are actual PEANUT BUTTER CLUSTERS in here. Summer, here we come.

All nice cream is is basically blended up frozen bananas. It has an amazing texture and is also really good for you:) Because of this magic, I ALWAYS include a frozen banana in my smoothie bowls. From now on I might throw these peanut butter clusters on my smoothie bowls too cause they’re pretty darn delicious. I made them using oat flour- which is just ground up oats. So yeah, you’ll be needing a good blender to make this recipe. The peanut butter clusters also contain peanut butter 😋, maple syrup, vanilla, and some dark chocolate chunks. I DEFINITELY recommend using crunchy peanut butter for these, because then you get some peanut pieces in there. I’ve actually been converted from team creamy to team crunchy, cause I love those peanuts❤️ If you don’t feel like making nice cream, these clusters would make a greet breakfast with some almond milk or yogurt, or a nice snack on their own.

Once you have the nice cream made and the peanut clusters rolled and frozen, you fold the two together and BOOM! A super delicious summer treat. Let’s be honest though, I will probably be eating this all year long. Hope you enjoy this recipe, and be sure to let me know some other nice cream flavours that you want me to make a recipe for!

Peanut Butter Cluster Nice Cream

Serves: 3

Total Time: 210 minutes

Ingredients:

For the Peanut Butter Clusters:

  • 1 cup oat flour
  • 2 1/2 tbsp maple syrup
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract
  • 3 tbsp runny or melted crunchy peanut butter
  • 2 tbsp dark chocolate chunks

For the Nice Cream:

  • 3 bananas, sliced and frozen
  • 1/2 tsp vanilla
  • Splash of water

Directions:

  1. Mix all of the peanut butter cluster ingredients together in a bowl. Roll into 1/2 tsp sized balls, then put into a container and freeze for about 2 hours, so that they’re easier to mix in with the nice cream.
  2. Once the peanut butter clusters are ready, throw the frozen banana, vanilla and SPLASH of water into the blender. You don’t need to much water, or else you’ll miss out on that creamy texture. Use the tamper to push the bananas down and blend until smooth. You want a nice swirl like this:

3. Scoop the nice cream into a parchment lined loaf pan, and mix in about half of the peanut butter clusters. Place in the freezer for another hour until the texture resembles ice cream. Serve with the rest of the clusters on top!!

This stuff is legit SO good and you should for sure make some ASAP. Perfect for a hot day!

Yours Truly,

Olivia:))

3 Flavours of Crispy Chickpeas

Chickpeas are just the best. They have to be one of the most versatile ingredients out there. You can make hummus, falafel, edible cookie dough, cookies, or blondies from them, and you can even make meringues if you whip up the water or aquafaba from the can. But today we are celebrating the humble chickpea by just crisping them up in the oven- one of my favourite methods of preparing them.

These crispy chickpeas are the PERFECT addition to your salads, bowls, and wraps, plus they make a great snack on their own. Also, have you ever tried a chickpea salad sandwich?!!? Mix up your roasted chickpeas with some mashed avo and green onion, throw it in between two pieces of bread, and you’ve got yourself a LUNCH!

While just roasting chickpeas with salt and pepper is pretty delish, I’ve come up with three spice combos that take them to the next level. We’ve got taco-spiced chickpeas, curry-spiced chickpeas, and some soy-maple chickpeas. I think the soy-maple ones have to be my favourite, but the other two are pretty darn good as well. You could use the taco-spiced ones as a replacement for beef in tacos, and the curry-spiced chickpeas are a great snack by themselves. Make sure you try all three and let me know which one is your fave!!

3 Flavours of Crispy Chickpeas

Total Time: 40 minutes

Ingredients:

Taco-Spiced Chickpeas:

  • 1/2 a can of chickpeas, drained and rinsed
  • 1 tsp olive oil
  • 1 tsp cumin
  • 1 tsp chilli powder
  • 1/2 tsp paprika
  • 1/2 tsp oregano
  • 1/4 tsp cayenne powder
  • 1/2 tsp garlic powder
  • Sprinkle of salt and pepper

Curry-Spiced Chickpeas:

  • 1/2 a can of chickpeas, drained and rinsed
  • 1 tsp olive oil
  • 1/2 tsp garlic powder
  • 1/2 tsp cumin
  • 1 tsp curry powder
  • 1/2 tsp coriander
  • Sprinkle of salt and pepper

Soy-Maple Chickpeas:

  • 1/2 a can of chickpeas, drained and rinsed
  • 1/2 tsp garlic powder
  • 1 tsp soy sauce
  • 1/2 tsp maple syrup
  • 1/2 tsp ground ginger
  • Sprinkle of chilli flakes
  • Sprinkle of salt and pepper

Directions:

  1. Preheat your oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit.
  2. In three separate bowls, mix together the chickpeas with the spices and oil for each flavour. Dump the chickpeas onto a parchment lined baking sheet.
  3. Bake the chickpeas for about 30 minutes, until they’re nice and crispy. Remove from the oven and enjoy!!

Have fun with this simple snack recipe!!

Yours Truly,

Olivia:))

Rhubarb Purée

What the heck do you do with rhubarb other than making a pie or crisp out of it?!!?! This is the question that has faced me as I stared down the rhubarb I had in my fridge for the past while. We got it as a gift and I was kind of like, well I appreciate the sentiment but WHAT DO I DO. I made a crisp and it was delish but I needed some more options! So I poked around Pinterest and decided to purée it.

I came up with my own recipe and let me tell you, this purée came to PLAY. It has some homey spices like cinnamon and nutmeg, plus some maple syrup to sweeten it up (rhubarb can be kind of bitter) and some lemon juice as a flavour-enhancer. You just simmer everything together until it gets nice and soft, which surprisingly doesn’t take long at all, and then blend it up and you’ve got a smooth, delicious purée.

Ok, now you’re like “my question of what do I do with rhubarb has been answered, but WHAT DO I DO WITH THIS PURÉE?”. Valid question, my friend. But don’t worry, there are a gazillion different things you can use this for! Add it into muffins, quick breads, icing, cakes, smoothies or oats, make popsicles out of it, put it on nice cream, or just eat it with a spoon. Think of it as applesauce on steroids. And it tastes so good!!!!!! I froze mine in a freezer bag after so I can take it out when needed.

Hope you enjoy this rhubarb purée, and that you never have to waste any rhubarb again! There will definitely be some recipes that use this coming soon so keep your eyes open!

Rhubarb Purée

Serves: Makes about 4 1/2 cups

Total Time: 20 minutes

Ingredients:

  • 6 cups chopped rhubarb
  • 1 tbsp lemon juice
  • 1/2 cup maple syrup
  • 1 tsp cinnamon
  • 1/2 tsp nutmeg
  • 2 cups water

Directions:

  1. Add all of the ingredients to a large pot and place over high heat on the stove. Bring the mixture to a boil, then lower the heat and let it simmer until the rhubarb is soft. This should only take about 3-5 minutes.
  2. Pour the contents of the pot into a good blender, and blend until smooth.
  3. Let the purée cool, then store in an airtight container in the fridge, or pour into freezer bags and freeze until needed:)

So good and so easy!! See you on Wednesday:))

Yours Truly,

Olivia:)))

Mini Berry Protein Muffins

Hey guys! My phone broke down the other day and so I couldn’t really take and edit my pictures like I wanted, so I decided to just postpone this post for a bit. But don’t worry because the next week or so is STACKED with bullet journal stuff and new recipes (like this one) and a reading challenge update. Make sure that you’re checking in every day because I’ll have new posts going up daily until the end of the month!

To kick off this posting extravaganza, I’ve got these awesome Mini Berry Protein Muffins. I’ve been trying out some protein powder recently, and I actually really like it! I don’t just mix it with milk or water and drink it straight though, I usually throw a scoop into my smoothie bowl which makes it super creamy. I find that it’s a good way to incorporate some protein into my breakfast. The brand I use is Vega and I have their Protein and Greens powder in vanilla flavour. But if you decide to buy some powder to try out for yourself, do some research to find out what the ingredients are and where the protein is coming from. There are all kinds of protein powder; some are vegan, some get protein from animal collagen, and some have some artificial ingredients. Just make sure that your powder is right for you. If you don’t have any protein powder on hand, you can try and sub it out for whole wheat or all purpose flour, although I haven’t tested those out.

Anyways, I needed some new ways to use my protein powder. So why not make some muffins? And mini muffins, while I’m at it! Everything is cuter when it’s smaller. These muffins are naturally sweetened with maple syrup, and I find that the protein powder gives them a really nice flavour, like cake batter or something. There’s also an egg in here, which does give some extra protein and also acts as a binder. All of this protein and some whole grains from the oats, paired with a great taste, makes these muffins the perfect way to start your day! I used them to top a smoothie bowl, because, come on, mini muffins on a smoothie bowl? Does that not sound like the BEST THING EVER?

And I forgot to mention that these muffins have berries in them! I used saskatoons because I still have a whole ton frozen, but blueberries would be great as well. Now that it’s summer you might even be able to throw some fresh ones in there. So yeah, those are all of the delicious details of these cute lil’ muffins. Go find yourself a bowl (that’s right- this guy right here is a ONE BOWL recipe), mix some stuff up, pop these babes in the oven for like 15ish minutes and you’ve got yourself a snack that be lookin like a SNACK! Enjoy;)

Mini Berry Protein Muffins

Serves: Makes about 20 Mini Muffins

Total Time: 30 minutes

Ingredients:

  • 1/2 cup vanilla protein powder
  • 1 cup oats (I used quick-cooking steel cut oats, but rolled oats also work)
  • 2 tbsp melted coconut oil (mine was pre-melted by the summa heat lol)
  • 1/4 cup pure maple syrup
  • 1 egg
  • 1 tsp baking powder
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract
  • 1/2 cup water
  • 1/3 cup fresh or frozen Saskatoon or blueberries

Directions:

  1. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit, and line 20 holes in two mini muffin tins with paper liners, or grease with coconut oil.
  2. Mix together all of the ingredients in a large bowl.
  3. Scoop the muffin batter by tablespoon into the lined or greased mini muffin tin. Bake the muffins for 15-17 minutes, until a toothpick stuck in the centre comes out clean.
  4. Enjoy on smoothie bowls, oatmeal, as a snack, in cereal, or with yogurt!

Have fun with these mini muffins! Don’t forget about the army of blog posts coming your way. See you tomorrow!!

Yours Truly,

Olivia;)))