I love a salty sweet treat. And these peanut butter chocolate pretzel bites are the epitome of a salty, sweet crunchy creamy dream snack.
Bonus: they couldn’t be similar to make. If you can make cereal, you can probably make these delightful nibbly desserts.
All you need is pretzels, peanut (or your other favorite nut) butter, chocolate chips, and some salt. And the only fancy equipment you need a microwave, microwave-safe bowl, and a refrigerator or freezer. Now let’s get into it.
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Helloooo my favorite snack ever! If you’ve known me for any length of time you probably know that my favorite food on earth is the wonderful sweet potato. Regular. Japanese. Red. Purple. I’ll take ’em all. Carb me.
I am a sweet potato maniac. When I was a kid I would walk around with a baked sweet potato in my hand, eating it as if it were an apple. I was cool. Between that and being the only elementary school kid drinking soy milk (because milk did and does give me the worst gas ever) I had a lot of friends. I promise.
One of my favorite ways to eat sweet potatoes is with almond butter. Something about the nuttiness of almond butter plays so well off the savory sweetness of sweet potatoes.
Lately I’m very into making sweet potato wedges. For years, I pretty much exclusively made baked sweet potatoes and ate them whole. But lately I’m on a wedge kick. Bonus: sweet potato wedges are perfect for dipping, in my case in AB.
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CINNAMON. ROLLS. Vegan oatmeal apple cinnamon rolls with coconut vanilla yogurt icing, to be precise.
Is there anything like ’em? No. There is not. When you’re craving a cinnamon roll, absolutely nothing else will do.
Which is why after craving them like cray for several days in a row, I decided to make some. Now I’m simultaneously #satisfied, and eager to make some more cinnamon roll variations (my friend suggested carrot cake…genius?! yes).
Me being me, I decided to tweak classic cinnamon rolls and put my own lil twist on ’em. I used oat flour because I wanted something not junky tasting (tho I do love a junky cinnamon roll sometimes…just was more in the mood for hearty/substantial/I really love the texture/flavor of oat flour in baking).
Then, for the filling, I used apple sauce + cinnamon + a wee bit of non-dairy butter (tho you could even skip the non-dairy butter)….
I’m not one to tell anyone what to do with their lives but can I tell you that you need to make these muffins? Because you do.
Well, not really. But if you’re looking to increase your daily intake of deliciousness or happiness, I’d strongly urge you to make these muffins.
Why? I believe it’s rather obvious just by looking at the title. First of all, who dislikes muffins? Can you name one single person? Me either.
Moving on to what’s inside: olive oil, lemon juice, and fresh juicy blueberries. When I was little my mom used to always serve blueberries with lemon juice and sugar for dessert or as a snack sometimes in the summer. It’s a wonderly simple, refreshing, and easy treat. The lemon juice makes the blueberries sparkle, and the sugar tempers the bitterness of the lemon. Yum.
So the other day I was eating my blueberries with lemon juice and sugar just like I did 20 years ago (omg I’m so old), and I simultaneously wanted a muffin. As you may know, blueberry muffins are my favorite muffins, which I discuss in this post, Vegan Blueberry Flax Breakfast Muffins. And then when it comes to summery treats, I think citrus/sour, so I decided to make a muffin that paired lemon and blueberry together.
When it came to choosing a fat, I went with olive oil. Because this Lemon Olive Oil Coconut Cake is quite literally still one of my favorite things I’ve ever made. These muffins are basically a portable muffin-version of the cake. Aka perfection.
The blueberries add a luscious burst of juiciness and flavor, and a nice textural contrast to the super moist cake. Which leads me to mention that in the world of muffins, I always believe there are two categories: breakfast muffins and desesrt muffins. These are definitely more on the dessert-y muffin side of life. But you can also eat them for breakfast. Because yum.
Hope your summer is going splendidly~! And if you need a little sunshine in your life or in your mouth, make these muffins and cuddle your puppy and have a lovely day. 😀
Prep Time: 30 minutes
Bake Time: 20-25 minutes
Level: easy
makes 24 muffins / cupcakes
Ingredients:
Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 350 F. In a small bowl or measuring up combine almond/coconut milk and vinegar. Allow to sit, at least 10 minutes.
2. Meanwhile, in a large bowl, combine olive oil and sugar and whisk together. Zest lemons and place zest aside. Juice lemons and place juice aside n another small bowl.
3. In a medium bowl, combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Whisk to combine. Add lemon zest and whisk again.
4. Add half flour mixture to olive oil and sugar mixture, and fold gently with spatula. Add half non-dairy milk and vinegar mixture. Repeat with remaining half of flour mixture and remaining half of non-dairy milk mixture.
5. Fold in blueberries
6. Pour batter into lined or well-oiled muffin tins
7. Bake for 18-22 minutes until lightly golden, fragrant, and/or cake begins to pull away from sides of pan, and a toothpick inserted in the center of the pan comes out clean upon removal.
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Before yesterday, I had never in my life gotten a car wash. True fact. It was something someone always did for me in high school, and then when I was in college, I rarely drove because that’s just not something that happens at NYU. I actually used to chuckle when people asked me if I had a car “out there.” I’d be like HECK NO and I don’t want one.
I’ve just never been a fan of driving, nor have I ever been particularly good at it. Some people enjoy it; it not my piece of cake. Cake is my piece of cake, thank you very much.
Back to the carwash. So, I finally get my car washed for the first time EVER at the ripe age of 24 and feel super adult and whatnot, and manage to somehow almost die and get my car totaled in the process. During a carwash. I kid you not. It was a highly stressful two minutes full of James-Bond worthy car-escape-ism, fast running, dramatic yelling of “STOP IT’S AN EMERGENCY” and returning to my car and saving my cute little car’s butt just in the nic’o time. It was a stressful two minutes, to say the least.
Anyways I decided to listen to “Shake it Off” like a basic bitch, go to Target to walk around, space out and calm down. I even treated myself to an iced coffee with soy milk, just to prove how basic I could be, in case anyone had doubts. I proceeded to realize it was beautiful out, and took my dog to froyo. Any time life feels a bit off, I look at my dog and feel like life is going to be okay because she’s so damn cute.
The nice weather had sunny vibes had me craving spring. The stress of the day had me craving sugar. I wanted something fresh and light. I wanted an old favorite, Lemon Olive Oil Coconut Cake. This was the cake I made for my sister’s bridal shower. *excuses self for nostalgic moment/sigh* She digs it. So do I. Somehow it’s still one of my most “viewed” recipes according to stats. Probably because it’s darn tasty.
Lately I’ve been on such a kick of making new things that I haven’t made this old favorite in quite some time. But yesterday felt like the day. And so, I revisited my old recipe, revamped it a bit, and veganized it, which was super easy to do because the only thing that needed changing was nixing/replacing the eggs. It’s as light, luscious, fluffy and lemony as ever, and a seriously good recipe to place in your arsenal for crowd-pleasing entertainment, especially in the spring and summer months.
I made this cake two ways yesterday, to make sure I gave you guys the best vegan-ized recipe possible. My result was that both cakes were delicious. And then I had two cakes. Because kitchen experiments are my piece of cake. And for those of you love driving, I’ll leave that to you, and stick to cookies. Peace out gurlscouts. Happy Spring/Easter/Passover, etc. 😎
Prep Time: 30 minutes
Bake Time: 30-40 minutes
Level: easy
makes 2 9″-inch round cakes, 2 9×9″-inch square cakess, or one 9×13″ sheet cake
Ingredients:
Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 350 F. In a small bowl or measuring up combine almond/coconut milk and vinegar. Allow to sit, at least 10 minutes.
2. Meanwhile, in a large bowl, combine olive oil and sugar and whisk together. Zest lemons and place zest aside. Juice lemons and place juice aside n another small bowl.
3. In a medium bowl, combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Whisk to combine. Add lemon zest and whisk again.
4. Add half flour mixture to olive oil and sugar mixture, and fold gently with spatula. Add half non-dairy milk and vinegar mixture. Repeat with remaining half of flour mixture and remaining half of non-dairy milk mixture. Pour into 2 9″-inch round pans, 2 9×9″-inch square pans, or one 9×13″ pan.
5. Bake for 25-35 minutes until lightly golden, fragrant, and/or cake begins to pull away from sides of pan, and a toothpick inserted in the center of the pan comes out clean upon removal.
6. Serve with powdered sugar, whipped cream, and/or fresh berries.
Adapted from my original Lemon Olive Oil Coconut Cake, circa July 2013.
