Other People’s Food (6): Life is Sweet

What to do with that 5-pound behemoth of a zucchini that eerily resembles a lethal weapon wielded by an ogre in a Grimm’s Fairy Tale?  Grate that puppy up and make zucchini bread.  Lots of zucchini bread.  Call it fate, kismet, destiny, luck or simply that it’s summer and everyone has at least one or two zucchini cudgels hanging about the kitchen, the recipe mentioned over at The Bear and the Blackberry for zucchini bread came just at the right moment.  My tweaks were to reduce the oil by half and add unsweetened applesauce; reduce the sugar from 2 cups to a 1/2 cup (and I used maple sugar) plus stevia; add chocolate chips and change out the walnuts for pecans.  This cake is absolutely addictive.  It’s so good I’m looking around for an ogre who wants to unload an outsized zucchini or two.

Zucchini Chocolate Chip Bars An Unrefined Vegan

Vegan Cheesecake An Unrefined Vegan

The little beauty of a recipe  above for dairy-free, no-bake cheezcake comes from Somer at Good Clean Food.  Pure friggin’ genius.  Never a traditional cheesecake fan, I tried this simply because it fascinated me – and I ended up loving the results.  The secrets are cashews and Pomona’s Pectin.  Soft and creamy with a little bit of lemony tang and then sweetness from the blueberries – you get the true cheesecake experience without a ton of sugar and scary dairy.  I messed with the crust, using pecans instead of almonds and adding chia seeds and orange zest, but the only change I made to the cheez (other than coming close to complete disaster because I tried using a food processor for the whole thing rather than my Vitamix…) was to reduce the maple syrup by half and add a little bit of stevia.  When you visit Good Clean Food to get the recipe (and you simply must get the recipe), note how much thinner Somer’s slices of cheezcake are.  Oops.

Next, I offer up these beautiful bars inspired by breakfast #217 from Desayunos Veganos 365:

I followed Nihacc’s link to this easy recipe and played around with it a little bit, changing out some of the ingredients and adding some here and there.  My take on it is below, but I encourage you to check out Nihacc’s mouthwatering breakfast blog (imagine: something different each morning!) as well as the blog she cites (The Sunny Raw Kitchen).

Date Ginger Cherry Bars An Unrefined Vegan

Date Ginger Cherry Bars An Unrefined Vegan

Date-Cherry-Ginger-Orange-Coconut Bars…with Cacao & Chia

INGREDIENTS

  • 1 cup almonds
  • 1 cup dates, roughly chopped
  • 1/2 cup dried tart cherries
  • 1/4 cup crystallized ginger
  • 1 cup dried, unsweetened coconut flakes
  • 1 tsp. vanilla extract
  • zest of 1 orange
  • 2 tbsp. fresh orange juice
  • 1 tbsp. cacao nibs
  • 1 tbsp. chia seeds

DIRECTIONS

  1. Line a 9″ x 9″ pan with parchment paper.
  2. In the bowl of a food processor, finely grind the almonds.  Add the dates, cherries and ginger and process a few times just to break everything down.  Add the remaining ingredients and process until everything is in small bits.  If the mixture is not coming together, add a tablespoon or two of water.
  3. Dump the mixture into the prepared pan and gently spread and pat it out until it reaches all sides and is fairly even.  Place in the refrigerator for a few hours before slicing.  I wrap mine in parchment paper and store in the refrigerator.

Peach Black Tea An Unrefined Vegan

Just so I don’t neglect the beverage side of things: here’s a fruity-sweet peach and black tea drink from Compassionate & Passionate Cuisine.  Since I just happened to have a boatload of fresh peaches hanging about, I couldn’t NOT make this (immediately) after reading her post.

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35 thoughts on “Other People’s Food (6): Life is Sweet

  1. the bear and the blackberry

    Oooh the tweaks you made to that zucchini bread sound and look delicious! And those date-cherry-ginger-magigs…. mmmmmm… must try!

    Reply
  2. Isobel Morrell

    Your Zucchini bread recipe came along just too late for daughter Clare, who found herself with a surfeit of the little chaps earlier this week. Does sound delicious, though, so will forward it to her (by the way, she posts on Facebook at very regular intervals (surname Rickett!) You may have noticed her on my pages!

    Reply
  3. tearoomdelights

    Everything here looks absolutely amazing, and as for lemon and blueberries, that’s a match made in heaven.

    Reply
  4. Márcia Gonçalves

    Oh, wow! Thanks for including my recipe! I’m so happy you liked it 🙂
    And the others recipes are great too! That zucchini walnut bread really caught my eye 😉

    Reply
  5. morgancreations

    I should never look at this first thing in the morning! Well, maybe I should but I wish someone would just hand it to me with my morning coffee.

    Reply
  6. Gabby @ the veggie nook

    I just looove when you do posts like these! So many great ideas and I love hearing how you modify recipes to suit your taste!

    Reply
  7. Brittany

    Ohh my goodness a baking day! All this stuff looks amazing! I have never been a huge cheesecake fan either, so I’d be curious to try this cheezecake! YUM!

    Reply
  8. Raelynn

    The tea looks soooo good!!! I’ll have to try, and the cheezcake looks amazing, and so pretty, it would be something I wouldn’t want to cut into (for a minute or so…)

    Reply
  9. Ashlae | oh, ladycakes

    That cheesecake, drool. And that zucchini bread! I’ve got a ridiculously large zucchini lying around – and chocolate chip zucchini bread sounds so, so good.

    Reply
  10. A Tablespoon of Liz

    All of these recipes look so good, especially that cheesecake! I’ve been on the lookout for a dairy-free cheesecake that just doesn’t replace the cream cheese with soy cream cheese.

    Reply
  11. * Vegan Sparkles *

    Ohhhh, so much raw goodness here! I love the photos too – they make me want to host an afternoon tea party for everyone so we can munch on all this goodness. Heading over to check out those other blogs now, thank you. 🙂

    Reply
  12. Somer

    Forget about the cheezcake (although your version and the bigger slices are making me want to make it again, with your chocolate suggestion, mind you) The zucchini bread is one I’m going to have to make into muffins, and I mean, right now. I have some ogre sized ones in the fridge begging to be made into this!

    And those breakfast bars, it’s like the fabulous spread you emailed me. in a bar form. with cherries. Stop it!

    Reply
  13. Pingback: (Eating Vegan) Under the Sheltering Sky « anunrefinedvegan

  14. Angela @ Canned Time

    YEA!! to Carmella’s http://thesunnyrawkitchen.blogspot.com.es/…she’s had a very tough year and I know she’d love to be able to eat one of those bars herself ♥ The Zucchini bread I know is just scrumptious with all those tasty ingredients in each bite. I didn’t grow any (or should I say can’t on my 3X12 balcony) and I envy your abundance this year. Zucchini breads are one of my all time favorites. I love an even bigger slice of that delicious cheesecake as well. Love blueberries, love cheesecakes. That one looks awfully special. You’ve got some great eating going on there this week…enjoy some for us ;P

    Reply

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