Almond Butter Chai Yerba Mate Latte [naturally-sweetened & dairy-free]

This cozy, lightly-spiced chai beverage is made by brewing yerba mate tea leaves and then blending the tea with almond butter, dates, and chai spices. It's a naturally sweetened, frothy latte with just the right amount of caffeine. Yerba mate is also packed with B-vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants.

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Wintertime is the ultimate warm & cozy drink season and there’s no cozier drink than this lightly-spiced chai latte made with creamy almond butter. This chai latte is made using unsmoked yerba mate tea leaves, which I prefer over coffee or black tea. As a particularly caffeine-sensitive person, I find that yerba mate leaves me feeling energized but less jittery and with a feeling of sharpened focus.

Yerba mate contains the same amount of caffeine as a cup of green tea, but it also contains five times as many antioxidants, plus B-vitamins and minerals such as niacin, potassium, magnesium, and zinc. Just make sure to choose unsmoked yerba mate, as the smoked kind contains high levels of carcinogenic substances known as PAH's (polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons).

The brand that I use is called ECOTEAS (affiliate link), and I get the whole plant version which includes the leaves and the stems of the plant. It’s less expensive and only slightly less potent than the more processed version- and you know we love a good whole plant food!

This recipe takes just a few minutes to make and only requires steeping the tea and then a quick and easy blend, the result is an indulgent-tasting yet healthy version of a coffee shop style chai tea latte.

I used dates as my sweetener, since they are the healthiest and least-processed option, but you could also use a natural liquid sweetener like maple syrup for an even sweeter dessert-beverage.

Garnish with cinnamon sticks or star anise for some extra spice and festive decoration then get cozy and enjoy!

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Almond Butter Chai Mate Latte

3-Ingredient Date Caramel Sauce

This creamy date caramel sauce is made with just dates, plant-based milk, and a tiny pinch of salt. A pourable sauce to drizzle all over apples, oatmeal, cinnamon rolls, or add to any autumnal dessert.

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Apple season is upon us and there’s no better way to enjoy apples than sprinkled with cinnamon and dipped in date caramel sauce.

This caramel sauce is silky smooth, not sticky or chewy like traditional caramel, so it’s much easier on your teeth, and with no added sugar, it’s a healthier alternative too.

The best part is that you can make this with only three ingredients:

Dates, vanilla plant-based milk, and a tiny pinch of salt (optional). That’s it!

For a pourable sauce, use 1 cup of plant milk, or for a thicker caramel use 1/2 cup. I prefer the thinner sauce because it’s easier to drizzle it all over everything, and that’s mainly how I like to use it.

Here are few of the ways I’ve been using this date caramel sauce:

• as a dip for sliced apples and pears

• on top of oatmeal, baked oatmeal bars, or in overnight oats

• drizzled all over homemade cinnamon rolls or apple pie

• blended with apples to make a caramel apple smoothie

• add some to granola

• swirl into the batter of your next cinnamon loaf or cake

• stir into your morning coffee or tea for a refined sugar-free sweetener

• blend with frozen bananas and apples to make caramel apple nice cream

This recipe makes about 12 oz of sauce. This will keep fresh for up to 10 days in a sealed jar in the fridge.

If you try this out, let me know what you use it on and leave a comment below!

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3-ingredient Date Caramel Sauce

Vanilla Peach Coconut Butter Scones [Vegan & Oil-free!]

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These delicious peach scones are made with whole grain spelt flour, coconut butter, and vanilla. They're just the right amount of lightly sweet, crumbly, and buttery, with no oil or refined sugar needed!

Coconut butter is simply coconut meat that has been blended. None of the fiber has been removed and nothing about it is refined, unlike coconut oil, which is much more heavily processed. Coconut butter still contains all of the fiber, minerals, and vitamins found in coconuts. 

These scones are sweetened with unprocessed raw coconut sugar as well as being naturally sweet from the addition of ripe juicy peaches.

It's rare that I use peaches in baking because around here they usually get eaten raw as soon as they're ripe, but some of the peaches we've been getting just aren't quite as good as the others when eaten fresh, so I chose to save them and use them for baking instead as the baking process makes them even sweeter.  

These scones are so easy to make, with a very simple ingredient list and such a quick baking time that you can start making these now and be enjoying the most delicious scones in under 30 minutes! 

First, preheat your oven to 425F, then mix together the dry ingredients. Slice in the soft coconut butter using a pastry dough mixer or a fork until the coconut butter is broken into smaller than pea sized pieces. Mix the wet ingredients together in a bowl, then add the wet mixture and the peaches to the dry ingredients and mix using a utensil at first and then your fingertips to mix the dough for up to 2 minutes. 

Sculpt the dough ball into a circle that's 8 inches wide and 1 inch thick. Slice it into 8 wedges using a serrated bread knife or floss. Transfer the wedges to a parchment lined baking pan and bake for 10-15 minutes.  Check on them after 10 minutes and watch carefully so you can remove from the oven as soon as the edges turn lightly golden brown (I left mine in maybe 1 or 2 minutes too long so my edges are a little darker than what you're looking for). 

Remove from the oven and allow to cool on a cooling rack for a few minutes. Then serve plain or with more coconut butter, nut butter, jam, or other toppings of your choosing. I always like keeping these scones plain because I find it makes them easier to take on the go, and I think these taste so good already without any toppings needed!

I have started posting my recipe videos on our YouTube channel again!

We started our YouTube channel when we were traveling to Hawaii in 2016 and wanted to make some home videos to preserve some memories of our trip, then quickly it turned into an Airstream channel when we moved into our travel trailer and documented our travels across the US from NYC all the way to Seattle. Now that we're here, I'm finally all settled in and ready to film all of the recipe videos I've been wanting to make but didn't quite have the space to film when we were living in the Airstream. 

I plan on filming many more videos for my recipes and posting them on our channel and on my blog from here on out. Making a video for each and every new recipe, as well as going back and filming videos for some of my old favorite recipes here on my blog is no simple task, but I know how much it helps me to have a video to reference for other recipes that I follow, so hopefully you find them helpful too! 

If peaches are already going out of season where you are, feel free to use defrosted frozen peaches, canned peaches, or even another kind of fruit if you want. 

Let me know what you think of these scones if you try them out!

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Vanilla Peach Coconut Butter Scones

Seasonal Cherry & Apricot Nut Crumble With Vanilla Almond Cream [with raw option!]

Early summer produce is finally here so it's the perfect time for cherries and apricots here in the Pacific Northwest. This week our CSA box was full of the most delicious fresh local fruits and we found ourselves with a dozen apricots and six pounds of beautiful fresh local cherries. 

It didn't take long before most of the cherries were devoured and since the remaining cherries and apricots were starting to soften a bit, I decided I'd use the rest of them to make a warm cherry and apricot compote filling with a raw nut & date crumble topping. 

With all of this fruit in season lately, I've been loving the combination of fresh fruit with different kinds of chopped raw nuts and whipped nut creams. When the fruit had first arrived, I was enjoying the fruit on it's own as well as with almond cream and nut crumbles on top, inspired by this recipe, by Laura of The First Mess. But as the fruit I was using became a little more soft and overripe, I decided to make warm, delicately cooked, bowls of syrupy cherries and apricots, while still keeping the date and nut crumble and the almond cream fully raw.

I mainly chose to keep the nuts raw to avoid the formation of a compound called acrylamide.

In looking at research on nuts, they have been shown to form the compound acrylamide when baked at high temperatures (above 265 degrees F) which causes oxidative stress leading to cellular apoptosis, which can age us and raise disease risk. The length of baking time doesn't seem to be a factor, but keeping the temperature low is what's most important.

Just to avoid this process all together I like to keep the nuts completely raw, but if you prefer a warm nut topping, you can bake these for about 40 minutes at 250 degrees F, and avoid too much damage to the nuts. 

Raw nuts and seeds are actually some of the healthiest whole foods we can eat.

Nuts and seeds contain: LDL cholesterol-lowering phytosterols, circulation-promoting arginine (an amino acid), minerals, including potassium, calcium, magnesium, and selenium, and antioxidants, including flavonoids, resveratrol, tocopherols (vitamin E), and carotenoids.

Nuts and seeds also promote heart health. Eating five or more servings of nuts per week is estimated to reduce the risk of coronary heart disease by 35 percent. 

While it's important not to go overboard, even with raw nuts, adding them to fresh fruit and greens in small amounts helps to boost absorption of nutrients, making them healthier together than when enjoyed on their own.

Making the Vanilla Almond Cream:

The first step is to make the raw vanilla almond cream. You'll need to soak your almonds overnight or for at least 8 hours, before draining, rinsing, and then blending them with the water, vanilla, maple syrup, and pinch of salt. Scoop the cream into a jar or container and store it in the fridge until cooled. 

If you don't like seeing little brown specks in your almond cream, you can blanch the almonds first and then run them under cold water to remove the skins, but I find it doesn't make any difference in the taste or texture of the cream and I don't mind seeing some specks. 

There are a couple of different ways you can make this crumble. If your fruit is very fresh and at perfect ripeness, you can keep this dish completely raw, like in the original recipe, but if your fruit is overripe and a little soft, I'd recommend the cooked option.

In the cooked option I keep the nuts completely raw and add them on at the very end along with the pre-made chilled vanilla almond cream. Or if you want the nut topping a little warm, it can be baked with the crumbles on at a very low temperature (250°F). 

Raw Option:

Filling: Slice in half the cherries and apricots and remove the pits, then slice the apricots into thin wedges. Place the raw fresh fruit in a bowl and refrigerate while you make the crumble topping.  

Raw nut crumble: In a food processor, combine the walnuts, almonds, pecans, dates, vanilla, salt, and cinnamon, until broken into large crumbs and with the dates evenly dispersed and finely chopped. 

Assembly: Scoop the sliced fruit into individual bowls and top with the nut and date crumble and a dollop of cold vanilla almond cream. 

Cooked Option:

Filling: Slice in half the cherries and apricots and remove the pits, then slice the apricots into thin wedges. Place fruit in a bowl and add in the lemon juice and coconut sugar. Stir together your starch slurry in a small bowl. Heat a saucepan over medium heat and once the pan is warm add in the fruit mixture. Bring to a gentle boil then reduce heat to a simmer and add in the starch slurry, stirring as it thickens. Simmer on low heat for 3-4 minutes, when the fruit softens but before it starts to go too mushy. 

Raw nut crumble: In a food processor, combine the walnuts, almonds, pecans, dates, vanilla, salt, and cinnamon, until broken into large crumbs and with the dates evenly dispersed and finely chopped. 

Assembly: Scoop the cooked fruit filling into individual bowls if serving right away, or into an 8x8 baking dish to serve it later. Top with the raw nut and date crumble and serve with a dollop of the chilled vanilla almond cream. If you choose the baking dish option you can make the crumble ahead of time and then refrigerate it before baking it with the nut topping on for 40 minutes at 250°F, or 20 minutes at 350°F, but make sure to leave the raw nut crumble off and add it on after it's done baking. Add the chilled cream just before serving.

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Cherry & Apricot Nut Crumble With Vanilla Almond Cream

5-Ingredient Matcha Coconut Crispy Bars [Refined Sugar-Free, Gluten-Free, Vegan]

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These crispy matcha coconut bars contain only FIVE ingredients and require almost no cooking! The only part of the recipe that comes close to cooking is softening the coconut butter, which can be done on the stovetop but it will also soften up in just 20-30 seconds in the microwave. 

Next you simply mix all of the remaining ingredients together in a bowl and then press the mixture into a dish. Let it cool in the fridge for at least an hour, then slice and serve. It doesn't get any easier than this!

Here are the 5 ingredients you'll need:

• coconut butter
• maple syrup
• vanilla extract
• matcha powder (optional)
• brown crisped rice cereal, preferably one-ingredient and sugar free

While I wouldn't consider coconut butter to be a health food and it's definitely more of a special occasion sort of treat, I still consider it to be a healthier alternative to coconut oil. 

One tablespoon of coconut butter provides 2 grams of fiber as well as small amounts of potassium, magnesium, and iron. Meanwhile, coconut oil has had everything good removed including all of the fiber and micronutrients so you're left with 100% refined saturated fat. Coconut butter is much closer to being in its whole food form and still provides some nutrients, so I feel comfortable using it on rare occasions and especially when cooking for others who enjoy a rich dessert or are curious to try vegan food.

Recipe below!

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5 Ingredient Matcha Coconut Crispy Bars