Healthy Vegan Berry Muffin Tops

This morning I decided to try making some banana oat muffin tops with some blueberries and strawberries. There are no added sugars and these make for a healthy little vegan snack!

Because the top of the muffin is the best part.

INGREDIENTS

Servings: 8 muffin tops

• 2 ripe bananas

• 1 cup of oat flour (I just ground up some rolled oats in the food processor)

• 2 flax eggs (1 egg = 1 tbsp of ground flaxseed + 3 tbsp water)

• 1 tsp baking powder

• vanilla or almond extract (optional)

• cinnamon

• berries

LET'S COOK

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit

2. In a small bowl, mix your flax eggs and set aside to thicken.

3. Mash your bananas in a bowl with a fork.

4. Add the oat flour (or ground rolled oats), baking powder, dash of cinnamon (I don't measure, just eye it), splash of vanilla or almond extract, and flax eggs. Stir until well mixed.

5. Add a handful of berries. I split the batter so I could make one group of blueberry and one group of strawberry.

6. Take a scoop and place it on a parchment lined baking sheet. Repeat until the muffin top mix is gone.

7. Bake until the muffin tops start to firm up and very, very lightly brown, about 15-20 minutes.

8. Remove from oven and let them cool on a rack. Enjoy!

NOTE: If the muffin mix seems too dry because you didn't add enough water to your flax eggs like I did (oops), then add a splash of plant milk.

-Kat

Vegan Lasagna With Tofu Kale Ricotta

This super easy vegan lasagna uses tofu ricotta and is baked with a nutritional yeast cheese sauce on top.

This was my first time ever making a lasagna and I was impressed with how great it turned out! This lasagna has layers of whole wheat noodles, tomatoes and basil, and tofu ricotta with garlic and kale. I made a smaller, personal pan of it, so you can adjust quantities if you are making a larger pan. I generally don't measure when I'm cooking so I apologize in advance, but this should be fairly easy to eye and adjust as needed!

INGREDIENTS:

• vegan lasagna noodles (I used Whole Foods 365 brand)

• firm tofu (pressed) - I used half a block, use a full block for a bigger pan

• pasta sauce

• diced tomatoes (fresh or canned) - I used a full can

• chopped basil

• chopped garlic (I used 2 cloves)

• steamed chopped kale (I used about a cup)

• 2 tbsp nutritional yeast

• 2 tbsp flour

• 2 tbsp vegan butter

• non-dairy milk

LET'S COOK:

Tofu Ricotta

1. Press your tofu to remove as much water as possible. I use a tofu press, but you can also layer paper towels or a cloth in a deep pan, lay the tofu on, add more paper towels, and then place something heavy on top if you do not have a press.

2. Crumble up the tofu in a bowl until it looks like the photo.

3. Add chopped garlic and chopped, steamed kale to the tofu and stir.

4. Add spices if desired. I added some onion powder, garlic powder, pepper, and an Italian spice blend.

Lasagna

1. Prepare the noodles by boiling them until they are barely soft - do not cook all the way,

2. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

3. Scoop some pasta sauce into your pan and spread it around the bottom and sides to coat.

4. Add your first layer of noodles.

5. Spread a layer of chopped tomatoes, basil, and more sauce.

6. Add another layer of noodles. Then add a layer of the tofu kale ricotta.

7. Keep repeating in whatever order you'd like until you reach near the top of the pan or desired height, leaving off with one last layer of noodles.

8. Add a generous amount of sauce to the top. This will help prevent the noodles from drying out when baking. Now prepare your cheese sauce.

Cheese Sauce

1. In a small saucepan over low-medium heat, add the vegan butter.

2. Once it starts to melt, slowly add in the flour, being sure to stir into the butter.

3. Keep stirring for about a minute. Then slowly start adding non-dairy milk, being sure to keep stirring. I added about a cup in total but it depends on how thick you want the sauce to be. It will thicken as it cooks so keep adding milk in small amounts if it gets too thick.

4. Add in nutritional yeast and any spices.

5. Once it is at a thicker consistency, you can pour it over the lasagna.

6. Cover the pan with foil and bake in the oven, checking occasionally until the cheese sauce on top starts to turn a little golden and the noodles are soft. This took about 35-40 minutes for my personal pan.

7. Remove foil and let bake for an additional 5-10 minutes, then remove from oven. Let it set for about 10 minutes, and then cut and serve!

Enjoy!

-Kat