Chocolate Pumpkin Maple Almond Cups with Crushed Pistachio

Happy Fall! With the arrival of autumn come all things pumpkin, and I'm not complaining! I'm a huge fan of fall's nutritional superfood, especially because it can be prepared both savory and sweet. I recently whipped up some Pumpkin Quinoa, but I couldn't resist using this seasonal squash for a dessert treat.

Every since I discovered Kaleifornia Love's vegan and refined sugar-free salted caramel cups, I have been experimenting with different types of fillings, and I swear each time it gets better and better. Today,  I present to you: Chocolate Pumpkin Maple Almond Cups with Crushed Pistachios.

I love desserts like these because they satisfy your sweet tooth, but you can still feel guilt-free! All the ingredients are all-natural and pure, and you get the added health benefits of the pumpkin. Plus, they are ready in less than 30 minutes and don't require any baking.

Ingredients:

4 tablespoons melted coconut oil

4 tablespoons pure cocoa powder

2 tablespoons Grade B maple syrup (1 for chocolate, 1 for pumpkin filling)

4 tablespoons raw almond butter

3 tablespoons pure pumpkin puree

2 tablespoons pistachio hearts

(Yields 4 servings)

1. Combine coconut oil, cocoa powder and 1 tablespoon maple syrup in a bowl. 
2. Line a muffin tin with cupcake liners and fill the bottom of 4 liners with half the chocolate mixture. Freeze for 5 minutes until solid.
3. Blend pumpkin, almond butter, and 1 tablespoon of maple syrup until smooth. If the mixture looks too loose, blend in more almond butter until it is more solid.
4. Remove muffin tin from the freezer and top with pumpkin mixture. Then top the pumpkin mixture with the remaining chocolate so pumpkin mix is completely covered.
5. Blend pistachios for a second or two until they are in pieces. Sprinkle over chocolate in the muffin tin.
6. Freeze for about 20 minutes or until cups are hardened. Let thaw for a few minutes before eating, and refrigerate to keep.

Kale Me Maybe Round-Up: July/August Part 1

Hi Everyone!

Since my Instagram has really been taking off in the past month, I thought I would start posting weekly roundups of my recipes for those who have maybe missed a few. Since I have a lot of catching up to do, this post is going to have double the amount of posts I will normally do, but I am going to make this a weekly thing.

That being said, I'm still going to post full blogs with in-depth nutrition information and detailed recipes. This is just going to be a supplement to my normal posts.

If anyone wants more details on the recipes or has any questions, please don't hesitate to ask in the comments, and I would be happy to answer! Feel free to share your favorite dish as well.

@kalememaybe

A Mexican-Inspired Kale Salad with "Creamy" Avocado Lime Cilantro Dressing  

 

Massage kale with olive oil by kneading leaves together with your hands. Toss with black beans, chopped sweet onions, cherry tomatoes and chopped carrots. 

To make dressing, blend half an avocado with a scoop of Greek yogurt, a bunch of cilantro and the juice of two limes.


Spiralized Zucchini "Spaghetti"

Spiralize two zucchinis and cook in a large pan with olive oil until soft. Toss with tomato sauce, sauteed onions, mushrooms and lentils.


Lemon Vegetable Frittata 

Saute chopped onions, garlic, tomatoes, kale, mushrooms and potatoes. Scramble two eggs and pour over vegetables. Cook on medium heat for about 5 minutes or until eggs are fully cooked. Sprinkle with rosemary, parsley, paprika and lemon. 

Avocado Pesto Quinoa

Pesto: Blend half an avocado, two cloves of garlic, a handful of arugula, fresh basil leaves and a generous splash of olive oil. Mix into cooked quinoa with chopped cherry tomatoes and green onion. 

Lemon Zucchini "Fettucine" 

Spiralize two zucchinis with the thick blade. Toss in a large pan with olive oil along with garlic, arugula and cherry tomatoes. Top with squeezed lemon and dried parsley. 

Spicy White Bean Skillet

Saute chopped onions, tomatoes and kale in a large pan until onions are browned and translucent and kale is wilted. Add in white cannellini beans and toss with a large scoop of Greek yogurt and your hot sauce of choice (I used Trader Joes Red Chili Pepper Sauce).

Taste the Rainbow Breakfast

Chop two mini purple potatoes and then soften in the microwave for 2-3 minutes. Saute chopped potato, onions, garlic and kale in a pan. When vegetables are close to done, make a little space for an egg and crack into your crevice. Cook until whites are done and yolk is runny. Top with cracked black pepper.

Vegan Candy Bar Oatmeal

Cook steel cut oats and mix in two big scoops of unsweetened cocoa powder, a teaspoon of coconut oil, a teaspoon of vanilla extract and a splash of pure Grade B maple syrup. Top with unsweetened shredded coconut and 100% pure pure baking cocoa or cacao nibs.

Green Eggs (And No Ham)

Saute arugula, parsley and green onion in pan. Scramble with two eggs and then top with avocado slices and a sprig of cilantro. Slice cherry tomatoes in half and put around plate for garnish and to mix with egg when consumed. 

Avocado Toast with Cherry Tomatoes, Goat Cheese and Chili Flakes

Balsamic Kale Salad

Break cauliflower into pieces and roast at 425 degrees for about 30 minutes or until golden. Massage kale and toss with cauliflower, sliced red grapes, chopped sweet onions and chopped walnuts. Top with olive oil and balsamic vinegar. 

Fried Duck Egg on a Spiralized Sweet Potato Hash with Crispy Sage

Chop up sweet onions, garlic and a few sage leaves. Saute in olive oil and set aside. Spiralize a sweet potato and cook with olive oil, covered on medium heat for about five minutes. Toss with your previous mixture and set aside on a plate.Then cook a duck egg on medium heat until whites are cooked and yolk is firm but still runny with touch. Top plate with finished egg and garnish with some cracked black pepper.

Coconut Curry Zucchini Noodles

Spiralize two zucchinis. Mix with green curry sauce (I used Trader Joe's) and shredded unsweetened coconut. For an extra kick, eat with Sriracha. 

Balsamic Lentils & Chickpeas with Goat Cheese

Saute mushrooms and onions until onions are browned. Mix with cooked lentils and chickpeas, and pour balsamic vinegar over the mixture on low to medium heat. Cook for a minute or two to absorb flavor, and then top with crumbled goat cheese. 

Any Instagram posts not pictured here will be included in upcoming full-length blog posts!

(Coming soon: Zucchini Spaghetti with Lentil Meatballs)

Why is Sugar So Bad for You? + Vegan and Sugarless Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies

Happy summer everyone! While I have to say (again) that it has been awhile since I have posted, I wanted to let you all know that the Kale Me Maybe Instagram is really starting to take off. I will be posting there about once a day with all my culinary creations, and I am going to REALLY, REALLY put in the effort to post on here about once a week so you can get the full recipes as well as learn some nutritional tidbits.

When it comes to nutrition, we have heard the common enemies: fat, preservatives, salt, pesticides.
But one of the worst things you can consume is sugar.

Even if you are avoiding desserts, sugar is probably finding its way into your diet through fruit drinks, coffees, packaged foods and maybe even unsuspecting meals like salads. Just because your label is free of the word "sugar" doesn't mean you are in the clear, either. Sugar likes to disguise itself as "sucrose, fructose, corn syrup, dextrose, malt syrup, maltose, molasses, barley malt, brown rice syrup, cane juice..." the list goes on.

It still surprises me that people ask "Why is sugar so bad?" but then I think about how most of us were raised on sugary breakfast cereals and artificial fruit snacks and that the current food industry pushes these products onto us through the mass media. For some people, sugar is just a normal part of their diet-- no one has ever told them the harm it causes. Sugar damages us beyond just our weight, putting us at risk for diabetes, cancer, heart disease and addiction. It also can be harmful to our mental states, with studies showing that it can cause depression (and you know how big I am on the food and mood correlation).

Here are some of the most important reasons that sugar is our nutritional nemesis:

• It contains no essential nutrients: Did anyone say empty calories? The things you eat should benefit you in some way, and sugar does not.
• Sugar makes you fat: Sugar is a leading contributor to obesity, not just in children, but in adults too. People who consume the most sugar are most likely to be obese, especially because of the way sugar affects the brain and causes us to not feel satiated. 
• It can cause cancer: Constantly elevated insulin levels and chronic inflammation-- both an effect of sugar-- can contribute to cancer risks
• It's highly addictive: Many nutritionists and scientists liken the effect of sugar on the brain to that of drugs-- and take it from a former [sugar] addict-- they're right! Sugar causes a massive release of dopamine in the brain, activating our reward centers and causing a strong addiction to the sweetener. I can definitely attest to this: at one point in my life, I was constantly eating candy and craving dessert after every meal. Once I ditched sugar completely, I stopped craving it. Simple as that. But the same as a drug relapse, if I start to get in the habit of eating it again, I need it constantly and slip back into addiction. This just goes to show how powerful the effect of sugar really is, even if you are not aware of it.
• It puts you at risk for heart disease: Sugar raises your cholesterol and triglyceride levels, and it also affects the pumping mechanism of your heart. 
• It can make you depressed: The ups and downs from glucose absorption disturb the brain and exacerbate anxiety and depression. Not only that, but sugar also uses up the mood-enhancing B vitamins. 

That being said, "sugar-free" isn't always the answer, as many substitutes have similar effects, especially ones that contain aspartame like Equal, as aspartame is carcinogenic and can cause emotional disorders, tumors and various diseases. Even agave nectar, which was once considered a good alternative, is considered harmful, as it is still a processed sugar and the amount of syrup needed to sweeten things is very high in sugar content.

So what's the best sugar alternative? If you need to sweeten something, it's best to use Stevia, honey or maple syrup, as they are all natural and contain various other health benefits. Of course, use these in moderation too, as sugar in excess is never good for you, even if it's from a natural source.

To go along with the sweet theme of this post, I thought I would share a dessert recipe, which is rare for me since I am not much of a baker. I just came up with this new Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookie recipe, which, of course, has no sugar and instead uses a small amount of maple syrup as a sweetener. These came out SO tasty, and it will be easy for you to recreate them, as I actually accurately measured everything this time.

These cookies are vegan, have no added sugar, no butter and no eggs, and they can be gluten free if you take out the oats and use another flour instead. There are no bad ingredients, so these can even be used as breakfast cookies.

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies

Ingredients:

1 cup pumpkin puree

1 cup almond flour

1 cup rolled oats

1/4 cup maple syrup (Grade B)

1/4 Unrefined Virgin coconut oil

1 tsp vanilla

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp cinnamon

3 tsp cocoa powder

6  small squares of 70% or higher dark chocolate, with no sugar or dairy added, chopped

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.

2. Mix all the ingredients in a large bowl.

3. Grease a baking sheet with some coconut oil. Place spoon sized chunks of the batter onto the baking sheet, leaving a little bit of room for the cookies to expand (they don't get much bigger).

4. Bake for about 15-20 minutes. If you like your cookies softer, bake for 15 minutes, and if you like them harder, bake for a little over 20.
5. Let cookies cool. If you want a little extra sweetness, drizzle maple syrup on top of the cookies when they are done baking.

(Makes about 10 cookies)

What are your favorite no sugar added recipes? Share in the comments! And be sure to follow @kalememaybe on Instagram!