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Avocado Brownies! ….no brownie pan needed!

May 19, 2015 by Ariel 3 Comments

BakingSheetBrownie01

Have you ever woken up from an amazing night of sleep craving something terrible?

Here I was, 7:30am, in my kitchen baking brownies and trying to find a way to avoid using any oil or butter because it’s not because I want to pig out on brownies at 7:30am that I want to gain a million pounds.

Did you know you can substitute avocado for butter using a 1 : 1 ratio in your baked goods and get the same result?

O_O

 YES YOU CAN!! …and these bad boys are the perfect example that it is possible to bake without butter or oil.  Pillow soft (80% cake like and 20% fudge like), not too sweet and a perfectly balanced dark chocolate taste for the fancy palate.

I have topped mine with simple, sliced almonds but add a little sugar glaze on top and they become out of this world!

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Filed Under: Brownies, Recipes, Sweets Tagged With: almonds, avocados, baking soda, brownies, dessert, raw cocoa powder, recipe, sweet

Chewy, Decadent Paleo Brownies with Nutty Topping.

February 17, 2014 by Ariel Leave a Comment

ChewyPaleoBrowniesWithNuttyTopping01

I could never be 100% paleo.  Pretty much like I couldn’t be 100% vegetarian or vegan.  I’m just one of those people who strongly believe that almost everything can be good in moderation unless there is some sort of medical condition going on.  Since food is part of the simple pleasures of life, I don’t like to have constraints when it comes to be creative in my kitchen.  Some days I’ll be vegan or vegetarian.  Others, I’ll jump on a big juicy steak with baked and stuffed potatoes.

Every meals or snacks will be influenced by my mood and I will always follow these simple life’s food rules:

1- Try to eat a little bit of (almost) everything in moderation.

2- Try to always eat more vegetables, fruits, mushrooms than meat.

3- Prior fish to red meat.  Choose tofu, tempeh and seitan over fish and meat.

4- Eat food that are alive, like kimchi, miso, tempeh, sprouts etc…

5- Drink lots of teas, everyday.

6- Make sure that in those daily teas there is at least 1 matcha tea and 1 mushroom infusion.

7- Stay Active, work out.

8- Everything is always better homemade, so make it!

Beside that I’m pretty loose.  Eat what your heart desire, try to always choose a healthy, non fatty alternative to your munchies and push your boundaries, get out of your comfort zone to discover new tastes and textures.  Don’t close your mind to other culinary cultures and jump in.

Although I do not like to have constraints when it comes to my personal foodie life, it’s still fun and challenging to create recipes that are following a certain regiment.  Have you heard of the Paleo or Caveman diet?  Here’s a little Wiki article if you are curious to learn about what it mean to be 100% Paleo.

The basics you need to remember; Dairy Free – Grain Free – Gluten Free and Legumes Free.  All potatoes are a big no no but you can still eat some sweet potatoes sporadically.  All soy products are off limits but miso is accepted because the fermentation will make the soy beans easier to digest.  Flours made of Coconut and Almonds are your best friends, coconut oil and olive oil should be your preferred fat.

A good friend of mine have a condition that could be helped by becoming Paleo but I really don’t see him being able and/or wanting to follow all these rules.   Just because I knew he was coming to dinner last Saturday, I decided to create an entire Paleo menu from scratch and today I’m presenting you the decadent dessert I made.  Seriously, this is by far one of my favorite desserts ever.  Paleo or not, I’ll be making another batch of these very soon and I know that you might just become addicted if you dare trying it.

For the people who likes very chewy, almost gooey brownies, these are for you!  The soft texture of the carob brownie and the crunch of the nutty topping is really making these little bites fun to eat.  Hope you enjoy this recipe as much as I’m enjoying eating it.  …right now, as I’m writing

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Filed Under: Brownies, Gluten Free, Paleo, Recipes, Sweets, Vegetarian Tagged With: almonds, Banana, brownies, cachews, carob, carob powder, caveman diet, dates, goji berries, nuts, paleo cooking, paleo diet, recipe, walnuts

Sweet & Salty Cajun Roasted Almonds

February 2, 2013 by Ariel 4 Comments

I always have nuts laying around in my house.  Either roasted with spices or just raw, I love them all.  It’s a great and healthy way for me to get a boost of energy and make sure I eat all your good fat and control my blood sugar to get me through the day at the computer or on the go at a photo shoot.  I’ve been wanting to show you all the great recipes you can do with my homemade cajun spice blend but didn’t had much time as you can probably see by the number of updates on the site.  So this morning I decided that enough was enough and I had to shoot at least one recipe!  Good news, I ended shooting 3 new recipes including this one so make sure you don’t miss the next updates because they are going to be delicious 😛

Ok enough chatting and more recipe right?  I hope you’ll enjoy this simple snack that can be eaten on the go or maybe while you’re watching the football game on Sunday? 😉

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Filed Under: Nuts, Recipes, Snacks, Vegetarian Tagged With: almonds, arielrebel, cajun, cool, food, homemade, nuts, recipe, roasted, salty, snack, spicy, sweet, tasty

Mini Maple Donuts with Chocolate/Maple glaze and almonds…

May 28, 2012 by Ariel 2 Comments

The perfect mini bite snack to satisfy all the sweet tooth like me 😛

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Filed Under: Finger Food, Maple Flavored, Nuts, Recipes, Snacks, Sweets Tagged With: almonds, ariel rebel, arielrebel, butter, candy, cute, desert, dunuts, food porn, glaze, maple, mini, repice, snack, sugar, sweet

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