Roundups
Need some foodie pinspiration? Lindsay’s throwing a pin party! Here are some of my favorite pin-worthy recipes. Feel free to link to yours in the comments.
Oh and follow me on Pinterest! 
Creme de Menthe Brownie Balls: Chocolaty, minty, and just happen to be vegan.
Mojito Pina Colada Cupcakes: The flavors of a mojito and a pina colada all crammed into a delicious gluten free cupcake. Feel free to sub AP or whole wheat flour if gluten free doesn’t float your boat.
Broiled Grapefruit A fun way to squeeze some extra fruit into your diet with this healthier dessert alternative.
Smoothie Shortcuts Smoothies are great but sometimes you just don’t have the time to get all those ingredients together. These make it super simple to start your day off on the right foot.
Homemade Iced Coffee I’m a HUGE iced coffee fan. Putting leftover coffee in the fridge just doesn’t cut it. Try this simple approach and you’re at home iced coffee will forever be changed for the better.
Salted Caramel Shortbread: A vegan version of the beloved Millionaire’s Shortbread. So, so good.
Cinnamon rolls are my downfall. I love them. Obsessed. I have a million versions. These are some of my favorite. {Hint: make them the night before then pop them in the oven the next morning for an easy and delicious breakfast.}
Chocolate Hazelnut Cinnamon Rolls
Vegan Cinnamon Rolls
Funfetti Cinnamon Rolls
Ok now I’m hungry. What are some of your favorite Pin-worthy recipes?
Breakfast, Recipe
There are trends for everything; fashion, colors, music, and even flavors. This past year’s dominating flavors? Cake batter, bacon, and Nutella. Just take a quick glance at Pinterest if you don’t believe me. It’s the Nutella one I’m interested in- dark chocolate-y, hazelnut gooeyness. Paired with my favorite baked breakfast of all time- cinnamon rolls- it’s sure to be a winner.
I tweaked my favorite whole wheat cinnamon roll recipe to make it dairy free, egg free, and soy free, then added the divine flavor combo of dark chocolate and toasted hazelnut. These dairy free cinnamon rolls are stuffed with not only rich brown sugar cinnamon filling, but every bite is loaded with melted dark chocolate. The toasted hazelnuts enhance the flavor of the chocolate and provide a surprise crunch with every mouthful. In case a dough filled with both chocolate and hazelnut wasn’t enough, I topped the cinnamon rolls with a chocolate ganache, hazelnut infused icing, and toasted chopped hazelnuts.
I keep hazelnut syrup on hand for my morning coffee addiction, but feel free to sub vanilla if you don’t have any. The hazelnut syrup gives the flavor an extra kick, but you won’t be missing out if you need to forego it.
by with a Side of Sneakers
Dough
- 1 c Silk Pure Almond Unsweetened Original
- 2 1/4 tsp instant yeast {or 1 packet}
- 2 1/2 c whole wheat or spelt flour {plus ¼ to ½ cup extra for kneading}
- 2 t baking powder
- 1/4 c sugar
- 1/4 t salt
- 1 t cinnamon
- ¼ cup unsweetened applesauce
- ½ cup dark chocolate (vegan/dairy free) chips
- Optional: 1 Tbsp hazelnut syrup
Filling
- 3 Tbsp vegan/dairy free margarine/butter
- 1/4 c brown sugar
- 1 Tbsp cinnamon
- 1/4 cup toasted hazelnuts, chopped
Icing
- ½ c powdered sugar
- 1/2 Tbsp almond milk
- 1/4 tsp hazelnut syrup or vanilla
Chocolate
- ¼ cup dark chocolate chips
- 1 Tbsp vegan/dairy free margarine/butter
Heat almond milk for about 40 seconds in the microwave- you want it warm, but not scalding hot. Stir in yeast and set aside.
Mix flour, baking powder, sugar, salt, cinnamon, applesauce, and hazelnut syrup, if using.
Add in almond milk and yeast mixture. Stir or mix in electric mixture until dough comes together. It’s ok if it’s still a little bit sticky at this point.
Fold in chocolate chips.
Spread a clean, flat surface with flour. Adding flour as necessary to prevent sticking, knead dough until it forms a nice smooth & slightly elastic ball.
Using a rolling pin, spread the dough into a rectangle. I usually end up with dough about 1/2 inch thick.
Melt margarine or butter and stir in brown sugar and cinnamon.
Spread the cinnamon sugar mixture liberally over the rolled out dough. Top with hazelnuts.
Starting from the skinny end of the dough rectangle, roll the dough tightly towards the other end.
Slice the roll into ~1-1 1/2 inch strips, discarding the ends if necessary.
Grease a 9×9 baking dish and line rolls in pan. Cover with plastic wrap or foil and refrigerate overnight.
When you’re ready to bake your cinnamon rolls, preheat the oven to 350 degrees and let the rolls come to room temperature.
Bake cinnamon buns for 20-25 minutes.
While cinnamon rolls cool, prepare icing and chocolate mixtures. To prepare icing, combine powdered sugar, almond milk, and hazelnut or vanilla. Stir until smooth. To prepare chocolate, melt margarine or butter, then stir in chocolate chips. Heat in microwave a few seconds at a time until chocolate melts enough to blend smoothly.
Pour icing and chocolate over cinnamon rolls.
Top with toasted hazelnuts.
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These dairy free nutella cinnamon rolls may sound absolutely sinful, but they’re not as decadent as they sound. Each gigantic cinnamon roll provides 278 calories, 5.5 grams of fiber, and 7 g of protein- that’s a 10 calorie-per-bun savings over skim milk! When you eat the whole pan like I may or may not have done, that savings sure adds up.
This recipe is part of a campaign for Silk through FitFluential. All my own words, thoughts, and opinions of course!
Food thoughts
I love cinnamon rolls.
Man, if I had a dollar for every time I’ve written that on this blog, I’d probably have…a couple dollars.
But I do. And nothing makes you miss you’re favorite breakfast/snack/dinner {don’t judge} than not being able to eat one of the main ingredients. All of my favorite cinnamon roll recipes are already dairy free, but gluten free they are not.
As it turns out, the babe likely does not have a gluten allergy, but it’s so hard to pinpoint things. Every time he refluxes I worry it was something I ate. So while I don’t think gluten is the culprit {dairy & soy ARE}, I’ve been trying to keep my intake to a minimum and saving the gluten-eating for the really important things, like pumpkin beer.
I’ve been experimenting with my favorite cinnamon bun recipes and my new collection of gluten free flours. I’ve yet to find THE magic flour blend that gives that chewy doughiness I love in a cinnamon roll.
I am far from an expert on gluten free baking. Far. So this post is fairly useless. Here are some of the flours I’ve tried so far:
Gluten free all purpose baking mix {Arrowhead Mills}: Easy 1:1 sub but lacks the density of whole grains (too starchy for me)
Sorghum Flour: easy sub, lacks “chew”
Garbanzo Bean flour: provides density, but has a rather off-putting smell/after taste. Not for the faint of heart.
Gluten Free Oat Flour: one of the easiest to sub, probably because I’ve used oats/oat flour in so many recipes before.
Millet Flour: probably my favorite so far. Light but not starchy-light. I know, highly technical terms here. Holds in moisture well.
Brown Rice Flour: seems to be the standard gluten free “whole” grain.
Buckwheat Flour: great for pancakes, a little strong for lighter baked goods like cookies.
As far as starches go, I’ve been using mostly cornstarch and tapioca starch. I haven’t noticed any differences between the two, although I do prefer less starch-heavy blends than most combos call for.
I know most gluten free flour substitutes work best in combinations, but I’ve yet to stumble upon a tried and true favorite.
So there you have it. I have no idea what I’m doing. And thus my cinnamon rolls continue to suffer…
Gluten-free folks- what’s your favorite flour/combo?!
Roundups
There was no avoiding it. It had to be done. Pumpkin mania.
Some of my tried and true favorite fall recipes involving the one ingredient that makes people go gaga before the leaves even start falling: pumpkin puree.
Without further ado, my favorite pumpkin recipes:
These take less than 5 minutes to whip together and might just be the easiest dessert you ever make. The husband still considers them one of the best things to come out of our kitchen.
My heart breaks that I won’t be indulging in this classic favorite this year. Make with regular cream cheese, neufchatel for a low-fat version, or with soy cream cheese for a non-dairy/vegan version.
With a bit of a healthy twist- spelt flour. Did I mention they’re vegan?
The perfect autumn dinner side or snack…or drizzle with a bit of honey or agave for a festive seasonal dessert.
Because the only thing better than pancakes is calling them “pie”.
Need I say more?
Because you can’t have a pumpkin round up without this classic coffee beverage.
For those of us that aren’t ready to accept that the cooler weather really is around the corner, this iced pumpkin spice latte lets us hold on to summer a little longer.
[Tweet “7 Delicious & Healthy #Pumpkin Recipes #fitfluential”]
What’s your favorite pumpkin recipe? Feel free to link it below!
Recipe
So my birthday was 2 weeks ago. I’m a foodie dork and celebrated by making myself cinnamon rolls. But not just any cinnamon rolls.
Funfetti cinnamon rolls. Because c’mon, who doesn’t LOVE funfetti?! Can you blame a girl for celebrating with sprinkles?
Well when I first posted these, I promised I’d post the recipe “tomorrow” because the babe was waking up and I had to go. Umm yeah. Pretend that was yesterday, mmkay?
These are based off my original healthy cinnamon rolls recipe. Well not even “based off of”…they pretty much are my vegan cinnamon rolls. I just changed the blend of flours for a bigger whole grain kick and upped the vanilla to get a more “birthday cakey” taste. And added sprinkles of course. I’m fairly certain those aren’t vegan or healthy, but they were definitely necessary. 
So next time you need to celebrate with breakfast, give these a try. Even if you need to make up a holiday to justify the celebration. Oh heck, who needs to justify celebrating? Just do it!
by with a Side of Sneakers
For the Dough
- 1 c almond milk
- 2 1/4 tsp instant yeast {or 1 packet}
- 1 1/4 c whole wheat flour
- 1 1/4 c spelt flour (plus up to 1/4 c for kneading)
- 2 t baking powder
- 1/4 c sugar
- 1/4 t salt
- 1 t cinnamon
- 1 tsp cinnamon
- 4T pumpkin puree
- 1/4 c rainbow sprinkles
For the Filling
- 3 Tbsp vegan margarine/butter
- 1/4 c brown sugar
- 1 Tbsp cinnamon
- 1 tsp vanilla
For the Icing
- 1/2 c powdered sugar
- 1 tsp almond milk
- 1/4 tsp vanilla
Warm almond milk for about 40 seconds in the microwave. Stir in yeast and set aside.
Mix flours, baking powder, sugar, salt, vanilla, cinnamon and pumpkin.
Add in almond milk and yeast mixture.
Fold in sprinkles.
Spread clean, flat surface with flour. Adding flour as necessary to prevent sticking, knead dough until it forms a nice, slightly elastic-y ball.
Using a rolling pin, spread dough into a rectangle approximately 1/2 inch thick.
Melt margarine or butter. Mix together brown sugar, cinnamon, and vanilla.
Spread the butter liberally across the top of the dough, then sprinkle with cinnamon sugar mixture.
Starting from the skinny end of the dough rectangle, roll the dough tightly towards the other end.
Slice the roll into ~1-1 1/2 inch strips, discarding the ends if necessary.
Grease a 9×9 baking dish and place rolls in pan. Cover and refrigerate.
When you’re ready to bake your cinnamon rolls, preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
Bake cinnamon buns for about 25 minutes.
Mix icing ingredients together and spread on warm rolls.
Top with sprinkles!
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What’s your favorite food to celebrate a birthday with?
P.S. Don’t miss the little man’s 4 month update on tiny sneakers!
