Snack
I’ve gotten into a horrible habit lately where I make something, pretend I’m going to remember the recipe, don’t blog about it for weeks, and then don’t have the first clue as to what I made. Pregnancy brain was bad enough- new mommy brain is ridiculous. {Side note: the husband is thrilled with my new lack of brain power- he absolutely dominates me in Jeopardy these days.}
I’ve got a slew of dishes for you- if only I could remember the recipes! Guess I’ll slowly have to make my way back through and recreate them. One recipe I’m not at all sad about being “forced” to remake is this zucchini muffin recipe.
You really can’t go wrong stuffing a baked good with zucchini, as strange as that sounds. Zucchini adds an unmatchable moisture to breads and muffins, and this recipe is no exception. The use of coconut oil helps create a slight crunch on the outside of the muffin, while keeping the inside dense and delicious.
There’s a cup of oil in these whole grain muffins. Not really a big deal since we’re using coconut oil, which is packed with healthy medium chain fats, but it does make an impact on the calorie content. If you’d prefer to cut the oil, use more applesauce instead. As a ravenous breastfeeding momma, I need all the calories I can get, so the use of oil in this recipe is perfect. A handful of nuts would be delicious too…or dare I say it? Chocolate chips.
I need to go make an extra batch of these ASAP to pop in the freezer so I can have a quick grab and go breakfast or snack on our beach trip. The less cooking on vacation, the better!
by with a Side of Sneakers
- 3 cups whole wheat flour
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1 cup coconut oil
- 1/2 Tbsp vanilla extract
- 1 1/2 cups shredded zucchini
- 1/2 cup grated carrot
- 1/2 cup brown sugar
- 1/2 cup applesauce
- 1 tsp salt
- 2 tsp cinnamon
- 1/2 tsp nutmeg
- 1/8 tsp ground clove
Combine all ingredients. Stir just until mixed.
Fill muffin pan with liners or grease pan. Fill cups 3/4 full.
Bake at 325 for 25 minutes, or until toothpick comes out clean.
Feel free to change proportions of shredded veggies.
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What’s your favorite muffin concoction? Apple cinnamon and banana nut are probably two of my faves. Add zucchini carrot to the list now. 
Recipe
Last time I posted a pancake recipe I promised I would stop, since you can figure out how to make different combinations on your own. But I said I’d stop after I shared my last 2 favorite pancake concoctions, and so far, you’ve only gotten one. Here’s the other one:
Dark Chocolate Mocha Pancakes!
Dark Chocolate Mocha Pancakes
Ingredients
- 1 cup whole wheat flour
- 1/2 cup oats {optional: precooked oat groats}
- 1 1/2 cup almond milk
- 2 tsp baking powder
- 1 Tbsp molasses
- 1 tsp vanilla
- 1 tsp cinnamon
- 1 Tbsp instant coffee powder {or some leftover prepared coffee}
- 1/2 cup dark chocolate chips
Instructions
- Combine dry ingredients.
- Stir in wet ingredients and chocolate chips.
- Let batter rest for 5-10 minutes.
- Bake on griddle over medium heat, ~ 3 minutes each side.
3.1
https://www.sideofsneakers.com/chocolate-chip-pancakes-recipe/ 
If you want to up the heartiness even more, toss in some pre-cooked oat groats or wheat berries. You may need to add a little more liquid.
Top with extra dark chocolate chips.
You might want to make a double or triple batch- these make great snacks later in the day, and they hold up really well in the refrigerator wrapped up in foil so you can indulge in a decadent breakfast the next day without any work at all.
Excuse me while I go polish off the rest of mine.
Pssst…they’re extra delicious slathered in peanut butter.
Recipe
Did you ever notice if you put the word “pie” behind the name of something that decidedly isn’t pie, it suddenly sounds that much better?
Like apple pie oats or cherry pie smoothie.
I need to remember that trick if I end up with a picky eater on my hands.
I don’t know if it’ll work on you now that I pointed out that little trick, but I’m going to give it a try anyways.
Pumpkin Pecan Pie Pancakes! {Did it work??}
You probably don’t need a recipe for homemade pancakes. I’m sure there’s one or two out there on the internet. But you know what? I’m sharing this one anyways. Sometimes you just need some ideas to spark inspiration for your pancake filling. And I’ve got two great ones for you. You only get one today though.
Ingredients
- 1 cup whole wheat flour
- 1/2 cup oats
- 1 1/2 cup almond milk
- 1/2 cup pumpkin puree
- 2 tsp baking powder
- 1 Tbsp molasses
- 1 tsp vanilla
- 1 tsp pumpkin pie spice {or cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, allspice, and/or ginger to taste...with extra cinnamon!}
- 1/2 cup chocolate chips
- 1/2 cup pecans
- 1/4-1/2 cup unsweetened coconut flakes
Instructions
- Mix all ingredients from flour to spices together.
- Gently stir in chocolate chips, pecans, and coconut.
- Let batter rest for a few minutes.
- Over medium heat, spoon batter onto skillet in small 4 inch rounds.
- Cook a few minutes on each side. You'll know when it's time to flip them when the edges start to dry and you see tiny bubbles in the center of the pancakes.
3.1
https://www.sideofsneakers.com/pumpkin-pancakes/
They’re vegan and whole wheat, so if you don’t like that kind of thing, ignore that. This is where the “pie” in the name helps- pie wouldn’t be whole grain or healthy, right? 
Mix everything together.
Stir in your “toppings”- it’s chocolate chips, pecans, and coconut today.
Make pancakes.
Eat pancakes.
Hide the rest of the stack from your husband so you can have more as a snack later.
What kind of pancake pie are you in the mood for this weekend?
Recipe
To me, a leisurely weekend breakfast out isn’t made of pancakes or waffles. Those are perfect for lazy at-home mornings. And though I do love diner-style hashbrowns, that’s not my perfect weekend-starter either.
It’s bagels and coffee.
There’s something about walking into a bagel shop with the smell of coffee hitting you in the face as you walk in, wrapping you in the warmth of it’s aroma. Whole wheat bagels, blueberry bagels, chocolate chip and cinnamon sugar…they all put a smile on my face.
Only, who has time to go sit and eat bagels and drink coffee all the time? Not me- not at least without skipping the getting-dressed-and-leaving-the-house part. So bagels and coffee at home it is.
One more problem. The only brand of whole wheat bagels sold at our grocery store are less than stellar. They’re not very…bagel-ly- more like round bread.
So you see the solution that’s coming, right?
Homemade Whole Grain Bagels!
I started with a basic bagel recipe and ramped up the whole grain to make for a nutritious, guilt-free breakfast or snack.
The mix starts with whole wheat flour, oat flour {aka oats coarsely ground in the food processor}, wheat germ, and flax. A little honey, yeast, salt and water, and you have your bagel dough.
Knead the dough until it becomes smooth and elastic, then set it aside in a covered bowl for about 10 minutes.
When it’s ready, divide the dough into 6 pieces. {I like the bagels as fresh as possible, so I make a smaller batch. Feel free to double the recipe to make a dozen bagels. You can always freeze any you can’t get to fast enough.}
Now it’s time to make your bagels.
There are two methods to chose from:
1. Roll the dough into a ball, then slightly flatten. Use your finger or knife to poke a hole in the center, then gently work the dough into a circle.
2. Roll the dough into a log, then loop the ends together to form a circle. Gently squeeze the ends together so they don’t fall apart during baking.
Once you’ve formed your bagels, let them rest for 20-30 minutes. Towards the end of this rest time, you can get your water and oven ready for the next steps.
Boil a large pot of water with at least 3-4 inches of water. When the water’s boiling, add in 2 tsp baking soda. {Remember those volcano experiments as a kid? It’ll bubble a bit like that- not as much, but it’s still fun to watch.} Preheat your oven to 450 degrees.
When the bagels are ready, drop them a couple at a time into the boiling water. They should drop and then return to the top to float. Cook each side of the bagel for ~30 seconds, then move onto a cooling rack with a towel under it to let excess water drip off.
If you’d like to add a topping to your bagel, like oats or nuts, this is the time to do it.
When all your bagels are boiled, place them on a lined or greased baking sheet. Bake for 15-18 minutes, or until tops start to lightly brown.
Remove from oven and let cool before eating.
I think these are best the first day- the outside has a nice bite to it, but the inside is soft and chewy. The next day, the outside starts to lose it’s crunch a little. Still delicious though!
Serve plain or with your favorite topping.
Whole Grain Bagels
-
1 1/2
cups
whole wheat flour
-
1/2
cup
oat flour
-
2
Tbsp
wheat germ
-
2
Tbsp
ground flax seed
-
1
Tbsp
honey
-
1/2
tsp
salt
-
3/4
cup
warm water
-
1 1/4
tsp
yeast
-
Stir yeast into warm water and let sit.
-
Mix together remaining ingredients, then slowing pour in yeast mixture.
-
Mix until dough comes together. Finish by kneading with your hands on the counter.
-
Knead the dough until it becomes elastic-y to the touch.
-
Set aside in covered bowl for 10 minutes.
-
Divide dough into 6 pieces and form into bagels. Let rest for 20 minutes.
-
Bring a large pot of water to a boil. {At least 3-4 inches of water}. When water boils, stir in baking soda.
-
Drop bagels a few at a time into water- they should float. Cook for 30 seconds on each side then remove and place on cooling rack to drain extra water.
-
When all bagels are boiled, move to a lined or greased baking sheet.
-
Bake for 15-18 minutes at 450 degrees or until lightly browned.
-
Remove from oven and let cool.
What’s your favorite kind of bagel? Where’s your favorite place to eat breakfast out?
Recipe
Hands down, the most popular recipe on this blog are my vegan cinnamon rolls. This makes me immensely happy because this is my favorite recipe of all time, period.
It makes me happy when we’re all on the same page. {And who wouldn’t want to be on the page with ooey gooey cinnamon goodness?} It’s the best cinnamon roll of all times.
In fact, we’re really, really on the same page. Three Four of the top five six recipes on SoS are baked goods {and who doesn’t love healthy-ish baked goods?}. The other two are oatmeal. Yeah, baked goods and oatmeal. And this is why I love you all.
1. Overnight Steel Cut Oats
2. Healthy Cinnamon Rolls
3. Donut Muffins
4. Mini Peanut Butter Scones
5. Southern Fried Oatmeal
6. Cinnamon Chocolate Chip Sticky Buns
The surprise popularity of the cinnamon roll recipe also makes me sad because it is by far the worst written recipe/post on here. Probably. I can barely even follow it when I make the cinnamon rolls, though of course it’s pretty much engraved in my brain by now.
So that recipe is looooong overdue for an update. Especially when that update includes extra filling. 
So here it is:
by with a Side of Sneakers
Dough
- 1 c almond milk
- 2 1/4 tsp instant yeast {or 1 packet}
- 2 c whole wheat flour
- 1/2 c bread flour (plus up to 1/4 c for kneading)
- 2 t baking powder
- 1/4 c sugar
- 1/4 t salt
- 1 t cinnamon
- 4T pumpkin puree
Filling
- 3 Tbsp vegan margarine/butter
- 1/4 c brown sugar
- 1 Tbsp cinnamon
Icing
- 3/4 c powdered sugar
- 1 Tbsp almond milk
- 1/4 tsp vanilla
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 flours, baking powder, sugar, salt, cinnamon and pumpkin. Add in almond milk and yeast mixture. It’s highly likely the dough won’t completely come together. Don’t worry about it- try not to over mix.
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. I usually end up with dough about 1/2 inch thick.
Mix together brown sugar and cinnamon, and melt margarine or butter.
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. By discarding, I mean eating separately. 
If you want perfectly round cinnamon rolls, try using dental floss to cut your dough instead of a knife so it doesn’t squish down. I shove them all in a pan anyway, so it doesn’t bother me that they’re not perfect circles.
Grease a 9×9 baking dish and line rolls in pan. Cover with plastic wrap or foil and refrigerate.
I usually leave them overnight so I can have fresh baked cinnamon rolls in the morning, but you don’t have to wait that long- just give them a little bit of time to rise.
When you’re ready to bake your cinnamon rolls, preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
Spread tops of cinnamon rolls with a little bit of margarine, cinnamon, and brown sugar. Not going to lie, I often forget this step and everything turns out just fine.
Bake cinnamon buns for about 20 minutes. Because they’ve been in the fridge, this should result in the rolls being slightly under baked- they’ll looked cooked on the outside, but they’ll be squishy on the inside. This is pivotal in making gooey, delicious cinnamon rolls.
Let buns cool for a little bit before removing from pan so that the icing won’t melt right off.
To make icing, mix together powdered sugar, almond milk, and vanilla. Powdered sugar leads the life of a two-faced trickster on occasion, so you may need significantly more or less powdered sugar or milk to reach the consistency you’re going for- thick, but still drizzle-able.
Drizzle icing over cinnamon rolls and eat while still warm.
Good luck making them last more than 30 seconds.
And there you have it. The best cinnamon buns. Ever.
*I highly, highly recommend using Smart Balance {yes, it’s vegan} instead of Earth Balance for this recipe. The butter flavor is part of what makes the filling taste so rich, and Earth Balance here leaves behind a kind of plastic-y, fake taste.
