sugar free

Dinner, Lunch, Recipes, Vegan, Vegetarian

Medjool Date BBQ Sauce

When Natural Delights sent me an email with their new “naturally sweet” summer recipes, I knew I had to give their Medjool Date & Citrus BBQ Sauce a try! My kitchen is always stocked with medjool dates for raw vegan dessert recipes and my crazy sweet tooth. Although I do throw medjool dates in an occasional salad, I never really thought about using them in savory recipes. I was excited to see a naturally sweet barbecue sauce recipe since I’m always looking for ways to lower my refined sugar intake. This recipe does call for half a cup of brown sugar, but I actually omitted it, using only the dates as sweetener and LOVED how it turned out!

Homemade barbecue sauce= gluten free, vegan, and naturally sweet with no refined sugars!
Just in time for the 4th of July!!!

Natural Delights Medjool Date BBQ Sauce
Natural Delights Medjool Date BBQ Sauce
Natural Delights Medjool Date BBQ Sauce
Natural Delights Medjool Date BBQ Sauce
Natural Delights Medjool Date BBQ SauceMy friend Behnaz brought me a huge bag of fresh picked grapefruit from her backyard! Perfect timing!

Natural Delights Medjool Date BBQ Sauce
Natural Delights Medjool Date BBQ Sauce
Natural Delights Medjool Date BBQ Sauce
Natural Delights Medjool Date BBQ Sauce

Medjool Date & Citrus BBQ Sauce
Adapted from Natural Delights

2 Tbsp olive oil
1/2 onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
3/4 cup grapefruit juice
1/4 cup red wine vinegar
1 cup low-sodium tomato paste
12 Natural Delights Medjool Dates, pitted & coarsely chopped
1 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp ground coriander
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp salt
1 tsp black pepper

Chop onions and mince garlic. Heat oil in a large saucepan set over medium-high heat. Add onions and garlic and sauté for 3-4 minutes. Add the remaining ingredients (grapefruit juice, red wine vinegar, tomato paste, chopped medjool dates, and spices) and let simmer for 15 minutes. Transfer to a blender or immersion blender and purée the mixture. Transfer the completely blended mixture back to a saucepan and let simmer for an additional 10 minutes. Store in a glass jar in the refrigerator.
Note: Great for basting tofu, or tempeh for a mock BBQ chicken salad!

Visit NaturalDelights.com for the original recipe (using brown sugar) and nutrition information!

If you’re a visual learner, Natural Delights has an excellent YouTube video showing step by step insructions on how to make the BBQ Sauce!
Natural Delights Medjool Dates

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Recipes, Treats, Vegan

Healthy Vegan Banana Bread

Would you ever guess that this loaf of banana bread is healthy?!
Not only is it vegan and made from whole-wheat flour, but it does not contain any refined sugar, oil, or dairy!

I love bananas, in fact I think they are my favorite fruit (at the moment)!
I love them right out of the peel, dried as chips, frozen and dipped in chocolate, sliced on my almond butter toast, blended in my smoothies, and of course hot and gooey in my banana bread.

I had a huge bunch of bananas that were about to go bad yesterday, and my freezer was already filled with a bag of frozen bananas, so I decided to experiment with my very first vegan baking recipe from Love Food Eat. I love vegan baking because it’s always a challenge to substitute dairy products, and you can lick the entire bowl of batter without getting sick! While I was at it, I wanted to attempt to make the healthiest banana bread possible, without the use of oil, butter, shortening, eggs, or sugar!


Vegan Banana Bread

2 cups whole-wheat pastry flour
2 cups very ripe mashed banana
1/3 cup Medjool dates – finely chopped
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp cinnamon
2 Tbsp ground flaxseed + 6 tbsp water
1 Tbsp sesame seeds

Preheat oven to 300 degrees. In a small bowl, combine ground flaxseed with water. Set aside and stir occasionally until it forms into a sticky/gooey texture. In a mixing bowl, combine all dry ingredients (flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon). Mash the banana and chop dates. Add mashed banana, dates, and flaxseed mixture to the dry ingredients and mix until it turns into a dough. Lightly coat a baking pan in nonstick cooking spray. Pour the dough into the pan and sprinkle with sesame seeds. Bake for 55-60 minutes until edges are golden and a toothpick comes out clean.

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Desserts, Recipes, Treats

Vegetables… In My Brownies?!

Uh oh, it’s April 1. We all know what that means… April Fool’s Day!
What if I told you that this indeed is no joke. These brownies really are made of veggies!

YES, HEALTHY BROWNIES DO EXIST!

Trick all of your friends, coworkers, and family members with the tastiest, healthiest April Fool’s prank yet! They will have no idea that these rich chocolate brownies are made of vegetables! Not to mention; vegan, gluten free, and contain no refined sugar, butter, oil, or salt! Take that Paula Dean.

Just make sure that no one is allergic to the secret superstar ingredients first… because that would not be fun!

I love Chef AJ’s original Black Bean Brownie recipe, but I didn’t have barley flour or date syrup on hand, so I did some trial and error with flours, making my own date paste/syrup, and added spinach! I made 2 different batches to ensure they were perfect before posting, and I found that almond meal/flour tasted the best and gave the greatest consistency. I wanted to give whole-wheat flour and try, but it came out like rubber! As I was experimenting, I found that blending the ingredients in a particular order made the process much more efficient.

Remember, even though these are made from whole healthy ingredients, that they are still treats and should be enjoyed in moderation. But go ahead, lick the batter straight from the bowl, there are no eggs!

Black Bean & Spinach Brownies
Recipe adapted from Chef AJ
Makes 9 servings

15oz, can no salt added black beans (drained and rinsed)
2 cups fresh spinach
12 medjool dates (pitted)
1 cup water
½ cup cocoa powder
1 tsp baking powder
½ tsp baking soda
1 Tbsp pure vanilla extract
3/4 cup almond flour
Optional 2 Tbsp dark chocolate chips or vegan carob chips – as a topping

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a high-powered blender or food processor (I used my Vitamix!) combine the dates and water, blending until thick smooth paste is formed. Add the fresh spinach to the paste and mix until smooth. Next, add the beans and vanilla extract and blend. Finally, add the cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda, and almond flour. Blend until batter is mixed evenly. Scrape the sides of the blender or food processor as needed, as the batter will become very thick. Once batter is smooth, pour into an 8 x 8 cooking pan, lightly coated with olive oil spray. Bake for 30-35 minutes until toothpick comes out clean.

Optional: when brownies have finished baking, sprinkle chocolate chips over the top and let them melt in the oven for 1 additional minute. Remove brownies from the oven and spread melted chocolate chips evenly with a spatula.

Note: I checked the brownies after 35 minutes and they were still raw in the middle, so I kept cooking them in 10 minute increments, checking with a toothpick each time. The brownies took around 50 minutes to completely cook.

Side Note: I have not tried using deglet noor dates (the smaller, lighter dates) but if you use them in place of medjool, I suggest doubling the quantity to 22 since they are half the size.

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