Category: Sweet

Dreaming of Christmas in the middle of April?

Try my Cinnamon Spice & Apple Cups!

Christmas spice will flood your kitchen, spirit, and taste buds.

These will not rise to become cupcakes (I tried), ergo the ‘cups’ title.

You will need some funky ingredients for this one such as almond flour and unsweetened applesauce – Whiskey also makes an appearance should you invite it to the party !

But one thing I love about this recipe is how adaptable it is; you can play around with the amount of toppings, sugar, and cinnamon – so as usual, go with your gut, you got this!

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Ingredients: (12 cups)🛒

• Cupcake/Muffin regular size baking tray + muffin liners
• 2 small red or sweet apples
• 125g margarine (vg)
• 125g + 1.5 tsp brown sugar (vg)
• 3/4 cup applesauce (unsweetened)
• 100g flour
• 50g almond flour
• 3 tsps baking powder
• 1/2 tbsp Whiskey of your choice (optional)
• 1/2 to 1 tsp cinnamon (I used 1 for extra spice, but if you’re not usually a fan, go for 1/2).
• Another 1/2 tsp cinnamon
• Some almond flakes/granules for topping

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👩🏽‍🍳Preparation👩🏽‍🍳:

For an overview (pun intended) of the process, go to my IG Highlight for this recipe (I cannot afford the word press upgrade that would allow me to embed videos)

1. Pre-heat oven to 180C
2. Cut one apple and a half into small pieces, place in a microwavable bowl
3. Microwave margarine at low intensity in that same bowl with the apple chunks (I do 450, 3 min first, then 30 sec at a time)
4. Once melted, mix well
5. Add 1/2 or 1 tsp of cinnamon, depending on how spiced you’d like your cups
6. Add apple sauce and whiskey
7. Mix well
8. In a separate bowl, sift through and mix dry ingredients (flour, almond flour, sugar, baking powder)
9. Add half of dry ingredients to wet ingredients, mix well, then add second half
10. Mix well until homogenous
11. Chop the remaining 1/2 apple in very small pieces
12. In a separate container, mix the apple chunks with 1.5 tsp of brown sugar and 1/2 tsp of cinnamon
13. Fill in liners with around 2tbsps of the mix, then top with apple chunk mix and some grounded almonds, or almond flakes
14. Bake in oven for 35 to 40 min until golden brown
15. Let it cool for around 20 min

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Serving 🍴

These go absolutely amazing with vanilla ice cream! Make sure you re-heat your cup before consuming.

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I really hope you have fun preparing this one. Please do not hesitate to DM me on IG or email me if you have any questions of trouble in the process !!

It’s called a lazy for a reason!

With an estimated preparation time of 20 min, easy to find ingredients and tools, and a no-bake feature, this dessert is definitely one of the most student-friendly ones I make.

I refrained, on purpose, from using fancy ingredients like vegan condensed milk, or even chocolate cooking bars; it’s budget-friendly as well.

So next time you’re invited over to a friend’s, and would like to make something quick and easy, this is your guy. Enjoy!

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Ingredients: (25cm/9.8”) 🛒

• 200gr vegan margarine
• 3/4 cup raw cocoa powder
• 1/2 cup sugar (vg)
• 1/4 cup plant milk (I use soya)
• 130g vegan tea biscuits (Lebanon: go for Gandour’s ‘Biscuits Marie’)
• 40cm/16” tin foil

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👩🏽‍🍳Preparation👩🏽‍🍳:

1. Using your hands, break the tea biscuits into smaller pieces (picture for reference) and set aside.
2. In a bowl, melt the margarine completely. You want to proceed with steps 3 & 4 as quickly as possible, before the margarine cools! Otherwise, the cacao and sugar won’t melt well.
3. Sift through the raw cacao powder into the melted margarine. Mix well while sifting.
4. Add sugar to wet ingredients, mix until homogenous.
5. Add plant milk, mix well.
6. Gradually add biscuit pieces to the mixture, slowly mixing with a spoon or using your hands, until all biscuits are in, and well coated (picture for reference).
7. Spread the tin foil on the table.
8. Using your hands, mold the mix into the shape of your cake on the tin foil. Option to use the scraps of chocolate mix as external layer of your cake.
9. Wrap up the lazy cake.
10. Freeze overnight.

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Serving 🍴:

Take off the tin foil and enjoy!
Store in fridge.

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I really hope you have fun preparing this one. Please do not hesitate to DM me on IG or email me if you have any questions of trouble in the process !!

This is the vegan adaptation of my amazing aunt’s recipe. Turmeric Cakes are incredibly easy to make; this is great to prepare with kids, or if it’s your first time baking!

Cakes that transport me right back home, whenever I need it.

Let me know if you try it, tweak it, hate it or love it!

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Ingredients (27x15cm/10.5″x5.9″ pan)

• 1 cup flour
• 3 cups semolina
• 2 cups sugar
• 2 tbsps Turmeric
• 1 cup water
• 1 cup plant milk (oat recommended)
• 1 cup oil (any non-savory)
• 3 tsps baking powder

Optional: some sesame seeds for the top

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Preparation

1. Heat oven 180C/356F
2. Mix all ingredients until homogeneous… it’s that simple! I’d recommend sifting the flour through, and starting with the dry ingredients, followed by the wet ones.
3. Pour into pan, sprinkle with pine nuts, sesame seeds, and/or peeled almonds, place on middle rack, and let bake for 30-35min. until golden.

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Serving

Let it cool for around 30 min. before serving.

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I really hope you have fun preparing this one. Please do not hesitate to DM me on IG or email me if you have any questions of trouble in the process !!

This bowl is perfect to wake up, freshen up, and power up properly with summer heat right around the corner.

My favorite part is that it takes around 10 min to prepare AND will boost your body with lots of essential nutriments and vitamins in one go!

You can have this with milk, or with the Berry smoothie.

For more information on why I choose to have this almost every morning, check the nutrition facts at the bottom of this page!

Let me know if you try it, tweak it, hate it or love it in the comments below!

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Ingredients (1 bowl):

Muesli:

• 1 tbsp of peeled and sliced almonds
• 1 to 2 tbsps of Oat flakes/Rolled Oats – depending on how you like your muesli
• 1 to 2 tbsps raw almonds cut in half
• 1.5 tbsps crushed walnuts – no need to grind, just crush in your hand to get smaller pieces
• 1 heaped tsp Cinnamon

Berry Smoothie:

• 2 tbsps Oat flakes
• 1/2 tbsp Flax Seeds
• Around 8 to 10 medium and frozen blueberries
• 4  frozen strawberries.
• 1/2 to 3/4 cup of plant milk. Check instructions.
• 3-4 regular Ice cubes (optional)

Tip: if you don’t have time to freeze the fruits, you can place them as is, but you will need to add more ice. 

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Preparation: 

Muesli:

1. Place the ingredients in a pan
2. Roast on medium to high heat, stirring every once in a while.

Roasting time depends on what you like; I like them close to burnt, but you might want to stop roasting as soon as they start browning. Taste a peeled almond, and see if this is how you like it. On High, I keep them around 3 min. On medium, they can take up to 5min.

Berry Smoothie:

1. Grind the oats with the flax seeds very very well. Try and do this in a food processor rather than the smoothie maker.
2. Add oat and flax seed mix, fruits, milk, and ice to smoothie maker. Start with half a cup of milk.
3. Blend
4.  If the fruits/ice aren’t blending well enough, you might need to add some more milk.

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👩‍🍳Serving 👩‍🍳

Top your smoothie with the roasted muesli. Sprinkle Coconut powder and dark chocolate shreds! The chocolate will melt on top of the nuts and it will just taste heavenly.

Serve and eat immediately, otherwise the ice will melt and it won’t hold the nuts anymore.

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🤓 Student Scheduling 🤓

Prepare a jar of the Muesli ahead; all you’ll need to do every morning is roast the mix for 5 min on high heat, then top with chocolate and desiccated coconut.

🌻 Vegan Boosts 🌻

I like to use Oat milk here to maximize the nutrition from oats, and get even more protein and iron. This is perfect before a workout.

For a lighter mix, go for Soy milk.

🇱🇧 Lebanese Shoppers 🇱🇧

Berries aren’t very cheap at the moment.

You can make your porridge without blueberries; get creative! If you like bananas for example, you can have a banana/strawberry mix.

You can also experiment with kiwis, spinach, orange, grapes, peach etc.

Just mix and match, and see what comes out of it!

🧘🏻‍♀️ Fitness and the P-word🧘🏻‍♀️

Here is just a glimpse at the list of nutrients you get in this mix:

Almonds:
Protein, Calcium, Vitamin E, Potassium, Vitamin B2 (Riboflavin)

Oats:
Protein, Fiber, Iron, Vitamin B6

Flax seeds:
Flax seeds are part of my morning ritual. I have at least a tablespoon every morning.
Fiber, Magnesium, Calcium.

Walnuts:
Iron, Omega-3, Calcium

Blueberries:
Vitamin C, K, and antioxidants

Strawberries:
Vitamin C, Fiber, Potassium, anti-inflammatory benefits

Cinnamon:
Loaded with antioxidants, Cinnamon plays a big role in my diet. It has shown to prevent diabetes and cancer. It is also known to treat virus infections, and is sometimes used to treat infertility.

Cinnamon, Turmeric, Cumin, Paprika, and Garlic: I have one or two of these every single day.

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🐄🐔No animal was hurt preparing this dish, stay safe, stay home, and let’s survive this one recipe at a time!

Day 10 of quarantine, and I’m feeling incredibly Homesick.

This is a recipe that I cannot take credit for! I didn’t make it up; any Lebanese household will give you the same one (or a slightly different one).

Meghli is made when a baby is born in the family; I recently realized that Caraway was used to increase breast milk flow, which might be why we started making Meghli in the first place?

Let me know if you try it, tweak it, hate it or love it in the comments below!

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🍁 Ingredients (8 servings) 🍁

• 1 cup of rice powder 
• 8 cups of water
• 1/2 to 1 tbsp Caraway (powder) – according to taste, people do it very differently here; the ratio of caraway to cinnamon can be 1 tbsp:1 tsp, or even 1/2 tsp:1 tbsp. Only you can decide according to taste after you start boiling. Start with 1/2 tbsp of Caraway and 1 tbsp of Cinnamon, and see from there. 
• 1 tbsp Cinnamon
• 1.5 cups of Granulated Sugar 

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🌱 Preparation🌱

1. Combine all ingredients in a pot with the (still room temperature) water, and let it soak for around 30 min.
2. Keep the water in and bring to a boil, while stirring continuously. Once it starts boiling, reduce to low heat and keep stirring.
3. Make sure the mixture is homogeneous as it thickens.
4. Once the desired consistency is reached, turn off heat.You can test whether or not it’s ready by dropping half a tsp of the mixture on a (room temperature) plate, and slightly tilting the plate; see the extent to which the liquid holds/falls.

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👩‍🍳Serving 👩‍🍳

• Serve mixture in bowls and let it cool.
• Once cool, place in fridge.

The garnish is made of soaked (and raw) walnuts, pine nuts, pistachio, almonds, raisins optional, and some coconut powder.
Start by covering the area with coconut powder and then add the pealed nuts!

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Stay safe, stay home, and let’s survive this one recipe at a time!