monkey / gorilla cakes!

so, i had a huge pancake craving for dinner. i could see it coming miles away - since i missed national pancake day and haven't had any in ages. and, as luck would have it, one of the most fun vegan food bloggers out there, "chocolate covered katie," is having an awesome contest wherein you make pancake roll-ups and are entered to win a whole bunch of products courtesy of artisana.

and so, i thought, "why not make pancake roll-ups?" yes, why not.

i decided on this recipe, because i wanted to use up some spelt flour and because moby is cool. alongside the spelt we have wheat bran (didn't have any oat), baking soda, salt, and soymilk. some rogue cinnamon may have snuck its way in there.

and a little stevia, because one needs some sweetness in one's pancakes. and, yes, that is a blurry "sense and sensibility" in the background, because one needs some jane austen while one makes pancakes.

and, no, you don't see any blueberries up in there. instead, i used a banana and some unsweetened coconut.

and so begins the fun game of heating the pan and creating the tester pancake. we've got bubbles!

successful flipping!

mmm. yes, they taste like "healthy" cakes, but one sees nothing wrong with that.

yet it is at this point, looking at the finished batch, that one runs into a problem. and by "one," i mean me. you see, these are thick and fluffy and lovely...but they do not really appear conducive to, um, rolling.

but one must do the best one can. a little slater of all-natural, organic, creamy peanut butter...

a makeshift roll with some added banana (ignore the fact that it looks like a burrito about to fall apart)...

and some more banana on top, alongside some powdered sugar and a little drizzle of pure maple syrup.

i was going to christen these monkey cakes, but they were too big to be monkies. plus, i could only eat half of them. instead, i believe they are gorilla cakes. i dedicate them to joe, a gorilla who lives in the st. louis zoo.

thanks for the inspiration, katie!

fruity oaty bars!

i couple days ago, i made 'fruity oaty bars' from the beloved 'vegan cookies invade your cookie jar.' i'd been wanting to make them for a while, but had a little setback in that these are uber-healthy things which require ingredients that i didn't have and/or never heard of. as it was, i still couldn't find two of them, but one does get by.

this dry mix contains things like oats, spelt flour, ground flax seeds, and wheat bran (was supposed to be wheat germ - but the store was out).

the wet mix began with fresh orange juice:

and, naturally, i needed some extra for myself, because fresh oj is nice. p.s. naval oranges are NOT the right kind for juicing. note to self.

the wet mixture contains things like brown rice syrup (purchased for the pecan bars from last month) and pure maple syrup that was supposed to be barley malt syrup, which i am convinced does not exist.

either way - no added sugar and no fake sweeteners here, which is quite nice. instead, we have mix-ins. everyone loves mix-ins. here, they were: sesame seeds, green pumpkin seeds, cranberries, and a cup of mixed, dried fruit. i tried for organic and no-sugar added wherever possible.

because, if one is going to employ such ingredients as spelt flour and brown rice syrup, one might as well go the whole hog. which is a weird expression, and i don't really know what it means.

here is a close up out of the oven, in the middle of the 'cooling for at least 45 minutes' stage.

everything was fine until i began to cut it up - then all heck broke loose. HECK! everything fell apart. here is one of the prettiest-shaped chunks:

and here is the pile of little chunks/crumbs. however, there is a reason that these crumbs are placed on some foil, and not in the trash. this is because they were too tasty to waste. this, despite the fact that being seen scooping and eating crumbs from leftover foil is quite undignified.