It’s the end of the month which means we are wrapping up Quinoa Month!  What better way to end the month than with some chocolate!

I originally set out to make brownies but this experiment turned out a lot more quick bread-like and not so brownie-like.  However it’s still super tasty and full of chocolate goodness!

Andrea’s Chocolate Quinoa Bread

• 1C Whole wheat pastry flour
• 1/2C Unbleached All-Purpose flour
• 1 1/2C Cooked quinoa
• 1/4C Cane sugar
• 1/4C Unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1/2tsp Baking powder
• 1tsp Baking soda
• 1/2tsp Ground cinnamon
• 1TBSP Ground flax
• Pinch salt
• Pinch cayenne pepper
• 1/2C Crushed walnuts
• 1/2C Dark chocolate chips
• 1 1/4C Soymilk
• 1/2C Coffee
• 2tsp Vanilla Extract

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.  Spray a brownie pan or 8inch square casserole dish with nonstick spray, set aside.   In a medium size mixing bowl combine the soymilk, vanilla, and coffee.  In a large mixing bowl combine all other ingredients except the walnuts and chocolate chips.  Whisk to get all ingredients combined and…

The first time I had vegan chocolate pudding was when I picked up a small container of it from Whole Foods.  I read the ingredient list which was not scary nor was it long, so I dumped into the cart.  It did use silken tofu as a base and while I don’t really dig on tofu, I decided to be open-minded and give it a try.

From that point we were hooked and would purchase it on occasion when making a Whole Foods trip.  However, like most things at Whole Foods, their pudding was overpriced and on the small side (sorry WF but you know it’s true).  I decided to look into making my own.  I checked a few recipes online just to get a basic idea of what is needed, reviewed the ingredient list of the Whole Foods version and started experimenting.

What I am…

I have come across a snack mix that is typically referred to as Puppy Chow.  It is a snack mix that is covered with tons of powdered sugar and is typically seen during the holiday season.  Has it made an appearance near you?

I have never eaten this snack mix before.  First of all it’s covered in powdered sugar which means it’s gonna be major sweet.  And secondly, it’s called Puppy Chow for frack’s sake.  I’m not eating that.  At the risk of sounding totally snotty, I don’t even feed my dog kibble, you think I’m gonna touch something that is named after some crappy dog food?

Fat chance.

I don’t know what prompted me to look into this snack mix a bit further but I did and realized that it’s pretty easy to make.

I decided to come up with my…

Not that long ago I had a hankering for some chocolate zucchini bread.  Or at least I assumed this was the case, as I had never actually had chocolate zucchini bread.

Zucchini bread, yes.  But it was always the same way, spicy and more along the lines of like a carrot cake, spice cake kind of taste.  Lots of cinnamon, clove, and allspice in the mix.

That wasn’t exactly what I envisioned.  I wanted a dense chocolate quick bread with some zucchini in it.  I started looking around for recipes to see what I could find.  There were loads out there!

But they all had tons of sugar, white flour, and a load of eggs in them.

This is where my knack to never follow a recipe comes in handy.  I looked at the recipes to get an idea of the basic ingredients and then I created my own chocolate…

I have seen people use cocoa powder before in savory recipes and it always interested me.  However, I’ve never been inspired enough nor had that spark of creativity to come up with a use for it till now.  I was watching some Food TV one Sunday morning and at the same time thinking about what I can make for dinner that evening.  I like to create sort of traditional Sunday Suppers for us and when the warm weather arrives, both of us love when Sunday Supper includes grilling.

I started going through the inventory sheet in my mind of things I had on hand that I could use with cocoa powder.  One of my favorite combinations is dark chocolate and dried cranberries.  Normally I’m not much of a fruit + chocolate person but there is just something about the slight bitterness of dark chocolate paired with the sweet tartness of cranberry that makes me sigh with delight.

I decided to work with…