These cookies have been a great success with my family and in my cooking classes with kids and adults. The recipe is very forgiving, meaning you can play with the ingredients and make modifications and it still always turns out just fine. For example, I have used leftover pumpkin seed pulp from making a pumpkin seed milk in place of ground pumpkin seeds and it turned out so delicious both times. I hope you enjoy these nutrient packed cookies as much as we do. 

Ingredients:

• 2 bananas, ripe, mashed
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• ¼ cup coconut oil, slightly heated
• 2 cups rolled oats*
• 1-2 tablespoons maple syrup or other sweetener
• 1/3 cup ground pumpkin seeds/almond flour/or pulp from pumpkin milk
• 1/3 cup cacao powder
• 1/3 cup coconut, finely shredded
• ½ teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon turmeric 
• 5 oz chocolate chips
• 1-2 teaspoon Chaga mushroom powder (optional)

Instructions: 

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees, racks in the middle or top of oven
2. In a large bowl combine the bananas, vanilla extract, maple syrup, and heated coconut oil.
3. In another bowl, combine rest of the ingredients except chocolate chips. Mix dry ingredients until well combined and then add into wet ingredients. Mix everything together. If using seed pulp, use your hands to mix everything well together 
4. At the end, fold in chocolate chips.
5. Drop dollops of dough, each about 1-2 tablespoons in size, an inch apart, onto a parchment lined baking sheet.
6. Bake for about 13-15 minutes or until golden on the bottoms. The cookies will fall apart if you try to pick them up right after taking them out of the oven so make sure to let them rest on the baking sheet for a few minutes and let them cool down before eating them. 

*Notes:
 - If you can’t have oats, try flattened rice, also called beaten rice or Rice Poha (found in Indian stores or Amazon). T
 - To sweeten the cookies, you can also use chopped dates instead of maple syrup
 - Store cookies in airtight container on counter for up to 3 days or store in fridge for up to 5 days. I think these cookies taste best straight out of the refrigerator. 
 - Inspired by the healthful double chocolate cookies recipe from 101 cookbooks

Another favorite dessert of mine! I constantly get asked about the recipe for this cake whenever I bring this to a gathering - so decided to finally post it on my blog.

Originally this dessert is made with Greek yogurt and butter but I made some modifications so my dairy intolerant hubby can continue enjoying this scrumptious cake too! 

Ingredients:

• 1 cup roasted pistachios (raw is fine too) + 1/4 cup, finely chopped for decoration
• 1/2 - 3/4 teaspoon ground cardamom
• 5 1/2 oz vegan butter (room temperature)
• 1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
• 2 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt (if pistachios and butter is salted, reduce to 1/4 teaspoon)
• 3/4 cup + 1/2 cup super fine sugar (blend regular sugar in your spice grinder)
• 3 eggs
• 2/3 cup coconut cream 
• zest of 1 lime
• 2 oz water + 1.5 oz rose water (optional)
• rose petals and powdered sugar (optional, for decoration)

Instructions: 

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. 
2. Grease an 8" round cake pan and line base with parchment paper.
3. Place pistachios and cardamom in a food processor and pulse several times until they are chopped into small pieces but not powdery. 
4. Sift flour together with baking powder and stir in salt. 
5. Add vegan butter, flour mixture, 3/4 cup super fine sugar and pulse several times until you have a crumbly texture
6. Combine eggs with coconut cream and mix together in a separate bowl
7. Add combined eggs with coconut cream to food processor and pulse again for a few seconds until just combined. 
8. Spoon the mixture into the pan and smooth the surface before baking.
9. Bake for about 40-45 minutes. Cake should be golden brown on top and skewer should come out clean when inserted into the center of the cake.
10. Let cake cool on a wire rack. 
11. To make the syrup: zest the lime (avoid the white pith)
12. Place remaining 1/2 cup of fine sugar with water and rose water (or you can just use 3.5 oz of water) in a small sauce pot and stir over low heat until sugar has dissolved. 
13. Bring to a boil and then add lime zest and continue boiling for 5 minutes.
14. Strain syrup through a fine mesh strainer and let cool slightly. 
15. Leave cake on wire rack and place on top of a big plate.
16. Pierce the cake with a few skewer holes all over the top and along the edges on top of the cake. Make sure cake is cooled and then pour syrup all over the cake. Best to use a big spoon and distribute syrup over cake. Let cake sit on top of wire rack and plate to catch any syrup that is dripping down. 
17. Immediately after pouring syrup over the cake, decorate cake with finely chopped pistachios and rose petals before syrup cools down. 
18. Once cake and syrup has cooled down, dust cake with a little bit of powdered sugar. 
19. Enjoy!

Notes
Inspired by the Pistachio Yoghurt Cardamom Cake recipe by mystic_river1

This is one of my favorite desserts because it is
a) simple & nutritious
b) doesn't require much time or special kitchen tools and
c) It's so delicious that people will contact you to find out about the recipe if you make this for a potluck or dinner party. 

Servings: 10
Prep time: 20 minutes
Ingredients:

• 10 dates 
• 1/4 cup almond butter (peanut butter, sunflower butter or others work too)
• 10 almonds (or any other nuts work too like walnuts, pistachios, etc.)
• 1 cup dark chocolate chips
• 1 tsp coconut oil
• Maldon Sea Salt (for decorating)

Instructions:

1. Pit dates and open up dates only half-way so that you can add fillings
2. Using a small spoon, scoop in a small amount of almond butter and place one nut in the middle of each date and press dates together slightly. 
3. Once all dates are filled, prepare your chocolate. Place chocolate chips and coconut oil in a microwave-safe dish. Place bowl with chocolate chips in microwaves and heat at 20-second intervals, making sure to stir chocolate chips in between each interval so not to burn chocolate chips. Once most chocolate chips are melted, keep stirring until everything is completely melted and combined. 
4. Prepare a plate with parchment paper
5. With a fork and spoon, dip dates into chocolate until covered. Then remove from chocolate and set on parchment paper covered plate and immediately sprinkle a small amount of Maldon sea salt on top. 
6. Once all dates are covered in chocolate, place them in the fridge to allow chocolate to harden completely. 
7. You can either serve the chocolate covered dates whole or cut them in half. Enjoy!