Orange-Ginger French Toast

A few weeks back, my brother and I met up with our resident-significant others for a getaway weekend in Gettysburg PA. It was lovely! Despite spending 23 years of my life in Pennsylvania, I had never visited Gettysburg and it turns out that fall is an amazing time to do that. History and foliage aside, one of the highlights of our trip was (not too surprisingly) brunch at Lincoln Diner. When we inquired, our waitress recommended the french toast without hesitation. She said that it was award winning, and the secret was that the cook skipped the eggs and used pancake batter made with orange juice to dip the bread! Of course, I decided to try this, adapting my favorite pancake recipe, and the results were delicious. This is by far the easiest and most delicious vegan french toast I've ever made!

Orange-Ginger French Toast

1c flour
2T baking powder
3/4c orange juice
1/2c vanilla almond milk
generous amounts ginger and cinnamon
8 slices whole wheat bread

Preheat skillet. Mix flour, baking powder, orange juice, and spices to make batter. Dip bread into the batter, evenly coating both sides. Cook, flipping as usual halfway though. Top with warm maple syrup (or cranberry sauce if you still have any left over from Thanksgiving). Enjoy!

The view from Little Round Top

2015 Reflections & Gingerbread Cookies

On new year's eve, I like to take some time to reflect on everything that's happened that year. This year I'm starting early because of all of the big changes that have gone on in my life in 2015. Personally, it's felt like my life has been slammed into fast forward ever since I was offered my job at Carnegie Mellon early in 2014. You'll note that this was around the same time that the blog posts started to be less regular... So here are the highlights of 2015.

1. Marriage. On 05/31/2015, I got married! The wedding was fun: we got married in the MIT chapel, and then headed up to spend the weekend celebrating by Squam Lake in New Hampshire. I had obsessed over every detail to make sure that everyone had fun and I think it paid off. In hindsight, despite a rainy wedding day, my wedding photos are my only complaint-- the ones from the chapel and by the Charles river are still MIA and the ones taken at the rain location for our big ceremony are lack luster. (Oh, and if you were there... thank you notes are on my "To Do" list for tomorrow. I was hoping to have all the photos before I sent thank yous, but since half of them still haven't showed up...)

2. Move. Three days later, on 06/02/2015, two moving trucks showed up early in the morning in Providence RI and Somerville MA to pick up our and belongings to take to our new home in Pittsburgh PA. Because of the conflicting geographies of Brown & MIT, my husband and I had never lived together before our wedding, so we did the moving in together thing old school: after marriage! There has been a lot to get used to: living in a house instead of an apartment (3 floors to lose things on!), living with each other (whose sofa should we use? whose pots and pans? when do we go to bed?), and simply Pittsburgh. My husband has never lived outside of New England and we had both been in the Boston area since we graduated from college so it was a big change for us.

3. Thirty. On 07/29/2015 I turned 30! Given all these big life changes going on, it felt "right" that I should be starting a new chapter of my life chronologically. On my 30th birthday, I watched the sun rise over the ocean at Revere Beach with my best friend and the loaded up the last of my office/ books/ lab supplies that I left at MIT in my car to drive west. All in all, I spent 8 years in Cambridge at MIT and I will say that it was a fantastic place to spend my 20s. I was given so many opportunities and was challenged constantly over that time. Without these years, I would not have become the person/ scientist/ athlete I am today. For the first week I was 30, I was excited about it. Stable adult life, with a house, husband, and paycheck, yay! But after a week, I grew to resent what stability responsibility cost.

4. Professor. My official start date at CMU was 08/01/2015. I had been going back and forth for a nearly a year, but this was when the reality hit. I hired two postdocs and taught sophomore organic chemistry this fall. I have to sign emails Professor Sydlik. The grant writing is ok, but I have to show up to lecture 4 times a week at a specific time and prepare problem sets and exams!  Fortunately, I have excellent colleagues and mentors who were able to remind me that being a professor is about as good as it gets: you have the perks of stability and such but still about 90% of the freedom you had as a student (and perhaps even more freedom in some aspects).

5. More bikes. To complete the most eventful 10 weeks of my life, I got my Cat 1 road cycling upgrade on 08/08/2015! I had been doing well early in the season, but after moving to Pittsburgh, I suddenly got a lot faster. Over the course of a few weeks, I won the PA Elite TT title, two more local RRs, and then shocked myself at the Tour of the Catskills. After a disappointing TT, I launched a vicious attack on stage 2 but then got a flat that relegated me to 4th. On stage 3, it all came together and I beat some pros who came down to race to win the Devil's Kitchen RR. That stage race is my favorite and I am sad to see it go. I also traveled to Ireland to compete in a stage race, found that I absolutely loved it, and made some history winning Pittsburgh's Dirty Dozen bike race. After 3 years of local racing and moving up the categories, I am excited to train hard (with the help of Finish Fast Cycling) and try my legs at some big races in 2016.

Well, that's the highlights of 2015. New Year's Resolutions to come tomorrow (and you already have my recipe for vegetarian pork and sauerkraut). For now though, I'll leave you with an awesome gingerbread cookie recipe that I developed to take to New Year's parties with me. These are gingersnaps that don't really snap... instead, they have a crispy exterior and chewy interior that is downright amazing. And it's all accomplished in a recipe that doesn't even have any oil!

Gingerbread Cookies

2.5c (whole wheat) flour
2.5c dark brown sugar
5t baking powder
1T ginger
1T cinnamon
1t cloves
1t nutmeg
1c molasses
1/2c almond milk

1. Mix dry ingredients, the add the wet.
2. Preheat oven to 350F.
3. Refrigerate dough for 15 minutes. (This just makes it easier to shape into balls for a nice even circle.)
4. Shape chilled dough into balls.
5. Bake 13 minutes, then remove from oven. Let cool at least 5 minutes before removing from the cookie sheet.

Enjoy!

Healthy Oatmeal Cookies

I've been making "bike cookies" for a while (a recipe that shamefully, I've still not shared in over 2 years of blogging), but this fall I decided that I wanted to take it up another notch. I challenged myself to come up with a substitute for my afternoon Cliff bar snack that didn't include a big dose of sugar. Remember last winter when I was inspired by Engine 2 and posted about my adventures in sugar-free baking? Yeah... minus the scones, it didn't go so well... So, I wasn't holding my breath for these. But I thought they might be ok since my grandma does use applesauce in her oatmeal cookies. Of course, she adds it along with butter and sugar, rather than instead... but hey! I thought these were worth a shot. The result is the best homemade bars ever! Three cookies approximates the nutrition of a Cliff bar on awesome: 200 calories, 3g fat, 39g carbs, and 9g protein. (Or for those of you who aren't starving at all times and would only want to eat one... that's 65 calories, 1g fat, 13g carbs, and 3g protein.) Yum!

Healthy Oatmeal Cookies

2c rolled oats

1 scoop protein powder (Whole Foods now has a fantastic vegan protein called "fit protein" I used the Vanilla-Cinnamon flavor for these)

1T baking powder

1 ton cinnamon (ok, maybe an exaggeration, but maybe not. You've seen me cook...)

1c raisins

1.5c unsweeted applesauce

Preheat oven to 350F. Mix oats, protein powder, baking powder and cinnamon. Add raisins, then applesauce. Shape into balls and press flat onto a baking sheet. It should make ~15 2 inch cookies. Bake for 15 minutes or until the edges just start to turn brown. Take on your next ride, or enjoy as an afternoon snack!

Carrot Cake Cookies

Hmm... I'm sensing a theme for July here... first, naturally, carrot cake! The second, that I only have time to post once/ week. I'm sorry about that! Things have been very chaotic on the MIT front with two undergraduate researchers to supervise, as well as a paper to write and on the life front, since the moving process has started! Thus far, moving has been a combination of exhausting, stressful, and empowering. The biggest beast has yet to move (my queen sized box spring. Ugh! What was I thinking?! Actually, I know exactly what I was thinking: I bought it early in the courtship of my fiancé and I was trying to woo him with a super comfortable and spacious bed.) but we are getting there. Thus far I've moved a sofa and dresser from a 3rd floor walk up to a 3rd floor walk up with only the help of my roommates, and actually, I even got the dresser up all by myself! My atrophied cyclist's upper body has been very sore, but I am shocked and pleased to say that my shoulders and back aren't complaining at all. What a difference from 4 years ago when we moved into this place, when I had to recruit everyone I could to help me. In 2010, I couldn't even lift heavy boxes by myself since I had busted my right shoulder rowing, and my left in a cycling crash. They say time heals all wounds and I am happy to report that while it is a slow process, I am still on the mend and improving every day from the mental and physical wounds that I incurred in 2010. (For those who don't know me personally, a few weeks after the series of injuries including the shoulder injuries above, my best friend passed away.)

Anyways, back to the carrot cake! I made these gluten free, processed sugar free carrot cake cookies for my roommate to power her through a really tough week, and as a tide-me-over for her overdue birthday present. Sweetened by the carrots and applesauce, these cookies are a keeper! The would make really good ride snacks, especially if you replaced 1/2c of the oat flour with 1/2c protein powder. Give them a try! I hope you enjoy them.

Carrot Cake Cookies

1c oat flour (rolled oats, food processed)

1c shredded carrots

1c rolled oats

1T cornstarch

1/2t baking soda

2T cinnamon

1t ginger

1T flax seed + 3T water

1/2c unsweetened vanilla almond milk (or whatever milk you like!)

1/4c apple sauce

1/2c raisins

1. Preheat the oven to 350F.
2. Soak 1T flax seed in 3T water.
3. Food process 1c rolled oats to a fine powder. Transfer to mixing bowl.
4. Food process 1c shredded carrots. Add to mixing bowl.
5. Add additional oats, baking soda, cinnamon, and ginger to the bowl. Stir to combine.
6. Add flax seed "egg", almond milk, and apple sauce. Finally, stir in the raisins.
7. Shape into balls and press onto a greased cookie sheet (unfortunately, they dough doesn't "drop" very well so you have to play with is).
8. Bake for 12 minutes. Let cool and enjoy!

Carrot Cake Summer Oats

Lately, I've been pretty infatuated with the idea of carrot cake. Naturally, I love the idea of a cake that's centered around a vegetable and it's been done so well that everyone accepts it as delicious! I've been trying hard to come up with a carrot cake recipe for a few months now, starting with some gluten-free carrot cake muffins that I sweetened with raisins waaay back during lent. Nothing has come out particularly well. Last week, after a good run of about a month of smoothies for breakfast, I started craving oatmeal. However, I've been down this road before during the summer. It sounds good, but in reality, the last thing I want when I get back from my morning ride, dripping in sweat, is a hot breakfast! However, the desire for oats continued and I spent some time thinking about how I was going to use them. I found a recipe that put oats in a smoothie, but that seemed like a waste. It wasn't so hot this weekend, so I made some oatmeal on the stove with cocoa powder, nuts, and dried fruit. Delicious! However, I am not going to use a stove on a weekday morning so repeating that experience was out. I also tried making carrot cake oatmeal in the crockpot. The taste was there and the spices were right, but rolled oats definitely get too mushy in the crock pot overnight. Finally, I stumbled across a recipe on Finding Vegan that suggested mixing up the ingredients for your oatmeal the night before and just letting it sit in the fridge overnight. This sounded about my speed! I'd get my oats, they would be refreshingly cool and not too mushy, and there was minimal prep time. This carrot cake recipe finally turned out to be a success. Just a reminder to be open-minded when trying it: the carrots are still a bit crunchy, so if you don't like that it might be worth cooking them first. I decided that I loved the crunch that they added though. Vegetables for breakfast!

Carrot Cake Summer Oats

1/2c rolled oats
1/2c water
1/3c vanilla almond milk
1c shredded or baby carrots, food processed
1T flax seed
1t cinnamon
1/4t ginger

Food process carrots to a fine shred. It only takes a few pulses in a high speed blender. Add all ingredients to a tupperware container and let sit in the fridge overnight. The next morning, grab your breakfast and go! If you like your cereals a little sweeter, add some raisins and/ or maple syrup.

Go Anywhere Bars (GF!)

This weekend, I was craving granola bars. Not store bought granola bars, but the dense, textured homemade granola bars that are packed full of the good stuff: the kind you buy by the ski slopes that are custom made by a local baker and you buy for waaay too much money. So I looked in my cupboard, studied up on some recipes, and took a crack at it. For once, I was going for a specific taste more than a nutritional profile, but these bars hit home nutritionally too. There's no refined sugars, and plenty of protein and omega-3 fatty acids from the peanuts and the flax seed. So give this recipe a try and bring a batch on your next hike or bike ride and go anywhere!

Go Anywhere Bars

1/2c peanut butter
12 whole dates, pitted
1c vanilla almond milk
1/4c ground flax seed
1T cornstarch
1/2t baking soda
1T cinnamon
2c rolled oats
2c crisp rice cereal
1/2c dried cranberries
1/2c raisins
1/2c semi-sweet chocolate chips

1. Preheat oven to 350F
2. In the food processor, combine peanut butter, dates and almond milk. Process until a smooth paste forms.
3. Add in flax seed, cornstarch, baking soda, and cinnamon. Process again for a short time.
4. Transfer mixture to a mixing bowl. Stir in oats, cereal, cranberries, raisins, and chocolate chips.
5. Press mixture into a 9x13 baking pan. (My batter didn't cover the whole thing, so I just kept it to one side.)
6. Bake for 30 minutes. Cut into bars and bake for an additional 5 minutes.
7. Let cool and enjoy!

Figgy Cookies

I won't lie... the lack of sugar in my cupboard hasn't stopped me from my engaging in my life-long passion of designing new cookie recipes. I really enjoyed my PB&J cookies and these figgy cookies (you know... like figgy pudding!) are a variation on my dried fruit cookie theme. Here though, I use figs to carry the flavor and accent it with cinnamon and vanilla. The result is like a delightful cross between fig newtons and oatmeal cookies. I hope you enjoy them!

Figgy Cookies

8 dried figs
1/4c raisins
1/2c vanilla almond milk
1 heaping cup oats
1T cornstarch
1/2t baking soda
1T cinnamon

1. Preheat oven to 350F.
2. Food process oats, cornstarch, baking soda, & cinnamon to a coarse powder.
3. Add raisins, figs, and almond milk and process until the mixture balls up like a dough.
4. Drop rounded spoonfuls on a greased cookie sheet and bake for 12 minutes. Enjoy!

Sorry for the short post today! My bike race starts about 40 hours so we are in crunch time!

Fastnachts & Ash Wednesday

Well, lent has officially started. And for me this is a great thing, because I definitely need a chance to reset! The craziness of grant applications and job interviews crowded out a place for prioritizing my New Year's Resolutions in January and February. Fortunately for Christians (and really anyone who wants 40 days of reflection), lent rolls around just after the holiday buzz slows down so it's an excellent time for a second chance.

This year for lent, I'm planning to go to church every week (check for getting ashes on my head on Wednesday!) and I'm also giving up a lent classic: sweets. Specifically, I'm giving up sugar & chocolate. So be prepared for a dearth of recipes based on those ingredients for the next 40 days! Don't worry, I already have some date-sweetened cookies in mind. I decided that fruit sugars (and molasses with it's high iron content) don't count; basically I am just looking for a chance to tone down my sugar addiction. My coffee addiction, however, will remain in full swing until the hours on the bike start to come down! I am also planning to keep the recipes strictly plant-based for lent.

Anyways, the day before lent is the day we call Fastnacht's Tag in the Pennsylvania dutch part of the country I come from. This roughly translates to "donut day" or "fast night's day" and aligns with my family's Polish Catholic celebrations. Fastnachts are a bit different than normal donuts, in that they are made with a potato dough on the night before the lenten fast. The idea with these confections is the same as that behind the Polish paczki: traditionally you were trying to use up all of the delicious butter, eggs, and lard in the house before the austere season of lent. While most days of the year, donuts are not my thing there is an old Polish proverb that roughly translates to "If you don't eat at least one doughnut on Shrove Tuesday, you will no longer be successful in life." Since I want to keep up my luck, my friends and I have made homemade fastnachts on Shrove Tuesday for the past several years. This year I was lazy and only made up a gluten free version, (and used baking powder and soda instead of yeast) but the verdict was that these are a success! I hope you enjoy them.

Gluten Free Fastnachts

cooked flesh of 3 medium potatoes
2.5c oats, processed into a fine powder
2T cornstarch
1T baking powder
1t baking soda
1T cinnamon
1/2c brown sugar
2/3c vanilla almond milk
1/2 bottle canola oil, for frying pot
powdered sugar for coating (optional)

1. Potatoes can be cooked in the microwave by poking some holes in the skin with a fork and microwaving for 5-10 minutes (based on the strength of your microwave), until soft. Then, the flesh can be scooped out with a fork. Alternatively, you could peel, cube, and boil the potatoes.
2.. Pour a good volume oil into a pot (depth of at least ~3 inches). Heat on medium heat. If you have a thermometer, the temperature should be 350F, but I always just wing it.
3. Food process oats into fine powder. Set aside in a bowl. Add cornstarch, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon and sugar. Mix.
4. Food process potatoes and add to the bowl. Mix thoroughly to get a thick, sticky dough.
5. By now, your oil should be ready to go. Shape a handful of dough into a flat patty and carefully place it in the hot oil. Flip when it starts to look brown, ~2 minutes. Cook an additional ~1 minute on the other side.
6. Wrap in paper towel to blot off excess oil. Then roll in powdered sugar, if you desire. Enjoy warm with a cup of coffee.

Cinnamon Cupcakes

Hmm, well. Much like the pumpkin craze back in October, it seems that there was a cinnamon burst in February! Today I'm sharing a recipe for cinnamon cupcakes with peanut butter icing that I recently developed. I've had a life-long fear of baking cakes from scratch, simply because the first time I tried to make a cake from scratch was for one of my best friend's 16th birthday. It tasted  like cornbread. It was very perplexing, as there was no cornmeal in the recipe. None the less, it took another decade for me to attempt my next cake from scratch. This is the first cake recipe that I ever dared to devise. I decided to top it with a peanut butter icing, which turned out to be quite the delightful combination! I hope you enjoy it.

Cinnamon Cupcakes

1 2/3c flour

1c brown sugar

1T baking powder

2.5T cinnamon

1T ground flax seeds + 3T warm water

2/3c +2T soy milk

2/3c water

1/3c canola oil

1t vanilla

2t apple cider vinegar

Preheat oven to 350F. Add water to flax seeds and let soak. Mix dry ingredients, then add wet, except for the vinegar. Using an electric mixer, beat for 2 minutes. Fold in vinegar. Add batter to cupcake tins. Cook for 25 minutes, until a toothpick comes out clean. Let cool, then frost.

Peanut Butter Frosting

2T earth balance buttery spread
1/4c peanut butter
1/4t vanilla
2c powdered sugar
4T vanilla almond milk

Using an electric mixer, cream vanilla, peanut butter, and earth balance. Beat in sugar, 1/2c at a time. Add 1T almond milk to thin as necessary. Once the desired consistency is obtained, frost the cupcakes. Or, keep frosting in a closed container for up to a week before using.

(GF) Apple Cinnamon Muffins

Life still hasn't settled down quite the way I hoped that it would... this week I'm working on writing an intense grant application for over a million dollars with a couple of my postdoc labmates. This was sprung on us last minute, but we seem to have a good plan in place to get it done. Procrastination is my nemesis and since most people work well last minute, I always worry when working in a new group that the others may want to take away my bike-time or weekend fiancé-seeing time. I work very hard during the week playing schedule-tetris to make sure that I get my work done and still have enough time for sleep, cycling, and the people in my life. Although I will confess that on weekdays when a deadline is near, my friends can get ignored. (Sorry guys! You know who you are.)

While I work hard to schedule every moment and stick to the plan, more often than I'd like, procrastination creeps in when my ADD-brain gets overwhelmed with things. Sometimes it's easier to just go with the flow of thought, which is why I am giving in and jotting off a quick blog post to blow off some mental steam. Here's a recipe for some cinnamony gluten free muffins. You might be able to tell that cinnamon is my flavor of the season, my new spice obsession which seems to help me stay warm and cozy in a winter that just won't end! (Seriously. Every day it's either precipitating or frost-bitingly cold. I've only been able to ride outside once since returning from California. The excessive trainer time is killing me!)

Gluten Free Apple Cinnamon Muffins

For the Muffins

2c finely ground oat flour (ie food process quick cook rolled oats until powdery)

1T cornstarch

1T baking powder

1/2 T cinnamon

dash salt

1/4c brown sugar

2T ground flax seeds

1t vanilla

2c apple sauce

1c almond milk

1T apple cider vinegar

For the Topping

1/2c oat flour

1/2c quick cook rolled oats

3/4c brown sugar

cinnamon to taste

~1/2c Oil or buttery substance (Enough to make sure the topping clumps and sticks together)

Preheat the oven to 425F. Mix the muffin dry ingredients thoroughly, then add the wet, saving the 1T apple cider vinegar for last. Add batter to greased muffin tins and let them bake for 10 minutes. Meanwhile, in a separate bowl, mix the topping ingredients, adding just enough oil to wet the dry ingredients, making them clump together. Remove muffins from oven and add topping (you could also try to add the topping before pre-cooking, but this is the way I did it!) Reduce heat to 350F and let it cook for an additional 20- 25 minutes, until a fork comes out clean. Let the muffins cool and enjoy!

Apple Cinnamon Granola

Today's a big day! In addition to being Friday, it's also Valentine's Day, and my hamster, Bijou's, 2 year adoptaversary! I feel so lucky to have found my forever-Valentine and also to have this furry little girl in my life. Apologies to my fiancé, but Bijou may be cuter... Many small pets like Bijou are left at shelters for a long time, simply because no one knows that they are there for adoption! So if you are thinking of adding a pocket pet to your life, I urge you to see if there are any you get along with at your local shelter. Adoptable pets currently at the Boston MSPCA (where I found Bijou!) can be found here.

I love Valentine's Day. I am not at all a romantic, but I think a day to celebrate love is just a fantastic idea. For most of my life, I was single on Valentine's Day and as such, I use it to celebrate the awesomeness of my other female friends. Because let's be honest: Valentine's Day is a girls' holiday! My celebration often ends up looking like Leslie Knope's Galentine's Day, except I save the festivities for the 14th. These days I also have my fiancé to celebrate, and this weekend we are going on our second annual Valentine's Day snowshoeing B&B getaway. But I'd still like to use today to give a shout out to all of my lady friends. Thanks for being there for me, you're awesome!

Anyways, this year has gotten of to a really hectic start. While I did have time to gather up some heart-themed goodies for a few key people, I did not have time to make a special Valentine's themed treat. Instead, I thought I'd use today to share a recipe for apple cinnamon granola. I've been sitting on this recipe for some time but just the other morning I ate a bowl of my granola right after tasting a handful of some of the store bought stuff and was reminded how much better homemade granola can be. The second ingredient in most store bought granola is almost always sugar. This results in a cereal that can be tasty, but somewhat less satisfying an hour later when your blood sugar crashes. Like my pumpkin granola, I use vanilla protein powder and omit oil to make a granola that's high in protein and low in fat. It's also filling and deliciously cinnamony! If you have the time and oven space, I recommend making up a double batch.

Apple Cinnamon Granola

1c quick cook oats
1 1/2c rolled oats
1/4c sunflower seeds
1/4c chopped almonds (this can be done in the food processor)
1/4c vanilla protein powder (I like this unsweetened vanilla from Life's Basics)
1/2c apple sauce
2T cinnamon
1/4c maple syrup

1. Preheat the oven to 350F.
2. In a large bowl, combine apple sauce, cinnamon, protein powder, and maple syrup to make a slurry. Add oats and stir to coat. Add additional maple syrup if you like a sweeter granola.
3. Press granola mixture into a greased pan. (Pressing it in is key to getting the big chunks that are so tasty!)
4. Bake for 30 minutes, stirring at 20.
5. Remove from oven, let cool and enjoy.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Cinnamon Chocolate Chip Bread

While out in California, most of the time off the bike was spent dealing with food and cooking. (Favorites of my own devising were lentil loaf and pumpkin curry.) Towards the end of the week, we had a surprising surplus of two amazing ingredients: cinnamon and chocolate chips. Looking for a portable manner in which to allow easier consumption of these ingredients, a friend and I brainstormed the idea of a cinnamon chocolate chip quick bread. Unfortunately for the other MIT cyclists out in California, I was too tired and the single oven was overbooked for our last evening, so this cinnamon chocolate chip bread was not realized until last week, when I was back in my Cambridge kitchen. Cinnamon is a real gem among ingredients and I have been known to throw it in everything from salads to chili to chocolate chip cookies. I am a real fan of it's flavor and it turns out it has great health benefits as well! Cinnamon is potently anti-inflammatory and may help stabilize blood sugar too. So give this quick bread a try, I'm sure you'll like it as much as I do!

Cinnamon Chocolate Chip Bread

2 1/2c wheat flour
1/2c brown sugar
3T freshly ground cinnamon (or if your cinnamon is old, up to 1/4c)
1t baking soda
1 1/2c water
1/2c almond milk
1/4c maple syrup
few drops vanilla
1c chocolate chips (Raisins could be good in this recipe as well)
1T apple cider vinegar

1. Preheat oven to 350F.
2. Mix together flour, sugar, cinnamon, and baking soda. I used freshly ground cinnamon for it's kick so you may need to add more if you're using a pre-ground bottle from the store.
3. Add water, almond milk, maple syrup, and vanilla.
4. Fold in apple cider vinegar, then chocolate chips. A cinnamon raisin bread could also be really good!
5. Bake for 1 hour in a greased loaf pan. Bread is ready when a toothpick or fork comes out of the center clean. Enjoy!