Happy Halloween my little spooks! I hope you love and enjoy this holiday as much as I do - dressing up in costumes, eating ALL the candy - its one of my favorite times of the year! I love celebrating by decorating the house and making as many "Fall-themed" foods as I can during the month of October. This year, after making all the banana bread and pumpkin cookies, I wanted to make something spoooooky and worthy of being served up Halloween itself! I created this easy, fun recipe as a way to take your love for Halloween to the next level. Not only does the chia pudding look super swampy and like a monster from the Black Lagoon might come crawling out, it actually tastes great (like vanilla!) and is packed with good-for-you nutrients like fiber, iron, calcium + omega 3's. The perfect way to sneak a little HEALTH into your belly between all  the tricks and treats! 

This recipe whips up in minutes and is ready after just a couple hours in the fridge - meaning you'll have just enough time to get costume ready before you slurp down this swampy goodness. It might make your teeth and tongue a big blue-ish hued, but that just adds to the un-dead-ness of it all! Leftovers save easily in a sealed container in the fridge for 3-4 days. Best served with a little blood red fruit. 😉 Scroll down for the recipe - and printable version!

INGREDIENTS:
1 1/2 cups unsweetened almond milk 
1/3 cup chia seeds
1-2 tablespoons maple syrup 
1 teaspoon vanilla
(or skip the maple syrup + vanilla and use a few drops of vanilla stevia to sweeten instead)
1 1/2 teaspoons charcoal powder (about 6 charcoal pills, emptied)

DIRECTIONS:
Whisk together the almond milk, chia seeds, maple syrup, vanilla and charcoal completely in a large glass jar or bowl. Cover the container and place in the fridge for 4+ hours, stirring or shaking occasionally to check consistency and make sure charcoal has uniformly distributed in the pudding. The color will darken slightly as it sits.

When ready, simply serve as is or with some blood red fruit and optional granola. Can be shared with vampires and ghosts. Leftover last in the fridge for 3-4 days, unless your ghost friends get to them first. Enjoy!

Halloween is around the corner (literally, it's on Saturday - in case you live under a rock), and while most of our friends will be out partying or at least trick or treating, we'll be attending a non-Halloween themed wedding...yeah, we don't really get it either. But that's where we'll be! I'm hoping to be done early enough to at least walk around our neighborhood and see some of the rad costumes. Our neighborhood gets hit HARD - last year over 1,000 kids came to the door. It's insanity! And having grown up in a super small town where the houses were a half mile apart, its awesome seeing a neighborhood filled with that many trick or treaters - like something from a movie! I love it. But since we may not be around to see it, we're getting into the spooky Halloween mood with these easy, baked, ghost-shaped corn tortillas! They're gluten-free and fun for kids to make, too. We stuck ours in guacamole since we kind of liked that it looked like grass, but you could stick them in hummus, salsa - whatever you like. They look pretty spooky stacked into a ghost graveyard, and we think they'd be super cute on a Halloween party snack table.  Let's get spoooooooky!

INGREDIENTS
1 cup blue corn masa harina
3/4  cup warm water
1/8 teaspoon salt

1 cup white corn masa harina
3/4  cup warm water
1/8 teaspoon salt

You'll also need:
tortilla press or rolling pin
parchment paper
sharp knife or pizza cutter

DIRECTIONS
In a medium mixing bowl place the blue corn masa harina. Stir in a the warm water and salt, mixing until completely combined. Use your hands to knead the dough until it comes completely together. If the dough seems too dry, you can add a bit of water, but you want your dough to be smooth, not sticky, and be able to form a springy ball. Cover the bowl with a wet towel for 15-20 minutes.
Repeat the process with the white corn masa harina in a separate bowl and set them both aside. 

Fold a piece of parchment paper long enough to cover your tortilla press. If you're not using a tortilla press, spread parchment paper over the countertop and use a separate, smaller piece to separate the tortillas from the rolling pin. 

Roll the blue and white corn masa dough into 3/4 - 1 inch balls, leaving one ball each extra to use as eyes and mouths on the opposite color tortillas. Press each ball in-between the two sides of parchment paper lined tortilla press until they are about 1/8 inch thick; it may take you more than once, and if so, rotate the tortilla in-between presses. If you are using a rolling pin do the same thing, just be careful to use the same amount of pressure for an even roll. Once they are rolled out, apply 3 small balls of the opposite color as eyes and a mouth and re-press. They ball will spread out, so start small. Continue this process until all the ghost faces are formed. 

Using a knife or pizza cutter, cut the round, faced tortillas into a ghost shape and place a piece of parchment paper in between each ghost tortilla so they don't stick prior to cooking. 

You can either cook the tortillas as you press them or press them all and then cook them. Your choice. Either way, when you're ready, heat a large cast iron skillet over medium-high heat and lightly spray with coconut oil. Skillet is ready when a few beads of water dropped in the pan sizzle immediately.

Cook as many tortilla ghosts at a time as can fit in the pan (without overlapping) for 1-2 minutes, until the bottom is just beginning to show brown, toasted spots. Place cooked ghosts on a paper towel-lined plate to cool while you cook the other tortillas. When you're finished, spread the heated tortillas over a wire rack to cool completely. 

While they cool, preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Bake chips on a parchment-lined baking sheet for 8-10 minutes, flipping about halfway through, until they are browning and crisped up. Remove, place back on the wire rack to cool, then enjoy immediately or within a few hours of making. Leftover chips can be saved in an airtight container for up to 2 days, and reheated in the oven to re-crisp as needed. 

Need some dip ideas to serve with your BOO corn tortilla chips? Try our Cauliflower Queso, Buffalo Sriracha Hummus, or Picante Black Bean Hummus!

​NOTES
Makes about 30 chips, but you could make them bigger or smaller depending on how many you wanted and what you wanted to use them for. If you'd rather have just ghost tortillas instead of chips, you could skip the baking step and stuff 'em full of taco ingredients, instead. 

Masa FLOUR and Masa HARINA are different in that Masa HARINA is ground from corn kernels soaked in lime water and makes a much better and less brittle tortilla and chip. We have found masa harina for cheap at local Mexican markets + grocery stores, and of course online at Amazon.

Yep, more pumpkin. We told you it was coming! But this one is more of a treat yo' self kinda recipe. When I was growing up, we always picked apples and pumpkin at Bailey's, the family-owned orchard down the street. Mrs. Bailey would always make the richest, most amazing chocolate & peanut butter fudge, and it was a tradition to get a square before we left the orchard. I know it was full of sugar, but it was heaven. I can still taste it.
Now as an adult, and one who watches my sugar intake at that, fudge isn't something we make often. But with this crazy hot  weather we're still having in Souther California, I was CRAVING some fall.  That being said, we all deserve a treat, and being freezer fudge, its easy to eat just a piece of week and preserve the goodness for months to come. Plus, I'm a SUCKER for pumpkin/ chocolate combos, and the velvety, rich pumpkin layer compliments the dark chocolate beautifully. So today, instead of trick-or-treat, we say TREAT YO' SELF! I think even Mrs. Bailey would approve. 

INGREDIENTS:
Chocolate Fudge Layer:
1/4 cup vegan butter or coconut oil
4 ounces dairy-free dark chocolate
2 1/2 cups confectioners sugar
1 tablespoon boiling water

Pumpkin Fudge Layer:
1/4 cup vegan butter or coconut oil
2 ounces cashew butter (or nut butter of your choice)
2 ounces pumpkin purée
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
2 1/2 cups confectioners sugar
1 tablespoon boiling water

DIRECTIONS:
Chocolate Fudge Layer:
Using the double-boiler method (a bowl placed in in a saucepan of boiling water WITHOUT touching the water), heat the butter and chocolate together until melted, stirring occasionally. Remove the bowl from the pan and stir in half of the confectioners sugar. Add a tablespoon of the boiling water from your pan to the mixture, and stir to remove any lumps. Add in the remaining confectioners sugar and stir like a madwoman (or madman!) until the mixture is smooth. Press into a waxed-paper lined 8x8 baking dish and set aside while you make the pumpkin layer.

Pumpkin Fudge Layer:
Using the double-boiler method (a bowl placed in in a saucepan of boiling water WITHOUT touching the water), heat the butter, cashew butter, pumpkin purée, and vanilla together until melted, stirring occasionally. Remove the bowl from the pan and stir in half of the confectioners sugar. Add a tablespoon of the boiling water from your pan to the mixture, and stir to remove any lumps. Add in the remaining confectioners sugar and stir like crazy again until the mixture is completely smooth. Pour the mixture over the chocolate layer, then tap the baking dish gently on the counter to smooth and remove any bubbles. Place the baking dish in the freezer to set, for at least 3 hours. 

When ready, remove the fudge from the baking dish by pulling the waxed paper out. Place block of fudge onto a flat surface, like a sitting board, and use a large fat knife to cut into 1-in. squares. Store uneaten fudge in the freezer indefinitely. Enjoy!

It's almost HALLOWEEN! With just a few days left 'till the big, delicious, candy filled night we know you're on the hunt for the perfect holiday treat. Easy enough that you can have it prepared for a party of thirty little bloodsuckers by Thursday, and tasty enough that the accompanying moms will think you're a chocolatier-ing badass. simple to make and all you need are a few candy molds. This recipe makes about 50 small chocolates and  can be made 'raw' by omitting the cooked beet juice for color. Its vegan, gluten-free, and free of common allergens. Did I mention we nailed the creamy, whipped orange cream texture? Its like a fluffy cloud of Halloween goodness. Though I'm sure they'd be great any time of the year. For a little added spookiness, sprinkle a tiny bit of turmeric on the top of each chocolate to add that festive orange color.

Ingredients:
3 cups shredded unsweetened coconut
2 tablespoons agave nectar
1 tablespoon orange extract
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 cup softened coconut oil
1/3 cup almond milk
12 ounces chocolate
optional:
1/2 teaspoon turmeric
3 tablespoons beet juice
(for color)

You'll also need candy molds for 50 small chocolates. You can do it in sections if you only have one or two molds, but it will take a lot longer. Molds are cheap and can be found at specialty cooking stores, places like Target, and online. 
Use a Halloween mold if you have it to make 'em even spoooookier!

Instructions:
Using the double-boiler method to keep the chocolate raw and from burning, being to melt all 12 ounces of chocolate. While the chocolate melts down, begin the filling.
In a food processor combine the coconut, agave, orange and vanilla extracts, coconut oil, and almond milk. Mix about 2 minutes until uniform in texture, whipped and fluffy. Now, optionally, you can color the filling like we did. You can alternately leave it plain and the cream will be whitish. Dye the filling by adding 1/2 teaspoon ground turmeric and 3 tablespoons of beet juice, which we got by boiling one small beet in about 1/2 cup water until the water was deep red in color. You can also try using saffron instead of turmeric but it is very expensive.
Once the colors have been added (or not), put filling into a piping bag or a regular zippered plastic baggie with the corner cut and set aside.
For filling candy molds, there are two ways you can go. You can:

1) Use a small paintbrush to coat each candy mold with chocolate. Let harden in the fridge or freezer. Remove your hardened molds from the fridge. Use your piping bar or plastic bag with removed corner to squeeze filling into the hardened molds, filling them to ALMOST full, leaving just enough room for one more layer of chocolate to seal it all together. Place back in the fridge or freezer to set the filling, then remove and use the paintbrush to add on a final, sealing layer of chocolate to the top of molds. You can then use a spatula to scrape across the bottom, leveling out the newly applied chocolates so the bottoms are completely flat. (Or you can skip that step and just tap the molds onto the tables, leveling the chocolate- you don't need perfectly flat bottoms for them to be delicious!) Let cool, harden and set once again.
(We used & prefer this method. You are more in control this way.)

2) Fill each small mold about halfway with melted chocolate. Immediately pipe filling on top of the half filled molds, using your finger to apply a slight pressure to push the filling into the chocolate. Add just enough filling to fill the mold about 75%. The goal here is not to push too hard, so the filling doesn't push through the chocolate 'seal' and can be seen. Apply just enough pressure to force some of the chocolate to displace itself up the sides of the mold around the filling. Add a little finishing chocolate to cover the filling in the molds, use a spatula to scrape across the bottom, leveling out the newly applied chocolates so the bottoms are completely flat. (Or you can skip that step and just tap the molds onto the tables, leveling the chocolate- you don't need perfectly flat bottoms for them to be delicious!)
Allow to cool to and set.

Once the chocolates have all set and hardened, pop them out of the candy molds-carefully! It can be easy to break these fragile little guys if you apply too much pressure when releasing them from the molds. 
Once free from the molds, chocolates can be store in or out of the refrigerator for a few weeks. Just make sure they don't get too warm or they'll melt on ya'. Stores well in a sealed plastic bag or glass jar.
Makes about 50 chocolates. Enjoy!