Carrot Cake Bars

Yields (approx.): 16 bars

Ingredients: 

• 2 cups chickpeas (cooked & drained)
• 2 medium sized carrots (grated)
• 1/2 cup almond flour (or coconut flour)*
• 1/2 cup almond butter (or sunflower butter)
• 1/2 cup date sugar (or coconut sugar)
• 2 TBSP molasses
• 1/3 cup unsweetened plant-based milk (soy, oat, almond, etc.)
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 2 tsp cinnamon powder
• 1/2 tsp nutmeg powder
• ½ tsp ginger powder
• ½ tsp salt
• Optional: 1/2 cup walnuts (chopped), ½ cup pineapple (chopped), and/or ½ cup golden raisins

Directions: 

1. Preheat the oven to 350 F. Line a 8×8 baking pan with parchment paper.
2. Mix all ingredients (except walnuts, pineapple, and/or raisins) in a food processor until well-combined. 
3. Add in walnuts, pineapple, and/or raisins if using.
4. Mixture should be thick.
5. Adjust sweetness if needed.
6. Bake for 40-45 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. 
7. Allow to cool for 15 minutes before removing from the pan. Allow to cool completely.
8. Enjoy!
9. Store in the refrigerator (and they freeze well, too). 

Notes: 

• *Any flour you have on hand will work, too (whole wheat, gluten-free, etc.).
• I skipped adding frosting to these bars in order to keep them healthier (no oil and less sugar this way) and to reduce a potential mess (especially when eaten on the go)!

Adapted from: https://balancingandie.com/vegangrainfreecarrotcakeblondies/

Chocolate Peanut Butter (or other Nut/Seed) Energy Balls 

Yields (approx.): 14 balls

Ingredients: 

• 1 cup (150 g) chickpeas (canned/cooked)
• ¾ cup (120 g) regular pitted dates
• 2 TBSP (9 g) raw cacao (or cocoa) powder
• 2 TBSP peanut butter (or other nut/seed butter of your choice)
• ¼ tsp salt
• ¼ cup shredded coconut 

Directions: 

1. Put all ingredients except coconut flakes into a food processor. Blend until well-mixed (about a minute).
2. Mix in the coconut flakes by hand.
3. Roll the mixture into balls. 
4. Chill for at least 1 hour in the refrigerator.
5. Enjoy! 
6. Store in the refrigerator (or they freeze well, too).

Karen’s additional recommendations: 

• The original recipe has you roll the balls in the coconut flakes.  By mixing them in before you roll the balls, this reduces the potential eating mess (especially when eating on the go).
• To improve the consistency of the balls (make less mushy), consider adding ½ cup rolled oats (hand mix in after processing). 
• To add more chocolate flavor (and to also improve the texture) of the balls, consider adding ¼ cup cacao nibs (hand mix in after processing).
• Added a dash of cinnamon along with the other main ingredients (this also enhances the chocolate flavor).
• To add more peanut flavor (and crunch), consider adding ¼ cup chopped peanuts or other nuts/seeds of your choice (hand mix in after processing).

Adapted from: https://wellnessdove.com/healthy-vegan-chickpea-energy-balls/

Crispy Cheesy Chickpeas (Health”ier” Goldfish)

Yields (approx.): 18 servings

Ingredients: 

• 6 cups chickpeas (canned/cooked)
• 2 TBSP vegetable broth
• 3 cloves garlic (minced) or 1 tsp garlic powder
• ¼ cup nutritional yeast
• 1 tsp salt
• Optional: a dash or two of chili powder, smoked paprika, black pepper, etc.

Directions: 

1. Preheat the oven to 400°F/200°C.
2. Rinse chickpeas and spread out on a parchment-lined (or silicone) baking sheet.
3. Roast for 20 minutes.
4. While the chickpeas are roasting, combine nutritional yeast, minced garlic (or garlic powder), and salt in a small bowl.
5.  After the chickpeas have roasted for 20 minutes, transfer them to a large metal or glass bowl.
6. Coat the chickpeas with vegetable broth.
7. Sprinkle in the spice mixture from the small bowl (nutritional yeast, garlic, salt) and stir to thoroughly cover the chickpeas.
8. Spread the chickpeas back on the parchment-lined (or silicone) baking sheet.
9. Bake for another 20 minutes.
10. Stir (so the chickpeas bake evenly).
11. Bake for another 5-10 minutes, or until crispy. Turn the broil on for an extra 5 minutes for extra crispiness.
12. Let cool.
13. Enjoy!
14. Store in an airtight container.

Note: It is important to roast the chickpeas for the first 20 minutes without the seasoning on them.  Don’t skip this step! Otherwise the seasonings tends to burn.

Adapted from: https://raepublic.com/oven-roasted-cheesy-vegan-chickpeas/#recipe

As I write this newsletter article, I am mindful that the old local high school, which I am told was built in the 1950’s, is being torn down just a couple blocks from our home.  I pass it every day on my way to and from church; each time I go by, a new wall has been removed, exposing classrooms, chalkboards (the old-fashioned green kind), hallways, and stairwells to the elements.  When Karen and I first arrived in Murrysville in spring 2021, we didn’t realize that it was in its last few months of use, and it has stood quiet ever since, until its demolition commenced.    

Although the school has no personal meaning to me, I know its destruction has brought sadness and a sense of nostalgia to generations of students.  Every time I see it, I think of the tremendous amount of life that unfolded in that place: the epiphanies, the joys, the heartaches, the dramas that are part of adolescent existence.  If those crumbling walls could talk, they would speak countless words about what it means to be a young person learning how to make one’s way in the world. 

I wonder what those falling bricks, wrested from their seemingly unyielding stations, would say about the human desire for popularity?  I am sure they could witness to a phenomenon that has been consistent across countless millennia: people want, often desperately, to be liked.  Frequently, we want to be liked so badly that we are willing to sacrifice much of what makes us who we genuinely are in order to be understood in particular ways.  

The drive to be popular is an exceedingly powerful force.  Even those of us who are well past that age struggle with the same concerns.  Peer pressure, comparisons, and the in-crowd are powerful concepts that we never really escape.  The impulse to be popular can prompt us to subscribe to often hideous fashions, it can drive us to say often disingenuous things, it can move us to reject often constructive advice.  Popularity is a relentless taskmaster. 

The Bible is quite realistic about the human craving for popularity.  When Samuel was called to anoint the next king of Israel, God warned him about relying on visual presentation alone: “Do not look on his appearance or on the height of his stature, because I have rejected him, for the Lord does not see as mortals see; they look on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart.”[1]  God is directly warning us not to get caught up in the physicality of this mortal world, but rather, to look deeper. 

In Luke 9:25, Jesus asks,  “For what does it profit them if they gain the whole world but lose or forfeit themselves?”[2]  Here, Jesus confronts authenticity, preaching that no amount of secular success is worth surrendering our spiritual integrity. 

Addressing a nascent church operating in the seat of secular imperial power, Paul wrote, “Do not be conformed to this age, but be transformed by the renewing of the mind, so that you may discern what is the will of God – what is good and acceptable and perfect.”[3]  Paul clearly recognizes the importance of not getting caught up in the “fad” of the time, but staying true to God’s intention. 

As I pass the school, I try to think not only of the nostalgia, but also of the symbolic breakdown of the pressures of popularity those students must have felt, and that I feel even today.  As each falling brick exposes a new chalkboard, so too does the facade of popularity fall.  Maybe we can learn from this symbolism, breaking down our own facades of disingenuity.  

It is easy to get caught in a seemingly intractable tension: between being popular and being genuine.  Yet, when the ‘school’ comes down, it’s not about the approval of your classmates or colleagues, but of yourself and God.  The hard, true question we all need to ask ourselves becomes clear: Whom are we trying to please?  When we are honest about that, the concept of popularity becomes less a matter of survival than it does one of perspective.  If we are trying primarily to make other people happy, there are infinite standards of concern; if we are trying primarily to live in ways acceptable to God, there is only one viewpoint that truly counts.  

Maybe that’s what a lot of life is about: discerning whose opinion matters – that of being “beloved by the people”[4] (which is what the word “popularity” literally means), regardless of how fickle a benchmark that may be, or recognizing that we are the beloved of the eternal Lord, no matter what.  

The choice of concentration is ours, but the reality is not.  Thanks be to God for holding us, accepting us, and loving us when the walls crumble and we are faced with our raw and authentic selves. 

Peace,

Travis

HSHC Co-founder

P.S. – I hope you will join us for our upcoming summer series where we will be exploring popularity and other social pressures (productivity and perfection). Click here to learn more, and click here to register. 

References:

[1] 1 Samuel 16:7

[2] Luke 9:25

[3] Romans 12:2

[4] https://www.etymonline.com/word/popularity, viewed May 20, 2024.