a dream come true! coconut chocolate date cups

Last night I dreamt I was at a party with all my friends, on a boat. We were all dancing and havin' a great time when someone was like - "there's raw vegan prizes!"
 I won a raw vegan peanut butter cup! In my dream, this translated into this thing in the shape of a peanut butter cup, but the chocolate part was coconut butter, and the filling was dates, nut butter and cacao. Yum!
So I woke up and I thought - "I need to make this". Thus today I made my dreams come true... deliciously, healthily true.

I'm tired of hearing people say coconuts are fattening because they have a lot of fat. This is simply not true. In fact, unless you're eating buckets of coconut butter everyday, it will probably help you lose weight; as the animal fats or processed oils in your body are replaced with mean and lean medium chain fatty acids (of saturated fat). THESE fats found in coconut have no cholesterol, and they have anti-viral, anti-microbial and anti-fungal properties. They also have a crazy amount of anti-oxidants which fight cancer; cholesterol-lowering properties; and skin-moisturizing abilities (Wolfe, 2009). I use coconut oil on my skin and hair almost every day.

Coconut is a superfood I think everyone should eat!  See for yourself. 

Did you know?  Coconut water is almost identical to blood plasma.  And greens are basically chlorophyll (which is just like hemoglobin). Blood is made up of 55% plasma, and 45% hemoglobin - so when you blend a drink of 55% coconut water and 45% green smoothie - you get a blood transfusion!

Coconut Date Dreams: makes around 4

 

1/4 cup coconut butter

2 Tb cashew butter

1 Tb almond butter

3 soaked dates

1 Tb honey/agave/maple syrup 

3 t cocoa 

Some vanilla and salt, to taste 

Melt the about 1/3 of the coconut butter and pour a very small amount into the bottom of 3 cupcake papers/molds... perhaps 1/2 cm? (However much coconut butter you want to be on the bottom)

Put these in the fridge.

Next, blend all the other ingredients until smooth. Taste it... yum! 

When the coconut butter has re-hardened in the molds, drop a scoop of the date mixture into each, make sure they're not too tall, and don't touch the sides. Refrigerate again.

When they've hardened a bit more, pour the rest of the coconut butter over each (you may have to melt it again). The melted coconut butter should just cover the date mixture.

Put 'em back in the fridge and let them harden up, until they're white. Then take them out of their molds and voila! Delicious for your mouth, skin, hair and cells! 

Chocolate Cashew Parfaits

Today my lovely friend Amber came over to watch a scary movie and eat delicious food. Usually we don't even like scary movies but for some reason this season has spurred an obsession. 

As for delicious food: my mother made some veggie burgers with whole grain buns and baked potatoes, onions and sauteed mushrooms - mostly organic. 

I made a avocado dish thing for myself, but couldn't resist the mushrooms, onions and potatoes... Mmm. Then it was time for dessert! My favourite thing =} 

I've posted this recipe before, but this time I improved it with some cashew cream layers and pictures! 

Chocolate Pudding: Makes 2 servings, though I could eat it all myself =) 

2 bananas

2 T almond or other nut butter

1 t vanilla extract

2 T agave (or to taste)

1/4 cup raisins (try to find no sugar added, ex. Sun Maid)

3 T chia seeds, gelled with water (explained in recipe)

Cinnamon (to taste, I added maybe 1 t)

Cocoa (to taste, I added maybe 1/6 cup or so)

Cashew Cream:

3/4 cup cashews

3 dates

1 T liquid honey

1 t vanilla

Water, as needed

Cover the chia seeds with water (maybe 1/4 cup or more) and as they're gelling, process the other ingredients until smooth. When chia is gelled - it only take a couple minutes - add them. Taste it and add what ya want. Set aside. 

For cashew cream, blend all ingredients until smooth, adding as little water as possible to get a pudding consistency.

Serve in parfait glasses, layering the pudding and cream. Topped with coconut flakes and goji berries and/or other fruit - Enjoy!

nature's fudge

Eat this as soon as possible. It will improve your life.

Not to be too blunt, but this is a mouthgasm for sure. Better than any candy bar I've ever had, AND it packs a nutritional punch. I eat way too many of these.

There's not much else to say except that you will not be able to have just one.

A Moment of Happiness: serves one

 

1 dried medjool date, pitted

1 teaspoon almond butter (or other nut butter, you could even use chocolate)  

Cut the date in the middle and fill it with the nut butter or chocolate. (Pretty simple, folks.) EAT.

green ocean of life

Thought of those words after I poured this smoothie. They're always this beautiful but I HAD to show this one. How can you not want to become this?! It's an ocean of nutrients and vitality!

Check out my post on the power of green smoothies here. 

Green Smoothie: makes about 4 cups

1 peeled lemon

1 peeled orange

3 cups dino kale/rainbow chard

1 frozen banana

2 cups water

pinch of stevia

half cucumber

handful of cilantro

chunk of peeled ginger

Blend it up and absorb the energy!

eat your sprouts

This post is quite short, but important!

On top of greens and fruit, I enjoy home-grown sprouts as a component of my diet. Usually I do alfalfa, but that's 'cause I'm boring and lazy. There are so many things you can sprout, from pumpkin and sesame seeds to chickpeas! They are SO EASY to grow, fun to watch, super cheap, and crazy-healthy.

You probably know a little about enzymes - they are in raw foods and help with digestion. Sprouts are one of the most enzyme-rich foods out there because they are little babies! They have just converted themselves into a totally new being and are teeming with new life. I suggest you do a little research to see what I'm talking about. I quickly found this page. But I've read many a book that praise the health benefits of home-made sprouts. Ann Wigmore was one of the first sprout advocators, and so are many other leading authorities on raw food nutrition. Just look for yourself on the internet or buy/borrow any raw food book.

These are alfalfa sprouts, I've eaten most of them already =)

You can put sprouts in virtually everything (except maybe desserts), even if you're not raw, vegan or veggie. They're great is salads, sushi, with noodles or soups... everything! I need to finish my math homework and start writing a philosophy paper, so I'll just direct you to this site, where I found some basic sprouting instructions. If you want my own directions on sprouting, just ask =) 

Soaking is also an important step before eating other nuts or seeds, as it neutralizes the enzyme inhibitors present in them. I think of it this way: in nature, the seeds/nuts won't be able to start growing a new plant until they soak up some moisture in the soil from the rain. So until you soak and/or sprout, they aren't technically living foods yet.

last farmer's market of the season

As the title explains; last Saturday was the last farmer's market until the cold BC winter passes. My heart is weeping. I have no idea where I will get my greens at the moment... I may have to buy inorganic. Agh. Problem. Oh well, I'll figure it out.

So I stocked up on as many greens as I could, my diet this week will be mostly green smoothies --- YAY! Dream come true. Just finished one while I was doing my math homework. I kept saying "yuck"; describing my feelings towards the math, but then I had to apologize to my smoothie because it sounded like I was saying it was gross.

Yes, I talk to my smoothies.

Luckily, we use the CSA box system to get organic, local apples ALL winter. Thank goodness. I'm definitely in an apple-loving period right now. I wanna eat them all the time. They're so crunchy, juicy and delicious.

Apples are great for cleaning out your system and hydrating your luscious skin.
Apples are a food I will only eat organic, they are the most contaminated plant food there is, when it comes to pesticides. Check it out here. Yilk. No thanks, chemicals.

In the spirit of the season, we also bought some GORGEOUS GOURDS. They're all so different and funky lookin'. They're gonna be decorating the house for awhile. I have named them all =)

See you in a few months, farmer's market! You will be missed.
I guess I'll have to find a winter market downtown. It just won't be as convenient.

pumpkin pie & raw potluck

*See my newer pumpkin pie recipe here. I hope you all had a great Halloween weekend. I sure did! Didn't really party too much, just hung out with my friends and went to my first raw food potluck! It was amazing!

It was held at Eternal Abundance in downtown Vancouver, and I wasn't sure what to expect. But it exceeded ALL my expectations. The people were awesome, the conversation was really stimulating (finally!) and of course the food was mind-blowingly delicious. I made all sorts of appreciative sounds.

Next time I'll bring my camera so I can show you what it's like, but for now I'll just use words.
For my dish, I brought a pumpkin pie and everyone seemed to like it! There was also a bunch of salads, some "stuffing", a crumble, a masala, marinated winter veggies, and SO MANY amazing desserts including nanaimo bars, fudge, brownies and pudding. MMMM. It was all organic, local, raw and vegan.

As one might guess, the energy was so positive and vibrant. There were good vibes flying around the room =) You could practically SEE them!

My wonderful friend Amber who I brought, bought me an organic avocado!!! I will indulge in those medium-chain fatty acids this evening, in my nori wrap... omg I can't wait. Now my mouth is watering.

Raw Pumpkin Pie: Serves 8 or so 

Filling:

4 cups or so cubed sugar pumpkin

1/2 cup agave nectar

1/2 cup maple syrup

Small handful of dates

Cloves, nutmeg, cinnamon, ginger (to taste, 'cause I like lots)

Pinch of salt

1 cup or so water/orange/apple juice

Crust:

1 cup walnuts

1 cup almonds (these nuts can be substituted with almost any others like cashews, brazil nuts, etc.)

1 cup dates, soaked in water for 30 minutes if you can

2 T coconut butter

Pinch of salt

Process pumpkin into small chunks, add in other ingredients, process until as smooth as possible. Add liquid until it gets the consistency of pumpkin pie filling. I then put it in my Vita-Mix because it makes it really creamy just like cooked pumpkin pie. See if you like it! It should be delicious as is. If not, add more spices/sweeteners or whatever you think it needs. Set aside.

For the crust, process the nuts into powder, then add dates, melted coconut butter and salt. It should become one big chunk of nutty, sweet goodness. If it's to dry, add more dates, agave or maple syrup/coconut butter. If it's too sticky, add more nuts, ground flax or sprouted flour. 

Press into pie shell. Then pour in the filling. I like to decorate the top with nuts. Let it rest in the fridge for an hour or so if you want. I personally like it warm =) 

Serve with ice cream and coconut cream! (For the coconut cream, you can just use the non-frozen ice cream)