raw food

March 1, 2014

Raw Vegan Ice Cream Cake

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So I made this earlier and I’m sorry I didn’t get to post earlier but I have been enjoying it for days and I hope you do too!

First off, line the bottom a cake tin (mine is one that has removable sides)  with parchment paper.

Then for the crust, the ingredients are

Equal parts cashews and pecans

The same amount of mixed dates and figs

Chia seeds (lots and lots!)

Vanilla extract or bean

Cacao powder, to taste

Cinnamon, to taste

Water, as needed

Combine the nuts and dried fruit together first, and add water as needed for a sticky but smooth paste like texture.  Then to that, add vanilla, cinnamon, and cacao powder to taste!

Then spread this crust over the bottom of the tin

For the middle layer, simply slice bananas to cover the entirety as thick as desired.  

Then for the “ice cream” layer, the ingredients are

Frozen banana

Fresh banana

Almond milk or water

Cashews

Frozen raspberries

Frozen or fresh peaches

Blend everything together, adding almond milk, fruit, and cashews as desired.

Then pour over the other two layers and top with raspberries or whatever desired.

Place in freezer for a couple hours minimum (I left mine for a day before trying).

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When ready to eat, remove from freezer and from tin and let sit for at least/around 10 minutes before slicing as it will be hard.

When slicing, be careful it doesn’t crack, but if it does don’t worry, it’ll still taste great!

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The cake is beautiful simple and delicious and I hope you enjoy! Below is another picture of one of my partially eaten slices haha sorry.

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I hope you give this cake a chance because it is actually VERY simple and quite EASY to make, as well as SUPER DELICIOUS.  

As always, be creative and enjoy and I will try and get more posts in this weekend.

PS I’m going to NYC/brooklyn today so if anyone has any food or thrift shop suggestions, I would love love looove to hear them 🙂

March 1, 2014

6 Layer Birthday Smoothie

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Sorry I haven’t posted in a while.  I’ve been ridiculously busy this week.  But on tuesday it was my dad’s 60th birthday!!! Anyways, eh wanted me to make him a smoothie so I made him one with 6 layers (for 60).  It’s relatively straightforward.  I essentially made 6 different smoothies of different colors and slowly layered them but I will broadly post recipes for different colors.

The base for all was banana and almond milk.  Then I added the following flavors to each for different colors

Layer 1

Blueberries

Layer 2

cashews

Layer 3

blackberries and blueberries

Layer 4

Carrot

Layer 5

kale and pineapple

Layer 6

strawberries and raspberries

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Simply layer and enjoy! I topped them off chia and cacao nibs attempting to spell out 60.  I wanted to conclude by wishing my dad and happy birthday week because I love him so so much! Everyone else, be creative and enjoy!

February 23, 2014

Rainbow Juice

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This weekend has been very green for me; yesterday I made this spectacular rainbow juice packed full of lots of different veggies and citrus and fruits and today I made a spectacular green smoothie, which I will post later.  I made this with a juicer, so I hope that most of you either have one, or know someone who does and can try this!

Ingredients

Head of celery

Lots of kale

apples (I used three)

tiny piece of fresh ginger

2-3 oranges

1 grapefruit

1 lime

Simply run everything through the juicer; wash, peel, or cut the fruit as necessary for your juicer!

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It came out looking a wonderful tie dye color from the juicer but I mixed it all together to drink!  This is super refreshing and I apologize for not looking up the benefits of all the different raw fruits and veggies but it seems like you can actually feel this juice doing your body good when you drink it!!

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As always, be creative and enjoy!

 

 

February 21, 2014

Raw Vegan Chocolate Mousse

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So the secret to this chocolate mousse is avocado and before you get grossed out and chicken out, I PROMISE you it does not taste in any way like avocado and my brother didn’t even realize and loved it without me telling him (and he hates mixing greens with dessert).  This is such an amazing dessert and so quick and easy to make. I hope you try it!

Ingredients

1 ripe avocado

1 banana

almond milk

cacao powder

choice of sweetener, I used honey

Blend or process everything together, adding almond milk, cacao, and honey as desired for taste.  Then place in the fridge for about 30 minutes to serve a bit cooler.  Put into bowls and dig in!Image

I topped it off with pomegranate and cacao nibs but as always be creative and enjoy!

 

February 17, 2014

M&M smoothie (mango&mint)

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This is one of the most delicious and refreshing smoothies I have ever made and quite possibly my new go to/favorite.  It is so simple and addictive and I can’t wait to make more. This was another I just came up with on the spot.  It was definitely a creative day since I didn’t have much work.  Enjoy!

Ingredients

Fresh mint, leaves from 1 or 2 sprigs

Lots of frozen mango

2 bananas

almond milk

Blend the mango, bananas, and almond milk together, adding mango and almond milk as desired.  Then add in the mint and blend briefly so pieces are still visible.  Then pour into cups and top as desired, I used more mint leaves!

The mango and mint make this smoothie naturally light and delicious so I hope you like it as much as I do.

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As always, be creative and enjoy!

February 17, 2014

Pistachio Butter

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Ok so I know this looks like a scary and lumpy pesto but I promise it is actually one of the most delicious spread and nut butters you will ever try if you give it a chance!  I love nut butter and making my own and trying to experiment and make new kinds with different kinds of nuts.  I don’t know if pistachio butter is already a thing since I completely winged it with this one but it turned out amazing and I hope you give it a shot.

Ingredients

2-3 cups shelled pistachios

tiny bit of oil and/or water

salt, to taste

In a food processor, blend the pistachios for 5 to 10 minutes.  Then add oil and/or water as needed until a desired smooth consistency is reached.  Finally gradually add salt as desired.  I then scooped it into a jar and have enjoyed so far on crackers and even as a dip.  

As always be creative and enjoy!

February 13, 2014

Cactus Fruit Smoothie

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Today’s smoothie was pretty unusual and very satisfying.  My dad bought a bunch of cactus fruit and after much debate about what and how to go about using them, it was settled to run them through the juicer and then use them in a smoothie.  I hope you can manage to find this or some other unusual fruit and use this recipe!  It came out a gorgeous bright vibrant pink which I wanted to set off with a white swirl, enjoy!  

Also in case you don’t know what a cactus fruit look like, below are pictures of the whole fruit, and cut in half.

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Cactus Fruit Smoothie

4 cactus fruits juiced, or juice of

2-3 bananas

honey or sweetener, optional and to taste

Blend everything together, adding bananas for consistency and sweetener as much as needed if at all.  Then set aside or pour into cups, leaving a tiny bit of space for the white layer and to combine.

Vanilla Layer

1-2 banana

Almond milk

about 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Blend everything together, adding almond milk as needed and vanilla extract to taste.

Then carefully pour over and mix as desired with the cactus fruit smoothie, for desired effect, I wanted a spiraled and tie-dye esque look. 

I topped them off with dried fruit but use whatever you would like!

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As always, be creative and enjoy!

 

February 9, 2014

Raw Vegan Blackberry Banana Chip Ice Cream

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One of the things I miss the most as a vegan is ice cream and while I’ve managed to find some good brands of vegan ice cream, I don’t buy it that often and prefer making a vegan version by just blending up frozen bananas and adding my favorite ingredients.  This combination worked out particularly well and I hope you enjoy!

Ingredients

frozen bananas

tiny bit of almond milk

frozen blackberries

cacao nibs

Blend or food process the frozen bananas on high with a tablespoon or so (depending on how many bananas you are using) of almond milk until you have a creamy ice cream like mixture.  (You can always leave it like this, as it is delicious plain, or add flavors to it.)  Then add the blackberries and blend until only partially combined, so they color is purple but there are still pieces or chunks of blackberry here and there.  Then pour into a freezer safe container and make in cacao nibs.  Eat fresh or store in the freezer until ready to eat, taking out a little before hand to give the “ice cream” time to thaw.  

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I hope you enjoy! This is satisfyingly creamy and a great snack to have whenever desired.  Yesterday I had some after coming back from the gym and I topped it with some agave nectar and granola.  As always, be creative and enjoy!

 

January 11, 2014

Chocolate Brazil Nut and Cashew Butter

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So we had a lot of brazil nuts and I couldn’t figure out what to do with them.  Brazil nuts tend to have a lot of natural oil so I decided to try and make some sort of spread with them.  Turns out on their own they were much more oily than I expected so I ended up also having to add some cashews, cacao, and a few other ingredients to “dry” it out and make it a creamy spread, rather than a sauce of sorts. By introducing the cashews later, the texture is also crunchier, so add them at the same time or about 5 minutes into blending the brazil nuts if you want a smoother consistency.  Enjoy!

Ingredients

About 2 cups brazil nuts

3 dates

Cacao powder (to taste but I used about 1/2 cup)

About 3/4 cups cashews but add gradually as needed/desired for consistency

Honey (to taste)

Blend the brazil nuts in a food processor for ten minutes until the natural oils have released; it will be very liquidy!  Then add 3 dates and blend again.  Then add the cacao powder to taste (you can always add more later!).  Finally, gradually add the cashews until the consistency isn’t quite as liquid and is more of a crunchy spread (like almond or peanut butter).  Finally, if it is a bit bitter add about 1 teaspoon of honey (or more or less; to taste) and blend a final time.  

I then transferred it into a jar, compacting it as I went, and topped with cacao nibs.  I hope you try this even though it’s a bit different because it’s delicious and brazil nuts have lots of health benefits.  As usual, be creative and enjoy!

November 2, 2013

Green and purple layered smoothie

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Hey so I want to start off by saying if anyone knows a good technique for making clean layers with smoothie, pleaaaase let me know.
Anyways! The bottom layer is cacao kale and the top is acai and frozen berries. This makes a lot so I managed to get two large glasses of smoothie out of it!

Ingredients
Green layer:
Two to three heads of kale
One large banana
Cacao powder
Almond milk
Sweetener, if desired, to taste (I used a teeeeny bit of agave)

Blend the bananas, almond milk, and kale until combined, adding almond milk as needed. Then add the cacao and sweetener to taste. Pour into a glass or two.

Ingredients
Purple layer:
Small (such as a red banana) or half a banana
Mixed frozen berries (I used blueberries and raspberries)
Almond milk
1 to 2 tablespoons Acai powder

Combine everything in a blender, adding berries and acai to taste, and almond milk to get a smooth consistency.

Pour over the green smoothie. I then topped with cacao and mixed seeds/nuts (trail mix).

Be creative and enjoy!