I oftentimes enjoy a little something sweet after dinner. Don’t you?
Lately, my after-dinner desserts have been consisting of one of the following:
Organic super dark chocolate (I try to keep it at 1/4-1/2 a bar… although eating 1/2 a bar is when I’m not being very mindful and just chomping away. Even though I’m eating 85% organic dark chocolate, and sometimes raw, I still don’t think it’s in my best interest to slam 1/2 a bar a day so I *try* to keep it at 1/4… ok, let’s compromise… 1/3?)
Trail mix with chopped organic super dark chocolate in it (this was my attempt to reduce my chocolate intake by putting tiny bits in the trail mix of organic nuts). Problem here is the addictive nature of trail mix. What is it with even the most humble trail mix, it is still so dang addictive?
Fruit, usually berries, and organic super dark chocolate (see recipe below). We’re starting to see a pattern here, eh? I like my chocolate.
Slow cooked yams with raw coconut oil and ceylon cinnamon (no organic super dark chocolate – what? Wait, that might be really good! Note to self… Must try).
At mom’s recently we had delicious fresh organic strawberries in the fridge, and I went to work whipping something up simple and mega delicious. Kamea and I loved it.
I love salads. But, while I’m all for a traditional salad with organic romaine lettuce, veggies, and raw macadamia nut oil dressing… I’m also a fan of chunky-n-creamy salads. You know the kind… Waldorf Salads and the like. I’m a texture gal. Problem is that those usually require some sort of mayonnaise and to be honest, I’m not really into soy or processed-icky-oil type mayonnaises that you buy in the store. No. I like to make my own mayo-type goodness that’s fresh and healthy.
And, I like to make them quickly.
And, I don’t always want them made from nuts.
I know, seems like I’m picky. Yeah, sometimes I am.
Well. :) I have two awesome vegan mayo recipes that really take no time to make if the goods are on hand. But, in all fairness, although I call them mayo recipes, truthfully, they’re not really mayo recipes. But, they serve to replace the mayo in a mayo-loving-salad. Make sense?
Unique Vegan Mayo Recipe #1
Avocado + Mustard + Lemon = Creamy and tangy goodness that is easy to mash into your salad yielding a mayo-like experience. Here’s what I do. I get a big mixing bowl and put my salad ingredients in it.. usually chopped veggies and non-sweet fruits like carrots, celery, red bell pepper, cucumber, and the like – raw sauerkraut makes for a great addition. Add a diced avocado, a couple big dollops of organic mustard (my favorite here), and a squeeze of fresh citrus such as lemon, lime, and/or orange. Mash/Mix it all up. No nuts needed. No soaking needed. Just easy peasy n dreamy n creamy. (Obviously, season with salt and pepper as desired.)
Unique Vegan Mayo Recipe #2
Sweet Potato + Mustard = Creamy and low fat deliciousness that adds velvety mayo-like texture, vibrant color, and nutrition like it’s no one’s business. The clincher here, however, is having 1-2 cooked sweet potatoes on hand in your fridge already. If you’re like me, this is a common item in your fridge (read more here). Okay, so same drill as above… Get a big bowl out and add your favorite salad veggies and foods. Put 1 to 2 peeled (cooked and cooled) sweet potatoes on top, add a couple dollops of mustard, and smish smash it up. Season as desired. When I made the salad and served it to Greg, he came out of his office exclaiming (unsolicited, I might add), “Wow, this is a 10 out of 10!”
All in all, these two options are great healthy replacements for the next time you need mayo in your salad. They add creaminess, nutrition, and flavor which is really what you’re after. Pro-Tip… (good quality) mustard makes everything better.
Food Journal Time (with some recipes for you)! Here are two days in a row featuring a lovely high raw diet (all vegan, all organic). Here we go…
Organic Fair Trade coffee (part decaf/part reg) with chaga mushroom capsules emptied into it and stirred.
Longevity Chia Porridge warmed with some warm organic coffee stirred in. As I wrote in a previous post, I make plain chia porridge and store it in my refrigerator. In the morning I take some out and let it sit on the counter to get closer to room temperature. I decorate it with longevity ingredients. Then, I sometimes stir in warm herbal tea (or on a unique occasion some warm organic coffee), which warms it quickly.
Raw Vegan Coconut Yogurt – homemade and the best ever. (Recipe #1:Simply take a package of raw organic young thai coconut meat and put in blender. Add a cup or so of raw organic young thai coconut water. I buy both of these at Whole Foods Market and they’re kept in the freezer section. Add some raw organic nuts, a handful or two – I like pili nuts because they’re soft and require no soaking – plus their flavor it wonderfully mild. Blend well. Add 2 capsules of your favorite probiotic powder – open them up and empty contents into blender. Blend briefly. Put in a glass dish or mason jar big enough for it to expand a bit and work its magic. Gently lay the lid on it. Set on your counter to ferment for 12-24 hours. Done! Refrigerate what you don’t eat.) I also have a video showing a Raw Vegan Coconut Yogurt Recipe here. Plus, a recipe for my Quickie Raw Vegan Coconut Yogurt is here.
I recently wrote about a great way to add baked yams (or sweet potatoes) to your life in an easy and effortless way. Although I tend to eat them straight from the fridge either plain or with a raw nut butter topping, there are times I use these delightful root veggies as an ingredient in a Raw Vegan Transition Recipe. (This is a great recipe for the upcoming holidays, too. I would add some extra seasoning like nutmeg or pumpkin spice.)
Here we go… this is really satisfying and tasty with plenty of delicious flavors and textures to please your tastebuds.
Talk about EASY! This organic kale is ready to go for salads, kale chips, or smoothies.
I make my own homemade raw vegan coconut yogurt all the time. And, every time I make it, I tweet or post about it on facebook. And, every time I do that, someone asks me how I make it. Although I have a recipe with video here, I’m going to write a quickie recipe post that makes the recipe, well, a bit quicker (by way of the number of ingredients).
A creamy bowl of nourishing raw vegan coconut yogurt topped with raw cacao nibs.
Buying these products (found in the freezer section of Whole Foods Market) makes for making easy raw vegan coconut yogurt. Just thaw and use. No need to crack open any coconuts. Plus, they’re organic.
Set to culture for about 12 hours.
Quickie Raw Vegan Coconut Yogurt
Yield approximately 3 cups
Ingredients
3/4 to 1 cup raw young thai coconut water
16 ounces raw young thai coconut meat
Probiotic powder (2 capsules worth)
Instructions
Blend the coconut water and coconut meat until smooth.
Add the probiotic powder (simply open the capsules and dump the contents into the blender), and blend briefly.
Pour into a bowl (or jar) big enough to allow a bit of room to expand. Gently place a lid on top and set your coconut yogurt to culture on your counter for 8-16 hours. The longer it cultures, the more yogurt-y it becomes in taste.
When you’re ready to eat it, feel free to sweeten it and/or add extracts like vanilla, strawberry, etc. You can use this wonderful yogurt in many ways: smoothies, dressings, stirred into chia pudding, used as a dessert with raw chocolate, enjoyed as is with fruit and/or granola added, etc. You can even use it to make frozen yogurt-scicles. I’m a fan of stirring it into my super popular Longevity Chia Porridge (recipe here). *Stored in the refrigerator, Quickie Raw Vegan Coconut Yogurt should stay fresh for at least a week, but mine is usually gone by then.
Longevity Chia Porridge – A magnificent breakfast for radiant health and longevity.
This recipe has become a staple in my life for the past few weeks. I have been really turned onto chia seeds and my body has been wanting more of them. From the most simple water and chia seed porridge to something as wonderful as my Longevity Chia Porridge… It is all good.
This recipe, in particular, is near and dear to my heart. One of my biggest and main goals in life is to live to be a centenarian. And by filling my body with longevity supporting foods I will accomplish that goal.
Longevity Chia Porridge.
What you’ll need:
Chia seeds
Filtered water
Herbal tea
Goji berries
Longan berries
Coconut (shredded and dried)
Cacao nibs and powder (optional)
Chia porridge already set. (1/3 cup chia seeds stirred with 1 cup filtered water. Wait a few minutes and stir again.)
Next morning take the chia porridge from your refrigerator and put whatever portion you desire to eat in a bowl (put remaining chia porridge back in the refrigerator for the next time). It’s nice to let your bowl of chia porridge warm a bit to room temperature if you have the time. Plus, the warm herbal tea in the next step helps warm it.
Brew organic herbal tea (I make a delightful blend of many kinds including nettles, raspberry leaf, rose hips, Spring Dragon Longevity Tea, spearmint, lemon balm, and whatever else… Chaga mushroom too!)
Take a few splashes of your tea and add to your chia porridge. This warms it up a bit.
Add 5 to 8 dried longan fruit pieces(Longan fruit are a wonderful food with numerous health benefits… reputed for things like healthy heart, blood, beauty and a sex tonic –> Yowza. I like them best in a smoothie or a chia porridge like this.)
Add 2 to 3 tablespoons coconut (dried and shredded) ** I have used on occasion Living Fuel’s CocoChia mixture that I stir in …. this includes the coconut plus some extra chia seeds as well as their xylitol sweetener.
1 to 2 tablespoons raw cacao powder mixed with cacao nibs (I take a jar and I combine cacao nibs with cacao powder and shake it up. I like this combination and I use it in my smoothies, chia porridge, and other recipes.)
Sweetener, if desired but I don’t. I’m however appreciating more food lately without added sweetness. Plus, if you use the CocoChia from Living Fuel it adds a little xylitol sweetener.
Stir everything together. Let it set for 10 minutes or so if you have the patience. :) By allowing it to set for a few minutes the goji berries and the longan berries get a little chewy and make for the most delightful texture.
******* By the way… Have questions or comments? Use twitter or my Facebook fan page to chat. Links are on the right-hand side of my blog. —>
I’ve really gotten into the video mood, can you tell? Are you enjoying them? Are they useful? I hope so!
In this video I decide to totally wing it and make a dressing I’ve never made, while doing it on camera. My plan was to post the video no matter what because I figured 1) we’d all learn something anyway (I learn a lot from failed recipes) and 2) it’d be kind of funny if the dressing sucked seeing as I was doing it on camera. I still don’t have the ingredients written down so I can’t add them here to the post yet, but I remember… water, oranges, grape tomatoes, garlic, salt, raw almond butter, basil??? I think those are the ingredients. When I find time, I’ll come back and add the ingredient list.
Spoiler alert...Turns out, it was so good! Easy to throw together as you’ll see… and mega fresh. I loved it on fresh lettuce and I also gobbled it up on cauliflower. If a dressing makes you enjoy raw cauliflower, then you know it’s darn good.
Enjoy the show! (By the way, as you know by now I’m still in a video making mode – I suspect I will be for a long time – so check out my popular Cinnamon Brownies post I wrote a while back because I put up a video showing you how easy they are to make here!)
Water …. Big bowl of Breakfast Kelp Noodles (my latest recipe)
Water …. Kale salad …. Sandwich from True Food (part raw: avocado, tomato, lettuce and part cooked: bread, hummus, tempeh) …. Raw choc mint pie …. Supplements
Super Spicy n Sweet Green Yogurt Bliss (coconut water, raw vegan yogurt, banana, 1/2 mango, 1/2 habanero, vanilla powder, spinach)
I’ve eaten quite a bit of this delicious pesto over the past many years. It’s absolutely scrumptiously awesome. In fact, it’s on my list of 7 Must-Make Recipes. Serve it with kelp noodles, veggie pasta, veggie crudite, as a dressing (toss it really well on the salad – maybe water it down a smidge), stuffed into bell peppers, and just outta of the food processor with a fork.
Enjoy the show!
Food Journal 2/27/12 Mostly Raw
Giant Salad
Quart Spicy Veggie Juice
Apple …. Raw Vegan Core Defender Meal bar …. Raw coconut water …. Supplements
Green smoothie (water, sunflower sprouts, apples) …. Small serving organic tofu …. Sprouted English Muffin w raw organic, stone ground, homemade almond butter
Here’s a great recipe for the brave hearted. It’s got some mega kickin’ heat and it’s super duper delicious! (If you must, you can tone down the heat by omitting the habanero or using only a bit of it, same goes for the cayenne pepper). This recipe is great for romaine salads, veggie salads, zucchini or kelp pasta, and I recently used it over cabbage for an awesome slaw. I’ll bet it’d be fun dehydrated on kale for spicy kale chips.
You’ll see that I use cashews in the recipe instead of olive oil which my original recipe calls for… not only was I out of olive oil, but thought it’s a great way to share how you can swap them in some recipes. This recipe, and many other super raw salad and dressings, can be found in my book, Easy Raw Vegan Salads & Dressings. Enjoy :) (Updated food journal post below video)
Food Journal 2/26/12 (Mostly Raw)
Spicy Veggie Juice: romaine, parsnip, brussel sprouts, dill, basil, celery, carrots, beet, spicy purple radish sprouts, zucchini, cucumbers, red bell pepper, kale, dandelion root, and habanero pepper! Whew! This bowl made about a gallon of juice with our Norwalk Juicer.
Pint green juice …. 3 cups green smoothie (water, apple, sunflower sprouts) …. Tea
Kale salad …. Sandwich …. Tea
2 brazil nuts …. Raw choc mint pie
Nettles blend tea (this stuff is super great for helping allergies… interesting story... my allergies have been non existent this season so far, but Greg’s and mom’s have been pretty bad. I just counted my lucky stars. However, I had a sandwich as you see above and it had two slices of bread, hummus, and tempeh on it. Although the rest of my diet is still basically raw, that was the first meal I had where something was cooked in it. Guess what? Within an hour my allergies kicked in and I was sneezing. I wonder if the stellar raw diet was keep them at bay? Anyway, nettles tea is great for helping them.)
I recently shared with you a list I keep for ideas of easy raw foods to keep me inspired and to show me that I have tons of options. On that list is raw brownies because they always satisfy and they’re mega easy to make. With that… I share my latest recipe with you for Cinnamon Brownies (update… I just added a video below showing how I make them!).
I like cinnamon in them because cinnamon helps with blood sugar. I like using sprouted and dehydrated sunflower seeds and pumpkin seeds because they have tons of great nutrition. The walnuts I’ve been using lately? Well, I was supremely blessed by my friend in Europe who sent me freshly cracked walnuts from her grandmom’s garden! She also soaked and dehydrated them for me. Can you imagine how fresh and delicious they are? I’m in love with them.
Confession: I ate 7 of these in one day.
Cinnamon Brownies
Yield one 8×8 glass baking dish (12 to 16 brownies)
Using a food processor, fitted with the “S” blade, grind the seeds, walnuts, salt, cinnamon, and chocolate powder to a coarse grind. Add the dates. Process until it starts to stick together. Press into an 8×8 glass baking dish. Enjoy!
I'm Kristen, and welcome to my blog. I'm a wife, mom, author, and I love to eat so food is usually the topic of my blog posts. I'm a former (almost decade long) vegan turned back omnivore who enjoys reading, rebounding, coffee, and dark chocolate. More...
I'm Kristen, and welcome to my blog. I'm a wife, mom, author, and I love to eat so food is usually the topic of my blog posts. I'm a former (almost decade long) vegan turned back omnivore who enjoys reading, rebounding, coffee, and dark chocolate. 
