HAPPY NEW YEARRRRRR!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!!!!!

Vegan Chocolate-Banana Cupcakes

I've recently become passionate about creating a perfectly yummy chocolate vegan cupcake

(...this interest sparked shorty after I watched cupcake wars...shhhhhh!). Last night I made a batch...

WOW! they were amazing. They are 100% vegan, not raw (although I plan to switch to a 100% raw

diet again VERY soon). My mouth is DROOLING while I write about these amazing chocolate filled

cupcakes.

I use fresh banana in my batter to keep the cupcakes nice and moist. I can't even tell that banana has

been added to this dessert (health benefit!)

VEGAN -  CHOCOLATE - BANANA - CUPCAKES

Ingredients:

1/2 cup coconut milk (or almond milk)
1/2 cup ripe banana (about 1 banana)
1/3 cup coconut oil
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 cup agave
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/3 cup cocoa powder
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon lemon zest
Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line muffin pan with paper liners.

In a small bowl, mash the banana with a fork. Whisk in the coconut milk, sugar, oil, lemon zest and vanilla extract until incorporated. Mixture will still be a little lumpy because of the nature of the banana, but whisk out as many large lumps as you can. In a separate bowl, sift together the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon, and salt. Make a well in the center of dry ingredients and pour in banana mixture. Stir until just smooth (do not overmix).

Pour into liners, filling each with 3 tablespoons of batter (cups should be no more than 2/3 full). Bake 18-20 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Transfer to a cooling rack and let cool completely.

I made up a quick vegan frosting:
-two handfuls of cashews
-1/4 cup chocolate powder
- some agave
- vanilla extract
- lemon zest
- coconut water
- coconut butter
mix in a food processor, adding more elements (more zest? sweeter?) to taste.

blissful oatmeal raisin cookies

beach picture from Greece

Last Thursday I made RAW Oatmeal Raisin Cookies. OH SO GOOD! Even better tasting when you are watching Project Runway on Thursday nights.... yum. So! the recipe I used is from Love Veggies and Yoga. Her recipe is called Averie's Raw Vegan Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Balls, but I had NO chocolate (still out... sad face) so I used raisins instead of Chocolate Chips. They were amazingly good! Here is the recipe - Averis's main idea with my twist. :) Enjoy! Happy lingering days of summer :)

no.......its not what you are thinking. these are raisins. stop that dirty mind of yours.

Raw Vegan Oatmeal Raisin Cookies

2/3 c raw cashews
1/3 c oats
2 Tbsp Agave
1 Tbsp Maple Syrup (Omit and use Agave to preserve true Raw Status if you care)
1 Tsp Vanilla Extract
1/4 c Raisins
Recipe Yields: Approximately 12 Cookie Dough Balls 

In a food processor combine nuts, oats, Agave, Maple Syrup and Vanilla Extract. Blend well. 

With your hands kneed in the raisins to the cookie dough. Form into balls - eat. Good? Thought so. Better then your Grandmothers? Maybe?! 

BYE FOR NOW :) xoxo

Caesar

okay, fail. the 80/10/10 diet did not work for me :( i lasted just 1 (!!!) day. soooooooo i'm back to eating just raw. i just finished making dinner for tonight and made:

raw Caesar salad

nutty goodness to top off the salad (like chicken....)

grapefruit, orange, banana, blueberry smoothie 

nut bread for tomorrow, we are going on a mini road trip and will need a snack

maybe i'll make a dessert........................maybe :P

OKAY! SO what Caesar salad dressing recipe did I use? The Sunny Raw Kitchen dressing, really great.

Caesar Salad Dressing:
Makes 1 pint of thick dressing that will keep fresh for a week.

I usually make 1/2 of the amount listed below, 1 pint is too much.

5 tablespoons raw tahini
1/4 cup pine nuts
1 nice clove garlic
2 green onions, or 1/4 cup sweet onion
1 lemon, juiced
3 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
2 tablespoons maple syrup or 3 soft dates, pitted
3 tablespoons nutritional yeast
1-2 teaspoon black pepper or to taste
1-2 teaspoons sea salt or to taste
2 tablespoons good olive oil (optional)
fresh water, 2 tablespoons at a time as necessary to blend

In a blender or Vita Mix: Blend tahini, pine nuts, tamarind, garlic, green onion or minced onion, lemon juice, vinegar, maple syrup or dates, nutritional yeast, black pepper and sea salt, adding oil and fresh water, 2 tablespoons at a time as necessary to blend until very smooth.

Season with sea salt and pepper to taste.

I put this dressing on romaine lettuce, with some tomatoes, apples, raisins, sun-dried tomatoes, nuts, mushrooms, veggies... SO GOOD.

Alright, tata for now :)

XOXO

80/10/10

HELLO! Wow, once again I've neglected to post on this blog. Just a quick update: Europe was amazing! The food there was fabulous. When we ordered dishes at restaurants we always knew we would enjoy yummy healthy food, unlike in America where you never know what could be in the food you order. The grocery stores (grocery stores there were about 1/10 the size of a Shaw's or Stop and Shop) in Europe were stocked with descent food, not processed.The best part was the fruit, 1 Kilo (2.2 pounds) of cherries or strawberries would cost about $4.50. Once we got back to America we were shocked to see the price of cherries in the grocery store: for 1 pound of cherries you could end up paying around $10.00 - NO wonder the majority of Americans are obese and can't afford to eat fruits and vegetables. Anyways....... Europe was amazing, my summer is going well and I've changed up my diet a bit. 

SO - TODAY I have officially begun the 80/10/10 diet (80% fruit, 10% veggies, 10% 'fat'), this is a far more extreme version of the Raw/Vegan diet (except hardly any nuts or oils). As an athlete I've decided to try this diet out to see if it helps my performance as a soccer player, runner. We'll see how it goes, updates to come :)

 So far today I've eaten:

Breakfast: 1/2 (maybe a little less) of a watermelon

Lunch: Peachy Keen drink: 4 peaches, 3 bananas, 2 cups of water, 1 handful of ice - mix in Vita-Mix.

Dinner: I will be having a tomato, mango soup and a salad with mango, pepper and tomato.......yum?

This is purely experimental! So far so good/yummy!

Okay, that it for now. Have a great summer day! 

XOXO

traveling

hello hello! february? really! thats the last time i posted on this blog!! well, lets change that NOW :)

i'm in Greece right now and the fruit is absolutly devine. near our apt. we can get 1 kilo of strawberries for 2.50 euro.....cheap! cherries & grapes too! yum yum yum .

just noticed this tab that creates different text - only happens in greece ... -  look at this : ही इ'म टाइपिंग थिस राईट नो, नात हुह? വെഇര്ദ ത്ത്... వౌజేర్స్ థిస్ ఇస్ నేఅట్. ഗോ അവി ഫ്ലൈ.  talk to you soon ... :) xoxo

ice cream

I have a new FAVORITE snack. I present.... Strawberry - Banana Ice Cream! So healthy and y-u-m-m-y!

xoxo