Eat Dance Live

Going to bed early tonight for much needed sleep (yay, that means midnight). We were out at my cousin's place again tonight for dinner (best salads EVER) and our weekly viewing of Lost. Wow. However, I can't leave you with nothing to drool over. I finally got around to making Katie's Fudge Babies from over at CCV . It being me, I couldn't just leave all them plain, so I rolled some in coconut shreds, some in mesquite, and some in hemp seeds (you know I would have done spirulina if I had any left). Because I had left over date paste, I also made my guesstimated version of Ani Phyo 's Monkey Bars. I made them with dates, brazil nuts, a little sea salt, vanilla, and carob powder. The results were all fabulous, tasty and awfully pretty! Goodnight!

There's something beautiful about the union between nuts and chocolate. Here's my contribution to the wonders of that happy marriage: Chocolate-Chip Pecan Cookies 1 1/2 C ground cashews 1 C mix of ground oats & spelt* 1/2 tsp salt (or to taste) 1/2 C maple syrup 1 tsp vanilla 1 heaping tbsp of melted cacao butter cinnamon to taste (I use a lot) 1/2 C chopped pecans 1/2 C chocolate chips * the easy and less raw way : grind oat and spelt flakes into flour with your food processor the more time-consuming but raw-er way : soak oat groats and spelt berries for 12-24 hours, dehydrate them, then grind them into flour 1. Mix ground oats and spelt, ground cashews, salt, and cinnamon til evened out 2. Pour in maple syrup, vanilla, and cacao butter, blend well 3. Mix in chopped pecans and chocolate chips 4. Form cookies with your hands (it will be sticky) or dollop one heaping tablespoon of cookie dough onto Teflex sheet and place in dehydrator at 115 for 3-4 hours

So if you haven't guessed already, I actually have a very hard time following recipes (and perhaps rules in general). Every time I read a recipe I'm suppose to follow, I always think things like "well that's probably not enough cinnamon" or "1 whole cup of coconut butter, really?" and I always want to mess with the perfect proportions laid out by the wonderful person who took the time to put a cookbook together for me. Working through Meredith's ebook has given me an ethic I have rarely stuck to. Because I wanted to make my reviews of her recipes the most authentic and 'true to the source' as possible, I told myself I would NOT allow myself to mess with her recipes until after I had made them all at least once. While one of her new recipes is currently sleeping in a warm, dry place overnight, I made another attempt at her Chocolate Mousse Pie last night. However, because I had already made it once , I allowed myself to tweak it. I couldn...

Of all the reasons not to have posted yesterday, I have a very valid one! After classes last night, we went over to my sister's place to watch the best movie of 2009, aka. the Princess and the Frog. I have to admit, despite all of my more alternative lifestyle choices, I am a child of Disney, and princess stories just make my world a happier place. After the first preview we ever saw for this, my sister and I squealed in our theater seats like little girls. I was so psyched to know Disney would be making both a princess movie and use good old fashion hand-drawn animation. I really thought this movie brought all the magic of Disney back to life from their golden days of Sleeping Beauty, the Little Mermaid, etc. From the catchy songs, the gorgeous animation, the fun-loving characters (including what might just be the coolest Disney villain of all time), the Princess and the Frog has it all! It recreated all of the enchantment of a classic Disney princess movie with New Orleans flair...

... And by that I mean Meredith 's yummy raw chocolate milkshake, of course! For the very little amount of work it takes to put this together, it certainly was a nice treat. For my own personal tastes, I think I would use about half the sweetener, but other than that it was super tasty! I'm excited to try the vanilla one now, since it's usually the taste I prefer if asked to answer the age old vanilla or chocolate question. Again, the great thing about the raw diet is how you can enjoy pure, living and raw foods that you know are good for your body, spirit, and for the environment without having to give them a second them. While everyone in the mainstream world is freaking out about what is actually in one of those 'chocolate-y' candy bars and chocolate percentages and what not, we can enjoy the optimal health benefits of cacao without question. Did you know that cacao is one of the foods with the highest magnesium levels? It helps our body bind calcium to built str...

I have one simple statement to make today: Meredith 's Chocolate Mousse Pie is chocolate orgasm on a plate. I wanted to blog about it while it's still fresh in my mind, but words to describe food usually don't capture them at all. "This taste good/this taste amazing, etc." doesn't give away what you a truly experiencing. The taste of this cake is absolutely amazing, the texture is divine. It has the perfect resilience, not too mousse-y and not too hard. It's juuust right! Andrew's and my favourite hang-out when we lived in Kingston was a place called the Sleepless Goat . It had the most amazing cakes (both vegan and non-) that you could ever imagine. Once we left there, I never thought we'd be able to recapture those experiences, but this cake brought them all back. Right after my first bite, I thought "Wow, this is just like Goat cake" (no, you never do stop giggling, no matter how many times you say that). On a scale from one to yum, th...

I've recently made the decisions to ween myself off of non-raw chocolates, and dabble once more in the art of raw chocolate making. I've done it before to great success for some reason stopped trying. I was re-inspired last night when I found a recipe for a raw version of Ferrero Rocher chocolates on Heater's blog cutely renamed 'Ferrero Rawchers'. But who can stop at just one recipe when you have to go out of your way to melt some cacao butter and coconut oil? Not me! I went along to make raw chocolate dipped strawberries, chocolate-covered raspberries, chocolate clusters (the basic chocolate recipe below with dried cranberries, chopped brazil nuts, and dried figs), spirulina chocolate (just added a couple tablespoons of it in the basic recipe), and chipotle chocolate (same deal as spirulina). and mint chocolate (mint extract) topped with coconut shreds. Chocolate extravaganza! Here's the breakdown of the basic recipe and imagine all the possibilities after th...

I think the best thing on earth right now (aside from our Spirooli which produced another amazingly tasty raw spaghetti dinner) is avocado based chocolate pudding /frosting. Who knew that one avocado, cacao powder, agave nectar, a tiny bit of sea salt, and vanilla extract could produce something that other people only believe comes in one of those plastic Jello pudding containers or on a restaurant dessert menu! Workout of the Day: 5 minutes of cardio warmup on stairclimber 4x12 leg raises (target area: lower abs) 4x12 crunches (target area: r ectus abdominis) 4x12 torso rotation machine (target area: obliques) 3x12 db chest press on stability ball 3x12 shoulder shrugs 3x12 tricep extensions 10 minutes of stretching Recipe of the Day: C is for raw CHOCOLATE PUDDING!!!

So I know I don't usually post on Sundays, but I've created yet another wonder that I just have to share with the world. One of the non-vegan recipes I've always toyed with is variations of Heidi Swanson's Black Bean Brownies . I don't know that I've ever made the same recipe twice, but every time I've tried to make them, they've turned out wonderfully rich, fudgey and amazing. I've tried to make them as vegan as possible (and as healthy too) so I don't believe I've ever actually made them using eggs or butter, but the concept of black bean brownies so fascinated me it was something I've come back to over and over again. Tonight, I think I've nailed it for good. It being Sunday, we took our usual trip up to my parents' place where it was time to make my dad some more vegan goodness. With no more flour in the house, and forgetting to bring my own ingredients, I had to throw together something with what I had available. Though I di...