Fabulous Vegan Recipes

Today is an awful day for pictures. It's STILL overcast and rainy and I'm so glad I ran last night. Speaking of a run, everytime I run around my neighborhood, I appreciate how lucky I am to live here on the Upper East Side of Manhattan. It's quiet, calm, close to everything (thanks Q train!) and bustling with restaurants, shops, Central Park and many other cool places to run. I found myself loving all of that last night in between epic humidity and raindrops. So, anyway, this parfait. I ate this before my coffee this morning, how could I not?

Running takes alot of effort and planning in order to keep your body healthy and strong. There are so many aspects of running to think about but no one is more important than the other. Running requires healthy muscles, bones, clean nutrition and a healthy state of mind: confident, positive and strong. To be the best runner you can be is to think about all of the ways it will take for you to feel your best. It's also important to remember that not every runner looks the same; it matters how you feel.

This long Memorial Day weekend has been just lovely, spending time with friends and eating good vegan food. It's super hot in the city so running was a challenge today but I did it and followed it with an awesome strength workout. So while I savor this long weekend and reflect on just how lucky I am and how beautiful this life is, I want to share a few more things I'm loving lately!! Oh and be on the lookout for my next recipe, cauliflower mac and cheese. Oh yeah!

For chocolate pudding, I usually use avocado but I didn't use them for this recipe and the pudding turned out just as yummy. These started out as brownies but my throat was hurting me so I made pudding. It was so so filling and thick and very yummy. I tried to add as little sugar as possible; I used bananas but also a little coconut sugar. This pudding is high in protein and only created with whole, clean ingredients. It's perfect for babies, adults, kids, everyone!

I make chia seed pudding alot but this time I made it without any added coconut sugar and some fruit and homemade cashew butter and it was awesome. I'm not usually good at layering everything to look pretty but I must say this is a good picture! Grab some fresh berries and some raw cashews for this recipe and you got yourself a yummy, filling breakfast. Kids will love this breakfast because it's in a cool mason jar and it's sweet and fun.

It is my 5th day eating fully raw and I'm loving it. I'm not going to say I haven't thought about cooked food but I've been able to stay on track. It's so hot and humid so I'm sure that has something to do with wanting cold fresh fruits and veggies.

I fixed my website so that my domain name points directly to my blog!!!  And the ads are back on my website!!! And the design looks so good, I'm so so happy!! Yay, the greatest feeling ever is loving the way your website looks. It's admiring how easy it is for your readers to navigate (see ingredient labels at the bottom of the blog). It's creating a website that you love to open in your browser....that is the greatest feeling as a blogger! I love Google blogs; everything I do is google, email, chats, my phone is a google phone.

Happy Meatout Day!! And happy spring!  Even though we are scheduled to get snow today :) Does everyone know what meatout day is? On the first day of spring, people pledge to go vegan for a day. It saves an incredible amount of lives, saves an incredible amount of water and puts you on a path for a healthier life (plant based diets are lower in cholesterol, saturated fat and higher in fiber which translates to longer lives).  If you're reading this, starting from this moment, will you eat vegan the rest of the day?  Click on the labels to the right to check out a ton of recipes.  And check out meatout.org .

Chia chia!  I love me some chia seeds.  They are full of omegas, fiber, healthy fat and energy, this is a great snack before a run or a middle of the day pick me up.This is also a great snack if you are craving sweets like I do. My cupcake craving is quickly satisfied with this bowl of goodness.

Yay it's Friday!  I'm going to spend the weekend savoring Christmas in New York City because it's going fast!  What have you done thus far to savor this holiday season?

I'm still obsessed with my healthy pudding recipe and I improved upon it yesterday for breakfast. It's great eating raw for breakfast. It's gentle on your system and gives you a healthy start to the day. Sometimes I want to combine healthy with sweet so a smoothie or a big bowl of oatmeal is good. But when you want to feel like you're eating something but something that is not cooked, pudding is a great way to go.

I haven't been eating as clean as I was eating in August when I was doing raw till 4.  I have been eating alot of sugary treats and wanting to try all the yummy vegan treats this city has to offer.  I recently perfected my avocado mousse (recipe in a previous post) and last night I made chocolate banana peanut butter pudding so I MUST share this!  I suppose if I had stopped to think about it, I should have just made my own pudding when I wanted something sweet-I could have saved money and also ate clean ingredients.  This pudding has zero added sugar.  Make this or my chocolate mousse when you're feeling blue.

Happy Friday! I am currently obsessed with chocolate mousse and I made it several times this week but unfortunately I neglected to photogragh it each time...that's what cravings do to your brain :) But I did include a flashback Friday pic below of the mousse in little pies, a recipe I made a few months ago. It's just as good if you eat it up plain though especially when you're craving chocolate. I made the mousse today and put it on a pie crust to take to my friend's place tonight for her bday.

I had such a fabulous weekend with my best friend from home! She stayed all weekend and we walked all around the city, eating vegan food and enjoying the sights. We've known each other since freshman year in college...so long ago haha and I always have so much fun with her.

My goal the last week has been to get back on track with raw till 4....I went to my family's lake house two weekends ago and got off track and it's been difficult getting back on track. Today I did better than the last few days, starting out the day with totally yum chia seed pudding and a long run in Central Park-the longest run in a long time.  And my foot that has been plaguing me with pain actually did not hurt (I got new running shoes so wish I hadn't put that off!)  

As each day passes, I'm becoming more settled into my life here in the Big Apple.  I had to get over some bouts of homesickness and fears of feeling alone, getting used to the harshness (at times) of the city, finding myself in yoga, learning to make time for meditation, appreciating my apartment even though it's small, overcoming fears about starting my health coach business and learning to eat clean, healthy food...everyday.  I feel more comfortable as each day passes, even though there may be slip ups here and there, but I realized yesterday as I was hanging out with some fabulous new friends that I'm so lucky.  I just need to be grateful, realize what I have and thank the universe.

Nothing says summer like plenty of fruit and a super sweet and vegan banana pudding. I made this with chia seeds and coconut cream. It is high in fat so I would only eat a small serving at once especially if you're doing high carb low fat. But if you need a sweet pick-me-up, this would be perfect.

This weekend was officially my first free weekend without having to go to yoga teacher training; I'll be honest I was worried about it because I wasn't going to have the structure and peer interaction I had over the past six weekends.  I spent so many hours with the same awesome group of people and I wasn't sure how I was going to handle not having that time with them.  But all my worrying was for nothing because I spent alot of time with my yoga friends anyway and just explored this beautiful, vibrant, crazy city!  My favorite area is 59th and 5th right at the park.  It's crowded and crazy and sooooo New York.  I just walked for hours, enjoying the sights and sounds of NYC, meeting up with friends for drinks or sushi or a stroll in the park, it was such a wonderful weekend!

What beautiful weather!!  NYC is gorgeous on days like this, low humidity, breezy, sunny, sort of like fall.  My window overlooks my awesome tree lined street and it's so hard not to go out on the fire escape and just hang haha (I take my food pictures on the fire escape all the time).

What a decadent dessert....or breakfast.  For me, it's usually breakfast.  This is healthy, sweet and filling and will satisfy anyone's sweet tooth.  I love making breakfast the night before because I can get up and not have to worry about breakfast.  It's also fun to look forward to a great breakfast in the morning.  Chia seeds are amazing.  They have omegas, fiber and protein, they give you energy and are perfect for before a workout or for breakfast.