Fabulous Vegan Recipes

I'm so sorry for the delay in posts! I sure have missed blogging but this past week and a half was super busy. I went home over this past holiday weekend to see my family for my birthday. I haven't seen my almost 2 year old niece since Christmas and I miss her. It was such a great weekend , I had vegan cupcakes on my birthday and spent alot of quality time with my family. I didn't really have a chance to make new recipes or to really take good photos but now I'm back. Can't wait to share this recipe with you.

Oh my oh my, I must say I've been killin it with the recipes this week! I absolutely love this recipe, it's easy and sweet and healthy and I LOVE the lemon flavor...absolutely love it. Usually I make cheesecake with a crust but I just eliminated it, mainly because I didn't have dates so these will end up being less calories than my usual raw desserts. I used a cupcake pan for these so grab yours and get going!

For my next apple dessert, I was further into my comfort zone since raw desserts are my jam. I made these out of the ingredients from my last post, the baked apple cheesecakes . This is an awesome dessert to whip up when you need something sweet or want to impress your friends. Made with nuts, fruits and oats, this dessert is whole food based and full of nutrients and goodness.

Everytime I go to a vegan restaurant and they have a raw cake, I gotta order it. It ends up being thick, creamy with just the right amount of sweetness and absolutely delish. I made this recipe yesterday but it didn't turn out well at all. Today I repeated it and I'm ready to give it to anyone to taste test-it's perfect! Cashews make the difference when making raw cheesecakes as does coconut oil and lemon juice. I'm so psyched for pumpkin season!

So, when I got back to New York City after a visit home, I felt so full and bloated. I can't say I was eating a ton while visiting my family but we had alot of potatoes and I had some mock meat and I just needed to detox. My friend was talking all about how she was going raw and I got super inspired! Oh and see what my friend is up to doing THIS ! She is amazing! Anyway, she inspired me and so I have been raw for the past four and a half days. Today I am making food for my Munch and Meditate event and I did have a few tastes of fudge. Anyway, that's it for today, I'm going to be raw until I go home again this week and then I will probably switch to two raw meals and a cooked dinner. I can't say I've lost weight or feel insanely happy but my mood is content and I did run 15 miles on Saturday. So, that theory that plants make you weak is not holding up :)

Pea protein is the new ingredient that is added to protein powder and smoothies, I'm just realizing. Am I late to the game? I feel like I always overlook peas as being boring or something I used to be made to eat as a kid but they are actually pretty awesome. I bought frozen peas yesterday at Whole Foods so I could make a smoothie today and I wasn't disappointed. To make the sweetest smoothie with bananas, make sure you use super ripe, speckled bananas, as ripe as you can possibly buy. The riper the banana, the sweeter the ice cream.

I woke up the other day wanting to eat raw; I think I do this when I overindulge or have too much sugar. This cheesecake is an ode to nice cream, the ice cream I make from frozen bananas. The crust is a mix of fruit and nuts and is sweet and filling. This is such an awesome, lower in fat cheesecake you can whip up in case you have a crazy insane sweet tooth like me and don't want to snack on crap or high calorie sweets like baked goods. The cheese in it is simply the nice cream, no nuts, so it's totally cool, refreshing and chocolatey delish.

It's that time of year again! The hectic running around, the overindulging, the lack of sleep, the fun, family get togethers; a time when we need to remember to reconnect with ourselves. It's easy to mindlessly eat or forego exercise during this time so having a plan is the best way to go this holiday season. I'm writing this now after years of gaining weight during the holiday season, feeling horrible about myself then working to lose the weight.

I made my raw chocolate cupcakes for my friend who just had a baby and I improved on the icing. It's so hard to believe that this is good for you and that by eating it right from the bowl is actually not bad. There is no risk of a sugar rush from this icing as it is made entirely of fruit and veggies.

It's supposed to be hot again in NYC starting today but that is not why I made this; I just wanted chocolate! And just because you have chocolate doesn't mean you can't have your greens. I love adding spinach to a creamy, chocolatey smoothie, it's never been easier to get in your greens. 

The best part about living in NYC is having access to juice and smoothie bars any time you want. I always find a smoothie that I want to make at home and it usually involves a nut butter and chocolate. I love going to Juice Generation and getting the Joyful Almond smoothie or Peanut Butter Blast smoothie. I decided to try to replicate the Joyful Almond smoothie...it didn't turn out exactly tasting the same as the one at JG but it was a delicious chocolaty filled mason jar and there is nothing wrong with that! This is another one of those smoothies that is a dessert and tastes like you will need to run 10 miles to burn it off but it is made of whole foods, perfectly portioned.

Every time I stress out about weight loss or feel frustrated because I don't have perfectly sculpted arms and a flat tummy, I think about how I'm eating. Sometimes I turn to the fully raw diet or change around my eating times but weight loss always comes right back down to eating clean. A well balanced diet of fruits, veggies, nuts and seeds with more emphasis on the fruits and veggies. The last two days I have eaten raw until dinner when I start cooking a beautiful meal of leafy greens, organic potatoes, rice noodles and a raw salad with tahini dressing. This meal leaves me so satisfied, filled and floods my system with the best nutrition any human can have, I want to share with you how you can cook a vegan feast leaving out the processed foods, salt and oil.

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.

If you bake regular chocolate box cake and crumble up the cake and put it in a bowl, you will get my raw chocolate cake consistency. These cupcakes are so much like the "real" baked thing that it will be hard to resist them even if you're a non vegan who is opposed to any vegan baked goods. By the way, it drives me nuts when non vegans put their nose up to vegan food simply because they have't tried it, but that is a separate blog post! 

When you are eating raw, the majority of your calories comes from fruit. I bought a ton of fruit, leaning heavily on berries and I also bought my least favorite fruits: apples, pears and oranges. Oranges are a pain in the ass because you have to peel them but apples and pears are just boring. I mean, they are such a snooze. I hate just taking an apple or pear and eating it; it doesn't fill me up and there is nothing exciting about eating either. Maybe I've been eating apples and peanut butter for too many years but...snoooze! So, I decided to make my pears into a dessert and I'm LOVING them now!

I just came back to the city after being home for a week visiting my family and friends in the burbs and I feel rejuvenated! I spent time with my little niece, drove around the burbs, hung out with my friends and enjoyed central air conditioning! The first thing I did when I got back to the city was hit the farmers market in Union Square to get a ton of veggies and fruit so I could start up my fully raw rest of the summer. I've always wanted to go fully raw for a few reasons: the health benefits, the weather and having a ton of in season fruit available to me, weight loss and to see how my body would feel eating completely raw, fresh foods. It's day 1 of being completely raw and I feel great.