Naraya Cooking Health Recipe

CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIES with QUINOA and ALMOND BUTTER

1/2 cup uncooked quinoa
1/2 cup buckwheat groats
1/3 cup almond butter
2 teaspoons maple syrup
3 teaspoons water (more or less as needed)
1/3 cup chocolate chips or homemade raw chocolate cut tiny pieces 

Grind the quinoa and buckwheat into flour in a high speed blender. Add in the rest of the ingredients, except the chocolate chips. If it's still very crumbly and dry, add some dates, or add more water in 1 teaspoon amounts until the mix is moist and holds together when you press it with your fingers. Add the chocolate chips and mix them in evenly. If you want to gently bake the cookies, add some dates and a little more water to the mix, then bake at 200 degrees (or use a dehydrator) for 30 minutes or until they get crunchy on the outside.  This is nice because you end up with warm cookies. I used an ice cream scoop to portion out nine big cookies, but you can do whatever you want. Serve with cold non-dairy milk and enjoy!

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I like to work hard. I like to relax hard (if that's a thing... I mean 'power naps' are a thing so relaxing hard can be a thing too, right?) I generally don't like long-term routines, so my workout regime changes at least once or twice a year. For awhile recently it was bodyweight exercises in my room plus dancing really sporadically to music. Things have changed. Now, most days I do P90X (and my workouts are always in the morning by the way). For those of you who don't know P90X: I will direct you to the wikipedia page on it. Basically it's an awesome program of videos that focus on different muscle groups (biceps, back, legs, chest, etc.) and there's a few that are high intensity cardio workouts as well (lots of jump squats, oh mama). There's also one for yoga, which is like an hour of warrior poses (feel da buuuurn) and then another 30 minutes of less challenging yoga moves. The program is technically designed to be 90 days long, and you're supposed to do a certain workout each day of the week, but I don't like following rules so I just do what I feel like. I usually do one workout (they're all about an hour) every morning, but they're tough and every few days or once a week I need a break, so I use those days for stretching, because there's a DVD for that too. It's an hour of taking care of yourself, and it feels so good. Tony Horton, the guy who designed the program, is really into yoga - and he was actually vegan for a little while; there's a part in one of the videos when he talks about making non-dairy corn chowder! - so there's a lot of yoga in the stretching video too.


Anyways, my point is that after I have worked my muscles and cardiovascular system a LOT all week, it feels amazing and so right to just spend an hour calmly stretching out my limbs and doing some light yoga. Work hard, relax hard - get it? ("Oooooooh, now I get it!") Afterwards, my body usually wants just one thing: homemade almond milk! So today I share a drink that is perfect for post-yoga nutrition. It's full of spices that are detoxifying digestive aids and blood cleansers. Besides, it tastes amazing. I need something more substantial pretty soon after drinking this but it's dreamy on its own right after I roll up the yoga mat. Ideas: add it to a smoothie... okay that's the only idea I have.

A note about the soaked almonds: I suggest buying raw organic almonds in bulk or in a large amount, soaking them all at once, then storing them in the freezer in ziploc bags or air tight glass containers. This is what I do in any case, and it works great for me. A note about the vanilla: try to get whole vanilla beans, then chop off a small segment and throw in the blender. It adds a really fresh flavour that you can't get from vanilla extract or even vanilla powder. I love getting my vanilla beans from Nature's Happiness; they are organic, fair trade, raw and pretty inexpensive.


WARMING CHAI ALMOND MILK

1/4 cup raw almonds, soaked for 8-12 hours in water then drained 
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon powder
1/4 teaspoon segment of vanilla bean 
4 cardamon pods
3 Medjool dates
1 1/2 cups hot water

Throw it all in the blender until smooth. Strain with a nut milk bag, sieve or cheese cloth, and sip it up. Great after yoga and before or after meals. Add 2 frozen bananas to make it a chai milkshake. Life is good. 

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MEYER LEMON COCONUT CREAM TARTS with MINT + LAVENDER
Makes two huge tarts; four servings

Crust:
1/2 cup buckwheat groats
1/2 cup almonds
1 teaspoon maple syrup (if desired) 

Lemon coconut cream: 
1 cup shredded coconut
1 cup cashews 
2 teaspoons maple syrup
1/4-1/2 cup fresh lemon juice (preferably from Meyer lemons since they're sweeter) 

Garnish:
A few mint leaves
1 teaspoon dried lavender flowers
1 teaspoon lemon zest
1/2 teaspoon maple syrup (optional) 

To make the crust: put the groats and almonds into a high speed blender and blend until it turns into a thick, slightly crumbly paste. If needed or desired, add a little maple syrup, then press into two tartlet molds or whatever shapes/molds you like. Put in the fridge.

To make the lemon coconut cream: put the coconut and cashews into your high speed blender and blend until it turns into a thick paste/butter. Stir in a 1/4 cup lemon juice and the maple syrup until evenly combined (or blend it in). If you'd like more lemon flavour, add more lemon juice! I like mine quite tart - no pun intended, seriously - so I used a full 1/2 cup. Spread this mixture evenly into your crusts, then let them sit in the fridge overnight or for at least a couple hours so the flavours can get to know each other. Garnish with mint, basil, lemon zest, maple syrup or whatever else you like! Life is good! 

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RAW VEGAN ICE CREAM SANDWICHES: oat cookies with bubblegum ice cream

Cookies:
1 1/2 cups rolled oats
1 tablespoon maple syrup
1/4 cup melted coconut oil

Ice cream:
4 peeled, chopped frozen bananas
1/4 cup beet juice
1 teaspoon vanilla powder

To make the cookies: grind the oats into flour in a food processor or high speed blender. Mix in the maple syrup and coconut oil until you get a doughy mixture. Press half of it into the bottom of a 9x3 bread pan (lined with parchment paper or coconut oil) and set aside.

To make the ice cream: blend the bananas and vanilla together in a high speed blender until smooth and thick like soft serve. If you need to, add some coconut milk. Carefully pour in a little bit of beet juice (you don't have to use the full 1/4 cup) and swirl it just once or twice with a spoon, then scoop the ice cream evenly on top of your first cookie layer (in the bread pan). Freeze this until solid, then press on the remaining half of the cookie dough. Put back in the freezer until the cookie layer on top is solid, then cut with a warm knife or a cookie cutter. Enjoy!

SUBSTITUTIONS & ADAPTIONS: you can use buckwheat groats (gluten-free) or cashews instead of oats, you can use coconut ice cream or mango sorbet instead of banana ice cream. You can mash up some berries and throw them in the ice cream instead of beet juice. You can use date paste instead of coconut oil and maple syrup (in the cookies). You can use vanilla extract instead of vanilla powder. 

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Sooooo going vegan is pretty much the best decision ever, because it means you can eat ice cream and chocolate all day long and get healthier and happier than ever before. How is this possible? You can make the best ice cream in the WORLD with one ingredient: bananas. You can make the healthiest dark chocolate sauce ever with super nutritious foods like cacao and carob. I eat ice cream for breakfast regularly, and I am smiling and jumping around the rest of the day, every day. Why spoon a bowl of antibiotic- and sugar-loaded bovine secretions when you can gorge on ripe fruit!? No offence to the cows. They are awesome, but we don't need their milk. Another terrific bit of information about vegan ice cream: it's inexpensive! Organic bananas are often $1.00/lb here in Vancouver, Canada (conventional ones are 70 cents/lb or so) and I KNOW they are often cheaper in the States.




Buy 'em in bulk (ask your grocery store if you get a box, or get a discount on extra ripe ones) and let ripen until they are covered in brown spots. Then peel, chop into chunks, lay them out on parchment paper-lined baking pans and freeze until solid. Finally, dump all the frozen chunks into big Ziploc bags and keep in the freezer until you want ice cream (like, everyday). The first time I made banana ice cream - also known as 'nana ice cream' or 'nice cream' - I couldn't believe how delicious and simple it was. In the recipe below I list vanilla and almond milk as ingredients, but the simplest form of banana ice cream is literally just frozen bananas. Note: you need a strong blender to do that (Vitamix or Blendtec). The second simplest? Frozen bananas + water. Ah, ain't life swell?

When I became vegan I thought I'd have to give up my favourite food (i.e. ice cream) until I realized the best ice cream IS vegan. Hello, brave new banana-filled world. It's good to be here. Join me?

OH AND JUST SO YA KNOW: I will be going away with my lovely Jack for a week in the snow-covered woods of northern British Columbia. We are escaping to his grandparents' cozy cottage in Wells, where we went in the summer, before I go back to university on January 7th. I probably won't be posting much on le blog in the next week, but stay tuned to my Instagram for daily photos of what we are eating! There is no oven and possibly no running water, so it'll be a healthy challenge for me to keep us nourished and I plan on sharing all my tips and tricks with you. Yams baked on an open fire? It's goin' down. Steaming veggies with melted snow? Expect it.


BANANA VANILLA SOFT SERVE with DARK CHOCOLATE DRIZZLE

Ice cream:
4 peeled, frozen bananas
1 teaspoon vanilla powder
1 cup almond milk (or water)

Chocolate drizzle:
1 tablespoon maple syrup
1 teaspoon cacao powder
1 teaspoon water

To make the ice cream: cut the frozen bananas into 1-inch chunks. Put in a high-speed blender with the vanilla and almond milk (or water). Blend until it becomes the consistency of soft serve ice cream. It may not seem like it will get to this stage, but it happens quickly and then all of a sudden your blender is full of a creamy, thick, white ice cream! Scoop this into a bowl. 

To make the drizzle: stir the ingredients together until smooth, it will take a second for the cacao to combine with the liquid. Drizzle on your ice cream and enjoy! Add whatever else you like: berries, almond butter, cinnamon, cacao nibs, chia seeds, hemp seeds, coconut... I like using this delicious mix from Blend Co. 

ADAPTIONS: you can use cocoa or carob powder instead of cacao. You can use whatever non-dairy milk you want. You can use coconut nectar or date paste instead of maple syrup. You can use vanilla extract instead of vanilla powder. 

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I wasn't sure what title to give this recipe, because it's really awesome and delicious, but how do I get across the gist of it in one name? I can't call it: raw vegan cheesecake with swirls dyed by beet and carrot juice. No one would click that. Well, almost no one. I would click it. That sounds cool to me. But we are getting off track. I will explain the recipe now.

I had a vision of this... probably in a dream or something. I can't remember exactly but I certainly had a clear image of it in my head and felt the desire to make it into a reality. Originally I was imagining much darker pink and orange colours, along with green swirls (from green juice!) but I give up easily when it comes to food and let this cake happen instead. I might go back to that initial idea in a few months, but for now we will all have to deal with this recipe. Call me optimistic but I think we will manage, somehow.



This cake is freaking TASTY. The base is your regular ole cashew cream, except I sweetened it with fresh orange juice, then divied it up into different mixtures, adding beet juice to one and carrot juice to another. Thus you wind up with a pink or reddish mix, an orange one, and a cashew coloured one. You swirl 'em all together and you get this gorgeous, healthy cylinder of yum. Plants are awesome. Unfortunately these photos are not. Fall as arrived and that means lots of clouds. Usually cloudy weather makes for great lighting buuut today it was just dark all day. Nuttin' I could do.

New topic: have any of you read The Secret? It's about the law of attraction. Look it up if you don't know what I am talking about. Honestly, I am normally highly critical of stuff like this and prefer to base my logic in good science. However, I cannot deny that it seems to really work for me, the law of attraction that is. Over and over I find myself saying something out loud that I want to happen, sharing more personal desires with loved ones, casually in conversation, or as I am writing in my journal. In any case, soon after I mention an aspiration or start thinking about one more frequently, it seems to materialize in my life! Let me give you some examples.

(a) My first book deal. A couple years ago when I was 19, I had been thinking of eventually writing a cookbook because everyone was telling me I should, and of course it was a super exciting idea for me as well. Lo and behold, my amazing publisher found ME and the rest is history. You can buy my first cookbook here, and pre-order my second one here.

(b) My mattress. About a year ago I started thinking more seriously about getting a new mattress. I had been researching and discovering all sorts of bad news about conventional mattresses. I was looking online at organic mattresses but they were like $5,000... nope. Out of nowhere, a mattress company - IntelliBED - specializing in non-toxic mattresses and healthy sleep gets a hold of me and wants me to have one of their beds to review (and keep). Please learn more about my mattress here, because IntelliBEDs are seriously amazing and deep sleep is just as important as diet when it comes to health.

(c) Animal rights activism. I have been saying to a few people lately that I feel like I am not doing enough. I am busy with university, maintaining my blog, writing books, and trying to manage a social life so I don't have much time to focus on activism for animal welfare and environmental campaigns, but I genuinely do feel like I should do more. I plan to get much more heavily involved in that kind of work when I graduate, but for now I just sign as many petitions as I can. Even still, seemingly out of the blue I am getting WAY more animal rights organizations contacting me than I was before.

Maybe these are lame examples and you think I've gone cooky. I totally agree with you. But at the same time... it feels really uncanny when this stuff just keeps happening over and over. Lemme know your thoughts. Let's eat that cake now.

CASHEW CREAM CAKE with FRESH JUICES

Crust:
1/3 cup pecans
1/3 cup dried coconut shreds
2/3 cup medjool dates
1 teaspoon rosemary leaves (optional)

Base:
1 cup cashews (preferably soaked for 2-4 hours)
1/2 cup fresh orange juice
1 teaspoon chunk ginger root 
3-4 tablespoons melted coconut oil
1 tablespoon lucuma powder (optional) 

Extras:
1/4 cup fresh beet juice, as needed
1/4 cup fresh carrot juice, as needed

To make the crust: pulse the pecans, coconut and rosemary (if using) in a food processor until they become small crumbs. Add the dates and process until it all sticks together. If it's too crumbly, add more dates. Press into the bottom of a lined springform pan; the one I used is about 7 inches. Put in the fridge. 

To make the cake: blend the base ingredients together until smooth. It should be like thick yogurt at this point; if it's not, add more cashews or coconut oil. Separate the mixture equally into 3 bowls.

Scoop one of the portions back into your blender and add 3 tablespoons of beet juice, then blend until smooth. Keep adding beet juice if you want, but if it starts getting very thin add more cashews or coconut oil. Scoop this pink/red mixture back into a bowl. Do this same process with the carrot juice. You should now have one beet juice mixture, one carrot juice mixture, and one plain mixture.

Assembly: take the springform pan out of the fridge, and have your three mixtures ready with a spoon for each. To get the swirl effect, just fill up the pan with spoonfuls of each mixture until you run out. Then run a chopstick through it all in whatever pattern you like. Or simply pour them in one after the other to get a layered look. Either way it's gonna taste great. Let it set for at least 24 hours in the fridge so it can develop flavour, then decorate and enjoy!

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So that was really tacky and incredibly lame of me but sometimes ya just gotta write love prose to your fave dessert. Right, guys? ... GUYS? In all seriousness though I do adore raw vegan tarts. They're easier and quicker to make than cakes, and most of the time they come out looking like super stars. You make the crust which is usually just a mix of dates and nuts, press that into a tart pan, and then you make your filling which is normally a simple blending up of bananas, coconut or nuts with  a healthy sweetener, and finally you decorate it with something pretty like fruit. Done. You now have a gorgeous, delicious, uber-good-for-you treat to impress everyone with. This is why I love raw vegan desserts.

I made this recipe a few months ago and am posting it now to remind me of the wonderful berry harvests of the summer. I will miss the sun dearly for the next couple seasons. We basically get straight rain for the next five months here in British Columbia. The only way I survive is by daydreaming about the vibrant berries we had the pleasure of eating in the previous warmer months. Until the next fertile epoch I will be consuming a lot of frozen fruit, apples, greens, carrots and potatoes. I am trying to eat more food that is grown locally, and as I have said before: it's easy to do that when you have TWO winter farmers markets in your city. Yep, we locavore Vancouverites are spoiled.

Another bonus to buying local - in addition to being more connected to your food system, minimizing your carbon foot print, and supporting ethical, environmentally-concious farmers in your area - is the quality of the produce you are getting. Yes, it can be more expensive and usually is (though sometimes you can actually SAVE money at farmers markets) the flavour, colour and texture of locally grown organic food versus internationally shipped stuff from the grocery store is incomparable. What I do now is buy "the dirty dozen"(i.e. the ones most contaminated by pesticides, etc.) if they are available at the farmers market, or at least organically-grown kinds from the grocery store. That way I find a happy balance for my wallet AND still support the local farmers and enjoy amazing produce. Is buying organic important to you? Is buying local important to you? Why or why not? Let me know in the comment section! Have a great day, beautiful people, and try making the tart! x


WHIPPED COCO CREAM TART with FRESH BERRIES

Crust:
1 cup pecans
1/3 cup hemp seeds
1 1/2 cups dates
Pinch Himalayan salt
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Coconut cream:
Follow this recipe.

Fruit:
3 cups fresh berries
2 bananas
1 tablespoon coconut nectar (optional)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

To make the crust: pulse the pecans and hemp seeds into powder in a food processor, then add the rest of the ingredients and process until it all begins to stick together. Press into a lined tart tin and put in the fridge for a couple hours.

To prepare the fruit: wash and slice the berries and bananas then coat with the coconut nectar (if using) and vanilla and put in the dehydrator for 30-60 minutes, this softens and sweetens them.

Assembly: spread your coconut cream into the crust and top off with your berries. MMM.

WOAH. Let's slow things down for a second to acknowledge that these cupcakes are vegan, gluten-free, and made with whole foods. THANK YOU, EARTH.

They're also made with leftovers. Yup. I bought a bag of carrots from the farmers market last week and juiced them, then I was left with all this beautiful carrot pulp. I didn't wanna just compost it so I thought "Hey! I could make carrot cupcakes!" Then I did that. I know, my stories are always so exciting. The cupcake recipe is pretty basic - mostly carrots, nuts, raisins and spices - but that don't stop some epic flavours from being created. Then I topped 'em off with vegan gold AKA whipped coconut cream. Technically coconut cream is not raw, but I give you a raw cashew cream option since I'm inclusive like that. I swirled the cream with raw chocolate sauce because... raw. chocolate. sauce.


I will be bringing one of these sexy orange babes - yes, I'm still talking about the cupcakes - to my friend's birthday dinner for her to *hopefully* enjoy. And the rest? They'll end up in my tummy, Jack's tummy, my parents' tummies and my other friends' tummies. I like the word tummy. It's innocent. I mean I feel like there's no such as an un-cute tummy, otherwise it wouldn't be called a tummy. Honestly when you come to this blog you never know what you're gonna get. Sometimes I think I'm eloquent and cover important topics and other times you get me rambling about stomachs. See? 'Stomach' sounds more... mechanical. Not as cute. Not as innocent... I do not know where is this going.

BACK TO THE FOOD STUFF. These cupcakes are moist, chewy, flavourful and delicious! You can whip 'em up in just a few minutes and share them with vegan sceptics to show how a-freaking-mazing our grub can be. Or if you're not vegan, just make them and see what ya think! Vegan food doesn't require a vegan palate to be appreciated. Jack and I took his friend out for dinner at this new plant-based restaurant on Main Street called Meet (hah... hah... veggie humour) and he was blown away by the flavours and textures of the all-vegan feast we ordered. He apparently was dreaming about the meal the next day. ALL I'M SAYIN' is that I ain't gonna judge you on your diet choices - but I KNOW your mouth can enjoy vegan food just as much as mine. So try out these cupcakes and see what healthy dessert tastes like! Just do it. Swoosh.

These are a great fall recipe because the main ingredient (carrots) is seasonal! I'm into that and really getting enthusiastic about the farmers market every weekend. I literally dream about them. We are lucky bums here in Vancouver because even after the many summer markets close, we have a winter farmers market! So we get easy access to local, organic, sustainably and happily harvested produce ALL YEAR. I cannot complain. Besides, carrots are cheap so this recipe is also inexpensive. Basically you have no reason not to make these. Get yo gorgeous booty in the kitchen right now.

GLORIOUS GREEN JUICE