Naraya Cooking Health Recipe

Wow. I slept for about 15 hours. I am a sleep-o-holic anyway, but I could have easily slept more. The only reason I actually got up was to say hi to my friends who came over, and give them some of these:


They're Guinness Chocolate Cupcakes with Maple Whiskey Vanilla Frosting. Everyone is saying they're delicious so I advise you to make them TODAY. It is Saint Patrick's Day =)

Obviously I didn't eat any today, but I did have one yesterday and can tell you they're awesome. Super moist,  chocolaty with just a HINT of excellent beer. Guinness is a family favourite here.


I've seen this recipe a lot for St. Pattie's, but never a vegan one. So here ya go! Enjoy.

Guinness Chocolate Cupcakes with Vanilla Whiskey Frosting: makes about 20 cupcakes 


Cupcakes:
1 bottle of Guinness Extra Stout (other kinds are NOT vegan)
2 sticks vegan butter
3/4 cup cocoa 
2 cups whole wheat flour
2 cups raw sugar
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp cayenne
1 tsp instant coffee powder
1 tsp salt
2 Tb ground flax mixed with 4 Tb water 
1/2 cup vegan yogurt (or use non-dairy milk)


Frosting:
1/2 package tofu
1/2 cup vegan butter
1/2 cup raw powdered sugar
1 cup non-dairy milk
Vanilla seeds from 1 pod
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 cup agave/honey/maple syrup (if desired)
1/4 cup whiskey 


Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Sift all dry ingredients together, set aside. Melt butter and beer together, then stir in the rest of the wet ingredients. Mix the dry and wet ingredients together until just combined and pour into cupcakes molds, or a cupcake pan lined with papers/vegetable oil. Bake for about 20 minutes. 


While they're baking, make the frosting: blend all ingredients together in blender until smooth and thick. I fiddled with mine a lot and so ended up with a lot extra. If your frosting is too thick - add more whiskey, non-dairy milk, or liquid sweetener. If it's too thick, add more powdered sugar, tofu or vegan butter. Keep in fridge until the cupcakes are ready to decorate. 


Pipe the frosting onto each cupcake and decorate with green sparkles for St. Pattie's! =)


Now, you probably care a lot more about Chocolate Beer Cupcakes than hearing about my water fast; but I'll talk more anyway. Today is good so far, it's the first day so nothing much happens in terms of detox. I feel a bit hungry but not uncomfortably so. I've dranken a quart of water, I'll probably drink another before I go to sleep. Actually, now that I'm typing this, I realize I'm thirsty!
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Hey guys. I think Blogger changed Canadian blogs from .com to .ca, which is cool but it means I lose all my likes, shares, tweets and StumbleUpon submissions... hmph!

This weekend I will be doing a 3-5 day water fast; the duration depends on results and how my body reacts. I made sure to have no plans (besides homework, sigh) and Tuesday I don't have class or work. Thus Monday is the only day I'll have to worry about being active. If I don't feel up to fasting after Sunday then I'll stop. But I think I can handle it. We'll see.


Fasting has been done for as long as humans have been around. Our ancient ancestors "fasted" all the time unwillingly simply because food wasn't around everyday! And later on when people had food available daily, they chose to fast for many reasons. For thousands of years it has been one of the most therapeutic medicines. It is healing, detoxifying, spiritually-enlightening, and emotionally-reconnecting.

Think of important spiritual, medicinal and humanistic proponents - Hippocrates, Plato, Aristotle, Gandhi, Buddha, Mohammad, Jesus, Moses, and many more - they all promoted fasting for several different reasons. Fasting is encouraged in nearly every major religion in the world. Not only because it allows the body to heal itself and detoxify, but also because emotionally and spiritually you are re-awakened and are able to focus on what is really significant (besides eating).

I won't delve deeper into the health benefits right now because there's simply too much to say! Research for yourself, I recommend it. There are many excellent sources of information on the subject available online and in your library =)


I will give daily posts about how I'm feeling, how my body is reacting, and what I'm doing. I'll also provide a little more general info about water fasting. WHY am I doing this? Well, I need to cleanse. My diet has been pretty random lately (as has my sleep schedule). This will reset my digestive system and my circadian rhythms.

Also, I've been feeling out of touch with my Self lately. I have not really meditated in several weeks; and I generally just feel unconscious. I am not excited about anything even though there's many things I SHOULD be excited about. Finally, I'm not passionate about FOOD lately! I view this as a sign I need to take a break from eating; not only to remind myself how wonderful food is and be grateful for it, but also because it shows me my body wants to take a break from eating too.

Time to do some spring cleaning.


Well, that's about it. Please give me your thoughts, advice and support while I complete this! 
Maybe you wanna do it with me? Yeeeeees?

Hello, my friends. Today is Pi(e) Day, as my mother so informed me! Because it's 3.14... get it? Yeah, pretty bad. Didn't stop me from celebrating though.


Above is some really delicious whole-leaf green tea my LOVELY friend Christine gave me for Christmas; and beside that is MY HEART AND SOUL - Dante. Ask anyone who knows me, I am destined to be a crazy cat lady. I love him so much I cry sometimes. Anyways, just wanted to show some pics of my relaxed rainy day (on Sunday). Now, for today... Pies.

My mom made a vegan Shepard's Pie which the whole family loved, especially Greg, who's on his (now monthly!) vegan cleanse. Yippie! If you had told me last year he'd be vegan for a week out of every month - I would've laughed and not believed you. But he likes the way it makes him feel and look. Surprise, surprise.

And for dessert? I made my now family-favourite Chocolate Banana Coconut Cream Pie (click for the recipe) or for another recipe: I revamped it again here. I can't lie... this pie if freaking incredible. If you don't like - you need to see a professional psychologist and get your brain looked at.


You cannot go wrong with layers of nuts, bananas, chocolate pudding, and whipped coconut cream.
It is impossible.

And here's a cool song to chill out to on Pie Day. Enjoy. (The original is great too!)

I've learned that I'm definitively addicted to kale chips and exercise, and in the past two days I've realized the combination of peanut butter, chocolate and banana is also a substance I cannot resist. That's right - today I have made MORE peanut butter cups for you (see my other recipes here, here, and here)... enjoy.


SIDE NOTE: This is my 100th post! Hurraw!

I don't know what it is... but all those components together create something so beautiful, delicious, perfect... so right. Peanuts are chocolate's best friend. Somehow they taste better together than chocolate does with any other nut or seed butter. I guess they're soul mates? When I made PB cups two days ago they were amazing (duh) but I had an epiphany. "Why don't I add banana to this!?" So I did.

There are too many. I am fortunate I've already been to such a large amount of them because my family and I travel so much; especially me and my dad (on his BMW motorcycle).

Those bike trips are some of the best experiences I've had in my life, along with all our giant family road trips. Travelling for me is a time of learning - either completely new things, or realizing the truth about things I already knew about. Since you're in a unusual environment your brain thinks differently and you're able to look at things in a refreshing new light. I've had most of my epiphanies on the back of the BMW.


Travelling also gives you more knowledge about yourself; like all experience does. When you are in a new situation, your reaction to it is also new. That reaction is a part of you that you didn't know about before. In other words: you won't how you feel about something until you experience it! Thus the more you experience, the more you know abut yourself. I think this is vitally important in human life. It is a main reason I am who I am; because I've learned so much about my own soul-being on all my travels.

Now, I am on the subject of travelling to new places for a reason! Lately I have been thinking increasingly about building my tiny house, and where I want to settle down in it. I would LOVE to start building this summer, and then just use the portable home for road trips with friends (can you say FUN?!) until I actually move out, which shouldn't be for a few years at least.
I know generally what the layout of the house will be, and I want to use solar panels for electricity. I'm looking into self-composting toilets (... I know, okay) that I heard about from a reader. If I don't want to install plumbing, I can simply use filtered rain water - closed water system, hell yeah. 

As for my future place of residence - who KNOWS?! That's what this post if about. My criteria is that this place needs to:
- have a warm, sunny climate
- be excellent for growing a variety of fruits
- have tons of cheap fruit and veggies
- close to the ocean (it is the earth's heart!)
- have cheap, large and isolated properties that are still beautiful and in nature!
- have a rich cultural history
- be full of kind, wise, hard-working, welcoming people
- speak a wee bit of English so I'm not totally lost before I learn their language
- preferably be on the same continent as home (Canada)! This means easy travel with my house, and I can     drive to see my parents whenever I want.
- be fairly politically and economically stable (...)
- hmm... I can't think of anything else

So with that list in mind, I've narrowed my options down quite a bit. Currently I have my eyes set on: Costa Rica, Mexico, Hawaii, or Thailand.

Tonight was Pizza and Movie Night at the von Euw house. We've been doing it every Saturday for as long as I can remember. For our pizza, we make our own crust and use fresh ingredients so when I first went vegan, we just started making vegan pizza with tons of veggies and a wee bit of vegan cheese on top =) Thank you, Daiya!

But pretty fast I realized I'd rather just have a normal whole food meal. It's not that big a deal I miss out on pizza. We all still spend the evening together and that's what's important. Anyway, I do have pizza every now and then. So tonight I steamed some vegetables and added tempeh, avocado and hot sauce to them. NOM.

This hardly even needs a recipe. I lightly sauteed about 3 cups of carrots, beans, broccoli, corn, water chestnut, and mushrooms with salt, pepper and spices. Then I added some tamari and seasoned tempeh and put sliced avocado and Sriracha on top. 

The reason for the tempeh is protein. NO - I am at all concerned with getting enough protein on a vegan diet. It's effortless. However, my exercise lately has been quite intense; I do an hour of cardio in the morning, and then 30-60 minutes of light cardio and weight lifting in the PM. I'm in the process of "cutting". It's a bodybuilding term that basically means getting ripped and very defined before a competition.

Is it for health reasons? I admit, no. Bodybuilding itself isn't actually that healthy. You exercise excessively and  have to eat unnaturally large amounts of protein. It's literally a superficial sport. Yet I'm still very intrigued by it... don't judge me! Blame Vegan Body Building, (freaking LOVE this site!) I've always loved working out and lately I've been thinking about one day competing in a BB competition. That's why I'm trying to "cut" right now. I'm seeing how I do, and if my results might be good enough. Plus, summer's coming and I wanna show off my muscles.


A "cutting" diet is high-protein, low-carb, low-fat and lots of cardio. I'll be doing this for about 3 months. Luckily, my body changes really fast depending on my lifestyle changes so I am HOPING to see the results I want relatively soon.

Of course, I'd also like to stay as raw as possible. This means I'll be having green smoothies and raw/steamed veggies a lot, plus a couple fruits each day. I would like to keep cooked foods (including tempeh, gardein and tofu) to a minimum. It also means I need to eat more, which may sound great - but it gets tiring pretty fast. I think I'll do some cleanses and fasts in the next 3 months as well. It will balance out the intense exercise and large amount of food with low exercise and hardly any food.

Anyway! You don't care about this; what you want is dessert. Well, here you go.


Tonight I made over-sized peanut butter and chocolate cups. Yeyyyaaahh baby. My inspiration (although, do you really need  inspiration for PB & Chocolate?) was this cake. Minus all the butter, sugar, white flour, eggs, dairy and baking. All these have in 'em are dates, nuts, peanut butter, cocoa and avocado. My family LOVED them. Greg was using physical force to steal the last one from my mom.

I have returned from Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. It was wonderfully surreal and as soon as we got home, I wished I was right back on the beach there. There entire trip I had the constant "I could live here." I really think I could. Cheap, fresh, delicious fruit; perfect climate, beautiful land, culture and people; it's my dream come true! Most importantly, it's on the same continent as home. That means I'd be able to get my tiny house there with no problems.

The first day we woke up at 3 AM to catch our plane at Vancouver Airport. We took a 45 minute flight to Seattle, where we got on a 4 hour flight for our destination. We were all pretty sleepy, but also super stoked.

*Note: I legit look 14 in all these photos... Ugh. I am aware of how un-photogenic I am.


We got to our resort and our jaws dropped. IT WAS SO NICE. Literally, it's 6/5 stars and you understand why as soon as you get there. This place has everything, and it all smells nice. There is not a speck of dirt anywhere, ever. My mom described it as "swank". Swank it was. I didn't take too many pictures of it, I was busy relaxing and getting tan... but you can get the idea.


We met my aunt and uncle (they're my favourite relatives) and got the party started! We ogled over our room for a bit, changed, then walked along the beach towards the restaurant we were going for dinner, called Eddie's Place (my dad's name!) As we were walking, we saw a baby turtle "sanctuary", basically a safe place to keep the hatching turtles until they can go into the ocean themselves. Muy bueno.


Time for MAGARITAASS! I probably had about two a day along with my mom and aunt Em (yes, we've got the same name). The boys mostly stuck to cervezas.

The second day we went grocery shopping at The Mega. It's like Costco. This day was one of the most exciting for me because it was the first time I saw mexican fruit, and it's prices. FRUIT IS SO CHEAP. In fact, everything is cheaper. I'm seriously considering living in Mexico, and the price of fruit was a great sign that it would be very possible. I sort of died of happiness; I was running around screaming with glee... I don't want to know what the locals thought.

We also saw organic soy milk was available in almost all the stores we went to! The plant-based revolution continues!


My fave fruits of the vacation were papaya and avocado. The papaya was HUGE, and ridiculously tasty (especially compared to the stuff we get here, shipped from Hawaii). The avocado was way creamier and super ripe. Basically guacamole in a shell.



 It was a busy day! Because when we got back to the resort, I went para-sailing too! It was really fun, and surprisingly not frightening in the least. It was actually quite peaceful. I wish I could of stayed up there for an hour - high above all the noise of people, able to see far across the ocean and mountains on Vallarta. Stunning. One funny thing about the para-sailing... I unknowingly advertised for a STRIP CLUB! It wasn't until I was up in the air that I noticed the parachute said "Candy's Girls". When I got back to the ground we asked what that was and the guy told us. We just laughed.


Day Seven was a fave for me. We finally got to go into Old Town (Zona Romántico) Puerto Vallarta; where the streets are dusty, cobbled, and hundreds of years old. The buildings aren't much different. As we walked through the tiny streets I wondered what those walls had seen. Little balconies with twisted iron railings and plants growing where they could; clothes hanging on make-shift line through doorways; good, simple people working hard in the sun for their families. I wish I'd taken more photos to show you!


We visited a farmer's market and immediately met a VEGAN vendor selling baked goods. The company was Wild Flour. She said she had pretty much sold out so she gave me a piece of pumpkin bread, no charge. Wow. This was yet another "I could live here" moment. It was easier being vegan here than at home!!! Crazy thing: the vendor is actually a fan of my blog! She contacted me when I got home and told me so. I couldn't believe it. But then again, it's a small world.

I also got some killer coconut ice cream from another vendor, and put some chocolate peanut butter on it from another. I was in heaven as I walked through the market, noting all the gluten-free, vegan, organic and local products. We saw some fresh organic noni too!

After we left the market, I wanted to find this organic store my uncle (he's not vegan AT ALL, so I was quite proud of him) told me about. It was Organic Superfoods and we had seen the brand in a few stores, selling hummus and almond butter. Awesome to see, just like the soy milk. We found the shop across the street from a giant, ancient, wise tree growing the middle of the road.


Woo-hoo! It was great inside! They had everything I could possibly need being a vegan and health nut in Mexico. They had stuff I can't get here! Everything from maca root powder to virgin coconut oil to fake meat to organic soap. I bought this bag, it was cute and I HAD to buy something from this lovely little place. AGAIN, I was seeing how practical it might be to live here. An article (and useful site!) about eating organic in Mexico is here.

To make the idea of eventually moving here even MORE realistic, I had zero trouble eating delicious raw and vegan food in the heart of Old Town (NOT for tourists, this is real Mexico). We sat down at our table in a little restaurant on the corner of a street and quickly found out they had no vegetalien food. Looked like I was going to be just drinking water for this meal. But the waitress said she would try to come up with something.

In the end, I got a better meal than anyone! They came out with a beautiful plate of guacamole surrounded by fresh veggies, with salsa, beans and hot torillas. Who says eating vegan/raw when travelling is tough?


We were just getting back to the main street of town when I saw a coconut stand. I HAD to buy one. It was one of my goals for the vacation. They sliced off the top for me and stuck a straw in. It was the most delicious coconut I've ever had! So sweet and fresh. I chugged it. Then I went back to the stand and asked them to cut it open so I could get the meat. They did and even put it in a bag and asked if I wanted chili or lime on it =)

The rest of the day was spent on the beach and relaxing with the fam.

Day Seven was also just lovely. We FINALLY didn't have one thing planned so we really did just lay about. I got some serious sun in and had a very peaceful and mindful beach walk. As I was dancing in the waves and throwing my arms around in tropical bliss this cute Mexican guy came up to me and asked if I spoke Espanol. I said just a little. He asked if I wanted to go for a walk with him and so off we went.

Despite the language barrier we were able to talk about all kinds of things for several hours! We sat down in the sand and covered everything from life aspirations to marijuana to reincarnation to religion. Quite a lovely boy... I got his email ;) So I did meet a cute Mexican boy after all! My prediction was 50% correct; since he wasn't exactly vegan... ah well. Can't win 'em all. I walked back to the room and ate a papaya.

What else would you expect from me?


That night was our last in Paradise. We celebrated by going out to a local place recommended by a cabbie we had the first day, Hector. He was a fun guy...

The food was the best we'd had all week, and we ALL enjoyed cervezas and margaritas. Then for dessert they surprised us with tequila shots! Those put us all over the edge a little and the night became exceptionally more fun. We were fist pumping and dancing and singing with everyone around us. Like I said: we ARE the entertainment most places we go. Me encanta.

Day Eight - THE LAST DAY! We packed, checked out of the room, and hung around the pool and enjoyed our last margaritas until we had to leave. My aunt and uncle were staying another week (jeeeaallouuss) so we said our farewells. They said they'd love to invite us back next year.... FINGERS CROSSED! 
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All in all it was a fantastic and amazing trip. I really hope we get to go back next year. But if not - I'm REALLY thinking of moving to Mexico, people. Perhaps not Puerto Vallarta (I don't want to live in a city), but maybe on the outskirts of a town because I will have to have fruit available and what not. I'd like to live near the ocean, but also have a shady area with lots of trees. We will see.

Staying in the big resort was awesome, but throughout the whole week I had the underlying knowledge that this luxury is not sustainable, and I also felt guilty most of the time because it's just not my style. My favourite parts were driving through the country side on gravel roads, and walking through the dusty cobbled streets of Old Town, seeing people work; not laying at poolside ordering drinks from uber polite waiters and never seeing a dirty dish... or dirty anything for that matter. Although it was gorgeous, swank and beautiful - it wasn't real. I definitely could not live like that for more than 1-2 weeks.


Something else I continued to think about throughout the vacation, especially when walking and driving through the real town and countryside... was a book I just read called One Hundred Years Of Solitude. I HIGHLY recommend it. It's a beautiful book originally written in Spanish, chronicling a family over generations, living in a small town in South America. As the family and the town go through one hundred years - there is the ultimate theme of isolation in them all. Each family member, and the town itself in relation to the rest of the world. To make this easier to understand...