Vegan, Raw, Sugar-Free Chocolate Pudding

For my 18th birthday in 2009, Marika gave me this raw vegan chocolate mousse from Whole Foods. It was absolutely delicious. I don't remember the exact ingredients, but back then I was more focused on foods being merely vegan anyway, although I do remember Marika speaking of avocados and banana.

Since Winter Quarter 2010, I haven't been able to get raw vegan sugar-free pudding out of my head. It has got to be one of the easiest indulgences to make, as there is no baking (raw), so we don't have to fret over leavening or the sugar replacement responding unfavorably to heat.

I found the recipe on a website called "Naturally Knocked Up", which does not mean knocked up by food, but if given no other choice...I'd pick raw, vegan, whole foods every time! It's actually a website dedicated to increasing fertility through food. The woman who runs it is a Master Herbalist student, and encourages whole nutrition in its most natural state to influence the body's natural function.

Enough blather...

Raw Vegan Pudding

1 very ripe banana
1 avocado
1/8 c unsweetened cocoa powder
2-3 tsp maple syrup or agave nectar
non-dairy milk for thinning (if needed)

Blend all ingredients until as smooth as you like using a food processor or blender. If the pudding is too think, add the milk 1 tbsp at a time until the consistency suits your fancy.

The website also noted some other options:
1 tbsp almond butter
1 tbsp coconut oil
1.5 tsp vanilla
mint leaves
fruit

Add whatever you like. This can easily become a nutrient pudding, with protein if you add a nut butter and potassium from the banana and avocado. If you add spice, like cinnamon, you've got some antibacterial action. Berries would supply you with antioxidants as well.

Not to mention the maple syrup or agave nectar...but I see that as more mental well-being, because it's not easy watching everyone I know inhale sugary foods all day long...college students treat their bodies like hazardous dumps! They'll come around.

"Cheese"cake

One of my largest internal struggles, which I hardly ever think about until I am given the opportunity, is my insatiable adoration of cheesecake. You might remember that I don't eat dairy; I have been deprived for so very long.

But wait!

The era of cheesecake abstinence is over with the recipe I am about to divulge to you....

The recipe is from Alicia Silverstone's book, The Kind Diet, which has recipes and lifestyle tips for vegans and what she calls "superheroes", or macrobiotics. The cheesecake is from the vegan section of the book - not the superhero section - as the superhero desserts involve more whole grains, fruits, grain sweeteners, nuts, and usually some Japanese culinary methods as well.

Cheesecake

It kind of looks like styrofoam, but I can assure you it's not.

Ingredients
3/4 c Earth Balance Butter
2 c graham cracker crumbs*
1 (12-ounce) package silken tofu
1 c nondairy cream cheese*
1 tbsp safflower oil
1/4 c pure maple syrup
1/4 cup soy milk
2 tsp arrowroot
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 tsp lemon or orange extract
fresh or frozen-thawed mixed berries (for topping)

Procedure

1. Preheat oven to 350 deg. F., and oil an 8" or 9" spring form pan (I used an 8" cake pan).
2. Melt the butter in a sauce pan, turn off the heat and add the graham cracker crumbs. Then press the butter-crumb mixture into the bottom of the pan and bake for 5 minutes.
3. Combine tofu, cream cheese, oil, syrup, soy milk, arrowroot, vanilla extract, citrus extract (if using) in a food processor or blender until smooth. Pour this into the pan over the graham cracker crust.

4. Bake the cheesecake for 45 minutes to 1 hour. Let it cool, add the berries, and chill until serving (the cheesecake, that is).

*For the graham cracker crumbs, I used MI-DEL Honey Grahams (pictured above), because they are only sweetened with honey and molasses, AND because it says that they are 100% whole wheat. Packaged foods are not 100% whole wheat unless it literally says "100% Whole Wheat".
Eric found that a good way to crush them was to use a rolling pin on a plastic bag with the air squeezed out...if you have trouble, I'll send him over!


*The cream cheese is "Follow Your Heart Cream Cheese". This brand is good because they use no partially hydrogenated oils, unlike Tofutti.

Everyone who tried this thought it was pretty good...and those were people who eat sugar and dairy regularly, so that's saying something. In the future I would add more cream cheese and less tofu, just to try to achieve a more cheesecake-like consistency. Chilling did help this though!
I also think a little salt might make it tastier. It was sweet but very light.
Don't let it bake for too much longer than the suggested 45 minutes - 1 hour, because the crust may start to burn a little. I would suggest extending the time by 5 minutes maximum after the hour has passed.

Our Culinary Blunders can't stop our Plans for Spring Quarter!

It’s been a while since I’ve posted anything, and I confess that some culinary experimentation has occurred, and I have not reported ANY of it. But now that finals are over, and the pouring rain is keeping me inside, I can begin!

Before I completely forget, Eric and I did produce a “vegan”, sugar-free carrot cake. I just cannot divulge any recipe yet due to my lack of satisfaction with it. One thing I will tell you is that when choosing sweeteners that are less refined (closer to their natural forms), be sure to consider their taste and potential effect on the recipe. We substituted honey (hence the “vegan” in quotes), and also added half a cup of molasses. BEWARE! The molasses made the entire cake dark-colored and heavy. It still tasted pretty good, but next time I think brown rice syrup or another heat-stable, discreet-tasting sweetener such as stevia ought to be tested.

And then the cream cheese topping was another learning experience. Staying away from dairy, we used a vegan cream cheese, and made sure that it was NOT produced with partially hydrogenated vegetable oils (see ingredients on the popular "Tofutti" vegan cream cheese package). We also used a soy milk heavy cream. Let's just say that it is only dairy that truly whips into a fluffy creamy consistency! Ours became a dairy-free dipping cream for the carrot cake (yea, still liquid!).

We had fun though, and Spring Quarter is going to bring some really amazing goodies, by request of my room mate Melinda. (I love when people want to cook with me).

I'm still hoping to find/create a recipe for chocolate pudding. I've heard of chocolate mousse being made with avocado, banana, cocoa powder, and a few other ingredients; I have this huge pile of healthy recipes (mostly raw and vegan) that Marika gave me, so I need to sift through them again!

Before I go, I was walking my dog Roxie (pictured below, and yes, that is indeed an underbite),

when I came across this lemon that had fallen from someone's lemon tree.

  

Voici le citron mysterieuse.

 

I brought my own fruit leather because I don't trust your snacks.

One of the things I was eager to make when I got my dehydrator was fruit leather...or fruit rolls....or just dried fruit, but that last one is slightly different.

The greatest thing about making fruit leather is that there are no specific formulas or ingredient ratios that you need to worry about. You can just grab the fruit that you had every intention of eating but just never did, so now it might be soft and wrinkly (ehh blaah).

Make sure the fruit you use doesn't have any pits. I read in my dehydrator manual that seeds ought to be removed as well, but I put kiwis in mine and the seeds were no problem at all.
Unnoticeable.
Imperceptible.
Unassuming.

So just leave 'em in there.

I like to use bananas, kiwis, vanilla, a little cinnamon, and I like to simmer dates and prunes (added for regularity!) in apple juice. If you have frozen fruits, like cherries, I bet those would be amazing.

pitted dates and prunes simmering in apple juice

Simmer the dates and prunes

In a small saucepan, throw in some pitted dates and prunes, then pour apple juice to just barely cover them. Simmer them over medium-low heat, keeping it covered. Check on it every few minutes. Soon you'll see that the dates and prunes have absorbed most of the apple juice. When this is the case, add it to a blender.

Blend

After removing the skins from both the bananas and kiwis (not necessary to remove seeds from kiwis, remember?), blend in a blender with the date-prune-apple juice concoction. To this you can add a little honey, vanilla, cinnamon, or any other spices you think would fly well. 

Just a warning

For some reason, the blended mixture of fruits does not smell good. I think it smells like hard-boiled egg yolk, in a bad way. So please ignore that smell. It doesn't taste all that good either. So please ignore that taste. Don't let this discourage you! Power forward.

Pour

Now pour the contents of the blender to a dehydrator tray - yes, a tray is needed - and even it out with a spoon or some kind of kitchen tool.

Pour slowly because you may need 2 or more trays. And you might want to keep the kitchen clean.

You can also add a garnish, such as chopped nuts or coconut. Just sprinkle on top of the smoothed mixture on the tray. Beware, shredded coconut may have added sugar, so look for a variety that doesn't.

   

Dehydrate
Plug the dehydrator in and turn it on, and now you've finished, the rest is up to the dehydrator!

The time dehydrating takes depends on the dehydrator, but they can reliably be done or close to done after about 8-10 hours.

They store best in an airtight container, try to eat within a week or two! (That will not be difficult)

Le produit fini:

You'll never have to bake old fruit into breads ever again! Who needs all that flour and sugar anyways?

Enjoy, and please tell me if you have any other fruit leather ideas!

Tofu Breakfast Burritos

Well, as much as I like the rain, it makes taking a jog all the more uncomfortable. Especially when it's wet and cold; now a warm, tropical rain...that would probably be amazing.

I just figured that while I'm sitting around NOT jogging, but slowly realizing that I have a Biology and Organic Chemistry midterm next Friday, I might as well post my breakfast burrito recipe!

[Buh - rr trill rr - i - to!]

I was majorly tired of eating this 7 Grain hot cereal stuff for brekke every morning, so I thought, how about some good protein and veggies?

And so out of experimentation and whatever vegetables I had lying around, the Elizabeth-variety tofu breakfast burrito was born....

Gather:

avocado mush

Extra-firm tofu (the really solid brick kind)
1 avocado
Crimini mushrooms
fresh spinach
bell pepper
onion
*brown rice flour tortilla
1/2 tsp. Dijon mustard
several drops lime juice
a little olive oil
*seasoning: 1/2 tsp. cumin, black pepper, sea salt

Do:

1. Heat the chopped mushrooms, onion, bell pepper in a skillet over medium-high heat, with a little olive oil
2. Rinse tofu, squeeze water out of it (use cloth or paper towels)
3. Mash the tofu into a crumble using clean hands, or a fork.
4. Add the tofu to the skillet
5. Mix the seasoning together in a small bowl. I suggest 1/2 a teaspoon of cumin, and dashes of salt
and pepper.
6. Mash 1/2 an avocado several drops of lime, and 1/4 - 1/2 tsp. dijon mustard together.
7. Heat brown rice tortilla, spread avocado mixture on it, and put a few spoonfuls of tofu-veg mixture inside.

I know you can burrito better than this

8. Burrito it up and devour.

*I freeze my tortillas for their longevity, so make sure to let them first thaw before heating. Brown rice tortillas have no wheat and therefore no gluten, so they will break easier. Be gentle!

*The seasoning is completely up to you! Black pepper and cumin are especially great, but be imaginative. These are your burritos.

The same goes for vegetables...use whatever is in your fridge! I use an iron skillet; especially if you are on a vegetarian diet, iron skillets are great because a little iron scrapes off into your food, and bam!, you've got more iron in your body.

More on Iron....

If you have an iron deficiency, but want to maintain a vegan/vegetarian diet, I recommend Dulse (a dark red sea vegetable HIGH in iron), and the foods on this list (not all are vegetarian sources):
Iron Sources

Dulse

In addition to eating foods high in iron, absorption of iron by your body can be increased by eating citrus fruits (orange juice too). Iron absorption is diminished from consuming coffee or tea.

Keep in mind that if you go to donate blood, but your iron level is too low, it does not necessarily mean that you have an iron deficiency. Blood banks want your iron level to be higher than normal, so next time eat a lot of iron and citrus (avoid coffee and tea) 2 days before you plan on donating blood.

I hope you like the recipe above...I always look forward to it, and even had it for dinner a few times last week. Let me know about your experimentations and if you end up birthing your own variety of breakfast burrito!

Good luck on donating blood/raising your iron levels!

Valentine's Saturday

I'm guessing that most couples celebrated Valentine's Day today, Saturday, February 12th. Eric and I started Valentine's Day last Sunday with sushi. Then we went to the farmer's market today, where I got him the freshest, purest, rawest apple juice in the universe. Yum.

The candles that Eric gave me. This picture doesn't capture their essence

Our major purpose today was to make chocolate. Raw, sugar-free dark chocolate, to be exact.

We made it right before we left school for the holidays, and it turned out wonderfully. The only shortcoming was that it wasn't entirely solid. It would melt too easily when touched.
Today we made some modifications to the chocolate recipe to prevent that ..... and let's just say more research and development is needed. (It was a slightly disgusting mess, edible, but not worthy of you!)

So if you were looking for some chocolate to devour on Valentine's Day, take Madeleine's advice from Valentine's Day last year and go for a kick-butt run instead. Any superpowers I have are definitely borrowed from her.

In short:

raw, sugar-free dark chocolate will be posted soon

sugar-free carrot cake in 2 weeks!

I want to expand on farmer's markets, and some wisdom that seems really obvious once you read it.  Apart from helping the local economy and not supporting oil companies (there really are other sources of energy being developed!)

Here's the wisdom: Eat the food grown in the same climate that your body is living in (that's you!). Why? Well because something like a pineapple has a thinning effect on the blood, and your body won't be able to warm itself as efficiently if you're in a climate too cold to support pineapples (the middle of winter). So when your local farmer's market only has apples, kiwis, and pears, that's the fruit to eat because it was grown in the same climate. More on this as it develops.

I bought an abundance of kiwis for $2 at the farmer's market today. I'll eat them, and when they are too liquidy to be eaten, I will blend them with other fruit and dehydrate them into fruit leather.

Raw Crackers

You came back! That's good because the recipe in this post is not something you want to miss.

Today I feel like a zombie; not the human-sniffing flesh-chomping kind, (bummer!) but the kind in need of some sleep.

When trying to determine the cause of this, I could immediately cross off sugar as the culprit, because I steer clear of refined sugars. Hence the sugar-free cookies I posted in the last blog!
I suggest that you avoid sugar like the plague; it will be obvious physically once you've done so!

I will be posting other sugar-free desserts as well. A few coming attractions:

Raw, sugar-free dark chocolate

Vegan sugar-free pudding                    

Vegan sugar-free carrot cake

The carrot cake will be for my boyfriend Eric, who also happens to be my ultimate partner in crime...er, cooking. We make most of the recipes together actually!

Oh and my military conditioning class Monday morning was excellent! We run in formation, so you have to keep up your pace, and if you're lucky the other people (the ones actually in the military) sing marching songs. It's quite cute actually.

If anyone is interested in running, I recommend Asics Gel running shoes (not necessary to spend over $100).


Raw Foodism

When I first heard of Raw Foodism, I wondered what could be eaten apart from vegetables, fruits, and nuts. But just as I thought veganism was radical and extreme when I was twelve, I quickly investigated and now do some of my own raw "cooking".

My friend Marika introduced me to a restaurant called Cafe Gratitude. Approximately 90% of the menu is raw, with 100% of it being vegan. I went there and couldn't believe my taste buds! The food was exquisite! For a price, but when you think about how valuable you consider your body and health, forking over some of your earnings for well, a healthier fork doesn't seem too bad.

I eventually purchased the recipe book, which contains in it a cracker recipe that I took advantage of.

Pizza Crust/Buckwheat Crackers

The final result! The green is from the spinach.

You'll need a food dehydrator, and food processor.


Rinse well, pre-soak for 8 hours, and drain:

2 cups whole grain buckwheat*
2 2/3 cups sunflower seeds


1 Tbsp chopped garlic
2 c spinach*
2 tsp. salt
1 Tbsp + 2 tsp. Italian herbs
1/4 c ground flax seeds
1/2 c + 2 Tbsp olive oil
pulp of 1 or 2 carrots*
Spirulina, Chlorella, and Sea Veggie Seasoning*


In a food processor fitted with an S blade, combine all ingredients. Always taste and add more seasoning if you like. Keep in mind that the paste you create will eventually be dehydrated, so all the flavors will be a lot more concentrated. So be conservative!

Spread to about a 1/4 inch thick on dehydrator sheets. Once the crackers are dried enough, you will be able to peel them off the sheets and place them moist-side-up directly on the trays. 


Once the crackers snap apart, they are probably done. It helps to press down and feel for moist spots just in case.


The plant enzymes in these raw crackers are still in tact (not broken down by cooking, because we didn't cook...oops!). This means that these enzymes will help your body digest the food and assimilate the nutrients better. Drink plenty of water as well to prevent dehydration.

*Use raw buckwheat, so the recipe truly is raw.

*The original recipe calls for 2 c veggie pulp, but I didn't have any and my roommate's spinach was calling to me. You can use any vegetables you like, as long as the water content is high. Oh and my roommate did approve of the use of her spinach in this recipe.  =P

*The carrot pulp was used in place of carrot juice. 

*Lastly, the seasoning was something I found at Whole Foods. It contains "superfoods" which help keep your intestinal tract healthy, in part by maintaining beneficial bacterial flora. It is also alkalizing, meaning that it will slightly neutralize your stomach acid. That's beneficial because when your stomach is too acidic, one possible outcome is that fat cells are used to coat and protect your organs and stomach lining. The presence of fat cells reduces organ to organ communication, and your body runs less efficiently.

Spirulina, Chlorella, and Sea Vegetable Seasoning