Raw Tea Sandwiches: Salmon-Herb + Pesto-Avocado

Jenn made this awesome pesto last night with walnuts, parsley and sun-dried tomatoes, she ate it on pasta, I was just eating it with a spoon, so good. We made some raw onion bread and wanted to do something interesting with it so we made little tea sandwiches. These are so yummy, they don't even taste raw...or vegan for that matter. Raw vegan tea parties are possible!

Raw Onion Bread:
3/4 of a large sweet onion
1 cup ground flaxseeds
1 cup ground almonds (or sunflower seeds)
1/4 cup olive oil
1/4 cup coconut aminos or Bragg's
A few pinches of salt (if using coconut aminos)
2 tbsp water


Walnut-Parsley Pesto:
1 cup fresh parsley
1/2 cup walnuts
1/4 cup sun dried tomatoes
1/2 cup olive oil
1 clove garlic
1 tsp lemon juice
Salt and pepper


Smoked Salmon Spread:
1 cup carrot juice pulp
2 tbsp olive oil
1/2 cup hemp seeds/or nut of choice/ or 2 tbsp raw nut butter
1 tbsp lemon juice
1/2 tsp salt
2 tbsp dulse flakes
3-4 dashes liquid smoke (optional)
1/4 cup finely chopped red onion


Parsley leaves
Avocado slices


To make bread, blend onion, coconut aminos, olive oil, water and salt until combined.  In separate bowl, combine ground flaxseeds, ground almonds. Add the wet mixture into the dry, stir until combined. Spread onto a dehydrator sheet, score into small square pieces, dehydrate on 115 overnight or until bread-y.
To make pesto combine all ingredients into a food processor, process until combined. 
To make salmon spread, combine all ingredients except hemp seeds, olive oil and lemon juice. Grind up hemp seeds then add in olive oil and lemon juice. Add hemp seed mixture into carrot mixture. 
Top each cracker with either salmon spread or pesto, add a parsley leaf to the salmon sandwiches, and a slice of avocado to the pesto sandwiches.

Carob Elly Treats (Vegan, GF)

Jennifer and I are absolutely obsessed with baby elephants, I mean what's not to love?! A flopsi-daisy bundle of pure sweetness! Actually, one of my life goals is to meet a baby elephant up close, and I'm dead serious, that will be the best day ever. In the meantime I can make do with making raw treats with my elephant cookie cutter. I'm excited about this particular recipe because: it doesn't involve a food processor. If you have a coffee grinder or even a magic bullet with a flat blade, you can make these raw treats no problem. (An issue that I had when I first started to incorporate raw foods into my diet was finding recipes that didn't require fancy equipment). You could even buy pre-ground almonds to make your life even easier. I just like to grind my own after I've soaked and dehydrated them. And I've also noticed that almost all of our raw desserts call for coconut oil, so here's one that doesn't (for once). Feel free to add mint extract, orange, or whatever you like. Note: The reason why I used coconut nectar is because it goes really well with carob, you don't have to use it though.

Silly silly Ellies!

1cup ground almonds
1/2 cup unsweetened shredded coconut, ground finer
1/2 cup carob powder
3-4 tbsp coconut nectar / other syrup sweetener
1 tsp vanilla extract
Pinch of sea salt
Water, to make dough consistency


Combine all ingredients in a medium bowl. Roll out with rolling pin and cut out shapes. Freeze until firm. Makes about 16 ellies.

Raw Ice Cream Sandwiches: 2 Ways (Vegan, GF)

These were the result of me having nothing to do on a sunday day. I was making almond milk this morning and was like, hey if I make it really thick I wonder if I could make raw ice cream out of it? Well you can! But, if you like your ice cream really creamy I would definately recommend the coconut or soaked cashew route. Otherwise almond milk and hemp seeds work pretty well, it just makes a less dense, lighter ice cream. The "Oreo" cookies actually taste like oreos it blew my mind! I'm definitely making those cookies just for everyday munching. Anyway I'm pretty sure this post speaks for itself, raw. ice cream. sandwiches. Enjoy!

Ice Cream:
2 cups almond milk (1 cup almonds to 1 1/2 cups water)
1/2 cup hemp seeds
6 soaked medjool dates
1 tsp vanilla
Pinch of salt

Oreo (Chocolate) Cookies:
1/2 cup almond flour
1/2 cup unsweetened shredded coconut (ground finer)
1/4 cup raw cacao powder
1/4 cup raw honey/agave/other syrup sweetener
2 tsp mesquite powder
Pinch of salt
1 tbsp coconut oil (see recipe instructions!)

Chocolate Chip Cookies:
3/4 cup almond flour
1/2 cup unsweetened shredded coconut (ground finer)
1/4 cup raw honey/agave other syrup sweetener
1 tbsp mesquite powder
Pinch of salt
2 tbsp cacao nibs

Make almond milk, according to 1:1.5 ratio. Combine almond milk, hemp seeds and dates in a blender. Blend until uniformly smooth. Drain mixture through a sieve to strain out any date/hemp clumps. Return mixture to blender add coconut oil, vanilla and salt. Blend until combined. Make ice cream according to ice cream maker instructions.

Assemble ingredients for chocolate/oreo cookies in a medium bowl. Roll with a rolling pin until 1/4 inch thick. Cut four 4 inch circles out of it, put on dehydrator tray and dehydrate at 115F for 6 hours or until firm-ish. With the leftover dough, add 1 tbsp of coconut oil, knead together (combine) form into flat shapes and put in freezer until firm (a few minutes). Spoon half of the ice cream into a bowl, chop the freezer dough into pieces and crumble into ice cream. Stir until combined.

Assemble ingredients for chocolate chip cookies in a medium bowl. Roll with a rolling pin until 1/4 inch thick. Cut six 4 inch circles out of it, put on dehydrator tray and dehydrate at 115F for 6 hours or until firm-ish. You may have leftover dough, so if that is the case you could possibly get away with making a few extra (7-8). Spoon the other half of the ice cream into a bowl, add cacao nibs. Stir until combined.

Once cookies are dehydrated spoon appropriate ice cream mixture onto cookie (the ice cream should be really smooth and malleable, perfect just out of the ice cream maker) top with another cookies, smooth sides with a knife. Freeze until firm.

Check out our Raw Mini Ice Cream Cakes: 2 Ways

Chickpea-Edamame Burgers with Tahini-Dill Sauce (Vegan, GF)

These started out as Edamame falafels, but I didn't feel like fried oil-ness so I made baked chickpea burgers instead. And these turned out so so good! I went to a burger restaurant  in Toronto and being the little veggie that I am, I ordered a chickpea burger. It was horrible and dry and tasteless, so I figured this was my chance to give chickpea burgers another try. I used half chickpeas and half edamame which gave it a nice springy green colour and lighter texture. The dill sauce came about from eating one of the burgers plain with a salad mix that had dill in it, it went so well together and I'm not even usually a dill person. You can eat these with a salad, wrapped in a collard leaf or on a bun of course!

Perched atop salad mountain 

1 1/2 cup cooked chickpeas
1 1/2 cup shelled edamame beans (defrosted and steamed until soft)
1/4 cup water
2 tbsp tahini
1/2 cup quinoa flour (or brown rice flour)
2 tsp coconut aminos (optional)
1 1/2 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp marjoram
1 tsp ground coriander
1 1/2 tsp sea salt
Freshly ground pepper


Tahini-Dill Sauce:
1 tbsp tahini
2 tbsp water
2 tsp lime/lemon juice
Pinch of sea salt to taste
1 tsp dill


Combine chickpeas, edamame, water and tahini in a food processor until smooth (it's ok if the edamame is somewhat still a bit chunky) Transfer to a bowl and stir in spices, aminos, and flour. Form into 7 patties. Bake for 20 minutes in a 350F oven. To make sauce combine ingredients in a small bowl. Makes enough to dress two burgers.

Reishi Iced Mocha (Vegan, GF)

Good thing I don't have a coffee drinking problem, but if I did, I'd probably drink this to substitute for the full bodied coffee taste everyone seems to love. I was introduced to reishi maybe a month or two ago and I ordered some whole dried pieces of it online. What I didn't realize was that you have to extract it somehow via tea or buy the already extracted powder. It doesn't matter how you take reishi, the point is that you're taking one of the most beneficial and revered herbs in chinese medicine. Reishi is amazingly balancing physically, mentally and emotionally. From my own experience taking reishi, I've noticed an increase in my ability to focus my energy as well as an overall sense of calm. If you feel unbalanced in any way, reishi may be able to help! If you've ever made reishi tea, the first thing you notice when you drink it is: BITTER! In order to subside some of the bitterness I created this drink.

It even gets all foamy on top!

1 cup reishi tea
1 heaping tbsp cacao powder/or carob
1/2 tbsp mesquite powder
1 frozen banana
2 tsp coconut oil/butter
2-3 ice cubes
Drizzle of raw honey/agave/coconut nectar to taste

How to make reishi tea: Combine 4 cups of water and a handful of reishi pieces, broken up into smaller pieces. Bring to a boil then lower to simmer/medium, and simmer for 2 hours (find something productive to do during these two hours :P). You may need to add more water throughout the ismmering if it evaporates too much. Alternatively you can use a powder extract or tincture and simply combine it with water.

Combine everything in a blender. Blend until thoroughly combined. Enjoy as an alternative to coffee!

You can buy a 10:1 reishi extract powder at hyperionherbs.com, this particular powder is extremely high quality and comes from Organic Duanwood. I'm probably going to opt for this powder next time because of its convenience as opposed to the tea.

Sweet Potato Hummus (Vegan, GF)

This isn't your ordinary sweet potato hummus, this one has a secret! Every sweet potato hummus recipe I looked up was very bland, pretty much hummus but with a sweet potato thrown in. I wanted to play up the sweet potato flavour because I love it so much, I added cinnamon, coriander, and cumin and here's the secret: coconut aminos. Coconut aminos is a substitute for Bragg's aminos or soy sauce. It has a nice fruity/smoky taste, hard to describe, but it goes very nicely with the sweet potato. If you don't have coconut aminos, substitute the olive oil for coconut oil and add only 1 tsp soy sauce (coconut aminos is less strong). You can buy it here, if you're interested in it, oh and it's raw so it can be substituted for Nama Shoyu, which I've considered buying but you have to buy that huge quantity of it, and I'm not exactly a soy sauce freak. Top with toasted almonds and cinnamon and you're in for tasty vegan treat!

Coconut Secret Coconut Aminos

1 medium sweet potato
1 cup chickpeas
2 tbsp tahini
1 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp lemon juice
2-3 tsp coconut aminos
1 small clove garlic
1 tsp cumin
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp coriander
Pinch of sea salt
Black pepper, to taste
Toasted almonds, for topping

Combine all above ingredients into a food processor, process until smooth. Makes enough for 6 people.

If you don't have sweet potatoes, or chickpeas but still want to make hummus check out our recipe for Indian Lentil Pumpkin Seed Hummus.

Almond-Vanilla Detox Fudge (Vegan, GF)

I've been doing a detox for the past few days. Nothing fancy just decreasing salt, sugar, and fat intake while eliminating caffeine, peanut butter (tolerate weirdly), fried, roasted or toasted foods, etc. Increasing salads, smoothies, juices and whole food meals. Well I was doing just swimmingly until I was finding myself restless, tossing and turning throughout the night, it must be the toxins coming out right? No this was something else, this was a sugar craving! Chocolate to be exact. Jenn and I are major sugar addicts, if you've looked in our recipes section, sweet things constitute for most of what we make. So, since I couldn't have chocolate and not too much sugar, out of carob too, I decided to make fudge with almond and vanilla flavouring, it actually tasted amazingly good and subsided the sugar craves for now. I've promised myself I won't give in so easily the next time it hits. I also didn't feel like pulling out the food processor, so this delectably healthy dessert is just a bowl and a spoon away! If you are doing a stricter detox omit the coconut nectar and add more stevia.

2 heaping tbsp mesquite flour

1-2 tbsp coconut flour

2 heaping tbsp vanilla hemp protein powder

1/2 tsp pure almond extract

1/2 tbsp maca powder (optional)

1 tsp vanilla extract

2 tbsp coconut oil

1 tbsp coconut nectar (helps it stick together, low GI)

10-15 drops vanilla stevia, or more for sweeter taste

1 tbsp raw tahini

1 tbsp hemp seeds

1 tbsp almond pieces

Combine dry ingredients in medium bowl. Add rest of ingredients. Form into balls or a slab. Freeze until firm. Makes enough fudge for 4 satisfying serving

Raw Carrot-Ginger Soup w/ Cilantro Drizzle (Vegan, GF)

I don't know about any of you guys, but my body has been screaming for a detox. Probably because each year in the past, around this time, my mom and sisters along with myself would do a detox together for a week or so. Once I lasted a whole month! And lived to tell the tale, obviously :) I don't really enjoy detoxing but coming up with fun edible items such as this soup makes me more excited to actually follow through with it. This soup is super easy to digest and contains ginger which is also good for digestive health, or so I hear...The drizzle just adds a certain"je ne sais quoi" to a seemingly "boring" soup base. I must add: this was made with a magic bullet, so don't worry if you don't have a vitamix/blendtec.

4 medium carrots
1 1/2 spring onions
good chunk of ginger, however much you can handle
2 tbsp lemon juice
1 cup water
2 tsp miso paste
1/2 an avocado (optional)
Pinch of sea salt, to taste


Drizzle:
4 tbsp olive oil
cilantro
Pinch of salt


Assemble all soup ingredients into blender. Blend for a few minutes until desired consistency reached. Add additional salt, ginger, lemon to taste. Assemble drizzle ingredients in blender, blend. Drizzle into soup. Makes 2 servings.


Along with soup, you gotta have salad!
This is a salad I made, dressed with Foods Alive Dressings:

Sweet and Sassy, Mike's Special

What I had in the fridge: spinach, apple, green onion, red onion, almonds

Thai Peanut Soup (Vegan, GF)

I know, weird right, peanut butter in soup!? So weird but so good, you guys will just have to trust me on this one, it took me a while to convince Jenn, she regrets being so resistant...because of the sheer yumminess of this soup! If you're still weirded out think about this: peanuts are actually legumes not nuts, where are legumes found? why in soup of course! I found this recipe on about.com, it was rated 5 stars so that was convincing enough for me to make it. The original recipe has an option to add chickpeas, if you'd like a really hearty soup, go ahead and add them in, but seriously it is sooo filling as is. It's crazy addicting too so watch out, I had some for breakfast this morning :P.

Tastes like pad thai, extra peanuts :)

1 onion, diced
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 red pepper, diced
1 carrot, sliced
1/2 tsp cumin
1/2 tsp coriander
1/4 tsp cayenne
4 tbsp olive oil
2 1/2 cups diced tomatoes
1 cup coconut milk
1 cup natural peanut butter
1/2 cup vegetable broth
juice from 3 limes
1 tsp salt
cilantro, chopped
dry roasted peanuts, unsalted, chopped

In a large pot, cook onions, peppers and garlic until tender (5 minutes). Add all other ingredients except cilantro and peanuts. Simmer until cooked through. Top with cilantro and chopped peanuts. Makes 5-6 servings.

Baked Plantain Chips: 2 Ways (Vegan, GF)

We were watching the Colbert Report (love it! I can safely say that Stephen Colbert is pure wit!) and he did a report on the banana crisis, apparently bananas are becoming wiped out by some kind of virus...this is actually real news, not satirically made up, like most of the news on the show. This is bad! because we love bananas so much! I'm assuming that wild bananas are still out there...but in any case all good things eventually come to an end, so I decided to buy plantains to get used to a world without bananas. They're terrible eaten raw, they have the taste and texture of a raw potato; which makes them perfect for baked chips! You have to make sure you slice them really thinly or else they will become chewy and not crunchy and crisp. We did two different versions: Cinnamon-Sugar and Spicy Chili.

2 plantains, thinly sliced

Spicy Chili:
1/2 tsp cumin
1 tsp marjoram
1/8-1/4 tsp cayenne
1/2-1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper
1/2 tsp garlic powder
2 tbsp safflower oil or coconut oil
Squeeze of lemon juice

Cinnamon-Sugar:
3-4 tbsp sucunat (ground up a bit)
1 1/2 tsp cinnamon
2 tbsp safflower oil or coconut oil
Squeeze of lemon juice

Toss half of the slices in one mixture and the other half in the other mixture. The chili blend may be a bit too much, so if you don't like it really spicy don't use all of the mixture. Spread out onto two cookie sheets. Bake at 400F for 15 minutes, flipping halfway through.

Spicy Chili vs. Sweet Cinnamon: it's on.

Crunchy Goodness

These chips are so good! Plantains are a very neutral flavour, similar to potatoes so they are a perfect canvas. The spicy chips would be great along side a burger to replace the fries.

-Jennifer

Vegan Muffins Monthly: Polkaroo Muffins (Vegan, GF)

This is really silly, I don't know if any of you guys used to watch Polkaroo, actually more specifically Polkadot Shorts. It was a Canadian show, so maybe not...You know how small little details from shows stay in your mind? Polkaroo and his pet friend Bibble always ate blueberry orange cookies. I don't know why but I've always remembered that! Anyways I loved the chocolate-orange oats we made the other day so I wanted to make some kind of orange muffin. These turned out more like cupcakes...hey, fine by me. So many memories from this video!! Polkaroo and Bibble definitely had it right, blueberry and orange somehow go together really well:


*Adapted from Happy Herbivore's Blueberry Oatmeal Muffins.

1 3/4 cups Gluten-free Flour Blend (see substitutions)
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup applesauce

1/2 cup Wild Blueberry Jam 
1/4 cup maple syrup
1/2 cup sucunat
1 cup blueberries

Zest of one orange
1/2 tsp vanilla


Orange Glaze:
1/4 cup coconut butter
2 tbsp agave/raw honey
2 tbsp orange juice
1 heaping tsp orange zest


Combine dry ingredients in small bowl and wet ingredients in large bowl. Add dry into wet and stir until incorporated. Spoon into well oiled muffin tin and bake at 350F for 24-26 minutes. Once cooled, drizzle on orange glaze and sprinkle with orange zest.

This is our favourite Jam (Wild Blueberry), there's literally no sugar added.

Raw Chocolate-Mint Pie (Vegan, GF)

Whoa guys you have GOT to give this a go. Mint chocolate is my absolute favourite chocolate combination (second is chocolate orange). This was most definitely love at first bite. I didn't have any fresh mint leaves so I used dried tea leaves and extract. If you have fresh mint use that!

Contemporary tart shot ;)

Brownie crust

Crust:
3/4 cup almond flour
1/2 cup pecans
1/4 cup raw cacao powder
PInch of salt
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 cup packed dates
2 tbsp coconut oil

Filling:
2 large avocados
1 tsp lemon
1/4 cup water
1/2 cup melted coconut oil
1 tbsp dried mint leaves
2 tsp mint extract
1/4 cup agave

Ganache:
1/2 cup cacao powder
1/4 cup agave
pinch salt
2 tbsp water
2 tbsp coconut oil

Drizzle:
1/4 cup soaked cashews
1/4 tsp vanilla
water (to thin)
1 tbsp coconut oil

Assemble crust ingredients in food processor, process until well combined. Press into an 8 inch pie plate or tart pan. Chill until firm. Combine filling ingredients until well combined and creamy (in a food processor). Adjust mintiness as you like. Pour filling into crust, chill until set. Combine ingredients for ganache. Pour ganache over filling in a thin layer. Chill until set. Assemble ingredients for drizzle in a food processor. Drizzle over top. Freeze for a more ice creamy pie or chill for a softer pie. Makes one 8 inch pie.

Zesty Chocolate-Orange Oats (Vegan, GF)

Oats, plan B breakfast when we're not feeling a smoothie. I'm glad I wasn't in the mood for a smoothie this particular morning when Jenn made Orange-Chocolate oats! We used Navitas Naturals Raw Cacao Sweet Nibs, which are pretty much raw chocolate chips, yum! We love Navitas and how they make eating nutrient dense foods so simple and easy. Their website is also extremely easy to use too, check it out! I think this is my new favourite breakfast. Why does chocolate go with pretty much everything? Except lemon...perhaps.

Navitas Naturals Sweet Cacao Nibs

1 1/2 cups water
2/3 cups oats (Pure)
3 tbsp agave syrup or honey
2 tbsp sweet cacao nibs
zest of one orange
1 tbsp ground flax seeds

Bring oats and water to a boil and simmer for about 10 minutes. Add in agave or honey, nibs, zest and flax seeds. Pour chocolate sauce on top. Indulge!

Chocolate sauce: we just threw together raw cacao powder, honey/agave, and water.

Raw Green-Chocolate Pudding w/ Stevia (Vegan, GF)

Another pudding, this time with a super healthy spin. SPIN-ACH. Spinach blends nicely in puddings, the leaves are very soft and full of moisture so there's no obvious green taste or texture. Great for breakfast or post workout protein pudding. Yes it looks like swamp sludge, but it's nutritious, delicious swamp sludge. AND I finally found stevia that doesn't taste weird! I contacted the vice president of NuNaturals and asked if there's any corn or soy in the glycerine, it's made from only coconut...cool.

1 avocado
handful of spinach
2 tbsp raw cacao powder
1 tsp maca powder
1/3 cup chia gel
1 scoop hemp protein powder
8 drops NuNaturals vanilla stevia
Pinch of sea salt

Combine ingredients in food processor or blender. If you like your pudding sweet add in some dates or agave/raw honey.

-Jac

Raw Granola + Almond Milk (Vegan, GF)

We got a dehydrator! Whoo! But don't worry we will still make the majority of our raw recipes dehydrator-free for people who live the cheap and cheerful student life. We'll mostly use it for dehydrating soaked nuts and drying fruit.

Here's a recipe for raw granola that I sort of made up as I went along. It's a great base that you can add to. I added jungle peanuts, goldenberries and cacao nibs. Jac was not a fan of the jungle peanuts for some reason...I guess even though we're twins we don't agree on everything...And the goldenberries were a bit too sour. Next time I'll add a sweeter fruit like blueberries or grapes.

1 1/2 cup finely chopped soaked almonds

1 cup raw pecans, soaked (from More than Alive)

2 tbsp ground flax seeds

1 tsp cinnamon

1 apple, peeled and chopped

1/2 tsp sea salt

1/4 cup agave syrup/raw honey/maple syrup (or any other sweet syrup)

1 chia egg (1 tbsp chia seeds mixed with 3 tbsp water)

Start off by chopping the soaked almonds (You could also pulse them in a food processor). You want to make sure they are finely chopped but not into a puree. Put almonds into a large bowl. Finely chop 1/2 cup of the pecans and throw in the bowl with the almonds. Add in ground flax, cinnamon and salt, set aside. 

In a blender or food processor, puree the apple, agave syrup, chia egg and 1/2 cup of soaked pecans. Add to the almond mixture. Add in any nuts or fruit you desire. Spread onto a dehydrator sheet and dehydrate overnight. (We did ours for 17 hours, but you can just see how dry it is the next morning and decide how much more you want to dry it for). Flip over and break into pieces half way through dehydration. Eat!

How to make Almond Milk:

1 cup of soaked almond

2-3 cups of water (2 cups will make it more creamy and 3 cups will be more like skim milk)

1 tbsp of raw honey/agave syrup or a couple dates (optional)

Blend together all ingredients and squeeze through a nut milk bag or sieve. We used reusable produce bags that Jac found for really cheap at the grocery store. You could also use cheesecloth.

This is our first time making almond milk from scratch and I can't believe we didn't do it sooner. It just tastes so much more fresh and pure, unlike the boxed almond milk that tastes stale and processed. And you can use the pulp for making gluten-free almond flour which is always so expensive. It's 2 for 1!

GF Vegan Breakers! Cream of Buckwheat + Apple Cinnamon Pancakes

Don't be scared yet! I was standing in the cereal aisle with a bag of oats in one hand and cream of buckwheat in the other. Should I dive into the unknown world of cream of buckwheat? What if it's horrible, and tastes nothing like cream of wheat? I shoveled out the four dollars and decided to try it. I made a bowl of it this morning and was thouroughly impressed! It doesn't taste exactly like cream of wheat, but it's pretty darn close. And it's the perfect canvas to add flavourings such as nuts and fruit, etc. I had a small bowl of this and seriously could not bring myself to eat lunch and barely even dinner, it's sooo filling. Cream of Buckwheat would be a good thing to have around when you find yourself on a rampage pecking at every edible thing in sight. It stops hunger in an instant.

Added in: vanilla, cinnamon, cloves, honey, pistachios, pinch of salt

Apple Cinnamon Pancakes

We made the best pancakes yesterday! Courtesy of apple and cinnamon:

1/4 cup applesauce

1/2 cup almond milk

1 cup Gluten-free flour blend (see substitutions tab)

2 tbsp safflower oil

1 flax egg

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

1/4 tsp vanilla

1/2 tsp cinnamon

Chopped apples

Combine dry ingredients in large bowl. Set aside. Mix together almond milk, oil, egg and vanilla. Mix into dry ingredients. Fold in applesauce. Spoon onto frying pan. Place thinly sliced banana on each cake. Cook on low heat (this is important or else they will fall apart easily) until golden brown. Makes 5-6 large pancakes.

Delicious Revolution + Nuts Online Review

I was just surfing the vegan web and came across this AMAZING site. It's run by Joy Houston, a raw food nutritionist and chef. I'm reading through the articles and was shocked by how similar her views matched with ours. When she says: "getting off the roller coaster most don't know they're even on" that really resonated with me (us).

I watched her videos about the "Body Battle Plan" and that's almost exactly what Jenn and I have done except not knowing it, or having a plan for that matter...lol

Basically she advocates: Cleanse, Customize and Create. So first you cleanse (ie. raw food diet) then you slowly introduce different foods to your diet to see which foods are helping you and which ones aren't. You then create recipes with the foods that are kind to you and limit your intake of foods that are not. 

All of her articles are so awesome! Some that really jumped out at me:

Why Avoid Soy? Top Ten Reasons to Avoid Soy

Almond Milk: Boxed or Fresh

Raw Cacao: Naughty or Nice

Food Hangover

Healthy Eating on a Budget

Top 5 Alkaline Food Recipes

Also yummy recipes: Orange Cream Cacao Bark

...by the way this is really unlike me to voluntarily endorse like this but I just couldn't help myself! I'm also a sucker for sharp graphic editing. Now onto the goods...

We received a package in the mail from Nuts Online today! They sent us the Raw Sampler Pack, which contains lots of yummy raw treats as well as raw essentials. This would be a really great gift for someone who is just getting into a healthy diet paradigm and doesn't want to spend loads of money trying out different superfoods like spirulina or maca (which are both included in this pack). All of their products are fairly priced, they offer an array of organic products, I was surprised at the variety, there were some products I've never seen before on any other site such as organic strawberry powder, which is next on my wishlist to make strawberry ice cream in the middle of winter! I would just be weary of the quality, I wouldn't compare the quality of health foods from nuts online to, for example a company like More Than Alive, or Navitas Naturals, but it's a good source for students (like us) who aren't exactly rolling in the dough. :P

Raw Sampler: Organic Quinoa, Spirulina, Turkish Figs, Organic Almonds, Organic Cacao Goji Squares, Organic Hemp Protein Powder, Organic Maca Powder, Chia Seeds, Acai Blueberry Superfood Cereal, Organic Cacao Nibs.

Our favourite was the Raw Cacao Goji Energy Squares, there's a reason why there was only one left to photograph!