Superfood Nut and Fruit Clusters + Stevia Giveaway

All of our baking has been in the freezer lately! Treats come together so quickly when you don't have to bake them. Plus it's been really hot lately which is really weird for Canada at this time of year. We don't really know what to do. Half of us are still wearing our winter coats afraid that it will start snowing again like it usually does. I personally have been wearing full out summer clothes everyday this week! I'm also keeping cool with my favourite freezer treats including these jam-packed nut and fruit clusters using superfoods and a carob-chocolatey coating. 

For the coating:

6 tbsp almond butter
3 tbsp coconut oil, melted
10 drops vanilla stevia
1/4 cup carob powder

Combine in a bowl, set aside.

1/4 cup each of:

Raw almonds
Raw cashews
Sacha Inchi seeds
Goji berries
Hemp seeds
Dried cranberries (juice sweetened)
Coconut shreds (I dusted mine with spirulina, didn't really stick though)

Add nuts and fruit into chocolate mixture and stir until fully-coated. Scoop out onto parchment paper in cluster shapes. Freeze for about 2 hours. Eat. Feel super.

Superfood central

Only good stuff

Oh and guess what? We're giving away a bottle of our favourite stevia ever! "NuNaturals Vanilla Stevia" and a box of powdered stevia as well. And even better, we will be giving away 4 packages to 4 readers, so the odds are pretty good ;).

To enter:
1. Leave a comment telling us the sweetest thing in your life right now. (aww isn't that sweet!)
2. Follow us on Facebook
3. Leave a comment on our facebook wall (say hello!)

Giveaway closes Friday, March 30th

You'll win this

And this

Chocolate Cherry Fro-Yo + Juice

Happy Saturday everyone! We have a very simple post for you today combining some of our favourite items! First we have a super yummy chocolate cherry fro-yo. We love "frozen yogurt" in the morning instead of a smoothie for an extra special treat.

Avocado, coconut milk, frozen sour cherries, carob, stevia

We've been loving our juice lately!

Beet, Celery, Fennel

Kale, Carrot, Pear and Fennel

Toasted Coconut Banana Marshmallow Tartufo

I remember when I was little I told my Dad I had a genius idea. "Why don't people sell individual scoops of ice cream you can eat just like that!" After hearing this he took us to a "surprise" location. It was an italian cafe that sold little tartufos in packages. Ok ok, I get the message, geez!

I am going a little bananas over this marshmallow root powder from Mountain Rose Herbs. I just can't stop using it! The powder gives the ice cream a marshmallow-y flavour which goes so well with the toasted coconut and it keeps it from getting too hard in the freezer. 

2 bananas (frozen and sliced)

1/3 cup full fat coconut milk

3 tbsp brown rice protein powder (I used vanilla flavoured)

1 tbsp marshmallow root powder

1 cup of unsweetened, shredded coconut, toasted

*To toast the coconut, just put coconut shreds in a frying pan over medium heat and stir constantly until it turns a golden colour.*

Blend the bananas and coconut milk in a food processor. Stir in protien powder and marshmallow root powder, place in a tupperware container and freeze for about 1 hour. Remove from the freezer and stir up. You will notice it is a lot more thicker. Scoop out ice cream with a spoon and use another spoon to smooth it out. (You could also use one of those nifty ice cream scoopers that scrapes the spoon for you). Slip into the toasted coconut and coat evenly. Repeat until you have no more ice cream. Freeze for another 2 hours. Enjoy!

Makes about 8

coconut nesting

Close up coconut

tartufo piece...

Should I eat it?

Or smash it!

Hot Chocolate Mousse w/ Marshmallow Root Fluff

So awhile ago we were given a credit for Mountain Rose Herbs and we could pick whatever we wanted to review. Being the adventurous one I chose marshmallow root powder. I thought, hey! Maybe I can make my own mallows! Believe it or not, it actually worked! I couldn't believe it! You guys probably don't believe me but I swear it has the exact same texture as marshmallow fluff. Obviously it would taste more like it if you added actual powdered sugar, but we're sticking with stevia for health purposes. You seriously have got to get your hands on some of this magical powder. Marshmallow fluff still lives!

To celebrate this new discovery, we made a "hot chocolate mousse"

Chocolate Layer:
1 avocado
2 tbsp carob
1/4 cup + 1 tbsp coconut milk or water
about 8 drops stevia

Marshmallow Layer:
1/3 cup full fat coconut milk
1 - 2 tbsp marshmallow root powder (depending how thick you like it)
8 drops stevia

Blend chocolate later in a blender or food processor. Layer on the bottom of a glass jar or bowl. Mix together marshmallow layer by hand. Layer on top of chocolate mousse. Top with cacao nibs or chocolate sauce.

Dessert time!

Marshmallow fluffer

I'm trying to prove to you how legit this fluff is...close up!

The main ingredient

Juice Pulp Veggie Burgers + Blueberry-Kiwi Swirl Fro-Yo

So I always seem to have a surplus of juice pulp in the fridge and it's such a shame to put it to waste, so I made these amazing veggie burgers with a base of juice pulp (kale, celery and carrot), mushrooms and ground almonds! So they're grain-free for anyone cutting grains from their diet.

You need:

1 cup juice pulp
1 cup aduki beans (or black beans, or any other bean for that matter)
2 tbsp tahini
2 tbsp tamari
1 cup finely chopped mushrooms (I used 6 mini portobellos)
1 1/3 cup ground almonds
1 1/2 tsp ground cumin
1/2 tsp smoked paprika
salt and pepper
1/4 cup of water (add more water if it needs a little help processing)

Blend up the beans until smooth add in juice pulp, mushrooms, tahini and tamari. Blend until smooth. Add in ground almonds (almonds should be roughly ground). Add in spices and stir until combined. Form into patty shape (You'll get about 10 small burgers or 7 big ones). Bake in a 350F oven for 25 minutes. Top with avocado and paprika!

Nutritionals

So much texture!

These turned out amazing! So moist and flavourful, like a good veggie burger should be!


And check out this awesomely cooool blueberry-kiwi swirl frozen yogurt. Here's the breakdown:

frozen blueberries + 1/2 avocado + stevia = blueberry fro-yo = X

2 frozen kiwis + 1/2 avocado + stevia = kiwi fro-yo = Y

X + Y = Blueberry-Kiwi Swirl!

Frozen Tahini-Banana Bites + Sunbutter-Tamari Salad Dressing

We have two recipes for you today! Both are painfully simple and use the painfully cheap tahini and sunflower seed butter. We have been loving bananas + tahini ever since seeing it on Pure2Raw. It's such a good flavour combo. You wouldn't think by the sounds of it, but you just gotta try it! 

Bananas and tahini with cinnamon, coconut and quinoa puffs

Knowing the flavours work so well together I made a frozen treat using only a few simple ingredients. And it came together so quickly, making more time for munching!

What you need:

1 banana, frozen and cut into slices

2 tbsp tahini

2 tbsp coconut oil

4 drops of vanilla stevia (optional)

Sesame seeds (optional) 

Gently heat up the tahini and coconut oil ( just until the coconut oil melts, make sure the mixture stays room temperature). Dip slice of banana in the tahini/coconut oil and flip over to coat evenly. Scoop out with a fork and place on a piece of parchment. Sprinkle with sesame seeds. Repeat with the rest of the banana slices. Store in the freezer or the fridge (if you have sensitive teeth lol) until the outside shell is firm. 

Now for the second recipe. It's the easiest asian-inspired salad dressing ever! I don't usually make oil-vinegar dressings just because I prefer creamier dressings. I've always used tahini to make creamy dressings, but never thought to try sunbutter! And it worked so well! All you need is:

2 tbsp sunflower seed butter

2 tsp tamari

5 tbsp water

Mix together until totally smooth. Drizzle over salad!

Arugula, grated carrot, avocado, sauerkraut, lightly steamed broccoli, cucumber, dulse flakes, sesame seeds, hemp seeds, Sunbutter-Tamari Dressing

No salad is complete without avos

Sesame!

This is definitely a restaurant worthy salad. Mmmmm!

Here's some other dressings/sauces made with tahini that we love:

Pumpkin "Cheez" Sauce

Miso-Tahini Sauce

Smokey Tahini Dressing

White Tahini Cheez Sauce

Juice Report: 

Cucumber, Celery and Kale = Surprisingly delicious

Carrot + Celery + Grapefruit = Surprisingly Yucky

Spicy Peanut Kale Chips + Raspberry-Lemon Fro-Yo

Kale chips, never thought to make them before, but now understand why people are so crazy about them. When baked they crisp up to be like potato chips! And hello, they're green. :)
Instead of the usual salted kale chip we decided to put the thai-peanut flavours to the test and make spicy peanut kale chips! Ever since making that Thai Peanut Soup, I just can't get enough of this flavour combination.

1/4 cup + 1 tbsp peanut butter
1/2 red pepper
1/2 red chile
1 clove garlic
2 1/2 tbsp tamari
juice of 1/2 a lime
sea salt
1 tbsp ginger
1 head of dino kale

Combine everything except kale in a food processor, process until blended. De-stem kale and cut into bite sized pieces, toss with dressing. Arrange kale onto baking sheet (we needed three in total to accommodate all of our kale). Bake at 250F for 1/2 an hour or until crisped.

Peanut Dressing

Pre baked

Post baked

Crunchy chip

This has to be one of my fave breakfast/desserts: avocado with berries whizzed up to make a fluffy frozen yogurt. Seriously, where would we be without the avocado?

1 small avocado
1 pint of raspberries, frozen
1 tsp lemon zest
Squeeze of lemon
6 drops stevia, to taste
1/4 tsp vanilla bean powder

Combine ingredients in food processor, process until combined and the texture of ice cream. Top with berries, coconut, any toppings you like!

creamy

And here's one of Jenn's smoothies. It has pear, greens powder, cucumber and vanilla brown rice protein powder in it, I know, weird, but she said it tasted really good! If you haven't tried putting cucumber in your smoothies yet, try it out! It definitely "freshens" things up.

Speaking of cucumbers in smoothies...oh would you look at that? We have a recipe for one in our Inner Ecology Cookbook! Check it out!

Fun with Blues! Guest Post on Healthful Pursuit

Happy Thursday everyone! Leanne from Healthful Pursuit asked us to write a guest post for her while she's away in India! We are such fans of her colourful and healthy recipes. Happily, we obliged and went crazy with a few cartons of organic blueberries. Hop on over to Healthful Pursuit to check out Fun with Blues!