MAPLE PECAN COCONUT CREAM PIE

Hello, sweet readers. How are you? Today I share an elegant vegan recipe for coconut cream pie, with the extra treat of pecans. This recipe is adapted from Laura Wright, in her magnificent First Mess Cookbook. I have been a fan of Laura's since I began blogging years ago, and her recipes never disappoint. The original is all coconut all the time, but I tried using pecans instead of coconut in some parts and I loved the result. I hope you enjoy these photos, and perhaps make the recipe yourself! If you do, you know I love to hear from you about how the process went, and how the recipe turned out. 

The pie is luscious, just sweet enough, and superbly nutty... a little like... me? :O 

CHOCOLATE PEANUT BUTTER RICE CRISPY SQUARES

Hello, friends. I stumbled upon a giant bag of puffed rice at a local grocery store a few days ago and immediately had the urge to create a vegan choco pb rice crispy bar. This is a super quick and easy recipe; sweet, chewy and crunchy, a perfect energizing snack or fun dessert any time of day. I'm not kidding: I threw this recipe together in under 15 minutes while I was waiting for my dinner to finish cooking. The bars turned out excellent the first try, so while I didn't actually plan on sharing the recipe, here I am. This would be made more epic if you add chocolate chips, pretzels, crushed potato chips, and/or vegan marshmallows. Then again, wouldn't everything?

WALNUT CHOCOLATE CAKE with SWEET POTATO FROSTING

Do you like moist, dense brownies? Do you like creamy, cinnamon-y sweet potato or pumpkin pie? Then I bring good news with me today, friend. This recipe is for you. It's both those magical, wondrous foods combined into one cake. Hellooo.

OREO-ISH TARTS: VANILLA WHIPPED COCO CREAM with CHOCOLATE COOKIE CRUST

I am back from Montreal. Hey. 

For the four-ish weeks I spent there - away from home, Jack, Dante and Blender - I remembered a lot of important stuff about myself, and realized some new things. It was a whirlwind of experiences, people, places, emotions, tastes, colours, smells. I felt overwhelmed most of the time but what else is new. I often feel overwhelmed living in my particular world because I usually think [too] extensively about everything that is happening around me (and not around me). So being in a new place WITH the same over-thinking brain took it to the next level. Meditation was more difficult than normal, probably because of this. I went on a lot of walks by myself so I could have time to ponder who I am, what I want, my relationship with the external universe, and that kind of thing. I had some pretty intense and excellent discussions with my friend's roommates; we talked about the difficulties of navigating the current world in relation to gender, race, class, location, education, etc. Besides classism, I am generally optimistic about where we are going. Obviously - or maybe not that obviously - most human groups are still routinely oppressed by societal and political structures in place, but we are on the right trail; we're just at the beginning of the hike. 

ALMOND COOKIES with SPICED APPLE SLICES

This recipe is part of a Family Favourites series hosted by Angela over at Canned Time. The theme was to veganize a recipe that you used to love as a kid and/or that your fam would regularly enjoy together. Honestly, I had trouble thinking of sweet recipes that I hadn't already veganized for my blog (like pumpkin pie, berries and whipped cream, ice cream, chocolate cake) and most of the savoury dishes I loved eating when I was little are just sooo not ideal to veganize (think Thai-style omelettes and baked salmon). There were a lot of savoury foods I ate growing up that I COULD made vegan now - pizza pops and chicken nuggets to name a couple - but they wouldn't be that healthy or simple and I'm not into spending lots of time making recipes for dinner, especially if they have more refined ingredients.. I'd rather just bake eight potatoes, sprinkle on some salt and pepper and be done with it. Seriously, my dinners are pathetically easy when I'm not writing a savoury cookbook. 

CHOCOLATE PUDDING BOWLS with COCONUT CREAM + CHERRIES

This recipe is everything you want chocolate pudding to be. I have nothing else to say for now, so talk soon.

X

MINT CHOCOLATE CHUNK ICE CREAM

First of all: this song. It always makes me cry (in a good way). 

Secondly: this ice cream! Woo! No tears, just tongue. That sounded pretty dirty and I'm gonna leave it that way. I woke up in a good mood. This ice cream is creamy, sweet, and full of chocolate chunks and mint flavour; in other words it's everything ice cream should be and MORE. The "more" is because it's also vegan and made with ingredients that your body actually likes. 

ORANGE-BEETROOT TARTLETS with ALMOND-FIG CRUST

This post is dedicated to my mum, Nancy.

Sometimes I forget how similar we are until I find myself describing her to another person, or when Jack tells me, "You looked just like your mom when you did that!"

CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIES with QUINOA and ALMOND BUTTER

So comforting is the chocolate chip cookie. I made this recipe 3 days in a row because it's so damn delicious and simple. If you have a Blendtec and their twister jar, the recipe becomes even easier because it grinds things into flours and butters in NO TIME. I throw in almonds and they practically evaporate into almond butter. Amazing. But if you don't have a twister jar / Blendtec blender, have no fear. Any other high speed blender should do the job. These cookies are perfect with a glass of fresh almond milk. I have a bunch of stuff I must do today so I am keepin' this post short. Enjoy!

WARMING CHAI ALMOND MILK

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.

MEYER LEMON COCONUT CREAM TARTS with MINT + LAVENDER

These are divine, and they are reppin' the world of desserts that don't include chocolate. The non-cocoa players need love too! I'm just mentioning this because a lot of my recipes lately have included that brown powder we all secretly kiss when no one is looking. This time, Imma be kissin' my Meyer lemons instead. Honestly when I eat chocolate I usually think something along the lines of "I NEED YOU IN MY LIFE ALWAYS AND FOREVER." But in reality, I go days without it and hardly notice (cacao, please don't be hurt, you're still in my heart). My point is: ya don't need cocoa or cacao powder to make a kick-ass dessert; raw, vegan, or otherwise. This recipe proves it. 

LIFE-CHANGING MARZIPAN & BUTTERSCOTCH ICE CREAM SUNDAE

I was going to call this Sex In a Bowl but that would've been NSFW. Anyways, that's what it SHOULD be called. It's... unreal. It's... perfection. It's... heaven. I can't say enough about it so I'm just gonna keep this post short and say: you need this in your LIFE. It is so easy to make, and I have been whipping it up daily for the past week because now I can't live without it. I very seriously think to myself: as long as I have a life supply of this, everything is okay. You will understand once you make it. One of the best parts of this three ingredient recipe (besides the fact that it's mouthgasmic and yes, has only three ingredients) is that it's really good for you! The only ingredients - drum roll, please - are frozen bananas to make the ice cream, almond butter for the marzipan, and carob syrup for the butterscotch. The world is too good to us.

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

These are raw, vegan, uber nutritious and super delicious. Plus, they're pretty! Kind of. The best part about healthy dessert is that you can eat as much as you want without feeling gross or sluggish later. In fact, these give me natural energy to keep bein' busy and productive with my day. I ate almost all of them myself. No lie. My fave part is the cookie, they seriously taste like oatmeal cookies (and I adore oatmeal cookies). Smack some ice cream in between two of these cookies and whaddya get? Mouthgasms. And also technically an ice cream sandwich. I'm calling the ice cream "bubblegum" because that sounds cute and innocent, but I have a confession. The pink colour actually comes from beet juice. I know some of you might be reacting with "EW!" right now but please, hold the disgust for a second. All I ask is that you try the recipe and see what you think. In reality, you cannot taste the beet juice at all, it just adds a gorgeous colour that will illicit numerous "OOOH's!" (much more favourable). I threw some vanilla in with the ice cream and so I'm calling it "bubblegum" because it's vanilla in flavour and pink in colour; in essence, bubblegum. 

BANANA VANILLA SOFT SERVE with DARK CHOCOLATE DRIZZLE

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.

CASHEW CREAM CAKE with FRESH JUICY SWIRLS

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.

WHIPPED COCO CREAM TART with FRESH BERRIES

An ode to tarts:

Precious tart,

so elegant and sweet,

you tempt me with your textures... 

a slice I cannot help but eat.

Who was your inventor?

They were indeed a genius.

Your taste and colour are sublime,

nothing is more luscious.

From your crust to your cream

and the fruitiness in between,

I love you for your simplicity, 

I'll see you in my dreams.

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.

CARROT CAKE CUPCAKES with WHIPPED COCONUT CREAM + CHOCOLATE

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.

GOOD MORNING, GREEN JUICE

Today's post is a delicious, easy recipe for green juice because I think many of us could use a bit more dark leafy greens in our diet. Obviously a lot of the people reading this (hey there, sexy) are already very interested and in control of their health. But at the same time, I know many of you are just starting out on a new journey to well-being, or maybe you're like me and have just been plain forgetting to eat/drink your greens lately. I used to LIVE for my green smoothies but lately I've been fruiting it up hard core, and have incidentally left the kale and spinach crying at the sidelines, asking "WHY DOESN'T SHE LOVE US ANYMORE!?" Don't fret, my dear leaves! I still care for you and your chlorophyl deeply. But I got kinda carried away with my fruit smoothies and high carb dinners of rice and sweet potatoes. I hadn't eaten a salad in months, and would only occasionally throw a handful of greens into my blender or stir-frys. Well, things are back on track now. I am again head over heels with salad, and I love the taste and colour of spinach in my smoothies. 

RAW VEGAN CHOCOLATE CAKE

This is it. A simple, quick, and easy recipe for the best raw vegan chocolate cake. I whipped this up for my lover's birthday celebration / family dinner and his whole clan loved it! I wasn't planning on posting it but I figured I may as well. I mean: chocolate. cake. Need I say more? I wanna give you guys every opportunity to create healthy and delicious desserts and meals whenever possible.

If you are new to the whole 'raw vegan dessert' thing, then this cake recipe is perfect for you. This is almost as basic as you can get. Although you can add anything else you want to this dark brown creamy bad boy (ex: ginger, cinnamon, berries), I am keepin' it real and leaving ingredients at a minimum so no one gets confused or overwhelmed. Sure, this recipe could be lower fat and blah blah blah, but my mentality when I create food for non-veg folks (Jack's family) is to wow them with flavour and texture, thus I add a little more coconut oil and maple syrup than I normally would. My palate is very different from someone who doesn't usually eat many plants - let alone whole foods - so I wanna give them something even THEIR taste buds will appreciate! That means making this cake a bit richer than if I were making it for just myself. What is healthy is relative. A pure raw foodist would feel sick if they suddenly ate cooked food; I feel weird when I eat too MUCH cooked food or fat-dense food (nuts, etc.) in a day; my mom feels weird if she eats too much meat. Does that mean that cooked food or nuts are unhealthy? No! It just means that my body has acclimatized to a mostly low-fat raw foods diet with a cooked dinner so if I suddenly eat cooked food all day it's gonna be like "WTF!?" (Where's the fruit!?) If you drank nothing but water for 7 days, then gorged on fruit, you'd feel ill. Does that mean FRUIT is unhealthy? No! It's like the healthiest thing... ever. All it implies is that your body has become sensitive to something because of the diet it has grown accustomed to. So to round this back to my first point: I made this recipe a bit more decadent than usual because of the audience it would be catered to. Nuff said (I think?)

Note: if the ingredients look kinda pricey to you, don't worry! You can use oats instead of walnuts, cocoa powder instead of cacao powder, and almonds instead of cashews. Using almonds instead of cashews will make it a bit less creamy, but still delicious.

RAW VEGAN CHOCOLATE CAKE

Crust: 
1 cup walnuts 
1 1/2 cups dates

Cake:
2 cups cashews
2 tablespoons cacao powder
1 cup water
Juice from 1 lemon
1 cup dates
1/4 cup coconut oil
2 tablespoons maple syrup
1 teaspoon vanilla extract 

To make the crust: pulse oats or walnuts into powder in a food processor, then add the dates and keep processing until it all starts to stick together. Press into the bottom of a springform cake pan, or adjustable pan (I used an adjustable pan set to about 7 inches). Put in fridge. 

To make the cake: blend everything until smooth, thick and creamy! It should be the consistency of yogurt, kinda. If it's watery; add more dates, coconut oil or nuts. If it's too thick; add more water or maple syrup. Pour onto your crust and let it set overnight or for at least 12 hours (this lets it set and develop flavour). Slice and enjoy! I decorated mine with hemp seeds and pumpkin seeds. 

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BLUEBERRY VANILLA CREME CAKE

Eat local! The inspiration for this recipe was the bushes in my family's front yard. They are of the blueberry variety, in case ya didn't catch that. I have shared this truth before but I will say it again now: I live for the blueberries in our yard. All year I patiently wait for them to flower, bloom, grow and ripen, salivating at the memories of their sweet, unique flavours and juicy insides. Finally, when the time is right - I strike. For those delicious 3 months every 365 days, I turn into a herbivorous beast. The neighbours have seen me at all hours grabbing every little blue jewel I see and greedily stuffing it in my mouth. My family knows that if they want any they need to pick them when I am not around and hide them away from my sight... otherwise they will be stolen and inhaled... by me. 

What I am trying to say is that I love blueberries. Probably too much (NO THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS LOVING FRUIT TOO MUCH OKAY).

Another thing I love - and I know that you all love - is cake. Raw, vegan cake. Make it creamy and fill it with fresh, organic, local fruit? Life is good. This cake is good. We're all sexy people. This song exists. What is there to complain about? Can I complain about my life being too blessed? (Technically-speaking, yes, but I'm not THAT lame). Oh my god I just remembered that I have a jar of Nutiva coconut butter in the kitchen... I could eat that stuff with a spoon. Wait a sec - I already did that yesterday. This post having a specific theme? Forget it. It's not happening. What is happening? Me sitting at my computer trying to concentrate on writing a decent blog post for you guys - it's not happening - but being distracted by the house music and disco playlist I have bumping... and refusing to turn it off because it's too groovy. Fun fact: I watched Saturday Night Fever a few nights ago and it was too funny. The SHOES people wore! Honestly, John Travolta in 2 inch wooden platforms. I have the soundtrack to that movie on vinyl. Bee Gees, anyone? I love seeing movies from past decades and trying to get into the headspace folks were in when the movie was new in their time. It blows my mind every time I consider how much we are shaped by the current culture, yet culture is so fluid! I look forward to the future when the cultural norm will be to live environmentally-friendly and cruelty-free. 

Yes, I did just promote a vegan message via a disco movie. 

BLUEBERRY VANILLA CREME CAKE

Crust:
1 cup rolled oats
1 cup dates

Creme:
2 cups cashews (preferably soaked in water for 4 hours or so)
1 teaspoon vanilla powder
Juice from 1/2 lemon
1/4 cup maple syrup
1/4 cup coconut oil
1 cup water
2 cups blueberries

To make the crust: process the oats into flour in a blender or food processor. If using a food processor, add the dates and process until it all begins to stick together. If using a blender, dump the flour into a bowl and add the dates, mashing everything together with your hands until it begins to stick together. You really gotta get in there. Press the "dough" into the bottom of a springform pan or adjustable pan (mine was approximately 7 inches). Put in the fridge.

To make the creme: blend everything together - except the blueberries - until smooth and creamy; like thick yogurt. Pour half of this mixture onto your crust, then sprinkle on 1 cup of blueberries. Add the remaining blueberries to the mixture still in your blender, and blend until smooth. Pour this on top of your first layer and blueberries. Put in the fridge overnight, then decorate with whatever you like, slice, and enjoy! This can go in the freezer too. 

Note: If you wanna make this lower fat, use less coconut oil and then add dates instead. 

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