This is one of my favorite flavor combinations. It reminds me of when I lived in Hawaii and had all the local fresh wild mangos, pineapples and coconuts I wanted. It has a very subtle yet tropical and refreshingly fragrant taste and smell. It will make you want to layer on suntan oil and lay out on a beach all day. Well at least it does for me. It’s not often that I get to buy fresh organic pineapple. It is fairly expensive and I try to buy mostly local foods from my local farmer’s market. I do miss the beautiful tropics though and these treats bring me right back. Please choose organic whenever possible.
This is an interesting dessert using one of my favorite fruits, the mango. Mango’s are just packed with flavor and are amazingly good for you. That makes this sherbet even more special as a refreshing treat.
Bartlett Pears with Cinnamon Cranberry Sauce and Spiced Ginger Cream (raw)
I am a fan of Pears, but I seem to be the only one, since you never hear about Pear recipes. It’s always the Apple who is the star, right. Apple this apple that. Not that I hate apples or anything, I just think people are over looking the subtle rich flavor a pear has to offer. That is why I think this beautiful recipe is exactly what the pear needed to steal a little bit of the apple’s spotlight.
To start this recipe you will need 4 good size pears.
Fresh Fruit Tart with Chocolate Brownie Crust (raw)
This dessert is so light and refreshing but not easily forgotten. You can make it all year round and just change out the in season fruit for the topping. Great for summer parties or dinners.
Makes 4 small tarts
For the Chocolate Brownie Crust:
2 Cups Raw Almonds
2 TB Agave Syrup
2 TB Maple Syrup
1/2 of One Fresh Vanilla Bean
1 TB Coconut Butter
1/4 Cup Cacao Powder
Pinch of Sea Salt
Crust Instructions
Chocolate Brownie Crust In a food processor, process the almonds until they become a fine meal. Then add the rest of the ingredients and process again until a ball forms. Take out the moist dough and divide it between 4 4″ tart pans with removable bottoms. This mixture is rather moist and sticky at this stage, so the easiest way to press it into the tart pans is to place plastic wrap over it and press down on top of the plastic wrap until firmly pressed and shaped into the tart pan. Leave the wrap on them and place them in your freezer while preparing the creme filling.
Dark, Rich, Light and Creamy Chocolate on a spoon! This is so delicious! Just don’t tell anyone there is avocado in this dish. I was having cravings for something cold and light and chocolaty. I never liked the idea of using avocado with anything with chocolate in it. Just too often the very subtle flavor and texture of the avocado comes through. However, this one afternoon it was all I had to work with as a base, so I decided to go ahead and try to work with it to make it indistinguishable. The first bite or two didn’t convince me, but after chilling it, I completely forgot what was in it and could only taste the chocolate and dash of cinnamon. I think people would have a hard time guessing what is in this mousse.
This mousse is so easy to make, and so quick. Even if you don’t have any cashew milk ready to go, you can make the quick instant cashew milk and then just add the rest of the ingredients to it. Or you can skip it and replace it with just pure water. Make sure the cashew milk is well strained though. We want this completely smooth. If you’re not convinced enough to use the avocado, you can replace it with young coconut meat if you have it. This is a no-cook recipe, but it’s not exactly ‘raw’. The chocolate I prefer to use is Green & Blacks. You can also use one of the new raw chocolate bars coming onto the market like Ultimate Foods Raw Chocolate. The maple syrup, cashews, and vanilla extract though, that’s your call. Continue Reading / Additional Photos / Videos
This book is gorgeous, first of all. It’s one of those books that you can certainty judge by it’s cover. Miha Matei, who did the photography for the book did an amazing job, and the design and styling is beautiful as well. The colors and richness of the cover photo and text tells you a lot about what the book is about and filled with. It is happy and colorful, but with a sophisticated and refined edge, reminiscent of a modern Matrix Varenna kitchen. Very New York.
The book is layed out in a unique fashion. Instead of the contents being organized by the type of meal, the chapters are divided by the style of the meal. Each chapter represents a different inspiration of types of recipes and food combinations. The first chapter, Blossom, is all about the seasonal array of food blossoming in the spring and summer, crafted into light and refreshing dishes. It’s filled with recipes featuring tomatoes, cucumbers, squash blossoms, basil, cantaloupe, watermelon, plums, micro-greens, avocado, apricots, fava beans, raspberries, and many more mouth watering foods.
The Contemporary chapter is filled with dishes that are uniquely creative and sophisticated in design and presentation. Visually, this chapter is stunning, filled with stylized dishes that stand out with vibrant light and dark contrasting colors. The Black Sesame and White Coconut Dumblings with Creamy Miso Sauce is particularly ‘Contemporary’ and vibrant, with white coconut wraps nestled inside black coconut wraps, scrunched together with the tie of a green chive that sits on top of a light brown miso sauce on an all white plate. There is also a Jackson Pollock inspired raviolo with arugula pesto that uses red and green juices to artfully splatter rich colors into the canvas of beige coconut wraps, much like a Jackson Pollock painting. And there is a Shitake Ravioli with broccoli rabe, balsamic fig puree, and ginger cream. I also love the Heirloom tomatoes, warm “cheese” crisps, and melting olive oil “ice cream”. The various white, yellow, orange and green tomatoes are sliced into thick squares that look like translucent pastel colored frosted sea glass that gets washed up on the shore of the beach.
For the Crust Process the Almonds and the Dried Coconut and Salt in a food processor until it becomes a fine meal. Add the rest of the ingredients and process again until it clumps together in a ball. Remove the dough and press it into the bottom of 4 4” tart pans with removable bottoms. Place these in the freezer to set while you work on making the creme filling to go inside it.
I’m hooked on this one. I’ve been trying to incorporate hemp seeds into more dishes and to replace other nuts or seeds. Even though they are so healthy and taste pretty good, I always found it hard to know what to do with them. Besides for sprinkling them on top of my salads or mixing them with quinoa in tabouli salads. I knew there had to be better ways to get them in larger quantities into my diet. I’ve never liked the hemp protein powders. They are just too gritty and powdery, I hate the texture they give to my smoothies.
What surprised me was that the whole hemp seeds have basically the same amount of protein as the hemp protein powders. They are not actually concentrated, and the protein is not isolated anyways. They are just lower in fat. However the fat that is in hemp seeds is the kind of fat that I want and desperately need in my diet! Hemp seeds have basically the perfect profile of essential fatty acids and the best possible balance of omega 6, omega 3 and GLA. Unlike flax, which is ultra heavy in omega 3, hemp won’t throw your EFA balance off if eaten long term or in large quantities, since it is naturally balanced. It has a 4:1 Omega 6 to 3 ratio just like the diet that humans evolved on for 2.5 million years. Flax also doesn’t contain the GLA that hemp has, and hemp doesn’t contain estrogen unlike flax that is higher in phytoestrogen then soy. I could go on and on about the health benefits of hemp and how it is such a perfect complete protein and high in the sulfur amino acids, but really I just wanted to consume more of it. You can read all about the health benefits of hemp here and here.
You must think I’m a chocolate freak with all these chocolate recipes. And right you are. This drink
though is so easy and quick to make. No ice cream making required. The frozen bananas nicely replace
the need for ice cream and are much lower in fat. I like to always keep a few bananas in the freezer,
ready for a quick shake or quick skinny dip in a chocolate bath. Remember to peel your bananas first
before freezing them. I know, obvious, but you’d be surprised… The easiest way to handle them is to
brake them into bite size pieces when they are soft, before freezing them, and add the pieces to a zip
lock bag. Throw the bag in your freezer and forget about them. That is until you start hankering for one
of these. The nice thing about this is that it is actually healthy. (Shhhh….) Yes it’s true though. It’s full of
wonderful things like medium chain fatty acids, electrolytes, anti-oxidants, magnesium, copper, iron, B
vitamins, Potassium, Tryptophan, and on and on. Add the lecithin and vitamin E powder and it will really
be a power breakfast. Full of high quality calories and energy, it’ll get you going with a huge smile…
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Beyonce, David Blaine, Billy Bob Thornton, Robin Quivers and other celebrities all praise the Master Cleanse, aka “The Lemonade Diet” for everything from weight loss to detox and restoring their energy and healthy eating habits.
Created by Naturopath Stanley Burroughs, the fast consists of a 10 day fast on a spicy lemonade elixer to cleanse toxins and congestion from the body and purify the liver, kidneys and glands. It is also supposed to purify the blood, balance blood pressure and the most attractive effect is weight loss.
Although it’s really not meant to be a fad diet or quick fix. It’s only meant as a short term fast to cleanse the body. If it’s not followed by healthy and sensible eating habits, and the person goes back to junk food, they will quickly regain their weight and toxin build-up. It is also not meant to be followed for an extended time without expert supervision. The Master Cleanse recipe is 8-10oz. of warm spring or purified water, 2 TB Lemon Juice, 2 TB of grade B or C maple syrup, and a pinch of cayenne pepper.
Chipotle Chili [chee-POT-tleh] is the famous jalapeno of Capsicum annum, smoke-dried to bring out the distinctive smoky and biting flavor characteristic of a lot of Mexican and Tex Mex cuisine. Chipotle is moderately hot between 5,000 to 10,000 Scoville Units and has been described as having a complex smoky sweet flavor with subtle molasses undertones. Smoked for several days in sealed chambers, the chipotles dry up like prunes. The smoke drying turns the chilies from bright green to dark brown and shriveled up, taking about 10 lbs of jalapenos to make one pound of chipotle. It is speculated that the Aztecs smoked the chilies for long term storage as drying the chilies was a difficult process due to the thick flesh.
Chipotles can add a spicy and smoky flare to soups, sauces, salsas, dips, guacamole, dressings, marinades, and even some deserts.
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