A Chocolate Lover's Dream!

THURSDAY, MARCH 22, 2012

A Chocolate Lover's Dream!

Be still my heart!!!!

Linda couldn't wait!! Licking the 'S' blade from my food-processor!! Seriously?!!

(Do not try this at home!!!!)

This is my good friend, Linda Walker, the fabulous wildlife & western artist. You remember her from my post about our crazy trip to Descanso Gardens, right? Well, she's decided to eat a little healthier than she has been, so I offered to give her a beginners course in raw foods.

"Raw Food 99". She's not ready for 101 yet.

I started her off on a healthy Green Smoothie. It was a hit. (Whew!)

After knowing her for more than 30 years,

I had no idea that she's a notorious chocolate licker... er... lover.

Don't ask.

Mmmmm.

Yummmm.

You missed a spot.

I knew she'd come in handy some day.

Here she is, washing dishes in her new, bling-embellished, "Not Your Daughter's Jeans".

Love the name.

I made a bunch of stuff for our munching pleasure. Desserts, since most people will be more willing to try raw food 'meals', if they like the desserts. (Whatever it takes!)

I made a Chocolate Strawberry Cheese Cake. To match my socks.

My daughters designed the apron for me. "Dessert Diva". Thanks, Girls!!

I chilled the Cheesecake in the freezer while I made some other goodies.

As you can see, Mr. Man isn't into the raw food thing. But he will drink Green Smoothies.

And hasn't turned down a dessert yet.

I made Chocolate Hazelnut Fudge, and little cupcakes from some of the Cheesecake ingredients.

Trying out the cupcake. Such an adoring look. Then she scarfed it down.

Never to be outdone in the dessert chow-down... I had two.

The Cheesecake had set and was ready to eat.

Let's slice that bad boy up!

How about a Chocolate Milkshake and some Chocolate Mousse?

With pistachios and coconut. Mmm, mmm, mmm!!

Linda was the taste-tester for the Chocolate Milkshake.

Now that I think about it... she was the taste-tester for everything! Heyyy!!

Taking a break from stuffing our faces, I had her look through some of my favorite raw food recipe books. (I love books!!!!)

Of course, after looking through this one, we were ready for another little nibble.

These turned out really tasty. Since raw desserts are so nutrient-dense, you're only able to eat a small serving, before you're full. Which is pretty cool. And a good thing.

Linda was getting ready to head out, so we wanted to get some pictures of us together.

Isn't she cute?!

Wait a minute... she really IS cute!!

She's cuter than me! Let's see if I can do something to remedy that.

Tell her something funny...

"Blah, blah, blah, blah blah."

Yeeees... that's it.

How's your hair?

Still cute! Dangit!!

That's enough, Paparazzi!! Girlfriend has to go home now.

But not before she takes some samples with her. I did not have to twist her arm.

I also gave her some raw food DVDs, books, recipes of what we made today...

And a really cool poster about Green Smoothies. (Pure health in a glass!)

I would love, love, LOVE to teach people how to do this!!

To go into their homes and give demonstrations on how to create raw food dishes...

And especially desserts! I mean, who doesn't like desserts?!

I'm taking two, raw food chef classes. One for savory dishes and one for desserts.

I really love showing people a healthy way of eating! And, seriously, it's not all desserts. :)

But I think I'll go have a little bite right now! ~

DISCLAIMER:

No stomachs were hurt in the creation of this post. We didn't eat the entire dessert. We only nibbled on everything. Just to let Linda get a taste of the many flavors. Okay, so I ate a couple of cupcakes. And maybe some Chocolate Mousse. And a Chocolate Hazelnut Brownie.

And three strawberries. And a few pistachios.

BUT! We also had some, Zuchini Pasta!! We had VEGETABLES!!!! :-)

UPDATE:

Today, 9/26/14, the laughter stopped, for my beloved friend, Linda. She fought valiantly, but lost her fight with cancer. She was a beautiful, beautiful person and a wonderful, talented artist. She will be missed by so very many. My deepest condolences to her husband, family and friends. 
Always and forever in my heart, Linda.
This is how I will remember you... laughing with me and having fun!! I love you, sweet girl. Until we meet again. ~ 

For more posts about raw food, green smoothies, desserts, whatever, just type the words in the, "Search This Blog" box on the top right of this page.

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Thank you.

Signing off for now,

gabriele

We Love Kale Chips!!

 Especially when they're cheezy!! The good kind of cheesy.

While playing around on the Internet... specifically Facebook, I came across Stacy Stowers' page and saw that she had a book! If you've been following me for awhile, in a non-stalkerish kind of way, you know that I can't pass-up a good book. Nope. Never gonna happen.

I bought the book and love it!! "Eat Raw Not Cooked".

I decided to make those great-sounding "Cheezy Kale Chips" with the "Not-Cho-Cheeze Sauce".
Here are some of the ingredients. I didn't have an orange, so I used a pink grapefruit and a little Stevia to sweeten it up. My faux-orange.

I wasn't gonna write a blog about this, or I would have gotten a little fancier, with more pictures. But I just can't keep my hands off a camera... so I caved.

I'll begin at... After the Kale was de-stemmed and rinsed, I gave it a little spin.

Here is that gloriously-yummy Cheeze Sauce. I poured it on the Kale and smushed it through with my hands. Felt great.

 I placed it on my dehydrator trays. I love my dehydrator! It's an Excalibur, nine-tray.

 The amount of Kale I used, filled up four of the nine trays. Did I mention that I love this dehydrator?

I loved that Cheeze Sauce SO much, that I made extra for dipping! This girl does like a little dip now and then.

I check on the Kale once-in-a-while to see how it's doing. And it never fails... there is always one tray that ends up looking like this. I call it the, "Whodunnit" tray.

I was quite pleased with myself for making a great-tasting batch of Kale Chips this time! I forced my husband to taste them. (He's not a raw-foodist by any means!) He gingerly picked one up, placed it in his mouth, ever-so-gently and said... "They're kind of dry." Dude! They're chips!!

Because I made extra Cheeze Sauce, I was able to munch on healthy stuff all day long! I love those kind of days!!

Thank you Stacy Stowers for such awesome recipes!! I'll be making my way through them all!!

You can buy this wonderful book on Amazon. Or on her website. You won't be sorry!!




There are SO many things to love!
I love Followers and comments too!
Thank you!!



Signing off for now,
gabriele

Karolina Eleonora's "Bad Ass Peanut Butter Bars".

I've known this beautiful, Swedish gal for several years now... and have bought every eBook she's come out with!! Because she is, in my opinion, the best raw dessert chef out there!!!!

Please check-out her website and her newest eBooks... you won't be sorry!!

"Snack Smarter With The Raw Dessert Kitchen & Karolina Eleonora". 

She has kindly given me permission to use her image (above) and promised not to get the recipe-police after me, if I share that with you too! (She's cool that way.)

These scrawny little photos are mine, but I had fun taking 'em. Here are the ingredients the recipe calls for. Speaking of recipes... it's at the end of this post! 

I didn't have enough Peanut Butter, so I had to use some of the Cashew Butter. I also used the liquid Vanilla, instead of scraping the Vanilla Bean. (I was in a hurry... and truth be told, just a little lazy.)

I began by soaking the Dates. I left them in their little bath, while I did the other stuff.

I popped the Hazelnuts and shredded, unsweetened Coconut into the food processor.

And gave it a whirl until they looked like...

... this.

I put that mixture into a bowl.

I took all of the pits out of the Dates and cut them into smaller pieces. That's not in the directions, but my food processor likes me better when I do that.

Oops. Missed a pit. Sneaky little devils.

I put the Dates in the food processor...

And let it run until it wouldn't anymore. Just a couple of minutes.

By then it was a nice paste.

Here's what got tossed in next.

Man... I love nut butters!!

After adding all of those ingredients, I gave it another good whirl.

There she goes!

And this is what it looked like.

Then it was time to add the stuff from the bowl.

The food processor sure came in handy on this day. If you notice that there is no photo of when it was through processing... it's because, I was freaking out!! Freaking out because I did a little taste-test and it tasted just like, Peanut Butter Cookies!!!! OMG!! My favorite, FAVORITE dessert!!!!

Needless to say... this crazy-delicious mixture HAD to be made into cookies!!!!
(I don't think Karolina would mind!)

They kinda looked like hamburgers. :) I added the little fork-marks 'cause Peanut Butter Cookies have that.

I ended up with two layers. A total of 18 cookies.

Popped them in the fridge until they hardened. I bet I could have put them in the dehydrator to make them even more cookie-ish.  But that's more work and Karolina's recipes are meant to be easy!!

While they were in the freezer, I made myself some Almond Milk. Milk & Cookies. Gotta have it.

Also easy-peasy to make. Grind one cup almonds, in a dry blender-jar. Trust me on the 'dry' part.

Until it looks like this.

Then add three cups of decent water. 

Give it a whirl until it looks like milk.

And there you have it... Almond Milk.

There is another step to making almond milk and that's to strain it. I actually like mine as is.
(Don't judge me.)

Nice!!

The cookies were ready and so was I!

HEAVEN ON A PLATE!!!!




Thank you SO very much, dear Karolina, for letting me share your beyond-delicious recipe with my peeps!!!! You're the best!!!!!!!! xoxoxo

"BAD ASS PEANUT BUTTER BARS"
Makes about 10.

1 cup shredded coconut (grind into flour)
1 cup Hazelnuts (grind into flour)
1 cup Dates
4 T Virgin Coconut Oil
1/4 t Vanilla from pod
2 pinches of Himalayan Salt
0.5 cup Peanut Butter

Pit and soak the Dates for a couple of minutes.

Make a flour of the shredded Coconut and Hazelnuts in a food processor.

It doesn't have to be perfect. Put aside in a bowl.

Make a Date Paste of the Dates in a food processor. 

Then add the rest of the ingredients and process into a dough. 

Form into bars and put them in the fridge or freezer to harden.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ 

And there you have it, Ladies & Gents!!!

I hope you'll give this wonderful (easy!) recipe a try and take a peek at Karolina's website & eBooks!!

"Snack Smarter With The Raw Dessert Kitchen & Karolina Eleonora!!!!" 

MORE!!! Gimme moooore!!!!







There are SO many things to love!
I love Followers and comments too!
Thank you.



Signing off for now,
gabriele

Raw Sweet Potato Pancakes/Latkes & Applesauce

Thanks to raw food chef, Barbara Kessler Shevkun, for allowing me to show you guys how to make her deeelicious, raw, Sweet Potato Pancakes/Latkes & raw Applesauce.

Please visit her website, Rawfully Tempting, for the complete recipe... and many more!

Here are the ingredients used. 

 Before I begin... meet my new chopper/grater!! It arrived just in time!!!!

 The bowl didn't come with it. Here's the link, in case you have to have one too!
"Maxam Vegetable Chopper".

 So, the first thing I did was cut the ends off the zucchini.

 Then I peeled the sweet potato and hacked the ends off of it too.

 I peeled half an onion. Not as easy as peeling a whole one.

Here they are... waiting to be put in the new toy. I didn't peel the zucchini, because the skin is good for you. If it's organic. And washed.

 Here is Barbara's recipe, that I printed out for myself. Thanks for sharing with us, Barbara!!

 I started with the zucchini.

 Getting to to the tiny end piece kinda freaked me out, so I used the handy-dandy pusher-thingie on top.

 The onion was not as easy to smush through there. Big pieces kept falling off.

I had to dig 'em out of the chopper-cone. But enough got in the mixture... because my eyes were watering in no time.

 This was the most fun to grind. Piece of cake! (Ohhh... caaake.)

 It made a lot!

The mixture was really moist, so I put it between two paper towels and pushed down on it a few times.

The recipe calls for, almond meal, so I made my own. Just popped some raw almonds in my Blendtec Blender and...

 There it is. Almond meal.

Here are the ingredients for the sauce. I guess it's a sauce. I'm calling it a sauce. I used Chia Seeds instead of Flax Seeds, because I'm allergic to them.

 Whisked it. Whisked it good.

 It was pretty thick, so instead of the whisk...

 I used my super-duper clean hands.

 I shaped the batter into these cute, little pancakes and put them in my Excalibur Dehydrator.

I had some zucchini pieces, from when I practiced using all of the cones (5) to see the different cuts they made... so I threw those in there too.

 I love this dehydrator... and the goodies that come out of it!!

When the pancakes get pretty dry on top, they need to be turned over from the Teflon sheet, onto the mesh.

Startin' to look good!

The left-over zucchini was ready... so I helped myself. It was really tasty! Sweet, actually. And if you know me at all, you know I'm a huge fan of sweet! Huge.

 The pancakes are almost done!!

 Time to make the applesauce.

 The lemon juice will give it a great flavor, but it will also keep the apples from turning a gross color.

 Peeling the apples.

Coring the apples.

 Barbara's recipe called for white Chia Seeds, but I only had the dark. (Don't tell.)

 Round & round we go.

 Stopped it a couple of times, to scrape the runaway pieces down from the sides.

 And there it is. Better than any store-bought applesauce!!

 Now for the big taste-test...

OH, YEAH, BABY!!!!! It's a winner!!!!!!!


Please let me know if you make them and how they turned out!!


Thanks again, Barbara!! ~ ~




There are SO many things to love!
I love "Followers" and comments too!
Thank you.




Signing off for now,

gabriele