Black Forest Cherry Brownies and Mint Ice Cream

Black Forest Cherry Brownies and Superman Mint Ice Cream!

On Tuesday night, September 24, 2013, I prepared a mini demo for the Foods and Nutrition Society here at Purdue! I don’t know what could make me more happy than to serve the most decadently delicious food AND health benefits and happiness! So delicious 🙂 So many smiles 🙂 so many not upset tummies 😀 ! ❤

Black Forest Cherry Brownies:

Food processor- S blade

 

2 cups walnuts (soaked and dehydrated)

6-7 tablespoons dates pitted and packed

1 tsp cherry extract

6 Tbs cacao or carob powder

3 Tbs water

process until smooth

¼ cup dried cherries mixed in after blending

¼ cup chopped walnuts mixed in after blending

 

Superman Mint Ice Cream

S-blade Food Processor

7ish frozen bananas

5-10 fresh mint leaves

1-2 cups of greens (I usually use spinach or kale, but whatever!)

Optional: banana chips, spirulina, or anything else that tickles your fancy!

process until smooth

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Eating Healthy Is Simple

With the massive cheesy bread orders, den pops on the reg, and McDonald’s on every corner, more and more people are saying, “It’s so hard to eat healthily in college.” Eating healthily is actually pretty simple. Try these tips and see for yourself.

Prioritize

In any aspect of your life good health is essential do the things that you would like to do. Just making health a priority can help you eat healthier. Too often,we put our homework and social lives above getting enough rest or exercising. You are nothing without your health.Have some self respect,and get excited about feeling and being your best.

What are your options?

Fraternities and sororities probably have the most limited options of all the ways to live on campus.  However, I see the following scenario all the time.A basket of oranges is next to a basket of oreos. Girls come into the kitchen looking for a snack, grab the oreos and say, “Urgh I’m not in the mood for an orange, it is so hard to eat healthy in college.” Or at lunch time, when the hot lunch is mystery meat and french fries (there is always a salad bar option), girls will eat it and say,“I am so sick of salad; there is nothing healthy to eat.” If you are not hungry enough to eat an orange or a salad, you are not hungry.Do not kid yourself. There is always fruit out for a snack and there is always a salad bar during meal times. Go fruit yourself.Focus on the beautifuland delicious healing foods that are available to you.

Find cheap eats

Nobody wants to spend money buying their own food when they already paid for a meal plan at their fraternity or sorority.  However, if you are not down for the limited menu, these are cheap healthy options:

1. Farmer’s Market

Fresh produce direct from farmers is so much cheaper and fresher, fresher and so much more delicious.The farmer’s market is on campus over the train tracks in Memorial Mall on Thursdays 11 a.m.- 3p.m. There is also the Sagamore West Farmer’s Market on Wednesdays from 3-6:30 p.m. at 3065 N. Salisbury. The Lafayette Farmer’s Market is huge. Get your butt down there and see all the cheap eats.It is located on Fifth St. between Main and Columbia from 7:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m. every Saturday.Check out the amazing buys.

2. 20 Percent Off Student Discount at Sunspot

Sunspot Natural Market is located at 500 W.Sagamore Parkway in West Lafayette. They offer students a 10 percent discount everyday and a 20 percent discount on Thurdays.Check this place out.

3. Invest in a blender

The number of blenders at Kappa has more than quadrupled over the past year. Us busy Greek-lifers are always on the move. They have blenders as cheap as $15.00 at WalMart.Don’t know what to make? You can make these smoothies in your house:

Orange Creamsicle:

(if not frozen, just add ice)

Frozen Bananas

Orange Juice

Green Machine

Bananas

Spinach

Water

Ice

Chuck Berry

(if not frozen, add ice)

1 ½ frozen bananas

4 frozen strawberries

2 tbls. frozen blueberries (or any berry)

1 cup water

Don’t Stress

Give yourself credit for all that you are and all that you do.  Nobody is perfect. Sometimes, there are no choices out there that work best with our bodies, but we do the best we can. Food should be savored and enjoyed in the moment,never stressful.

Remember,the only unhealthy foods are the ones that are spoiled or that you are allergic to. Where there’s a will, there’s a way. Make simple choices every day. You will find a way to make it happen if you really want to.

Popeye Pleasure

Thick, creamy, sweet, satisfying…MMM SO GOOD!!!
Eat your whole, fresh, ripe, raw, fruits and vegetables!  Gotta love those leafy greens and fresh herbs that blend so well, adding the most delectable flare to the sweet simplicity of banana and date.  Enjoy in good health ❤

Inhale, and Take Flight

Take flight not just into warrior 3, but into all aspects of your life.  Take flight in your studies, your love life, and in all your everyday roles and activities.  Who are you not to seize the moment and go to infinity and beyond?!  Your future is in your hands.  You can give yourself more power than anybody could ever give you.  It is up to you to dream big, and take flight.  Take flight in happiness, in every breath, and in all that you are and all that you do.  Namaste ❤

 

Get Comfortable With Uncomfortable

With such a busy schedule, it’s essential to get the most out of your time.  Feel uncomfortable going to office hours?  Suck it up.  These first couple of weeks will either make or break how your semester is going to pan out.  Organization and drive, darling– not only when hitting the books, but also when working out.  Never back down.  This is the training before the marathon begins, but don’t worry.  I’ve got you set up for absolute success.

Write Down Goals, Seeing Is Believing

Write it down with dry-erase on your mirror, a note at the foot of your bed, or set an alarm to remind you of your goals every day.  It is much harder to forget about them when they are looking right at you.  Whether your goal is to do three pull-ups or lose 20 pounds, it is much more likely that you will make better decisions towards achieving that goal if you are given a smack-in-the-face reminder.

“Most Days”

Setting goals like “most days I will run for 30 minutes” is much better than “I will run every day for 30 minutes”.  Nobody wants to be forced into a trap – and your human nature will want to rebel.  If you set the goal to run “most days,” in the long run you will be running a lot more because you want to, not because you’re forced to.  It’s ok to have the weekend off if you want. Missing a day does not mean you failed.

Get It Done In The Morning

People who work out in the morning tend to have a more consistent workout regime.  Too often we say we will work out later, and then we don’t have enough time or feel too tired.  Before you even have enough time for excuses, get your sneakers right next to your bed and put them on when you wake up. The rest of the day you will feel refreshed, alive, and high on endorphins to spare.

Set An Intention

Doing the same workout every day can get boring.  Set your mind on something before you go to bed and commit to the new experience.  Intervals, group exercise classes, jogging, yoga, workout videos on YouTube and applications on your smart phone are just a few ways to mix it up.  Also, try setting an intention for excellence and happiness for the day.  These things are decided ahead of time.  Simple choices, every day.  Where there’s a will, there’s a way.

Enjoy

Move the way that moves you.  Hate treadmills?  Then no treadmills for you.  Keep trying until you find something you love.  Discovering what gets you feeling and looking good?  It’s worth the search, unless you like forcing yourself to get comfortable with the uncomfortable.  I can see the fire in your eyes already.  You’re turning into one of those go-hards who isn’t afraid of a challenge.

Without challenges, life is dull.  You’re here, alive and healthy, you might as well kick your own @$$ and challenge the ish out of yourself.  What’s a better time than during college?  There is nothing you can’t learn.  There is nothing you can’t accomplish.  Your future awaits.  Take advantage of your free time while you’ve got it.  You’re in for a heck of a semester.

Raw Italian Food Demo + A Growing Passion

Thank you Anna for the rawesome review and for coming to my demo!! Hope to see you soon! ❤

Dancing with Mangos

On Wednesday, I had the privilege of attending a cooking (although there was no cooking in this one!) demonstration at our beautiful new demo kitchen in our rec center here at Purdue. It was part one of a three part series taught by Katie Reines, a fellow boilermaker and Purdue’s resident raw vegan chef. She’s the sweetest most positive and inspiring person so you should check out her blog, Life is Rawsome. All the recipes I’m going to show you are on her blog so go on over so you can replicate the raw goodness we got to taste on Wednesday!

She demo-ed a total of four recipes in a one hour time frame so she was busy! Here’s what we tasted:

A fully raw lasagna roll made from zucchini ribbons and stuffed with marinara sauce, pesto and cashew cheese. I could eat these for days!

These were very creative…

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You’re Never Too Old To Play On A Jungle Gym

The GroupX instructors of Purdue had a blast doing this workout with the Fitness Mezzanine (3rd Floor at the CoRec)!  Kelly Schreuder kicked my @$$ getting me to do it today!  Thanks girl- encouragement always appreciated!  Now get your friends tone and confident and make them do this with you!

50, 40, 30, 20, 10 of each of the following:

End each round running 3 laps around the track

See you on the playground 😉

Refresh Me Sweetly

 

I made these in the tiny Kappa kitchenette, with my tiny $15 blender 🙂

L’Shana Tovah- Happy New Year!

Yesterday was quite the whirlwind.  Waking up to teach Zumba at 8:30am, hustling off to Sunspot ❤ where I prepared zucchilini with marinara and Jeremy the chef there helped me make a huge fruit salad for everyone to enjoy while I spoke about the raw vegan lifestyle.  I was planning on preparing banana ice cream, but the bananas got frozen whole with the peel on ! So I whipped up an Acai Berry Pudding! I got the idea here and have always wanted to try it.  First time making it infront of a crowd is always a great idea… haha.  Everybody was too kind- I can’t get over how sweet!!  Thank you so much Sunspot for that incredible opportunity and everybody who came!

Sunspot’s “Food For Thought”: “The Raw and Vegan Way To Vital Living”

Next rushing off to take a quiz and hand in my first assignment in NUTR 330 at 1:30pm.

Then! Off to my life’s work! My first of the Raw Vegan Demonstration Series here at Purdue! Raw Vegan Italian!  Unfortunately, no photos were taken- but it was the most incredible experience!  The house was more than full and there was plenty of food for everybody! 😀

I had such a great time!  I hope everybody today enjoyed my demos as much as I did! Let’s all make sure that all of our choices support the new pathways we want to take this new year!! All the best ❤ Hugs and fresh basil and ripe tomatoes!! MMmMmm doesn’t get much better 😉

Here is what I made:

Lasagna Rolls

 Appx. 4 zucchini, potato peeled into long thin strips, doubling up if too thin

Marinara

-blender

-2 oz (apx 1/3 cup) sun dried tomato

– one tomato

-1 tablespoon or more of Italian Seasoning (to taste)

-1-2 garlic cloves

-rosemary (optional)

-1/4 cup red onion

-olive oil (optional)

-2-4 dates (depending on how sweet you like it)

blend until smooth, unless you like it chunky

Cashew Cheese

-blender

-1 cup whole raw (unsalted not roasted)

-1 Tbs miso

-1 Tbs nutritional yeast

-pintch of nutmeg

-less than a pinch of Himalayan sea salt

-pinch of pepper

-just enough water to get it going

 blend until smooth

Pesto

Food processor

-2-3 cups basil

-1 cup spinach

-2 cloves garlic

-tiny pinch of Himalayan sea salt

-1 Tbs nutritional yeast

-appx 3 Tbs olive oil

-1/4-1/2 cup walnuts

 layer

marinara, cheese, and pesto onto one end of the zucchini slice, then roll

“Butternut Squash” Filling (adapted from Organic Garden Cafe)

• 3/8 cup carrot juice
• 1 1/2 cup cashew (I didn’t have enough cashew so I subbed some walnuts)
• 1 T olive oil
• 1/4 T herbarmare
• 1/4 T nutritional yeast
• 1 pinch cumin
• 1/4 t garlic powder (I minced a little garlic)
• 1/4 t black pepper
• 1 pinch cinnamon
• 1 pinch nutmeg

1. juice carrots (about 2-3)

2. grind cashews to fine consistency, but not butter (I ground all ingredients except carrot juice, added carrot juice last)

3. Add the remaining ingredients and blend to thick and creamy, but NOT butter.

4. For the shells, you can use beets, turnips, potatoes, sweet potatoes, whatever!  Get creative!  Use a julienne slicer and slice the beets (or whatever) on the thinnest setting, then put a spoonful of filling in the beet slice and fold in half.  My raviolis were dehydrated on low for about 4 hours and then served but at the Organic Garden Cafe, they are raw and then warmed under a heat lamp for about 5 minutes prior to serving.  I prefer mine cold, but a little dehydrated so all the flavors mend together.  Up to you!  Here I also served with diced tomatoes and walnuts and 2 sprigs of basil!  Bon Appetite!

“Alfredo Sauce” (adapted from Organic Garden Cafe)

• 1 cup cashew (and/or Macadamia)
• 1/4 cup olive oil
• 7/8 cup water
• 1 T lemon juice
• 1/2 t herbarmare
• 1/2 t garlic powder (I minced half a garlic clove)
• 1/4 T nutritional yeast
• 1/2 T dried rosemary
• 1/8 t dried dill
• 1/8 t dried thyme

1. Blend all ingredients, except dried herbs, in Vitamix (a high speed blender) until creamy

2. Add herbs and blend 10-20 seconds more

3. To plate, simply pour some onto a plate and spread by tilting the plate around until well spread out

*1 T additional water if being refrigerated–always hold back some water until the end.  The recipe, if served immediately, requires less water.  If refrigerated, needs more water because it thickens/congeals from the olive oil.

 

Tiramisu 

Makes 1, use a spring form cake pan for a square brownie pan or glass dish

Crust

1 ¾ cup raw almonds dry

½ cup coconut date roll or date paste

1 Tbl vanilla

1/8 tsp sea salt

in a food processor, grind down first to fine/ course.  Press into pie plate on bottom only (not sides)

Mocha Cheesecake (filling)

2 1/6 cups cashew *raw, unsalted cashews*

1 ¼ cups brewed coffee (liquid coffee you drink – not grounds)

1 cup cacao powder

5/6 cups ( 1/2 cup + 1/3 cup) coconut oil

2/3 cup agave or coconut nectar, or other liquid sweetener you like

1/6 cups vanilla extract

1/6 tsp sea salt

put all ingredients in high speed blender and blend creamy

Whipped Cream

1 ½ cup soaked cashews

1 1/3 cup coconut water (or date soaking water)

1 cup coconut meat or sub some cashew ( I used cashew)

¼ cup agave or coconut nectar

1 tsp vanilla extract

1/12 tsp sea salt

½ cup coconut oil

put all ingredients in blender and blend creamy

Garnish

¼ cup cacao powder

gently with a sifter to completely cover the frosting

Let set in the freezer for 1-4 hours and then store in refrigerator for up to 5 days