Emily von Euw's Blog, page 20

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!


CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIES with QUINOA and ALMOND BUTTER

1/2 cup uncooked quinoa
1/2 cup buckwheat groats
1/3 cup almond butter
2 teaspoons maple syrup
3 teaspoons water (more or less as needed)
1/3 cup chocolate chips or homemade raw chocolate cut tiny pieces 

Grind the quinoa and buckwheat into flour in a high speed blender. Add in the rest of the ingredients, except the chocolate chips. If it's still very crumbly and dry, add some dates, or add more water in 1 teaspoon amounts until the mix is moist and holds together when you press it with your fingers. Add the chocolate chips and mix them in evenly. If you want to gently bake the cookies, add some dates and a little more water to the mix, then bake at 200 degrees (or use a dehydrator) for 30 minutes or until they get crunchy on the outside.  This is nice because you end up with warm cookies. I used an ice cream scoop to portion out nine big cookies, but you can do whatever you want. Serve with cold non-dairy milk and enjoy!

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SHOCKING PINK ICE CREAM

I'll be straight up: the colour is from beets. BUT. Do not fear - if you don't like beets, the flavour is subtle and you can cover it up with other yummy, pretty things like berries, coconut, Rawxies (which are soooo good, lemon poppyseed is my fave) and brownies. If you like beets, then this is probably your wet, ice creamy dream come true. If you aren't sure about beets WITH ice cream... just see what you think. Iiiii think you will love it. Pretty sure I got the idea to do this from Steph over at @happyandhealthy96 so shout out to DAT BABE. 
I have got a ton of other #$%@ to do today so I gotta keep this post short. I love you so much and I will talk to ya soon. Now go make some shocking pink ice cream (recipe below)! 
x

SHOCKING PINK ICE CREAM 
Serves one or two or three... or me.

4 frozen, peeled bananas cut into chunks 
1/4 cup chopped red beet
Rawxies cookies or brownie chunks
1/2 cup berries
1/4 cup shredded coconut 

Blend the bananas with the beet until smooth. Add some mylk or water if needed / desired. Serve with the rest of the goodies. Yahhh baaabbay.

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BAKED YAMS with TAHINI (AKA HEAVEN)

I eat this nearly every night and it never gets old. Ask anyone who knows me, they probably feel jealous of the yams and/or sweet potatoes. There actually IS a difference between yams and sweet potatoes. I like both though. I love both, to be honest. Sometimes I really question the deepness of my devotion to certain plants. Like last night I baked some potatoes and just stood there in the kitchen gobbling them down plain, while murmuring phrases of adoration to them. Is this normal? Ah, whatever the answer... I LOVE YAMS AND I DON'T CARE YOU KNOWS IT! As long as I have baked yams and/or sweet potatoes in my life, I am at peace with the universe. 

I am going through a white sweet potato phase so they are my absolute favourite at the moment, but I still like to eat them with jewel yams because the extra colour is always welcomed and then it makes it more exciting when I get a bite of sweet potato. Happiness is contrast, people. 
Feel free to add more to this recipe (hummus, more salt or pepper, other veggies, beans, rice, sun-dried tomatoes...) In fact I usually don't even add cilantro but I figured I should make it look a little prettier for you folks. It's kind of a miracle I got some shots of this before it met my mouth. Baked yams/sweet potatoes are like my MDMA. 
It makes me extra stoked to eat them now that I have FINALLY read The Starch Solution (by Dr. John and Mary McDougall). Bottom line of the book: fill up on rice, beans, potatoes, yams and other starchy whole plants foods, add on colourful fruits and water-rich veggies, drink lots of water, don't eat animal foods or processed crap. There were a few sentences that I didn't agree with, but all and all (or is it all in all? *shrug*) I really dug it. His logic - along with the results of a buttload of new studies and a lot of citations - is that humans have been living on these starchy plant foods for at least tens of thousands of years and probably much longer. I have always liked this train of thinking since I romanticize everything; I really love the fact that an early homo sapien could walk into my kitchen tonight (ignore all the time-space continuum inconsistencies) and although they would be very confused and most likely terrified, they might find comfort in the familiar look and smell of a cooked yam or sweet potato. Yes, our environment has changed drastically - this cannot be exaggerated - since 100,000 years ago, but our bodies have hardly evolved at all. So we need to feed them the same stuff we have been in the past. White sugar is a substance that our system is just not "designed" for. 
Eat yams. They taste freaking amazing. 

BAKED YAMS with TAHINI (AKA HEAVEN)
4 yams and/or sweet potatoes2-4 tablespoons tahini, as desired1/4 teaspoon sea salt1/4 teaspoon black pepper1/4 cilantro leaves, if desired Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Wash and scrub the yams/sweet potatoes, then poke some holes in them with a fork. Put them in the oven whole, or if they are really big, slice in half lengthwise (I tend to this even if they're not that big because then they're done faster). 
Bake on a parchment paper-lined pan for 30-60 minutes. Baking time will depend on the size of them, but you will know when they are done because they'll be bubbling around the edges and when you stick a fork through it will easily sink in. I like mine really tender and mushy whereas Jack prefers his with a little crunch, so take them out when they are the stage you like. 
Drizzle with tahini, sprinkle with salt and pepper, garnish with cilantro (totally optional). THE BEST. 
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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.

Anyways, my point is that after I have worked my muscles and cardiovascular system a LOT all week, it feels amazing and so right to just spend an hour calmly stretching out my limbs and doing some light yoga. Work hard, relax hard - get it? ("Oooooooh, now I get it!") Afterwards, my body usually wants just one thing: homemade almond milk! So today I share a drink that is perfect for post-yoga nutrition. It's full of spices that are detoxifying digestive aids and blood cleansers. Besides, it tastes amazing. I need something more substantial pretty soon after drinking this but it's dreamy on its own right after I roll up the yoga mat. Ideas: add it to a smoothie... okay that's the only idea I have.

A note about the soaked almonds: I suggest buying raw organic almonds in bulk or in a large amount, soaking them all at once, then storing them in the freezer in ziploc bags or air tight glass containers. This is what I do in any case, and it works great for me. A note about the vanilla: try to get whole vanilla beans, then chop off a small segment and throw in the blender. It adds a really fresh flavour that you can't get from vanilla extract or even vanilla powder. I love getting my vanilla beans from Nature's Happiness; they are organic, fair trade, raw and pretty inexpensive.


WARMING CHAI ALMOND MILK

1/4 cup raw almonds, soaked for 8-12 hours in water then drained 
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon powder
1/4 teaspoon segment of vanilla bean 
4 cardamon pods
3 Medjool dates
1 1/2 cups hot water

Throw it all in the blender until smooth. Strain with a nut milk bag, sieve or cheese cloth, and sip it up. Great after yoga and before or after meals. Add 2 frozen bananas to make it a chai milkshake. Life is good. 

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PEPPERMINT OREOS DIPPED IN DARK CHOCOLATE

Meet me in the club oreo, it's goin' down.

Take me to the candy shop, I'll let you lick my lolly pop oreo.

I'm hot 'cause I'm fly into oreos, you ain't 'cause you not, this is why I'm hot.

And also this, just because.



Usually this is how my mind works: I find a way to incorporate the lingo of my raw food recipes and lifestyle into rap songs. I don't know why I do this, but regardless, now you know. Moving on.

This recipe is the BOMB yo. It tastes as good as the photos look, and I know ya'll are freaking out over the photos. Hehe. Basically we've got chewy chocolate cookies sandwiching a peppermint vanilla coconut creme filling. Yupp. Oh right, then all the cookies are dipped in chocolate, making them double chocolate. Can life get any better? Well, yeah, because these are also really good for you and easy to make. Okay, now life can't get any better. Unless you throw in a bowl of banana ice cream (but that is a constant truth).

As usual I give you a bunch of adaption/substitution options so no matter what sensitives you have, you can probably make these. I don't think I need to say much else about this recipe. I mean, look at it. Does anyone REALLY need more information? Get uncookin'.


PEPPERMINT OREOS DIPPED IN DARK CHOCOLATE
Makes 10-12 sandwiches

Cookies:
2/3 cup almonds
2/3 cup brazil nuts
1 cup dates
3 tablespoons carob powder
Pinch of sea salt
1-3 tablespoons water, if needed

Vanilla creme:
1 cup coconut chips
1 cup coconut shreds
2 tablespoons almond butter
2 tablespoons melted coconut oil 
1/2 teaspoon vanilla powder
1-3 drops of peppermint essential oil, as desired

Dark chocolate:
Use this recipe. 

To make the cookies: grind the nuts into flour in a high speed blender or food processor. Add the rest of the ingredients (except the water) to the nut flour in a food processor and process until it all sticks together in a ball. If it's still too crumbly after a few minutes, add a little water. I did this and suddenly my very dry mixture became the perfect cookie dough consistency! Roll this dough out between two pieces of parchment paper then cut out cookies with a cookie cutter. Put them in the freezer until they are solid and can be handled without falling apart. If you have any extra dough, make a giant 'ugly' cookie and sprinkle it with some sea salt. No dough left behind.

To make the vanilla creme: blend all the ingredients together in a high speed blender, adding the peppermint oil to taste (it's very potent!) If your blender isn't powerful enough to blend everything into a thick, coconut butter-like mixture, then add some more coconut oil, and perhaps a liquid sweetener or some dates and water.

Sandwich the coconut creme with cookies, making little dollops on each cookie then gently pressing down another cookie on top. Throw in the freezer for another 30 minutes or until they are solid and very cold.

Make the chocolate, then pour it into a tall, narrow bowl and dip in your frozen cookies. You will have to have 2-3 rounds of dipping, letting the chocolate on the cookies harden after each time. Enjoy!

NOTES: if you want the cookies to be darker, add more carob powder; if you want the creme to be whiter, try omitting the nut butter and adding more coconut oil or maple syrup.

SUBSTITUIONS: use oat flour, buckwheat flour, or any nuts instead of almonds or brazil nuts; use cacao or cocoa powder instead of carob; use vanilla extract instead of powder; salt is always optional; use more coconut shreds instead of coconut chips; use any nut butter instead of almond; use date paste instead of coconut oil; use peppermint leaves instead of essential oil.

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THE BEST HEALTHY SNACKS OF ALL TIME

I am a snack person because I am, more generally, a food person. I love to eat, so eating as often as possible is ideal. That's where snacks come in. A reason to eat between or after meals? I accept. Snacking is also part of eating a mostly raw, vegan diet. Your meals are light, so you get hungry pretty quickly after and in between them. Here's my daily diet: I wake up and drink a glass of water to get everything moving. Later my breakfast is always a massive smoothie (which I have following yoga, weight training or cardio). Right after drinking I think: good god, I never have to eat again. But about an hour later my tummy is saying: hey, I'm still here. At this point it's not quite time for my second smoothie (aka lunch), so snacks are a necessary BFF. Same goes for between my second smoothie and dinner, and of course I like to eat after dinner too because... well, eating. 
Another reason snacks are the bomb dot com is because I have a sporadic schedule. I am my own boss so I don't have regular work hours; I do what I want when I want, and that means a lot of spontaneous outings. I also go to university, but my classes each day are only one to three hours, so I am never up on campus for that long (it's only 30 minutes from my house). Thus, when I am kinda hungry but am about to go out (for pleasure or work, which are basically the same thing in my case), snacks come to the rescue yet again. Same deal when I am running out the door to catch the bus to a lecture. As you may have just deduced, I am incredibly lazy and don't like bringing food out of the house, but these recipes are all excellent ideas for those of you who are wondering how to eat healthy at work, school, etc. 
I didn't use to be a snacker. But I have now happily immigrated into Collation Land and it's swell (despite the word 'collation', which means 'light meal', sounding really not fun). Here are a couple of my current fave ways to temporally and partially fill my tummy up during the day and night. Hope you like. 
x

P.S. The avocado is in a bowl from Ethos Planetware and made from simply recycled corn, bamboo and rice. UM, COOL.


CREAMY TAHINI AVOCADO DREAM 
Excellent for your skin and brain thanks to all the healthy fats and a nice amount of iron. Creamy, rich and ugh-so-good. 
1 avocado 1 tablespoon tahini (aka sesame seed butter)Pinch of salt and black pepper
Slice the avo in half, take out the pit* and score the creamy green flesh. Drizzle on tahini, then sprinkle on salt and pepper. Feel free to add chili flakes too. Or really anything you want. Enjoy with a spoon. 
*Don't compost the pit! Rub it on your face first. It's a natural massager and avocado meat is, like I said, great for the skin. Rinse your face with warm water after about 10 minutes, THEN compost the pit. 

CINNAMON DATE MOUTHGASMS 
Cinnamon is ridiculously great for every cell in your body, and dates are finally being recognized as pretty awesome too. 
Dates (whatever kind you like, but make sure they are gooey)Cinnamon powder
Open the dates and remove the pits, then dip the gooey side in the cinnamon. You could also use this method with cacao powder, carob powder, hemp seeds, coconut shreds, whatever. If you want fudge, just add nut butter.


BANANAS with NUT BUTTER  

Bananas
Almond butter, cashew butter, whatever ya want

Eat them together. You're welcome.

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DOUBLE CHOCOLATE CUPCAKES with BUTTERCREAM FROSTING

These are happy cupcakes. 
The ingredients are good for you in every way. They are healthy, wholesome, delicious and easy to make. They are lovely to look at, and fun to share. They are a mini celebrations of all that is good in this world! 

You might think I am giving them too much credit, but I have to tell you something: when you're as happy about life as I am right now, they really do seem this great. The past couple weeks I have been focusing much of my time to meditation, being outdoors, and most importantly, enjoying the little things and living in the moment as it happens. Of course I know meditation is important, and that when I am outside with my music is when I am happiest and feel the most fulfilled. But knowing that and maintaining it are two different things. When you have a ton of other responsibilities to take care of every day - no matter what they are - you tend to put your "me-time" on the back burner, and that's a huge mistake. I am pretty sure we all do this, right? 
So a couple weeks ago I basically had a melt down because I felt so stressed and anxious about aaall the things I think are so important that I need to get done. School work (essays, readings, exams, presentations), blog stuff (recipe creation, photography, social media sharing), and another project I am working on that may or may not a be a cookbook about savoury vegan recipes. On top of that there are the endless little tasks of simply maintaining a social existence (meeting up with friends, being polite, loving my partner). I am not saying I do not enjoy school, "work", friends, family or Jack. But I am saying all these responsibilities add up to a whole lotta pressure to be perfect and please others. I think most of us spend the majority of our days (and thus our lives) working to make other people happy, in ways that often don't really matter. For example, yes I have a paper this semester that is worth 40% of my grade, and in some ways it's important I do it and get a good grade so I can graduate with a decent GPA aaaand of course writing the paper will open my eyes to a whole story I didn't know existed (I think I'm gonna write about the history of abortion in Canada). But REALLY, does it matter? Even in the worst case scenario all that will happen is I fail the course. But I will still be healthy, loved, comfortable, able-bodied, able-minded, self-aware, and alive in this amazing world! 
I don't know how much sense I am making. What I am trying to say is that I think so many of us  - namely middle/upper class people in developed countries with access to stuff we take for granted like food, internet, human rights, fridges, mattresses and Netflix - let ourselves become perpetually stressed about shit that doesn't actually have anything to do with us being happy. We worry way too much about deadlines for papers and numbers instead of saying "Hey, I am alive today and that feels pretty great." Stress is a catalyst for virtually every lifestyle disease. Let's throw it out. Let's be grateful for what we HAVE and who we ARE. Let's look at the sky, stars, moon or sun and recognize and that we are merely fragments of energy in an organic multi-verse of scientific amazement and spiritual connectedness, here for a moment until our cells are once again recycled into the elegant, magnificent cosmos. Does that report due on Friday REALLY matter? It's time to ask yourself if you are truly happy. If not, find a way to be happy. 
For me that means no job in a cubicle, and not living in an environment based on capitalism and exploitation. I need to be around trees, sunshine, mountains, rivers, gardens and people who inspire me. I need to focus a large part of my days to MYSELF, breathing deeply and letting anxiety fall away. Some of you might be saying "Easy for you to say, you already have your dream job and are young and don't have to do a job you dislike. I need to keep doing what makes me unhappy because I can't afford to do anything else." Stop right there! Let go of the excuses and find out HOW you can finally live the life you know you deserve. Work towards your goal, be thankful for what you already have, and you will succeed.

My goal? Travel the world and then settle down in the interior of BC, buying my own patch of property and building an off-the-grid home. Sounds pretty unrealistic, but I'm gonna make it happen. You'd be surprised at how affordable land can be in certain spots. You'd also be surprised at how inexpensive homes can be to build. For inspiration, look no further than this. You don't HAVE to stay in a job you hate, you don't HAVE to keep paying rent or a mortgage, you don't HAVE to be in this never-ending state of stress and irritability. You can live simply, happily and peacefully as soon as you want to. Enjoy the things in life that actually matter. For me that's being with people I love, hiking to the tops of mountains, eating baked yams, dancing like no one's watching, and improving my own self every day with meditation and yoga. There is no reason you cannot have the life you want. Go for it! And on the way, try out this cupcake recipe.


DOUBLE CHOCOLATE CUPCAKES with BUTTERCREAM FROSTING
Makes 5 big cupcakes; 5-10 servings (with leftover frosting) 
Cupcakes: 
1/4 cup water
2 tablespoons chia seeds
1/2 cup rolled oats
1/2 cup dried coconut meat
1/2 cup dates
1/2 cup water
3 tablespoons carob powder

Buttercream:
Use this recipe. 

Coconut powder:
1/2 cup dried coconut meat

To make the cupcakes: stir the chia seeds into 1/4 cup water and let them sit for 5-10 minutes so they puff up. Grind the oats and coconut into a fine powder and set that aside in a bowl. Blend the dates with 1/2 cup water and the carob powder until smooth, mix this into the oat/coconut powder by hand and then mix in the puffed up chia mixture as well, until it’s all well combined and like a dense, slightly wet chocolate dough. If it’s too crumbly, add a little more water. Press into cupcake papers and let them sit in the fridge until set (I let them sit overnight, covered with a cloth). 

To make the coconut powder: grind into powder in a high speed blender. 

Frost with the buttercream, then sprinkle with your powdered coconut, and enjoy! 

SUBSTITUTIONS: use buckwheat, almond, coconut or quinoa flour instead of rolled oats and/or coconut; use cocoa or cacao instead of carob. 

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MARSHMALLOW CREAM CAKE

This was a delicious accident. I meant for this to be your run-of-the-mill raw vegan cream cake (which sounds like an oxymoron... shh), but I wanted to add a bit more substance to it without adding a bunch more heaviness, so I chose to throw in some chia seeds. I figured they could multi-task and work to thicken up the batter too, since chia seeds plump up with liquids and make a kinda superfood pudding. Well, thank goodness I did. When I took the cake out of the freezer, sliced myself a piece and tasted it - I was pleasantly surprised by the texture. It's light and fluffy just like marshmallows! Not nearly as sweet, because I prefer to leave my desserts au natural and not add too much sweetness (even though my sweeteners are pretty au natural themselves), but I immediately thought: I can call this bad boy a marshmallow cake!


I made this to serve at my [third] vegan potluck tonight last night. I'm in Vancouver, Canada and I hope you are too so you can make it out and we can chill together and share a piece o' dis. If you aren't in my corner of the globe, you can still try this cake though. It's because of this magical thing called the internet. Get the recipe below, or continue reading my ramblings for a few minutes. 
There are three layers to this thing. They all have a base of cashews, lemon juice, coconut oil and coconut sugar. The first layer has mint and spirulina added, the second layer has some vanilla and extra cashews, and the top is coloured with fresh beets. The crust is mainly quinoa flour. This cake is SUPER GOOD for you {body, mind and soul}. As usual, if you don't have all the exact ingredients I list, I give you about a billion substation options. This would be excellent drizzled in raw chocolate sauce. But then again, wouldn't everything? 
Example: "Jack, come over here. I wanna drizzle you in chocolate sauce."See? 
The flavours in this recipe are not as mainstream as say, this chocolate cream cake. Spirulina is an acquired taste, although you can hardly detect it in this, but still. And although I personally LOVE a little beet flavour in desserts, I understand a lot of folks aren't used to it. So I would suggest making this for people who are already pretty into raw vegan cuisine and perhaps NOT total raw food newbs, because their palates simply might not be ready to enjoy it. Make the newbs the chocolate cake linked above, they'll love dat one. Or hey, maybe YOU'RE new to all this!? If so, same advice. Come back to this recipe once your taste buds have become more receptive to fresh foods. It's not that this cake is super strange-tasting or anything. I think it's freaking delicious. But I can imagine feeding this to someone who regularly eats cheeseburgers and dairy ice cream cakes and their reaction being: this is weird. We gotta remember than refined foods are laden with nasty stuff that effectively drug our taste buds and palates into comas. When you go from a processed diet to a wholesome diet, there will be a period of adjustment where you need to get used to REAL, FRESH food and flavours. I hope I am making sense here. In summary: the flavours in this recipe are not conventional, but I think that's cool. 
Soundtrack to this cake? Right here. 

MARSHMALLOW CREAM CAKEServes: 8-12 
Crust:1 cup dry quinoa1/4 cup melted coconut oil1/4 cup coconut sugar 
Mint layer:1 cup raw cashews, soaked in water for 3 hours then rinsed1/2 cup water1 tablespoon lemon juice1/6 cup coconut sugar 1/6 cup fresh mint leaves1-2 teaspoons spirulina powder, as desired1 tablespoon coconut oil2 tablespoon chia seeds
Vanilla layer:1 1/6 cups raw cashews, soaked in water for 3 hours then rinsed1/2 cup water1 tablespoon lemon juice1/6 cup coconut sugar 1 tablespoon coconut oil2 tablespoon chia seeds1 teaspoon vanilla extract 
Pink layer:
1 cup raw cashews, soaked in water for 3 hours then rinsed1/2 cup water1 tablespoon lemon juice1/6 cup coconut sugar 1 tablespoon coconut oil2 tablespoon chia seeds1/4 cup red beet, peeled and sliced thinly
To make the crust: rinse the quinoa for a minute under cold water. Grind the quinoa into very fine flour in a high speed blender, then in a bowl, mix together the flour with the coco oil and sugar until you get a dough-like mixture. Press into the bottom of a cake pan. I used an adjustable cake pan set to around 7 inches across. Put in the fridge. 
To make each layer: simply blend all the ingredients - except the chia seeds - in each list together until smooth, then stir in the chia seeds at the end. The texture before adding the chia seeds should be like yogurt. If any of them are too thick, add 1 or 2 more tablespoons of water. If too thin, add more cashews or coconut oil. Pour in the green layer over your crust, then white, then pink. I sprinkled mine with white sesame seeds and more chia seeds. 
Keep the cake in the fridge for 24 hours so the flavours can get to know each other. It's easiest to slice when it's been in the freezer for about 40 minutes before cutting. 
SUBSTITUTIONS: use any other nut instead of cashews, but they should be raw and preferably organic. Use coconut butter or cocoa butter instead of coconut oil. Use date paste or any other natural sweetener instead of coconut sugar. Use berries instead of beet. 
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GINGER COOKIES with PINK FROSTING (FOR JACK)

Note: The following prose is for Jack, but of course you are invited to read it. At the bottom of the post I share a recipe for raw vegan ginger cookies dipped in pink frosting, and I KNOW you want that. In any case, I hope you get what you want out of this beautiful day. x

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Listen to this while reading.

We are two animals collaborating our lives in this particularly strange place, and I think that's beautiful at least. 

Being in love with you is effortless. It's easy, full of lightness and lights and helpless smiles. I live for your lips, the corners of your mouth that turn up when you're happy. Most days when we need to part, I'd rather keep running my hands along your body in early sunlight. I know you doubt my devotion sometimes, and my reasons for staying with you, but you've given me so much. I am relearning who I am as a whole person, beside you. I laugh more with you than I have ever have. You're my sunshine. My skin gets excited when I hear your deep, controlled, thoughtful voice say my name, say I Love You, say That's Right. You think you're weird, I think you're precious. I wish I could grab your butt all day. I wish you could grab mine all night. Well, we kinda do that anyways. 

We've been in this endless honeymoon for nearly 500 days, it feels like 50. Everyday we are together, every word we share, I learn more about you and these lessons consistently water my infatuation with who you are to me and for me. You are my home now. You are my rock, my hearth. You're my life partner, my calm companion in this overwhelmingly anarchic world of modernity and noise and colour. Although you don't complete me - because we are both complete in ourselves - I'd be quite lost without you. Who would I share myself with? Who would hold me the way you do? Who would rub my back during the Week of Hormones? (Which is coming soon, by the way).

The giddiness one feels in the beginning of a romantic endeavour is what I still feel when I know I will see you soon. It's the feeling I get at the mere thought of you. Often I am on a bus or supposed to be paying attention at a lecture, but I find my mind wandering to you. To [certain parts of] your body. To the energy between us. You make me a better person. "You're my top, mate." 

I look back to who I was when we first began this adventure together, and I smile. In fact I smile at every memory we share, and the memories we have yet to create. You've seen more of my colours and shades than anyone else. You've seen me at my best, my worst, my average. I've told you my secrets, my fears, my dreams, my regrets. I've revealed to you my weaknesses, my strengths, my confessions, my mistakes. I know you will always keep your arms open for me to cry and laugh in (I certainly do enough of both). I feel like the most fortunate person in the world for getting you all to myself. Everyone is missing out and - luckily for me - they don't know it. 

Loving you is easy. It's organic, raw, natural. So natural that it grew into a flower before I even noticed there was a seed, but then there it was: vibrant and alive and finally defined. Loving you is easy, my sweet babay. Let's eat cookies! I put ginger in them just for you. 

///


GINGER COOKIES with PINK FROSTING

Cookies:
1/3 cup oats
1/3 cup almonds
1/2 teaspoon vanilla powder
1 tablespoon chunk peeled ginger
1 tablespoon maple syrup (optional) 

Pink frosting:
2 tablespoons cacao butter
2 tablespoon beet juice
1 tablespoon maple syrup

To make the cookies: grind the oats and almonds along with the vanilla and ginger into a thick paste in a high speed blender (my Blendtec mini twister jar does this perfectly). Add the maple syrup if desired. If you don't have a great blender, buy almond butter and oat flour instead of grinding your own, and grate the ginger very finely. Press thus cookie dough into cookie molds and put in the freezer.

To make the pink chocolate: melt the cacao butter, then add the rest of the ingredients and whisk until evenly combined. Dip each of your cookies into this, put back in the freezer for 5 minutes, then repeat until you've used up all your pink chocolate mixture or you don't want to put anymore on your cookies. Serve with almond milk and enjoy with your sweetheart.

ADAPTIONS: use buckwheat groats or other nuts instead of oats or almonds; use vanilla extract instead of vanilla powder; use dried ginger instead of fresh; use any other liquid sweetener instead of maple syrup; use coconut oil or coconut butter instead of cacao butter. 

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PEANUT BUTTER FUDGE BROWNIES

It's going DOWN with these bad boys. I know I just shared a brownie recipe but C'MON, MAN. You can never have too many raw vegan love bites... amiright? I also know that in my last post for lemon tarts I talked about how dessert totally doesn't need chocolate to be good. It's true. But chocolate never hurts. Besides the above, I don't have a whole lot to say about this recipe. I mean I think the title tells you everything you need to know: peanut butter. fudge. brownies. See? 
In any case, my brain is kinda fried today. University can really take it outta me sometimes. Majoring in history is something I am doing because I want to. I love studying history. At the same time, it seems like the reading and essay-writing and critically-analyzing is ENDLESS. My noggin' needs a break. Thankfully I don't have class on Fridays so this weekend I am gonna try to relax a bit. I haven't been mediating lately and I really must get back into that. I always feel better when I make it a regular thang. My partner has been having some emotional problems too, which of course becomes part of my life. It's ok! I love him, dammit, so I will be strong for him when I'm capable. But it's challenging at times and when put on top of all my other responsibilities, I can feel overwhelmed. That is how I am feeling today: overwhelmed. I dream of getting back to Wells and escaping from all the stress in the city. At least my parents are gone this week, it makes the house way more chill. 
At the end of the day I just need to look myself in the mirror and say: Emily, suck it up. Not in a negative or unhealthy way. I mean that my life is basically a dream come true plus organic bananas so I have nothing to even CONSIDER complaining about. I need to focus on gratitude and be inspired. I am so thankful for the secondary education I have access to and am taking advantage of. I am thankful for my beautiful, unique, healthy body. I am thankful for the amazing, caring, sensitive man in my life who still makes me giddy when I look at his pillowy, pink lips. I am thankful for the RIDICULOUSLY ideal job I have of making brownies for the internet, and writing cookbooks for you. I am thankful for the ceaseless love you all send me on a daily basis, I have become a little more dependent on it than I would like to admit. I need you as much as you need me at this point, and I think that's pretty damn sweet. I am thankful for all the opportunities that come my way, the inspirational people in my life, the open-minded city I live in, and the majestic landscape of the pacific north west. Most of all I am thankful for baby pigs and Prana's almond butter. That last bit was kind of a joke but also not. The point is: I let myself get unhappy sometimes. More specifically, I let myself get stressed out or worked up about things I perceive to be important. But realistically, what is the WORST that could happen? I fail a semester? My next cookbook doesn't sell well? My website traffic goes down? Jack leaves me? I go broke? In all these scenarios, I will still be alive, loved and self-aware. I will always (fingers crossed) have a community of people who will be there to take care of me when I need it, and I will always have my own mind to entertain me, and this freaking incredible world to experience. MORAL OF THE STORY: I am grateful for what I have, and I know there's no need to feel stressed, so I won't. 
Oh! I guess it would be appropriate to say I am thankful for these brownies too, even though as I type this, they have long since been inhaled by yours truly and that lovely man I just mentioned. 

PEANUT BUTTER FUDGE BROWNIES

Base:
1 cup cashews
1 cup buckwheat groats
2 cups Medjool dates
2 tablespoons cacao powder
1/2 teaspoon sea salt

Middle:
1/3 cup peanut butter (or almond butter)
1 tablespoon water

Top:
3 tablespoons coconut oil
1 tablespoon maple syrup
1 tablespoon cacao powder

To make the base: grind the cashew and buckwheat into flour in a high speed blender. Transfer to a food processor and add the rest of the ingredients. Process until it all starts to stick together. If it's still too crumbly, add more dates or 1 tablespoon of coconut oil or water. Press into the bottom of a 4X2 baking pan or whatever mold/shape you like.

Once it sets a bit, spread on the peanut butter. If your PB is too thick, just whisk in 1 tablespoon of water.

To make the top: stir together the ingredient until smooth. Pour on top of the peanut butter layer and let the whole thing chill in the fridge (pun intended) for a couple hours or ideally overnight so the flavours can get to know each other. Slice and nom!

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