Category Archives: Recipes

Chocolate Avocado Mousse

This is the perfect chocolate mousse!
The avocado is a versatile food that is used in a variety of raw dishes– like gazpacho and other cold soups, fruit salads, dips, desserts, and even ice cream! Avocados are a healthful substitute for sour cream or cream cheese in dressings, dips and spreads. But today we are going to explore chocolate mousse!
Avocados are amazing!
  • Promote heart health
  • Wide-range of anti-inflammatory benefits (including reducing & preventing arthritis)
  • Optimized absorption of carotenoids (fat soluble phytonutrients)
  • Supports cardiovascular health
  • Promotes blood sugar regulation
  • Balances hormones

Many varieties of this native American plant are grown, but there are basically two different skin types: a smooth, green-skinned variety that remains green when ripe–this is known as the Fuerte and it is available in the fall and winter; and Hass, a dark, rough-skinned variety that blackens as it ripens is available in the summer.
Select avocados that are fairly heavy for their size and free of irregularities. When the fruit yields to gentle finger pressure, it is ripe. Store at room temperature until ripened, then refrigerate.
  • The Perfect Chocolate Mousse
  • ½ cup dates, pitted, soft
  • 3-4 tablespoons maple syrup
  • 1 tablespoon coconut butter, (optional)
  • 1 ½ tablespoons non-alcohol vanilla extract
  • 2 ½ cups avocado, mashed (about 3 medium)
  • 1/2 cup raw carob powder
  • 4-6 tablespoons cocoa powder
  • Directions:
  • Soak the dates in 1/2 cup fresh water for 5-10 minutes to soften. Drain soak water and set aside. In a food processor, blend dates, maple syrup, coconut butter (if desired), and vanilla until smooth. Spoon in avocado and blend until smooth. Add a few tablespoons of date soak water if necessary to aid in blending. Spoon in carob and cocoa powder and blend until smooth.
    Spoon mousse into parfait or wineglasses. Keeps fresh for several days.
    You may also choose to freeze for a decadent ice cream! Yumm!

Eighty-eight percent of an avocado’s calories come from fat–primarily monosaturated fat–which makes avocados an excellent food for people wishing for the nourishment and the building of blood and yin. Because they are an excellent source of fat for people who have difficulty assimilating other fatty foods they are also a good source of protein, potassium, and vitamin E. They also reduce vata, which is perfect for this time of year!
And there you have it!
xoxox,
Michelle

Simply Divine Chocolate Macaroons

Chocolate is so heavenly! I am constantly amazed about how much people love these decadent treats! They are simply gluten free bliss!

Ingredients for Chocolate Macaroons:
3 cups dried, unsweetened coconut flakes
1/2 cup cocoa powder
1/2 cup carob powder
3/4 cup maple syrup or agave
1/3 cup coconut butter
1 tablespoon vanilla extract or powder
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
To make Chocolate Macaroons:
In a large bowl, combine all the ingredients and stir well to combine.
Using a small ice cream scoop, your hands, or a big tablespoon, spoon rounds of the dough onto dehydrator screens. If using your hands, it helps to have a bowl of water to wet your hands so macaroon mix does not stick. I find it easiest just to let my macaroons sit out on the counter overnight. They end of perfect the next day! You may also choose to dehydrate at 115 degrees for about 6 hours, or until crisp on the outside and moist on the inside. you may also choose to put them in the freezer for a frozen treat or simply dehydrate in oven by turning it off and on till desired consistency is reached.
You may also use all carob or all chocolate in your recipe. I find that a little chocolate goes a long way!

Benefits of Raw Cacao:
Magnesium: This is one of the most essential minerals, yet studies say that more than 80% of the United States’ population is deficient in magnesium. In nature, the most concentrated source of magnesium is raw cacao! Other good sources of the mineral include certain nuts and any chlorophyll molecule. Magnesium supports the heart, increases brain power, relaxes muscles, increases flexibility, causes healthy bowl movements, and helps build string bones. As one of the body’s primary alkaline minerals, magnesium assists the normal functioning of several chemical enzymatic processes — facilitating more then three hundred different detoxification and elimination functions.
Chromium: This mineral helps balance blood sugar levels, and cacao has ten times the amount of chromium as whole wheat, a chromium-rich food, making it the highest food source of this mineral.
Antioxidant Power: Raw cacao beans are super-rich in antioxidant flavonols. They contain 10,000 mg (10 grams) of flavonol antioxidants (that’s a 10% concentration level!). This makes cacao possibly the best source of antioxidants, with twenty to thirty times more than red wine or green tea.
Vitamins B1, B2, B5, B6, C, and E are all present in significant quantities.
Other nutrients: Fiber, iron, niacin, phosphorus, as well as hundreds of other chemicals and phytonutrients (special plant nutrients) are found in cacao.
Pure Chocolate Bliss,
Michelle
xoxo

Living Cereal with Almond Milk

Most mornings I wake up, have a glass of water with sole and iodine and then sometimes I will eat this cereal concoction, and a little later I’ll have a mid-morning snack of a juice or smoothie to keep me going until lunch. Then at lunch I usually have a BIG salad and some miso soup.

To start out, I cut up half an apple, cranberries, and some sprouted buckwheats that I dehydrated with cinnamon spice (I like to always have some on hand because they are a lot like rice krispies), next I like to add some raw trail mix with cacao nibs, raw cashews, golden raisins, goji berries, and mulberries, I also like to add homemade almond mylk and coconut flakes. The combination is great!

Almond mylk is naturally sweet, versatile and alkaline.
Soak 1 cup of raw almonds overnight (I add half of a vanilla bean to the soak water). The next morning, rinse and drain your almonds and place in a blender with four cups of filtered water.  Blend until ingredients are smooth.  Pour into a strainer to separate the remaining pulp.  You may use the pulp again for a lighter mylk. Place almond mylk back in blender and add a pinch of sea salt, a few dates, and the soaked vanilla bean for flavor.  Blend and serve.
The Real Deal About Cow’s Milk, is that it isn’t good for you!
1. Modern commercial farming involves the heavy use of growth hormones and antibiotics, in order to produce more, supposedly healthier milk.  The problem is that these hormones and antibiotics get into the milk the cows produce, and when we ingest them, they have far-reaching effects on our health, including the possible endocrine and reproductive problems and the development of “super” strains of bacteria that are resistant to the constant low doses of antibiotics they are subject to.
2. More than 60 percent of the human population is either lactose-intolerant (meaning their bodies do no produce the enzyme to digest the main sugar in milk, lactose) or they are allergic to milk. If more than half of us can’t drink milk, it can’t be as necessary to good health as many think it is.
3. Dairy products cause excess mucus production in the body.  Excess mucus production can ultimately affect your digestive and immune systems.
4. Dairy milk really isn’t as nutritionally packed as we are led to believe.  We are all told that we need milk in order to get sufficient amounts of calcium, vitamin A, and vitamin D. But truth be told, this is a marketing scheme, and milk is not a very rich source of these vitamins naturally; it’s generally fortified with them.  And most green vegetables have more calcium than milk!  Eat your veggies and you’ll be just fine. (Cow milk info from Renee Loux, Living Cuisine).
In Love, Life and Laughter!
Michelle

Zucchini Rolls

This recipe is one of our family favorites, packed with delicious flavors and exciting textures. Many people tell me that they cannot eat raw food because its so cooling. It can be if you are eating it right out of the fridge! Pine nuts, basil, nutmeg and garlic are all warming foods, couple that with placing your dish in the dehydrator for a couple of hours or in the oven on a low temperature for 20 minutes, and you still have a raw dish that is warm!
This recipe might be a little labor intensive because it has many different parts and steps but its well worth the time and effort! Let me know how yours turns out!
Zucchini Rolls:
4 medium zucchini, cut lengthwise into very thin slices.  Its easiest to use a mandolin slicer.
Ricotta:
2 cups pine nuts or raw cashews or walnuts
2 tablespoons lemon juice
2 tablespoons nutritional yeast (gives ricotta a more “cheesy” flavor)
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
6 tablespoons of water (or coconut water or rejuvelac)
Blend until smooth and fluffy.

Pesto:
2 cups packed basil leaves
1/2 cup pumpkin seeds (soaked one hour)
1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons olive oil
1 teaspoon sea salt
2-3 cloves of garlic (or as much as you want to taste)
pepper to taste
Blend in blender until you reach desired
 consistency.
Marinara:
1 teaspoon ginger
2 tablespoons garlic
1 teaspoon jalapeno
1/2 cup sun dried tomatoes
2 green olives
1/4 cup shallots or red onion
1/3 cup basil leaves
1/3 cup red bell pepper
1/4 cup oregano leaves
1/2 cup strawberries
2 cups chopped tomatoes
1/4 cup nama shoyu (or tamari for gluten sensitive people)
1 cup olive oil
1/4 cup red wine
blend together so that it is still slightly chunky.
To make rolls:
*Pour half of marinara into a 9 by 13 baking dish.
*Lay out zucchini place dallops of ricotta and pesto on zucchini and roll up.
*Place rolls into baking dish and pour other half of marinara on top of rolls.
*Serve at room temperature.
**If you like them slightly warm, place in dehydrator for a couple of hours before you are ready to serve.  If you do not have a dehydrator you may put them in oven on low for about 20-30 minutes.  Enjoy!
This delicious dish has it all in one power packed meal! I absolutely love the pesto, cheese and the marinara in this recipe!
Basil is rich in antioxidants, which help boost immunity.  It’s also an antimicrobial, which fights the germs that can cause colds.
Nutmeg is a “warming spice” that can bring blood from the center of the body to the skin.  This helps disperse the blood more evenly throughout the body, reducing overall pressure.
Since the 1950’s there have been more than 2,700 articles that have been published about the health benefits of garlic, this would include, digestive and respiratory problems, fatigue, bacterial infections, toothache, arthritis, and heart disease.  Wow!  It’s a good thing I enjoy garlic!
Lycopene, although not an essential nutrient for humans, research has shown an inverse correlation between consumption of tomatoes and cancer risk, lycopene has been considered a potential agent for the prevention of some types of cancers, particularly prostate cancer.
xoxoxxo
Michelle