Simple Easy Raw Cheesecake - Raw Vegan, Gluten Free, Refined Sugar Free

If you have never tried vegan cheesecake before, don't stick your nose up until you have taken at least one bite.

It tastes the same, looks the same and it is potentially prettier than cheesecake made with actual cheese...plus the ingredients are all wholesome and healthy. So basically what I am saying is vegan cheesecake is better. Better for you, better for the animals. *Happy cheers*

So how do you know I'm not just talking up a recipe that I am about to give you? Well, cheesecake has been one of my favorite (if not my no.1 favorite) foods since the first time I tried it, back before my age even hit the double digits. I have high cheesecake standards.

I had not tried vegan cheesecake until earlier this year when my friend introduced it to me and I've been a fan ever since.

So here is a small list of reasons you should make raw vegan cheesecake:

1. Tasty

2. Pretty

3. Healthy

4. You only need a small slice to feel satisfied

5. Have it for breakfast, lunch, dinner or dessert - you won't feel guilty! Sure, I think we can all admit to eating a slice of cake with all of the processed sugars for breakfast...but now you can eat a slice of cake without all of the processed sugars and feel full enough to not need a second slice (although you might want one because it tastes so good).

Q: So what's in this cake?

A: Well, there is a full list of ingredients below but it is basically just dates, nuts and cashews, a little coconut milk and some lemon juice.

Now before we get started, keep in mind that this is the most basic cheesecake recipe. Once you know the basics then you can go on to making prettier, more exciting and/or more flavorful versions. Raspberry cheesecake? Blueberry cheesecake? Strawberry cheesecake with chocolate drizzle? The possibilities are endless!

Simple Easy Raw Cheesecake

Ingredients:

~ Cashews - 2 cups, soaked overnight

~ Coconut milk - 3/4 cup

~ Dates - 1 cup

~ Nuts - 1 cup (best to stick with almonds or walnuts)

~ Shredded coconut - 1 cup

~ Maple syrup - 1/3 cup

~ Juice of a lemon - 1/2

~ Coconut oil - 1/4 cup

~ Vanilla extract - 1 tbsp

~ Cake tin - Preferably a cheesecake tin but any tin around 23cm x 3.5cm will do, like the one I used to make the raw carrot cake.

Instructions:

1. Soak the cashews if you haven't done so already. Do this by putting the cashews in a bowl and filling it with water the night before you plan on making the cheesecake. I always find soaking to be a pain when I want something immediately, but patience is key. :)

2. First we will make the crust. In your food processor, blend the dates, nuts and shredded coconut until it has reached a doughy consistency. You should be able to roll it in a ball if you wanted to...not that you are going to do that.

3. Spread the crust into the bottom of your cake tin until it's about 1/8 of and inch thick. Place in the freezer for 10-15 minutes to harden the crust a tid before adding the cheesecake.

4. While the crust is hardening, blend cashews, coconut milk, maple syrup, lemon juice, coconut oil and vanilla extract in your food processor. Blend until it has reached and smooth and creamy consistency. This is going to be the cheese part of the cake.

5. Evenly spread the 'cheese' on top of the crust.

6. Place in the freezer for at least 6 hours before enjoying. (More waiting...UGH.)


So you want to get more creative than just a simple cheesecake? Keep reading!

~ Try adding berries in with the cheese ingredients. Still blend until smooth and creamy. A pretty color should have been created.

~ You can also get creative with different layers of colors. Add different berries to achieve different colors. Between each layer, refreeze the cake for 10-15 minutes to assure the colors don't run into one another.


Q: How did I get mine to look and taste the way it does?

A: I spread 1/3 of the 'cheese' evenly over the crust. I plopped some raspberries on top. I froze the cake for 10-15 minutes. I blended some raspberries into the remaining 2/3 of the 'cheese' until I reached a smooth and creamy consistency with a pretty color and then spread that over the plain cheesecake. I froze the cake for 6 hours. Then I had a blast eating a nice slice.

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WTF: What's That Food?

Introducing the newest portion of the blog! Biweekly I'll be posting about a weird food that's either underrated, unheard of or unappreciated. First impressions, nutrition facts and recipes will all be posted along with some pretty pictures.

THE DRAGON FRUIT.

This is a badass fruit.

~It's hot pink
~It has polkadots
~It has leafy spikes
~It's fine
~It's fresh
~It's fierce
~It looks like a hand grenade

It's a shame more people don't eat this bad ass fruit. Maybe it's a little off-putting in all of its hot-pink-polkadot glory...that's why I'm bringing you some solid facts, a few inspiring pictures and a ridiculously easy recipe to introduce you to your new favorite food.

Which part of it is edible?:

~ Eat the black and white part as shown in the picture. (Dragon fruits can also be a deep red with black polkadots.)

~ The skin is not edible.

~ There is a thin white layer between the skin and the flesh. This is bitter and gross. Avoid at all costs.

How should a dragon fruit be cut?:

~ Cut vertically down the center of the fruit as shown above.

~ The flesh can be scooped out with a spoon, an ice cream scooper, or diced.



What does it taste like?:

~ The colors may be bold but the taste is mild.

~ Very juicy.

~ Think of a cross between a kiwi and a pear.



How should it be served?:

~ On it's own

~ In a fruit cup

~ In a smoothie bowl

~ As a sorbet

~ In a smoothie

~ With oatmeal

~ With cake

~ With rice pudding (healthy recipe coming soon)

~ The possibilities are endless

RECIPE
Dragon fruit sorbet

Ingredients:

1. Dragon fruit - frozen for at least 3 hours, preferably overnight

2. Coconut milk - 2 tbsp (optional)


Directions:

1. I wasn't kidding when I said this was easy. Put the dragon fruit in your food processor and blend until a sorbet-like consistency has been reached. Adding coconut milk will make the sorbet creamier.

2. I served mine with a scoop of banana ice cream. Enjoy!

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Healthy Girl Scout Cookies - Samoa

Everybody in their right mind loves Girl Scout Cookies. They're tasty and adorable little girls sell them to you. Unfortunately they're also full of sugar. Brown sugar, cane sugar, invert sugar.

What if I told you that you could have the cookies without all of the unhealthy ingredients? Well sit down and take a deep breath because you can have the cookies without all of the unhealthy ingredients.

I chose to make these as bars because I was too lazy to make them into cookie form. Nonetheless, they were magically delicious. The rich flavor makes one or two of these bars enough. While it's perfectly fine to eat more because all of the ingredients are healthy, you can make these last for quite a while without devouring all at once.

Ingredients:

Base:

1. Walnuts - 2 cups
2. Unsweetened coconut - 1 cup
3. Raw honey - 1/4 cup
4. Vanilla extract - 1 teaspoon (but a little more never hurt anybody)
5. Sea salt - 2 pinches

Coconut Caramel:

1. Dates - 1 1/2 cups (soaked)
2. Canned coconut milk - 1/2 cup
3. Vanilla extract - 1 teaspoon
4. Sea salt - 1 pinch
5. Unsweetened coconut shreds - 1 1/2 cups

Chocolate:

1. Dark chocolate - melted
2. Unsweetened coconut shreds - 1/8 cup

Instructions:

Base:

1. Place the walnuts and the coconut in your food processor and blend until you have a crumby mixture.

2. Add the raw honey, vanilla extract and sea salt and blend until well combined. A nice dough should be formed.

3. Press the dough into pan. Parchment paper is recommended but not required. I was out of parchment paper so I didn't bother but it helps when serving.


Coconut Caramel:

1. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees and toast the unsweetened coconut shreds for 8 minutes. Then remove and let cool while you complete the next step.

2. In your food processor, blend dates until a soft dough is formed.

3. Add the canned coconut milk, vanilla extract and sea salt. Blend until well combined.

4. Pour in the unsweetened coconut shreds and pulse until just combined. Optionally you could hand stir for a more textured consistency.

5. Spread caramel on top of the base. Store in freezer for 15-20 minutes. After freezing, the caramel will be firm but still soft.


Dark chocolate:

1. Melt dark chocolate in a small bowl in 20 second intervals.

2. Dip base of the bars into the chocolate and place them base-side-up on a cookie sheet.

3. Refreeze for 7-10 minutes, until the chocolate is hardened.

3. Flip the bars over and drizzle remaining melted chocolate onto the caramel coating. You may need to remelt the chocolate. To drizzle, I used a spoon but you could alternatively pour the chocolate into a plastic bag, cut the corner and squeeze onto the caramel.

4. Add a pinch of coconut to the top of each bar. Sing songs of joy. The Samoa bars are complete.

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Lazy Lunch - Coconut quinoa with almonds and cranberries

Making food in the middle of the day can be a pain. What are we supposed to do if we're hungry, need some good nutrients, but don't want to cook up a big meal or spend our hard earned money? I'll tell you what we do. We make coconut quinoa!

This takes about 15 minutes but you're only preparing food for a solid 60 seconds.

Coconut quinoa with almonds and cranberries:

You will need:

~ Quinoa - However much

~ Coconut milk - 1 part milk for every 1 part water

~ Almonds - 1 handful

~ Cranberries - 1 handful


Instructions:

1. Begin by cooking the quinoa with 1 part water, 1 part coconut milk.

2. When quinoa is ready, prepare in bowl and mix in almonds and cranberries.

3. Drizzle a little more coconut milk if desired.

And then we feast.

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Impromptu Coconut Rice Bowl

Canadian weather doesn't fool around. It's barely 30 degrees here and snow has been falling all day long. The sad part is, I think it may be colder inside my apartment than it is braving the great outdoors! For dinner I knew I needed to make something that would keep me warm. I planned on making a simple but delicious chickpea curry (I know you must be dying to read about that, so recipe coming soon *wink wink*). After a series of unfortunate events and a sad realization that my can opener had broken, I decided that chickpea curry was not an option tonight. I didn't realize this until after I started making the coconut rice. So now I had some rice boiling while I sat on my kitchen counter in a slump. Cue inspiring pictures of food and a lot of disappointment when I realized a good chunk of the recipes required a can opener. No worries, this story has a happy ending. After about 10 minutes of feeling uninspired by food inspiration, an idea was born! A coconut rice bowl with a fried egg and avocado. So easy, ay yai yai!

I'll save you ten minutes of your life by giving you the blatantly obvious recipe below. No uninspiring food searching for you, my friend!

Coconut Rice Bowl

Ingredients:

~ Coconut milk - 1/2 cup

~ Jasmine rice - 1/2 cup

~ Avocado - 1/2

~ Egg - 1

~ Salt

~ Pepper


*no duh* Instructions

1. Begin cooking the jasmine rice with 1/2 cup water and 1/2 cup coconut milk.

2. While the rice is cooking, fry an egg.

3. Cut your avocado.

4. Put the rice, avocado and egg into a bowl. Add salt and pepper as you wish.

Take your first bite...WOW party in your mouth! I bet you weren't expecting such deliciousness to come out of such a simple recipe! Ah, the beauty of laziness. This bowl will keep you satisfied for a long time after you've finished eating as well.

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Lazy dinners - Vegetarian coconut fried rice

To be honest, I'd say all of the dinners I prepare are lazy dinners. My goal is to make the tastiest dinner possible while doing the least amount of work possible - and keeping it healthy of course. A lazy dinner doesn't have to be a bad one. This lazy dinner is seriously delicious. It's also seriously beautiful with all those vibrant colors mixed together!

Vegetarian coconut fried rice:

Ingredients:

Jasmine rice - 1/2 cup

Coconut milk - 1/2 cup

Water - 1/2 cup

Spinach - 1 overflowing handful

Egg - 2

Broccoli - 1/2 handful

Tomato - 1/2 handful chopped

Onion - 3 tbsp chopped

Salt - 1 tsp

Coconut oil - 1 tbsp



Directions:

1. Cook rice with a 1/2 cup water and a 1/2 cup coconut milk. When the rice has almost completed cooking, add in 1 beautifully overflowing handful of spinach. The spinach will wilt and become a lot less overwhelming to look at. Eating your greens is not as hard as it seems.

2. While the rice is cooking, chop up all of the other ingredients. Crack 2 eggs and whisk. Add a little coconut milk and scramble the eggs in a lightly oiled pan until just cooked.

3. Once rice has finished add rice with spinach, broccoli, tomato and onion to the scrambled eggs. Continue to cook all the ingredients. Drizzle a little coconut oil to the mix. When the broccoli has turned a slightly darker color your fried rice is just about ready.

4. Add 1 tbsp salt and push ingredients around. Transfer to a bowl. Devour all food.

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