Chocolate Chocolate CHOCOLATE!

Hey all--

So, next week I am graduating from high school!!!! I am so extremely pumped that I can hardly sleep at night. On that note, here is a quick update on what I will be doing after I graduate:

• Moving to Portland to live with my grandparents a week after I graduate. I am SO STOKED to be around the bike culture there, and fully immersed in all of cool young hip culture that Portland has to offer.
• Looking for a job in Portland that I will get to keep for the next year. Hopefully at an awesome local cafe or eatery where I can be surrounded by people who are into health and cooking like I am.
• Hopefully counseling at a running camp in late July on Whidbey Island.
• Attending the Woodstock Fruit Festival in August in New York (my father's graduation present to me). Over four hundred raw fruitarian vegans are going to this camp, and focus on exercise, lectures regarding health from numerous accredited gurus, and eating fully raw vegan.
• Starting Yoga Teacher Training in early September. It look super rigorous! The requirements are taking five yoga classes a week, attending yoga training school on both Saturday and Sunday for six hours, plus a butt-load of homework! This is a 200 hour course, where I get to teach beginning yoga classes after certification. The next step after that is the 500 hour course there I will then get to teach advanced classes!
• After I am certified, I really want to go to chef school at Le Cordon Bleu! Teaching yoga, and training to become a chef, how cool is that?! 

As for now, that is my plan-- and I am OVERLY STOKED!

But anyway, who cares about that? You're here for chocolate. So it is chocolate you will get! Healthy superfood chocolate recipes, at least.

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Chocolate Coconut Almond Clusters

• 1 bar of dark chocolate (85% or higher)
• Almonds (you will eyeball the amount)
• 2 Tbs Coconut butter (optional)
• Handful of coconut flakes
• 1-3 Tbs honey (or maple syrup)
• Pinch of salt

1. Put chocolate bar in pot at a low medium heat so that the chocolate melts, but doesn't burn.
2. Stir in honey, coconut butter, and salt-- making sure that everything is blended and melted together.
3. Next, throw in a few handfuls of almonds and coconut flakes, and turn the mixture gently to make sure that the almonds and coconut get covered with chocolate. Make sure that the mixture isn't too viscous (liduidy) and not to dry, so that you get clean clusters when spooning onto plate.
4. Take a large plate, and cover with aluminum foil or parchment paper. Spoon clusters onto plate and set in freezer until they harden!
5. Serve with cherries, strawberries, and/or mint for guests at a party (I definitely will be for my grad party)! 

***When making this recipe, I did not include coconut flakes-- but thought that they would be a lovely addition after the fact.

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Raw Vegan Peanut Butter Cups

• 2 bananas 
• 1/2 cup coconut butter (buy at your local natural foods store)
• Pinch of salt
• 4 Tbs cacao powder
• 1/4 cup maple syrup (or honey)
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• Peanut butter (you will eyeball the amount)

1. Put all ingredients besides peanut butter in a bowl and blend. I find that a hand-immersion blender works the best.
2. Take out a cupcake pan (you should use cupcake liners in the pan-- otherwise you have to cut out the individual peanut butter cups out of the pan). 
3. Fill liners (or bare pan) with a small layer of your chocolate batter. Then layer some peanut butter on top of that. For the last layer, put another small layer of chocolate batter.
4. Another option is to fill cupcake liners 3/4 of the way with batter, then swirl in peanut butter (like I did in the picture below).
5. Freeze for 30 minutes.
6. Serve with strawberries, cherries, and/or mint!

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Chocolate Superfood Smoothie

• A few handfuls of kale (or any green that you like)
• 3-4 tbs of cacao powder
• 1-2 bananas (for a creamy consistency)
• 1-2 Tbs chocolate protein powder (optional)
• 1-2 cups milk of your choice (I like almond milk)
• A few ice cubes

1. Blend and top with chia seeds if available. :)

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I hope that you enjoy these recipes! Just to let you know, cacao is PACKED with iron, antioxidants, and super healthy minerals to keep your endocrine system and blood working nicely! 

Eat up! But don't forget the kale. ;)

Much love <3

Isabella

Guilt Free and Vegan Chocolate Mousse

Hello everyone!

Today I made the most divine chocolate recipe in the woooorrrllldddd!!

It's completely vegan, nutritionally dense, and full of vitamins and fiber.

Here is what you'll need:

Watch the video for the recipe!

Tis' the Season for Rhubarb!

Hey people. I am SOOOOOOO SORRY.

I have totally neglected you lately-- and all that I have to say about that, to be honest, is that graduating from high school is totally kicking my ass right now.

Advice to future seniors: Do NOT slack off the first half of the semester, and leave all of your work until the last half... But I am bringing about my inner water buffalo, and getting it done-- so AMEN to that!

Anywho... I was in "Whole Paycheck" last Sunday grocery shopping, when I stumbled upon rhubarb (which is totally in season right now). Every week I force myself to branch out and buy a fruit or vegetable that I have never either heard or, or used. And this time around it just happened to be rhubarb!

 

I've grown up eating my grandmother's delicious rhubard pies, and the tart flavor of this rich stalk have always had a special place in my heart. So last night, I decided to make whole wheat strawberry rhubarb muffin, and they were DIVINE.

So here are two recipes that I created with delicious rhubarb!

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Whole Wheat Strawberry Rhubarb Muffins

 

 

 

Recipe:

• 2 cups whole wheat flour (or half whole wheat, half white flour for fluffier muffins)
• Two bananas (mashed)
• 1 tsp vanilla extract, or 1 tbs vanilla powder
• 1 egg (or omit if you are vegan, and use 1/2 cup of non-dairy yogurt instead)
• 1 pinch of salt
• 1/4 cup oil of choice (or 1/2 cup butter instead)
• 1 cup minced rhubarb
• A very generous amount of strawberries ;)
• 1 cup of honey (less or more, to your taste)
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 cup applesauce

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
2. Put flour in a large bowl, and set aside.
3. Put bananas in a medium sized bowl, and mash away until mostly pureed.
4. Add all other wet ingredients to the banana bowl (vanilla, egg or yogurt, oil or butter, rhubarb, strawberries, honey, and applesauce).
5. Mix well.
6. Add wet bowl to dry bowl, and mix.
7. If the consistency is too dry, then add some milk of your choice (dairy, nut, or soy milk) to the batter to make more wet.
8. After desired consistency is reached, then add baking powder, and mix (avoid over mixing).
9. Grase a cupcake or bread pan, and add batter.
10. Bake for 20-25 minutes.
11. Cool on a cooling rack.
12. Enjoy!

 

 

 

 

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Rhubarb Oat Crisp

 

Recipe:

• 1 cup rolled oats
• 1/4 cup whole wheat
• 1/4 cup unbleached wheat flour
• 1 cup honey or brown sugar
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon
• 1/8 tsp ground nutmeg
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/4 cup olive oil (or butter)
• 6-7 cups of 1/2 inch cut rhubarb
• 1 tsp orange zest
• 1/4 cup orange juice
• 2 tablespoons cornstarch

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Coat six 8-ounce ramekins (or an 8 x 8-inch square baking dish) with grease.
2. Make crumb mixture by adding oats, flours, brown sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, and salt to medium bowl and whisking together until well blended. Add oil, and mix into crumb pieces.
3. In a large bowl, add rhubarb, orange zest, orange juice, and vanilla extract and gently mix together with spoon.
4.  Combine the 1/3 cup sugar and the 2 tablespoons cornstarch in a small cup, then sprinkle over the top of the rhubarb mixture and stir.
5.  Distribute the fruit mixture evenly between the ramekins (or pour into prepared square baking dish).
6. Top the fruit mixture evenly with the crumb mixture.
7. Bake until the rhubarb is tender (about 30 minutes for the individual dishes or 40 minutes for the 8 x 8-inch dish).
8.  Let cool slightly and serve warm.

 

 

 

 

 

 

I hope that you love these recipes! :)

 

Love, Isabella

 

 

 

Whole Wheat Blueberry and Quinoa Coconut Protein Muffins

Yes yes, I know..... My muffin recipes just keep getting weirder and more extravagant! Don't judge... I spend way too much time in my kitchen.

I got the idea last night to include quinoa in my muffins when I was looking over at my grain cabinet, and my quinoa jar looked abandoned. I am also an avid athelete, so I was trying to brainstorm more ideas on how to get more plant based protein into my diet since I am trying to get off of meat.

 

 

 

Quinoa is soooo incredily good for you! It is gluten free (in case you care), packed with protein and fiber. It also has iron, and riboflavin (to help energize your metabolism)!

This recipe is not vegan (it has eggs)-- But it could be if you substitute the eggs for a fake yogurt, like almond milk yogurt or coconut milk yogurt. You can also buy an egg substitute at the store.

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Recipe:

 

Dry ingredients

• 2 cups cooked quinoa
• 1 cup whole wheat flour
• 1 tsp nutmeg
• 1 tbs cinnamon
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 3/4 cup sugar (only if you aren't using agave or honey!!)
• A generous amount of frozen or fresh blueberries
• A generous amount of shredded coconut (sweetened or unsweetend)

 

Wet ingredients

• 2 bananas
• 2 eggs
• 1/4 cup coconut oil or olive oil
• 1/2 cup agave or honey (if you aren't using regular sugar!!)

 

 

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Cooking Quinoa

1. In a pot, comine one cup uncooked quinoa with two cups water, and bring to a boil.
2. When water is boiling, turn down the heat to lowest setting, and let quinoa sit for aout 15 minutes. Check back often to make sure that it isn't burning.
3. After quinoa is done, scoop out two cups, and set aside for the muffins. You should have about a cup left to use for which you please.

Muffin Time

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
2. Combine all dry ingredients (except for baking powder, and blueberries), and mix well. The flour should stick to the quinoa, to look like little granuels.
3. Comine all wet ingredients in a blender, and blend briefly to make the consistency smooth.
4. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredient bowl, and mix well.
5. If the consistency is too wet, add more whole wheat flour. If it is too dry, you can add yogurt, or more agave/honey.
6. Now add the blueberries and baking powder, and stir. Baking powder is added at the end to make sure muffins are fluffy.
7. Grease a muffin pan, and fill the cups with batter. You can top the muffins with anything!
8. Let bake for at least 20 minutes (or longer if needed).
9. Let cool on a cooling rack.
10. Devour.

 

I hope that you love these muffins! I sure do. :)

 

Isabella

 

Baked Garlic Sweet Potato "Fries"

Hey guys!

Here is a quick, healthy, and delicious snack/meal/sidedish that I just invented tonight!

I have loooooved garlic fries all of my life-- I remember going to a drive-in restaurant in California with my mom when I was a little girl, and it had the BEST garlic fries in town.

Any unhealthy dish can be made into a healthy one! This recipe is the perfect example!

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Fun Facts:

 

• Sweet potatoes are high in beta-carotene which helps your eye sight, and helps you grow strong nails and hair!
• The allicin in garlic is also a powerful antibiotic, which fights infection and bacteria. British researchers gave 146 people either a placebo or a garlic extract for 12 weeks. The garlic takers were two-thirds less likely to catch a cold.
• Sweet potatoes are high in vitamin C, to help ward off colds.
• Other studies suggest that garlic lovers who chow more than six cloves a week have a 30 percent lower rate of colorectal cancer and a 50 percent lower rate of stomach cancer.
• Sweet potatoes contain vitamin D. They also contain iron, so if you are a vegetarian, then they are a good way to help keep that balanced.
•  Garlic helps to open clogged sinuses.

 

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Instead of frying the sweet potato slices, we will be baking them (no oil necessary)! And instead of eating white potatoes, we will be substituting beta-carotene filled, nutritious sweet potatoes instead!

 

 

Recipe:

 

• One sweet potato (or yam)
• 1 Tbs chopped fresh thyme
• Salt to your liking
• Pepper to your liking
• 1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
• 2 Tbs chopped garlic

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
2. Slice your sweet potatoes thinly, and place on a baking sheet.
3. Sprinkle spices and herbs over the slices, and mix the slices together to spread seasonings evenly.
4. Place the slices in your oven, and let bake for 7 to 10 minutes.
5. Puncture a slice with a knife to see if they are all evenly cooked through.
6. When done, place slices in an appropriately sized bowl, and sprinkle your garlic over the "fries". Maybe even drizzling a modest amount of olive oil to help the garlic stick (and aslo to add flavor).
7. EAT!

 

 

 

 They are incredibly satisfying, and I hope that you thouroughly enjoy them!

 

Love,

 

Isabella!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Our Food Now vs. A Century Ago

You are what you eat...

Duh.

So don't be easy, fast, or fake!

The saying above definitely holds true-- there is no doubt about it, and we all know it. But sometimes it takes some facts to open your eyes, and really stick in your brain. So this blog will be dedicated to explaining to you why you should actually be familiar with every ingredient that shows up on your food boxes-- even though no one should be eating foods that come in boxes!

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Quick! Go grab some type of packaged "food" from your pantry right now and look at it's ingredients... Unless you are a conscious foodie, then it will most likely have ingredients that sound like "thiamine mononitrate, disodium inosinate, and pyridoxine hydrochloride". Hmmm.. Sounds like high school chemistry class to me!

 

Here's a little history on why we started preserving foods:

 

Every autumn, my grandmother, grandfather, and father get together to can a bunch of yummy things like pickles, beets, applesauce, and even yummy pasta sauce. Last year at Christmas, my father and I even made mustards and ketchups to give out to our family members instead of regular presents.

 

The idea of preserving foods has always been prevelant in my life, and about a hundred years ago it was even more of a necessity to every family before the industrial revolution. If you've read the The Grapes of Wrath, you'll remember that the family killed their last pig when being forced out of their home, and preserved it with salt in order to eat over long periods of time in order to avoid famine (a process known as "curing").

 

 

~

 

- Preserving food is an art that has been practiced for thousands of years using wholesome and seasonal ingredients.

 

Our ancestors used methods of drying food, freezing (harnessing the natural freezing temperatures of their climate), fermenting, curing, and canning to be able to eat sustaining foods during the cold months when plants don't thrive! All of these methods were used with the natural ingredients and tools of the pre-industiral era. Curing meat uses salt, fermenting needs acid (vinegar, lemon juice, etc) and sugar in order to feed the microorganisms that preserve the contents, and canning requires heat to preserve (think tomato sauce). Each way is healthful, and helped the people fight not only famine, but chronic diseases as well.

 

- Preserved foods are now about convenience, and not about necessity.

 

The reason why we are now obese as a society is because we are eating nutritionally deficient foods that are dense in calories, sugar, chemicals, bad fats (not to be confused with healthy fats), and refined carbohydrates We also aren't exercising on top of that since we have motorized vehicles to take us everywhere instead of our feet and legs.

 

 

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The Preservatives of Today

 



 

Nowadays we preserve foods with chemistry. Take "Total" Blueberry Pomegranate cereal by General Mills, for example..

This cereal doesn't have any blueberries or pomegranates!

 

Actually, instead of blueberries, it has a tasty chemical named "propylene glycol". Propylene glycol is a chemical with a faintly sweet taste that is used to make artificial blueberries.

 

Other uses for propylene glycol include:

• Used as a componant to anti-freeze cars and airplanes.
• To clean out human colons before a colonoscopy. 

 

Studies were done with propylene glycol on lab rats, and the results showed that some of the rat's mammalian cells (cells of mammals) underwent mutation.  

 

 

Here are some other yummy chemicals that go into your gullet on the daily:

 

 

1-METHYLCYCLOPROPENE This gas is pumped into crates of apples to stop them from producing ethylene, the natural hormone that ripens fruit. Commonly known as SmartFresh, this chemical preserves apples for up to a year and bananas up to a month. Sulphur dioxide serves the same purpose when sprayed on grapes.

 

ARTIFICIAL COLORS Researchers in the early 1900s developed many artificial colors from coal-tar dyes and petrochemicals. Over the years, the FDA banned many of these chemicals as proven carcinogens (cancer-exacerbating agents). Today, the FDA only allows 10 colors in foods, four of which are restricted to specific uses. This restriction suggests some risks remain.

 

ARTIFICIAL FLAVORING This blanket term refers to hundreds of laboratory chemicals designed to mimic natural flavors. For example, some imitation vanilla flavorings are made from petroleum or paper-mill waste. In fact, a single artificial flavoring can be created from hundreds of individual chemicals. New studies suggest artificial-flavoring additives can cause changes in behavior.

 

ASPARTAME This sugar substitute is sold commercially as Equal and NutraSweet. It's not recommended for pregnant women or infants, because those infants will be born without the ability to metabolize phenylalanine (an natural amino acid found in breast milk). Also, pilots are not supposed to drink diet sodas with this chemical in them since it is found to impair vision long term.

Read more at: http://phys.org/news183110037.html#jCp

 

 

 

Think about all of the chronic diseases that have popped up in the past century... ADHD, Alzheimers, diabetes, (etc)... People used to not deal with these things before, and that's because only one thing has changed in the past one hundred years: our lifestyle. We are sitting down all day, eating chemicals and processed, nutritionless foods that make us and our future generations sick.

 

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I want you to think a minute about why you eat food... Yes, it is such an instinctual task. Now think about a human a few thousand years ago who had to work in order to get their food, with NO guarantee that they would eat that day. Do you think that they would choose vegetables, or meat? Obviously meat, because in a case of famine, their body would have extra fat storages to help them live.

 

 

 

Meat used to be a rare commodity that helped to supplement the human diet. Now, people eat it everyday, and deal with high cholesterol, diabetes, and high blood pressure.

 

As humans we are programmed to crave salty, sugary, and fatty foods in case we might have to deal with a famine, so that we can survive.

 

So today as a result of the industrial revolution, the foods that used to be healthy as a rare substance, is completely unhealthy because we are consuming it in excess. Instead of eating these foods a few times a week, we are eating them all day every day.

 

That topic is a whole blog post in itself-- but I wanted you to understand the difference between the human diet now, and just a hundred years ago.

 

 

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Thank you for taking the time to read this long post-- I have been working on it for a long time to get it just perfect!

 

If you have any questions, comments, or criticisms, leave it in the comments below!

 

Love,

 

Isabella

Creamy Avocado Smoothie

Hey peeps of the stratosphere!

Do you ever have a craving for an ice cold, creamy, and delicious milkshake? Well do I have the recipe for you! ;)

Here is my own creamy and decident avocado smoothie recipe.

But don't let the word "avocado" put you off-- this smoothie is suuuper sweet, tastes just like ice cream, and has the consistency of a fast food milkshake (and guess what, making it is just as fast).

 

 

Avocados aren't only crazy delicious, but are also extremely nutritious! My favorite nutritionist, Kimberly Snyder, calls avocados a "beauty food" because they contain a great amount of healthy fats that make your skin, hair, and nails beautiful!

Fun facts about avocados:

• Avocados provide nearly 20 essential nutrients, including fiber, potassium, Vitamin E, B-vitamins and folic acid. They also act as a "nutrient booster" by enabling the body to absorb more fat-soluble nutrients, such as alpha and beta-carotene and lutein, in foods that are eaten with the fruit.
• You can use avocado to replace butter with your bread! It spreads just as easily, is just as satisfying since it contains fat, but gives you healthy unsaturated plant based fats instead of the saturated butter fat.

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Now for the fun part!

 

 

 

Recipe:

• 1 avocado
• 1 banana (preferably ripe, and brown/spotty since it will be sweeter)
• 2 cubes of ice (or more as you like)
• 1 cup of almond milk (or regular milk if fake milk isn't available)
• Honey (if the smoothie isn't sweet enough alone, then add as needed)

1. Cut the avocado in half, and scoop the fruit out of both sides, and into the blender.
2. Plop in your banana, milk of choice, and ice cubes.
3. Blend.
4. Taste, and add honey, more ice, or more liquid if needed.
5. Enjoy your beauty food! :)

 

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Love you guys!
 
I reaaaaaaaally enjoy answering questions, so if you have any commenatry, criticism, or questions, I would love to hear it in the comment section below! :)
 
Stay happy and healthy!
 
Isabella