twelve balls of love

it's my girlfriend's birthday. she is now 19. but we have an ongoing joke that she's actually 12, because she can act pretty silly. she brings out the goofiness in me as well; this is a good thing because i can be too serious sometimes... no really.

to show her my adoring devotion and love i made her 12 chocolate covered peanut butter balls.
they're pretty freakin good.

we were SUPPOSED to go out like every night this week and party until the wee hours of morning (19 is the legal drinking age in canada). but i have gotten a terrible swollen throat so i've been really sick for five days now. it hurts to swallow and i can't eat any solids! what a BUMMER, right? ah well, i will make up for this lost party time when i recover. it's turned into a liquid cleanse i guess? gotta look on the bright side.

for now though, i need to seriously rest and recuperate. i've been drinking tons of lemon tea, miso soup and hot water. also been doing some salt water gargles. i juiced some fruit and veggies yesterday and today and it actually tasted AMAZING. very soothing.

i think this is a virus or bacterial infection or something. if it lasts more than a week (oh god please no) i'll have to go to the doctor but i'd rather not. i prefer treating illnesses myself and naturally. i'm not too concerned at this point.

i'm going to take advantage of this time and read some good books (atlas shrugged, cat's cradle), have a bubble bath, watch some good movies (back to the future trilogy, anyone?), catch up on sleep, and i guess detox since i can't eat anything... i wish i could eat these.

my mom said they were PERFECT and couldn't be improved, which i was actually thrilled-out-of-my-pants to hear (well, i don't wear pants, so, skirt) because she is my toughest critic - which i much appreciate. i hope you agree with her. if you make this recipe, let me know how it goes and if i should change anything because the recipe written here will be slightly different than what i did.

make 'em mostly raw by using raw jungle peanuts & peanut butter!

chocolate peanut butter love bites: makes 12 and ONLY 12 (teehee)

center:
1/3 cup peanuts
1/4 peanut butter
3 tablespoons maple syrup
1/4 oats
2 tablespoons almond butter

chocolate:
3 tablespoons almond butter
2 tablespoons maple syrup
2 heaping tablespoons cacao/cocoa 
1/8 teaspoon salt
teensy bit of cayenne and ginger powder
1-3 tablespoons almond milk
1/2 dark or raw chocolate bar, melted (optional)

coating:
1/2 cup peanuts
1/2 teaspoon salt

in your food processor, blend all the ingredients for the PB center together until it forms a ball and you can press it together. form them it into balls and put in the freezer.
to make the coating, pulse the nuts and salt in the food processor until they're like large crumbs... you can see in the photos. put in a large bowl and set aside.
to make the chocolate, blend all ingredients together in the food processor until smooth, it will start thickening fast so take out your frozen PB balls and dip them in the chocolate, then roll them in the chopped nuts. stick back in the freezer for an hour or two and voila! 

i love you, amber! xox

something special: dark chocolate cake

Today is my brother's girlfriend's birthday. He planned out a whole lovely evening for her, which included a decadent, healthy chocolate cake for two that he asked me to make for them.

I'm not gonna lie - I tasted it while I was making it to make sure it was good. It is SO good. You should make this... soon. I made up the recipe as I was going so I have written it here as close to what I did as possible. In any case you will end up with a double chocolate vegan cake made with love so it can't be a bad thing.

It's safe to say I won my bro some brownie points tonight... or cake points. Happy Birthday, Marcella!

Today I stayed home from school because I didn't feel well in the morning. I really don't know what's up lately. I basically never get sick since I've been vegan and yet in the past two months I've now gotten TWO colds. Hmph.

Ah well, it gave me some much needed time to get my thoughts together for a paper in my history of sexuality course. Fascinating stuff! I love history (we need to know our past in order to understand our present, and predict our future). When you think about it, sexuality is a fundamental factor in everything humans do.

What are all organisms all about? Food and sex. Respectively, they keep us alive and allow us to pass along our genes to continue the survival and evolution of our species. Pretty simple rules for a very complicated world. Ultimately, all we need to look at to understand human behaviour are the driving forces of food and sex. This is why I think my history of sexuality course is so interesting and important. Sorry... I got a little off topic. Back to mini birthday cakes. 

It's super moist and super chocolatey so be prepared for bliss. You'll have left over cake and icing.

Double Chocolate Mini Cake: serves 2

Cake:

3/4 cup vegan milk
1 tsp apple cider vinegar
3/4 cup cane sugar/brown sugar
1/2 cup veg oil
2 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp almond extract 

3/4 cup whole wheat/oat/almond flour
3/4 cup cocoa/cacao 
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp salt 

1/4 tsp cayenne

1 tsp cinnamon

A wee bit of honey/agave/maple syrup, if desired

Frosting:

1/4 cup tofu
1/2 cup cashew butter
1/3 cup raw powdered sugar
1/4 veg oil/vegan butter
1/2 cup non-dairy milk
Vanilla seeds from 1 pod
1 tsp salt
1/4 cup agave/honey/maple syrup
1/8-1/4 cup booze (I used maple whiskey) 

1/2 bar melted dark chocolate

1/3 cup cocoa 

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. To make the cake, mix ingredients from first list together and let sit for 5 minutes. Sift in the rest of the ingredients and stir until smooth. Taste it to make sure it's to your liking.

Pour evenly into two 9 inch cake pans lined with foil. The batter should be pretty shallow in both; that's because you're going to be making 4 layers. Bake for about 10-15 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. 

While they're baking, make the icing. Blend all the ingredients together until smooth. It should taste like the best freaking chocolate icing ever. Set aside.

When done baking, let the cakes sit out in the pans for 10 minutes. Then take them out and use a giant cookie cutter (big circle) to cut out 4 cake circles - 2 from each cake. Put the bottom layer onto something you can easily transfer it with later. Then frost each layer and finally the top and sides. Hurraw! 

I had to decorate mine with goji berries. You know me.

"it tastes like christmas!"

Today was my wonderful, funny, strange, and vegetarian friend Emily's birthday (yes, one of my best friends names is the same as mine). I gave her numerous hugs and a tart.

The crust tasted like crumbly Reeses, even though the only nuts in it were sprouted walnuts. That and some dates, cinnamon and cocoa. I molded that into a tart shell (remembering my mom's b-day present, anyone?) and then filled it with a chia seed caramel sauce. Which was just gelled chia seeds added to the caramel recipe.

I let it refrigerate overnight and then decorated it before I ran to meet her at the SkyTrain station.

It's a wonderful world we live in, when you can make something that tastes THIS GOOD, and is also crazy-good for your fabulous bod at the same time. Plus, it's easy to make and turns out really cute! The prefect gift for that special someone, an impressive dessert, or an (uber healthy) treat for yourself.

So go on, make this tart and enjoy life. What's not to like?

Goji Berry Caramel Tart: makes 4-5 or so, but you won't have any problems with leftovers

Crust:

1/2 cup walnuts

1/3 cup soaked dates

1/4 cup cocoa/cacao

1 t cinnamon 

1 t vanilla

1 T coconut oil, if it's too crumbly

Process all ingredients until it's like dough (but a little crumbly). Press it into your favourite tart shells and freeze while you're making the filling.

Caramel Filling:

Handful Brazil nuts

2-3 T raw honey/agave

1 t vanilla extract

7-10 dates, soaked for 30 minutes or so if you can - but don't dump the water!

3 T almond butter

2 T tahini

2-3 T coconut butter, melted 

1/2 t cinnamon
Pinch salt 

Water as needed (preferably the date water)

1/6 cup or so coconut flakes (doesn't really matter, you be the judge)

2 T chia seeds gelled with water

Process Brazil nuts into fine pieces, add all other ingredients EXCEPT coconut flakes and chia seeds. Process until it has a caramel-y consistency. You may need to add some water or more of the other ingredients. Try it. Your mind should be exploding now. If not, continue tampering until it reaches the mind-blowing stage. Add the coconut flakes and gelled chia.

Spoon this into the frozen tart shell crusts and let it freeze for maybe another 30 minutes. Then carefully take the crust out of the mold, not letting it break! Chill until you need them, and decorate with goji berries or anything else!