a day in the life + i miss you!

Greetings, my lovelies. First off, you better be drooling right now. Yes, I am cruel because I cannot give you the recipe for the food pornography you see here. But in a way I am still kind for showing these GIFs... right!? Okay, I am sorry if you hate me now. But I still love you! And I miss you. Every time I make a new recipe for the upcoming raw desserts cookbook, I am UBER tempted to post it. I must be strong and look to my inner wolf spirit (they're strong right?) to find the strength not to post.

What you see temptingly pictured is a {raw and vegan, naturally} oreo tart with vanilla cream and chocolate ganache. Below me - or my words, rather - are some post-photography shots of my set-up and tear-down. I figure since I am not able to share my recipes right now, I may as well give you guys some insight into what a normal photo shoot looks like! It is not particularly exciting, to be frank... Of course my name is Emily, not Frank, so maybe it IS exciting. Who knows? My wolf spirit, most likely.

vanilla cheesecake with chocolate crust, strawberries, cacao nibs + pistachios

Every part of this is epic. Chocolate cookie crust. Creamy vanilla cashew cheesecake. Strawberries topping it all off. I was going to put this recipe in my COOKBOOK (it is still extremely exciting for me to type that word) but I reached over 15,000 likes on facebook yesterday and thought "Hey, these guys deserve something special for being so freaking amazing, loving and supportive". So here ya go.

It kind of tastes like a giant Oreo, plus strawberries. Eeeexxxccellent. You know what else is excellent? The fact that every single recipe in my upcoming book is going to be just as awesome as this one. I'm not kidding around - I am putting my ALL into this book because I really want it to be a practical tool in the kitchen, as well as a powerful one to impress. Wink wink. Also, I am perfectionist and have to be proud of what I create. There will not be one boring or mediocre recipe in the entire {un}cookbook. That's my promise!

The toppings for this cake are optional but they make it so perdy, don't ya think? I'll be keeping it in the freezer until Saturday, when I'll be hosting a raw vegan dessert party. Yes; that IS the best four word combination possible. As you know, I've been making at least one dessert recipe every day and I figured I can't eat them all - as much as I'd like to - so I may as well share them! Other ways to give away loads of desserts: I'm going to be catering the desserts for a friends party next weekend, and also handing out my extra recipes to the homeless people downtown. Wholesome nutrition for everyone!

vanilla cheesecake with chocolate crust, strawberries, cacao nibs + pistachios 

Crust:

1 cup pecans

1 cup dates

2 tablespoon cacao powder

Cheesecake:

1 cup each of cashews, pine nuts, shredded coconut, and dates
1/2 cup water, as needed

Seeds from one vanilla bean (and/or 1 teaspoon vanilla extract)

2 tablespoons each of maple syrup and melted coconut oil

Topping:

Strawberries
2 tablespoons cacao nibs
2 tablespoons pistachios, roughly chopped

To make the crust: pulse the pecans in your food processor until they become a rough flour. Add the dates and cacao and process until it begins to stick together. Press into the bottom and halfway up the sides of a small spring form pan (mine was about 6 inches) and put in the fridge. 

To make the cheesecake: blend all the ingredients until smooth and thick. Pour into your crust and then refrigerate overnight so it can set and the flavours can develop. Two days is even better. Decorate with the toppings and enjoy! 

dat sunshine juice + some big news

It's not like there's some special secret to making an amazing glass of juice. All you're doing is helping the mind-blowingly delicious flavours of fresh fruits and veggies shine through, and letting your taste buds do the rest. Simple. Yet every time I make juice (about once every one or two days) I cannot believe how incredible it tastes. Then I remember... "oh yeah, momma nature's a pro". Get the recipe at the bottom of the post, but first read what's directly below! 

Onto this big news. Can ya guess what it is? I am SOOO excited about this and it's been extremely difficult not telling you guys until today, because I wanted to share it with you as soon as it was confirmed, but here it goes:

I am working on my first cookbook.

I know: AHHHHHHHHHHHH! 

I know you have basically all been waiting for this, and encouraging me to write my own {un}cookbook for quite some time. You gave me the confidence and courage to believe I could do this. However, I saw it as an exciting challenge to complete in the future, maybe a year or two from now, and only when I actually found a company that would publish me. Well, the universe was looking out for me apparently, because not more than a couple months ago I was contacted by Page Street Publishing (distributed by Macmillan) and the rest is history! This is a dream come true, as most of you are aware, and I am actually just GIDDY with excitement. 

This is why I haven't been posting many recipes - or any desserts - recently. I have been working my little butt off making raw dessert recipes out the wahoo (does anyone REALLY know what that phrase means?) This cookbook is going to be solely desserts, with tons of pictures, and about 100 recipes you have never seen before - working. my. butt. off. I will also have how-to photos, tips and tricks for my recipes and the raw food lifestyle, and loads of other awesome stuff that you knoooow you want. Best part? It's going to be very affordable. About $20.00. It is set to be published in March 2014, so I have just a few months to pump out a manuscript and a bazillion recipes and photos. 

Thus, most of the recipes you see on my blog in the next three months will be simple juices, smoothies and raw food dinners or lunches. Also, I'll be posting about once a week or so. 

NOW GIMME FIVE. Oh, and make the juice recipe below. 

glowing green juice:

2 apples

2 oranges

1 cucumber

1 yellow bell pepper

3 pineapple slices

1 lemon 

Juice. Drink. Beam.