chocolate tahini caramel delights

imagine a giant peanut butter cup... change the peanut butter into tahini-cashew butter. add a bite of caramel in the middle. turn it into an ice cream version. then make it vegan and raw. the final result is this recipe.

i wanted to do something with the sesame seed butter we had, and also make a fancier spin on a PB cup. so here ya go. i hope you like them... okay, you'll love them. unless you're crazy, or have a phobia of chocolate (actually a legitimate disorder, it is called xocolatophobia). the raw caramel is also divine in the middle. i ate the extra on it's own with an organic apple.

the ice cream part was actually a mistake, but the kind that makes things better (don't ya love those? they're kinda rare). my chocolate recipe had too much liquid and so didn't solidify like normal chocolate. i had to freeze it to make it harden, but it ended up even more delicious as a frozen treat. let's hear it for helpful mistakes!

these photos were taken with my brand new camera (new to me anyway... got an excellent deal on good ole craigslist for a basically unused canon T2i... thank you, internet!) and i couldn't be happier with them. such an improvement not only over the little beginners one i have been having to use the last couple months, but even my previous DSLR! i am a happy camper.

a funny thing to note: i prefer using a picture quality setting called "RAW", it essentially means the photo is unprocessed and completely unedited, saved just as i took the photo whereas JPEG photos are changed slightly to be saved as such. it is funny because (as your clever little mind may have figured out) my photos are just like my food! RAW and UNPROCESSED.

time to giggle. 

my weekend has been pretty lovely. we are back to normal vancouver weather - rain. i love it. i missed it. i am glad it's returned. have you noticed the rain makes everything cozier? when you are inside anyways... getting stuck in the pouring rain and wind while waiting for a bus doesn't exactly compare to snuggling with your boo by the fire with raw hot chocolate and a kitten...

everything is better with a kitten.

ginger chocolate cups with sesame-cashew butter & caramel: makes about 9

ginger dark chocolate:
1 cup dates, soaked in just enough water to cover them
1/4 cup melted coconut oil
1/4 cup cacao 
1/2 teaspoon vanilla bean powder
1/4 teaspoon ginger powder (or 1 teaspoon shaved ginger root)
1/8 teaspoon salt

sesame-cashew butter:
1/2 cup tahini (sesame seed butter)
1 cup raw cashews

raw caramel:
1 cup dates, soaked in water for few minutes
1/4 cup agave/maple syrup/raw honey
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup melted coconut oil

to make the chocolate, blend all ingredients (including the soak water from the dates) until smooth. you may need to add some more water if it's too thick. you could also add a liquid sweetener. set aside in a bowl.

to make the nut butter, blend together the tahini and cashews until smooth. set aside in a bowl.

to make the caramel... you guessed. blend all ingredients until smooth. and yes... set it aside in a bowl.

now the assembly *cue epic music* cover the inside of lined cupcake tins with half of the chocolate. put in the freezer for 10-20 minutes until hardened. put in a layer of sesame-cashew butter, then a dollop of caramel. put back in freezer for 10 minutes. then cover the top with another layer of nut butter and then chocolate. let them set in the freezer overnight, somehow they are better the next day. i topped mine with a cashew to make 'em cute.

bananas, peanut butter & chocolate - OH MY!

I've learned that I'm definitively addicted to kale chips and exercise, and in the past two days I've realized the combination of peanut butter, chocolate and banana is also a substance I cannot resist. That's right - today I have made MORE peanut butter cups for you (see my other recipes here, here, and here)... enjoy.

SIDE NOTE: This is my 100th post! Hurraw!

I don't know what it is... but all those components together create something so beautiful, delicious, perfect... so right. Peanuts are chocolate's best friend. Somehow they taste better together than chocolate does with any other nut or seed butter. I guess they're soul mates? When I made PB cups two days ago they were amazing (duh) but I had an epiphany. "Why don't I add banana to this!?" So I did.

Yes. I put a slice of banana in these peanut butter cups. 

You know it's genius. 
-

This recipe isn't raw, but you can make it so really easily. Just use raw peanut butter and chocolate! Pretty simple. I have cashew butter so I used some of that along with PB (I have jungle peanuts but I wanna use my cashew butter up before I make raw PB), and I don't have any raw chocolate currently so I used the dark Lindt we have. Mmm.

Jungle Peanut Butter Cups: makes 2-3, they're really big

1 bar dark/raw chocolate

1/3 cup raw nut butter/jungle peanut butter (I used a mix of PB and raw cashew butter)

1 sliced banana

Melt 2/3 of the chocolate and cover the inside of pliable cupcake molds with it. Refrigerate until they're hardened. Now spoon 1/2 the nut butter into each one and layer on a slice of banana. Put on the rest of the nut butter. Melt the rest of the chocolate and pour on top of the cups. Garnish with a jungle peanut, coconut flakes, or a goji berry if you have it. Perdy. Refrigerate until they're solid, take them out of the molds, eat! 

giant peanut butter cups

Tonight was Pizza and Movie Night at the von Euw house. We've been doing it every Saturday for as long as I can remember. For our pizza, we make our own crust and use fresh ingredients so when I first went vegan, we just started making vegan pizza with tons of veggies and a wee bit of vegan cheese on top =) Thank you, Daiya!

But pretty fast I realized I'd rather just have a normal whole food meal. It's not that big a deal I miss out on pizza. We all still spend the evening together and that's what's important. Anyway, I do have pizza every now and then. So tonight I steamed some vegetables and added tempeh, avocado and hot sauce to them. NOM.

This hardly even needs a recipe. I lightly sauteed about 3 cups of carrots, beans, broccoli, corn, water chestnut, and mushrooms with salt, pepper and spices. Then I added some tamari and seasoned tempeh and put sliced avocado and Sriracha on top. 

The reason for the tempeh is protein. NO - I am at all concerned with getting enough protein on a vegan diet. It's effortless. However, my exercise lately has been quite intense; I do an hour of cardio in the morning, and then 30-60 minutes of light cardio and weight lifting in the PM. I'm in the process of "cutting". It's a bodybuilding term that basically means getting ripped and very defined before a competition.

Is it for health reasons? I admit, no. Bodybuilding itself isn't actually that healthy. You exercise excessively and  have to eat unnaturally large amounts of protein. It's literally a superficial sport. Yet I'm still very intrigued by it... don't judge me! Blame Vegan Body Building, (freaking LOVE this site!) I've always loved working out and lately I've been thinking about one day competing in a BB competition. That's why I'm trying to "cut" right now. I'm seeing how I do, and if my results might be good enough. Plus, summer's coming and I wanna show off my muscles.

A "cutting" diet is high-protein, low-carb, low-fat and lots of cardio. I'll be doing this for about 3 months. Luckily, my body changes really fast depending on my lifestyle changes so I am HOPING to see the results I want relatively soon.

Of course, I'd also like to stay as raw as possible. This means I'll be having green smoothies and raw/steamed veggies a lot, plus a couple fruits each day. I would like to keep cooked foods (including tempeh, gardein and tofu) to a minimum. It also means I need to eat more, which may sound great - but it gets tiring pretty fast. I think I'll do some cleanses and fasts in the next 3 months as well. It will balance out the intense exercise and large amount of food with low exercise and hardly any food.

Anyway! You don't care about this; what you want is dessert. Well, here you go.

Tonight I made over-sized peanut butter and chocolate cups. Yeyyyaaahh baby. My inspiration (although, do you really need  inspiration for PB & Chocolate?) was this cake. Minus all the butter, sugar, white flour, eggs, dairy and baking. All these have in 'em are dates, nuts, peanut butter, cocoa and avocado. My family LOVED them. Greg was using physical force to steal the last one from my mom.

There was screaming. 

I didn't have one myself because I was way too full from my dinner, but from the fighting over them that ensued, I can guarantee you'll love them. In hindsight, I probably could've added more PB in the middle just to make them look cuter, and also made the chocolate layers more like fudge and less like pudding. 

Mais c'est la vie! I changed the recipe to make them more like this, so it's not EXACTLY what I did, but it should work better. 

Giant Peanut Butter & Chocolate Cups: makes 3-4

Crust:

1/4 cup nuts

2-3 soaked dates

1 Tb cocoa

Chocolate Layer:

1/2 avocado 

4 soaked dates

2 Tb cocoa

2 Tb coconut oil 

2 Tb cashew butter

2 Tb agave

Pinch of salt

Peanut Butter Layer:

3 Tb Natural peanut butter

2 Tb cashew butter

1/4 t salt

For the crust, process all ingredients until it's crumbly but holds together when you press it. You may need to add some agave syrup. Press into sides and bottom of cupcake molds and set in fridge. 

For the chocolate layer, blend all ingredients until smooth and very thick. Spoon into the cupcake molds, it should take 1/3 of the room in each. 

For the PB layer, mix the nut butters and the salt until smooth (if you're lazy, you can just use plain PB). Add to the first chocolate layers in each cupcake mold, making them 2/3 full. Then - you guessed it! Fill them up with the remaining chocolate. Set in fridge for an hour and then enjoy =)

In other news: today I ordered stuff from Upaya Naturals! HURRAW! We got glass straws, VIRGIN COCONUT OIL, and Sunfood cacao powder!!! I can't wait to receive our shipment in the mail. 

peanut butter cups... gone wild!

Get it? Because they have no tops. Ha-ha. I should really spend more time developing my comedic talents, and less time making peanut butter and chocolate concoctions.

On second thought... bad idea. PB and chocolate always comes first. Last night I was thinking of ways to use the raw mesquite powder my parents got me for x-mas (buy it here). It has a light flavour of cinnamon and cocoa. I love chocolate, and I add cinnamon to everything, so it's perfect for me!

I decided to make peanut butter cups. But of course, forgetful me... I spooned out all the chocolate mix for the bottoms, and had none left for the tops. Woops. So they're wild and topless pb cups.

Deal with it.

They're still just as delicious and comforting as regular ones. And WAAAY more nutritious than Reeses.
To compare, here's the ingredients in a Reeses:

Milk Chocolate (Milk Chocolate contains Sugar, Cocoa Butter, Chocolate, Nonfat Milk, Milk Fat, Lactose, and Soya Lecithin and PGPR (as Emulsifiers), Peanuts, Sugar, Dextrose, Salt, and TBHQ and Citric Acid (to Preserve Freshness) ---> Freshness??? What's fresh here?!

Here's the ingredients and recipe for MY "Reeses", enjoy, guilt-free! 
(Aside from the PB, they're raw. If you can afford raw jungle peanuts, go for it!)

topless peanut butter cups: makes about 10 normal or 25 small

chocolate:

4 Tb cacao

2 Tb raw mesquite 

1/4 cup melted coconut oil

1/4 cup agave or maple syrup 

Pinch of salt

1 t vanilla extract

3-4 dates, if you want

peanut butter: 

3/4 natural peanut butter (I make my own) - you can use other nut butters if you want

3 Tb agave, if you want

2 Tb nutritional yeast, if you want

NOTE: My "chocolate" ended up not being very hard, like real chocolate. Still mind-blowingly good, but if you want harder chocolate use more coconut oil and cacao/mesquite OR simply melted dark chocolate.

Blend all ingredients from first list together until you have a smooth, chocolate mixture... I couldn't stop eating it right out of the food processor. Spoon one teaspoon or so into the bottom of several cupcake papers, until you run out. Set aside.

Mix the PB, agave and nooch (if using) and then put a dollop of that onto each of the chocolate bottoms. Stick 'em in the fridge for a few hours and then serve! YEAH BABY!