This Blood Purple Antioxidant Smoothie makes for a good and healthy Halloween drink!
I meant to post in on Halloween but since that didn't happen --- this makes a great immune-building, healthy smoothie especially for the fall when most people are getting ill. This smoothie is a good way to start the day.

It looks more purple in real life than in the photos

• 1 small beet
• 1 cup spinach
• 1 cup frozen cherries
• 1/2 cup frozen blueberries
• 1 cup frozen strawberries  
• 1+ frozen bananas (I didn't have ripe bananas when I made this)

If the smoothie tastes too strong with the beet, you can even out the taste by adding bananas.


 



This smoothie is high in Vitamin A, Vitamin C, and Vitamin K as well as Manganese, Magnesium, Potassium, Folate and Fiber as you can see below.
Here is the nutrient breakdown, not including bananas.

• Blend dates with water until you have a creamy liquid consistency, pour in glass.
• Blend frozen bananas with a little bit of water or nut milk until it has a thick, ice cream resemblance
• Scoop the banana ice cream onto date-drink and enjoy!

Lately, there have been a lot of raw vegan pies appearing on several of the vegan-raw vegan blogs I follow. So once I had finally obtained some good dates (could only get a few since quality dates are expensive) AND persimmons, I decided to make- something sweet especially since I had a really, really ripe hachiya persimmon that needed to be eaten. This single-serving pie is small, but it is super sweet.

Frozen version

INGREDIENTS

FILLING
1 or 2 Medjool Dates
1/2 Frozen Banana
1 Hachiya Persimmon, if you have the Fuyu persimmon use two

CRUST
3-4 Dates*
1 Slice Apple**
A pinch cinnamon
Coconut sugar, enough to roll the "crust-dough"

*I only had four dates left when I made this recipe, which is why the crust looks so faint. I recommend using anywhere from 3-6 dates and using a food processor or really good blender for the dates.
**I used only a little bit of apple since I was eating apple when I made it and thought it would be a good addition to the crust.  I suppose you could also use pecans, cashews, or some other nuts to make it more of a crust, the pie just won't be fat-free.






CRUST
- Blend or process dates, pieces of apple, and pinch of cinnamon until at crust-like, blended consistency.
- Then roll crust into ball and roll that ball in a bowl of coconut sugar to coat the outside. When coated, flatten the "dough" as shown in the two photos below:


 FREEZER
About 30+ minutes after letting in set in the freezer it should look like this

It was the end of September when I first tasted a passion fruit (and made this smoothie I meant to post much earlier, back when passion fruits were still in season). The taste of passion fruit was something completely unexpected for me- it was this super strange mix of squishy-jelly-feeling blast of citrus and sour in this bright, exotic fruit. The taste was just too much for me but I had to eat it somehow, so my solution was a smoothie.

A passion fruit smoothie which would be great with a screening of Passion Play, a mixed-genre film that is also an unexpectedly and unconventionally nice mixture of strange and beautiful.

Took this photo with phone, looks soo much better than photos with Flip camera

Ingredients

• Passion Fruit
• Banana
• Strawberry
• Water

I do not remember the exact amounts for each ingredient, but it's a smoothie so fruits/water can be altered anyway you want.

Crumb-cake, Fruit-filled Fluffy Vegan Muffins 




This post was made prior to when I began high carbohydrate, low fat, raw-till four vegan diet--- I actually haven't really made these in a while since summertime. I've been wanting to find a good gluten-free flour and 'no-sodium' baking powder to make them again and see how it turns out. But these muffins are still vegan, a lot healthier than the regular non-vegan muffins, and delicious!

Muffin-palooza, not a real word but a compilation of various vegan muffin-related recipes I have tried since the amazing crumb cake muffins. From blueberry, raspberry, and peach filled muffins, along with carrot cake, which all taste great, during this past summer [2013], I tried making them all.

Some of these were made with coconut sugar, which has an interesting taste of its own. Coconut sugar is another refined-sugar alternative that has really spiked in popularity since it is believed to have nutrient properties that aren't present in other refined sugars, therefore making it a better alternative to over-processed sugars.





Ingredients

Muffin:

• 11/2 cups - flour
• 1/2 cup - raw turbinado/organic sugar/evaporated cane/coconut sugar*
• 1-2 teas - baking powder*
• 1/8 teas. - sea salt or just a pinch, 1/8 teas.
• 1 cup - nondairy milk (I like coconut-almond milk)
• 1/4 cup - banana (instead of oil)*
• Fill ins:
• Blueberries, raspberries, strawberries peaches, other berries/fruits that go well with/in muffins

*I used half coconut sugar and half evaporated cane juice
*I might have lowered the overall amount of baking powder due to sodium levels


Topping:

• 1/4 cup - Coconut Sugar or Brown Sugar
• 1/8 cup (2TBS) Flour
• 1 TBS Melted Earth Balance*
• 3/4 teas - Cinnamon**

 *I tried to use almond-coconut milk or banana instead of oil
*I would think that a small amount of flaxseed or Ener-G egg-replacer would work as well.


The only difference between all the other recipes and this one is the fact that I don't fold in the blueberries to make a usual blueberry muffin recipe. Instead, I put a small layer of batter on the bottom of the muffin pan and add in any fruits to fill it with and then add some more batter to the top.








Also, I started a new side-blog. I call it Ambrosia.

This makes for a great seasonal raw vegan ice cream that tastes like a candy I might have had prior to becoming vegan. I don't remember what candy exactly that I am reminded of, but this recipe is made from fruit: persimmons and bananas. Since bananas and persimmons are both sweet fruits, they fit well together in terms of proper food combining. Therefore, these two fruits are not only good on the taste buds and your health, but also digestion.



Ingredients

• 2-5
• Frozen Bananas
• 1-4
• Persimmons
• 2 Tbs. (for ice cream consistency) add more for smoothie
• Water

It is important for both of the fruits to be super ripe!
I can only fit a maximum of 3-6 medium-sized bananas in my blender so you can use more bananas/persimmons.


























Persimmons taste like pure sugar. They are pretty much only in season during the winter months and can be difficult to find since they aren't usually sold in grocery stores. Thus, you might have to go to either a farmers market or international food store to find it. I recently found an international farmers market that sells produce and all types of food for unbelievably great prices i.e. a full cart of fruits and vegetables (some exotic) that might last a few weeks for only 25-30 dollars. I don't think I have ever exceeded 35 dollars since I've been there even when I get items for making veggie sushi and super exotic fruits like dragon fruit.

This colorful mixture of pineapples, strawberries, bananas, and blackberries creates a look that resembles "cotton candy", while tasting even better and sweeter. Healthy, filling, and deliciously sweet, like candy in a cup! Instead of succumbing to over-processed candy, you can easily make your own healthier and sweeter versions.






Ingredients
Frozen

• Pineapple chunks
• Strawberry
• Blackberries
• Bananas

*Not all of the fruits have to be frozen, but I find the bananas are best in smoothies when frozen.





This smoothie is high in Vitamin C, Vitamin B-6, Manganese, Magnesium, fiber, and Potassium.
And a pretty good source of Calcium, Iron, Selenium, Vitamin E, and Zinc-- among many other amino acids and naturally-occurring essential Omegas. No need for supplements when you can just blend fruits, and sometimes vegetables, into a nutrient-dense smoothie!