Summer Recipes: Açai Bowl, Avocado Salad, Watermelon Juice

I cannot believe I am typing these words... but the last days of Summer has gone. What?... Seriously where did the time go. Don't get me wrong, I love fall too but as you may know Summer is my favourite season of the year due to the warmth and the amount of glorious sun we get each day. It's now the end of September and to celebrate the beautiful summer days I wanted to share with you all a few picture, and recipes of the amazing food I've had this summer.

1. Watermelon Juice

My number one most consumed juice this summer is definitely this Watermelon Juice... I have had several if not cups, but pitchers of this juice. It has been hydrating me all summer long and watermelon is just my all time favourite fruit. It's super refreshing, hydrating, and delicious. Ok just make sure you don't drink a whole pitcher before going on a long car trip ;)

How to Make:

This super simple and you can definitely elaborate on the basic recipe. 

Ingredients:

~ 2 Cups Watermelon (Cold)

~2 Cups Water (Cold)

Method:

Blend these two ingredients in a blender and pour into your favourite glass, jar, etc.

Variations:

1. Add a few Mint Leaves to make it extra refreshing!

2. Add a few drops of stevia if you want it just a touch sweeter.

3. Add some Lemon Juice for an uplifting touch. 

Seriously the variations are endless! Play with it! 

...

 2. Raw Fruits and Veggies

Summer foods must must must include raw fruits for me... I am addicted to raw fruits. Especially in the mornings. I find myself devouring a crazy amount of either mangos, peaches, or watermelon, all my summer faves. 

Ok next to raw fruits... Salads are also a must. Another reason I love summer I can eat lots and lots of raw foods in which the amazing enzymes in our veggies have not been cooked and killed. This summer I have been obsessing in salads, in particularly this one Im gonna share with you all. 

This is my Summer Avocado Salad.

How to Make:

Again... So simple. Basically you just toss everything together ;)

Ingredients:

~ 1 Cup Arugula

~ 1 Cup Spinach

~ 1 Baby Cucumber

~ a few Cherry Tomatoes

~ 1 Avocado

~ 1 Tbsp Hemp Seeds

Dressing:

1 Tbsp Olive Oil, 1 Tbsp Lemon Juice, a few dashes of Garlic Powder, Sea Salt, Black Pepper, and Paprika 

Method:

Basically chop, and toss everything together in a large bowl and season well.

Super Simple.

...

Best for Last:

Açai Bowl

Saving the best for last. My current obsession. I am OBSESSED. I can have this everyday for every meal. No joke. The oh so humble Açai Bowl. What makes it humble? Well first off Açai is a Super food and it is very high in antioxidants, Vitamin C, boosts immunity, and promotes anti aging properties, along with many benefits to a healthy heart. The list of pros is quite long and I could go on and on about how amazing Açai is for our bodies. Now some people use the frozen Açai Packets which are usually easily found in North America in stores such as Whole Foods, but in Europe it is a little harder to find so I like to use the powder form of Açai which I find from my local health food store. 

My Açai Bowls usually consists of frozen bananas, frozen blueberries, frozen/fresh kale, almond milk, a few dates, grounded flaxseeds, Maca Powder, and Açai Powder. This bowl is filled with superfoods, and foods high in fibre. I promise you it tastes like ice cream, and is just heaven to start off the day with... especially when you know its super good for your body.

How to Make:

This recipe is definitely not by the book, I definitely experimented with how I like mine to taste, and also what to add in for the nutritional benefits. So feel free to take out or substitute any ingredients that you need.

Ingredients:

1 Cup Frozen Blueberries

2 Frozen Bananas

1/2 Cup Frozen Strawberries

1 Cup Almond Milk

1 to 2 Tbsp Açai Powder

2 Large Dates

1 Tbsp Maple Syrup (Optional)

Method:

1. Place all ingredients into a high speed blender and blend. If you don't have a high speed blender slowly blend each frozen fruit.

2. Note that it is often that the mixture gets stuck due to the fact that it is frozen. If this happens add a little more almond milk.

3. Blend everything together until smooth and transfer to your favourite bowl.

4. Add Toppings! This is the best part! The choices are endless here are just a few I love:

Goji Berries

Granola

Fresh Fruits

Almond Butter

Chia Seeds

Bee Pollen

Cacao Nibs

Hemp Seeds

Inca Berries

...

The simplest, yet most delicious. I love topping it with my Maple Coconut Pecan Granola, which I have a recipe for and will share very soon, but seriously you can go all out with the toppings. I love love Açai Bowls because they taste too good to be healthy, yet they do wonders for our health. I really hope you guys will try all these recipes out. I look forward to the new month of October and creating many yummy fall recipes. Till then I send everyone lots of love and happiness.

xoxo

Coco

Raw Cake: Vanilla Strawberry-Raspberry Cheesecake

Happy August everyone! Having been back in Amsterdam for 2 weeks already I must say I really miss the gorgeous summer weather back in Toronto. It's been cloudy, raining and on top of all this a super chilly August in Amsterdam. Leaving home this time was quite difficult. Having spent a whole month with my parents at home made it that much harder to leave them behind. I felt quite homesick coming back, and so I decided to cheer myself up by making something incredibly delicious.

Now I originally wanted to bake something super sweet, and indulgent as usual but having just been on summer vacation and not particularly watching what I've been eating... (aka junk food) I thought I should try to keep it healthy. Thats when the idea of making a raw cheesecake came into mind. I have seen several gorgeous raw cakes on Instagram and it has inspired me to make my own. I have once before attempted to these raw cakes... but let me tell you these cakes are seriously tough however they are very well worth the work. Now I don't want you to think that these cakes taste like the conventional "Cheesecake" the ones filled with cream cheese, butter, and eggs. I love those cheesecakes too but this cheesecake that I am going to share with you is more of a work of art that also benefits your health and tastes amazing at the same time.

Now that I've decided to go with a raw cheesecake it took me quite sometime to figure out the flavour of this little guy. I had made a Matcha Vanilla cheesecake before, but this time my boyfriend had kindly requested a fruity flavour since it is still summer. And since there were some fresh strawberries  and frozen raspberries in the fridge I went with those. I love the double layered raw cakes because of the beautiful colours each layer brought to the cake, so I decided to make the second layer a "Vanilla Cream" layer.

The structure of the cake starts off with the Base. The normal crust of a traditional cheesecake usually contains a "Graham Cracker and butter" crust. For the raw, healthy version I decided to go with a mixture of almonds, walnuts, and dates. So instead of filling our bodies with trans-fats and refined sugars, I went with the heart healthy monounsaturated fats, and natural sugars from the nuts and dates.

Now just so we are clear I won't be using any cream cheese, or dairy products in this cheesecake. The cream cheese is substituted with soaked cashews, maple syrup, lemon juice, fresh strawberries, and raspberries. These ingredients make up the first layer of the cake. As for the last layer, the Vanilla Cream, it is primarily made up of soaked cashews, vanilla powder, agave syrup, and lemon juice.

...

The ingredients are quite similar between the two layer, however one contains fruits, and the other is mainly just a simple cream layer. Along with that I used two different types of sweeteners. For the Strawberry-Raspberry layer I used Maple Syrup because it will add a really nice flavour for the fruit layer of the cheesecake. For the Vanilla Cream I wanted a more creamy consistency so I went with Agave Syrup, which is less runny and will help to achieve the creamy consistency. Now that you know whats going into this cake I think you would agree that this cake is even healthy enough for breakfast. (hahaha says the person who is trying to be healthy...)

Ok ok... so we know that this cake is healthy, gluten free, dairy free, vegan, and raw but how do we actually make it? haha... here we go!

Ingredients:

Base:

100g Almonds
35g Walnuts
100g Dates

Strawberry-Raspberry Layer:

200g Raw Cashews
150g Strawberry
50g Raspberry
2 Tbsp Lemon Juice
3 Tbsp Maple Syrup

Vanilla Cream Layer:

100g Raw Cashews
3 Tbsp Agave Syrup
2 Tbsp Lemon Juice
1 Tsp Vanilla Powder
1-2 Tbsp Water (Optional)

Directions:

Before we start make sure you...

* Measure out 200g of Raw Cashews and soak this in water overnight/6 hours or more.
(Strawberry-Raspberry Layer)

* Measure out 100g of Raw Cashews and soak this in water overnight/6 hours or more.
(Vanilla Cream Layer)

                                                                                 ...

1. First off I used a square springform pan of 6 inches by 6 inches/15cm x15 cm.

(You can also use a round springform pan if you wish... just keep the size close to this one and it should be fine.)

I begin by taking a large piece of parchment paper and roughly cut out a square piece that was around the size of this pan and placed it at the bottom to prevent sticking and allowing the cake to come out easier serving.

2. Now we are starting the cake from the bottom the Base Layer. For this layer I measured out 100g of Almonds, 35g of Walnuts, and placed these two ingredients into the food processor. I found it to be much better to first process the nuts alone before adding in the dates. Process the nuts until they resemble a crumb like consistency.

3. Now that the nuts are blended up you can add in your 100g of Dates and process the nuts and dates together. *I used some Deglet Nour dates here which are much more affordable than the Medjoul Dates. Feel free to use what you prefer. I found that soaking them in some warm water for 30 minutes really help them to soften up and they blend up much better this way. (Just remember to drain the water out completely after soaking) 

Process the nuts and dates till it reaches a doughy consistency. (So basically when the dates are well incorporated with the nuts and it starts to form a sticky ball)

4. Once you have your sticky nut & date dough press this into the bottom of the spring pan. This part is super fun because you get to use your fingers! It's kinda like playing with play dough! Just try to press it down flat. This forms the crust of our cakes. Now place this into the freezer to set.

5.  While we wait for the Base to set. We are gonna move onto the Strawberry-Raspberry Layer. For this layer I used 150g of fresh Strawberries, 50g of frozen Raspberries (that I defrosted), 2 Tbsp of Lemon Juice, and 2 Tbsp of Maple Syrup. I placed all these ingredients into a food processor and blended it together till everything was smooth.

* Now if you prefer to having a super smooth consistency for your cheesecake then I would recommend taking a fine sieve and straining out the seeds of the strawberries and raspberries. But I personally really love the texture that they bring to the cake so I kept them. 

...

6. Continuing with this layer take the 200g of soaked Cashews, and drain the water out and place this into your blender. Along with the cashews place the Strawberry-Raspberry sauce we just made along with 1 Tbsp of Maple Syrup and blend this together until it becomes smooth and there are no clumps.

7.  Now take out the Base Layer we made earlier from the freezer and spread this mixture of Strawberry-Raspberry Cream onto the base. I used a rubber spatula to smooth out the top of the layer. Place this back into the freezer to set.

8. The final Layer! Our Vanilla Cream. So for this layer I took 100g of soaked Cashews, 2 Tbsp of Lemon Juice, 3 Tbsp Agave Syrup, 1 Tsp Vanilla Powder, and placed these ingredients into the blender.

* I would recommend if your having troubles blending this mixture to add in a tiny spoonful of water just to help the mixture blend. Again we want to reach a very smooth and creamy consistency. 


9. Now take out the pan with the previous two layers we have made from the freezer and spread this Vanilla Cream over top of the Strawberry-Raspberry layer and smooth out the top. Place this back into the freezer and let the cake set for at least 2 hours before attempting to eat it. This is the really hard part! Hehe!

                                                                               ...

So once it has been about 2 hours take your cake out of the freezer and let it sit on the counter for 15-20 minutes. This will assure that your cake comes out of the pan in one piece. I usually place a large cup under the cake tin and push upwards to slide the cake out.

And now you can decorate your cake with anything you can imagine! I just sliced up some fresh strawberries and placed them right on top of my cheesecake.

I made approximately 7-8 slices of cake with this recipe, but its all up to the size of the pan you use, and also how you cut them. The left over pieces I keep stored away in the freezer. When I want to eat it I usually leave it out on the counter for around 30 minutes, or if you know you want to eat it for dessert on the night of, you can always leave the cake in the fridge on the morning of, and by dinner time it should be ready to eat straight out of the fridge! It is a bit of work to make this raw cake but I feel super satisfied and very proud to make something super beautiful and delicious yet extremely high in nutritional benefits! I hope you all will give this a try!!! Stay happy and healthy.

xoxo
Coco

Recipe: Vegan Tahini Pad Thai Noodles

Over the past couple of days the weather has been screaming summer with the temperature around 25 degrees everyday and the sun bringing us loads and loads of shine. These nights I couldn't really bring myself to 'cook' my dinner. With my boyfriend already complaining about feeling too hot I decided to stick to cold noodles... Now I'd say this was a success. Having recently gotten back from Spain our cupboards were quite empty I rounded up some ingredients that were lying around the house and decided to make a Tahini Sauce which would be mixed together with some veggies that both my boyfriend and I loved... And so now we are just a tad obsessed with these noodles on those days where you just want something 'cold' for a change.

Tahini Sauce

Ingredients:

- 2 Tbsp Coconut Sugar
- 1/4 Cup Soy Sauce
- 2 Tbsp Sesame Oil
- 4 Tbsp Tahini
- 1/3 Cup of Hot Water
- 2 Tbsp Vinegar
- 1 Tbsp of Grated Ginger

Directions:

1. Heat up a pot of Boiling Water and pour this into a large bowl.

2. Next place a smaller bowl, (I use a glass measuring jar) into the large bowl of Boiling Water.

3. Now place your ingredients starting with your Hot Water, then Sugar, then Soy Sauce, Sesame Oil, Grated Ginger, Tahini, Vinegar into the measuring jar and keep stirring. The heat from the Large Bowl of Hot Water should keep the sauce at a liquid temperature. Just keep stirring.

Noodle and Assembly

Ingredients:

- 1 Package of Udon Noodles
- 1 Cup Bean Sprouts
- 1/2 Cup Chopped Snap Peas
- 1 Small Hand full of Chopped Cilantro
- 1/2 Cup Chopped Red Cabbage
- 1 Block of Firm Tofu
- 1/2 Cup of Chopped Chinese Cabbage
- 1/2 Cup of Chopped Cucumbers
- 1 Clove of Garlic
- Sprinkle of Toasted Sesame Seeds (Optional)

Directions:

1. Cook the Udon Noodles in a pot of boiling water, once cooked drain the noodles under cold water and keep them in the cold water so they don't stick.

2. Cut your veggies (Cucumber, Red Cabbage, Cilantro, Snap Peas, Chinese Cabbage).

3. Dice up Tofu into Cubes.

4. Dice the Garlic and heat it up in a frying pan with 2 Tbsp of Olive Oil.

5. Once the pan is heated place the cubed Tofu into the pan and fry until it is Golden Brown on the outside, add salt and pepper to taste.

6. Now its time to assemble everything... First I drain the noodles and place as much as I would eat into a bowl, then I place in the Chopped Veggies (Cucumber, Red Cabbage, Chinese Cabbage, Snap Peas) and give a good toss. Next I place the Sprouts on top and layer on the Fried Tofu. Finally I pour on the Tahini Dressing, and Garnish with the Cilantro and a sprinkling of Toasted Sesame Seeds.



Now look at that! Finished and it is perfect to prep ahead of time to store away in the fridge to a night in the week where there is just no time, all you have to do is assemble the ingredients. I really hope you will give this one a try, I for one am in love with this Tahini Pad Thai.

xoxo
Coco

Happy Easter!

I guess I've never really celebrated Easter until this year, you see I grew up with Asian parents who never have celebrated this holiday. I do however always think of Easter as that holiday where parents hide eggs for their young ones to find, the supermarkets shelves are fully stocked with chocolate eggs, and there are displays of bunnies almost everywhere one looks. Though Easter has become more of a commercial holiday (just like all the other holidays) it is a holiday to celebrate the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. I am not a Christian, but that does not mean that I don't believe in "God" and it also does not mean that I cannot celebrate Easter, I think everyday is a gift and it should be celebrated as you want. And so after 20 Easter's in my life I have decided this 21st Easter was one where I would celebrate.

To celebrate I decided to make a "Superfood Energy Balls", as a replacement for the traditional supermarket milk chocolate eggs, and I made some Sweet Potato Scones, my own version of those tea time Sunday scones.

Superfood Energy Balls

Both recipes are vegan, so it makes everything taste even just that much more amazing.

For the Sweet Potato Scones, I put a spread of Coconut Oil, and Blueberry Jam on as a filling, but they are really delicious on their own as well.

Sweet Potato Scones

Apart from cooking delicious food I also caught up on some much needed sleep... Happy Easter everyone!!!

xoxo
Coco

Coco's Pumpkin Porridge

Hello hello! So with it being the end of November I thought I would share an all time favourite winter recipe that can be eaten for breakfast, lunch, and or dinner. Seriously I could live off of this stuff this whole winter.  It is my incredibly simple, inexpensive, yet delicious "Pumpkin Porridge".



Ingredients:
- 1 cup of white rice
- 1 cup of pumpkin purée
- 3 cups of water

Steps:

1. First rinse your rice 3 times with water to make sure its clean
2. Place your rice into a medium sized pot along with 2 cups of water with the heat on Medium
3. Keep watch of rice and make sure to stir
4. Add water as needed to create "porridge" consistency
5. Add the Pumpkin Purée and stir constantly
6. Once the consistency is reached turn off the stove and serve

* If you do not have Pumpkin Purée on hand, (I personally always make mine) all you have to do is take a cup of Pumpkin or Butternut Squash (both works) and boil it till it becomes soft then mash it with a fork or pop it into a blender.

Growing up in an asian family we would have porridge for most of breakfast, and during sick days, or the winter times. I absolutely love porridge, and it is one of those super cosy and comforting foods to me. I hope you guys enjoy this one! This Pumpkin Porridge, just adds an extra warmth on those cold winter days, it's like a warm hug from the inside.