Raw, Vegan, Superfood Chocolate Cheesecake
It has been years since I have celebrated my birthday. One year, I just stopped celebrating.
I stopped asking people to come celebrate with me. You see, I had realized something. I realized that the majority of friends I have in my local area are not the type to remember my birthday unless I reminded them, or FaceBook sent a little reminder stating “It’s Amanda’s Birthday today!” (which does have its benefits at times). Nor, are they the type to reach out to me and celebrate my being here. It was a big ol’ horse pill to swallow and one that did not go down well at the time. It’s an interesting experience, letting go of expectations and accepting people exactly as they are, then choosing what it is you want to do.
Upon piercing the veil of illusions – the veils of friendship, the veils of celebrations, the veils of everything I was seeing around me and not participating in when it came to birthdays, celebrations, etc – I stopped. I walked away from my birthday and my celebrating the day I arrived here on this flying spaceship, living planet called Gaia/Earth. The day I decided to make my grand entrance onto this planet and into this world. The day where I fully chose to be here now and give this human experience another go-round.
I stopped and I walked away from myself.
Last week, I decided it was high time for me to welcome myself home again, to celebrate my birth, my choice to be in-bodied in this incredible avatar here in this day and age.
I choose to take this remarkable day to honor who I am, the incredible growth over the year, the ups and downs, the times when I cried for days feeling my pain, the times when my heart burst with so much love, and gratitude, and beauty, that tears fell from my eyes, the times when I laughed so hard that my belly and face hurt from laughing so much…the times when I saw myself reflected in another…
to intentionally pause, see, witness, and embrace the woman I have become and am becoming. I choose to take this day of my birth to love myself in ways I have not given myself permission to in the past.
On this day, I choose to celebrate the cycles of my own birth-death-birth/live-death-live processes.
I choose to be present with myself and my connection to all life, celebrating, in my own way, the parts of myself that have died over the years, the skin that I have shed, the letting go of who I have thought I needed to be or should be, so that I could step into who I am and behold myself as one would a new born. I am so very much looking forward to seeing myself and welcoming myself home.
In welcoming myself home, I am un-baking myself a cake and loading it up with all sorts of goodies to fortify and amplify my health and well-being. It’s my wish to share with you my raw, vegan, superfood chocolate cheesecake.
Raw, Vegan, Superfood Chocolate Cheesecake
Basic cheesecake recipe adapted from Chocolate Covered Katie
2 1/2c raw cashews (soaked)
1 TB vanilla bean paste or extract
1/2c pure maple syrup
1/4c plus 1 TB melted coconut oil
juice of 3 lemons
1/4c living, spring water
1/8 tsp Celtic sea salt
1/2c raw cacao powder
1 TB schisandra berry powder
1 TB lycium powder
Optional: frozen berries or dried, candied orange slices to top
Makes 1 cheesecake, or 4 cheese-tartlettes
Directions:
Soak the cashews 4-6 hours or overnight. Strain well. In a high-powdered blender, or food processor, combine all of the ingredients (except for the optional ones and anything you are putting on top), and blend until smooth.
Pour into either a spring-foam pan, a pie pan, or small tart pans. You could use muffin tins as well. I recommend lining any and all of the above with parchment paper.
Place into the freezer and freeze until ready to eat. Thaw for ~15 min. prior to serving and top with your favorite toppings.
Fragrant Rice Pudding
Gathering with people whom I consider to be part of my heart family, my soul family, my tribe, tend to be near and dear to me. They speak to a part of my heart and soul on a level beyond which I am capable of fully expressing using written language. One way I choose to express myself is through the food I bring and what I feel called to make.
I hadn’t planned on making this dish, in particular, but something resonated inside me that said “yes.” Fragrant, sensual, appealing to not only the palate but something deep inside us…
Fragrant Rice Pudding (serves a lot)
Ingredients:3 c. uncooked, rinsed Jasmine Rice
2 c. water
4 c. coconut milk
2 cinnamon sticks
handful of cardamom seeds/pods
1 TB fennel seeds
1 tsp. sea salt
2 pinches of lavender
zest of 1 orange
8 oz. golden raisins
maple whiskey (enough to cover the raisins)
chopped pistachios (to taste)
Steps:
- Soak the golden raisins in enough maple whiskey to cover them.
- Place the rice, water, and coconut milk in a large non-stick pan.
- Add the fennel, sea salt, lavender and stir.
- Wrap the cinnamon sticks and cardamom in cheesecloth. Place the bundle in with the rice.
- Cook over medium to low heat, stirring frequently until most of the liquid is absorbed and the rice becomes tender. This took ~45min – 1 hr. Think “dessert risotto.”
- Strain the raisins and add them to the cooked rice mixture. Add the chopped pistachios and top with orange zest. Stir.
- Place in a bowl for family style serving, or in individual bowls for an added touch. Edible flowers, if you have access to them, would elevate the dish even more.
This can be served warm or cool.
You know what to do. 😉
The Green Goddess
I recently shared a photo of a green drink I’ve been incorporating into my biology on a daily basis. Many of you asked “what’s in it?”. I’m excited to share with you the incredible recipe that has numerous health benefits, including:
- building the blood and yin
- harmonizing the liver
- lubricating the intestines
- beautifies the skin
- reducing heat and moistening dryness
- aiding digestion
- anti-parasitic
- assisting with heavy metal removal
- immune enhancing activity
- balancing blood sugar imbalances
Ingredients:
Serves 1. All ingredients are organic unless otherwise noted.
2 granny smith apples
1 avocado
1-2″ piece of ginger
1/3 – 1/2 bunch of red kale
1 c. chopped pineapple
1 TB chlorella powder
Instructions:
- Juice the apples, ginger, and kale.
- Place in a blender: the juice, avocado, pineapple, and chlorella powder.
- Blend until smooth.
- Enjoy. To aid digestion, assimilation, and absorption, chew the smoothie (or swish it around your mouth a few times) before swallowing.
Bee Me Up, Scotty!
In today’s vlog, I share with you one of my favorite superfoods to make – raw cacao!
Check it out below, let me know what you think, and share both the video and recipe with anyone you know who loves chocolate.
Ingredients (all organic and/or raw):
1 c. cacao butter
1 c. cacao powder
1/2 c. maple syrup
1 TB maca powder
2 tsp. lucuma powder
1 tsp. vanilla powder
Himalayan sea salt
1.5 TB bee pollen
1-2 tsp dried lavender
Steps:
1. Melt the cacao butter in a double boiler over low heat.
2. Turn the heat off. Add cacao powder. Stir.
3. Add maple syrup. Stir.
4. Add vanilla powder, maca, lucuma and a pinch or two of sea salt. Stir.
5. Pour mixture into a container or chocolate molds.
6. Sprinkle bee pollen, lavender, and 1 pinch sea salt on top of the chocolate.
7. Place in the fridge to cool and set…the freezer if you really can’t wait. Then, when it’s solid, enjoy!
Something Pumpkin this Way Comes
It’s autumn here in the States and with autumn comes everything pumpkin. Pumpkin pie, pumpkin lattes, pumpkin smoothies, roasted pumpkin, pumpkin costumes, oh and…
The Headless Horseman from the Legend of Sleepy Hollow
If you’re not familiar with the Headless Horseman, check this out:
Here’s a way to over-indulge in pumpkin without turning into a pumpkin yourself.
Ingredients:
- 3 TB pumpkin puree
- 16 oz milk/mylk of your choice
- 1/2 tsp bee pollen (if not allergic)
- 1 heaping tsp reishi
- 3 scoops Super Meal L.O.V.
- to taste:
- real maple syrup (not Aunt Jemima’s or Mrs. Butterworth’s)
- fresh ginger
- cinnamon
- nutmeg
- clove
- cayenne pepper for a kick and to keep an internal warmth
Place in blender. Blend. Enjoy!
Let me know how you like it below. If you have any of your own suggestions, I’d love to hear them.
The Green Monster
The Green Monster is an amazing power-packed smoothie chock full of incredible benefits.
It contains living silica, fulvic acid, and chlorella. Wowee! Living silica helps with joint and connective tissue health. Fulvic acid is an incredible cell food with benefits too numerous to go into detail here today.
What makes the Green Monster so, green?
That would be the chlorella, a micro-algae. Some of its benefits include:
- strengthening our cells against foreign invaders (no, I don’t mean aliens)
- binding to and removing heavy metals
- helping to tonify and cleanse the body
- promoting healthy, natural growth (anti-aging, anyone?)
- it has anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, and wound healing properties
…and more.
The problem — It. Tastes. Like. Algae. What does algae taste like? I’d say it’s a cross between what one would expect from either
Sounds, delish, doesn’t it?
Not unless you like that kind of swamp stench in your mouth. However, there is a way to enjoy and reap the benefits of this potent superfood without feeling like you just snogged the Swamp Thing or the Creature from the Black Lagoon.
Yay!
This tastes much more like a mint-chocolate chip smoothie than any foul creature from the bowels of the swamp or toilet. Although, Swamp Thing did do some pretty cool stuff.
Ingredients:
16 oz milk or mylk of your choice
1 banana
1 tsp Living Silica
3 drops Fulvic Zeolite or 10 drops Fulvic Acid
1 tsp Cracked-Cell Chlorella
1 TB cacao nibs
peppermint oil to taste
Sources:
Chlorella image: vitaforce.com
Smelly Swamp Thing: bloodydisgusting.com
Creature from the Black Lagoon: moviesonline.ca
Healing with Whole Foods, Paul Pitchford
The Green Foods Bible, David Sandoval
Getting Figgy With It
Who doesn’t love a little music to dance to accompanied by some killer fig goodies that are too good to not dance about while eating?!
These delectable little figgy balls of chocolate covered heaven hit up both the sweet and savory sides at the same time. Did I mention they’re covered in chocolate? No?
Psst…they’re covered in chocolate!
While I wouldn’t recommend over-indulging, you can definitely allow yourself to indulge. These Getting Figgy with it treats are all organic, all non-GMO, all natural, preservative-free, superfood goodness.
Are you drooling yet? I am.
Ingredients:
10 oz of dried Turkish figs
11 oz of dried back mission figs
3/4 tsp curry powder
1/4 tsp ground cardamom
a few pinches of sea salt (Celtic or Himalayan)
dried, unsweetened coconut flakes
5 TB Purium’s organic coconut oil (melted)
4 TB Ojio’s raw cacao powder
1 tsp. lucuma powder
Method:
Remove the stems from the figs. Place the figs in a food processor and process until you have a mass of sticky, ooey-gooey, fig newton-like yumminess. Add the curry power, cardamom, and a pinch of sea salt. Pulse to incorporate the spices throughout.
Slightly wet your hands and roll the mixture into approximately 30 balls. You can then roll the balls in the coconut flakes.
To make the chocolate sauce:
Combine the coconut oil, cacao powder, lucuma powder, and remaining 2 pinches of sea salt in a bowl. Gently whisk until well combined.
Dip/roll the fig balls into the chocolate sauce and place on wax or parchment paper. Allow to set in the fridge for approximately 1 hr.
Then, put on some tunes and Get Figgy with it!
PS – You can also change the spices to incorporate what suits your taste buds and mood.
On A Limb Movement & Wellness 