Peach Raspberry Almond Parfait

 As you may be able to tell, we've had peaches galore around here. 

Five years ago, we put in a peach tree, crossing our fingers--and happily, the harvests have been amazing! It seems to go in cycles of every other year, and this year was a good year.  We have over a whopping 250 peaches (fresh! home-grown! pesticide-free!) from our tree that we just picked on Sunday.  (Throughout Monday, I ate ten peaches.  Ten! Fresh! Peaches!)

So, I've been dreaming up some peach recipes! This is a nice snack between lunch and dinner, having layers of both peach almond cream and raspberry lime sauce, with sliced peaches in between.  It's also pretty easy to prep.  So, without further ado, Peach Raspberry Almond Parfait!

 Peach Raspberry Almond Parfait (makes 4 decent-sized parfaits)

Peach Almond Cream:
3 peaches, pitted, peeled, and sliced into pieces (must be fresh)
1 1/4 c. almonds

That's it! Put the peaches and then the almonds into a blender and blend until creamy.  If it's too thin, add more almonds; if too thick, add another peach slice or two. 

Raspberry Lime Sauce:
1.5 c. raspberries (measure before thawing)
 Juice of 1.5 large limes (or 2 small)
2 tbsp. agave
Pinch of sea salt

Let the raspberries thaw for a while and then blend together.  It will be a thick sauce (in the picture, I let it sit too long, so it got thinner). 

To assemble:
Peach Almond Cream
Raspberry Lime Sauce
Sliced peaches

Dollop a bit of Peach Almond Cream in the bottom of a parfait glass.  Throw in some sliced fresh peaches and cover with a layer of raspberry sauce.  (My raspberry sauce had thawed too much, and got too thin, so I only did one big layer of it with more cream on top.  If it's assembled immediately, you can layer the cream and sauce a few times.) Keep layering this way until you reach your desired height in the parfait glass! Enjoy!

This is a nice, sweet treat in the summer, but still light and fresh. 

With any luck, this post will be part of 'Slightly Indulgent Tuesdays,' over at the Simply Sugar and Gluten Free blog.  This will also be a part of Wellness Weekend at Diet, Dessert and Dogs. 

Hope that all of you have a good week!

Three C's!

Crepes, Chinese salad, and Caramel dip!

Hey y'all! (Lol.  Southern or what?) It's almost Valentine's Day!! I have lots planned for that funtastic day (I'm making a Valentine's Day meal!), and you'll get to see that soon.  I'm also making an Asian-themed meal for my family tonight, consisting of recipes from Ani Phyo's new Asian cookbook and a nori roll recipe of my own.  But I'll get to that later!

First, the crepes.  The crepe recipe is from the Sweet Gratitude book, and the recipe called for it to be filled with strawberry/blueberry jam.  However, since fresh berries aren't really in season right now (and I was not about to use the flavorless frozen strawberries from the store!), I decided to use one of the crepe variations.  Since we had lots of ripe, speckly bananas, I sliced 'em up, spread them inside the crepe, and drizzled chocolate sauce all over the inside and outside. 

It was delicious.  But, of course, I couldn't find the camera. :( Never, fear, however; when my mom came home, she brought the camera with her and we took a picture of another crepe we made.  It has smeary chocolate words written on it, and I mashed the banana for the filling of this one.  The crepes held up wonderfully though! They folded easily, but didn't break apart at all.  They probably had the best consistency of any crepes I've made before. 

Aren't they gorgeous? (That's a chocolate heart on the plate, by the way.  My little sister had fun decorating. :) )

Next, on to the Chinese salad! This one's really simple.  You just take lettuce and chop up whatever veggies you have around (I used carrots and bell pepper), and drizzle it with Hoisin Sauce.  I love this hoisin sauce recipe--it's my go-to for anything Chinese-y--because it's sooo flavorful.  It's smoother when you make it with agave, but also thinner, and I like the sweetness of the dates more. 

Hoisin Sauce (makes probably 1/2 cup)

4 tbsp. namu shoyu (I use the San-J brand)

2 tbsp. almond butter

4 soft dates, pitted

2 tsp. apple cider vinegar

2 tsp. sesame oil

1 small garlic clove

A little shake of cayenne pepper
Blend all together.  Serve over veggies or lettuce.  Voila!

And lastly, the caramel dip.  Mmmm! This stuff was delish.  The dip is sweet on its own, but the slight tartness of the apples balances it out perfectly. 

Caramel Dip

1 cup soft dates, pitted
Some water or almond milk--just enough to blend the dates
1/2 tsp. maca powder
1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
A pinch of salt

Blend all together.  Don't add too much liquid or it will be too runny--add just enough to blend it all into a smooth dip.  Enjoy!


Well, for Valentine's Day, my current menu plan is everything red.  Raw Spaghetti, Tomato Cumin Wild Rice Soup (I'll finally get to post that one!), Chocolate Cupcakes with Raspberry Frosting, and Raspberry Fruit Soup are what I currently have in mind.  Tonight, my Asian- themed meal plan is as follows:

Megan's Asian Extravaganza

Beverages: Pomegranate Tea

Appetizers: Cilantro Nori Rolls (Kim Bap)

Side Dishes: Spinach Namul (Saag Moo Chim) and Pineapple 'Fried Rice' with curry sauce (Khao Phad Sapparod)

Entree: Rendang Curry

Dessert: Chai Ice Cream

I plan to print out fancy, swirly menus.  :) And I'm going to describe everything in Korean, like Ani Phyo does in her book.  Fun times! Everyone have a spectacular Valentine's Day!



It's February!!

Has anyone but me ever thought about this? Why do we not say it Feh-BRU-ary? Or is it just us Midwest folk that don't do this? I don't know, I'm a small town girl!
Anyways, there *will* be more recipes to come soon, I promise! Life's been crazy busy lately (driving lessons! solo ensemble! algebra! oh my!), but I will get around to it!
For now, here's some pictures of the most amazing raw ice cream cake I have ever made.  I got Heather Pace's (of sweetlyraw.com; check it out, she's amazing!) e-book deal: the Moonie Pie, Ice Cream Cake, and Just Desserts e-books, all raw and vegan, for Christmas!
I've already made orange goji berry moonie pies, which I didn't get a picture of, but I will describe them to you: imagine two rich, chocolately brownie layers, and in between them sandwiched the creamiest, chilled cream, bursting with rich orange flavor and studded with crimson chunks of goji berries. 
Buy. This. Book. 
I substituted maple sugar powder for the agave powder, since I didn't have that, and also pared down quite a lot on the size (though they did keep well in the freezer, covered).  I didn't dip mine in chocolate, either, and made the brownie layer a little differently, resulting in crumblier moonies than Heather's.  However, they were still absolutely amazing, and my family and I enjoyed every bite of them!
However, in our humble opinion, the ice cream cake topped even the moonie pies.  It was called the 'Chocolate Vanilla Caramel Swirl Ice Cream Cake,' I believe, and it was in-cred-ible. 
The food pics:

This is the chocolate ice cream layer, which had little brownie chunks swirled into it (hence the lumps) just as it was setting.  Note: the ice creams seemed a lot less thicker than other raw ice creams I've made, but these were silky and creamy and thickened up beautifully in the freezer (gotta love coconut oil!). 

Here's the finished cake.  It doesn't look nearly as great as it does in real life, due to our bad camera/indoor lighting, but it tastes GOOD.  There's a chocolate layer with swirls of caramel and chocolate sauces on top of it, followed by a vanilla layer, followed by more chocolate and caramel sauce.  It's topped with chocolate covered bananas and raw brownie chunks.  The reason that there are random chocolately blobs on top is my own fault; I put the chocolate on top, thinking I could swirl it in, and then (due to coconut oil) it became super-thick right away.  Oh well, at least the caramel and vanilla layer swirled nicely :)  

Half gone already :(  Everyone in our family agreed that this was a definite keeper.  Incredibly silky smooth, with a rich dark chocolate layer studded with sweet brownie chunks and a lighter vanilla top, interspersed with flavorful caramel and chocolate sauces! Bet you're drooling, right?! :) So, go out and buy Heather Pace's e-book!

Like I said, more to come soon, but until then, have a great weekend! 



A little Christmas fun!

Hey everyone! I have a couple things for you today.  What with last-minute homework assignments before Christmas break and such, I haven't had much time to blog.  So...I have a few things today!
First, near the beginning of the month I made a Chocolate Peanut Butter Buckeye Cake, from the amazingly creative Amie Sue of Nouveau Raw! Here's the link and some pictures if you want to make this recipe.  http://nouveauraw.com/desserts/frozen-chocolate-peanut-butter-buckeye-cake/

I highly recommend it--the chewy crust and the creamy filling with peanut butter is divine! The only edits I made: I didn't want extra chocolate ganache, so I just made half the recipe.  It blended fine but balled up super quickly into a hardened mass--I later realized this was because I used agave straight from the fridge.  Cold agave mixed with liquefied coconut oil instantly makes whatever you are blending solid! So, take your agave out of the fridge a while before making the ganache!



Amie Sue's photographs do it more justice than mine, so head over to her site to check it out, as well as some of her other amazing recipes!




Secondly, yesterday I had a gift exchange with some friends at school.  We all brought desserts as well, and since I didn't want to sit there lonely while everyone chowed down, I made a new creation that all my friends enjoyed (yes!! :) )--Peanut Butter Brownies!

Peanut Butter Brownies (makes enough for a 9x9 pan)
2 cups pecans
2 cups pitted Medjool dates
1/3 plus 2 tbsp. cocoa/cacao powder
2 tbsp. agave
2 heaping tbsp. organic peanut butter

Process the pecans in a food processor to a fine meal.  Add the other ingredients and blend until mostly smooth.  Dump in your pan and press down the brownies evenly.  These make nice, thick brownies, and I unfortunately didn't catch a picture :(  But if you want to make these, I suggest putting some type of raw frosting on top--it would be divine! For lovely frosting recipes you can always jot on over to blogs like 'Gone Raw,' 'Sunny Raw Kitchen' or, of course, 'Nouveau Raw'. 
That said, I have lots of treat-making planned for Christmas.  I'll post pictures and updates when I get the chance! Have a great Christmas, everyone!
Megan

Babycakes success!

Hey everyone! A few days ago I got the much-famed vegan, mostly gluten-and-sugar-free cookbook for desserts and delicacies called Babycakes from the library.  Their bakery in New York City is called Babycakes NYC, and they even have a store in Downtown Disney in Florida! Anyways, I thought that since their recipes are amazingly healthy (no white flour! no refined sugar! nope, not here!), we'd try making them for the family.  The first recipe Mom and I tackled was banana bread.  And boy, was it a-mazing!!

Before I say anything else, I'll give you some pictures.  Half the loaves were plain (pillowly deliciousness!) and half were with chocolate chips for my little sister and dad.  They turned out great!!

Plain.......                                                                     ......and chocolate chip (enjoyed by my little sister)

They were sooo delicious! It was amazing to think that they contained ingredients like garbanzo bean flour, agave, rice milk, coconut oil, xantham gum, and so on! I would highly recommend this recipe...there's no nasty bean aftertaste like in some breads.  I won't recommend this book yet, but we'll be attempting more recipes soon, so I'll let you know the verdict!
For now, here's the recipe:

Ingredients
1 1/2 cups plus 2 tbsp. Bob's Red Mill All Purpose Gluten Free Flour (gotta be Bob's, no sub)
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
3/4 teaspoons xanthan gum
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon cinnamon
1/3 cup oil
2/3 cup agave nectar
1/2 cup rice/almond milk
2 tablespoons of good quality vanilla
1 1/4 cups mashed bananas
Directions
Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Brush your loaf pan with oil and set aside.
In a medium bowl, measure in flour, baking powder, baking soda, xanthan gum, salt, cinnamon and whisk. Add oil, agave nectar, rice milk and vanilla and then mix again. Fold in bananas until nicely distributed.
Pour batter into loaf pan (only halway!) and set in the oven. After 20 minutes, check on the loaf and continue baking until it passes the toothpick test. Remove from oven and cool for 30 minutes.

Enjoy your holiday weekend!

Megan

Chocolate Banana Cake!!

It was one of my best friend's birthdays recently, and I celebrated by making a grand, large-scale cake version of chocolate banana brownies she had tried and loved a few months ago.  Here's some pictures!

I was trying to do a cool design with bananas on the top, but I was running out of ripe banana and it ended up looking a little like someone inebriated had made the design.  Oh well, it tasted great!

The oozing delicious frosting from the side...mmm :)

Yep, it was delicious!!

Here's the recipe:

Chocolate Banana Cake (or brownies):

Cake/brownie layers:

2 cups walnuts

2 cups almonds

2 cups dates

2 medium-large RIPE bananas, peeled

1/2 cup cacao or cocoa powder

2 tbsp. agave or honey or maple syrup

(I know, it's a lot of ingredients.  If you're making brownies, definitely halve the batch--I doubled it so I could have two 9" cake rounds.  If you use a 6" springform pan, you won't need as much.)

Grind the walnuts and almonds as finely as possible in a food processor and transfer to a bowl.  Process the dates, bananas, cacao/cocoa, and agave (don't bother cleaning out the processor) together until they are as smooth as possible (mine still had small chunks of dates, but it's not a big deal once you mix everything together).  Mix the date mixture and nut flours together in the bowl until they're mixed together properly.  Empty half of the cake into a 9" pan (adjust accordingly if using a smaller cake pan) and press down until smooth.  Invert the pan onto a dehydrator sheet.  Repeat with the other half of the dough, and dehydrate both cake rounds at 115 for 2-3 hours, or until firm on the outside.  Carefully flip one round onto a serving tray, frost with frosting, and layer with banana.  Then add the other cake round on top of it, cover with more frosting, and decorate with sliced banana to your heart's content!

Chocolate Banana Frosting

2 ripe bananas

1 tbsp agave

2 tbsp cacao/cocoa powder

A little water to start blender if necessary

Blend all ingredients together, and smother over Chocolate Banana Cake!

This frosting has a thinner texture than some thicker frostings, though it isn't runny.  If you wanted it to be a little thicker, you could add some pitted dates into the blender. 

Enjoy! This cake is rich and delicious.  By the time everyone in my family, plus my friend and some neighbors who came over, had a piece, it was gone.  :) They all loved it! So, enjoy!

Lastly, I just made these this evening.  I made the Peppermint Truffles from Sweet Gratitude, except I didn't use their chocolate coating--I made one of my own.  They WERE very yummy, but they had the texture of a gooey fudge instead of a hard, bitable chocolate.  Whoops! I guess I messed the ratios of coconut oil and agave up, since agave doesn't freeze and coc. oil does. 

Anyways, since my brother hates mint (and bananas! Devil child!) I made some of the chocolates without mint.  But...that was a few days ago.  I reminded him multiple times, in my defense, and I thought he didn't want them anymore. 

So I ate them.  :/

Which got me in hot water with my brother.  Apparently he still wanted them.  So, to make up for it, I made a couple chocolate peanut butter cups!

When they were taken out of the freezer, my family quickly demolished them.  What can I say...we're all nuts fors peanut butter!

I'm quite proud of this recipe, though--the chocolates hardened beautifully and quickly in the freezer.  :) Here's the recipe!

Chocolate Peanut Butter Cups (almost raw)

1/4 cup plus 1 tbsp coconut oil

2 tbsp agave

2 tbsp peanut butter (try to get organic, no-ingredients-except-peanuts peanut butter)

1 tbsp. plus 1 heaping tbsp. cacao/cocoa powder

1 drop stevia extract (opt.)

Blend all together in a blender.  Make sure to do it quickly, as you don't want the chocolate to harden (coc. oil/agave reaction) before you can get it poured.  Pour the chocolate into your cups (I used a metal mini muffin tray, without paper cups) and place in the freezer.  Freeze for at least 20 minutes, and pop out of the trays.  These have a delicious chocolate flavor with an overtone of peanut butter, and delicately melt in your mouth! Enjoy!

Well, everyone, I'll post some Thanksgiving favorites of mine soon.  Until then, have a fabulous week!

Megan

A raw food talk, an interview, and a little something to make you laugh!

Hi everyone! Firstly, I wanted to share this amazing video of Kristin Chenoweth singing "If You Hadn't, But You Did." It's exactly the sort of musical theater song I'd love to sing someday--just watch it and you'll understand; it's hilarious! Here's the link--http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e-gume4RcNU&feature=related.  The voice/video syncing is a little off (side effect of Youtube), but it's great nonetheless.  Gotta love Kristin Chenoweth!
Next, I talked last time about my interview with the paper. Here's the article--http://www.riponpress.com/main.asp?ArticleID=3443&SectionID=2&SubSectionID=20&PollID=204#PollSection  I actually made the front page of the local paper--*gulp--which I didn't expect! We have a four-day weekend, and I'm kind of glad.  Hopefully this means I won't have the whole school asking  'Is that the crazy girl on the freak diet? What IS she eating now??'  Lol, that's how a lot of students react when they hear about it--like I purposely torture myself with terrible food so I can be healthy.  It's not like I've committed to being a nun or anything! :) You can have amazing, lovely desserts on raw food--and that brings me to the next thing. 
I'm doing a raw food talk tonight for a lady I know from church.  This summer I did a raw talk/recipe demonstration at the library, and she came.  She requested the brownies with ice cream for tonight! :) I happily obliged.  She has a group that meets every week.  I'm kind of nervous about talking in front of a ton of people I don't know, but it's not that different from an audition, and when it gets to applying for college I'm going to have to do lots of those!
So, here's the recipe for the brownies with ice cream.  I don't have pictures yet, but I promise to post them next time.  The thing I love about this recipe is it only has four ingredients, and is super easy to prepare as long as you have the bananas frozen ahead of time.  (By the way, DON'T freeze bananas in the skins.  Please.  It really...doesn't...work.  Trust me, I know from experience.) They're absolutely delicious and will definitely win over most people to the decadence of raw desserts in their simplest form!

Raw Chocolate Brownies

2 cups raw walnuts
1 cup raw Medjool dates, pitted
1/4 cup cacao/cocoa powder

Grind the walnuts into a powder in the food processor, and then grind about half a minute more, till some of the walnut flour is sticking to the side.   Add the dates and cacao and process until it is mostly smooth and the mixture sticks together.  Put it in a brownie pan or form it into brownies if you make a smaller batch.  If you want them to be a little stiffer, you can store them in the fridge. 

Ice Cream (nut free)

4-5 frozen bananas, broken into chunks and allowed to thaw for 15-20 minutes
Optional: mix-ins such as chopped nuts, cacao powder, fruit (strawberries are great for a strawberry banana ice cream), chocolate chips, etc.

Put the frozen bananas in your food processor (don't bother cleaning it out).  Make sure there are enough to cover your food processor blades.  Add your mix-ins if you have any, and process.  It will take a minute or two, and you'll have to occasionally stop to scrape down the sides.
There you have it! Top your brownies with banana ice cream and serve.  A very versatile, simple recipe!

Have a great day, everyone!
Megan

Zucchini pasta and an interview!

So, I'm super excited because I just got a call from our local newspaper and they want to interview me about my diet! *gulp* It's kind of nerve wracking, but I'm excited! They're going to come and take pictures of me making my supper tomorrow night.  I'm thinking I'm going to make a green smoothie, like I always do for supper, and then have a dessert so there's something a little fancier...I'm leaning towards a chocolate orange cheesecake I made a few weeks ago on our homecoming dance night.  A friend, my mom and I went out to eat and came back to eat cheesecake and watch movies :) I think that sounds way more fun than a high school dance, but that's just me! :)

Anyways, onto the grub...a couple nights ago my family had spaghetti.  My mom's partially raw--she eats a lot of raw food, but will often eat cooked food that she makes for the familt.  However, any type of gluten (i.e. white flour) or sugar will give a headache nearly as soon as she eats it, so she prefers zucchini pasta instead of normal pasta.  It's made with a funky little tool called a spiralizer.  Doesn't it look super similar to normal noodles? :D

For whatever reason, the picture's posting sideways and I can't get it to flip the right way.  Oh well!

Next, I had made carob fudge and completely forgotten to post this picture.  I can't remember where I found the recipe, but I did tweak it a LOT, so props to whoever originated it!

 Raw Carob Fudge

1/2 cup almond butter (you can use roasted, but obviously it won't be raw.  Depending on the almond butter you get, roasted is often creamier.  My fudge has more of a gritty texture because I use Maranatha Raw
almond butter, and it isn't ground finely. Other raw almond butters might be smoother though.)

1/4 cup agave syrup/nectar (can sub maple syrup, but isn't raw)

5-6 drops liquid stevia **if you don't have liquid stevia, just omit it and use a little less than 1/2 cup agave

2 tbsp. carob powder, sifted

2 tbsp mesquite powder, sifted (mesquite is what really gives it its flavor, but if you want you can substitute more carob)

Stir all together in a bowl! If you use the 1/2 cup of agave, your fudge will be a little gooier than if you use the stevia option.  This fudge is best kept chilled in the fridge or freezer, as it gets an awesomely fudgelike texture when cold.  Enjoy! 

Lastly, I'll provide you all with a link to the cheesecake I'm going to make.  It's orange chocolate, and from the amazing Susan of Rawmazing, where you can always find absolutely delicious recipes! The link is: http://www.rawmazing.com/raw-orange-chocolate-cheesecake/
I keep the filling the same, but change the crust.  For my crust, I use: 2 cups walnuts, 1 cup dates, 1/4 cup cacao/cocoa powder.                         

Sooo...that's all for now.  I'll update later on how the interview went! Everyone enjoy your Friday! 

Megan               

Hey everyone!

Hey everyone! This is my new blog, Teenage Girl on Raw, and my name's Megan Sperger.  I am 16 and have been eating the raw food diet for about one and a half years now, and my dad's been pestering me about starting a blog.  It sounded fun, so...I did! :) I love making and creating raw food dishes, and also love singing, acting, reading, writing...all that artsy stuff.  I'll be posting recipes, recommendations for other people's recipes, etc.  So, figured I start out with my first recipe--a delicious green smoothie I made the other day! Gotta love your green smoothies! I bring one to youth group every Wednesday night since they're so quick and easy, and every time someone new comes I have to explain what my 'green sludge' is all over again.  :) But I don't mind...I adore my green smoothies, and I personally think they're gorgeous!

Peachy Tropics Green Smoothie

2 cups fresh or frozen peach slices (if frozen, try to use ones you've frozen yourself from their summer season.  I have yet to find flavorful store-bought frozen peaches!)

1 cup frozen mango

1/2 cup pineapple chunks

2-3 cups kale

Blend together in your blender...or VitaMix (so excited when Mom finally caved and got one, since we blend stuff all the time!! My family isn't raw, but they will eat my food and eat a reasonable percentage of raw foods.) and enjoy! 

I also made an awesome parfait, adapted from one in Ani Phyo's dessert book--an almond-raspberry parfait.  It features her almond frangipane kream layered with raspberry sauce and fresh berries.  I made this for my whole family for breakfast once and they adored it.  I make it a lot--it's quick to put together, especially if you forgo the berries, which I generally do as well.  Mine wasn't very pretty--the kream was fairly grainy, which may be because it's an almond-based kream, not cashew, but it was probably because I didn't blend it very long.  I also didn't have a very big parfait glass, so I really packed it in, and still had enough of the sauce and kream to make another one if I wanted. 

Yummy! Have a great day!

Megan Sperger