Happy Friday!!! I can’t believe that NYE is upon us. Time, as they say, flies.

All morning, I did the annoying thing where I excitedly tweeted about an “awesome” recipe and then refused to say what it was. I should make a point of not doing this, because when I do, the pressure to deliver something fabulous is really high. The recipe in question—a chocolate avocado sauce and matching breakfast salad—is really one of the simpler things I’ve made in a while. But I know my readers, and something tells me that you guys love my more simple and sweet recipes. In that spirit, I hope you’ll love what I have to share today.

This recipe is of course a spin on my famous chocomole, which many of you have tried and loved. The avocado and chocolate combination never fails to raise eyebrows, but fortunately it also never fails to win people over. I have made my regular chocomole, my mexican spiced chocomole, and my sweet potato and chocomole for countless friends (including Melissa) and the reviews are always two thumbs way up.

Why, then, not turn this classic raw foodie favorite into a sauce?

Today, I woke up craving something on the green side. But it was too cold for a green smoothie, and to be honest, I prefer to chew my greens than to puree them. I’ve always enjoyed breakfast salads, but this is the first one I’ve thought to post about. If you guys dig it, it may be the first of many.

The salad itself is about 4 cups romaine and 1 banana. To be clear, you can use any kind of favorite fruit in this recipe. Banana is my personal favorite, so that’s what I did, but mango and apple would also be great. So would fresh berries! The possibilities are endless. But no matter what you do, don’t forget the chocolate.

Chocolate Avocado Sauce (raw, vegan, gluten free, soy free)

Makes about 1 1/2 cups

1 small avocado
1/4 cup cocoa powder (I use raw cacao powder from Navitas naturals)
3/4 cup water
1 tbsp almond butter
1/4 cup agave syrup
Dash salt
Stevia to taste
1 tsp vanilla (optional)

Blend all ingredients in a high speed blender till smooth. Add stevia to taste: I prefer making this recipe less sweet, but you should follow your tastebuds. The reason I use a stevia/agave mix is that I find pure stevia to be rather bitter, while all agave can get a little too sugary. Using a mix is a nice way to balance it out, but you can certainly use all of one or the other depending on your needs. Date paste would work well, too!

Now, breakfasts salads are all well and good, but if you’re like me, you may find that banana+avo+greens is not quite filling enough. For that reason, feel free to add nuts, to serve it with some toast, or to sprinkle it with granola, as I did! Low fat apple cinnamon raisin graw-nola, to be precise:

That’s fruit, nutrient rich buckwheat, healthy polyunsaturated fats from avocado, and a whole bowl of greens, all before 9 am. Breakfast salads are revolutionary!

Speaking of salad, I had the pleasure of sharing lunch with one of my dearest blogger friends yesterday. JL, whom I met for the first time at Vida Vegan Con, and I met at Pure Food and Wine for a scrumptious raw lunch. It has been so long since I had the pleasure of dining there, and I was so excited!

I began with a “thai greens”—cilantro, pineapple, cucumber, and celery.

Next came appetizers. The original plan was to split one: the raw nori rolls, which contain jicama rice, avocado, and mirin soaked mushrooms (quite possibly my favorite Pure dish). So that happened.

But who were JL and I kidding? One appetizer? I think not. A caesar salad was in order, too:

The Pure caesar is a thing of beauty: delicious raw parm, a tangy, lemony dressing, and crisp nori strips. I love it.

For my entrée, I got a “make your own” salad with beets, carrots, cucumbers, dulse, tomato, avocado, jicama, basil, and the restaurant’s famous rosemary “quackers.” I always feel a little bad ordering salad at Pure, but salad’s my favorite thing, and no one does it better than they do. Finest and most giant salads around. Just look at my mountain:

JL got a little more creative, and went with the fantastic raw hemp burger:

You can always count on Pure for fantastic food and exquisite presentation. Sarma, we thank you!!!

JL is truly one of my favorite people: so wise, so whip smart, so generous in every way. She is the embodiment of warmth. I cherish my time with her, and can’t wait for our next hang.

Before I go: thanks for the good feedback yesterday. I’m glad that many of you found the Tara Parker-Pope article interesting. I think it certainly has implications for the ED-recovered: as I’m sure a great many of you have experienced the consequences of metabolic adjustment from weight loss, and if you have, you know that they can feel terribly frustrating, and compound the fear of food, as my friend Elizabeth aptly remarked today. With all of that said, I want to also point out that it is possible for even a temporarily “injured” metabolism to become balanced again: certainly I’m living proof of that. And if you are contemplating necessary weight loss this year (that is, if you need to lose weight for health reasons), you can rest assured that many people do manage to successfully lose enormous amounts of weight, and maintain it. And the vegan and raw communities are particularly full of such stories.

xo

Happy Thanksgiving, to all of my US readers!! I hope you are having lovely holidays thus far. Thank you to everyone who commented on my two versions of vegan stuffing; the leftovers of both batches are safely tucked into my freezer, and I can’t wait to devour them next week.

Since last night was my true Thanksgiving feast (and what a feast it was—wonderful food and the company of family), I woke up this morning with no schoolwork, no classes, and, most importantly, no cooking to do! I adore making holiday food, but two days straight in my kitchen were a little exhausting. Rather than turning on the oven, dehydrator, or stovetop, I set about making a cool, sweet, and simple smoothies. Much to much surprise, I was out of berries (this is an unusual event in my house). But I did have frozen, organic peaches that I’d gotten in case Thanksgiving called for peach pie in addition to the many, many varieties of pumpkin pie I’ve been laboring over. It didn’t, and so the peaches have been neglected. This was the moment to fix that.

This smoothie is a winner. Mellow, creamy, and a very easy way to get some greens into your diet. I find that green smoothies work best with sweeter fruits, and so the banana and peach in this recipe is quite ideal. The hemp protein and milk can all be varied, of course, according to your tastes.

Peaches n Green Smoothie (raw, vegan, gluten and soy free)

Serves 1

1/2 frozen banana
1 cup frozen peaches
1-2 ice cubes
3/4 cup tahini milk (or any nut/seed milk you like)
2 large leaves kurly kale
2 tbsp hemp protein
1 pitted date or 2 drops stevia (optional)

Blend all ingredients in a high speed blender till smooth, using the tamper to keep things moving. If you use regular almond milk in place of the tahini milk, you may want to add a tablespoon of hemp seeds or nut butter for creaminess.

What a wonderful way to infuse your Thanksgiving with a little green!

Now, if your family is like many families, you may have guests or other family members spending the night this Thanksgiving eve. Which means you’ll be waking up to company. Why not treat them to any number of quick, easy, and delicious vegan breakfasts? Thanksgiving week is a week of indulgence, and rightly so, but there’s no reason not to meet it with equal parts nutrition and taste.

1) Sugar Plum Muffins

2) Classic Tofu Scramble

3) Green “Eggs” and Hmmmm

4) Banana Carmel Bread Pudding

5) Chocolate and Zucchini Smoothie

6) Classic Blueberry Pancakes

7) Vegan French Toast

Zucchini Date Muffins

9) Banana, Oat, and Chia Seed Muffins

10) Chia Power Pudding

Before I go, I was just reading over my “I Am Thankful” post from a few Thanksgivings ago. My, was it touching! My life has changed so dramatically in such a short period of time, but I can say for certain that everything I was grateful for then, I’m grateful for now.

Happy T-Giving, folks!

xo

Happy Monday, folks. I’m glad you enjoyed my recap of Elizabeth’s Gone Raw!

Switching from raw food to cooked, I thought I would share one of my favorite ingredients today: date paste, and the fabulous vegan banana caramel bread pudding I recently used it in.

There’s so much to-do about sweeteners these days: first came the allegation that agave is identical to high fructose corn syrup (which I responded to over at Whole Living magazine). Nowadays, it seems as though many health experts are claiming that any type of sugar—regardless of the source—is akin to heroin.

I’m the first to say that most Americans consume sugar in a gross excess, and I agree with the basic claims (too much sugar cause blood sugar highs and lows that compel people to overeat, shift moods, lose energy, and so on). Additionally, I realize that some people have health conditions that demand a low-glycemic diet (ranging from diabetes to candida to cancer), and that some people find sugar so appetite-stimulating that it’s best to avoid it for the most part. But I think alarmist to say that all sugar is devilish for all people. For many folks—athletes in particular—simple sugars from fruit, dates, and coconut water are vital “first source” of energy. And for nearly all of us, life is richer and fuller with the occasional sweet treat.

Naturally, if you eat enormous amounts of sugar without performing the activities that it is designed to fuel, you’ll run into a problem. But no one’s claiming that eating sugar immoderately and in the absence of movement is a good idea. Moderation matters. So, too, does the source of sugar. From a biological standpoint, there are good arguments to be made that a sugar is a sugar is a sugar—in other words, most sweeteners will have broadly similar effects on the bloodstream—but there are also legitimate nuances. Some studies indicate that glucose and fructose are metabolized differently, and that the latter has a higher impact on diabetes.

Beyond that, the simple fact of the matter is that white sugar (which isn’t vegan) tends to pop up in foods that are problematic for a host of other reasons, such as the presence of highly refined flours and processed ingredients. And most of the processed snacks and drinks that contain white sugar and HFCS happen to contain them in staggeringly high quantities. Using agave syrup, maple syrup, and palm sugar (also known as coconut sugar, this stuff is a favorite of mine) will probably afford you at least some glycemic benefits, and more importantly, if you’re eating a cereal, snack, or beverage that contains agave nectar instead of white sugar, chances are it’s at least marginally healthier than the alternative. So, take heart: you needn’t suddenly abandon the healthier sugars you’ve come to rely on. You simply have to remember that they’re still sugars.

If you are particularly sensitive to sugar that has undergone any processing, I might have a solution for you. Date paste—a fairly standard ingredient in raw recipes—has long been one of my favorite ways to sweeten dressings, baked goods, smoothies, and other treats. I rarely post recipes with it, because it’s a little more time-intensive than, say, agave and maple syrup. But the benefits are really worth it. What is troubling about so many sweeteners is that they offer blood sugar rises without any attendant nutritional benefits. Dates are rich in fiber (which can slow blood sugar spikes down), and they’re also good sources of potassium, iron, numerous antioxidants, and Vitamin-A. Date paste is therefore not an “empty” sweetener: it’s sweet, but it contains a lot of good stuff along with the sugar.

To make date paste, you simply have to pour 2/3 cup hot water over a cup of pitted medjool dates. Let them soak for about an hour, and then blend them well using a Vitamix or food processor. You’ll end up with a thick, dark paste that’s ready to be used in smoothies, snacks, and baking adventures of all kinds. The flavor will be distinctly “caramel-like,” and so will the taste. You can store it in the fridge for at least a week.

So what better use for it than a banana caramel bread pudding—the healthier way?

Banana Caramel Bread Pudding (vegan, can be GF, soy free)

Serves 4

2 large, ripe bananas (or 3 small)
1/2 cup date paste, packed
3/4 cup nut milk or law fat coconut milk
2 tsp cinnamon
8 slices Ezekiel cinnamon raisin bread, cubed
1/2 cup FULL fat coconut milk

4 ramekins for baking

1) Preheat oven to 375. Place bread cubes in large mixing bowl.

2) Blend bananas, date paste, milk, and cinnamon till smooth. Pour over bread and mix well.

3) Divide the soaked bread evenly into four ramekins. Pour 2 tbsp of the full fat coconut milk over the top of each.

Bake for 30 minutes, or until the bread looks golden and caramelized. Like so.

These make for a fantastic dessert, of course, but the Ezekiel bread is so packed with protein and fiber that I’d say you can turn them into breakfast on a very special occasion, too.

They are exceptionally delicious no matter what.

A word here about Ezekiel (aka Food for Life) breads: these are made only with sprouted whole grains—no refined flour—and they are therefore my wholesome bread of choice. (They also happen to taste fantastic, and come in tons of different flavors and shapes.) Feel free, though, to use a bread of your choosing—I’ll try to help you all out with a GF version soon!

I hope this post is inspiration to try date paste as a sweetening alternative, and motivation to upgrade your bread pudding. I love making sweet things just a little more wholesome, and recipes like this showcase that love.

xo

Banana, oat, and chia seed muffins: could any baking recipe sound healthier from the get go?

There are baking recipes designed purely to tickle the senses: my brown sugar plum muffins fall into that category, I think. And then there are the baking recipes that seek to deliver something that’s tasty, sweet, and fragrant enough to remind you of your grandmother’s apron, or the smell of your childhood home during the holidays, but which serve a healthy purpose (my zucchini date muffins are a little more like that—hey, at least they have green veg in them!—and my buckwheat quinoa pancakes certainly are, too). These muffins, like most of my baked goods, fit into the latter camp. They’re baked goods, yes, but I really intended for them to offer up as much nutrition as they do good taste.

For that reason, the texture of these little breakfast bites isn’t quite as airy (cake-like, as I like to say) as some other muffins: they are dense, they are chewy, and they are dotted with chia seeds. These qualities might deter more mainstream eaters, so this may not be the recipe you bring to a potluck, choir rehearsal, dinner party, brunch, or office kitchenette. But it’s definitely the recipe you’ll want to share with likeminded healthy eaters, or simply with anyone who’s got an open-minded definition of what “muffin” means.

And if you happen to like a heartier muffin, this recipe is definitely for you. I purposefully used whole wheat flour, rather than whole wheat pastry flour; I know the latter is much beloved because it creates light textures, but I actually like the density of regular old whole wheat flour, especially in bran or oat muffins. You can use WW pastry flour if you like it, or, if you’re a GF eater, go ahead and sub a GF mix.

Banana, Oat, and Chia Seed Muffins (vegan, can be made gluten free, soy free)

Serves 12

2 tbsp flax seed meal
2 cups whole wheat flour
1 cup rolled oats
1.5 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1 heaping tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp dried ginger
3 ripe bananas
1 1/4 cups almond milk
1/3 cup coconut oil or coconut butter
1 cup demerara sugar or 2/3 cup agave or maple syrup
1 tsp vanilla
3 tbsp chia seeds

1) Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

2) Mix the flax meal with about 3-4 tablespoons of hot water. Set it aside.

3) Combine the oats, WW flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, and ginger in a large mixing bowl. Set aside.

4) In a blender or food processor, blend the bananas, almond milk, coconut oil or butter, sugar or agave or syrup, and vanilla till smooth. Pour into the dry ingredients, along with the flax mixture. Stir till everything is just incorporated. Stir in chia seeds, being careful not to overmix.

5) Add about 1/4 cup (or just over) to each muffin well in a 12-muffin baking dish. Sprinkle the tops with extra rolled oats, and bake for about 25 minutes (or until muffins are browning and a toothpick comes out clean). Enjoy with fresh autumn apples, pears, some of my pumpkin pie pudding, or any other autumnal treat!

They also make fantastic grab-n-go snacks for long days on campus, fellow students. Or long days at the office, working folk!

All of the whole grains, plus the chia seeds, render these muffins high in fiber, healthy fat, and protein, so they’re a great way to start your day. The coconut oil/butter as a fat source is nutritionally superior to Earth Balance, and some evidence suggests that the lauric acid in coconut fat—a medium-chain fatty acid—has potent health properties.

Also, banana and cinnamon taste like a small piece of heaven together. Do you need more convincing?

I love nothing more than to invest quick and comforting breakfast foods with special health properties. I hope you will, too.

See you back here tomorrow!

xo

Every now and then, I treat you guys to a little meltdown post. They’re fun, right? The last one might have been when I got my first semester grades back. Or there was the one right before I dropped physics lab, which I wrote right after a good tear fest on the phone with my mother. My personal favorite is the one about breaking down on the phone with Time Warner, which graced the pages of this blog last summer.

Yeah. Bad weeks happen.

Glancing back over this week’s blog posts, I realize that my tone has been determinately optimistic. My lessons from DC post was nothing if not glass-is-half full, and I was all about counting my blessings in my recap of lunch with Kathy. These sentiments have all been honest, but this has also been a rocky week for me otherwise, and it culminated last night with the stuff that usually tips me over the edge: tech breakdowns. Thanks to a walloping summer storm, there was a blackout on my block, which meant no power, no light, no internet…and things melting in my freezer. Meanwhile, I was about to start editing photos when I realized that the memory card that I thought had been in my camera for a week had in fact been sitting on my bookshelf. So that’s a week’s worth of tasty food photos, lost to the sands of time.

Ah well. This move to DC has taught me nothing if not resilience. And so I decided to make the best of things today by focusing on the good stuff, which includes, but is not limited to:

• My neighbors, Anne and Ben, who called me mid-blackout and invited me to Tryst with them for some study time and some free outlets. Anne, a nursing student, dug into her studies as I dug into mine, while Ben, a freelance editor, read some Sense and Sensibility. My kind of peeps.
• My cousin and I saw Incendies yesterday. Classical tragedy at its finest. Things could always be worse.
• I’ll be in NYC in about three days
• Coffee with Valerie this morning!
• Speaking of Valerie, and the juice pulp she always donates to me, I combined a few of my favorite things into a single smoothie this morning: banana, carrot/celery/apple pulp, mesquite, lucuma, freshly made cashew milk. It was an outstanding and fiber-rich breakfast, and here’s the recipe:

High Fiber Carrot and Banana Smoothie (raw, vegan, gluten and soy free)

Serves 1

1 banana, frozen
1 heaping up carrot, celery, and apple pulp (other sorts of juice pulp will work here, but I love the carrot in particular)
1 tsp mesquite
1 tbsp lucuma
1 tbsp hemp seeds
3/4 cup cashew, almond, or other non-dairy milk
1 tsp cinnamon

1) Blend on high till creamy and smooth. Try not to use too much liquid, as this smoothie benefits from being really thick. Just check out the texture here:

A few additional notes about this delightful treat:

First, the lucuma and mesquite are totally optional. I was lucky enough to get a little care package from my friends at Navitas recently, which meant having some superfood to spare, but the smoothie will be good without them. If you do have them, use them, because they’ll all a smoky, vanilla-like flavor that’s irresistible.

Second, part of why this smoothie works so nicely is that I used frozen juice pulp. For those of you who juice on the reg but can’t possibly use all your veggie pulp fast enough, try freezing in marked ziplock bags. And then, if you do want to use them in a smoothie, it’s as good for texture as using pre-frozen fruit.

Third, carrot and banana are a wonderful combination, but this isn’t the only way to make it happen. Try using carrot juice rather than almond milk as a smoothie base, or using whole, chopped carrot (if you have a VitaMix). Always wonderful results!

Finally, what a wonderful reminder this smoothie is of how delicious, economical, and healthy it is to eat raw! I always get a kick out of conserving my juice pulp to add fiber to other dishes, and I especially love the combination of that and homemade nut milk. It’s what I always say to folks about eating raw: forget enzymes. Raw foods give me joy because they connect me to the building blocks of food. They strip away a lot of the artifice that we pile upon our ingredients, and remind us where our food comes from. And they also remind us—lest we forget—that nature’s bounty tastes pretty good just the way it is.

Wow: this post ended up being more optimistic than I anticipated. The therapeutic effects of blogging, I suppose! Sorry for the gloomy start, guys, but thanks for always listening when I need to talk myself out of a funk.

Happy J4 to my American readers, and see you guys back here tomorrow!

xo

It’s Friday! Phew—this week felt pretty long, and in spite of that I keep having to remind myself that my more intensive coursework hasn’t even begun yet. I wonder what Juy will be like?

For the last few weeks, you’ve all patiently listened to me speculate on how I can find a breakfast option that’s super filling (has to hold me from 8 or 9 am to 3 pm, often with a workout squeezed in) but also not too hot in these summer temperatures. Smoothies, no matter how voluminous or full of fat and protein, tend not to sate me entirely (this may very well be a texture thing: I didn’t chew, so I don’t feel “full”). So I’ve been opting for big chia puddings—most recently my very berry chia hemp pudding—and also for overnight chia+grain concoctions (like my superfoods breakfast bowl). I plan on experimenting with some healthy vegan pancakes, and I even came up with at least one baked good (my blueberry oat bars) that managed not to feel like air, and tide me over for a few hours.

Right before I left for DC, I made a raw, vegan granola recipe that was truly the best I’d ever attempted (maybe one of the best I’ve eaten, too). I haven’t made any more since I got here, and I keep saying I will. Last Saturday, as I prepared for a day of hiking in Virginia, I was struck by a strong hankering for raw granola (“rawnola,” to use the parlance), but realized that I didn’t have time to dehydrate a batch of my new favorite mixture. Instead, I decided to throw together a “cheater’s” bowl of buckwheat, sunflower seeds, hemp, spices, and raisins, and to top it all off with fruit and some homemade almond milk. It had the same effect as real granola, and it tasted almost as good (though not as sweet). I figured I’d share the recipe with you all, since I know I have a lot of busy readers without time (or dehydrators) to spare.

Dehydrated or baked granola is wonderful, and I won’t be supplanting all of my granola cravings with this little slapdash method. But it’s a fast, easy solution to the question of “what can I eat for breakfast that’s filling, nutrient dense, fast, and easy?” Enjoy it.

Raw, Vegan “Cheater’s” Granola (raw, vegan, gluten and soy free)

Serves 1 Hungry Person

1/2 cup dehydrated buckwheat (follow my method in this post)
2 tbsp sunflower seeds (raw or roasted)
1 tbsp hemp seeds
2 tbsp raisins, dried cranberries, or dried currants
1 tbsp cacao nibs
1 tsp cinnamon
1 medium banana, chopped
1/3 cup blueberries
Almond milk

1) Mix the buckwheat, sunflower seeds, hemp seeds, raisins, and cacao nibs in a bowl with a tsp of cinnamon.

2) Place your banana and berries in a bowl. Pour the cheater’s granola over them, and then soak it all in almond milk.

3) Dig in.

I’d say this bowl is good for one person with a big appetite or a busy schedule, and good for two people as an afternoon snack. Could it get any quicker or easier? Check out how nice and messy it gets after you mix it all up:

Yum.

For the record, that is indeed a Zabar’s cup you see up there. The Upper West Side travels with me.

Coming Out As a Blogger

So, my funny experience of the week was learning that a few of my fellow post-baccs have now read my blog, or at least looked at it. This is because I told them about it, so I guess I shouldn’t feel odd, but it’s also always a shock (albeit a flattering shock) to realize that people actually care. I’m right now involved with a very special group of post-baccs as a research associate (this means we’ll all be doing research work together at Georgetown Hospital, and possibly weaving some of our findings into a real study), and my first reaction to watching them pull up my URL on their iPhones or tell me in class that they’d checked the blog out was to feel unworthy of their interest. But when a fellow RA (who had just been asking lots of questions about veganism and how it works) exclaimed “those look awesome!” to my black bean enchiladas, I felt really happy.

It’s funny: I think my blog voice is pretty representative of who I am, minus a few f-bombs and some snarkiness that I try to confine to my waking life. But I always wonder how my blog voice matches my real-life persona to the people who meet me outside of the blog. Do my fellow post-bacc students see me in my blog? I’m don’t know. I guess I hope they do, because I try to pour the best of myself into what I write here each day.

Fellow bloggers, how do you feel about sharing your blog with people in your life who don’t really connect to it—coworkers, for instance, or distant family? Does it feel strange? How closely do you think your blog represents you? Is it a side of yourself that you actually reserve for the cyber-world, or is it very much an accurate portrait of your everyday persona?

I find this fascinating!

Happy wkd…

xo

Hey all!

I’m absolutely loving the comments from last night’s post, and in fact I’m hesitant to write much today for fear that the conversation will stop. If you haven’t yet, please offer up your thoughts on being mostly vegan, or not. I’d love to hear from you.

I fear that the following is going to sound like an opening monologue from “Grey’s Anatomy,” but hear me out for a moment:

When we’re little, we accumulate bruises. We’re rough and tumble and unafraid, and as a result, we fall down and get black and blue all over, as the fairy tales say. As grown ups, we bruise just as easily, but not because of accidents: instead, our bruises take the form of hurt feelings, professional disappointments, and knocks to our ego. Our bruises are the promotions we didn’t get, the business plans that fell through, the arguments with our friends that cut to the quick. We may have taught ourselves to stop falling out of trees and scraping our knees and crashing our tricycles, but we’re no less prone to tender spots. Even if we have a hard time admitting to them.

So maybe I got my term grades yesterday. And maybe they weren’t what I’d hoped for—not after a semester’s worth of all nighters and tutoring and homeworks that took me four hours apiece. Maybe I’ve always attached a lot of importance—too much importance—to my academic performance. Maybe one of my biggest flaws is that I’m prone to measuring my worth in grades, or in professional accomplishments, or by my resume, which is a fairly simplistic way of looking at things.

And maybe, as I sat down to breakfast yesterday morning, I felt a little black and blue all over: insecure, angry at myself, aware that I was being irrational and yet also undeniably and profoundly upset. Maybe I knew in my heart that my performance, given the steep learning curve of returning to school after a long hiatus, was actually fine. Maybe I knew that I’ll have to adjust my ego and expectations if I’m to thrive in this program, and re-learn how to learn, as it were. Maybe I knew that it’s about time I hitched at least a chunk of my self-acceptance to something that’s not a letter grade.

And maybe I soothed the bruise with an appropriately themed smoothie

Black and Blue Smoothie (raw, vegan, GF and soy free)

Serves 1

1 frozen banana
1 cup mixed blueberries and blackberries
4 ice cubes
3/4 cup almond milk
3 tbsp cacao nibs
1 tbsp hemp protein powder

Instructions: Blend.

It’s tempting, no matter how old and wise we become, to nurse our wounds for too long. I don’t feel altogether better today, but moping around does me no good, and, given how much of a transition I’ve made this year, I’m actually lucky to have what I have: determination, patient and supportive friends, and a very fun bon voyage party to attend in about five minutes. Not to mention a newly repaired VitaMix.

The bruises will heal fast.

Till tomorrow,

xo

When life gives you reading weeks, give it pancakes. At least that’s what I say.

Raw, vegan, banana pancakes to be exact.

This recipe feels like a small triumph to me, because I’ve been searching for a raw, vegan pancake recipe that I like for a long, long time. My first experiment was with Ani Phyo’s raw flax and coconut oil pancakes (from her first book), which were delicious, but frankly much too heavy for me. I like staying full after breakfast, but not 8 hours worth of full—what about lunch!?

My next experiment was a simple mix of banana and flax. This seemed right for me—banana is my favorite breakfast fruit, the ingredient list was short, the process was easy—but what I ended up with was closer to a fruit leather than a pancake. (You may remember it. I renamed it a “crepe” and posted the recipe about a year ago. Now you know.) I was disheartened: the only other pancake recipes I found sounded a lot like raw bread, and I really did want something that was hearty, but light and thin the way pancakes ought to be.

I think I’ve found it—or at least, I’m one step closer. These banana pancakes are a good in-between: they’re filling and dense, but they also have a pliable texture. And they make a lovely presentation.

Best of all, they are ridiculously, totally, embarrassingly easy! If you ignore the dehydration time, these guys are really a lot easier than normal pancakes. And when you’re trying to figure out molecular orbital theory, easy is much appreciated.

Raw, Vegan Banana Pancakes (raw, vegan, gluten and soy free)

Serves 1 (about 4-5 pancakes)

1 large banana
1/4 cup raw buckwheat flour (make this by grinding up dehydrated buckwheat groats, OR use a store-bought buckwheat flour)
2 tbsp flax meal
1 tsp cinnamon
1/4 cup almond milk

1) Blend all ingredients together in a blender or food processor. The mix should be similar to regular pancake mix; if you need more almond milk, go ahead and add it.

2) Pour in 1/4 cup spoonfuls onto a Teflex lined dehydrator tray. You should get about 5 pancakes.

3) Dehydrate at 115 degrees for about 2 and a half hours. Flip the pancakes (use a spatula or inverted spatula) and dehydrate for another two and a half. It’s *very* important not to over-dehydrate here, so check the pancakes often. If you let them go too long, you’ll end up with banana flax crackers. And while those will be scrumptious, they won’t exactly be pancakes.

4) Serve with fresh berries!

A lot of you are probably experimenting with more raw foods now that summer’s on the way, and that’s great. I know that one of the bigger challenges for the newly raw can be adjusting to cool breakfasts—it’s easy to get tired of smoothies, which don’t always offer much in the way of satiety and texture. If you’re exploring more raw breakfast options, I really suggest giving these guys a try! They’re delicious and oh-so-quick.

And if you’re not in the mood for pancakes, check out this post from the archive on some of my top breakfast ideas.

Happy Friday!

xo

Happy weekend! Before I share my scrumptious new recipe for ancient grain banana breakfast bread, a big thank you for your warm responses to my interview with Daphne and Cassie! These ladies are the new face of vegan entrepreneurship, and I’m so proud of them.

As I’ve mentioned before, I have a little Friday/Saturday ritual every other weekend. As M makes his way to NYC, I like to bake a little something for him. Usually it’s muffins, but this week, with a bunch of browning bananas on my hands, I decided to make him a loaf of banana bread. And since I’ve been playing around with quinoa flakes lately, I thought this would be a perfect chance to test how well they stand up in baked goods.

I wasn’t disappointed! In place of the usual flour, I used a 2:1 ratio of quinoa flakes and millet flour, which I’d made my grinding up whole, dry millet in my VitaMix. The result is a breakfast bread that’s moist and delicious, but based entirely on whole, ancient grains, rather than refined flours. Score!

Could you use regular flour in this recipe, and still have terrific results? Absolutely! In fact, my “template” for this breakfast bread was the same vegan banana bread I’ve been making for years, in which I typically use whole wheat pastry flour. But I love expanding my repertoire to include more and different types of grain options, and I actually loved the chew and density that the quinoa seemed to give this dish. Note, too, that you don’t have to grind up millet to make this bread: you can purchase millet flour, or you can use any other flour you like: buckwheat flour, spelt flour, quinoa flour, coconut flour, or a wheat blend of choice.

Other nice facts about my ancient grain breakfast bread? It’s lower fat than some of the vegan baking recipes I like, using only 4 tbsp of oil or Earth Balance. It uses applesauce, bananas, and agave as sweetener. It’s rich in cinnamon, which gives it a warm, welcoming, and homey taste. And it’s very, very moist; so much for the stereotype that healthy quickbreads are dry and dense! Friends and family will never guess that this loaf is as healthy as it is tasty.

Ancient Grain Breakfast Bread (vegan, gluten free, soy free)

Yields 10-12 slices

1 cup quinoa flakes
1/2 cup millet flour (substitute any flour you like)
2 tsps baking soda
1 tsp xantham gum (I find that this is a smart addition to any quickbread that isn’t wheat based; you’ll probably be fine without it, though, so just ignore it if you don’t have xantham in your pantry)
2 tsps cinnamon
3 tbsp flax meal + 1/3 cup warm water
4 tbsp coconut oil, olive oil, or melted Earth Balance
1/4 cup applesauce
1/2 cup agave syrup (to reduce sweetness, try 1/3 cup agave + 1 packet stevia)
3 very ripe bananas

1) Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

2) Mix the quinoa, millet, baking soda, xantham gum, and cinnamon together in a large bowl.

3) Mix the flax with the warm water and set aside for a moment.

4) In a food processor or blender, mix the bananas, agave, coconut oil or Earth Balance, and applesauce. Blend well.

5) Add the banana mix to the dry ingredients. Add the flax mixture. Using a spatula or spoon, mix the batter till it’s all well incorporated.

6) Pour into a small loaf pan, and bake for 30 minutes or so. At the 30 minute mark, cover it with foil. Bake another 15-30 minutes, or until a knife or toothpick comes out clean.

7) Serve to someone special, and watch the smile erupt.

If I may be permitted a moment of pride, my baking skills are really improving. I’m still not as talented a baker as I am hummus maker, or salad mixer, but I’m getting my sea legs.

The sun is out in NYC, and there’s walking, eating, and farmer’s market perusing to be done. Happy Sunday, friends!

xo

What’s a food you’ve always meant to try, but never have? The list isn’t long for me: I’ve eaten every vegetable under the sun, loved almost all of them, and there’s nary a dish I haven’t veganized to perfection (or at least to edibility). So what remains? Not much, or so you’d think.

But you’d be wrong. You see, the thing about raw foods is that they open you up to ingredients and dishes that you never knew existed, let alone functioned as the centerpieces of a whole foodie movement. But they’re out there: maca. Goji berries. Golden mulberries. Yacon. Lucuma. Irish moss. Chia. Dulse. Acai. I mean, even wheatgrass is exotic territory for most people. When you start to explore raw foods, you find yourself mesmerized by these exotic and unusual foods, and the health properties they promise.

To be honest with you, I’ve always thought that superfoods = super expensive, and not much else. But I’m also a victim of tremendous curiosity about each and every one of them, and in the course of my raw food adventures I’ve checked many off of my superfoods bucket list. Lucuma? Check (love the sweet, mellow, vanilla taste). Yacon syrup? Check (reminiscent of caramel, at least to me). Maca? Check (ick! tastes like feet, as my friend Kristen would say). Acai? Check (I think it’s the equivalent of an overpriced blueberry). Chia? Check, check, and check out my recipes.

One superfood I’ve always wanted to try is spirulina, mostly because of its beautiful, blue-black-green color. I’ve seen it in smoothies, and I’ll admit, it’s a mesmerizing shade. It’s also known to be incredibly nutrient rich. Some fun facts, collected from the interwebs:

• Spirulina contains 8 essential amino acids, 10 Non-essential amino acids, Potassium (15,400 mg/Kg), Calcium (1,315 mg/kg), Zinc (39 mg/kg), Magnesium (1,915 mg/kg), Selemium (0.40 ppm), Iron (580 mg/kg), Vitamin B12, Folic Acid (0.5 mg/kg), Niacin ( 118 mg/kg), Riboflavin or B2 (40 mg/kg), Thiamine or B1 (55 mg/kg), and Tocopherol or Vitamin E (190 mg/kg).
• Several years ago, the National Cancer Institute announced sulfolipids from blue-green algae like spirulina were remarkably active in test tube experiments against the AIDS virus.
• In 1993-95, research showed natural polysaccharides in spirulina increased T-cell counts, strengthened the immune system and raised disease resistance in chickens, fish and mice. The animal feed industry is embracing spirulina as a new probiotic to replace overused antiobiotic drugs in animal feeds. In 1994, a Russian patent was awarded for spirulina as a medicine for reducing allergic reactions from radiation in the Children of Chernobyl.
• Its deep green color comes from a rainbow of natural pigments – chlorophyll (green), phycocyanin (blue) and carotenoids (orange).
• Spirulina is often described as the most complete food source in the world because of its nutrient density and an impressive 60 – 70% protein content. In fact, NASA includes it in the diet of astronauts and plans to grow Spirulina in its space station.
• Some researchers claim that Spirulina is useful in helping diabetics control their food cravings and decrease their insulin intake.
• 1 tsp. of Spirulina will meet your RDA of B12, and spirulina contains over twice the amount of B12 found in an equivalent serving of liver.

Cool, no?

Of course, one always has to be discerning and do a fair bit of research before declaring any food “super.” And the ultimate measure of how super a food is for one’s body is really how good one feels after eating it, and over an extended period of time. But food isn’t just about utility, is it? It’s also about taste and texture and the experience of cooking. And part of my fascination with spirulina has always been about its incredible color, which I’m dying to see in snacks and smoothies and puddings. So you can imagine how excited I was when my good friend Courtney—who is compiling a spirulina recipe book—offered to send me a sample if I’d contribute a recipe. A few weeks ago, I got this cute little bottle from Healthfrce Nutritionals:

I have big plans for this little bottle, I do. But I wanted my first foray into the world of blue-green algae to be a very simple one, so I whipped up a smoothie. I call it my deep blue sea smoothie, not only because of the spirulina, but because of the wonderful blue-black color that comes from mixing blueberries and algae!

Deep Blue Sea Smoothie (vegan, raw, gluten and soy free)

Serves 1

1 large frozen banana
1 cup frozen blueberries or blackberries
3/4 cup almond milk
1 tsp spirulina
2 tsp chia seeds
1/2 tsp ginger

Blend all ingredients in a good blender till smooth. Serve!

As you can see, the color is very arresting—almost black!:

As I took my first sip, I didn’t know what to expect. Naturally, the smoothie tasted like any other blueberry smoothie, but the whole experience of trying something new was a lot of fun. Now I’m scheming about other spirulina recipes I might come up with—any requests or challenges for me?

At the beginning of this post, I mentioned my bucket list of unfamiliar ingredients. Since we’re on the topic of bucket lists, did everyone see this month’s VegNews, and it’s amazing vegan bucket list? I plan on doing every one of those 99 things—although I’m not sure how interested I am in a vegan bear claw.

With that, friends, I wish you a quiet and cozy night.

xo