Sweetly Raw. Source for Raw Desserts.

My favorite RAW food blog. Heather Pace is a Raw Dessert Chef and is a genius with raw/vegan food. Her recipes are amazing! Please check it out if you are trying to eat healthier. These are decadent alternatives to great desserts, as well as dinners.

http://www.sweetlyraw.com/

Other items from her blog:

Coconut Milk Creamer

This is my new favorite creamer. Non dairy and non soy. This particular brand is super creamy so you only need a tiny bit. It is every bit as satisfying as any dairy or processed creamer and so much better!!! I also had it on granola last night (cherry pecan granola from my bountiful baskets order, which by the way is so good!!) and it was so amazing. I diluted it a little with water although it was really good and rich undiluted as well. You can buy coconut milk in the carton but oddly I find there are more additives in those, so I just use the canned which is thicker anyway. So far I love it and I keep finding more and more uses for this in place of dairy.

"Cheesy" Veg Pasta Salad

Its Friday!

Its also almost time to pick up my next basket so I need to use up what I have in the refrigerator. A few great ways to do that is to make soup, stir fry, or pasta. This recipe is for pasta, I have most of the ingredients for one of my favorite pasta dishes and it will use up some of what I have. A huge key to eating healthy inexpensively is to use what you buy, and Friday is a great day to plan a use-up-whats-in-the-refrigerator meal. This is my "Cheesy" Veg Pasta.

This is what I have:

This is what I picked:

Cooked the pasta. I always use brown rice pasta. I love the flavor/texture of it and its not as processed as white wheat pasta. I get it at Sprouts or Fresh & Easy. Toss it with olive oil and garlic once cooked.

Choop up everything I pulled out, add salt and pepper, and garlic. Fresh basil would be great in this too.

Throw in the pasta. I like too add it when its still pretty warm. It helps mix everything together and its a nice temp to serve. Then I added about 1/3 cup of nutritional yeast which adds the cheesy flavor and is packed with nutrition as it has lots of essential amino acids which is great if you are avoiding animal proteins.

Veggie pizza

I love making this once a week if I can as a little treat or some variation of it. I get the whole wheat dough at Fresh & Easy. They freeze really good by the way if you want to stock up. Its nice to have them on stand by.
I roll it out and drizzle olive oil, add garlic and salt and bake it.

Then in this recipe I sautéed:
Garlic
1 onion
A little crushed red chili pepper
And a few capers in olive oil

Then added:
1 zucchini diced
1 yellow squash diced

When those were done I turned off the heat and added two big handfuls of baby spinach and some fresh chopped basil and stirred until those were just a little wilted.

Now your crust is like garlic bread, yum. Cut it as you would pizza and top with the veggies. I also like to add tomatoes to this recipe by adding them to the stir fry vegetables when I add the onions and garlic. Of course you will find what you like to add.

Time to start you fall garden! Looks like 100 degree days are over!!

The weather we woke up to this morning is so beautiful! Yesterday I planted my greens from seed and I'm so glad I did. The rain will give them a good jumpstart. I have been so impatiently waiting. Since we didn't get our garden done till late spring we did not have too many things survive through the summer. I was so excited to check out the 10 day forecast!!

I was browsing YouTube videos for a fall garden in Phoenix. I began to have garden envy. 

Sean with Paradise Veggies is good to follow. He keeps up to date on the seasons and knows much about gardening in the Phoenix area. 

I also like to keep up with the videos posted the Growing your Greens guy. He really knows about getting the max out of the space you have, and is into eating raw. Also has great tips on growing in the desert.

Hope this gets you motivated to start your fall/winter garden!

Photos of my measly garden I took this morning.

I have starters. Things seem to grow so much faster if I start them this way.

Healthy Chocolate Pudding!!

This is so rich and delicious you will not know that it is also healthy. It is very easy and fast to put together. I would prefer this recipe with about 3/4 cup of cashews, however we have to take it easy on the nuts. But if you dont have a problem with them I would add instead 3/4 to 1 c. of cashews to this recipe (with the extra nuts it almost tastes like nutella-yum).

Chocolate Pudding:

2 Avocado's
2 1/2 c or 27 pitted dates
1/8 c sunflower seeds
1/4 c cashews
3/4-1 c water
1/4 c cacao powder
1 vanilla bean or 1/8 tsp vanilla (optional)

Blend until Smooth. Top with shredded coconut and sliced fruit. I recommend bananas, mangos and strawberries.

Treehouse Vegan Bakery

Treehouse Vegan Bakery

http://www.treehousevegan.com

1348 W Roosevelt St
Phoenix, AZ 85007
480-560-5233
Closed Monday, Tues-Sat: 10-6, Sun. 10-2.

 We sought out another vegan bakery. Its a little out of the way on 15th Ave and Roosevelt. I love the decor, they made it so cute. But are they good? 

I got the Thai Tea muffin and a Macaroon. The Macaroon looked just like a doughnut hole but was surprisingly macaroon tasting, and delicious as was the muffin. You would never know it was vegan, very light and fluffy. Since everything but the cookies are made with Almond Milk, great if you are avoiding soy, but, bubble boy was limited. Thankfully the cookies were really good. They tasted very buttery and were perfectly gooey, not dry as other vegan cookies I've tried. I really want to try the Smores muffin next time. Also they have my favorite "pour over" coffee. Yum!

My disclaimer on this is that I am not advocating this as health or whole food. It is very possible to be a junk food vegan as many good intentioned vegetarians/vegans fall trap to. But it is a nice treat now and again for those avoiding dairy.

LETS VEG Feature: Strawberry Goji fruit roll-up

Recipe for this at littlelittlethisthat.com.

Sprouts Sale till Wednesday

3 for $1 avocados at Sprouts this week till Wednesday, which is always the best day to go since the weeks specials overlap. I also wanted to mention this is the best place to buy organic onions. A 3 lb bag is only $1.99. Great deal and I always buy organic when I can since it is also non GMO.

This Weeks Bountiful Basket

We got another great, full basket full of organic produce. 

We got more peaches (some of which were mushy), more delicious nectarines, green plums (so delicious), avocadoes, nice big tomatoes, another bag of apples, endive, broccoli, a bag of limes which 

I hope to use for a dessert coming up. 

Cinnamon Rolls????

Ha-Ha! Go ahead and laugh. I tried to make my own cinnamon roll recipe and, well, it was a disaster and this is what they looked like:

I experimented with a combination of oat, brown rice and whole wheat flours. Needless to say it did not turn out very well but there was one great thing that came from all of this.
Maple Glaze!!!!
I made a glaze with:

1 c. confection sugar
2 Tbsp coconut milk
1/8 c. maple syrup

beat well

..and it was fantastic! And as for the cinnamon rolls, I am not throwing in the towel. Those Cinnamon Rolls will be edible some day! I will keep you posted.

LETS VEG Feature: RAW Chocolate Covered Macaroons

A dessert post of mine from littlelittlethisthat.com.