Raw Vegan Cheesecake?

I'll be honest, 5 years ago that would have sounded gross to me. I mean, how in the world do you make cheesecake without cheese? But a few years, health struggles, and wisdom gained later here we are.

The texture is amazing. The flavor is sharp and best of all, it is actually healthy for you!

Here is the recipe, if you dare.....

Crust:
1 1/2 cups raw almonds (soak them for 3-4 hours in water first, then drain)
1/2 cup pitted dates

Blend them together in a Food Processor until they make a sort of sticky paste that you can press into the bottom of a pan. I used an 8-Inch Springform pan.

Ready to process

This is the texture/consistency you are looking for

Done and pressed into the pan.

Once it is smoothed in the pan, place the pan in the refrigerator while you prepare the filling.

Cheesecake:

3 cups raw cashews (soaked for 3-4 hours in water and drained before using)

3/4 cup lemon juice (I used fresh squeezed)

2/3 cup + 1 Tablespoon Maple Syrup

3/4 cup melted Organic Coconut Oil

1 tsp salt

Put all the ingredients into a food processor

Blend/Process until it is smooth and creamy in texture (and taste!)

Spoon on to the top of the crust that you had stored in the refrigerator. Cover and let sit in the refrigerator for at least 5 hours, or overnight.

I served mine 24 hours later with organic canned cranberry sauce (recipe here ) I made in November.

It was amazing!!!

Healthy Chocolate?

I am pretty sure that I will never buy pre-made chocolate at the store again!!

I found an awesome post on Pinterest (here) and Gabriella and I decided to try making it last night.

We gathered our ingredients:

Coconut Oil, raw honey, unsweetened cocoa powder, pure vanilla and sunflower seed butter. 

We melted 1/2 cup of coconut oil and poured it into our blender. Next we added 1/2 cup of cocoa powder and 1/2 cup of sunflower seed butter. 1/4 cup of raw honey (thanks Uncle Steve!) and 1/2 teaspoon of vanilla then we were done. So easy!

We blended up everything for about 30 seconds (just until it was all smooth). Then we poured the mixture into cupcake liners in a cupcake tin. 

10 minutes in the freezer (or about 30 minutes in the refrigerator) and they were set up!

They were AMAZING!!! So rich and creamy and delicious! 

The kids shared one, I had one and Matt had two. The rest we are storing in the refrigerator in a sealed container. 

I love how simple these were to make and how pure of ingredients they are! No chemicals that are impossible to pronounce, no concerns for GMOs or cross contamination with any allergens. 

There is an almost unending list of benefits of coconut oil!

(check out this website for more info)

Cookies and Cousins

Today we celebrated Christmas with Matt's siblings and all their kids. Gabriella was very excited to see all her "friends and cousins"!

On Saturday evening I baked two batches of cookies, shortbread cookies and gingerbread. The shortbread cookies were from a mix (Bob's Red Mill Gluten Free Shortbread Cookie Mix). They were TERRIBLE! They held up good but tasted horrible. This is the third time I have made them and I have yet to get them to turn out good. I will never buy them again!

The gingerbread ones however, were amazing!! I used the recipe that my friend Danielle made. You can get it here at Passions Collide. They are gluten free and egg free.

This morning we woke up and it was snowing again! Woo hoo!! Gabriella picked out some snow clothes (one of her gloves was an oven mitt because she couldn't find the other one) and headed out to the back deck. Such a cutie pie!!

I whipped up a batch of sugar cookies and soon it was time to party!

We exchanged family gifts (so much fun!!) and then tried to snag a picture of all the kiddos together. 

Blaizen looks like he is trying to give Joshua a kiss....

And a silly picture!!

Time for cookie decorating!! The kids all went around the island in our kitchen and had a blast with frosting, sprinkles and all kinds of decorations. 

More decorating. 

Gabriella giving her "little dude" a kiss

(she kept calling the gingerbread men "little dudes")

Some of Gabriella's cookies. She had a lot of fun helping me put frosting on and then putting all the candy and sprinkles on by herself. 

Lily decorating her gingerbread man

Jessie getting in on the fun!

It was a fun day. So nice to get all the family together and watch the kids enjoying each other. They get along pretty good for the most part. And it only took me 30 minutes to clean up my kitchen after all the frosting and sprinkles! Below is my Gluten Free and Dairy Free sugar cookie recipe. Feel free to use and re-post, but please reference this blog. 

Sugar Cookie Recipe:

1 1/2 cups powdered sugar

1 cup Earth Balance vegan butter

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 large egg

2 1/2 cups rice flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon cream of tartar

1 teaspoon xanthan gum

In a large bowl beat powdered sugar, Earth Balance, vanilla and egg with electric mixer on medium until well blended. Stir in the remaining dry ingredients. Cover tightly (I used saran wrap) and refrigerate at least two hours. 

Heat oven to 375 degrees F. Spray a cookie sheet with cooking spray (I used Olive Oil). 

Divide dough in half. Roll one half out to 1/4 inch thick on parchment paper. (place a sheet of saran wrap over top of dough before rolling out to prevent it from sticking to the rolling pin) Use cookie cutters to cut into desired shapes. Gather scraps into a ball, roll and cut again. Repeat with remaining scraps and second half of dough.  Place cookies on greased cookie sheet. 

Bake for 7-9 minutes or until edges are just turning golden brown. Remove from oven and transfer to a wire cooling rack. 

*my double batch made two cookie sheets worth of cookies. 

Vacation Day 5 (the Final day)

We were up early this morning to get everyone showered, packed up and in the car so we had plenty of time to get across Portland for Xander's doctor appointment.

We said goodbye to Aunt Esther and hit the road towards OHSU and Doernbecher Children's Hospital.

Xander and daddy ready to go inside

Checking in at the Cranio-Facial Rehabilitation Clinic

(at the purple chipmunk)

Getting some pictures taken of his noggin

Gabriella reading books in the exam room. This was about 30 seconds before she started in on a HUGE meltdown (screaming, crying, yelling, body-flailing, you name it! Matt and I are both pretty sure it was from too much vacation)

We were SO relieved to hear that Xander's metopic suture line was normal (Matt actually has the same ridge that you can feel under his forehead) and that he would grow into it. Praise Jesus!! I didn't want him to have a pointy head his whole life!

Here is the exact wording from the official doctor's report:

"Xander is an 8 month old male with a history and physical exam consistent with a metopic ridge. This is a normal variant when the metopic suture normally fuses between 2 months old and 2 years old. He has no signs of craniosynostosis - no trigonocephaly, bitemporal narrowing or hypotelorism. His dad also has a ridge on his forehead that is palpable but no longer visible. Lastly, Xander's head size has crossed over two percentiles on the head growth chart. Again, Dad has a very large size head and it is most likely familial."

So, basically, he will grow into his ridge line and it will fade away from being visible as he grows. We just have to watch his head growth and make sure that it is growing evenly because jumping up and down head sizes can be dangerous too. But we are SO relieved to know that he will not need surgery on his head right now! Woo hoo!!

After a quick lunch at Chipotle (which by the way, is coming to Medford in October!!!) we looked up a gluten-free and vegan bakery. The kids both fell asleep within two minutes of being back in the car. 

 Here I am with my carrot cake! Mmmmmm! Matt got a mini lemon bunt cake thingy. 

Of course we stopped at Trader Joe's in Eugene (for a nursing break, and shopping!). I'm so excited that the Medford store will be opening up next month as well!

Xander discovered himself in the mirror. It was hilarious! He was jabbering away and laughing at himself. Too cute!

At home and asleep in their own beds. Both kids were such good sports on our long trip. 

We had so much fun on our vacation! It was great to spend so much time together with just the four of us and seeing some great friends that we don't see often. We already can't wait to get back up to Tacoma to see Emily, Ryan & Victory again!

We feel so blessed to be able to have such a great time together and to get such awesome news that Xander doesn't have to get surgery on his head! God is good ALL the time!

Vacation Day 2

We let the kiddos sleep in on Sunday morning and left for Seattle at 10.

We got to Seattle Pacific University first. It was so fun to walk around the campus and have some good memories and laughs. I was bummed the shellhouse wasn't open, but that's okay.

The dock where we launched our boats every morning. 

Cheesy picture in front of the school's sign. 

Matt helping Gabriella peek into the shellhouse. She just said, "ooooooooh!" a lot while looking in. 

After the campus tour we headed over to Freemont for the Freemont Sunday Market. Matt and Gabriella tried a Bacon Peanut Butter cookie. And then Gabriella insisted she had to go potty so we used the grossest bathroom EVER!

Funny faces in the bathroom mirror

We headed up the road a couple blocks and had a gluten-free and vegan snack at the Flying Apron. 

I was loving my hemp milk mocha!!

Gabriella drinking my mocha

Nursing break again!

Xander giving Victory kisses. 

Victory kissing him back

(PS. I LOVE his hair in this picture!)

We headed downtown next and stopped in at Chipotle for lunch. 

"This is just my chip with abocado on it!"

Headed down to Pike's Market after getting my free spice jar (with a coupon) from Penzy's Spice.

My two favorite guys! 

Gabriella crashed out! She was so tired!

Crazy street musician. He was hula-hooping, playing a harmonica/singing, playing guitar and had bells and bamboo on his feet making noise. Later on he balanced the guitar on his chin with NO HANDS! It was crazy cool!

After Seattle we headed back to Tacoma and made a stop at the SouthSide Mall. I needed some Jamba Juice ;)

Xander loved sharing the carrot juice mango orange smoothie that I got.  

                                              Gabriella horsing around in the car while I fed Xander!

We had a great day in Seattle and finished it off in Tacoma where Ryan made some more amazing French Fries! Yummmmmm!!