Cream Filling
1 cup Really Raw Cashews
3/4 cup water
1/4 cup raw, local honey
2 drops lemon essential oil
pinch of salt
1/2 cup Vanilla Coconut Creme
1/4 cup Cacao Butter, melted
1 tsp lecithin

Place cashews in a food processor. Process until finely chopped. While the food processor is running pour water in. Allow to process until creamy. Stop machine and add honey, lemon oil and salt and process until well-combined. Add vanilla creme & cacao butter and process again until creamy. Add lecithin to running machine and process just a moment more. Pour into a bowl and allow to set in the freezer while you make brownie base.

Brownie Base

1 1/2 cups Pecans
1/2 cup Coconut Chips
1/3 cup mesquite meal
pinch of salt
1/3 cup Cacao Powder
1/4 cup raw, local honey
1/4 cup Cacao Butter, melted

Add pecans to food processor and process for a moment. Add each ingredient individually and process for a moment until each ingredient has been added. Process until it clumps up a little.

Press a small amount of brownie base into a silicon cupcake wrapper until you’ve used up brownie batter. Allow brownie base to set in the freezer 5-10 minutes. Once set remove cream and brownies from the freezer. Put a tablespoon dollop on top of each brownie base. Put back in the freezer until chocolate topping is ready.

Chocolate Topping

3/4 cup Cacao Butter, melted
1/2 cup maple syrup
1 tsp. Vanilla Bean Powder
1/2 cup Cacao Powder
1 tsp. wheat-free tamari or nama shoyu

Whisk ingredients together until smooth. Take cupcakes out of freezer and fill the remainder of cups with chocolate topping. Return to freezer until set then devour.

Blueberry Goji Pudding Parfait

16 ounces frozen wild blueberries
1/2 cup Goji Berries
1 tbs Chia Seeds
a drops of stevia
1 cup Raw Cashews, soaked
1 tbs. Coconut Oil
1 lemon, juiced
2 tbs. liquid sweetener of choice
1/2 tsp. Vanilla Bean Powder
2 tbs. water

Mix frozen blueberries and goji berries together, place in a refrigerator overnight to allow the blueberries to defrost. Place the mixed berries in a blender with chia and stevia and blend until smooth.

Next process cashews in a food processor until finely chopped. Add coconut oil, lemon juice, sweetener, vanilla and water. Process until creamy.

In 3 or four glasses put a dollop of blueberry pudding. Follow with the cashew cream. Repeat until all of the pudding & cream is finished. Garnish with Bee Pollen. Eat right away or chill.

Anyway, it’s summertime and for me, it’s time for frozen stuff! I love making raw ice cream utilizing amazingly good-for-you nut fats (including coconuts; it’s a nut) whole and in “milk” form, but it takes some prep work, and I am really over the simple raw ice cream route. You know, frozen naner’s, water and sweetener ground up in the Vita-mix. Hot summer days create lazy kitchen days, with a craving for cool down foods, but I don’t always feel like diggin’ the meat out of a coconut, so I’ve taken the banana and given it new life by leaving it in it’s original shape, drowning it in chocolate sauce, rolling it in goji berry powder and freezing that bad boy! It doesn’t get any easier or delicious than that on a hot summers day.

Frozen Choco-Covered Naner’s w/Goji Dust – YEAH, BUDDY!!
Bunch of ripe bananas
2 cups Cacao Powder
1 1/2 cups maple syrup
½ tablespoon Vanilla Powder
Pinch of sea salt
½ cup Coconut Oil, warmed to liquefy
1 cup Goji Berries
Wooden skewers

First, cut bananas in half on the bias and freeze for ½ hour (they are easier to work with when they are a little firmer). Combine all the ingredients except the coconut oil and goji berries in a high-speed blender. With the blender running, add the coconut oil and continue blending to emulsify. In a clean Vita-mix container, grind goji berries into a powder (or you can use a coffee grinder) and set aside. Next, roll the nanas into the chocolate sauce, place onto a stick length-wise, then sprinkle all sides with goji berry dust. Lastly, place these beauties back into the freezer and freeze for firmness; at least 3 hours.

Store the leftover chocolate sauce in a covered container in the refrigerator. Before using, place it in the dehydrator to warm to liquefy it. If you don’t have a dehydrator, you can also place the container in a warm water bath.

Pecan Nougat & Maca Creme Filled Chocolates

Pecan Nougat
1 jar Pecan Butter
1/3 cup raw, local honey or liquid sweetener of choice
1/3 cup Coconut Oil, melted
1/2 tsp. Vanilla Bean Powder
2 tbs. Cacao Powder
1/4 cup Pecan Halves, broken into bits

In a food processor combine all the ingredients except for the Pecan Halves. Process until smooth and creamy. Spread this mixture in an 8″x6″ baking dish and press pecan pieces on top. Place pan in the freezer and allow to set while you prepare the other parts of the chocolates

Maca Creme

6 dates (I use local Arizona Black Sphinx)
1/4 cup Coconut Oil, melted
1 tbs. Lucuma Powder
1 tsp. Super Maca
1/2 tsp. cinnamon
1 tbs. raw, local honey or liquid sweetener of choice
2 tbs. Really Raw Almond Butter
1/2 tsp. Vanilla Bean Powder
pinch of salt
1/3 cup of water

Place ingredients in a food processor and process until smooth and creamy. Spread over the pecan mixture and put back in the freezer to set.

Chocolate

1 pound Cacao Butter
2 1/2 cups Cacao Powder
1/2 tbs. Vanilla Bean Powder
1/2 cup Yacon Syrup
1/4 cup Lucuma Powder
pinch of salt

In a double boiler or two stacked bowls place some hot water in the bottom and the cacao butter in top. Melt the cacao butter. Once melted stir in the remaining ingredients one at a time until well combined and smooth. Re-heat water as necessary.

Assembly:

Remove the layered pecan & maca from the freezer. Using a knife cut nougat into 10 bars. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Carefully remove one pecan maca bar from the baking dish and dunk the bar into the melted chocolate, then place on the parchment paper. Repeat process until all bars have been dipped. This is very messy! Place bars in the freezer.

Once they set, dip again. You can repeat this process until your melted chocolate is used up or until you have reached a desired thickness on the coating. Pour remaining chocolate into molds to enjoy on its own.

Make sure to store these in the refrigerator once you have finished them.

As an almost graduated student of Gabriel Cousens, M.D., live-vegan food nutrition program (thank God for Vivapura superfoods! They gave me nonstop energy needed to study) and LOVER of raw food, I bring to you a recipe that is not just easy, my peeps are Vivapura do most of the work – well, them and the cacao Gods. Because I am a young grasshopper of Gabriel’s, I have a lot of clients who are healing on the deepest level through a low-glycemic raw diet (I like to call it the almost no-glycemic diet). Of course, there is more to this healing diet, such as how you oxidize food can dictate what you eat, etc., but today we are just going for a GREAT, SUPER AMAZING, EASY, SNACKY SWEET TREAT THAT IS PHASE 1!! Drum roll please….

I bring to you: VivaTurtle LOVE!! OMG! Chocolate-Caramel raw turtles that are low-glycemic. Yep!! Feel the love and don’t forget to share!!

Caramel Sauce
¼ cup + 1 tablespoon Pecan Butter
2 tablespoons Coconut Crème
1 tablespoon Yacon Syrup* (this is so low-glycemic, I allow this sweetener in a phase 1 diet; but very minimal use)
2-4 drops liquid stevia (to taste)
1 teaspoon vanilla powder
1 tablespoon cinnamon
Pinch Celtic sea salt
Water, as needed to blend

Directions
In a high-speed blender, blend all the ingredients, adding water to thin as needed. It will become more of a caramel-like texture with refrigeration.

*You can omit and just use stevia if on a VERY regulated low-glycemic diet. But, this gives the caramel the earthy flavor that dates or Turkish figs would normally bring to this recipe (this is how I make my regular caramel). Oh, and isn’t it hilarious that Spellcheck tries to change yacon to bacon!

Chocolate Sauce
1 1/2 cups Coconut Oil (not butter), warmed into a liquid (can melt in a dehydrator or in a warm water bath)
3 tablespoons Yacon Syrup*
2-4 drops liquid stevia (to taste)
3/4 cup Cacao Powder
Pinch sea salt

Directions
Blend all the chocolate icing ingredients in the Vita-Mix until smooth (like 60 seconds).

*You can omit and just use stevia if on a VERY regulated low-glycemic diet.

Assembly
Pour a one pound bag of I Thrive Trail Mix (Phase 1) into a large bowl. Next, stir in caramel until well-combined. Using a melon baller (or in the culinary world, we refer to this kitchen tool as a Parisian Scoop), drop balls onto a baking sheet, flattening out somewhat with a spoon, and place in freezer for at least 3o minutes. Lastly, dip hardened treats in chocolate sauce and freeze again until the turtles shells are formed!

Even Easier Option:
So, if you want to save on time, you can melt two Mint Zero Pointe chocolates from Sacred Heart over a double boiler (you can find this method on YouTube) and pour over turtle base; then refreezing. It gives them a minty, caramel taste reminiscent of Girl Scout Thin Mint and Caramel DeLite cookies all rolled into one. Nostalgic tastes are soooo rooted in those epigenes, right!?? However, this version won’t kill you!!

When making these types of foods I have a few things that I take into consideration. First is, where can I sneak in the superfoods? In this recipe I managed to sneak in Cacao Powder, mesquite powder, Cacao Paste, Coconut Oil and Vanilla Powder. They are gluten-free, casein-free and vegan. The other big concern is taste, I mean I don’t want my daughter to be the one whose mother always sends in the “weird” food. And the final consideration is my location. It can be very hard to find ingredients that can fit all these criteria in my location. So while my preference might be using a certain group of products to make, say, frosting, I am left having to get what is available in my area.

This recipe has some of all of those things, superfoods, tastiness and a few ingredient compromises because of what I could find in my area in my time-frame.

Chocolate Cherry Cupcakes

5 1/2 cups gluten-free baking flour blend (I used one from Bob’s Red Mill that already had baking powder and such added)
1 cup Cacao Powder
1/2 cup mesquite powder
1/3 cup Cacao Paste, broken up into small pieces
1 cup Coconut Oil, melted
1 1/2 cups agave or other liquid sweetener
1 cup fruit or veggie puree (pumpkin, apple, cherry, apricot)
1 tbs. Vanilla Powder
1 cup chai tea

Preheat oven to 325 degreesMix all of the ingredients into a mixing bowl until well-combined. Line a muffin tin with paper cups and fill 3/4 of a way full. Bake for 18-22 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. Allow to cool completely on a baking rack.

Frosting:

Pamela’s Confetti Frosting Mix
8 tbs. softened shortening or butter-like substance of choice
1/4 cherries
1/2 tbs. Vanilla Powder

Place ingredients (except sprinkles that come with mix) in a food processor and pulse until well-combined but still with some chunks of cherries.

Frost cooled-cupcakes and sprinkle with sprinkles. Enjoy!

Sorry to have been gone for a bit! Life has been abundantly busy here in the Vivapura aWarehouse. Lots of orders to ship, lots of product to bag and lots of beautiful customers to converse with on the phone. That has left very little time for recipe development or blogging. I decided to start up again with a beautiful recipe just in time for Valentine’s Day. Also, if you would like to get some cacao ingredients to make chocolate at home we have a coupon available for web orders. Order any cacao product (nibs, powder, paste or butter) from our site and use coupon code “cacao20″ for 20% off your cacao purchases!

I made these little heart chocolates a few weeks ago, inspired by my new silicon heart ice cube tray and curious about some sweetener a friend had dropped off for me to try, Palm Sugar. I’ve heard lots about Palm Sugar but have yet had a chance to use it. It worked ok in this recipe but I never could get it to really dissolve in the chocolate so it left a crispy sort of texture. I was a bit distracted by it but all of my taste testers were raving about these so I decided to share them anyway. You could play around with other sweeteners as well.

Chocolate Hearts with Super Berry Filling

1 cup strawberries, chopped
6 drops Valencia Orange Stevia

Place both ingredients into a high-speed blend and blend until smooth. Leaving the puree in the blender add the following:
1/4 cup Barberries
1/4 cup Goji Berries

Stir these into the puree in your blender and allow to soak for 15 minutes. Blend again until puree is mostly smooth but some texture remaining.

2 cups Cacao Paste
1/2 cup palm sugar
1 tsp. Cacao Paste
1 tsp. Super Maca
1/4 cup Coconut Oil
pinch mineral rich salt

Fill a bowl or pan with boiling water, find another bowl or pan that sits on top of the bowl filled with boiling water. Place cacao paste in the top bowl and stir until it melts. If your water cools too much you may desire to add more hot water to the bottom bowl. Once the cacao paste is melted add each of the other ingredients one by one until everything is well-combined.

You can use chocolate molds, silicon baking or ice cube trays or a baking dish. You want to use half of your chocolate in whatever sort of mold you are using. Swirling it around the edges ever so slightly so there is a bit of a coating around the edges. Place your mold in the freezer and allow it to set until firm.

Next your are going to spread the Super Berry Filling on the first layer of chocolate.

Make sure to not spread the filling right to the very edge of the chocolate layer, this will ensure that the filling becomes totally enclosed. Also, be sure to keep the filling as low profile as possible so that the top layer of chocolate can fit. You may have leftover filling (it tastes great added to smoothies, used in cakes or spread on any sort of bread).

Finally, cover the filling with your additional chocolate. Trying carefully to cover the filling so that none peaks out. If you choose to garnish your chocolates be sure to do that now. I used Barberries on mine.

Now allow the chocolates to set once more. Once they have hardened you need not store them in the freezer, they will keep fine in the refrigerator. Since the filling uses some fresh fruit be sure to not let them sit more than a week or so before gobbling them up. Who am I kidding? These couldn’t last a week in anyone’s refrigerator before being gobbled up!

As of late though I haven’t been using many Thai Young Coconuts. I don’t see them that often in our town and I’m a bit concerned about the way they are produced and shipped. After making many successful frostings with Coconut Creme I started thinking that I could make a nice pudding with that as a base. The result was delicious, but more of a mousse than a pudding!

Raw Chocolate Mousse

1/2 ripe avocado
5 tbs. Cacao Powder
1/2 tsp. Vanilla Powder
1/4 cup raw honey or other liquid sweetener
1/2 cup of milk-type liquid (nut or seed milk, coconut milk or raw dairy)
1/2 container Coconut Creme Original, melted
11 drops liquid stevia
pinch of salt.

Put everything except milk-type liquid into a food processor and start running. As everything is process slowly add milk through spout. Allow to process until well-blended & creamy. Eat right away! Chilling will cause this to become more solid.

First up is Xell Calderer of Internal Hygeine. Xell is a Certified Colon Therapist and Wellness Coach who runs a thriving practice in Stamford, Connecticut. You can find many Vivapura products at her office!

Xell’s Amazing Chocolate Carob Chia Pudding

Vanilla Brazil Nut milk or nut milk of choice

8 tbs. Chia Seeds
1 cup strawberry/kiwi rooibos tea, vanilla rooibos tea (steeped strong)
or 1-2 cups Vanilla Brazil or Sicilian Almond milk

Whisk chia into liquid and set aside.

In high speed blender (Vitamix or Blendtec), place:
½ to 1 tbs. Ultra Tocos*
2-3 heaping tbs. raw Italian Carob (or use more cacao)
1 heaping tbs. raw Cacao powder
½ t – 1 tbs. GMO free lecithin powder*
2-3 small dates or 2 or more large Medjool date (the dates adds body and sweetness)
1 – 3 tbs. Vanilla Agave (optional) or stevia to taste (for those sweet tooths out there!)
¼ tsp Sunfire salt (can use Celtic or Himalayan)
½ – 1 tsp. vanilla powder
or ½ vanilla bean, scraped (optional)
1 – 2 tbs. lucuma powder
dash of yacon syrup (about ½ T, optional)
small chunk of cacao butter or cacao paste (optional)
1 tbs. coconut creme (optional)

Once chia has soaked for about 10 minutes, place chia “gel” into blender with other ingredients and blend at high speed until smooth. Eat immediately or allow to “set” in fridge for a couple of hours to firm up.

Variations:
Add 1 or 2 tbs. of Vivapura raw almond butter for a more decadent and rich chocolate almond butter cup type pudding.
A banana may be nice here, but watch your food combining! This is already pretty complex. Sometimes you gotta live on the edge, though!

Vanilla Brazil Nut Milk
-keeps for up to 3, maybe 4 days.

1 heaping cup raw brazil nuts or soaked Sicilian Almonds
¼ tsp sunfire salt
3-4 dates or vanilla agave to taste (optional)
½ to 1 T lecithin (optional but adds great creaminess).
1 T plain or vanilla coconut crème (optional)
¼ vanilla bean pod or vanilla powder
4 to 6 cups water

Place nuts and 1 cup water, and salt, in high speed blender, working your way to high speed. Once things look blended, continue blending and fill the container with rest of water (I usually fill while blending and fill until container is full). Blend very well.
Strain through nut milk bag and pour back into blender, add additional indredients as desired. Blend again, and pour into glass containers. Delicious!

Variations:
Pour half of the milk back into container, add 1 to 2 tbs. yacon syrup, and 1 to 2 tbs. lucuma powder for a maple/caramel type drink that is exquisite and so creamy.
Brazil Nut Milk is lovely gently warmed with shaved nutmeg and cinnamon on top.

As a bit of a bonus, Xell also sent me a few juice recipes to help me along on my feast and I thought I’d share them here with you as well!

50% spinach
48% carrot
2% beets
(this is an incredible colon cleanser, too! This is especially good before a colonic)

Another, inspired by Angela Stokes:
coconut water
1 to 2 T green food (greener grasses is lovely)
1 to 2 T Vivapura bee pollen
This is simple and delicious, a great addition to a liquid meals day

Fave green juice
6 stalks celery
1 large cucumber
1/4 fennel bulb
1 to 2 apples (green or Fuji)
1 lemon
1 or 2 heads of Romaine or Spinach
handful of dandelion greens
1/2 pound sunflower sprouts or another head of Romaine
small chunk of ginger (optional)
Delicious – one of my favourite combos.

Last week I had a bit of a fudge revelation, I’ll admit after succumbing to actual fudge at a library fundraiser. In this recipe I’ve combined Cacao Paste, Coconut Creme and Pecan Butter. This particular combination gives the most authentic fudge texture I’ve had yet. I have a few more ideas that I’m going to play around in my next fudge experiment but this one is sure to please!

Cacao Pecan Fudge

1 container Vanilla Coconut Creme, melted (really any of the Coconut Cremes will work)
1 cup Cacao Paste, melted
1/2 cup raw honey or other liquid sweetener
2 tbs. Cacao Powder
1 tbs. Vanilla Powder
1/4 cup Pecan Butter
pinch of mineral-rich salt
Pecan Pieces for garnish

Place everything except pecan pieces in a food processor and process until smooth and creamy. Spread in a pan and garnish with pecan pieces. Chill until firm and devour.