Vegan

Vegan

Espresso Chocolate {avocado} Mousse

Today’s recipe is a sweet little treat made with healthy fats from avocado, naturally sweet Medjool dates, and mineral & antioxidant loaded raw CaCoCo chocolate blend. Not only is this dessert rich and flavorful, but it’s also vegan/plant based, refined sugar-free, and loaded with omega-3 fatty acids, vitamins, and minerals.

Don’t let the avocado scare you, I promise you cannot even taste it after the espresso, cacao, and Medjool dates are added! Avocado gives this recipe the perfect creamy texture that you will be sure to love. This kicks your typical Jell-O pudding to the curb! Plus you can make it in under 5 minutes!

Eat it plain, or spread it on a brown rice cake or whole grain toast for a quick snack!

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Espresso Chocolate {avocado} Mousse
Serves 2

1/2 avocado
2 Tbsp Original CaCoCo (or raw cacao powder)
1 Tbsp coconut milk (or milk of choice)
1 shot of espresso (or 3 Tbsp strong french press)
4 Medjool dates, pitted

Remove pits from dates. Combine all ingredients in a food processor or blender and blend until smooth and mousse-like.

Homemade Animal Cookies

Sorry for the lack of posts recently, little bunnies! My sister got married on July 19th, so as you could imagine, life has been pretty crazy! I finally got a few minutes to myself to relax and catch up on emails after our out-of-town guests had returned home and the newlyweds left for their honeymoon!

I want to introduce you all to Erin! Erin is one of my friends, and also my spin buddy at Full Psycle! She loves baking and creates the best low-ingredient desserts on her blog (3 ingredient red velvet cookies? I meannnnn). I am one lucky duck and get to taste test when she brings her creations to spin! She so totally spoils me!
Revenge Bakery and Rabbit Food For My Bunny Teeth
I love that she balances baking, healthy eating, and exercising. She loves green juice, and salads, but she also loves the occasional sweet treat. She’s seriously adorable and such an amazing person with mad style.

Erin and I had a fun girls’ day and made these adorable bunny ‘circus’ animal cookies!

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I bought this adorable bunny cookie cutter from our favorite store Daiso! It’s a Japanese dollar store, so this cookie cutter was only $1.50 in store!

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Instead of using artificial food coloring to dye our frosting pink, we used small amount of beet juice from canned beets!

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Homemade Animal Cookies
{with vegan options}

1 ½ cups White Flour (or gluten free alternative)
½ cup Sugar
¼ tsp salt
½ cup Earth Balance Buttery Spread
1 egg (or egg replacer for vegan alternative)
½ tsp vanilla

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Combine all dry ingredients (sugar, flour, salt) in one bowl. In a separate bowl, combine all wet ingredients (earth balance, egg, and vanilla) and beat using a hand mixer until well mixed. Slowly add the dry mixture into the wet mixture while beating with a hand mixer until dough has been formed. Place the dough in the refrigerator for about 30 minutes until dough hardens. Roll out dough with a rolling pin in between parchment paper (if the dough seems too sticky to roll out, add an extra tablespoon or two of flour). Cut desired shapes with cookie cutters until all the dough has been used. Bake for 5 minutes until lightly golden brown.

For the frosting:
Royal Icing
1 cup powdered sugar
1 Tbsp vanilla soy milk (or almond milk – creamer is best)
¼ tsp vanilla

Combine all ingredients with a small whisk. Divide frosting evenly into two separate bowls. Use 1/4 – 1/2 tsp of beet juice in one half of the frosting to give a light pink color.

Vegan option: Melt vegan white chocolate chips. Color half of the chocolate chips with about 1/4 – 1/2 tsp of beet juice for pink coloring.

Tropical Dole Banana Salsa

I am so excited to work with Dole Bananas again for their summer Peel the Love tour!
The Peel the Love Summer Banana Cabana is touring the nation and holding events that’ll let you peel like a kid again, including yummy samples, free recipe cards, giveaways, coupons and more! Checkout the tour schedule and catch a Banana Cabana event in your area up until Labor Day!

When Dole contacted me to make an original banana recipe, I knew it needed to be something different and out of the box. I use bananas daily in recipes from green smoothies and banana nicecream to banana roll-up snacks and banana bread breakfast quinoa, but this time I wanted to create something more savory and less expected. What’s better than a savory and sweet salsa for all of your summer parties and barbecues?! I’m so excited with how great the flavors and textures combined with my perfectly ripe Dole Banana! I hope you and your summer party guests enjoy this as much as I did!

Dole Bananas Peel The Love

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Tropical Dole Banana Salsa
Serves 1

1 Dole banana
1/4 cup pineapple, chopped
1/4 cup mango, chopped
1/4 cup tomato, diced
1/4 cup corn
2 Tbsp jalapeño, diced
1 Tbsp cilantro

Chop banana into small pieces and chop and dice other ingredients. Gently fold all ingredients together until well combined. Serve with whole grain chips. Refrigerate leftovers for up to 3 days.

Dole Banana Peel The Love Tour Dates 1

JULY DOLE BANANA CABANA TOUR DATES
July 12-14 – Columbia, SC
July 14-18 – Phoenix
July 19-25 – Jacksonville
July 23-26 – San Diego
July 28-August 2 – Alabama
July 31-August 3 – Los Angeles

AUGUST DOLE BANANA CABANA TOUR DATES
Continued until August 2 – Alabama
Continued until August 3 – Los Angeles
August 7-8 – Mississippi
August 7-10 – San Francisco
August 11-15 – Sacramento
August 14-16 – St. Louis
August 17-18 – Reno, NV
August 21-24 –Des Moines
August 22-25 – Portland
August 29-Sept 1 – Minneapolis
August 29-Sept 1 – Seattle

The Dole Banana Cabana will also be at:
FPFC Foodshow
7/14/2014 – 7/15/2014
Anaheim, CA – Disneyland Hotel
3pm – 6pm

Show Dole Bananas some Love!
Website // dole.com/peelthelove
Facebook // Facebook.com/DOLEbananas
Twitter // @DOLEbananas
Pinterest // Pinterest.com/DOLEBananas

Peaches and Cream Smoothie

My sister brought a giant crate of fresh peaches home from the grocery store this week, so it’s only appropriate that I make a skinny Peaches and Cream Smoothie! This smoothie has just the right amount of sweetness and is completely vegan. I added vanilla protein powder to make it a little more filling, but if you aren’t a fan of protein powder, it’s still great without it! Try adding a quarter cup of oats to make this delicious summer smoothie even more hearty!

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Peaches and Cream Smoothie
Serves 1

1 peach
1 cup almond milk
1 scoop vanilla protein powder
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 cup ice

Remove pit from peach and add all contents into a high powered blender. Blend until smooth.

Red, White, & Blueberry Popsicles

Happy 4th of July!
Celebrate with an ultra hydrating, super healthy snack to cool you down after a fun day in the sun!

These super simple popsicles are made with hydrating coconut water and antioxidant filled berries. The best part? There is minimal prep in making these adorable little patriotic pops and only 3 easy to find ingredients!

Oh wait, even better… they’re vegan, gluten-free, refined sugar-free, and fat free! Go on, eat a few!

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Red, White, & Blueberry Popsicles
Serves 4

2 cups coconut water
1/2 cup blueberries
4 strawberries

Rince berries. Slice strawberries. Start by placing 4-6 blueberries in the bottom of each popsicle mold. Pour coconut water to the top of each mold. Add slices strawberries and cover with popsicles ends. Freeze overnight and and enjoy on 4th of July!

Have a fun and safe 4th of July!
xo catherine

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