Join Laura Marquis as she talks about her new book and puts a healthy twist on your favorite desserts.
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dieting
Holiday Peanut Butter Cups
Happy Holidays Everyone! Today I am putting a holiday twist on an all time favorite, Peanut Butter Cups. These healthy vegan treats have all the fun, but none of the guilt or refined sugar. I have this chocolate in my freezer at all times.
Check out the video below to see how easy it is to make these little guys.
Ingredients
Chocolate
- 1/4 cup coconut oil (refined)
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 2 tbs yacon syrup
- 1/4 cup cacao powder
Peanut Butter Filling
- 1/2 cup peanut butter
- 2 tbs coconut oil (refined)
- 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 tbs date paste
Servings: candies
Instructions
Chocolate
- Mix all wet ingredients together in a small bowl. Add cacao powder and whisk until well blended. Use about 1/2 teaspoon to distribute chocolate into holiday tree mold. Transport to freezer to set while making peanut butter filling.
Peanut Butter Filling
- Mix all ingredients together in small mixing bowl. Place filling into piping bag. Fill remainder of tree mold with peanut butter mixture. Let freeze for one hour.
Recipe Notes
Helpful Hint:
A little goes a long way with the chocolate sauce. Remember that the peanut butter is the superstar and let it shine. Also note peanut butter trees should be enjoyed straight out of the freezer.
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FAT: It Doesn’t Make You Fat!
F-A-T. This three letter word has caused too much confusion for far too long! Today, I want to shed some light this topic. People are still afraid of eating fat, which is so sad. Back in the day, it was widely excepted by nutritionists that consuming fat caused people to get fat. But the science of today has been updated… much like your new smart phone (loving that new iOS 10!). And, let’s be honest, none of us want to trade in our new and improved smart phones for an outdated flip phone. So, it is time for all of us to get the latest update, but this time for our nutrition and better health! My goal is to keep this post short and sweet as this is the first post I am writing on this topic, and I am sure there will be many more to come.
Lets start with the most basic fact we need to know. Fat is essential to our diets and general wellbeing. Now to be clear, I am talking about healthy fats like nuts, avocados, olive oil and coconut oil. I do not mean the unhealthy fats in processed fast food. To understand the difference between healthy and unhealthy fat check out this link.
So why is healthy fat so essential? Eating fat improves your energy levels, regulates hormones, supports brain function, helps to absorb fat-soluble vitamins (A,D & E), helps gain muscle and, when eaten with carbs, slows down the absorption of food, which helps control blood sugar spikes! Meaning it controls insulin spike! This is so important because insulin is a fat-storing hormone. So fat actually does the opposite of what we all thought to be true years ago. These are just some of the awesome benefits to eating fat. If you would like to learn more, I suggest checking out Eat Fat, Get Thin, & Always Hungry?.
I hope this post peaks your curiosity and inspires you to learn more. Be on the look out for my next blog on what I eat in a day to stay on track.
Carrot Cake
Fall is coming! Well, it is for most of you in America! For us here in San Diego, I think we have a few more Santa Ana’s and warm beach days before we feel the cool nights and brisk days… But that doesn’t stop me from wanting to make delicious goodies with more cinnamon and nutmeg to get me in the mood! This week, I am finally sharing my recipe for raw carrot cake.
This is a very special recipe to me. I developed this cake over a year and a half ago, and it was so good, it almost made it into my cookbook, Sweets in the Raw: Naturally Healthy Desserts. However, something wasn’t 100% with it. I mean, it was a solid 97%, which is way more than a passing grade, but I knew I could make it better with a little time. Now I should mention, the previous “final recipe” took six attempts to get it right. This new recipe took an addition two more attempts, and I have finally nailed it! I really love this dessert, and you’re going to love it too.
Ingredients
Cake
- 1/2 cup almond meal
- 1/2 cup walnuts
- 1/2 cup raisins
- 10 medjool dates pitted
- 1/4 cup shredded coconut
- 1 cup carrot pulp
- 1/8 cup coconut oil refined
- 1 tablespoon lemon juice
- pinch salt
- 1 tablespoon cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon nutmeg
- 1 teaspoon ginger
- 1/2 cup walnut additional
- 1/2 cup raisins additional
Vanilla Cashew Frosting
- 1 cup cashews soaked for 2 hours
- 4 medjool dates pitted
- 1/3 cup coconut oil refined
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1/2 lemon juiced
- pinch salt
- 1/4 teaspoon water or nut milk if needed
Servings:
Instructions
- Directions For Carrot Cake: Process all ingredients except for additional ingredients in food processor until process until even consistency. Sprinkle in remaining ingredients and pulse until evenly blended. Firmly press crust into silicone mold and refrigerate for 1 hour.
- Directions For Vanilla Cashew Frosting: Blend all ingredients until smooth even consistency in blender. Remove cake from silicone mold. Evenly spread frosting onto cake. Set aside in refrigerator for 1 hour.
Recipe Notes
Helpful Hint
The flavors of this cake get deeper and more powerful with each hour it sets. I suggest making these one day before you plan on serving for the perfect flavors.
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Sweets In The Raw: Naturally Healthy Book Launch Party
Earlier this month, I had my official launch party for my cookbook, Sweets In The Raw: Naturally Healthy Desserts, at True Food Kitchen Fashion Valley. I pulled out all the stops to make it truly amazing! I figure you only have one big launch party for your first cookbook ever, right?!?
I was so happy to see everyone who came to support and celebrate the book, despite it being a Thursday night, the official start of the football season (Go Chargers!).
To see so many loving and familiar faces was truly humbling, but to see so many new people who have been following me through my blog, social media and TV appearances was incredibly flattering. Thank you ALL for being so supportive. I really hope you love this book and the desserts inside it as much as I loved creating it! With that being said, there were so many different things that came together to create this event, so I wanted to take a minute to share some images and thank some important people who made it all possible.
A massive thank you to Sunfood, True Food Kitchen (Lea, the restaurant manager there is the best) and BROOKE LIMPERIS PHOTOGRAPHY for sponsoring my event. Not to mention everyone who has made this cookbook a reality: Mike Carpenter (photographer), Stacey Uy (graphic designer for cookbook), Danielle Grady (editor), Lisa Dibbell (editor), Jeniffer Thomas (book consultant), Samantha Murphy (social media graphic designer), Kristi Dosh (national pr), Tricia van Dockum (local pr), Paulina LaScola (photographer) and of course my #1 supporter, Dan Marquis (test taster & husband).
Long before before creating this cookbook, I dreamed of how it could impact individual people’s lives and then hopefully, the world. At the event, I was able to hear everyone’s specific stories as to why they came, and those stories were truly inspiring. To see the impact this project has already started to create is incredible. Without you, I would’ve never thought about making a cookbook.
Strawberry Banana Nice Cream
I love ice cream!! I mean, I really, really love it. So much so that I’ll hear an ice cream truck and want to go chasing after it! The struggle is real, guys.
You may know this already, but, sadly, I have a few problems with ice cream…
#1 I can’t eat dairy.
#2 Most ice creams are loaded with sugar.
To combat my dilemma, which I’m sure many other people are facing (I’m looking at you, millions of humans with diary issues!), I created several vegan ice cream recipes in my cookbook, Sweets in the Raw: Naturally Healthy Desserts. However, not everyone has an ice cream maker or 45 minutes to spare, so I needed to create an even easier option!
And here you are! Enjoy this vegan, gluten-free and refined sugar-free Strawberry Banana Ice Cream the next time you are craving a sweet treat!
Ingredients
- 2 large bananas (frozen)
- 1 cup strawberries
- 1/2 tsp vanilla extract (optional)
Servings: servings
Instructions
- Cut banana into coin size pieces and freeze until rock solid. Process the frozen banana, strawberries and vanilla in a food processor. Process just until your nice cream looks creamy. Serve right away or save into a container and freeze until ready to serve.
Recipe Notes
Helpful Hint:
Hold onto the food processor in the beginning as the frozen bananas may cause a jolt in the very beginning!
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Sweets in the Raw Pre-Release Book Signing
I am still coming down from all the love last week! Last saturday, I had my first Book Signing Event as an extra special thank you to all of the people who inspired me to create my new book Sweets In The Raw:Naturally Healthy Desserts. About 3 years ago, I would make healthy vegan desserts for my clients at Marquis Pilates & Fitness at our annual holiday parties. They continued to ask me for the recipes and would hire me to make desserts for their parties. A year later, I had the crazy idea of putting a book together just for them, but, somewhere along the way, it got sooo much bigger than that! As I posted pictures on my Facebook and Instagram, I started gaining some attention. I realized that there was nothing out there like what I was trying to create! That was when I decided that if I was gonna do this, I should do it BIG! I wanted the whole world to be able to have access to healthy desserts. And that is exactly what I am working on!
Last saturday, I am so blessed to say I had so much love and support. Of course I had all of my friends from the studio come, but I was so surprised and excited to also see people that I hadn’t seen in over 4-6 years! I had old colleagues, crossfit buddies and massage clients show their love and check out what this Naturally Healthy Desserts journey was all about! To say it all went well would be an understatement. We even ran out of desserts, it was so busy!
But, there is even better news! Although I was originally told that I could only sell advanced copies of my book at this one time event, there have been so many requests for my book that I have been given the green light to sell additional pre-released copies between now and July 31st! Yes, that’s right! If you wanted to get a pre-release copy of the book but couldn’t make it to the book signing, it isn’t too late! Just click this link to order.
My journey has just begun! September 1st will be my BIG official national release! In the meantime I will need your help to share this book and message of real #naturallyhealthy desserts with the world. Please feel free to share pictures of the delicious desserts you are making and share your favorite recipes with your friends! Thank you again everybody!
PS: Be on the lookout for the Strawberry Cheesecake Tutorial video next friday on my youtube channel.
ADVANCED BOOK SIGNING OF SWEETS IN THE RAW: NATURALLY HEALTHY DESSERT COOKBOOK!
The day is almost here, the day of my very first book signing. Two years ago, when I first decided I was going to create a healthy dessert cookbook without refined sugars, I had no idea the journey it would take me on. My goal at the time was pretty simple: create a couple dozen healthy and delicious dessert alternatives for my friends, family and clients and put it into a cute cookbook… Easy enough, right?
In the industry of healthy and fitness, there is a lot of time and energy put into the next big fad and way too much time spent telling everyone what they can’t have and very little on what you can have. After taking the time to learn and understand what highly processed foods and sugars do to the body, I began some R&D into the healthiest desserts I knew of at the time — vegan desserts. Unfortunately, I found that many of these desserts were using highly processed ingredients. I then turned to raw desserts and, although the basic concept was amazing — simple, no baking required, all whole ingredients — they still weren’t actually healthy. Most of recipes I found were loaded with so much refined sugar (the kind that makes your blood sugar go sky high) that it completely cancelled out the benefits of the whole foods they were being paired with! Lucky for me, I came across a few bloggers, chefs and cooks who showed me how to use whole ingredients in a new way! People like: Susan Powers of rawmazing.com, Angela Liddon of ohsheglows.com, Megan Gilmore of detoxinista.com, Heather Pace of sweetlyraw.com, Laura-Jane The Rawtarian at therawtarian.com and Ella Leché of pureella.com. Now all of these beautiful ladies don’t necessarily just make desserts or exclusively use unrefined ingredients. But, thanks to them, I was truly inspired to start using natural sugars in completely new ways. After learning that skill, the recipe crafting process came quite easily, after all, I did grow up in a kitchen with a mom making homemade desserts on the daily! Months of playing in the kitchen and 46 recipes later, I now have what is the very first raw, vegan family & kid-friendly dessert cookbook made with no refined sugars or processed ingredients – Sweets In The Raw: Naturally Healthy Desserts!
So what can you expect in this book? Simple, beautiful, easy-to-make desserts with fresh whole ingredients. The recipe chapters are organized by dessert type so there is a chapter for: Bars, Bites & Cookies, Cakes & Tarts, Candies, Fudge & Truffles and Frozen Treats, Ice Cream & Sorbets so that when your sweet tooth hits, you can easily find a recipe to satisfy it. There are even handy icons at the top of every recipe page to let you know exactly how long each recipe should take with a Soak Time, Prep Time and Freeze Time symbol. I have even added a whole section about the most important things to know about eating healthy sugars so that you have less confusion with this sweet and sticky subject.
To think that this Saturday I will be hosting my very first book signing for the people who inspired it all is so surreal! I have been able to accomplish so much in such a short period of time, all thanks to your love and support! I hope that this book not only gives you delicious recipes (Strawberry Cheesecake and Raspberry Sorbet are my favorites!), but also gives you some inspiration to play around in your own kitchen.
To get your hands on this Pre-Release, be sure to RSVP to the event. If you are unable to make it this time around, the book will be nationally released in September, and you can expect a large book tour when it comes. Thank you for all the help during this journey!
Why Naturally Healthy Desserts Won’t Sabotage Your Diet
Whether I’m serving my Naturally Healthy Desserts at a private function or teaching clients how to prepare them at home, convincing others that these desserts are healthy once they have tasted them is a challenge. Even after I explain that my Naturally Healthy Desserts will not sabotage your diet because my ingredients include whole foods with plenty of fiber and healthy fat, it still never fails. The same question always pops up:
“But, how many calories do they have?”
Strawberry Cheesecake
If you are looking for crowd-pleasing Valentines’s Day dessert then look no further! This vegan strawberry cheesecake is all you will need! It is fresh, light and creamy!
Ingredients
CRUST
- 1 cup raw almonds
- 6 6 deglet noor dates
- dash salt
- 1/4 tsp cinnamon
CHEESECAKE FILLING
- 2 cups raw cashews (soaked for 2 hours)
- 8 medjool dates
- 2/3 cup refined coconut oil melted
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
- 2 tbsp lemon juice
- 1/4 cup bing cherries for color
- 2 cups strawberries
Servings: mini cheesecakes
Instructions
CRUST DIRECTIONS
- Process all ingredients until graham cracker-like consistency in the food processor. Firmly press crust mixture into the base of 2 small springform or 12 mini molds. Set aside.
CHEESECAKE FILLING DIRECTIONS
- Process all ingredients except for strawberries and cherries until even blended. Add remaining fruit until smooth, even consistency in the food processor. Evenly spread filling onto base. Set aside in freezer.
Recipe Notes
Helpful Hint: If you are unable to use fresh fruit, be sure to fully thaw your strawberries before adding them into the filling; otherwise the coconut oil will harden up and create a chunky looking texture.
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