Laura Marquis shows host Heather Lake how to make two easy vegan fall inspired desserts.
gluten-free
Fruit Tarts Sweets In The Raw: Naturally Healthy Desserts
Chocolate Fudge Pops
Peanut Butter Cups
Strawberry Cheesecake
Chocolate Fudge
Food Restrictions: Are They Real & How To Deal With Them
Today, I want to talk to you about something that impacts my life on the daily — dining out with family and friends. This article is for those of you who have food allergies and intolerances, and those who don’t. Read on!
Now, if you’re one of the many people who has a food allergy or intolerance (peanuts, dairy, gluten, strawberries, you name it), you may remember a time when you were dining out with a friend or family member and you had to explain why you couldn’t eat a particular item… And maybe the response was positive and supportive! But, maybe it wasn’t.
Or maybe you don’t have a food allergy or intolerance, but you made a meal for an individual only to find out that they couldn’t even eat the food. Bummer! If only you had known you would have tried to make something for them!
This blog is to help everyone figure out how to navigate this common problem much more easily!
In today’s day and age, we all know someone who either has a lifestyle preference in relation to food, a food allergy, a sickness or a disease. So, how do we get by when almost all social activities revolve around food?
To those of you who have modified or specific diets, don’t be afraid to speak up. But I get it… It’s easier said than done. I’ve been there — I’ve gotten the “oh, you’re just doing this to lose weight, aren’t you,” the unsupportive “it’s probably in your head,” or even the “well, one bite isn’t going to kill you!” What you need to remember is that some people may not understand because they do not have the same physical reactions. This is where I have learned that by kindly explaining why you can’t eat something make a BIG difference. Now I am not telling you to shout it from the roof tops, but if you just let the people know that you are close with such as friends, family and coworkers that you eat lunches with it helps a lot!
Whenever I let someone new know about my food allergies, I immediately follow it up by letting them know that those foods I’m giving up just aren’t worth the discomfort, feelings, or pain I feel after, but that I still miss some of my old favorites like donuts and ice cream. I then say “If I could still eat it, I would.” Personally, I think this better helps the person you are talking with to not feel like you are judging them for their food choices either.
*Side note: There are two things most people without food reactions do not want to hear ever! #1: The Snooty, “I can’t eat that!” #2: The gory details of your intolerances. (Trust me! Not Cool!)
3 Tips For Social Dining When You Have Food Restrictions:
1. Offer to bring a dish large enough for everyone that is modified to your diet.
2. Give suggestions as to where you can all go out to eat.
3. Host dinners at your house.
For those of you who are lucky enough to have no specific diet, I am jealous! But, if you’re on the receiving end of someone telling you about their diet restriction, please try to be supportive and respectful. Focus on what they can have and if you don’t understand something please ask. Really! We don’t mind! The last thing to remember is that anyone who truly has a food allergy is not, I repeat, IS NOT judging you for what YOU eat.
3 Tips For Social Dinning With People Who Have Food Restrictions:
1. When hosting a party always ask your guest if they have any food allergies or restrictions.
2. Ask your guests to bring their favorite dish.
3. Try new foods, meals and restaurants that allow you and your loved one to eat in accordance to their diet.
The main thing is respect from both sides — if we can respect, support and not pass judgement on each other, the dining out experience should be fun and easy!
Comment below on your own tips and tricks to dining out with food restrictions.
Easy No Bake Nectarine Cobbler
This may not be a big shocker, but I really like fruit. Like if I had to pick one food group to eat for the rest of my life, fruit would be it!! I love everything about fruit — its natural sweetness, its juiciness… I mean, what’s not to love?! Now if I had to pick a favorite fruit, that’d be a bit harder…
Anyways, about two weeks ago, I finally had time to go to a local produce store in San Diego that I had been meaning to go to for months now. It’s called Specialty Produce and I’d heard amazing things about it. They supply the produce to local restaurants in San Diego and even better, they only sell food from California, meaning this produce is crazy fresh!
When I arrived, I wasn’t exactly sure what to expect as it is not your typical grocery store. It is this massive warehouse, nothing very special to look at, but what it lacks in appearance, it makes up for in quality! My first goal — go directly to the cooler. Why? Well, because I saw that they promoted purple raspberries, and there was no way I was going to leave this place without trying one! But, when I got there, I saw sooo much more!
If you were to ask my husband about this trip, he’d say I was like a little kid in a candy store! There was so much fruit, and some that I had never even seen before! Lucky for me, the nicest guy working there clearly saw I was excited, possibly even overwhelmed honestly, and came to the rescue. He started off my fruit exploration experience by asking what I enjoy the most, and then took it one step further and asked if I preferred tart versus sweet fruit. Because I couldn’t narrow it down, he let me sample all the different varieties of fruits (who knew there were so many differing flavors?!), but I was unaware he was saving the best for last! We starting off with fruits a little more tart, like the purple raspberries and bush berries, then moved onto fruits a little sweeter, such as the blueberries, strawberries and peaches. But that last fruit… white nectarines. I mean, I love nectarines, but on my list of favorite fruits, it’s just average. Until he sliced me a piece. Now, if you can imagine fireworks going off in your mouth from a pure sweet bliss, that is exactly what was happening to me! I knew right then and there I was going to buy a ton of these bad boys and whip up a special dessert!
And there you have it — the White Nectarine Cobbler. Now it is time to go enjoy my new favorite dessert, before my husband finishes it all! 🙂
I LOVE this time of the year! The sun is shining, the birds are chirping and stone fruits are finally in season! This is the perfect time of year to enjoy peaches, nectarines, plum, apricots and cherries. My favorite part of this season is making an already amazing fruit even better by jazzing it up with other whole and healthy ingredients. This week I was inspired to to make a white nectarine cobbler!
| Servings | Prep Time |
| 6 servings | 10 minutes |
| Passive Time |
| 3 hours let set in fridge |
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I LOVE this time of the year! The sun is shining, the birds are chirping and stone fruits are finally in season! This is the perfect time of year to enjoy peaches, nectarines, plum, apricots and cherries. My favorite part of this season is making an already amazing fruit even better by jazzing it up with other whole and healthy ingredients. This week I was inspired to to make a white nectarine cobbler!
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Ingredients
Fruit Base
- 6 white nectarines peeled
- 1 tsp cinnamon
- 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 tsp coconut oil refined
- 1 tsp lemon juiced
Servings: servings
Instructions
Fruit Base
- Peel ripe nectarines and cut into slices. Sprinkle with vanilla lemon juice, coconut oil and cinnamon. Gently mix by hand and place in to 8x8 pan.
Crumble
- Place pecans, dates, salt and cinnamon into food processor and blend for 1 minutes. Sprinkle over Fruit Filling.
Recipe Notes
To find the perfect nectarine:
1. Look for a medium-sized fruit. Gigantic nectarines will be a little grainy or mealy, and the really small ones tend to be tart and generally picked before fully ripening.
2. Look for a soft, sweet-smelling fruit. Buy them when they are still somewhat firm (not rock hard), but almost a little soft to the touch. This will ensure that they will be ready in one to two days if left out on your counter. Now, you may look a little silly, but smell your fruit! It should have a light, sweet fragrance.
3. Ask some in produce or at the farmer’s market to try a sample. Not only will it guarantee you a great batch, but the people working may teach you even more tricks to ensuring a great fruit every time!
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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!