yacon
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!
Vegan Chocolate Milk
Is there a single kid out there who didn’t want to upgrade their traditional school milk for chocolate milk? If you weren’t deemed lactose intolerant, milk was probably a staple in your childhood diet. For most of us, it was milk in our breakfast cereal, a carton with our school lunch and finally, a big glass of milk with dinner. Unfortunately for me, I have been lactose intolerant for as long as I can remember. And I am not the only one. About 1/3 of Americans are as well. In addition, milk has been in the hot seat the past few years with questions about how healthy it really is. So what is a health-conscious girl like me supposed to do? Create something that tastes even better of course, with no gray areas! That’s right — Chocolate Milk is getting a Naturally Healthy makeover!
Now, I created this chocolate milk recipe for my little 3 year old nephew. My twin sister and brother-in-law are trying very hard to ensure that he eats healthy, but in a world where every restaurant wants to serve your kid juice or chocolate milk, it can be hard. They win some battles and lose others, but now, he can have “chocolate milk” whenever he comes to visit Auntie Laura! Plus, I added a little touch of yacon syrup to the recipe. So, not only is he getting something delicious with no refined sugar or fake ingredients, but he is also getting some prebiotics which are great for his tummy and mine, too!
*This recipe was originally featured on Blendtec 4/20/16. http://www.blendtec.com/recipes/vegan-chocolate-milk
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup raw cashews soaked for 2 hours
- 3 cups water
- 5 medjool dates pitted
- 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
- 1/8 tsp vanilla bean powder optional
- 1/8 tsp cinnamon
- dash salt
- 2 1/2 tbsp cacao powder
- 1 tbsp yacon syrup
Servings: servings
Instructions
- Place all ingredients (excluding yacon syrup) in a blender and blend for 2 minutes. Add yacon and pulse 2-4 times until well blended. Serve and enjoy immediately of seal in an airtight mason jar in the refrigerator for up to 7 days.
Recipe Notes
Helpful Hint: If you don't accidentally drink all of the chocolate milk as soon as you finish it, note that it is completely normal for the milk to separate slightly. Simply shake before serving.
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New Ingredient Alert: Yacon Syrup (What It Is + How To Use It)
Have you heard of yacon syrup yet? Well, let me get you up to speed.
Yacon syrup gained quite a bit of notoriety a few years back when it was featured on the Dr. Oz Show. Dr. Oz discussed the benefits and its possible link to weight loss. Although I was very excited to hear about this, I don’t take everything I see on TV at face value!
So, I continued to educate myself about the health benefits and found some interesting information. There’s evidence that proves consumption of yacon is linked to weight loss, but most studies have been done on rats. So, although it looks really promising, let’s stick with the facts.
Here are the basics:
- It’s an extract from the root of the yacon plant grown in South America.
- It looks similar to a sweet potato in its whole form but looks and tastes similar to molasses in its liquid form.
- It’s high in antioxidants, prebiotics, and fructooligosaccharides (FOS), which is a dietary fiber that keeps you feeling fuller longer, assists with digestion, and is low glycemic.
Let’s go back to my favorite part of this superfood — the taste. Yacon syrup can be used as a sugar substitute to help keep your body healthy and your taste buds happy. That is right, Yacon Syrup is a Low Glycemic Sugar Substitute!
It tastes amazing as the sweetener in fresh chocolate sauce (see my low-glycemic recipe below) or in other homemade treats.
Chocolate Sauce
Ingredients
- ¼ cup refined coconut oil
- ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
- 3 tablespoons yacon syrup
- ¼ cup cacao powder
Preparation
Mix all wet ingredients together in a small mixing bowl. Add cacao powder and whisk until well-blended. Use on anything that requires chocolaty goodness!
Yacon syrup: beneficial effects on obesity and insulin resistance in humans,” Universidad Nacional de Tucumán, Argentina, 2009).
Clin Nutr. 2009 Apr;28(2):182-7. doi: 10.1016/j.clnu.2009.01.013. Epub 2009 Feb 28.
*The post originally appeared on MiindBodyGreen February 13, 2016