Desserts

Easy Coconut & Vanilla Chia Seed Pudding

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This recipe is from the Naturally Sweetened Desserts Community Cookbook, which I am loving! It was submitted by Amy from Real Food Whole Health. Check out her awesome site. She’s a real food based nutritional therapist and certified GAPS practitioner.

I used to eat a lot of chocolate chia seed pudding when I was vegan, so I was feeling nostalgic when I made this. Plus, I’m a sucker for easy recipes. Cooking as often as I do is hard enough. I also liked how this recipe can easily be adapted for different flavors, which makes it more like a cooking technique than just a recipe. This recipe doesn’t use much maple syrup, which is fine by me, I prefer to eat less sugar anyway. But, if you have a sweet tooth you may need to add more sweetener.

Easy Coconut & Vanilla Chia Seed Pudding
 
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Ingredients
  • 2 cans organic coconut milk (Native Forest or Natural Value brand) or 3
  • cups of homemade coconut milk
  • 2+ tbsp pure maple syrup
  • 2 tbsp pure vanilla extract
  • 2 shakes of unrefined sea salt
  • ¾ cup of chia seeds
Instructions
  1. In a blender, combine coconut milk, maple syrup, vanilla and sea salt and blend
  2. until smooth. Turn blender on very low (around 2 on a VitaMix blender) and add
  3. chia seeds, blending just until combined.
  4. Pour into a large glass bowl and quickly whisk every 10-15 minutes for an hour.
  5. You can now pour the pudding into serving dishes and enjoy, or store in Mason
  6. jars and place in the fridge. Pudding will continue to firm up in the fridge.
Nutrition Information
Serving size: 4-6

Notes: You can add spices like cinnamon, nutmeg, Garam masala or Five Spice Powder—blend in before adding chia seeds. Serve pudding with fun toppings—like nuts, dried fruit, chocolate chips, etc. Raw honey may replace maple syrup.

Reviews

Naturally Sweetened Treats: A Community Cookbook

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I’m so excited to offer you an ebook I contributed to! I submitted my Coconut and Date Mousse recipe, which happens to be one my favorite recipes. 41 other health food bloggers also contributed their dessert recipe with information on their blog so that you can find even more great recipes and health information.
This cookbook emphases cooking real food from scratch. 36 recipes are grain free, 39 gluten free, and 30 are dairy free recipes. It comes in pdf form so you can easily be read on most devices and checkout is through ejunkie which uses paypal. Links to blogs and social media are active and will immediately send you to that site after you click the link. This makes this ebook a very efficient directory of health food bloggers that you can easily reference. Personally, I’m cannot wait to explore everyone’s site!

Price: $3.97
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Desserts

Coconut Cream “Cool Whip” with Strawberries

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Coconut Cream "Cool Whip" with Strawberries | Healing and Eating

 

This recipe would be perfect for Valentines Day! Plus, it was really easy so you will have plenty of time to do other romantic gestures.

Coconut Cream “Cool Whip” with Strawberries
 
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Ingredients
  • 1 can of coconut cream (I used trader joes)
  • seeds from 1 vanilla bean
  • ¾ cup of powdered sugar (aka confectionery sugar)
Instructions
  1. Whip together ingredients in hand blender.
  2. Then refrigerate for a few hours until solid.
Nutrition Information
Serving size: 4

Dinner

Vegan Butternut Squash Chili

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Vegan Butternut Squash Chili | Healing and Eating

 

This tasted delicious, and had just the right amount of heat. Trust me, the heat builds the more you eat. Plus, it was easy to throw everything in the slow cooker, and have a ton of leftovers! I will definitely be making this again.

Vegan Butternut Squash Chili
 
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Serves: 6-8
Ingredients
  • 1 medium white onion
  • 1 red bell pepper
  • 2 jalepenos
  • 1 tbsp of tomato paste
  • 3.5 cups of chopped butternut squash
  • 1¾ cans of kidney beans
  • 1 tbsp of cumin
  • 1 tsp of chipotle powder
  • 1 chopped tomato
  • 1 tsp of sea salt
  • 1 tsp of black pepper
  • 3 cloves of minced garlic
  • 2 cups of organic vegetable stock
Instructions
  1. Chop onions, tomato, red bell pepper, and mince garlic cloves
  2. Add chopped vegetables including pre-chopped butternut squash and vegetable stock to slow cooker.
  3. Finely dice jalepenoes and scoop out most of the seeds (which is where the heat is). Add to slow cooker.
  4. Then add rest of the ingredients, and stir so they are mixed.
  5. Set slow cooker on high and cook until butternut squash is soft 6-8 hours. Stir occasionally since the slow cooker will be full and vegetables on top will cook slower.
Nutrition Information
Serving size: 8

Desserts

Cacao and Coconut Cream Pie

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Cacao and Coconut Cream Pie | Healing and Eating

 

Aren’t these tulips beautiful! Shameer got them for me for my birthday yesterday. We’re having a little house party today and I made a cacao and coconut cream pie. It’s gluten and dairy free, and the only sweetener is with whole dates. (Although I did use a lot of them) If you are watching your sugar just reduce the amount of dates and amount of cacao powder. I used a lot of both because I like the bitter flavor of dark chocolate and wanted that flavor to stand out, but I had to balance it out with a lot of dates so it would be sweet enough to serve to a group of people expecting dessert.

Cacao and Coconut Cream Pie
 
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Serves: 8 slices
Ingredients
  • 30 medjool dates
  • 1 cup of cacao powder
  • 1 14 oz can of coconut cream
  • 1 cup of light coconut milk
  • 1 tbsp of great lakes gelatin
  • ¼ cup of water
Instructions
  1. Prebake a pie crust 15-20 minutes at 350 degrees fahrenheit. I like the Paleo Pie Crust from Elana's Pantry.
  2. Blend dates, cacoa powder, coconut cream, coconut milk in Vitamix.
  3. Dissolve gelatin in water slowly. Heat it over the stove until you see steam, don't boil or you will destroy the gelatin.
  4. Mix mixture from blender into pot with gelatin. Pour into pre-baked pie crust and refrigerate until solid. I would give it a couple hours at least.

This is in the Sunday Social Blog Hop.

Reviews

Mindful Living Menu Review at Veggie Grill

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Mindful Living Menu Review at Veggie Grill | Healing and Eating

I’m really excited to have another place to eat healthy. When I cook at home, I normally follow paleo rules, but when I can’t stand to do another set of dishes, I prefer to dine out vegan style. I do this for two reasons, the first one is for my dairy allergy. I don’t even have to ask if it was cooked in butter since they don’t have any animal products in their kitchen. The second reason, relates to the low quality of animal protein at restaurants. There are exceptions, but most of the time you just don’t know what you are getting or where it is coming from.

Shameer and I tried out the Veggie Grill in Santa Monica, and I can easily see why they are so popular. The prices were very reasonable for food that tasted fresh. I also saw a lot of locals getting take out, so I can see how this would be popular for people after a long work day. My favorite part of the mindful living menu was the portions. Even though they have to list calories, they still gave you a decent size dinner. I absolutely hate it when you order something healthy and you’re hungry and then they bring out a small portion. The great thing about truly healthy food is that you can eat a lot of it, and not have to worry about calories or gaining weight. So big props to Veggie Grill for that.

When we were there, we tried the Bombay Bowl which was my favorite, the Quinoa Power Salad which is what the picture above is, the All Hail Kale Salad with Blackened Chickin’ and the Chill Out Wings with BBQ Sauce. Normally, I’m not a fan of fake meat, but I wanted to try it out since it was organic and non-GMO. Would I order it again, probably not. Did it taste good? Surprisingly yes. The Chill Out Wings were uncannily close to fast food chicken fingers, so I could see why they might be a yummy alternative when you have a craving, but I still prefer to eat as unprocessed as possible. I loved the Bombay Bowl, because the curry sauce had a ton of great flavor which made the roasted veggies and steamed kale taste delicious, plus the fat from the coconut milk in curry sauce made me feel satisfied. For the same reason, the Quinoa Power Salad was awesome because it gave you plenty fat from chopped avocados and almonds.

We went to dinner early … about 5:15ish to avoid parking issues. They have a small lot in the back in their Santa Monica location, but it was full and difficult to maneuver when we left, so I’d avoid the rush if possible. Santa Monica parking can be hellish, but it’s the closest to us. They have plenty of other locations if that is a concern for you.

If you liked this article, check out my List of Healthy Restaurants in Los Angeles.

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