La Belle Vie Holistic Living

(note about comment posting since I've been told it's a tad bit confusing...the link to post a comment is under the title of the post) Back in Ecuador, I discovered chocolate making. Ok, no, that's a lie. My history with making chocolate actually dates back to childhood. Since I can remember, I have loved creating culinary yum yums for those that I love. My parents for their wedding were given a chocolate cookbook and as a child I became a voracious reader of this miraculous book and tried numerous of its magical recipes. My favourite one to make and share was for decadent chocolate truffles. But in Ecuador, I bought a 10lb bag of cacao paste, and a 10lb bag of cacao butter, and went to town. Like, literally, I would make a ton of different types of chocolate and then go into town and hand them out to people (while, of course, eating a number myself for Quality Assurance purposes). My specialty was a raw peanut butter chocolate cup variety, which definitely won me many frie...

I've moved! Visit my new blog La Belle Vie for more recipes and healthy living tips. Don't forget to update your bookmarks. xo I've been meaning to do a detox for a while now. I've been feeling less than awesome - the state of limbo I'm in with waiting to travel and dragging my feet and the season change toward cold cold cold and wet have not been helping. I've been tired, unmotivated, anxious, and a bit down. Add to this a weekend of eating almost nothing but processed soy, and a switch flipped and I was suddenly ready.  I've been on the detox for about a week now and have felt great about the foods I've been eating. It's been about 95% raw, tons of veggies and fruits, with some seeds and nuts for protein and healthy fats. I've steered clear of concentrated sweeteners and anything processed or refined. I've had no cravings, which is great. I was experiencing detox symptoms, but they seem to be on their way out.  ...

I've moved! Visit my new blog La Belle Vie for more recipes and healthy living tips. Don't forget to update your bookmarks There are few things I love more than dinner parties. They're pretty much my favourite way to see and chill with friends - especially when it's not beach picnic weather. Here is the deliciousness that was enjoyed at one I went to the other week (all photos by Lucas Soloway). Oven-roasted peppers, mushrooms and aubergine with a cesar salad. Salad made by the lovely Joanne of We Animals . Lasagna in an alfredo sauce made by the amazing Lucas. The lasagna recipe is by PETA and can be found here , the alfredo sauce is by Don't Get Mad, Get Vegan . You can get gluten-free lasagna noodles at certain stores (check Kensington if you're in Toronto). If you can't find them, then make this dish with gluten-free pasta as a casserole! The Kind Life's Candied ginger pears by Joe and my chocolate orange gluten-free biscotti (re...

I've moved! Visit my new blog La Belle Vie for more recipes and healthy living tips. Don't forget to update your bookmarks. xoxoxo I heart nanaimo bars. My friend Shannon also loves them. I've seen gluten-free vegan ones, and eaten the delicious ones from LPK culinary groove. But traditional nanaimo bars are a heavy-on-the-refined sugar affair and both of us wanted to create one that steered clear of the white stuff. We both thought of recipes  separately and came up with almost identical ones - funny how that happens. The base and the chocolate ganache were easy to create. The middle layer, however, which gets its flavour and texture mainly from the sugar, was more of a challenge. The vanilla almond cream is delicious in its own right, but not quite like the sugary yellow filling of a nanaimo bar, leading this tasty square to be dubbed by Shannon's husband the Tofino Bar. To make base 1c macadamia nuts 1c cashew nuts 1/2c coconut, shredded ...

Iris at The Daily Dietribe recently hosted an adopt-a-gluten--free-blogger-athon. I thought this was a super cool idea. Ever since I first came across Lisa's blog, Raw on $10 a day , I've been meaning to test drive some of her recipes; this was the perfect opportunity. Of course because timing always works out so perfectly, I ended up having an event to plan at work. I had great teammates helping me to do so, but it still took up an insane amount of my time. So, I ended up not being able to really try out any recipes for a while. But then! Kate and Robin emailed me that they were stopping in Toronto as part of their cross country tour. So we got together and had an awesome uncooking party of Lisa's fabulous recipes. The food was amazing and the company awesome.And, like any good dinner party, there was lots of kitty hugging. Ryder, the amazing foster kitty/best kitty ever was so excited and ran around so much that he was panting by the time Kate and Robin were leaving....

I've moved! Visit my new blog La Belle Vie for more recipes and healthy living tips. Don't forget to update your bookmarks! Back in september 2009, I climbed the CN Tower in support of the united way. It actually wasn't bad at all, I was just horribly thirsty as you're not allowed any water throughout the whole thing. Anyway, I had a fundraising gift setup where for different amounts of sponsorship, I would give you homemade raw treats made by moi. Anyway, at the $50 level, I offered a homemade gourmet meal. Well, 3 people made that level! Namely, the boy's mom, dad and dad's girlfriend. So last night we had my father-in-law and his girlfriend over. I made a three course meal, and I must say it was definitely one of the best meals I have prepared to date! starting course: salad with chopped cucumbers and mushrooms, dressed in a creamy tomato miso dressing and sprinkled with almond and sunflower parmasan entree: zucchini linguine in a sundried toma...

I've moved! Visit my new blog La Belle Vie for more recipes and healthy living tips. Don't forget to update your bookmarks! chocolate raspberry torte: chocolate nutty crust, topped with fresh raspberries and fudgy sauce I'm not going to lie, I totally make up whether to call it a torte, a tart or a pie based on what sounds nicer. I'm pretty sure this is not a torte...aren't tortes filled with denser fillings or something? I have no idea. Anyway, I know it's been forever forever forever since I posted anything. The reasons are many-fold: we had to bring our computer in for fixing so it was away for a while we both came down with the WORST FLU I HAVE EVER HAD IN MY LIFE. It is horrible! And it's still kicking! Thank god it's on the way out now at 1.5 weeks. I actually didn't get out of bed for 3 straight days. And then, when I did, I could only do light activity because simple tasks like cleaning the cats' litter exhausted me too much....

Basic white layer cake with chocolate chips and chocolate mousse Like the little black dress, the basic white is a timeless classic. When you can't think of a dessert to make, or want something that will go with everything, the white cake is the perfect thing to fall back on. What's even more is that it's the perfect blank dessert slate, totally customizable to whatever creative inventions you're feeling in the moment - much like dressing up a LBD with accessories, making for a totally different outfit each and every time, even when starting with the same thing. You can make it a layer cake, add chocolate chips, make it an ice cream sandwich and top it in many different ways. Serves 4 To make * 1 cup macadamia nuts 1 cup cashews 1 cup walnuts 1 tsp cardamon 1 tsp vanilla 1 cup dates blend all dry ingredients in food processor until finely crumbly. Add dates and blend until dough sticks together. Press into 2 small springform pans. Remove from pans. Sh...

I've moved! Visit my new blog La Belle Vie for more recipes and healthy living tips. Don't forget to update your bookmarks! Today's my day off. I had planned to spend it cleaning and uncooking (wait, what's the definition of cooking? does making raw food still get called cooking?)...so far I've just watched a lot of True Blood...and now the day is ticking away and I have to head off soon to go paddling...so not the most productive day. But it has been relaxing and the cats have all hung out with me, so I don't feel like I've wasted it, which is always a good thing. Anyway, I did manage to make some food today...Unfortunately when I went to pick up nuts yesterday, Bulk Barn was all closed up for the day. So my original plans of banana walnut bread and raw granola were temporarily foiled... I did manage my first attempt at a raw mississippi mud pie. I don't really know what a mississippi mud pie is; the one time I went to eat one, they took way too ...

I've moved! Visit my new blog La Belle Vie for more recipes and healthy living tips. Don't forget to update your bookmarks! A family friend, Craig, used to make the most delicious pies. We'd go over for dinner and there'd be three pies! Blueberry, apple and strawberry rhubarb. Now, as a kid I thought rhubarb was horrible, and haven't gotten around to trying it again...but the other two pies were amazing!! Since becoming vegan and gluten-free, I think that I've attempted a pie about 2-3 times. Which really isn't a whole lot, particularly considering that in theory I really like pie (although come to think of it, I don't think I made a whole lot of pies before either...). The first time I made it was when I had just begun gluten-free baking, and it was essentially just brown rice flour...i.e. not so nice. The second was made with Earth Balance and was buttery and flaky. I wanted to try a raw pie, and thought almond pulp would do the trick. I tried...

Here are some other delicious hazelnutty goods I made as well... I really like making nut butters. I think it's just the coolest thing ever. The first one I made was macadamian nut butter and oh my god was it a dream. Not only did it butterize super fast, but it was wonderfully naturally sweet and overall insanely delicious. I bragged about it nonstop even though the boy so kindly reminded me that I didn't actually do anything, as I hadn't added anything to it at all. Details. Hazelnuts I've found are a bit more bitter than the macadamian nuts were or something. Well, not bitter, but not naturally sweet in any way. That said, the hazelnut butter before I added anything else to it was still quite nice, so you might want to try it with just the hazelnuts, or with the hazelnuts and a bit of coconut oil for a creamier butter. But, if you want to be fancy like me: chocolate hazelnut butter (wow, I've gotten so creative with my names...) 1c hazenuts 1 tbsp agave...

I've moved! Visit my new home  Make Life Beautiful for more recipes and healthy living tips. Don't forget to update your bookmarks! what's the difference between a pie and a tart anyhow? why do I randomly keep coughing? wait, ignore that second one, I was just on a question roll... anyway, it's our father's day dinner today and I wanted to make a yummy chocolate nut cake. The filling is the icing from Ani Phyo's chocolate walnut torte . At first when I mentioned this as a possible recipe, my mom vetoed it saying my dad couldn't eat avocados as they caused him to hallucinate. Then she told me about how they'd gone to their friends' place for dinner, my dad had downed two bowls of avocado soup and disappeared. They found him hours later (I don't quite understand the reason for such an excessive time lapse, but hey clearly my parents are very strange) lying on the porch, thinking he was dying. So I was going to make a different recipe instea...