Easy No Bake Chocolate "Nice' Cream Cake .. Whole Food, Healthy, Guilt Free

Happiness is ... Healthy desserts!!

I love this recipe and I must say its the prettiest dessert Iv ever made.  5 stars in the impress others category and .... its SUPER quick and easy to make!!

oh and its HEALTHY.

Its a hot Thursday in July .... scorching Thursday in July, but I refuse to turn on the AC.  Yup Im one of those non AC-ers.  I love the sound of the breeze blowing through the trees in my backyard and the birds.  Therefor I will sloth it out today as I do everything at 30% speed.  With a cold Berry water in hand and my best friend Bear by my side, on the patio, I shall survive :) 

So back to my Nice Cream Cake .. 

I was always a dessert gal, but traditional desserts with the refined sugar and oils never did me any good.  Hence my obsession with healthy desserts.  In my eyes it just cant get better.  A sweet treat that is actually good for you and wont put the love in your handles.  

With these wonderful ingredients this recipe serves up a kicking does of antioxidants, rich in fiber, vitamins C,E, B1, B3 & B6/ Minerals including Iron, selenium, calcium, magnesium & phosphorous.  

Plus its lactose free.

I used a glass pie plate but next time I will use a spring form cake pan 

I used frozen berries (defrosted with a little maple syrup) at first but the fresh berries were so so much better.

I also made cocnut whipped cream ... HEAVVVENNNNN! I'll post the recipe for that soon

side note. put on the whiped coconut cream just before eatinng, it freezes as hard as a rock ..

Ingredients:

The Crust

       1/2 cup cashews
       1/2 cup hazelnuts 
       10 medjool dates pitted
       1/4 tsp sea salt
       1/4 cup coconut oil
For Nice Cream filling:
       20 medjool dates pitted
       1 can coconut milk (not lite)
       5 tbs cocoa powder
       2 tbs cornstarch or arrowroot powder
       2 tbs nut butter (peanut, almond, cashew)  the peanut butter                  will have a distinct taste, the others will not.
       2 tbs agave nectar (or maple syrup)
       1 tbs vanilla extract
       1/2 tsp fine grain sea salt
fresh strawberries to garnish
coconut whipped cream

*You can add 2 tbs espresso powder if you'd like for coffee nice cream which goes amazing with date "caramel" (Ill post recipe later but you can search Pinterest for "vegan caramel sauce"


Directions;
1. Grease 9 inch pie pan or 10 inch spring form cake pan with coconut oil.
2.  in food processor, process crust ingredients together.  It should be crumbly and sticky.  Press the crust firmly into the pie pan.  If the mixture is dry you can add a little agave.
3.  Wipe down your processor and add the nice cream ingredients.  process until good and smooth.
4. Pour the nice cream mixture into the pie dish.
5. Place in freezer.  I let it sit uncovered until its completely firm.  Then I cover it.

Thats it! When its completely frozen, wa-laaaa!!  add your strawberries and your good to go.. Guilt free happiness!!  

I was thinking this nice cream filling would be good between two cookies as an ice cream sandwich with some chocolate chips .. endless possibilities :))

Tell me if you like it and any variations you make!

MY BFF Bear.  This man is 14!  We just found out he has kidney disease :(  but he too now eats whole foods like the rest of us ... no more kibble .. and hes doing great! Just loooook at that face!!!  <3

xo Theresa

365 Days Of Pinterest - Day 25 - Witches Brewwwwww!!

365 Days of Pinterest Day 25 Witched Brew!!!!!

Did I mention Halloween was my favorite???  I am about to share a family recipe with you that has been passed down ... hmmmm .. it hasn't been passed down yet, but Iv been making it for 16 years and its a huge crowd pleaser so that makes it awesome  :)

WITCHES BREWWWWW!!!  ohh haaa haaa haaa

Oct 31 is my daughters birthday and we've had Halloween bashes with the fam every year.. this is a child friendly brew that foams and grows .. and is sooo soo easy!

What You'll Need

~ A cauldron!  dont skimp out on the cauldron it what puts the witch in the brew

~ plastic fingers, eyeballs .. whatever small appendages you can fund .. but not too small if you have young youngins who may try to eat them or choke on them ... I get my appendages from the $$ store.

~ Cream Soda .. here in Canada cream soda is pink ..  where my family lives in New York its white .. so if you cant find a pink pop get an orange pop .. or add some green food dye to sprite .. 

~ Rainbow Sherbet

~ I like to use spooky glass to .. I got mine from Spirit Halloween and my $$ store

I like to put on a show .. I mix the brew infront of the kids like a witch concocting a potion .. "First I add the eye of newt" .. throw in your eyeballs ... :then a dash of flesh "in go the fingers" .. 

add your pop first and let the kid watch a you add the sherbet because that is what causes the reaction .. the brew will begin to foam and grow!!!  You can say something clever like "bubbly and broil" .. thats not too clever actually.

Stir your mixture a bit and it will really start to bubble up!  take your ladle and spoon into your SPOOOOKY cups!  serve immediately because when the pop gets flat and the sherbet melts completely its pretty much just a sloppy sugary mess ..  enjoy!!!!!

.....  she looks frightened 

cool decor :)

Day 2 ~ 365 Days of Pinterest! "Orange Candle"

Day 2 of my 365 Days of Pinterest.. slowloy working my way through DIY's, recipies, beauty tricks, health tips and morrrrrrrre!!!  

Today I chose the "DIY Orange Candles.  Just add olive oil and light"  ... ok, will do.

http://pinterest.com/pin/267119821620419799/

You'll need an orange, knife, olive oil and a lighter ... what are the odds of this working .. in my house the bet was 50/50 ... 

do not cut the orange in half .. my bad

instead cut the skin midway, not the orange.  Take your finger and gently peel the skin away from the fruit making sure not to rip off the inside stem as it will be your wick.  

I separated the outside skin from the orange first .. keeping the orange in tact .. then I carefully removed the inside section by section making sure to keep the stem attached to the bottom of he orange.

wa la ... only took 2 attempts .. 

add your olive oil .. about 3/4 from the top.  Dip the stem of the orange into the olive oil .. then straighten it up again.  I twisted the end together with my fingers.

light ... the tension is mounting ....

attempt 1 .. flame fizzled out but we gave it another shot and there was fire :)

The light was dim at first, a bit disappointing .. but after a few minutes it really had a nice warm glow and the entire orange illuminated!!!

heres my twist ... I didnt like the smell of the oil so I added an essential oil!  I love this one .. 'Chill Out" by Aura Cacia.  Chamomile and Lavender ... Im so chilled ..  My candle burned all night!

So pin test #2 another success!!!  I love my orange candle .. I read you can use any citrus fruits  ... I used a clementine since its small and the skin is thin . I wanted to see it illuminate, and it did.  I bet a green lime, yellow lemon and pink blood orange would look so pretty together on one plate!  Ill try it this summer at one of our outdoor gatherings :) 

Day 1 ~ 365 Days of Pinterest! "Fairies in a Jar"

So I'm addicted to Pinterest .. can you blame me .. enticing recipes, exercise tips sure to firm those glutes .. fashion finds, hair tips, home improvement .. and DIY fabulous-ness !  But there's no use in pinning if you are not putting the pins to use .. so here I go ... I started with fun little DIY pin .. "Faries in A Jar"  ... one of my fav pins .. but a fellow pinner had commented that it didn't work so I gave it a go .. with a minor tweak I thought might have been why it did not work for her .. 



Here is the original post...  Pretty photography ... I wasn't expecting my jar to look exactly like that :) 

first I took fine glitter from the Dollar store .. about 2 Tbs.  drop the glitter into your jar and roll the jar in your hands so the glitter coats the inside of the jar evenly. (I used blue and pink)  The photo looks like I used alot of glitter but it was just a fine coat .. almost translucent.

 Crack your glow stick to illuminate it .

 Cut open your glow stick and pour the liquid inside the jar.

Seal your jar and roll again until the liquid completely covers the outside of the jar.  At fist I thought Id need 2 or 3 glow sticks but the liquid eventually did cover the entire inside of the jar.

Thats the deal!  Of course in the pitch black I didn't see much 'shimmer' but in dim light the jar did look pretty magical .. It had that cool blue glow and the low light in the room caught the flecks of glitter so it was a glittery glowing fairy like jar o' fun ... pretty close to magic.

I do have to say .. that glow stick liquid smells mighty toxic so try to keep it in the jar.

Also it only glows for about 30 min.  Still a fun little project.

have fun :)