Raw Vegan Caramels with Chocolate Nut Butter

These Raw Vegan Caramels are adapted from a recipe at Averie Cooks

These are beautiful little bites of chewy, sweet goodness.

I took Averie's advise and added some homemade chocolate butter on top

just to make them even more perfect.

I made a chocolate sauce by blending sugar free peanut butter with cocoa powder and

NuNaturals Liquid Vanilla Stevia

The main sweetness comes from ground up dates.

Make sure if you're using whole dates to remove the pits.

Thanks to NuNaturals, they are sugar free except for the date sugar.

When you have the 'caramel' dough, flatten it out on a stick free surface to about 1/2 inch thick.
Refrigerate to firm the caramel.

 I combined the dates with sunflower seeds.  Blend the Sunflower Seeds first and then add in the other caramel ingredients. 

I had better success pulsing the blender much of the time until a paste formed.

The original recipe calls for pine nuts, but I'm saving money using sunflower seeds but
I'm sure that these would be even better using Pine Nuts.

Raw Vegan Caramels with Chocolate Nut Butter Frosting

Caramels

1 Cup Raw Unsalted Sunflower Seeds (or Pine Nuts)

15 Pitted Medjool Dates

2 Tbs. Olive Oil (if using Pine Nuts, omit the oil)

2 tsp. Liquid Vanilla Stevia

Pulse Sunflower Seeds until pulverized.  Add in the dates

and pulse until lumpy batter forms.  Add in other ingredients and

continue pulsing until smooth and lay out on a non stick surface.

Push batter down to form a large 1/4 inch thick rectangle.  Refrigerate for

30 minutes to firm up caramels before icing.  Cut into squares.  Store in a

sealed container.

Chocolate Peanut Butter Frosting

16 oz Jar of Natural Peanut Butter

1/4 Cup Palm Sugar or other sweetener

1/4 Cup plus 2 Tbs. Cocoa Powder

1 tsp. Liquid Vanilla Stevia

1 Tbs. Non Dairy Milk

Pinch of Sea Salt

Blend in a food processor until smooth.  Store in a sealed container

in the refrigerator or freezer for up to 2 months (they won't last that long but they could)

See the original recipe for other options and flavors. I think next time

I will make a smaller batch and use the Pine Nuts.

I'm also thinking that some coarse Sea Salt sprinkled in would be a great addition too!

Guilt free, Dairy Free, Gluten Free delicious little bites of sweet enjoyment!

Fantastic heathy recipe.  Thanks again Averie....

Enjoy!

Make sure you've entered to win in the NuNaturals giveaway!

Citrus Coconut Butter Cup Cookies

On my way home the other day, I noticed that the Butter Cup flowers are flooding the area fields.  They are just beautiful and inspired me to try a new cookie recipe with an old silicone mold I have.         The recipe is pretty simple to make. 

 In the instructions, I've altered it to just make rounded cookies with the chocolate centers but if you do have a cool mold to use it does form well to the details of a pattern.

Doesn't make them taste any better, it looks nice.                                                 

                                                        Real Butter Cup Flowers are toxic to humans.  But my version is definately not.  Lemony, with a touch of Vanilla. And they are pretty guilt free as far as Dairy and Sugar. The recipe here makes about 12 medium size molded cookies. 

Enjoy!

Thanks for all the Tropical Traditions Coconut Oil Hair Treatment Giveaway Entries!

Tropical Traditions Virgin Coconut Oil Giveaway

http://www.tropicaltraditions.com/virgin_coconut_oil.htm

Dairy Free Raspberry Mocha Cream Cookie Dough Cake

" Averie Cake "

I'm calling this one 'Averie' cake for short.  Months ago, I read about this magical spread,
Cookie Dough Butter, that Trader Joe's kept selling out of.  Well I never was able to get my hands on a jar until today.  Inspired by the wonderful recipes that Averie at Love Veggies and Yoga has given us all:

I came up with this Dairy Free Cake:

Mocha Fudge Smoothie

I needed to use up some of the fudge that I made recently, http://cannedtime.blogspot.com/2011/11/almond-butter-mocha-fudge.html, I have way too much sweet stuff in the house right now and have neglected my green smoothie routine too much lately.  So I tried to justify making a smoothie out of some healthy fudge...........voila..........Mocha Smoothie:

Not too exciting but it allowed me to add some good stuff in with the fudge to help my digestion at least.

Ingredients:

4 - 5 small cubes of Almond Butter Mocha Fudge
1 Oz. Almond Milk or other non dairy milk
1 Tbs. Chocolate Hemp Protein powder
3 soaked Dates
1 frozen banana
2 Tbs. ground flax seed
1/2 cup or so of ice

Mix in blender until smooth.





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Marbled Chocolate & Orange Tavoletta from Russell James

Marbled Chocolate & Orange Tavoletta

http://therawchef.com/therawchefblog/marbled-chocolate-orange-tavoletta

Almond Butter Mocha Fudge

Almond butter and meal are great nutritional foods that can easily and inexpensively be made in your own kitchen with a few basic tools.  Here's a great link on the steps to get started making your own, you can also purchase either at most grocery stores these days as well. 

http://naturalnoshing.wordpress.com/2011/07/22/homemade-almond-butter/