Sweet Potatoes and Unpacking

After a week of having officially moved in, I still have boxes to unpack! I'm so ready to be done. My food habits have improved signigicantly, but still aren't fantastic. It's slowly getting better and easier, I've been eating more salads, smoothies and plain raw veggies. 

Here's another basil smoothie made from almond milk, basil, lemon juice, and agave nectar. 

I've been loving basil lately, my favorite is spinach, basil, frozen strawberries and water blended up! Really tasty and simple.

I bought a bag of Bob's Red Mill Old Country Style Muesli as a quick and easy meal. Here it is with cacao nibs, coconut, and almond milk. 

I graduated from Meditation 2 class through the Psychic Institute of Southern California! Again, I highly recommend these classes if you ever have the opportunity to take one or more. I started Healing 1 today, I'm so excited!

For the last day of Meditation class, I brough a raw vegan chocolate pudding sprinkled with cacao nibs, bee pollen, and shredded coconut.

I started with about 2 cups almond milk, added 1/2 cup of cocoa powder, then mixed in 1/2 cup of chia seeds then let it sit over night until the chia seeds absorbed all the liquid, then I added about 1 tsp vanilla beans, 1/2 cup agave nectar (or more to taste) and another 1/2 cup cocoa powder and blended the whole thing up until smooth. I honestly kind of threw this together, and just kept adding cocoa and agave as needed. I was suprised at how delicious and rich it turned out, considering that it was mostly just water and seeds!

My good friends Kevin, Chrissie and I tried a new restaurant in Echo Park called Elf Cafe. They serve all vegetarian, all natural food with lots of decadent vegan options. I had an amazing cream of mushroom soup and we shared the vegan fondue (roasted veggies with a walnut romesco sauce!) and the stuffed meditarranean dolma. We also got a pot of chai tea with almond milk to share. Mmmmmm, so delicious. 

Chrissie has a great sense of food, she uses all natural ingredients and always comes up with something flavorful and creative. She told me she'd made sweet potato enchaladas, served with a home made verde sauce and goat cheese. I'm sure it was out of this world. I made this dish inspired by hers.

I baked a sweet potato at 400 degrees for about 20 minutes, it was still firm when I took it out of the oven. Then I cubed and sauteed it with 1/2 cup of chopped onions, scallions, and garlic. I added lime juice salt, pepper, and chili powder to taste. I made home made tortillas with masa flour, canned black beans with added onions, Trader Joes verde salsa, pico de gallo salsa and avocado. This dish had so many flavors and textures, sweet potatoes are extremely comforting in any form.

I reheated the rest of the sweet potato for lunch the next day and ate it on it's own, still amazing. For dinner I made a 'taco salad' with romaine lettuce, spinach, tomatoes, peppers, brown rice, black beans, and salsa.

And now, the BEST recipe of the week: Coconut Sweet Potato Pudding! Shown here with raw vegan chocolate pudding and blueberries.

Almost Raw Coconut Sweet Potato Pudding

1 cup fresh coconut meat

1 lg sweet potato (baked)

3 tbsp honey (or to taste)

3 tbsp agave nectar (or to taste)

1 tsp vanilla bean

1 tbsp organic soy lecithin

4 tbsp coconut oil

2 tsp agar agar (optional, makes the consistency very thick)

4 tbsp chia seeds in 3/4 cup water, soaked until liquid is completely absorbed

1 cup water (may need more depending on the softness of sweet potato and coconut)

Blend all ingredients together in a high speed blender until smooth. Place in the refridgerator for 2 hours to allow agar agar to set. Serve with raw chocolate syrup, berries, etc. This could easily be a pumpkin pie custard filling if you added 1 tsp pumpkin pie spice. I layered this with chocolate pudding then topped it with coconut oil chocolate and shredded coconut. Yeah, really really good. Really good. 

Have a great Sunday everyone :)