I am so honored to intuitively create recipes for The Farm at South Mountain CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) members. And, I’m happy to share this week’s Winter Arizona recipe with you, which was inspired by the beautiful beets and the incredible herbs: Thai Basil & Kaffir Lime Leaves.
Hope you enjoy roasting the beets and using them in my, now favorite hummus. Make a small batch of the pesto for contrast to the hummus.
The plant-based cooking video shows you step-by-step to prepare this incredible, tasty, healthy dish.
Steps to Prepare the Dish
Soak the garbanzo beans the night before you plan to create the beet hummus.
Cook the garbanzo beans for the hummus.
While the beans are cooking, roast the beets.
Next, toast the pine nuts.
Make the pesto.
Make the hummus.
Mindfully plate the beet hummus and pesto with the CSA Swiss chard and sweet peppers.
All Recipes Serve 2
THAI BASIL & KAFFIR LEAVES PESTO
Create a simple, delicious pesto with this week’s Thai basil and kaffir lime leaves.
SIMPLE INGREDIENTS
1 cup Thai basil leaves
1 tbsp Kaffir leaves, minced
¼ cup pine nuts, dry toasted
2 tbsp olive oil
Pinch sea salt
SIMPLE STEPS
Toast pine nuts in dry pan on stove for about 2 minutes.
Place all ingredients, except olive oil, into a small blender.
Blend for about a minute.
Add the olive oil to the blender and blend another minute.
ROASTED BEETS
Use this Quick Roasted Veggie method to easily cook roots.
SIMPLE INGREDIENTS
2 beet roots, sliced
2 tbsp fresh Kaffir lime leaves, minced
3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
Pinch sea salt
SIMPLE STEPS
Pre-heat oven to 425 degrees F.
Cut beet roots into slices.
Mince Kaffir lime leaves, taking out the stem.
Place beets into roasting pan.
Drizzle with olive oil, Kaffir lime leaves, and sea salt.
Roast for 10 minutes.
Toss the beets.
Roast another 10-12 minutes.
ROASTED BEET HUMMUS
Create this simple, delicious, beautiful hummus with The Farm’s beets.
SIMPLE INGREDIENTS
2 beets, roasted
2 cups cooked garbanzo beans
¼ cup tahini
2 tbsp lemon juice
2 tbsp minced garlic
Pinch sea salt
2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
SIMPLE STEPS
Place beets into food processor and process for about a minute.
Add all other ingredients, except olive oil.
Process for 2-3 minutes.
Stream in olive oil and process another 1-2 minutes.
Enjoy with CSA sweet peppers.
Plant-based farm-to-table recipe intuitively created by Melanie Albert, Founder & CEO Experience Nutrition, Award-winning cookbook author, Creator of the Plant-Based Food Art Movement.
Based on a request for a chocolate dessert that is actually healthy, I’m happy to share this simple-to-prepare, delicious, healthy Avocado Chocolate Pudding. This dessert features a few superfoods as toppings for the pudding: Goji berries, raw cacao nibs, and hemp seeds.
Simple Recipe from “A New View of Healthy Eating” by Melanie Albert
Chocolate Avocado Pudding
Incredible, rich, and creamy vegan chocolate pudding will delight everyone. Make it for dessert or an after-work or after-school snack. Once you’ve made this avocado pudding, experiment by adding some extras, such as bananas, raspberries, blueberries, strawberries, homemade nut milk, and freshly ground spices, like cinnamon and nutmeg.
SIMPLE INGREDIENTS
2 ripe avocados
4 Medjool dates, pitted and sliced
1 tsp vanilla extract or 1 vanilla bean, scraped
1/4 cup raw cacao powder
1 cups water
Avocado Pudding Mise en Place
SIMPLE STEPS
Place all ingredients in food processor or high-speed blender.
Blend on high for about 2 minutes.
Stop and scrape down sides of food processor or blender, if needed.
Blend for another 2 minutes or until completely pureed and smooth.
Refrigerate for 1-2 hours.
Enjoy topped with goji berries, cacao nibs, hemp seeds,citrus, raw cacao powder.
Avocado Pudding: Ingredients into Food Processor
Avocado Chocolate Pudding. Superfoods.Add Edible Flowers & Raw Cacao Powder to your Plate.
By Melanie Albert, Founder & CEO Experience Nutrition, Intuitive Cooking Expert, and Award-Winning Cookbook Author
Excited to share with you the Aromatic Apple Berry Pie to enjoy creating with your family and friends. This dessert is an incredible aromatherapy culinary experience with hand-grinding spices, including cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, and cardamom.
We created this dessert with 4 different varieties of apples at our hands-on Holiday Dessert cooking class at The Farm at South Mountain, and it was “perfect”. Such a beautiful, warming fall / winter dessert.
Links to the other plant-based dessert recipe prepared at the class:
Aromatic Apple Berry Crisp with Freshly Ground Spices
This apple berry crisp is one of my all-time favorites. From mindfully hand-grinding and enjoying the aromatherapy of freshly ground warming spices, along with the aromatherapy of the apples sautéing in the spices, to memories of eating pies when I was a child, this dessert is outstanding. Enjoy the process of setting up your mise en place, cooking, and enjoying this dish with your family and friends.
Topping
Simple Ingredients
1 cup rolled oats
½ cup almonds, walnuts, or pecans, sliced
¼ cup maple sugar
1 tsp cinnamon, fresh ground
1 tsp nutmeg, fresh ground
1 tsp cardamom seeds, fresh ground
1/4 cup grapeseed oil
Simple Steps
Hand-grind cinnamon, nutmeg, and cardamom.
Mix all dry ingredients for topping until well combined.
Pour in grapeseed oil and mix.
Filling
Simple Ingredients
5 apples, sliced
2 pears, sliced
1 cup raspberries
1 cup blackberries
3 tbsp grapeseed oil
¼ cup maple sugar
1 tsp cinnamon, fresh ground
1 tsp nutmeg, fresh ground
1 tsp cardamom seeds, fresh ground
½ tsp cloves, fresh ground
1 orange, juiced and zested
1 lemon, juiced and zested
Simple Steps
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
Place sliced apples and pears in a large sauté pan.
Turn heat to medium and add remaining filling ingredients.
Cook apples and pears for 15-20 minutes until slightly soft; stir occasionally.
Pour cooked apples with sauce into 8-inch by 8-inch baking dish.
Top with oats topping, raspberries, and blackberries.
Bake on middle oven rack for 30-35 minutes.
Plate and enjoy!
So glad Nathalia from Brazil was in town to capture some fun photos from our Dessert Cooking Class at The Farm. Thanks!
The beauty of the apples…and, all the mindful chopping…
The zesting and juicing of the lemons and oranges.
The aromatherapy of the cinnamon, nutmeg, and cardamom…And, beautiful teamwork!
A few additional fun photos from the class…
Apple cutting knife skills with Melanie Albert.More cinnamon aromatherapy.The beautiful apple crisp, and a batch of hummus…ready to be enjoyed.
Thanks to Natural Awakenings AZ magazine for featuring my Plant-Based Chocolate Pie on the cover and Plant-Based Dessert recipes in the January 2019 issue.
Natural Awakenings Arizona, January 2019Natural Awakenings Arizona, January 2019. Start the New Year Off Right
Purchase Melanie Albert’s award-winning cookbook,“A New View of Healthy Eating: Simple Intuitive Cooking with Real Whole Foods”
PUBLIC COOKING CLASSES IN PHOENIX, ARIZONA
Phoenix friends…hope you or your kids can join us at one of our hands-on intuitive cooking classes this season… Vision Board & Appetizers, Foods for Addiction Recovery, Spring Farm-to-Table, Raw Farm-to-Table, and Kids Food Art.
By Melanie Albert, Founder & CEO Experience Nutrition, Intuitive Cooking Expert, and Award-Winning Cookbook Author
Continuing to share with you delicious, beautiful, and “healthy” plant-based desserts: Berry Cashew Cream Pie, Chocolate Goji Berry Cream Pie, Aromatic Apple Berry, and Raw Carrot Cake. The desserts feature berries, chocolate, goji berries, and amazing aromatic culinary experiences with hand-grinding spices, including cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, and cardamom.
We created these desserts at our hands-on Holiday cooking class at The Farm at South Mountain and I have to say they were all so created with so much mindfulness and heart. Plus, they were delicious.
Today’s dessert, featured on the cover the the January 2019 issue of Natural Awakenings Arizona, is the Chocolate Goji Berry Cream Pie. Links to the other plant-based dessert recipes:
Try this simple chocolate dessert recipe for your family and friends. This gourmet-quality pie is so much fun to make and is beautiful and delicious. Learn to quickly and easily melt chocolate chips right in your oven. Enjoy the pie with superfood goji berries. If you have extra chocolate pie, cut it into small pieces and freeze for snacks.
Chocolate Goji Berry Pie
Pecan Crust
Simple Ingredients
2 cups raw pecans
¼ cup maple sugar
1½ tbsp coconut oil
½ tsp sea salt
Simple Steps
Pulse pecans and maple sugar in food processor.
Add coconut oil and sea salt.
Pulse to combine well.
Press and shape mixture into the bottom of a 10-inch springform pan.
Thanks to my friend Nathalia, from Brazil for capturing the focus of making the crust for the chocolate pie.
Pour the chocolate chips in a single layer onto a flat baking sheet.
Place in the oven to melt for no more than 3-4 minutes or until melted. Be careful that you don’t burn them.
Melt Chocolate Chips in the oven.
Blend the Filling
Place tofu, vanilla, sea salt, and melted chocolate chips into a food processor.
Blend until smooth.
Pour mixture into pie crust and chill for at least 30 minutes.
Top with nuts, and fresh fruit or goji berries.
Chocolate Pie Plating Mise en Place
Chocolate Goji Berry Pie Plating Mise en PlaceSimplicity of the Chocolate Goji Berry Pie
In awe of the beautiful chocolate pie created at the Dessert Cooking Class at The Farm at South Mountain.
The beauty of the Chocolate Goji Berry Pie prepared during the Dessert Cooking Class at The Farm at South Mountain.
While making this pie for the Arizona edition of the January 2019 issue of Natural Awakenings magazine, I had the fun opportunity to create a “birthday pop-up celebration” for urban farmer, Billy Anthony, of the Soil & Seed Garden at The Farm at South Mountain.
My honor to celebrate Billy Anthony’s Birthday with the Pie Pop-up.Thanks so much to Billy and Bailey for the Soil & Seed CSA (Community Supported Agriculture).
What fun celebrating Billy’s Birthday…thanks so much for “playing”!
Billy Anthony’s Chocolate Goji Berry Pie is ready to enjoy.
The beauty of food…Chocolate Cream Pie with Persimmons & Berries
Enjoying the Chocolate Goji Pie creations.
Yummm…And, the perfect setting, at The Farm at South Mountain to enjoy…
Thanks Billy Anthony for growing the beautiful produce at the Soil & Seed Garden at The Farm. And, Happy Birthday.
Happy Birthday to you, Billy Anthony…wishing you another wonderful year. Thanks so much for so passionately growing all of the incredible beautiful, tasty food at the Soil & Seed Garden at The Farm at South Mountain, Phoenix.
Thanks to Natural Awakenings AZ magazine for featuring my Plant-Based Chocolate Pie on the cover and Plant-Based Dessert recipes in the January 2019 issue.
Natural Awakenings Arizona, January 2019Natural Awakenings Arizona, January 2019. Start the New Year Off Right
Purchase Melanie Albert’s award-winning cookbook,“A New View of Healthy Eating: Simple Intuitive Cooking with Real Whole Foods”
PUBLIC COOKING CLASSES IN PHOENIX, ARIZONA
Phoenix friends…hope you or your kids can join us at one of our hands-on intuitive cooking classes this season… Vision Board & Appetizers, Foods for Addiction Recovery, Spring Farm-to-Table, Raw Farm-to-Table, and Kids Food Art.
By Melanie Albert, Founder & CEO Experience Nutrition, Intuitive Cooking Expert, and Award-Winning Cookbook Author
Excited to share with you four amazing, delicious, beautiful, and “healthy” plant-based desserts for you to enjoy creating with your family and friends: Super Berry Cashew Cream Pie, Chocolate Goji Berry Cream Pie, Aromatic Apple Berry, and Raw Carrot Cake. The desserts feature berries, chocolate, goji berries, and amazing aromatic culinary experiences with hand-grinding spices, including cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, and cardamom.
We created these desserts at our hands-on Holiday cooking class at The Farm at South Mountain and I have to say they were all so created with so much mindfulness and heart. Plus, they were delicious.
The first dessert is the Super Berry Cashew Cream Pie. Links to the other plant-based dessert recipes:
Choose a recipe that you are excited about and then come back and make another one.
Berry Cashew Cream Pie
Create a stunning cream pie that’s simple to prepare and full of flavor. Enjoy the process of adding superfood berries, acai and maqui, to add a beautiful purple layer of color to the pie, and have fun plating with your favorite fresh berries.
Berry Cashew Cream Pie
Walnut Crust
Simple Ingredients
1 cup walnuts
¼ tsp ground cinnamon
½ tsp coconut oil
¼ tsp vanilla
Pinch salt
Simple Steps
Process walnuts into a flour in a food processor.
Add cinnamon and salt and pulse to combine.
Add vanilla and coconut oil, and process until dough is crumbly, but sticks together.
Press crust into the bottom of an 8×8 parchment-lined pan.
Chill in refrigerator or freezer to set.
Filling
Simple Ingredients
1 cup raw cashews, pre-soaked in water 2-4 hours.
2 tbsp lemon juice
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 tbsp light agave
2 tbsp coconut oil
Pinch sea salt
2-3 tbsp cashew milk or water, as needed to blend
Simple Steps
Blend cashews, lemon juice, vanilla extract, agave, and sea salt in a high speed blender.
Add coconut oil, and blend.
Add cashew milk, as needed for smoothness.
Pour filling on top of crust in chilled pan. (Save ¼ cup of the filling to make superfood filling.)
Chill in refrigerator or freezer to set.
Superfood Filling
Simple Ingredients
¼ cup of cashew filling
½ tsp acai powder
½ tsp maqui powder
Simple Steps
Put cashew filling, acai powder, and maqui powder into a small bowl.
Stir with a spoon until thoroughly mixed.
Pour the filling onto the top of chilled pie in the pan.
Chill in refrigerator or freezer.
Berry Cashew Cream Pie: Maqui and Acai Filling
Plating
Simple Ingredients
½ cup fresh blackberries or blueberries
Simple Steps
Cut pie into squares or rectangles.
Plate with fresh blackberries or blueberries.
Plating Mise en Place…
Berry Cream Pie Mise en Place for Plating
The Superfood Berry Pie…
The Superfood Berry Cream Pie Beauty
A few photos from the Holiday Dessert Cooking Class at The Farm. Thanks to my photographer friend, Nathalia from Brazil for capturing the event.
Melanie Albert, Holiday Desserts Cooking Class at The Farm at South MountainBlackberries onto the Berry Cream Pie
A few more fun photos from the Holiday Dessert Cooking Class at The Farm
Thanks to Natural Awakenings AZ magazine for featuring my Plant-Based Chocolate Pie on the cover and Plant-Based Dessert recipes in the January 2019 issue.
Natural Awakenings Arizona, January 2019Natural Awakenings Arizona, January 2019. Start the New Year Off Right
Purchase Melanie Albert’s award-winning cookbook,“A New View of Healthy Eating: Simple Intuitive Cooking with Real Whole Foods”
PUBLIC COOKING CLASSES IN PHOENIX, ARIZONA
Phoenix friends…hope you or your kids can join us at one of our hands-on intuitive cooking classes this season… Vision Board & Appetizers, Foods for Addiction Recovery, Spring Farm-to-Table, Raw Farm-to-Table, and Kids Food Art.
By Melanie A. Albert, intuitive cooking expert, author, and speaker. Founder & CEO Experience Nutrition Group, LLC
I’m excited to share my favorite cooked flatbread, Sprouted Spelt Flatbread, paired with Raw Pistachio Pesto and Fresh Tomatoes.
As many of you are aware, I’ve been teaching whole foods cooking for several years, and am now learning more about gourmet raw culinary with Matthew Kenney Culinary. The flatbread really brings together these two ways of cooking. Enjoy!
Organic Sprouted Spelt Flatbread
Excerpt from “A New View of Healthy Eating: Simple Intuitive Cooking with Real Whole Foods”
A few years ago I discovered that I was sensitive to gluten (the protein in grains like wheat, barley, and rye). By exploring different grain flours, I’ve found that I’m not sensitive (no hives, no bloating, no headaches) to the Organic Sprouted Spelt Flour by One Degree Organic Foods. Have fun making your own flatbread with this simple recipe.
SIMPLE INGREDIENTS
¾ cup hot (not boiling) water
1 tbsp dry yeast
½ tbsp honey
2 tbsp organic olive oil
2 cups organic sprouted spelt flour
½ tsp sea salt
SIMPLE STEPS
Pre-heat oven to 500 degrees F with pizza brick in the oven.
Put dry yeast, honey, and olive oil into a cup with hot water.
Let it sit for about 10 minutes.
Pour sprouted spelt flour and sea salt in a bowl.
Add the water with yeast into the flour mixture.
Blend with a fork for a few minutes, then knead with your hands for another few minutes. Only knead for about 3-4 minutes total; otherwise, the flatbread will be tough. If the dough is sticky, add more flour. If it’s dry, add more water.
Coat a large bowl with olive oil. Place dough in bowl, cover with a towel, and rest for about 15 minutes. Any additional water in the dough will soak into the flour.
Split the dough in half. Place 2 balls of dough into the bowl coated with olive oil, and cover for about 2 hours (to rise).
Again, split the dough into 2 sections and spread it onto a pizza brick using your hands.
Bake for 5 minutes, then check for doneness (crispy on outside and soft on inside). Bake for another 3-5 minutes if needed.
Enjoy.
“This Organic Sprouted Spelt Flatbread has become a staple in my home and when I travel. This year I made the flatbread with 15 pounds of the flour and my family and friends from Florida to Arizona all enjoyed its simplicity.”
Quick Pistachio Basil Pesto and Quick Marinated Tomatoes
Quick Pistachio Basil Pesto
INGREDIENTS
¼ cup fresh basil leaves
¼ cup pistachios, rough chopped
1 TBSP organic extra virgin olive oil
1 TBSP fresh lemon juice
Pinch Celtic sea salt
SIMPLE STEPS
Rough chop basil and pistachios
Gently mix basil and pistachios with a fork in a small bowl
Squeeze in lemon juice
Drizzle in olive oil
Add sea salt
Stir
Add extra olive oil, lemon, or sea salt, as needed for your taste
Quick Marinated Tomatoes
INGREDIENTS
¼ cup tomatoes (variety of small heirloom, if available)
1 TBSP organic extra virgin olive oil
1 TBSP fresh lemon juice
Pinch sea salt
SIMPLE STEPS
Rough chop tomatoes and place in a small bowl
Add lemon juice, olive oil, and sea salt to tomatoes
Gently mix with a fork
Add extra olive oil, lemon or sea salt, as needed for your taste
PLATING PRESENTATION
Place three slices of flatbread on plate
Spoon pesto to half of each flatbread slice
Spoon tomatoes to the other half of each flatbread slice
Garnish with micro greens
Enjoy!
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If you are interested in purchasing in my book, “A New View of Healthy Eating,” stop by one of my cooking events in the Phoenix area. Or, if you are out-of-town, I’m happy to mail a copy to you.
By Melanie A. Albert, intuitive cooking expert, author, and speaker. Founder & CEO Experience Nutrition Group, LLC
New Year’s Day 2017 started with a beautiful yoga practice and commitment to extreme self care in 2017. Then, my 11 year old niece, Meredith, came to my home to visit and cook, which was definitely more self care for me.
Meredith decided to create the Vegan Chocolate Cream Pie from my new cookbook, A New View of Healthy Eating. This is a very simple-to-prepare, beautiful delicious creamy pie, and perfect for our New Year dessert.
Enjoy Meredith’s step-by-step photos in creating her pie. By the way her Aunt and parent’s loved the pie!
Meredith and her mise en place all ready for the Chocolate Pie
Meredith made the crust for her pie with raw organic pecans (finely pulsed), maple sugar, a little unrefined organic virgin coconut oil, and a dash of Celtic sea salt.
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Meredith’s next step: Press the crust into a 10-inch springform pan.
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The chocolate chips were melted in a 350 degree oven for about 3 minutes. So easy.
Looks like Meredith had fun blending and tasting the melted chocolate chips, tofu, vanilla, and sea salt.
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Nearing the end of creating the pie. Meredith adds the chocolate filling to the pie crust.
Meredith intuitively decided to add some melted chocolate chips to the top of the pie. Looking amazing! Into the freezer for about 30 minutes.
Excerpt from A New View of Healthy Eating: Chocolate Vegan Pie
Vegan Chocolate Cream Pie
Try this simple chocolate dessert recipe that everyone enjoys. This gourmet-quality pie is so much fun to make and is beautiful and delicious every time I teach it in my private and group cooking classes. Learn to quickly and easily melt chocolate chips right in your oven. If you have extra chocolate pie, cut it into small pieces and freeze for snacks.
Press and shape mixture into the bottom of a 10-inch springform pan.
Melt Chocolate Chips.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
Pour the chocolate chips in a single layer onto a flat baking sheet.
Place in the oven to melt for no more than 3-4 minutes or until melted. Be careful that you don’t burn them.
Blend the Filling.
Place tofu, vanilla, sea salt, and melted chocolate chips into a food processor.
Blend until smooth.
Pour mixture into pie crust and chill for at least 30 minutes.
Top with fresh fruit and nuts.
For the Vegan Chocolate Cream Pie and more recipes and culinary tips, my new cookbook, A New View of Healthy Eating is available right here. You can purchase and I’ll mail the book to you.
Happy 2017 to all, with lots of simple intuitive cooking!
By Melanie A. Albert, intuitive cooking expert, author, and speaker. Founder & CEO Experience Nutrition Group, LLC
While I’m still on my vacation sitting at my parents’ pool with the view in Cocoa Beach, I am thinking about New Year 2017 celebration, with a decadent chocolate dessert. I hope you enjoy this amazing recipe, which is totally healthy, gluten-free, vegan, and totally delicious, for your New Year celebration.
Excerpt from new cookbook, A New View of Healthy Eating: Raw Chocolate Bliss
Enjoy this rich, intense raw chocolate dessert, created with raw cacao powder, local Arizona dates, fresh raw almond butter, and vanilla bean, on a pecan maple sugar cinnamon crust.
Raw Pecan Cinnamon Crust
SIMPLE INGREDIENTS
1 ½ cups raw pecans
3 tbsp maple sugar
½ tsp sea salt
½ tbsp cinnamon, freshly ground
SIMPLE STEPS
Blend all ingredients in food processor until finely minced.
Press crust into 10-inch springform pan using your palms.
Chocolate Filling
SIMPLE INGREDIENTS
½ cup raw almond butter
½ cup date paste
¼ cup agave nectar or maple syrup
1 ½ tbsp tamari (gluten-free soy sauce)
1 cup raw cacao powder
1 vanilla bean, scraped
½ to 1 cup water
SIMPLE STEPS
Gather mise en place.
Make almond butter. Place raw almonds in food processor and blend until smooth and creamy.
Blend date paste. Soak dates in water for 1-2 hours until soft and pliable. Pour off water. Add to high-speed blender and top with water to cover fruit. Blend starting on low, then moving to high, until smooth.
Blend all ingredients in food processor until smooth and thick.
Add water if difficult to blend.
Pour filling into crust.
To set, freeze for about 20 minutes or refrigerate for an hour.
Use a knife dipped in hot water for a few seconds, wipe water away, then slice.
Plate with fruit or sorbet.
A New View of Healthy Eating Book is available now, with shipping from Phoenix or Cocoa Beach.
By Melanie A. Albert, intuitive cooking expert, author, and speaker. Founder & CEO Experience Nutrition Group, LLC
Thanks so much to Tom Shanahan and Spiritual Adrenaline for inviting me to be part of the Spiritual Adrenaline Holiday Dessert Guide. I am honored to share my ideas for healthy holiday desserts with you and hope you and your family enjoy creating and eating the delicious “good-for-us” desserts. The Raspberry Cara Cara Orange Sorbet is absolutely one of my very favorite refreshing desserts and is a perfect light dessert for the holidays. Have fun experimenting with making your own sorbet.
Excerpt from A New View of Healthy Eating: Raspberry Cara Cara Orange Sorbet
For most of my life I ate refreshing sorbet only at restaurants. Now with this simple sorbet process, I enjoy making it at home with local, seasonal fruit. I especially love sorbet with freshly harvested Arizona oranges. Intuitively create sorbet with fruits that are local and in season and experiment with different fruit, spices, and herbs to create sorbet year-round.
Sweet, refreshing sorbet features organic raspberries, local Arizona Cara Cara navel oranges, and a touch of nutmeg. Cara Cara oranges are one of my favorites, with their rosy interior and sweet taste. Pair this refreshing sorbet with shaved organic dark chocolate.
SIMPLE INGREDIENTS
4 cups fresh organic raspberries
5 tbsp agave nectar
½ Cara Cara navel orange, juiced
Pinch sea salt
Pinch freshly ground nutmeg
70% organic dark chocolate bar, shaved
SIMPLE STEPS
Blend all ingredients in high-speed blender.
Pour into frozen sorbet maker and process for about 15-20 minutes until thickened, soft, and creamy.
Sprinkle shaved dark chocolate on sorbet.
Serve and enjoy.
5 Tips to Make Your Own Unique, Delicious Sorbet
Peak sweetness. Use high-quality, fresh organic fruits at their peak of sweetness. The freezing process in making sorbet reduces the sweetness of fruit.
Experiment. Have fun making sorbet with all types of in-season fruit. Berries (blackberries, blueberries, raspberries, strawberries), stone fruit (cherries, peaches, plums), bananas, grapes, pears, oranges, and pineapple.
Natural sweetener. If the fruit tastes tart, add a sweetener such as agave nectar or coconut sugar.
Citrus. Add a squeeze of citrus to balance flavor or add acidity.
Accent. Experiment with spices such as freshly ground cinnamon or nutmeg, fresh herbs such as basil or mint, citrus zest, or vanilla.
A New View of Healthy Eating Book is available now, with 54 simple recipes and 84 simple culinary techniques in 9 delicious whole food categories.
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By Melanie A. Albert, intuitive cooking expert, author, and speaker. Founder & CEO Experience Nutrition Group, LLC
It is such an honor to be part of the Spiritual Adrenaline Holiday Dessert Guide. I appreciate Tom Shanahan for the opportunity to share my simple, healthy desserts with you. This Chocolate Avocado Pudding was one of the first “good-for-us” desserts I learned to make with “healthy ingredients.” I invite you to experiment with this pudding and I have a feeling you might enjoy it long after the holidays.
Excerpt from A New View of Healthy Eating: Chocolate Avocado Pudding (page 166)
Incredible, rich, and creamy vegan chocolate pudding will delight everyone. Make it for dessert or an after-work or after-school snack. Once you’ve made this avocado pudding, experiment by adding some extras, such as bananas, raspberries, blueberries, strawberries, homemade nut milk, and freshly ground spices, like cinnamon and nutmeg.
SIMPLE INGREDIENTS
4 ripe avocados
8 Medjool dates, pitted and sliced
2 tsp vanilla extract or 2 vanilla beans, scraped
½ cup raw cacao powder
2 cups water
SIMPLE STEPS
Place all ingredients in high-speed blender.
Blend on high for about 2 minutes.
Stop and scrape down sides of blender, if needed.
Blend for another 2 minutes or until completely pureed and smooth.
Refrigerate for 1-2 hours.
Enjoy topped with fresh fruit, nuts, and seeds.
A New View of Healthy Eating Book is available now. I’m happy to gift-wrap for you and your friends.
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By Melanie A. Albert, intuitive cooking expert, author, and speaker. Founder & CEO Experience Nutrition Group, LLC
It is my honor and pleasure to be part of the Spiritual Adrenaline Holiday Dessert Guide. Thanks so much to Tom Shanahan for coming out to Arizona to enjoy these delicious, healthy desserts with me. The Vegan Chocolate Cream Pie (with Soy) is a favorite for people of all ages. It is so decadent. And, the best thing is that is a really healthy dessert that is simple to prepare and perfect for the holidays.
Excerpt from A New View of Healthy Eating: Vegan Chocolate Cream Pie (pages 162-163)
Enjoy creating vegan, gluten-free chocolate recipes with fruit, raw cacao powder, nuts, natural sweeteners, and even sweet potatoes. If you are a chocolate lover or have a sweet tooth, try these “good-for-us” chocolate desserts.
Vegan Chocolate Cream Pie
Try this simple chocolate dessert recipe that everyone enjoys. This gourmet-quality pie is so much fun to make and is beautiful and delicious every time I teach it in my private and group cooking classes. Learn to quickly and easily melt chocolate chips right in your oven. If you have extra chocolate pie, cut it into small pieces and freeze for snacks.
By Melanie A. Albert, intuitive cooking expert, author, and speaker. Founder & CEO Experience Nutrition Group, LLC
I am so honored to be part of the Spiritual Adrenaline Dessert Guide and would like to thank the inspiring Tom Shanahan for inviting me to share my healthy recipes for the holidays with you. If you have never cooked a brownie with sweet potatoes, I invite you to give it a try. It is sweet, chocolatey and a perfect complement to your holiday celebrations. Enjoy!
Excerpt from A New View of Healthy Eating: Chocolate Sweet Potato Brownie (pages 164-165)
Delicious vegan, gluten-free chocolate dessert made with a sweet root veggie, the sweet potato. This brownie is always a favorite at kids’ and adults’ cooking classes. It’s one of those desserts we can even eat for breakfast!
SIMPLE INGREDIENTS
2 medium to large sweet potatoes
12 Medjool dates, pitted
⅔ cup raw almonds, ground
½ cup brown rice flour
4 tbsp raw cacao
3 tbsp maple sugar
Pinch sea salt
SIMPLE STEPS
Pre-heat oven to 350 F.
Peel sweet potatoes, cut into chunks, and steam in a bamboo steamer for about 20 minutes until they become really soft.
Once sweet potatoes are soft and beginning to fall apart, remove from steamer.
Mix sweet potatoes and pitted dates into food processor and blend.
Put remaining ingredients into a large bowl and stir to combine.
Add sweet potato/date mixture to other ingredients and stir well.
Place mixture into 8-inch by 8-inch parchment-paper-lined baking dish.
Cook for about 20 minutes.
Test doneness by pushing a toothpick into the brownie. The brownie is ready when a toothpick comes out dry.
Allow baking dish to cool for about 10 minutes.
Remove the brownies from baking dish.
Cool for a few minutes and cut into squares.
Enjoy!
A New View of Healthy Eating book is available NOW! Buy your copy today and I’ll gift wrap and ship it to you or your friends.
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By Melanie A. Albert, intuitive cooking expert, author, and speaker. Founder & CEO Experience Nutrition Group, LLC
It is such an honor to be part of the Spiritual Adrenaline Holiday Dessert Guide. Thanks so much to Tom Shanahan for coming out to Arizona to experience these healthy holiday recipes. The Aromatic Apple Crisp with Freshly Ground Spices is one of my very favorite desserts for the holidays, as it brings back childhood holiday memories of cooking with my Mom and Grandmom. The natural aromatherapy of the freshly ground spices – cinnamon, cardamom, cloves, and nutmeg – is an incredible mindful experience of the cooking. Enjoy preparing and eating this delicious dessert.
Excerpt from A New View of Healthy Eating: Aromatic Apple Crisp with Freshly Ground Spices (pages 126-127)
DESSERT: Aromatic Apple Crisp with Freshly Ground Spices
This apple crisp is one of my all-time favorites. From cooking with local organic apples to mindfully hand-grinding and enjoying the aromatherapy of freshly ground warming spices, from the aromatherapy of the apples sautéing in the spices to memories of eating pies when I was a child, this dessert (or breakfast) is outstanding. Enjoy the process of setting up your mise en place, cooking, and enjoying this dish with your family and friends.
SIMPLE INGREDIENTS
Topping
1 cup rolled oats
½ cup almonds, walnuts, or pecans, sliced
¼ cup maple sugar
1 tsp cinnamon, fresh ground
1 tsp nutmeg, fresh ground
1 tsp cardamom seeds, fresh ground
½ cup grapeseed oil
Filling
8 apples, sliced
3 tbsp grapeseed oil
4 tbsp maple sugar
1 tsp cinnamon, fresh ground
1 tsp nutmeg, fresh ground
1 tsp cardamom seeds, fresh ground
½ tsp cloves, fresh ground
1 orange, juiced and zested
1 lemon, juiced and zested
SIMPLE STEPS
Prepare your mise en place.
Hand-grind all spices in mortar and pestle.
Hand-squeeze and zest the orange and lemon.
Prepare topping.
Mix all dry ingredients for topping until well combined.
Pour in grapeseed oil and mix.
3. Cook the apple crisp.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
Place sliced apples in a large sauté pan.
Turn heat to medium and add remaining filling ingredients.
Cook until apples slightly soften; stir occasionally.
Pour cooked apples with sauce into 8-inch by 8-inch baking dish.
Top with oats topping.
Bake on middle oven rack for 20-30 minutes.
Enjoy!
If you are interested in more simple whole food, plant-based, gluten-free recipes that are healthy and delicious, my book, A New View of Healthy Eating is available. I’m happy to gift-wrap for your family and friends.
By Melanie A. Albert, intuitive cooking expert, author, and speaker. Founder & CEO Experience Nutrition Group, LLC
The last 3 days we’ve been shooting videos with recipes and concepts from my new book, A New View of Healthy Eating and with my friend Tom Shanahan of Spiritual Adrenaline. In fact, we shot 27 videos, including 13 cooking videos. One of the things I noticed was that we prepared quite a few different amazing dessert recipes with chocolate including:
Chocolate Avocado Pudding
Vegan Chocolate Cream Pie with Soy (Tofu)
Chocolate Sweet Potato Brownie
In light of the focus on chocolate, I’d like to share with you some valuable information about chocolate and some photos of these amazing desserts.
Excerpt from A New View of Healthy Eating
4 Ways to Enjoy Chocolate
Dark chocolate is distinguished by the percentage of cacao solids in the bar. The higher the percentage of cacao in a chocolate bar, the lower the amount of sugar.
Dark Chocolate Bar:Made with 70% cacao. If you are new to the bitter taste of dark chocolate, start with a 55% cacao chocolate bar. As you become accustomed to the flavor, try chocolate with higher levels of cacao.
Raw Chocolate: Raw cacao is extracted from fermented cacao beans, which are dried without roasting or roasted at low temperatures.
Cacao Nibs:Cacao bean crushed into little pieces. Try a few cacao nibs and experience their bitterness. Add nibs to smoothies or chocolate desserts.
Cacao Bean: The actual bean or seed. It’s definitely an acquired taste; try a bite.
If you’d like the recipes for the incredible (really!) tasty and healthy chocolate desserts, my new book, A New View of Healthy Eating is now available:
If you’d like to stay up-to-date with recipes, culinary tips, and events, join our e-mail list.
By Melanie A. Albert, intuitive cooking expert, author, and speaker. Founder & CEO Experience Nutrition Group, LLC
About 5 years ago I did not eat avocados; I just didn’t care for them. I think it was because I never tasted a well-prepared avocado. Early this morning I was craving an avocado for breakfast. I’m sure this was a first-time avocado craving. I decided to listen to my body’s cravings and prepared a smoothie. So here it is…
Chocolate Avocado Pudding Mise en Place:Avocado, coconut water, raw cacao powder, goji berries, raw cacao nibs, local Arizona dates, cinnamon, and nutmeg.
Two of my favorite superfoods, that I enjoy every week: organic goji berries & raw cacao nibs.
The creamy, “good-fat” avocado, delicious smoothie. Totally satisfied all my cravings.
The next time you create an intuitive smoothie, paying attention to your cravings, come on over to our Facebook page and post your photo:www.facebook.com/NewViewHealthyEating
By Melanie A. Albert, intuitive cooking expert, author, and speaker. Founder & CEO Experience Nutrition Group, LLC
Lately, I have been hooked on goji berries, enjoying them with my morning smoothies and added them to some date balls I made for a client last week. I clearly remember when superfood, raw food expert David Wolfe mentioned goji berries when I was studying at the Institute for Integrative Medicine in New York in 2006. After learning about them, my friends and I literally ran to Whole Foods Market in Columbus Circle to buy goji berries and raw cacao. And, I’ve been enjoy them ever since.
Today’s smoothie, topped with three of my favorite superfoods, goji berries, hempseeds and raw cacao nibs, was so tasty and refreshing.
Superfood Smoothie topped with Goji Berries, Hempseeds, and Raw Cacao Nibs
Goji Berry Date Snacks
Excerpt from A New View of Healthy Eating
Get to Know Goji Berries (Wolfberries)
Antioxidant and protein-rich, with a strong, sweet, bitter taste. Enjoy a handful as a crunchy snack. Blend in smoothies or add as a topping. Cook in a veggie stir-fry. Enjoy as a sweet, earthy, warm tea.
Used in traditional Chinese medicine for thousands of years
Traditionally known as a strength-building, longevity, and immune system superfood
Grown in South America and the Himalayas
High in protein, with 18 amino acids, including all eight essential amino acids
Rich in antioxidants and more than 20 trace minerals, and full of fiber
By Melanie A. Albert, intuitive cooking expert, author, and speaker. Founder & CEO Experience Nutrition Group, LLC
This evening I celebrated the launch of my book, with my dear yoga friend, Jody Loren, at the wonderful Quiessence Restaurant at The Farm at South Mountain, which is just a mile from my home. Tonight I’m sharing with you our dessert: incredibly beautiful and tasty fruit sorbet, topped with dehydrated fruit. My favorite flavors were the sweet and refreshing apple and pineapple. Our meal was so tasty and beautiful at the magical Farm at South Mountain, so stay tuned as I’ll be sharing more of the beautiful food, should I say food art.
The excerpt from A New View of Healthy Eating are the simple steps to make your own sorbet.
Fruit Sorbet
For most of my life I ate refreshing sorbet only at restaurants. Now with this simple sorbet process, I enjoy making it at home with local, seasonal fruit. I especially love sorbet with freshly harvested Arizona oranges. Intuitively create sorbet with fruits that are local and in season and experiment with different fruit, spices, and herbs to create sorbet year-round.
Simple Steps to Create Fruit Sorbet
SIMPLE INGREDIENTS
4 cups fresh fruit
½ cup fresh fruit juice, as needed
Freshly ground spices or herbs
Pinch sea salt
5 tbsp agave nectar or coconut sugar, as needed
SIMPLE STEPS
Blend fresh fruit, fresh fruit juice, ground spices or herbs, and a pinch of sea salt in high-speed blender.
Taste and add sweetener if needed.
Pour into frozen sorbet maker and process for about 15-20 minutes until thick, soft, and creamy.
For firmer sorbet, freeze in an air-tight container for about 2 hours and remove from freezer 15 minutes before serving.
Enjoy.
I invite you to have fun experimenting with making your own fruit sorbet. Come over to our Facebook page, www.facebook.com/NewViewHealthyEating and share photos of your sorbet with us.
