Raw cashew banana cherry other stuff cheesecake!

CHEESECAKE!

Yes, dear readers. I am a snacky snacky girl and I do enjoy desserts of the cheesecake persuasion. HOWEVER! I'm lactose intolerant. It's sort of a mixed blessing. On one hand, I am not at all tempted by normal desserts or ice creams when I'm out and about, because I know I don't stand a chance against them and I will surely end up visiting a bathroom before I can say "Was there dairy in that?" It's honestly good for keeping my figure in check. On the other hand..... I'm lactose intolerant.

But I am also persistent.

I found this recipe for a cashew based cheesecake and got super pumped:
My New Roots: Raw Cashew Dreamcake

That blog in general is full of good things.

I have made raw brownies before (they're dank, I'll show them too you sometime) and the crust is a similar process to that. I followed this recipe fairly closely, but I definitely made some changes (some out of necessity). Let's do this.

Crust:

• 1/2 cup walnuts and hazelnuts (more walnuts than hazelnuts)
• 1/2 cup soft Medjool dates
• 2 tbsp cocoa powder (not necessary for the composition of the crust, but I wanted chocolate crust)
• less than 1/4 cup coconut flakes (this is optional, really, but if you have some on hand, throw them in)

Filling:

• 1 and 1/2 cups raw cashews (soaked at least 5 hours or overnight - I used warm water)
• juice of 2 lemons
• 1 banana, mashed
• 1/3 cup raw coconut oil
• 1/3 cup raw honey (solid or liquid)
• 1/4 cup (ish) coconut milk (So Delicious works)
• 1 cup (ish) cherries (thaw completely if frozen)

My process:
1. Soak those cashews.... come back in 5 hours. Bye!
2. Oh you're back. Okay, get your crust ingredients together. Food processor, GO! What I usually do is process the nuts and coconut flakes first, followed by the cocoa powder, followed by the dates. You'll know it's the right consistency when you can take out some of the mixture, squish it together, and it holds.
3. Put the mixture into your pan (I put plastic wrap on mine so I could pull it out later) and press it down. Crust done.

4. Now get those cashews and strain the water out. What I then did was put them in my food processor (after I cleaned it) and pulsed a few times. Then I put them into a huge measuring cup (4 cups big).

5. Heat the coconut oil and honey in a saucepan until it's all liquid. Whisk to combine.

6. Forget to take into account that your dad went on a kitchen cleaning frenzy and threw away all the vanilla extract, which is what the original recipe calls for.
7. Get frustrated.

8. Mash up a banana and use that instead. Feel awesome.

9. Add that, the coconut oil/honey, and the lemon juice to the cashews (sidenote: a trick I learned from an ex-boyfriend - roll/mash the lemons with your hands a little before you cut them, making the juice squeezing way easier)
10. BLEND IT. I have an immersion blender (it's tight, I talk about it all the time), so that's what I used. If you just have a normal blender, you should have been putting the ingredients in that. Haha.
11. Once it was blended and I tasted it, I wanted to add some coconut milk. I used that So Delicious (original) stuff and it was probably around 1/4 cup or less. Add to taste if you're interested.
12. Once it's smooth, pour like 2/3s of it over the crust. Eyeball it, you'll be fine.
13. Take the rest of it and add the cherries. BLEND AGAIN! Pour that over what you just poured.
14. FREEZER TIME

Now you wait until it's solid. Bye again!

While you wait, look at my dog!

EEEEEEEeeeeeeeeeeee!!!

While I wait, I'm thinking about how I really need a camera other than the one on my phone.



Like 2 hours later....

IT'S DONE!!! (well, done enough... I got impatient)

It's pretty. :) The photo does it no justice. Hope you enjoy! I'm gonna go eat this piece.

And then probably another 2 pieces because let's not kid ourselves.


Nom.

Raw panang curry with zucchini noodles.

Hey hey!

So I decided that while I was good and pumped about what I just made, I'd write about it. I gotta give credit where credit is due, though. This recipe was inspired by two different recipes.

This: http://goneraw.com/recipe/panang-curry
and this: http://www.greenkitchenstories.com/mango-mint-marinated-zucchini-spaghetti/

And I gotta say, greenkitchenstories is amazing... and my heroes.

So what I did was:
In a bowl or blender (I have an immersion blender, so that's how I rolled for this recipe), combine:

• around 1/4 cup of coconut oil (I do so much by looking at it, I just threw coconut oil in the bowl, but that should be about right)

• Two spoonfulls of almond butter (freshly ground preferably... some stores do this now. If you buy a jar of it, make sure the ingredients list just says, "almonds." If there's sea salt, you may want to blend and then taste before adding more salt)

• a handful of cilantro

• Between a half inch and an inch of lemongrass

• A few dulse flakes (I guess I used between a tsp and tbsp)

• 1 tsp of sea salt (that Himalayan stuff IS pretty good... and is what I used)

• Pour about half a cup I guess (make it blendable) of coconut milk (I used that So Delicious brand - the original... if you buy unsweetened, you may have to add honey or agave to this)

• However much jalapeno you want to throw in (I used an inch and a half) (you can use any pepper, really... I wanted to use serrano, but there were none at the store. Just use what you like and be sure you're familiar with how spicy the pepper is)

• Some curry powder (I used probably 3tbsp.... Madras curry powder)

NOW BLEND!!!

Noodles: Into the bowl of curry sauce, just julienne 2 zucchinis and stir it up.

DONE. HELL YEAH.

It's surprisingly like the real thing, only cold. Woohoo!

Oh god yes, look at my awesome photography. So good.

Enjoy. :)