If you are in need of a chocolate fix or are looking for a dessert to impress your guests, then try this easy recipe for flourless, grain-free molten chocolate lava cakes! They are so simple and so tasty. You can even store the batter in the refrigerator and then cook one or two at a time, as needed. I like to serve them with crushed, freeze-dried raspberries or strawberries for an appealing presentation. Crushed, freeze-dried fruit also makes a great replacement for colorful sprinkles on children's treats (like cupcakes or birthday cakes)!

I tested this recipe many times last winter using different types of chocolate chips with varying levels of cacao content. I found that organic 55% chocolate chips (semi-sweet) worked best. The darker chocolate produced a very strong chocolate flavor.....too much for me (and too much of a buzz). You can of course test this recipe with darker chocolate and then report back here in the comments on how it turned out if you'd like!

The batter for these cakes can be made ahead of time and then baked just before they are ready to serve, in fact, that is the only way to make them as they need to be served warm for the "molten effect." I bake them in small glass Pyrex custard cups set on a cookie sheet or baking pan. You should be able to find them at your local grocery store or kitchen store, if not you can order them here. You will need six custard cups for this recipe.
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Today I have a special Valentine's treat for you—a healthy recipe for raw white chocolate! This recipe uses just a few ingredients and is dairy-free. Traditional white chocolate usually contains sugar and milk solids, along with cacao butter. My recipe uses raw honey and raw cashew butter, as well as raw cacao butter. If you can't handle the buzz dark chocolate gives you then try this recipe. It's caffeine-free but still has some of the feel-good compounds found in chocolate.

You should be able to find all of the ingredients at your local health food store or online. One lucky person can win all of the ingredients, plus two silicone candy molds, for this raw white chocolate recipe on Facebook! That's right, I am doing my very first Facebook giveaway for you! Just go to our Facebook page and look for the giveaway photo at the bottom of this post. Leave a comment under the photo there. Drawing will end Monday, February 10th 2014, at 9pm PST.
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I thought you might like a simple gluten-free brownie recipe to share with friends and family this holiday weekend. This recipe is unique in that it contains NO flour at all. Walnuts and cocoa powder make up the bulk of the recipe! You can find these brownies in my Nourishing Meals cookbook along with many other healthy gluten-free and grain-free recipes.

If you need more visuals other than the photos here, you can check out a recent cooking video we did making these brownies! Just scroll down....it's the last video on the page. There are plenty more recipes and ideas on our new and improved website for living GMO-free and gluten-free. Check it out and let us know what you think. There is also much more to come!
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This healthy little cookie recipe came to me in a flash the other day....all written out in my mind. I knew I had to get busy in the kitchen and make them. They turned out great the first time! Living in the Pacific Northwest we have an ample supply of hazelnuts so I like to use every opportunity I get to incorporate them into my recipes. If you don't have hazelnuts on hand try using raw organic almonds instead.

I use pastured eggs in all of my cooking. These types of eggs are one step up from organic and usually have a much darker, orangish-colored yolk. Pastured means that the hens had ample space outdoors to roam and peck around for bugs, ate organic vegetable scraps and a minimal amount organic grains. You can find pastured eggs at your local health food store, farmer's market, or even your neighbor! Just make sure that any grain that is fed to the hens is organic and GMO-free!
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I thought these healthy gluten-free chocolate cupcakes with bright orange frosting looked quite festive for halloween. You could even offer them to your children in exchange for their candy loot! My children normally go trick-or-treating and then come back home and give most of their candy away to the last of the trick-or-treaters. Oh what joy they have in doing this! Then they put whatever remaining candy they have next to their bed and in the middle of the night the hungry candy gnome comes to take it away. In exchange he leaves them some healthy treats like pomegranates, herbal tea bags, and oranges. Seriously, my children think pomegranates ARE candy and are absolutely thrilled to each have their own left by a mysterious candy gnome! If you plan on using this tradition with your children, it is best to start when they are young.
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I had a free afternoon yesterday and decided to go on a spur of the moment roadtrip to Divine Treasures, a vegan chocolatier based in Manchester, CT.  I stopped for lunch along the way at Fire and Spice, and my journey continued to the northeast foothills amidst a sunny blue sky and a blaze or red, orange and yellow leaves.


I arrived eager with anticipation.  My last visit was back in February for Valentine's Day, and I returned  yesterday looking forward to sampling some new collaborative creations made with baked goods supplied by Shayna B's( & The Pickle), a gluten-free vegan baker based in Ashford, CT.


Everything I had heard was true:  the best vegan gluten-free desserts I've ever eaten.  No graininess.  No heaviness.  No "healthy" taste that makes me think, "why bother?"  If it's a dessert, it should taste like a dessert.  And by that I mean SPECIAL.

The cookies and cakes I sampled were sweet, but not cloyingly so, and the flavors tasted natural.  That's EXACTLY what I want in a dessert.  Make my tastebuds smile, and leave me wanting more!!  These desserts delivered exactly that.  And dare I say, I think they even blow away the famous Babycakes that has foodies all abuzz in NYC.  They've got nothing on Shana B's.


And now, onto the chocolates.  Everything I just said about the baked goods can also be said about Divine Treasures' chocolates.  They're rich, dark, creamy, and oh so satisfying.  The flavor combinations are creative, and the presentations are beautiful.  There are good things coming from this chocolatier, and the fact that the chocolates are vegan makes them even better.  The average customer would never know though.


Owner Diane Wagemann says that the majority of her customers are not vegan and don't realize her chocolates are made without any animal products.  They just buy them because they're outstanding.  She also uses agave and rice syrup for her sweeteners, and her products are gluten-free as well.


While I was there, several regulars came in for their weekly fix, while others came in to try something different.  You can't find beautiful creations like this at Munson's or Russell Stover (where frankly, as far as I remember, everything tastes like wax).  No, these are unique, hand-crafted, and absolutely delicious.


Here's what I remember sampling (it's all become a chocolate blur to me now, but I'll do my best...):

Chocolate Biscotti Bites
Bonne Shanse Minou ("Lucky Cat" chocolate dipped brownie)
Heath Bar Crunch
Peanut Butter Patty Melt
Prince of India Truffle (spiced with garam masala)
Buddha Bite (a little Buddha man with spicy coconut cream tummy)
Chocolate Covered Chocolate Coconut Bomb (made with Shayna B's cake enrobed in dark chocolate)

If you're ever passing through the area - or like me, will go out of the way for good vegan chocolates - do make a point of stopping by the shop.  Have some vegan soft serve while you're there (I can't stress enough how much better this is than standard Tofutti fare), then fill a box of truffles and chocolates to savor for days to come.  Or at least for the ride home!

A few weeks ago, the night before Valentine's Day, my daughters asked me to make cupcakes and frosting to give out to their friends at school. I had an idea to make a healthy frosting using almond butter and coconut oil. Thinking that I needed to chill the frosting for a while before spreading it onto the cupcakes, I made it first. A few hours later I took it out of the refrigerator to whip up into what I thought would be this beautiful, light, and fluffy frosting. For a second it did look like that, and then the oil began separating. My girls tried it and said it tasted good, like brownies, and that I should bake it! I was so busy that night that I didn't have time so I got to it the next morning, Valentine's Day. I decided to add 2 eggs and put it in the oven....and voila....a beautiful, moist, tender chocolate cake emerged!

I took photos of it that day, what you see here, and planned on testing it one more time before posting it. We then took a trip to visit family for nearly two weeks. I tested it there and everyone loved it. My dad said I should call it "the accidental chocolate cake!" I've been so busy finishing the new cookbook that I have not had much time to post to my blog. Over the next month I have a few guest posts scheduled. After the book is done, I'll be back. In the meantime, enjoy this yummy cake!
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The marriage of chocolate and bananas is truly divine. This bread is light, yet rich with chunks of sweet banana melting in your mouth with every bite. Have a slice with your breakfast smoothie or as a mid-afternoon snack, but our favorite is always fresh out of the oven! Or, try pairing a slice of this bread with a mug of Dairy-Free Hot Cocoa on a cold snowy day.

I use teff flour in this bread. If you have not figured it out already, you'll know I'm a big fan of teff! You can view all of my teff recipes on this blog if you'd like. I buy large paper bags of the flour for around $40 from Azure Standard. Before my friends and I started a buying club through Azure, I bought it directly from The Teff Company (Azure sells the same brand).
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I shared this recipe last Monday at my gluten-free dessert cooking class. Our goji berries were very dry so we decided to soak them for about 10 minutes in warm water. The filling turned to a watery mush! It was a great learning experience for me and the whole class! We started over with a fresh batch of very dry goji berries and it worked out. I was planning on saving this recipe for the next cookbook I'm working on right now, but I just couldn't resist sharing it with you today.

Dried Goji Berries

My recipe testers have given me feedback on this recipe and one of them told me recently that she used raw almond butter which didn't hold the filling together very well and they turned into flat rounds instead of balls. I use a lightly roasted creamy almond butter when I make them. Having fresher, chewier goji berries also changed the outcome. Coconut nectar is thicker than maple syrup so this can also slightly change the outcome. I used maple syrup in the truffles pictured here, though I normally use coconut nectar, which is very thick. If you don't eat these all within a few days, feel free to freeze them and take one out at a time when a chocolate craving arises!
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The wintery blast that hit us last night brought snow and hot cocoa too. I had some vegetable side dish recipes to post for Thanksgiving....but hot cocoa calls when the wind is whipping and the snow is falling! We woke up this morning to a couple of inches of snow on the ground and the kids decided to go out early to play. After a few hours of sledding and a couple of snow ball fights, they came inside with frozen hands and hungry bellies. I made them some snacks and a batch of this rich and creamy dairy-free hot cocoa.

This recipe uses maple syrup as the sweetener and a combination of coconut milk and cashew milk to create a rich, warming drink. Make sure to add the salt as it balances all of the flavors. If you have a finely ground sea salt then you can add the lesser amount below, but if you use a coarser ground salt then use the full 1/4 teaspoon.
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