Dairy-free, gluten-free eggnog!!!!

Tonight we are having a holiday party and I want to make something festive!!!

Healthy vegan eggnog it is!

• start with 2 Cups of a non-dairy milk such as almond/rice/hazlenut (recipe here)
  
• add 2 tablespoons agave
  
• 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
• fresh vanilla bean (1 tablespoon vanilla extract is fine)
• 1/2 teaspoon cloves
• 2 teaspoons nutmeg
  
• rum or brandy if you want alcohol
  
• add 2 drops of vanilla stevia if you want it sweeter

Blend on a low speed for 45 seconds, sprinkle nutmeg on top before serving!

Enjoy!! Happy holidays from the Philosophie!!

Check out this new recipe to BLAST your energy levels without coffee or a redbull!

——–> click here for VIDEO RECIPE!!! <———-

This is good for ANYONE and EVERYONE… moms, dads, nanny’s, and just about any person trying to get more energy and feel good…in a natural way! If you aren’t getting the sleep you wish you were, this is for you! Lots of superfoods and healing herbs will  deeply satisfy your system so that you don’t need anything else. Give it a try and let me know how it goes!!!

make an epic Superfood Smoothie! Recipe:

1 tsp Tumeric (healing, antibacterial, anticancer)
1 tsp Holy Basil (stress relief, immune stimulator, powerful antioxidants/vitamins)
1 cup Kale (powerful superfood vegetable full of chlorophyll and nutrients!)
1 tsp Spirulina (protein, cleansing, B vitamins, happy food!)
1 Banana (frozen preferably, add more for sweetness)
1 tablespoon Hemp Protein (excellent source of vegetarian/vegan protein)
8 oz Coconut Milk (or almond/rice) (good source of healthy fats!)
Agave to taste
Ice to temp!

What are superfoods?

Superfood is a term sometimes used to describe food with high phytonutrient content that may provide health benefits as a result. For example, blueberries are often considered a superfood (or superfruit) because they contain significant amounts of antioxidants,, vitamin C, manganese, and dietary fiber. You don’t need specific foods for specific ailments. A healthy diet incorporating a variety of the following superfoods will help you maintain your weight, fight disease, and live longer. One thing they all have in common: Every superfood is going to be a ‘real’ (unprocessed) food, you don’t find fortified potato chips in the superfood category.

How can I use and incorporate superfoods in my daily life?

go to the grocery store and buy superfoods from the following list:

* Beans

* Blueberries

* Broccoli

* Oats

* Oranges

* Pumpkin

* Salmon

* Soy

* Spinach

* Tea (green or black)

* Tomatoes

* Walnuts

* Yogurt

if you click on the words above I offer other posts I’ve written with more info about the wonderful superfoods and also a few recipes to use them in!

other superfoods that you can buy at a health food store:

*maca *spirulina *goji berries *acai berry *tocos *hemp seeds *chia seeds *bee pollen

I add all of these into my smoothies at different times depending on what I’m needing that day.

And Finally, the Yummiest Superfood Yet … Dark Chocolate

New research has shown that dark chocolate is packed with antioxidants and can lower blood pressure. It’s recommended that you look for chocolate with 60% or higher cocoa content; the darker, the better! In addition, the darker it is, the lower the fat and sugar content. Now that’s my kind of health food!

here are two recipes using dark chocolate/cacao (chocolate in it’s most raw form):

1. Peppermint Patty (raw, vegan, gluten-free, superfood rich)

2. Chocolate Cake (raw, vegan, gluten-free, superfood rich)

Here’s an awesome breakfast I’ve been making lately–super filling and superfood rich!

Superfood Oats

Superfood Oats

*1 Cup Steelcut oats (follow instructions on the box)

*2 Tbsp flax seed or chia seed

*1 Tbsp maca powder

*1 Tbsp goji berries

*1/2 Organic Canned Pumpkin

*2 tbsp almond butter

*2 Tbsp Agave or Honey

*Cinnamon to taste

*Nutmeg to taste

1. follow instructions on box for cooking steelcut oats.

2. The last minute or so, add the pumpkin, maca, flax/chia seeds, goji berries and spices. Stir all ingredients until mixed.

3. After you take the oats off the heat, add the agave and almond butter and mix well.  Save the rest in tuppaware containers for easy power breakfasts in the next few days!

My Bible: Don Miguel Ruiz’s Four Agreements

I’ve had this book, The Four Agreements, for over 10 years now. I’ve given it to every person I love to read- either the physical copy or suggesting them to go buy it for themselves. If everyone had a copy in their bedside table (like I do, my bible!) I think the world would be a prettier, nicer, more mindful, kind place to exist. I have a small mini copy I keep in my car for quick reminders when I get discouraged. It’s a beautiful, simple read and I highly suggest it for anyone and everyone.

Here they are! The Four Agreements:

1. Be Impeccable With Your Word: Speak with integrity. Say only what you mean. Avoid using the word to speak against yourself or to gossip about others. Use the power of your word in the direction of truth and love.

2. Don’t Take Anything Personally: Nothing others do is because of you. What others say and do is a projection of their own reality, their own dream. When you are immune to the opinions and actions of others, you won’t be the victim of needless suffering.

3. Don’t Make Assumptions: Find the courage to ask questions and to express what you really want. Communicate with others as clearly as you can to avoid misunderstandings, sadness, and drama. With just this one agreement, you can completely transform your life.

4. Always Do Your Best: Your best is going to change from moment to moment; it will be different when you are healthy as opposed to sick. Under any circumstance, simply do your best, and you will avoid self-judgment, self-abuse, and regret.”

– Don Miguel Ruiz in The Four Agreements

To lose weight in a healthy manner and keep it off for life, you need to work hard and work smart. I want to share Livestrong.com’s advice for weightloss. Four lifestyle modifications are useful — the meal replacement strategy, meal timing, aerobic exercise and anaerobic exercise. Your weight loss program will not work over the long term if it is a one-shot project. It must be a permanent lifestyle change.

The Weight Loss Equation

There is no magic to weight loss, asserts Vanderbilt University. Weight loss occurs when you burn more calories than you take in by eating. Your body burns calories in three ways — by exercise, by heat generation and by performing basic metabolic functions, such as breathing. You can directly control how much you eat and how much you exercise. You can indirectly control how many calories your body uses to perform basic metabolic functions by building muscle mass.

The Meal Replacement Strategy

Pay attention to the content of the food you eat more so than the volume of food that you eat, advises Penn State Strength Fitness. This is because nutritious food usually contains fewer calories per unit of volume than unhealthy food, because a nutritious diet will ensure that the weight you lose is fat instead of muscle, and because a low-volume diet will leave you constantly hungry. Focus on gradually replacing entire categories of food with more nutritious categories. Replace sweets with fruits, for example, red meat with chicken, and french fries with rice. A great TOOL for managing your food/caloric intake is myplate on the Livestrong website.

Weight Training

Weight training is anaerobic, because it relies on short, intense bursts of energy that do not consistently raise your heart rate into the aerobics zone. Weight training can support a weight loss program by permanently raising your resting metabolic rate, according to the Valley Medical Center of Renton, Wash. A high resting metabolic rate causes your body to burn more calories 24 hours a day, simply to keep you alive. Furthermore, since many of the calories you consume will be used to repair muscle tissue that you break down during a weight training workout, fewer calories are available to be stored as fat. If you control your calorie intake and eat nutritiously, any weight gain caused by new muscle mass will be more than outweighed by the fat that you will lose.

Meal Timing

Eating six small meals a day instead of three supports a weight training program by supplying your body with just the right amount of nutrients when it needs them, according to the American Dietetic Association. Eat slowly, so that your brain will tell your stomach it’s not hungry anymore in time for you to stop eating. Eat a low-fat meal high in protein immediately after a weight-training workout.

Aerobics

Aerobic exercise helps you lose weight because you increase your calorie expenditure while you exercise. Select an enjoyable activity (walking, jogging, biking, yoga, dancing, swimming) that raises your heart rate to between 60 and 80 percent of its maximum, advises the Cleveland Clinic, and perform it for 30 to 60 minutes per workout, three to seven days a week. To find your approximate maximum heart rate, subtract your age from 220.

Today I am home, visiting with one of my oldest and dearest friends on the east coast near Washington DC. It’s so nice being here with our new baby, in the fall season. I took a jog today to really soak up autumn-the changing and falling leaves, the cool air against my skin, and the crisp colors.

We decided to make a big feast for dinner! We made one “regular” lasagna (gluten-free and free range meat) and one DELICIOUS vegan pumpkin lasagna. here’s the recipe!

for the layers:

• *brown rice lasagna (you could use quinoa also, or any lasagna that’s gluten-free)

• *1 1/2 C Pure canned pumpkin (not pumpkin pie filling) I like Trader Joes Organic canned pumpkin

• *for mock ricotta, see below
• *1 egg (or egg replacer like flax and water)
• *almond milk
• *4 C spinach
• *nutmeg, salt, pepper, sage to taste (i like a lot!)
• *nutritional yeast sprinkled on top for mock parmesan
• *cream sauce: 3 tbsp vegan butter (or regular if you don’t care), 3 tbsp tapioca starch 1 1/4 almond milk

Time to play!

1. Prepare the brown rice lasagna according to the box instructions, until al dente (firm, not hard)

2. For the pumpkin sauce, mix pumpkin, egg replacer and 1/4 C almond milk. Then mix in nutmeg, salt, pepper and sage.

3. For the mock ricotta cheese:

• ½ cup macadamia nuts
• ½ cup almonds
• 1 can water, or enough to cover to the level of the nuts
• 1 teaspoon sea salt, you may want to add up to 2 more tsp
• 3 teaspoon apple cider vinegar
• 1 cup almonds, or up to 2 cups

Preparation for Mock Ricotta Cheese:

In your high powered blender, blend mac nuts, almonds, water, 1 tsp of salt, and apple cider vinegar. This will take about 7-8 minutes. Blend until very smooth.

Add the rest of the almonds, 1/4 c at a time, waiting until they are finely ground and fully incorporated. Taste and add more salt, if desired.

Blend until smooth, with a very slightly grainy texture (It should NOT be gritty). You may want to finish this in your food processor (unless you have a great blender).

4. Make the “cream” sauce by melting the butter on low heat. When it’s melted, whisk in tapioca starch, then remove from heat. Slowly whisk in almond milk, then turn the heat back on and whisk constantly until the consistency is thickened enough to coat a spoon. (about 3-5 minutes)

5. Begin layering all the ingredients. Start with a small amount of the pumpkin sauce to layer on the casserole dish and to act as a non stick ingredient. Then add strips of lasagna. Then pumpkin sauce, then mock ricotta cheese. Add a layer of fresh spinach leaves. Then drizzle the cream sauce on top.

Repeat the layers until you reach the top of the casserole dish. Sprinkle the nutritional yeast on top for a mock parmesan flavor.

6. Bake at 400 degrees for about 30 minutes. Remove from oven, let sit for 10 minutes and serve warm.

7. Enjoy your delicious lasagna and store the leftovers or have a big meal and share with friends (with wine!!)!

Hi lovely Philosophie readers! <3

Here are 5 Tips I gave to London’s delicious restaurant Insprial to start bringing more raw and vegan foods into your life.

Sophie’s Top 5 tips for going raw-vegan

1. Luckily, no matter where you live, anything is available now. Get a fun cookbook (or “uncook” book!) or DVD from the internet and get started!
2. Begin slowly. Don’t take on too much. Cut things out one at a time, dairy seems to be the hardest for people. Start with just milk for example, supplementing with almond or rice milk. From there move to raw cheese, etc.
3. Make sure if you are going vegan, it’s for the right reasons. I’ve heard plenty of people (especially in the Hollywood community) that “went vegan” to get “skinny” like celebrities. Then they end up gaining weight! You want to make choices that please you and make YOU happy, not just following trends blindly.
4. Whichever new diet you take on, be sure to get enough green vegetables.
5. Always know that we are ever evolving creatures and constantly going through phases. Be patient with yourself!! This is supposed to be enjoyable, not a punishment.

The full interview can be found on the Inspiral website, where I designed their new raw and vegan full menu! I wish they were closer!!! I miss their desserts BADLY (vegan tiramisu anyone!?! eek!) Full Interview: Click Here

I’m sharing this amazing list of non-raw foods with you from “Gone Frutti”. It’s a fantastic compilation of foods that are often featured/labeled as “raw” but are not 100% raw and sometimes very far from it. As Rebecca at Gone Frutti says, “this only further strengthens my belief that whilst ‘high raw’ is better than the average diet these days, it’s always better to go simple, fresh, natural and whole.” Amen, sister.

The Dead Food List

These items are often featured in raw food recipes, restaurants and products, but they are not commonly found raw. Many raw food websites, books, etc. have a “high raw” philosophy that allows for some cooked food. This list is intended to help you be aware of cooked items, so that whenever you want to, you can eat Purely Raw foods.

Several of these items are often labelled as “raw” and/or sold by “raw” websites, yet they have been heated. You can purchase a few of these items raw, when they’ve been specifically produced for the raw food community. The seller will usually mention the measures taken to keep the product raw in these special cases, when you are not sure, always ask.

We contact the producer no matter what the label says. More often than not, we find a step that involves too much heat. Please do the same. The more health aware customers contacting producers and suppliers about their methods, the better for everyone!

Agave Nectar

Has to be treated and altered from it’s natural state to taste ‘sweet’. Even when labeled or advertised as raw, if it is sweet, it has been heated. Some manufactures claim that lower air pressures can be used to keep the heat below 45c/115f  and thus producing sweet “Raw”? nectar.

Almonds

Many Almonds come from America, and those Almonds nearly always come from California. Because of a new law, (Sept ’07) all California Almonds produced are pasturised and therefore no longer raw.

Bragg’s Liquid Aminos

Made from a base of cooked ingredients.

Brazil Nuts

If shelled they’ve been baked, boiled or steamed. (substitute Walnuts, Pine Nuts or Hazelnuts)

Cacao

After harvest cacao pods are piled up to ‘sweat’ or ferment for 3 to 4 days. During this time the temps can reach above 140f. They are often heated again during the drying process. We would like to find a source for fresh cacao pods or cacao beans that will sprout, if anyone has one.

Cashew Nuts

Most cashews that are sold as raw are heated to shell and boiled to remove strong toxins. Even those that sprout and grow, make some raw fooders sick. (Substitute Pine Nuts, Hazelnuts)

Dried Fruit

Blanched, gassed, and high temp dried. (Dry your own fruit).

Frozen Vegetables

Blanched or boiled even when labelled “Fresh frozen”. It will make your recipes taste and smell off. (Fresh is best!)

Ground Almonds

Blanched before grinding. (Grind your own.)

Hijiki/Hiziki (seaweed)

Dried at high temps.

Juice

All packaged, bottled and canned juice is pasteurized unless it states clearly that it is not.

Macadamia Nuts

Dried at high temps. (substitute Hazelnuts or Sunflower Seeds)

Maple Syrup

After the Maple sap is taken from the tree, it is boiled to reduce it into syrup and make it sweeter.

Miso

Even un-pasteurized Miso is made from cooked ingredients.

Nama Shoyu

Made from a base of cooked ingredients.

Nori (seaweed)

Both black and green are dried at high temps. The colour is not a sure sign. Even ‘Clearspring’ brand when sold as raw.

Nutritional Yeast

Basically baked to kill the yeast. (substitute Pine Nuts, lemon and a little raw salt.)

Oats

Steamed to keep out worms in storage.

Olive Oil

Must say unfiltered and cold pressed and even then you should check with the producer. (substitute Avocado)

Olives

If canned, jarred or packed they’re usually cooked and normally in bad oils as well.

Peacans

If shelled they’ve been boiled or steamed. (substitute soaked Walnuts or Hazelnuts)

Sugar

All processed sugar has been boiled and dried at high temps. Even ‘Raw’ sugar is NOT raw and often dyed brown.

Tahini

High temps during processing. Even stone ground, unpasteurized and made with un-roasted sesame seeds does not ensure that it is raw. Check with the manufacturer. (substitute self-ground sesame seads and a little raw Olive Oil.)

Wild Rice

Neither wild nor raw. Blanched after havest to keep out bugs.

Kelp noodles rawk!!! They are virtually calorie free and don’t taste like the sea at all. There is no sugar, gluten, wheat, rice or flour. Kelp is known to aid the metabolism, boost energy, aid in digestion and they contain an abundance of minerals.

Ingredients for Raw, Vegan Pesto Kelp Noodles:

*2 packages Kelp Noodles

*2 large bushels of fresh Basil leaves

*1 Cup fresh Spinach

*1/4 C Extra Virgin Olive Oil

*1/2 Cup raw Pinenuts

*2 fresh Garlic cloves

*1/2 Teaspoon Celtic Sea Salt

pinenuts

Directions:

1) soak kelp noodles in warm/hot water for at least 20 minutes. Drain and  wring out excess water.

2) combine all ingredients in food processor/Cuisinart (except kelp noodles)

3) taste the pesto. It may need more sea salt or garlic for your taste. Also, if it’s too chunky, add more olive oil or a little bit of filtered water. If it’s too watery, add more pine nuts or spinach/basil.

Pesto Kelp Noodles

If you want a variation, try my recipe for Cheezy Kelp Noodles!