I am so honored to be doing a guest post here on Philosophie. I surely adore Sophie, she is a constant inspiration to me as a woman + a mama! Since I am obsessed with Sophie's products, I thought it'd be great to give you one of my favorite superfood smoothie recipes. I love to put either berry bliss or (and!) green dream in this one.

BLUE GREEN ENVY SMOOTHIE

I hope you enjoy this yummy smoothie! If you're a mama, check out the next MODERN MAMA eCourse that starts May 4. It's a 5-week eCourse for the mama wanting to lead a blissful life in today's busy world. It is filled with inspirational material on healthy living + nutrition + natural parenting + self-love + eco-living. I share all my secrets on how I efficiently maintain a blissful life for myself + my family on the daily. 

 

It's so nice to make your own bars + be prepared for the week ahead with snack ammo. These are slightly sweet with no added sugar. If you want to make them a wee bit sweeter you could add 2 tablespoons of agave or honey. yum!

{If you do more goji berries and add a tablespoon of Berry Bliss, this would be the perfect bar for valentines day! Use a heart cookie cutter to make them beautiful little hearts! Great gift for kiddos to give their friends since you could omit the cashews and they would be nut free/gluten-free!}

• 1/4 C + 1 t coconut oil
• 1 C [packed] Medjool dates, pits removed
• 1 T vanilla extract 
• 1 T green dream powder
• 1 T cacao magic powder
• 1 1/2 C gluten-free rolled oats
• 1/2 C coconut flour
• 1 handful raw cashews [optional]
• 1/4 C coconut milk or any dairy-free milk
• 3/4 t baking soda
• 1/3 C hemp seeds
• 1/2 t sea salt [i used pink Himalayan]
• 1/4 C cacao nibs [optional]
• 1/4 C goji berries [optional]

Preheat oven to 350 F. Lightly grease a baking sheet with 1 t coconut oil, or use parchment paper. 

In a small saucepan, melt the remaining coconut oil into a warm liquid. Pour the coconut oil into a food processor, add the dates, coconut milk, vanilla extract and Philosophie superfood powders [green dream + cacao magic]. Blend until a smooth paste ha formed, stopping the machine and scraping down the sides when needed. I added a handful of cashews at this point, it's completely optional + the bars will taste awesome without them!

In a large bowl, mix together oats, flour, baking soda, salt and hemp seeds. Stir in the date mixture and mix well. Fold in the cacao nibs and goji berries.

Spread the mixture onto the prepared baking sheet with a spatula [or fingers, like me] forming it into a rectangle about 1/2 inch thick. Cut the wet dough into about a dozen rectangles or desired shape. Bake for 12-15 minutes, or until edges begin to turn golden brown and are cooked through. Let cool, then separate the rectangles and in-joy! 

As a raw food chef, I’m always looking for new ways to be inspired when making the food I love. I’m sure with any cuisine it’s easy to get stuck in the same routine… same spices, similar dishes, obvious go-to flavors.

I was sent Matt and Janabai Amsden’s new recipe book: The Rawvolution Continues. It’s absolutely beautiful. The moment I received it I broke it open and began pouring through it, absorbing the gorgeous, colorful photographs and salivating as I read through the recipes.

I think this would be an amazing first book for anyone interested in starting down the path of raw food. Maybe someone wanting to eat more living foods or someone wanting to transition to eating completely vegan.

I love that Matt explains how to stock your raw pantry and tips on how to travel and eat raw. I’m constantly asked how to eat high raw and healthy foods when I travel and I really like his advice to bring nori sheets because they can instantly turn any salad into a wrap. It really isn’t that hard to pack healthy foods when you think about all the new options. From dried goji berries and raw nuts + seeds to fresh fruit and veggies and raw chocolate bars, the options are really endless. Obviously my favorite advice he gave is to pack “green powder” which to us Philosophie lovers is Green Dream! He says to:

“pour green powder directly into a bottle of orange, apple juice or water. This simple mixture can supply concentrated vitamins and minerals when you haven’t been eating the most nutritious foods, supply extra energy while you’re on the go, and even replace a meal in a pinch.”

Yay Philosophie Green Dream!

“It can combat jet lag or make up for a bad night’s sleep on an inflatable air mattress.”

yes, Matt, it sure does! 

A really great tip for going out to a mexican restaurant is to order the largest guacamole, the largest salsa and a large plate of shredded lettuce with cilantro to make your own raw taco salad! Love that!

They also shared that in a 2010 Huffington Post article, addressing air travel, Dr. Joseph Mercola stated, “if you fly at night you can reduce your radiation risk by 99% because nearly all of the radiation from the sun is being blocked by the earth.” really amazing.

I obviously loved all the creative new recipes and ones that I’ve been doing for years (like truffles/energy balls, kale salad, smoothies) with a new, fresh twist. I’ve been so lucky throughout the years to visit Matt’s amazing raw food restaurant in Santa Monica (Euphoria Loves Rawvolution) so as I was reading through his book, I could almost taste the dishes asI read the recipes!

One of my favorite new recipes from this book I will share with all of you is for Spinach Cheese Dip. YUM! Super easy, quick and simple ingredients.

Spinach Cheese Dip

• 2 C chopped avocados
• 1 C chopped spinach, briefly marinated in 1 T olive oil
• 1 C raw walnuts
• 1/4 C chopped fresh basil, plus more for garnish
• 2 T fresh lemon juice
• 1 T coconut aminos
• 1 t nutritional yeast (use 1/4C cashews if you don’t have nutritional yeast)
• 1/2 t ground black pepper

in a high speed blender, combine all the ingredients and blend until smooth. Refrigerate until ready to serve. Garnish with basil just before serving.

serve as a dip for bell peppers, celery and carrots or with raw flax crackers.

My absolute most exciting recipe I made was the Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Balls because I buy them ALL the time (and they are expensive!) and can finalllllllyyyy make them EXACTLY like the ones I buy for myself! SCORE!

My other favorite recipes from the cookbook were: the Hot Chocolate (would be so taste with Cacao Magic in it!), Strawberry Sangria, Big Nachos, Cucumber Summer Rolls, Sea Cakes with cilantro chutney and all the sushi rolls (especially the atlantis rolls!). My husband (Israeli man!) loved the Falafel Wraps and Kai (our almost-3-year old!) loved the “Cheesy” Broccoli (which we call “trees”. That was the only new idea for kids stuff… I do wish there were more creative ideas for kids but luckily my boys are pretty good eaters so I’ve been doing ok 

Baby Leo (almost a year old) ADORED the Fluffy Pudding Parfaits and we made them a few days in a row because they were such a hit!

I’m so excited to try more and post pretty pictures from my creative play! Stay tuned… and go get this amazing raw food recipe book!