Plant Based U

Fat-Free and Low Fat Vegan Plant Based Recipes

Raw Breakfast

Raw Vegan Blender Applesauce

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This is a really easy recipe 80/10/10 style recipe that you can use as a quick breakfast, a snack, replacement for cooked applesauce in baking or a raw dessert. If you have a few bruised apples laying around, it also takes care of those too!

Raw vegan apple sauce is also very kid friendly for a quick meal or snack for your little one. I use ceylon cinnamon in this applesauce recipe. It is OUT OF THIS WORLD! You can check it out here  at our store. It doesn’t have a dry bitter flavour like the regular hard cinnamon sticks you find at the grocery store. Ceylon cinnamon is made from a different cinnamon tree and actually tastes like sweet cinnamon, almost a mix between powdered sugar and cinnamon. It’s sugar free of course and tastes great for many different dessert toppings.



Fat Free Raw Vegan Blender Applesauce

Serves 1 or 2

Ingredients:

3 medium apples, peeled and cored
1 banana fresh or frozen
1 date, pitted
1/2 cup water
1 tsp ceylon cinnamon (this is the true sweet cinnamon you can get it here at our store)
dash of allspice

Directions:

1. Place apples, water, banana, cinnamon and allspice in a Vitamix (or food processor) and push down using the tamper, and blend until creamy. Using a frozen banana will give you a nice cool applesauce.

2. Garnish with sliced or chopped apple, raisins, shredded coconut or additional cinnamon.

3. Serve immediately, or refrigerate for later.

Makes 3 cups

Additional Tips:

I use this when I also need some applesauce for baking, and just omit the date and cinnamon if it would affect the recipe. It’s a great way to use up some extra apples and banana when you don’t want them to go to waste!

Soy-Free Vegan Tropical Acai Berry Bowl Recipe

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Whipping up acai bowl recipes are pretty easy. I like to use whatever fresh and frozen fruits I had on hand. This one is similar to my Acai Banana Berry Bowl Recipe , but it’s perfect for summer with fresh mango and berries. Acai bowls can be topped with your favorite fruits, but I know some of you have never had one before and are unsure how to make them at home.

Acai is usually sold in a frozen puree for use in smoothies, acai bowls and frozen desserts. You can also buy acai juice, powder and supplements, but I stick with the puree because it’s delicious and a little less processed.

Acai bowls are made up of frozen acai puree, apple juice or soy milk, frozen fruit, granola, fresh fruit and sometimes honey. If you do not have acai frozen puree in your country (I found it at the health food store in Canada and the USA) you can substitute about 1 cup of frozen blueberries.

This is a soy-free version which uses apple juice instead of soy milk to blend it together. You can also use fresh pressed apple juice if desired as well.

Soy-Free Vegan Tropical Acai Berry Bowl Recipe

 
Serves 1

Bowl Ingredients:

4 oz/ 1/2 cup apple juice (unsweetened if desired)
2 100g packets of frozen Acai (I used Sambazon Original Smoothie Packs)
3/4 cup frozen mango (sub a fresh mango if you do not have a high powered blender such as a VitaMix or Blendtec)

Garnish Ingredients:

1/3-1/2 cup low fat granola of choice (I like Galaxy Granola as it’s oil free)
1/2 -1 ripe banana, peeled and sliced
1/2 cup fresh ripe ataulfo mango, diced
1/2 cup diced strawberries
Small handful of blueberries
Drizzle of honey or agave *optional (I don’t find I need this in mine)

 Directions:

1. Remove packets of acai and frozen bananas from freezer.

2. Slice the mango, slice the banana and wash the blueberries and set aside.

3. Add apple juice to your blender. Break up the frozen acai into smaller pieces and cut the plastic open and pour into blender. Add the mango. Blend on low or pulse to break up the frozen fruit. If you have a VitaMix use the tamper to puree into a soft serve. If you have another type of blender you may have to stop and stir and keep pulsing to combine. Stop blending when smooth.

4. Scrape acai mixture into a bowl.

5. Top acai with granola.

6. Top with diced mango, bananas, strawberries and blueberries.

7. Serve.

Have you ever had an Acai bowl? What’s your favorite topping?

Tropical Mango Banana Acai Bowl

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I have another delicious acai bowl recipe for you with mango and banana. This one is similar to my Acai Banana Berry Bowl Recipe , but it’s perfect for summer with this tropical twist. Basically you can top your acai bowl with anything you want, but I know some of you have never had one before and are unsure how to make them at home.

Acai is usually sold in a frozen puree for use in smoothies, acai bowls and frozen desserts. You can also buy acai juice, powder and supplements, but I stick with the puree because it’s delicious and a little less processed.

Acai bowls are made up of frozen acai puree, apple juice or soy milk, frozen fruit, granola, fresh fruit and sometimes honey. If you do not have acai frozen puree in your country (I found it at the health food store in Canada and the USA) you can substitute about 1 cup of frozen blueberries.

Tropical Mango Banana Acai Bowl

 
Serves 1

Bowl Ingredients:

4 oz/ 1/2 cup apple juice (unsweetened if desired)
2 100g packets of frozen Acai (I used Sambazon Original Smoothie Packs)
3/4 cup frozen mango (sub a fresh mango if you do not have a high powered blender such as a VitaMix or Blendtec)

Garnish Ingredients:

1/3-1/2 cup low fat granola of choice (I like Galaxy Granola as it’s oil free)
1/2 -1 ripe banana, peeled and sliced
1/2 cup fresh ripe ataulfo mango, diced
handful of blueberries or other berries
Drizzle of honey or agave *optional

 Directions:

1. Remove packets of acai and frozen bananas from freezer.

2. Slice the mango, slice the banana and wash the blueberries and set aside.

3. Add apple juice to your blender. Break up the frozen acai into smaller pieces and cut the plastic open and pour into blender. Add the mango. Blend on low or pulse to break up the frozen fruit. If you have a VitaMix use the tamper to puree into a soft serve. If you have another type of blender you may have to stop and stir and keep pulsing to combine. Stop blending when smooth.

4. Scrape acai mixture into a bowl.

5. Top acai with granola.

6. Top with bananas, strawberries and blueberries.

7. Serve.

Have you ever had an Acai bowl? What’s your favorite topping?

Acai Banana Berry Bowl Recipe

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I have been having my fill of acai bowls since visiting southern California. Originally they come from Brazil, but they are also popular in Hawaii and many American juice bars. I visited one of my raw food friends in California and had the chance to actually make something while on the road in her kitchen. I went in search of acai frozen smoothie mix (as I haven’t seen it yet where I am in Canada) and found some from Sambazon at Whole Foods. (Check their website to find a dealer near you.) It’s about $4.99 for four 100g gram packages. You can use one package for smoothies, or two in acai bowls.

Anyway, these acai bowls are SUPER easy to make and very delicious! The formula is simple: apple juice (or another liquid), frozen acai and banana and topped with granola, fruit and honey or other sweetener. It’s essentially a fruit smoothie granola bowl. You can eat it for breakfast, lunch, after a workout or any time of day. Now these are generally pretty large once you add a bunch of fruit on top of it, so be prepared to make a meal out of it. If not use less fruit topping and less granola for a smaller meal.

If you can’t find frozen acai anywhere near you, you can still make something similar. Try substituting frozen blueberries instead (about 1 cup) and blending that in with the banana and apple juice.

Now onto the delicious recipe!

Acai Banana Berry Bowl Recipe

Serves 1

Bowl Ingredients:

4 oz/ 1/2 cup apple juice (unsweetened if desired)
2 100g packets of frozen Acai (I used Sambazon Original Smoothie Packs)
1 frozen ripe banana (sub a fresh banana if you do not have a high powered blender such as a VitaMix or Blendtec)

Garnish Ingredients:

1/3-1/2 cup low fat granola of choice
1/2 -1 ripe banana, peeled and sliced
1/2 cup strawberries, sliced
handful of blueberries or other berries
Drizzle of honey or agave *optional

 Directions:

1. Remove packets of acai and frozen bananas from freezer.

2. Wash and slice the strawberries, slice the banana and wash the blueberries and set aside.

3. Add apple juice to your blender. Break up the frozen acai into smaller pieces and cut the plastic open and pour into blender. Add the banana. Blend on low or pulse to break up the frozen fruit. If you have a VitaMix use the tamper to puree into a soft serve. If you have another type of blender you may have to stop and stir and keep pulsing to combine. Stop blending when smooth.

4. Scrape acai mixture into a bowl.

5. Top acai with granola.

6. Top with bananas, strawberries and blueberries.

7. Serve.

Have you ever had an Acai bowl? What’s your favorite topping?

(Vegan) Holiday Eggnog Smoothie

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When I was a kid I used to love eggnog. I have no idea why, but I would go crazy for it at Christmas and couldn’t help myself. Now I can’t even imagine drinking that stuff because it’s just so thick and rich and obviously not vegan.  Last year I tried some vegan eggnog from the health food store, but it was also very thick and rich. My tastes have definitely changed and it just wasn’t my thing!

So this year I decided to make a healthier version, using ripe bananas. If your bananas are really ripe and spotted it will make the perfect drink. Please do not use green/yellow bananas as they are too starchy and not sweet enough or ripe enough to be used in smoothies. The bananas I used for this recipe looked like the one on the right, lots of dark brown speckles.

First I peeled and froze some bananas the night before, and then I left a few ripe ones on the counter to use in smoothies as well.

I find frozen bananas are excellent for adding an ice-creamy like texture to blended drinks, so I highly recommend trying it! They make this eggnog smoothie so delicious I’ve been making them all weekend! It takes a boring old banana smoothie to the next level!

To make this creamy you’ll need some non dairy milk as well too. I used almond milk. To make this a completely raw recipe, you can make your own raw almond milk from my recipe here.

Either way I think you will have a new favorite holiday breakfast or snack recipe! Feel free to impress your family or guests with this one too!

vegan eggnog smoothie shake

(Vegan) Holiday Eggnog Smoothie

Serves 1-2

Ingredients:

1 cup almond milk, or other non dairy milk (unsweetened)
1/8 tsp vanilla extract (optional)
2 ripe bananas, frozen (and broken into pieces if using a regular blender)
1 fresh ripe banana
1/4-1/2 tsp ceylon cinnamon (true cinnamon)
dash or two of  ground nutmeg
dash or two of ground cloves

Directions:

  1. Place ingredients into blender or Vitamix and combine until smooth and creamy. If using a regular blender you may want to let the bananas defrost for a few minutes before blending to make it easier on the blender. Cutting them into smaller pieces helps too.
  2. Garnish with additional cinnamon or nutmeg if desired.
  3. Serve immediately
Additional Tips:
If you don’t have plain cloves or nutmeg you can use a little pumpkin pie spice instead.

What’s your favorite holiday beverage? 

80/10/10 Recipe: Raw Vegan Strawberry Banana Green Smoothie

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So last week I launched my new ebook ‘Simply Decadent Smoothies’ as part of my combo recipe package with ‘Savory Raw Dinner Recipes’ and ‘Comfort Soups To Keep You Warm’ and gave it away as a free bonus.

The combo package was incredibly popular, but a few of you wanted to know if you could get just my smoothie ebook if you had already purchased one or more of the other products before. So I just wanted to let you know that  ‘Simply Decadent Smoothies’ is now available at a special discounted price here.

Today I’m going to share with you a tasty new green smoothie recipe that is featured in the recipe ebook. Often people have a hard time finding enough green smoothie recipes that they like and that contain different greens so they are not just eating the same ones all the time like baby spinach.

So because I have a few greens growing in my garden (like leaf lettuce, Swiss chard, kale and spinach) I like to at least rotate through those ones and think up new combinations that work well while masking the taste of the greens with sweet fruit.

This green smoothie recipe features banana, mangoes, strawberries and red leaf lettuce and looks more of a burnt orange color than green for a typical green smoothie recipe.

So let’s check it out:

 

Raw Vegan Strawberry Banana Mango Green Smoothie

Serves 1

Ingredients:

2 ripe bananas
1 ripe mango (flesh only)
2 cups whole strawberries (fresh or frozen)
1 handful of red leaf lettuce or other mild green
1/2 cup of water

Directions:

Place ingredients into VitaMix or blender in order listed. Blend on medium speed and use the tamper (if necessary) to push the lettuce down until they are incorporated. (If you have a regular blender you may want to chop the lettuce first into smaller pieces.)

Garnish with a fresh strawberry and serve!

What do you think of this smoothie recipe? Have you ever used red leaf lettuce in a green smoothie?

For more delicious smoothie recipes check out:

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Over 50 raw fruit and green smoothie recipes

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In this 46 page ebook, you will discover:

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  • How to tell if your fruit is ACTUALLY ripe
  • How to design your own fruit smoothies that taste great every time
  • How to design your own green smoothies that taste great every time
  • How to make your green smoothies more appetizing and attractive
  • 25 delicious raw and vegan fruit smoothie recipes
  • 26 delicious raw vegan green smoothie recipes

                           

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Raw Vegan Summer Piña Colada Recipe

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“If you like piña coladas and being caught in the rain…” goes the song by Jimmy Buffett… I think almost everyone knows the lyrics to this song. Even when I was a kid we would sing the words to this song and we had never had a piña colada before haha!

But the song sure made them sound good, didn’t it?  I have to confess I never really liked regular piña coladas, I didn’t care much for their extra sugary, synthetic, milky flavour (or the alcohol).

What I have for you today is an exceptionally simple, yet amazingly delicious raw vegan AND much healthier version of a piña colada. It’s so good, you’ll never lament over those old creamy dairy based Summer beverages again. My piña colada is much better for you too!

photo credit: The Green Lean Bean

You can buy Thai coconuts at health food stores and Asian markets. These are young GREEN (not little brown) coconuts that have had their outer husks shaved off mechanically to reveal the white part surrounding the actual coconut. Thai coconuts contain a clear coconut water that is full of electrolytes and is very refreshing. They also contain either thin coconut jelly, or firmer coconut meat (this depends on how old the coconuts are, the older they are the thicker the inside coconut meat will be.)

Sometimes you can buy the coconuts with the very tips shaved off so you only need to poke a straw in the middle to be able to drink the coconut water. Others are full sealed so you will need to use a heavy knife to crack open around the top of the coconut.

Here is a youtube video showing just how easy it is to open a Thai coconut. (Not you do NOT have to buy a machete to do this, but you will need a heavy knife that has a sharp heel to it.)

I would say the recipe below can serve 2 people, but I’m not going to lie, I drank the whole thing! It’s that delicious. So I recommend buying at least 2 Thai coconuts if you plan on sharing your piña colada with others as well. 🙂

 

Raw Vegan Summer Piña Colada Recipe

 

Serves 1-2, yields about 3 cups

Ingredients:

1 medium Thai coconut – water and meat scooped out
2 cups pineapple chunks (about 1/2 small fresh pineapple)
1 large ripe banana (frozen is best)
1/2 cup of ice

Directions:

Place ingredients in the order listed into your VitaMix or blender. Blend until smooth and creamy.

Add more ice if desired. Serve with a fresh pineapple wedge and a straw.

Enjoy!

*Note that this is a high fat recipe, coconut meat is high in fat and contains saturated fat. So enjoy this treat, but you don’t need to eat coconut based foods every day.

Have you ever had a Thai coconut before? Have you ever used them in recipes?

80/10/10 Recipe: Raw Vegan Watermelon Banana Peach Green Smoothie and 7 Ways To Enjoy Watermelon This Summer

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Ah Summer… who doesn’t love enjoying a hot summer day and diving into some ice cold juicy watermelon?

Watermelon is the PERFECT Summer fruit and it can be enjoyed so many ways.

7 Different Ways To Enjoy Watermelon This Summer:

#1. Sliced up and served traditionally

#2. Diced into a fruit salad (or use a melon baller)

#3. Blended into fruit smoothies

#4. Juiced (you can even juice the rind!)

#5. Cut into thin slices and dehydrated into watermelon “candy” or fruit roll ups

#6. Grilled and served over a salad

I know right, grilled watermelon?  That sounds so weird… But I was at a vegetarian restaurant once that had a grilled watermelon salad on the menu. I thought it was odd, but who knows maybe it could be delicious! I don’t have a barbecue though, so if you try it out let me know what you think!

You should definitely try out dehydrated watermelon slices though if you have access to a dehydrator. It’s like a homemade fruit rollup but tastes like watermelon candy! Kids really love these things and it’s a fun way to get them involved in making healthy treats at home. I was really impressed by how tasty dehydrated watermelon was.

And #7… You can make a watermelon birthday cake like this one I found online!

This watermelon fruit cake would be great for kids with gluten, dairy or egg allergies or if you just want to offer something fresh and wholesome instead of a standard sugary birthday cake. The fruit kabobs make it really easy for kids to eat as well.

Really watermelon is such a versatile fruit and there are so many ways to enjoy it! It makes the perfect base to fruit smoothies too.

Check out my watermelon green smoothie recipe below…

80/10/10 Watermelon Banana Peach Green Smoothie

Serves 1-2

Ingredients:

4 cups/20 oz. watermelon chunks
2 ripe bananas
3/4 cup frozen peaches
1 cup packed baby spinach (or other mild greens like lettuce, Swiss chard etc)

Directions:

Place ingredients in Vitamix or blender in the order provided and blend until smooth. Garnish with a spinach leaf or slice of watermelon if desired.

Variations:

Try out different melons! Cantaloup or honeydew will be delicious as well and make for a great variety.

What’s your favourite way to eat watermelon or favourite watermelon recipe?

Raw Vegan Creamy Avocado Banana Green Smoothie Recipe!

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Avocado Green Smoothie Plant Based Vegan Oil Free

This heavenly avocado banana green smoothie is a real treat.  I normally don’t add any nuts or seeds to my smoothies, but I was inspired from our trip to Hawaii a few months ago to make one of these.

In many tropical countries the locals use avocados in sweet drinks and desserts instead of just the standard salad topping or guacamole. Avocado is a very versatile fruit and it’s extremely creamy and satisfying to eat. Kind of like nature’s butter! On it’s own it has a very mild taste and is not very overpowering but season it right and it can be out of this world delicious!

For this recipe we’re only going to use 1/2 an avocado because they are so rich in fat and calories. Generally I don’t recommend that anyone eat a whole avocado a day, especially on top of any other nuts, seeds and oils consumed in other meals as well. For a woman 1/2 small to medium avocado is plenty, for a man up to one avocado a day can work as they generally have higher caloric needs.




This smoothie is already slightly green with the avocado, but to really make it a beautiful green colour I added some spinach to it. In a Vitamix it really turns out beautiful.

So enjoy this smoothie on a nice hot summer day with either some frozen bananas or ice to for a cool refreshing treat! (And of course you don’t have to eat the avocado pit!)

Avocado Banana Green Smoothie

Serves 1-2

Ingredients:

2 ripe bananas
1/2 small-medium ripe avocado (skin will turn black and give to pressure)
1-2 cups of baby spinach
1/4-1/2 cup water
Handful of ice (or use 1 frozen banana instead of fresh)

Directions:

1. Place ingredients into Vitamix or blender in order listed and blend until well combined.

Variation:

You can use almond milk instead of water if you want the smoothie even creamier.

Have you ever used avocados in a green smoothie recipe? What’s your recipe?

80/10/10 Recipe: Purple People Eater Green Smoothie with Chard and Blackberries

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So maybe this smoothie is not a “people eater” per se, but it is purple and it is delicious so I think you need to make this green (err purple) smoothie recipe so you can become a purple smoothie eater! “Purple People Eater” is just a silly song from the late 1950’s about a monster that comes to earth because he wants to be in a rock band. He happens to have only one eye and one horn as and he apparently only eats purple people, so most of us should be ok… I said should… if you drink a lot of this smoothie there’s no guarantee that might not turn purple! Just sayin. I warned ya…

I like to keep my green smoothie recipes fairly simple, so bananas are a very common choice as a base flavour and natural sweetener for my green smoothies. Next I like to throw in some ripe mangoes if I have it (or frozen if I don’t). Make sure your mangoes are soft to the touch like a ripe avocado and the skin will be slightly wrinkled. Ripe mangoes should smell fragrant and have a dark yellow or yellow/orange flesh on the inside. If your mango is still firm, not very fragrant and pale yellow and too tart when you cut it open, it’s not ripe enough yet. It’s not  a bad mango, you just didn’t let it ripen and let those enzymes do their job and create the natural sugars that make fruit sweet when ripe.

Baby spinach is a really easy addition to any green smoothie recipe, and if you don’t have any other greens to work with I suggest to start with that or even some leaf lettuce. Swiss chard is a great green to use in smoothies as it’s generally fairly available at the grocery store or farmers markets. If not you can easily grow it at home. It comes in green, red and rainbow coloured stems, any kind will do for a green smoothie. You can either just use the green portion or blend the stalk and the green.  The stalks are actually really tasty steamed if you want to save them as well or add them to a fresh stir fry.

One of the best parts about a purple green smoothie is that it looks fairly similar to store made smoothies and no one will know you put some greens in there. So it’s good to give to children or your spouse and they won’t be as likely to turn their nose up to it on account of it being green and looking like a swap smoothie. But you never know, green smoothies are fairly popular, even trendy nowadays and many people who aren’t even into raw or vegan foods are making green smoothies and throwing things like green vegetables into their blenders assuming that will do the trick…

By the way I don’t recommend you throw anything like a bunch of broccoli or really strong cruciferous vegetables (Brussels sprouts, cabbage, cauliflower etc) into your green (fruit) smoothie either. They contain sulfur and can be pretty strong and untasty in combination with sweet fruits. Save those veggies for blended soups or raw vegan blended salads or savory smoothies and mask the taste of them with a combo of tomatoes, cucumbers and mangoes (or dates) and this will mellow out the flavour.

Greens like Swiss chard and kale can still get by in smoothies without being too overpowering or strong if you use them in moderation.  I would start with 1 leaf (stalk removed) if you’re new to green smoothies and blend it with the rest of the fruit and taste test it before deciding to experiment with more.  Even myself I don’t really like more than 2 large leaves of chard or kale in my smoothies as they can add a stronger flavour and some grittiness to it.  Baby spinach can always be added as it barely affects the taste of a green smoothie, so that’s why I’m throwing it into the mix as well.

Purple People Eater Green Smoothie

Serves 1-2

Ingredients:

2 ripe spotted bananas
1 ripe mango (flesh only) (about 1 cup)
1 handful of baby spinach
1-2 leaves of Swiss chard (stalks optional)
3/4 cup fresh or frozen blackberries
1/2 cup of water (or more to blend as desired)

Directions:

Place ingredients into Vitamix or blender in order above using the tamper if necessary and blend. If you have a low powered blender you may want to blend the bananas and water first, then add the mango and blend, then add the spinach and blend and so on so that each item is incorporated in the smoothie. Add more water if necessary for your type of blender.

Additional Tips:

To make this smoothie nice and cool you can use frozen blackberries and frozen mango or substitute one fresh banana for a ripe frozen one.

Have you ever used Swiss chard in a smoothie? What combination did you use?