To Health

Peach, plum, raspberry, strawberry smoothie
This weekend is a good weekend. This new year is just starting and I am thankful for it. We continue to eat healthy with plenty of protein, vegetables and fruit. In addition we continue to juice and make smoothies in conjunction to our healthy meals. I am amazed to continue to see that my calories of food intake is half of normal…about 800 per day and my juice calories is about the same…800 calories a day.

During the lunch hour when I am home on weekends, we juice instead of eat. We have a morning green drink (wheatgrass/spirulina) and thant carries us to Dinner when we have a good meal with either chicken, steak, pork or fish with more veggies. I have equally noticed that I have begun to establish a craving for beans. Not pizza, not burgers, not chocolate…BEANS!

We had a morning juice of canteloupe, apples and ginger on Friday morning. Friday for lunch we had another juice…apples, carrots, kale, celery, cilantro, ginger, beet. Saturday at noon we had another juice…pears, carrots, celery, beet, celery, ginger, cilantro and kale.

It is my hope that we continue to do what we can to make this a Flourless, no process food, no potato, no pasta or rice, no sugar year. It is my hope to continue to eat healthy, raw, juice, vegetarian, and alternative food items for healthy eats.

This is my friends Maria Emmerich recipe I used this weekend to make a Red Velvet Cake.  You can find her blog at  http://mariahealth.blogspot.com/2012/08/berry-red-velvet-cake-and-food-dye.html 
"HEALTHIFIED" RED VELVET CAKE:1/2 cup coconut oil or butter, softened
9 eggs
1 cup Swerve (or erythritol)
1 tsp stevia glycerite (omit if using Swerve)
1/2 tsp strawberry extract (or other)
1/2 cup unsweetened almond or coconut milk
1 TBS natural red food coloring
2 1/2 TBS unsweetened cocoa powder
1/2 tsp Celtic sea salt
3/4 cup coconut flour
3/4 tsp aluminum-free baking powder

Cream Cheese Frosting
2 (8 oz) packages cream cheese or 16 oz coconut cream
1/2 cup confectioner's Swerve (or erythritol, powdered)
1/2 tsp stevia glycerite (omit if using Swerve)
1/4 cup butter or coconut oil

Frosting: Make sure your cream cheese or coconut cream is at room temperature. In a medium sized bowl, mix until smooth then add in sweetener. Beat in butter or coconut oil until smooth. Set aside.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease a 9 inch cake pan (or three 6 inch pans if you want three layers like I did in the photo) with coconut oil spray and dust with a thin layer of cocoa powder. In a large bowl, cream the butter and sweeteners together until fluffy. Add in the the eggs, almond milk, food coloring and vanilla. In another bowl, combine the coconut flour, cocoa powder baking powder and salt. Then mix the dry and wet ingredients alternately until everything is a smooth batter. Place the batter into prepared pan. Bake for 40-45 minutes or until batter is set.

Invert pan and let cake cool completely. Slice cake into two layers (unless using three 6 inch pans, then just cut tops off to make them square and stack). Transfer bottom cake layer to a serving dish. Frost the bottom layer of the cake (do this again with second layer for 6 inch pans). Add the top layer to cake and cover with frosting. Makes 12 servings.