Summer Birthday Party Food! A Couple Recipes That Travel Well And Are Sure To Impress:

Scott and attended a family birthday party which entailed a 3 hour drive to Massachusetts this past Sunday. With summer upon us, I didn’t dare try and transport on of my more fancy raw vegan cheesecakes or frosted cakes. With a little research for a delicious dessert that would ‘Wow’ everyone, I found this gem:

Caramel Dream Bar Brownies! The original recipe is posted on Goneraw.com by Rawleen (Colleen). CLICK HERE FOR RECIPE! These are SUPER GOOD!!!!!

Here is the recipe with my extra notes, small modifications and my own instructions:

Use an 8” x 8” glass pan

Chocolate Crust:

• 2 cups of almonds, soak overnight or 8 hours
• 1 cup of chopped up dates, packed (chopped up each date into about 3 or 4 pieces)
• 1/4 cup of cacao powder
• couple small dashes of sea salt

Caramel Layer:

• 1/2 cup of raw unpasteurized organic almond butter (Once Again Nut Butter Inc is the brand I use)
• 1/2 cup of coconut oil, melted
• 1/4 cup of coconut butter by Artisana, melted until soft
• 1/2 cup of Agave syrup
• 1 tablespoon of vanilla extra
• dash of sea salt

Topping:

• cacao nibs, about a good handful
• dried coconut flakes, about 2 decent handfuls

For Crust – Use food processor with the S blade to combine all ingredients. Process for a while until a ball forms in the food processor. Press crust into pan evenly

Caramel Layer – Before making the crust I scoop out the coconut oil and coconut butter into small bowls and place in the dehydrator to melt. By the time I’m done with the crust and ready for the caramel ingredients, the butter is soft and the oil is a little over half way melted and that is fine. Combine all the caramel ingredients into a (cleaned) food processor with the S Blade and process until completely smooth. This happens quickly. Add the Caramel topping onto the chocolate crust layer.

For the topping- immediately add the dried coconut and cacao nibs onto the caramel layer. Then press the coconut and nibs into the caramel layer.

Freeze this dessert for a couple hours and then place into the fridge. The coconut oil and butter will need to firm up. Take this out of the fridge an hour or so before serving.

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Joyce’s Notes: This was another big winner with Scott and everyone at the party! On Saturday I made 2 batches of these brownies. One for the party and one for ourselves as a test. I wanted to make sure they were as good as all the hype and positive feedback on the Goneraw.com website. I needed a dessert that tasted luscious and sinful! Well this recipe lived up to all the excitement online! Everyone at the party wanted to know what was in the brownies and couldn’t believe how good they were. It was rumored that Stephen had 4 pieces! ;-)

I was a bit worried that the soaked almonds for the crust might taste a bit ‘healthy’. By itself it wasn’t my favorite crust. But do not fear! With the topping and caramel layer, it all works out in the end. I did have to process the crust for a while to get the almonds broken down.

The caramel layer is what truly makes this dessert. There is a very very slight hint of the almond butter, but the coconut oil, coconut butter, vanilla and agave really do make it seem more like a caramel flavor. Not totally authentic, but certainly very delicious! The dried coconut and cacao nibs on top are also crucial in making this brownie so good.

An extra note and update from Scott: He brought a nice big slice into work with intentions of sharing it with his work buddies. However he thought it was so good that he didn’t want to share which is a first! He left the container with the slice in his cubicle and didn’t refrigerate it. It’s actually better when left out of the fridge for a while. And this was the case at the party where it sat on a table for a few hours (I transported it in a cooler for the 3 hour drive).

So leave it sit out for a while until it becomes almost room temperature and this brownie will taste heavenly. However, If the temps where you live get above 85F degrees then you might not want to leave it out very long. It was only in the mid to upper 70s at the party.

An Encore of the Rich Cheddar Sauce over marinated & dehydrated broccoli and red bell peppers!

This is such a great dish to bring to a party! I brought this down to an Easter dinner and again this past Sunday! Everyone loves this! This raw vegan ‘cheddar’ sauce is incredible and one of the best recipes in the raw food world for cheese sauces! CLICK HERE to see the notes and details from my Easter post. Here is the recipe once again with my modifications. It’s posted all over the internet but originated from “Rejuvenate Your Life” by Serene Allison. For parties, I doubled this below:

• 1/2 large red bell pepper
• 1/4 cup of water
• 1 cup of cashews soaked for at least 4 hours
• 1 tablespoon of tahini (really raw by Artisana)
• 2 tablespoons of nutritional yeast
• 1 1/4 teaspoon of sea salt (start with just 1)
• one slice of fresh yellow onion or sweet onion the size of a finger (and another tiny slice) chopped
• 1 medium clove of garlic
• 2 tablespoons of lemon juice
• pinch or two of turmeric for coloring

Blend everything up in the Vitamix until smooth.

The only modification this Sunday was I only used 2 teaspoons of sea salt (1 teaspoon for above recipe) as opposed to 2 1/2 teaspoons last Easter.

And here’s a photo of how I transported this for the 3 hour drive:

A humid June day in Vermont:

Here’s a quick and easy recipe that is quite tasty and definitely worth blogging about. I made this again for Scott and myself on Saturday afternoon. With a party on Sunday, we just wanted something simple and practical, yet tasty and filling!

Cashew “Mock Chicken” Salad. Recipe is from Purelydelicious.net. CLICK HERE FOR ORIGINAL RECIPE. This is really good and will probably become a good staple for mid week lunches. I don’t like the taste of chicken or chicken salad, but I really love this recipe! The recipe states that the Cashew Salad is especially good stuffed in a tomato. So for simplicity sake, I just served it over tomato slices which tasted lovely.

Here the recipe with my own modifications:

• 1/4 cup of sunflower seeds, unsoaked
• 1 cup of cashew pieces, unsoaked
• 1 cup of pecans, unsoaked
• 1 medium cucumber, peeled, seeded and cut into chunks
• 2 scallions (spring/green onions), chopped up (I use most of the green part as well as all of the white part)
• 1/2 sweet apple
• 1 1/2 teaspoons of dried dill
• 3/4 to 1 teaspoon of curry powder
• 1/2 teaspoon of sea salt

Combine all ingredients in a food processor with the S blade. Process until well combined.

The original recipe calls for lemon juice but I forgot about it accidentally and thought it tasted great without it. I omitted the celery from the original recipe as we are not fans of it. I also increased the dill and curry and added sea salt.

This is another good recipe for those with a fussy spouse or significant other! Scott likes this recipe and even had it once on a sandwich! I had some last night when we got home from our very long day. I ate it with a few tomato slices wrapped up in collards! Delicious!!

Perfect timing! It’s been raining most of the day with a few small thunderstorms and now the sun is starting to come out! Time to go for a run and get some fresh air!

Have a lovely week and thanks for stopping by!