healthy – Snapshots & My Thoughts by Ailee Petrovic

Food August 4, 2015

Healthy Vegan Chocolate Cupcakes

It has been far too long since I baked anything, as I went a litttttle crazy after Mara gave me this raw vegan cookbook for Christmas (it’s amazing, and I highly recommend you buy it!). After making delicious treats almost every other day, I think Sasha and I both needed a cleanse from pitted dates (essentials in raw ‘baking,’ and also one of my favorite foods on the planet).

After shooting Meredith’s cocktail last week, I remembered how much fun I have doing recipe posts and so decided to play around in the kitchen to create a delicious healthy chocolate cupcake. After a few (ahem) failed attempts, I have created a delicious and fudgy cake that tastes delicious even without the vegan cream cheese icing (but it’s definitely a yummy bonus).

As soon as the cupcakes had cooled from the oven, I let Isla taste test the first one. She literally smooshed it into her mouth in order to eat it quicker (and I had to squat Belle away, as she kept trying to get a bite). Then Isla stood with her hands on the kitchen cabinets and said, “Mowwwwww” (her attempt at “More”). Then Sasha got home and ate about five. So needless to say, they’re tasty – and easy to make! If the photos tickle your fancy, then give them a try and make sure to let me know if you love them!

Food July 15, 2015

Healthy Pineapple Basil Lemonade Recipe

As I mentioned on Monday, we’re doing a health food cleanse right now, which involves lots of all-natural foods (i.e. no chemicals, preservatives), fresh juices and oodles of water. The last item on that list is the toughest for me. I wish more than anything I was one of those people who happily drank a gallon of water a day, but I’m not. Give me a gallon worth of La Croix though, and I’d down it quickly.

In order to drink lots of water, I typically flavor it with fruit. While we were in St. Petersburg in May, we drank tons of fruit-infused lemonades (they were on all the cool restaurant’s menus!) – see a photo here. I imagine there was quite a bit of sugar in the drinks, but I decided there didn’t need to be, as fruit is so sweet naturally.

Food February 25, 2015

Healthy, Raw Vegan Oreos

My sweet friend, Mara, bought me an incredible raw, vegan cookbook for Christmas, and I have been cursing her every week for it (only kidding!), as I cannot stop myself from making these delicious desserts. In all seriousness, this book has saved poor Sasha from enduring the millions of healthy baking recipes that I tried to invent in my head for years – apparently there’s actually a science to these things and the recipes cannot just be winged like cooking!

I’ve been making most of the recipes following the exact instructions in the book, but yesterday I decided to go a little rogue on Emily’s ‘Raw Chocolate Cookies Sandwiching Vanilla Cashew Cream’ recipe and I’m so glad I did, as the result was phenomenal. I’ll call it the healthy, gluten free, refined sugar free, raw vegan Oreo (catchy little name, right?), or perhaps just vegan Oreo for short.

I’ve got to warn you, these will make about 6 cookies, but they won’t last more than 6 minutes (especially if you’ve got guests over)! These are definitely my new ‘go to’ items, although I won’t stop making my other healthy vegan favorites (Black Bean Brownies, Brownie Bites, Mini-Cheesecakes and Chocolate Beet Brownies).

Cookie Ingredients

3/4 cup of oats (gluten free if baking for someone with Celiacs or gluten intolerance)
2 1/2 cups of pitted dates (I use these which you’ll find next to the raisins and other dried fruit at the grocery store)
2 tablespoons of unsweetened cocoa powder
2 tablespoons of melted organic coconut oil

Food November 18, 2014

Healthy Raw Vegan Mini-Cheesecakes

I’ve been searching for healthy vegan cheesecake recipes on Google for ages, and I kept finding ‘healthy’ recipes that include tons and tons of maple syrup or sugar, which, in my books, isn’t healthy. I also found a number of recipes that involve freezing the cheesecakes (which qualifies them as being raw), but I think frozen desserts to have less taste than that of warm or room-temperature ones.

Given that I could not find my perfect healthy vegan recipe online, I decided to do some experimenting and oh-my-goodness, y’all… I love these cheesecakes so much. They may not be low fat (think quite a bit of nuts), but they are low-carb!

Sasha and I demolished these over the weekend – our favorite toppings were raspberry jam (we love Bonne Maman Raspberry Preserves) and just plain raspberries. As explained below, I mistakenly tried adding the toppings after they had already set, which should be avoided (although they still tasted amazing).

Recipes October 21, 2014

Healthy Vegan Crustless Apple Pie

I have been toying with the idea of a healthy apple pie for ages now, as anyone close to me knows I adore stewed apples. What exactly is a stewed apple? Simple. It’s when an apple is skinned (optional), cored, diced and popped into the microwave for about 2 1/2 – 3 minutes. It comes out soft and sweeter (how? I have no idea). I eat a stewed apple almost every single night after dinner. It’s the best dessert.

After scouring the internet, I found a lot of vegan apple pie recipes online, but none of them were to my liking (i.e. healthy enough). You don’t need all of that added sugar if you bake with a delicious apple (namely Honey Crisp).

I baked three batches of these vegan, gluten-free, refined-sugar-free, crustless apple pies, adjusting little things each time, and the recipe below is the winner. The ingredients make two servings – baked in little ramekins (I used these from Sur La Table).

PS Isla’s nursery is one of the finalist for Project Nursery’s project of the month! I would love your vote.