Tuesday, February 17, 2015

Healthy Chocolate Coconut Pie (raw, vegan, dairy-free, gluten-free, paleo)


This is my first attempt at a recipe post, although I have made video recipes before that you can find here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WSvDU4QZzJ0&list=PLLPxk9-Hvq7FWzkDT16ZyJ-H03CSJf0bc

Today I made a chocolate coconut pie using avocado and banana, and now I will attempt to share with you how I made it.
The crust end up being nice and crunch, and chocolate filling is the flavor and consistency of a chocolate pudding(you can make just the filling and have a healthy pudding), and the topping is nice and coconutty :)

Crust:
1 cup unsweetened shredded coconut
I use this one:
About 3 Tablespoons of coconut oil, melted
I used the organic extra virgin one from Vitacost
And about 2-3 Tablespoons of Coconut Sugar
I use this one:
Combine everything in a blender such as the Magic Bullet(what I am using)
After blending:
Pour into container and put in freezer so it can firm up while you make the filling:
Filling:
 You will need 1 banana and 1 avocado
You will also need 1/2 cup of coconut milk
To make it chocolatey you have a few options:
1- You can use raw cacao paste and sweetner of choice(what I did). About a handfull as you can see in below pic.
2- You can use a chocolate bar(I like the Trader Joe's one pictured below, as it has very minimal ingredients, pretty much just cacao and sugar, no lecithin or soy, etc.) About 1 bar
3- You could theoretically use cacao powder plus sweetner of choice, but it will make your pudding a little thinner in consistency. Not sure how much exactly to use, maybe about 1/4 cup.
Melting the cacao paste

 Now since the cacao paste is completely unsweetened I am adding raw honey, you will not need to do this if you used chocolate bar.

Add this melted chocolate to the banana/avocado/coconut milk and blend
The crust should be firmed up by now, so spoon the filling onto the crust and place in the freezer to set while you make topping.
Topping:
This is optional, but will make things a little more coconutty, if you like that.
Combine half cup of shredded coconut with half cup of coconut milk and 1-2 Tablespoons of honey to taste
Carefully pour over top of the pie
Let the pie set in the fridge for a few hours.
Now it is ready to enjoy!
It can be kind of a pain to get perfectly sliced pieces, so you will need a nice sharp knife to cut through the crust. (In hindsight it probably would work better if the crust was a little thinner, so next time I will probably reduce the ingredients or use larger glass container to make it be thinner)


Thank you for reading! Enjoy!


Summary of Ingredients:
Crust:
1 cup shredded coconut
3 Tablespoons of melted coconut oil
2-3 Tablespoons of coconut sugar to taste
Filling:
1 avocado
1 banana
1/4 cup light coconut milk
either handfull of melted raw cacao paste combined with 2-3 Tablespoons of raw honey to taste
or
about 1 chocolate bar, melted (3.5 oz / 100grams)
Topping:
1/2 cup shredded coconut
1/2 cup light coconut milk
1-2 Tablespoons of raw honey to taste


Saturday, February 14, 2015

Nvey Eco Moisture Rich Fluid Foundation & BB Creme Revew and Swatches

I recently did a review video on the Nvey Eco Liquid Foundation, which I will link below.
And today I was at Ulta and was able to swatch all of the shades of this foundation, so I thought it would be helpful to show you, since the shades do not necessarily get darker as the numbers go up.
Ivory 510, Custard 511, Fluid Beige 512, Natural 514, Golden Honey 515, Warm Honey 516
 The Ivory shade is a good "lightness" for me, but it is too pink. The Natural 514 has the correct tone, but is a bit too dark so looks orange on me.
You can see a full demo in the video below, but overall I like this foundation, it is similar to my holy grail Jane Iredale liquid minerals, but it is just a tad more visible on the skin. But it is $20 cheaper than the Jane Iredale.

While I was at Ulta I also decided to check out the Nvey Eco BB Cream.

The top row is the BB Cream:
Fair, Light Medium
The row under that is the foundation for comparison:
Ivory 510, Custard 511, Fluid Beige 512, Natural 514
The BB cream seems very nice, actually quite similar to the foundation. I didn't end up buying it because the Fair shade was too pink, but the Light was a little too dark. These do oxidize a bit after sitting on the skin. But it felt nice, perhaps a touch creamier than the foundation, coverage seemed similar.
So hopefully these swatches help!
Btw, here is my video demo of the liquid foundation