Vegan "Thin Mint" Fudge, Thriving, & Moon Talk

Happy Monday morning!  How was your weekend?  They're never long enough if you ask me.  Sigh.  I'm going to take care of all kinds of legal name change stuff Monday morning but before I go I wanted to check back in and mention a Chocolate Creation I made over the weekend.

Oh and glad that some of you liked the looks of the Kelp Noodle Dishes I made, too.  Check 'em out for an alternative to gluten-laden pasta noodles.  Raw, vegan, and easy!

Remember Sarma's new book from this post?  Well, I was reading one of her dessert recipes and got inspired...I warn you, it may not be the prettiest dessert or the easiest batter to work with, but by golly, my tummy wasn't complaining.

She made a raw vegan rendition of Thin Mint cookies.  You know, those high fat very unraw once-you-pop-you-can't-stop cookies the little Girl Scouts guilt you into buying? Yeah, those.  Well Sarma has a delightful, but kinda complicated and with a pricey ingredients list, kinda recipe.  But I tweaked things and created Vegan "Thin Mint" Fudge.

Averie's Vegan "Thin Mint" Fudge
Combine:
1.5 c cocoa powder
1.5 c almond flour
1/2 c maple syrup
1/2 c agave
1 Tsp vanilla extract
1.5 Tbsp Peppermint Extract.  Incredibly important sidebar: If you have never worked with peppermint extract, it is waaaaaaay more potent and strong than vanilla extract and you can extremely quickly go from pleasant minty vibe to just drown your recipe in a bottle of Listerine vibe.  So add slowly and once you've added it, there's no turning back so be careful.  Don't say I didn't warn you.
Blend.  But be careful, this is a heavy job even for the VitaBeast.  I almost overheated my Vita...whoa, nelly, slow down and add more liquid sweetener if you need to.

Spread into a pan.  It's extremely thick to work with.  Kinda like certain people at the DMV where I'm heading to, thick.

I scored it with a pizza cutter before freezing which was probably a useless step and just an extra utensil to wash.

 Freeze & Enjoy as is...

Or mold into little Thin Mint Cookie Shapes.  If you take the time to do this step rather than just digging into your pan with a spoon (which is totally acceptable, of course), just make sure that you've given it time to freeze well, like 12-24 hours because otherwise it will be too sludgey to work with and you'll have a colossal mess on your hands, no pun intended.

Moving right on the some more Thrive action.  Brendan Brazier's book, The Thrive Diet.  

I confess, I am not done with it, but so far, I love it.  See all these other books on my shelf...I'm trying to read all of those, too.  And keep up with everyone's bloggie.  And cook.  And blog about cooking...so I just can't seem to read all these great books as fast as I'd like.  Does anyone else feel like they are falling wayyyyy behind on their book or magazine reading lately?
But for all of us busy folks, Brendan has this email program called Thrive in 30 and you can sign up and get all kind of great lessons delivered to your email.  They send one every couple days for a month and I really got alot out of those.  It was kinda like the Cliff's Notes version of the book for me.  Or you could just ask Alison, I know she's a Brendan lovin' kinda gal.

Has anyone else read the book?  What's your fave part?  So far I love his thoughts that even if you don't think you have allergies, you may want to avoid certain things like gluten and dairy.  It's really interesting to me because I have some food sensitvities.

Anyway I also munched some of Brendan's little bars.

And this one too.

Both were chocolate, both great.  But, of course, the Vegan "Thin Mint" Fudge recipe is mighty yumm too.
It reminds me of my Raw Vegan Brownies, just a thicker, minty-er version.  This dessert is extremely rich and satisfying.  And although the texture is different, taste-wise, the Thin Mint vibe is definitely in the house.  

Things today were brought to you in VeganMofo spirit.
Yoga today is somewhere between Camel (ustrasana) and King Pigeon (kaptosana).  The pic was snapped before I got all the way down.  So you have a half-n-half pose today.

Tip of the Day:  Pay attention to the Lunar Cycles.  Without writing a dissertation on this topic, you may have noticed over the weekend, since there was a Full Moon on Sunday, that you felt a little restless, a little out of sorts, full of energy, but not necessarily a balanced energy.   Energy instead that was a bit more chaotic and unchanneled.  You may have had heated words with others, power struggles, experienced nightime waking, or even glorious bursts of energy for your workout or yoga. These are all common when the moon is full. 

You and the Universe are filled with Prana.  Prana is life force, it is energy.  And when the moon is full, we are all full of this abundant energy.  Energy, properly-harnessed, is great.  Energy, when it's chaotic and out of balance, can be challenging. 

Of course, none of this may have materialized for you, but if it did, you can blame it on the Full Moon, the Lunar Cycle.  I will fill you in on New Moon stuff when the next New Moon rolls around.   


On lighter matters...Does anyone still eat Girl Scout Cookies?  I haven't in years, but I have to say, making this recipe has me craving Thin Mints or Samoas but I can't partake on account of my food intolerances.  Sigh.  Plus, the cookies aren't exactly high raw or vegan, either.  What's your fave Girl Scout Cookie?  Do you still partake when cookie season comes around?

Or did anyone have any Full Moon stuff goin' on? Do tell!


Stay tuned for Cha-Cha-Chia Seeds....