Getting some use out of my ramekins

It was one of those days.

I walked into the kitchen with good ideas and good intent and I walked out with a firm kick in my pride.

Ouch.
I hate that.

I'll be honest and say that sometimes I can be rather melodramatic. You know... the cake didn't turn out so it must mean I'm a terrible baker, and oh my gosh now I'm rethinking my career decisions, and my life is over now I might as well just quit while I'm ahead.

Um. Hello! Drama queen, please exit stage left. Thank you.

So today I got right back into the water. Let's just say that my pride is regained so I guess my life can continue. I'm satisfied.

I realized a few things today. Let me share them with you:

1) Raw desserts always turn out for me. I just can't seem to screw them up. I like this;
2) Baked goods are having less and less appeal to me. More often than not I am now turning to raw food for both meals and for snacks (read: I bought a big bag of cacao so lots of chocolate-y things). And probably most importantly;
3) It's ok for things not to go perfectly all the time. I will have bad days. I just have to make the best of them.

I might edit the post later and post the recipe.

That is, I will if I can remember it.

Cheers!

P.S. You can totally see where my finger slipped onto one of the cakes in that last picture. Oops! I'll just eat that one, too...

I definitely deserve a slice of cheesecake

I'm still on this raw kick, and I'm not sorry.

I don't have a good reason for making this cheesecake. I've been feeling down lately, so maybe that's why I did it. Last weekend went unfavourably at work and to be honest I'm still running the events through my mind.

But... it certainly won't help me lose weight and I don't think I really want to share it either. So it's just going to chill in my freezer. And when I'm a good girl—I mean a really, really good girl—then maybe I'll have a piece.

That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

Raw Blueberry Cheesecake
Adapted from The Purple Carrot's adaptation.

Crust:
1 cup raw almonds (mine were soaked and dehydrated)
1 cup pitted dates
a generous pinch of sea salt

Filling:
3 cups cashews, soaked
2 tsp. pure vanilla extract
Juice of 3 lemons
1/2 cup virgin coconut oil (this will give it a coconut-y taste; use refined if you don't want that), melted
1/2 cup raw agave nectar
1 generous cup fresh blueberries, rinsed and patted dry, plus more for garnish

For the crust: combine all ingredients in the bowl of a food processor and blend until everything is finely chopped and sticks together when pressed. Press the crust evenly into the bottom of a 9-in. springform pan bottom-lined with wax paper.

For the filling: Combine all ingredients, except for the berries, in the food processor and blend until smooth. Pour roughly two-thirds of the mixture over the crust.

Add the berries to the remaining mixture in the food processor and blend once again until smooth; pour over top to create three layers.

// Another idea I had is to pour all of the filling into the pan, blend the berries separately, and then swirl the pureed berries into the filling. Totally up to you. //

Place cheesecake into the freezer until firm, about an hour or two. Store in the freezer, and allow a couple minutes to thaw before slicing and serving. garnish with fresh blueberries, if desired.

Yield: one 9-in cheesecake