impRAWvise 

It is winter time already and Christmas is getting pretty close. I love this time of the year because everything looks so beautiful and I think that pretty much everyone is at least a little bit more joyful than in any other time of the year. What I truly believe would be wonderful for all of us is to extend these joys and gratitude thoughts of the winter holidays season to the entire year, then we would not have to wait for it and just enjoy every single moment of our beautiful lives. Actually I do believe that this is the whole point of living a conscious and fulfilling lifestyle: being happy of who we are right now and enjoying the present moment and all of it`s beauties. Of course, sometimes life gets tough, but that is the beauty of it because by going through things we learn how to deal with them, and then next time we have to bring an answer to the table, we already know what we have to do.

I think that a wonderful thing that we can do to improve our health and also our current lives is to simply learn to incorporate in our day to day lives the practice of eating consciously and being aware of where our food comes from and also becoming aware of what we are after all choosing to support, because what we pay for is what we get but it also is also a concept or an industry that we agree with and we encourage it to develop. This is the reason why the market places adapt to their customers, so that the more customers ask for a specific product or even buy it, the more probable it will be to find that product more easily. There is also an added benefit to that: the more people buy a product, most of the times results in a more affordable product. Of course, health is a very important aspect of our lives that should stand pretty much by itself as sufficient, but sometimes it is wonderful and needed to have also added benefits.  Affordability is in the end something that we each define in our own terms of what we really care for and what we believe that we need for a proper care of ourselves.

This being said, a great idea to enjoy some healthy goodness is to make a delicious raw vegan cake, for example a hazelnut and chocolate cream vegan and raw cake. This cake is absolutely delicious, it is creamy and sweet and the taste of hazelnuts make it absolutely divine. For this recipe we need the following ingredients:

Crust

100 g flax seed flour

100 g mix of sesame and sunflower seeds

2-3 tbsp coconut oil

2-3 tbsp agave nectar

orange zest

water as needed.

We use a food processor to mix the ingredients for the crust until we have a thick and sticky consistency. We spread our crust on the bottom of a cake form and go on to the next step.

The next step is making the cream filling. For the chocolate cream filling we need the following ingredients:

100 g hazelnuts

100 g carob powder

100 g dates

1-2 tbsp agave nectar

3-4 tbsp coconut oil

maca powder

1/2 cup to 1 cup water as needed.

In a blender we mix the ingredients for the chocolate cream filling until we get a smooth consistency. Then we spread our chocolate and hazelnut cream on top of the crust and decorate it with some coconut flakes, hazelnuts and orange slices.

We can then put it in the fridge for a few hours to settle or we can enjoy it right away. This recipe is a great idea for the holiday season as it has a delicious chocolate and orange flavor and it is also great for pretty much any occasion that you would like to bring it to. I think that eating healthy foods is great for both our bodies and minds and it is also a great opportunity to share some raw vegan goodness with our lovely friends and family members.