This year, I wanted to take the chocolate parade to a new level. There were just too many goodies to choose from to share just one recipe, so not only did I decide to create an EPIC chocolate recipe collection, but I asked some of my favorite superfood-savvy chefs to share their most popular recipes too. Between the subject matter, and the recipes themselves, this is the may be one of the most exciting collections ever known to mankind. I kind of really do mean that.

1. Raw Raspberry Cream-Filled Chocolate Candies

Recipe and image by Amber Shea Crawley

Author of Practically Raw as well as the highly anticipated Practically Raw Desserts, Chef Amber Shea definitely knows a thing or two about making incredible raw desserts! But really, this particular recipe just takes my breath away. The gorgeous raw cacao exterior, followed by the va-va-VOOM of the soft raspberry filling is just over the top wondeful. RECIPE

2. Bliss Balls

Recipe and image by Marni Wasserman

It’s no wonder Marni Wasserman’s highly acclaimed classes and upcoming cooking school consistently generate such a buzz: the recipes she offers continue to be the inspiring combination of healthy, simple, and SMART. These impeccable donut-hole-esque treats are a perfect example of how quickly an incredible dessert can come together when made with just the right natural ingredients. RECIPE

3. Chocolate Haystacks

Recipe and image from Raw & Simple, by Judita Wignall

Yearning for the secret to chef Judita Wignall’s gorgeous glow? It’s all in the food! Between her successful book Going Raw, and her popular new work Raw & Simple, Judita stylishly shares mouthwatering recipes that make the healthy benefits of the raw food lifestyle a motivatingly delicious adventure. Case in point: these chocolate haystacks (WOW!!!), which Judita describes as “super–simple to make and will brighten anyone’s day. I use longer coconut threads to give it that haystack look, but you can use the finely shredded coconut with the same great results. Jazz it up with some chopped nuts or hemp seeds for a little nutrition boost.”

Makes 12 servings
Prep time: 15 minutes

INGREDIENTS:
2/3 cup (66 g) cacao powder
½ cup (118 ml) maple syrup
1⁄₄ cup (59 ml) coconut oil, warmed to liquid
½ vanilla bean, scraped, or small pinch of vanilla powder
1⁄₄ teaspoon sea salt (optional)
2 cups (160 g) shredded coconut

DIRECTIONS:
Blend cacao powder, maple syrup, coconut oil, vanilla, and salt in a blender or food processor until smooth.

In a bowl, hand mix the shredded coconut with chocolate mixture.

Line a plate with parchment paper. Use a spoon or melon scoop to form twelve to fourteen individual haystacks on the parchment paper. Freeze for thirty minutes or until firm.

The haystacks can be stored in the refrigerator or freezer for one month.

4. Vanilla Cacao Bliss Bites

Recipe and image by Meghan Telpner

Cooking class extrodinairre, spunky Nutritionista, and author of the upcoming UnDiet cookbook, Meghan Telpner has an undeniable knack for motivating people to eat “the good stuff” through her accessible, flavorful, easy recipes (and super fun attitude!). With these luscious vanilla-cacao treats on the queue, I can’t wait to get on the “UnDiet” bandwagon! RECIPE

5. Salted Caramel Bonbons

Recipe and image by Julie Morris

And, of course, I couldn’t help but include one of my own recipes in the mix. While I still am a die-hard fan of the “perfect-anytime” simple raw chocolate recipe included in Superfood Kitchen, this “whole-new-level” recipe was inspired by a friend who gave me the request to create something “chocolately, with caramel, and salty-crunchy.” Ahem, um, how can I say no to that? With in a moment, I knew homemade bonbons were in the near future, and the resulting recipe is just ridiculously wonderful: deep, dark, raw chocolate that wraps a soft, nougat-like caramel center … with just a touch of salty crunch. I know, I know, I know...

Makes 2½ dozen bonbons

INGREDIENTS

For the caramel:

6 tablespoons coconut butter*
¼ cup agave nectar, or liquid sweetener of choice
½ teaspoon maca powder
1 teaspoon lucucma powder (optional)
¼ teaspoon sea salt

For the chocolate:

2/3 cup cacao butter, solid form – cut into shavings
2/3 cup cacao powder
1/8 teaspoon instant coffee granules (optional)
pinch sea salt
3 tablespoons agave nectar, or liquid sweetener of choice

For the base:

¼ cup pretzel sticks**
2 tablepsoons raw pecans

DIRECTIONS
You will need 2 bonbon trays for this recipe.

Make the caramel first: In a small saucepan, melt the coconut butter over low heat until softened. Add the liquid sweetener, maca, lucuma, and sea salt, and stir well to combine. Remove from the heat. Transfer the contents to a small pastry bag, and let cool to room temperature.

Meanwhile, make the chocolate. Use a double boiler method to gently melt the cacao butter into a liquid. Transfer to a bowl, and add the cacao powder, coffee granules, and sea salt, and whisk to combine. Pour in the liquid sweetener and stir well. Spoon chocolate into the bonbon trays, filling each cavity to the top. Over a bowl, flip the trays over and tap out the excess chocolate, leaving just a thin layer in the bonbon trays. Transfer to a freezer, and let the chocolate shells harden – about 15 minutes.

While the chocolate is setting, place the pretzels and pecans in a small zip-lock bag and seal, removing any excess air. Use the back of a heavy jar, or a wooden spoon to crush the contents into fine bits, leaving a little bit of texture.

To assemble, remove the chocolate shells from the freezer. Pipe a small dab of the caramel into each one – about ¼ teaspoon. Use the pretzel mixture to fill the shell ¾ full, pressing down gently to pack into place. Carefully top with chocolate, filling to just below the baseline. Return the bonbons to the freezer to let fully set – about 20 minutes.
For best results, keep bonbons refrigerated or in a cool place to prevent the raw chocolate from melting.

*Use a coconut butter like this one – do not substitute with coconut oil.

** Look for whole wheat or gluten-free varieties.

To begin, it’s delicious. If you like pumpkin pie, you will love this one.

But this special pie has two pretty major healthy secrets underneath it’s tasty exterior. The first secret is the use of organic silken tofu (be sure to use an organic or a certified non GMO brand). Incorporating tofu in the place of eggs, cream, or even cashews, gives the pie a deceptive richness while making it very low in fat, lower in calories, and high in protein (WIN!). I’ve seen many plant-based pie recipes use this trick, and for good reason: it works. And incredibly, you won’t taste it a bit.

The second ingredient trick which I love even more however, is the use of lucuma powder. As I’ve mentioned before, this South American fruit provides a complex-flavored sweetness, yet is naturally very low in sugar. It also has a slightly squash-like undertone, meaning it is the PERFECT addition to a pumpkin pie! Using lucuma powder in this recipe means that though a very minimal amount of sugar is used (just a tablespoon per serving!) we can still retain all the traditional flavor. You can definitely feel proud serving this one up to your friends and family – for all the right reasons! Learn more about lucuma powder here.

Pumpkin Lucuma Pie

Makes 8 servings

INGREDIENTS:

1 15 oz can pumpkin puree
1 12.3 oz package organic silken tofu
½ cup coconut sugar
⅓ cup lucuma powder
2 teaspoons cinnamon powder
½ teaspoon ginger powder
¼ teaspoon clove powder
1 prepared pie crust (preferably whole grain and dairy-free)

DIRECTIONS:

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F.

In a food processor, combine all the ingredients – except the pie crust – and mix until completely smooth. Pour the pumpkin mixture into the prepared pie crust, and spread into a flat layer. Place in the oven and bake for 15 minutes, then lower the heat to 350 and bake for 40-45 minutes longer, or until the top has slightly browned and the crust is golden. Remove from the oven, and let the pie cool completely to room temperature, to fully set. Slice and serve; will keep up to 4 days, unrefrigerated.

Serving suggestion: Make a coconut whip cream by chilling a can of full-fat coconut cream in the refrigerator overnight. Scoop out the separated cream from the water, and use a hand-held blender to whip the cream until slightly stiffened. Top the pie with coconut whip cream when ready to serve.

Pumpkin-Cranberry Squares

Have some extra pumpkin puree lying around? Whip up a batch of these crispy, chewy, and satisfying snack bars in under ten minutes.

***Makes 16 bars***

INGREDIENTS

¾ cup raw cashews
½ cup reduced-fat unsweetened coconut shreds*
¼ cup coconut sugar
3 tablespoons lucuma powder
2 tablespoons goji powder
1 tablespoon ground flaxseed powder
2 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice powder
1/8 teaspoon sea salt
3 tablespoons canned pumpkin puree
½ teaspoon vanilla extract
2 cups plus ½ cup all-natural brown rice crisp cereal, divided**
1 cup fruit-juice sweetened dried cranberries
⅓ cup chopped pecans (optional)

DIRECTIONS

For best results, add the ingredients in the directed stage (and not all at once), to achieve optimum texture: Place the cashews in a food processor, and grind into a coarse flour. Add the coconut shreds, coconut sugar, lucuma powder, goji powder, flaxseed powder, pumpkin pie spice, and sea salt, and blitz to combine. Add the canned pumpkin and vanilla and blitz once more to form a wet dough. Add 2 cups of the brown rice cereal and process until ground into fine crumbs. Add the remaining ½ cup of cereal, cranberries, and chopped pecans (optional), and blitz just for a moment to coarsely chop the last round of ingredients, but retain most of the texture.

Lay a piece of wax or parchment paper down on a flat surface, and spill the “dough” out on top. Use your hands to firmly press the mixture into a 1-inch-thick rectangle, compressing as much as possible to get it to “stick.” Lay another piece of wax paper on top, and use a rolling pin to firmly roll the dough into a ½-inch flat layer. Remove the top paper, and re-press together any pieces that may have drifted from the main rectangle. Cut into 16 squares and serve.

Will keep for 1 week at room temperature, or 2 weeks refrigerated.

*Sold at many natural food stores. If unavailable, use regular unsweetened coconut shreds.
**Choose a variety without added sugar, like Barbara’s.

These are exciting times, my foodie friends. In just a few days, my new cookbook, SUPERFOOD KITCHEN: Cooking with Nature’s Most Amazing Foods, will be released! A full-color, hardcover book with over 100 recipes and extensive information on both why and how to use superfoods, this beauty is now available for preorder online at Barnes & Noble and Amazon for up to 40% off list price.

To clear up any potential confusion, SUPERFOOD KITCHEN is in fact a re-published, re-vamped version of my book SUPERFOOD CUISINE (which was released last year and is no longer in print). Comparing the two, SUPERFOOD KITCHEN features 3 additional recipes, a few copy edits, and minor formatting changes. Here’s the reason for the change:

In reality, this project began many, many years ago when I made some killer raw macaroons, sans recipe. I just put ingredients together in a food processor and played with it until it worked (and oh, it worked!). Though not really a revolutionary moment in the scope of reality, I found the process absolutely exhilarating. “I think I’m going down the wrong path in life,” I told myself. “I want to be a chef. I want to write a cookbook.” While I did make a transfer over to the world of natural food not too long after that, it took me no less than eight years to actually put together my first book. I wanted it to be nothing short of amazing – the kind of cookbook I would buy myself – and sometimes, these things just can’t be rushed.

But there was another factor that delayed the production… finding people who believed in my work, and who believed in me. Anyone who’s ever been involved in a start-up anything… from launching a business venture to getting a first acting role … knows that it’s getting that first investor, that first job, that is the hardest. For me it was getting a publisher. Having worked intimately in the natural food industry, I could confirm first hand the surging level of interest in natural foods, superfoods, and plant-based foods for health and energy. But convincing the publishing world was a different story. I shopped my book idea around endlessly from publisher to publisher, pitched my idea of “superfood cuisine” to more people than I care to admit, and yet continued to get only polite rejections (or more often, no response at all). It was disheartening, but I truly believed that there had to be a way to get my book out.

There was. Navitas Naturals, the superfood company for whom I continue to work with as a chef, agreed to help me self-publish a first run. Self-publishing is not for the faint of heart, I soon learned! Because I was running on a shoestring budget, I did as much as I possibly could myself. Aside from writing the recipes and the text, I also became my own food photographer, and, after studying-up on the in’s and out’s of computer design programs, I designed the book from head to toe as well. I can’t even begin to explain what a mammoth and often overwhelming process it was, being pulled in so many different directions creatively-speaking. The day that I got my first shipment of printed books in the mail I was genuinely shaking as I opened the box. And though I was excited, my primary thought was a last-minute desperate prayer that I’d find no catastrophic mistakes. (Amazingly, there weren’t.) SUPERFOOD CUISINE: Cooking with Nature’s Most Amazing Foods was born.

Thanks to an overwhelmingly positive response to SUPERFOOD CUISINE, within a very short time, I began working with a brilliant book agent, who found me a publisher who wasn’t just interested in taking me on, but was a match made in heaven: Sterling Publishing. Sterling was eager to climb on board with SUPERFOOD CUISINE, and before long, a contract was in place to republish the next run… and dig in on some new projects as well. Working with Sterling not only allows me to put out a better product, but get wider distribution and offer the book at a lower price point – a win for for everyone!

So here we are, a year later. SUPERFOOD KITCHEN is the new, primped-up version of my self-published first book. I received an advance copy in the mail a couple weeks ago. But this time, opening the package, I wasn’t shaking: I was filled with pride.

To every person that purchased a copy of SUPERFOOD CUISINE, I’d like to extend a most heartfelt thank you. With just 3000 copies printed on that first run, you supported and own a piece of an immensely personal, special, and very much hand-made project of mine. I am truly grateful for your support, and hope that the book continues to bring you joy, health, and deliciousness.

I hope that this new version, SUPERFOOD KITCHEN, is not just something you buy, but something that you adore to use again and again… something that you can display with pride because it supports your path of a healthy lifestyle (… and that alone is something to be proud of). I hope you gift copies to friends and loved ones, as, besides being a beautiful present, it gives those you care about the opportunity to enhance their own lives through nature’s best (and most delicious) nutritious foods. I hope that we can get the word out that living well is a beautiful, easy, and fun adventure. From my Superfood Kitchen to yours, with all my heart, I hope you love it.

Shoes.

I was still buying leather shoes.

As a vegan, I knew it was wrong; as an animal lover, I knew it was gross (when you really start to think about it); and as a environmentalist, I knew it contradicted everything I supported and promoted. And yet, inevitably, I would pass by a pair of THE most amazing heels, and suddenly find myself overwhelmed with a case of temporary insanity. Swept up in the momentum of beautiful design, my personal ethics were simultaneously swept under the rug. “No one will know,” I’d think. “I’m doing the best I can,” I would lamely tell people who DID know. “I’ll just get this one pair and it will be my last leather item. This is seriously it.” Finally, in 2004, I bought my true last pair of leather shoes: a pair of hot pink flats with dots. They were pretty ugly. And I realized I felt the same way buying them. “No more,” I told myself. And I meant it.

Though I had solved my ethical dilemma, it wasn’t long before I found myself faced with a new challenge: what, on earth, to wear on my feet. Sure there were a handful of companies that made “vegan” shoes, but I didn’t really like them. And the only other option was to wear shoes that were vegan by default – the cheapie shoes that were made with man-made materials that smelled like chemicals and pinched my feet. Worst of all was the time of year when fall fashion hit, when hot boots lined store windows with their tall zippers and “I mean it” heels, screaming “fabulous” in my face and daring me to even step foot in the store. As boots girl, I felt bothered.

But, my friends, that was YEARS ago.

Fashion is progressive by default, so it makes sense that, in time, it would begin to evolve environmentally and intellectually in addition to soley aesthetically. One of the first companies I discovered on my quest for an all-around “better shoe” was Olsenhaus — and they continually hold a special place in my heart (and closet). Olsenhaus presents a whole new level of yes when it comes to footwear: beautifully-considered heels, perfect flats, funky party kicks, and, of course, amazing boots. But best of all? Their shoes are in line with a compassionate lifestyle without an ounce of sacrifice, via gorgeous design, impeccable quality, AND an ethically and/or environmentally friendly footprint.

Olsenhaus has kindly allowed me to share with you a 30% discount off of their entire website good through Nov 10 – just enter “JMLOVES” at checkout. If you are a shoe girl (or guy), this is one shoe experience that has absolutely no regrets. How fun!

Personally, I’ve been working my slightly sunburnt tail off these past few months on a couple of projects… one of which, I’m tremendously happy to now be able to share with you. Navitas Naturals has put together a brand new Smoothment – a “Back to Basics” week-long initiative of superfood smoothies. I have 7 totally new recipes I’ve made especially for this event, which starts tomorrow, and you can get all of them by signing up here. Plus, we’ve put together quick little daily videos on how to make each one, there’s bonus recipe tips, and just by signing up you get 30% off all superfood ingredients. Yes!

I hope you’ll join me in this week-long smoothie celebration, and invite your friends! Check out all the goodness the Smoothement has to offer here. Lots o’ love and see you there!