Power (brownie) Bars

I'll admit, I've been sneaking brownies at work. Chocolate chip cookies too. I don't know why this sweet tooth is hanging around so long, but I had to do something about it. So I jazzed up my protein bar recipe with CHOCOLATE! With the right ingredients, I even made them VEGAN. Now, I can feed my chocolate craving, guilt free, and get my protein too!

If you saw my last entry, I'm focusing on protein this week. Follow this recipe, and each bar packs about 6g of soy-free protein! Their great in the morning to accompany a smoothie, easy to grab on the go, and make for a great little snack between meals, or before or after your workout.

 Power (brownie) Bars

Ingredients: 

• 6 oz dried pitted dates, chopped
• 6  oz dried black figs, chopped
• 1 cup raw almonds, chopped
• 1/3 cup hemp seeds
• 1 cup almond butter
• 1/2 tsp. cinnamon
• zest of two oranges
• 1 tsp. vanilla extract
• 6-8 ounces of chocolate protein powder (I recommend Vega One)
• 1 1/2 cup espresso - brewed and chilled 
• 1/2 cup mini vegan chocolate chips (I used Enjoy Life, so yummy)

Optional Ingredients: 

There's a lot of room in this recipe to be creative, add 1/3 cup of walnuts, or some shredded coconut if you like. I encourage you to add your personal touch so these become something you crave.

Equipment:

• 8x11 brownie pan
• A food processor is highly recommended. The first time I ever made 'power bars,' I chopped all my dates and figs by hand. It was ridiculously laborious, and very sticky. To make these today, I borrowed my sister's.

Step 1.
   Brew 2 cups of strong espresso, and set aside to cool.

Step 2.
   In a food processor, combine figs and dates. Depending on how good your machine is, you may want to do a little pre-chopping. I just threw the whole fruits right in there, but add only a few at a time as you pulse the blade, so as not to overheat the machine.

Step 3.
   Add the next 5 ingredients, and anything else you want, like toasted coconut flakes, dried cherries, or even puffed rice cereal. Pulse the machine until this resembles a dry dough. It may seam a little flakey, or stickey, but don't worry, we're going to add moisture.

 

Step 4.

   In a mixing bowl, slowly add 1-2 cups of the cooled espresso to your chocolate protein powder, and whisk until no lumps remain. This should resemble brownie batter, which is what gave me the thought that these remind me of brownies. 

Step 5. 

   In a large mixing bowl, combine your 'dough,' with your chocolatey sauce, and chocolate chips until everything is evenly distributed. It's good to use a strong wooden spoon for this part (or even your hands).

Step 6. 

   Line a brownie pan with plastic wrap, and cut a small sheet of parchment paper to fit inside the bottom of the pan. This will help when it comes to cutting and serving the bars. Spread your mixture into the pan, it should be about 3/4 to 1 inch high. You can smooth another piece of plastic wrap over the top and press down firmly with a smaller, or similar sized pan to really flatten the bars into the pan. Cover, and cool for a few hours, or overnight is best.

 

Step 7. 

   Wrap em up. This batch yielded 21 bars, about 1.5x3 inches, and I wrapped them individually in plastic.

 

Store them in the fridge, and grab one out for breakfast, before yoga, or when you just need a boost of energy. 

 

These are sure to please your tummy and your friends. Make them now, because figs are popping up at local farmer's markets, which means they're in season!

 

Please enjoy! 

Special thanks to Suzanne, who helped with these too. She's due to give birth in less than four weeks, and when she ate these, her baby girl started kicking. We think she liked them. 

Know Your Roots

The first of the chakras is the Muladhara, or Root Chakra. Located at the base of the spine, and symbolized by the color red, this chakra represents survival and basic needs. Our most primal sense, the sense of smell, is also said to originate here.

Root Chakra Soup

This week I'm making a root vegetable soup for grounding and stability. And I'm filling it with plenty of things that are pleasing to the nose, such as garlic and rosemary. Coincidentally, beets are everywhere right now as they are in full season, so they also bring a nice, bright red color to the dish.

 Spring can have us bouncing around, whether you're spring cleaning, or finally enjoying the outdoors again, it's important to remember to stay grounded and since there's still a few cold days ahead, it's good to know that a comforting soup doesn't have to weigh you down. This soup is meant to nurture and heal your root chakra, attend to your most basic needs, and firmly plant you in your roots.

Ingredients: 

• 1 bunch, or 4 medium sized red beets, de-stemmed
• 1 parsnip, cut into fourths
• 2 sprigs of rosemary
• 3-6 sprigs of thyme 
• 1 yellow onion, coarsely chopped
• 2 medium carrots or 1 bunch baby carrots, coarsely chopped
• 1 sweet potato or yam, peeled and cubed
• 1 1/2 quart vegetable broth 
• 1 small piece ginger root, peeled, sliced
• 1 garlic bulb (preferably elephant garlic since the elephant is the animal of the Root Chakra)  
• olive oil
• Salt & pepper to season as you go  
• *(white wine optional) 

Equipment:

Submersion blender or Hand blender
(if you like making soup at home, you should invest in a submersion blender. It saves a lot of mess, and it's much easier to make creamy, seamless soups)

Set your over to 450 degrees F.

Begin by cleaning your vegetables. Root vegetables can be covered in soil, and we don't need any real bits of earth getting into this soup.

Beautiful carrots from the farmer's market

Slice the tops off your beets, and split your parsnip into four pieces. On a large piece of aluminum foil, place beets and parsnips, along with as much garlic as you like, and the herbs of your choice. I used Thyme and Rosemary. drizzle olive oil, and and sprinkle about 1/4 tsp. of salt. Seal the foil like a small package and place in a roasting pan in case juices get out. Bake at 450 for at least an hour, until the beet skins peel off easily.

Beets, Parsip, Garlic, Thyme, Rosemary

In a large pot, begin to saute onions with 1-2 tbsp of olive oil, and a pinch of salt, over medium heat, until they begin to soften. If onions begin to brown, you can splash a bit of *white wine into the pot to decaramelize the pan. After 10-15 minutes, add the carrots and saute until soft, about 5-10 minutes.

To the pot, add the sweet potato, and half of the broth, bring to a simmer and cover until the broth reduces by 1/3, about 30 min.

By now, the beets should be ready. In a blender, blend the beet/garlic/parsnip mixture with the rest of the broth, until pureed. When the stock has reduced fully, add the beet puree to the pot, along with the ginger, 2-3 tbsp of olive oil, and 2-3 fresh cloves of fresh garlic. Blend everything into a fine puree with a hand blender, or by transferring 3 cups at a time into a blander. Be careful bending hot liquids. If you're using a regular blender, I suggest you let the soup cool somewhat before blending. Taste your soup, and add more garlic, ginger, salt, or olive oil to taste.  Serve hot or cold.

Root Chakra Soup w/ hardboiled egg

Toppings: 

• Suggested topping for this 'borscht' is a boiled egg. 
• My friend nicole preffered a squeeze of lemon and some shredded parmesean
• You can also roast some golden beets along with the other beets at the beginning and store them in   the fridge while you prepare the soup. When you're ready, peel and thinly slice them for a great colorful topping.