Please keep in mind we are not nutritionist or doctors. We recommend checking in with your doctor before making any changes to your diet and exercise routine. Most of our information is based upon our own experiences and research, although we do hope you keep an open mind.
Pure2Raw Recipe: Carrot Cake Recipe using carrot pulp
This recipe took us two times to perfect. And we are still creating new versions of this so that it can be done for those who do not have a dehydrator. Though technically you do not have too even with this recipe. We just like the texture the dehydrator provides the cake!
Ingredients:
1/2 cup carrot pulp (ours was a mixture of about 3 carrots and one apple)
1 1/2 cups coconut flakes
1/4 cup +1 tbsp date paste ( can use agave or maple syrup if you do have dates)
1/4 cup raisins
2 tsp coconut sugar or maple sugar (not raw but adds great flavor and texture)
1 tbsp mesquite (optional)
2 tbsp vanilla
2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp ginger
1/4 tsp nutmeg
Frosting: we used coconut butter whipped with some stevia, vanilla, and a little agave. But you can use any frosting you prefer! Also we did not add nuts but you could always throw in some chopped walnuts.
Directions:
Take your carrot pulp and remaining ingredients into place into food processor and pulse a few times to get all ingredients well combined! You may use your hands to combine ingredients if you do not have a food processor
And form cake dough into muffin liners or cake pan. We did ours individual ramekins (made 3). And dehydrate for a few hours, maybe 4-5 hours.
Remove from pan/liners and let dehydrate for another 4 hours or so. You want the cake to feel dry but not over dry, have a little bit of moistness to it
Once it comes out just top with frosting and devour. Nothing beats eating a carrot cake that is truly full of fiber, healthy fats, and lots of flavor and texture We are hooked!
We were a little nervous about this recipe because the first one we made we put way to much carrot pulp in and not enough other flavors because all we tasted was carrots! Don’t get me wrong we love carrots though it was a bit too much Another great thing about this recipe is that it is pretty easy to make but it is always RAW (semi raw), gluten free, vegan, soy free, casein free and nut free!!!
The frosting does complete the whole cake! Who doesn’t love some good coconut butter as frosting!!!!!
We hope you enjoy this carrot cake recipe as much as we do Now go make some fresh carrot apple juice and make some of this carrot cake! Let us know how it goes!
I think Katie would agree that anything with carrots and coconut butter is delicious. She has made some delicious carrot creations like her carrot cake macaroons and her carrot cake muffins! And this lovely lady made some raw carrot cake with chia seeds! And these two amazing ladies made some carrot cake smoothies here and here!
Love seeing all this carrot cake love
We have enjoyed this cake the past few nights…we just love it ; )
We got something exciting to share, the people at CSN stores contact us about doing a giveaway and product review on their site Kids Furniture. We looked over their site and looks like the got a great green line with great baby products which we are happy to review since our sister is pregnant. Always happy to find great baby things! Stay tuned for more details!
Lori and I have been quite productive today! We got up early this morning and got our workout done first thing. Today our workout was yoga. Glorious way to start the day in my opinion! Get the legs moving and blood pumping
Before we did our yoga workout we made a quick pre-workout sludge. A mixture of coconut oil, lemon, date paste, cacao powder! Simple and delicious. *sorry forgot to take a picture!
After our workout we enjoyed our green smoothie! (sorry no picture) but it was a collard green, granny smith apple, stevia, turmeric, ginger, cinnamon, sunflower lecithin, dulse flakes and lemon. Perfect way to start our morning after a great 45 minute yoga session!
We did enjoy some delicious eats from yesterday starting with a simple snack of our coconut kefir – made more into a shake mixed with some chorella, stevia and maca!
And dinner was something different for us. It was an experiment. We soaked and fermented amaranth for 24 hours and than cooked it on the stove top with the same fermented water we soaked it in. We cooked the amaranth for about 20-30 minutes.
We knew that soaking grains make it easier for digestion so we thought about putting a probiotic in there to see if adding some healthy bacteria would help too! The finally result? Yes we felt it did help with our digestion. Not sure if it really fermented but the idea was nice
We ended up adding some of our cheez sauce over it with some fresh cilantro! So our amaranth dish turned out to be more like amaranth soup It was delicious!
Amaranth soup served along side some green kraut (that we made a few days ago in the bowl)
I ended up drizzling the amaranth soup over the kraut… OMG …. HEAVENLY! Beyond words, seriously amazing
The cheez sauce really made this dish. Loved it on top of my sauerkraut. Who knew? I guess I really do love just about anything with sauerkraut.
And as we were watching our favorite show LOST! We decided to have more carrot cake I told you I could have this every night!!!!
A little piece of heaven in a bowl! Love how we finally found a great way to use up our carrot pulp from our juices! We will share this carrot cake recipe tomorrow
Also today Lori and I were busy in the kitchen un-baking some treats for our farmers markets this weekend (testing more things for our cookbook, so happy to hear that everyone is excited for it), we are trying to create some new things. We will show you all pictures of everything later this week!
Also Lori is planning on heading over seas to visit her boyfriend in Paris in a few weeks. So if you have any good tips or advice for traveling in Paris, southern France and Spain (that is where she is traveling around) please let us know. She would love any suggestions
Hope everyone is having a wonderful day It was a glorious day here in NC… sunny and 70 degrees!!! I hope that means Spring is right around the corner
Got some request to share what we did for the banana pancakes. Remember this recipe we just threw together and it is real basic and few ingredients.
So here we go!
Pure2Raw Recipe: Easy Banana Pancakes
Ingredients:
1 banana, mashed
2 tbsp flax meal
1 tbsp vanilla
1 tbsp lucuma (or maca)
2 tbsp coconut kefir (or any yogurt or milk of your preference)
Directions:
In a large bowl place all ingredients and stir till combined.
Scoop out onto dehydrator sheet
Dehydrate for about 8 hours than flip and dehydrate for another 8 hours or till reached desired texture, soft or crispy.
*Note: if you do not have a dehydrator you may sauté on a skillet like you would a normal pancake.
And you have a very easy and rich banana pancake that is raw, gluten free, and vegan and contains no sugar besides the banana!
It does not get much easier than than folks! Creating a raw pancake is something Michelle and I have been trying to do for some time now, these is not quite final but they are delicious banana flavored and moist pancake that sure to hit your sweet spot
More recipes to come this week like our raw carrot cake and kelp noodle dish!! My favorites
More news:
Check out the lovely Shannon Marie post on more about our story! And what she did with our crackers and flatbreads for her Oscar night Shannon you are so creative!
Also the lovely Elena has created a great online vegan community called Back to Eden. So check it out! Elena thanks for putting this great community together
And tomorrow is the last day of our sale and St. Patty’s Day specials! So get your orders in my tomorrow to guarantee the sale!
Note: For those of you who have ordered shirts please be patient with us as some of them are back ordered till next. As soon as we get them in we will ship them to you!!!Also we have updated some of our t-shirts pictures!
Hope every one is enjoying their day. We are really excited because we finally have a nice warm weekend here in NC which is great for the farmers markets
We got some questions regarding our workouts – mainly with the Tracy Anderson mat method. This is the end of our 2nd week of doing her exercises which we do about 5 times a week. And we are starting to feel like we are getting stronger and getting a little bit more definition in our bodies. We know it is a slow process along with everything else in life but we thoroughly enjoy her fitness concept. So we plan to continue it! We have not been doing much running lately just about once a week. Yoga about 2-3 times a week!
After yesterdays Tracy’s session we enjoyed another great post workout pudding! Similar to ones you saw yesterday! Love all the different combinations we seem to be just throwing together, yet all have some main ingredients like lemon or lime and something green to help alkalize us!
As I mentioned yesterday we created a delicious avocado pudding that we just absolutely LOVED! Plan to make this at least once a week You do need a special ingredient to make it.. sunflower lecithin or any emulsifier would do like guar gum, etc. Though we personal love sunflower lecithin we use it in many of our recipes. Love the results it provides puddings and smoothies. What it does is that it combines all the ingredients together and gives a nice lightness to the puddings. It helps provide puddings especially this one, such creamy, and lightness that it feels like you are almost eating air!
Pictures just do not do this avocado pudding justice!
We inhaled this pudding in like zero point 2 seconds
Pure2Raw Recipe: Mesquite Avocado Pudding
Ingredients:
one ripe avocado, pitted
1 tbsp mesquite
1 tbsp carob
3 packets of stevia or any sweetener of your choice
Place all ingredients into food processor and blend on high speed for a few seconds. Stop and scrap down the sides and blend again for a few more seconds till it is fully combined and light and fluffy texture!
Optional topping: sprinkle with more mesquite
And place in a nice martini glass and enjoy!
I guess I did not like it Wiped the class clean!
We have finally come to the end of our fermented drink and foods series!! We will be showing here soon how to make water kefir! Another easy and healthy drink for you to incorporate into your daily life Water kefir has become a staple in our daily life. Video coming soon and plus an update on how our sauerkraut in a bowl is doing!
News:
Going along with our bloggy shirts we will be adding a few more t-shirts to our online store. Hope you like them!
All these shirts that we have been showing that are for sale are from our older sister who just launched her own organic high quality t-shirt company! We are so excited for our sister because these has been a life time dream and project of hers and now she is finally doing it!! She just needed a little extra push from us to get it up and running
We hope every one likes the shirts and they will be added to our online store sometime today! So get those orders in Please help spread the word about our sisters new t-shirt company called Raw Threads! She is working on her online website and once she launches the site we will let everyone know but for now you can buy them from us!
Also for our Pure2Raw online goodies will be adding some St. Patty’s Day treats like Mint Chip Kremes, ‘Green’ Cookie and all of our ‘green line’ flat breads will be on sale from starting this weekend till March 10th. **They will be added to our online store soon!
And speaking of wonderful lady entrepreneurs following their dreams check out the ever so lovely Eating Bender as she embarks on her journey of starting her own company Pursuing our Passion! I wish her and her business partner Jill all the success. Owning a business is a very challenging thing to pursue but one that is worth it in the end especially if it something you are truly passionate about! We know Jenn and Jill will do great!
Hope everyone is following their dreams and loving life to the fullest
Happy Saturday to you all! I hope you all are having a glorious weekend so far
Our farmers market this morning was a good one though it was freezing and windy! But we managed to pull through!Going along with our typical farmers market in Carrboro we got some great news to share! We got into another local farmers market here in Durham. We are totally excited about this because Durham is one of the largest farmer markets in the nation!!!!!! Though we are a little nervous :/
Yesterday we did manage to get some Tracy Anderson workout action done and got to enjoy this post workout pudding!
Hemp seeds, black sesame seeds, yacon syrup, chorella and splash of water! Michelle and I are just loving our puddings lately! There are such fun for us
A little bit later we enjoyed a glorious green smoothie
Green kale, granny smith apples, water, stevia, lemon, fresh ginger, coconut oil, maca and sunflower lecithin
We had an early dinner yesterday because from our intense morning workout sure got our metabolism going all day long! Love that!
Fermented veggies, topped with turmeric, black sesame seeds and fresh garlic! (yes we love raw garlic. When eating garlic it just feels so powerful and it feels like it is just killing all the ‘bad’ stuff inside of me) I know weird but I just love it!
And a side of lightly dehydrated kale chips topped with a random roasted butternut squash! Perfect!
Than for dessert last night we gladly devoured our favorite pudding though this time with a twist!
A creamy and thick key lime avocado chia pudding with some mesquite in there! It was absolutely heavenly and very filling I must say which I love. In love with mesquite!!! Best ingredient to change some dishes up I must say. Go ahead and buy some and see what you think
Seriously making this pudding again in the future. We just threw mesquite in to see how it would taste and it was amazing!!!!
And sipped on some homemade kombucha tea afterwards as our night cap
Our morning today started at 5am and some lemon water. Before heading out the door for the market Michelle whipped up a simple coconut kefir basil mint smoothie. YUM YUM! Wiped the cup clean!
Getting back from the market we made a carrot cake wrap! To die for I must say!
I know Katie would be so proud! Ever since Katie make all these delicious carrot cake eats like her Carrot Cake Pancake roll ups and carrot cake pancakes! Michelle and I have been craving to create something carrot cake of our own And this is what we came up with!!
Raw – Gluten Free – Vegan Carrot Cake Wraps!
SOOOO GOOOOOOOOD! Craving more of it but there is no more we ate it all
But that is ok because wait until you see what we are creating for our dessert tomorrow night!!!!! Hint: what got some inspiration for this lovely lady!
And our latest kraut meal is paired with another favorite
Kelp Kraut Noodles
All we did was take our sauerkraut blend in blender with some spices and tahini to make an easy and poured over some kelp noodles. And add in some arugula! Easy and delicious We just love pretty much anything with kelp noodles
Here is how we make sauerkraut (sorry for the blurry video – not sure why it is so blurry, ugh)
Now go buy some cabbage and make yourself a nice, easy and healthy homemade sauerkraut. Please let us know if you make and report back! We love to hear from you!
Take Care. Thanks for joining us again for another Pure2raw lesson!
Today’s video is on coconut kefir. We have made coconut kefir before using water kefir grains and it came out alright, but we realized we wanted to test out milk kefir grains. We liked it better, but it does still do fine with water kefir grains.
Ingredients:
2 cups of coconut milk (or any milk of choice)
2 measuring cups
wooden spoon
plastic strainer
milk kefir grains
We got our kefir grains from Marilyn the Kefir lady. She sends you the grains as I mentioned in a bag all ready to go. You just have to add your 2 cups of milk. Directions are provided along with some recipes. Marilyn also sells water kefir grains and Kombucha cultures.
Another source to get kefir grains, water kefir grains, and Kombucha cultures is Cultures for Health . This is where we got our water grains and mother Kombucha, which will be some of our next videos!! Cultures for health sell their milk kefir grains dehydrated, so when you receive them you have to rehydrate them before you start making your kefir. Again, directions are provided.
Here is a quick video of how we make our coconut kefir puddings that you see all over our blog.
Today we wanted to talk about what we have been doing for workouts snacks both pre-workout and post-workout! We get many of our ideas from Brendan – you all know we are fans of his. We have talked about his most recent book here if you are interested in learning more about him and his whole concept of food and fitness Great read!
We have been trying puddings as most of our snacks. We are huge fans of puddings, we like really thick puddings too! Ok we might have weird taste buds
We enjoyed eating this delicious pre-workout snack a few days ago
This date mesquite ball was perfect for a quick but intense workout to give you the energy you need! We plan to make more of these again soon and keep in the refrigerator to have on hand.
Another pre-workout snack that we have been playing around to see if it gives us energy and makes us feel good while working out is coconut kefir. For example this one
Coconut kefir mixed with spirulina, dates, vanilla, banana, coconut oil, maca, and cacao nibs.
Our bodies really seemed to like it. We ate this about an hour or more before we worked out. We felt it was great for our hour long workouts!
We have been making some fun post-workout puddings. *warning some may not look the prettiest but promise you they were amazing!
Like this one
This was pumpkin seeds flour, spirulina, lemon juice and zest, yacon syrup, maca and a splash of water.
It made a very small pudding but that is all we needed immediately after working out. We than come back about an hour later or so to make a large green smoothie!
Another great and very thick pudding was this delicious ‘>chocolate Vega shake that we made into a pudding.
We just took some Learn more>”>Vega Protein powder and mixed with maca, chia seeds, lemon juice, stevia, and a splash of water. Stirred till everything was combined. Yummy and thick a great post-workout snack in our opinion and our bodies seem to love it!
And after today’s workout we had something very similar though we made it out of hemp protein powder. (sorry no picture).
As you can see some of these pre and post workout snacks had ‘sugar’ in them from bananas to dates. This is about the only time we have any sugar except for stevia and yacon syrup. Though we are really going to try to cut back even more on our overall ‘sugar’ intake for a couple of weeks and rely mostly and vegetables and healthy fats (and certain fruits) to fuel us (with the occasional protein powder puddings).
We actually took a few weeks off from having any protein powder but these past week we have incorporated them back into our post-workout snacks. We have been trying to increase our intensity of our workouts and our overall strength training program so decided to give the powders a try again to see if we noticed any great improvements.We will keep you all updated on how we do with that!
So far we are feeling great and loving the way we are feeling before, during, and after our workouts! With fit-bloggin coming up soon we are giving ourselves a little challenge to keep our intensity up and eat very clean. We will see how that goes
Now here for some exciting news that we have been talking about lately!
In honor of our love for blogging and fitness. We teamed up with a new and up-coming ‘green’ t-shirt design company to help us create fun and cute shirts for all to enjoy! More information on that soon!
We will be selling these shirts on our site very soon. Here is a sneak preview of what they will look like!
Currently these shirts are in production. And of course these shirts are going to be on high quality organic cotton and approved with the Twins stamp of approval
**We will take pre-orders on these 100% organic cotton shirts – just email us at twins at pure2raw.com. If you are going to the FitBloggin event you will receive a 5% discount. These is a great way to advertise your blog and workout at the same time. They will be great conversation starters. You will see Pure2Raw Twins wearing these shirts while at the FitBloggin event in March.
“ I blog all day”
And
“If you think I’m cute you should see my blog”
**Please not these images are just an artist renderings not actually photos. Once we get the ‘actual shirts’ in we will post them
We wanted to create shirts that were fun and that everyone could work-out in!
Readers and non FitBloggin attendees can benefit from wearing one too More t-shirts to come! We are so excited!
Pure2Raw TRULY THANKS ALL OF OUR READERS and YOUR CONTINUE SUPPORT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU TO OUR READERS and FRIENDS We love you all!
It is really Monday again, seriously where does the weekend go?
Though since we really never get a day off from work …everyday is the same to us We never get weekends!
Michelle and I did get to eat some really fun and of course interesting food over the weekend!
We have been having some juices and green smoothies of course though treated ourselves to a fun and out of this world dinner on Saturday night.
Seriously craving this dinner again – a-m-a-z-i-n-g!
We like to call it our open face tortilla!Or a.k.a tostada – Twins style! We have made one before here.
And have made some before for an event we did last year- huge hit!
We love our tostada’s. Not sure why we do not make them more. Umm… that’s going to change!
The base is a coconut tahini wrapper we made topped with sauerkraut, fresh cilantro and pureed up roasted veggies (our sauce)!
Our dinner all together now
Definitely plan on making this dish again Quick, easy, and full of flavor. It really felt like we were eating a tortilla it was heavenly!!!! Seriously reminded us of a typical white tortilla that you can get from any Mexican restaurant but this one only had two ingredients!!!!!! Love that. Great dinner that was easy on our stomachs to digest due from the sauerkraut and simple, fresh ingredients!
Last nights dinner was another success… though it was a in form of a monstrous salad.
This salad was full of arugula, romaine, and more roasted veggies Not bad eh?
Dessert was even better – we split our pecan banana cupcake with caramel drizzle. Love our raw desserts – full of flavor that splitting this was just enough to satisfy us both
Due to all the request for more videos of us making more fermented drinks and foods we plan to share some this week! Stay tuned
Been a busy Monday for us and we got a long night ahead… exciting things finally happening over here! We also have a special guest post that we did that we will reveal tomorrow.
We also want to wish our friend Brittany Happy 25th Birthday!!
We made some overnight oats in honor of Brittany because we know she loves them. But our idea got even more inspiration from our friend Stephanie….the key ingredient KEFIR.
You all know Lori and I are big fans of our homemade coconut kefir, we have it almost everyday. Well here is our RAW version of these two ladies recipes.
Pure2raw: Raw Overnight Buckwheat Groats
Serves 1
1/3 cup buckwheat groats (soaked overnight, then rinsed in the morning)
It was amazing!! Brittany and Stephanie we thank you because we think we found our new weekend morning breakfast!!!
We use to eat soaked buckwheat groats all the time last year. But did take a break from them, boy have we missed them! Why did we take a break? We were trying to simplify our diets as we heal, so we took most nuts and seeds out of our diet as of late. We have been playing around with different foods, rotating things back in and seeing how we do.
High raw gluten-free foodie enthusiasts. Passionate about fitness, nutrition, health, cooking/baking, running, yoga, wine and much much more. We are fraternal twins who are raw gluten free vegan chefs/bakers. Living our life long dream running our own bakery - Twin Cakes and raw uncooked bakery Pure2raw. We hope to inspire others to appreciate food as nourishment to the body. Embark on a healthier lifestyle where you enjoy food and exercise, and have fun living your best life to the fullest...pure&simple.
Another great thing about this recipe is that it is pretty easy to make but it is always RAW (semi raw), gluten free, vegan, soy free, casein free and nut free!!!
Till next time,
It was amazing!! Brittany and Stephanie we thank you because we think we found our new weekend morning breakfast!!!
Thank you 
