Glad to see that everyone liked our amaranth soup. It kinda just happened unexpectedly, but those are when the best recipes turn out right?

But as we promised here is our easy raw and gluten free carrot cake recipe

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
• coconut oil

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 ; )

Drizzled with a little maple syrup

M's bowl - heavily drizzled with yacon ; )

L' bowl a little more conservative haha

Let us know if you make and what you think!

Enjoy your Thursday!

Till next time,

The Twins

L&M

How is everyone’s day going so far?

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

Till next time,

Michelle

The Twins

L&M

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

Check out these great giveaways:

Gena – wheatgrass juicer

HiHoRosie – Candida Kit

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!

Till next time

Lori

The Twins

L&M

How was everyone’s weekend?? We had a long one over here, but worth it ; ) Did anyone watch the Oscars?? We took the night off from work and enjoyed some wine and good entertainment. We just enjoy the awards shows…all the pretty dresses.

We enjoyed some good eats over the weekend…featuring some new recipes (which we will share ; ) )

Enjoyed a very large breakfast Saturday morning before we headed to the farmers market.

Buckwheat apple porridge. We have not had this in sooo long, it used to be our breakfast every Saturday morning last year before our Saturday markets. It is so simple and very filling, which is what we need for our long market days.

Sprouted buckwheat, apples, yacon, cinnamon, bee pollen

Our dinner was a lovely simple salad

mixed greens with avocado, kraut, and fermented veggies

Sunday morning we finally made some raw pancakes in honor of Heather’s Pancake Sundays.

These were not our best ones, it is pretty much just mashed up bananas. But we will share the recipe if you all want.

Yesterday we did our longest run yet since the marathon in January. Honestly we really have only ran 3 other times since the race, we just have not been wanting to run. We have been enjoying other forms of exercise.

Our goal was a 30 minute run, but it turned into a 9o minute run. We went up to the local park and got on a trail and did not know how long it was….but that is okay it was 60 degrees out and sunny!! We will take it!!

Pre-workout snack:

Cocoa date ball

We have been testing out new workout snacks for our cookbook, yep having a whole chapter dedicated to what we eat for fuel and recovery ; )

And then dinner and dessert were both new recipes!!

Dinner:

Fermented Kelp Noodles

With a side of kraut sprinkled with dulsePerfect Sunday dinner!! We think kelp noodles will become a regular Sunday dinner ; )

And dessert took 2 trials. We have been wanting to make raw carrot cake since forever!! There are tons of recipes out there, so we of course wanted to create our own. We wanted to make it out of carrot pulp, so the first attempt failed….ended up in the trash compost. Second was beyond perfect….way better than we were planning, it honestly tasted like real carrot cake!!!!

Can you tell the difference?

Not only was it raw but free of gluten, eggs, dairy, peanuts, corn, soy, and NUTS!!!

We had seconds…it was that good. I think I could eat this every night. It was beyond words!!  I know you all are thinking, do we plan to share the recipe….YES!!! We will expose this tasty easy to make dessert sometime this week ; )

Not a bad way to end the weekend.

We also tried a new product

Pure2raw Product Review

We bought this the other day at the store because our older sister loves it, so we had to try for ourself.

Verdict?

Different. It was very sweet compared to other coconut water, even though it claims to be unsweetened.

Maybe it is their types of coconuts? Or maybe it was due to being chilled and out of can? Who knows but it was bothering me that it was so sweet, a mental thing I guess.  But we drank it all. Not sure if I would purchase it again. Just maybe when I need something cold to drink. Lori did not mind it too much, enjoyed having something different.

For more information check out the company’s website, amyandbriannaturals.com.

Finally review : one thumb up

Have you tried this coconut drink?

Do not forget to get your orders in while the sale is on for St Patty’s Day, it ends Wednesday!!!

And for more great news our Twin Cakes Bakery website if finally up. It still has some tweaks but overrall we are just happy to have it up. We have been waiting a year for it ; ) So we will take it!

Till next time,

Michelle

The Twins

L&M

We wanted to give you an update on the kraut we made with you all last week.

Check out this quick video:

Raw sauerkraut is easy to, just make sure to keep the liquid above the kraut. When done just transfer kraut to smaller containers and enjoy at your leisurely. Store in fridge.

Update on how we are doing:

Lori had another breakout last week, got a little depressed again, but things are turning up again. We are starting to keep a food journal, finally! We have been doing it for a week, so we will keep you updated on that as once we start to see patterns.  Mainly we have been keeping track of our fat and fiber and our water intake. Also when we eat things and when we workout. You may be thinking, I did not think raw foodist cared about calories and stuff. Well this is true but for us to really understand what is going on with each of our own bodies, we want to see what works and what does not. Food journal is the best way to find results for us.

Although our schedule varies everyday so it is hard to keep a routine, but we are trying to find our routine that works for us.  Hormones seem to be better for both of us, as least emotional wise, but Lori still has not gotten her period. Michelle will know if she gets her period again next week, so we will let you all know.

Hope everyone is doing good with your hormones and such.

We have to remind ourselves everyday that this is a journey and our body takes time to heal. Stay positive!  ; )

But to end on a positive note as we mentioned yesterday we are running a St. Patty’s Day special starting today till Wednesday, so get your orders in!! Our online store has been updated with our specials (our green line is on sale plus some new items for a limited time) and new t-shirts are available, $5 off!!!! The shirts are very high quality, custom designed, some our organic cotton and some our made out of bamboo!!! One of a kind ; ) And you do not have to a raw foodie or vegan to wear these shirts. The shirts are made for anyone looking for a high quality shirts that do good for the planet!! Also the shirts can be translated into your own personal meaning, for instance the Raw t-shirt could mean you enjoy things in the raw, pure state, no bulls**t, so to speak. It does not necessarily only  mean raw foods, but it can if that is what you want it to mean. So have fun shopping!!!

Note: the shirts are women sizes again, run a little big.

We have had a busy day…farmers market then had a meeting all afternoon.

Hope everyone has a great Saturday everyone!!

And good luck to our sister tomorrow in her race!! She is running in the Disney Princess Half Marathon. She begged us to do it, but we just could not leave work! ; (

Also good luck to MizFit and the lovely Fitnessista, and to VeganLisa. Ladies you will all rock it!!!

Till next time,

The Twins

L&M

HAPPY FRIDAY!!!!

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
• 1 lime zest and juice
• 1 tbsp sunflower lecithin

Directions:

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

Till next time,

Lori

The Twins

L&M

Almost the weekend I know many of you are excited about that! Though we never really get ‘weekends’ anymore. Well things have been extremely busy around here which is always a good thing right

We are so happy that everyone is considering making their own fermented drinks! Promise once you make them a few times you will get the hang of it!

We definitely have been eating well over these past few days.

Going along with our Tracy Anderson workouts and Yoga, we have been running once a week. A short simple 20-25 minute run/walks. It has been great to get outside when it is nice out to stretch the legs though mainly we have been doing Tracy’s workouts!

Also we have been playing around with different pre and post workout snacks/puddings

Like this one

A pre-workout chia mesquite date ball

A chocolate coconut date ball

Both have been great still a minor tweaking to them but overall gave us the energy we need for a great workout with not being too heavy.

Some post-workout puddings we have whipped up are

Chorella hemp seed yacon lemon pudding

Another one

Spirulina lemon yacon pumpkin seed sludge

Both of these have been great and few ingredients! Love having either pumpkin seeds or hemp seeds after our workouts because give us the vitamins and minerals to help our body recovery from our workouts along with adding lemon to help alkalize the body!  Our puddings are not as pretty as our good friend Shannon Marie’s pudding in a jar

Some other great eats we have been devouring are

Raspberry coconut kefir smoothie

Snack – lightly steamed fennel and leeks

Dinner

Fermented veggies and sauerkraut arugula salad~

Another glorious dinner from a few nights ago

Sauerkraut with more steamed leeks and fennel with some steamed sweet potato. Nice and warm and comforting!

Tuesday we enjoyed our grapefruit spinach smoothie

Yesterday morning we started our day with a 14 oz fresh juice!

Since we snacked on some of these the night before (we were practicing new recipes for our Twin Cakes bakery) We were not really hungry for a large green smoothie so juice hit the spot!

Gluten free vegan banana sticky buns – recipe came out great! Love that when that happens because gluten free ingredients are not cheap

Don’t worry we have lots more great eats coming Last night we made a delicious avocado coconut kefir pudding – we will share the recipe tomorrow! Believe me it is heavenly!

News:

Remember out blog t-shirts are only on sale till March 19th!!!  Keep those orders coming   And for those of you who were asking these are girl size shirts. Sorry guys, we will get a men’s shirt soon!

Happy Thursday to you all! xoxo

Till next time,

The Twins

L&M

How is your day treating you? Good I hope!

It makes us so happy that everyone is loving our t-shirts!!!!! We are so excited for them and think they will be great for everyone to wear and enjoy Hard to believe the Fitbloggin is only a few weeks away. Michelle and I got so much work to do from now till then.

Continuing on with the whole fermenting food and drinks videos that we have been doing here lately. Today is all about kombucha! Michelle fell in love with kombucha at school when she learned how to make it!

You probably have seen us drinking this brand here

on our blog a few times or two.. we like to call it our favorite cocktail Synergy is the brand, and you see it out in your stores and if you do not have the time to make kombucha yourself. But I promise making your own kombucha is not that hard! And makes it more affordable when you make it yourself!

Michelle had mentioned all the great benefits of kombucha before here and we have made it before on blog here.

There are just so many great health benefits about drinking this fabulous drink! I really think incorporating this drink into one’s lifestyle would not hurt because many people lack ‘healthy’ bacteria in their diets! A simple natural fermented aged culture, made with pure water, sugar and black or green tea. Kombucha is a probiotic. Pro = in favor of; biotic = life. Kombucha balances the pH naturally.  Pro-biotic drinks are good for us, they aid digestive health and they give our digestive system balance. Probiotics – means “for life.” It is used to describe products which include microorganisms that are beneficial to health.

And once you drink kombucha a few times you will start craving the flavor and taste. It is sour and can be fizzy!

We find it a much better choice over regular sodas on the market because of the health benefits from drinking kombucha! So go give it a try if you have not already!

Now we are not experts but we have been making our homemade kombucha for a few months now and absolutely love it and know that if we can do it anyone can do it!

Here is the video of Michelle showing how we make our kombucha! Enjoy!

Now we purchased our Mother Scoby from Cultures of Health.  They also sell kits that includes mason jars and strains!! But the Kefir lady sells them too. It comes with directions. And the mother comes in a packet on ice. Just place the mother in the fridge till you are ready to place it in tea. Only use pure black or green tea nothing with flavors.

As you will see in this video Michelle splits a baby from the mother, you do not do this with the one you buy. After your first batch you separate the two to make two batches, and the cycle continues with each scoby.

Like the music??? We are getting fancy over here, haha.

Have fun making your homemade Kombucha!!! You can flavor any way you like once it is done fermenting.

Recipe:
For One quart you will need

• 1 1⁄2 t. loose tea or 2 tea bags
• 1/4 c. sugar
• 3 1⁄4 c. (approx.) water
• some starter tea from your previous batch (or first kombucha does come in tea)

For Half- gallon

• 1 T. loose tea or 4 tea bags
• 1⁄2 c. sugar
• 6 1⁄2 c. (approx.) water
• 1 c. starter tea, although we never do that much

Brew the tea with sugar to dissolve. Let it cool to room temperature before adding scoby. Put scoby in mason jar, with whiter side up, and cover with cheesecloth. Leave on counter at room temperature, out of direct sunlight for at least 5 days. We let ours ferment from 10 to 30 days. The longer it ferments the less sugar.

News:

St. Patty’s day is coming fast. And in honor of the great fun holiday we are going to be offering sales on our ‘green’ product line and offering some special extra treats for the holiday like mint chip macaroons and green cookie!

We will posting those new items up on our store here soon and we will let everyone know when the sale on our green crackers and flat breads will be going on for.

Till next time,

Lori

The Twins

L&M

Remember when we showcased our new items:

100% Organic t-shirts for all you wonderful bloggies out there

And

Well they are officially ready, so we have added them to our online store.

An easy fun way to advertise your blog ; ) And helping the environment by purchasing organic material!!

We are running a special SALE on them in honor of FitBloggin. The special starts today and runs through March 19th. So hurry and get your order in before sale ends.

Note these shirts run a little big. Shirts are prewashed, preshrunk, and side seamed.

Happy shopping! Tomorrow we will be announcing our St.Patty’s Day specials!!

Till next time,

Lori

We were blown away by how many people requested our recipe for our chocolate chip cookie pie.  We have to thank Jessica again for inspiring us to create it, man she has much more amazing goodies we have been dreaming about to make ; )  We are thinking about sharing it. As you all know we are a business, so some things are special to us (and took a lot of time and work), but we are working on a cookbook!!!

But as I mentioned we are considering sharing it…we will see ; )

Today’s video is our first attempt at making our first compost! Our friend Mike, who by the way has 4 great blogs that cover all great topics and tips, so go check them out. Mike did a post recently how to make compost, so we thought why not give it a try.

Lori and I are always looking for ways to be more “green”. Mike is always sharing great tips for helping out the planet. What do you do that is green?

Here are just a few things the Twins do:

• enjoy a raw food vegan lifestyle
• bring our own bags to the grocery store
• shop locally
• use glass over plastic, when possible
• turn off lights when not in use
• unplug electronics, etc
• energy efficient light bulbs
• use towels over paper towels
• keep thermostat at lower during winter and high during summer (off most of the time)
• have bamboo and cork flooring in our house
• reuse, reduce, and recycle everything we can

Now we made our first compost:

• - large bin
• - organic soil
• - coffee grounds
• - juice pulp/food scraps
• - shredded paper
  

Yay we have no idea what we are doing, but it was fun. The best way to learn something is to just do and learn as you go. We challenge all of you to make your own compost if you do not already do so. Let us know if you do!!!

We will see how this goes

Following the gardening trend Mike again inspires us with his homegrown vegetable garden out of pots…in NY…off his balcony. He is truly an amazing person!

So look what we did

Bought an aloe leaf plant from a local farmer! Instead of buying the leave from Whole Foods (which is the one on the right). We are going to try to grow our own plant. The farmers said they are easy to grow.

And

Bought cabbage from the farmer as well to start growing our own cabbage. Since we go through it so much from making our sauerkraut! We see how to do with our garden and compost! Only time will tell.

Do any of you grow your own food, or have you thought about growing your own food?

Till next time… got exciting news we will share later!

Michelle

The Twins

L&M