Chocolate Coconut Custard Pie and Energy Soup

I made pie! I'd like to call this my own recipe, although it is based very loosely on two recipes. The crust is similar to the pumpkin pie recipe I used for Christmas and the filling very vaguely resembles a recipe Matt Monarch, of The Raw Food World TV Show, created on a whim to experiment with Irish moss.

I like to call my version Chocolate Coconut Custard Pie. Mmmm. I absolutely loved this pie. My family, however, had mixed, and slightly less ecstatic reviews. I don't know if this is because my taste buds are adapting to all the raw, plant-based foods I'm eating, or if I just happen to be a fan of Irish moss, the obvious culprit in the situation.

I'll try to relay how I created this concoction. However, I largely just made it up as I went along and did very little measuring. The crust is nothing more than a total of 2 cups of mixed raw cashews and pecans, dates (maybe 1 lb or less), cardamom, and sea salt ground to a chunky, but dough-like consistency in a food processor. The chocolate filling is made from the meat of 4 or 5 young coconuts, a splash of the coconut water therein, probably a good 1/2-1 cup agave nectar, about 1/3 cup cacao and 1/4 cup carob powder (total guesses on measurements, just start small and add to taste), about 1 t. vanilla extract, and a few big spoonfuls of Irish moss. This is where it gets crazy. Irish moss is a sea vegetable that you can buy dehydrated, then soak, rinse, and blend with water to make a gel that can be used as a thickening agent. This gel, which can be made from more than one type of seaweed, is often seen on ingredients lists of common foods listed as carrageenan. This video shows how to prepare Irish moss to be used in food preparation. On it's own, Irish moss smells like the ocean and maybe even more like the sulfur pots at Yellowstone (don't lie and tell me you're not drooling). Once blended into a dessert, the flavor is mild, and I found it to actually give my pie a rather minty flavor for some reason. I was so intrigued by this stuff, I decided to use it as a topping as well. I blended loads of agave nectar and Irish moss, probably in nearly equal proportions, with another 1/2 t. or so of vanilla extract in the blender until it turned white and really fluffed up a lot. I was actually hoping it would turn into a whipped cream of sorts, but instead it turned into this really cool custard type of topping. This made me really excited to experiment more with Irish moss. I feel certain I could make a really close imitation of flan with some sort of caramel-like topping. So basically, the pie is just the crust, the chocolate filling, the custard topping, and a sprinkle of carob powder mixed with cardamom on top. If I could change anything next time, I might put the custard on the bottom or the middle, or put more Irish moss in the chocolate filling, as the heavier custard seemed to weigh down the softer chocolate filling. 

Onto my dinner. I mentioned energy soup the other day. Well this is it. It's basically a cold vegetable soup. It took me a while to get used to, but I like it now. Also, it's so versatile it's like an entirely different dish every time. My mom, who isn't a big fan of greens didn't like it much, but I think even she could come to love it if we tailored it to her preferences. I feel like I may have already touched on how to make it, but I'll do it again in case I didn't. The base is typically a water rich, low sugar vegetable such as zucchini, cucumber, or or bell pepper in any combination. The version in the link above uses 1/2 of a golden delicious apple, if I recall. Proportions for 1 large bowl might be something like 1/2 cucumber and 1/2 to 1 whole bell pepper. Next is 1/2-1 avocado, or add to your taste in creaminess and fat content. Seaweed, such as dulse, will give it a salty flavor and add some minerals. And of course, don't forget the greens. This is a great way to get in a bunch of healthy greens into your diet. Any kind will do. I tend to use spinach or kale frequently, but try to mix it up for a maximum variety of nutrients. Blend all of this with enough water to make it a thick liquid. Add sprouts at the end, and blend again, as the sprouts tend to oxidize more easily. You can basically make this any way you want, but it's best to stick to the general rule of water rich, low sugar vegetables, avocado, greens and sprouts. Rejuvelac, a fermented wheat berry liquid which I mentioned in a previous post, can be used in place of water. In today's version of this soup I used 1/2 cucumber and 1 watermelon radish for the base, 1 avocado, baby bok choy, 1 bundle of spinach, 2 cloves garlic, a handful of dulse, fresh rosemary, sea salt, pepper, and water. I didn't have any sprouts; sad day.

Inserting gross side note here (please skip paragraph if sensitive): Remember my grapefruit frenzy? Well today I made fresh grapefruit juice out of 3 grapefruits with the skin, having forgotten all about them not being organic and the pesticides probably being in the skin. I was going more for the lost nutrients in the peel. Well, let's just say I found out the hard way that grapefruit juice can be a natural diuretic, especially with the peel on. So if you're retaining water and need to release it, just follow my lead! Be forewarned, however, that, at least in my case, the water released went straight to my colon. On a happier note, it felt very much to me like the expelled fluid was highly alkaline, and I have heard that citrus becomes alkaline in the stomach. End gross side note.

Moving on! Here's what I ate today:

• The tall glass of grapefruit juice mentioned above
• 1 slice of the pie mentioned above
• 1 cup of coffee sweetened with agave and stevia, with a splash of almond milk and coffee mate :(
• 1 med/large serving of the soup pictured and described above 
• 1 tart cherry melon kombucha
• 1 more small./medium serving of energy soup
• A couple slices of apple with maple vinegar, agave nectar and sea salt
• Supplement drink made from water, chlorella, maca powder, and my herbal fiber mix 

And last, but not least, I think my weight may be budging again. I was down over a pound today, broke below 160, and am down a total of 18.6 pounds. I think my before and after pics after a mere 5 weeks are quite astonishing. However, I still feel a bit too shy to share them. I promise I will after 3 months, tops. Unless I forget. Ha!

That's it for today!

Much love

Devan