Paleo Desserts- take a page from Raw Vegans

Remember how I (Mandy) was once a raw vegan? Well, those old recipes I once loved sure come in handy now.  Here's a couple recipes from my personal blog, MandyMom.com.  First up is a raw cheesecake. It's really yummy and actually reminds me of real cheesecake! A friend of mine made something similar for her daughter's birthday party and brought the leftovers to our weekly fellowship potluck and, yum, it was so good plus it reminded me how this used to be one of my go-to recipes when I wanted to surprise the kids with a yummy but more nutritional dessert that wouldn't leave them with aching tummies!

Raw UnCheese Cake

Crust:
2 cups raw walnuts (you can use macadamia nuts if you prefer)
1/2 cup dates, pitted
1/2 tsp raw cacao powder (optional)

Process the nuts, dates, & cacao in food processor.  Press into bottom of a 8x8 dish or 8inch pie pan.  (You may want to line it with foil or parchment paper to keep it from sticking.)  Set aside.

Filling:
3 cups chopped cashews, soaked for an hour or longer
3/4 cup lemon juice
3/4 cup honey or agave or maple syrup
3/4 cup coconut oil (slightly warmed to melt it so it's fluid)
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 tsp sea salt
1/2 cup water

Blend soaked (and drained) cashews, lemon, honey, coconut oil, vanilla, sea salt and water.  Blend until smooth.  Taste to see if you'd like to add more honey or salt.  Pour into crust and freeze until firm.  Keep frozen until you're ready to serve.

Tip: Try adding blended strawberries to the mix before freezing. Super tasty! Reserve half of the filling, blend in some sort of berry (blueberries? yum!).  Pour in the plain filling, freeze for 30 minutes, then smooth on the strawberry layer and freeze for an hour.  Viola! I delicious and fancy dessert that didn't take much work.  I've also made this without the crust and it turned out great!








Raw Brownies  (otherwise known as "Brawnies")

So, mine look a little crumbly, but I tell you, these were really good and very simple.

What you'll need:

1 cup walnuts
1 cup pitted medjool dates
1/4 cup cacao powder

There are various ways to do this, but they all begin with a food processor.  You can process the walnuts until they are like crumbs and then add in the rest of the ingredients, or you can throw it all together at the same time.   I liked the crunch of bigger chunks of walnuts, so I processed half of the walnuts to a powder and then added in the remaining ingredients and processed again.  It's been a while since I made this, so I definitely want to try it again and mix it up a bit.  These remind me a lot of Lara bars, except much cheaper.

You can make them as thick as you'd like.  Press them firmly into a small pan, then freeze for an hour so they get a bit firmer.  Remove and cut into bars.