Chocolate Covered Cheesecake Bites Dairy-Free Gluten-free Vegan Organic Healthy

I love cheesecake, and one of my favorite treats to get when I am out grocery shopping is the chocolate covered cheesecake bites from the Whole Foods bakery section. They look like little chocolate teardrops filled with cheesecake-y goodness. However, for the past several weeks they have not had them, so suffering from cheesecake withdraws I decided to make some myself.
I made 2 versions, one that uses dairy (cream cheese, sour cream) and this version that I am posting about today which is dairy free and vegan.
My focus was on having these be relatively easy to whip up and also solid, I didn't want them to melt into a puddle of goo the moment I took them out of the freezer. The result was approved by adults and children alike.
Here's how you do it:
First you will need about 1 cup (it looks like I have more than one cup due to the angle of the pic, but I don't) of cacao butter. If you don't have any feel free to use coconut butter or even coconut oil, just beware they will be a bit softer than intended especially if you use coconut oil, and may melt at room temperature.

Stick the cacao butter in a toaster over at low temp to melt, and while it is melting do the next steps.

Get a magic bullet, nutri bullet, or some sort of blender and add into it the following:
3/4 cup of coconut milk, I use the one pictured below from Trader Joe's because it doesn't have any thickeners or added ingredients.

1 cup of Cashew Butter (you can make your own, or just buy the premade kind, just be careful some have added salt which will make your cheesecake bites taste salty)

Juice of one lemon

 1/4 teaspoon of Vanilla (you can add more, but for some reason lately I've been having bad luck with vanilla making my desserts taste bitter. It has alcohol, which cooks out when you bake, but since this is not baked adding too much will give it the bitter alcohol flavor)

 At this point your cacao butter has melted to add that in, and blend everything together.  

Next, add a sweetener of choice. I prefer raw organic honey since it is the least processed. 

For a vegan option you can use maple syrup or coconut sugar.

This is something you will want to add to taste, start with a few tablespoons, like 3-4, then blend and taste. Add more if desired.

Sorry I forgot to take a pic, but now you have two options.

1.) For a smoother texture do nothing. 

2.) For a texture that is not quite as smooth and something I feel is closer to resembling a real homemade cheesecake texture add 1/4 cup coconut flour. This will also thicken your mixture, especially if you used coconut oil instead of cacao butter, this will help make it thicker and firmer.

Now put your blended mixture into the fridge for a bit, just so it is not super liquidy. You may not need to do this, but you just want it to be thick enough to hold its shape and not melt into a puddle.
Now you have a couple of options yet again.
1.) the quicker and easier option is to pour the cheesecake batter into muffin cups
2.) the "prettier" option is to put the batter into a big ziplock bag, cut off a corner and squeeze out little "bites" onto a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper

Stick the bites into the freezer for a little bit so they get nice and firm for this next step.
While they are in there melt some chocolate, I prefer this kind from Trader Joe's because it is organic(many non organic chocolates are GMO, and also it has minimal ingredients and not too much sugar)

Now it is time to put the final product together.
If you want to get all fancy you can stick a toothpick into the bites and dip them in chocolate, it will look like this

Or if you want to make things quicker and easier, you can pour the melted chocolate into a ziplock bag, cut a tiny hole(if it is too big it will pour out too fast) in the corner and drizzle the cheesecakes bites with melted chocolate.

I got two cookie sheets full of bites out of this recipe, and since I used the drizzle method with the chocolate I ended up needing 2 of the chocolate bars to cover all the bites.

Here is a summary of the ingredients:
1 cup cacao butter (or coconut butter or coconut oil, although it will make the bites softer and you may need to keep them frozen)
3/4 cup coconut milk
1 cup cashew butter
juice of 1 lemon
1/4 teaspoon of vanilla extract
sweetener of choice (raw honey, maple syrup, coconut sugar, etc.) about 3-4 Tablespoons to taste
1/4 cup coconut flour(leave out if you want a smoother texture, but it will help thicken the batter especially if you used coconut oil, and personally I like the texture it gives)\
Instructions:
Melt the butter/oil, meanwhile combining all the other ingredients in a magic bullet or blender. Add the melted butter and blend.
Option 1: pour into muffin cups
Option 2: put in the fridge until it is no longer super liquidy and will hold its shape, add batter into a large ziplock bag, cut off corner and squeeze out bites into a parchment paper lined cookie sheet.
Put in freezer so they can firm up, meanwhile melting about 2 bars of chocolate.
Now, either:
1.) use toothpick to dip the bites into the melted chocolate
2.) pour the melted chocolate into a ziplock bag, cut a tiny opening in the corner, and drizzle the melted chocolate over the cheesecake bites or over the muffin cup if you went with that option. You can also try and just use a spoon to drizzle the melted chocolate.

Silk Naturals Spring 2015 Collection Swatches

Guess what just came in the mail? My Silk Naturals order with new goodies from their Spring Collection!!!!
I am in love with the new Velvet Matte lipsticks and am so excited about the new colors! Garter is amazing and is like a lighter version of Canoodle, which was a favorite of mine from the last lipstick release.
Also I love the Amplifying Lip Glazes so was excited to see a new one, and the Chantilly Slick Stick is gorgeous for spring and smells like strawberries :)
There are also some new colors of the Illuminating Powder, which is super exciting because I am totally in love with the Close Up Illuminating powder, so it is nice to have a few more shades. Runway is the bronze version and Spotlight is the pink version, although it was really hard to capture the subtle pink glow in the pics.
Contouring is all the rage this season, and Silk Naturals has some new contouring powder as well as some brightening concealer, which I am super excited to test out.
Alright, let the swatches begin!
Here are the lip colors I picked up:

Chantilly, Fabulous, A la Mode, Peplum, Camisole, Garter, Bustier
in the sunlight

 In the shade

 In the sun
Brightening Concealer #1, #2, Shady Lady #1, #2

Runway, Spotlight

 In the shade
Brightening Concealer #1, #2, Shady Lady #1, #2, Runway, Spotlight

Healthy Chocolate Coconut Pie (raw, vegan, dairy-free, gluten-free, paleo)

This is my first attempt at a recipe post, although I have made video recipes before that you can find here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WSvDU4QZzJ0&list=PLLPxk9-Hvq7FWzkDT16ZyJ-H03CSJf0bc

Today I made a chocolate coconut pie using avocado and banana, and now I will attempt to share with you how I made it.
The crust end up being nice and crunch, and chocolate filling is the flavor and consistency of a chocolate pudding(you can make just the filling and have a healthy pudding), and the topping is nice and coconutty :)

Crust:
1 cup unsweetened shredded coconut
I use this one:

About 3 Tablespoons of coconut oil, melted
I used the organic extra virgin one from Vitacost

And about 2-3 Tablespoons of Coconut Sugar
I use this one:

Combine everything in a blender such as the Magic Bullet(what I am using)

After blending:

Pour into container and put in freezer so it can firm up while you make the filling:

Filling:
 You will need 1 banana and 1 avocado

You will also need 1/2 cup of coconut milk

To make it chocolatey you have a few options:
1- You can use raw cacao paste and sweetner of choice(what I did). About a handfull as you can see in below pic.
2- You can use a chocolate bar(I like the Trader Joe's one pictured below, as it has very minimal ingredients, pretty much just cacao and sugar, no lecithin or soy, etc.) About 1 bar
3- You could theoretically use cacao powder plus sweetner of choice, but it will make your pudding a little thinner in consistency. Not sure how much exactly to use, maybe about 1/4 cup.

Melting the cacao paste

 Now since the cacao paste is completely unsweetened I am adding raw honey, you will not need to do this if you used chocolate bar.

Add this melted chocolate to the banana/avocado/coconut milk and blend

The crust should be firmed up by now, so spoon the filling onto the crust and place in the freezer to set while you make topping.

Topping:
This is optional, but will make things a little more coconutty, if you like that.
Combine half cup of shredded coconut with half cup of coconut milk and 1-2 Tablespoons of honey to taste

Carefully pour over top of the pie

Let the pie set in the fridge for a few hours.
Now it is ready to enjoy!
It can be kind of a pain to get perfectly sliced pieces, so you will need a nice sharp knife to cut through the crust. (In hindsight it probably would work better if the crust was a little thinner, so next time I will probably reduce the ingredients or use larger glass container to make it be thinner)

Thank you for reading! Enjoy!


Summary of Ingredients:
Crust:
1 cup shredded coconut
3 Tablespoons of melted coconut oil
2-3 Tablespoons of coconut sugar to taste
Filling:
1 avocado
1 banana
1/4 cup light coconut milk
either handfull of melted raw cacao paste combined with 2-3 Tablespoons of raw honey to taste
or
about 1 chocolate bar, melted (3.5 oz / 100grams)
Topping:
1/2 cup shredded coconut
1/2 cup light coconut milk
1-2 Tablespoons of raw honey to taste

Nvey Eco Moisture Rich Fluid Foundation & BB Creme Revew and Swatches

I recently did a review video on the Nvey Eco Liquid Foundation, which I will link below.
And today I was at Ulta and was able to swatch all of the shades of this foundation, so I thought it would be helpful to show you, since the shades do not necessarily get darker as the numbers go up.
Ivory 510, Custard 511, Fluid Beige 512, Natural 514, Golden Honey 515, Warm Honey 516

 The Ivory shade is a good "lightness" for me, but it is too pink. The Natural 514 has the correct tone, but is a bit too dark so looks orange on me.
You can see a full demo in the video below, but overall I like this foundation, it is similar to my holy grail Jane Iredale liquid minerals, but it is just a tad more visible on the skin. But it is $20 cheaper than the Jane Iredale.

While I was at Ulta I also decided to check out the Nvey Eco BB Cream.

The top row is the BB Cream:
Fair, Light Medium
The row under that is the foundation for comparison:
Ivory 510, Custard 511, Fluid Beige 512, Natural 514

The BB cream seems very nice, actually quite similar to the foundation. I didn't end up buying it because the Fair shade was too pink, but the Light was a little too dark. These do oxidize a bit after sitting on the skin. But it felt nice, perhaps a touch creamier than the foundation, coverage seemed similar.
So hopefully these swatches help!
Btw, here is my video demo of the liquid foundation