"Dessert"

We had a bit of a celebration last night for this guy:

Remember him for the studly baseball picture? Well it was his 17th birthday last night! Very exciting!

The only downfall was the yummy festivities fell in the middle of our cleanse. Boo! But we modified our meals yesterday by having a smoothie for breakfast & a soup for lunch. It was the same soup we had the other day: Butternut Squash & Kale Soup. This way we were able to have a real, solid meal with the family for dinner. This consisted of grilled salmon, quinoa, and cucumbers & celery with our homemade hummus. Very tasty!

And because it's hard to watch everyone eat a delicious homemade cake from mom...

I whipped up a couple cleanse-worthy desserts for me & the bird. I searched long and hard for ingredients that would mesh with the cleanse.

Both recipes were adapted from Love, Veggies & Yoga. Averie has a wonderful site with so many great recipes & overall well-being tips. If nothing else, she is currently in Aruba and has posted some AMAZING pictures for your visual interest.

Back to our desserts. Below are the links to the 2 recipes we made.

No-Bake Vegan Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Balls
In order to cleansify this recipe, I used only agave and substituted almond butter for peanut butter. I also used Hershey's unsweetened chocolate.
I cut the recipe in half and it made 4 good sized dough balls, about 1" in diameter.

Averie's Raw Vegan Almond Butter Cookies

This recipe made about 8 large dough balls, over 1" in diameter.

After mixing up the ingredients, I placed them in the freezer for about 20 minutes. I then placed them in the refrigerator until serving.

I also made a frosting that I thought would help to sweeten our dessert.
Cashew Vanilla Frosting
Recipe courtesy of Gone Raw
1 1/2c Cashews
1/3c Water
1/4-1/2c Agave (depending on sweetness desired)
1/2 vanilla bean or vanilla extract
Blend all ingredients. Refrigerate until ready to serve.

This was not necessarily that sweet, in terms of 'frosting,' but it did offer a different flavor & texture to dip the dough balls into.

There was so much birthday excitement, I forgot to take a picture of them before serving. So my apologies for the presentation!

I had one of each. They were very tasty and the bird also approved. Once off the cleanse, I would like to try others that include oats & bananas. Can't wait!