After the cleanse...

No regrets. I am so glad I had the chance to give it a try and do it for 8 days. However, the next day I had some protein and felt a lot better. I was no longer freezing and had much more energy. I felt like I could go out and exercise again which for me is so important, especially at this time of year. Once the rain and cloudy skies are upon us, doing cardio exercising frequently helps to keep my happy endorphins going! On Halloween I made a yummy black bean soup. It was delicious and I was happy to be cooking soups again. The recipe includes pumpkin, chipotles and lime juice. Here is a link to the wonderful blog where I got the recipe: http://enlightenedcooking.blogspot.com/2008/01/black-bean-soup-with-pumpkin-lime.html.

Even though I wasn't eating all raw anymore I decided to make the Raw Chocolate Chip Cookies since I had bought the ingredients. They were surprisingly good, of course very different than warm, gooey, fresh out the oven traditional chocolate chips that are my absolute favorite dessert, but I thought they were pretty tasty. Here is the recipe:

Raw Chocolate Chip Cookies

1 3/4 cup ground cashews

3/4 cup ground oats

1/4 cup agave

2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

1/3 cup melted coconut oil

3-4 tablespoons cacao nibs

Stir together all ingredients. Drop spoonfuls of dough onto a parchment paper lined tray. Chill in the fridge until firm.
I used a coffee grinder to grind the oats and cashew, which was really easy. Also, I substituted brown rice syrup for the agave. I used Navitas Cacao nibs that I purchased on amazon.com. They are fantastic, loaded with antioxidants and I put them in my morning green smoothies too!