Sunrise, Celebration, and Raw Chocolate Cake Anyone?

I'm not one to rise early enough to see the sunrise, but my sister-in-law and I ran our first official 10K on Saturday morning and so I was up before the crack of dawn and blessed to see a beautiful sunrise. The weather was perfect for a morning run and I accomplished my goals: finish in under and hour and don't fall down! After the race, the view across the water was amazing and by 8:30 a.m. we had run 6.2 miles and were feeling great!

Saturday was also my mom's birthday, so we celebrated with a family dinner of some of her favorite things of the moment. It was a great day to honor her and thank her for all that she does for our family. Here are a few pictures of the birthday meal:


For dinner, we created a spinach salad with pears, strawberries, and blueberries. Another one of mom's faves is a broccoli salad with raisins, sunflower seeds, vegenaise, and apple cider vinegar. It really is delicious! We also had organic chicken cut into bite size pieces, dipped in coconut milk, then dredged in a mixture of teff flour, brown rice flour and Herbamare seasoning. We bake these in the oven and they are beyond good!

Mom loves chocolate (we all love chocolate), so her cake had to be super chocolatey! Actually we had two cakes. One was a flourless chocolate banana cake that is more like a chocolate mousse or pudding cake. It is super quick and easy to make with very few ingredients too.



Flourless Chocolate Banana Cake

3 large eggs, separated
¼ teaspoon celtic sea salt
½ cup maple syrup
¼ cup coconut oil
3 ripe bananas
½ cup cocoa powder

In a Vitamix, whip egg yolks, maple syrup and salt on medium for 1-2 minutes. Add coconut oil and bananas and blend for another minute or two. Blend in cocoa powder.

In a separate bowl, whip egg whites to stiff peaks. Gently fold contents of Vitamix into bowl with egg whites.

Grease a 9-inch cake pan with coconut oil and pour batter into pan. Bake at 350° for about 30 minutes. Let cool slightly then serve.

We also had a raw chocolate cake with dark chocolate frosting. This cake has a few more ingredients and a few more steps, but it is so worth the extra effort. And yes, you read correctly, I said raw...no baking required! We keep it in the fridge so it is nice and cool and it is just so decadent! It is somewhat reminiscent of a Mounds or a German chocolate cake...it's just really, really delish!





We had a wonderful dinner and celebration. I love food, family and fellowship!