Grain Free Apple Turnovers via Life Made Full

Just spent the past 1.5h making some gluten free apple turnovers from the recipe I found over at 
Life Made Full: http://lifemadefull.com/grain-free-apple-turnovers-paleo-gluten-free-dairy-free/

They are delicious and a nice change from my ongoing chocolate everything obsession.
Despite begin time consuming, they're worth it for anyone looking for a gluten free option to regular turnovers.


Things to note:

- I ended up using arrowroot flour since I had no tapioca flour along with unbalanced almond flour instead of blanched.  These 2 substitutions didn't seem to affect the recipe in the slightest.

- The filling is slightly sweet.  If you're looking for something to really hit your sweet tooth, you may want to add some extra maple syrup or sprinkle them with confectionary sugar/icing before serving.  For my pallet, they were perfect.

- I beat my egg whites before putting them into the batter.  I don't know if this effected the recipe at but the batter seemed nice so you can add this step if you'd like.

Let me know how yours turn out! :)

Bonobo's

Bonobo's is a vegetarian restaurant located at 18 E 23rd st near Madison Square Park and Gramercy theater. Their whole menu is of the raw variety. All enzymes fully intact. Set up a bit like a deli, you select you meal and bring the tray to your table.

They have a wide variety of nut pates and house made dressing which were what I found unique and most impressive. The menu is pretty standard for a raw vegan style restaurant otherwise and reasonably priced for the good quality you're getting. I tried the salad with nut pate, in which you get to choose your ingredients and pate flavour, with their lemon garlic tahini dressing. I left feeling full and satisfied. Great place for a quick and nutritious meal.

Rating: 8/10

One Lucky Duck

One Lucky Duck is the take out companion of Pure Food and Wine. They prepare small batch, take-out, raw vegan sweets, juices, smoothies and ice cream. There is a small amount of seating where you can also get an array of salads and savory dishes. Walls are covered in nuts, truffles, cookies, coconut oil, sweeteners, dog treats an supplements. The vibe is cozy but busy.

This is one of my favorite vegan establishments in NYC so far. Needless to say, the list of things I've tried has been over several visits:

Smoothies:
cacao or carob latte – $9
banana, cashew milk, cacao or carob, vanilla

Thoughts: This is by far my favorite thing I've tried here so far. I get mine with carob and no sweetener. It's satisfying, thick and creamy.

green mango – $9
mango, cucumber, cilantro, coconut water, lime

Thoughts: Marvelous! If you love the taste of coconut water and want a good way to get in some cleansing greens, this is where it's at. The taste of cilantro is not overpowering so with the combination of cucumber, mango and lime, this makes for a deliciously fresh taste.

Sweets:
mallomar – $6
chocolate coated pecan cookie with vanilla cream GF

Thoughts: With a thick dollop cashew based cream on the top as its marshmallow and a crunchy chocolate dipped base, I'd say they're better than their mass produced counterparts by far. Trouble is, I could easily eat more than one, and if you want to be satisfied, two is a little overkill financially speaking.

moon pie – $9
chocolate brownie vanilla cream sandwich GF

Thoughts: If you're really looking for something raw vegan that seems to mimic its original texture, this is pretty close. I still have no idea how they got the cake portion to have the fluffiness of real wheat flour cake and still have it raw and gluten free. Not really for me though the flavor was great.

lemon bar – $8
almond coconut crust, tart lemon custard GF

Thoughts: I tried these as some free samples. While I'm not a huge fan of lemon desserts, these tasted much like a traditional lemon bar, but with better texture. I was pleasantly surprised.

chocolate caramel bar – $5
chocolate dipped pecan caramel bar O

Thoughts: I was a little underwhelmed by these. Felt there was a bit too much of the bar base and not enough of the caramel filling. **I wouldn't chance this one if you're gluten sensitive.

chocolate ganache tart – $12
chocolate ganache filling, chocolate crust GF

Thoughts: Coming from a self proclaimed chocoholic, this is an obvious favorite. Served with cashew cream, it is absolutely addictive. That being said, it's very sweet and may have you bouncing off the walls after if your blood sugar is out of wack or you haven't eaten enough solid food ahead of time to balance your nerves from the caffeine in the cacao. Also, the price for this seems a little steep for raw vegan tarts since I'm used to the $5-$7 slices in Canada but for NY the average seems to be $12-$14 though outrageous, it's in the ballpark for the city as I see it.

orreo cookie – $3.5
vanilla cream filled chocolate cookie GF

Thoughts: I don't know why but I tend to love raw desserts generally because of their moist texture due to fresh ingredients. This one just tries too hard to be like a real oreo. It's dehydrated to the point of a packaged cookie. Still tasty and one of the cheaper options if you're just looking for a sweet snack.

linzer cookie – $5
spiced hazelnut and almond cookie sandwich, raspberry jam GF

Thoughts: This is my favorite raw vegan cookie I've ever tried. The flavor is spicy and outstanding. The raspberry jam layer in the center is just perfect; not too sweet. Coupled with a smoothie, it's my breakfast made in heaven.

Rating: 9.5/10

Caravan of Dreams

Caravan of Dreams is a quaint, atmospheric vegan restaurant on the lower east side of Manhattan. The lighting inside is dim, coupled with light and airy music selections for the perfect vibe of comfort and relaxation. I must admit, the menu was a bit overwhelming. So much selection that if you're one who finds it hard to make decisions, maybe have a look at the choices before hand online. Including brunch, dinner, dessert and smoothie options, there is no shortage of delicious organic, kosher food descriptions to make you salivate.

Dinning with a friend here is probably your best bet if you're looking to try as many things as possible seeing and the prices are a bit steep. Understandably so due to the standards they keep, yet still on the hefty side for this type of restaurant in my opinion.

I tried:

Pizzetta, one of their raw vegan options. The veggies were fresh and the nut cheese was the perfect texture but this pizza left allot to be desired. The sauce had no tang to mingle with the rest of the toppings. Its flavor was practically obsolete. The crust was probably the most disappointing aspect. If it were analyzed by food scientists, I'm sure they'd agree that that cracker was no longer LIVE. It was too thick and over dehydrated for my liking. It's flavor was also lacking, possible due to over dehydration but none the less, it could have used some more salty flavors such as sun dried tomatoes or celery. For $19, I was disappointed.

The Coco-Mango Pie was my savior. One layer of coconut cream, then a layer of mango cream, drizzled in strawberry sauce and a thin nutty crust. This gluten free dessert was to die for. Allot lighter than most raw vegan pies which was a delightful surprise and didn't give me the feeling of being weighed down later, due to my body processing to much fat.

Over all, I think I'll have to go back to try one of their superfood smoothies or coconut keifer drinks to satisfy my curiosity with their unique flavor combinations.

Rating: 6.5/10

Rawvolution NYC

Rawvolution is a restaurant transplant from Los Angeles, CA. Knowing this going in and my general love for all that is raw vegan cuisine, needless to say, I was expecting allot. Upon first glance, they had a great selection of take out meals or parts there of. Mock tuna and egg filling, sandwiches and and an assortment of dessert balls full of nutritious superfoods. As far as other dessert options go, the other pickings were pretty slim. One type of cake, being pumpkin which I could really appreciate for its seasonal conscious instead of focusing on more imported products as well as a few different cookies.

I went in with a humongous smoothie craving and seeing as I was not particularly hungry, I figured I'd go for that and a dessert. Since they were out of ingredients for the smoothie I initially chose, I settled on a simple strawberry smoothie with a maca add in. No ingredients listed for the smoothies on their menu so I was going into this a bit blind. With this I was fairly disappointed. Being the average $8 smoothie price for NY, plus the additional charge for the maca, what I received was something I could have put together at home if I were running out of ingredients in the fridge. It literally tasted like straight up strawberries and nut milk which, don't get me wrong, is tasty enough but when I go out and spend $10 over all on a drink, I'm expecting something a little more elaborate and flavorful. At least a date or something to sweeten it. On top of the basic taste, it was pre-made. The texture was thick but it didn't have the satisfying icy texture to satisfy my craving. I tried to legitimized that perhaps their raw vegan values system is so stringent that they also refuse to freeze fruit due to nutrient loss or they don't want to add ice because it would make it less easily digested. I would never order a smoothie here again. You know you're dissatisfied when 1/3 of the way through something you think 'I'll just take this home and mix it with something else later.'

My desserts of choice were the raw cookie dough balls. These were spectacular. Not like a regular cookie dough ball but probably as close as you'll ever get in the raw vegan world. The texture of the dough was extremely smooth in contrast to the crunchy cacao nibs. The taste was slightly like coconut but not so overpowering to make them a coconut dessert. If anything, I'd go back for these.

The Staff was absolutely lovely. I'm salivating just thinking about their take-out selection so despite my disappointment, I think I'll be back for lunch at some point.

Rating: 6.5/10