Several years ago my friend Rachel began following a vegan diet. We shared a love for Karyn’s on Green, a local vegan restaurant, so going out to eat was never a problem, but I was always somewhat in awe of how she managed to cook and order from traditional restaurant menus when so many familiar ingredients were straight up off-limits.
This week I went to a class at the Chopping Block, a local recreational cooking school, for a presentation by Terry Walters. I became familiar with Terry, who has been at the forefront of the clean eating lifestyle movement, through Rachel several years ago but I had assumed that most of her recipes would be outside of my comfort zone. I’m all for clean eating, but I’m a pretty dedicated carnivore and though I could easily fathom giving up red meat and bacon, I’m not sure what life would look like without cheese.
Though Terry is dedicated to sharing her knowledge and passion to eat clean and live well, she doesn’t preach and suggests swapping even one real a week for one of her clean recipes will help improve your diet. One a week? Easy enough. Anyone looking to incorporate healthier foods, more plants and more nutrients into their diet will relate to Terry’s work. In addition to her two best-selling cookbooks, Clean Food and Clean Start, she recently published Eat Clean, Live Well, a book full of tips and recipes that guide you through cooking for all four seasons.
One of the first recipes I made from Eat Clean, Live Well are Terry’s NoNo Bars, named by her daughter because they’re no-bake, no-gluten, no-processed sugar, no-dairy…you get the idea. They’re a perfect snack to throw in your bag when you’re on the go or as a quick breakfast for people like me who tend to forget to eat before 1:00 p.m.
- 1 Cup unsweetened dried shredded coconut
- 1 Cup sprouted or toasted pumpkin seeds
- 1 Cup sprouted or toasted sunflower seeds
- ½ cup juice sweetened dried cranberries
- ½ cup raisins
- 3 tabelspoons cacao nibs
- ½ cup sunflower butter
- ½ cup coconut nectar
- pinch of sea salt
- Stir together sunflower butter and coconut nectar, pour over rest of ingredients and fold until fully combined.
- Pour in to 9×12 parchment lined baking sheet, cover with a second sheet of parchment and press mixture until even. Smooth paper over top so it sticks and refrigerate 2 hours until firm.
- Makes 18 bars, 1in x 4.5in.