young, dumb, & twenty-ish

In April of this year, I made the conscious decision to become a vegan, and to completely change my diet and nutrition. Being vegan is something I have thought about for years, but never thought I could actually do. I thought I wasn’t “strong enough” to abstain from the foods that I loved, thought I didn’t have the budget for it, and like a lot of people, I thought there were stereotypes around veganism that the diet consisted of only salads and fake meat. Over the past few months, I have learned so much about nutrition, about my body, and about myself in general. I realized I am strong enough, but also that veganism actually isn’t as hard as it may seem. Yes, a lot of vegan food is more expensive than its non-vegan counterparts, but the expenses also aren’t as bad as I thought. And veganism most definitely is not just salads and fake meat. The main thing I always tell people who are curious about my vegan journey is that there is nothing that I liked before (that I’ve had to switch to vegan alternatives) that I don’t like now. However, there are so many things that I didn’t like before that I love now.

Another challenge I’ve tried to incorporate into my life is that of clean eating. Essentially, clean eating is knowing exactly what you’re putting into your body. For example, when you make your own guacamole, you know exactly what’s in it. Avocado, maybe some onions, jalapenos, lime juice, tomatoes, etc., but when you buy guacamole from the store, and actually look at the ingredients, there’s a lot of stuff that you’ve probably never heard of in it. I’ve tried to live a lifestyle over the past few months of, “if I can’t pronounce it, it doesn’t go in my body.” Combining clean eating with veganism has been a little bit of a challenge. But there’s nothing I enjoy quite as much as challenging myself, so it’s been an educational, fun, difficult challenge but I’ve only come out with more confidence than ever, while also being the healthiest I’ve ever been.

I want to share some recipes that I’ve discovered along my journey. This is one that I actually just made today, but the reason I chose it is to highlight the fact that healthy eating does not equal only vegetables and meat. You can have the foods you love while still making health conscious choices. And while I agree that there are no bad foods, I also encourage you to consider that your body is the only one you will ever have. Try this recipe and see if it doesn’t encourage you to challenge yourself, too.

One of my all time favorite snacks before I became a vegan was Little Debbie’s Cosmic Brownies. You definitely know what I’m talking about. These were my go-to gas station snacks for long car rides, movie nights, and my all time favorite period cravings. It even got to the point where in moments of anxiety or panic, these became a comfort food of mine. Even my boyfriend would know to bring me home one if he saw them in a store. Again, I want to stress that there are no bad foods, it’s how you manage your own nutritional needs that make a difference. However, I would like to show you the nutrition facts for these guys.

The first thing you may notice is the lack of balanced macronutrients. With only 4g of protein, but 75g of carbohydrates, 21g of fat, and 500 calories, it’s pretty clear that these babies aren’t healthy. I want to stress the ingredients list rather than the nutrition facts, though. How many words can you spot that you’ve never heard of before? Clean eating is about avoiding things like additives, preservatives, processed ingredients, and yes, even though nobody likes to hear it, chemicals. And of course, as a vegan, right at the bottom you can see that these contain egg and milk. Without further ado, here is the recipe for clean, vegan, no-bake Cosmic Brownies that taste almost scarily similar to the real deal, and took me literally ten minutes to make.

ingredients:

I combined the dry ingredients into a mixing bowl, added the nut butter, maple syrup, and vanilla, then mixed it all together and pressed the mixture into a loaf pan and set it in the fridge for about 30 minutes. Once cool, I put the frosting and sprinkles on top, and put it back into the fridge for another 15 or so minutes. Then, they’re ready to cut and serve! It’s so simple and quick. These measurements make about 8 brownies.

Stop right here if you just want to recreate this recipe. Let me know how you like it if you do! Keep reading for some clean eating education; I want to point you towards the brands of ingredients I used that make this recipe significantly more clean.

Oat flour

Oat flour can be bought at most grocery stores, or you can make it yourself, which is my favorite way. To make oat flour, you use rolled oats and blend them up until it gets to a fine powder, a.k.a., a flour consistency.

The brand I used is One Degree sprouted rolled oats. I loved these because they’re both organic, gluten-free, and there’s no preservatives or additives. The only ingredient is the oats themselves, and you know exactly what you’re putting into your body. Below is the nutrition label for Pillsbury all-purpose flour, a common baking ingredient that a lot of people probably have in their pantry. Notice how the first ingredient is “bleached,” and the rest are ones that I’m not even going to try to pronounce. Aside from the extreme difference in ingredients, oat flour is a whole grain source. It’s great for reducing risk of heart disease and great for lowering cholesterol. Next time you go shopping, consider switching out such a basic, simple ingredient for a more beneficial, nutritious one!

Cacao powder

From Creative Nature Super Foods, “Cacao powder is known to have a higher antioxidant content than cocoa, and cacao is the purest form of chocolate you can consume, which means it is raw and much less processed than cocoa powder or chocolate bars.” Funnily enough, I didn’t even realize there was a difference between the two until I became vegan. The brand of Cacao powder I used is Nativas organic cacao powder. The only ingredient is Theobroma cacao powder (Theobroma is an evergreen tree, famous for its cacao beans). The high antioxidants help repair skin from damage and premature aging. It’s also anti-inflammatory, which improves your complexion. Huge win. Below is its more famous counterpart, Nestle Nesquik’s chocolate powder.

Look at the very bottom for that ingredient list. Aside from the processed cocoa and soy lecithin, which is typically contaminated with pesticides, one of Nesquik’s ingredients, carrageenan, is known for causing inflammation and bloating, and is also linked to IBD and colon cancer. Yikes. Even though it’s cheaper and more popular, it’s definitely not better. This is another simple switch I encourage you to make!

Protein powder

Don’t be fooled! Just because it’s a protein powder doesn’t always mean it’s the best choice for you.

The one I used in this recipe is Just Ingredients chocolate protein powder.

One of the reasons why this is my favorite protein powder is because it has five different protein sources, as you can see from the ingredient list. All of the ingredients are naturally derived, and have amazing benefits. For comparison, I have Pure Protein, an extremely popular brand of protein powder.

A lot of protein powder brands only contain whey protein, then they’re filled with tons of additives, preservatives, and unnecessary ingredients. Don’t let labels trick you.

Nut butter

Yes, any type of “butter” that is derived from nuts. This has a wide range depending on your preferences. Of course, the most common nut butter is peanut butter, but there’s also tons more, from hazelnut butter to walnut butter.

The one I used is MaraNatha almond butter. While there are so many great brands of natural, clean peanut butter, like I said, it’s up to your personal preferences and I really prefer almond butter over peanut butter! It’s slightly sweeter and in my opinion, it goes perfectly with this recipe. It helps the batter to stick together and the nut butter is the main reason this recipe is no-bake! Less work for you to do if you choose to recreate! I recently started adding yet another complication to my nutritional journey, and I’m choosing to eliminate palm oil from my diet completely. This calls for a whole separate blog post. However, I had this almond butter in my pantry, and it was almost gone, so I figured I would use the last of it for this recipe. Despite the palm oil, you can see that this almond butter is extremely clean, with only four ingredients! You already know what I’m going to compare this to: the well-admired, world famous Jif peanut butter.

A classic go-to, literally everyone has this in their pantry. Once again, I want to stress that I’m not implying that Jif peanut butter is bad or bad for you! Peanut butter is a great snack with lots of nutritional benefits. It’s just another suggestion– next time you go to the store, look at some natural peanut butter or even almond butter as a substitute, and do some research on the brand you choose. It’s just a simple swap that’s very easy to make, and you know exactly what you’re putting into your body!

Maple syrup

Maple syrup has become a vegan staple for me. It’s a great source of antioxidants, a supplier of numerous vitamins, improves brain and skin health, and is, of course, a great alternative for sugar. The brand I used for this recipe is Cadia organic maple syrup. This brand must not be that popular because I simply could not find a picture of the nutrition label, but the only ingredient is 100% pure maple syrup. The website says it’s derived straight from the maple tree. Once again, you probably already know what I’m going to compare this to.

Our beloved Aunt Jemima syrup. Sweet in all the best ways, the epitome of Sunday morning pancakes with the family. The smell alone is completely recognizable. However, you can’t tell me you know off the top of your head what sodium hexametaphosphate is. At this point, you know what I’m going to say. When you look at the two side by side, it’s night and day.

Vanilla extract

This one isn’t as dramatic as my other ingredients. Typically, when using vanilla extract, you only use a very small amount. Just for that reason, I was debating including it in this section, but for the purpose of consistency, I figured I would. I’m recommending Thrive Market’s organic pure vanilla extract. The only ingredients in this one are vanilla bean extractives in water. The main difference in this one and the common vanilla extract is that most of the time, the vanilla beans are soaked and extracted in a mixture of water and ethanol, which is an alcohol, and Thrive Market’s is alcohol free. Of course, high amounts of ethanol are extremely bad for you, but since it’s such a small amount, it’s nothing to worry about when baking with vanilla extract. However, this goes to show that if you do your research, you can quite literally find clean versions of just about any ingredient.

Chocolate frosting

This part is my favorite. I still wouldn’t say that chocolate frosting is “healthy,” but it was super neat to find a much cleaner alternative than normal chocolate frosting. Again, in the future, I’m going to try harder to exclude palm oil from my diet, but since I already had the Simple Mills organic frosting, it was the perfect addition to my DIY Cosmic Brownies. Below, you can see the ingredient list!

If you’re looking to decrease your sugar intake, I highly recommend shopping for the last ingredient, Monk Fruit sweetener! A delicious, zero-calorie substitute for sugar, and its antioxidants are cancer and heart disease preventatives. Of course, there are so many benefits of coconut oil. Instead of diving down that rabbit hole, check out this Healthline article about coconut oil. Again, chocolate frosting in general isn’t the healthiest, but take a look at the Simple Mills counterpart.

The Betty Crocker chocolate frosting is practically a staple if you’re a baker. The last line of the ingredients says “preserved by potassium sorbate.” According to Healthline, “Potassium sorbate is a chemical additive. It’s widely used as a preservative in foods, drinks, and personal care products. It is an odorless and tasteless salt synthetically produced from sorbic acid and potassium hydroxide.” Processed ingredients, corn starch, artificial additives, flavors, and dyes, all mixed in with literal chemicals doesn’t make it sound as appealing as it looks.

Sprinkles

Similarly to the vanilla extract, sprinkles are another ingredient that really aren’t a big deal. You typically don’t use too much of them, and the ingredients seem kind of insignificant for how small sprinkles are. But this is another example of how every ingredient has a cleaner alternative.

The sprinkles I used are the Supernatural rainbow starfetti ones. Look how cute! They’re shaped like little stars :). Even though Cosmic Brownies have those signature candied sprinkles, these are a much cleaner alternative. With no artificial dyes, these sprinkles get their color from the plants and spices they’re made from. According to Supernatural’s website, the main ingredients are cane sugar, lemon juice, turmeric, and beets. Yet, they still taste deliciously sweet and add the same satisfying crunch that the original Cosmic Brownies have. Speaking of the originals, here’s the ingredient list for the world famous Cosmic Brownies candied chocolate sprinkles, one of the best parts.

Again, we see lecithin, artificial dyes and flavors, palm oil, waxes, you name it. As I mentioned, sprinkles really aren’t the main concern when it comes to this recipe, but it just goes to show that even if it seems insignificant, it can still be swapped out, and it can still make a difference! Though they’re definitely not the same, you can still recreate that perfect first bite with a cleaner alternative.

Conclusion

There are so many reasons to consider practicing a cleaner diet. Benefits of clean eating include increased muscle and bone strength, boosted immunity, aids in weight loss, increased energy, lower risk of heart disease, diabetes, and even some cancers, and these are just a few. When I first started eating cleaner, I took it meal by meal. Most days it would just be lunch. Then I started practicing lunch and dinner. Then when I had to make grocery trips, I paid more attention to ingredient labels. Then it became all three meals. Every day isn’t perfect, of course. But it’s been so worth it, and it’s a journey I would encourage anyone to try out for themselves, as well as veganism! Let me know if you try this recipe, and if you’d be interested in more posts like this one in the future!

— mal

“Our bodies are our gardens – our wills are our gardeners.”

William Shakespeare