Press

Awards

• RickiHeller.com is nominated for a 2013 Canadian Weblog Award!
  
• Diet, Dessert and Dogs [the original name of this site] nominated as one of SHAPE Magazine’s “Best Healthy Eating” Blogs
• Sweet Freedom received Honorable Mention in the 2010 Cuisine Canada National Culinary Book Awards

Television, Radio and Podcasts

• “Writing a Business Book with Dr. Ricki.” Podcast interview on Make a Million in Menopause. June 2022.
• “Three Errors New Authors Make.” Podcast interview on She Gets Published. March 2022.
• “Success Over Sugar.” Podcast interview on Make Time for Success. February 2021.
• “Make Dietary Restrictions Work.” Podcast interview on Magnificent Midlife. June 2021.
• “Ricki Heller Did This to Get on Ellen DeGeneres’ Radar.” Podcast interview on Healthpreneur. July 2018.
• “Surviving the Social Side of Food,” podcast interview on Fit Is Freedom. November 2018.
• City TV (Toronto) Breakfast Television: Lower Glycemic Halloween Treats. October 2018. Ricki talks about how to sneak in healthier options when serving up sweet treats.
• CBS Chicago. April 2012. Ricki is asked about  “gluten-free diets by choice.” See the clip here.
• In the Know. January 2012. Ricki discusses Everyday Superfoods.
• Rogers daytime. December 2011. Ricki discusses healthy sweet treats for the holidays and prepares coconut macaroons.
• In the Know. June 2011. Ricki joins host Julia Suppa for an hour of live talk about the perils of a high-sugar diet, and how to eat without refined sugar.
• In the Know. March 2011. Ricki joins host Julia Suppa for an hour of live talk about living with food restrictions and answers calls from viewers.
• Rogers daytime. November 2010.  Ricki discusses healthy baking ingredients and prepares Cookie Dough Topped Brownies.
• Rogers daytime. June 2010: Ricki chats about easy, healthy foods for entertaining a crowd. View the clip here (it takes a minute to load).
• Canada AM.  May 2010: Ricki discusses healthy options for people with allergies.  View the clip here.
• Rogers daytime, February 2010: Clip coming soon!  Ricki discusses chocolate goodies for your sweetheart–all free of wheat, eggs, dairy and refined sugars!
• Rogers daytime, January 2010: Clip coming soon! Ricki discusses healthy root vegetables and warming winter foods and demonstrates Almond Crusted Root Vegetable “Fries.”
• Rogers daytime, November 2009: See the clip here. Ricki discusses healthy holiday sweets and demonstrates Decadent Chocolate Pate from Sweet Freedom.
• Breakfast Television, CityTV, Toronto August 2009: Ricki discusses how to bake healthy, delicious baked goods.

Newspapers and Magazines

• SHAPE Magazine. October, 2011. Diet, Dessert and Dogs nominated for a “Best Blogger: Healthy Eating” Award!
• Pilates Style Magazine (newsletter). August/September 2011. Features Baked Blueberry Oatmeal Breakfast Pudding recipe.
• Clean Eating Magazine. Recipes for Orange-Infused Almond Chocolate Cake and Blackberry-Peach Cobbler.
• Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel (March 27, 2001). “New Fries on the Rise.”  Interview and recipe for Almond Crusted Root Vegetable Fries.
• ReadyMade magazine online (November 2010) featured my “Cauliflower Parsnip Mash” recipe. “The vegetables are roasted together with garlic and plenty of extra virgin olive oil, making this vegan option flavorful and decadent.”
• The Toronto Star (May 2010): “Spiced Pumpkin Millet Pudding.”  Article and recipe.  “This pudding is rich enough to eat for dessert but nutritious enough to have as a breakfast cereal.”
• Tonic Toronto Magazine (Feb 2010): Sweet Freedom recipe for Cocoa Nibbles (LaRaw Bars) featured.
• Canadian Jewish News (Feb 2010): “You Can Have Your Cake and Great Health, Too!” (with recipes for Chocolate Mystery Cupcakes and Decadent Chocolate Pate) “This cookbook is a wonderful resource for anyone who loves sweets but wants healthier options. Highly recommended!”
• Clean Eating Magazine (Sept 2009): featured contributor with a recipe for Blackberry-Peach Cobbler.
• Clean Eating Magazine (June 2009): recipe contributor with a recipe for Berry Gem Cupcakes.
• Clean Eating Magazine (April 2009): recipe contributor with a recipe for Chocolate-Orange Almond Torte.

Web Sites and Blogs

• GOING VEGAN WITH ELLEN (Ellen DeGeneres). “Just because you’re vegan, it doesn’t mean you have to give up desserts! Vegan blogger Ricki Heller loves desserts, and wanted a healthy diet without having to give up her daily treats — so she created the “Sweet Freedom” cookbook.”
• THE ELLEN DeGENERES SHOW. “. . . you’ll discover that you can have amazing desserts without eggs, dairy, refined sugars or any artificial ingredients.”
• July, 2013. Kathy Freston’s The Lean Newsletter features Blueberry, Kale and Quinoa Salad with Fresh Blueberry Vinaigrette.
• June, 2012. Blisstree.com features Tempeh-Bacon Topped Spinach Salad with Roasted Plums.
• February, 2012. Going Vegan With Ellen features Ricki’s Raw Cocoa Nibbles recipe!
• October, 2011.  Replenish PDX.  My Chocolate Bean Butter is a featured recipe.
• September 2011.  Foodista Food Blog of the Day. Featured recipe is Raw Apricot Swirl Cheesecake Mini Pies.
• September 2011. Spry magazine online. “Healthy Cupcake Wars.”  My Maple Cupcakes with Maple Buttercream are featured.
•  August 2011.  Body By Nature. Interview with Ricki. “. . . she is a true Renaissance woman and a lady after my own heart. . .”
• June 2011.  She Let Them Eat Cake reviews Good Morning! Breakfasts: “All of her recipes are ACD friendly (free of sugar, gluten, eggs, dairy, and anything that encourages yeast to grow), but they’re still perfectly delicious and incredibly nutritious.“
• May 2011.  Review of Good Morning! Breakfasts on Adventures of a Gluten Free Mom: “Ricki’s e-book, Good Morning: Breakfasts without Gluten, Sugar, Eggs or Dairy has proved to me once again that foods without dairy, eggs or refined sugars are absolutely wonderful and don’t leave you feeling the least bit deprived.”
• May 2011.  Tasty Eats at Home reviews Good Morning! Breakfasts: “this past weekend, I had to make [grain-free granola] again. It was that good. . . . it was so addictive that every time I ventured into the pantry, I’d end up with my hand in that jar.”
• April 2011. XGFX Community.  Desserts without Compromise review: ” The result is really fudge-like but without that sugary, grainy texture that regular fudge has. I liked the texture the chopped almonds gave to the fudge and the flavour was perfect.”
• April 2011.  Savvy Vegetarian. Sweet Freedom Dessert Cookbook Review: “We spent several meals passing around the cookbook, picking out dessert recipes we wanted to try. So far that’s most of them!. . . . the first recipe we made was Figaros, which look like date squares, but are made with figs and taste like fig bars – only much MUCH better!. . . . Figaros have ruined me for store bought fig bars, but happily, they’re far easier to make.”
• March 2011.  TasteTO: What’s Cooking Wednesday features Happy Hemp Brownies Two-Bite Brownies.
• February 2011. Go Dairy Free. Review of Desserts without Compromise: “Ricki Heller is an expert in living with, and cooking for, dietary restrictions, and has been creating menus for the various stages of ACD (anti-candida diet) and SCD (specific carbohydrate diet) for several years. Her recipes are beyond creative, and as I can vouch, delicious.” Includes Grain-Free Macaroon recipe.
• February 2011.  Nava Atlas, VegKitchen Newsletter. Review of Sweet Freedom and recipe for Ultra Fudgy Brownies. “So for a vegan baking book to win me over, it’s got to be really good. The baked goods need to be easy to make, delicious, and filled with real food, not just veganized versions of white flour, sugar-filled fluff. . . . Sweet Freedom. . . fulfills all my requirements for a great vegan baking book.It’s that good.”
• January 2011:  Gluten-Free Goodness, “The Best of the Best.” Featured interview.
• January 2011: Cuisine Canada Scene. “Healthy versions of familiar favourites such as chocolate chip cookies, cinnamon buns and pecan pie appear, as do more adventurous items such as pumpkin millet pudding and bean brownies. The finished products are as silky, crispy, fragrant, creamy, tender or fudgy as any conventional dessert. You will not feel deprived in any way.”
• January 2011: The Spunky Coconut reviews Desserts without Compromise.
• January 2011: Sweet Freedom is listed as one of the Top 25 Food Allergy Cookbooks!
• December 2010.  Gluten Free Easily: Desserts without Compromise review. “Her book is full of “must have right now” recipes.”
• December 2010. Laptop Lunches features my Nutroast Extraordinaire in their Bento Lunch Box!
• November 2010.  Supervegan.  “Ricki Heller Leads Us on a Path to Sweet Freedom.” [Interview]. “I made your Classic Peanut Butter Cookies, My Mother’s Cheesecake and Chocolate Caramels. . . . they all looked and tasted great. I brought the cheesecake to an omnivore’s house for Thanksgiving, and everyone LOVED it!”
•  November 2010. Girlie Girl Army.  “Get Yer Greens, Girl” featured Molten Chocolate Lava Cakes.
•  September 2010.  Simply Sugar and Gluten Free. “Desserts without Compromise”: “. . . filled with 19 delicious recipes that are refined sugar-free, gluten-free, egg-free, dairy-free, low glycemic, and will all work for various stages of the Anti-Candida Diet (ACD).”
• August 2010.  The Blissful Chef. “Desserts without Compromise Ebook”: “Everyone [g]obbled both up so fast, ooohing and awwwing, that I didn’t have time to take a photo of the finished product. Every single person tried both and loved them. A dessert success!”
• August 2010.  Oh She Glows. “Ultra Fudgy Brownies”: “Seriously amazing brownies. . . .To me the perfect brownie is gooey, but nottoo gooey. It also has to be dense, but not sickly sweet and over powering. These brownies fit the bill.”
• August 2010.  This Dish is Vegetarian. Featured several photos in “Twelve Deliciously Gorgeous Vegan Recipe Photographs”.
• August 2010. Cook It Allergy Free. “Sweet Freedom Review and Giveaway: “The bottom line: So many delicious possibilities for Vegan treats that satisfy the sweet tooth without ruining the diet! If you are Vegan, or have dietary restrictions, I strongly recommend you getting your hands on a copy of this book.”
• August 2010: Wine Enthusiast Magazine Online.  “Put Up Your Zukes” (Zucchini Bread Oatmeal recipe featured–along with one of Mark Bittman’s!).
• Zoomer Magazine Online. Decadent Chocolate Pate featured.
• Zoomer Magazine Online. Recipe for Oatbran Banana Muffins featured.
• Thatsfit.ca, June 2010: “Delicious Dessert Recipes without Wheat, Eggs, Dairy or Refined Sugar” [interview & recipes]: “Sweet Freedomoffers healthier options to fulfill all your dessert cravings.”
• ELifelines (Toronto Vegetarian Association), May 2010: “Bittersweet Salad” recipe.
• Vegetarian Star, May 2010: “Ellen DeGeneres Features Sweet Freedom Ricki Heller Cookbook”: “Although some might believe a vegan diet is exclusive, Heller believes its the only way of eating that can include the most people. . . . Desserts are the perfect example of vegan never leaving anyone out.“
• Mallergies: About Food Allergies, April 2010. “Sweet Freedom”: “This cookbook is a must if you love desserts and sweets, and do not wish to compromise on safe ingredients and [a] healthy diet.”
• Chicago Eats Allergy Free, March 2010. “Sweet Freedom with Ricki Heller”: “I give two enthusiastic thumbs up to her Spiced Pumpkin Millet Pudding and Carrot Snack Cake (which I now often eat for breakfast being that I just can’t wait till ‘dessert”‘.” Includes recipe for Butterscotch Blondies.
• EverythingMom.com, March 2010: Molten Chocolate Lava Cakes [featured recipe]
• Sixty Recipes in Sixty Days, March 2010. “Blondie Brownies (GF and Allergen-Free!)”: “Being gluten-free, soy-free, and dairy-free means I haven’t found a fascimile of butterscotch that’s worth eating. . . . But these ‘butterscotch’ blondie brownies–they are good.  Dan’s non-allergic and sometimes picky family members ate the whole pan in less than 24 hours.”
• Have Cake, Will Travel, March, 2010. “Sweet Freedom’s Blueberry Coffee Cake”: “You can tell which cookbooks are there to stay when you find yourself leafing through them all the time, always eager to try more, and I knew Ricki’s book was going to be one of those from the very first time I got to . . . read it.”
• Oh She Glows, March 2010.  “I’m Late! I’m Late!”: “It is called Sweet Freedom and it is fabulous. . . . I was blown away by the creativity of Ricki’s recipes.”
• One of GoDairyFree.org’s top ten “Recommended Books for Dairy Free Living.”
• Chicago Eats Allergy Free (Chicago Now blog), March 2010. “Sweet Freedom with Ricki Heller”: recipe for Crimson Mousse. “Her witty blog is home to truly yummy recipes that are always vegan, sugar free and gluten free.“
• CakeSpy.com, January 2010: recipe for Figaros and review. “Goodness, were they good. Dense, chewy and decadent, these bars didn’t taste like dull suffering for health’s sake at all. The natural sweetness of the berries really shone, and the bars were excellent for breakfast the following morning.”
• Saveur.com, December 2009: featured recipe [Cinnamon Roasted Chick Peas]
• Saveur.com, December 2009: Diet, Dessert and Dogs is one of Saveur.com’s “Sites We Love” .
• Go Dairy Free, December 2009. “Sweet Freedom: Desserts You’ll Love without Wheat, Eggs, Dairy or Refined Sugar.”  “As a nutritionist, [Ricki] always has health in mind, but as a lover of food, it has to taste good. Thus, I can always count on Ricki for recipes that I want to make and that I should make.”
• Bittersweet, November 2009. “One Sweet Free-for-All.”  “. . . each thin square [of Ultra-Fudgy Brownies] packed in so much intense chocolate flavor with the perfect amount of chew, they were pretty darn close to brownie perfection.”
• VegFamily.com, November 2009.  “Sweet Freedom Book Review.”  “Author Ricki Heller does not disappoint! She takes you by the hand and shows you how to create delicious, nutritious, sinful sweets using whole, natural, unprocessed ingredients.”
• The Krafty Kook, November 2009: “Shine, Sweet Freedom, Shine Your Light on Me.” “Soy Free, Sugar Free Coconut Whipped Cream! Words cannot even begin to describe how good this stuff is.”
• Cookies and Candids Vegan Baking, November 2009: “Chocolate Pecan Pie” [review of recipe and comments about Sweet Freedom]
• Swell Vegan, October 2009: “Sweet Freedom Review.” “Imagine a world where vegan desserts have no refined sugar, no margarine, no wheat … and everything tastes AWESOME.”
• Thekitchn.com, September 2009:  “Apples and Honey (& Pears!): Desserts for Rosh Hashanah” [DDD Holiday Apple Bundt Cake is the only vegan recipe featured in the article!].
• Green Gourmet Giraffe, September 2009.  “Sweet Freedom, Clever Cookie.” “Don’t be fooled by Ricki’s healthy attitude to her sweet treats. She loves desserts and has spent many hours in the kitchen devising recipes that taste fantastic but are suitable for those with food allergies and intolerances.”
• “Full of Beans, August 2009. “Sweet Freedom.”  “The book has every kind of baked good you can think of- cookies, cakes, muffins, breads- and even some raw treats. Everything is vegan and made from all natural ingredients.”
• One Frugal Foodie.  July, 2009:  “Sweet Freedom: Fluffy Fruited Whole Grain Pancakes” [recipe]. “. . . pancakes are no longer banished to the land of weekend indulgences. These babies are nutritious, and positively delicious.”
• Vegan Cookbook Critic, July 2009:  “Ricki Frees the Masses with Her Sweets.” “Sweet Freedom [provided] vegan bakers everywhere with the ammunition they needed to convince the masses that conscious consuming can be delicious.”
• Have Cake, Will Travel, June 2009: “Sweet Freedom.” “Sweet Freedom is Ricki Heller’s award-worthy book that will have you slay the notion that healthier desserts = boring as hell and absolutely tasteless.”
• The Appetizer (National Post online), May 2009:  “Making Love in the Kitchen: Sweet Freedom.” “In addition to all the great recipes, Ricki also provides practical and applicable information on alternative flours, whole sweeteners and other tips on baking up unprocessed goodies.”
• Musings from the Fishbowl, May 2009:  “The Sweetest Thing: Sweet Freedom is here!” [interview]. “Using all natural ingredients and avoiding so many of the processed sweets that traditional desserts rely so heavily on, Sweet Freedom gives you all the goodness, without the “junk”.
• Hugger Food, May 2009: “Give Me Sweet Freedom or Give Me. . .”  [interview]. “My goal was to create healthier desserts
  that contained real, whole, unprocessed and all-natural ingredients. . . . As a result, the desserts in Sweet Freedom actually provide nutrition as well as great taste!”
• Eat Me, Delicious, May 2009:  “New Cookbook Release: Sweet Freedom.” “Ricki’s recipes have really opened my eyes to this world of delicious healthier baking that makes me not even miss baking with eggs, dairy and wheat. . . “.
• VeganBaking.net, May 2009: “Sweet Freedom Released.” “. . . now we’re beginning to see vegan baking cookbooks specifically tailored for different subjects like food allergies. The latest is Sweet Freedom by Ricki Heller and it looks awesome.”

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