Come Walk With Me

Thinking About Coconut Oil...

2012-01-22T13:10:00.000-08:00

Wow, I have been so quiet on this blog! I feel I owe you an explanation, even if it is a little weak. Most of my day is scheduled with homeschooling my two oldest children in high school classes. Once I cook dinner and we eat, I am just too tired to blog much of the time! Not to mention the fact that we have slow internet here which sometimes is just impossible to use. But I am still here!

I have been thinking about posting about coconut oil. Many of you may have heard of coconut oil and may know about it for cooking (if you don't, it is so good for you)! When I placed my first order from Tropical Traditions they sent me a book that is full of testimonies about the health benefits of coconut oil. It is amazing!

Now I have my own testimony to share with you. For a long time I had something on my leg- either a skin tag or a wart, I don't know. But every time I would shave I would nick it & it would get bigger. Eventually it was nearly the size of a small pencil eraser & dark in color. Sometime last year I started using coconut oil exclusively as my lotion for my skin. Time went by and then one day I realized something- my bump on my leg was getting smaller! It continued to get smaller and now I can tell you that bump on my leg is completely gone without a trace & I am sure it was the coconut oil. If it was a wart maybe it was the antiviral properties of the coconut oil, I really don't know, but I wanted to share this testimony with you.

Now I just realized I have two skin tags on my neck (which I hate) so I am going to start applying coconut oil to them & see if they don't pack their bags & git! I'll let you know!

Here are a couple of other websites that I recently saw talking about using coconut oil:
Cooking Traditional Foods
160 uses for coconut oil (found this post in the comments of the previous post)

Enjoy!
Lisa

The Granola Bar That Will Have You Leave Candy Crying at the Altar...

2011-11-06T21:02:00.000-08:00

Am I exaggerating? Ok, maybe just a little bit, but these granola bars were fantastic! They have chocolate, sweetness, and none of the blood sugar crash you would get from candy. And did I mention they have protein and you don't have to bake them? Oh yeah!

I started with this recipe from Naturally Knocked Up, but I adjusted it. I decided I wanted some oats in my bars (instead of them being grain free), and I did not have enough nuts anyways. I also did not have cranberries, so I subbed in dates (which I think were part of the key of how good these were).

Chocolate Granola Bars
4 Tablespoons butter
1 Tablespoon coconut oil
3/4 cup honey
1 cup sucanat (unrefined sugar)
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 cups roughly chopped nuts (I used a mixture of almonds & walnuts)
2 cups uncooked oats (not steel cut)
3 Tablespoons cocoa powder

1 cup chopped dates or other dried fruit

In a medium saucepan combine: butter, coconut oil, honey, sucanat, vanilla, and salt. Place on the stove over low heat until mixture begins to simmer. Simmer longer for harder bars, less time for "chewy" bars (I think I let it simmer just a few minutes for my soft bars). In a large bowl stir to combine nuts, oats, cocoa powder, and dried fruit. Pour the sugar mixture over the top & stir thoroughly. Pour the mixture into a 9x13 pan and spread evenly (use oiled fingers to press it down into the pan). Allow to cool completely & then cut. I kept my bars stored in the refrigerator.

Next time I might try peanut butter in place of the butter...

Enjoy!
Lisa

"Faux" Apple Pie (uses zucchini!) and Sourdough Pie Crust

2011-10-07T07:21:00.000-07:00

Did you know that apples are the #1 pesticide containing produce? For those times when you're craving apple pie but can't afford to buy organic apples, it may sound crazy, but zucchini makes a great substitute!

One year I was looking for recipes to use up all my garden zucchini & I found this recipe for "faux" apple pie that uses zucchini instead of apples. My husband loves apple pie & couldn't believe it (after he tried it) when I told him I made it using zucchini. The key is to use lots of spices & the zucchini pick up the flavor of the spices. My 13 year old loves to take this to school in her lunch, offer samples to her friends, and THEN tell them they just ate zucchini! I also want to share with you a recipe for sourdough pie crust (since I'm trying to use sourdough in most of my baking now for health reasons).

Sourdough Pie Crust
1/2 cup wheat flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 cup butter or coconut oil (I used coconut oil)
1/2 cup sourdough starter

With a fork, mix together: flour, salt, baking soda. Cut in the butter or coconut oil. Add the sourdough starter & mix thoroughly. Cover & allow to rest on the counter for 6 hours.

Faux Apple (Zucchini) Pie
2 (9 inch) pie crusts
4 cups zucchini: peeled, cored/seeded, & thinly sliced*
3/4 cup unrefined sugar**
2 tablespoons tapioca
1/4 cup lemon juice
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
2 teaspoons cornstarch
2 tablespoons butter
1 tablespoon milk

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Roll out your pie crusts (if you haven't already) to 9 inch circles. Place the bottom crust inside your pie pan. Combine the sugar, tapioca, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, and cornstarch together in a large bowl. Add the zucchini and lemon juice and mix well. Pour mixture into the pie crust. Dot with butter. Place second crust over the top and pinch the edges together to seal. Cut 4 vents in the top of the crust. If desired, brush with milk and sprinkle with additional sugar.

Bake at 400 for 15 minutes. Reduce oven temperature to 350 and bake for an additional 50 minutes, or until top crust is lightly browned.

*This is very important: make sure you peel & remove the core of your zucchini. You do not want zucchini seeds in your pie! Plus, once you've peeled & cored it, then cut each slice in half, you get a nice "C" shape which more resembles cut apples.

**If you want to play with this recipe a little bit, and pump up the apple flavor, you can reduce the sugar & replace the 1/4 cup lemon juice with 1/4 cup apple juice. Combine apple juice, zucchini, tapioca, & spices & let sit for 15 minutes so the zucchini can "soak up" the flavors. By the way, I didn't have any lemon juice, or tapioca, when I made the last pie, so I just left both of them out & it was still fine!

Enjoy!
Lisa

This post is a part of:
Pennywise Platter Thursday
Fightback Friday
Monday Mania
Slightly Indulgent Tuesday
Traditional Tuesdays

Baked Oatmeal, Sourdough & non-Sourdough versions

2011-09-09T11:30:00.000-07:00

Baked Oatmeal is a great meal to add to your breakfast line up. It's almost like cake for breakfast! In fact, the other day my 12 year old came home from school, saw a bit of leftover baked oatmeal and sliced herself a piece for a snack. She commented to me, "Mom this is really good!" To which I replied, "Yea, it's baked oatmeal." This froze her in her steps, because she refuses to eat oatmeal in any form, so the joke was on her! (And, no she still refuses to eat baked oatmeal even though she knows now that she likes it- kids!)

Baked Oatmeal can be enjoyed as is, or covered with milk or yogurt. I actually like it better once it's been refrigerated. Lately I've modified my recipe to add sourdough starter to the soaking stage of the oatmeal. It doesn't make it sour at all, and although I'm not sure how much the sourdough starter benefits us by being in the oats- I'm sure it doesn't hurt & probably helps to make it more digestible. Try some baked oatmeal- besides it's great taste, the spices in here will make your kitchen smell wonderful! Perfect for fall mornings...

Baked Oatmeal
2 cups oats (for non-sourdough version use 2 1/2 cups oats)
1/2 cup sourdough starter
1 1/4 cup buttermilk (for non-sourdough version use 1 3/4 cup buttermilk)

The night before: combine oats, sourdough starter (if using), and buttermilk in a stainless steel or glass mixing bowl (or do what I do- save dishes by mixing it in a glass 9x13 dish & covering with plastic wrap til morning). Allow to soak on the counter (not in the refrigerator) overnight.

1/2 cup coconut oil or butter (softened)
4 eggs
1/2 cup sugar or maple syrup (I use 1/4 cup honey, 1/4 cup unrefined sugar)

In the morning: preheat oven to 350. Beat the oil or butter, eggs, and sweetener in a separate bowl until glossy (or if you're really lazy, like I am sometimes, just throw them on top of the soaked oats without beating first...). Then add:

1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon dried ginger
dash nutmeg
2 teaspoons vanilla
optional add ins: 2 cups raisins, 2 cups chopped apples or bananas, 2 cups chopped nuts (I like nuts for the extra protein & crunchy texture, but my son doesn't like it that way.)

Combine with oats (if you haven't already just thrown it all together) and pour into a 9x13 baking dish (if it's not already in one). Bake for 30 minutes.

Enjoy!
Lisa

This recipe is linked to Monday Mania,
Traditional Tuesdays
Real Food Wednesdays
Simple Thursdays

French Toast with Chocolate Whipped Cream and Raspberry Sauce

2011-08-12T23:12:00.000-07:00

Sometimes it's fun to make a special breakfast. Whether it's "just because" or for a birthday or to celebrate an accomplishment, here is a recipe for an extra-special breakfast. This would be great for Valentine's Day too!

Note: make the whipped cream & raspberry sauce before you make the french toast.

Do I need to give you a recipe for french toast? The technique we have in our house I learned from my husband: use one more egg than you have people to feed (this works for up to about 6 people, after that you may want to add a few more). Whip the eggs thoroughly in a dish or pan that is wider than your bread slices (day old or not too soft bread works best). Add milk- a little less than the amount of eggs you see. Add a dash of cinnamon and a dash of vanilla. Whip it all up. Pre-heat your pan over medium heat with a tablespoon of butter or coconut oil in it. Quickly dunk a slice of bread in the egg mixture, flip it if neccessary, then place it on the hot pan (my husband uses a fork for dunking the bread, I prefer to use my fingers so the bread doesn't rip as easily). After a couple of minutes check the bread to see if the bottom side is browned. Flip to cook the other side. Repeat. You can place the french toast on a try in the oven with the light on to keep them warm while you finish cooking the rest of the slices.

Now for the fun part. (Yes, it melts quickly!)

Chocolate Whipped Cream
3 cups heavy cream
1/4 cup sucanat or other raw sugar (this makes a "dark" chocolate, if your family needs more sweetness, add to taste)
1/4 cup cocoa powder
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

With your mixer, beat the cream until it starts to get thicker (but not stiff yet). Add the sucanat, cocoa powder, and vanilla. Taste & add more sucanat if needed. Beat until stiff peaks form. Will keep for a few days in the refrigerator.

Raspberry Sauce
3 cups frozen unsweetened raspberries
1/2 cup real maple syrup
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

Place all the ingredients in a pan over medium heat. Cook until berries are juicy & sauce is steaming hot. Allow to cool slightly.

These recipes are enough for about 4 or 5 people. You will have leftover whipped cream (unless your crew really likes whipped cream)! Oh, but there are so many good things to do with leftover chocolate whipped cream... add it to your coffee, mmm, use it for a fresh fruit dip, or let it freeze for some "faux" ice cream! (Stir every 30 minutes to break up the ice crystals.) I also had about a 1/2 cup of leftover raspberry sauce. I would suggest that after an hour of freezing, when you are stirring up those ice crystals, add in the raspberry sauce so you will have some awesome chocolate raspberry ice cream!

Enjoy!
Lisa

Sourdough Oatmeal Cookies or Scones

2011-06-21T19:46:00.000-07:00

I found some information about the benefits of sourdough at this post on the Simple Bites blog and you may want to check that out if you're interested in sourdough. In previous posts I have talked about why I am using more sourdough in my baking. I have also been exploring a lot of sourdough recipes, including the somewhat unexpected "dessert" category.

these cookies were a batch I made without raisins, but I like them much better with raisins

Sometimes I find recipes that include sourdough starter, but do not include a "souring" or "soaking" stage- which means the sourdough is only there for flavoring? I have been adjusting some of these recipes to include a souring stage, thus getting the most health benefits out of using sourdough. This recipe was one of those & I was pleased with how nicely it turned out (I also reduced the amount of sugar & substituted honey for half of the sugar). The texture is very similar to a scone, but you can also enjoy it as a dense cookie, or even a snack cake (the first time I made it I was too lazy to do anything other than pour it into a pan & it turned out great, just extend your cooking time).

my scone version

Sourdough Oatmeal Cookies or Scones

2 cups sourdough starter

1/2 cup honey

1/2 cup butter

1/2 cup coconut oil

3 cups rolled oats

2 cups flour
1/2 cup unrefined sugar

Thoroughly combine above ingredients & allow to rest (covered) for 6 hours.

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon ground cloves*

1/2 teaspoon allspice*

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/4-1/2 cup raisins (optional)

Pre-heat the oven to 375. Mix the spices and baking soda in a separate bowl. Add to oats mixture along with raisins (you may have to "knead" the dough to get everything well combined). *I did not have cloves or allspice, you could also try ginger and a dash of nutmeg.

Roll into small or large balls, depending on if you want cookies or scones (for scones I made them the size of biscuits). Bake on greased cookie sheet for about 12 minutes (longer for scones). Makes 12 scones or 36 small cookies.

Enjoy!

Lisa

P.S. for those of you who follow this blog, despite my long silence, I am still here! The last month and a half (and more) have been spent working on finalizing our oldest daughter's adoption, as well as getting ready to come back to the states for summer vacation. Busy!

This post is a part of Real Food Wednesday
Pennywise Platter Thursday
Fight Back Fridays

Buttermilk Syrup

2011-04-19T08:02:00.000-07:00

This recipe originally came to me from Millie over at Real Food for Less Money blog but I have changed a few things about it (less sweetener, less butter) for our tastes. This syrup is a nice change of pace from the traditional maple. I've also made it with honey instead of sugar, but the honey in Rwanda has a very strong flavor that I am not a fan of, so I use a mix of honey & sugar.

The other day I made this buttermilk syrup & I think it's rich flavor is almost carmel- like. Try this on other foods besides pancakes & waffles. We give two thumbs up to pouring it over oatmeal! Millie suggests it on ice cream & I think that idea sounds great. For ease, store any leftovers in a glass container. The butter will seperate & solidify in the fridge. When you want to use the syrup you'll just want to place the glass container in a pot of very hot water to make it liquid again.

Buttermilk Syrup
1/4 cup unrefined sugar
1/8 cup honey (if you have a mild honey you can try this with 1/4 c. honey & no sugar)
3/4 cup buttermilk
1/4 cup butter
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 teaspoons vanilla

Combine all ingredients except vanilla in a medium pot (this mixture will get foamy & expand from the baking soda, so don't use a small pot). Bring to a boil over medium high heat and boil for 8 to 9 minutes or until thickened.

Remove from heat and add vanilla. Pour into serving container & serve.

Enjoy!
Lisa

This recipe is a part of Real Food Wednesdays

Transitional Sourdough Pancakes

2011-03-26T06:23:00.000-07:00

I would like to share this recipe that I came up with as a compromise for my family, because I am sure there are other families out there who, like mine, are not complete fans of sourdough. I have shared with you why I use sourdough for most of my baking now, and although some families may like sourdough pancakes, mine were not totally sold on it. So I came up with this compromise that is satisfactory for all of us. I call them “Transitional Pancakes” because they are for families who are transitioning to healthier choices.

If you have pancakes leftover simply freeze them (either in a plastic ziploc bag, or in a plastic container, separated by parchment paper. When you need a quick breakfast or snack, you can heat them quickly in the toaster, or for a minute or less on each side in a hot pan (works better with thinner pancakes, obviously, because they will reheat quicker).

Transitional Sourdough Pancakes
(serves 6 to 8)
6 Tablespoons butter or coconut oil
2 teaspoons baking soda
¾ cup water
1 ½ cups white flour
1 teaspoon salt
2 cups (whole wheat) sourdough starter, fed the night before & stirred down
1 cup milk (or water- use less if you like a thick pancake)
2 Tablespoons honey
2 eggs

Place your pan on the stove over low heat and put the butter or coconut oil in the pan to melt. Get ¾ cup water (I use a one cup measure with a ¾ cup line) and mix in the baking soda. Set aside. In a large bowl use a fork to stir together the flour and the salt. Make an indentation in the flour mixture and add the sourdough starter, up to 1 cup milk, honey, and eggs. Using the fork still, mix completely, but do not overmix. While stirring, pour in the melted butter/oil from the warm pan. Increase stove temperature to medium.

Right before cooking the pancakes, add the water/baking soda mixture and stir in. (The batter will expand slightly as the baking soda and sourdough react.) Use your cup measure to pour out the desired size pancakes on the warm pan. When bubbles on the surface are just beginning to pop, they’re ready to flip.

You can keep finished pancakes warm until you’re ready to serve by placing them on a metal tray in the oven on the lowest setting (or just with the light on if your oven doesn’t go below 200).

My favorite way to enjoy these pancakes is with peanut butter, sliced bananas, and either real maple syrup, or homemade syrup. The syrup pictured above is homemade buttermilk syrup (recipe to follow soon).

Enjoy!
Lisa

This post is a part of Monday Mania

Real Food Wednesday

Fight Back Friday

Sourdough Peanut Butter Chocolate Cookies

2011-02-26T03:04:00.000-08:00

Here is a recipe that originally called for no "soaking" or "souring" stage for the dough, but I have modified the recipe to include that stage so we get the most sourdough benefit (if the starter doesn't have time to work on the flour it seems pretty pointless to me to use sourdough starter at all- but you'll find those recipes out there). I also modified the amount of sugar by replacing more than half with honey. This is a lightly sweet cookie that my family gobbles up, but if you want it sweeter you may add a sprinkle of sugar to the finished cookies before baking them. The cocoa is also optional (you can just make them peanut butter cookies) but we like it with the cocoa!

Sourdough Peanut Butter (Chocolate) Cookies
1 cup sourdough starter
1 cup peanut butter (or other nut butter)
1/2 cup honey
1/4 cup sugar
2 eggs
2 cups flour (whole wheat or otherwise)

In a medium bowl mix the above ingredients well, cover, & allow to rest for 6 hours. When you are ready to bake, preheat your oven to 350 and add the remaining ingredients to the sourdough mixture:

1 teaspoon vanilla
1 teaspoon baking soda
3 to 4 Tablespoons cocoa powder (optional)

Mix well. The dough may be very sticky at this point (if it's too sticky you can refrigerate the dough for 30 minutes to make it easier to handle, but I don't...) Drop by spoonfulls onto a parchment paper lined cookie sheet (space at least 1" apart). Bake for 12 to 15 minutes.

Enjoy!
Lisa

This post is a part of Kitchen Stewardship's Soaking Grains Gallery, Fight Back Friday at Food Renegade, and Pennywise Platter Thursday at Nourishing Gourmet.

"Soaked" Snickerdoodle Cake

2011-02-26T02:04:00.000-08:00

The other day I was having a serious craving for snickerdoodle cookies. Some of you may not know about these sugar cookies with a cinnamon crust on the outside, but if you like cinnamon then "snickerdoodles" should be on your radar! I searched & searched the web for a recipe that involved soaking the flour (see the tab above for "why soak"). What I did finally find was a recipe for a snickerdoodle cupcake that included buttermilk in the ingredients (perfect medium for soaking flour). I modified the recipe to soak the flour and reduced the sugar as well. This produces a tender cake that will hopfully hit that "snickerdoodle craving" when you may have it!

"Soaked" Snickerdoodle Cake
1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
1/2 cup butter or coconut oil, softened
1/2 cup buttermilk (or milk + 1 1/2 tsp. apple cider vinegar, could also substitute yogurt or other soaking medium)

In a small bowl combine these ingredients thoroughly, cover, and allow to rest at room temperature for 12 to 24 hours. When ready to bake, preheat your oven to 350, and add to the flour mixture:

2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Mix well, then add in the remaining ingredients:

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 cup unrefined sugar

When well combined, pour into a greased pan (I used a 10x10, you could use 9x9 for a thicker cake, or 9x13 for a thinner cake).

For the topping, stir together in a seperate bowl:
1 tablespoon sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon

Sprinkle on top of cake. Bake in oven for about 25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean. Allow to cool.

Enjoy!
Lisa

This recipe is linked up to Kitchen Stewardship's Soaking Grains Gallery and Monday Mania at the Healthy Home Economist.

Cultural Experiences

2011-02-05T11:50:00.000-08:00

I thought this post title was a cute play on words, considering we are living in Rwanda and having so many different cultural experiences, but what I am talking about is yogurt cultures. I would subtitle this post: "The easiest way ever to make yogurt. Why make it complicated when you don't have to?" And when I say easiest, I mean EASIEST.

I have made yogurt in the past, tried to warm the milk to the right temperature, add the right amount of culture, keep it at the right temperature for the right amount of time, and so on. My results? Epic failures! My last batch of yogurt (I used raw milk & tried to keep it "raw") was so bad that my daughter made me promise to never make yogurt again. Honestly, it tasted horrible, like mold.

I had heard about the two kinds of yogurt: thermophilic (making yogurt by cooking) and mesophilic (made at room temperature). I had heard that Cultures for Health has a mesophilic yogurt culture called Viili that is mild & had a nice texture. But I hadn't been ready to try it until we were preparing to leave the US for Rwanda. I've lived here before & I know I don't like the yogurt they make here. I ordered some Viili and put the little packet of dried yogurt starter in my suitcase.

There is no complicated formula for making Viili, I said it was the EASIEST, remember? You mix it with one cup milk, let it sit for 24 hours, voila, yogurt! Want more? Just mix one tablespoon from your batch for every one cup of milk & you can make as much as you want. You just keep using some of the last batch to make the next batch & that's it. Subsequent batches don't take 24 hours, usually half that.

This is one of my batches of Viili yogurt. Why would anyone want to make yogurt any other way? I don't know, I love it! And just like everything else that I make homemade, I love knowing exactly what is in it.

If you want to try some of this yourself, you can click on the Cultures for Health banner on the right side of my blog. I would recommend their products to you no matter what, but if you click through my blog then I get credit for referring you. Cultures for Health is also where I got my Kefir grains from (I dehydrated those grains & brought them to Rwanda too, but their demise is a sad story. The house helper saw the little paper packet & thought it was trash. Out it went... sigh!) If you've been intrigued by all my talk about sourdough but haven't made your own starter, you can find sourdough starter there as well.

I am not trying to sell you anything, but I love to share with others when I find something great, and making yogurt this easy had to be shared.

Enjoy!
Lisa

This post is a part of Monday Mania and Fight Back Fridays

Sourdough Bagels

2011-01-31T01:19:00.000-08:00

If you've been following this blog you know I am baking a lot with sourdough now, as I talked about it in this post and why. I am actually keeping two sourdough starters right now: both a whole wheat and a white flour one. The white flour one I made to give to someone who works for us and was asking me how to make this "bread without yeast" that I make all the time. She never took her starter home, but I have maintained it & use it for two reasons.

One: my kids, especially the Rwandan ones, are not huge fans of whole wheat (ok, the Rwandan kids don't like it at all- it's not used here). So, I usually go half & half with whole wheat and white flour in my baking, just to compromise. I need the white flour starter to do this when I make sourdough pancakes & also because of reason number Two: whole wheat flour is not sold in stores here. I get mine (lucky for me) from a friend who gets it directly from the flour mill in bulk. But sometimes I run out before I can get more from her.

You will notice in the picture that these bagels are all white flour- this is one of those weeks when I was completely out of whole wheat flour for several days. Oh, how my kids loved having all white bread, but that's over now, I've got my whole wheat flour again- ha!

Back to the bagels- bagels really are easy to make- just as easy as bread, with only one extra step and that is to boil them before you bake them. Simple & yummy! The depth of "sourness" in these will depend on how long you let the dough rest. The minimum of 6 hours will not be near as sour as say the 10 or so hours mine had. Mine had a defnite "San Francisco sourdough" twang to them. We had ours with fried eggs for breakfast, sandwich style. Yum!

I cruised the internet quite a bit looking for a bagel recipe which did not require me to measure flour in grams & such, and finally found this recipe archived at a cute blog called WillowTreeCreek Farm which now has moved to http://www.eggsandherbs.com/.

Sourdough Bagels

1 cup sourdough starter
1/4 cup oil (I used olive)
1/4 cup warm water
2 teaspoons salt
2 to 2 1/2 cups flour
1 egg
optional: spices or seeds for topping
1/8 cup salt for boiling water

In a medium mixing bowl stir together the starter, oil, water, 2 teaspoons of salt, and 2 cups of flour. Add more flour if needed to make a smooth, not sticky, dough. Knead dough for a few minutes. Place dough back in bowl & cover well. Allow dough to rest for 6 or more hours (note: my dough did not rise very much, so yours may not either).

Prepare your work area: either dust your counter with flour or lay out a piece of parchment paper. Divide your dough in half, each half in half again, and each of those in half again. Now you have 8 equal pieces of dough to shape into bagels. If you prefer bigger bagels you may want to only make 6. Roll each piece of dough into a ball. Poke your finger into the middle & work it around to make the size of hole you want. Set on the flour dusted counter top or parchment paper. Once all bagels are formed, cover with an oiled piece of plastic wrap (or damp towel?) and allow to rest for 30 minutes.

Meanwhile, preheat your oven to 425 and put water into a large pot to boil. You may also get out toppings if you're using any. Once water has come to a rapid boil, add 1/8 cup salt & stir to combine. Gently drop the bagels into the bowling water, up to 4 at a time if your pot is big enough. Boil for about 2 minutes and remove to a rack using a slotted spatula (I don't have a rack, so I just placed them on the clean counter). Repeat with remaining bagels.

In a small bowl whisk an egg. You can either brush the egg on top of the bagels, or do what I did: pick up the bagel & dip the top half into the egg. If using toppings, dip your bagels into those. Place on a baking sheet lined with cornmeal or parchment paper (or a Silpat in my case). Bake for 12 to 15 minutes or until golden in color.

Enjoy!
Lisa

This recipe is a part of Monday Mania at the Healthy Home Economist
GNOWFGLIN's Tuesday Twister.
Real Food Wednesday at Kelly the Kitchen Kop
Fight Back Friday at Food Renegade

Grain-Free Nutbutter Brownies with a Cheesecake Swirl

2011-01-27T10:50:00.000-08:00

Recently Food Renegade posted this recipe, via Megan Keatley of the blog Health-Bent (her blog subtitle: "Paleo friendly recipes that don't look or taste like dog food"- love it!) I tried out the recipe and I just have to share it with you, in case you missed it, because it is really sooo good! She recommends using a 9x9 pan, but all I have is a 10x10 pan so mine are thin, but still delicious! Next time I may try them in a muffin tin - if you have a mini muffin tin you could make brownie bites. Just make sure to watch them carefully in the oven because you'll have to reduce the cooking time.

You can try any nut butter you prefer: here in Rwanda we have something similar to peanuts (just called "ground nuts") that they make a nut butter from. For the "cream cheese" I used yogurt cheese made from plain yogurt drained through a coffee filter inside a strainer (left in a bowl in the refrigerator- save the whey for "soaking"). And we don't have chocolate chips so I didn't add any of those in, but these're great already without them!

Nutbutter Brownies with a Cheesecake Swirl
Brownie layer:
1 cup nut butter (almond butter, peanut butter, etc.)
2 eggs
1/3 cup cocoa powder
1/2 cup unrefined sugar (i.e. raw sugar, turbinado, sucanat)
1/3 cup chocolate chips or chopped chocolate (optional)

Cheesecake layer:
8 oz. (1 cup) cream cheese or yogurt cheese
1 egg
1/3 cup unrefined sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract (optional: substitute with mint, almond, orange, etc.*)

Preheat your oven to 350. Oil or butter a 9x9 pan (or whatever you are using).

Mix together all the brownie ingredients in a medium bowl. Stir or whisk until smooth. Pour into prepared pan. (then lick the bowl clean... oh wait, did I say that?)

Stir or beat cream cheese until smooth, then add the rest of the ingredients and mix well. Drop by spoonfuls all over the top of the brownie batter. Use a toothpick or knife to lightly draw through the cream cheese mixture, swirling & circling as desired (don't overdo it or instead of nice designs you'll just have it all mixed together).

Bake for about 35 minutes (less if using a different size pan). The top will be cracked and the cheesecake mixture just starting to brown. Cool completely & then refrigerate. Serve cold (like cheesecake).

Enjoy!
Lisa

*another option to try with this recipe would be to add shredded coconut & coconut extract to the cream cheese layer. I think that would taste great as well!

Chocolate Roasted Almonds

2010-12-21T03:28:00.000-08:00

I love this recipe for several reasons. The almonds are soaked & then roasted or dehydrated, which reduces the phytic acid (see my tab "why soak"). There is no refined sugar in it, only maple syrup or honey. And the best reason to like it is that I can reach for them when I'm having a chocolate craving, but it gives me protein also. These would also be a unique & yummy "no clutter" gift to give to someone.

Chocolate Roasted (or Dehydrated) Almonds
2 cups almonds
1 1/2 tsp. salt

Place almonds in a bowl or container and cover with water. Add salt & swirl around to mix. Cover and allow to soak for at least 8 hours or overnight. After soaking, drain and allow to air dry for 2 hours.

1 Tbsp. oil (olive or coconut oil)
2 Tbsp. maple syrup or honey (I used honey)
1 Tbsp. cocoa powder

Combine the rest of the ingredients in a medium bowl and add almonds. Stir to coat completely. Place on a parchment paper lined cookie sheet. To roast, bake at 250 for one hour or until nuts are crunchy, not soft. Or alternately, you can dehydrate these at lower temperatures for longer periods of time. Allow to cool completely before storing in an airtight container.

I dehydrated these using the lowest temperature setting on my oven for several hours during the day, then I turned off the oven and allowed the nuts to stay in the warm oven for several more hours.

Enjoy!
Lisa

this post is a part of Tuesday Twister

Sourdough Pumpkin Cinnamon Roll Bread

2010-12-05T12:19:00.000-08:00

A few weeks ago I decided I should start baking some pumpkin recipes to try to get myself into the "season" more. You see although I come from Washington state, where winter has been in full swing, in Rwanda everyday is pretty much the same weather: 70 to 80 degrees and sunny except when the rainstorms come in. It's been hard for me to convince myself that the holiday season is fully here, because my surroundings keep telling me it's summer!

I found out they do grow pumpkin here, so I decided to make my own puree to bake with. Of course nothing is exactly the same as what we're used to: the pumpkins are green (other things that are green even when ripe here: mandarins, lemons, apples, and starchy bananas called matoke). The flesh of the pumpkin was very pale & did not have as strong of a flavor as what we get from our pumpkins in the US, but it still worked. One of the recipes I tried with my puree was this Sourdough Pumpkin Cinnamon Rolls recipe from the Coconut Mama blog.

Instead of the cinnamon & pumpkin pie spices recommended in the recipe I used something that's sold in every store here: it's called tea masala. It's a spice blend they use to make African tea (a spiced milk tea that we would call Chai). The tea masala ingredients are: ginger, cinnamon, cloves, cardamoms, black pepper, and nutmeg. I love it & it worked great in this recipe!

Sourdough Pumpkin Cinnamon Roll Bread
3/4 cup sourdough starter
1/2 cup pumpkin puree
3 3/4 - 4 cup flour
5 Tablespoons coconut oil or butter, softened
3 Tablespoons honey
1 teaspoon sea salt
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
filling:
2 Tablespoons coconut oil or butter, softened
2 Tablespoons raw sugar
2 teaspoons cinnamon or pumpkin pie spice or chai spices* or a combination!

Combine flour, salt, and spices in a large bowl. Add 5 Tablespoons coconut oil or butter, honey, pumpkin and sourdough starter and mix well. Knead dough for 10 minutes (add more flour as needed to make a smooth dough). Cover bowl and let dough rest for 6 to 8 hours.

Knead dough for 5 minutes then roll out into a rectangle shape of about 1/2" thickness (thinner for more rolls, thicker for less). Spread with 2 Tablespoons coconut oil or butter. Mix together sugar & spices and sprinkle on top.

Starting at one of the short ends of the rectangle, roll the dough up with the spices inside. Using a sharp knife or plain dental floss*, cut through the dough about every 1 to 2 ". Place in an oiled or buttered pan (I used two bread pans to make cinnamon roll pull-apart bread). Rolls should be just gently touching each other. Cover and allow to rise for another 2 or 3 hours.

After the dough is done rising preheat the oven to 375. Bake for about 20 minutes.

My family enjoyed just pulling off a roll when we wanted a snack. Because it was a snack food & not a sweet dessert I didn't feel the need to add any frosting. If you want frosting, The Coconut Mama recommends 8 ounces of soft cream cheese mixed with 4 Tablespoons of honey.

*Did you know dental floss works great for cutting rolls? Just take a piece about 8 inches long, slide it under the log of dough, pull the ends across to the opposite side like you're going to tie it, and pull until the floss cuts all the way through. I always make sure I use unflavored floss though!

*To make your own Chai (tea masala) spice mix, combine:
1/2 teaspoon cardamom (ground)
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon (ground)
1/2 teaspoon ginger (ground)
1/4 teaspoon allspice (ground) and/or nutmeg
1/8 teaspoon cloves (ground)
pinch black pepper (ground)

Mix well & store in an airtight container. Besides adding to your tea or coffee, try using it in baking wherever you would use cinnamon, and even in your oatmeal!
Enjoy--
Lisa

This post is a part of Monday Mania.

Chocolate Coconut Sourdough Cake

2010-11-13T10:42:00.000-08:00

I almost called this Chocolate Coconut Sourdough Snack Cake, because it is a cake which doesn't require frosting (although you are certainly welcome to add it), and if it doesn't have frosting you can snack on it anytime of day, right? Well, maybe! I shared with you in my last post how I have been using sourdough as my primary source for bread, pancakes, and other things, and briefly why. You may not think that sourdough & a sweet dessert cake are possible to have together, but you must try this! It is moist, tender, and really does not have that much sugar for a dessert.

You will notice the directions indicate you can use between 1 and 1 1/2 cups of sugar. The amount you use is going to depend on how long you let your batter "sour" and your personal preference. I accidentally forgot about my batter and let it sit for too long. I first added 1 cup of sugar, but when I sampled the batter I knew it needed the additional 1/2 cup. I also wanted to help it out more by adding in 1/2 cup of shredded coconut.

This is only a slightly modified version of the Chocolate Sourdough Cake from The Nourishing Gourmet. If you would like to add frosting to your cake, you can check out GNOWFGLINS where she shares her version of the recipe (with spelt flour) and a coconut cream frosting - - which would be divine on this cake!

Chocolate Coconut Sourdough Cake
1 cup recently fed sourdough starter
1 cup of raw milk, diluted coconut milk, or water
2 cups of whole wheat pastry flour (mine was regular whole wheat flour)
1 to 1 1/2 cups of sugar (raw sugar, maple sugar, or palm sugar)
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 cup melted coconut oil*
1 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
3/.4 cup cocoa powder**
1 teaspoon instant espresso powder (optional- I used Pero, Teeccino also works)
2 large eggs
1/2 cup shredded coconut

1. 6 to 18 hours ahead of time you will make the sourdough mixture. Combine the starter, milk, and flour in a large bowl. Allow to rest at room temperature.

2. Preheat oven to 350 and rub a 9x13 pan with oil.

3. In a medium bowl cream together the sugar, oil, vanilla, salt, baking soda, cocoa powder, and optional espresso powder (mixture will be grainy). Then beat in one egg at a time. Add all of this to the sourdough mixture, as well as shredded coconut. Gently stir until well combined.

4. Pour into prepared pan and bake for 30-40 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean. Allow to cool completely.

I let my cake cook a little too long and the top seemed burnt, but when I went to cut the burnt part off I tried it & it actually still tasted good- bonus points for that! *This cake would be best with coconut oil (unrefined for the coconut flavor) but if you don't have any, like me, then you can use olive oil or melted butter. **The original directions say to not use Dutch processed cocoa, because it is not acidic enough to react with the baking soda. In other words, using Dutch cocoa could cause the cake not to rise as much.

Enjoy!
Lisa

This post is a part of Slightly Indulgent Tuesdays and Real Food Wednesday.

Sweet on Sourdough

2010-10-26T12:58:00.000-07:00

I've been working a lot with sourdough since we arrived in Rwanda. I prefer to use sourdough in my bread and baked goods because it breaks down some of the gluten in the flour, making it easier to digest, as well as reducing the phytic acid so minerals are more easily absorbed.

Before we left for Rwanda I decided to dehydrate the starter I had been keeping on in my kitchen. Since I don't have a dehydrator I came up with a different solution that worked for me. I poured out a thin layer of starter on a piece of parchment paper. It was August and we were having 100+ degree days, so I put the parchment paper inside our barbecue (with it turned off) in the morning. The closed lid kept the bugs off, while being inside the metal of the barbecue magnified the heat and dehydrated my starter for me.

I also brought along a small amount of Oregon Trail Sourdough starter I got from "Carl's Friends". Once we got here I mixed the two and rehydrated by mixing with a little bit of water, and then adding small amounts of flour and water each day. I started out with a white flour starter (that's all you can find in the stores here) and then ended up switching it over to spelt flour (after some friends brought me a supply of spelt flour). I've been trying all kinds of recipes made with sourdough starter: pancakes, crackers, cinnamon rolls, rolls, pizza crust and even chocolate cake! Here in the next few weeks I hope to share several of these recipes with you.

You can help to keep your starter happy by using it a lot and feeding frequently. I feed mine a minimum of 1/4 cup of both flour and warm water twice a day when I'm using it, and it works even better if the last feeding I give it (several hours before I use it) is 1/2 cup each (this would be different if you're keeping larger amounts of sourdough than I am- I only have a jar about the size of a mayonaisse jar). When not using it for a few days I may feed it & put it in the fridge. When I'm ready to use it again I pull it out at least 8 hours ahead of time & feed it.

Here is my "go to" bread recipe. It worked well for me both back in the US as well as here. We are at a high elevation in Rwanda (around 5 or 6 thousand feet) which I've learned causes baked goods to rise more (not as much air pressure pushing down on them). I'm able to do a shorter rise time (6 hours first rise, 2 hours second rise) which also keeps my bread from getting too sour. You can experiment to find out what works best for you. Make sure you use enough flour to make a nice firm dough, because it will get very soft and sticky after souring. Slash the tops of the loaves before baking to keep them from exploding out the sides!

Sourdough Bread

1 cup flour (plus additional)
1 cup sourdough starter
1 cup warm (not hot) water
2 teaspoons salt
1/4 cup oil (melted coconut oil, or olive oil)
2 Tablespoons honey

Mix all ingredients thoroughly. Add additional flour: 1/2 cup at a time, up to 3 or 4 cups. Let dough rest for 10 minutes before kneading, then knead for 5 to 10 minutes and place in a greased bowl.
Let rise until doubled: about 8 hours, then punch down and form into loaves (flatten and roll up burrito style). Let rise for an additional 2 to 4 hours. Heat oven to 350 and bake for 30 to 40 minutes. (If making rolls check after 20 minutes.)

Enjoy!
Lisa

P.S. If you don't already have a sourdough starter you can make one in just 7 days. I used the pineapple juice method when I made another one here. Give it a try! (Start with low rise items when your starter is young like pizza crust or crackers.)

Chocolate Banana Muffin Bites

2010-09-28T04:58:00.000-07:00

This was my second attempt at making a “flourless” dessert. The first banana bread was a big flop (or should I say glop?). I think the cocoa powder helps here. This originally was written as a cake recipe, but since I don’t have a round cake pan I tried it in a bread pan first. That turned out pretty good, but I knew that if I made them in a cupcake pan it would be easier to get it cooked all the way in the middle (and avoid gloppy-ness). These are yummy & even those who are not trying to go wheat, grain, or gluten free will enjoy them!

Chocolate Banana Muffin Bites

3 eggs

¼ teaspoon salt

½ cup honey

¼ cup oil

1 cup mashed (ripe) bananas

½ cup cocoa

Preheat oven to 350. Beat or whip the eggs for 2 minutes (I’m using my rotary mixer I brought to Rwanda with me- remember those?) Add the remaining ingredients and blend thoroughly. Grease or insert paper liners in your muffin tin (12 muffins). Evenly distribute the batter in the muffin cups (about 1 inch of batter in each one). Bake for about 20 minutes. Cool for 10 minutes & then remove.

Enjoy!
Lisa

This post is a part of Monday Mania, Slightly Indulgent Tuesdays and Real Food Wednesdays.

Healthy Peanut Butter Cups

2010-09-23T08:43:00.000-07:00

I'm really surprised I have not blogged about these awesome little treats before- these need to be in your recipe book right after the healthy mounds/almond joys. This recipe comes from the Oceans of Joy blog. I made them here last week (yes, I brought my [half full] gallon of coconut oil here to Rwanda- and now I am seeing the pitiful bottom of my tub... sigh...). After not having a good treat for a while I was so ready for these & loved having one each day- bliss!

I know these peanut butter cups look a little funky on top, that's because my chocolate mixture started to seize when I was ready to put the top layer on, so I had to just put little dollops of chocolate on each one- still tastes good though!

Healthy Peanut Butter Cups

chocolate layer:

1/4 cup coconut oil

1/2 cup cocoa powder
1/8 cup honey (more if you like your chocolate sweeter)
1 tsp. vanilla

Melt the coconut oil (in a skillet or a hot water bath). Add the rest of the ingredients and combine until smooth. I used a regular muffin pan (12) for making these, in the past I have used a mini muffin pan also. Line each muffin cup with a paper liner or oil thoroughly. Evenly distribute half of your chocolate mixture into the muffin cups (start with about one tablespoon in each one). Place in refrigerator or freezer to cool.

filling:
3/4 cup peanut butter
2 Tbsp. honey
1 tsp. vanilla
1/4 cup coconut oil
1/3 cup ground nuts (optional, I did not have them this time)

Melt the coconut oil again, add in honey, vanilla, and peanut butter. When thoroughly combined stir in the ground nuts. Evenly distribute the peanut butter filling into each muffin cup. Top with the remaining chocolate mixture (if you need to, gently reheat it, being careful not to let the chocolate seize). Refrigerate or freeze until firm. Store in refrigerator and enjoy this healthy treat!

In my last post I promised you a picture of my kitchen sink, so here it is:

Use your powers of perception carefully here- notice anything odd about it? Hmmmm. How about those interesting spickets for water that only pour into one side of the sink? Yeah, sometimes the way they do things here just makes you say... "Huh?" In order to fill the left sink for doing dishes, you have to use a cup to transfer water into that sink. But, if I haven't said so already, I am very thankful to have a kitchen with counters and cupboards, because the last time we were here our kitchen was just a room with a refrigerator and a table that doubled as a cupboard and work area.

I am also having awesome success here with my sourdough. I will post another time about how to dehyrdrate sourdough starter (I brought some of mine from home). I don't know if it's the elevation (5000 ft.), the air, climate, or the flour (there is no such thing as whole wheat flour in these stores, white only) but my starter actually smells like yeast and is making the most amazing bread! Very exciting for me when at home all I got was super-sour dense bread that no one else in the family would eat!

Hope all your kitchen adventures are successful this week.
Enjoy!
Lisa

Wheatless Sucess! Oat Flour Pasta

2010-09-08T06:34:00.000-07:00

If you read my last post you know we are trying to eliminate wheat from our diet right now (in addition to several other things). My first wheat-free baking attempt was not a success at all. It was a flourless banana zucchini bread that came out of the oven, like, well, mashed bananas, zucchini, and honey- pretty much like it went in. Not so great.

I found at the local market here we have some interesting flours: (red) millet flour, rice flour, cassava flour (like tapioca flour I think). The red millet flour is not original to Rwanda, but rather is for a porridge traditionally fed to children in the neighboring country of Uganda. I made the porridge first, in spite of it's laughable vague directions: "mix flour with some cold water to make a paste, add to boiling water and cook for a while". It was very bland, but after generous amounts of vanilla, honey, cinnamon and milk it was a nice sweet porridge. Millet is supposed to be healthier for you than wheat, and easier to digest. I wonder if maybe that's why only 2 hours after we ate breakfast we were hungry all over again?

The next thing I decided to try was a recipe I found for oat flour linguine noodles. We have oats & a blender so we were able to make our own oat flour. I didn't make quite enough so I added about a 1/4 cup of millet flour (which is why you will see it having the "whole wheat" appearance). I was actually surprised at how easy the dough was to handle & that it turned out fine. My kids can't wait for me to make it again!

Oat Flour Linguine Noodles

2 cups oat flour (or 1 3/4 cups plus 1/4 cup other flour)
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
2 eggs
2 Tablespoons oil
2-4 Tablespoons water

Combine the flour and salt in a mixing bowl. In the center make a well and put the eggs and oil in there. Slowly whisk these together until dough is crumbly. Add water 1 Tablespoon at a time, stirring after each one, until a nice dough forms. Knead dough for 5 minutes (I did this both in hand and on a floured counter). Cover & allow dough to rest.

If you have a pasta extruder - use it! I however, rolled my dough out onto the counter as thin as I could (which still was not as thin as it should have been- but this did make it easy to transfer to the pot). Cut into 1/4" strips.

Boil water in a large pot. Have a timer handy and set for 6 minutes. Once it's in full boil, transfer noodles to pot (I put mine on a plate & then carefully dropped them into the boiling water- but trying to get them in there as quickly as possible). Cook for 6 minutes, then drain immediately and serve.

I don't have a picture of the finished product because we were hungry - it was on the table & gone! I think one of the effects of going off of wheat is you no longer have that satiated feeling - we all feel hungry all the time it seems now! What do you think?

You see that oatmeal can in the top picture (the oats came from the UK to be sold here). Well, money is tight for us so I haven't bought mixing bowls, but that can worked as my mixing bowl. I tried to use it for my rolling pin also, but it was not strong enough, so I grabbed a large plastic bottle of my son's vitamins. That got the job done good enough!

Enjoy!
Lisa

This post is linked up to Wheatless Wednesday, Real Food Wednesday, and Monday Mania.

I Need Help Please!

2010-09-03T04:58:00.000-07:00

In my last post for Hearty Pasta Sauce, I forgot to include this picture of the finished sauce- whoops!

I included the container of honey in this picture because I love how the label says "from local forets" (instead of forests). And make sure you get a load of my little stove/oven... Isn't it cute-in-a-completely-inadequate-way? Yeah, I found a nice square pan that fits inside the oven (no 9x13 is going in there). I made meatloaf the other day in my muffin pan (that I brought from the states) and I had to remove the rack & actually slide my 12 cup muffin pan into the guides for the rack- but I got it in there & it worked! Now, you've seen my itty-bitty fridge & oven, I'll save for a post for another day the photo of my slightly-unique-and-kinda-odd sink...

I have been reading a book called Disconnected Kids because of some developmental issues my 6 (almost 7) year old son has been dealing with for some time now. I have decided we are going to give his program a try (and I've gotten the rest of the family on board). Besides very specific exercises, part of the program includes modifying what your child eats. You are supposed to go through an "elimination diet" for at least 4 weeks (quite possibly more), eliminating all foods which could be behavior triggers. Common triggers include: wheat, dairy, corn, tomatoes, apples, peanuts, yeast, sugar, food additives etc. (Eggs are supposed to be excluded also, but we've decided that we don't think our son has a problem with them & he needs the morning protein.)

This brings me to my call for "Help!" As you know, we are here in Rwanda, where you can probably guess that there are no health food stores & not a lot of options food wise period. At the store I have seen millet flour and rice flour (they use these for porridge). Grain wise they have rice, quinoa, oatmeal. I do not have any electronic kitchen devices (no food processor for making flours or nut butters, no electric mixer, the blender we do have just basically stirs, however we do have a crock pot I just bought from another missionary family).

Do you have any recipes that we could use for our family that are free from the triggers listed above? I know for breakfasts we can have oatmeal or baked oatmeal, eggs, rice porridge, and I might even try making pancakes using millet flour (although my attempt at making home made syrup using honey & maple flavoring was not so great today- their honey has a very strong flavor here). For dinners we can have things like meat, vegetables, rice, potatoes, soup- but I would like more options & recipes for me to plan what exactly we will be eating & to make sure everything has good flavor. I would also like ideas for lunches and snacks as well.

Can you help? Please post your recipes or links in the comments below- I am weary of spending hours scouring the internet for recipes that don't include any of the "offenders" or ingredients that are unavailable (like nuts, special flours, dried fruits, etc.)

I do have some spelt flour coming with a team in a few weeks- that will make many things easier, but until then things are going to be challenging. I have thought about doing something similar to this in the past, but always pushed aside the idea because my son is picky already & just won't eat a lot of things as it is. So, here I am, being crazy in Rwanda & giving it a shot. The good thing is that even though our options are more limited, it also means the temptations for him are a lot less as well.

Thanks for helping if you can!
Lisa

This post was linked to Fight Back Fridays.

Hearty Pasta Sauce

2010-08-27T07:53:00.000-07:00

We are here in Rwanda now & although we were greeted by a completely bare kitchen (not even a plate or cup) my kitchen is up & running now (although in a minimal state). We even have an internet connection - though it is painfully sloooow compared to our high speed in the US.

I would like to share with you a recipe that I have made several times during past trips here. As far as feeding your family in Rwanda is concerned, anything not grown or produced locally is going to be expensive. So, if we are buying pasta we are paying about $1.50 per bag. And pasta sauce in a jar? Forget it- probably about $5 or $6 per jar! That will sure give you some motivation to cook from scratch (well, almost scratch, this recipe does use tomato paste which is used in a lot of recipes here). This sauce recipe is not a “Ragu” type sauce, but more of a hearty tomato- based vegetable sauce that you can use on pasta or pizza.

I originally got the recipe from the cook at the guest house where we've stayed here in the past, and I am not sure what American or European cookbook she may have got the recipe from. Here's a picture of the veggies and everything all prepped (I didn't have enough tomatoes so I used extra tomato paste):

And, yes I wanted to show you my hand- can you see that it is stained orange from shredding carrots? Just in case you wanted to know a possible side effect of cooking from scratch! That pile of green in the foreground is from prepping green beans. The green beans they have here are in fact "string beans"- and you have to de-string them. I was prepping quite a bit more than what we needed for one meal, just to save some for later. I also brought Italian spices from home, because they don't have much of that here either. This table is a high table, like bar height- but can you see how short my refrigerator is? And the freezer inside is just a compartment in the top of it, with no door. All part of the experience!

Hearty Pasta Sauce

1 onion (chopped)

2 cloves garlic (minced)

2 Tbsp. oil

2 carrots, shredded

1/2 green pepper, chopped

1/4 cup fresh parsley, chopped (or 2 Tbsp. dried)

4 tsp. Italian seasoning

6 cups tomatoes

6 oz. tomato paste

1 Tbsp. honey

salt & pepper to taste

Saute onion & garlic in oil until soft. Add carrots, peppers, parsley, & Italian seasoning, stir. Add tomatoes, tomato paste, honey, salt, & pepper. Simmer for 1 hour. Serve or freeze.

Enjoy!

Lisa

Going "No 'Poo"

2010-08-23T12:00:00.000-07:00

Before you get any other ideas, when I say "no poo" I'm using the term that refers to washing your hair without using shampoo= no 'poo! Why would I want to do that? Well, you can understand why if you read in Dr. Mercola's newsletter talking about some of the chemicals in shampoo, have you seen this article?

I have been thinking about going "no 'poo" for a while now, but what really gave me the bravery to try was this video blog posted at Keeper of the Home. Part of my hesitancy stems from the fact that for a long time now I have had to use a very specific shampoo for my hair: one that addresses greasy roots and dry fly away ends. This shampoo was working fine for me, but when I ran out of it, I thought it was time to be brave & try going more natural.

Actually, I was afraid to go all "no 'poo" to begin with, so I thought I'd transition first to a shampoo bar (also called solid shampoo). It's like a bar of soap, but it's supposed to be for your hair. I bought one on Ebay; however, I was disappointed from the beginning with it. It was called "rosemary mint" but it only smelled like regular old soap. (Maybe this Ebay seller was just selling old stuff, knock offs, I don't know.) As I used it my disappointment only increased. It felt like I had soap build up on my hair. Greasy, yucky feeling. Here's another blogger who went no 'poo & used a shampoo bar too, but she had a good experience with it. I had heard of a "transition phase" as your hair gets used to not being stripped by shampoo all the time, so I kept pushing through. Every third or fourth wash I would use regular shampoo just to cut the build up back down.

Finally, I got down to it & made my baking soda mixture. Using the 1:7 ratio talked about by Keeper of the Home, I mixed 2 cups water with 1/4 cup baking soda. (Note: since this time I have done more internet research I have found out the usual ratio is 1 Tablespoon baking soda per cup of water, so 2 cups water would only need 2 Tablespoons [1/8 cup] baking soda.). I also mixed in some rosemary sprigs (hopefully to help with dry scalp).

I was going to use this repurposed spray bottle, but it had a strong odor that would not go away, so I ended up using an empty lemon juice bottle (has a small opening so the mixture doesn't pour out all at once). I kept the mixture in the shower, would shake it up, and use it to wash my hair (yes, it is cold on my head- but because it comes out slow it's not too bad).

The first time I used it I was amazed! My hair felt so clean- no more soapy greasy build up! I usually wash every other day, so two days later I used it again and I thought to myself, "Wow, what was I so afraid of? Clean hair?!" After going through the yucky hair days with the solid shampoo, this was awesome. On the third day after this wash my hair still did not feel greasy, but I thought I should wash it anyways. That time what I got was a very dry, itchy, flaky, scalp. Lesson learned: do not wash your hair until it actually "needs" it.

I also learned another lesson: rinse very thoroughly. One day I was not careful to rinse thoroughly & ended up finding dusty soda residue in my hair- yuck. Now fast forward another month or so. I have been using the baking soda mixture for the most part, and only wash my hair about every 3 days. Sometimes my roots are greasy and my ends are fly-away, but I use a straightening iron on my hair & that helps to even things out. I'm still dealing with a dry itchy scalp quite often though (maybe it has something to do with my high ratio of baking soda?). It's time to make another batch & I decide this time I will boil the mixture. I want to do this so the baking soda will actually dissolve into the water, and also because I have hard water & I've heard this may help.

It has a little different feel on my hair but still works. However, I'm tired of the itchy dry scalp. I did some internet searching and decided to add some pure tea tree oil, which I just did a few days ago. The good news: my scalp is a lot less itchy. The bad news: it makes my roots more oily (so I'm washing more often) but a very thorough rinse seems to help that some.

This is all still an experiment in process. I'm curious now to try a mixture with a smaller amount of baking soda to see how my hair will respond. I'm also curious how it will work in Rwanda (with the extra sweat & dust my hair will be exposed to). I'm writing this a few days before we leave for Rwanda, but posting will happen after we get there. That way the blog stays active even whilst I am unpacking & getting situated in our new home!

How about you? Have you gone 'no poo or thought about it? Any tips for me?

This post is a part of Fight Back Fridays.

Oatmeal Snack Bars

2010-08-19T12:00:00.000-07:00

I received this recipe from a family friend and I made it before our camping trip as a packable snack. You could also use these to put in a lunch box (they're chock full of all kinds of good stuff)! I made a half batch that day because I was low on peanut butter, but I will give you the recipe with the full batch amounts.

Oatmeal Snack Bars
2 cups oatmeal (want it healthier? use Soaked & Ready Oats)
1 cup chopped peanuts (or other nut)
1/2 cup chopped walnuts (I used pecans)
1 cup sunflower seeds (I didn't have any so I used cashews)
1 cup ground flax seeds
1 cup wheat germ (or you could substitute dried coconut)
1 cup raisins
1 cup dried fruit (I just used more raisins)
1/2 cup honey
1 16 oz jar peanut butter (2 cups)
1 cup fruit spread (jam, jelly)

Preheat oven to 350. Combine all ingredients in a large bowl & mix together for about 2 minutes by hand. Take a cookie sheet or jelly roll pan (I would recommend jelly roll pan) and line it with parchment paper. Dump mixture onto pan or cookie sheet, and press down (easiest to do this without sticking if you use another piece of parchment paper between your hands & the bars). Bake for 25 minutes (do not over bake).

You can see in this picture here what stirring it with a spatula did to my spatula! Yes, it is thick & sticky stuff! fyi: The half batch was just the right amount for the pan that fits in my toaster oven.

Once cool, slice into bars & cover. Will keep for several days at room temperature. I would suggest putting half the batch in the freezer and then pulling it out when you're almost out of the first half of the batch. Or, package individually & freeze so they're ready to toss into a lunch box as needed.

Enjoy!

Lisa

This post was written a few days ago and scheduled for today. As you read this my family is on our way to our new home for the next 9 1/2 months- Rwanda! We will spend about 28 hours traveling to get there - almost half way across the world from Washington state. Pray for us!

Chocolate Pudding Pops & Mocha Smoothie

2010-08-15T22:09:00.000-07:00

Do you ever have extra milk you need to use up? Last week I did, and I decided my choices were either to make yogurt (but I already had 2 large containers of that) or make pudding pops- guess I have to make pudding! I found this recipe on the Everyday Life blog, where she says you can either refrigerate for pudding or freeze for pudding pops. Start with the chocolate pudding & you'll be on your way to making some mocha smoooooothies...

Chocolate Pudding
5 1/2 cups milk
1 cup sugar (I used rapadura)
6 Tablespoons cocoa powder
1/3 cup arrowroot powder (or cornstarch, I used arrowroot)
2 Tablespoons butter
2 teaspoons vanilla

Start out with a low heat on the stove and dissolve the sugar into milk, stirring or whisking until dissolved. Then add the cocoa powder and arrowroot. Increase your stove temperature to medium and stir with a spoon (to be sure it doesn't stick on the bottom- keep on stirring!) After several minutes the mixture will thicken and you can remove it from the heat. Stir in the butter and vanilla. Allow to cool slightly and then either refrigerate or freeze.

Now I will be honest & say that I usually don't care for the "stand and stir" recipes (which most pudding recipes fall into). It just doesn't feel efficient to me: I have to multi-task! Of course this has been the death of more than one "stand and stir" recipe. [Thanksgivings come to mind when I used to make a pumpkin custard pie every year for my father-in-law, and sometimes I would have to make it twice because of not minding it closely enough- ugh!] Thankfully, my mom was visiting and could help me stir the pudding while I made blueberry jam. Yes, I was multi-tasking: I can't help it!

Last week I posted about Creamy Probiotic Popsicles and I suggested that if you don't have a popsicle mold that you use a muffin pan. So, this time I tried it. Did I mention this recipe makes a lot? Oh, yes it does! And do you see how pitiful my popsicle mold stock is (I only have 5 containers, it is supposed to be 6 but one went missing years ago when my daughter was a toddler...)

After I took this picture I placed a toothpick in each mini muffin cup, just layed it in there, and put the whole thing in the freezer. A day later I pulled it out & ran hot water over the bottom for a few seconds to loosen them (don't take too long with the hot water, they melt fast, and be careful not to impale your hand on the toothpicks- ouch!) It worked great! I put them all in a ziploc bag & tossed it back in the freezer. Voila!

Hmm, well that picture looks a little messy. Certainly not going to win me any awards. But we did end up with mini popsicles!

Now, I am going to share with you my favorite way to enjoy these. See that ice cube tray up there? I also popped those out & put them in a ziploc in the freezer. The next day we had some coffee that did not get finished in the morning, so I put it in the fridge. Later that afternoon when I was ready for a snack, I pulled it out & threw together this awesome mocha smoothie!

Mocha Smoothie
1 cup cold coffee
3/4 cup milk
5 cubes of frozen chocolate pudding
small amount of stevia, honey, sugar, or maple syrup to taste

Combine all ingredients in blender until smooth. Pour into a tall glass & say yum! (Makes about 2 servings- so share, but only if you want to...)

This picture was taken when I made it using 1/2 cup milk and 1/4 cup homemade vanilla ice cream- oh yeah! Why not use all ice cream & make a mocha milkshake? Now we're talking!

Enjoy!
Lisa

Raw Cashew Cream

2010-08-12T10:57:00.000-07:00

The original recipe for this Cashew Cream came from the She Let Them Eat Cake blog. I thought I was making a non-dairy substitute for sour cream... but this is more similar to peanut butter than anything else. She talks about both cashew sour cream and sweet cashew cream, so I discovered this is actually sweet cashew cream. Great spread for breads, and I also have put a tablespoon in the blender when I make my iced coffees (coffee, milk, sweetener, ice) which was very tasty!

Sweet Cashew Cream
1 1/2 cups raw cashews
1/4 cup water
3 Tablespoons lemon juice
4 Tablespoon maple syrup

Place cashews in bowl, add water, and cover. (I used a pie plate to soak them in, so more of the cashews would be in contact with the water.) Allow to soak for overnight (or 8 hours).

After soaking, place in food processor along with lemon juice and maple syrup. This is what mine looked like after a minute.

Keep processing until smooth. Cover & store in refrigerator. Use within one week.

I would make this again to use in my No Bake Granola Bars to replace part of the peanut butter.

Enjoy!
Lisa

This post is a part of Pennywise Platter Thursday.

Flourless Blender Pancakes

2010-08-09T21:50:00.000-07:00

In my last post I shared about my adventure with sprouting wheat & making it into bread. With the sprouted wheat berries I had left, I decided to make blender pancakes for the next morning. Normally I make this with wheat berries (unsprouted) and oatmeal. This recipe is easy & I love it. Using sprouted wheat made it a little different, but I still want to share it with you.

This recipe comes from Sue Gregg's Breakfasts Cookbook.

Flourless Blender Pancakes (or Waffles)
1 cup cultured milk (buttermilk, or yogurt diluted with milk)
*use 1 1/4 cup milk if making waffles
1 Tablespoon melted butter, coconut oil, or olive oil
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 cup raw brown rice, corn, buckwheat, or wheat berries
1/2 cup uncooked rolled oats

Place these ingredients in a blender & blend at highest speed for 3 to 5 minutes. Let stand (in mixer) in warm place for 12 - 24 hours.

1 egg
1 Tablespoon ground flax seeds (optional)
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt

Preheat waffle iron or griddle. Add egg to the batter in the blender and blend on highest speed for 1-3 minutes. Add in flax seeds, baking soda, and salt and blend to combine (scrape down sides if needed). Grease waffle iron or griddle & pour pancakes (so easy from the blender). Cook until bubbles on surface pop & then flip.

The batter I got using (over) sprouted wheat berries was very thin (the berries had already absorbed water during the sprouting stage). At first I had a very rough time cooking them as they were more crepe like. You can see they were making a mess there. But then I learned that cooking them at a lower temp & longer would work.

Mmmm- yummy! Tried & true even with my crazy wheat berries this recipe came through. However, when I decided to throw some blueberries into the last part of the batch I discovered these are way too fragile to support that!

You may not be able to tell in this picture, but this is after the flip & they were sticking & making a horrible mess, all tore up inside. I'm thinking to myself, "Things I do for my daughter!" (My daughter loves blueberry pancakes.)

Try out this recipe with raw wheat berries. I've tried it with brown rice, but definitely prefer it with wheat.

Enjoy!
Lisa

This post is a part of Tuesday Twister.

(Flourless) Sprouted Wheat Bread... oh my!

2010-08-04T08:37:00.000-07:00

That "Oh my!" in the title there is not as in, "wow, this was so tasty!" It was more as in, "Lions and tigers and sprouted wheat, oh my!"

I have had some wheat berries sitting in my pantry for weeks & weeks waiting for me to try this recipe for flourless sprouted wheat bread. It sounded so amazing, making bread by sprouting the wheat berries and then making dough by running them through the food processor (and *not* having to grind them into flour). This week I finally got up the nerve to try it... with mixed results.

It's a fairly simple process. Day one: take 3 cups of wheat berries, cover with generous amount of water & allow to soak for 24 hours. I started mine in the evening & had to add more water in the morning (did you see my post yesterday about all the stuff I had soaking?)

Day two: drain in sieve, rinse thoroughly, leave in sieve & cover with damp towel. Rinse at least every 8 hours and allow to sit for up to 24 hours. Since I started in the evening, I rinsed them again when I woke up, and again the afternoon. But in a warm summer kitchen this is what I found after 24 hours of sitting...

I don't know if you can tell in this picture- but these wheat berries are way over- sprouted. The sprouts should not be longer than the wheat berry, and quite a few were already too long, some even with multiple sprouts... ::sigh:: But despite her warnings about them being no good for bread baking, I was not to be deterred that easily.

The next step is to seal & refrigerate over night, which worked out perfectly since this was the evening/end of the second day. The next afternoon I got them out & prepared to make the bread recipe:

Sprouted Wheat Bread
6 cups sprouted wheat berries (my 3 cups turned into more than this)
1 teaspoon yeast
2 Tablespoons warm water
2 teaspoons salt
3 Tablespoons honey
loaf pan, greased
clean kitchen towel
gallon zip lock bag

Dissolve the yeast in the water in a small cup. Put half of the wheat, salt, honey, and yeast mixture in the food processor (that means 3 cups wheat, 1 teaspoon salt, 1 1/2 Tablespoons honey, + yeast mixture). Process 30 seconds & then scrape down sides.

This is what mine looked like. Now the next step is to continue processing until a ball of dough forms. Do you know what happens when wheat over-sprouts? It turns very starchy.

After several minutes of processing I still did not see what looked like dough, and it smelled like my food processor motor was starting to overheat. Maybe it had something to do with what I saw when I lifted up the bowl...

Eww! Look what it did! The "stuff" went up inside the blade & down under & eww.... At this point you are supposed to repeat the process with the remaining ingredients. I do (after cleaning up the first mess) but I don't process it for as long this time & the mess is much less, but I don't think this is what your dough is supposed to look like.

Again, I am not deterred that easily! I decided to add 2 cups of spelt flour to the glob and knead it for several minutes. Now, put your dough in a greased bowl & let it rise for several hours. I figured it has yeast & flour, it should rise... (I had to help mine out by putting it in a warm oven with a pot of boiling water.) Eventually my dough did rise, my hopes are going up now!

Next form it into a loaf & place in a greased pan for the second rise. I put mine in a warm oven again & after a few hours, it looked like this (I was also making sourdough bread at the time so I put them next to each other).

And look at me: I even remembered to slash my loaves!

Now, bake at 350 for 30 to 40 minutes. The sad news is the sprouted wheat bread did not do it's third rise in the oven. The good news is my sourdough loaf did & this was the first time for that! My best sourdough loaf ever! Wrap your sprouted loaf in the towel & place inside the zip lock bag for 45 minutes.

The taste of the sprouted wheat loaf was very starchy & chewy- no big surprise there. I still had sprouted wheat left, so my next post will be about the pancakes I tried to make from it. How about you? Have you tried making sprouted wheat bread before? Give it a go & let me know how it works for you!

Enjoy!

Lisa

This post is a part of Real Food Wednesday
Fight Back Fridays
Family Food Fridays
and Monday Mania

Soaking....

2010-08-03T15:55:00.000-07:00

How's this for a busy night? What all is going on here? In the oven I had soaking: wheat berries (for sprouting- those are up front), the granola I love (back left), cashews (bottom shelf- for cashew cream), and under the towel is a bowl of pancake batter in one bowl and blueberry muffin batter in another. On top of the stove I have oats soaking for "Soaked & Ready Oats". And if you see back in the upper left corner of the picture is my jar of sourdough starter. When you have a small kitchen the oven can come in handy for nights like this!

I made the Soaked & Ready Oats because I am planning on making more No Bake Granola Bars, and I also want to make the Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Ice Cream recipe from the Just Making Noise blog.

To make the oats all you need to do is soak 4 cups oats with 4 cups lukewarm water and 5-8 Tbsp. of whey (I used 6). Allow to soak for 12 to 24 hours, then drain in a sieve for 10 minutes.

Mine actually drained for a lot longer than 10 minutes because I walked away & got busy elsewhere!

Spread the oats out thin on a parchment paper covered cookie sheet (she suggests oiling the paper, but I didn't & it was fine). I put them in the oven at 250 and dehydrated them for about 4 or 5 hours (doing this at the same time as I dehydrated my granola on another rack, meant I was getting the most out of having my oven on that day).

This is the second time I have made them & this time they were still a little soft in the middle- I probably could have dehydrated them for longer, but I went ahead & processed them into oat sized pieces, put them in a container & now they are in the fridge waiting to be used.

Do you soak your grains? Do you want to know why I do? You can read more about it on the new page I've added on the top of my blog "Why Soak?" (Maybe I should have called it "Whey Soak?" That's a soaking joke! Sorry- couldn't help myself- tee hee!)

Enjoy,
Lisa

P.S. I'll post more about the other recipes I had soaking later this week!
This post is a part of Tuesday Twister.

Creamy Probiotic Popsicles

2010-08-02T10:00:00.000-07:00

When I saw this recipe for popsicles using buttermilk, I knew I wanted to try it out. The day I made mine, I decided to give them a little extra boost. I substituted some of the buttermilk with 1/4 cup raw milk kefir. I was unsure if freezing kills the probiotics in kefir or yogurt (or cultured buttermilk for that matter) and after doing some digging on the internet I find myself - well, still unsure. It seems as though the jury is out on whether or not freezing kills them, but even those who say it kills them admits it does not kill all of them- so you are still getting some benefit.

So, if you're going to have popsicles, why not boost them too? I also added a teaspoon or two or flax seed oil to the mix. It completely goes undercover & gives you the benefits of essential fatty acids too. I might try drizzling in a teaspoon of melted coconut oil next time too. I was out of fresh fruit when I made mine so I used frozen strawberries. I also ran out of popsicle molds (this recipe makes quite a bit) so I poured the extra into an ice cube tray (pop them out, put in a ziploc bag, then I throw a few at a time into our smoothies) and a couple small containers. I ate those with a spoon like sorbet. Mmmmm.

Here is girlichef's recipe with my adjustments...

Creamy Probiotic Popsicles

1 cup buttermilk (real & cultured preferred)
1/2 cup kefir (or yogurt)
1 banana
1 1/2 cups fruit (fresh or frozen)
1/4 cup raw honey
optional: 2 teaspoons flax oil or coconut oil (melted)

Put all the ingredients in a blender and blend completely. Pour into molds (or muffin tin?) and place in the freezer. (If adding your own sticks add them in after one hour & freeze for an additional hour.)

If you don't have popsicle molds, why not use muffin tins (or mini muffin tins)? I remember as kids we used to use dixie cups, cover with plastic wrap, and then put a stick through the plastic wrap so it would stay in place. I bet that would work for mini muffin tins or ice cube trays too!

Enjoy!
Lisa

This post is a part of Slightly Indulgent Tuesday and Pennywise Platter Thursday.

Quick Creamy Pizza or Pasta Sauce

2010-07-30T10:00:00.000-07:00

We had pizza a few different ways this week: we had the sourdough pita pizzas I mentioned earlier this week, but we also had some super thin crust pizza. I had remembered the last time I made NT's Yogurt Dough I had some left over. I had actually made it for chicken pot pie and once it was rolled out there was enough dough for 4 crusts. I only needed two for my pot pies, so the other 2 crusts I rolled out onto parchment paper then rolled them up together, sealed in a plastic bag, and froze.

My son was begging for pizza one morning, so I pulled the "pie crust" out of the freezer & let it thaw on the counter for the first half of the day. By lunch time we were ready to make some super thin crust pizza! Pre-bake your crust for a few minutes and then add your toppings. I didn't have any pizza sauce on hand, so that morning I also pulled out a handful of cherry tomatoes I had thrown in the freezer (yup, just threw them in there right in a freezer bag).

We also had a lot of dried oregano from our CSA, which ended up being the main flavor here. This turned out differently than your usual pasta sauce (not so red or strong on tomato flavor), but since it was so easy & we enjoyed it, I thought I would share it with you. Spice it to your taste...

Pizza or Pasta Sauce

cup of cherry tomatoes
Roma tomato (sliced)
couple tablespoons of olive oil
2 teaspoons of honey
teaspoon of salt
tablespoon of beef broth
2 tablespoons chopped celery
5 garlic cloves (mine were previously cooked in the BBQ)
onion powder
lots of oregano, basil, rosemary
and dash of pepper

Puree in blender until smooth. You're done!

Enjoy!
Lisa

This post is a part of Pennywise Platter Thursdays and Fightback Fridays.

Lot o' Sourdough

2010-07-28T14:53:00.000-07:00

This week I decided to try my hand at making sourdough bread again. I don't know why, after my other failures... but some sourdough bread with butter was just really sounding good to me! My starter was looking pretty good this time- as I had pulled it out of the fridge & fed it a few times, and it was looking bubbly and active (maybe they like the warmer kitchens of summertime?).

I decided to try out this recipe for short rise sourdough bread. My busy life got in the way that day & I ended up letting the dough over-rise (instead of the 8 hour rise I had planned on, it rose for about 10 or so hours on a warm day). I tucked the dough back into the pan & baked it anyway. Surprise- this is one of my best looking sourdough loaves yet!

The texture was a little crumbly, but still hit my the spot for my sourdough craving. Since I had my starter out & going, and I had a lot of hummus in the fridge, I decided to make sourdough pitas too (next to the bread). I messed up on them though- I did not preheat the baking sheet in the oven. And, the high heat (500) vaporized some grease in the bottom of my oven & made my smoke alarm go off- waking everyone up (I was baking at night). Whoops! They turned out tough & without a pocket, but I still tore them into pieces & dipped them, and I also used some for mini pizzas.

We also made some yummy sourdough pancakes this week (they're on the plate). I love this recipe because you don't have to soak & it is so fun to watch how the baking soda reacts with the starter- it's alive! Cook them as soon as it all bubbles up & you get these fun pancakes full of little holes. Freeze any extras & pop them in the toaster for quick breakfasts. I only made a half batch this morning (didn't have enough starter for a whole batch) and since I didn't want to use a "half" of an egg, I substituted a couple of tablespoons of ground flax seeds for the egg.

I'll share more about other things tried out in my kitchen later this week~
Enjoy!
Lisa

This post was linked to Tuesday Twister.

Camping & Palm Plate Review

2010-07-20T13:27:00.000-07:00

I was so excited when the UPS man brought my sample of disposable palm plates & bowls from Marx Foods the morning before we left for our camping trip. Excited because this is the first real product review on my blog, and excited because what better way to test them out than while we were camping?

Every year we go camping with two other families, and we have been doing this for almost a decade now! We go for 4 days/3 nights and we share the cooking duties. It works great because each family cooks one breakfast and one dinner, and then we all do lunches on our own. It is so nice to not have to cook or clean dishes every meal!

Back to the plates: Marx Foods makes these plates from palm leaves (read how they are made here) and they are both disposable and biodegradable. They have a wood grain look to them & my first thought was how great they would be for a large function: like a charity dinner, wedding reception, large party, etc. When we were planning our a banquet for our ministry last year I looked into disposable plates that were supposed to mimic china, but were in fact plastic (and there just was no denying that). These would look so much better & be a great conversation piece too. As a matter of fact, even though they are disposable, my daughter liked them so much that she insisted on washing & reusing them (more about that later)!

The first night we had spaghetti for dinner. Perfect test: spaghetti sauce is one thing that can really soak through a paper plate.

It is amazing how plates just made from baked palm leaves can be so sturdy. No weakening at all from this dinner. Afterwards my daughter washed her plate & although the plate was stained from the sauce it was ready for the next meal.

In the morning it was our turn to make breakfast. I decided making sausage, egg, & cheese breakfast muffins would be easy to make for a group. I think it makes camping so much easier if you do as much prep & cooking ahead of time as you can. I found a "natural" pork sausage at the store, but then I realized that plain "natural" ground pork was only .99/lb (a savings of about $3/lb), so I bought several pounds and used this recipe to make my own seasoned sausage (the only thing I changed in the recipe was to reduce the nutmeg). I then formed them into patties & pre-cooked all of them. That sausage was so yummy!

The only thing we had to do in the morning was cook the eggs, butter & warm the muffins (I have a camp oven that goes on the cook stove), and warm the sausage. The other great thing about going with other families is we share our cooking appliances & cookware. So, while my husband's cooking eggs on one cook stove, I'm warming the muffins on the other, and we use our propane camp grill to reheat the sausage.

This was a fairly dry breakfast so we washed the plates under running water & reused them for lunch (and those breakfast sandwiches were so good that I reheated a leftover one for lunch). For dinner that night we were making taco salad. I cooked the meat & beans before we left, using this recipe, so I only had to reheat it at dinner time. Chop some veggies while that's heating & dinner was done! We had all the fixings laid out so everyone could build their salad in their way.

These stood up so well to heavy and wet foods, washing (not immersing), and being reused, that I thought they must have some kind of resin in them, but it's palm leaves & nothing else. Pretty cool, huh? Now, you may be thinking, "When I'm camping I get to just toss my paper plates into the fire, I'm not going to wash them, so how do these work for that?" Well, I thought you might wonder that, and even if you didn't, here's our fire test.

The plate is just beginning to catch fire & burning like wood: producing heat & not turning all ashy (like paper plates do). A minute later it really took off:

Woo hoo! (Your inner pyro delights in this, I know!) When it was done burning there was some ash left, but it just stayed in the fire pit & incorporated into the wood ash.

Now back at home, I thought we should give the bowls one more test: a bowl of my granola with kefir, honey, and milk. I even let it sit while I got ready in the morning.

It held up great. I even rinsed it off so it can be reused. You may be able to tell in this picture that washing the plates or bowls will make them lose their shape slightly, but once they air dry they can be reused!

A side note: we made lots of "real food" compromises this weekend. Like, you'll notice the english muffins are store bought, not the homemade sourdough ones I've made in the past. My husband told me, in his sweet way, that I could not subject our friends to any "wierd" food. Which is probably just as well, because I still spent hours in the kitchen getting ready for our trip.

So, after a weekend liberally sprinkled with sweets and preservatives we found ourselves waking up Monday morning totally exhausted & groggy. Could we blame it all on not sleeping as well while camping? I don't think so. I think we've got junk food hangovers. A few more days of good sleep, kefir & healthy foods, and we should be recovered!

If you would like to find out more about these plates and bowls (they have 10 different styles) you can visit the website for Marx Foods here. Marx Foods sent me these plates & bowls for free to sample and review, but I was not required or obligated in any way to give them a positive review. I just think they're super cool, that's all!

Enjoy!
Lisa

This post is a part of Tuesday Twister and Real Food Wednesday.

Taco Soup

2010-07-09T21:22:00.000-07:00

How do you stretch 1/4 lb of beef to feed four people? Taco soup is a great way to stretch your meat (and be kind to your budget) as well as getting nourishing bone broth into your family. I know soup is not the first meal you think of in the summer heat, but if you let it cool a little bit before eating (not piping hot) you will find it to be a satisfying meal. Plus, this is an easy meal to throw together from things you probably already have in your pantry or freezer. If you substitute fresh vegetables for frozen, just allow a little more cooking time.

Taco Soup

1/4 lb. ground beef (or other chopped meat)
clove garlic
1 Tbsp. chopped (green) onions
3 cups bone broth (chicken or beef)
1/2 cup frozen peas
1/2 cup frozen corn
1/2 cup frozen green beans
1/2 cup frozen shredded potato
1/4 cup salsa (or more, to taste)
1 cup pinto beans (or other)
1 corn tortilla
cheese (shredded)

Brown the ground beef along with garlic and onions. I also added a teaspoon of Italian seasoning. Break up meat & cook until all red is gone. Add remaining ingredients and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to simmer.

Meanwhile, cut corn tortilla into 1/4" strips, then cut strips into 1" or 2" pieces. Stir into soup. Simmer 5 to 10 minutes.

While still very hot, ladle into bowls and immediately add a generous amount of shredded cheese on each serving, allowing it to melt into gooey goodness! You might want to try sour cream or avocado too.

This recipe could even serve 6 people if you start the meal with a generous fresh salad first and then serve the soup.

Enjoy!
Lisa

Back from Baja

2010-07-06T16:21:00.000-07:00

From June 25th to July 1st our family was in Ensenada, Mexico (Baja California) working with a team on an orphanage there. When this trip was first planned I really wanted to go (I have been on mission trips to Mexico about 6 or so times & speak a little Spanish), but because our goal is getting to Rwanda, I didn't think we could afford for both my son and I to go (my daughter, age 11, raised her own money to go). However, it ended up that they needed a cook for the team- so guess who my husband asked? I was quite intimidated (never have cooked for a group of 15 people before), but really so thankful to be able to go. It was also great that our family was able to be together, since my husband had just been gone for 3+ weeks in Rwanda not a few weeks prior to this trip.

Being the planner that I am I mapped out all our meals, typed out the recipes (tripling amounts for most), and had a rotating kitchen crew from the team to help me. Thankfully the kitchen there sports three large ovens, two large gas stove tops, and a griddle. There was one challenge in my planning: one of our teammates had a wheat sensitivity. With a little digging around the internet for info and recipes (and some spelt flour brought from home) we were able to feed everyone comfortably. Can you believe Ensenada has a Costco, Wal Mart, and lots of other American stores? I wasn't expecting to do most of my shopping at Costco and Wal Mart, but that's what we did!

We ate things like: Honey Baked Chicken, with Creamy Potatoes, and Sweet Potato Corn Bread (I made muffins and they were so moist & yummy)! I baked extra chicken to use the next night in our easy Chicken Enchiladas (batches made with both corn & wheat tortillas).

I also cooked extra black beans that night so I could make Black Bean Brownies for our group. Most of them tried it- but not everyone came back for more! However, I did make the person who can't have wheat very happy!

There are 30 children in the orphanage we were working at (the team was doing some minor repair projects, putting in window screens, curtains, dry wall fixes, etc.) I was told that as economic times are tough in the US it has an effect on these ministries as well, because Americans are going less and giving less. They asked if we could cook some meals for the kids to help out their food budget. Now, I'm not just cooking for 15, but 45! I put on my "big girl pants" and said OK. We ended up cooking 4 meals for them during the week, breakfast twice and dinner twice. The first group dinner was Shephard's Pie (here's me trying to decided correct portions so everyone gets some)

served alongside Cheese Stuffed Jalapenos (a team favorite)

I still did soaking of grains/flours during my trip. This included our breakfast meals of pancakes, baked oatmeal, and German pancakes (again using spelt flour). I didn't get to soak the flour when we made pizza- boy did we make a lot of pizza that night! Those kids love pizza.

We made 5 huge pizzas. The crust had to be spread pretty thin because I just made enough dough for the amount of yeast I had- but we managed. Our pizzas had pineapple, bell peppers, sausage, chopped pepperoni, and ham. Oh, and the grated cheese from a $25 wheel of local cheese!

I am so thankful for a great team who never complained about the mountains of dishes that had to be done after every meal too. Another group meal that we made for everyone was Hashbrown Breakfast Casserole. Seemed like a great idea, until I realized that Mexico does not have frozen hashbrowns: they must not eat them. So, I bought bags of french fries instead & chopped them small. Here's our bowl of 48 eggs, 3 cups milk, 12 cups cheese, chopped french fries, among other goodies!

I cooked part of them in muffin tins (for easy serving & portions) and what didn't fit in the muffin tins went into a large pan. No matter what we made, God always made sure we had enough. I'd have to say that probably no one lost any weight on this trip- whether they wanted to or not!

A few other items we enjoyed were Rice Porridge another morning (well, one or two people may not have been so sure about sweet rice for breakfast), and Flourless Peanut Butter Cookies for a treat another night (if you're following the links you'll notice I got a lot of recipes from the Easy To Be Gluten Free blog and they all were great).

Another plus for me being in the kitchen that week: it was cold in Ensenada! Well, 68 and breezy cold. Too cold for me to feel comfortable in my tank tops, shorts, and no coat- thankfully the kitchen was warm so I was happy to be in there a lot!

The team had a great week of working & loving on kids and I am thankful to have been a part of it.

That's my mom who lives in California loving on one of the babies. It was a blessing that we got to share this week with her too!

Enjoy!

Lisa

This post is a part of Tuesday Twister and Gratituesday.

Enchilada Salad

2010-06-30T23:59:00.000-07:00

This is similar to taco salad, but because it contains cooked corn tortillas, I thought I should call it Enchilada Salad- sure, why not? This was something I came up with just because when I eat lunch I make it my job to use up whatever needs to get eaten in the fridge! Yes, someone's gotta do it. I was pleased enough with this lunch to recreate it several times. I think it's both satisfying & frugal (since it's meatless- but you could add meat for more flavor and fun).

Enchilada Salad
portions are for serving 1 person
2 Tablespoons broth (or water)
1/4 cup cooked beans (pinto, black)
1/4 cup cooked rice
1/4 cup salsa (or more)
shredded cheese (as much as you like)
1 corn tortilla
mixed salad greens
Ranch style dressing
optional: cumin, cilantro, cooked meat, sour cream, olives, tomatoes, avocado, etc!

Pour broth into small pot and add beans, rice, salsa, shredded cheese. (Add in meat also if you want.) Tear tortilla into 1 inch pieces & mix into pot. If using cilantro and cumin, add a dash of these and stir. Warm on the stove over medium heat stirring occasionally until mixture is hot, cheese is melted, and tortillas are soft.

Arrange salad greens on plate and drizzle with dressing. Drop spoonfuls of the warm enchilada mixture evenly over the greens. Top with any optional ingredients you want, or just dig in!

Enjoy,
Lisa

These posts have been written ahead of time as my family and I are working with a team at an orphanage in Ensenda, Mexico this week. Please feel free to comment but I will not be able to approve or reply to comments until after July 1st.

Power Bars

2010-06-28T23:59:00.000-07:00

This recipe originally came from the Nourishing Protein Bars over at Passionate Homemaking. When I tried the recipe for some reason my bars were "missing" something (it was like eating a mouthful of peanut butter) so I let it get soft again (sat the pan inside the recently used toaster oven & it softened right up). Then I mixed in a bunch more "stuff" and thought I'd share with you. These are a great in-between meals snack: satisfying & easy to grab one on the go.

Power Bars
2 cups almonds
1/4 cup flax seeds, chia seeds, or pumpkin seeds *gound in a coffee grinder* I forgot that step & will tell you whole flax seeds are not fun to chew!
1/2 cup dates
1 cup shredded coconut
1/2 cup peanut butter or almond butter
1/2 tsp. sea salt
1/2 cup coconut oil (melted)
4 Tbsp. maple syrup or honey
3 tsp. vanilla extract
1 cup raisins or diced figs (I used figs)
2/3 cup cashew pieces
1 cup chocolate chips/chunks (use this recipe for healthy chocolate)

Place almonds, ground seeds, dates, coconut, peanut butter and salt in food processor.

Pulse for about 10 seconds. Stir sweeteners & vanilla into melted coconut oil.

Add to food processor & pulse until it forms a coarse paste.

Pour mixture into an 8x8 pan. Stir in the raisins or figs, cashews, and chocolate chips. Press into pan. Chill for 1 hour, until mixture hardens. Make 4 cuts vertically & horizontally in your pan so you have 16 bars. Cover & store in refrigerator or freeze for another time.

Enjoy!
Lisa

Please feel free to comment this week, but our family is with a team working at an orphanage in Ensenada, Mexico, so I will not be able to approve or reply to comments until after July 1st. This week's posts were written & publishing scheduled ahead of time- just for you!

Roasted Cauliflower & Chickpeas

2010-06-24T23:59:00.000-07:00

Recently I had a head of cauliflower & I pulled some chickpeas from the freezer because I love cauliflower dipped in hummus! But then I saw a blog post about roasting cauliflower & I was intrigued. I also remembered seeing a few posts about roasting chick peas, which I was also curious about. Come to find out they both cook at the same temperature for the same amount of time, so why not roast them both at the same time? This would be good for when you want a salty snack...

Roasted Cauliflower (and/or) Chickpeas
1 head cauliflower, stem removed
1 1/2 cups cooked chickpeas (garbanzo beans) or 1 can, drained
4 Tbsp. olive oil
salt, garlic, pepper - to taste

Preheat oven to 450. Chop cauliflower into small pieces (but not tiny). Pat chickpeas dry with paper towels.

Combine chickpeas, cauliflower, oil and a generous sprinkling of salt, garlic, and pepper in a large bowl. Stir to combine. Spread out in a single layer on a cookie sheet (I lined mine with parchment paper).

Since my cookie sheet doesn't have edges I used the cauliflower to keep the chickpeas corralled & from rolling off the edges.

Place in oven and bake for about 30 minutes. Cauliflower will have a "toasted" look when ready. Do not over bake or the chickpeas will get too dry.

Some of my cauliflower pieces were too big- the smaller ones were better.

I'm going to have some of these roasted chickpeas and cauliflower on top of my salad today too.

Enjoy!

Lisa

P.S. Did you see Wardeh's post about the USDA food pyramid? So well put!

Please feel free to comment this week, but our family is with a team working at an orphanage in Ensenada, Mexico, so I will not be able to approve or reply to comments until after July 1st. These posts were written & publishing scheduled ahead of time- just for you!

Carrot Cake

2010-06-23T08:00:00.000-07:00

My all time favorite cake is carrot cake (or cheesecake- if that counts as cake then it's a tie)! Since it was my birthday I decided I would make myself a healthy birthday cake- that way we can really enjoy it. I wanted my cake to also have the benefits of "soaking" to make it even healthier. I searched & searched real food blogs, but no soaked carrot cake was to be found. The closest I could find was this recipe for Election Cake (which I had never heard of- and I had also never heard of using yeast in a cake). Later I googled it & found this information about it's history.

Even though there was no picture of the cake, it had molasses, spices, and dried fruit. I figured I could sub out the dried fruit for carrots and give it a try. Pretty brave of me I think! I ended up adding quite a few things, and I wasn't sure how it would turn out, but we've decided it's pretty good. Here's what I ended up with:

Carrot Cake
4 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
1 1/4 cups buttermilk

12 to 24 hours ahead of time combine flour & buttermilk, cover, and allow to sit at room temperature. Mixture will be a little dry.

8 oz. can crushed pineapple, undrained
2 packets yeast
1/2 lb. butter, room temperature
3/4 cup sucanat or turbinado sugar
1/4 cup molasses
2 eggs
1 T. cinnamon
pinch of cloves
pinch of nutmeg
1 1/2 tsp. salt
2 c. shredded carrots (about 3)
1 c. shredded coconut
1 c. chopped pecans
1 c. raisins

The morning after you've soaked the flour: drain pineapple juice into (glass) measuring cup & add enough water to equal 2/3 cup. Warm gently to about 110 degrees (do not boil- you can place the measuring cup in a pot of water on the stove to warm it). Remove from heat, stir in yeast & allow to sit for several minutes.

Meanwhile, cream the butter and sugar together at high speed until creamy. Add molasses and eggs and continue to beat.

Mix the flour mixture into the egg & butter mixture one cup at a time. Then add the yeast mixture, spices, and salt and mix thoroughly until a thick-cake like batter forms. Stir in drained pineapple, carrots, coconut, pecans and raisins.

Pour batter into pans (one 9x13 or 2 round cake pans) that have been oiled & floured or lined with parchment paper (that's what I did). Make sure you account for the fact that this cake is going to rise! Leave in a warm place for several hours or until doubled in bulk (it sure did)! Wow- that's a lot of cake!

Pre-heat oven to 375 & bake for approximately 45 minutes or until toothpick inserted in middle comes out clean (mine baked for closer to an hour & it was over cooked). Check half way through bake time- if top is browning too fast then cover with foil. Allow to cool for 5 to 10 minues in pan, then transfer to cooling rack.

This may be more dense than your cake usually is (more like the density of a fruitcake), but it is still tasty. I found it paired perfectly with Wardeh's vanilla coconut cream frosting. Right now Tropical Traditions has their coconut cream on sale: buy one, get one free! If you're thinking about buying some (use some for frosting and some for fudge) and it's your first time, you can use my referral number 5997607 to get a free book about coconut oil. I've been reading it & it's full of amazing testimonials.

Enjoy!
Lisa

This post is a part of Real Food Wednesdays.

Tuesday Twister: Highs & Lows

2010-06-21T20:39:00.000-07:00

I tried several different recipes this week. Some were hits, and some were misses! I tried a recipe for buckwheat flour pancakes. Most buckwheat pancake recipes I have seen use a mixture of buckwheat and wheat flours, but this was all buckwheat. Have you seen buckwheat flour before? When it was in the soaking stage it looked like refried black beans. Buckwheat has a very strong flavor, somewhat "earthy" I guess you could say. It was way too strong for us. I even tried adding syrup and vanilla to the batter, but this was definitely not for us.

I also made a homemade syrup to stretch our real maple syrup, using this recipe here. I adjusted the recipe a little- I only used 1 cup of (turbinado) sugar to 1 cup of water, plus 1/4 cup of honey, and a tablespoon of maple extract. I ended up with about 1 1/2 cups of a nice syrup that I mixed with a slightly larger amount of maple syrup. 100% pure maple syrup is still the better choice health wise, but this is a budget-friendlier compromise.

Another first for me was making homemade chocolate chips. My son was begging for chocolate chip cookies. However, I learned that homemade chocolate chips (chunks) can not be used in chocolate chip cookies! Keep in mind that the homemade chocolate chunks were made only of cocoa, sugar, and butter/coconut oil. I used the soaked oatmeal cookie recipe, here they are before going in the oven:

And, this is what they looked like coming out of the oven- my son wouldn't even try them. Poor guy! All that oil from the chocolate just melted like crazy & made these a crumbly mess. Better keep the homemade chocolate for things like no-bake granola bars.

So let's finish with some good news, because that's how I always like it! Friday was my birthday and my daughter (age 11) knows that my favorite breakfast is cream cheese stuffed french toast. I helped her out by setting some yogurt to drain the night before so she had yogurt "cream cheese" to work with in the morning. Daddy made us some french toast and then she sandwiched mine with some cream cheese and blueberries, top it off with maple syrup & it was a great birthday breakfast!

I have more recipes to share with you this week. Next I'll share my birthday cake: a "soaked" carrot yeast cake adventure!

This post is a part of Tuesday Twister at GNOWFGLINS.

Enjoy!
Lisa

Layered Salad

2010-06-16T16:35:00.000-07:00

I made a layered salad for a family function this week & thought I should share my recipe with you. I guess it's salad week here! I first brought a layered salad to a family get-together several years ago, and ever since that first time it has become the dish I'm asked to bring. Everyone loves a layered salad- I think because it's like getting a salad bar in a bowl! Layered salad works best with a large glass bowl. Don't have one? You can be creative- what about a punch bowl? Or how about the top from a cake platter, turned upside down (nested in a bowl of ice)?

When I make layered salad I plan it with two things in mind: one, keeping green layers (lettuce, cucumbers, peas, green onion, etc.) separated by non-green layers (red peppers, carrots, beets, mushrooms, cheese). This helps each layer stand out (I place some things sideways against the side of bowl so they're more visible), and adds a lot to the visual appeal. The second thing I think about is keeping moist items (cucumbers, frozen peas) away from dry items (cheese, mushrooms, boiled egg, croutons).

I always put the dressing on the side- if you haven't yet you might want to try my recipe for Ranch Salad Dressing. I'm going to give you my basic outline for this salad, but it does flex & change depending on what's on hand for produce (use more or less of the ingredients listed, depending on your preference). Try it out for your next family get together or neighborhood potluck- as long as you don't mind everyone insisting you bring it everytime!

No picture of my salad- I didn't get a chance to before it was served & then there was nothing left! So, here is my salad bowl & the salad serving "hands" I have from Alaska.

Layered Salad
Several hours to a day ahead of time: hard boil 2 to 3 eggs & chill, remove peas from freezer to thaw

4 cups torn salad greens (I usually use green leaf or romaine, but a mix of green & red leaf would look nice)
2 to 3 carrots, sliced extremely thin or shredded
1 to 2 cups frozen peas, thawed, or fresh
3 large tomatoes, cut into wedges
1 cucumber, sliced & quartered
1 red bell pepper, chopped
1/2 cup chopped fresh basil leaves
1 cup sliced beets
1 to 2 cups sliced mushrooms
4 green onions, sliced
4 to 8 ounces cooked turkey, chicken, or ham, sliced into thin strips
2 or 3 hard cooked eggs, chopped
1 to 2 cups shredded cheese
1 cup seasoned croutons

In a large glass bowl, layer ingredients (in order listed is suggested).

Enjoy!
Lisa

P.S. If you forget to thaw the peas ahead of time place them in a colander and run warm water over them.

This post is a part of Real Food Wednesdays and Fight Back Fridays.

Tuesday Twister Taco Salad

2010-06-15T14:47:00.000-07:00

This post is a part of Tuesday Twister at GNOWFGLINS.

Today I am going to share with you a quick and easy dinner. Salad meals are great for light summer dinners and a great way of getting everyone to eat more greens. It's also very frugal when you use greens as the base & the meat as a "garnish" (stretched even farther by using beans too). For this recipe I used up some leftover meats: chicken pulled from the bones after making bone broth, and meat pulled from a couple of ribs left from dinner the other night. I combined them with the salsa 24 hours ahead of time to really get the flavor in there.
For tortillas I'm trying out Ezekiel Sprouted Grain Tortillas (since I'm not making tortillas anymore)! They worked good for this recipe at least!

Taco Salad
2 tortillas (for 4 people)
olive oil
salt
mixed salad greens, spinach, snow peas, etc.
shredded cheese
1 c. meat
1 c. beans (pinto)
1/2 c. salsa
green onions
salad dressing
optional: tomatoes (we don't eat them), avocado, olives, etc.

Pre-heat oven (or toaster oven) to 425 (or broil). Coat tortillas lightly with olive oil & sprinkle with salt. Cut or tear into strips & place on cookie sheet. Bake for about 10 minutes (less if broiling)- check & pull out once they are browned & crisp. Cool.

Place meat, beans and salsa (if not already combined) in a pot and warm on the stove, stir occasionally. Arrange greens on plates. Sprinkle cheese on top. Drop hot meat by spoonfuls onto the cheese (to lightly melt it). Lightly spoon salad dressing all over the salad. Snip green onions on top, and any optional ingredients. Take cooled tortillas & crumble all over the salads.

Hope you enjoy!
Lisa

The Granola of My Dreams

2010-06-10T10:34:00.000-07:00

Ok, maybe I'm exaggerating a little- but maybe not! This granola is so good, I really do think about it during the day. "I didn't have granola this morning, when can I have it? Dinner? Late night snack?" Seriously! I love some good granola, mixed with plain whole milk yogurt and raw honey= bliss!

Do you remember the last time I posted about granola? My failure then is typical of my experience making granola- but this time I had success! The recipe comes from Passionate Homemaking. I only changed it a little when I made it, based on what I had on hand. The ingredients here are half of what the original recipe calls for. I'm the only one who eats granola in my house so this was the perfect amount for me.

"Soaked" Granola
4 cups rolled oats
1/4 cup + 2 Tbsp. coconut oil (melted)
1/4 cup melted butter
3/4 cup buttermilk or kefir
1/2 to 1 cup water (as needed for moisture- I used kefir instead)

**combine above ingredients in a bowl, cover & allow to soak for 24 hours**

1/4 cup honey
1/3 cup maple syrup
1/2 tsp. sea salt
2 tsp. cinnamon
2 tsp. vanilla (I was out of vanilla so I used maple extract)

**Pre-heat oven to 200. Combine honey, syrup, salt, cinnamon and vanilla (I just put this in a small pot, original directions say to place in glass measuring cup inside pot of water). Warm gently until thin & then add to oat mixture.

Spread on parchment paper covered cookie sheets. This batch filled one and a half of my cookie sheets. I tried to spread it as thin as possible, without leaving any holes.

Bake for 2 to 4 hours. Cool in oven. I baked mine for 6 hours, which was a little too long. I thought the granola needed to be dry before I removed it from the oven, but it really does crisp more as it cools.

Add ins:
1/2 cup shredded coconut (I used closer to a whole cup)
1/2 cup raisins
1/4 cup sunflower or pumpkin seeds (I had neither)
1/2 cup nuts (I used pecan pieces)
1/2 cup dried fruit (I just added more raisins)

Mix it all together & store.

When you are baking this your house will be filled with amazing smells. I went outside & could even smell it outside the house. It was torture! It's like when people burn candles that smell like food (apple pie, sugar cookie, etc.). Why would you do that? It just makes me hungry! But, if you can wait 'til it cools (don't burn your mouth!) this granola is worth it.

Do you like my photo background- the yellow with red & pink ladybugs? That is my mom's sleeved apron from the 1970's. I used to wear it as a kid, and now my kids get to wear it too. I just thought the picture needed a little "something" so I threw that in there for fun. And a little nostalgia.

Enjoy!
Lisa

This post is a part of Pennywise Platter Thursday.

Dark Chocolate Coconut Fudge

2010-06-08T09:30:00.000-07:00

This recipe actually originated on the Tropical Traditions website, but as written it only made a small amount. I quadrupled the recipe and modified the amounts slightly. This amount of fudge worked perfectly for using a bread pan as a form. I have kept mine in the freezer- it does not get too hard but has a nice consistency when frozen- reminds me a little of a "fudgesicle".

I shared this fudge with some extended family members, people who are not "real foodies". They loved it! One even offered to pay me to make this for her! You can vary the amount of honey to give it more or less of a dark chocolate taste.

Dark Chocolate Coconut Fudge
3 (scant) Tbsp. coconut cream concentrate
3 (scant) Tbsp. coconut oil
1/3 cup honey
1/2 cup hot water
1 cup cocoa powder

optional: chopped nuts, shredded coconut

This is how I prepare the coconut cream concentrate for use. I place it in a pot of water and heat over medium heat. As the outside of the cream begins to melt I use a knife to cut through it (like cutting a pizza) because having more surface area will help it melt faster. Once it's melted you need to mix it up thoroughly.

Measure the coconut cream and honey into a bowl. Add the coconut oil (solid) and then use the hot water from the pot to add the 1/2 cup hot water needed. The hot water will melt the coconut oil and soften the honey.

Add the cocoa powder (and any optional ingredients- I didn't use any). Mix thoroughly. Line a bread pan with parchment paper and pour in the fudge mixture.

Place in the freezer until firm (a few hours would be good). Pull out the parchment paper & slice the fudge. I tried this both with a regular knife and with a pizza cutter. I think the pizza cutter made it a little easier, though it is sticky either way.

I placed the pieces in mini muffin cups to keep them separate & also for presentation.

If you have coconut cream concentrate you can try this other idea too (if you order through Tropical Traditions and give my customer # 5997607 as your referral, then you get a free book & I get a bonus product too!) . When the coconut cream is warmed a little (like in the Summer months) use a knife to make a hole in the side (so you're getting down into the cream, not just getting the oil on top). When you have pancakes scrape a little bit out and put it on your pancake. The hot pancake will melt the cream & with maple syrup it tastes amazing! This picture was a bit of an afterthought so it doesn't look pretty, but trust me, this tastes so good!

Enjoy!
Lisa

This post is a part of Slightly Indulgent Tuesdays and Real Food Wednesdays.

Kefir Dressing, Slugs & Bugs, and Broken Glass

2010-06-07T23:15:00.000-07:00

This week we got our first delivery from our CSA (Community Supported Agriculture). Do you know about CSA's? You buy a "share" in a local farm & then each week you get a box of what was harvested from the farm. You can find out about CSA's in your area by going to www.localharvest.org

In our delivery was a bag of mixed salad greens, so I decided to make my homemade Ranch Salad Dressing. But this time instead of yogurt or sour cream and buttermilk, I used just kefir. I've been making kefir with both coconut milk and goat milk lately, which had made it more mild than the cow milk I have used. I also replaced the dried chopped chives and the dried onion in the recipe with chopped fresh green onion (also in our CSA delivery this week). It tasted great & good for my tummy too! Throw some roast chicken on there & that's lunch or dinner for me!

Now, if you need a picture to remind you to always thoroughly wash your greens, I've got one for you. I threw my bag of greens in the salad spinner & this is what I found in the bottom afterwards...

That's about a 2 inch slug there- what do you think, does he look a little dizzy? Now, what I also should have done is carefully washed each leaf, not just toss it in the salad spinner & be done. Because you see, a few days later I was eating one of those chicken salads, and as I got to the second to last bite my front teeth felt something I thought was a chicken bone. Instead, I pulled a little black beetle out of my mouth. YUCK! Thankfully it was hard & stayed whole- legs & all. So gross though & slightly traumatizing. But that is organic & fresh from the farm right there- wow!

I also wanted to let you know, if you're wondering, what I ended up doing with that jar of broth that broke in the freezer. (That has been keeping you awake at night, right?) Well, you can rest easy now: I solved the problem. I decided to keep the broth frozen and break the rest of the glass off. I do not recommend this to anyone, because after all, dealing with broken glass is dangerous! And in fact, if my husband had been here I'm sure he would not have let me do it- but I did.

I ran it under hot water for a minute to loosen the broth from the sides of the jar. One of the broken pieces of glass came off at this point. Then I layed it out on several paper towels and used a hammer to fracture the rest of the jar so it would come off. I ran it under hot water again & the pieces began to fall off. Here are the pieces I collected from the sink (again, dangerous, I know).

The outside of the block of broth melted under the hot water, also washing away any little shards of glass with it. I made sure to run it for a good amount of time. When the broth was clean I just put it into the pot I'm going to use for the soup so it could continue thawing in the refrigerator.

This seemed like the best way to salvage my broth- what do you think? I really do have a problem with throwing away food!

Tomorrow I'm going to share with you a recipe for Dark Chocolate Coconut Fudge... yum!

Enjoy!
Lisa

This post is a part of Tuesday Twister at GNOWFGLINS.

Hummus: Yummy & Easy

2010-06-02T23:06:00.000-07:00

This post is a part of Fight Back Fridays at Food Renegade.

Since I had made some sourdough crackers last week I decided I wanted some hummus to dip them in. Last time, also the first time, I tried making my own hummus I soaked & boiled up a huge batch of dried chick peas (garbanzo beans) and froze them in bags (2 c. each). This way, when I want hummus I just thaw out a bag (I figure 2 c. is pretty close to what you'd get in one can, which is what most recipes call for.) In my previous attempt at hummus I used a recipe that did not use tahini- and that hummus was bad. You could just tell it was missing something (like, hmm, hummus?) This time though the hummus was great!

Hummus
3/4 to 1 tsp. minced garlic (or one garlic clove)
2 cups (or 19 oz. can) garbanzo beans
4 Tbsp. lemon juice
3 Tbsp. tahini
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. cumin
1/8 tsp. pepper
2 Tbsp. olive oil

Combine all the ingredients in your food processor & process til smooth. Use more or less garlic depending on your preference (more!). I like to use the minced garlic that comes in a jar because I think it's so much easier than messing with garlic cloves.

Below is the hummus with my spinach sourdough crackers, but I actually found my favorite way to enjoy this is by dipping cauliflower in it- you must try it. One day I also tried dipping my crackers in both hummus & tuna salad and that was a good lunch!

By the way, I did a little google on chick peas. Did you know they are a good source of dietary fiber, protein and copper, and a very good source of folate, zinc and manganese? Now that's the kind of snack (or lunch) you can feel good about!

Enjoy!
Lisa

Tidbits From This Week

2010-06-01T19:28:00.000-07:00

This post is a part of Tuesday Twister at GNOWFGLINS.

This week I finally took my recipes- the ones I actually use now & refer to- and put them in a binder. Using a 3 ring binder and photo pages (sticky-type pages from old photo albums) is my preferred way of keeping my recipes. I had two large binders with my collection of recipes, but I went through them & picked out the recipes that I actually use & the ones that fit with our new "real food"/Nourishing Traditions style of eating. I wanted to share with you how I organize my recipes in case you need help organizing yours.

My sections are: Dessert, Breads, Breakfast, Vegetable/Salads, Rice & Beans, Meatless Entrees, Pork, Fish, Beef, Chicken, and "Etc." (sauces, beverages, and so on). I had these little sticky notes that I wrote my titles on, folded them in half over the page, and then stapled it.

I took this photo so you could see what a typical page in my book looks like. I've got a recipe that I copied from a web page, pasted into a word document, and then printed. I've got a recipe photocopied from a cook book (I even have recipes cut out of cookbooks- a few years ago I purged my cookbook collection- I only kept a few and from the rest I actually cut out the recipes I wanted). I also have a recipe that I scribbled on a piece of scrap paper after reading it somewhere on the internet. Some great things about the sticky photo pages is they keep all different sizes of recipes, and they are splash & spill proof! As I fill up the pages in a section I just open up the binder & add in a new page- easy!

A few recipes I will be adding to my binder this week: first, I used ~~this recipe for "soaked" pizza crust~~ (update 6/17/10: recipe gone, try this one). I used one third of the dough & froze the other two-thirds in bags for later use. I made a pizza for me & the little guy- marinara & cheese for him, pesto & cheese for me!

I made this in the broiler pan for our toaster oven. If you make pesto pizza make sure you use a pan with edges, because the olive oil in the pesto becomes very thin & could make a mess otherwise!

Second, I tried out the recipe Millie posted for Buttermilk Syrup. I used turbinado sugar & it was yummy, but I think next time I'll try using less sugar because it was a little over-sweet for me. I used the buttermilk syrup to cut my real grade B maple syrup in half hoping to stretch out that precious stuff. I was able to pass it off on the little guy (the maple syrup lover- the same one who I caught drinking a coffee cup full of maple syrup one day!) However, he really balked when we pulled it out of the refrigerator the next day looking like this:

Yeah, I didn't think about the fact that this syrup is made with butter! So, you're going to need to put it in a pot of hot water to mix it up again before using (which makes a glass container come in handy). Can you tell what my re-purposed syrup container used to be? Here's a hint: the little guy calls this our "Chinese Maple Syrup". Ha!

Enjoy!
Lisa

Strawberry Syrup or Jam

2010-06-01T12:58:00.000-07:00

This post is a part of Real Food Wednesdays.

One thing that has always puzzled me is why is it that strawberries taste so sweet when eaten fresh, but if you cook them they lose their sweetness? I don't understand it, but that's what happens. This week I bought 6 pounds of strawberries. I forgot that I had originally planned to freeze some of them, so I made the whole lot into a huge batch of strawberry jam.

I decided I wanted to try morphing this strawberry jam from Z's cup of tea together with this recipe from Free to Feast. I hulled & quartered all the strawberries and then followed Free to Feast's directions for the honey, water, gelatin mixture- except I quadrulped it: 4 c. water, 1 c. honey, 4 packets unflavored gelatine (heating over low heat for about 5 minutes til dissolved). I then added this to the strawberries, but I could tell right away I had too much water in there.

I simmered those berries for hours & hours, trying to get the whole thing to "reduce". At the point when I could tell they had gone completely soft I used a hand blender to mash it all up in the pot & kept on cooking. I was sure this was never going to set- it also needed more sweetness so I added an additional 1/2 cup of honey. At this point I could have kept it as strawberry syrup, but I took out a cup of the sauce, allowed it to cool and dissolved 4 more packets of gelatine in it, and then added that back into the pot, simmering for a while longer.

Oh, and I did have one boil over with this- what a sticky mess! I'm not sure if this burner on my glass top stove will ever be the same! Since it was still so thin when cooled, I thought use it as syrup on pancakes. I let it cool on the stove and then placed it in plastic containers for the freezer (no more glass if you read my post from last week!). Imagine my surprise when the next day I pulled them out of the fridge to go in the freezer & behold, it was jelled up. Strawberry jam!

Besides the usual bread applications for this, try a few spoonfuls in your fruit smoothies! It also works great to flavor plain yogurt. So, if I was going to do this again:
6 lbs. strawberries, hulled & quartered
3 c. water or white grape juice
1 to 1 1/2 c. honey (use less if using grape juice)
8 packets unflavored gelatine (4 if you want syrup)

Place strawberries in extra large pot. Mix water or juice, honey and gelatin in pot & heat on low over stove until dissolved. Pour over strawberries & mix well. Bring to boil over medium heat (watch closely!) then reduce heat to low & simmer for several hours. When strawberries are completely soft use hand blender to mash into mixture. Allow to cool, then transfer to containers. Freeze whatever will not be used within 2 weeks.

Enjoy!
Lisa

Loving Our Greens!

2010-05-25T22:47:00.000-07:00

This post is a part of Real Food Wednesdays and Pennywise Platter Thursdays.

I told you yesterday how I tried and failed with rainbow chard, now let me share with you some great ways of getting your green on using kale and spinach!

I had read about Kale Chips and I thought, "My family would never even go near something like that." However, my daughter is on an eating plan right now that requires two meals a day to have at least two servings of green vegetables. After burning out on the usual suspects, it was time to venture into new territory. When I told my daughter what I was making she said, "NO! Don't make kale! I hate kale!" After I assured her that she didn't have to like it, she just had to be open minded and try it, she calmed down. And when she actually did try it, she loved it. She now asks for kale chips everyday! The taste is similar to popcorn or if you use spinach I think it tastes like pumpkin seeds. If you use spinach and kale both, do them in different batches or use separate trays because of the different cooking times.

Kale (or Spinach) Chips
1 bunch kale (or spinach) I use a half a bunch each time
1 Tbsp. olive oil
1 tsp. salt

Pre-heat oven to 350. You're going to need to de-vein the kale: just run a sharp knife along either side of the main stem & remove. Tear the leaves into bite size pieces (about 2" square or smaller) and place in colander (or salad spinner) to wash.

Wash & dry kale, then place in single layer on a parchment paper lined cookie sheet. I used a kitchen oil spritzer to evenly distribute oil on the kale (mine is from Pampered Chef but you can find similar items here or here on Amazon). I took about a teaspoon of sea salt in my hand and rubbed my hands together all over the kale to evenly salt it.

Place in the oven and bake for about 8 - 10 minutes or until crisp (if using spinach you will need to cook it for closer to 15 minutes). Watch carefully when it's getting close to time- burnt ones don't taste good!

Eat them up! (about 2 - 4 servings depending on if you eat them like I do or my daughter does!)

My parchment paper is a little dark because I was reusing a sheet I had made something else on previously (cookies I believe). Here is a great tip for you: because I used half of the bunch of kale, I saved the parchment paper & reused it the next day to make the second batch with the other half of the kale. Now, wait- don't throw the paper away yet! Make yourself a batch of Sourdough Cracker dough and roll it right out onto the parchment paper. You see, after a couple of batches the paper has the perfect amount of extra oil & salt on it for your crackers. I wanted to use up more of my spinach (I had several bunches) so before I rolled it out I tore some spinach into pieces & incorporated it into the dough.

If you were making these for your family you would probably want to chop it a little more finely- but these were for me & I didn't mind (plus I'm lazy- ha!). Bake as normal- the crackers are salted from underneath! These were great!

I didn't stop there though. Last time I had a bag of basil I had more than I was ready to use then, so I measured out the amount of leaves needed for a batch of Spinach Basil Pesto and put it in bags right into the freezer. I was ready to make pesto this week so a day or two earlier I got a bag of basil out of the freezer to thaw & then put those leaves right into the food processor. They don't look pretty then, but once everything mixes together you can't tell anything is different. I didn't have any pine nuts for my pesto, so I decided to use pecan pieces instead. I may do that from now on- have you seen how expensive pine nuts are? Wow!

Those spinach crackers taste awesome dipped in Spinach Basil Pesto- yum! Now I'm really getting my green on- but wait, I'm not done yet! (It's fun to sound like an infomercial sometimes...)

Don't forget about throwing a few fresh spinach leaves into your smoothies. If you've got some spinach or kale that is about to go bad you can do this: lightly steam them, while still hot put them in the blender along with a few tablespoons of coconut oil (the heat from the leaves melts the oil) and a little bit of milk just to help things move around.

Puree until smooth, pour into an ice cube tray, and place in the freezer. Once they're frozen solid you can put them in a bag in the freezer. Throw one or two into your smoothies for a boost of healthy greens & healthy fat too!

OK, whew! Now I'm done! Did I wear you out too?

Have some fun with greens this week!
Enjoy!
Lisa

P.S. Do you know about the US Wellness Meats Giveaway at Nourishing Days blog? You can enter for a chance to win an $85 gift certificate- yeah & yum!

Pudding & Other Things

2010-05-25T15:04:00.000-07:00

This post is a part of Tuesday Twister at GNOWFGLINS.

I have tried out several new recipes in the past week & while I won't share all of them with you now, I will be soon! The first one was Andrea's Coconut Milk Vanilla Pudding. I'm normally not one to make pudding because it requires standing & stirring over the stove: I'm too much of a multi-tasker to stand for that! (Translation: I walk away from the stove & it burns or curdles.) But for the sake of my son, who loves vanilla pudding, I gave it a go.

First you combine 3 Tbsp. honey, 1 Tbsp. arrowroot, and a dash of salt in a small pan. Whisk in 1 can of regular coconut milk and one egg yolk.
You bring it to a simmer, stirring & scraping constantly, over medium high heat, then reduce to medium and continue cooking & stirring til pudding "coats the back of a spoon" (I never can tell what that means, but since she also said "two minutes" I just did that).

I think I stopped cooking mine too soon because it never did thicken up (I thought it would set up in the fridge). It was very tasty, but my son rejected it because of the coconut flavor. Oh well, more for me! It was quite sweet & next time I will try dropping the amount of honey down to 2 Tbsp.

Makes 4 servings. Now if I was really cool these would have been in matching containers, but since I was behind on the dishes then you get what you get!

I have also been trying out some new recipes for different greens this week: kale, spinach, even rainbow chard (which I had never tasted or bought before in my life).

I didn't buy that much- just once bunch. Photo credit to Alex (eflon)

I ordered the greens from our produce co-op and went right over to allrecipes.com to see what I could find. I tried two different highly rated recipes with the chard and have to tell you that both of those were rejects- no more chard! But I found a way of cooking kale (or spinach) that my daughter loves & now she is actually asking me to cook kale everyday- seriously! Who would have thought? I will share more of our "green" adventures tomorrow.

For my final Tuesday Twister thought, I'd like to share a picture with you that I will entitle "I thought it wouldn't happen to me"

This picture was taken in my freezer. This is my chicken broth. Do you see the little shards of glass next to the container? Yes, I thought it wouldn't happen to me. I had heard stories of glass shattering in the freezer, but I thought if I left enough room for expansion everything would be fine... Maybe I didn't leave enough room this time. This could be interesting, I imagine when I thaw it I will put it in a fine strainer & catch any glass shards? Or do you think it's not worth it?

Here's hoping you enjoy your kitchen adventures this week!
Lisa

P.S. You'll notice over on the right hand side of my blog is a white box that says "Feeling Overwhelmed?" and it links to the ecourse at GNOWFGLINS. This is different than the Online Cooking Class from the Nourished Kitchen, whose banner is running at the top of my blog.

Wardeh (of GNOWFGLINS) has felt compelled to offer her ecourse on a donation only basis. This is a step of faith that I highly respect, and I hope that everyone who takes her course realizes the hours and hours of her time that she has put into the curriculum. Blessings Wardeh!

Tortilla Beef Skillet

2010-05-18T23:35:00.000-07:00

This post is a part of Real Food Wednesday.
And Pennywise Platter Thursday

I'm sharing with you a simple recipe, tasty, as well as being another great way to use up failed or funky tortillas. Sorry, no pictures because we dug into it too fast & the leftovers just did not take a pretty picture- but this recipe is a real family pleaser anyways!

Tortilla Beef Skillet
1 lb. ground beef (could reduce to 3/4 lb. & increase beans to economize)
2 c. kidney beans (preferably dried, soaked, cooked, but 1 can would work too)
3/4 c. salsa (can increase depending on how spicy your family likes it)
1 c. water
4 flour tortillas, torn into 1" pieces
1 c. shredded cheese
optional: 1/3 c. sour cream, 1/3 c. chopped green onions, chopped avocado or tomatoes

Brown meat in large skillet, drain grease (I never need to do this anymore- is it the cast iron or the grass fed beef?)
Stir in beans, salsa and water. Bring to boil & simmer for 5 minutes. Stir in tortillas & top with cheese. Since I used a cast iron pan I turned on the oven to broil and put the pan in for a few minutes so the cheese would have a nice toasted look. Add optional toppings either before serving or on individual plates.

You can serve this as is, or on a bed of shredded lettuce, similar to a taco salad. Now that would probably have been a pretty picture! :)

Enjoy!
Lisa

Dressing & Sauce

2010-05-18T17:36:00.000-07:00

This post is a part of Tuesday Twister at GNOWFGLINS.

I'd like to share with you a couple of things that have been twisting in my kitchen this week. First of all, I finally found a homemade "Ranch" type dressing that I like. Before I went all "real food" there was always a bottle of Ranch salad dressing in our refrigerator. The whole family preferred it over anything else. That is, until I discovered all the nasty stuff they put in there (even organic ones). I've tried to make my own a few times with less than stellar reviews, but this time I combined the elements from different dressing recipes & I was very satisfied with the results.

Creamy Ranch Style Dressing
1/2 c. plain whole milk yogurt or sour cream
1/3 c. buttermilk
3 T. mayonnaise
1/2 tsp. lemon juice
1 tsp. Dijon mustard
1/4 tsp. onion powder
1/4 tsp. minced garlic
1/2 tsp. dried chives (or 1 Tbsp. chopped fresh)
1/4 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. dried dill
1/2 tsp. dried parsley
1/8 tsp. pepper

Mix ingredients together in a bowl with a fork and then whisk to combine completely. Lasts about one week.

I also made another batch of my Homemade Barbecue Sauce.

The first time I had made it using soy sauce, and this time I used apple cider vinegar. It is really good either way. Even my ultra-picky 11 year old said it was yummy & wanted extra for dipping in. It could be a little less sweet, so next time I may try decreasing the honey & see how we like it. Even though my directions suggest making it 24 hours ahead of time, I had not planned ahead so I made it moments before I put it on top of some organic chicken legs & tossed them in the oven to bake. No problem! I'm using the rest of it today to marinate some steaks.

Enjoy!
Lisa

Your Own Real Food Tutor!

2010-05-16T21:24:00.000-07:00

Did you see the latest update from Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution? Watch his video update & notice he closes it by saying, "The one thing that makes a tangible real difference is food education and knowing how to cook real food. It will change your life."

Have you heard the buzz about several real food e-courses that are opening up right now? I wanted to let you know about "How to Cook Real Food" from the Nourished Kitchen.

Jenny, of the Nourished Kitchen, says this: It seems simple enough. Eat real food. Cook from scratch. Shop locally. But how do you make it happen in your own kitchen? Especially those of us who never learned how to cook — we were raised on microwave suppers, boxed cereals and toaster pastries. We all face the challenges of a modern life – balancing work and parenthood, all the while trying to feed our families healthier meals.

Jenny is going to walk you step by step through several things. You can see a list what the classes will cover here. She will cover things like: making your own bread, fermenting vegetables, giving up white sugar (!), and other great skills to advance you in your kitchen. By the way, all the pictures in this post are taken from The Nourished Kitchen- so beautiful!

"How to Cook Real Food" is only $120 if you pay in advance- that's less than $10 per class! Or you can choose to pay in 4 payments of $35 each. Classes start June 1st, so enrollment is only available until May 31st- hello, that's less than 2 weeks away- so don't put this off!

Click here to see the promotional video. Then be sure to click back to sign up for the course from my blog (if you would like to help support my blogging: I get a commission when you enroll). Click here to sign up for the e-course "How to Cook Real Food" from the Nourished Kitchen.

Next week I will let you know more about Wardeh's upcoming e-courses at GNOWFGLIN's.

Enjoy!
Lisa

When Life Gives You Bad Apples...

2010-05-13T13:59:00.000-07:00

My kids have absolutely no interest in apples that are soft, puckered skin, or with blemishes- oh, how we are spoiled now aren't we? We are so used to the "perfect" food presented in the grocery store that we really will tolerate nothing less. But I digress! When life gives you bad apples... make applesauce! It really was so easy- you should try it!

Applesauce
makes about 4 cups of applesauce, you can adjust to recipe to make more or less!
about 6 apples
1/4 c. water
2 Tbsp. lemon juice
1/2 - 1 Tbsp. maple syrup (depending on how sweet your apples are, or how sweet you like it)
sprinkle of cinnamon

Put water, lemon juice, maple syrup and cinnamon in your cooking pot, stir. Chop the apples into about 1" pieces (I did not peel them, you may, but you might be surprised how easily those peels blend into the finished sauce- so try it without). As you chop each apple, toss it into the cooking pot & stir to coat the pieces (the lemon juice will keep them from turning brown as you chop more).
Heat to boiling, them reduce to simmer for a few hours, or until very, very soft. (Yummy smells in your kitchen!) Remove from heat & allow to cool slightly. Toss it all into your food processor (or blender) and blend to desired texture.

Can you see any apple peel in there? Nope!

I found a few more apples that were less-than-perfect and I decided to make Apple Oven Pancakes. I am not sure where I printed this recipe from, but I have adjusted it to include soaking of the flour. If you want to shorten your morning prep time (like I did) and don't mind heating your oven twice, you can cook the apples the day before. I also combined the remaining batter ingredients in a jar, shook it up to mix, and put it in the fridge to make my morning even quicker!

Apple Oven Pancakes

about 6 servings

1 c. buttermilk (or plain yogurt thinned with milk)

2/3 c. whole wheat flour

*12-24 hours before baking, combine buttermilk & flour in blender (gently). Let soak til ready to cook.

4 Tbsp. butter

2 apples, sliced very thin (peeling optional)

Preheat oven to 425. While oven is heating place butter in 9x13 pan & put in oven to melt. Once melted, place apple slices evenly across bottom of pan. Bake in oven for about 10 minutes.

4 large eggs

2 Tbsp. honey

2 Tbsp. raw sugar (if using tart apples)

1 tsp. vanilla

1/2 tsp. salt

1/4 tsp. cinnamon

Add these ingredients to the flour/buttermilk mixture in the blender and blend to combine. Pour over apples in dish. Bake for 20 minutes. Pancake will be very tall & puffed up when you first remove it from the oven, but will collapse back down after cooling slightly. Slice & serve with applesauce or maple syrup.

Hmm, not the most flattering picture, but we were headed on a train trip that day & I didn't have time to make a pretty picture! If you plan ahead you only need to spend 5 minutes in the morning on this (plus oven preheat time & bake time- but you can be getting ready then) plus you get more protein than a regular pancake too.

And just for fun, here's a picture from our trip to Seattle that day. My son trying to get a good view from the top of the Space Needle- using the telescope backwards of course. ;)

Enjoy!

Lisa

This post is a part of The Nourishing Gourmet's Pennywise Platter Thursday.

Foodie Blogroll

2010-05-11T14:25:00.000-07:00

Hooray! This blog has been approved for the Foodie Blogroll- another way of letting people know my blog is out there & helping readers find more "foodie" blogs. Check out the new little widget on the bottom right of my blog. Makes me happy! :)

Tortillas 6 Lisa 0

2010-05-11T13:40:00.000-07:00

I have tried to make tortillas about 5 or 6 times, I'm guessing. A few times just "soaked" whole wheat, and a few times with sourdough starter. I have never been really successful at it. Sometimes, like the last batch I had, the dough is so sticky or fragile that if I try to roll it thin enough it ends up falling apart on the way to the pan. Sometimes the dough was great, but the end product was not pliable at all. And every time, whether I've fried them in oil or used a dry pan, the oil that ends up in the air while I'm cooking them gives me a headache.

This picture really does not do justice to the disaster that was my latest attempt at making tortillas. The batch on the left was thin enough, however, they were falling apart in the pan & had holes. I was getting so frustrated with them that I decided I had to leave them thicker & that is the batch on the right. They actually ended up reminding me of the flat bread eaten in Rwanda, called chapati.

What do you do when you end up with strange fat tortillas? You go ahead & make easy chicken enchiladas from the Musings of a Housewife blog anyway! We actually make enchiladas in Rwanda using chapati & it's one of our favorite meals.

They don't look pretty but they taste just fine! This is a great recipe to use some of the chicken meat after you've roasted a chicken & pulled the meat off before (or after) making your bone broth. (By the way, the nice thing about making the crock pot roast chicken I told you about last week is that the meat is already falling off the bones, so I got most of the meat off the bird before I boiled it.) I didn't have any cream for this recipe, so I used some creme fraiche instead.

All's you have to do is just mix the meat with some salsa (and I like to add sour cream or creme fraiche and this time I threw in some black beans too), dip your tortilla in the cream, roll it up around some of the meat mixture, throw a bunch of shredded cheese on top & bake. Super easy & good (even with crazy tortillas)!

What else can you do with crazy too thick tortillas? Make them into individual pizzas & warm in a 425 oven til cheese melts. It's a soft "pizza" but it works & is especially great in a pinch for another quick dinner.

So, at least for a while now, I am done with my attempts at making homemade tortillas. I bought some sprouted tortillas from the Ezekiel bread company & we'll have to see how those are. My husband also really likes the sprouted bread I bought from Nature Bake bakery (their bakery store is only about 30 minutes away & you can buy frozen bread in bulk for about $2.50 a loaf). I still have my sourdough starter going though, so I have not completely thrown the towel in... stay tuned!

Here's hoping all your kitchen adventures today are successful!
Enjoy-
Lisa

This post is a part of Tuesday Twister at GNOWFGLINS.

Butternut Squash

2010-05-04T23:16:00.000-07:00

I know this is May, and it is spring (although here in the NW it is not being very spring-like!) But I have had a butternut squash sitting on top of my fridge for at least a month now, waiting for me to use it. Butternut squash is something new to me- I don't think we ever ate it growing up.

I was trying out some recipes from the Traditional Foods Menu Mailer and one of them is Veggie-Heavy Chili, which includes half of a butternut squash. I was actually surprised when my family liked this recipe! (We are not ones to be fans of "different" ways of using food- like sweet potatoes in burritos for example.) So, then the question is, what to do with the other half of the squash? The menu mailer suggests squash oven fries, but I tried it & that falls under the not fans of "different" ways of using food category. Instead, I felt like having some squash pancakes for breakfast.

And now here is some exciting news for me- I tried & successfully adapted a recipe to "soaking" for the first time! I have preferred to let others test & try converting recipes before this, but I got brave & it worked! (I think pancakes are probably a pretty safe bet for converting to soaking.) I found this pumpkin pancake recipe and modified a few things. The pancakes were great & even my 6 year old liked them!

First I took my peeled & cut up butternut squash, put it in a covered pan on the stove with a little bit of water & about a tablespoon of coconut oil. I boiled the water to steam the squash for several minutes (until very soft), then drained the remaining water & pureed the squash in the blender. This makes 2 c. of puree, set aside 1 c. for another recipe (like muffins).

Squash (or Pumpkin) Pancakes
2 c. flour
1 1/2 c. buttermilk
*12-24 hours beforehand, combine these two ingredients & cover

1 c. squash or pumpkin puree
1 t. cinnamon
1/2 t. ginger
1/8 t. nutmeg
2 T. raw sugar, honey, or maple syrup
2 t. baking powder
1 t. baking soda
1/2 t. salt
1 egg
2 T. melted coconut oil

When you're ready to make the pancakes stir in all remaining ingredients to the soaked flour/buttermilk mixture. Our family likes thin pancakes (not fluffy) so I added about 1/2 c. water and 1/2 c. milk to greatly thin out this batter. Heat additional coconut oil in a skillet over medium low heat (you want these to cook all the way through) flipping when bubbles pop.

Serve with maple syrup or Pear Sauce. This makes a lot, so freeze the extras for quick breakfasts on other days (just pop them in the toaster).

With the other 1 c. of squash puree I decided to try Kitchen Stewardship's Pumpkin Muffin recipe. I modifed the amount of sugar & the spices a little bit. First, 24 hours beforehand I combined:
1 2/3 cup white whole wheat flour
1 c. pureed squash
3/4 c. water + 2 Tbs plain yogurt
1/2 c. melted butter

The next day I added:
1/2 c. sugar (original recipe called for 1 c. but that is more than I like for muffins)
2 eggs
1/4 t. baking powder
1 1/2 t. baking soda
3/4 t. salt
1/8 t. ground cloves (original recipe calls for 1/2 t.)
1 t. cinnamon (original recipe calls for 1/2 t.)
1/4 t. nutmeg (original recipe calls for 1/2 t.)
I also sprinkled additional cinnamon sugar on top of the muffins.

I baked them at 325 for 45 minutes. Makes about 16 muffins (filling cups very full). They taste great, but they did fall in the middle. I think it might have something to do with reducing the sugar in the recipe.

Still worth a try though- these are getting gobbled up in my house!

Enjoy!
Lisa

This post is a part of Real Food Wednesday
and Pennywise Platter Thursday.

Tuesday Twister

2010-05-04T12:57:00.000-07:00

This post is a part of Tuesday Twister at GNOWFGLINS.

If you've read the side bar of this blog you know I have a thing about recipes. I like to try new things & keep recipes that I might try for later. This week I decided it was time to go through my collection of recipes that I have been clipping and saving from newspapers and magazines. Some of these are as old as my marriage (18 years!).

Do you see that large file box? That is where I stored all my recipes (sorted by category). And the large pile of papers in front of it is all the recipes I got to recycle! Wow- lots and lots of recipes that require processed food, or unsoaked grains, or refined sugar. I still have quite a few recipes left in there- but my collection is infinitely smaller now. Of course now I'm collecting recipes online too- so my collection grows in different ways...

This week we tried out The Nourishing Cook's Pizza Soup recipe. My chicken stock was thick so our "soup" turned out more like a sauce over homemade croutons. I also used 1 1/2 c. of jarred pasta sauce instead of canned tomato sauce.

With a generous sprinkling of parmesan on top it was nice. But I think what would really make this fantastic would be to include mushrooms with the sauteing of the onion, and then add in sliced olives & organic pepperoni at the end. That would also make it more of a main course than an appetizer/side. Don't keep any leftovers- the bread gets too soggy. Another great way to use up any "failed" sourdough bread you have too!

I also made Passionate Homemaking's Dutch Baby Pancakes. I have made Dutch Babies/Oven Pancakes using the recipe in Nourishing Traditions, but what I liked about this recipe is that it all cooks in one big pan & her recipe doesn't add water which may be why it gets more of a "puff". Great protein breakfast because it has a lot of eggs!

One day we were having roast chicken & I decided to loosen the skin all over the chicken & place Spinach Basil Pesto in between the meat and the skin. I didn't add anything else to the pot & just let it cook on low all day. The chicken was fall-apart-tender by dinner time & very tasty! Plus, it even made some of it's own chicken broth in the bottom of the pot. Serve it with some rice & veggie - dinner is done! Did you know you can use the time bake on your oven to cook rice? I put my soaked rice along with another cup of water & a pat of butter in a covered casserole in the oven. I set the delay bake on the oven so it would cook at 350 for 45 minutes before we were going to have dinner- it worked great!

The other thing I wanted to share with you was that I used Nourishing Traditions Recipe for Yogurt Dough to make a chicken pot pie. I used half of the dough & divided it into half again. Rolled out each of those very thin & used them for the crusts.

I pre-baked the bottom crust (I don't want soggy crust) while I worked on the filling. For the filling I just combined some cooked chicken (from our roasted chicken above) thawed frozen vegetables, about 1/4 c. pasta sauce, 1/4 c. chicken stock (again from roast chicken), and 1/4 c. yogurt. I added some italian seasoning, salt, pepper, and garlic. I forgot how much this dough shrinks- I should have stretched it out further maybe?

this is funny- that crust is seriously unhappy! I should have poked it with a fork to keep it from puffing up...

I added the filling, put the crust over the top, and continued baking at 350. It tasted just as good as other pot pies I've made using store bought pastry crust- so cool! I rolled out the other half of the dough into two more flat sheets (between parchment paper), rolled it all up like a newspaper and froze it so I can use it for other sweet or savory dishes later.

Tomorrow I'll be sharing with you about some butternut squash recipes!

Enjoy!
Lisa

Success with Muffins!

2010-04-28T09:58:00.000-07:00

One of the first things I attempted to bake by "soaking" my flour was the muffin recipe from Nourishing Traditions. I don't know if it was user error, or what exactly happened, but what I ended up with were flat, dry, tasteless muffins. Yuck. I am not a picky eater at all, but I couldn't even eat them. Of course the silver lining in this little story is that in my desire to use those muffins for something (rather than throw them out) I discovered my bread pudding recipe. That recipe has become a staple in my kitchen (partly because it's so good & easy, and partly because I have had so many failed bread attempts!).

Not being one to give up so easy, I decided to try muffins again when I saw Wardeh's recipe for Basic Soaked Muffins. I saw the pictures and the comments, and this made me feel confident that these might work out- and they did! You start by combining 1 1/2 c. flour (it says pastry flour, but all I had was regular whole wheat), 1/2 c. rolled oats, 1 c. milk, and 2 Tbsp. vinegar (I actually used whey, because I have so much after making yogurt cream cheese.)

I let it soak for about 20 hours. To melt the 1/2 c. coconut oil I needed, I placed it in a glass jar inside a pot of water on the stove. In a bowl separate from the flour mixture I whisked together 2 eggs, 1/2 c. turbinado sugar, and 1 t. vanilla. Then I slowly poured in the melted coconut oil, whisking continuously. I added in Wardeh's suggested spices of 2 t. cinnamon, 1 t. ginger, and 1/4 t. nutmeg. At this point I also began preheating the oven to 375.

Now it's time to add the wet ingredients to the flour mixture. Here is what my flour mixture looked like:

Can you see the discoloration that is on the surface? This darkening seems to happen when I soak using cultured dairy (kefir, whey, yogurt, buttermilk) but it doesn't affect the finished product. When I was adding in the egg mixture to the flour, I had a "lightbulb" moment. I decided to finely chop some organic crystallized ginger & add it to the dough. I took two squares (example below) and mixed it in.

And here is what the dough looks like when it is all mixed together (I added 1/2 c. raisins in later to part of the batter).

I didn't have enough muffin liners, so part of the pan I just rubbed generous amounts of coconut oil inside (one of the great things about using coconut oil when you bake is if you get it on your hands you just rub it in! Great moisturizer!) The ones that have no liner are without raisins. I used my cookie scoop to drop a few scoops of batter into each cup.

After baking for 20 minutes I stuck a toothpick in one of them & they were still very wet inside. About another 8 minutes & they were perfect. Everyone in the family liked these. They have a nice risen shape, good flavor (I really liked the ginger), and moist.

This post is a part of Real Food Wednesday at Kelly the Kitchen Kop.

Enjoy!
Lisa

Almond Coconut Milk

2010-04-27T16:29:00.000-07:00

This post is a part of Tuesday Twister at GNOWFGLINS.

I have been buying refrigerated coconut milk to use in our smoothies. At around $4 per half gallon this "milk" is fairly expensive. When I saw the Nourishing Cook's post for Almond Coconut Milk I decided to give that a try sometime. This also ended up being my first attempt at lacto-fermenting anything.

The night before I set 2 c. of raw almonds in a jar, covered them with filtered water, added 2 Tbsp. sea salt (shook to mix) and let it set overnight. The next day I drained them, rinsed them, and put them in my food processor along with 1/2 c. coconut and 1 quart warm water. I blended for a few minutes (this was a bit much for my processor & I had a little leaking out where the lid connects with the container) then let it sit for 10 minutes. I poured this mixture into a colander lined with paper towels that was sitting inside a larger bowl.

Once this has drained you re-blend the almond coconut mixture with another quart of warm water and repeat the draining process. Here you can see my 1st batch of milk in the red pan while the second batch is draining. I think I would like to try cheesecloth next time & see if it doesn't drain easier. I've got this batch pressed down & let it sit for several hours to drain out.

Later I combined both milks, along with 1/4 c. whey, 1/2 tsp. sea salt, 1 tsp. vanilla, and 1/8 c. maple syrup. I tasted it at this point, and while it wouldn't be something I would drink a glass of (neither is commercial coconut milk) it wasn't bad.

The recipe says that this will keep 1 week in the refrigerator, or a month if you lacto-ferment it. I decided to try lacto-fermenting so it would last longer. So my next step was to place the jars (I ended up with a little more than would fit in one jar) up in my cupboard for 48 hours. Here is what they look like after 24 hours.

Layers have seperated and you can see the whey action going up at the top there. Now, here is what it looked like after 48 hours (it grows- watch out!)

Wow! Not pretty curdled looking stuff there at the top, and you get a big whiff of sour. I dumped it all into the blender and pureed to get all those layers mixed up again. Here, it doesn't look so bad, just frothy...

But this is definitely some sour fermented stuff, almost vinegar like. Of course, this is my very first time ever tasting anything lacto-fermented so I may not have acquired the "taste". Since I understand that lacto-fermented things are good for the digestion I have been using this "medicinally". I add about a tablespoon or so to a big batch of smoothies. I can drink a tiny bit if I make myself too.

If you are looking for a milk replacement I would suggest you make this without lacto-fermenting. And do not throw out the finely ground almond/coconut mixture- keep it & use it in granola bars. I used mine in homemade granola, however; I think it would be better suited to granola bars. (Yes, I made Wardeh's soaked granola, but because I added the damp almond/coconut meal it made it more like granola jerky & I don't think I can give a fair report on it- though I am eating it!)

I'm going to try this again soon- let me know if you try it too!
Enjoy!
Lisa

Food Revolution

2010-04-23T13:46:00.000-07:00

Tonight is the final episode of Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution (on ABC). Have you been watching? If you've missed any episodes ABC has them on their website as well. Have you signed the petition that Jamie Oliver is going to deliver to The President? You can pass this website on to your friends or post it on your facebook page. I think everyone should be aware of what is really going into our kids' school lunches (or not going in) and even some small changes would be huge improvements!

I found this interesting article that shows how schools have implemented healthy changes (mainly in snacks/vending machines) and have seen improvements both in revenue as well as in behavior.

Check out this article about the high school in Appleton, Wisconsin that in 1997 dramatically changed the food available in school. What I love is how their "experiment" has clearly shown that changing what we put into our bodies changes how we behave & feel. Suddenly kids were behaving well & learning more- amazing!

We all want what's "best" for our kids. I guess the question is, how hard are we willing to work for it? Are we willing to work on prevention, not just medicating disease? I hope so! And that's why I signed Jamie's petition, because I would love to see some change!

I'll be back next week with some posts on "soaked" muffins & homemade Almond/Coconut milk. Enjoy your weekend!

Lisa

Pear Sauce or Syrup, in your crockpot!

2010-04-22T08:27:00.000-07:00

Sometimes, you can get pears and they are sweet and juicy. Then other times... well, last week was one of those other times. I bought two bags of pears, 6 pounds total, and they were so sour & dry! My husband bit into one & said it was like it was sucking all the moisture out of his mouth! Now what do you do? Well, I have a recipe for making applesauce in the crockpot, and I thought, why not make pear sauce in the crockpot?

Crockpot Pear Sauce (or Syrup)

3 lbs. pears

1/2 c. water

2 Tablespoons lemon juice

1 Tablespoon cinnamon (more or less to taste)

2 Tablespoons maple syrup (1/4 cup if making pear "syrup")

Put water & lemon juice in the crock pot first. As your processing your pears (peeling, coring, slicing thickly) you can drop them into the lemon water so they don't turn brown. After the pears are finished add the cinnamon & syrup, stirring to combine. Cook on low for 6 or more hours. I set mine to cook before I went to bed in the evening.

In the morning follow the wonderful smell to the crock pot. The pears have reduced quite a bit in cooking, look a little watery & everything is brown (from the syrup or the cinnamon? I don't know.) but don't let it worry you!

If you have a stick/immersion blender, it would work great for this. Of course I just used my regular hand blender & it came together well for a "chunky" type sauce. It is still super hot at this point- if you're planning to have it for breakfast you probably want to get up before breakfast to allow this time to cool off. It will also thicken slightly as it cools down.

I would suggest you store this in a glass container in the refrigerator & use within 2 weeks. What really surprised me about this is how sweet it was- wow! I used 1/4 cup of maple syrup because my pears were so tart, but this sauce was so sweet (that's why I call it syrup)! My daughter could eat it straight, but I decided it would be better on pancakes. Both my daughter & I agreed it was great on pancakes (and a lot cheaper than straight maple syrup)! You should also try it mixed with plain yogurt or add some to your smoothies.

This post is a part of Pennywise Platter Thursdays

Enjoy!

Lisa

Cookies... for breakfast?

2010-04-21T00:00:00.000-07:00

If you're of my generation that line may bring back memories of Saturday morning commercials for a certain sugar filled cereal... but what we've got going here is a whole different animal! Last week I had some soured milk that I needed to use up and I felt like making something different for breakfast. I decided to try out the recipe for Breakfast Cookies at Heavenly Homemakers.

Since I started cooking with soaked grains I have been missing cookies something terrible! The only cookie recipes I have found either require sprouted flour or are macaroons (nothing against macaroons, but it's not quite the cookie experience I was craving). The first time I made this recipe I soaked it for 12 hours, the second time was closer to 24 (which is much better for you).

"Soaked" Oatmeal Cookies
Makes about 50 cookies (unless you make giant ones)

The recipe calls for 1 c. melted butter, but I melted 1/2 c. butter with 1/2 c. coconut oil. Stir that together with 2 c. flour and 2 c. oats, then add in about 1/2 to 3/4 c. of buttermilk (I added a tablespoon of kefir to my soured milk to make sure it was cultured). You want to mix well so that everything is moistened & you will have something that is a very thick oatmeal consistency.

Cover and let sit for 12 to 24 hours. For the next step you better get ready, because you are going to get a good arm workout! What was oatmeal consistency has now become much more cement-like! Use a sturdy spoon to start breaking it up. I added the 2 eggs & 1 t. vanilla at this point, as well as 1/2 c. honey (the recipe calls for 3/4 c., but because these were for breakfast I didn't want them too sweet) & I began to work that moisture into the dough.

Eventually it will begin to get smooth and you can add a teaspoon each of salt, cinnamon, and baking soda. Once that is thoroughly mixed in add 1 c. raisins (my raisins were low so I only had 1/2 c.). Preheat your oven to 350 and get out your cookie sheets & parchment paper (optional). I was using a cookie scoop, so my cookies were not "giant" like the original recipe. I filled two very large cookie sheets and baked them one sheet at a time for 15 minutes each.

Oh, my cookie scoop, how I missed you! You have no idea how delighted I was to make cookies again!

If you use the full 3/4 c. honey your cookies will not be as firmly rolled as these are (and when I made almond butter ones they were much looser & spread much more). When they are done you get a light & fluffy cookie. But the real fun was when my daughter (who did not know what was for breakfast) got a whiff of them baking and said, "What is that smell?" When I got to tell her, "Breakfast Cookies," her whole face lit up! Priceless.

These are healthy so if you want to serve them for breakfast, go ahead, but I would use them as a side with some other protein item (bacon & egg, whole milk yogurt, etc.) to really start your day right.

Now we get to have cookies again- hurray! I even made almond butter cookies (with the full 3/4 c. honey) for my husband's birthday celebration & they were well liked. Even with 3/4 c. honey they are still not overly sweet, which is great for us. These are handy for dessert, after school, or as a quick on-the-go snack.

Almond Butter or Peanut Butter Variation: substitute 1 c. almond or peanut butter for the 1 c. butter/coconut oil, omit cinnamon, optional: add 1/2 c. chopped almonds or peanuts
In case you're wondering, I did include the almond butter with the oats & flour that "soaked" for 24 hours. I did not try almond extract instead of vanilla, but you might want to if you're using almond butter. This batter will spread more, so make sure to space them 2" apart on your cookie sheet.

(Suggested) Apple Spice Variation: subsitute 1 c. finely chopped apples for the raisins, add 1/8 to 1/4 t. ground nutmeg (I have not tried this yet but I think it would work great! I'll let you know soon!)

Chocolate or Carob Chip Cookies: this is the one my son can't wait for- use chocolate or carob chips instead of raisins, omit cinnamon (or leave in depending on preference)

Do you have any other ideas for variations on this cookie? How about a tropical version- use 1/2 c. shredded coconut & 1/2 c. tropical dried fruit, instead of raisins, and a different extract instead of vanilla? Have some fun!

Tomorrow will be my post on making homemade pear sauce (or syrup) in the crockpot.
This post is a part of Real Food Wednesday.

Enjoy,
Lisa

P.S. Have you seen Food, Inc? Did you know it is premiering on TV tonight on PBS? Check your local listings, in my area it is on at 9pm. Then watch it, record it, DVR it, or Tivo it. Tweet about it, update your facebook status, email your friends, talk about it and get people watching & learning! If you want to talk about it after you watch it you can visit my Food, Inc. post to comment & discuss there. I am sure that change can happen if people learn & begin to care about what they feed themselves!

Homemade Barbecue Sauce

2010-04-20T10:18:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was my husband's birthday. For his birthday celebration I made him Kimi's "soaked" Brownie Pudding Cake. Sweetened only with honey, but chocolate-y enough to please guests, it was a good choice. No pictures- I was too busy! I also made "soaked" Oatmeal Almond Butter Cookies (cookie post is coming later this week- yeah!) which were a big hit with everyone. For his birthday dinner we had beef short ribs, mashed potatoes, and steamed broccoli with butter and cheese. Our potatoes were mashed with sour cream, butter, and chicken broth. Sprinkle with some salt & pepper = yum! My daughter said, "Take a picture of my plate!" and then leaned in close...

Some people's children are so camera shy...

The ribs were marinated in homemade barbecue sauce for about 18 hours & had a nice flavor. I want to share my sauce recipe with you- I had to hunt on the internet to find one that was sweetened only with honey and didn't include stuff I didn't want (like Worcestershire sauce). I ended up combining a couple different recipes I saw. This recipe will make about 16 servings- enough to marinade meat in & have more for dipping, etc. You may want to make it 24 hours ahead of time to allow the flavors to meld together.

Homemade Barbecue Sauce

1 t. garlic powder

1/2 t. ground ginger

1/2 t. black pepper

1/4 t. chili powder

1/4 t. paprika
2 t. Dijon mustard

2 Tablespoons olive oil

1/2 cup organic or homemade ketchup

1/4 cup organic soy sauce or apple cider vinegar

1/4 cup honey

Whisk all ingredients together. You're done!

Do you have one of these tools? This one is from Pampered Chef, but there is also something similar sold at Bed, Bath & Beyond. This tool is indispensable for me- I use it several times a week for measuring honey, peanut butter, coconut oil- anything that is sticky or hard to get out of a measuring cup. You slide the inner cylinder down to the appropriate measurement, add your ingredients, then push them clean out into your bowl. Just use a scraper to scrape what's left off the end & you've got it all- very easy & accurate. I love it. In fact, I have to get a new one because this one, after years & years of use, is cracked. I just find it so handy I had to tell you about it!

Later this week I will also post about making homemade pear sauce in the crockpot.
This post is a part of Tuesday Twister blog carnival at Gnowfglins.

Enjoy!

Lisa

Spinach Basil Pesto

2010-04-15T23:02:00.000-07:00

This post is a part of Fight Back Friday at Food Renegade.

Do you like pesto? I love pesto! The produce buying group I belong to had some basil last week & I decided it was time to make some homemade pesto. I found this great recipe for Spinach Basil Pesto, which was perfect because I also had some baby spinach in my fridge too. I love this because you just mix it up in your blender (ok, not my blender- it's too wimpy!) or your food processor & it's done.

You start with 1 1/2 cups baby spinach, 3/4 cup fresh basil (I used more), 1/2 cup pine nuts, 1/2 cup grated parmesan, 4 cloves garlic, 3/4 teaspoon salt, 1/2 teaspoon pepper, 1 tablespoon lemon juice, and 2 tablespoons olive oil. The recipe also calls for lemon zest, but I'm not a fan of "zest" so I left it out. You blend it together (it was at this point I realized my blender could not handle this & I transferred it to the food processor), then drizzle in remaining olive oil (about 3/8 cup). OK, it's ready!

What a yummy way to get your greens! We had ours on.... (true confessions time) store bought ravioli. Well, it was organic, but a little too processed for me. But it was my daughter's night to choose what we were eating. Several years ago I got tired of my daughter always complaining about what I was making for dinner (complaining because she wanted what *she* wanted), so we came up with a compromise: one night a week she gets to choose what we have for dinner (no take-out) & the other nights I choose & no complaints!

She does love to cook & wanted to make pizza for lunch a few days later. I made Sarah's Sourdough Pizza Crust and my daughter made all the pizzas- she decided to make an assortment of mini pizzas. We came up with the idea of having pesto chicken pizza (she cut up the leftover Baked Chicken Breasts Supreme). She also made a cheese pizza for her brother and a couple nitrate-free organic pepperoni ones! We put the extra mini pizzas in the freezer so she has meal options for a different day. Since I believe in giving credit where credit is due, I told her she could be in the picture of these awesome pizzas. She jumped at the chance...

)

And, I have one other great way to use pesto that I have to share- it's so good. You take a whole cut up chicken with skin on. Loosen the skin on each piece of chicken and spoon pesto under the skin. Bake in a pan as usual. You will get wonderfully flavored chicken pieces!

Enjoy!
Lisa

Organic Sugar & Raw Honey Give Away

2010-04-14T21:33:00.000-07:00

Just Making Noise blog is having a great give away right now- a box that includes all these products: organic sugar, organic "cow friendly" sweetened condensed milk, and 3 jars of raw organic honey! Sounds delicious! You should go visit her blog- even if you don't win anything you'll enjoy it there! :)

Lisa

Homemade "Soaked" Bagels & Yogurt Cheese

2010-04-13T14:18:00.000-07:00

This post is linked up with Cutting Back on Sugar on Naturally Knocked up
and Pennywise Platter Thursday at The Nourishing Gourmet.

I stopped buying bagels in the store a long time before I ever stopped buying bread. The reason is that my daughter loves them & will eat them all day. It seemed like a lot of empty calories & sugars for her so I just stopped buying them. But as we struggle to find things for my daughter to take in her lunches (she's picky) I decided to make some bagels for us all. I had made homemade bagels once before, a long time ago, and it really is not too hard. This time I used the recipe from Passionate Homemaking soaked grains & no added sugar equals bagels I can feel good about.

First you mix 1 cup warm water, 2 Tbsp. acid medium (I used kefir), 1/4 cup honey & 4 1/4 cups whole wheat flour. I had to use a fork because this is a lot of flour relative to not much liquid. After a while of mixing I pressed the dough down (trying to get all the flour in contact with the moisture) covered it and let it "soak" for 12 hours.

When I was ready to make the bagels I combined 2 Tbsp. of yeast, 1/2 cup warm (100-120 degrees) water, and a dab of honey & let it "puff" for about 5 minutes. DO NOT use a 1 cup measuring cup to do this in! I turned around to do some dishes & when I turned back around I saw this!

OK, well we know that yeast is active! I tossed the soaked flour mixture into the bowl of my Kitchenaid mixture. You can see, it is very dry, but I think that's how it has to be...

Because once I added the yeast mixture (and 1 Tbsp. salt) I got a dough that was really very...

STICKY! I added about a 1/2 c. of spelt flour to it & kneaded it for several minutes. It did eventually become more of a dough, though still very sticky. I wanted this dough to rise quickly, so I put it in the oven with the light on & a pot of just boiled water. After two hours my dough had risen well.

Time to punch down the dough & since I wanted cinnamon raisin bagels I added about a teaspoon of cinnamon & 1/4 cup of raisins at this point. The dough is still very sticky, but I did not want to add more flour. If your dough is sticky I would suggest oiling your hands very well (I used olive oil). After kneading in the cinnamon & raisin I picked up the dough & split it into half, then each of those into half, then each of those into thirds (making 12 balls). I laid them out on the same oiled plastic wrap I had used to cover my dough while it was rising (oh yes, I reuse around here- a lot!)

While those are resting I've already got out my big skillet & started the water boiling. I purposefully used this one, with the most surface area, because I wanted to be able to cook several at once. Lindsay says to cook 2 or 3 at a time, but I just don't listen. I am either lazy or I love being super efficient- or both! After 5 minutes you then poke a hole in the middle of the balls & let them rest for another 10 minutes. You can see mine are kind of wonky- but that doesn't bother me!

While they're resting you can also start pre-heating your oven to 350. Hopefully by now your water is at a good boil. Cooking them first in the boiling water is what gives bagels their characteristic "chewy" texture. I cooked them for about 45 seconds to 1 minute on each side, and drained them on a wire rack. A lot of the raisins fell out of the dough in the water, but when I had boiled all the bagels I just used the spatula to strain the raisins out of the water & poked them back into the bagels.

They were still very soft so I carefully transferred them onto a piece of parchment paper on a cookie sheet.* I did not do the egg white glaze. I'd rather not mess with an egg white, and they are fine without it, just not shiny. After baking for 35 minutes they are done (and your kitchen smells wonderful). The instructions are to flip them half way through, but my cookie sheet is insulated so I don't need to. They aren't the prettiest things ever but they are very tasty!

*I always use parchment paper on my cookie sheets because I'm sure they are aluminum & I don't want aluminum touching my food. And did you know you can reuse parchment paper? Oh yes you can! Since most things just slide right off you can keep reusing that parchment paper until it turns a dark brown. I do this with my bread pans too- parchment paper makes getting the bread out so easy.

Have you made yogurt "cheese" before? You just line a strainer with coffee filters, put it inside a larger bowl, and pour the yogurt in. After a few hours the whey is strained out (save this in your refrigerator & use for soaking grains) and you are left with something very close to cream cheese. I had put a large container of yogurt in my freezer (it was about to go bad & I didn't have time to use it up). A few days ago I pulled it out so it could thaw in the refrigerator before I used it to make a wonderful creamy yogurt "cheese". I like to put a couple spoonfuls of yogurt cheese in a small cup & then dip bits of bagel in there. For my daughter I mixed the yogurt cheese up with some fruit syrup (frozen fruit cooked with maple syrup, leftover from breakfast). And then I had a craving for ginger- so I took some candied ginger (ok, I confess there's some organic sugar in there), minced it & mixed it in with the yogurt cheese- that tasted awesome with a cinnamon raisin bagel!

Good stuff!
Enjoy!
Lisa

Baked Chicken Breasts Supreme & "Soaked" Biscuits

2010-04-12T23:50:00.000-07:00

When I cut up the chicken I found I had quite a bit of boneless chicken breast meat. I decided to pull out a recipe that has been one of the "regulars" in my kitchen. The marinade makes the chicken very moist- you just have to make sure you plan ahead because it marinates overnight (for best results).

Baked Chicken Breasts Supreme

1 1/2 cups plain yogurt or sour cream (I prefer sour cream)

1/4 c. lemon juice

**original recipe calls for Worcestershire- which has corn syrup & other nasties- any suggestions?**

1/2 teaspoon celery seed*

1/2 t. salt *I had celery salt, not seed, so I used 1 t. of celery salt instead of 1/2 t. seed & 1/2 t. salt

1/2 teaspoon paprika

1 clove garlic, minced

1/4 teaspoon pepper

8 boneless skinless chicken breast halves

2 cups fine dry bread crumbs (make your own by tearing bread, toasting in oven, and pulsing in food processor)

optional: garlic powder, onion powder, oregano, basil leaves

The night before: In a large bowl combine first 8 ingredients (everything except chicken). Place chicken in mixture & turn to coat. Cover & marinate overnight in the refrigerator.

Meal night: Pre-heat oven to 350. Remove chicken from marinade & coat each piece with crumbs

(I wanted to add some spice to my bread crumbs, so I mixed in a pinch of garlic powder, onion powder, organo, and I had some fresh basil leaves so I snipped some in there too, parmesan cheese would also be good in there).

Arrange in oiled baking pan & bake, uncovered, for 45 minutes or until juices run clear.

I believe this recipe was originally in "Taste of Home" magazine

Simple as that! Our dinner included salad and a "soaked" biscuit. When she tasted the biscuits my 11 year old daughter said, "These taste like Pillsbury. I know coming from you that wouldn't be a compliment, but it is coming from me." She is so funny! I used this recipe from Heavenly Homemakers.

First you combine 3 cups flour with 1 cup buttermilk. You will probably want to use a fork to mix, because the mixture is fairly dry/tough to mix- at least mine was, it's in the bowl up front:

The bowl in the back was a steel-cut oats pancake experiment & that failed- but I'm sparing you the gory details on that!

I let this "soak" for about 16 hours, then added the 2 t. baking powder and 1 t. sea salt, plus 1/2 cup melted butter. After mixing all that in I got a nice dough that looked like this:

The great thing about this dough is with plenty of fat it was very easy to work with, not sticky at all. I put it directly onto my counter (no added flour), patted it to about 3/4 inch thick, cut out biscuits, and put them all onto a piece of parchment paper directly on the oven rack for my toaster oven!

After baking at 400 for 20 minutes they were done. They seemed a little dry so I spread more butter on top while they were hot. They were very tasty & I am going to have the leftovers for breakfast tomorrow with some eggs and sausage too! Yum!

Enjoy!

Lisa

This post is a part of Real Food Wednesday at Kelly the Kitchen the Kop

Honey Dijon Chicken

2010-04-11T19:34:00.000-07:00

This post is a part of Tuesday Twister Blog Carnival at GNOWFGLINS

It used to be that boneless skinless chicken breasts were the majority of our chicken meals. Since I started insisting on humanely farmed chickens I have been buying whole chickens & roasting them. This month I felt like something besides the same old roast chicken. I decided to try my hand at cutting up the chicken, and I also happened to see a couple of different blog posts recently about cutting up your own chicken.

However, when I went to cut up my chicken, I did not have any of that information in front of me. I can't exactly cut up a chicken on my desk. (Has anyone invented a laptop computer that installs under your kitchen cabinets? I think they really should- and make sure I get credit for the idea!) Plus my son was using the computer, and I decided to let him stay occupied while I hacked my way into this chicken! I got the wings and drumsticks off, that was easy enough. But after that I kept flipping the bird over & over- everything looked the same. I also got off - what are those? thighs? drumettes? And I cut the breast meat off (quite a bit there). I am not sure what all I did to this poor chicken, but I think it may be a crime somewhere...

What you see in the glass jar there in a honey Dijon marinade/cooking sauce. Last time I made Honey Baked Chicken* for dinner there was plenty of sauce left in the pan, so I froze it & reused it one more time for this dinner. I've had this recipe for a long time- it is so good & so easy. A great company dish as well because it fills your home with yummy smells! (My daughter actually asked, "Who's coming over?" when she smelled it baking.)

Honey Baked Chicken
4 Tablespoons butter (1/2 stick)
1/2 cup honey
1 Tablespoon Dijon mustard
1 teaspoon curry powder
1 teaspoon salt
3 whole bone-in chicken breasts, halved (OK, this is funny- how many chickens have 3 breasts? HA!) OR
one 3 1/2 lb fryer (cut) OR boneless skinless chicken breasts

1. Turn on oven to 350. In a 9x13 dish, melt butter in oven (while it is pre-heating). Remove dish & mix in honey, mustard, curry, & salt.
2. Coat chicken pieces in butter mixture. Bake skin side down 30 minutes. Flip pieces & bake for 20 to 30 minutes more until browned (optional: basting occasionally- I never do though). Reduce cooking time if using boneless chicken breasts.

*I think this recipe may have originally come from menu mailer @ Saving Dinner...

This is all I have to show you, because my family dug into it before I could get the camera out. Some suggested go-alongs for this are green beans & cornbread (with honey butter) or salad & scalloped potatoes. There is a super easy recipe for Cream Scalloped Potatoes at Heavenly Homemakers. You will not believe how easy they are- just cream & potatoes- and my husband said they are "delectable"! You could cook them at the same time/temp as the chicken & they should all be ready at the same time.

That same night I started marinating the chicken breasts for dinner the next night. First I pounded them down (thinner pieces cook faster & also makes for more servings). The recipe for Baked Chicken Breasts Supreme is another favorite of our family & great for company because the marinade makes the chicken really moist. And making your own bread crumbs is another great use for failed (sourdough) bread! I will share that recipe with you in my next post!

Enjoy,
Lisa

Homemade "Mounds" or "Almond Joy" Candy

2010-04-08T14:52:00.000-07:00

The other day my husband came home from work & saw my computer open to a page on The Nourishing Gourmet that featured a picture of her homemade "Mounds" candy. Right away hubby started talking about how good they looked- and when I looked at the ingredients I thought, "I can make those!" So I did :) Have you tried them yet? If you like coconut & chocolate- you must! They are UH-MAZE-ING! If I had an award to give, I would certainly give her one for this recipe.

I used a mini muffin pan, so the recipe made 24 candies. I used 2 "crispy" almonds in each one (you could do 3, or use chopped), so you would need at least 48 almonds this way. Here's my 1 1/3 coconut in the bowl (I used unsweetened shredded instead of flaked) along with the teaspoon almond extract and 1/4 c. honey & 1/2 c. coconut oil that I melted in pot of hot water. You don't have to use muffin liners & may not want to- I will go into that more... Using almonds make these more of an "Almond Joy", but because it is a dark chocolate, not milk chocolate, it's kind of a "Mounds" & "Almond Joy" hybrid.

OK, so my 6 year old son is a camera fiend & he took this picture of me furiously stirring up my coconut/honey/oil mixture (and then he took 20 of the dog). Sometimes his pictures actually turn out & I am so thankful for the "delete" button on digital cameras (as well as the fact that the sink of dirty dishes is behind me where you can't see it)!

Here is the coconut mixture sitting on top of the almonds. Next it goes into the freezer for 30 minutes, and you can work on the chocolate mixture (or spend some time deleting pictures from your digital camera).

Here is the coconut oil, tablespoon vanilla, scant 1/4 c. honey and 3/4 c. cocoa powder getting mixed together. I want you to know I was almost out of coconut oil, so I only used 3/4 c. instead of the 1 c. called for & it still turned out great. In fact this chocolate mixture is more than great, it's so-good-I-have-to-lick-the-bowl-clean great!

Oh yeah! There it is- can you believe that ingredients this simple can make something this awesome? Now, if you are using paper liners you have an extra step here- you have to remove the paper liners before you put the chocolate layer on- you see the cups are so full that the chocolate will run over the top & around your paper liners. Not good. So, why use paper liners? Well, if you notice in my picture below my candies ended up looking "chocolate dipped" because the paper liners are smaller than the muffin cups, they freeze that way & then the chocolate goes all around them. So, if that look is important to you- go for it- otherwise skip the paper liners! By the way, if you use a tablespoon to measure the chocolate mixture on each candy it should work out just right. Freeze for another 30 minutes or so, wait patiently, until...

My husband took one bite of these and said, "These are way better than Almond Joy!" My daughter (11 year old milk-chocolate-loving-sweet-toothed one) said, "These aren't sweet enough" and as she was finishing it she said, "Can I have another one?" LOL- yes! Kimi says to store these in the freezer but we put them in a container & they store well in the refrigerator.

WARNING: these candies may cause serious cravings & consuming thoughts of... MORE!

Enjoy!
Lisa

This post is a part of Fight Back Friday at Food Renegade

Grrr granola & bread... yeah crackers!

2010-04-06T10:42:00.000-07:00

This post is a part of Tuesday Twister at Gnowfglins
and Real Food Wednesday at Kelly the Kitchen Kop

I want to tell you that I have a love/hate relationship with granola. Before I started soaking all my grains I loved granola for breakfast. Plain yogurt, honey, raisins and granola all together was sheer bliss for me! I have not had granola for a while now, but with some yogurt in my fridge and some Soaked and Ready Oats left from my adventures in No Bake Granola Bars, I decided it was time to bring back some bliss by making granola! Fool that I am! You see the hate part with granola is I hate to make it. I always burn it--- grrr!

One thing I've learned about granola is that if you use maple syrup instead of honey (or a mix there of) it will not burn as quickly as it does with just honey. So, I found an old recipe I had for granola & instead of honey I used maple syrup. Now, let me share with you some more lessons I've learned about granola:

Isn't that a cute little batch of granola in my cute new toaster oven? I had just enough oats for a half batch...

Granola has to be babysat. Do not think you can get your granola going inside your oven & then go put your son to bed- the same son who will not stay in his bed long enough to fall asleep unless you lay there with him. Especially do not do this if you are using a recipe that calls for baking at 350 and stirring every 10 minutes. Try a lower temperature! I started the granola, stirred after 10 minutes & then went in with my son- peeling myself away after what I thought was 10 minutes...

I don't know if you can tell from this picture very well- but I came back to a tray full of smoking granola! Don't you hate it when you burn food? I mean really, if I'm going to do that, why don't I just save myself a whole lot of work & throw my money directly into the trash, right? Part of the reason why this burned has to do with another granola lesson:

Make sure the granola is in an EVEN layer. You see, it started out nice & even, but when I stirred it the first time I just left it uneven & lumpy. The thin areas are where it burnt first. I did manage to salvage a little bit of granola off the top. Enough for about two servings- so here it is...

A little too much of a "roasted" flavor, but not bad. As soon as I can get to the store to buy more oats I am going to try Wardeh's recipe for raw soaked granola. I don't have a dehydrator & the lowest my oven goes is to 170, so it won't be "raw" but I think I will use a temp of about 250 & take it slow. Hopefully I will have a happier story to tell you soon!

Now, I know most food blogs post wonderful pictures and recipes of marvelous food success stories. However, I think it's good for me to share my failures with you sometimes- then you know it's OK to try something & not succeed at it! Which brings me to my next sad story- sourdough bread. I am still trying to find success in this arena. I have been feeding and using my sourdough starter, keeping it out on the counter, and now in the dark cupboard, trying to find a way to make my own bread without using commercial yeast.

A big reason why I want to do this is because once we are in Rwanda (see "my other blogs" on the side panel for more info on this) I would love to be able to make my own bread using natural yeasts. The traditional bread in Rwanda is a flat bread made from flour, oil, and water, called Chapati. Finding & buying commercial yeast is expensive. The American style bread they sell in the stores comes in paper bags (the president of Rwanda has outlawed plastic bags). Mostly it is white bread & stale!

So, I tried again yesterday to make sourdough bread, and I am ..this.. close to just giving up! Sarah was sweet enough to come over to my blog & comment, after I talked about my attempt at her Sourdough multi-grain bread. For my latest attempt at sourdough I decided to try a short/warm rise to see if it would be less sour. Instead of starting the bread the night before I started it in the morning & put the dough in the oven with the light on & a pot of just-boiled water in there. I let it "rise" for about 5 hours, but I think it needed more time. I did the same thing with the second/in-pan rise, letting it "rise" (I put this in quotes because my dough did not rise much at all!) for about 7 hours. And I should have read Sarah's comments sooner- then I might have remembered to slash my loaves so I didn't end up with the splitting-out-the-side look!

These were a couple of small, dense loaves, but the good news is that they are not too sour- so the taste is OK! I received a dehydrated Oregon Trail sourdough starter in the mail, which I need to revive & try out- so maybe here in a week or so I will see if this starter works better for me.

And, just because I like every story to have a happy ending- let's talk about the Sourdough Crackers from Sarah's blog. I love these crackers! They don't care if your starter is active or not & they are a cinch to make! The healthiest way to make these would be with sprouted flour, but since I don't have any I used spelt flour (first time using spelt too). My cookie sheets are big enough that I divide the dough in half & roll it out, using an oiled rolling pin, onto parchment paper.

The shape doesn't have to be perfect (obviously!). The thinner you roll them the more of a chip-like texture they will have & stay crispier. I use a pizza cutter to cut the dough before it bakes- so quick & easy! You brush with olive oil & sprinkle with salt (I used sea salt). I baked both of my sheets at the same time, on different racks. Check them half way thru the cooking time to see if you need to rotate them. I would also suggest you make these early enough in the day that they can sit out & cool for several hours, like start in the early afternoon. These need to be completely cool & dry before you store them.

Great to have around as a snack and so much better for you than anything you can buy in the store! Now I want to make some hummus to dip them in- yum!

Enjoy!
Lisa

Good Morning Bread Pudding

2010-04-01T09:41:00.000-07:00

I shared with you how I recently tried out the recipe for Multi-Grain Sourdough Bread. There was a problem though: this bread is made with leftover oatmeal and the leftover oatmeal I had contained chai spices (cinnamon, cardamom, cloves, etc.) Somehow, the combination of sourdough flavor and chai flavor just did not work! As I looked at that loaf of bread last night, I thought, "What do I do with this?" And then I decided it would work perfectly in bread pudding for breakfast- and very convenient since I had no idea what we were going to eat for breakfast either!

I originally found this recipe for Bread Pudding shortly after I first tried to make the "soaked" muffins from Nourishing Traditions. They were a huge failure- dry & tasteless. Rather than throw them out (which I was tempted to do) I made them into bread pudding & the resulting breakfast was wonderful! Now, as I experiment with sourdough baking I have had a few more occasions to turn a failed loaf of bread into a delicious breakfast. I have adjusted the recipe a little bit & I put it together the night before so when I get up in the morning I can just put it in the oven to bake.

The recipe calls for sugar- what I use is turbinado sugar because our family seems to tolerate it well. You could also try Sucanat. Normally I use raisins in this recipe, but because I've been eating raisins all week in my No Bake Granola Bars I decided to use blueberries instead. I pulled the blueberries straight out of the freezer & they thawed overnight in the pudding. I also saw I had some sliced almonds & decided they would be nice sprinkled on top.

Good Morning Bread Pudding : Serves about 6

6 slices day old bread, cubed
2 Tablespoons butter, melted
1/2 cup raisins or blueberries (fresh or frozen)
4 eggs
2 cups milk
1/2 c. sugar (scant- could go closer to 1/3)
1 heaping teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon vanilla

Optional: sliced almonds, whipping cream

Place bread in 8x8 inch pan (mine was being used for granola bars so I used an oval casserole dish instead). Drizzle melted butter over the top of all the pieces of bread. Sprinkle with raisins or blueberries.

In a mixing bowl combine eggs, milk, sugar, cinnamon, and vanilla. Beat until well mixed. Pour slowly & evenly over the bread. Lightly push down on bread to make sure it is covered & soaking in the egg mixture.

If using almonds, sprinkle these on top. Cover and place in refrigerator.
In the morning uncover dish & place directly in oven. Turn oven on to 360 (do not preheat) and bake for approximately 50-60 minutes. Middle of the dish will rise from the steam coming up from underneath & then go back down as it cools.

Here is our finished dish. When I pulled it out this morning it smelled wonderful. Then I thought, "This would be great with some whipped cream!" I just happened to have some cream & whipped up about 1 c. of cream with some stevia to sweeten (alternately you could use maple syrup to sweeten the whipped cream). My husband gave it a thumbs up & my daughter said it tasted like blueberry pie!

If you make this in the morning instead of the night before, I would suggest preheating your oven to 350 and baking for 45 - 60 minutes. This post is a part of Pennywise Platter Thursday because you are making a meal out of something (stale or failed bread) you might otherwise throw away. And it's sooo good! Enjoy!

Blessings,
Lisa

No Bake Granola Bars

2010-03-30T12:59:00.000-07:00

This post is a part of Tuesday Twister at Gnowfglins and Real Food Wednesday at Kelly the Kitchen Kop.

I made the Soaked & Ready Oats from Just Making Noise blog and then I found this recipe for Chewy Granola Bars at Heavenly Homemakers blog. I thought this would be a great thing to try out & perfect timing too because we have been sorely lacking in snack foods in this house! I really like this recipe because it is so simple: only a few ingredients, only a few steps & you're done!

The original recipe calls for: 1/2 c. peanut butter, 1/3 c. honey, 1/4 c. coconut oil (melt all these together)- then add 1 c. oats & 1 c. add-ins (nuts, seeds, dried fruit, etc.)

The first time I made these I wanted to use raw honey & maintain it's natural enzymes, so I put my stove burner on the lowest setting and just warmed the peanut butter, honey, and coconut oil until the oil was partially melted. I removed it from the burner and kept stirring until everything was completely combined. I added my oats & for the add-ins I used 1/2 c. raisins, 1/4 c. unsweetened shredded coconut, 1/4 c. chopped "crispy" almonds, and about 2 tablespoons of finely chopped bittersweet chocolate. Yes, I know that's more than 1 cup! :)

After refrigerating, cutting, and individually wrapping, here is what they looked like:

They were very yummy (I made them Saturday and they were gone by today). Though these will hold their shape long enough to go in a lunch box, I would suggest keeping them in the refrigerator. One thing I found with the Soaked & Ready Oats was they were very crunchy- a little too much for my taste.

So today I made these again ("Yeah! Granola bars!" My 11 year old shouted). I felt they were a little too sweet the first time so I reduced the honey to 1/4 c. and because I want to get more healthy coconut oil into my family I increased the oil to 1/3 c. This time I decided to try & "cook" the oats a little, so I boiled the peanut butter/honey/oil mixture, turned off the burner, and then added the oats. Because my mixture was so hot when I added the chopped bittersweet chocolate it all melted in together. I omitted the chopped nuts this time, just using raisins and shredded coconut, but I think nuts help balance the sweetness. If you're going to use dried fruit you could probably try decreasing the honey to 1/8 c. (= 2 tablespoons), which is what I'm going to try next time. I also decided I didn't want to waste the plastic wrap on individual pieces- so I'm leaving the pan in the fridge. Here's batch #2: a little more solid because of the different oil/honey ratio (and a little darker because of the chocolate), but still good!

By the way, my method of "cooking" the oats made only a little difference- they are still very crunchy! Next time I will probably try grinding them finer & probably add more too. I wonder if it's just me or if soaking/dehydrating oats just makes them super crunchy. This would be a great snack for after-school or in the summertime when the kids want a treat & you don't want to use the oven. Give it a try!

Blessings,
Lisa