Bud and Rhubarb

Meet Bud, this is my greatest neighbor slash gardener extrodinaire. He has an acre garden full of tomatoes, peppers, egg plants, whatever you can think of he grows it. Whenever I am in the backyard with Isaiah I can usually find him working in his yard. The other day was no exception he came walking over to me with these huge curious red stalks slung over his shoulder. It was rhubarb. I had never seen rhubarb so big. He gave me a bunch of stalks, being the kind neighbor that he is, and my mind started turning what I could do with it. Maybe rhubarb oatmeal bars, or strawberry/rhubarb jam, or maybe a pie. Any ideas???

Sprouting Class

These are all recipes that I recently taught at a Bosch class.

These crackers are a mix between two different recipes. One had more flavor but you ground the flax, and they were more like corn chips. The other recipe you left the flax in tact, so here is my rendition of the two. They are very filling, and good for a snack, with hummus, or guacamole.

SWEET CORN CRACKERS

1 C gold flax seed, ground

1 C gold flax seed, whole

½ C sunflower seed

Mix in a bowl and set aside. In a blender combine and blend the following:

2 C water

4 C corn, fresh or frozen

½ large yellow or white onion

1 1/2 tsp real salt or salt of your choice

½ tsp chili powder

½-1 tsp black pepper

1 ½ tsp cumin

½ jalapeno with or with out seeds, depending on how spicy you want it

2 T lime juice

Add liquid mixture to the flax seed and pumpkin seed. Spread onto the teflex sheets in a thin layer, about a 1/4 inch thick. Mix well dehydrate at 145 for an hour, and then turn it down to 118 for 6-8 hours. Once it is done on one side, pull it off the teflex and flip it over. Dehydrate until crisp.

This wrap mix is good as a dip or in a wrap. I like to make a wrap with avocados, lettuce, and shredded carrots.

Sprouted Lentil Wrap Mix (taken from the Green Smoothie Girl 12 step program)

Soak overnight:

2 cups lentils

1 cup sunflower seeds

1 cup almonds

½ cup sesame seeds

Drain in the morning, and allow to sprout for 24 hours, rinsing occasionally. Process in

food processor to be a coarse mash, and add

Handful of chopped cilantro, basil, or parsley

1 Anaheim pepper, diced

1 bell pepper, chopped

1 onion, diced

¼ cup lemon juice

2 Tbsp. flax oil

2 Tbsp. extra-virgin olive oil

2 tsp. herbamare (or you can just use sea salt, or your favorite spice blend)

Use as a filling in cabbage or lettuce leaves or sprouted-wheat tortillas. Makes 8 large

wraps

I like this recipe because you don't have to plan so far in advance to have a really healthy breakfast. Just soak the hulled buckwheat over night, in the morning drain it of, rinse and, then add the rest of the ingredients. Pretty easy to put together.

BUCKWHEAT BERRIES (taken from Aggie raw foods)

1 1/2 C buckwheat, soaked overnight

2 C apple sauce

2 TB each cranberry, raisin, currant, goji berry etc …

1 TB lemon juice

1-2 TB agave or to taste

Pinch cinnamon

Rinse and drain buckwheat. Mix ingredients in a bowl. Chill and serve.

If you would like to make cookies add ½ C flax seed meal and adjust the lemon juice, seasonings, and agave to your taste. Set cookie “dough” aside for 1 hour. Form cookies with your hand or an ice cream scoop and dehydrate until desired softness is reached.

Southwestern Corn and Sweet Potato Soup

Admittedly this picture isn't pretty. I took it right before we devoured all of it, so I hurried and snapped a picture of the last bowl. I wanted to post this dinner because it was such an easy good dinner.

This recipe was adapated from the Moosewood Cookbook, Low Fat Favorites. This cookbook was given to me by the previous owner of our house. He sold books on Ebay, and gave me all of the ones he didn't want to pack up with them. One of the many perks to buying the house! Despite the name, it was such a gem. The recipes in the book are so flavorful, and good for you, plus they always turn out. This soup recipe jumped at me because it had sweet potatoes in it, I love sweet potatoes, and in my book anything with sweet potatoes has to be good would be good. To the recipe I added millet to get more grains in my diet, and an extra potato for creaminess, both are optional. The millet makes into more a stew, a little thicker than a soup.

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1/4 c millet ( optional)

1 C finely chopped onions

2 cloves garlic

1 small chili, seeded and minced

1/4 tsp salt

3-5 C stock, veggie or chicken

2 1/2 tsp cumin1 md. sweet potato, diced

1 potato diced (optional, it just makes it a little heartier)

1/2 red bell pepper, finely chopped

3 C fresh or frozen corn

salt to taste

lime wedges, finely chopped cilantro leaves

In a heavy bottom pan, toast the millet until golden brown. Add the onions, garlic,chile, and salt to 1 C of the stock simmer for ten minutes until the onions are soft. In a small bowl make a paste with the cumin and a tablespoon of the stock, stir in the pot, and simmer for 2 minutes. Add the sweet potato, and potato (if adding), and the remaining stock ( I added close to five cups of stock because it was too thick, with the added potato and millet) cook another 10 minutes or until soft. Add the bell pepper, and corn and simmer for another 10 minutes or until they are soft. Puree about half of the soup in the blender or food processor and return it to the pot. The soup will be creamy and thick. Add salt to taste and reheat. Garnish as desired.

Chocolate Chip Banana Cupcakes

These little tasty treats are another rendition of my favorite banana bread. This recipe has been altered so many times I don't remember the original.

I have a confession to make. I am a curious person and as a curious person I rarely make the same thing twice. As much as I try to stick to the recipe, my curiosity kicks in, and I find myself thinking, "oh that would be good to add in", or "I wonder what would happen if I put this in instead". That is why baking and me have a love hate relationship, sometimes it turns out really good, and other times I admit to throwing a whole pan out..... which I hate doing, ask my husband, I have gotten pretty creative using the disaster experiments in other recipes.

This recipe was not an exception, I of course had to play around with it. This time it was a winner.

To the original recipe I added a few different flours, flax to up the nutritional profile, and I cut out a 1/2 C of sweetener, and 2 eggs. Surprisingly I like it even better with less sweetener, and the flax added. This is my new favorite banana bread recipe, and Scottie's too for that matter.

I added almond flour, for its nutritional benefits, and flavor. In a 100 grams of almond flour there are 21 grams of protein, 19 grams of carbohydrates, and 10 grams of fiber. It is -1 on the glycemic index. Compared to wheat flour which has 9 grams of protien, 76 grams of carbohydrates, 2 grams of fiber, and ranks 71 on the glycemic index. This makes almond flour a power food in fiber, and protein, and excellent option for people with diabetes, gluten intolerances, and people watching the glycemic index. I just got a cookbook that uses all almond flour for breads, cookies, cakes you name it. I want to experiment with it.

As a side note, if you are active carbs are a necessary thing to fuel your body, and so I think I will bake with a combo of flours including almond flour, to get a variety of nutrition and carbs in my diet.


Note: you can substitute the same amount whole wheat flour for the first four ingredients (2 3/4 C), but take out the guar or xantham gum as well, it is a binder for gluten free flours.

Banana Chocolate Chip Cupcakes

1 C almond flour
1 C brown rice flour
1/2 C sweet brown rice flour
1/4 C tapioca flour
1 1/2 C sucanat ( a natural sugar, that has not been processed, you can find it at health food stores)
1/2 tsp guar gum, or xantham gum
4 T powdered buttermilk*(optional)
1 tsp. baking soda, salt, and ground cinnamon
2 eggs
2 T ground flax
6 T coconut oil
8 oz can of crushed pineapple/ with juice
3 medium bananas mashed
1/2 C mini chocolate chips
1/2 C chopped walnuts (optional)

Preheat the oven to 325. In a mixing bowl, whisk together the flours, sucanat, guar gum, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon until well combined. In a separate bowl add the coconut oil, eggs, can of pineapple (with the juice), and mashed banana mix until well combined. Slowly mix the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients until just combined. Toss the mini chocolate chips in a 1/4 C of brown rice flour. Fold the chocolate chips and extra flour into the mix. Grease a muffin pan, or use cupcake liners and spoon the batter into a muffin pan, or mini muffin pan. If using nuts, sprinkle on top of the muffins. Bake the muffins for 40-45 minutes, and for the mini muffins 20-25 minutes.

Toasted Honey Granola

This granola is a request from Whitney. I have tried the rainbow of different granola recipes. Usually I know the base of what goes in granola and just kind of wing it with what I have on hand. I do have a recipe which I love but it takes a lot of honey and coconut oil, which are both expensive. So that recipe I only make it on occasion, or I will add a bunch more oats, and puffed cereal to stretch it, and to make it a little less sweet. This recipe intrigued me because it only had 2 T of oil and 1/4 C of honey, the other recipe is easily double or triple that. This recipe is from the Cooks Illustrated home cookbook.

A side note on the cookbook. I love this cookbook, I use it as a base for a lot of recipes, they are not the healthiest so I usually do quite a bit of altering, but I like it for a base. The only things I changed were to add coconut oil in place of canola oil, and I added a tsp. of maple flavoring because I like the maple syrup flavor. I also added dried cherries instead of raisins, and I added flax and chia seeds.

The intriguing thing about this recipe is that you toast everything first, which I have never seen in a granola recipe. That gives it a depth of flavor without having to add a lot to it. This granola is not very sweet but Scotty and I both really liked it. Even for his sweet tooth is was sweet enough. Without further ado....here is the granola recipe....

Toasted Honey Granola

1/2 C chopped almonds
1/2 C cashews
2 C oats
1 C shredded coconut
1/4 C sunflower seeds
2 T sesame seeds
2 T golden flax (optional)
2 T chia seeds (optional)
1/4 C honey
2 T coconut oil
1/2 C dried cherries, or any dried fruit that you want! blueberries would be good

Adjust oven rack to the middle position and heat the oven to 325 degrees. Toast the almonds and cashews first for 3 minutes, or until they start to color. Stir in the coconut and oats and toast for another 2 minutes. Add the sunflower seeds and the sesame seeds and continue toasting for 1 minute or until the mixture is golden brown. Off the heat stir in the flax, chia seeds, coconut oil and honey. Spread over a baking sheet and bake for 15 minutes stirring every five minutes or so. Stir in the dried cherries.

Note: this recipe is very easy to adapt. Add other nuts, fruit, maple syrup instead of honey. You could add cinnamon and nutmeg, or just make it how it is.