Recipe Review: Banana Fritters

Other than "Nourishing Traditions", blogs are the only place I can actually find recipes that are good for me. I've found lots of scrumptious looking recipes and occasionally I even get around to making some of them.

This recipe is from The Healthy Home Economist, one of the many blogs that I follow. I followed the recipe pretty closely, only substituting agave for the honey. I often change things, but the first time through I try to stick to it, and this one definitely does not need tweaking. The only thing that wasn't clear in the instructions was that I cut the bananas in half after I thinly sliced them, they tend to be too big and will break if you don't. It looks like from the picture on her blog that that is what she did too.

I used two bananas for this with just a bit of batter left over. I considered mixing the leftovers with my scrambled eggs in the morning, but my husband suggested we just cook it up and eat it now. The pancake that resulted wasn't so much to get excited over, however the fritters were amazing. The banana really makes it, they are so naturally sweet. A non-health (sugar eater) conscience person was over at the time of making these tasty treats and I gave him one to try. He really liked them, so I find it's always a very good sign when someone who may not normally like what I like, actually thinks something healthy tastes good. 

I will definitely be making these again.

Applesauce and Granola

Applesauce has been coming out of our ears lately with the rich abundance of apples.

A new-found, favorite way to eat applesauce is to load it with granola, and a generous portion of coconut milk/ cream.
A great way to start the day - not too heavy, but not too light - or as a snack for anytime.

Granola

Something that I've quite enjoyed with stuff like fruit salad and yogurt is granola. Since soaking everything I've often wondered how in the world I would make granola, the real way, with oats.

Then I read a post on Just Making Noise that she made some soaked oats. (She heard about it from Cheesesalve who also has a great blog on Real Food.)

So I set to soaking some oats, very excited about having granola again. It's nice to have that bit of crunch with some fruit.

I crushed my dehydrated oats into little bits, just the right size for granola. Since they are soaked, they all stick together so crushing them gets them back to regular "granola size".

I chopped up come soaked and dehydrated almonds. Sprinkled on dried coconut. Drizzled melted butter, olive oil, and maple syrup with about a tablespoon on vanilla added to the liquid (to mix in better). Sprinkled just a bit of salt on top and in the oven it goes.

I gently roasted it (I was making it for breakfast the same day). You can also just dehydrate it slowly for a raw version.

The house smelled so good!

When it was dried to my satisfaction I loaded it onto a waiting bowl of fresh fruit salad, and toped it with a bit of coconut milk!

Apples!

A little while back some of the folks here went to an orchard nearby to pick up the fallen apples from underneath the trees. The owner was very kind and did not even charge us for the apples, although we offered.

The result?

Two tons of perfectly good apples!


So guess what's been happening around here?

Lots and lots of applesauce, dried apples, plain old eating and the occasional apple pie. We are waiting on a press to make apple juice.

Back in Canada, often the stickers on the apples (even the organic) were marked "Australia", now I just wonder if some of you folks back home are eating some of the apples from the same orchard.

Roasted Chickpeas

If your on a strict diet, you can probably relate to how difficult it is to find handy snack foods. Once upon a time, we found some roasted chickpeas at an International foods store and I thought, "Hey, I can make these" (and at the same time avoid the vegetable oil that seems to be on everything).

As you probably know by now I don't measure and lot of things.

Soak some chickpeas overnight (12-24 hours). Remember they will expand, and believe me if your soaking container isn't large enough, the water will spill over!

Rinse the soaked chickpeas. Spread on a baking pan (either stainless steel, stone, or glass if you have). Bake at 350 F, stirring every 5 min. (This is a big time consumer watching them). If you bake them at too hot a temperature, they will start popping, or at least mine do. This takes about 45 min, but it really depends on your oven - and the weather. I find it takes much longer here in Tasmania as it is so humid, (as compared to Winnipeg).

Prepare in a bowl;
approx 1 Tbsp water
approx 2 Tbsp Braggs

and/or add peanut butter for fun/variety

When they are almost done, (And sometimes I make them more crunchy, or more soft) take them out and mix with the prepared sauce. Sprinkle like crazy with Herbamare and whatever seasoning you like. I like to mix it up a lot. Sometimes a curry/garlic theme, or other times more Italian. Mrs. Dash was a great option for flavour (no MSG).

Spread on the sheet again and bake until desired crunchiness. I find that they will get a bit more crunchy after they are taken out of the oven.

Store in airtight containers. In Canada I would keep them in the cupboard, but I am having problems here in Tasmania. They seem to soak up the moisture and go soggy, so I have to eat them right away. That really isn't a problem, as they usually go so fast anyway, it's just hard to make ahead for future use.

Enjoy!

Sprouted Spelt and Flax Muffins

This recipe has quickly become a favorite. It is based on this recipe. I've lowed the oil (and used a healthier oil) and adapted molasses as the sweetener. I also use sprouted spelt flour.

Wet Ingredients:
4 eggs
1/2 cup olive oil
1/2 cup molasses
2 tsp vanilla

4 bananas, mashed
1 cup whole flax

Dry Ingredients:
3 cups sprouted spelt flour
1 1/2 tbsp baking powder
1 tsp sea salt
2 tsp cinnamon (or more to taste)
1 tsp ginger


(2 cups) shredded coconut (I didn't measure this, just added until I got the desired consistency)

Beat eggs, mix in the rest of the wet ingredients. Add fruit and flax. In a separate bowl mix dry ingredients. Add to wet. Stir in shredded coconut.The final consistency should be stiff enough to spoon into the muffin cups without dripping all over, but not stiff enough to form peaks. Sprinkle with shredded coconut.

Bake at 350 F for about 30 min. I use a toothpick to see if done.

Dried Apples

In the previous post I mentioned that I noticed that the apples did not turn brown when I sprinkled them with charcoal. This intrigued me. I was wanting to make dried apple slices and was a bit unsure of the lemon juice that was available here. It had some preservative in it (in Australia they don't seem to want to make it to readily known just what ingredients are in their products, this was “preservative 223”. I did look it up, but I don't remember which not-so-great preservative it was). Normally when drying apples, after cutting them I dip them into a lemon/water solution to prevent them from turning brown while they dry on my dehydrator (which is also in care of my Mom). I did not really want to use this lemon juice and so I decided to do some experimenting.

I cored and peeled the apples and cut them into slices. I then places the sliced apples in a bowl of water to which some charcoal had been added. I let them soak for a few minutes and then placed them on a cooking tray (stainless steel).


They did look quite speckled, but since charcoal doesn't have or affect taste I didn't really care.

I then sprinkled the apples with cinnamon and placed them in the grill part of my oven. I set the grill as low as it would go. On my dehydrator I was able to adjust the temperature and always dehydrated things below 110 F in order to maintain as many nutrients as I could. I did not have a clue what temperature it got to in my gill, but I keep the door open at times so it would not heat up too much.



When they are dried through to your likeness (longer for “chips” less if you want them more spongy), remove from oven. I've put these in the freezer so we don't eat them all right away. I'll use them for a snack or to add to granola. These are only brown from the cinnamon, otherwise, they have not yellowed very much at all.

Applesauce

We were blessed this past week to have a surplus of apples. Usually apples are on my list of “definitely must have organic”, (we usually bought everything organic) but because of the scarcity of fruit in general here, plus the even bigger scarcity of organic food (we would have to order specially from Hobart), I gladly accept the poisoned apple.

Back in Canada, we preferred to have Granny Smith apples (or sour apples as the kids referred to them as) because they do not have as high a sugar content. We would generously (at least I would) load them with cinnamon and eat with our freshly ground (with my Champion Juicer) raw almond butter. However, I have had to leave my wonderful juicer in care of my Mom, who I'm sure will thoroughly enjoy it. Plus we don't have any almonds currently. Apparently they do get them occasionally here though.

The apples that's we've gotten here have been a various varieties. Golden Delicious, and Fuji among others that I can't remember. They have done alright with the natural peanut butter, but just don't have the flavour of the organic apples. It will be truly wonderful when the apple trees bring forth their fruit here. I am not sure how many apple trees they have, but I know they have at least one more established one, and several smaller ones. Those will be good apples.

The apple is a great fruit. It is also a great sweetener. So I set about to make some applesauce to use later for baking when apples are not so plentiful. I choose the Golden Delicious for the sauce, mainly because I know the other people here preferred the red ones for eating.

I do cringe at the thought of eating apples full of poisonous pesticides, or anything with pesticides for that matter. Apples happen to be at the top of the list for pesticides (along with bell peppers, and peaches). Among a host of other nasty things, pesticides are also mimic estrogen. For someone who has a disease caused by too much estrogen, this is definitely something that I want to avoid. So what to do?

Before leaving Canada, I got a very interesting book from Letitia about Charcoal called Charcoal Remedies.com. At the time, my interest was the part of the book that talked about charcoal's ability to absorb poisons from snake and spider bites. (I have never seen so many spiders as I do here, not a fan of spiders in the first place, but here there is the added, “Just assume they are all poisonous to some degree.” Great.) However, reading the book, I am soundly convinced of charcoal's diversity and have been trying it out several different ways – ways not even mentioned in the book (although I'm not totally done reading it yet), but the principle is the same. Charcoal absorbs poison, and I was particularly intrigued by one story of a man who attempted suicide by swallowing a bunch of pesticides. They force fed him a bunch of charcoal water (he was unconscious) and he made it.

And so I took my charcoal to the kitchen. Well actually it stays in there anyway. I've been filtering water using charcoal, but that's another story.

So, when I cut up my apples to make the sauce I simply added a tablespoon of powdered charcoal to the pot. It took eight apples to fill the pot and the one tablespoon sure made them black. I simmered the apples on as low as I could on this stove (it doesn't stay very low). Normally I would just juice the whole apple with the blank screen on my juicer for nice raw applesauce, but alas, I don't have that option anymore.


I let them cook until nice and soft and then mashed them as good as I could, but wasn't terribly picky.
I then packed them into little jar containers, measured by the cup for use in future baking.


I did a second batch and decided that maybe I didn't want such a black applesauce. So instead of adding the charcoal to the pot, I sprinkle the tablespoon of charcoal to the cut apples in a bowl and let them sit for a while.


After sitting for a few hours, I quickly rinsed them.

I still had the scrapings of the first batch of applesauce in the pot, so this second batch is darker than it would've been if I had done them this second method from the start, but that's okay. No one will mistake my applesauce! Can you tell which was the first batch?


During this process I did notice something very interesting. I let the second batch of apples sit for a couple of hours in the charcoal. Normally apples turn yellow/brown after a while. However, these apples remains a nice white (with black specks from the charcoal). That led me to another idea...