Bonne fête pour moi

A common dilemma for the food conscious is what to eat/ serve for birthdays. Well, as the saying goes, "let them eat cake!"

I often have so many recipes that I would like to try and have been wanting to make this for a while. It just so turned out that the timing was close to my birthday. This was the second course of supper.


This great coconut custard cake recipe comes from just-making-noise and the wonderful ice cream recipe comes from The Spunky Coconut. There are many options for a variety of dietary needs. This particular cake is not only gluten free but grain free as well. At first I ate the cake and ice cream together, but they both did seem better on their own. (I'm not a big food mixer). I will definitely make both of these again.

A "tradition" of sorts here on the community seems to be each person gets presented with a chocolate bar and their birthday. I, however, can't have store bought, sugared chocolate. But I think I got the better deal out of everyone.

I'd take this over a chocolate bar any day! Avocado..mango..pineapple..even a coconut! I'm spoiled.

The next logical thing to do was make smoothies. This was my birthday supper main course.


We were not totally sure what that round fruit was (the skins are in the bottom left of the picture), but we think it may be passion fruit. It was really good and made for a wonderfully tropical smoothie with banana, pineapple, kiwi, strawberries, apple, and coconut milk.

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.

Last of the Summer Harvest

As most people are celebrating Spring, here in Tasmania, we are ushering in fall - and rain. "April showers bring"...May showers, and June showers, and July showers."

Fortunately things still do grow here in the winter. Things like lettuce, broccoli and cauliflower.

But sadly, the last of so many things have come.


We found a couple zucchini left in the garden. They're little but they will be perfect for a quick side dish.

This is something that works well when you want something quick.

Chop and cook onions until soft.

Add chopped zucchini and tomatoes.
Season with basil and Herbamare.

Heat through. The tomato and zucchini don't necessarily need to be cooked. They are quite nice just warmed.

(raw cheese would also be excellent on top - if you have access and can tolerate it)

Meringues/ Macaroons Cocoa Style

A while ago did a post on Meringues. This is a revision of the same recipe.

I had some left over egg whites, which had been frozen. I defrosted them again to use for meringues. Egg whites are easy to freeze and save for a later use. Just make sure that they are at room temperature for meringues.


I wanted to add a new twist to these so I added cocoa to half of the meringes. It did go a bit more watery (flat), but they cooked fine.

And the final outcome?

I would definetly make these again with cocoa. Cocoa is a good idea.

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!

Simple Supper

One of the most common suppers we have is the basic stir-fry.

There are many different ways to do a stir-fry, it is never the same way twice (especially since I don't follow a recipe). It is the perfect way to use up left-overs, get veggies in your meal, and use up those bits of stuff (meat, veggies) that you don't have quite enough of to make something of it's own.


Start with whatever you have on hand, add more of what you can find, season to taste and serve on what your in the mood for. Enjoy!


Okay, here's some suggestions...

I always use onions. That's probably the only common factor in all my stir-fries. I will add lemon juice and Braggs, and sometimes curry to the onions.

Add your veggies. Cabbage, water chestnuts, peas, carrots, celery, spinach, garlic, corn, peppers, mushrooms, really whatever you have will work.

I like to cook them until they start to soften, I like my veggies still a bit crunchy.

I'll add some more Braggs, lemon juice, and Herbamare.

If you have meat, add it on (cooked of course), leave as is with just a bunch of vegetables, or add cooked (soaked overnight and cooked) beans, or even sprouted beans (and slightly cooked).

Bean sprouts go great on top, but that takes some extra planning to sprout (which is worth it).

Sprinkle with sesame seeds, chia seeds, hemp seeds, sunflower seeds, almonds, walnuts...you get the idea.

Serve on rice, raw spinach (we did this a lot when we went temporarily no grain as part of a cleanse - it was really good), or even potatoes, or just as is.

This is really a great simple way to enjoy lots of veggies and it doesn't take a lot of time.

What's for Breakfast?

If your like me, one of the first things I look for in a blog is what dessert recipes are posted.

However, we cannot live on dessert alone - although it is a lot easier if you know that all your desserts are actually good for you. However, the key to eating right is still moderation.

So, here is one of my breakfast favorites. Buckwheat and millet porridge. Millet and Buckwheat are both gluten free.

Soak the millet and buckwheat in enough water to cover it. (Sorry, this is another one of my "some" measurement recipes.) Add a tablespoon or so of apple cider vinegar or kombucha. You will want to soak this for 12 - 24 hours.

When you are ready to cook the porridge, strain out the soaking liquid. In a pot, add the millet and buckwheat and add approx. twice or three times as much water. Bring to a boil. Cover and turn heat off. At this point I just leave it while I do other morning things and when I'm done that breakfast is ready. Basically you're letting it soak up all the liquid (approx 30 min.).

Now this is when it gets fun. Some people just like adding salt to it. (The first time we made millet, we had it plain - Joey let me know his thoughts on that, and he's not a picky eater.) This meal can get very elaborate very quickly. I like to add coconut milk (cream if your in Australia, equivalent to "milk" in Canada), sliced fruit or applesauce, shredded coconut and topped with almonds (soaked and dehydrated). Some other suggestions if you can get your hand on them are; hemp, chia seeds, maple syrup in place of or even with the coconut milk, any other kind of nut, nut butters. This is really a great meal if you like to get creative. Another great suggestion is to sprout your millet and buckwheat for a couple days, the cooking time will be reduced and you will get even more nutrients.

My Version of lacto-fermented Ketchup

Originally my quest was to simply find a good ketchup recipe that I could make. In Canada, there was one ketchup made with agave that we could have (and BBQ sauce too) by Organic Ville, and so we just bought it. But here resources are limited so if I want ketchup, I'm going to have to come up with something.

I had recently purchased Nourishing Traditions and started getting into making some recipes, but the Ketchup recipe called for fish sauce, but my husband is allergic to fish. So I did some researching on the Internet to find if people have tried it without the fish sauce, and found some alterations of the NT recipe. I then altered it a bit further, and made it more complete by including the making of the tomato paste as part of the recipe. I wanted to make it as fresh as possible, especially since we have many tomatoes all over. These are mainly cherry tomatoes as they literally grew on their own - our own pig manure in the garden. You can easily use the bigger tomatoes in their place.

First I prepared as many cherry tomatoes as I could fit on a pan. I removed the stem and cut them in half. If using large tomatoes cut into a few slices approx as thick as the sliced cherry tomatoes. You really don't have to be too picky on this, it's okay if some get more dried out then others. Sprinkle liberally with Herbamare and dried basil. Dehydrate on a low setting in the oven. I try to keep it under 100 F so that most of the nutrients are preserved. If you have a dehydrator that really is the best way to go. My oven has a fan on it, so I can set the oven pretty low and the fan goes along way in helping things to dehydrate nicely.

Dehydrate until they are about halfway dried. This will also depend on your preference. The more dry the tomatoes are, the thicker the ketchup will be (unless you water it down). The more moist the tomatoes, the more liquidy the ketchup will be and this is harder to thicken up. I make mine pretty thick.

Once they are done place in a bowl if you you have a stick blender or a blender if you have one. Add half a cup of olive oil and 5 cloves garlic. Blend well. This is your tomato paste.











I have worked it out so that I know how many pans of tomatoes I need to make the amount of paste I need. So you will have to experiment with this. This tomato paste is great on it's own too, so don't worry if you have too much. You will want three cups of the tomato paste.



Here's where we make the ketchup part.

3 cups tomato paste
2 tsp sea salt
1/4 cup molasses, maple syrup or agave
1/4 cup whey (raw, real from a cow or goat - no store bought powder stuff)
1/4 cup Braggs

Hint: the molasses/sweetener slides out great if you use the same measuring cup you used above for the olive oil. Blend well.

Feel free to add other spices as you desire. (Cayenne, oregano, extra garlic...this can really become any tomato sauce you prefer).

After it is well blended (since I make mine thick, it is often kind-of chunky), scoop the ketchup into a clean mason jar. Place the lid on fairly securely. Let sit for 2 - 3 days on your counter (or wherever is room). This allows for the ketchup to ferment. After a few days transfer to your refrigerator for long term storage. It really doesn't need to be in the fridge, just somewhere cool (approx 4 C), so if you have a place like that, great. The fridge is just the easiest way for me. It is also not so picky as other refrigerated things. It would fair well for camping and picnics.

The fermenting process not only adds extra goodness (extra vitamins, easier digestion, and beneficial bacteria) but it is also the thing that preserves what you ferment. No boiling to keep these veggies fresh. I'm not sure of the expiration date on this ketchup, but it is in the way of months. I hoping to make my ketchup (of numerous batches) last a year - till we get fresh tomatoes again - but there's a good chance it will be consumed well before then.

Chocolate!

Chocolate seems to be one of those things that people tend to get passionate about. It is often the thing that people will compromise their diet over. It is something that a lot of people say they can't live without. While I think that if there is anything you think you can't live without, you should try to take a break from it, chocolate is definitely something that's very nice to have at times.

So when I had to change my eating habits, chocolate was something that I wanted to see if I could make. I had found a great recipe a few years ago for a coconut centred chocolate square thing, (which is excellent), but it also took a few more steps. So I searched the Internet for a general idea of what goes into a good chocolate recipe and mixed a few of them together and by trial and error (it really wasn't too difficult) came up with the main chocolate that I now make. Originally I was trying to make chocolate chips, (which did work out), but then it progressed to a chocolate sauce/fudge thing that depending on the consistency I use for toppings over fruit, cakes/cookies, in banana/chocolate pancakes, or nice and thick for a good fudge with coconut cream or on it's own.

That was all fine and dandy, I knew what I did - it was always some of this and some of that to taste - but then people started asking for the recipe. So one day I had to figure out what amounts I put in so that it could be duplicated. So here it is.

My Chocolate Recipe

1/4 cup almond butter (I like raw, the roasted give too much of an almond taste - taking away from the chocolate)
1/4 cup water

Blend these two together in a small saucepan over very low heat.

Add;
1 tablespoon vegetable glycerin
1 tablespoon extra virgin coconut oil
1 tsp vanilla extract
7-8 drop liquid stevia (start with 7 and taste after each drop!)
1/4 cup raw cocoa

Blend together over low heat. Chocolate burns very easily. When it is all mixed, you can eat as is or play with to make it desirable for different uses. Add more water if you want a nice glaze/sauce. Add some coconut milk and/or nuts if you want another experience. Add dried coconut to make a cookie. Here in Tasmania, almond butter isn't as available, so we substitute peanut butter for it, and that is quite nice too.

Keep in mind I like my chocolate dark. So you may want to add more sweetener. We've also made this a few times (in Canada) with maple syrup instead of the vegetable glycerin and stevia. You'll have to play with that ratio, as I don't remember how much we put in.

Enjoy!

mmmm, those would be good with chocolate on top

This is yet another recipe from Nourishing Traditions. Before my days of eating well, on occasion I would make meringues, that nice soft, yet crunching, melt in your mouth sweetness. I found such a recipe in Nourishing Traditions and couldn't wait to try it out.

In NT, this appears as Macaroons. However, Macaroons to me is unbaked cocoa cookies (and I have made those too!).

Apparently this makes 2 dozen, but we ate them too fast to count.

4 egg whites
pinch sea salt
2 tablespoons arrowroot
1/2 cup agave (originally calls for maple syrup, but that's so expensive here)
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
2 cups unsweetened diced coconut

Line a baking sheet with buttered parchment paper.
Beat egg whites with salt in a clean bowl until they form stiff peaks. Beat in arrowroot and slowly beat in syrup and vanilla. Fold in coconut. Drop by spoonfuls on parchment paper. Bake at 300 F for about 1/2 hour or until lightly browned. Reduce oven to 200 F and bake another hour or so until macaroons are completely dry and crisp. Let cool completely before removing from paper. Store in airtight container. (Here in Tasmania, these get soggy very quickly if not in the fridge - it's very moist here.)

As you can see in the picture some of the agave ran out. It made an extra bonus of toffee, but that was a happy accident. Next time I made the Meringues recipe and it turned out better - also used less agave and was still just as good.

Meringues

6 egg whites
pinch sea salt
3 tablespoons arrowroot
1/4 cup agave (maple syrup)
1 tablespoon vanilla extract

Line a cookie sheet with buttered parchment paper. Beat egg whites with salt until they form stiff peaks. Beat in arrowroot. Slowly add agave and vanilla, beating constantly. (Continue as above or go on to make nice little meringue cups for fruit).
Cook overnight at about 150 F. Let cool before removing from paper.

Of course I had one right away - before it cooled completely. Very good. However, looking at it again, I thought, "Boy, these would be good with chocolate on top." And that's just what I did.

Yummm!

A word on Baking Powder

I started making my own baking powder for the last couple months. I found a recipe and was always unsure of the baking powder ingredients as I knew you could get "aluminium free" baking powder and was concerned about those with aluminium. Also I knew you can get "gluten free" baking powder and that left me to wonder again about what was actually in the baking powder.

I'm glad I did get into the habit of making my own. This week we discovered in the community kitchen the ingredients for baking powder did indeed have wheat. Good thing I used my own stuff at home. Now we'll just need to supply some for the main kitchen.

So how do I do it? It's just another one of the great recipes from "Nourishing Traditions."

I use 1 part Baking Soda, 2 parts Cream of Tartar and 2 parts Arrowroot (you can use corn starch, I did once, but didn't really like the thought of it since a lot of corn is genetically modified, and then I found out our corn starch here has wheat in it - go figure). Shake well.

It works best if you add it to your goods right before baking. (For those who soak their grain goods).

Spinach Crepes

These take a bit more work (time) but are very rewarding.

The basic crepe recipe can be used for desserts, stuffed with creativity (chicken, other greens, etc), or with simple jam and syrup.

Basic Crepe Recipe

1 cup brown rice flour
1 1/2 cups nut milk (or water)

1 tbsp apple cider vinegar
3 large eggs

1/2 tsp sea salt

1/2 tablespoons vanilla

1 tbsp pure vegetable glycerine (or other natural sweetener of choice)

The night before you want to make these mix the flour, water/milk, and vinegar together in a bowl and let sit overnight. This helps to break down the phylates found in the grain. Why do you want to do this? Phylates bind to iron and calcium and doesn't let your body absorb them. It's also difficult to digest.

When you are ready to make the crepes, beat the egg and add it to the flour/water. Add salt and vanilla and glycerine. The vanilla and glycerine are only really neccessary if you want a sweeter crepe, not necessary for spinach crepes. Beat well.

In a non-stick skillet melt; coconut oil, tallow, whatever your choice of healthy cooking oil. Drop large spoonfuls of batter in pan, spreading evenly. Turn when lightly brown. I find I need to stir the batter each time I want to take a spoonful, as the batter separated quite rapidly.

Now that you have a nice pile of crepes your ready for the filling.

Spinach Crepes

1 package (10 oz) frozen chopped spinach, thawed (or go out to the garden and pick as much as you want, the amount of spinach and stuff really is dependent on taste)

2 tbsp olive oil

2 large garlic cloves

1 large onion, chopped

nutmeg to taste

Preheat oven to 350 F. Squeeze all liquide from spinach. Heat oil in large skillet. Saute onion until almost tender, add garlic. (If you add the garlic closer to the end it doesn't burn as much). Add spinach, and nutmeg. Stir till well coated, or if using fresh spinach, that the spinach is wilted. Remove from heat. Place spinach mixure in a line on the end of each crepe. Roll, place on a large casserole dish. Bake 20-30 min.

Serve with wholesome plain yogurt.

Zucchini, Zucchini Everywhere!

With summer upon us, the first fruits are starting to become ready for the picking. And already we have plenty of zucchini.

One of my favorite ways to eat zucchini are in zucchini pancakes.

I probably got a recipe somewhere once upon a time, but now it's one of those things that I just make and it turns out slightly different each time.

First I grate a whole bunch of zucchini and put it in a colander and salt it. I leave it to drain a few hours (if I've thought well enough ahead). Then I add grated carrots and chopped onions (lots of onions) a few beated eggs, a few tablespoons of spelt flour (or whatever I have on hand), some nutmeg and herbamare. Mix it well. You don't want it to be really liquidy or it will fall apart.

I heat up a big stainless steal skillet and melt some oil. Usually I use coconut oil for frying but here on the community there is an abundance of tallow, and nobody else likes to use it, so I'm using tallow more for frying. I don't know where I would get it back in Canada. It smells not so nice when it's frying but the pancakes tasted great.



Fry on both sides, if it turns out well you should have a nice golden pancake. If it's too liquidy it turns into mush. I've often given up and had the cake stir-fried. These turned out quite nicely though.

They are great served with raw yogurt (homemade!) or at least yogurt make with raw milk (recipe to come).

The Molasses Cookie

MMMM...the molasses cookie...
a completely made up recipe which I use as a source of fiber. My naturopath told me to take 1-2 tablespoons of ground flax daily, plus a tablespoon of black-strap molasses daily. I often forget to do the ground flax in water, and I don't like taking right before bed as then I have to use to bathroom in the middle of the night and that was the time that I would usually remember. The molasses...a cookie sounded good for an intake of molasses. So thus, the molasses cookie was born.

Since it is completely made up I have done a number of variations on it. I've added coconut milk, or used 1 cup oat bran and 3/4 cup brown rice flour in place of all the rice flour (the best variation in my opinion). Many people also don't like the overwhelming molasses taste and have lessened it considerably when making these cookies with these people in mind. I, however, really enjoy a good serving of molasses.

If you don't have an ingredient, that's fine. Substitute whatever you need to. (I currently don't have coconut oil, and I found that it really doesn't make a difference). Also I never measure spices, so these are just a guideline.

In a bowl combine;

1 cup ground flax
1 1/2 cup brown rice flour (blend rice in blender/ coffee grinder)
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1 tsp ginger
1 tsp cinnamon

add;

3 tbsp coconut oil
1/4 tsp liquid Stevia
3/4 cup molasses
1/2 cup water

Mix all together. If too watery, or if you like a dryer cookie, add oats, or more flour. Place in spoonfuls on a stainless steal cookie sheet, or a stone or something that's not teflon or aluminium. You do not need to grease the pan.

Cook at 350 F for 15 min or so. (Depending on how I change the recipe the time varies a lot).

The flax nutrition is mainly lost in cooking. If you want flax for it's omega-3 oils, then you'd better have it raw. For this purpose, however, I was more interested in fiber.

Be sure to drink lots of water! Your body needs good old fashioned water to work with the fiber to aid elimination. A very common reason why people are constipated is simply because they do not drink enough water, and especially if you are taking something like flax or psyllium, added water will help things along. A good "calculator" of how much water you need is to take half of your body weight (in pounds) and that is how many ounces of water you should have daily. But don't drink all at once, spread it throughout the day.

Enjoy!