Seed Crackers

  

  I love having a stocked pantry!
Its super important to me to keep a good
inventory of nuts, seeds, grains, beans and more.
This recipe is a good example why.
I stopped eating bread about a year ago and now I find myself craving a vehicle for spreads & building sandwiches & such. For the time being, these crackers have conquered my craving.

In a large bowl combine equal parts of seeds. In the above photo I have about 2 handfuls each of pumpkin, sesame, sunflower, flax & chia. Chopped nuts would also work. The flax & chia are the most important, because once they get wet they will act like glue to bind the other ingredients together. You dont have to have both, one or the other would be just fine.

 Get 'em wet and season 'em up. Use garlic, onion, dulse, soysauce, herbs.. what have you. The flax and chia soak up water & become a bit sticky or mucilaginous. Go easy with the water, obviously you don't want to add too much, after a couple minutes it should all be soaked up & you can spread the mix in an even layer onto a baking sheet.

Make sure you spray the foil or parchment paper before you spread the seeds. Bake at 325 for 20-25 minutes, flip or break up into smaller peices, then bake another 10-15 minutes. Let it sit out to cool then it'll break into nice rustic chunks. 

This afternoon I enjoyed the crackers with banana, homemade almond butter & concord grape jam. One of my best friends, Billie, made the jam early this fall. Thanks Billie. It's AWESOME!

raw Muesli FlatBread

Muesli FlatBread

from Renee Loux's Living Cuisine The Art and Spirit of Raw Foods

2 c whole oat groats

1 c buckwheat

1 c flaxseeds

1 c raisins

1 c dried apricots (i used goji berries)

1 c chopped almonds (i freakin forgot to add these)

1/2 c pumpkin seeds

1/2 c sunlower seeds

1 T cinnamon

1 t salt 

Fresh batter prior to dehydration

Served with cashew butter, honey, banana, cacao nibs, bee pollen & maca powder

raw Italian FlatBread

 
This is another recipe from Alissa Cohen's Raw Food for Everyone. Once I get the hang of these techniques Ill be writing raw recipes of my own.

Makes 5-6 wraps

2 c coarsely chopped carrots
1/2 c sun dried tomatoes, soaked in 1 c water
1 red bell pepper, seeded and diced
3 celery stalks
3 garlic cloves
1/4 c pitted black olives
1/4 x mixed chopped herbs, such as parsley, basil, oregano
1 T apple cider vinegar
1 1/2 t sea salt
2 c ground flax meal
1 c almond flour

Put the carrots in food processor. process to a fine pulp, then transfer to a large bowl.
Put the tomatoes and a few tablespoons of soaking water into the food processor. Blend to a consistensy of tomato paste. Add the bell pepper, celery, garlic, herbs, vinegar & salt to the food processor and process until finely chopped. Transfer to a bowl w the carrot pulp.
Fold in the flax meal and almond flour into the vegetables, using a spatula to blend well.
Drop the batter in heaping 1c measures onto Teflex or wax paper lined dehydrator racks. Using an offset spatula dipped in water, (I used my hands) spread the batter into six 12-inch circles (i did rectangles) about 1/4in thick. Dehydrate for 6 hours, or until the wraps are dry but not too hard. Remove the racks from the dehydrator, turn them over, and remove teflex. dehydrate for an additional 2hours, or until pliable and not too crisp. They need to be flexible enough to fold into wraps. Wrap and store at room temperature for up to 5 days.  

PBJ Banana Bread Pudding a la Mode

STAY TUNED FOR A COMPLETE RECIPE

PB choco Sauce
1/3 c Peanut butter
1.5 T cocoa powder
1/3 c milk product
pinch salt
honey, to taste

Heat the milk in a skillet. Once it is warmed, whisk in the peanut butter, then cocoa, honey and salt.

Jam
1/2 lb Strawberries, chopped
6 oz blueberries, smashed
1 orange, juiced
splash balsamic vinegar
pinch salt

Heat the orange juice in a small pot. Add the berries, balsamic and salt then and bring to a simmerand cook until the sauce thickens and reduces.


Breadpudding
half loaf 10grain bread
milk product
arrowroot powder
maple syrup
vanilla
cinnamon

Serve with a baked banana and ice cream!

4 Courses

Fresh Figs, Arugula, Roquefort, toasted Pecans & a Balsamic glaze


Homemade Focaccia topped with Caramelized Onions, Roasted Garlic & fresh herbs

Zuchinni Noodles with a black olive medley, roasted tomatoes, roasted peppers, fresh basil, toasted pinenuts & parmesan
Berries, Cherries, baked Banana & Cashew Cream


Salad
Arugula
Tiger Stripe Figs (best Ive ever tasted, as if they were filled w strawberry jam)
Roquefort cheese
Toasted Pecans
Balsamic Reduction

Focaccia
adapted from Tal Ronnen's Conscious Cook

Dough:
1 T sugar
3c warm water
1 packet active dry yeast6 c all purpose unbleached flour
sea salt
1/3 c extra virg olive oil

Following the recipe from this book really stressed me out. I had to change his 1 1/2 c warm water to 3c.. because the dough was incredibly dry and never would have worked. Thankfully we just completed our breads courses at school & I am familiar with how the dough should feel. Also, he set the oven temp for 400 degrees, which I thought was way too low for the bread to cook thoroughly w a golden top. ugh. So basically, I am using a different recipe next time & you should too. But don't let this discourage you from baking your own focaccia! Its so good. Even though I wasn't thrilled with it I ate the whole thing, and my dinner guest loved it!

Onions:
2 onions
vegan Butter (Earth Balance)
1 head roasted garlic
salt
thyme rosemary sage

Thinly slice 2 onions, and throw them in a pot with the butter & cover. Stir them often. Once they are golden brown and super soft add 1T Balsamic Vinegar and sea salt. Allow to cool, then stir in roasted garlic, fresh sage rosemary & thyme.

Zucchini Pasta
1 large zucchini
1/4 red onion diced
1-2 cloves garlic minced
olive medley
roasted tomatoes (or sundried)
roasted bell pepper
fresh tomato
fresh basil
salt
pepper
Parmesan
toasted pine nuts

First of all, for this dish you need a Spiralizer to cut your squash into noodle strands. I love this tool. I works on most hard fruits and vegetables like potatoes, apples, pears, winter squash, radishes...

Start by heating oil in the pan, then adding onion. After several minutes, they're soft & delicious add olives & garlic. Let cook another minutes, then add the roasted tomatoes, roasted bell pepper. Let them heat up, then toss in fresh tomato, fresh basil, toasted pine nuts & turn off heat. The olives will make this dish quite salty, so you may not need to salt it. Garnish w fresh parm & cracked pepper.

Cashew Cream
Cashew cream is so easy and its one of my classmates favorite things to make.

1 c cashews
1 T maple syrup
1/4 fresh vanilla bean pod seeded
water

Soak Cashews for up to 3 hours. They'll fatten and even take on a purplish hue. If you don't have the time to soak this long, boil water and use this hot water to blend them.
Place the cashews in a blender and cover with 1in water. Add fresh vanilla and maple syrup and puree until smooth. Enjoy

I served with blueberries, cherries, strawberries & a baked banana.

to bake a banana, place a banana in its peel on a tray in an oven at 350. Bake until the peel is black and juice is starting to ooze out. Amazing.

Banana Chocolate Chip Bread Pudding

Unless you are on a low-carb diet, this dessert is completely guilt free!!
It is very soft, warm & flavorful. Success! It was my first bread pudding, and I pulled the recipe from one of my new fave cookbooks, Veganomicon. Now that I am confident in bread puddings and realize how simple they can be I will start trying out some of my own recipes, some savory, some sweet.
Veganomicon's Banana Choc Chip Bread Pudding
6c (1in cubed) stake bread (about 1 lb)
2 ¼ c rice/soy/almond milk
3 T arrowroot powder
½ c pure maple syrup
1t vanilla extract (I used ½ a fresh vanilla bean)
½ t ground cinnamon (I doubled it in my recipe)
¼ t ground nutmeg (doubled this too)
1 c chocolate chips
3 large, ripe bananas, sliced ½ in thick

Preheat the oven to 350. Lightly grease a 9x5 loaf pan. I couldn’t wait for stale bread, so I diced fresh bread, and baked it in the oven for 5 minutes. Perfection. Place bread in a large bowl.
In a small bowl, whisk together 1/2c milk with arrowroot powder until no lumps remain. Add the remaining milk, plus vanilla, cinnamon & nutmeg & whisk to combine. Pour this mixture over the bread & stir to coat every piece.
Allow the bread to sit for 15min to soak up the liquid. Add more liquid if necessary, it should look mushy and they should be a little bit of liquid in the bottom of the bowl.
Fold in the chocolate chips & bananas, mashing the bananas slightly. Pour the mixture into a loaf pan, patting down to make an even top. Bake 30-35minutes until top if puffed, slightly browned & feels firm.
No sugar, no dairy, no eggs.. just yummy yummy bread pudding. We ate this every night for a week.

Then I made this variation:

peanut butter chips instead of chocolate
and a row of homemade jam in the middle (homemade jam is the same recipe as the "berry topping" in my post for mini-vegan cheesecakes)
& I stuck to her original measurements of cinnamon & nutmeg.
(Adding more worked really well for the choco chip bread, but I didn’t think it would go over as well with the jam.)

So it is like a peanut butter & jelly banana bread pudding. I recommend eating the chocolate chip bread pudding warm, but I think this one is better cold. I gave some to friends of mine, and they thought it was very yummy. yay!

Fish Chowder & Grandma La Fata's HotBread

3T butter
½ large onion diced fine
1 stalk celery diced fine
4 anchovies
2 cloves garlic minced
½ T dry thyme or 1 T fresh chopped
2 Bay leaves
1 ½ lbs Yukon Gold potatoes chopped into 1in cubes or smaller
4c seafood/fish stock (ask your seafood dept, they might make it fresh)
1 ½ lbs of raw fish chopped up into bite size chunks
2c cream
salt & white pepper
parsley & chives for garnish

Heat the butter in a large pot. Add the onion, bay leaf & thyme and cook for five minutes. Then add the celery and cook until soft. Add the garlic and cook an additional minute. Then add the potatoes and fish stock, bring to a boil, then simmer for 15 minutes or until the potatoes are soft. I like creamier soups, so at this point, I would takeout half of the soup & puree it. Then put it back in the pot, add the cream and raw fish chunks, and bring to a low boil for 5 minutes. Then turn off the heat and let it sit for 15 minutes. After the 15 minutes, the fish should be cooked through, season with salt & pepper and stir in your fresh herbs. We ate half of this soup for a few days and froze the rest for later!

HotBread!
I believe that my first food memory is watching my Grandma La Fata make hot bread. My family and I were at her & Grandpa's house in St. Louis, and I was below counter height. She would slice a loaf of Italian bread (ya know with sesame seeds baked in the top) in half (like a hamburger bun) and drizzle it with olive oil, salt & pepper. Then she would press anchovies into the bread, put the bread back together, wrap it in aluminum foil, and bake it in the oven. Not to make it crunchy, but just to heat it through.
There was always a lot of anticipation while the bread was in the oven. My father, brother and I love love love this bread. Over time, we have fancied it up a bit with foccacia, and herbs.
This time I used a Kalamata olive bread and sprinkled Parmesan on top. Also, I bought anchovies from the deli thinking this would be a nice touch, rather than the ones in a can. But they didn't have the strong flavor like the canned ones, so I wouldn't do that again. mmmmm

Zucchini Baarrsss!!

This is a recipe from Anna's Family Cookbook, called Tempting Thelen Tasties. WOW, they're good!!!

3c flour
1 1/2t baking soda
1t baking powder
1t salt
1/8t cloves
1/8t nutmeg
3/4c margarine
1c brown sugar
1t vanilla
1/2 c sugar
2 eggs
1c grated zucchini
1/2c chopped walnuts
1/2c raisins
1. Sift together the first 6 ingredients; cream together the next 5. Combine both mixtures, then gradually add the rest of the ingredients.
Pour into greased 10x15in pan. Bake at 350 for 20-25min.

I made a cream cheese icing for this.. which was 1/4 stick margarine, 5oz cream cheese, and about a cup and a half of powdered sugar beat together.