It looks like today will be recipe day for me!

Egg Muffins

• 6 eggs
• 6 T. water
• 1 t. salt
• 1/2 t. basil
• sprinkle of black pepper
• 1 – 2 T. diced red bell peppers
• 3 T. diced tomatoes
• 2 T. sliced olives
• 2 – 3 slices cheddar cheese
• Whisk the eggs with water and spices.  Add in the vegetables and olive.  Pour into a well greased muffin tin.  Add about 1 t. of cheese to the center of the egg mix, kind of pushing it into the middle so the cheese is covered.  Bake at 375 degrees for 10 – 12 minutes until set. 

This recipe makes ten muffins.  Enjoy!

Avivah

Here’s a new dessert we created for Rosh Hashana.  It took advantage of two recent finds: a) coconut milk at Trader Joes for .99 a can (versus $4 something at Whole Foods), and b) 24 ounce jars of mango for .50 each that I bought this past week.  Anyway, here’s the simple recipe.

Mango Ice

• 2 c. coconut milk
• 2 c. mango

Blend everything together until smooth.  Freeze until mostly frozen, then blend again.  Let freeze once more until solid.  Serve.

We had a guest who was a vegan and only eats raw food, and even he had this (I warned him that the mango was from a jar).  If you’re used to a very sugary ice cream, you might think this needs more sweetener.  But for our family, it was just right – mildly sweet and pleasant tasting. 

You could probably substitute other sweet fruits like banana for an alternative flavor, or combine two or more fruits.  The Trader Joe coconut milk is ‘light’, and I think that full fat coconut milk would also work well – it would probably solidify faster and have a creamier, less icy texture.

Avivah

Polenta Casserole

• 3 t. salt
• 3 c. coarse cornmeal
• 2 cans (15 – 19 oz) chickpeas, or 2 c. dried chickpeas, soaked and sprouted (should equal about four cups after cooking)
• 2 bay leaves
• 2 t. basil
• 4 cloves garlic, chopped
• 2 T. oil
• 2 cans (28 oz) crushed tomatoes
• 40 oz frozen spinach, thawed (we grew spinach and Swiss chard this year)
• salt and pepper to taste

Boil 4 1/2 c. water with the salt, and when it’s boiling, add in cornmeal, stirring to keep from getting lumps.  After a couple of minutes, lower heat to gentle flame, add cooked chickpeas and stir for 12 minutes.  Pour this mixture into a pan and refrigerate.

Meanwhile, saute garlic in oil, and when it’s soft add chopped spinach.  Cook several minutes until spinach is tender.  Mix crushed tomatoes with spices.  Take out polenta loaf from fridge, and cover it first with spinach mix, then with tomato mix.  Cover and bake at 350 degrees for 25 minutes.

Avivah

Sausage Bake

• 8 – 10 hot dogs, sliced
• 1 1/2 c. white beans
• 1 1/2 c. chili beans (I use either small red or kidneys)
• 1/2 c. brown sugar (I use sucanat and cut the amount down)
• 1/2 c. chopped onion
• 1/4 c. chopped green pepper
• 2 T. vinegar
• 1/4 t. oregano
• 1/2  – 1 c. tomato sauce
• 1 t. salt

Ideally you know that you’ll be making this a couple of days in advance and can soak and sprout the beans to maximize the nutritional value as well as to greatly increase the digestibility.  I soak them overnight, drain them the next morning, and then let them sit on the counter for a day.  The next morning, I rinse them again, and in warm weather they have sprouted within two days of when I first soaked them.  Cook the beans until soft.

Combine all ingredients and pour into a baking pan.  Bake, uncovered, at 350 degrees for 1 1/2 to 2 hours, stirring occasionally.

Avivah

This is served as a breakfast in our house. 

Dutch Puffs

• 8 eggs
• 2 c. flour
• 2 c. buttermilk or thinned plain yogurt

Blend all ingredients the night before, keep in fridge overnight.

In the morning, preheat the oven to 425 degrees.  In a 9 x 13 pan, melt a stick of butter (1/2 cup). Pour the mixture into the pan, and bake for 20 minutes.  Serve with fruit spread or honey.

* optional – you can add thinly sliced apples or a handful of blueberries to the batter.

Avivah 

Cranberry Muffins

• 1 1/3 c. whole wheat flour
• 2/3 c. oats
• 1/3 c. brown sugar (we used sucanat)
• 1 1/2 t. baking powder
• 1 T. baking soda
• 1/2 t. cinnamon
• 1/2 t. nutmeg
• 1/2 t. salt
• 3/4 c. buttermilk (ideally you would mix this with the flour the night before, and add the remaining ingredients the next morning)
• 1/4 c. butter or applesauce (used coconut oil)
•  1/2 c. fresh chopped cranberries (we used frozen)
• 1 egg
• optional – nuts, chocolate chips

Mix the wet ingredients, mix the dry ingredients, then combine, being careful not to overmix.  Put into muffin cups or spread into a loaf pan.  Bake at 400 degrees for 15 – 20 minutes for muffins.  If you make it as a loaf, bake a little longer and insert knife in center – if it comes out cleanly, it’s finished.

Avivah

When my ds (then 14) was in yeshiva for ninth grade, he had to be in school for three meals a day.  He liked taking this granola for breakfast – it’s a tasty recipe, and good for you, too! 

Traditional Granola

• 8 c. rolled oats
• 1/2 c. melted butter
• 1/2 c. melted coconut oil
• 1 1/2 c. yogurt
• 2 c. water
• 1/2 c. honey
• 1 t. sea salt
• 1 t. cinnamon

Combine the first five ingredients.  Pat down, cover, and leave out for 24 – 48 hours.  In a separate pot, heat the honey and add spices.  Add to the soaked oat mixture.  Spread mixture thinly in a baking pan and bake at 200 degrees, stirring periodically, until completely dry and crispy.  You can add nuts, dried fruit, coconut, or whatever else you can think of!

Note – this isn’t a very sweet recipe, and we find it perfect for our family (usually we cut the sweetener in a recipe by 50%).  But you may find it’s not sweet enough; if that’s the case, add some more honey.

I make double this recipe because it’s so good that it goes fast!

Avivah

<<Please explain “healthy chocolate” :o) Thanks!<<

I know, it seems like an oxymoron, doesn’t it?  But here’s the recipe and you’ll quickly see why I call it healthy chocolate.

Healthy Chocolate

• 1/2 c. raw cacao powder
• 1/4 c. extra virgin coconut oil
• 1 t. vanilla
• 1/8 – 1/4 c. honey

Melt the oil and then add the other ingredients, making sure powder is fully mixed in.  Pour into molds – you can use an ice cube tray, or pour in a thin layer into a pan.  (If you make it too thick, it’s hard to break into pieces.)  Freeze, then cut/break into pieces.  When I make this I give the kids pieces for a snack or even as part of breakfast.  As I said in the coconut oil post, it’s an easy way to get coconut oil into them.

I’ve made several variations –  the first one was with cacao powder and the smaller amount of honey called for.  This was excellent if you like bittersweet chocolate, but the kids didn’t think it was sweet enough.  When I made the next batch with cacao, I used the higher amount of honey called for and they liked it alot.  Then I ran out of cacao powder and experimented with using carob powder (which is naturally sweet and doesn’t have the bitterness of cacao) and the higher amount of honey. But they said it was too sweet, so next time I use carob I’ll have to use a smaller amount.  Then I tried using cocoa powder and used powdered stevia instead of honey, but the stevia was clunked up and so I took it out since it wasn’t dissolving in the heated mixture like I expected it to, but it left an aftertaste behind- no one liked that at all.  They really don’t like the taste of stevia.  Next time I’m going to use 1/4 c. of honey with cocoa powder; I think it should be the right balance since I think cocoa and cacao have the same flavor, but I’ll see!

Avivah

Early tomorrow morning my ds16 is leaving for camp.  Late this afternoon, I thought that it was too bad I hadn’t planned a nicer dinner since it’s his last dinner with us for four weeks, but I was already in the middle of dinner preparations.  When I said something, he told me he’ll appreciate a healthy dinner most since he’s going to be eating junky meals until he gets home. 

The main dish tonight was something I never made before, but everyone really liked it – lentil pecan burgers.  Together with that I served: baked potatoes, carrot sticks, cucumber rounds, corn and red pepper relish, lacto fermented pickles, and homemade mayonnaise.  I don’t usually serve dessert but adding dessert was a simple way to make it a little nicer, and we had a couple of pounds of organic cherries – half golden, half Bing.  (I got them at a super price – just .99 lb for the red, 1.49 lb for the golden; of course I got much more of the red!:))  In spite of not having specially planned it, it was a pretty nice meal. 

It also ended up being an expensive recipe since ds10 dropped the manual food processor (yes, the one that I just bought and only used once before) filled with lentils three times within ten minutes on our tile kitchen floor – and the third time the container part totally cracked open.  Sigh. I should have just told him to mash them by hand, which is what we had to do in the end anyway.  The attrition rate for my kitchen appliances is on the high side; I consider it a hidden cost of having children. 

Anyway, here’s the recipe.  Like lots of other recipes, I made it up based partially on something else (I took the idea of combining lentils and pecans from Nourishing Traditions) and whatever I have on hand that I feel like adding, so I don’t have firm measurements.  I’ll estimate as best as I can; you’ll probably want to adjust it to your taste.

Lentil Pecan Burgers

• 4 c. ground pecans
• 4 c. cooked lentils, mashed
• 8 eggs
• 2 t. minced dried onion (I was out of fresh – you can chop a couple onions finely and saute them in coconut oil/shmaltz/butter)
• 1 t. garlic powder
• 3 t. sea salt
• 3 t. prepared mustard
• enough flour or matza meal to bind mixture – I used about a cup

Mix the ground pecans with other dry ingredients except the flour or matza meal so everything mixes evenly, then add in the moist ingredients.  Add in enough flour to bind the mixture, but don’t add in too much – it should still be moist but not sticky (sounds like a bread dough recipe, doesn’t it? :)).   Scoop out the mixture using a 1/4 cup measure, put on a greased baking sheet, and flatten it a little with a fork.  Bake at 450 degrees until the tops start to get crispy/firm. 

This made enough for everyone to have as many as they wanted with leftovers, so  I’d suggest making a quarter of this recipe for a smaller family.  These look surprisingly similar to hamburgers, and taste meaty, too. 

Avivah