oatmeal pancakes

Oatmeal:
1/2 c rolled oats, slow cooking
1/2 c rolled oats, fast cooking
2T chia seeds
1/4 c maple syrup
2 eggs

Divide and add to 1/2 c cut apples or blueberries

Homemade Aussie Bites

HOMEMADE AUSSIE BITES
Published by: The Stay at Home Chef, author Rachel Farnsworth

Altered to eliminate sugar.

Makes 24 muffins

Ingredients

• 1¾ cup rolled oats
• ¼ cup dried apricots
• ¼ cup raisins
• ¼ cup ground flaxseed
• ¼ cup unsalted sunflower seeds
• 1/3 cup unsweetened shredded coconut
• ¼ cup cooked or uncooked quinoa (cooked will be softer, but uncooked works too!)
• 2 eggs
• 2 tablespoons chia seeds
• ¼ tsp baking soda
• ¼ cup melted honey
• ¼ cup unsalted butter, melted
• ¼ cup canola oil (I use avocado oil)
• ½ tsp vanilla extract

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Lightly grease a 24 count mini-muffin pan.
2. Pour 1 cup of rolled oats into a blender or food processor to create oat flour.
3. Add in the remaining ¾ cup rolled oats, dried apricots, raisins, flax seed, sunflower seeds, coconut, quinoa, chia seeds, and baking soda. Blend until apricots and raisins are in small bits.
4. Pour in eggs, melted honey, melted butter, oil, and vanilla extract. Blend until combined.
5. Divide batter among the prepared muffin tin.
6. Bake in the preheated oven for 10 to 15 minutes, until golden brown. Your type of oven and location will affect the time needed. I use a convection oven, top rack and it takes 13-14 minutes.
7. Remove pan from oven and let cool in pan on a wire cooling rack in the pan.
8. Once completely cooled, remove from pan and store in an airtight container for up to 5 days.

Almond pulp crackers

So I just started making my own almond milk with the nut milk bag...and I hate the waste! What to do with all that almond pulp...

Then I stumbled on Detoxinista's almond pulp cracker recipe, who adapted it from Yum Universe:

http://detoxinista.com/2015/01/easy-almond-pulp-crackers-vegan-paleo/

Ingredients:

1 scant cup wet almond pulp (the amount leftover from making 1 batch of almond milk)
3 tablespoons olive or coconut oil
1/4 teaspoon fine sea salt
2 tablespoons fresh herbs, or 2 teaspoons dried herbs, such as chives, rosemary, or parsley
1 garlic clove, minced (optional)

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 350F. In a large mixing bowl, combine the almond pulp, oil, salt, herbs, and garlic, if using, and stir well. Transfer the mixture to a sheet of parchment paper and place another sheet of parchment paper on top. Use a rolling pin to roll the cracker mixture about 1/8-inch thick, or as thin as you’d like your crackers to be. (The thinner they are, the crispier they’ll be.)

Edit to add here: I usually fold a larger piece of parchment on three sides to get crisp corners.

Use a large knife to score the rolled dough into square shapes, making about 20 crackers. Poke the middle of each cracker with a fork to help them dry and bake evenly. Bake at 350 for 20 minutes, then flip each cracker (they should separate easily where you scored them) and bake until they are crisp and golden, about 15 to 20 minutes more.

Cool the crackers completely before serving. They should keep well at room temperature for a few days, but they’ll last even longer in a sealed container in the fridge.

Chickpea bread

Recipe: easy chickpea bread

Adapted from: The Simple Veganista
http://www.simple-veganista.com/2014/09/socca-farinata.html

Directly from the Simple Veganista...

Ingredients

• 1 cup garbanzo bean flour (aka: besan)
• 1 cup lukewarm water
• 2 tablespoons olive oil + more for pan
• 1/2 teaspoon mineral salt

In a medium size mixing bowl, add flour, water, oil and salt. Whisk until smooth, cover and let set for at least 15 minutes, up to 12 hours, covered, on the counter or overnight in the fridge.

Heat oven to 450 degrees F.

Place a well seasoned skillet on the middle rack while oven is heating (we want it to get nice and hot). Once oven is ready, carefully remove skillet, add 2 tablespoons oil and carefully twirl skillet so the oil coats the bottom evenly. Add batter and place back in the oven for 12—15 minutes, until golden on the edges and firm throughout. Once done you may like to add a more golden and rustic look, turn broiler to high, place skillet under broiler for about 2 minutes, until top starts to golden a bit.

Remove pan, let cool a few minutes, using a spatula gently push under and around the sides of the flatbread. Tip skillet to remove socca bread or carefully flip skillet over to remove. Cut into slices or pull apart and eat. Socca is best eaten right away.

Notes:

Using a 12 inch skillet, pan or baking dish will give you a thinner bread, while a 10 or 8 inch skillet will give you a slightly thicker bread. The one I have shown here is a 10 inch, bread was about 1/4 inch thick.

If you don’t have an iron skillet, you can use any flat, shallow oven-safe baking dish.

And my notes:

I blend the initial mixture with raw garlic and a few leaves of spinach to get those veggies in! For the husband, toddler, and I I add cheese, but with our new eater (6 months now!) I will just top the bread (pre-bake) with chia seeds, hemp seeds and nutritional yeast for the first couple months. He'll get his fill of cheese one day:)

The best pocosores (according to my two year old)

These popsicles were a big hit this summer and I kept forgetting to post the recipe!

1 orange
1 banana
1 avocado
1/2 c cashews
1 c almond milk

Blend together and freeze in popsicle molds.  Delicious!

Animal Crackers Recipe {Nut Free, Dairy Free, Gluten Free}

credit: http://www.superhealthykids.com/animal-crackers-nut-free-dairy-free-gluten-free/

• 1 cup shelled sunflower seeds
• 1/4 cup flax meal
• 1/4 cup shredded coconut (optional. If you don't use coconut, use 1/2 cup flax meal so there is at least 1/2 cup more of dry ingredients)
• 1 TBL honey (I used 3 T coconut nectar or date syrup)
• Dash of salt (I didn't use salt)
• 1/4 cup cold water.

Add seeds, flax, and coconut to a blender.  Grind until it's the texture of coarse meal.  Place seed meal into a bowl and add remaining ingredients and stir with a spoon.  Chill in the fridge for 30 minutes. Spoon batter onto wax paper.  Cover with wax paper and roll out with rolling pin until 1/4-1/8th inch thick.  Cut out shapes or cut squares with a pizza cutter.  Place shapes on parchment paper and bake in 300° oven for 15 minutes.  Remove from oven and cool on wire rack. 

BUTTERNUT SQUASH SOUP WITH GINGER

Adapted from: http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/butternut-squash-soup-with-ginger-15572

Ingredients

One butternut squash, cut in half and roasted

2 T olive oil

1 C onions (I used leaks)

1 T fresh ginger

1 garlic clove

1 cinnamon stick

3 C organic vegetable stock

1 C toasted pecans or walnuts

Roast the squash for approximately 50-60 minutes.  Toast the nuts for five minutes at the end.

Place all ingredients into a high powered blender and blend on high for two minutes.

Enjoy!