Yum – Raw Granola

A few days ago my wife and I attended an all day meditation class. We were asked to bring something to share during the lunch break. I knew that I wouldn’t have the time just before class to prepare anything, so I kind of put the idea of bringing something out of my mind and tried to neglect it. My wife didn’t. She suggested that we bring some granola that I’d make a couple days earlier. Her thinking was that it was done, raw, I could make more AND it tasted great. I agreed and didn’t think much more about it.

During the lunch, I was glad to see that multiple people picked it up and gave it a try. Turns out that the bowl was emptied quite quickly. A number of people sought out the chief (me) in order to figure out what was in it and they politely share their application. It’s not often that I go somewhere with my wife and not see everyone praising her over one of her fabulous concoctions!

Originally, I mentioned for the folks to just connect to this blog and search for granola. The search in the upper right hand side works really well at finding keywords and the article would simple come up. If you go and do that, you’ll find that the old granola article that I posted referenced a recipe that is no longer on the web! Dang. The old site that has been down for a while now and the folks that ran it seemed to have disappeared somewhere east of the rockies. Looks like the original recipe is gone for good.

So, from memory, here it is. Note that I make it different each time so the ratios really depend on what you have available to you when you start mixing. The one key ingredient, ground cinnamon powder, you’ve got to have that.

IMG_9456_ingredients

  • 1-2 cups raw hulled sunflower seeds soaked overnight
  • 1 (or more) cup raw hulled pumpkin seeds soaked overnight
  • 1 cup raisins soaked overnight
  • ½ cup dried apricots soaked overnight
  • 1 cup almonds soaked overnight
  • 1 cup pecans soaked overnight
  • 2 apples
  • 1 heaping spoon full ground cinnamon powder
  • ½ ripe pineapple (optional)
  • ¼ to ½ cup maple syrup

You’ll also need a food processor and dehydrator.

Step 1, soak the nuts and seeds! Give them time to rehydrate and start growing. With the nuts, soak for 6-8 hours and then rinse them off good. With the seeds, do the same but also let them grow for a while. Say, overnight. Make sure to rinse them good before using them for the granola. Also, soak the raisins and apricots. Yet, with the raisins and apricots, rinse them a few times before soaking them. You want to get any residue off the fruit before letting it hydrate. When we use this fruit, we’re also going to use the water that it’s soaking in. When you soak fruit, the water picks up a lot of the sugar. Since we’ll be removing the water in the dehydrator, there is no need to drain out that extra sugar!

IMG_9460_bowl

As you can see in the above picture, I’ve run each main ingredient through the food processor. I pulsed each one and then poured it into the bowl. Each time, I made sure that there was some texture left with the particular ingredient. I don’t really like large chunks, so if you were to look at the almonds and pecans, you’d see that the biggest pieces are about ¼ to ½ the nut.

When it came to the apples, I cored them and ran them through the grader option. With the raisins and apricots, I mixed it until it was paste. The fruit is the glue that holds everything together.

When I added the pineapple this time, I wanted that chewy fruity feel so I cut it down to pie shaped pieces knowing that the dehydrator will take it down the rest of the way.

Step 2, mix it all together. Get everything evenly distributed and then add a large heaping spoon full of ground cinnamon powder and the maple syrup. Mix it more until the herb is spread evenly.

IMG_9462_sheets

I like sheets of granola, thus I spread this large bowl out on four dehydrator sheets. Notice that I pressed it down to the width of the pineapple chunks.

Step 3, dehydrate overnight or maybe a bit longer.

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You can peel it off and eat at any point, I like it when it’s still bendable but breaks apart if bent too far. This is usually 24 hours at 115 degrees.

When it’s done, you can’t tell there was ever any apple added. You’ll see the dark raisin and nut pieces, but everything else just kind of blends in like cereal.

Oh, most people think of this as candy! With all the fruit, it’s really sweet. I treat it like candy too. In a way, it’s like peanut brittle. The last picture doesn’t really show it, but in order to store it in an airtight zip lock bag, I fold the sheets over and over again until the pieces are 2-3 inches in size. Thus, each time I go for a snack, I get a cookie size piece to enjoy!

Note that the real trick here is the ground cinnamon powder. It’s just not the same without it!

 

Raw Sunflower Red Hummus

This one tastes great and is just too easy to not share with the world. With just a little preparation, you can whip up some great tasting raw humus that will fill you up for lunch yet not make you feel like a nap is in order in just a few minutes. I like to call this my Sunflower Red Hummus.

The other day, I was pressed for time yet wanted this hummus. I’d already soaked the sunflower seeds and let them sprout overnight so they were ready. I looked at the clock and saw that I had fifteen minutes to prepare and cleanup before I had to run. Well, the total time was twenty minutes (including the quick cleanup) so I had to run really fast to make up that time!

Recipe:

  • 2 cups sprouted raw living sunflower seeds
  • 1 sweet red, yellow or orange bell pepper
  • 1 medium tomato
  • 1 carrot (or a few small garden carrots that you just dug and cleaned up!)
  • ½ a Myers lemon
  • ½ clove raw garlic
  • 2 tablespoons raw cold pressed olive oil
  • 1 teaspoon cumin
  • 1 teaspoon smoked paprika (or a little less)
  • ¼ teaspoon salt
  • ¼ teaspoon cyan pepper!

All the wet ingredients go in first. And, well, you probably already know this from the picture below, but you’re going to blend this in a high powered blender until it’s creamy and smooth. So, if you put the wet ingredients o the bottom, they bill break down quickly and create volume that will carry down the rest. You might need to help some of the seeds and be careful not to get the seasoning on your plunger (if you need to use one).

This is a pretty heavy mixture so you’ve got to have a heavy-duty blender in order to keep it from bogging down. But it will. It will also heat up pretty quickly so watch out for that. I usually start out just fast enough to get the fruit (veggies) to spin and then turn the blender up as high as it will go and still turn the contents of the blender. If you flip the machine all the way to high, it all just lifts up and, well, you’re no longer ‘blending’ at that point. 🙂

The little cup on the left is exactly 1 cup. I like to fill it ¾ the way and it’s just the right amount for lunch. The bigger container just happened to work with my time constraints for the other little containers needed washing!

Once prepared, it easily lasts for a few days in the fridge. You’ll see the top darken (oxidize), but the rest should stay just made fresh.

This one is so easy that it’s hard to get wrong. My only real advice is to go light on the garlic. The picture shows a whole clove. I cut it in half before adding it. Too much raw garlic tends to overpower the other subtle flavors that really make this hummus shine.

It’s been a long winter and just a couple days ago I started to notice the spring air. It blew in and within about 24 hours all the plants that had been waiting to bloom sprung into early spring pinks, yellows and greens. We’re well past the equinox, so it feels a month late. Whether it’s early or late, it’s still warmly welcomed!

Quick and Easy Garden Hummus

Some days I feel more creative than others. Yesterday’s creativity has bleed over into today and I have to admit that this Hummus is just as good today as it was last night. Yet this time, I’ve got pictures and the recipe to share!

Last night I wanted a heavier salad. I wanted something with substance that would last a few hours for I didn’t want to find myself snacking throughout the evening. Thus, I reached for one of my favorite things: sunflower seeds! I figured I’d just blend them up in a salad dressing and pour it over my salad.

Well, it turned out pasty and it sat like a pile of green **** in the center of the bowl. Lori looked at it and shook her head no without even giving it a try. I think the light green color turned her off. After a little convincing, she gave it a try and, even though she doesn’t like hummus (and that’s what she called it) she took a big spoonful as her salad dressing.

And it was great!

I made this again for lunch today and it tasted just as good. Yum. So, I’m writing it down so it will be around for next summer.

Recipe:

1 small (normal) zucchini pealed

  • The tops of 7 or 8 basil plants
  • 1 cup course chopped carrots
  • ½ cup sunflower seeds
  • 2 Tbs cold pressed olive oil
  • ½ Tb balsamic vinegar
  • Bit of salt (little bit on spoon)

As you can see, I’ve got oil, vinegar, salt and Basil as if it’s a salad dressing. But the rest gives it body that makes it more hummus like than salad dressing like. So, place it all in the blender.

I put the zucchini in first for the bulk of the water is going to come from there.

Now, blend. You’ll need your tamper for this is just like making hummus…  Well, it is hummus! Press the veggies down into the blades until it starts to turn. At that point, you’re going to let it blend for about 30 seconds on ‘10’ (if you have a Vita-mix). During this time I make sure the blender doesn’t suck air down to the blades stopping the spin. To do this, you hold the tamper right down to where the mixture turns over. The temper gently plugs the hole preventing air while letting the blender turn the ingredients.

As you can see, I got just a little over two cups from this ingredient list. And it’s wonderful!

The best part about this is that it’s really easy and fast. If you don’t mind the green color, you don’t even have to peal the zucchini. The sunflower seeds are also straight out of the bag – no soaking or sprouting! From start to finish it’s probably 10 minutes.

Also note that the ingredients were mostly from the garden – that is, the carrots, zucchini and basil. I love it when I get the opportunity to eat suck fresh living foods. I can basically pick the produce, wash, blend and enjoy in the matter of minutes. The vitality contained in the plants never gets lost. Eat living foods and you’ll find your own vitality will increase.

Good day!

Melt in your mouth Raw Granola

I normally don’t like granola. It’s not the taste of it that bothers me but, rather, how my body processes it. Even though I chew everything like a million times, something just doesn’t digest the best as it goes through me. All the power bars that are packed with dense calorie based ‘nutrition’ I usually just leave on the shelf.

Well, the other day I decided to give a raw version a try. I’m not sure what attracted me to the recipe, but it felt like the thing to do so I gave the “It’s RAW granola …. gRAWnola time!!!!” recipe from The Raw Seed website a try.

The thing that stands out about this recipe is that it’s mainly sunflower seeds, pumpkin (squash) seeds and raisins!  No grains, no nuts and a little bit of flavorings. Meredith, from The Raw Seed, calls this recipe Cinnamon Raisin Banana Granola. I would call it Orange Raisin Banana Granola with a hint of cinnamon!

Recipe:

Visit The Raw Seed Websites Granola recipe.

Meredith mentions that “using sprouted seeds is optional.” Well, I took that option.

As you can see, I made a little modification to the recipe. Not only did I add a few almonds, but I also added the two cups raisins to water to rehydrate them.

Sticking with the ‘option’ on the recipe, After getting the seeds started and rinsing them off really well, they went straight into the dehydrator until the next day.

I don’t have any pictures of mixing this stuff, but that all happened in the food processor. I ran the seeds just long enough to break some of them down but not all of them.

After placing the dry ingredients in the big mixing bowl, I rain the rest of the ingredients through the Vita-mix. That’s where the soaked raisins really broke down well.

Another thing that I did that was a slight variation on the recipe is that I used a little extra orange juice. Next time I’d probably just through a pealed orange in the mix for the pulp would probably to the mixture good.

After 12 hours per side, you get crunchy granola!

When Lori tasted this, her eyes lit up. I think I remember her saying something like: Hey, I could eat this stuff! Can you tell she has some reservations with regards to some of the things that I experiment with? Not everything is good enough to blog about! Lol…

Lunch time!  I think I’ll nibble on some homemade raw granola!  Thanks Meredith for sharing!

Red Bell Pepper Hummus

Because staying warm during the detoxification process is one of the most difficult things to do, I went searching to find some raw food that just might help tip the balance towards heat! And as luck might have it, I’ve stumbled across something that has done the trick two days in a row. I have to admit that if this is what it takes to help make the transition, I’m in.

After having researched a little and found that the reason why people get cold when they transition towards going raw is because the body goes through a detoxification process that ‘thickens’ the fluids in the body. All healthy raw foodists say that they don’t have a problem staying warm while eating raw, but most admit that during the transition phase, they need more fats. Knowing that both Sunflower and Sesame seeds are pressed for their oils, I figured I’d put that knowledge to use and find a way to include those oils in my diet.

Mixing together the benefits of sprouting, I started about a cup of both Sunflower and Sesame seeds and let them perform their magic for just over 24 hours. While Mother Nature helped these seeds transform themselves into amino acid power houses, I walked through the Saturday market and found a great deal on red bell peppers. It wasn’t until I got home and opened my mind to receive a creative recipe that I realized that I’d be combining the two to make:

Red Bell Pepper Hummus

When I first made this, I started with just the seeds thinking I was going to make some sprouted seed butter that I would simply gage down. Well, ok, it’s not that bad. But I wanted something good and it wasn’t until the mixture wouldn’t turn in the blender that I decided to add something with a bit more liquid in it. That’s where the red pepper comes in.

  • 1 cup Sprouted Sesame seeds
  • 1 cup Sprouted Sunflower seeds
  • 1 Tablespoon cold pressed olive oil
  • Little more than a pinch of salt
  • 1 large red pepper with the seeds removed
  • No more than 1 teaspoon cayenne pepper.

Yes, you are going to want the cayenne pepper in this one! The powder is pretty cheap and most health food stores will sell you large amounts for a song and dance. Without the cayenne, this ‘hummus’ is just peanut butter with red pepper mixed in.

I love it when I blend things up for it’s not really important what the ‘input’ foods look like beforehand. Thus, I just ripped apart this pepper discarding all the seeds. No need for knife work here.

Notice that the ingredients stack up making this look like it’s going to really produce a lot. Unfortunately, there is a lot of air space so it only yields a couple cups.

I have to admit that this is the first raw food meal that I had that thoroughly warmed me up! You can bet that I’ll be making more of this as my body cleans out. As I come across others, I will make sure to post them for anyone else that happens to have a similar goal: Having warm hands on a cold winter day! Yep. I’ve always had c-c-c-cold hands and I’m looking to change that – naturally.