Archive for March, 2010

ice cream bonanza

March 31st, 2010

With the warmer weather of the past couple of weeks, we’ve been wanting ice cream!  Dante led the way, putting a number of bananas in the freezer. We learned how to split a banana into 3 thin sections using only your fingers (cool trick, we’ll make a video soon) so that they freeze faster. If you plan ahead and keep frozen bananas on hand, you can have delicious ice cream in minutes!

Our basic process involves putting about 3-4 frozen bananas in the food processor and whizzing them up. If they have been frozen for more than an hour or so, you may need to either wait a few minutes for them to soften or add one room temp banana to the processor and whiz again to achieve a soft-serve ice cream consistency.

This creates a great banana ice cream as it is, but we have started adding things both to the processor and as toppings to enhance this tasty treat! We have added cacao powder to the processor to make a chocolate ice cream, and vanilla by adding vanilla extract. We make a chocolate chip nut butter swirl by drizzling nut butter  onto the banana ice cream and topping that with cacao nibs. Other add-ins we like are coconut flakes, nuts, seeds, berries, and other fruit.

We make a sorbet by putting a bag of frozen berries into the food processor and whirring it up into sweet, frozen goodness. Some people add dates or honey as well, but we like it without this and consume enough sweet stuff elsewhere that we leave it out. I made a version of this with raspberries and blueberries for Dante last weekend when he was feeling poorly, but he didn’t finish it all. Later in the day, he requested banana ice cream, so I pulled the melted sorbet from the fridge and poured it into the food processor bowl with the already-whizzed bananas and Voila! A beautiful, ruby-red berry ice cream! I topped it with some frozen berries and chia seeds and served (it’s the pic at the top).

When we lived in Boston, we frequented J.P. Licks ice cream shops and one of Luke’s favorites there was Maple Butter Walnut. So we took the basic banana ice cream, and drizzled maple syrup over it and tossed in some chopped walnuts. Lucia wanted chocolate chip ice cream, so we took the plain banana soft serve and put it in a bowl with cacao nibs for her. Take a gander at this shot of goodness — this was breakfast a couple of weeks ago!

Dante didn’t want either of those variations, so he left his portion of the banana ice cream in the food processor and added some frozen raspberries. He used a slice of banana and more frozen raspberries to make a flower on top of his raspbanana ice dream! The boy loves to garnish…

If you haven’t tried this before, pop some bananas onto a cookie sheet or plate in the freezer with enough space between them that they don’t overlap much. Once frozen, you can store them in a zip lock freezer bag to keep them from getting freezer burn. We also make banana pops — cut the bananas in half, insert a popsicle stick up and wrap them in foil or put them on a cookie sheet until frozen and again, store in a freezer bag or other airtight container. These are one of our favorite treats for a hot day!

What’s your favorite cool snack for the dog days of summer?

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parfaits and hot socks

March 30th, 2010

Parfait!We’ve had some sick kiddies around here lately, so I’ve been doing my best to make tasty, visually appealing treats to tempt compromised appetites. One day, I made a raspberry banana smoothie with only a small handful of spinach leaves — not enough to change the color at all — and I put in a tablespoon or so of hemp seeds and ground flax to boost the nutrition. I layered it in a glass with coconut milk vanilla yogurt and topped it with buckwheat crunchies.

To ease the earache, I sliced an onion and tipped some of the juice into the offended ear. You can also add this juice to oil as well, but you want to make sure when you’re doing so that the eardrum has not burst!

Next I made up a hot sock to keep the heat on it. I found an old, unmatched sock (not a challenge around here!) and put a pan on the stove with a little less than 2 cups of rice in it, and turned it on medium heat.

Once I could feel the heat by putting my hand an inch or so above the surface of the rice, I removed the pan from the heat. It’s tough to spoon the rice into the sock, so I use the canning funnel to make pouring it a breeze.

I knotted the top of the sock  tightly enough to keep it sealed, but loosely enough so I could reheat the rice as needed.

hot sock

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Herbin’ Ranch Dip

March 29th, 2010

I picked a couple great books by Kristen Suzanne and am very pleased with them. Her recipes are easy to make and taste great. Her blog is also interesting right now because she is tracking her pregnancy and raw diet.

I have tried a lot of ranch dressing recipes as that was one of my kids favorite dressings before we cut dairy and I wanted them to be able to enjoy a healthy nutritious version. This is the only one for us! 

This will make about 1 1/2 cups of dressing. I also find it to be very thick. I leave it that way to have as a dip and just whisk in some water if I want it thinner for topping my salad.

Herbin’ Ranch Dip

  • 1/2 c. raw cashews, unsoaked
  • 1/2 c. raw pine nuts, unsoaked
  • 1 zuchinni, peeled and roughly chopped
  • 1 TBS extra virgin coconut oil
  • 3 TBS fresh lemon juice
  • 1 clove garlic
  • 1 tsp. onion powder
  • 1 tsp. sea salt
  • 1/2 tsp. tarragon
  • 1/8 tsp. white pepper
  • 1/4 c. fresh basil, not packed
  • 1/4 c. fresh dill, not packed

Blend all the ingredients except the dill and basil until creamy and smooth. Pulse in the basil and dill. This dip also freezes well.

When I do not have fresh herbs on hand I add dried basil and dill. I also like to throw in some oregano. You can really play around with the herbs to vary the dressing. Try adding a fresh chunk of onion instead of onion powder. It will add a little liquid to make a nice consistency. Enjoy!

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Tomato Tahini Dressing

March 28th, 2010

Start those tomato seeds! You won’t want to miss out making one of the most de- licious dips/dressings ever!

I used to enjoy this dip at our very good friend Brigid’s house. Finally, we had her make it in front of us and another foodie friend and I made educated estimates on the amounts she was putting in of the ingredients. After a couple taste tests and additions, we had it! This recipe makes a whopping 7 cups. Sometimes I cut it in half and other times I make the whole batch since it is the perfect dip or salad dressing.

Brigid’s Tomato Tahini Dressing

  • 1 1/2 c. cold pressed extra vigin olive oil
  • 1 1/4 c. water
  • 1/4 c. apple cider vinegar
  • 1/3 c. wheat- free tamari
  • 2/3 c. nutritional yeast
  • 2 tomatos
  • 1/3 c. tahini (homemade, of course!)
  • 1/2 tsp. sea salt
  • 2 cloves garlic
  • 1 tsp. raw sesame seeds
  • 2 1/2 tsp psyllium husk powder

Blend all ingredients. That’s it!

This is pretty thick and holds up fantastic as a dip but is light enough to be a dressing as is. If you would like it thicker or thinner, adjust the psyllium husk powder to your liking.

The color of this dressing is a beautiful red. It is a sure sign that warm weather is here!

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kale tahini salad

March 27th, 2010

kale tahini saladI’m glad Sabrina posted on how to make your own tahini — buying it in the jars can be an expensive proposition, and it’s easy to make at home. Fats are altered when exposed to heat, so processing tahini at home enables you to be sure it never gets hot enough to denature. If the nut or seed butter does start to heat up during processing, you can always turn it off, tidy up the kitchen, wash some dishes, etc, and turn it back on again when things have had a chance to cool down.

I don’t often use oil when I make tahini, but if I do, I tend to use sesame oil. I pour the seeds into the Vita-Mix and put the plunger in the lid. As it starts to process, the paste starts to climb the sides of the blender carafe. I use the plunger to push them back down toward the blade and repeat the process for several minutes, until the oils start to release and the paste becomes smooth.

I just made some the other day, and used it to make one of my favorite kale recipes. This kale-tahini recipe can be used as a fresh salad, with red peppers or in-season cherry tomatoes for a splash of color. Alternatively, it works well when dehydrated as kale chips. This dressing clings to the kale and adds a cheesy note to the dried chips. The recipe below makes a big enough batch to dress 2 heads of curly kale (which takes more dressing than lacinato) as well as leave almost a pint left as dip for crudite (another lovely way to enjoy this dressing).

Kale Tahini Salad

  • tahini dressing in the blender1 1/2 cups tahini
  • 1/4 cup tamari
  • 1/2 cup apple cider vinegar
  • 1 cup water
  • 4 scallions
  • 2 cloves garlic
  • 1/4 cup lemon juice
  • 1/2 cup nutritional yeast
  • salt to taste
  • dollop of honey
  • 2 heads of kale
  1. Prepare the kale. I pull the kale off the ribs (you can save the ribs for soup stock — I keep a ziplock bag in the freezer and keep adding carrot tops, broccoli stems, etc until I have enough to make stock) and rinse it in the salad spinner. I then gather it into a tight clump on the cutting board, chop it into bite-size pieces and toss it into a big bowl.
  2. You can massage some salt at this step and allow it time to wilt down, but I don’t often have the patience for this so I pour on the dressing once the kale is washed and chopped.
  3. I make the tahini in the Vita-Mix, measure out half a cup and put the rest in a jar in the fridge for other purposes.
  4. Without rinsing the carafe, I put all the other ingredients in except the salt and kale. After processing to a smooth consistency, I taste it and add salt accordingly. I also like to add something sweet to cut the acid, so I add a spoonful of honey with the salt. Not enough to taste it, just enough to cut the bite.
  5. After mixing the dressing thoroughly into the kale, I toss in whatever veggies we’ve got that will add some color — usually cherry tomatoes or red peppers and red onion. Sometimes I add hemp or pumpkin seeds, sometimes carrot shreds. I’m looking for a splash of color, and a touch of sweetness and a bit of a crunch.

I was going to take a lovely photo of the salad all mixed and plated, but alas, Luke came home from work and snarfled what I”d left after my lunch all down in one sitting. Needless to say, we LOVE this salad, and find it to be very filling as well. What more can you ask from a salad? YUM!

What do you like to do with tahini?

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homemade tahini

March 25th, 2010

I just love tahini! I love it even more since I started making my own. It is so eay and simple and will never have you running to the store again.

Sesame seeds are a good source of calcium, copper, iron, magnesium and has good fats for our body. Sprinkle some on a salad or over some zucchini noddles to bring some more nutrition, decoration and variety. Tahini is great as a spread and a major component of hummus and other dips and dressings.

I have to admit, I do not measure this but go more on looks. I will give you approximate measurements but you may need to play around a bit.

I pour sesame seeds in to the food processor. Little tip here, make sure your food processor is completely dry. Otherwise, the seeds will not break down and it becomes a waste or if you want to look on the bright side, an opportunity to make up a new recipe with all the sesame seeds that now won’t grind!

Grind the seeds for several minutes. It may take about 5 minutes. They will begin to break down and here is the key, release some of their oils and start to clump together. I continue processing for another minute or two until it seems it has clumped all it will.

Next, add olive oil slowly. For about 1 cup of sesame seeds, you will use about 1/4 cup olive oil. Drizzle it in slowly stopping occasionally to let it incorporate. Stop when it is a nice creamy consistency and not too oily.

You did it! That’s all it takes. If you are soaking your seeds, you will need to let them completely dry before processing them. So get in there and make some yummy tahini. You will need it for the Tomato Tahini Dressing coming soon!

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stuff

March 23rd, 2010

Watching the Colbert Report at some point in the recent past, I saw an interview with Annie Leonard, the environmental activist responsible for the thought-provoking film The Story of Stuff. We had watched it a couple of years ago, but it was a great conversation starter with the kids again today. Now that the 75 degree weather is behind us for a while and March is back like a wet lion, I’m in the mood to watch a movie. Here’s some rainy-day entertainment if you’re indoors due to rain — make a nice cuppa and cozy up to the computer for a while! (The Story of Stuff website has oodles of “further reading” and info.)

A slightly more hilarious take on the subject by George Carlin — a classic by a comedic genius:

And Carlin’s take on saving the planet:

Do you have too much stuff? How do you manage it all?

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tangy carrot salad

March 22nd, 2010

Welcome to the Saladbration — a week-long ode to the salad. We’ve already posted some of our favorites over the past few months, and you can find them all, as well as our other recipes by clicking on the new Recipes tab at the top of the page! Don’t miss kale salad in our kickoff, golden cabbage, and cucumber arame salad.

I was housebound this weekend with a sick child who didn’t want me to leave his feverish side. Craving something quick, light and tangy, and I came up with this filling salad after scrounging in the fridge and cupboard. It took me about 10 minutes to throw together, and I had leftovers for the next day.

tangy carrot dill saladTangy Carrot Salad

  • 4-5 carrots, shredded
  • 1/4 large onion, sliced
  • 3-4 leaves romaine, sliced
  • 1/3 cup raisins
  • 1/4 cup pine nuts
  • 1/4 sunflower seeds
  • 3 cloves garlic, minced
  • 1 avocado
  • small handful of dill, chopped
  • juice of 1-2 lemons or 1/4 cup ACV
  • 1-2 Tbs olive oil
  • 1-2 Tbs nutritional yeast
  • salt to taste

Shred carrots, add to bowl with rest of ingredients. Mash avocado and mix salad. All done!

tangy carrot saladThis is definitely one of those that benefits from an overnight in the fridge, allowing the flavors to mellow and meld. I used leftover baked local potatoes, scooped out the inside, put them under the broiler to crisp them up a bit and stuffed this salad inside for dinner tonight. But if I had more fresh produce on hand, I would have stuffed this into a red pepper, or rolled it up in a large collard leaf for a light sandwich wrap lunch! The avocados and seeds/nuts make it really satisfying.

You need no special equipment — I did use the food processor shredding blade for the carrots, but you could use a peeler, grater or mandoline. It’s really flexible — I used what I had on hand today because we planning to be away for the weekend and didn’t have much produce in the house. Next time I will add the nuts just before serving to preserve their crunch.

Today’s question:  What are some of your  favorite salad ingredients?

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Oh So Sleepy….

March 21st, 2010

We have been busy at our house the last few weeks. We are so happy to have a new addition to our family! Delilah is a mini long haired dachshund. We got her the day before Valentine’s Day and she is just perfect. We seem to be out of the thick of it, but oooo weeee, let me tell ya I was seriously sleep deprived and having a hard time functioning for the first week and a half. Our little girl was having a hard time going to sleep but picked that up in a few nights. The problem was if someone in the family woke in the night to take care of their own bathroom needs, the pup would wake and not go back to sleep. Therefore, I didn’t get to go back to sleep either. My husband even wore his chainsaw earmuffs and it didn’t touch the noise she could produce.

Being so sleep deprived, it was hard enough to function and be mom during the day, do laundry, take puppers out to pee and poop constantly and still make healthy meals. What we did? It was back to basics. Snacks consisted of a lot of grab and go fruits like apples, pears, and bananas. My older son loves red peppers and ate lots of them. We relied on hummus and carrots or rice thins for lunchtime and also lettuce wraps that we filled with cashew mayo. tomato, red pepper, avocado and herbamare. It was yummy, satisfying and most of all easy! I am a big fan of freezing as well. I took out a frozen container of garden burger pate to put on top of salads for dinner and felt a bit rejuvinated being able to snack on the fermented veggies Sioux and I made that look so beautiful. Baked potatoes were a hit and oh, so easy and could be topped with chopped veggies. The snack of ants on a log are fun, healthy with raw almond butter or sunflower seed butter and kept little bellies satisfied! We still had a big jar of homemade muselli in the pantry and that made a filling breakfast or snack anytime of the day.

The key for surviving sleep deprivation was really something I like to try to keep in mind and can get away from which is to keep it simple. It is easier and often quite healthful. Cut a few extra veggies next time you are in the kitchen and then you have that “oh my gosh I am starving now” snack ready to go! Frozen fruit is also a great way to have fruit on hand for those smoothies and reduces on the time needed to spend cutting up the fresh fruit. Having good nutrition during the times we need it most makes it easier to get through the tough times.

Now, Delilah is on her way to getting good nights sleep and I am close behind. Now on to potty training. Guess I better go make another smoothie and grab an apple to keep my mind sharp for that one!

Once the sleep deprivation subsides and we settle a bit more, I will transitioning my pup to a raw foods diet. So stay tuned as there will be more on that in a future post.

Nighty night!

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lemon fennel soup

March 20th, 2010

Spring has sprung! It’s been gloriously sunny and about 75 degrees here for the past few days, allowing us to celebrate the first day of spring by spending all our time outside! I was thinking about how we humans have our own circadian rhythms and noticing that the cozy down energy I feel during the post-holiday rush is now gone, replaced by an almost anxiety to get my hands in the dirt outside. The cathartic feeling I get wielding the rake gleefully on leaves and dead plant matter blanketing our garden beds is so fitting now when it would have felt incongruous just 2 months ago.

I also find that I’m looking for different food these days. And while I’m putting a serious dent in the box of dates I brought home from my food coop pickup (I can’t resist them dipped in almond butter!) most of the time I’m looking for something light  and fresh. So with that in mind:

One of my all-time favorite raw recipes is based on the lemon fennel soup in Ani’s Raw Food Kitchen: Easy, Delectable Living Foods Recipes. Simple ingredients, no fancy equipment required, and ingredients I adore in all one place. This is a cold or room temperature soup, so it’s great for the summer, and yet with my modifications (the addition of oodles of garlic and a pinch of cayenne) it’s incredibly warming. I could gobble this up every day, and often do when I’m feeling sickness lurking around the corner.

Lemon Fennel Soup

  • 1/4 cup lemon juice
  • 3 cups water
  • 1/2 cup olive oil
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 1/2 bulb fennel, sliced
  • scallions, chopped

Whisk together lemon juice, water, olive oil and salt. When ready to serve, pour into bowls and garnish with chopped fennel and scallions.

lemon fennel soupFor me, this is not lemony enough, and has waaaay too much olive oil. I put the water, more lemon juice (at least double — the 8 lemons pictured was what I started with for a class of 20 people — I usually use around 4-5 to make dinner for my family of 4), olive oil (2-3 Tbs or so), and salt into a blender with lots of garlic (4+ cloves) and a dollop of honey. I blend this to emulsify (any old blender will do for this, and I used to make it in my food processor too, tho the max liquid issue caused some trouble once I realized how yummy this was), and once it’s a lovely creamy opaque liquid, I pour into a bowl. I like to add chopped greens (usually kale, this time spinach) as well as sliced red onion and fennel before serving. I also add minced garlic to the bowl with the greens, onion and fennel — can you tell I loves me some garlic? If there are leftovers (infrequently) the greens wilt even more and the flavors meld nicely to make a subtler, less fiery soup. I also add cayenne if I”m feeling the need for some extra heat, but I often am adding enough raw garlic that sometimes that warms it up enough for me. Oh, and once we start having fresh herbs outside again, I must say that I love this soup with some basil chiffonade. Parsley, dill, cilantro, thyme, many herbs would work. In fact, I’m waiting for my mint to rear it’s head in the garden so I can try it with that.

Between the greens, garlic, onion and lemon, this soup packs a powerful immune-boosting punch loaded with vitamins and minerals. We like to eat it even when we’re not feeling wretched, and the kids cheer for this one. We like to bring this with the dolmas and a green salad for a cool summer picnic — easy to prepare ahead, and light for a hot day. Can’t wait for more hot days like the 75 degree March days we’ve been having this week! Happy Spring!

What’s your favorite light meal recipe or idea?

<a href=”http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1600940005?ie=UTF8&tag=crunchybits-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=1600940005″>Ani’s Raw Food Kitchen: Easy, Delectable Living Foods Recipes</a><img src=”http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=crunchybits-20&l=as2&o=1&a=1600940005″ width=”1″ height=”1″ border=”0″ alt=”" style=”border:none !important; margin:0px !important;” />

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