Tag Archives: nuts

February 8, 2011 · 2:51 pm

PEANUT BUTTER CRISP BARS

Peanut Butter Crisp Bars

These bars are favorites in our house for the occasional treat…my nephew ate three of them the last time I made them and was going for a fourth when I had to rain on his parade and say “NO MORE” (while inside I was secretly jumping for joy that they were such a hit!). Since they are sweetened with brown rice syrup, they are technically healthier than other bars, but please remember that they are still treats.

INGREDIENTS

2/3 cup brown rice syrup

2/3 cup peanut butter (or other nut butter)

2 Tbs. coconut oil

4 cups Arrowhead Mills puffed cereal (I used puffed millet and rice)

1/3 cup shredded coconut

1/3 cup carob chips (or vegan chocolate chips)

1/3 cup chopped nuts

cinnamon to taste (optional…I left it out this time)

Ingredients

Lightly grease a bread pan or casserole. You can really use any pan you’d like. If you like to have thicker bars, use a smaller pan. I chose to use a large casserole so I would have thinner bars.

Grease the Dish

Pour the puffed cereal into a large mixing bowl.

In a saucepan combine the rice syrup, nut butter, coconut oil, and cinnamon (if using). Whisk the ingredients together on low-medium heat until everything melts together to form a sauce. You do not need to bring the sauce to a boil, simply warm it.

Coconut Oil, Nut Butter, & Brown Rice Syrup

Sauce

Pour the sauce over the puffed cereal and stir to combine.

Pour Sauce into Puffed Cereal

Mix to Combine

Once evenly combined, add the shredded coconut and combine well.

Add Coconut & Mix

Next, add the nuts and do the same.

Add Nuts & Mix

Finally, add the carob chips and combine well (the mixture should be cooled enough by this point to prevent the carob chips from melting).

Add Carob Chips & Mix

Pour the mixture into the greased casserole and press firmly to pack it in evenly throughout the casserole.

Pour into Casserole

Press Firmly & Evenly

Place the casserole into the refrigerator for 30 minutes to firm-up.

Refrigerate to Firm

Once firm, cut into bars. I often make a large batch and wrap each bar separately for storage in the freezer.

Peanut Butter Crisp Bars

For a printable version of this recipe click here.

1 Comment

Filed under Dessert, Gluten Free, Recipes, Vegan, Vegetarian

Tagged as almond butter, bars, brown rice syrup, carob chips, chocolate chips, coconut, coconut oil, dessert, dessert bars, nut butter, nuts, peanut butter, shredded coconut, vegan, vegetarian

January 26, 2011 · 6:52 am

CRUNCHY CANDIED NUTS

Crunchy Candied Nuts

These are the candied nuts that I use in my kale salad recipe. The other night I ran out of candied nuts and put roasted nuts in the kale salad we were having with dinner…my family made it very clear to me that the candied nuts are an integral part of the kale salad! So, today I needed to make some more candied nuts.

INGREDIENTS

2 cups assorted raw nuts

1/3 cup coconut sugar

1/3 cup shredded coconut

2-3 Tbs water

1 tsp cinnamon

First measure out the raw nuts.

Raw Nuts

In a separate bowl put the coconut sugar, shredded coconut, cinnamon, and water. Mix well.

Sweet Coating Pre-Mix

Mixed Sweet Coating

Combine the sweet coating with the raw nuts. Mix well to coat.

Sweet Coating on the Raw Nuts

Place the nuts on either a cookie sheet (I also use a silpat) or on a dehydrator tray with a ParaFlexx lining.

Place On A Baking Sheet

Or a Dehydrator Tray

If you plan on baking the nuts, put them in the oven at 200 degrees. You will need to watch the nuts carefully to make sure they do not burn. The candied nuts will be done when the coating is no longer wet. When you take them out of the oven to cool they will harden. If they are not crunchy enough for you, return them to the oven for some additional baking time.

If you will be using the dehydrator (I used my Excalibur), put the tray of nuts in the dehydrator at 115 degrees for 8-10 hours. Check the nuts after about 3-4 hours, take them off of the Paraflexx, and place them directly on the Polyscreen tray. Once you remove the nuts from the dehydrator they will crisp as they cool.

Into the Dehydrator

When the nuts have cooled, put them in a bag and store them in the freezer.

For a printable version of this recipe click here.

10 Comments

Filed under Gluten Free, Nuts, Raw, Recipes, Vegan, Vegetarian

Tagged as candied nuts, cinnamon, coconut, coconut sugar, hazelnut, nuts, pecan, raw, shredded coconut, vegan, vegetarian, walnut

January 20, 2011 · 3:33 am

MY FOOD JOURNAL – Tuesday

Food Log

Early morning – 16 ounces of green juice made with lots of kale stems, 1 head of romaine, 1 GIANT cucumber, 1 red bell pepper, 2 pears, and a huge handful of parsley.

Breakfast – 1/2 cup Barbara’s High Fiber Cereal, 1/2 cup Fiber One, 3 Tbs Salba, 1 stevia, 1/2 cup blueberries, 1/2 cup raspberries, 4 strawberries, sprinkle of dried cranberries, 4 chopped walnuts, and unsweetened vanilla almond milk.

Barbara's Fiber Cereal Fiber One Cereal

Salba Seed

Lunch – I brought lunch to my son at school, so we had a “special” lunch… I had 1/2 of a large cucumber and avocado Togo’s sandwich on whole wheat with mustard, lettuce, bell peppers, pepperocinis, onions, pickles, olives…piled real high (no mayo)!

1pm – Young Thai coconut (I drank the coconut water)… I would have eaten the coconut meat then too, but ran out of time since I needed to pick-up my daughter from school.

Young Thai Coconut

2pm – I made a green smoothie with the coconut meat, Spirulina, chlorella, 2 cups spinach, 2 stevia, 1 scoop Plant Fusion vanilla protein powder, 2 dates, 1 cucumber, 1 zucchini, 1/2 avocado. I drank 24 ounces (it made about 40 ounces)

4pm – I drank the rest of the green juice I made this morning (16 ounces more)

5:45pm – Dinner tonight was kale salad and veggie lasagna (I made it a few nights ago and it is yummy! ). Sadly tonight we ate the rest of the lasagna. I will need to post my lasagna recipe the next time I make it.

After dinner snack – this evening I will sip on the rest of the green smoothie I made this afternoon, though at the moment I am pretty full.

I’d say this is a pretty typical day for me food-wise with the exception of the Togo’s…I usually cook/make something simple for lunch.

VEGAN GOAT CHEESE

When people make the decision to remove dairy from their diet cheese is often what they say they miss most. Dairy is NOT healthy (in the future I will do an in-depth post to explain why) , so it is important that we find good alternatives.

Russell James

I recently purchased one of Russell James‘ e-books called Raw Nut Cheese from his Raw Chef’s Recipe Series and decided to give the goat cheese recipe a whirl.

I have made raw nut cheese before and they weren’t as successful as this recipe was (I am eating it as I type…yum!). I think the curing step is key…

INGREDIENTS – day one

2 cups raw unsalted macadamias, soaked 4 hours

1 cup water

1 tsp. probiotics powder (I used New Chapter Organics All Flora)

INGREDIENTS – day two

1 tsp. nutritional yeast

½ tsp. salt

1 tsp. lemon juice

Soak the macadamia nuts in filtered water for 4 hours.

Blend the soaked nuts with 1 cup of filtered water and 1 tsp. probiotics powder in your high-powered blender (I used my Vitamix). Make sure all of the nuts are blended well and there are no chunks.

Transfer the mixture to a cheesecloth-lined strainer that has been placed over a bowl.

Fold the cheesecloth over the cheese and place a weight over the top (I used a plate with pie weights over it). Allow this mixture to cure at room temperature for a full 24 hours.

Once the cheese has cured, mix in the nutritional yeast, salt, and lemon juice.

Place the mixture in a Saran wrap lined spring form pan (I used a 5” pan) and place in the refrigerator to firm-up.

When the cheese is more firm (it will never get firm…it will become the texture of goat cheese) and ready to serve, top it with your choice of toppings i.e. pesto, chopped sun dried tomatoes, fresh herbs. The next time I make this cheese I plan on mixing pesto directly into the mixture. This cheese is great served with crackers, on a salad, or in a sandwich.

For a printable version of this recipe click here

18 Comments

Filed under Books, Cheese, Gluten Free, Raw, Recipes, Vegan, Vegetarian

Tagged as cheese, lemon, macadamia nuts, nuts, raw, recipe, Russell James, vegan, vegetarian

January 3, 2011 · 11:21 pm

FOOD LOG – JANUARY 3, 2011

Me & My Liquid Health

So here’s the low-down on what I ate today. Since I am in recovery mode from the holidays, there is a bunch of green juice to get my nutrient levels back to where they should be…I guess you could say I am doing a cleanse of sorts.

6am – 32 ounces of water with an entire lemon squeezed in

8:15am – 20 ounces of green juice (made in my Breville juicer)

RECIPE (this made enough for the day)

kale stems that I saved from making kale chips
mixed greens
5 carrots
1 huge cucumber
1/2 head of napa cabbage

10am – handful of raw nuts… almonds, walnuts, pecans

1pm – 16 ounces of green juice (made in the morning and put in a 16 ounce mason jar filled to the lid in order to prevent oxidation…a trick I got from Kris Carr)

2:30pm – green smoothie

RECIPE

Blend all of the ingredients in the blender. I use my Vitamix since it completely emulsifies everything. If you don’t have a Vitamix, any blender will work…you may have to add some more liquid to get it all to blend.

½ cup So Delicious Cultered Coconut Milk
½ cup to ¾ cup unsweetened vanilla almond milk
Huge handful of spinach
1 cucumber
1 cup of carrots
½ apple
½ avocado
2 dates for sweetness
1 scoop of vegan (soy free) protein powder (I like Plant Fusion)
1 tsp each of maca, spirulina, chlorella, and coconut oil
1 scoop Amazing Grass wheat grass powder
2 handfuls of ice

4pm – the rest of the green smoothie

6pm – brown rice, baked beans (recipe from weelicious.com), roasted brussel sprouts

7pm – 3 Cuties tangerines

8 Comments

Filed under Cleansing, Detox, Food Journal, Recipes, Vegan, Vegetarian

Tagged as almond milk, Breville, carrot, cleanse, coconut milk, juice, juicing, Kale, lemon, nuts, recipe, smoothie, smoothies, spinach, vegan, vegetarian, vitamix