Re-defining granola and protein bars

I haven't posted here in almost a year!
The Florida busy season was kind to me and I've been running around slinging organic veggies and teaching workshops.

Now that the summer is nearly upon us again and things are slowing down, I should have time to blog again!

So I'm starting with my latest kitchen concoction craze!

I've been cutting grains out of my diet and adding plant based proteins to support my new weight lifting lifestyle. These little gems are an example of my Grain-free granola/protein bars!

Thanks to my trusty dehydrator I've been able to make enough variations of this portable and palatable treat to keep from getting bored of it!

The most important ingredient(s) in dehydrated bar making is a binder of some sort. A binder serves as a "glue" to hold all of the ingredients together My two preferred choices are dates and chia seeds. I use chia in every single bar I make and I often skip the dates to cut out some sugary calories. Also, a bar with dates tends to be a more chewy bar where as one without can be dehydrated down to a much crunchier bar.

This particular batch is made from:
1/2 cup chia seeds soaked in one cup water for 20 minutes or until a gel has formed 
one cup raw soaked almonds chopped (I soak them for at least 12 hours and pulse them in the blender or food processor)
one cup raw filberts chopped (you can soak these as well for easier digestion, this batch I didn't soak the filberts because I forgot! Fortunately nuts are forgiving)
1/2 cup dried cranberries ( I get these in the bulk section of the grocery store. i prefer to use dried cherries but they were out of stock this time around)
1/2 cup raw sunflower seeds
1/2 cup raw *LOCAL* honey (I emphasize local here because A- I'm supporting local bee keepers and B- because eating local honey is a great way to combat seasonal allergies)
1 tbs coco powder (the unsweetened baking sort. Using raw cocao nibs is preferred, but again... the store was out so I improvised)
1 tbs pumpkin pie spice

I mixed everything together and spread it and press out on parchment paper on my dehydrator trays at about 1/4 of an inch thick. Things tend to shrink a lot from dehydration so a thick spread is important.

I'm a fairly impatient person so I set my dehydrator to it's max temp, which is 155 degrees and I left it on over night, about 10 hours. Then the next morning I peeled the slabs of granola off the paper and cut them into bars. I wanted them a bit crunchier so I placed the bars back in to dehydrate for a couple more hours.

This is a really great source of protein and essential fats. The chia helps curb hunger and the cranberries help curb a sweet tooth!

The best part about making these bars is the variations are endless. You can substitute nuts and flavorings and fruits into a whole array of consistencies and flavors!

They make a great pre or post work out treat and are a much appreciated addition to a grain free/gluten free diet. YUM!

Kitchen Scrap Gardening

Some of my best backyard gardening results have come from what I call Kitchen Scrap Gardening.

Where most people see spoiled or useless foods, I see opportunity
for GROWTH!

Carrot tops! Cut them and throw them in the compost bin right?
NO! Even if there isn't any sign of growth on the carrot tops you can skewer them and keep them partially submerged in water in a sunny window and they'll sprout! These tops are ready for planting. They have healthy roots well over two inches long and plenty of greenery.
Sometimes with Carrots, you'll find them shoved way to the back of the fridge where they've been long forgotten. When you pull them out they may have white or yellow sprouts.
Set those puppies in a glass of water, the whole carrot if you wish! And place in a sunny window... the sprouts will turn green within a day or two. What a great way to teach the kiddo's about photosynthesis!



Celery is another super easy scrap to grow. When you cut the bottom nub off your bunch, don't toss it! Place it in a little water (make sure to change the water regularly or it will rot) Within a few days you'll have new growth from the center of the nub and eventually roots! Once you see the roots it's ready for dirt! Some people like to just plant directly into soil without windowsill rooting everything. But I prefer to get a good healthy set of roots before hand.

 

Potatoes! Letting potatoes sprout on their own is called "chitting". There's no difficult science here, you can have seed potatoes with very little effort. When the eyes start to grow just let them have their way! Once you have some good sprouts on them you can cut them down so each potato piece has it's own healthy sprout. Soak them in water over night and then plant away! Any variety of potato, including sweet potato will work, however It's my understanding that it's easier when you use organics. I've never tried conventional potatoes myself though.

Some more easily grown kitchen scraps are:

• Garlic
• rosemary
• pineapple tops (one of my favorite!)
• avocado seeds)
• onions of all sorts

So next time you discover something sprouted in your fridge, don't be so quick to throw it out! We have viable food all around us and nature often times does the hard part for us! Happy planting and Happy Gardening!
 

Repurposed Cloth Napkins

Not food related, but an earth friendly addition to my Garden!

I bought a bunch of 25 cent cloth napkins from goodwill, cut them in half and sewed them to a sturdy twine.

I'd like to stamp them or write on them, they're much like prayer flags and really add a nice splash of color to the back yard <3

Living Foods

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Why eat more raw foods?
I'll chop this down to a raw word version that's easy to digest for anyone. When put into simple terms even the most difficult bio-chemical lesson can be easily absorbed by the brain.

ENZYMES are why. In a nutshell.

More specifically, digestive enzymes are the ones we really want to focus our attention on right now.

Our pancreas produces digestive enzymes to battle, fight, break down, and help the body absorb nutrients from our food sources. The more processed and cooked foods we eat the more enzymes our body has to put out in order to get any nutrients out of it.

Why? Cooking food destroys enzymes.... and pretty much all nutrient content. The more you cook it, the less nutritional value it has. When you pulverize and process food enough to shove it in a box or can and label it with an expiration date you've pretty much killed every bit of recognizable life that food has... or, had.

For more reading on enzymes, I recommend The World's Healthiest Foods page on enzymes. This is a great website, when you're done reading about enzymes you really should click over to their food list. This is a great tool to bookmark for those interested in what specific nutritional value certain raw foods have.

If a pregnant woman wants more folic acid (folate), yet despises orange juice... there's asparagus!
If you're feeling run down and depressed more than usual, you may need a vitamin B kick, why not have a banana?

The fresher your foods, the more nutrients you can get out of them Not only because they HAVE more nutrients than something that's been cooked to death, but because fresh foods also provide the enzymes your body needs to get those nutrients out and absorbed into your system. Fresh and raw food do a lot of the work for you so parts of you, like your pancreas and your colon, have less of a work load.

An overworked pancreas and colon are run down and tired and susceptible to illness... like cancer.

So be kind to your body, help it out a little... or a lot! Provide yourself with the simple tools your body needs to function! Even adding just one raw food to each meal will lighten the work load on your digestive system. Keeping raw and living foods available to grab and snack on makes it easy to do!

Plant a garden! If you can't plant a garden, plant a pot. Have a fresh herb pot in your windowsill or some sprouts in your fridge. If you can grow a food, make sure the produce section of your store becomes your FIRST and LAST stop when you go grocery shopping. Keep bananas around, Apples, carrots and incorporate them into every day routines. Have one raw side dish at every meal. Chop an apple or celery stalk or throw down a hand full of baby carrots.

Adding living foods to your life can and will add life to your living!

Raw Apple Crisp

4 ingredient Raw Apple Crisp

1 large Organic Gala Apple diced
2-3 tbsp Organic Raw Honey
1/2 cup Almond Pulp
Dash or two of ground Cinnamon

mix all of your ingredients together
You may want to heat your jar of raw honey just a bit by placing it into a cup of warm water, raw honey tends to be a little more on the solid side than conventional honey. Use 2 or 3 tbsp depending on how sweet your sweet tooth is.

Transfer your mixture into a small deep dish or cereal bowl

Mash it down hard using the back of a spoon. The harder you mash it the more the juices of the apple will be released! Mash it until the surface is smooth and even.

Turn the bowl over onto a serving dish, you may need to coax it out by running a thin knife around the edges.

That's it! Sweet, crispy and 100% raw apple crisp style treat packed with nutrients and quite satisfying!

Cucumber Avocado Lettuce Wraps

 I was combing the internet today seeking inspiration for a flavorful, raw afternoon meal, armed with a rock solid craving for cucumbers! I ran across a couple of different lettuce wrap recipes and mix and matched to make my very own creation! Cucumber and Avocado Lettuce Wraps! I'm in love! And it's simple. No need for any exotic ingredients, this is pretty straight forward.

Two things I purchased today to add a little oomph to a rather blandly flavored few days I've had are:

• Ground mustard seed (REALLY was hoping for whole seeds to grind myself but I settled)
• Celery seed 

Both of these ingredients can be used very sparingly and still add quite a savory and full flavor to dishes with a lot f juices... in this case, the cucumber has provided all the moister needed to bring out the flavors. In this recipe you'll be adding a  dash of each of these... one shake! Maybe tow.

What you'll need in addition to the spices (this recipe is for a single serving, since I'm on my own in this house with the whole raw adventure) Organically grown of course!

• 1/2 ripe avocado cubed
• Juice of 1/2 lemon
• One small or half of one large cucumber, peeled and grated 
• Handful of halved grape tomatoes
• Fresh herbs, I insist that you use dill for this because cucumbers and dill go together like... well, cucumbers and dill! I also grabbed some basil and thyme from the garden.
• Romaine lettuce leaves
• Sweet red pepper to garnish

 Combine the avocado, lemon juice, cucumber, tomato, herbs and spices in a bowl mixing gently until all ingredients are happy together, but not so much that they're turning to mush.

Now! Let it sit. Go do something else, fold the laundry, walk the dog, whatever. Just let it sit and soak itself up for a little while. Don't bother putting it in the fridge or covering it, you wont be gone THAT long. Just give it about 15 minutes or so to let all the flavors of the herbs and spices really leech into the natural juices of the cucumber.

When you come back give it another gentle stir and spoon onto your individual romaine leaves, and garnish with some sweet red pepper slices
.
I did three for myself and then my mom popped in and I forced one on her... she said it was very good so YAY... I totally agree, it's a very yummy dish. After 3.5 days of blandsville this was a welcome burst of flavor. I have a small amount left over that I'm going to store away for an evening snack. By then it should be busting at the seams with flavor!

If you try this recipe, or have a similar variation, please let me know in the comments!
OR
Find me on Facebook! ~~ The Manic Organic

Captains log

Day three on operation Raw Cleanse and I honestly don't have much to say about it. I feel great! So great I almost feel like I'm doing something wrong, but I'm totally not!

I'm a little envious of all the wonderful recipes I'm seeing other cleansers come up with, but my only reason for not being able to partake in such luxuries is that I've cut out all added oils and salts as well. Plus I really need to go shopping! I'm already out of all the cool stuff, I ate it first.

So my diet is pretty bland aside from a ginger or garlic kick here and there but I'm really learning to appreciate food in it's natural flavor state. I'm also drinking a lot of fresh juices wich are always very flavorful.

Today I started with a kale, carrot, apple, celery, lemon juice for breakfast after my coffee and I followed it with a big glass of water later in the morning.

I had some buckwheat hummus I made yesterday for lunch.
~~ Really simple! I just food processed some buckwheat I soaked over night  with half an avocado, a clove of garlic, some sweet red peppers, lemon juice and celery... zapped it all in the processor and I've been grazing on it since yesterday. A bit bland for the lack of oil and salt but satisfying for sure!~~

I've also sprouted some buckwheat , which took ONE DAY to sprout! I love that I can have a living food like that so quickly! Not sure what I'm going to do with it yet but I'm happy to have it! Even if I just eat it alone it's a nutrient packed living food! Can't go wrong there!

I've been snacking on nuts and seeds all day which is probably what keeps me from being hungry... I pretty much never feel hungry. I eat more-so out of boredom it seems.

I went to the gym and I've cut my normal 30 mins of cardio and 30 mins of circuit training down to a total of 45 minutes and backed off my normal intensity a bit. I'm concerned that my lack of significant protein intake may make a harder workout more difficult for my body to recover from.

Yesterday in addition to 30 minutes of cardio I got to play with a whole bunch of kids at a Children's Drum Circle that I organized to celebrate the first day of spring... the dancing and festivities were so energizing! For sure a great day for physical activities!

This picture sums up yesterday quite well!

Today is lame, almost as lame as this blog post! I'm going to bed now and it's 11:00 so I should get some good sleep... I just had another big glass of fruit and veggie juice and my dog ran past me with a diaper in his mouth so seems like as good of a time as any to end this incredibly boring blog post