I know it has been ages since I’ve posted, but I took some time off to determine if I wanted to continue writing my blog or not.  I felt like my posting started getting monotonous, boring and laborious – not at all fun anymore.  So, I just stopped completely and during the time off I realized that I really missed it, I felt there was a lot I could’ve shared over the past couple of months, but I didn’t. So, since it’s a new year, I’ve decided to continue with my posts, but I have not committed myself to posting everyday.  While, I would love to do this and hope that I will be able to make time, I will commit to at least posting weekly.

With that being said here’s what I’ve been up to in the kitchen lately….

For Christmas the hubby bought me an Excalibur 3526T dehydrator –  I can’t tell you how long I have been drooling over this thing and I was so surprised to find it under my tree this year!  So, I definitely had to put it to good use while I had some time off for the holidays.  I have been researching more and more about eating raw and have been trying to incorporate more raw meals into my diet.  Although you don’t need a dehydrator to eat raw, it sure does allow you to be more creative and adapt traditional cooked foods into raw ones.  

At the first sight of this gift, I instantly knew what I would be making to test out this bad boy.

I have been seeing macaroons all over the blogsphere and in raw food establishments and couldn’t wait to try my hand at my very own.

VANILLA-ALMOND MACAROONS

CHOCOLATE-GINGER MACAROONS

These macaroons were amazing.  The first batch I made, the macaroons were rather large and took a long time to dehydrate and the second batch, the chocolate ones, were about half the size and took a lot less time to finish.  Both were so delicious – I took the first batch to my parents and they were very impressed.

CUMIN FLATBREAD

I loved this recipe, which is from Everyday Raw by Matthew Kenney – I have made this twice and the hubby even loved this “bread” we’ve made lots of yummy veggie sandwiches around here!

BAKED MACARONI AND CHEESE

This recipe was awesome as well – again, from the Everyday Raw book.  My spiralizer makes very small noodles, but I would’ve liked to have had larger noodles to cut up so that they would’ve been more like macaroni noodles like in Mac-n-Cheese.  And I didn’t have walnuts to put on top, just pecans.  I think I will try this again in the near future and make the squash a little larger and use the walnuts.  The Cashew cheese sauce tasted amazing!

EGGPLANT BACON

I think I needed more eggplant than I had on hand, it turned out pretty salty, but had a nice texture and is great on our veggie sandwiches.  This recipe was from Ani’s Raw Food Essentials by Ani Phyo.

Not only do I have an awesome dehydrator where I can make delicious and nutritious food, I was also given a VitaMix by my boss – Amazing I know!!  I use this thing everyday and it is amazing.  This piece of equipment has made a huge impact on eating healthy in our family.  I have finally convinced the hubby to drink green smoothies in the morning.  I worry about him getting enough veggies during the day, so this way, we both know we’re starting out on the right foot.

VitaMix Box

Look at this beauty

Recipe Books + DVD

RAW BOOKS

Here are a few raw books I’ve been using, I’ve actually had these for a while before I ever got a Vitamix or the dehydrator.  I have been waiting and waiting on the additional tools for my kitchen to be able to make a proper raw meal.  I am loving it!

• Everyday Raw by Matthew Kenney
• Ani’s Raw Food Kitchen by Ani Phyo
• Ani’s Raw Food Essentials by Ani Phyo

Have an awesome week guys!

Peace out…

Today was my day off and I did have plans to head up to see my parents, but those changed at the last-minute, hopefully I’ll get up there next week! So, I pretty much spent the day at home and in the kitchen, which is my favorite place anyways. It definitely has become the place where I can just put all things aside and create (or attempt) to create goodness – kind of like a therapy session.  So, I spent the day cleaning it a bit, organizing my spices and spice cabinet and even tried my hand a couple of recipes today.

Today’s key ingredient was SPELT FLOUR!

Here’s a little more info on spelt, which I’m using more and more these days, especially since I think the hubby might have a sensitivity to wheat.  It’s certainly scoring some major points with me with the recipes I’ve tried this week.

Breakfast: I had 2 carrot ginger chia spelt muffins - so yummy!! – There’s spelt in these!

muffin

First fun project on tap today was to make Spelt Tortillas which I have been drooling over at Oh She Glows….this is the 2nd recipe I’ve tried this week…Angela  sure makes some tasty treats.  I really need to do more research when it comes to making breads.  That is one of the things I struggle with the most…my doughs tend not to rise enough or my dough is too sticky, etc.  But Angela made these look so easy and I’ve been buying spelt flour lately, so I thought I’d give it a try.  Sure, I could purchase these in the store and save me lots of time, but who doesn’t love that sense of accomplishment knowing that what you’re consuming was made by you and it’s always great to know exactly what is going into your food/body.  I think that might be one of my top reasons for trying to recreate things at home – just so I can control what goes in.  I might be  somewhat of a control freak – but let’s keep that between us.

A little "Rustic" looking - eh?

Ingredients: Spelt Flour, olive oil, salt, baking soda and water – love the simple ingredient list.

So, I followed her recipe and my dough was actually pretty sticky after mixing everything in the beginning, but I let it sit for 20 mins like she said and then I added a little more flour because I couldn’t tear the dough into separate pieces without it clinging all over my hands.

Spelt Flour, salt and soda added

Olive Oil Added

Water added

See how sticky it looks?  Hmm, not sure why, but I covered it and put it on the stove where it was a little warm for 20 mins.

After mixing - now let sit for 20 mins

After 20 mins, I pinched the dough (after adding a little more flour) into 8 dough balls, which I then covered and let sit for another 20 mins

Pinched into 8 dough balls

Then it was time to roll out and again I had to add a little more flour because it was super sticky and would stick to the rolling pin I used.  I also don’t think that I got these as thin as they should be

Trying to Roll out into circles

I placed the rolled out tortilla on a piece of parchment paper

All rolled out and ready to cook!

Cooking up - over med heat in a dry skillet

Once browned, I flipped over and cooked for just a little loner

Cooking in the skillet

My “Rustic” attempt at Homemade Spelt Tortillas

Ta-Da!!

So in the end I might have added anywhere from 1/4 cup to 1/3 cup of extra flour, but I need to test that next time.  And trust me, I’ll be making these again…probably this week – they taste awesome.

Mine really look nothing like Angela’s and I need practice rolling them out, but they still tasted great which is most important!

I also did some “housekeeping” things around the kitchen and straightened things up, I HATE a messy kitchen – it throws things off balance.  Anyway, I decided to finally put to use all of the glass jars I’ve been saving.  I’ve been seeing so many cute spice displays out in the blog world lately that I felt the need to do something to mine. Although I really relish at the thought of having nice, uniform glass containers for all of my spices, I’m simply not at that stage yet.  So, I recycled my jars and took out the spices that were in plastic bags and plastic containers and placed them in the jars.  Most of the jars and kind of large, but they look better now that they’re in a new home

New Home for my spices

And then I felt the need to re-arrange the spice cabinet, mainly because I have to put all of these in there somewhere, which I didn’t think about until I was almost done putting everything in the jars, but luckily there was enough room!

Newly Organized

I also oiled my wooden rolling pin and 2 mini cutting boards that get so much use.  I used this Wood and Bamboo Oil I  got at Crate and Barrel – pure and environmentally friendly ingredients are used, got a love that.

Cutting Boards + Rolling pin

I even managed to get in 2 workouts today – one early this morning since I thought I’d be heading out to see my parents for the day and then one later this afternoon, I felt the need to run some more after sampling today’s spelt tortilla’s.

Workout:

• First Session – 10 min warm-up, walking on treadmill, 4 miles – 41:00mins, 5 min cool-down and stretching + 10 min elliptical
• Second Session – 10 min warm-up, walking, 3 miles running – 30:00mins, 5 min walk uphill, 5 min cool-down, walking

After I came home, I decided to make me some dinner – I came across this post on making falafel the other day at The Edible Perspective and it looked so yummy.

Dinner: 2 Falafel patties atop spinach, tomato and Greek yogurt with a little salt and pepper

Falafel & Spinach Salad

Here’s what my mixture looked like before I formed them into patties.  The directions say to form 1/4 cup, but then I only got 5 patties, so I re-worked them because the recipe said it made 8 servings, so I ended up with forming 8 patties and then I baked on 350 degrees for about 15 mins or so, until the outside was a little crusty, but the inside was kind of soft. Yep, there’s spelt flour in here as well.

Chickpea goodness

As a side note, I didn’t have any tahini, so I toasted up all of the sesame seeds I had on hand and threw that in the food processor and ground it up before adding the other ingredients.  I also added a little bit of Greek yogurt since I didn’t have any tahini and only used a small amount of lemon zest and lemon juice  and taste it along and adjust to your liking.  Oh, and I added a little bit of red chili flakes for a slight kick.

I can’t wait to have these in a homemade spelt tortilla wrap for lunch tomorrow. I also wanted to make the Naan recipe because it looked amazing and seemed to turn out well.  I’ve tried to make it before with less than stellar results, so this recipe made me excited to try it again.  Unfortunately, I didn’t see any bread flour at the store today, so I’ll have to pick it up later this week or put it on the list for next week.

Before I peace out….here’s the Song of the Day.  King of Anything by Sara Bareilles.  I’ve been hearing this a lot at work and just love her lyrics and melodies.

Night y’all!

Most of this weekend’s meal could be summed up as multicultural – we spiced it up a bit.

SATURDAY:

This past Saturday the hubby and I had some things to take care of like going to an open house for The Art Institute of Atlanta’s culinary program and going to the dentist for an annual cleaning and check-up.  Fun fun – well the dentist really isn’t ever that fun, but the open house was great.  I’m trying to make some plans and the hubby and I are in the research phase of some things.

Good news is that I got to bust out my new cookbook – The Gourmet Cookbook I got in the mail last week.  I tried my hand at making an Indian inspired dish as my first recipe out of here – Red Lentil and Tofu Dal – so yummy!  I picked up a container of red lentils at the Farmer’s Market last week and was jumping at the chance to use them.  Glad the weather is starting (although a little slower than I’d like) to change.  You can tell in the mornings and at night – the days are still pretty warm, but we can have the windows opened at night and it’s cool.  It’s been almost 3 years since we’ve seen the seasons change – Florida is just the same most of the year.  The plan was to make this dish and serve over rice.

Excited to use this bad boy

I actually only had Sushi rice on hand so, I went ahead and got that started cooking…

Rice + a pat of butter

Then I got to work on the main dish.

Ingredients:

• 1/2 lbs tofu
• onion, diced
• 1 garlic clove, minced
• olive oil
• ginger – I only had the powdered kind
• cumin seeds – I only had the powder
• garam masala
• cayenne
• red lentils – 1/2 cup

I didn’t really measure, I just threw in a little here and there and just tasted it along the way until it was how I thought it should taste

Next, I opened up the tofu and wrapped it up in a towel and set a heavy object on top to press out some of the water.

I only used 1/2 of this

Next, I started to sauté the onion and garlic.

Onion + Garlic

Sauteeing onions + garlic

I measured out the lentils – rinse and pick out any bad ones.

Picked over + Rinsed

Here are the onions after they’ve been cooking a bit – should get soft and translucent.

Added the other spices to the mix

I let the tofu sit for about 20 mins to press out as much liquid as possible and then I cut the block into cubes.

After being pressed, then cubed

Then I added the lentils to the pot.

Stirring in the red lentils

Then I poured in 3.5 cups of water

Adding water

I brought the mixture to a boil and then simmered it for about 20 mins.

Simmering

Then added the tofu to the pot.

Tofu Added in

While the tofu simmered for about 5 mins, I chopped up fresh cilantro to add to the finished product.

Fresh Cilantro makes any dish better

Ta-da…the final dish – served over Sushi rice – what a combo, it actually worked quite well.

Finished Dal served over rice

I really would’ve loved some Naan to go with this.  I think I’m going to pick some up at the Farmer’s Market this week.

While enjoying our Indian dinner, we watched one of my favorite Indian Movies – Netflix finally had it available!!  Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham – which translates to Sometimes Happiness, Sometimes Sadness.  I just love this film and haven’t seen it in years.  The hubby was also a very good sport and agreed to watch it with me…eventhough it’s 3 1/2 hours long – they even put in an Intermission spot in the movie – funny.  It was a good time.

SUNDAY:

I felt like making another soup/stew type of dinner for us – I’m really trying to bring in the fall season around here – can you tell?! But I love soups/stews, so comforting and hearty.  They make a lot and they fill your tummy up.

Moroccan Chickpea Stew – this recipe is from a Cooking Light magazine I have – I have made this dish a million times and each time I do, it’s different

Ingredients:

• diced onion
• diced carrot
• 1 diced Anaheim chili – or you could use a jalapeño
• 1 garlic clove, minced
• 1-15.5 oz can of chickpeas
• 1-28 oz can of tomatoes
• 1-14oz can of chicken broth – I used plain water
• 1 potato – I like using sweet potatoes
• olive oil
• ground cumin
• chili powder
• turmeric
• salt and pepper

Basically, I sauté all of the veggies together until they become soft and then I add in the water/broth, tomatoes, chickpeas, tomatoes and spices and bring to a boil, reduce heat, cover and simmer until everything is done – about 25-30 mins.  I topped it off with green onion, cilantro and avocado – so fresh and delicious with these!

Moroccan Chickpea Stew

I did manage to get at least on workout in over the weekend!

Workout:

• 10 min warm-up, walking on treadmill
• 3 miles – 31 mins
• 9 min cool down, walking on treadmill

I know this is a short post, but I’m so tired today that I’ve got to get some sleep! But before I go, here’s my FAVORITE song from the Indian Movie – this song is amazing, even if you don’t know the words (like me), but it’s so beautiful.   Suraj Hua Mddaham from the Kahbi Khushi Kahbie Gham Soundtrack.  The music was composed by Sandesh Shadilva with lyrics authored by Anil Pandey. It is sung by Alka Yagnik and Sonu Nigam.

Night y’all!!

Here are some of today’s eats.

Breakfast: Breakfast was eaten on the run or really on my drive into work.  I ate the last of the sourdough bread this morning – boo/yay?!  So yummy and I felt like a kid eating my AB and J sandwich.  It was delicious though!! (not raw)

AB & J sammie

I love eating all types of food, which many of you know…I like eating vegetarian at times, I like eating vegan at times and more recently, I like eating raw at times.  I’m not sure what it is, but whenever I consume raw food – although it’s mainly salads for me, I just feel healthier all around.  I feel like my eating patterns can be sporadic and all or nothing – one minute this way and then the next minute a mixture of another.  I think it’s tough sometimes because people want to put you in a class and you can only be that  or eat that certain way.  I sometimes feel pressured to state myself as one or the other – carnivore or vegan.  But more and more these days, I don’t classify myself.  I do prefer eating less meat and rely on a vegetarian diet and some days relying on fish for protein – mainly salmon.  Sometimes, I want dairy and sometimes I prefer to be dairy free.  Actually, I usually do prefer to be dairy free with the exception of eating goat cheese lately. But I see this as a “gateway” food that leads me to other dairy products… Anyway, I guess what I’m really trying to say is that I am really liking the freedom to experiment and find my own path to a healthy lifestyle whether or not that includes one or more styles of eating….there is a ton of amazing food I can’t wait to try!!!  Enough rambling, let’s move on shall we?

Snack: Gingersnap Larabar – In recent years, I’ve really come to love the taste and zing that ginger has in food.  It’s very distinct but in a good way and one that enhances food. (raw)

Ginger Snap

Lunch: Today, I was very excited about my lunch…I finally got around to trying my hand at a using collard green leaves as wraps. Nice healthy raw meal – definitely was craving this today!  This was inspired by the ones Gena made over on her blog Choosing Raw

I found these small collard green leaves at the Dekalb Farmers Market yesterday and couldn’t wait to use them.  First, I washed and then cut out the stems because they are kind of tough

washed & de-stemmed

Then I spread a thin layer of raw vegan cashew cheese that I made yesterday.

RAW CASHEW CHEESE

• 1 cup of raw cashews – soaked for 2 hours or more
• 1/4 cup of water
• 1 small clove of garlic, minced
• 3/4 T nutritional yeast
• 1/4 tsp lemon juice
• salt and pepper

I drained the cashews that were soaking and placed them into the bullet (I don’t have a Vitamix and didn’t want out the food processor – this is the next best thing to me).  Then I added the remaining ingredients and pulsed until the desired consistency was achieved.  I also might have added a little more than 1/4 cup water to thin out the mixture a bit – just go by your preference.

Spread with raw vegan cashew cheese

Then I added the fillings – avocado, cucumber and tomatoes

Adding veggies to my wrap

Then I carefully folded and wrapped everything up in a nice little package.

All rolled up

I made 3 of these bad boys

Ready to travel

These were so yummy!  I don’t know what I waited so long to give them a try, but I definitely will have them again – probably next week.  And as you can tell, I need mad help in rolling these up and keeping them rolled up.

I also had a banana with this. (raw)

Banana

My photos are looking a little blurry…I must have not been that awake this morning…sorry y’all.

After work, I headed home and got ready for a date night with the hubby…here’s a hint:

How cute is this place – full report coming soon!

Night y’all!

ITEMS YOU’LL NEED:

Firstly, we purchased this while attending the demonstration – man was this an awesome purchase – no burns here. Not even sure what this is actually called…maybe jar gripper???

Jar Handler

You hold it by the black plastic part and this grips around the glass jars very nicely!

You will also need a rack or something for the bottom of your pot so that the jars don’t sit directly on top of the heat – Liana Krissoff said she made her own instead of buying a rack that can be inserted into the bottom of your pan.  So, that’s what we did – the hubby was in charge of this task of course – he loves projects like this…this worked beautifully!!

The hubby made this

You will also need a large – mouthed pot that’s about as wide as it is deep and a pretty tall one to “process” the preserves, which means you’ll need a pot tall enough to have your rack, jars, and enough water to cover the tops about 1″ to help seal the lids – all in one pot.

And the canning jars, which we bought at Wal-Mart for $6.00 for a set of 12 – we bought this brand – 12 – 1/2 pint jars.  While we were there we also bought additional lids w/ seals, as seals are only good for one use.  We also bought additional lids that hold the seals in place over the jars. 

INGREDIENTS FOR PRESERVES:

• 3lbs Ripened Nectarines, diced
• 1 1/2 cups sugar 
• 1/4 cup lemon juice
• 1 tsp vanilla (she used 1 whole vanilla bean, but I don’t have any)

You can use different types of sweetener, but we wanted to do it EXACTLY as we saw it in the demonstration, until we get some practice under our belts, which is why we used plain old sugar.

This yielded us 5, 1/2 pint jars

This recipe is based on Liana Krissoff’s book Canning for a New Generation.  I definitely want to get a copy of this book – we briefly looked through it at the demonstration and it’s a beautiful book, well put together.

Nectarines

Diced

Granulated Sugar

Juice these babies

Place jars without their lids into the pot and fill up with water – enough water so that the jars are totally submerged. Turn heat up to high because you want this to boil.

Sterilizing jars - 10 mins

Once the water boils, that’s when you start your timer for 10 mins to sterilize the jars you plan on using.

Timer set

I set the lids with the seals in another bowl, alternating the lids. These will be added to the jars later.

Place lids in separate bowl

While you are waiting for the water to boil, start cooking down the fruit in a large mouthed pot. Combine Nectarines, sugar, lemon juice and vanilla and bring to a boil. 

Into the pot they go!

Add sugar to Nectarines

Sugar added

Stir in vanilla and lemon juice

Stir everything together

Bringing mixture to a boil

By the time the water bath for the jars comes to a boil and then are boiled for 10 mins, the fruit should be just about ready for you to add to the jars and then process for another 5 mins in the water bath. 

Liana told us we can do a plate test to check to see if the mixture will gel or not.  And that is by placing a plate into the freezer. Then remove the plate, add a small amount of the preserve mixture and place back into the freezer to cool down.  Once this is removed, if you try to scrunch it up, it should wrinkle a bit – this will indicate that your mixture is ready and will gel.  She said this more for making jam and jelly, but you can use it for preserves as well.

We actually did this test, but I forgot to snap a photo of it.

Mixture is ready to be put into the jars

Scoop mixture into jars and then you want to make sure no preserves made it around the mouth of the jar, because this can prevent the seal from forming, so wipe the edges clean just to be sure.

Filling up the jars

To add the lids to the jars, pour some of the hot water that the jars were being sterilized in and pour over the seals.  Then place lids onto the jars and secure the ring so that it’s finger tight, but not super tight.

Place the lids and rings on - finger tight, but not too tight

Then place jars carefully, using your new gadget, back into the water bath to “process” them, which means to boil them for a certain amount of time to kill any harmful organisms and to seal the lids. They go back into the water bath and make sure that the water covers 1″ above the jars to ensure a good seal.  Boil the water for 5 mins to activate seal.

5 mins

Remove with your handy gadget and set on the counter to cool.

These have been processed for 5 mins

As they cool, they will suck the seals down and you’ll hear a popping sound.  Be patient as it takes minute or two.  We were fortunate enough that all of these sealed for us…this part was pretty cool!  These preserves look exactly how they did  at the demonstration.

The finished product

Ta-Da!!!  We have preserves people!

Lovely Nectarine + Vanilla Preserves

How appetizing does that look! I can’t believe how great these turned out.  Thanks to the help of both my sister and hubby, we successfully canned our first batch of preserves. My sister wants me to make her some more this week, but I’m a little worried how it’ll turn out without her help.  We shall see!  

Preserves served up – Delicious!!

Nectarine preserves + toast

 Here’s a good resource that she told us to check out for “processing”  times on other items like pickles, tomato products, etc – it’s the National Center for Home Food Preservation.

Can’t wait to try my hand at more things!!! 

Peace out y’all….