Keep it Real

Salty Sweet Chocolate with Walnuts

This blog has been awfully snacky lately, hasn't it?  That's ok, it's summer and all the kids are hanging around much more.  That means that food is disappearing fast!  While the last two posted treats were more for them (kids and husband), this one I made with me in mind.  Not that I won't share. ;)

I love to have a little piece of good chocolate.  Unfortunately, good chocolate with acceptable ingredients is hard to find.  Then when you do find it, it's so expensive!

Last week Tim and I went on a bike ride and ended up downtown.  We had lunch at one of our favorite places that serves local food, then we went on a little walk.  We came across a little chocolate shop and went in for a treat.  One of those little treats was dark chocolate with some nuts, seeds, and course sea salt on top.  It was so good!  The sweetness of chocolate mixed with the salt was a delicious combo. 

I decided to try it out at home.

 

I got my inspiration from The Nourishing Gourmet's mounds candy bars recipe - which I LOVE!  This time I only used the chocolate part of the recipe.

First prepare the tray.  Line a cookie sheet with waxed paper then sprinkle about a cup or so of chopped walnuts evenly over the paper.

In a double boiler I melted one cup of coconut oil.  Why coconut oil?  Because it's SO GOOD FOR YOU! Once that was gently melted, I added 1/4 cup raw local honey, 3/4 cup of cocoa powder (yes, it was hershey's), and a tablespoon of vanilla.  Whisk all that together until smooth.  Then gently pour the chocolate mixture over the chopped nuts being careful not to let it run off of the wax paper.  Sprinkle about a teaspoon or so of course sea salt over the whole thing.  The salt won't sit on top, but rather mix in the chocolate.  If you wanted it to sit on top you could freeze it for about 5 minutes, then sprinkle with salt and return to freezer.  I didn't think of that till after so I just let the whole tray freeze for about a half hour.  At that point the coconut oil will have become solid making it easy to peel the whole thing away from the paper.  I broke it up into bite sized pieces and put in a glass bowl.  Since coconut oil is liquid or soft at a warm room temp, it's best to keep these stored in the freezer or fridge.

These treats would lend themselves for many variations - nuts, seeds, coconut flakes, dried fruits. So many options! This recipe could also be made more nutritious by soaking the walnuts first and dehydrating them into crispy nuts.  I didn't do that this time, but maybe with some advanced planning I will next time.  Also, a higher quality organic cocoa powder is preferred.  Again, maybe next time for me. ;)  But hey, a yummy piece of chocolate with only these ingredients: coconut oil, cocoa powder, raw honey, vanilla, walnuts, and sea salt - that's better than anything I could find in the store.  And it was so easy!!

Of course, this is part of Tuesday Twister at GNOWFLGINS. :)

Peanut butter Popcorn

Believe it or not, there are a couple of things I just don't do in the kitchen.  Coffee and stove top popcorn. Tim is in charge of both those things.  Maybe it's because both of these happen after I've already 'closed' the kitchen for the night.  Whatever the reason, Tim makes the coffee every night before bed so that it's ready in the morning.  Several times a week he will also make stovetop popcorn.  I don't mind so much anymore since I've got him switched over to popping it in coconut oil instead of canola oil.  Yay! for coconut oil!

Often when he makes it, there is quite a bit left over.  One morning as I was cleaning up the kitchen I realized there was about a half a (big pot) of popcorn left.  Not being one to throw perfectly good food away, I decided to spice it up a bit and turn it into a fun snack.  I started out by melting some coconut oil gently over a low flame.  Then I added some raw honey, organic creamy peanut butter, and some flax meal. Sorry I don't have exact measurements.  It really depends on how much popcorn you have and how strong of peanut butter flavor you want.  You'll just have to play and use your best judgement.  Once it was all melted together I drizzled it over the popcorn and tossed it all together until it was evenly coated. Viola! Yummy, sweet, slightly salty (from the butter and salt that was put on it the night before), and still crunchy peanut butter popcorn!  A great afternoon snack for the family.

This post is shared at Food Renegade for Fight back Friday. 

mmmm.... free, delicious, organic olive oil! Don't miss your chance to enter this give away at Food Renegade.

http://www.foodrenegade.com/giveaway-chaffin-family-orchards-olive-oil-59-value/#more-1966

Chocolate chip ice cream sandwiches

It's now officially summer and that means that the 'ice cream man' is patrolling the neighborhood each day with his horrible music and outrageously priced summer treats.  It irks me just *a little* to shell out four bucks for this:

 (Enriched Bleached and Unbleached Flour [Wheat Flour, Niacin, Iron, Thiamine Mononitrate, Riboflavin, Folic Acid]Sugar, Margarine [Palm Oil, Water, Soybean Oil, Salt, Mono and Diglycerides, Artificial Flavor, Annatto Color, Vitamin A Palmitate]Nestle Toll House Morsels [Sugar, Chocolate, Cocoa Butter, Milkfat, Soy Lecithin, Vanillin-Artificial Flavor,Natural Flavor]Water, Molasses, High Fructose Corn Syrup, Dried Egg, Corn Syrup, Natural and Artificial Flavors, Baking Soda, Salt)Milkfat and Nonfat Milk, Sugar, Corn Syrup, Whey, Mono and Diglycerides, Guar Gum, Calcium Sulfate, Natural and Artificial Flavor, Cellulose Gum, Invert Sugar, Carrageenan.

That would be the ingredients for a Nestle Tollhouse chocolate chip cookie ice cream sandwich.

Somehow I think I can do *a little* better than that for my family.

pastured egg yolk, raw honey, vanilla, raw goat milk, arrowroot powder, almond flour, sea salt, baking soda, organic butter, raw honey, vanilla, chocolate chips

That would be the ingredients for our chocolate chip ice cream sandwiches.  They really came together quite fast.   I started the ice cream going using the Nourishing Traditions vanilla ice cream recipe (subbing out raw goat milk and honey for heavy cream and maple syrup).  While that was turning in my ice cream maker I made Elana's Pantry chocolate chip cookies (subbing out organic butter and raw honey for grapeseed oil and agave).  I put the ice cream in the freezer to harden more while the cookies were cooling.  A little while later I scooped some ice cream in between two cookies and put the whole thing in the freezer.

Chocolate chip cookie ice cream sandwiches that I can feel good about letting my family eat for a fraction of the cost. 

 

Tuesday Twister ~ June 15

It's Tuesday and that means I get to share what's been twisting in my kitchen with Wardeh and everyone else at GNOWFGLINS.  I've been playing a lot in the kitchen lately.  So much fun!  Here are a few of this weeks happenings.

 

Baby sprouts from the garden. We thinned out the spinach, lettuce, beets, cabbage, broccoli, and a few others. Instead of tossing it all - I brought it in and cleaned it up. Sprouts! straight from the garden. I was excited because I consider this our first harvest.  They were added to smoothies and salads. 

Oeufs en cocotte with lox ~ a fancy name for eggs, cheese, and lox .  I whipped this up one morning. So easy, but I thought, 'why only make one?'  So I made four and had some left for several breakfasts. The toaster oven worked well for the first baking and also the reheating.  These were so delicious and nourishing!

Egg drop soup ~ This came to be when I realized I had some broth and veggies, but no meat to go with it. Though I did have plenty of good eggs to use up.  I used about a half gallon of chicken bone broth (the feet do make a difference, it's gelling up a lot better!), onions, garlic, carrots, beet greens, spinach, bok choy, fresh sage, ginger and sea salt. Once the veggies were nice and soft, I scrambled six eggs and drizzled them in the hot soup. Let that cook a minute without stirring and then it's done. Wow! Is it ever chunky, flavorful and satisfying! I've never made this before and didn't follow a recipe - so I'm pretty pleased with how it came out.

Sourdough bread ~ Finally a successful loaf!  After a couple of attempts at naturally leavened bread that came out like bricks, I was able to make some adjustments in the amount of flour and was rewarded with this happy loaf.

 

Granola ~ Made another batch of this wonderful, healthy snack.  Again, the ingredients changed a little based on what I had.  This time there was dried coconut (unsweetened) and juice sweetened dried cranberries along with the soaked oats, almonds, walnuts, pecans, cashews, flax meal, dates, banana, cinnamon, and coconut oil.  I let it go in the dehydrator for a full 24 hours to be sure it's nice and crunchy. So good!

Sprouted beans cooked in bone broth ~ Already cooked beans are great to have on hand.  This process starts several days in advance with the soaking and then slightly sprouting the beans.  Then I cook them in the crock pot in chicken bone broth.  Then I just use them in dishes throughout the week as need.  Even cold on salads works well.

Cultured butter ~ I was really excited to do this.  I've only tried butter one other time and it was a total flop.  Meaning, it never clumped.  Raw cream is a little hard to come by right now so I went with the next best thing which was a half gallon of local, grass fed, but pasteurized cream.  I kept a little for coffee cream and ended up with 6 cups of cream.  To culture it I put 6 teaspoons of kefir in the cream and let it sit out for 24 hours.  Then I chilled it for another 24 hours. The kitchen aide was put to the test as it spun on the highest speed for a good ten minutes.  I was afraid that nothing would happen, but it eventually turned to whipped cream.  I have to mention that I tasted a bit of the cream to see if it was really sour from the culturing, and I could barely detect a sour taste, if at all.  As you can see, this is quite messy so I kept a kitchen towel thrown over the whole thing.  I was so excited when I heard the sound change and peeked under the towel to see this:

BUTTER!!

 

When it was done clumping together, I gently rinsed it in ice water and formed this ball.  I was surprised that this was all I got out of six cups of cream, but still SO thrilled that I made cultured butter!

 

It has a rich, creamy taste and not the slightest bit sour.  Next up is to get my hands on some raw cream.

 
 
 Lacto fermented veggies ~ The only other thing I've fermented since last summer has been the recent ginger carrots.  Tis the season for fermenting with the new abundance of fresh produce.  After coming home from the farmers market on Saturday I decided to try a new mix.  This is chopped up radishes and carrots (both with the tops and bottoms), bok choy, swiss chard, leeks, rosemary, and garlic - along with some whey and sea salt.  I have a feeling that this will need to chill in the fridge for a while after the initial ferment to get the flavors just right.  Will probably be good on salads.

I just love knowing that I can increase the nutrition of these already nutritious vegetables in just a few simple steps.  AND! I don't have to worry about eating them right away because this naturally preserves them for a long time once in the fridge.

 
 

Sourdough focaccia ~ After Wardeh's rave reviews about this sourdough pizza crust, I had to give it a try.  Except I made it into a garlic herb focaccia bread instead of a traditional pizza.  It was really good and I froze a second dough ball for later use.

Tonight's dinner ~ baked salmon with cream and herbs.  This was a new recipe for us to try and we love it.  Instead of cream I used whole, organic coconut milk.  Fresh herbs from the garden - marjoram, thyme, and tarragon.  A keeper for sure!

So, after all that tinkering around in the kitchen, sometimes it's nice to get out for a beer and to hear some good music.  Our new favorite,  Hillfolk Noir and a Black Butte porter hit the spot. ;)

 

Soft Raw Goat Cheese

One of the many benefits of taking GNOWFGLINS e-course is learning out to make fresh raw cheese. I was fortunate enough to find a source for affordable local raw goats milk.  After buying 4 gallons worth, I decided it was a good time to make a big batch of soft spreadable cheese.  This is so easy to make!  No temperature taking and no special equipment.  In fact, I just added the cultures straight to cold milk and let it do it's thing.  Then you strain the whey, add some sea salt, and call it cheese!

It's very similar to cream cheese.  We use it to spread on toast, make sour cream and salad dressings. It's just a good, mild cheese that can be incorporated into many dishes.  Plus, you have all the health benefits of raw milk since it wasn't heated.  It will keep for about a week in the fridge.  Since I had used 2 gallons of milk I had more cheese than we could eat in a week.  So I put it in these small mason jars, labeled them, and stored in our big freezer.  The portions are a great size and now I'll have fresh raw cheese for quite awhile!

 

I HIGHLY suggest signing up for Wardeh's e-course.  It's fun, simple, so informative - and now it's open enrollment, work at your own pace, and you pay what you can afford!  She's made it donation - based so that anyone can have access to this very important information.  GO GNOWFGLINS!!

Oh! and what do you think of my new banner up top??  I love it!  It's a small compilation of photos I've taken over the past year.  They represent many of the ways we've incorporated real, traditional, highly nutritious food into our lives.  Lacto fermenting vegetables, raw milk, healthy fats, protein from local pastured animals, and properly prepared grains.  Just to name a few. ;)
 

Green smoothie week

I don't really have a specific reason for going green this week.  I just felt the need to switch it up, had read some blogs about green smoothies, and felt it would be a refreshing change.  Plus I knew it would be a great cleansing way to get extra nutrients into my diet.  So I committed to 5 days of green smoothies.  Now, there are some conflicting reports on whether or not raw greens are good for you or if they should be cooked instead.  I did take this into consideration.  If I were planning on having these long term everyday, then I think I would probably have to take a stance on it one way or another.  But for this week I just decided to go with it all raw.  I resisted the urge all week to toss in some milk kefir and egg yolks.  Not that I thought they shouldn't be there.  I just wanted to do it differently this week.  I believe it's important to switch things up on your body every once in awhile.  So I kept it raw and dairy free.  

Here's what went into Monday's drink - organic spinach, chia seed gel, organic celery, organic carrot, frozen blueberries, fresh pineapple, raw organic coconut oil, organic blue ginger.

Not pictured: cayenne pepper, cinnamon, and about a teaspoon of raw honey.

I slowly blended all this together and tasted it.  That's when I added the honey.

The blueberries gave it an 'army green' color.  I could definately taste the pepper.  It was a slightly sweet and spicy drink.  Yum!

Tuesday - cinnamon, cayeanne, spinach, carrot, coconut oil, fresh ginger, chia seed gel, banana, pineapple, celery, and avocado.  The banana and avocado gave it a nice sweet flavor, so no honey needed.  And, it had a nice green color!  Used a tad less pepper too. Much better.

Wednesday - cayenne, cinnamon, beet greens, spinach, watermelon, coconut oil, avocado, banana, ginger, carrots, chia gel, and water kefir.  I think this was my favorite so far.  I had been adding plain water to start the blending, but this water kefir gave it a nice flavor (plus a probiotic boost!)  The beet greens and watermelon gave it a muddy color - no biggie.

 

Thursday - still changing it based on what I have and for some different flavor.  Trying to go a little less fruit.  Cran/Pom 100% juice (about a third cup), cayenne, cinnamon, spinach, beet greens, chia seed gel, celery, carrots, fresh ginger, avocado, coconut oil, and frozen strawberries.  This one was super yummy too!  I didn't miss the banana at all.  

 

For my fifth day I decided to go a little more 'hardcore'.  I left out the fruit.  Instead I added some water kefir (or was that kombucha? I can't tell because I reuse the bottles!) - about half the bottle, and also raw cashews.  To this I put in the usual players - pepper, cinnamon, avocado, beet greens, spinach, carrots, chia gel, celery and ginger.

 

It's sideways, but you get the idea. ;)  It actually wasn't as strong as I thought it would be! Maybe by this point I had gotten used to the green flavor, so it wasn't bad.  I tried to share with my oldest son, but he wasn't hardcore enough to handle it. :)

 

So, what did I find after 5 mornings of green smoothies?  For one, they are super filling.  Kept me going all morning till lunch.  They help with elimination.  That's always good, right?  They make me feel good knowing that I am getting nearly a full days worth of fruits and veggies before 10 am.  And it was really fun to mix these up!  

I took the weekend off of green smoothies, but I found myself wanting another today.  So I used some of the sprouts from our garden (thinning out the seedlings), kombucha, and half an avocado.  It was super green!  Might be a refreshing drink this summer while the greens are abundant.

I am adding this post to Tuesday Twister at GNOWFGLINS. 
 
        

Granola

Since I've had my 9 tray excalibur dehydrator I have made this granola three times.  It rocks!  Really, it does.  It's very forgiving and you can add or leave out most anything.  

I start out by soaking several cups of oats, about a cup or so each of chopped raw walnuts, pecans, and almonds, and some flax seeds.  I throw all of it together in a bowl, cover with water and some whey. Let soak overnight.  The next day I wanted to drain and rinse the mixture.  Since there were small bits of nuts and the flax seeds that I didn't want to lose down the drain, I lined a colander with fine cheese cloth and poured the whole mixture in there.  That way I could rinse it several times.  I like to rinse the oats to get a lot of the starch out.

 

This was also a great way of getting as much water out as I could.  Squeezing it up in a ball.

 

I then dumped the mixture (still quite wet) into a big bowl.  I added about a half cup of melted coconut oil, cinnamon, sea salt, flax meal, and raisins.  Then to a blender I added about a half cup of apple juice, whole dates, some vanilla bean, and a banana.  Blend into a smooth paste.  Mix all of this together with the mixture. 

The night before this I had put some frozen blueberries and chopped up apple in the dehydrator to add to the granola.

All of this filled three trays.  I spread it out as thin as I could, but it's still pretty thick.  Sprinkled the dried blueberries and apples over top, along with some extra cinnamon.

Dry for a full 24 hours since it's so thick and wet.  It breaks off into nice chunks to go into a gallon jar.

 
I've put all kinds of things in the granola.  Usually there is quite a bit of dried unsweetened coconut, but I was out of it.  Last time I added juice sweetened dried cranberries and that was yummy.  This was the first time I added a banana to the date paste, and it gave it a nice banana flavor.  I really think you can't go wrong with this granola - just add what you like!

Good granola (or granilla as my kids call it) is hard to find and if you do then it's quite expensive!  This is much cheaper and SO much healthier!

Now, if only I could get my kids to love it.  Sigh.... So far it's just me and Tim eating.  Oh well.  

   

Beef Chili (and yes, liver AGAIN)

Despite it being the beginning of June, we are still having cloudy, rainy weather.  This day called for a pot of chili. Here's what I started with:

pinto beans (already sprouted and cooked in bone broth)

good quality beer

hot peppers (these were frozen from our garden last year!)

fresh garlic

organic canned diced tomatoes and tomato sauce (yes, I know cans are no goodski, but I wanted tomatoes in my chili and this will have to do)

whole onion

chili powder

grass fed ground beef

grass fed cow liver and heart

 

Now, before you get all, 'EW! that's gross!', Let me remind you that I'm sure you've eaten numerous beef (not to mention pig and poultry) parts in various processed meat products.  You just didn't know it was there or rather maybe refused to acknowledge that it was there.  And I assure you that it wasn't coming from a healthy, grass fed cow.  You think those big processing plants want to waste anything?  Probably not.  I'm thinking all those 'undesirable at the grocery store' parts get throw in a grinder and Voila! you have hot dogs, bologna, ect...  Don't ask me for a source on that info - it's just a wild guess. ;)

So WHY am I sneaking organ meats into our food.  Because it's damn good for you, that's why!  Here's a great link to see why liver tops the charts in nutrient dense food.

If you've been reading the last few posts you'll see that I'm still struggling with the liver taste. I've come to the conclusion that I just HATE the taste of liver and nothing is going to change that.  I gave it an earnest try, really I did. Not that I want to give up on consuming it.  It just needs to not taste the slightest bit like liver.  I've found the best way to do this is to add it to ground beef dishes.  So, once I get a full sized liver or heart I cut it up into big chunks.  Then I freeze the chunks and take them out one at a time to use in dishes.  This time I used two pieces of liver and one piece of heart.  I knew that the amount of chili and the seasonings would hold this amount of organ meat fine without tasting it.  

I cut the big pieces into small pieces while still somewhat frozen.  Then I just grind them in my food processor.  This poor thing.  It's one of those small ones that you can get for 20 bucks.  I have to do my processing in batches and more than once I was convinced I had killed it.  Soon I'm sure, very soon.

So yeah, pureed organ meats.  Not too appetizing, I know.  I do this quickly and clean the evidence quickly so no one will come into the kitchen and see what I'm doing - less they end up refusing the meal. Then I can put it in my cast iron skillet with some tallow, lard, coconut oil and a chopped onion.  This cooks up and looks like ground beef.

 

I cook the ground beef after that and then all the ingredients go into the crockpot.  I'm sure I threw in some sea salt, pepper, cumin, parsley, maybe a few other things.  Just kept adding and tasting until it was just right.  Let that simmer all day long.

 

Top with some avocado and serve up.  Do you think they know they are eating beef liver and heart? Nah.