Maple Almond Coconut Granola

I made this recipe for breakfast at the WHOLE WOMAN retreat that I worked at in March in Laguna Beach, California. It was a big hit.

Making this granola is one of my pantry staples. I do it about once a month and everyone really looks forward to breakfast. It's always going to be superior to make your own than it is to buy a packaged one in the store. The financial analysis is about the same, but the taste and the freshness are unbeatable. Plus, it makes your house smell really incredible for hours. There is room for many delicious substitutions here and I encourage you to experiment! This recipe incorporates healthy nut and seed oils, tons of fiber and plant - based protein and is even more delicious with dried or fresh fruit and a good greek yogurt, kefir or almond milk.

INGREDIENTS
4 1|2 cups old fashioned oats, not the instant variety
1 1|2 cups slivered or chopped raw almonds (almond meal is also a suitable substitute if needed)
3|4 cup walnuts or sunflower seeds or cashews etc...
1|4 flax seed and|or chia seed
1 cup shredded coconut
2 tablespoons cinnamon
1 1|4 cup maple syrup
1|3 c softened coconut oil or non - gmo canola in a pinch
1|4 teaspoon sea salt
a handful of dried raisins, cranberries, apricots, mango etc... are great to throw in at the end of cooking

DIRECTIONS
Preheat your oven to 325. Put the oats, nuts, seeds, coconut, cinnamon and salt into a bowl and stir. Add the syrup and the oil and combine everything until evenly wet. Spread out onto a baking sheet and bake for 25 minutes. Remove the pan and stir, bringing the sides into the middle as they cook quicker. Return it to the oven and bake another 15 minutes. Remove it and stir one more time. Cook another 5 - 10 minutes, watching it carefully at this point as it can burn easily towards the end. When it's finished, allow it to cool completely on the sheet pan until you are ready to store it. At this step, you can mix in dried fruit or cacao nibs if you want. I use large canning jars for easy pantry storage. It keeps for a month or more. It stays really fresh and crunchy. But, it doesn't last more than a week around here.

ENJOY!

Almond Thumbprint Cookies

This recipe embodies the art behind no waste in the kitchen. These are flourless, gluten free and vegan treats. They're made from almond meal. It's the dehydrated almond meal leftover from making almond milk. I'll have a post soon with directions on how to do both. Then I used the Blackberry Chia Jam that I posted last week for the thumbprint filling. They're like little crumbly biscuits that are perfect with tea or coffee. It's also a sweet treat that has zero guilt attached to it. I ate two of them immediately.

INGREDIENTS
2 cups almond meal or almond flour
1|4 cup coconut oil, softened
1|4 cup maple syrup
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1|2 teaspoon almond extract
1|4 teaspoon sea salt

DIRECTIONS
Cream the coconut oil, maple syrup and the extracts in a bowl with a hand mixer on high until light and fluffy. Add the almond meal and sea salt and mix until it forms a dough. Roll into tablespoon sized balls and place them on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Using your thumb, press little wells into the middle. They will crack but you can push them back together easily. Fill each one with your favorite jam or preserves. You can refer back to my recent post for Blackberry Chia Jam for a simple recipe on how to make your own.

Bake for 8-10 minutes at 350 until they are fragrant and golden brown.

ENJOY!

Mrs. Pong's Lace

Bonus material. I mean, seriously? The composition here is impeccable. This is just a sneaky of what's to come. The photographer is one of my oldest friends in the book. She's remarkable. Everything she does looks amazing. She's got that poetry in her eye. Objects move independently in her presence. I have been in a serious love affair with her since our junior year in high school. She acted in plays. She caressed the violin. She made the world beautiful and littered with violet. People and things were ALIVE. There was a pulse where a mark of stone once was. She entered with her heat, her omen. The sky cracked like an egg, leaving tiny shell pieces in the wake of discovery. But I was in love and I was not ashamed. I danced and made shapes in the air with a beautiful, dark soul. She showed me things I never knew and I loved the not knowing. I was young, immature and juvenile in the face of modern technique. Who was I kidding? I needed and wanted real structure. The thing that maybe a University gives you but I didn't want to go to college. In fact, I didn't even want to crack a book. I was better than that. I was a self-made mess. Everything that was collegiate and structured, I was not. I hated agendas. Rules. Guidelines. I just wanted to BEND. And from that impulse, I leapt! See me through this lace but don't really see me. See me through this filter but don't really assess me. I beg of you, dramatically. There is little left to decode. The proof is in the pulling.

Blackberry Chia Jam

There is a beautiful dance that happens each spring and summer with the berries. In May, the strawberries begin setting flowers and turning into little heart-shaped morsels that you can find fresh every morning for about a month or two. My kids and I love to go out into the garden when it is cool and pick them for our breakfast. The leaves are serrated and look like large clover. You have to lift them up to find what is hiding in the shade underneath. This lasts through June or until it gets too hot. All the while, the blackberries have been setting tiny white flowers and getting ready to take off. There is a language that happens here. It's almost as if one says to the other that it's your turn now. Then the bright red clusters that ramble on the ends of this rampant powerhouse start turning shades of dark purple and then totally black. This will last until August. During that time, there is always way more than what we can eat so I freeze them periodically for later use and try to eat at least a cup of fresh ones a day. Berries are such incredible sources of antioxidants and fiber that you can never eat too many. Nature's super candies, we call them. The chia seed acts as a natural pectin because it forms a gelatinous substance on the outside when wet. This recipe uses four ingredients and a blender and it's RAW!

INGREDIENTS
1 cup of raw berries, your choice or a combination of them
1|2 cup filtered water
2 tablespoons maple syrup or honey
2 tablespoons chia seed

DIRECTIONS
Put all of the ingredients into a bowl and let it sit at room temperature for 20 minutes. This will allow the chia seed to absorb all of the liquid. Then put everything into a blender and pulse for about a minute. You're done! Store in a nice canning jar or re-use a jelly jar. This is really delicious on yogurt parfait, ice cream, toast, sandwiches, waffles and so on.

ENJOY!

Zucchini Noodles with Cashew Cream

This dish just became my new favorite meal. It's about one of the quickest things to make. You can prepare the vegetables and the cream sauce and store separately for about a week or so and make it fresh on the fly in under 30 minutes. This has all of the green and red flavors of summer. I had nearly all of them growing in my garden, except the cashews. As far as vegan, gluten free pastas go, this is a serious WINNER. I served the cashew cream on my son's favorite pasta and he devoured it. And my kids are major macaroni and cheese professionals. Remember my previous post about Summer Pasta Two Ways where I explained my cauliflower alfredo? Pretty sure this sauce has that one beat. The only tool you need other than a chef's knife is a vegetable peeler for the zucchini and a blender for the cream.

INGREDIENTS
2 medium zucchini, the straighter the better
grape or cherry tomatoes
carrot, diced
your choice of bell pepper, julienned
red onion, diced
garlic, minced
fresh parsley and basil
salt + pepper
olive oil

CASHEW CREAM
1 cup raw, organic cashews
1|2 cup water, a little more if needed
1 tablespoon nutritional yeast
1 tablespoon lemon juice
lemon zest
2 cloves garlic
pinch of salt

DIRECTIONS
Using a a vegetable peeler, peel the green skin of the zucchini and discard it. Continue peeling in a circular direction all the way around the zucchini until you reach the seeds. Chop up the heart. Cut the grape tomatoes into halves. Prepare the rest of the vegetables and set aside. Rough chop the herbs. Make the cashew cream using a blender. Start with all of the cashews and part of the water to get it going. Add the rest of the ingredients and slowly the rest of the water until it is smooth and creamy.

Warm the olive oil and start your sautee with the onion, carrot and bell pepper. After about a minute, add the tomato, garlic and zucchini. Season with salt + pepper and herbs. This takes maybe two or three minutes tops. Add in a couple spoonfuls of the cashew cream and stir just long enough to warm everything up. You're done!

Serve this with a raw salad of spinach or your favorite mix of greens and sprouts and some sprouted or gluten free toast.

ENJOY!

Superfood French Toast

This is another awesome way to more than double the nutritional content of what normally is a very basic breakfast or brunch. It's a simple French Toast with a bunch of super accessories. Remember my earlier post about doing a similar thing to a plain waffle? Using good quality ingredients really makes a huge difference in something that has little value to something that is very good for you. We like sprouted bread around here but you can use any whole grain bread that you like. Sprouted bread is generally gluten-free and sprouted grains are always superior to the non because your body can digest them much easier. Use a farmer's fresh egg, your own or an organic one. I've used mashed up banana in this one but I've also made the same thing with sweet potato puree. It's like a sweet potato pancake. I paired it with fresh picked berries from my organic garden which always tastes like the success of love and labor. This breakfast has 10 grams of protein, less than 300 calories and is packed with plant based fiber, antioxidants, amino acids, omegas, lignans, essential nutrients + minerals, immune stimulants, probiotics and beneficial bacteria that soothe the digestive system.

INGREDIENTS
Whole grain, sprouted bread
coconut oil for the pan
1 egg
2 tablespoons coconut milk or plain coconut creamer
vanilla
cinnamon
bee pollen
chia + flax powder
almond meal
1|2 banana, mashed
pinch of salt
fresh berries
plain, greek yogurt
chopped walnuts or pecans

DIRECTIONS
Mix everything from the egg to the banana into a wide bowl suitable for dredging. Adjust the coconut milk if the batter seems too thick. I don't usually give exact amounts in recipes like this because you can just add a pinch of everything and it always turns out right. It is not an exact science and anyone can do it. Warm the coconut oil in a non-stick pan. Dredge your bread through the batter and cook it about 2-3 minutes on each side. I always know it's time to flip when I can smell the cinnamon. Top your toast with the yogurt, berries and nuts. This is about as close to a healthy doughnut as it gets, people. It tastes like sin, it's so good. Every ingredient serves your body's higher purpose. This recipe makes 2 or 3 pieces.

ENJOY!

Dark Magic Shell

So, even though my passion for super healthy food is my driving force about 90% of the time, I am still quite human when I feel abnormally attracted to sin. My justification is that it's going to be the highest quality of sin I can find. I always reach for chocolate when I want something sweet, but the kids really love vanilla ice cream. This is a delicious, organic one that we get in the summer. Then I went online to look up homemade magic shell and couldn't believe how easy it was. Talk about DELICIOUS. I found this vintage ice cream bowl at a thrift store in town for 10 cents! I even put it in the freezer 20 minutes before I made my bowl that I shared with my husband of course. A decadent dessert goes a long way! If you occasionally let yourself have your favorite indulgence once in a while, it's easier to keep the craving in check. Then you are not depriving yourself entirely and you might appreciate it more. 

INGREDIENTS
Your favorite ice cream that sounds good with dark chocolate
1|2 cup good quality dark chocolate (or semi-sweet or bittersweet)
1 tablespoon coconut oil
sprinkles or nuts or coconut flakes etc...

Keep in mind that the chocolate is the star of this presentation and it really is worth it to buy something a little expensive, in terms of chocolate. You can use chips, chunks or bars.

DIRECTIONS
Melt your chocolate and coconut oil in a small, heavy bottom pan on low. You will need to stir it constantly, but this only takes a couple of minutes. Adjust the coconut oil by adding a little more if you prefer your shell to be thinner or smoother. I personally like the big chunks. When everything is melted and at the consistency you like, pour it into a jar that has a lid. Do not cover it. Let it stand until it returns to room temperature. It will remain in a melted state that is easily spooned or poured out. As soon as you pour it onto your cold ice cream, it hardens. Top with whatever you like and devour!
The magic shell will keep in a covered jar on the counter for up to a month. Mine lasted two days.

ENJOY!