Pumpkin Waffles (plus some homemade dairy recipes)

I wrote this post a few months back when we were buying some dairy straight from the dairy farm.  That experiment was fun, but unfortunately (as I've mentioned) we ran into some major dairy sensitivities, so our fresh dairy products are no longer.  But since a friend was asking me for my pumpkin waffle recipe and I remembered I had posted it and never published it, I thought I'd pass on the info about the dairy with the waffle recipe at the end.  Such a great fall twist on a favorite breakfast!  Here is the post:
 
I promised to post some recipes for the homemade dairy I have been trying lately. Here we go...plus a bonus waffle recipe!

Butter

Mix fresh cream with a hand mixer for a few minutes (time will vary, 8-12 minutes), or until you see the liquid starting to separate. It will look like whipping cream first and then start to turn into butter/buttermilk. Once it separates, pour out the buttermilk. Use buttermilk in a pancake or waffle recipe. I'll post one here that we like! Then press out the rest of the buttermilk using a spoon, pressing the butter against the bowl. Press until most of the liquid is out. Then salt (optional). Form butter into a fat log (or loaf) and wrap it up in some parchment paper. It will be pretty soft, but upon refrigerating will set-up.

Yogurt

Put 1/2 to 1 gallon of milk in a pot and when it scalds (starts to boil up and out of pot) immediately take it off heat. Leave it off the heat and cool to room temp. Once you can stick your finger in it for 10 seconds without having to pull it out, it should be ready. Then take 1/4 to 1/2 cup of starter (yogurt from a previous batch or yogurt you have bought from the store) and stir it in a separate bowl with a little bit of the cooled off milk. After mixing, stir it into the whole batch. Then warm the oven at 350 degrees and turn it off after it has been pre-heated. Leave the milk in there for at least 8 hours, and then you've got yogurt! Now this isn't a "raw" recipe. If you are using raw milk, there is another recipe which will keep it raw if that is important to you.

Pumpkin Waffles

(Makes 12 4-inch waffles)

Adapted from a recipe found at www.weelicious.com

2 1/2 Cups Whole Wheat Flour
1/3 Cup Light Brown Sugar 

(We don't use sweetener anymore because the sweet topping does the trick for us.  But as a natural sweetener alternative, use honey, brown rice syrup or agave. Use 1/2 to 3/4 as much honey or agave, or the same amount of brown rice syrup.  You may also need to add a bit more flour to off-set the fact that you are using a liquid sweetener instead of a dry sweetener.)
2 1/2 Tsp Baking Powder
1 Tsp Baking Soda
1/2 Tsp Salt
2 Tsp Ground Cinnamon
1 Tsp Ground Ginger
4 Eggs
1 Cup Milk (can use milk substitutions such as almond/rice/or soy)
1 Cup Buttermilk (from the butter you just made!)
1 Cup Pumpkin Puree
6 Tbsp Butter, melted 

1. Preheat waffle iron.
2. Sift first 7 ingredients into a bowl.
3. In a separate bowl whisk the remaining ingredients.
4. Whisk the dry ingredients into the liquid mixture and whisk until smooth.
5. Pour about 1/2 cup of the pumpkin batter into a waffle iron that’s been buttered or greased and cook according to manufacturer’s directions.
6. We serve with a fruit sauce (just frozen fruit mixed with water & stevia sweetener), but you could also serve with maple syrup or make into sandwiches, filling with cream cheese and whatever other fillings you desire.

*Allow to cool, place in a ziploc bag, label and freeze. When ready, place in toaster oven or oven at 300 and heat for 10 minutes or until heated through.

Raw Pesto

I made this today and it was super good!  I adapted the recipe a bit because it just needed a little more something.  I added olive oil and lemon juice and sea salt and it tasted MUCH better.  I ate it "stuffed" in half of a red pepper.  But it is also great as a dip for raw veggies.

Pesto

Adapted from a recipe by Dr. Gabriel Cousens, found in his book "Conscious Eating". 

1 1/2 cup walnuts, soaked
1 cup fresh basil
1/2 cup pine nuts, soaked
3 large cloves garlic or 1/2 tsp sun-dried garlic
1 tsp. sea salt
1-2 tbsp. lemon juice
2 tbsp. olive oil
¼ cup water

Blend all ingredients in a food processor with the S-blade.

Healthy Halloween Treats

I'm so excited to make this to take to my daughters' classroom Halloween Parties on Monday...
Babybel cheese for the head, green apples for the body, fruit leather for the legs and antennas (Costco sells Stretch Island fruit leather which has no additional sugar in it), & a little bit of white cheese for the eyes. I'm not sure what the green is on the eyes, but I'll probably use some green grapes - or maybe even green apple for that part.

And here's a recipe for some cookies that I'll be making as well. I made them without dates the other day because I ran out of time to grab them at the store before I needed to make the cookies for another Halloween party. I thought I could get away with it because we are used to our dessert being sweetened with just fruit. I wasn't surprised that the other kids wouldn't touch them. But even my daughters didn't like them. So I'm going to add back in the dates and I'm sure they'll be a hit again.

Banana Nut Cookies

1/4 cup pitted dates
1/4 cup almond milk (or other milk of your choice)
1 cup walnuts
1 cup pecans
1 cup grated coconut
4 ripe bananas
2 teaspoons cinnamon

Cover dates in almond milk and soak overnight. Place the nuts and coconut in a food processor with the metal S blade and grind to a coarse meal. (I used a Vitamix.) Add bananas, dates (with the soaking almond milk) and cinnamon and mix to form the dough. Take the thick mixture out of the food processor and spoon onto a nonstick cookie sheet. Bake in the oven at a low heat (250 degrees) for 30 minutes.

Zucchini Pasta

As I've mentioned, I have been experimenting with many raw dishes lately. I am going for all raw, with a few tiny exceptions. So 95% raw, I would say. I seriously feel soooo much better eating this way, and my diet was healthy before. In the meantime, I am finding some kitchen tools that are in order to have in my raw kitchen. So the other day I ordered a veggie spiralizer to be able to make raw "pasta" dishes (amongst all the other things it can do). It came in the mail today and, oh my, we had fun playing with that little kitchen tool! Not very expensive and hours of fun. I made the recipe below and it was YUM! Too bad I didn't catch this recipe in time to use my over abundance of zucchini and tomatoes from my garden. And the fresh basil. This will be a GREAT summer dish. But it is still super good now!

I took a picture of it because I know my blog is lacking pictures, but when I post this picture you will know why the lack of pictures. I need to learn some things about taking pictures of food, so bare with me! At least you'll get the idea of what I mean by pasta. Doesn't that spiralized zucchini look just like pasta? And can I mention again that it tasted wonderful?!

Zucchini Pasta

www.thedeliciousrevolution.com

Ingredients:2-3 zucchini (spiral cut)
2 ripe tomatoes
1 cup sun dried tomatoes
½ red pepper
10-15 fresh basil leaves
¾ to 1 teaspoon sea salt
fresh cracked black pepper
½ cup olive oil

Directions: Start by using a vegetable spiralizer to transform the zucchini into gluten free pasta. Drizzle with olive oil and a dash of garlic powder then toss to coat well. Set noodles aside.

Make marinara by putting all ingredients except olive oil in the Vitamix and blend. Once mixture is smooth add olive oil through the top of the blender while the blades are turning. Blend well.

Top spiral cut zucchini with marinara and chopped fresh basil. Serve.

Not So Chilly Chili

Through much experimentation, I keep coming back to eating a high raw diet. I think that eating a diet of whole, unprocessed, cooked foods is certainly healthy - and works for many people. But I feel so much better, physically and emotionally, eating most of my food raw. It's a hard lifestyle to keep, but one that becomes feasible as you practice and change habits. I've gotten more successful at it over time.
Anyways, I recently tried a raw chili that I thought was delicious and so I made it to take to our Chili Cook-Off last night. I didn't enter it in the contest, but I always bring my own food, so that was my dish for me. The fun part was that I had some friends who have recently become interested in the raw way of eating and we all ate together. Yay. I didn't have to be the only one eating my own "weird" food :-)
I got the recipe from a Raw Food Challenge that my husband and I did a few weeks ago. I was excited to find quite a few recipes that worked for me through that challenge. I am sure you can warm it up slightly (to make it feel a little more like the real thing and because warmer food is always appealing in the chilly weather) and it would still taste yummy. I haven't done that because I think it's so good the way it is.

Not So Chilly Chili

www.renegadehealth.com

Ingredients:

1 cup crimini mushrooms, roughly chopped (I omit)

1 stalk celery, diced small

1 Roma tomato, diced

1/2 cup red onion, diced small

1 red bell pepper, diced small

1 cup carrot, diced small

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 cup sun-dried tomatoes, soaked and pureed

1/2 cup almonds, soaked 6-8 hours, roughly chopped

1 tbsp dried oregano

2 tbsp chili powder

1 tbsp cumin

1 tbsp Ume plum vinegar (I just use apple cider vinegar)

Splash apple cider vinegar

Process:

In a large bowl, mix all ingredients together. Adjust seasoning to

desired taste.

That's one way to test a new recipe!

We had a Chili Cook-Off/Trunk-or-Treat activity at our church last night. (Where the kids go trick-or-treating by going from trunk-to-trunk of the cars instead of house-to-house.) I had a new chili recipe I wanted to try so I could finally experiment with using my beans from my food storage rather than canned beans Well, time got the best of me and I didn't have the time to do it. So I used the canned beans. In the end we were one of the winners of the contest! So that's why I say in my heading, "that's one way to test a new recipe!" :-) It's pretty simple. Here it is:

Basic Chili
www.gnowflins.com

1 onion, diced

3 cloves garlic, diced

1 pound grass-fed ground beef

4 cups cooked beans

1 can tomato paste

4 cups water + additional as desired for consistency

2 teaspoons to 1 tablespoon sea salt, plus additional to taste

1/2 teaspoon black pepper, plus additional to taste

1-1/2 to 2 tablespoons cumin, or to taste

1 tablespoon paprika, or to taste

1 teaspoon oregano

1 teaspoon thyme

garnishes: sour cream, diced onions, chopped cilantro, shredded cheese, etc.

Brown together in a medium or large stockpot over medium to medium-high heat: ground beef, onions, and garlic.

Combine the tomato paste and water in a 4-cup measurer, and whisk until smooth. Add to the meat mixture. Add the beans and all spices. Bring to a simmer, then turn down heat and let simmer for 20 to 30 minutes to develop flavor. Adjust seasonings.

Loving the Kale Chips

We bought a dehydrator over the summer and I have been experimenting. I love it! So my first project was kale chips. I bought some yummy kale chips from our farmer's market and then duplicated the recipe on my own. Well worth the price savings! And my two little ones, especially, loved it. Here is the recipe:

"Cheezy" Kale Chips

1 bunch kale
Juice from 1 lemon
1 cup raw cashews
1 medium red pepper
Sea salt to taste
Optional 1/4 c nutritional yeast

Wash the kale, remove stalks, and tear into "chip" size pieces. Put all the ingredients into a Vitamix or food processor & blend. Coat kale leaves with the mixture in a big bowl.

Put on dehydrator screens and dehydrate until done, flipping once after a couple of hours. Or, bake in a 300F oven for 20 minutes, flipping, and then baking another 10 minutes or so.

You can also bake in a 200F oven with the door ajar, around 45 minutes to 1 hour. It will take longer but the results will be closer to that of a dehydrator. Keep your eye on them and flip periodically, to keep from burning.

Soup recipes and a small victory!

I have a wonderful 5 year old daughter who displays most of her stubbornness when it comes to trying new foods. My other three girls do this now and again, but not to the extent that Molly does. It is frustrating, especially when certain dishes come to the dinner table and she says "eeeeeeewwwww" without even as much as taking a bite, and everyone else follows suit. Then it's four against two (or four against one when my husband is out-of-town)!! I actually find it quite humorous when I sit down beside Molly with a salad and she moves. She absolutely refuses to stay next to me. Anything green is quite scary to her. Hmmmmm....as I'm writing this I am remembering that yours truly was pretty averse to vegetables most of my life :-) I don't know if I was quite so picky, but I do know that my mom used to worry at the lack of variety in my diet.

Anyhow, to the small victory. I made a new soup tonight (yes, it is freezing cold here in Ohio) and, as expected, Molly refused to try it before she even saw the soup. Upon just hearing the word "soup" she had her mind made up. (Even though she has never tried a bite of soup in her life.) But I braced myself for at least a couple of sisters to follow her lead. After all, on the nights I don't choose to make one of the top favorite kid dinners in our house, some of my kids are known to not eat until the next morning. Even an offer for a dessert that they like, pending having a few bites of dinner, doesn't work many times. But to my pleasant surprise, the other 3 tried it and liked it! It may seem like such a small thing, but I was just plain thrilled! I have been trying to offer more of a variety of foods in these past few months that I've been feeling better and more energetic. And it seems that lately the efforts are paying off!

I thought I would post the successful recipe. Below it is another soup recipe that, although my girls refused to try, my husband commented that it was "restaurant quality"! That was reason enough to share the winning recipe with you all. And I must mention that I shared the chicken curry soup recipe with a friend and it did get a thumbs up from her young children!

Vegetarian Taco Soup

2 cloves garlic, minced

1/2 onion, chopped

1 bell pepper, chopped

2 (28 oz.) cans chopped organic tomatoes

1 cup fresh or frozen corn

1 (15 oz.) can pinto beans or black beans

1 tbsp. chili powder

1/2 tsp. sea salt

2 medium avocados, chopped

3-4 sprouted corn tortillas, cut into triangles and baked until crisp (I used the organic blue corn chips)

3 tbsp. fresh cilantro, finely chopped

sour cream (optional)

fresh cilantro (optional)

In a large saucepan, saute garlic, onion, and bell pepper until tender. Add tomatoes, corn, beans, chili powder, cumin and sea salt. Heat thoroughly, and add avocado, tortilla chips, and cilantro last. Garnish with a dollop of sour cream and fresh cilantro.

Curry Chicken Soup

2 carrots, chopped

2 celery stalks, chopped

2 red potatoes, chopped

2 bell peppers, chopped

1/2 onion, chopped

3 cloves garlic, minced

6 cups chicken broth

1 can coconut milk

2 tbsp. butter

1/2 tsp. sea salt

1-2 tbsp. curry

1 cup cooked, shredded chicken

Cook carrots, celery, potatoes, peppers, onion, and garlic in chicken broth for 20 minutes or until tender. Add coconut milk, butter, salt, curry and chicken. Heat thoroughly and serve.

Making greens palatable

Here are a few recipes for you to try in an effort to increase your leafy green consumption.

Even the kids might like this. Try it instead of chips!

Crispy Kale
Kale
Sea Salt
Olive Oil

Lightly toss chip size pieces of kale in olive oil and sea salt. Spread on parchment paper lining a baking sheet. Bake at 400 degrees on one side for 7 minutes. Flip the "chips". Bake on second side for another 7 minutes. Because ovens vary, check kale after 3 minutes on the 2nd side. Serve this tasty treat with hummus, guacamole dip or fresh salsa.

I've eaten these along with scrambled eggs for breakfast. A great start to your day!
Simply Delicious Collard Greens
Collard greens
Sea Salt
Raw butter or cultured organic butter

Remove the spines from the collard greens. You may discard them, save them for juicing, or slice them very thin and use them. If you choose to use them, begin a water saute and add the spines first. Be sure to cook them for 3-4 minutes before adding the leaves because they are extra fibrous and can be difficult to digest. Next, add the leaves and saute until bright green, but taste tender when tested. Do not cook them so long that they turn gray and mushy! Drain lightly and toss with good quality sea salt and raw or cultured organic butter.

If you don't have access to raw or cultured organic butter (Whole Foods sells a cultured butter), I would at least recommend using organic butter. My reasons for eating largely organic, and especially organic dairy will be for another post. I'll also take note to bring up the benefits of sea salt over regular salt in a later post.


I make this dressing a lot. It is simple and tasty.
Homemade Dressing1/2 cup organic extra virgin olive oil
1/4 cup Bragg's Apple Cider Vinegar
Fresh squeezed juice of one lemon
2 cloves of garlic
Sea salt or Herbamare to taste

Combine all ingredients in a food processor (or Vitamix-type blender on low) and blend until mixed well.

You can find most of these ingredients in the organic section at Giant Eagle (our local grocery store). I can only find Herbamare at Whole Foods. It's not absolutely necessary, but I like it and buy it if we happen to be near a Whole Foods. It is an organic herb seasoning salt. The label states - "flavorful preference to table salt".

Roasted Winter Squash and Apple Soup

Here is a healthy, but tasty recipe that you might enjoy trying! I encourage you to experiment and find things that you enjoy, that taste good, and that nourish your body.

We just tried this dish a couple of weeks ago and I have made it twice now. It calls for squash, but you could also add other root vegetables. (Sweet potatoes, parsnips, or turnips, for example.) Root vegetables are very grounding and also satisfying because many of them have a sweeter taste.

I modified the recipe because I was in the mood for solid food, rather than soup. I added some grilled chicken to it too and it turned out yummy. Even my husband said so. So if it has his seal of approval, then it really should be OK. (My perspective can be a little bit distorted :-)

Roasted Winter Squash and Apple Soup

Ingredients:

1 large winter squash (I used butternut squash), seeded and cut into 2-inch pieces

2 medium onions, peeled and quartered

3 cloves garlic, peeled

2 tart, firm apples, peeled cored and quartered

2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

sea salt and chili powder to taste

4-5 cups vegetable stock (if you want to make the soup)

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F

2. In a large roasting pan toss the squash, onions, garlic and apples with the oil to coat.

3. Season well with sea salt and chili powder.

4. Roast, stirring every 10 minutes, until the vegetables are fork-tender and lightly browned, about 40 minutes.

(This is where I stopped, but continue if you'd like to make it into a soup.)

5. Put half of the vegetables with 2 cups of the stock in a food processor (or Vitamix) and puree until smooth.

6. Repeat with the remaining vegetables and broth.

7. Return pureed mixture to the pot.

8. If the soup is too thick, add more broth.

9. Correct the seasoning and heat to a simmer.

10. Serve!