Raw Apple Crumble

This is one of the dishes I took for our Mother's day BBQ. Everyone loved it.



This is a great dessert because it’s easier and faster to make than an apple pie or crisp, and requires no baking. Instead of refined sugars, this recipe uses dates for sweetness, and lemon juice and nutmeg for that extra zing.

Topping:

1 cup walnuts
4 pitted dates

Apple filling:

3 apples, peeled, sliced and large diced
1 tablespoon lemon juice
2 apples, peeled, sliced and large diced
2 tablespoons lemon juice
6 pitted Medjool dates
¼ cup raisins
¼ teaspoon cinnamon
¼ teaspoon nutmeg

Topping: Blend the walnuts and 4 dates in a food processor until the texture is a little smaller than Grape Nuts. Spoon into a small bowl and set aside.

Filling: Toss the 3 peeled, sliced and diced apples with 1 tablespoon of lemon juice and set aside in a bowl. Next, in the food processor, blend the remaining 2 apples, 2 tablespoons of lemon juice, 6 pitted dates, raisins, cinnamon, and nutmeg. Toss this mixture with the sliced apples.

Serve: Place one-fourth of the apple filling into a small dessert dish and sprinkle with date-nut topping.

I doubled the recipe for everything, except for where the 3 apples were called for, I used 8 apples instead of 6. I also didnt use nutmeg as I don't care for it. I used allspice in it's place. I also didn't use medjool dates. There were two kinds at Costco and I didn't know the difference except for cost, so I just got the regular kind.


http://www.drmcdougall.com/misc/2010nl/oct/recipes.htm

Potato soup

This is my favourite soup. We make it often. The amount I am listing makes alot of soup. You can half the recipe to make a smaller amount. This is also a very kid friendly soup. I found that my kids do better when soups are blended than with big chunks.


6 large russet potatoes, cooked cubed small
3 small red potatoes, cooked, diced small
1 large yellow onion
1 cup unsweetened soy milk or other milk substitute.
2.5 cups water
4 T nutritional yeast
2 t rosemary
1/8 t white pepper
1/4-1/2 t salt, if desired.

Water saute onion in large pot. While onion is cooking, peel and cube the russets and dice the reds. I peel my reds as the skins to me are bitter, set the reds aside for later.

Once the onion is cooked, add the potatoes, nutritional yeast, rosemary, white pepper, and the water and milk. Let simmer for about 5 minutes or so.

Using an immersion blender (can put in a regular one if you don't have an immersion blender) blend until the potato isn't chunky. Add more water or milk if needed. Once the desired consistency is reached, add the diced red potatoes and simmer for about 10 minutes. If the soup is too watery, allowing it to simmer will make it thicker. Frozen corn can also be added if desired.

I am not sure where the original recipe came from as we have been making it for so long now, but it isn't the same anymore. I know it called for veggie broth, but we just stopped using it.

Oh, and go easy on the white pepper. It will make it very spicy and strong. I also add extra nutritional yeast depending on strong I want it.

Yam and black bean chili

With it being winter again, chili seemed in order, but I didn't want my normal kidney bean chili. I've heard for years about people using yams or sweet potatoes in their chili, so looked around at several recipes and decided to just go freehand with what I had on hand.





1 large yellow onion, diced
1 each yellow, red, and orange sweet pepper, chopped
1 large yam or sweet potato, diced
4 large cloves of garlic, grated
1 can of chopped tomatoes
2 cans of black beans or 3 cups cooked, rinsed and drained
2 cups of water
2-3 T chili powder
2 t cumin
1 t cayenne pepper (or desired amount)
1/4 cup chopped cilantro
1 cup frozen corn

Take the first 4 ingredients and water saute for 10 minutes in a large pot. Add the tomatoes, water, and spices except for the cilantro and simmer for about 20 or until the yams are cooked. Once the yams are cooked, add the beans, corn and cilantro and simmer for about 5-10 mins for all the flavors to blend.

Very good all by itself, but you can put over a baked potato or a bowl of rice. The combination of sweet from the yams and the spicy from the cayenne pepper is one of my favourite flavors.

PS, I need to upload the picture to my folder. I took it then posted it on facebook and I can't make it larger, but I can from the photo folder. I was trying to avoid uploading more pics. Itunes freezes on me and it bugs me. But I will fix the photo.

Revised Tacoless Taco Salad

I have no picture of this, because my bowl isn't see through glass, but I revised my taco salad a bit.

One of the things about a restaurant taco salad that I really like, besides the shell of course, is the refried beans.

So today I took my crockpot beans, put them in a large bowl and heated through. Then mashed with a fork to make them "refried" like. Then layered the ingredients on top.

I had the beans on the bottom, then layered shredded lettuce, then hot rice, then sprinkled salsa on that, then took a large Roma tomato and a 1/4 of an avocado on that. Squeezed a lime and called it lunch!!

There is something so calming about warm mashed beans all over lettuce, I cant explain it. And while I like the original, I really love this more:O)

And I can now say, after having eaten only half of this salad, my eyes were WAY bigger then my stomach!!!

Work in progress

I am currently working on this blog and will be adding recipes soon. I have a super good Mexican rice that is so close to what you get in a restaurant it isn't funny. I also have a couple of others. My problem is finding the time to upload the pictures and write out the recipes. But I will, very soon:O)

Zucchini steel cut oats

Before adding the "goodies". You can see the zucchini in there. Sorry it is blury.


After adding the "goodies". Notice you can no longer really see the zucchini. This particular photo has 1/4 c bluberries and about 6 cherries.




Servings 4: about 1 cup each

Zuchini steel oats

1 large zucchini, grated
3 cups water
3/4 c steel cut oats
1 apple chopped
1 t cinnamon

Start water, zucchini, and apple to boil. Once water is boiling add cinnamon and oats. Return to boil. Cover and turn on low for about 25 mins.

From here I can add frozen berries or cherries or pumpkin puree. Depending on what I make, I add either almond extract (for cherries like cherry pie) or vanilla extract.

The zucchini adds volume for not alot of calories. And mostly you cant taste the zucchini, but for me it does lend a flavor in the background, so I will add 1 t of brown sugar that fully hides it. Enjoy.

Three sisters LCD stew

I call this three sisters because it is off of the concept of the three main AG crops grown by some Native Americans, corn (maize), beans, and squash. I also call this three sisters, because I have three girls and they are sisters, korny I know. I call it LCD because that stands for Low Calorie Density, which seems like a bright idea. Thank you who ever came up with "it is a bright idea". Sorry I don't remember where I read it now. This is also my first "warm dish" of the season. Normally I make chili, but this sounded better. The winter squash makes this sweet. It wont last long in my house.

1 winter squash, I used butternut, peeled and cubed
3 large carrots, halved and sliced
1 large red potato (optional, used because it would of gone bad)
3 cups chopped green cabbage
2 zucchini, I used one green and one grey, but any will be fine
1 can or 1.5 cups garbanzo beans, rinsed and drained
1.5 cups frozen corn, you can use fresh if you have it.
1 can chopped tomatoes
3 bay leaves
1/2 t basil
1/2 T dried sage
1/5 t thyme
Couple of sprinkles Mrs. Dash extra spicy herb blend (optional)
2-3 cups water

Please adjust the seasonings to your liking.

Cook first three ingredients in about 1 cup of water, about 20 minutes. While those are cooking, prep everything else. Add other ingredients and simmer on low covered, about an hour. This can also be done in a crock pot if you wish. Just place all ingredients and cook on low, maybe 6-8 hours. Good for having ready when one gets home from work.