Really Healthy Granola

I made an awesome batch of granola the other day.  It was my 4th attempt at making granola and I think I finally found the combination of ingredients that works to make this the best tasting granola ever!  I topped my first bowl of it with a nice ripe banana and ice cold 40 calorie almond milk.

I love the fact that Almond Breeze has 3 different calorie ranges for it's almond milk.  Of course I love the 90 calorie version but really I don't need it sweet for this granola so I go with the 40 calories.

I used my dehydrator to crisp it up rather than use the oven.  Why....I just love my dehydrator!  If you don't have a dehydrator just turn your oven to its very lowest setting and place the granola in the oven for however long it takes to crisp it.  Turn the granola every 15 minutes or so just so the bottom will crisp.  You'll know when it is dry because it no long sticks to the pan and slides around on the pan easily.

So here's the recipe and sorry I still haven't found my camera since my return from Singapore.

Really Healty Granola

One bag of Bob's Red Mill 5 grain

4 dates soaked

1 cup raisins

1/2 cup goji berries

1/8 cup grade b maple syrup

2 apples diced

cinnamon

nutmeg

Pour grains in bowl.  Mash dates include some of the sweet date water to make a watery paste.  Add all the ingredients together and mix until all ingredients are slightly moiste.  dehydrate for about 14 hrs.

Steamed Sprouted Bread Pudding w/ Bananas & Pecans

Sometimes I feel so creative in the kitchen and sometimes I don't.  But summer's over and I'm back from Singapore and its too cold to do water aerobics....SAD, sad, Sad.  I guess I'll start cooking and blogging again...hopefully I'll get a small following and maybe someone will buy an item and I can make a small sum since I'm out of business because of the friggin economy and my very bad sense of timing : (

I worry about falling into the rut of lousy eating...comfort foods, I want them now...the SAD diet.  But I want them healthy if I want to eat bad I have to make it good...meaning healthy so I won't get fatter and I won't feel guilty.  It is just a friggin' loop.  I struggled with food my entire life.  Always overweight at least during my adult years...there really weren't many fat kids when I was growing up.  I can only remember one husky boy and a girl with fat knees.

So tonight I created this awesome healthy guilt free bread pudding.

Yummy and oh so comforting.

Sorry pics coming....I haven't seen my camera since I got back from Singapore...I'm so disorganized sometimes.

Laura's Steamed Sprouted Bread Pudding w/ Bananas & Pecans

4 slices of Ezekiel Sprouted Bread any kind really ( I used Sesame for mine)
2 eggs
2 bananas smashed
a tiny amount of grade b maple syurp
1/2 cup 40 calorie Almond Breeze Milk
some cinammon
some nutmeg
raisins
pecans chopped

rip the bread in chunks, beat eggs with almond milk, add cinnamin and nutmeg, pour over bread and let soak in, mix once in a while, add pecans, rasins and bananas mix all ingredients together and place in bamboo steamer and steam for about 10 min or until knife blade comes out clean

My Lemon Aid Diet Update

This week I dropped another 3 lbs with the simple addition of lemon, water, grade b maple syrup, and cayenne pepper lemon aid concoction added to my diet.  I am extremely happy with this weight loss.  Since May I've been excercing every day, juicing, eating healthy and the scale did not budge.  I guess at my age the metabolism is at a standstill.  Then I added the lemon aid 2 weeks ago and I've dropped 6-1/2 lbs. I've been drinking it 2-3 times a day and I really like the taste.  Try it!

Soy Perfect!

Practice makes perfect and I think I've finally perfected this recipe for a "no guilt" soy pie.  The crust is made of pecans and dates, the center is tofu with grated lemon peel, the top is any crushed fruit you choose.

No fancy name attached to the recipe I haven't thought about one.  I've made this pie about 1/2 dozen times and finally I think it's soy perfect!

The thing about this recipe it is so healthy I eat it as a meal sometimes.  It makes an awesome breakfast.

Here's the recipe and some photos to show the proess.

Recipe

6-8 dates soaked in water for 4 hrs (or until plumped up)
1 cup raw pecans (I have used other nuts)
1 banana sliced
2 pkgs of extra firm tofu
zest of 1 lemon
2 tbsp grade b maple syurp
1 pint of blackberry, blueberry, or raspberry

After soaking the dates but in a large bowl and smash.  Chop the nuts and add to date mixture.
Mix together then press into pie tin.  Slice banana and place on the flat surface of tin.  This keeps any liquid left in the tofu from making the crust soggy.

Break up the tofu with a large fork and make into tiny pieces.  Add the maple syurp and mix with tofu then add the entire zest of one lemon.  Mix together and pour onto crust. Press tofu down to make a nice uniform mound.  Smash berries so that juices flow and pour over top covering it completely.  You and your guests will love this!

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What do a Mellon, Spinach, & Banana Have in Common?

Answer:  Blended together they make one heck of a delicious green smoothie.  Each is the secret ingredient in this smoothie, no ingredient stands out, they blend seemlessly together in a smoothie perfect for summer.  Creating smoothies is one of my favorite things to do in the kitchen.  It seems the possiblities are limitless.  I just started creating green smoothies and I find spinach is a perfect green ingredient in the green smoothie.  I doesn't leave a heavy green flavor blends nicely and the color can vary depending on the amount of spinach added.  Green smoothies are so pretty too!   Next time I going to blend in the mint rather than use it as a garnish I think it will be a nice addition...like I said limitless possibilites.
Recipe
1 frozen banana
1 handful of fresh spinach
1/4 cup of cantelope mellon
1/4 cup plain low-fat yogurt
1/2 cup almond milk (original flavor)

The Back to Basics smoothie maker is what I used before I bought my Vitamix...sometimes I think it did a better job than the Vitamix!

Fresh Figs Stuffed with Goat Cheese

Here is a quick recipe for fresh figs.  They are really yummy and good for you too.  I think they'd go great with a nice glass of Riesling wine, sitting on the deck on a beautiful summer's evening.

If you've never tasted fresh figs you don't know what you are missing.  They are delicate in flavor and texture and oh so delicious.  Easily bruised, handle gently.

Recipe

Fresh Figs (as many as you want)

Goat Cheese (enough to cover the halved figs)

Balsamic Vinegar (just a drizzle over the figs)

Chopped Pecans (just enough)

Slice the figs in half.  Mix all ingredients together except figs and vinegar.  Top figs with mixture and drizzle with balsamic vinegar.  Broil until cheese gets bubbly.  Serve with wine and chill out!

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The Green Green Grass of Home.....Grown!

I'm still learning how to grow wheatgrass, after 8 flats grown not a single one grew like the other.  Some had big bald patches where nothing grew, another had moldy seeds, and another grew perfectly.  I did find that soaking the seeds for a couple days in water helps them sprout easier.  Growing wheatgrass is a challenge and well worth the effort consisdering the energy boost it gives me along with the overwhelming sense of well-being.

When I tried my first wheatgrass shot  I thought it tasted like freshly mown grass smells....very, very green.  I never drank a plain shot again I started mixing it with carrot juice and it went down easier. 

That first shot of wheat grass came from a commerically purchased flat of grass from "Whole Foods".  Wheatgrass is too expensive to buy at $12 a flat so that's when I decided to grown it on my own.

Yesterday I ran out of carrot jucie so I decided to try a straight shot of home grown wheatgrass.  To my surprise my home grown wheatgrass did not have the same overwhelming green taste.  My homegrown variety was milder and I would even call it a pleasant mild taste.  I wonder what the difference was...if anyone knows please drop me a comment.

Juicing wheatgrass takes a lot of effort and time but I find it worth it.  DON'T try juicing in a regular juicer they can not handle the strong fibers of the grass.  I bought a cheapy little wheatgrass juicer on Amazon and finally figured out how it works after reading all the reviews on Amazon.  But before I read the reviews I gave up on it and tried to juice my grass in my Omega...it died that day after a long useful life.  After it's death I read the Amazon reviews on my wheatgrass juicer in one review the author described in detail how to use it.  Whala!  I was getting wheatgrass juice out of that cheapy juicer!

I've tried energy drinks before, I actually had a seizure in Costco after sampling an energy drink.  They called an ambulance and the EMT told me that I wasn't the first to have a siezure from an energy drink.  It actually was my second seizure for that type of drink.  The amazing thing about wheatgrass for me is I get all this energy with out any of the jitteriness or seizures of the energy drinks.

I use the pulp left over from juicing.  I roll the leftover fiber into 2 rolls about 5" long each and insert them under my lips onto my gums.  I extract a lot more juice from the fiber and it is beneficial to gum health.  I heard of others....this you might find gross...who actually insert it anally for colon health.  Haven't tried that one!

Please note that any product advertised through Amazon.com on this blog is a product I use myself.  If you have any questions about the products I would be happy to answer them.

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Sugar Reborn! Hallelujah!

I found a big old plastic bag of white sugar packets in my pantry the other day.  I was ready to throw the bag in the garbage when I thought what if I have guests that want sugar in their cofee...what kind of host would I be if I couldn't offer sugar to a guest!   I should have thought what kind of host would I be offering poison to my guests....but let's just say I'm still working on the programming in my head that says sugar is yummy.

I put the bag back in the pantry unsure why I was reluctant to throw the white poison away...was it me just being thrifty, not wasteful, or was I becoming a hoarder!  So what was I to do with a huge bag of white sugar packets that for some reason I was having difficulty parting with?  

And then last night at around 11:00 pm I had the light bulb moment!  I grabbed a bowl and start tearing the packets open three at a time. I then squeezed the juice of one fresh lemon into it and then added about 2 tbsp of aloe vera juice.  Mixed it all together and gave myself a face scrub.  It was just awesome.

I was surprised that the sugar did not disolve in the lemon juice and aloe vera.  When I rubbed it into my skin the mixture felt like sandpaper, so I lighted up on my rubbing pressure.  The result was it tightened my skin up and it felt so soft...I couldn't stop looking in the mirror.    I'm going to do a scrub again this morning because I had enough left for another application, this stuff is just too good to throw away.  I want to mention that I did get some of the mixture on my lips and I did taste it, of course it tasted yummy.  It was pretty funny and ironic that the thought ran through my head that I shouldn't do that again....don't want to ingest poison, knowing the poison that white sugar is and how horribly it affects my body when ingested.

***Update when I went to use the leftover scrub the sugar had dissolved so rather than throw it away I just added more sugar.

New official habit in my daily ritual!

Recipe

1/2 cup white sugar

juice of one fresh lemon

3-4 tbsp of aloe vera juice

For my next batch I'm going to add more sugar to make it a little thicker, I'm going to scrub for at least one minute and then I'm going to leave it on for 5 min....can't wait to see those results!

Fill pretty bottles with this scrub and give it away as gifts...it's that good.

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