Crocky Breakfast

How to make breakfast delicious and fast - prepare the night before!

Pictured here, is an oatmeal dish with blueberries and vanilla bean. All things in time are better than all things rushed, so why not spend all night making your breakfast! The flavours deepen with time, so a lot of seasoning is not required, which is usually required with instant foods. Just add the vanilla, or maybe some cardamom and fruit, and let it cook all night for you!

We ate a full pot of this every morning at the intensive - and rightfully so, it was delish!

Home-made Veggie Pate!

As a treat, I occasionally like to get veggie pate from the natural food store and eat in on a sandwich or as a side to something fun, but I'd really like to be able to make it on my own so I can make it as a treat, instead of buy it, even though I like to support folks who make this kind of stuff and make it available in stores - because it is a nice treat!

So it's my first batch, and far from perfection, but this is what I did:

Blend the following in a food processor:

• 1-1/2 cups soaked buckwheat (from 3/4 cup dry)
• 1 cup oat flakes
• 1 cup diced eggplant
• 1/2 cup sesame seeds, ground
• 1/2 cup whole spelt flour, or other
• 1/4 cup oil
• 1/3 cup each diced potato, onion, carrot
• 1 Tbsp vinegar
• 1 Tbsp apple cider vinegar
• 1 Tbsp lemon juice
• Some salt

Oil a casserole dish, and put the blended paste into the dish. .. and I just realize that I didn't write down how long I cooked it for!! But I'm willing to bet it was at 350F for at least 45 minutes.. you could try that - but watch for the browness at the top, that might be an indication of how done it is.

As a side note, I actually bought some veggie pate from the store to compare mine to the "real" thing, and after having one bite of it before making it, I walked away to answer the phone or something, and when I came back, the dog had eaten the WHOLE thing with not a crumb left over. Yes folks.. it's just that good... mine was also very good... but maybe a little drier (I don't like using a lot of oil in my cooking, and I didn't get it so perfectly pureed as I could have.. but it was AWESOME.)

Foods to get better by...

OK - so I came down with a bug this month. I did alright, recovering in a few days, but what did I eat? I thought I'd take a picture for you!

From bottom left, clockwise:

• Oven cooked oatmeal with apples and cinnamon and a bit of goat milk
  
• Tea decoction including echinacea, ginger, lemon, fenugreek, thyme, fennel, flax, and a little licorice root (that was made for my condition on the day that I had it.. this isn't a catch-all solution)
  
• Sprouted bread, slightly toasted
• Pureed leftover soup stock ingredients
• Water with oxygen and a little apple cider vinegar
• Mochi (white,.. it was a gift) with nori paper

This was on the day that I noticed I was starting to heal, otherwise in the acute stages I'd suggest eating very little or only teas or foods cooked in lots of water (thus the soup stock!).. once the body starts to feel like it's winning, food is better suited if not overeaten, especially grains and cooked veggies. I picked at this tray all day... it was nice to have handy as I sat on my big pillow and let the healing juices flow.

Chakra Bars!!!

The recipe hasn't been finalized yet - and we are still in the testing stage, but I thought I'd share about these delicious treats!

Warm some brown rice syrup with almond butter and add:

-Chlorella/spirulina

-Puffed millet

-Oat flakes

-Pumpkin seeds

-Flax seeds

-Raisins

Mix it up like rice crispy squares, cool it (well, dry it actually), and form it into pieces!

Yummy!!

Apple Crisp!

Our favourite dessert! Sliced apples lined the bottom of the tray, and then a mixture of oat flakes, seeds, nuts, sweetener (honey or something, we used yacon), spices such as cinnamon, dried fruit, and a little or oil or butter, then spread out over top of the apples. Baked in the oven at 350F until fragrant and golden!

Oats n Goats

Steel cut oats cooked in a slow cooker overnight with cinnamon, cloves and cardamom. Dates were added in the morning, and then a little bit of goat's milk was dribbled over it to freshen up the densely warming dish. Yacon may have ended up in the bowl too...