Whole Wheat Apple Walnut Muffins

Some muffin recipes call for milk to make up most of the liquid. And that’s fine for those recipes. But this one is all about flavor since the apples themselves make up almost all of the liquid. If you use freshly ground soft white wheat flour, the muffins turn out light and soft, and baked in preheated stoneware pans, they’re heavenly.

Ingredients

3 or 4 fresh apples, or you can substitute 2-3 cups of applesauce
1/3 c. melted butter
1 egg
1 t. vanilla
1 1/2 c. soft white wheat flour (use freshly ground flour if possible)
1/2 c. Rapadura (whole organic cane sugar)
1 t. baking soda
2 t. cinnamon
pinch of salt
1 c. chopped walnuts

Directions

• In a blender (or you can do this by hand), blend together the bananas, melted butter, egg, and vanilla.
• In a separate bowl, mix together the flour, rapadura, cinnamon, baking soda, salt and chopped walnuts.
• Combine the wet ingredients with the dry ingredients and spoon into buttered muffin cups.
• Bake at 350 degrees for 20-25 minutes.
• Enjoy!

Variation: Apple Blueberry Muffins
Prepare as above except use 2 c. of applesauce instead of the bananas, and 1 c. blueberries instead of the nuts.

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Gluten Free Almond Cookies

My mom found this recipe in the Nourishing Traditions cookbook, and wanted me to try making these for her. I thought the idea of putting arrowroot powder into cookies instead of flour sounded a bit strange, but I made them anyway.  They’re awesome! When I took them out of the oven, they were very crumbly, and broke easily (probably because they don’t have eggs in them), but after they cooled down for a few minutes they were very nice.

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups almonds
1 cup arrowroot powder
1/2 cup Rapadura Whole Organic Sugar
grated rind of 1 lemon, or 1/2 orange
1/2 cup softened butter or coconut oil
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
about 18 almonds for decoration (optional)

Directions:

Put the 1 1/2 cups of almonds in a blender or food processor. Turn the machine on low and grind the almonds into a meal. Pour the almond meal, arrowroot powder, Rapadura and lemon rind into a bowl and mix them together. Then add the softened butter and vanilla, and stir until combined.
Drop rounded tablespoons of cookie dough on an ungreased cookie sheet. Flatten slightly with a fork, or press an almond into the center.
Bake at 300 degrees for about 20 minutes, or until the cookies are just slightly brown. Remove from the oven and cool before serving. Store in an airtight container. (Makes about 18 cookies.)

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Sprouted Trail Mix

Whenever we travel, I am always careful to pack plenty of good healthy snacks so we aren’t tempted to garbage out on fast food and sugary granola bars. We make healthy cookies, homemade grass fed beef jerky, homemade crackers made with good yellow butter, dried apples, and this awesome trail mix, among other things.

A couple weeks ago, we took a trip to the northwoods of WI, and in an effort to save some money on our trip, we determined not to eat out at all. So for the 16 hour drive both ways, we munched on all the healthy goodies we had brought along. This trail mix was among the favorite snacks. And since the seeds are soaked first, they’re more easily digested so you feel good after eating this stuff by the handful.

Of course, you can make this trail mix without sprouting the seeds, but the sprouting process is said to increase the B vitamins, improve the protein quality of the seeds, and destroy the antinutrient, pyhtic acid.

For this recipe, you don’t really want the seeds to sprout a tail, so just soak them for about 4 hours; long enough to improve their digestibility and nutrient content.

First, soak each type of seed in a separate bowl of water with about a teaspoon of sea salt.

2 cups sunflower seeds
2 cups pumpkin seeds (pepitas)
2 cups whole, raw almonds

Strain the seeds and dehydrate at 115 degrees.

Then add:
2 cups raisins
2 cups chopped dates
2 cups flaked natural coconut
2 cups Sunspire unsweetened carop chips

Mix everything together in a big bowl and store in an airtight container.

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Pear Crisp

Pear Crisp

Ingredients

• 6  cups  Anjou or Bartlett pears (click to order), cored and cut lengthwise into 1/2-inch-thick slices (about 3 pounds)
• 1  tablespoon  fresh lemon juice
• 1/3  cup  rapadura (or your choice of sugar)
• 1  tablespoon  cornstarch
• 1 1/2  teaspoons  ground cinnamon, divided
• 1/3  cup  all-purpose flour
• 1/2  cup  rapadura (or packed brown sugar)
• 1/2  teaspoon  salt
• 3  tablespoons  chilled butter, cut into small pieces
• 1/3  cup  regular oats
• 1/4  cup  coarsely chopped walnuts

Preparation

Preheat oven to 375°.

Combine pears and lemon juice in a 2-quart baking dish; toss gently to coat. Combine rapadura, cornstarch, and 1 teaspoon cinnamon; stir with a whisk. Add cornstarch mixture to pear mixture; toss well to coat.

Lightly spoon flour into a dry measuring cup; level with a knife. Place flour, 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon, rapadura, and salt in a food processor; pulse 2 times or until combined. Add chilled butter; pulse 6 times or until mixture resembles coarse meal. Add oats and walnuts; pulse 2 times. Sprinkle flour mixture evenly over pear mixture.

Bake at 375° for 40 minutes or until pears are tender and topping is golden brown. Cool 20 minutes on a wire rack; serve warm or at room temperature.

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Linda’s Raw Cranberry Maple Granola Bars

My friend Linda brought a bag of these yummy granola bars to the herb plant pick up on Friday.  What a blessing!  With all the kids helping, and so much going on, it was great to have a healthy snack to give everyone.  Here’s her recipe.

Recipe by Linda Lagos

Ingredients:

1 apple, cored and chopped

2 cups dates made into a paste*

1/2 cup maple syrup

2 tbsp. lemon juice

2 tbsp. orange zest

1 tbsp. vanilla extract

1 tsp. ground cinnamon

1 3/4 tsp. sea salt

1/2 cup sunflower seeds, soaked 2 hours

2 cups almonds, soaked 4 hours

3 cups pecans, soaked 2 hours

1/2 cup pumpkin seeds, soaked 2 hours

3/4 cup dried cranberries or raisins, chopped

1/4 cup golden flaxseeds, ground

2 tbsp. sesame seeds

2 tbsp. hemp seeds (optional)

Directions:

In a high speed blender put chopped apple, maple syrup, orange zest, lemon juice, sea salt, cinnamon and vanilla extract, then put in dates.  Blend until well blended but does not need to be smooth.  Set aside.

Rinse and drain all the nuts. In a food processor break up sunflower seeds and pour them into a large mixing bowl. Then put in food processor the almonds and break up into small pieces.  Do the same with pumpkin and pecans.  Pour all these in the mixing bowl as you do each nut.  Add ground flaxseeds, sesame seeds and hemp seeds.  Put in date mixture into nut mix and mix well.  Then put in chopped cranberries and mix well.  You may want to use your hands to mix it.

I have an Excalibur dehydrator and I put the mixture on 3 trays with the teflex sheets.  I spread it to the thickness I desire and dehydrate for 24 hours at 115 degrees, then turn down to 105 degrees for 12 more hours or until done.

*To make date paste you normally would put the amount of dates the recipe asks for, usually a minimum of 1 cup.  With 1 cup dates to 1/4 cup water in a vita mix and on high speed it does not bother the machine.  I have been doing this for the last 4 years that I have had my Vita Mix.  I do soak my dates if they are not real soft and fresh.  But with this granola bar recipe, you just use the apple and agave or maple syrup as the liquid to blend the dates.

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Chocolate Almond Bark

2 cups semisweet or milk chocolate chips

1 1/2 cups + 2 tablespoons almonds

Line a 9 x 13 pan with parchment paper or foil, allowing the paper to come up the sides of the pan (forming handles for easy lifting).

Melt the chocolate chips over very low heat or in a double boiler, stirring frequently.

Combine the melted chocolate with the 2 1/2 cups almonds in a medium bowl.  Then spread the mixture into the prepared pan.

Sprinkle the 2 tablespoons of chopped almonds on top of the chocolate mixture.  Chill until set.  Break or cut into 1 1/2 – 2 inch pieces.  Makes 2 – 3 dozen.

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