Simple Peach Slushy

With all the peaches we’ve had lately, we’ve been making this refreshing slushy quite a bit. It’s so easy that I don’t think I can really give you a recipe, but I’ll tell you what we do. For our 8 cup capacity VitaMix, we put about 3 cups water in the blender container and then add frozen peaches while the motor is running until the container is full. Add a spoonful of honey or a pinch of stevia powder, and it’s done.

This slushy is equally good made with frozen strawberries instead of the peaches. Yum!

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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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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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