The Gift of Food (Recipes to enjoy)
I love food! Food makes me feel good, fuels my body, is a delight.
I have had to change my diet several times for health reasons. I can say truthfully that I enjoy food more than I ever have in the past. I eat better than I did when I was younger and I feel great.
Apple Pie
Prepare about 5 cups of apples by coring, peeling, and dicing them. Spice with cinnamon, cloves, or allspice. I love spices so I usually add about 1/4 teaspoon of at least two of them. If your apples are not really ripe and sweet adds some sugar up to a cup depending on how sweet you like your food. Will very with size of pie plate so add a little if it does not look fairly full.
Prepare the crust by combining
2 cups whole wheat pastry flour
½ cup olive or grape-seed oil
¼ teaspoon salt
¼ cup cold or ice water.
Stir in oil first then add the water. I usually just store my water in the freezer when I start so it is cold by the time I get my other ingredients together. You can adjust the amount of water and oil a bit so if it is too dry add a little water, if it is too oily add a bit of flour. I kind of have a feel for when it is just right.
Granola
I love granola for breakfast it is just one of my favorite things. I go with a basic start of whole oats, cereals 9 grain or 12 grain, wheat bran, nuts and seeds. So I do this differently every time I do it. But I am going to give the basics here.
8 cups oats
2 cups other grains
4 cups of apple sauce (mine usually has cloves, cinnamon, and or ginger in it)
1 cup of oil (olive, grapes seed, or coconut)
1 T salt
I add more spice frequently. Cloves, Ginger, Cinnamon, anise, fennel, vanilla, orange, cranberry, any flavor that makes it taste good.
The above should be stirred together in a large bowl and put in baking pans. I use casserole dishes with at least one and a half inches of side on them.
I bake this part of the granola in the oven using a timer. Not all ovens are the same so check it often. I put it on at 300 degrees for half an hour at a time. I then take it out when the timer goes off and stir it. I also rotate the pans from the lower shelf to the higher one each time I stir it.
When it comes out of the oven I put let it cool a bit and add
1 cup nuts
1 cup of seeds (sunflower, flax, sesame, or pumpkin)
1 cup of dried fruit (dates, cranberries, mulberries, pineapple, apricots, or blueberries)
I then mix all this together and store it in glass gallon jars. I sometimes freeze it and get it out later. If your not going to eat it within a month freezing may be a good option.
If I have fresh fruit I sometimes blend it and use it instead of applesauce.
Persimmon Granola
Hummus
1 can or about 1 ½ cup garbanzo beans
1 16oz container of tofu
½ medium size onion
¼ cup oil olive or grape-seed
1 T turmeric
1 T dried basil
Blend ingredients together until creamy, can add fresh tomato, basil, oregano, cilantro, parsley, or thyme.
Juicing
I have a champion juicer and this year have worked it once to twice a week. With as hard as I have been running a little more carrot juice in my diet is a great thing. So I Juice carrots and add some citrus to them for better keeping for a couple of days. This is just a time thing for me you can juice daily.
Juicing Carrots
What to do with the leftovers
Cleaning the machine
Pasta
I love pasta of all types but my use of pasta has changed over the years. I try to do whole grain pasta now which takes a bit longer to cook. I also have changed the sauce that I put on pasta to healthy home made choices. I once ate with a family that the dad had changed his diet because of cancer and they served asparagus with the pasta. It was good and a good lesson for me.
I am going to share several of my favorite healthy sauces or sauce substitutes here.
I love pesto now there is a fair amount of fat in pesto so be careful of it if you are avoiding fat.
I made my own from my garden last year with fresh garlic, basil, and olive oil. Then I put it in the freezer and pulled it out to mix with pasta during the winter. I put mine in the blender so oil first ½ cup, then garlic 3 to 4 large cloves (I used my elephant garlic) 9 plus small one’s, two cups basil leaves fresh picked or purchased.
I love brochette it is not just to put on bread it is great on pasta as well.
So you can spend the time and cut the onions, tomatoes, fresh oregano, fresh basil, and olive or grape-seed oil.
For pasta I like to blend mine and pour it over the pasta.
I love just fresh cut tomatoes on my pasta with some olive, grapeseed, or sesame oil as well.
Pizza
Basic Crust whole grain. I like a thick biscuit type crust. I also want whole grains, pastry flour works well too. (coming soon)
My friend Jenny Gum makes the best vegan pizza and part of the greatness of it is that it has fresh tomatoes all over the top. I love onions, tomatoes, mushrooms, olives, and a bit of tomato sauce on my whole wheat crust.
Another of my favorites is a Tex Mex sort of pizza with beans (cooked black, garbanzo, pinto, re-fried, white), cashew cheese, lots of romaine or butter lettuce on top, onions and tomatoes. Oh so good.
Potatoes
Sweet potatoes are one of my new favorites. I found that they were a good thing with rosemary on them just diced and baked.
Salads
Salsa Salad not hot
1 medium Cabbage head
1 medium onion
1 medium garlic whole clove
4 cups tomatoes
1 bunch cilantro
I used to just dice this all by hand but now I simply put it in the food processor and let it blend together. If you wish for heat in yours adding hot peppers is easy. It is also very flexible, I love to add sweet peppers, so try what works best for your family.
Cucumber Avocado Cilantro salad
1 large avocado
1 medium cucumber
1/2 bunch of cilantro
I just dice it up fairly small and stir it together.
Tabbouleh
This is one of my favorite salads because it taste so fresh
2 medium to large cucumbers
1 bunch parsley
1 medium onion
1 fresh squeezed lemon
1fresh squeezed lime
2 cups bulger wheat or cooked quinoa if you are sensitive to wheat
Simply mix it together and serve immediately or after it has been in the fridge for a few hours.
Hope Challenges Canceralso has a number of recipes in it.
My hope is that you have found some wonderful recipes to add to your life. Watch for more as I get the chance to film and edit both here and on social media (facebook Gifts That Lift Us Twitter
Created by Judy Woodworth 2018 all rights reserved