Chef Taylor: Apple Nut Sauce breakfast

Since we've been eating a lot of  "splurge" meals during our summer "Kids Chefs" project, Taylor decided to make something containing all raw food (except the drizzle of pure maple syrup) for his breakfast. 

This is a meal we used to make even more frequently when the kids were young. 

Apple Nut Sauce recipe:

• Sliced apples
• Several cups of raw nuts (we used almonds... choose your favorite)
• Raw organic maple syrup (optional)
• Cinnamon (optional)
• Shredded coconut flakes (optional)

Cut apples into wedges and chop them into apple sauce using a food processor.  Empty them into a very large bowl and pour nuts into food processor and finely chop.  Empty nuts into large bowl and mix thoroughly.  Add cinnamon for taste.  Serve in bowls and drizzle with pure organic maple syrup and/or shredded coconut.

Chopping apples to place into food processor

Making sure all apples get chopped for sauce

Combining the nuts and apple mixture

Happy boys!  The nuts make this a filling yummy meal.

The Garden-fresh Tomato- one of God's greatest creations

Is there anything better than a ripe garden tomato?  This time of the year I am hard-pressed to think of anything better!

The recent hot sunny days preceded by all that rain has turned tomato ripening potential on full-blast!

Below was what I harvested today-- note all the varieties of peppers and tomatoes

This year Jeff planted some crazy looking varieties of tomatoes--- they taste great but I've had to learn how to tell when they are ripe because they are so unique looking!

Check out these striped guys...

Look how beautiful the flesh is!  And the flavor is spectacular!

These yellow and green striped tomatoes have green flesh

All these colors make for a beautiful bowl of salsa!
Harvesting- 20 minutes;  Cleaning & making salsa- 10 minutes;  Eating fresh, raw, organic salsa within 30 minutes of picking tomatoes from vine- PRICELESS!

Chef Matthew: Omelet Breakfast

In our welcome blog entry, I noted that although we eat a large quantity of raw fruits and veggies, we are not completely vegan.  The animal products that we will "splurge" on occasionally are organic eggs and seafood.
Matthew had never seen an omelet, but had heard of one and wanted to make omelets for his Chef Breakfast.  He decided to make "cheese omelets" with almond cheese and he used fresh tomatoes in both Taylor and Noah's and tomatoes and onions in his.  He added a little sea salt and black pepper to finish out the recipe.

Before adding the cheese:

Matthew found flipping the omelet a bit challenging:

See how well the almond cheese melts?

The finished product:

Chef Noah--- Ice cream for Breakfast

This week Jeff is out of town and Noah has 2 T-Ball games, so we decided that "Chef Breakfasts" made more sense than dinners.

Noah chose something we call "ice cream" but is really frozen fruit pushed through the juicer (with the solid filter).  This fruit sorbet is the consistency of soft-serve ice cream.  For a long time, my kids thought this was ice cream and only in recent years have they experienced soy ice cream and realize there is a difference.

But, they still love OUR homemade ice cream!  Noah used frozen bananas and blueberries for his ice cream breakfast.
Pouring in the frozen blueberries

Noah alternated between pushing the bananas and blueberries through so he created varying shades of purple sorbet

Does this remind you of a playdough factory?

Noah and his "ice cream"

Doesn't this look tasty?  I drizzled on a little organic vanilla extract, some shredded coconut and a few carob chips

Chef Noah--- Watermelon/Celery juice: healthier Gatorade

Did you know that celery is a great form of natural sodium?  And that watermelon is made up of almost all water?  Is it any wonder that combining the two foods would made a great sports drink?  It's also DELICIOUS!

Since I was planning for an out of town meeting, we only had one "chef" event this week.  Noah made Watermelon/Celery juice using our Champion juicer.

For those of you interesting in juicing vegetables for family health advantages or disease/illness recovery, it's important to invest in a good juicer that is also easy to clean.  We've found if it's not easy clean-up, usage declines.

If you google Champion juicers, you can get a better price online than in any health food store (under $200).  You can also check Craig's list for used Champions.  This is my favorite brand of juicer because it not only is great for juicing, easy clean-up, but it also makes wonderful fruit sorbets that are the consistency of soft-serve ice-cream (more to come on that in Noah's "Chef" meal next week).

Chop the watermelon and celery.  You do not need to remove seeds-- they can be put through juicer along with the watermelon flesh.

Celery should be put through at the end of the juicing, because the celery stringy fiber tends to get caught up in the gears and can slow down the process unless saved til the end.

Noah has always loved to help with the juicing.

We'll include more juice recipes in future entries.
Enjoy!

July 4th- Patriotic Pie

My mother, Lynne Lott, is a Health Minister for Hallelujah Acres and she made a wonderful, raw pie for the 4th of July.

Below is the recipe with two options for the crust.  All the grandkids LOVED this delicious pie!

BUTTERY CRUST

(recipe from How We all went Raw)

In a food processor, with the S blade, add:

• 2 cups pecans or walnuts- Blend into small pieces.

Then add the following:

• 1/4 t salt
• 1/4 t vanilla
• 1 cup dates, soak about 5 minutes to soften
• 1/4 ground flax seeds

Blend until it turns into a ball. Be careful not to blend too long.

Place crust in a spring-sided pie pan, although any pie pan will work.

CHEESECAKE FILLING

• 3 cups cashews soaked for at least an hour
• ½ cup lemon juice 
• ¾ c agave nectar (I reduced this in half) 
• ¼ c coconut butter, optional, but Oh so Good!!
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• ½ teaspoon sea salt 

Blend in a food processor all the above. You want this mixture thick but can add a small amount of water if the machine won't handle it. Blend until extremely smooth, pour on top of crust and serve or freeze and then serve. If you freeze it with the filling, when it defrosts, the crust will get very soft, so I keep them separate until serving.

Option 2 for pie crust:

RAW PIE CRUST
(from Kim Wilson's Everyday Wholesome Eating in the Raw)

Date Nut Dough

• 1 cup raw pecans ¼-1/2 cup raw honey (to taste) 
• 1 cup raw walnuts ¼-1/2 tsp sea salt (to taste 
• 1 cup pitted dates 

Grind pecans, walnuts and dates in food processor until well-chopped and blended. Add honey and continue until mixture forms a ball--careful not to over process.

Press into base and sides of pie pan before adding filling and decorate with sliced strawberries and whole blueberries and freeze to keep it from bleeding as the fruit melts. Serve right away after taking picture.

Note: can use crust as cookies or tasty raw balls:

Cookies or snack ball options:

• 1 tsp cinnamon and or ½ tsp nutmeg 
• or 1 Tbsp carob powder 
• or 1-2 Tbsp orange zest (from organic orange) 

Roll the dough into balls, then in flaked coconut, ground nuts or carob powder

Hope you enjoy!

Lynne Lott, Hallelujah Health Minister, Harrison, AR
I teach raw food preparation classes in the summer
Certified Reflexologist, call for appointment
870-741-6395 home office lynnlott@windstream.net