The Best Lemonade Ever!

Okay, I know this doesn't look like a glass of lemonade.  It's actually a very non-traditional berry lemonade and once again it's a recipe from Meghan Telpner.  Today, after walking outside in the muggy heat, I was in need of something thirst quenching.  I decided to forgo my usual glass of water with 1/4 of a lemon squeezed into it and instead I tried Meghan's recipe.

Wow this lemonade is amazing.  It's tart, sweet, tangy and oh so delicious.  

Refer to the link above for Meghan's recipe.  Here are a few pics. of what I did to recreate it...

 I washed some blueberries and strawberries and placed them into the blender.

Added ice, a pinch of sea salt and a pinch of stevia

Added a chopped, peeled lemon and some water

Blended it all up then sipped and enjoyed! :-)

Copycat Raincoast Crisp Crackers

I've been wanting to copy these crackers for years.  It pains me to pay $6+ for them in the grocery store, but they're just so darn good!  They're my good friend Heather's very favourite cracker and since it's her birthday tomorrow, I decided it was finally time to attempt them.

I had searched online a couple of years ago for recipes and had found a few, but none of them was exactly what I was looking for. I decided to mess around with a couple of recipes and change some of the ingredients to better represent the original version of these crackers.  

This is the recipe that I eventually came up with...

Copycat Raincoast Crisp Crackers
2 cups flour
2 tsp. baking soda
3/4 tsp. Celtic sea salt
2 cups buttermilk
Scant 1/4 cup organic evaporated cane juice
1/4 cup molasses
1/2 cup pumpkin seeds
1/4 cup sesame seeds
1/4 cup poppy seeds
1/4 cup flax seed


Preheat oven to 350° F.
In a large bowl, stir together the flour, baking soda and salt. Add the buttermilk, cane juice and molasses and stir. Add the rest of the ingredients and stir until well-combined.
Pour the batter into two 8”x 4” loaf pans that have been lined with parchment and sprayed with olive oil. Bake for about 45 minutes, until golden and springy to the touch. Remove from the pans and cool on a wire rack.
Once cool, place in the freezer for about 3 hours.  They're a lot easier to slice if they're almost frozen. Slice the loaves as thinly as you can and place the slices in a single layer on an parchment-lined cookie sheet. Reduce the oven heat to 300° F and bake them for about 20 minutes, then turn them over and bake for another 20 minutes, until crisp and deep golden.

Flour, baking soda and Celtic sea salt 

 Add molasses and evaporated cane juice

 Buttermilk added

Add the seeds

Stir it all together

Pour into prepared pans and bake

Finished loaves

Voila!!

 

Grain-free Pumpkin Cake

I just found this recipe and knew what I wanted to do with the piece of pumpkin I had bought at a local Asian market this afternoon. 
When I first read through the recipe, my first thought was "how can this possibly work without flour?" but then I noticed the similarity to flour-free peanut butter cookies.  The first time I made those, I didn't think they'd work either, but they always do.  I figured I'd give it a try and it worked out really well.  I did mean to add cinnamon and ginger and completely forgot.  That's what I'd change next time.  The original recipe said to bake it for only 25 minutes, but mine took more like an hour.  I guess that's because I misread the direction and baked mine in a loaf tin rather than shallower baking pan.  Next time I'd also bake it in the correct pan, because as you can see from the picture, it dipped down a little in the centre.  Regardless, it's moist and so delicious!!


Here's what I did... 
  

I cooked and mashed 3/4 cup fresh pumpkin

 Added 1 cup almond butter

 Added 1 one egg and one egg white

3/4 teaspoon Celtic sea salt and 1/3 cup coconut nectar

1 heaping tablespoon chia seeds

 Approximately 1/2 cup coconut (didn't measure)

 About 1/4 cup pumpkin seeds and 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

 Mixed it all together and poured into a loaf tin lined with parchment.  Sprinkled the top with some more pumpkin seeds and baked at 350F for an hour.

And what did I do with the leftover cooked pumpkin????

I made a mushroom, pumpkin and asparagus risotto and topped it with sliced grilled lobster tail...yum! :-)

Flax and Bulgur Pilaf

This recipe was completely new to me.  I found it on the back of a package of 'Bob's Red Mill' flax seeds.  I love flax seeds and am always happy to find another way to enjoy them.  This pilaf was delicious and now that I've tried it, I am imagining all the other grains I can combine with flax.  I think I'm going to mix it with my brown rice, quinoa, barley and the list goes on and on.

Here's what I did...

 Sautéed some chopped onions (recipe said 1/3 cup but I love onion so I used 1 1/2 onions) in coconut oil (recipe said butter)

 Added 1 cup bulgur

And a heaping 1/4 cup flax seeds and continued to sauté for about 3 minutes

Added a diced tomato

2 cups vegetable stock and 2 teaspoons cayenne (my addition...not in the recipe)

Brought to a boil, covered and simmered 16 mins.  Turned heat off and left lid on for 10 mins.  

I served it with baked trout fillets and sugar snap peas.  Yummy!!

 Crispy Rice Squares a la Meghan Telpner

Anyone who reads my blog knows how much I love Meghan Telpner and her amazing recipes.  This morning I tried yet another winner!  I had read this recipe when she first posted it, but didn't have all the ingredients on hand.  I came across the recipe again a few days ago and finally got what I needed yesterday.  I changed it only slightly by using agave nectar in place of the honey and maple syrup.  I used toasted pumpkin seeds and chopped walnuts (because walnuts are Perry's favourite nuts).  I added unsweetened coconut flakes and chia seeds to make it even more delicious.  Oh, and I completely forgot about the ground flax seeds until I had already placed the mixture into the glass baking pan.  I thought about leaving them out but since I had already taken the time to grind them and since I love flax seeds, I just poured it all back into the pan, stirred in the seeds and put it back into the baking pan.  No harm done! :-)

I will definitely be making this one again!

Here's what I did...

 Into a large pan, added coconut oil, agave nectar and vanilla extract

 Added almond butter

 And some squares of 70% dark chocolate (the kind with cocoa nibs in it)

 Added Celtic sea salt, chopped walnuts and chia seeds 

 Added coconut, raw cacao nibs and pumpkin seeds

  Added the brown rice crisps, stirred it all together and put into a glass baking dish (greased and with a parchment sling for ease of removal)

Took back out of the dish, put back into the large pan and added the ground flax seeds that I'd forgotten!!  Put back into the dish, flattened with the back of a mixing spoon and chilled for 35 mins. then cut into squares.  

These are just so scrumptious that I can't stop myself from having another taste and another and another :-)  They are a little softer than usual rice crispy squares and I'm not sure if that's just because they're supposed to be or because I used agave instead of honey.  Regardless, they're wonderful and I'll make them again.  Thanks again to Meghan Telpner for another fantastic recipe!!