Foodie Pen Pals June

Well it's time for another food pen pals reveal.  This month, I was lucky to receive a box of goodies from Sam.  She really listened to my likes/dislikes and (self-imposed) dietary restrictions.  I was thrilled with the thoughtful things she sent me.

Here's what I got...

 Here's the box I received.

 Sam is the second person to wrap my goodies in a cereal box.  Great idea as it's light in weight and a good size.  We don't eat cereal, so I can only do the same when someone sends me one :)

 I mentioned that my biggest vice is potato chips, so Sam was kind enough to include these delicious ones.  I was happy to see they have no added MSG and nothing artificial.  They were treated as a big treat and didn't last long between the 3 of us :)

 I haven't tried this, but it sounds wonderful.  Sam said she bought it at a local farmers' market.  I know it's going to be great.

 I had never seen this before, but will be looking out for it for sure.  It's sweetened with coconut palm sugar!  I could hardly believe it when I read that.  Again, it has nothing artificial in it.  It had a lovely deep, dark chocolate flavour and was gone pretty fast.

This curry masala was fantastic.  I used it with some ground grass-fed beef from a local farm and sauteed lots of onions, garlic, ginger, bell peppers & kale with it.  We loved it.

 Sam also included a lovely hand-written note to explain everything to me.

And last but not least, she included one of her favourite recipes.  I'll be trying this very soon.  I'm a big fan of Thai soups and make one that's popular with family and friends.  Mine's with pumpkin and Sam's is with sweet potatoes and shrimp.  It'll be fun to compare the two.

So another foodie pen pals experience is under my belt and again it was a wonderful one.  If you're interested in seeing what I sent, pop on over to Michelle's blog If you're interested in giving it a try yourself, just click on the "I love foodie pen pals" image at the top left-hand side of the page.

May Foodie Pen Pals

Well it's time for another Foodie pen pals package and I am absolutely thrilled with this month's goodies.  My sweet pen pal Ceecee from B.C. really listened to what I told her in my e-mail and sent me the most wonderful selection of treats.

Here's what I saw when I opened the box...

My first thought was that during my 3 months participating in foodie pen pals, I have received seaweed every single time.  I don't think I mentioned to any of my pen pals that all three of us love it and eat it like it's going out of style so I guess they are all psychic :)

 I've had wasabi seaweed before, but never this brand so I'm excited to try it.

 New kinds of dark chocolate for me to try...yum!

 Spicy salt!!!

 I'm really looking forward to experimenting with this curry powder.

 

Crunchy green beans.  Sounds delicious!!

 

OMG chocolate-covered potato chips.  These will obviously be a HUGE treat for me and I can't wait to try them.

 Never tried teriyaki sunflower seeds, but I imagine they'll be delicious.

Best foodie pen pal box ever.  Thanks so much to the lovely Ceecee!

And this month the foodie pen pal who was chosen for me was my sister Ashleigh.  I'm not sure if she took pics. of what I sent her, but I'll be sure to ask if she'll write a short guest post about the package.

Grain-free, no-added-sweetener Banana Bread

 

I am so excited about this recipe.  I think it tastes almost like regular (made with wheat flour) banana bread, yet it has no grains and no added sugars of any kind!  

I've been avoiding bananas altogether for quite some time as they're such a sweet, starchy fruit but the more I think about it, the more I think that there's no reason I can't use them to sweeten baked goods.  I figure if I'm using 2 or 3 bananas for a whole recipe, I'm not likely to be consuming more than maybe 1/4 of a banana at a time and that's really not that much.  So I'm giving myself cautious permission to add them back into our diets.  

I found this wonderful recipe this morning and knew it was the one I wanted to tinker with.  I really only made a couple of changes to the original recipe and that was to add one extra banana in place of the maple syrup it called for and a little bit more spice and salt.  I figured the moisture from the banana would replace the moisture in the maple syrup and it would also replace the sweetness.  The experiment worked!  It's both sweet and moist and the texture is fantastic.  I know I'll be making this one again soon and probably changing it up a little bit by adding nuts or 70% cocoa chocolate chips (if Krestan has his way).  

Okay enough chatter and on to the recipe.  Here's what I did...

 I added 3 bananas to my stand mixer.  Didn't bother to mash them as the mixer is good at that :)

Added 2 organic eggs that my wonderful friend Teresa picked up for me at a local farm.

 To the mixer, I added a teaspoon of vanilla extract and 2 tablespoons of melted virgin coconut oil.

 I mixed it all together for a couple of minutes and as you can see, the mixer did a great job of mashing those bananas.

To a small bowl, I added 3/4 cup almond flour and 1/4 cup coconut flour.

I added 3/4 tsp. baking powder, 3/4 tsp. baking soda, 3/4 tsp. Celtic sea salt, 2 teaspoons (heaping) cinnamon and 1/4 tsp. nutmeg.

I cut a parchment sling to fit a glass 9x5 loaf pan and lightly greased the parts that the parchment didn't cover.

I gave everything a quick mix until just combined and then spooned it into the prepared pan.  

I baked it at 350F for one hour and then removed it from the oven.  I lifted it out by the parchment sling and placed it on a cooling rack for a couple of hours until cooled completely.

Then I sliced it up and was delighted with the texture and flavour.  Yum!

Grain-free Banana Bread

2 large eggs
3 ripe large bananas
2 tablespoons virgin coconut oil, melted
3/4 cup of almond flour
1/4 cup of coconut flour
3/4 teaspoon of baking soda
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon of Celtic sea salt
2 heaping teaspoons cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350F.  Prepare a parchment sling and line a 9X5 glass loaf pan.  Spray the edges that the parchment doesn't cover.  Using a stand mixer, mix the eggs, bananas and melted coconut oil.  Mix it all until the bananas are nicely mashed up.  To a small bowl, add remaining ingredients and mix well.  Dump everything from the small bowl into the mixer bowl and mix until just combined.  Pour into prepared pan and bake for about an hour until top springs back when lightly pressed.  Allow to cool on a wire tray before slicing.

April Foodie Pen Pals

I decided to participate in Foodie Pen pals again this month as I had so much fun with it in March.  I sent a package to my pen pal Sarah (a student in London) on the 15th and waited patiently for my package to arrive from Katie (a teacher in Toronto).  It arrived last week and I wasn't disappointed with its contents.  Katie obviously put a lot of thought into the package and tried to find things that worked with my dietary restrictions.  
Here's what she sent...
 

 It all came packed in this cereal box :)

 

And included a lovely, hand-written letter explaining what everything was

 

  

Mmmm, plantain chips.  I polished these off quite quickly!

 

 And she even popped popcorn and spiced it with two of my favourites, ginger and wasabi

 Yummy seaweed, a big favourite in this house!

 Some lovely mint chocolate David's tea.  Not really my thing, but Krestan loves it!

 A toasted coconut nutrition bar

 2 sachets of flavoured nut butter.  I bet these will taste great on celery!

 I love my gourmet salts, so this will definitely be well-used!

 And last, but definitely not least is some banana ginger curry sauce.  I never buy bottled sauces, so this should be fun to try.  Katie suggested brushing it on chicken or even as a dip.  Can't wait to try it!

What a wonderful box full of lovely surprises.  I highly recommend all foodies trying this pen pal programme  I'm having such a great time with it.

Working together to end human trafficking

On Saturday (yesterday) morning I was privileged to be a part of a wonderful charity event.  Pictured above is the lovely Johanna, owner and founder of JQ Fitness.  Johanna, her husband Jeff and their team at I Luv This Bootcamp have been working around the clock to make yesterday's event a reality.  All proceeds from this charity boot camp were donated to Free-them which is an organization working towards a goal to end human trafficking/slavery.

I decided that rather than paying to participate in the boot camp portion of the day, I would like to do a little more to help out.  I approached Johanna a couple of months ago and asked if I could provide some healthy baked goods for the participants to enjoy before and after their workout.  She accepted my offer, so over the next few weeks I made some treats and had the members of our kickboxing and stability ball classes (taught by Johanna) give me some feedback.  I'm happy to say that the comments were all positive and everyone seemed to enjoy being my lab rats :)  So for the past week, I've been baking and dehydrating my heart out to provide plenty of goodies to help fuel and replenish the participants of the event.  The day went off without a hitch (as far as I know) and was a great success.  Lots of money was raised for this wonderful cause and a whole lot of fun was had doing so.  I'm very happy to say that I got more compliments than I could ever have dreamed of and countless requests for recipes.  So, I promised I'd get working on a blog post about the event and that I would share the recipes for what I baked and dehydrated.  

So here goes...

This is the table covered in swag bags that greeted participants to the event...

 

And here's a peek at what was inside those bags...

 

    Among the contents was One Coconut Water, Awake caffeinated chocolate, a $30 gift card towards boot camp classes and many other goodies.

This is the kitchen area where Perry and I unloaded all my containers of treats onto platters and plates to be enjoyed by the participants...

 

And here are the plates and platters of aforementioned treats... 

 

 Pepsi Co. provided cases and cases of drinks such as One Coconut Water, Aquafina bottled water, Gatorade and Gatorade Pre-game Fuel

 

  

And Starbucks provided hot beverages...

 

This is naturopath Dr. Jason Lee giving a wonderful talk about health and its relation to what we put into our bodies...

 

The fitness activities started with a 'killer' group challenge.  Johanna's husband Jeff put together an obstacle course with burpees and pushups and all sorts of other forms or torture.  Here's a quick video of one of the stations...

 

 Winners of the group challenge, the aptly named "Team Awesome" :)

Free-them gave a heart-breaking presentation about modern day slavery/human trafficking.  It shocked me to my core...

 

 

And here's Johanna leading the boot camp warmup...

 

 There were all kinds of stations with things like hip lifts and mountain climbers

And all sorts of other 'fun' exercises :)

And there was even a kiddie boot camp :) ....

 

 And just because they're adorable, here are Johanna and Jeff's sweet babies...

One of the boot camp participants provided chocolate gold medals for the kids :)

I can honestly say that I'm already excited about next year's event.  Perry said he wants us to participate in the team challenge!  I think we'd better start training next week :)

And now for the recipes as promised.  I have already blogged about the seed cookies here (but changed them slightly) and the oatmeal spice cookies here and unfortunately I don't have my own pics. of the other goodies (yet) except for the chocolate zucchini bread as I didn't even think of that.  However, I'll share all the recipes below and hopefully will get around to baking these items again so that I can show the step-by-step processes.  Not all of these recipes were invented by me, so I'll also share links to the originals.

Here goes...

Here is where I found the original recipe for the zucchini bread.  This is the recipe, including my changes.

 

  Chocolate Zucchini Bread

1 medium zucchini, shredded 
2 large organic, pastured eggs, whisked 
¾ cup almond butter 
⅓ cup organic raw honey 
¼ cup cocoa powder (you could use raw cacao) 
2 tablespoons coconut flour 
1 teaspoon vanilla extract 
1 heaping teaspoon cinnamon 
½ teaspoon baking powder 
½ teaspoon baking soda 
1/2 teaspoon Celtic sea salt
 

Preheat your oven to 375 degrees. 
Grate zucchini on the large holes of a cheese grater.  Lay paper towels on your kitchen counter, put zucchini on top and cover with more paper towels.  Press down to remove moisture and then put the zucchini into a large bowl.  Add the rest of the ingredients and mix until well-combined.
Line 2 small (3" x 5") loaf pans with parchment paper and bake for 35-40 minutes until the tops spring back when gently pressed.  Allow to sit for 5 minutes in the pans, then remove to a cooling rack until cooled through.

 My chocolate zucchini bread

And here is where I found the recipe for the Maple Flax Cookies.  Here's the recipe with my changes...

 

Maple Flax Cookies 

1/2 cup (60 g) whole rolled oats
1 Tbsp (15 ml) coconut oil, solid at room temperature
3 Tbsp (45 ml) pure maple syrup (look for B grade)
1 tsp (2.5 ml) pure vanilla extract
2 Tbsp (30 ml) finely ground flax seeds (don't buy already ground seeds...do this yourself in a spice or coffee grinder immediately before using)
3 Tbsp (45 ml) whole flax seeds
1/4 tsp (1 ml) baking soda
1/4 tsp (1 ml) baking powder
1/4 tsp (1 ml) Celtic sea salt

Preheat oven to 350F (180C).  Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper.
In the bowl of a food processor, blend the oats until they resemble a coarse meal. 
Add the coconut oil, maple syrup and ground flax seeds.  Blend until combined well and smooth.  Set aside for at least 2 minutes.
Put all of this into a large bowl and add the rest of the ingredients.  Stir well.
Using a teaspoon-sized cookie scooper (or 2 teaspoons), drop the mixture onto cookie sheet about 2 inches (5 cm) apart.  Do not flatten the cookies as they will spread on their own.
Bake 10-13 minutes, until slighlty puffed and lightly browned.  Allow to cool completely before removing from sheet (they will firm up as they cool).  Makes 8-10 cookies.  May be frozen.

The little coconut balls are actually a raw recipe from Sarma the owner of Pure Food and Wine which is a restaurant we plan to visit one day.  
This recipe was e-mailed to me, so I don't have a link for it.  Hopefully mentioning the author here is giving enough credit!

Chocolate Coconut Balls

3 cups unsweetened, dried coconut
1 1/2 cups cocoa powder 
1 cup maple syrup (look for B grade)
1/2 cup coconut butter (this stuff)
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon Celtic sea salt

Mix all ingredients together.  Using a teaspoon-sized cookie scooper, place mounds on the mesh trays of a dehydrator.  The original said to dehydrate for 12-24 hours at 115F.  I did it at 125F for about 4-6 hours and that was plenty.  I'm sure you could do these on cookie sheets in the oven at its lowest setting with the door slightly ajar.  Because the lowest oven temp. is probably higher than 125F, it would most likely only take 3 hours or so.

   

Seed Cookies

1 1/2 cups whole rolled oats

1/2 cup raw honey

1/2 cup almond butter

1/4 cup sunflower seeds

1/4 cup pumpkin seeds

1/4 cup raw cacao nibs

2 tablespoons chia seeds

1 teaspoon Celtic sea salt

Preheat oven to 350F.  In a large bowl, mix all ingredients together until well-combined.  Onto 2 parchment-lined cookie sheets, dollop mixture using a tablespoon-sized cookie scooper.  There's no need to leave space between cookies as they do not spread.  Bake for 16 minutes, rotating trays halfway through baking time.  Remove to wire cooling trays and enjoy.

Oatmeal Spice Cookies

1/4 cup gently melted virgin coconut oil

1/2 cup organic coconut palm sugar

1/3 teaspoon Celtic sea salt

1 large organic, pastured egg

2 cups whole rolled oats     

2 tablespoons chia seeds

2 teaspoons dried cinnamon

2 teaspoons dried ginger

Preheat oven to 350F.  In a large bowl, mix all ingredients until well-combined.  Dollop by teaspoonfuls onto  parchment-lined cookie sheets.    Bake for 15 minutes and then allow to cool on cookie sheets for a few minutes.  Remove to cooling trays to firm up.