Kori Runs Dogs » April

Raw Granola, Humus and Scones.

admin — Sat, 18 Apr 2009 01:33:58 +0000

I have been experimenting with some raw dishes. Besides making smoothies for everyone, I thought it would be good for them and me to have on hand some raw snack items to munch on during the day (in addition to fruit) rather than eating cookies or some other over processed food. Then I saw this “Best Raw Granola in the Universe Plus One” and decided I had to try it! I started making my own raw granola that the TG and TDs love to snack on.

RAW GRANOLA

I soak overnight, then sprout the buckwheat groats (1 cup), oat groats (1 cup), sunflower seeds and pumpkin seeds(1/4 cup each). If I am adding almonds, I soak them overnight as well. The exact quantities can be changed and modified to your taste. You can time everything so that it is all soaked, sprouted and ready at the same time or you can do like I do (because I am still figuring the number of days everything takes). I start the grains 1-2 days in advance and then soak and sprout the sunflower and pumpkin seeds. The night before I am going to make the granola I soak the almonds. If my timing is off, which is more often than not, I rinse and drain those that are ready to be used (before the others are) and store them in the fridge in an air tight container or bag. Taking them out each day, giving them a good rinse and letting them drain before putting them back in the fridge. Here is a picture of the buckwheat sprouted.

Sprouted Buckwheat for Raw Granola

When everything is finally ready, rinsed and drained, I dry them in the dehydrator at 115 °F until they are just “dry to the touch”. Then I pour everything into a large mixing bowl and add some goji berries and cranberries (can use other fruit; just have fun with it), about 1/4 cup of shredded coconut (can add more if you want) and mix well. To this I add 1 tsp of vanilla depending on the size of the batch and 1/4 cup coconut oil melted and 1/4 cup of agave plus 1/2 to 1 tsp of cinnamon, 1 tsp of vanilla and celtic sea salt to taste. Mix together using a large spatula or clean hands. Taste and if needed add more cinnamon, salt, vanilla or agave if the granola is not “clumping” together. You could add cacao to this or use cacao coconut butter to make a chocolate granola and omit the cinnamon. The possibilities are endless!

Pieces of Raw Granola

I like to spread the granola onto non-stick sheets making sure to keep the thickness uniform. Press gently to compress the granola so that it will stick together. Make sure that the layer of granola is not too thick (1/4 inch is good), or it will take for ever to dry. Dehydrate at 115°F at least overnight, and if you want large pieces of granola (more like a granola bar) you can dehydrate for 1-2 days. And in hindsight, you can score lines in the granola sheets to make it easier to break into “bars”. Please note that the granola will be pliable when you first take it out of the dehydrator, but will “harden” once it returns to room temperature. The granola after 1 or 2 days of dehydrating is crunchy and similar to store bought granola. Shorter drying times will result in a softer granola. To test your granola, break a small piece off of the sheet and let it cool. Then determine if the consistency is to your liking.

Raw Humus

Another raw addition was raw hummus that I enjoy for lunch with veggies. There are many nut based humus using cashews or almonds. I LOVE humus and now that I have tried both almond and cashew humus, I can honestly say that I like them as well as the traditional humus. The cashew recipe I have used is from The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Eating Raw. It is very good. I have also tried the live oatmeal, made spicy nachos and the nacho cheese dip. The nachos and cheese dip were a hit with the TDs and TG. The almond humus recipe I found in I Am Grateful: Recipes and Lifestyle of Cafe Gratitude and it too is very tasty. There are many recipes I would like to try in this cookbook. Especially the desserts. The cheesecakes look divine. The almond milk was very easy to make and to my amazement very good. I don’t know why I was surprised at how good it was, but I will continue to make my own milks now that I know how to.

I found a lighter version of humus here. Susan of Rawmazing.com has a great blog with some very tasty recipes and photos of raw dishes she has created and prepared. This humus is very light using zucchini and cucumber instead of garbanzo beans. I made this and it is wonderful with veggies, on crackers and in wraps. If you are interested she has cracker recipes that are very straight forward to prepare and they are delicious. Her desserts make you drool just looking at the pictures. Definitely a site you need to check out.

Date and Walnut Scones

I found this recipe in The Raw Food Revolution Diet and thought it looked fairly easy to prepare and I had all the ingredients on hand. The pre-planning involved sprouting the wheat berries for 3 days. And soaking and dehydrating the walnuts. Then using my food processor to process the wheat berries, walnuts and dates plus cinnamon and salt. I tasted this after I removed it from the processor and I thought it needed more cinnamon. So, I sprinkled some more on top of the dough along with some goji berries and folded the dough over several times to work everything in. I formed the dough into a round about an inch high on a non-stick sheet and cut it into 8 wedges that I spread out on the sheet. Then I placed the scones in the dehydrator for 2 hours at 125 °F, decreased the temperature to 105 °F and dehydrated another 2-3 hours. The scones were transferred to a mesh sheet and returned to the dehydrator for another 4 hours. The cool part of this is that they can be stored in the fridge for 1 week or if frozen – 2 months! “Sweet” as my friends would say.

You can top these with a berry date jam or sweet cashew cream. I like them with almond butter on top too! I had the TDs and TG taste test these and they gave them two thumbs up. TG thought they had a consistency of cake. I think he meant that there were denser than conventional scones.

Well, enough yakking and more cooking.

Here are a few pictures of my Kittycats. They are all rescues and I love them dearly.

Rose the youngest.

Pete in the middle.

Eddie the oldest.

Enjoy cooking and the food you create! Have some fun with your animals friends!

Green Smoothie and My Canine Friends.

admin — Sun, 12 Apr 2009 23:11:55 +0000

As the title implies, I am going to talk about green smoothies that I have after my runs in the morning and the pals I go running with.

Green Smoothie

My Green Smoothie

After many years of attempting to use my blender for simple tasks and finding that it failed miserably. I made the decision to purchase a “real” blender. I bought myself a Vita-Mix Blender. I am so happy I did. I know it is weird anyone can be “happy” over a blender. But now, I can make hummus that is smooth and creamy. Smoothies, vegan shakes and vegan ice cream are a breeze to make. I have to try making soup, I have heard it is super fast and easy. The TG loves potato soup so I will have to give it a go.

Back to the smoothies. Since my purchase of the blender, I have every morning so far made a smoothie for myself and the TDs. It is usually a green smoothie, consisting of 2 bananas, 2 pieces of kale (minus the stem), 5 or 6 baby carrots, 2 Tbsp of flax seed, 2 Tbsp of hemp powder, 1 Tbsp of maca powder, 1 Tbsp of spirulina, tsp of vanilla and a splash of agave plus 3 cups of filtered water. I sometimes add blue berries, or a berry mix (~1 cup). Everything is added to the blender container, start the blender on low, increasing the variable dial to high then, switch to high and blend for 20-30 sec. Pour into 4 glasses, and if the consistency is too thick or not to your liking, add non-dairy milk, like almond or rice and dilute to the consistency you like. The milk adds a creaminess to the drink. You can a more or less agave nectar or dates for a touch of sweetness.

My Canine Pack

MAGGIE

Maggie is the oldest and very special. Her mother was killed when she and her other litter mates were barely a week old. An angel, a local veterinarian took them in, found volunteers to feed and care for the pups, as well as provided all the puppy starter and anything else that they needed. This was no easy feat, as there were 11 pups that needed care. One of the families that volunteered for this duty was a good friend of mine A and her father Dr H. They took two pups, one black and the other was white, with only one spot of white on her tiny ear. They hand fed the pups around the clock and took care of all their basic needs. I fell in love with the chubby white puppy and helped feed her as often as I could.

Just to give you some background, at this point I was ready to adopt another dog, my previous dog had been gone for over a year. I love animals and having them in my life. I had recently adopted a stray cat from A and Dr Hs that had wandered onto their place. I will tell you more about him in another blog. But, I still missed having a canine companion, I really loved my other dog and then Maggie waddled into my life. She grew fast, like all puppies do and before I knew it, she developed more black spots and her hair grew longer; she developed feathers and an undercoat. Her sister, Baxter on the other hand was jet black, had short hair, and looked like a black lab, but still very adorable. Maggie is very unique, the only one out of the litter like this. I frequently have people ask me what breed she is and comment on how beautiful/pretty she is. She still loves Dr H and acts like a puppy when he comes to visit or we take her out to visit him. She squeaks and whines, and wags her tail so fast she can barley walk.

Maggie is very sweet, she runs right at my side and ignores the squirrels, bunnies and any other animals we may see on our runs. She just enjoys the time we spend together.

EMMA

EMMA

Emma was the second addition to my canine family. TG always felt that Maggie must be lonely and needed another friend to be with when we couldn’t be with her. Another good friend of mine, Ms B works in a setting that she sees all the dogs and cats (pups and kittens) from local shelters that need to be spayed or neutered. She knew we were thinking about adopting another dog/puppy. She knew Maggie, and she knew how active I was and that an active dog would be better for us than a sedentary dog. So, as the story goes, she saw a puppy from a litter of 3 or 4 pups that looked very promising. She called me and I visited with the little puppy, and knew that she was the one. I then, went to the shelter as soon as she was available and adopted her. For Maggie, it wasn’t love at first site, she was already 2 and well over the puppy stage. She wasn’t thrilled at first, but once Emma got a little bigger and could play, then she saw how this other dog could be okay.

Emma, loves her runs in the morning. The order is not critical, but she must have her run, food, cookie after the run and a good drink of water. If she doesn’t get her run in, she sits there and looks at you giving her little cock-eyed toothy smile and grrrrr. Maggie, just looks at you places her head in your lap, squeaks, wags her tail hoping you will get the hint she wants to go for a run.

Maggie and Emma

BETTY

BETTY

Betty came into our lives by another friend. KJB loves animals and dogs in particular. She helps people when they are having behavioral problems with their dogs. One client in particular had never had a pet of any kind before this and had adopted this beautiful pup. She was about 6 months old and had already had two previous owners. Both owners had found themselves in situations where they could no longer keep the pup. The third owner decided she wanted to do her best for her. My friend worked with her showing how to use positive reinforcement to train the pup so she had good manners, loved to go in her crate when needed and was polite on walks. KJB asked my TDs to puppy sit when the owner felt she was going to be out of the house too long. The TDs would walk, play and just have fun with the puppy. Then the owner decided she didn’t have time for a dog and needed to find a home for her and was going to return her to the shelter. This upset the TDs and myself, as Betty was a very nice dog and did not deserve to be bounced around from home to home. So as a collective, we decided to adopt Betty and make her apart of our family. I knew once she was with us she would have food, shelter and lots of love and never need another home.

Betty loves life and is always ready to do anything with you. Chase the ball, go outside, go for a run/walk, rake the leaves, or just hang out on the couch. She always makes me smile.

If you are considering adopting a dog or cat please think of the “BLACK DOG CLUB”! Click here to learn more.

I have a two books that I feel anyone with companion animals should read. Go to your library or borrow them from a friend. The first is Animals in Translation: Using the Mysteries of Autism to Decode Animal Behavior by Temple Grandin. This is a must read. After many years of natural horsemanship with Pat Parelli, I have an appreciation for the psychology and behavioral motivation of my four-legged friends. Patience and understanding is what we all need.

The other book is Speaking for Spot: Be the Advocate Your Dog Needs to Live a Happy, Healthy, Longer Life by Dr. Nancy Kay. This book is an all inclusive guide to caring and providing for your companion animal(s). For example, what you want to look for in a health care provider for your pet. What you need to do when your dog is healthy and what to do when he/she is not. What treatments are out there and tough subjects that we have to face, but try to avoid. These are the tough subjects that I feel more confident about after having read this book. i am better informed and feel I can make the necessary decisions when the time comes. I have an equine partner and anyone that has a horse faces many of these issues every other day it seems. The author was interviewed on NPR Fresh Air. If you would like to learn more click here.

Well to end on a cooking note. I have used this cookbook Vegan Express by Nava Atlas a lot and highly recommend it to anyone looking for tasty, quick, healthy vegan meals. It has saved me many times when I can’t think of what to make and find quick inspiration here. I have also used to it to plan out meals for the week, so I have simple, wholesome meals ready in minutes. I recommend the chocolate cake she has in this book. I have made it for several special occasions and always get rave reviews.