Breakfast Oatmeal Bake

One of the world's greatest warm, satisfying breakfasts!  It's very convenient: you make one batch and then you have breakfast for the week.  It is a balanced breakfast of protein, carbohydrates and healthy fats.  And best of all, this recipe can be modified in lots of different ways to suit your tastes and the ingredients you have.

Ingredients

• 3 cups buttermilk
• 2 3/4 cups gluten free oats
• 4 eggs
• 1/4 cup melted butter
• 2 T maple syrup
• 1 T vanilla extract
• 1 tsp cinnamon powder
• 1 tsp salt
• 3/4 cup raisins
• 1/2 cup chopped hazelnuts

Directions

Soak oats overnight in buttermilk in a covered bowl.

Next Day:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F
2. Butter/oil an 8 x 11 baking pan
3. In a large bowl, whisk together the eggs, butter, syrup, vanilla, cinnamon and salt. 
4. Stir in the soaked oats with the raisins, and hazelnuts. 
5. Spread evenly in the pan and bake for 30-40 minutes until firm.
6. Cool and serve with extra butter.

Keeps refrigerated up to 1 week.

NOTE: You can add whatever you want to this recipe in terms of fillings.  You can swap the hazelnuts for another nut and/or swap out the fruit.  This raisin-hazelnut version just happens to be one of my favorites.  Get creative! 

Recipe modified from © Myra Kornfeld.  Author of The Healthy Hedonist, The Hedonist Holidays, and The Voluptutous Vegan.

 

Raw, Vegan Macaroons

These taste so good despite being good for you! They have remarkably little sugar, but taste very sweet.  Enjoy as a desert, or treat them as an energy ball!

Ingredients

• 1+ cups of shredded coconut
• 1/4 cup of coconut oil or coconut butter or cacao butter*
• 1/8 cup of peanut/almond butter
• 5 T raw cacao powder
• 2 T maple syrup
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract

 *All three work, but you may want to experiment with which you like best.  I like coconut butter the best, but it is expensive.  As is cacao butter, which is the most decadent.  As a result, I typically just use coconut oil.  You can also use some of all three.  Coconut oil is the most common, but doesn't hold together as well, which is why I add the nut butter.  If you use coconut butter, you can probably get away without the other nut butter, but I also happen to like the taste and added protein. Your choice! Make multiple different batches and experiment!

Directions:

Mix all ingredients together in a food processor until it starts to stick together.  Form into balls, or any fun shape you desire, and keep in the fridge.  Relish in yummy goodness!

Homemade Granola Bars

Granola bars can make great snacks and on-the-go mini meals.  Unfortunately, most packaged granola bars that you can buy at the grocery store are full of added sugars and other potentially unsavory additives.

This recipes has no refined sugars and is full of healthy powerhouses such as chia seeds, cacao, coconut and raw nuts.

Dry ingredients

2/3 cup gluten-free rolled oats
1/2 cup raw buckwheat groats
1/2 cup chopped almonds/walnuts/raw nut of choice (preferably pre-soaked)
1/2 cup shredded unsweetened coconut
4 tbsp chia seeds
3 tbsp cacao nibs
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp fine grain sea salt

Wet ingredients

3/4 cup apple sauce
1/2 cup natural peanut/almond/other nut butter
2 T brown rice syrup
1 T maple syrup
1 tsp pure vanilla extract

1. Preheat oven to 350F and grease an 8-inch square pan with coconut oil
2. Grind the raw buckwheat groats in high-speed blender/food processor until a fine flour forms
3. Whisk all dry ingredients together in a mixing bowl.
4. Mix all the wet ingredients in another bowl.
5. Add the wet mixture to the dry mixture and stir well until combined.
6. Spread batter evenly into prepared pan.
7. Bake at 350F for 25 minutes, or until the edges are golden brown and the bread is firm to touch.
8. Cool in the pan completely before removing and slicing into bars.

Recipe modified from ohsheglows.com

Kombucha

Have you heard of Kombucha?

It’s been around for more than 2,000 years and has a rich anecdotal history of health benefits like preventing and fighting cancer, arthritis, and other degenerative diseases.  Most importantly, though, it is an incredible source of probiotics.

Kombucha is made from sweetened tea that’s been fermented by a symbiotic colony of bacteria and yeast called a S.C.O.B.Y.  A scoby is also referred to as the “mother” because of its ability to reproduce, or the “mushroom” because frankly it looks like a giant mushroom head.  Kombucha didn’t gain prominence in the West until recently.

Kombucha: a fermented tea filled with good-for-your-tummy probiotics.

• 16 cups of water
• 6 non-herbal tea bags (or tsp loose leaf tea)
• 1 1/2 cups sugar
• 1 scoby (kombucha culture)
• 1 cup of kombucha from a previous batch (or 3 T of apple cider vinegar if you don't have any kombucha)

Brew tea bags/loose leaf tea with 8 cups of water for 20 minutes.  Strain tea and add sugar.  Stir until dissolved.  Add remaining 8 cups of cold water.  Once cool, add the sweet tea to a large glass container.  Add the starter liquid (or apple cider vinegar) to the glass container.  Place the scoby in the container.  **Make sure that the tea is cool before adding the scoby, or else you may kill the culture**  Cover the container with a towel and secure it.  Let it sit for 5-14 days, depending on personal taste, at room temperature.  

You can begin checking it after a few days to see when it gets to your ideal level of sweet/astringent. 

Take heart kombucha newbies: kombucha is a fermented beverage so it has an astringent, vinegar taste to it.  It can be an acquired taste.  You can jazz up your kombucha by adding fruit juice, fruit pieces, ginger, chia seeds etc.  Adding fruit will make it sweeter and less astringent.

Every time you make a new batch of kombucha, a new scoby will form and old ones will get thicker.  You can let each new scoby thicken up through multiple batches or separate them immediately.  It's a good idea to save an extra culture as a spare, but then pass on extras to a friend!  Keep spares in a glass container with a cup of kombucha liquid in the refrigerator.