Organic Granny

  This was our son's first foray into creating a densely-nutritious, sweet and crunchy delicious raw (dehydrated) granola.   Soak the following individually in water to cover: 2 C. Buckwheat groats 1 C. Sunflower Seeds 1 C. Thompsons Raisins 1/2 C. Pumpkin Seeds Soak overnight, drain, and rinse and soak for another 8 hours, except for the raisins.  Drain and rinse the raisins and dehydrate for 8 hours at 105 degrees F.  Add the buckwheat and the seeds to the raisins and dehydrate for about 8-12 hours at 105 degrees. Add the following: 1/2 C. Dehulled Hempseed 1/2 C. organic unsweetened shredded Coconut 1 tsp. organic Cinnamon The sprouting and the dehydrating both add to the natural sweetness of the granola so no extra sweeteners need to be used If you enjoyed this buckwheat recipe, you might also like one of the following buckwheat recipes: Buckwheat Crispies  GF Cookie Crumb Brownies, Gluten-Free Strawberry Crispies, GF Cereal Quick Buckwheat-Oat Cookies , GF To your living heal

  If you are a fan of hermit cookies with their yummy touch of spice and delightful munchy-crunchiness, you will love this baked porridge for breakfast (or dressed up a little as a dessert).   Ingredients 2 ripe bananas  1/2 cup/115 g pumpkin puree 2 cups/489 ml oat milk or other plant-based milk 2 tablespoons/40 ml. maple syrup 2 cups rolled oats 2 tsp. Pumpkin pie spice 1/2 tsp. baking powder 4 Medjool dates , pitted and chopped Small handful walnuts, chopped Click for Pumpkin Hermit cookie recipe: Method to make  pumpkin hermit porridge: Preheat oven to 350° F/177 C. In a medium bowl mix rolled oats, pumpkin, spice, baking powder and nut and dates. Blend banana  pumpkin, milk, and maple syrup Pour blender mixture over dry ingredients and combine well. Divide evenly among 7 or 8 large muffin cups or ramekins. Bake 25 to 30 minutes or until firm.

Organic Granny is a fan of Fair Trade, vegan chocolate, cacao, cocoa, and the products that are made from "the bean". What you find below are links to all the vegan chocolate recipes I have posted over the past several years. Most of the chocolate recipes here use "natural sweeteners" or suggest them as alternatives to the usual commercial sugars.  There are also many recipes listed that are made with gluten-free flour or ingredients.   VEGAN BANANA LOAF RECIPES: 3 Delicious vegan/vegetarian chocolate banana bread recipes VEGAN BROWNIE RECIPES: Black bean brownies Cookie crumb unbaked brownies Orange-walnut date-oatmeal brownies Quick omega3 fudgey raw carob brownies VEGAN CAKE RECIPES: Gluten-free Vegan Chocolate Cake  Raw Nanaimo Bar squares Raw royal chocolate chiazz cake Simple delicious vegan chocolate cake Sweetheart raw chocolate cheez cake VEGAN COOKIE RECIPES: Buckwheat-oat chocolate chip cookies Decadent chocolate bean cookies Garlicky maple walnut chocola

 Black-ish Forest Vegan Chocolate Pancakes My dear husband turned 71 today.  I am making him General Tso's tofu for dinner but also wanted to make him a delicious breakfast that would be something different from the usual smoothie and oatmeal.  It had to be vegan, low in processed sugar, and maybe kind of reflective of a favourite German food.   I know his favourite birthday cake used to be Black Forest Cake.  Way off his menu these days with his desire to be sugar-free and healthy as he trains to run another half-marathon in the Spring/Summer. So after reading over a few such chocolate pancake recipes, I made a few modifications and came up with a pancake mix that I can store as the combined dry ingredients in a jar in the fridge, and when we want these lovely pancakes again, I will just scoop out the dry mix and add in the wet mix (almond milk and apple cider vinegar), and cook them up-- easy-peasy!  So, here is the mix for 4 batches (about 16-24 pancakes): -1 1/2 cups oat flour

A dear friend had a huge Bosc pear harvest from her tree this year-- 700 pounds!  I was one of the lucky beneficiaries.  This vegan pear butter recipe is the result of a rave on Facebook by one of my friends.  So, looking at several recipes, I have chosen what I think works to produce a silky, yummy, pretty healthy pear spread.  The word "butter" does not mean that real dairy butter is involved (in fact, no fats!) INGREDIENTS: 5 pounds of fresh Bosc pears, peeled, split, cored, roughly chopped 1 teaspoon dried ground ginger* 2 tablespoons dried ground cinnamon** 1/2 cup water 1/4 cup orange juice 1/4 cup coconut sugar pinch of salt (optional)                                                           These are common BOSC pears.                                                           You can use this recipe for other                                                              pears, such as Barlett, as well.                                                            EASY M

This delectable garlicky cauliflower sauce over organic rice spaghetti was a most delightful supper one evening at the beginning of the COVID-19 dilemma. It has a lovely creamy mouth appeal but because it has no actual cheese or dairy fat of any kind (only fat would be in the almond milk) it settles lightly on the digestion. Perfect for an evening meal. INGREDIENTS: Large head of cauliflower, broken into florettes with leaves and stem end removed 1 onion, chopped 4 garlic cloves, minced 1 1/2 cups almond milk (unsweetened) 2 tsp. lemon juice, fresh squeezed 1 tsp. fine sea salt black pepper, fresh ground, as desired 4 T. chopped parsley as garnish full box of rice spaghetti (28 oz) or quinoa, rice, etc. Steam the cauliflower over a pot of boiling water, covered, for about 5 - 10 minutes, or in Instant Pot. Set aside. In a skillet, cook onion until translucent. Add garlic and cook for another couple of minutes. Combine the cauliflower, garlic, onion, lemon juice

I am extending the Christmas season a tad so that we can enjoy some more of that nog flavour that we were just getting into! This chia not pudding recipe is: vegan (no eggs, no dairy). I am a vegan who considers raw honey as just nectar passed through a bee... some call us bee-gans.  Sub for the honey in the recipe with maple syrup or 4 dates. gluten-free (no gluten proteins) full of chia protein, which is the form that chia carbs take! full of chia's pretty balanced omega fatty acids (good for the brain) very tasty in that recognizable noggy way sweet, but not cloyingly sweet like the commercial nog can be eaten all year long or just saved up as a Christmas tradition INGREDIENTS FOR CHIA NOG PUDDING 14 oz/414 ml   full-fat coconut milk 2 tablespoons  raw honey or maple syrup or 4 soft pitted dates 1 teaspoon       ground cinnamon 1/2-1 teaspoon ground nutmeg 2 teaspoons      vanilla extract 6 tablespoons   chia seed (or 10 tablespoons chia gel*) (Makes

Here you have what our family has come to call the BEST Hummus. Why? Because to our tastebuds, it is just simply the best tasting hummus!   Where the recipe calls for 4+ Garlic cloves?  We really amp that up-- I think I used 7 today. There is no olive oil or other oils-- just the tahini-- to carry to oily mouth feel.  Please feel free to add a little olive oil if you desire. We enjoy the smoky taste of tahini, but if it tastes a little "off" to you, go ahead and use peanut butter or some other nut or seed butter (hemp seed would be tasty). We likely use about a 1/2 - a full teaspoon of sea salt, but really not much is required if you trust the garlic and tahini to carry the flavour. I also buy dry garbanzos and cook them up in my Instant Pot (electronic pressure cooker) until they are soft (today's batch of beans were kind of old and I had to cook them for a record-breaking 40 minutes on the bean/chili setting, but normally 20 minutes in the pressure coo

The other day a fellow commented that "a day without garlic is not much of a day at all!" I happen to agree with this statement and rejoiced when my husband brought home some mushrooms, because then we could have GARLIC Mushrooms!  Pity, my husband went for a long bikeride and missed the small batch that I cooked up today (I'm not all that mean-- there are still some fresh ones in the fridge for him to cook up for himself if he so chooses.)  You can find a photo of some browner mushrooms below-- yours are more apt to turn out like these. I think the mushrooms he brought home were Baby Bellas, a smaller take on Portobellas.  Did you know that Crimini are an even smaller version of Portobellas? In any case, they slice up rather raggedy and don't have that cute picture appeal when cooked that little white mushrooms do. But they taste very delicious... tender and with that umami taste-- "umami" is gourmet for "je ne sais quoi". 

YES Botanical Chocolate Bars Okay, as a big promoter of eating organic foods , I admit that I generally share recipes for whole food plant-based dishes that contain organic fruits and vegetables-- if you have been here before, you know the recipes: vegan soups, stews, 'cheeses', sauces, casseroles, breakfast foods, etc. But what could I do when I received an email asking if I would consider reviewing some CHOCOLATE BARS?? (or more accurately, 99% organic, vegan, wild-sourced, organic, botanic cacao bars with No GMOs, and studded with healthy botanicals (herbs, spices, tea, mushrooms, essential oils??)). They are also NOT ROASTED which means... tah dah.... RAW VEGAN!!  Oh, and handmade (I guess that means that they DO NOT have the chockies going down the conveyor belts like this classic clip we remember from an  I Love Lucy episode: OF COURSE I SAID 'YES' TO REVIEWING 'YES CACAO' BOTANICAL CHOCOLATE BARS! And then because I live in Canada, it took

Maple-Brown Sugar Glazed Tofu is a gift to you if you enjoyed ham as a part of your celebrations back in the day and were feverishly looking for a recipe online that gives you back some of that experience.  You will be missing the salt-piercing tongue paralysis of a cured ham, but you will also be missing the very dangerous cholesterol.  Tofu is the way to go if you want to enjoy a piece of "sham" with your Christmas or Thanksgiving.  And for those of you with religious proscriptions, it's CLEAN-- it's not even meat.  So win-win. Want to know MORE about the health benefits of Tofu? Watch Dr. Michael Greger's videos HERE .  So here we go with the INGREDIENTS (3 ADULT SERVINGS) 1# Block of Organic, non-GMO, EXTRA FIRM Tofu (bought mine at Costco) 1/2 C. Pure  Maple Syrup OR Blackstrap Molasses (Molasses gives a darker glaze) 1/2 C. Brown Sugar 1 T. Dijon Mustard 1/4 tsp. Cinnamon 1/2 tsp. Ginger Powder Salt and Pepper to taste (May want to

I used to have a fairly low regard for cashews -- I didn't like getting them in the Christmas nut bowl, and I didn't like the 'after-taste' of some of the vegetarian recipes I had that contained them.  But eventually I discovered that they can be used to make extremely tasty dairy-substitutes without a pronounced cashew signature flavour. Lemon-Coconut Cheesecake Balls studded with cranberries & Walnuts These can be eaten any time of the year, of course, but since Christmas is coming up I thought that I would choose to make one item that was savoury and one that was sweeter.  I am particularly in love with the smoky cream cheese (that could be rolled up into a ball, no problem) and I am also nibbling a little much at the lemon cheesecake bliss balls (which I have also made into a larger cheese ball). REMEMBER: While cashew cream cheese may not be allergenic or gluten-laden, it is still a high fat little nut and don't go too wild, or you'll end up

Root veggies, like carrots, potatoes, onions and beets have a high profile in Canadian winter meals.  Not only were they easily stored for most of the cold season, but they are also hearty and lend themselves to a great sense of satiety.  Today's recipe for roasted beets and raw walnut cream is an adaptation from the cookbook called Whole Foods To Thrive by one of British Columbia's stellar athletes who eats "high raw", Brendan Brazier.  My husband is a fan of Brendan's, and also really enjoyed this meal. INGREDIENTS: (To feed 4) 4 Beets Method : Preheat oven to 450F/232C.  Wash up the beets (scrub if necessary) and wrap in aluminum foil.  Roast in the oven for about 30-45 minutes.  Remove from the oven and allow to cool.  When they are cool to touch, peel off the skins and slice into strips (as I did), or cube. FOR THE RAW WALNUT CHEESE: 1/2 C. Shelled Raw Walnuts Juice from 1/2 Lemon, or from 1 Lime (which I used) Zest from fruit (optional) 1-2 Clov

A few days ago I had some dental surgery and am still chewing gently on one side only. Peas and carrots are a childhood comfort food that I can virtuously squeeze into my healthier-eating adult menu (other comfort foods were chocolate bars and maple-walnut ice cream cones, not what the dentist ordered). How sweet that my husband picked up a package of organic Rainbow Blend Carrots yesterday!  I've eaten these (pricey) babies before, and not only are they beautiful to look at, but they are truly yummy! These ones come all the way from California-- but I have a package of West Coast Seeds -- untreated, Aren't they pretty?  Rainbow Blend Carrots organic, and GMO-- so that maybe the next time we eat these babies, we'll be doing the locavar thing! He's out (conversing in Spanish with his weekly group who meet at the Starbucks upstairs in the Courtenay Quality Foods ).  I'm hungry and am going to have one of those simple, cut-to-the-chase lunches we

If you have only ever eaten Cream of Tomato soup from a can, this will be a tasty coup for you! Here is another wonderful bean recipe adapted from my fave The Great Vegan Bean Book: More than 100 Delicious Plant-Based Dishes Packed with the Kindest Protein in Town! - Includes Soy-Free and Gluten-Free Recipes! .  This creamy tomato-bean soup will fill in the gaps for anyone who feels they just don't have the time or energy to cook up a healthy lunch -- the secret is to pre-cook your beans in a large quantity and freeze them.  Then just assemble your other ingredients and presto, you have a very nutritious base to your lunch in less time than it would take you to order and be served at your typical restaurant. And you will know what is actually IN this soup ! INGREDIENTS: 2 T.      Olive Oil or Vegetable Broth 1/2       Onion , minced 3 cloves Garlic 1 tsp.     Marjoram 1 tsp.     Thyme 1/2 tsp. Smoked Paprika 1/4 tsp. fresh or ground Rosemary 2 C.      no