Raw Buckwheatie Cereal

Breakfast is the most important meal of the day.

But trite expressions aside, eating a raw breakfast is more important that eating any other meal raw. And I need a breakfast that I can anticipate every night. If I weren't trying to be more raw, soy yogurt with fruit and granola, oatmeal, quinoa pilafs, cereal, nut butter on bread with apple slices, or sometimes even pancakes would suffice. And sometimes I don't mind enjoying some oatmeal or soy yogurt for breakfast, still.
But this recipe satisfies any cravings for a non-raw breakfast. It's sweet, flavorful, with a slight crunch, and it's raw!

♫ Buckwheaties ♪
1 C buckwheat
1/4 C nuts or seeds, chopped up, more or less if you want (optional)
1/4 C raisins or other dried fruit (optional)
Cinnamon

Soak the buckwheat for eight hours, or overnight. Drain it and rinse well. Rinse once or twice a day until you see little tails, this should take only around one or two days.
Dehydrate them until they are crispy.
Toss them with the other ingredients in an airtight jar or container.

☼Cereal☼
Fill a bowl with fruit. I like to use grapes, strawberries, blueberries, and bananas, but whatever works for you.
Take a small handful of the buckwheaties cereal and toss with the fruit. Pour over some almond mylk like you would pour it on cereal, and add a drizzle of maple syrup.

It's mostly fruit, but it's pretty jazzed up for a fruit salad, and it has been my latest breakfast obsession! ☺

Walnut Maple Raisin Granola Bars

A successful granola experimentation... :)

Walnut Maple Raisin Granola Bars
1 C rolled oats
½ C grounded and/or chopped up walnuts
½ C oat flour (ground up oats)
1 tsp cinnamon
¼ tsp salt
¼ C grapeseed oil, or any lightly flavored oil
¼ C maple syrup
¼ C raisins

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
Mix together all of the ingredients and pour into a baking pan lined with parchment paper. Press them down, and stick them in the oven for 20-25 minutes, or until the edges are golden.
Enjoy! :D

Sunflower Granola

I've been in a granola daze lately... Granola, chocolate, fruit, and peanut butter. It seems like my diet has been based around those four things for the past couple of days. Perhaps not the healthiest diet, but it's better than what most eat, right?

I hadn't actually made granola for some time, and after doing some experimentation with granola bars (with a couple successful recipes, which will come soon!), I wanted just simple granola, so... that's what I did! :D

Sunflower Granola
2 C rolled oats
2/3 C sunflower seeds
1/3 C coconut
1/3 C grapeseed oil
¼ t salt
1 t ginger
½ C sunflower seed butter
½ C maple syrup
A few spoonfuls of brown sugar, if a sweeter granola is desired...

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Mix everything together in a bowl, and bake for about an hour or so, or until it's the level of crunchiness you want. Stir every 10 to 15 minutes while it's in the oven, and enjoy! :)

Turtle Mud

Nearly every Tuesday, after my sister goes to work, my mom and I go food shopping at (what is perhaps the greatest corporate business there is) Whole Foods. I love it- aisle upon aisle of all sorts of healthy, organic, vegan foods. Not to mention the food bar...
It's pretty amazing how a supermarket manages to give me more options than the typical restaurant can. I just love being able to decide whether I want Thai noodles with sesame tofu, or the vegan Penang with a potato Somosa, or maybe just a sald or roes oats with fruit. And they even have vegan desserts!? Bliss! (It's so nice to have one day a week when I get a break from making my own meals)

Even my brother enjoyed the food they have there. He is nothing like me when it comes to eating habits... I'm the organic lovin', raw-enthusiast, locavore, vegan... He's the chicken nugget guy. 'Nough said.
But he liked the food at Whole Foods- albeit, all he got was chicken, mashed potatoes, and a turtle cake.

Now, I've never had anything Turtle before. But the very idea of mixing chocolate cake, pecans, caramel, and whipped cream enthralled me. I had to make a vegan version of this. I really wanted to try it...

So I did. That following weekend. And it came out wonderful!


Turtle Mud:
Constituents:
1 Chocolate cake recipe (Below)
Sugar sauce (Below)
2 C roasted pecans
1 Tub of Suzanne's Rice Mellow- or any type of vegan marshmallow fluff or whipped cream you want (but, damn, this stuff is good!)
The Cake:
1 ½ C sugar
½ C vegan butter
1 ½ C flour
¾ C cocoa
½ tsp salt
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
½ C applesauce
½ T vanilla extract
¼ C agave
1 ¼ C almond milk
1 T vinegar

1.) Preheat oven to 375.
2.) Cream the butter and sugar together in a mixing bowl. Add the remaining ingredients, and stir to thoroughly combine.
4.) Pour into a greased 13x9 inch baking pan, and bake for 30 minutes


While that's in the oven, make the sauce:
In a blender or food processor combine the following:
¾ C pitted dates
½ C maple syrup
3/4 C water
½ T cinnamon
¼ C plant milk (I used soy)


When the cake is done cooling, cut it into 1 inch cubes, or whatever size you want. It's alright if it crumbles, after all, mushed cake always tastes incredible!

In a dish large enough, start adding some cake, spoons of rice mellow, spoons of the syrup, and pecans, to get a good mix of everything. And voila! Turtle Mud!

If you're making this for just immediate family, you may want to half the recipe. Unless, of course, you want to be stuck with leftovers ;)

Rice Pudding (A Breakfast or Dessert Item- you decide!)

I love breakfast. It is no doubt my favorite meal of the day...
Maybe because the mornings are my alone time while the rest of my family sleeps (I'm an early bird...the only teenager I know who happily gets up before 7 am on a weekend), or maybe because it starts the day off right. And there isn't anything like a good, hearty breakfast to put you in a good mood before a weary 7 hours of school...

That, or the fact that you can get away with eating dessert-like items for breakfast!

I have a sweet tooth. Most taureans do.
I love having a bowl of quinoa or oatmeal [very] liberally drizzled with maple syrup, or a plate of sweet, juicy, fresh fruit. Or maybe cakes, muffins, scones, or cinnabuns.

And I don't see anything wrong with that...
To be honest, I thought this was normal though. I mean, what with all those nasty, processed cereals being sold today. (Though, you can't really compare a home-made, not-Quaker bowl of oats to Lucky Charms) But I guess my parents didn't agree. They thought it was odd that I offered to make rice pudding for breakfast before we went skiing...

But it's all the same. Whether you eat it in the morning or at night, rice pudding is still a yummy bowl of...rice. And hey, at least it's brown rice! Plus, if we didn't eat High-on-the-Glycemin-Index breakfasts to make our blood sugars crash, how else would we get rid of all that energy a vegan diet gives? (hee hee)



Brown Basmati Rice Pudding
2 C brown basmati rice
4 1/2 C water
1/4 tsp salt
1 cinnamon stick
1/3 C raisins
2 C unsweetened, plain plant milk (more or less to preferance, I like a litle bit more)
1/2 C maple syrup
1/4 C agave nectar
2 Tbsp vegan butter
1/4 C slivered almonds
1/2 Tbsp vanilla extract
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/2 Tbsp cinnamon

1) Whirl the rice in a blender/food processor/coffee grinder to chop it up a little bit. It's okay if some turns to rice flour, but make sure most of it is about half the size it was.
2) Toss it in a pot with the water, cinnamon stick, and salt and bring it to a boil. Once it's rolling, reduce heat, add the raisins, and let it simmer until all the water is absorbed. (It took mine roughly 25 minutes, but my grains always seem to cook faster than the recommended time- whether they've been chopped up or not)
3) When the water has been absorbed, and the rice is soft and cooked fully,remove the cinnamon stick and add the milk, maple syrup, agave, butter, almonds, vanilla, and spices. Mix it thoroughly and let it cook on low just a couple minutes longer...
4) Done! I prefer mine cold, but it's tasty either way :)



And enjoy it for both breakfast and dessert ;D