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! ☺

Granola Bars

Granola bars are amazing. There's no doubt, whether it's an elaborate bar, or a simple, raw, nut & date bar.
But the store bought stuff can get a little expensive... So why not make your own?
My mom likes having granola bars (or cereal bars) around to bring to work or have as a snack. The only bad thing was she would buy Kashi. I do have to hand it to Kashi for getting more people into eating organic, relatively healthy things, but Kashi is just a branch off of Kellog's- one of the largest buyers of palm oil there is. Not to mention the long list of ingredients on those bars, which also includes milk from dairy cows raised on CAFOs (if you would call mass producing a living animal raising...).
To get her to stop buying them, I promised I would make my own granola bars for her.

The first couple of tries did not work. But then I discovered the glory that is parchment paper!

Basic Granola Bar Recipe:
2 C rolled oats
1/3 C oat flour
½ tsp salt
1/3 C nut/seed butter (I like using a mix of different ones)
1/3 C vegan brown sugar
2 T rice syrup
¼ C safflower/sunflower or grape seed oil
¼ C agave syrup


~ Preheat oven to 350 degrees
~Mix all the ingredients together, and press into a baking pan lined with parchment paper. Bake for 20 minutes, or until edges are golden brown.

These are delightful with some melted chocolate on them, or with chocolate chips. And it's so easy to add any type of whole nut, seed, dried fruit, or whatever floats your boat.

Puppy Bowl Sunday!

Well, it's that time of year again when millions of Americans sit down to watch the superbowl... and of course, the few who manage to sit through 2 hours of puppies playing non-stop in a mini football field.
It's really cute... but it gets tiring...

But whether you're watching the puppy bowl or the superbowl (or a Star Treck marathon), today should be about one thing: snacks

I wanted to try out some sweet treat for today. My mind fell on the box of phyllo dough that has been in the fridge for quite some time now, and I decided to try Baklava...


Of course, whenever you have toasted Phyllo dough coated in vegan butter, you can't go wrong!

Baklava
1/2 lb Phyllo Dough
Abour 1/2 C melted vegan butter (more if needed...)

4 C coarsely chopped nuts (pistachios, almonds, and walnuts are best)
½ C sugar
½ Tbsp cinnamon
½ tsp cloves
¼ tsp salt

Syrup
1 C water
1 C sugar
1/4 C agave nectar
1/4 C maple syrup
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1 cinnamon stick

1.) Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
Mix the choppes nuts, the 1/2 C sugar, spices, and salt in a bowl.
2.) Grease a 9x13 inch pan. Place one layer of Phyllo dough in it and brush it with the butter using a pastry brush. (Make sure you keep the rest of the Phyllo dough moist by keeping it covered with a moist cloth) Continue layering Phyllo dough and coating each layer with butter until you have 8 layers.
3.) Spoon on about 1/3 of the nut mixture. Layer on two more Phyllo sheets, brushing each with butter. Do this process two more times, until the nut mixture is gone.
4.) Continue layering on the Phyllo dough, brushing each layer with butter, until there isn't any left. (It should be about 7 sheets)
5.) Bake for 35-40 minutes.

6.) While the baklava is baking, make the syrup. Mix all the ingredients together in a sauce pan and bring to a boil with the cinnamon stick in it. Once it begins rolling, reduce the heat, and let it simmer for 7 minutes.
7.) When the baklava is out of the oven, pour the syrup over it and let it soak for a couple of hours.
8.) Enjoy!


And of course, pretzels! They're always a must on any snack day, and being the proud new owner of a double boiler, I had to cover them in chocolate... plus, the world is better when coated in a nice layer of fair trade, organic, dark chocolate :D


Happy Snacking!