Whole Food Pumpkin Hot Chocolate

It's my favorite time of year in New England. Crisp scarf-wearing weather where you grab a hot drink and sit outside to just look at the trees that seem to be on fire with color. Also....EVERYTHING can be flavored with PUMPKIN!!!!

I know there are some of you out there that make fun of pumpkin-everything season, but for veggie-heads like myself pumpkin is awesome. It is a sweet squash that can be used in baking as egg and butter substitutes, thickens soups, is great in smoothies, and now this! I was very excited to find this recipe, and even more excited that I was given a rescued pumpkin yesterday. He had been dropped (I think) and had a crack in him, but we cooked up the good parts last night, and roasted the seeds and today everyone is in pumpkin heaven. (it does exist) There will be more pumpkin deliciousness recipes to follow you can be sure.

This recipe requires cooked or pureed pumpkin. I used almond milk, but soy, coconut or dairy milk can be used. If you are used to the super sugared pumpkin flavored things that you can purchase you may want to sweeten the hot chocolate a bit more. I also used my Vitamix. The blessed machine works so hard, that if I leave it alone for a few minutes it will boil everything for me. I put everything in my blender, made the kiddos lunches, and it was all hot and ready. You can also pour it out into a saucepan and heat it up if you do not have a blender with a weed-whacker engine attached. Try it and tailor it to your desires. It made my morning beautiful and i hope it does the same for you.

Whole food Pumpkin Hot Chocolate
(serves 4-5)

3 cups Almond Milk
1 cup pureed pumpkin
2 tbsp cocoa
2-3 tbsp maple syrup
1/3 tsp vanilla
pinch nutmeg
dash cinnamon

1. Place all ingredients in your blender and blend until smooth.
2. Heat it up and drink it down. mmmmmmm

Vegan, Gluten-Free Cracker Jacks

"Buy me some peanuts and Cracker Jacks..." Isn't that how the song goes? Well, forget it buddy when they are asking me to pay $5.50 for a bag of corn syrup covered pop corn and peanuts that is only going to keep you occupied for half an inning. Not a chance.

And with a crew like this to take to a Red Sox game I have to bring a lot of snacks if I want to sit and watch a whole game.

This recipe saves you money in your wallet and doesn't compromise your health. It is super easy, especially if you use my Home-Made Microwave Popcorn recipe.http://sarahsfreshlife.blogspot.com/2013/09/home-made-microwave-popcorn.html
I used walnuts and slivered almonds because that is what I had, but you can use any kind of nut you like, and if you want at the end before you dry it, stir in some dried fruit or chocolate chips. It is a great recipe to personalize to your family's tastes.

Enjoy and GO RED SOX!!


Cracker Jacks

1/2 cup popcorn kernels popped
1/2 cup brown sugar
3 tablespoons coconut oil
2 tbsp agave nectar (honey or maple syrup would also work fine)
1/4 tsp salt
dash cinnamon
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup nuts of your choice

1.Preheat oven to 300 degrees. Pop the popcorn. Pour out popped corn into a large roasting pan and set aside. Toss in nuts. note: it is a good idea to pick out any un-popped kernels.

2. In a saucepan, over medium heat, combine; sugar, agave, salt, cinnamon and coconut oil. Bring to a boil and continue to cook 5 minutes without stirring.

3. Remove from heat. Stir  in baking soda and vanilla. Pour over popcorn and nuts and stir.

4. Bake for 30 minutes, stirring every 10 min. Remove from the oven and pour out onto parchment paper or a cookie sheet to cool.

Home-Made Microwave Popcorn

OK friends, this recipe has changed my life! I love it!! 

 A good friend of mine, Kristi Ellens waltzed into my apartment this summer with this cute little brown bag full of warm freshly popped popcorn, and I had to ask...Where did you get that? She shrugged and said, "I just put it in the microwave. It's totally easy." Blow my mind!!

Thanks Kristi! It is good to have smart friends. :)

Try this. It requires no oil, has no crazy preservatives or coloring, but is great for flavoring your to your own liking. I have laid out the "how to," and then some flavoring options below. But honestly, all you need is a microwave, some corn and a brown bag. (a good movie on a comfy couch is optional but always an excellent addition)

Home-Made Microwave Popcorn

1/4 cup popcorn kernels

1 lunch-sized brown paper bag

1. Put the kernels in the bag

2. Put the bag in the microwave

3. Cook it on high for 2 minutes

4. Take it out of the microwave

5. Eat it!

Favor variations we like:

1. Skip the salt and butter:

     for some tasty Vegan corn spray the kernels after you put them in the bag with 3 spritzes of Bragg's Liquid Aminos.

3. Sweet Chocolate:

    After taking the popped corn out of the microwave add: 1 tsp powdered sugar, 1 tsp cocoa powder, pinch of salt, pinch of cinnamon and pinch of cyan pepper. Then, shake the bag around to distribute the coating. This works best if you do it when the corn is still hot and steamy.

SICILIAN SWISS CHARD

 I took a walk over the the TNT children's Learning Garden this week to check on the plots I planted and worked on this summer with our Junior Park Patrol. They were bursting with veggies and flowers!! One of the things we had a lot of were greens. Beautiful, organic Kale and Swiss Chard. We received seedlings early this spring from our local urban organic farm, Revision Farm,(check them out! http://www.vpi.org/revision/). Our teenagers planted the seedlings when they were only two inches high and this week they were sprawling all over our garden beds.

This is my bounty!

I was ecstatic to pick the greens, but not sure how I was going to convince my family to eat them. Sometimes I can get a handful in the morning smoothie and get away with it, and the boys like Kale chips, but i have never been very successful with getting them to eat cooked greens straight. So I set off across the waves of the world wide web to find something different that might work. I stumbled across this recipe, originally from Vegetarian Times. I have changed and tweaked it to be my own. It was a success!! Keith, who usually is allergic to greens of any shade and texture, ate it, and Joseph had two helpings. AMAZING!! I really liked it, and I have altered the recipe and used it with the Kale too, substituting with dried cranberries and slivered almonds. That also went over well. The mixture of textures and the sweetness of the raisins and apple cider vinegar really make it a great dish. Enjoy!!

SICILIAN SWISS CHARD

Serves 4

Ingredients:

1 Tbsp. veggie oil

1 lb. Swiss chard, leaves cut into ribbons, stems finely chopped and set aside

1 medium yellow onion, chopped

1/4 cup golden raisins

1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes

3 cloves garlic, minced

2 tablespoons walnuts

2 tbsp apple cider vinegar

Salt & pepper, if desired


Directions: Heat oil in large non-stick skillet over medium heat. Add chard stems, onion, nuts, red pepper flakes, garlic and raisins. Sauté 10 minutes, or until onion and chard stems are soft. Stir in chard leaves; sauté 6 minutes, or until greens are tender, stir in apple cider vinegar and season with salt and pepper, if desired.

Vegan +Gluten Free = ?

In February I went to go visit my Dr. and as an experiment for my health she recommended that I go Gluten free for a while. I did, and the combination of vegan and gluten free is very hard and confusing, and is the reason for so few blog posts in the past few months. I was trying to figure out how to be creative and delicious with a whole new set of guidelines. I was not a huge fan, but after five weeks I had lost weight and my blood pressure was down, so she told me I should continue. I do not have a gluten allergy, and I am not really sold on cutting it out all together forever, but it has been good to be more mindful of the amount of gluten, especially dessert gluten :) that has been a part of my life.

 I think it is a great idea to limit gluten and eat more whole foods, but there is a growing market of  "gluten-free" foods that have happy healthy looking labels on them but their ingredients include things you cannot pronounce and do not have their origins in the soil at all. There is also a tendency to fixate on one component of health and ignore balance in eating. I do that! It says GF or Vegan, and I think...Great! I am going to eat the whole thing! The biggest thing I am learning with healthy eating is that balance is the key. GF food may still contain a lot of fat, or carbs. There is no magic bullet for health, just a lot of balancing. (I will need to go to Yoga more)

I also discovered that I have an allergy to something in or the processing of GF pasta. (sad day) That was a huge blow to my New Jersey, "everything goes with pasta" upbringing. So I was left with a small amount of products that I could work with and still create something that I was satisfied with. I am going to try and post some of the recipes and products that worked for me. I hope it is helpful and maybe inspires you to cook something creative, delicious and healthy.

Until then I strive on :) Happy Tuesday!