I was inspired by this recipe, but I made several modifications. First, I cut down the recipe significantly, as I only wanted dressing for two salads. Second, I didn’t have apple sauce, which is a common oil substitute. Instead I soaked chia seeds in water, to give the dressing some bulk.
I served it over a cucumber and parsley salad.
To make this porridge I used a mix of millet and oat flakes in water (a nut milk could be used to add protein) and added chia seeds, a touch of turmeric powder, cinnamon, raisins, a pinch of salt, and chopped apple. It is sweetened with stevia and agave, and sprinkled with a mix of goji berries and ground flaxseed. It only takes a couple of minutes to make a breakfast like this, but it’s quite satisfying on a cold, rainy day.
I mixed Greek yoghurt with milled flax seed and a bit of agave syrup and chia seeds, then layered it with rhubarb-strawberry compote (stevia- and agave-sweetened) and topped it with blueberries and pomegranate seeds.
I tried parsnip and sweet potato hash with chia seeds, served on a bed of kale. For dinner I served it as a vegan dish by leaving off the egg, but the following morning I incorporated leftovers into an omelet. This dish can easily be vegan or vegetarian, depending on your preference.
I’ve been making a lot of bread lately because I realized I miss having toast in the mornings. This loaf has pumpkin, chia seeds, rye flour, and hemp flour and is topped with sunflower seeds. Incorporating a bit of fruit or vegetable mash seems to be my key to getting such nice breads reliably.
This is another milk bread, which is my bread of choice because it stays soft and fresh for days, which is helpful when you know the bread won’t be completely eaten the day it is made. I added oat flakes to the scalded milk and melted butter and then added the yeast when it cooled. I combined this with a mix of wheat and rye flour, salt, lemon juice, chia seeds and pumpkin purée. After the first rise,when the bread was shaped, I brushed it with milk, sprinkled oat flakes on top, and cut it.
The pumpkin was not part of my original plan for this loaf, but after baking a pumpkin earlier in the week and preparing pumpkin pancakes (twice), pumpkin hemp bread and pumpkin cake, I still had some purée left which need to be used. I like the golden colour it gives the loaf and the flavour in the pumpkin hemp loaf was unobtrusive, so I figured I’d make use of the pumpkin before it went bad. Next time I should buy a smaller pumpkin, or prepare for pumpkin to again invade most of what I cook for a week!
I should probably also consider replacing my silicon bread pan with a firmer pan as the bread tends to bulge a lot at the sides (the overly-deep cut didn’t help, either).
To use up leftover coconut milk and celebrate strawberry season, I made chia seed pudding with fresh strawberries.
This weekend I made a fresh batch of muesli. There’s no standard recipe for it, because it’s different every time. This time I used oat flakes, spelt flakes, chia seeds, two types of roasted pumpkin seeds, flaked almonds, dried cranberries, sultanas and cocoa nibs.
Add some type of thick syrup, just enough to stick the small ingredients to the larger ones. Mix everything except dried fruits, as these will burn. I used agave syrup this time, but I’ve used honey in the past and I expect molasses or date syrup would also work. Spread it out on a baking tray lined with parchment paper and bake in a moderate oven (about 350° F/180° C) until it is lightly browned. Stir every 10 minutes. Mine usually needs 30-40 minutes. When it is done, mix in any dried fruits and leave it to cool, then store it in a container with a tight lid.
I like to eat it topped with some Greek yogourt. I buy a large container, mix it with vanilla extract, a pinch of salt, liquid stevia to taste, and a bit of agave syrup to eliminate the chemical taste of using stevia alone. I whisk it and then put it back in the container so I have sweetened yogourt available in the morning, when I really can’t be bothered to mix it up.
In the summer, I often don’t include any dried fruit and simply serve it with fresh seasonal fruit. As it is winter the best I could do was add a few frozen blueberries.
The butternut squash I got this week might have been a bit large. I made curry, pasta sauce, a cake, and still had enough left for another cake.
TMI Food 