I need your input!! (sprouts)

So I finally got a 3 level sprouter:

(photo from Amazon)

I haven't used it yet, but it's all ready to go. Does anyone have one of these?  I'm a little confused with the soaking part....do the seeds go into the covers to soak, uncovered...then poured into the trays?

I recently sprouted lots of lentils. So good!  They have a really interesting taste...nothing like when you eat cooked lentils.  Anyway, I made some sprouted lentil dip out of it, which I'll post a recipe for soon.  

I need to know what to sprout!  Please give me your ideas. What would YOU sprout and how would you use them?  Salads? Smoothies? Also, if you happen to come across recipes (especially raw recipes) that use sprouts in them, please leave me the link! Or if you have your own, I'd love to hear about it.

I have a recipe from one of my new cookbooks for sprouted chickpea hummus, which I'm going to try. It sounds awesome!

I also made some raw mustard (no, not from mustard sprouts!) which will be ready in 2 days.  Have you made your own mustard? It seems cheaper to buy it at the store, but we'll see how this stuff turns out.

If you haven't done so already, you can enter my Bob's Red Mill giveaway to win some awesome giftpacks from them. There will be THREE winners!! Enter now :)

Eat smart,

T.

Vegan Parm and lots more stuff

Before I forget, remember to enter my Bob's Red Mill giveaway! There will be THREE winners, so you've got a pretty good chance.

I have to catch up here....I even ran across a couple of photos I took of stuff I made and I can't remember what it was, because I never wrote down the recipe!! Hahaha....oh well.

First, I made up some awesome vegan parmesan:

Vegan Parm:

1 cup raw almonds
1/2 cup nutritional yeast
1 tsp onion powder
1 tsp garlic powder
black pepper/salt to taste


Pulse in your food processor until almost in powder form (you still want a little bit of texture though). Store in a glass jar in the fridge. 

Next up, homemade sweet and sour sauce.  It was all for me, since S hates this kind of sauce :)

Sweet and Sour Sauce:

3 TB ketchup (I used Organicville with agave)

2 TB Bob's Red Mill date sugar (or any raw sugar)
1/4 cup rice vinegar
1/2 cup water
3 TB arrowroot (or cornstarch) mixed with 3 TB water


Put the 1st four ingredients into a small saucepan and heat on medium heat, stirring until the sugar dissolves.  Add in the arrowroot mixed with water and stir/heat until thick.

I finally sprouted lentils for the first time! They're so good....I put them on my salads:

I recently bought two raw "cookbooks":

"Raw Food For Real People" by Rod Rotondi and "Raw Food: A Complete Guide for Every Meal of the Day" by Erica Palmcrantz and Irmela Lilja.

Both are great books. From the second one I made a few things:

Pumpkin Seed Dressing (so good!)

Indian Cauliflower Mash (a good snack)

Ranch Dressing (which I put on potatoes, because it's so good that way-not raw, I know!)

From the first book:

Hale Kale Salad (amazing!!)

(same kale salad, but with my added sprouted lentils)

I really want to add more raw meals to my diet.  S doesn't like that idea. More for me :)

More stuff I've been eating:

My Kale and Tomato Barley Risotto

Bob's Red Mill Steel Cut Oats (so good!!)

I recently found these "burgers" at the store and thought I'd try them, since they're soy-free:

They were pretty good...not a ton of flavor, but with the added "materials" on the sprouted grain bun, a pretty good lunch. I like the idea of a soy-free burger. Do you know of others?

Eat smart,
T.

Bob's Red Mill Giveaway!!! [CLOSED]

Hiya....hope you've all had a good week. It's gotten pretty darn cold down here....it was 29 degrees the other morning!!! Brrrrrr......at least I can keep warm in the morning with my hot oatmeal :)

Speaking of oatmeal, I've got an amazing giveaway for you. I contacted Bob's Red Mill a while back to see if they'd be interested in doing a giveaway for my readers and they agreed! I've never done that before, but I really love that company. (And it doesn't hurt that they carry my whole oat groats that I MUST have in the morning) Please check out their website and you can follow them on Twitter too!

Look at all the awesome stuff I ordered from them:

AND.....they offered to send me some free samples. I thought for sure they'd be tiny little 4 oz packets or something, but nope....FULL sized bags:

I made the 5 Grain cereal a couple of times and topped it with my usual dried fruit and nuts...but replaced my usual agave with the date sugar.  The cereal is really chewy and has a great flavor. I mean, you really feel like your eating a healthy bowl of whole grains! The date sugar was good.....it wasn't as sweet as agave, but then again, I didn't put on a ton.  I bet it would be good in baking, in place of regular raw sugar.  I'll have to try it. I have yet to try the Steel Cut Oats....but I'm going to make them tomorrow!!

(5 Grain Rolled Cereal)

(date sugar)

I used the 10 Grain Flour in my Whole Grain Bagels and they were great! I still have some left, so I'm excited to use it in my next whole grain recipe! Maybe pizza dough!

Anyway, back to the giveaway.....THREE lucky winners will receive a gift pack including Organic Whole Wheat Flour, Organic Brown Flaxseed, 10-Grain Hot Cereal, and Nutritional Yeast!!!

Here are the rules for the giveaway:

Mandatory Entry:

(please leave your email in the comments, if it's not public)

1. Tell me what your favorite whole grain is and how you usually use it.

Extra Entries:

1. Tweet about this giveaway and include @TanyaTheViolist and @Bobs_Red_Mill (once per day allowed & please leave a link to your tweets)

2. Follow me on Facebook.

3. Follow me on Twitter. (leave your Twitter ID in comment)

4. Blog about this giveaway and leave a link.

Leave a comment for EACH entry (incl EACH tweet).

Open to U.S. & Canada Residents (and overseas APO addresses only)

Giveaway will end on January 31st, 2011 at Midnight CST.

.

GOOD LUCK!!!

Eat smart,
T.

Almost giveaway time

Sorry folks, I thought I was going to post the big "Bob's Red Mill" giveaway today, but it's being postponed until further notice.  I wasn't sure where they were willing to send the winning giftpacks, so I have to hold off until they respond.

Hopefully I'll be able to post the giveaway tomorrow!

Eat smart,
T.

Whole Grain Bagels and a winner!

Recently, I contacted Bob's Red Mill to see if they wanted to do a giveaway for my readers and they said YES!! I love this company. Look at the awesome stuff I got on my most recent order:

They offered to send me some free samples as well, so I took them up on their offer. I was expecting tiny little bags of stuff, but they sent full sized bags, like this one, which I used in my bagel recipe and they turned out great :)

So stay tuned for an awesome giveaway from Bob's Red Mill. And there will be THREE winners!!

In the meantime, here's my recipe for whole grain bagels:

Tanya's Whole Grain Bagels:

1 1/2 cups water
1 TB agave nectar
2 cups Bob's Red Mill whole wheat flour
2 cups of Bob's Red Mill 10 grain flour (-2 TB vital wheat gluten)*
2 tsp salt
2 tsp yeast


poppy seeds, minced garlic, sesame seeds, coarse salt, etc...for toppings.
few tablespoons of non-dairy milk for glazing


This recipe is for a bread machine (mine is a Zojirushi), but you can make it by hand. Just follow a standard bagel recipe instructions for mixing and kneading until they're ready to shape.


Place the first 6 ingredients into your bread machine according to your machine's instructions. Mine puts it in the order of liquids first, then the rest, with the yeast last, making sure it doesn't touch the liquid. Mine also warms up the ingredients. If yours does not, use lukewarm water and let your flours warm up to room temperature first. Turn on your machine for the wheat dough setting. Mine takes just under 2 hours.  


*note: I put the 2 TB of vital wheat gluten at the bottom of a measuring cup and fill the rest with the flour.


When it's done, take out the dough and on a good work surface, divide it into about 10 pieces.  (if you want larger bagels, divide into 7-8 pieces instead) Roll each into a ball.  Cover them with a towel and let rest in a warmish place (no drafts) for about 30 minutes.  

In the meantime, bring a large pot of water to a boil on the stove and preheat your oven to 425 degrees. Also spray a large cookie sheet with oil and set aside.  When your dough balls are ready, poke your thumb into the middle of each and create a hole. Loop the dough around your finger a few times to widen the hole. When your bagels all have holes, put them into the boiling water, 3-4 at a time.  Boil them for about 30-60 seconds on EACH side. Transfer them to the sprayed cookie sheet.  

Put the non-dairy milk into a little bowl and use a brush to glaze each bagel before you add the toppings.  Add toppings as you wish...seeds stick easily. If you use dried minced onions, like I did...soak them for a few minutes first. They tend to burn (I let them burn), so if you don't want burnt onions, add them 10 minutes before the end of your baking time. Garlic and onions are more difficult to spread on top of your bagels, so do those first, before you pour on your seeds.  Place the bagels in the oven and bake for approx. 20-25 minutes.  If they aren't quite browned, leave them in for a few minutes longer.  When done, transfer them to a wire rack to cool.

(you can use whatever whole grain flour you like, but I really like Bob's Red Mill)

....and the winner of the Tasty Bite giveaway is.......Elisabeth!

Her comment was: "The Bombay potatoes look great!"
Please send me your full name and address, so I can send out your box of goodies! Congratulations :)

Stay tuned for another amazing giveaway from Bob's Red Mill. It's gonna be a good one!

Eat smart,
T.

Vegan Pizza Day is coming up!

Happy New Year everybody!!!

Vegan Pizza Day is coming up on January 29th. For more info on it and where to find vegan pizza in your area, click here. And it would be really helpful if you know of a place that has vegan pizza to add it to the list!! At home here, I'll have to make my own, but that's ok. I've got a great recipe! If you DO make your own, both Daiya and Teese work very well and melt nicely.

Don't forget to enter my Tasty Bite giveaway!! You have until tomorrow at noon CST. Hurry up!

Other things I've been eating:

Tempeh sauteed with spices and sauerkraut with homemade "thousand island" dressing.

Raw fudge from Rawmazing. Yum!

Nut Nog from Raw on $10 a Day. Good stuff!

Mexi-Millet! Always good.

A great combination!!

Upcoming posts: whole grain bagel recipe and a Bobs Red Mill Giveaway (3 winners)!!!

(my bagel teaser)

Eat smart,

T.