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Spelt Mountain Bread Nachos with Raw Salsa Topping

There’s nothing better for lazy food than Nachos. If you want to avoid all the fats and ‘bad things’ in conventional or take away foods though, these Spelt cracker Nachos are a great alternative. If you don’t have Mountain Bread where you are, you can use any other spelt crackers.

Spelt Mountain Bread Nachos with Raw Salsa Topping

Adjust the toppings to suit both your tastes, and what you have available. We love cheese, guacamole and salsa, but you might love something completely different! Try it, experiment and see how you get on! Then come back here and share your favourite toppings with us!

 

Spelt Mountain Bread Nachos with Raw Salsa Topping
Author: Charlotte
Prep time:
Cook time:
Total time:
Serves: 4
This is a quick, easy and healthy way to enjoy a usually not so healthy dinner. Fresh, low fat but very yummy nachos! This meal is a winner at my place. Even my 5yr old who hates tomato loves it.
Ingredients
  • 1 packet of [url href=”http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-Food-Doctor-Wholegrain-Crackers/dp/B006CQJIJU” target=”_blank”]spelt crackers[/url]
  • Spray oil or a few splodges of refined coconut oil
  • Sprinkle of salt or other seasoning
  • 1 tin of organic[url href=”http://www.amazon.co.uk/Biona-Organic-Kidney-Beans-Pack/dp/B006JNWRCG/” target=”_blank”] kidney beans[/url], drained and rinsed
  • 1/2 a red onion, chopped
  • 3-4 tomatoes, chopped
  • 1 small lebanese cucumber, chopped
  • 1/2 a red or green capsicum, chopped
  • 1 Avocado, chopped
  • 1 handfull of chopped parsley
  • Juice of 1/2 a lemon or lime
  • Sprinkle of salt & pepper to taste (or nutritional yeast)
  • *optional:
  • 1 clove of garlic finely chopped
  • 1/2 cup of greek yogurt
  • 1 cup of grated cheese
  • Handfull of chives
Instructions
  1. Cut the bread into squares or triangles and place onto a greased oven tray.
  2. Spray or add bits of coconut oil to the chips, then season. (I use nutritional yeast, it gives a nice cheesy flavour)
  3. Put into the oven at 180’C until they change to a golden colour.
  4. It doesn’t take long, maybe 10 mins
  5. Add the beans and chopped veg together in a big bowl.
  6. Add the parsley, lemon juice, salt & pepper and mix together
  7. Once the chips are done plate them up and add the topping.
  8. Top each serving with a couple of table spoons of the greek yogurt
  9. Sprinkle with a 1/4 cup of cheese each
  10. Garnish with some chopped chives or parsley

 

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Wild Garlic And Cashew Pesto

Where my inlaws live, the public bridleway is lined with wild garlic on one side and dandelions on the other. It’s a foragers feast! Last year I picked a shopping bag full of wild garlic, brought it home, cooked with it and stuck a two plants in a pot. They looked as though they were dying, so I forgot about them and got on with the year. Cleaning out the garden this spring, I found four beautiful Ramson plants! I actually did a little happy dance, because I sometimes crave this stuff!

Wild Garlic PestoWild garlic is simply delicious stuff. In the spring it has a much milder taste than late in the summer, and unlike it’s commercial counterpart, you eat the leaves and the flowers, not the bulb (although you could).

Identification: You can smell the garlic before you see the plant. It has broad, spearlike leaves, which smell like garlic, and pretty white, star-like flowers, in a rounded ball shape, which also smell like garlic. All parts are edible, the leaves preferably in spring.

Poisonous lookalikes: The leaves do look a lot like the Lily of the Valley, which is poisonous but doesn’t smell like garlic, and if it doesn’t smell like garlic, it isn’t wild garlic.

Uses: Basically, anything you could do with Basil, you can do with wild garlic. You can make a soup, add it to salads, stir fry with onion and olive oil as a vegetable (instead of spinach, for example), and add a few dandelion heads for colour.

Here’s on my favourite recipes for Wild Garlic: Wild Garlic and Cashew Pesto

(Pine nuts are seriously expensive. Cashews are a lot cheaper, and just as good.)

Wild Garlic And Cashew Pesto
Recipe Type: Dip, Sauce,
Cuisine: Pasta
Author: Luschka
Prep time:
Total time:
Serves: 4 – 6
The amounts in this recipe are rough guides. If you have more or less of an ingredient, it doesn’t matter. Cashews provide the ‘bulk’ in the ingredients, and the Ramsons are very strong in flavour, so while you can add more you don’t need to.
Ingredients
  • 1/2 cup loosely packed Ramsons/Wild Garlic
  • 1/2 cup Cashew Nuts
  • 1/4 cup Parmesan Cheese
  • 1/2 teaspoon Sea Salt
  • Pepper to taste
  • 1/3 cup Olive Oil
Instructions
  1. If you’re using a Thermomix, place everything in the bowl, and blits on Turbo for 3 seconds and you’re done.
  2. If you’re not:
  3. Crush the cashew nuts
  4. Grate the Parmesan Cheese
  5. Place the salt into a pestle and mortar and add the wild garlic. Use the ‘friction’ of the salt to crush them together.
  6. Add the olive oil for a smooth paste, before adding the cheese and cashews and stirring in well.
  7. Pepper to taste.
Notes
Use as a spread on a rustic bread or as pesto for pasta. Keeps for around 3 days in the fridge. Top with edible Ramson flowers for prettiness.

 

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Healthy Chocolate Date Balls

There’s a brand of ‘chocolate’ bar that we love around here, but it’s pretty expensive. They put the ingredients and roughly the amounts on the back of the packaging though, so we’ve been trying to make them the same. I think we need some kind of cold pressing equipment to make them stick together as bars, but they work pretty well rolled into balls or made in a brownie pan.

chocolate date balls

The reason I love these for my children is that apart from the cocoa – and you can substitute it for cacao – there’s only fruit and breakfast oats in it. When my daughter refuses to have breakfast, she’ll have these, and I’m just fine with that on occasion.

Another bonus of  date balls, is that they are pretty versatile. Just add the basics, and the rest is up to you.

Put them on a pretty plate, and wrap a ribbon around, and you’ve got a lovely gift too.

For twenty more date ball ideas, check out Bliss Balls For Beginners.

Chocolate Date Balls
Recipe Type: Snack,Treat, Healthy
Author: Luschka
Prep time:
Total time:
These originated from Nakd bars, which I couldn’t afford to keep buying. Looking at the ingredients on the back, we came up with an earlier version of these. They are delicious!
Ingredients
  • 1 cup dates
  • 1/2 cup raisins
  • 1/2 to 3/4 cup oats
  • 2 tablespoons cocoa powder
  • Something wet: a 1/4 cup apple juice or 2 tablespoons peanut butter, just enough to hold the batter together.
  • [u]Optional extras:[/u]
  • You can add a variety of things – nuts, dried fruit, berries
Instructions
  1. Mix everything together in a food processor or blender.
  2. You want it well mixed, but not smooth.
  3. Either roll the batter into balls, then around a plate of coconut and place in the fridge.
  4. Alternatively spread it out on a baking sheet and refridgerate.
  5. Once set, cut into squares and enjoy.

Reposted from Diary of a First Child

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Four Thieves Vinegar

Healing VinegarFour Thieves Vinegar can be used both for food, and around the house for cleaning and decontaminating.  It can also be put in the bath or used medicinally.

Allegedly, Four Thieves Vinegar is so named after the four thieves who pillaged the homes of Plague victims but were not affected by the Plague themselves. When they were eventually captured, they would have been put to death for their looting, but were instead given their lives in return for their secret.  If you Google Four Thieves Vinegar, you’ll find a few variations on the ingredients. This is the one we use. It makes a pretty good salad dressing, if nothing else.

Four Thieves Vinegar
Recipe Type: Dressing, Cleaning
Author: Luschka
Prep time:
Total time:
Ingredients
  • 1 Tablespoon each of: [br]
  • [url href=”http://www.amazon.co.uk/Dried-Lavender-flowers-200g-www-thespiceworks-co-uk/dp/B004DA9L8A” target=”_blank”]Lavender[/url]
  • [url href=”http://www.amazon.co.uk/Abbey-Botanicals-Dried-Sage-Herb/dp/B00AGWRDPW/” target=”_blank”]Sage[/url]
  • [url href=”http://www.amazon.co.uk/AbbeyBotanicals-Herbs-Thyme-Leaf-whole/dp/B002AK258I/” target=”_blank”]Thyme[/url]
  • [url href=”http://www.amazon.co.uk/Lemon-Balm-Love-Cleansing-150grms/dp/B004BAU2F8″ target=”_blank”]Lemon Balm[/url]
  • [url href=”http://www.amazon.co.uk/Hyssop-For-Protection-Cleansing-50grms/dp/B004BAZTR4/” target=”_blank”]Hyssop[/url]
  • [url href=”http://www.amazon.co.uk/Abbey-Botanicals-Peppermint-Dried-Loose/dp/B005WGKOAI/” target=”_blank”]Peppermint[/url]
  • 3- 5 Garlic cloves
  • 1 cup [url href=”http://www.amazon.co.uk/Raw-Health-Apple-Cider-Vinegar/dp/B004JBRVAI/” target=”_blank”]Organic Apple Cider Vinegar[/url]
Instructions
  1. Place the herbs in a large sterile jar and top with the cider vinegar.
  2. Cover tightly and leave in a cupboard for six weeks, till it’s well infused
  3. Strain off the herbs and garlic and use the vinegar as needed.

 

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Raw Caramel Slice


Rawfood, Caramel Slice
I’m super excited to welcome Charlotte as an author on Keeper of the Kitchen. I met Charlotte in Perth, Australia, and I’ve always been so inspired by her adventures in raw food preparation. She makes it look so good, and I’m really chuffed that she’s agreed to share her recipes with us!

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This is a raw, dairy free, vegan (if not using honey!), gluten free caramel slice alternative. I say alternative but for me there is no question which one I would rather eat. This still has high calories like a regular caramel slice but they aren’t empty calories. With nuts, coconut oil and raw cacao powder full of healthy vitamins and minerals there is no reason not to eat this delicious slice. I like to cut it up into little squares and freeze it, perfect for that 3pm sweet craving or to have ready for unexpected guests.

I make it in the Thermomix, but you can make it in any high powered blender.

Raw Caramel Slice
Recipe Type: Desert, Sweets, Raw
Cuisine: Raw
Author: Charlotte F
Prep time:
Cook time:
Total time:
Serves: 15
Just to taunt you for now – recipe will be up shortly – is this raw, dairy free, vegan (if not using honey!), gluten free caramel slice alternative.
Ingredients
  • [u]Base[/u]
  • ½ cup Medjool dates
  • 1 cup almonds
  • ½ cup cashews
  • 1 tsp vanilla essence[br]
  • [u]Caramel[/u]
  • ½ cup tahini
  • ½ cup maple syrup or raw honey
  • ¼ cup coconut oil
  • 1 tsp vanilla essence
  • Large pinch Himalayan salt[br]
  • [u]Chocolate topping[/u]
  • 3 tbsp raw cacao
  • 1 tsp carob powder
  • 3-4 tbsp coconut sugar, rapadura sugar or agave syrup
  • ½ cup coconut oil
Instructions
  1. Grind pitted dates and nuts in blender. Add vanilla & blend until it’s sticky. If it’s not becoming sticky add an extra date.
  2. With a spatula or back of a spoon press mixture into a rectangular dish greased in coconut oil.
  3. Blend caramel ingredients together and pour over biscuit base and set in the freezer for 20 minutes.
  4. While the slice is setting, for the chocolate topping blend coconut oil and all other ingredients. The heat from the blender usually melts the coconut oil if it is solid.
  5. Then pour chocolate topping over slice and place back in freezer to set again.
  6. With a warm knife, cut into small squares to serve.

 

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Raw Strawberry Cheesecake

If you fancy a healthier cheesecake, you’ve come to the right place. This is a dairy free, vegan, sugar free cheesecake alternative. And it’s pretty darn good.Raw Strawberry Cheesecake

I make it in the Thermomix, but you can make it in any high powered blender. It’s both labour intensive and totally not. It’s a perfect dinner party recipe, especially for people not familiar with raw food. Check out The Rawtarian from time to time – this is an adaptation of her recipe.

Raw Strawberry Cheesecake
Recipe Type: Desert
Cuisine: Raw Food
Author: Luschka
Prep time:
Cook time:
Total time:
Serves: 18
Take this desert out of the freezer half an hour before you expect to eat it and don’t forget to return it to the freezer when you’re done. If it’s for snacks rather than dinner, freeze in single portion sizes
Ingredients
  • Crust ingredients:
  • 1 1/2 cups cashew nuts
  • 1/2 cup pitted dates
  • 1/4 cup dried, unsweetened coconut
  • 1 pinch sea salt
  • White cheesecake filling ingredients:
  • 3 cups cashews
  • 3/4 cup lemon juice
  • 3/4 cup agave or honey
  • 3/4 cup coconut oil
  • 1 tablespoon vanilla
  • Up to a 1/4 cup of water, as needed for blending
  • Fruit topping ingredients:
  • 2 cups frozen strawberries
  • 1/2 cup dates
Instructions
  1. Sprinkle coconut into a large glass dish to serve as a base for your cheesecake.
  2. In your food processor, place 1.5 cups of cashews, salt and dates, and blend to a crumbed consistency.
  3. Pour into dish on top of coconut and press down to form a good, firm base.
  4. Next, blend together the ‘cheesecake filling, adding as little water as possible and as required to make your blender work. In the Thermomix you shouldn’t need to add much water at all. This needs to be smooth and creamy in consistency.
  5. Spread the mixture on top of the base.
  6. Freeze for about an hour to allow it to firm up.
  7. When you’re ready for the last step, blend the berries and dates until they are nice and smooth. Pour this mixture on top and freeze again for another few hours at least.
  8. Take out of freezer about half an hour before eating, so that it’s still firm, but edible.
Calories: 349.0 Fat: 24.9 g Carbohydrates: 31.6 g Sugar: 18.7 g Sodium: 65.7 mg Fiber: 2.2 g Protein: 5.4 g Cholesterol: 0.0 mg

Reposted from Diary of a First Child