Pesto Sauce and veggie pizza

We harvested our basil and made a pesto sauce for vegetable pasta or raw pizzas.

Ingredients:
10 cups basil
2/3 cups pinenuts
5 avocados
2/3 cups of freshly squeezed lemon juice
2/3 cup nutritional yeast
10 cloves garlic
1.5 to 2 tablespoons Celtic Sea Salt (to taste)
2/3 to 3/4 cups filtered water

Place all ingredients in the food processor, blending until smooth, adding water for desired consistency.
We freeze it in 1/2 cup portions to use as needed.

We softened shiitake mushrooms, red peppers and sweet onions in coconut aminos and avocado oil prior to adding them to the tortilla and topped with almond feta.
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raspberry brownies

Even the men in our lives enjoyed these low sweetener brownies!!!

Dark Chocolate Raspberry Brownies

Ingredients

• 8 pitted Medjool dates
• 1/2 cup raw almonds
• 1/4 cup buckwheat
• 1/2 cup cacao powder
• 1/2 cup raspberries
• 1/4 cup chopped dark chocolate
• 4 Tbsp. hot water
• 2 Tbsp. maple syrup
• 2 tsp. vanilla essence
• 1/2 tsp. baking powder
• 1/4 tsp. Celtic sea salt

Directions

Preheat oven to 195˚C (about 380 Fahrenheit).

Meal the almonds and buckwheat in a high speed blender, alternatively use 4/5 cup of almond meal and 1/4 cup of buckwheat flour.

Mix the baking powder, cacao powder and sea salt with the flours.

In a separate bowl mix all the wet ingredients, hot water, maple syrup and vanilla essence together.

Add the wet ingredients in with the dry and mix together.

Add the Medjool dates and mix until it becomes a sticky gooey consistency, it is not meant to be runny.

Cut up the dark chocolate (I used 70% cooking chocolate) and fold in with the mixture.

Fold in the raspberries and gently fold in. Most of the raspberries will break up; that's OK, but make sure it's all mushed in.

Line a bread tray or a small pan with baking paper and spread the mixture pressing gently until flat.

Put into the oven for 15 minutes.

Take out and let it cool down before slicing it up, otherwise it will be very soft. You can even refrigerate it for an hour or so and let it solidify. Then cut into squares and enjoy!

http://www.mindbodygreen.com/0-13181/gluten-free-dark-chocolate-raspberry-brownies.html

Pear Sauce

Our neighbor (thanks Duprees) gave us a large bag of pears from their tree. The pears are delicious but what to do with all of them? We made and canned pear sauce.

Ingredients:
35 pears, peeled, cored, and diced
2 lemons juiced (8 teaspoons)
8 teaspoons ground cinnamon
4 teaspoons ground ginger
2 teaspoon vanilla
1/4 cup maple syrup or honey
1 cup water

Directions: Place all the above ingredients in a large pot. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer for 20 minutes (until the pears are soft). We used an emulsion blender stick to puree the pears.
We placed the mixture into clean hot pint jars. Wipe the jar lip and place the sterile canning lids and rings and tightened. We processed them in the water bath canner for 20 minutes.
We removed them from the canner. Once the lids "popped" we stored the jars. If any didn't "pop", we stored them in the refrigerator.
This made 8 pints. We processed 7 and the last one we just stored in the refrigerator

Chocolate Almond Cacao cups

We saw this recipe from Dr. Hyman and altered it to fit our needs. We also may use cacao butter instead of coconut oil. We love them even more when using cacao butter instead of coconut oil.
The original is posted at the bottom.

Ingredients

• 2 Tablespoons Extra-Virgin Coconut Oil or cacao butter Bottom Layer
• 1/4 Cup Almond Butter Bottom Layer
• 1/2 Teaspoon Pure Vanilla Extract Bottom Layer
• 2 Tablespoons Honey Bottom Layer
• 2 Tablespoons Extra-Virgin Coconut Oil or cacao butter Top Layer
• 1/4 Cup Almond Butter Top Layer
• 1/4 Cup raw Cacao Powder Top Layer
• 1/2 Teaspoon Pure Vanilla Extract Top Layer
• 2 Tablespoons Honey Top Layer
• Cacao nibs

Instructions

1. MAKE THE BOTTOM LAYER: 
2. Combine all of the ingredients in a small bowl and mix until very smooth. 
3. Set 10 mini baking cups in a mini muffin pan. Pour about one table- spoon of the bottom-layer mixture into each baking cup without dribbling it down the inside of the paper (or you’ll get streaks in the final product). Place on a flat surface in the freezer. 
4. MAKE THE TOP LAYER:
5. Combine all of the ingredients in a small bowl and mix until evenly incorporated. Remove the pan from the freezer and fill each baking cup to the top with the top-layer chocolate mixture. 
6. Sprinkle cacao nobs on top
7. Put the tray back in the freezer and let chill until the chocolate layer has hardened, about 15 minutes. Store the almond butter cups in the freezer for up to 4 months. 
8. Chill time: 30 minutes

http://drhyman.com/blog/2013/11/14/double-peanut-butter-chocolate-cups/

Asian Sesame Ginger Salad dressing

My hubby loves Chick-fil-a's Asian Chicken salad. We have made a Honey Sesame dressing copycat recipe.

Ingredients: (makes 20 servings)
3 cloves garlic, minced
2 tablespoons minced ginger
3/4 cup olive oil
1/3 cup rice vinegar
1/2 cup tamari (or soy sauce, we are a gluten free home)
3 tablespoons raw honey
1/4 cup water
the juice of 1 orange
1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1/2 teaspoon dried mustard powder
1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes
2 teaspoon sesame oil

This makes about 20 ounces. We used a 3-cup mason jar. Store in the refrigerator. Remove prior to using.

Raw marinated Shiitake mushroom salad

We loved shiitake mushrooms and are able to purchase them cheaply at our local farmers' market.
We used a spring mix to place these marinaded mushrooms

Ingredients:
5 shiitake mushrooms, stemmed and sliced
1/4 cup of coconut aminos
2 tablespoons nutritional yeast
1/4 cup avocado oil

Directions:
marinate mushrooms
top the salad with the mushrooms and marinade

The recipe is from http://urbannaturale.com/from-farmers-market-to-table-raw-marinated-shitake-mushroom-salad/

Japanese raw miso soup

We love miso soup now that we have found a gluten free miso. The chickpea miso is made with rice instead of barley. This recipe from Ani Phyo is good, but next time we will replace 3/4 of a cup of the olive oil with a quarter of an avocado and increase the water to 4 cups. We also used coconut aminos instead of a soy based product. We also used avocado oil in the marinade instead of extra virgin olive oil.

Japanese Miso-shiitake Soup
ingredients:
mushroom marinade:
3 cups shiitake mushrooms sliced
2 tablespoons coconut aminos
3 tablespoons avocado oil

soup base:
3 tablespoons chickpea miso
1 cup extra virgin olive oil (only use 1/4 cup plus a 1/4 avocado)
1 inch ginger
1 garlic clove (add a second clove)
3 cups filtered water (increase to 4 cups)

toppings:
1-4 scallions (we used one per bowl)

directions:
1. marinade the sliced mushrooms in the coconut aminos and avocado oil
2. place the miso, olive oil, ginger, garlic and water in a high speed blender
3. start slow and increase the speed, blending for 30 seconds
4. to serve pour soup base into four bowls, topping with marinaded mushrooms and scallions

The soup base and toppings combined with keep for one day. The soup base alone will keep for four days. The toppings alone will keep for two days. All stored in the refrigerator.

The recipe can be found at http://aniphyo.com/blog/tag/miso-soup/