Halloween Candy

Happy Halloween!!!

We hosted a "Making Healthy Candy" class last week. 

We made Cacao Peppermint Sticks, mock mini Milky-Way bars, and two different types of Cacao bark, one with fruit and seeds and the other with crispie buckwheat. 

Fully Raw Kristina Chocolate Peanut Butter Cupcakes

Here is Kristina's recipe for Chocolate Peanut Butter Filled Cupcakes

We made a few changes. These are so good. Here is our recipe.

Ingredients for the cupcake:
2 cups dried mulberries
1 cup pitted dates
6 dried figs
1 cup chia seeds
1 TBS cinnamon
1/4 cup carob powder
1/4 cup cacao powder
2-4 TBS water, for the desired stickiness
Directions: Place all the ingredients in the food processor, process until sticky
Press 1-2 TBS into a cupcake cup liner, leaving a hollowed area for the almond butter.
Place 1-2 TBS almond butter in each cupcake
Cover with 1 TBS cupcake mix. Gently pat

Ingredients for frosting:
1 cup soaked cashews
6 pitted medjool dates
dash of cinnamon
1 tsp vanilla or ~ 1 inch of vanilla bean
1/3-1/2 cup water, for desired thickness
1/4 cup grated carrots (for green wheat grass powder, for red shredded beets)

Directions: place all ingredients in a high speed blender. Blend to frosting consistency. Frost cupcakes and decorate with cacao nibs

Fall Fiesta Sweet-potato-chorizo-soup

The recipe for sweet-potato-chorizo-soup was sent from Andrew Wilder from Eating Rules. My husband will love this.

Fall Fiesta Sweet Potato Soup

Author: Heather Vander Wey

Recipe Type: Soup

Cuisine: Southwest

Prep Time:  35 mins

Cook Time:  45 mins

Total Time:  1 hour 20 mins

Serves/Yield: 6-8 Servings

A nutritionally dense Fall soup packed with flavor and color. Uses chorizo and powdered chipotle.

Ingredients

For the Soup

• 6-8 cups organic chicken broth (depending on desired thickness)
• 3 large organic sweet potatoes peeled & diced (approximately 9 cups diced)
• 1 medium organic onion
• 4 medium cloves organic garlic
• 1 pound organic chorizo
• 2 tablespoon organic extra virgin olive oil we water sauteed instead)
• Juice of 2 large limes (approximately ½ cup)
• 1 teaspoon organic coriander
• 1 teaspoon organic cumin
• ½ teaspoon organic powdered chipotle, for mild heat (1 teaspoons will make medium heat, 1½- 2 teaspoons will make hot heat)

For the Garnish

• organic cilantro
• organic roasted red peppers
• organic pepitas
• organic plain Greek yogurt
• diced avocado
• organic tortilla chips
• limes

Instructions

1. Peel sweet potatoes, dice into small chunks- place into 10-12 quart stock pot. Set Aside.
2. Dice onion. Set aside.
3. In a large frying pan over med-med/high heat, add olive oil. Take chorizo out of casing, add to frying pan. Break apart meat with spatula while sautéing. Once meat is cooked remove to a plate with a paper towel to absorb extra fat. Refrigerate until needed.
4. While pan is still hot add diced onion. Sauté until caramelized. Add coriander, cumin and chipotle towards the end of sautéing and heat for 1 addi-tional minute. Deglaze pan with about ½ cup of chicken broth to ensure all spice flavor is picked up. Add to potato stock pot.
5. Peel and crush garlic, add to stockpot along with remaining chicken broth.
6. Bring to a boil over high heat. Cover and lower heat to med/low Cook for approximately 45 minutes or until potato is extremely tender. Juice the limes and add at the end of cooking process. Turn off heat.
7. With an immersion blender, blend until smooth. Add cooked chorizo and warm soup over medium heat until desired temperature.
8. Garnish with favorite toppings.

Vegan Fall Fiesta Sweet Potato and Lentil Soup

Vegan Fall Fiesta Sweet Potato and Lentil Soup
We altered the Sweet Potato Chorizo recipe to a vegan version

Here is the link for the Chorizo spice mix. This is enough for 10 pounds of sausage, so we only want to use a 1/10th, 1-2 tsp for the soup.
Chorizo Spice Mix
Ingredients

• 1 tbsp. cumin seed ground
• 1 tbsp. granulated garlic
• 2 tbsp. Ancho chile powder OR substitute with a combination of 2 tbsp. paprika mixed with ½ tsp. cayenne powder OR 2 tbsp. paprika mixed with 1 tsp. red chili powder
• 1 tsp. coriander seed ground 
• 1 tsp. sea salt
• 1/2 tsp ground cloves
• ½ tsp. ground black pepper
• ½ tsp. oregano
• ½ tsp. thyme
• ¼ tsp. ground cinnamon

Ingredients:

1 cup red lentils rinsed and drained

8 cups organic vegetable broth

3 large organic sweet potatoes peeled & diced (approximately 9 cups diced)

1 medium organic onion, diced

4 medium cloves organic garlic, minced

Juice of 2 large limes (approximately ½ cup)

1-2 tsp chorizo seasoning mix

1 teaspoon organic coriander

1 teaspoon organic cumin

½ teaspoon organic powdered chipotle for mild heat 

For the Garnish
organic cilantro
organic roasted red peppers
organic pepitas
vegan cheese
diced avocado
organic tortilla chips
limes

Directions:

1. Water saute the diced onion. Add coriander, cumin and chipotle towards the end of sautéing and heat for 1 additional minute. Deglaze pan with about ½ cup of vegetable broth to ensure all spice flavor is picked up. Add to sweet potato stock pot.
2. Peel and crush garlic, add to stockpot along with remaining vegetable broth and broth.
3. Add the lentils
4. Bring to a boil over high heat. Cover and lower heat to med/low Cook for approximately 45 minutes or until sweet potato is extremely tender and the lentils are done. Juice the limes and add at the end of cooking process. Turn off heat.
5. With an immersion blender, blend until smooth. We place 1/2 the soup in a high speed blender, blend and return to the pot instead of using the immersion blender.
6. Garnish with favorite toppings.

Raw Almond Milky Way-like candy

Here is the original recipe is for mini Raw Snickers. The first time we made it the chocolate melted too quickly and the caramel was too sweet for us. We also used maple syrup instead of honey for the nougat.

Here is our version:

NOUGAT FILLING
Ingredients:1 cup almonds, unsoaked or Trader Joe's almond meal
1 cup cashews, unsoaked or Trader Joe's cashew meal
3 tablespoons maple syrup
1 tablespoon water, or more if needed

CARAMEL
Ingredients:
1.5 cup dates ~18 medjool dates
1 inch vanilla bean
¼ teaspoon sea salt or Himalayan salt
1 cup water

CHOCOLATE
Ingredients:
1 cup cacao powder 
½ cup maple syrup
½ cup cacao butter
1 TBS lucuma powder
1 tsp maca powder
½ tsp vanilla extract
pinch of Himalayan salt 

Directions:
Soak dates in the water for an hour. Reserve soaking water. Meanwhile, make nougats.

In a coffee grinder, grind cashews into a fine powder meal. Remove. Process the almonds into a fine powder. or use Trader Joe's ground cashew and almond 
Place nut powders in a large bowl. Add maple syrup and water. Stir until mixture is a thick paste-like consistency. Form nougat into miniature candy pieces by pressing the nougat on parchment paper in a square pan and cut the nougat into bars to freeze for an hour. Remove from the freezer and cut with a knife.

To make the caramel, process soaked dates, vanilla bean and sea salt in a blender. Using soaking water one tablespoon at time, blend until you achieve a thick creamy mixture. Spread caramel on top of nougat pieces and return the candy to the freezer while you make the chocolate. 

In a large bowl, whisk cacao powder, maple syrup, cacao butter and water together until smooth and creamy. Pour chocolate over candy pieces and freeze an additional hour or until chocolate sets hard.

Yield: depending on size ~ 40 mini candy pieces

Lemon Tahini Dressing

We were listening to a summit about hormones. The speaker suggested using fats to balance them. She suggested using pumpkin and flax for two weeks and sesame and sunflower for two weeks following the cycles of the moon. The full moon is tonight, so we are switching to sesame and sunflower. We have plenty of salad dressings with flax and pumpkin that we LOVE, we are trying a lemon-tahini-dressing until the November New Moon on the 11th.

Ingredients:
2/3 cup tahini, at room temperature 
1 cup water
1/4 cup lemon juice 
1 garlic cloves, minced 
1/4 cup parsley, chopped
1 teaspoon salt
1 pinch cayenne
1 dates, pitted (optional)
Directions: Place everything in a high speed blender. Blend until smooth.

Peppermint Cacao Sticks

Holly sent this recipe to us. We have altered it to fit our raw needs and taste buds. This will be a great Christmas treat.

Peppermint Cacao Sticks

Ingredients:

• 6 tablespoons cacao butter, melted
• 4 tablespoons raw cacao powder
• 4 tablespoons almond butter
• 2 tablespoons raw honey or maple syrup
• 1 tsp vanilla or 1 inch vanilla bean
• ½ teaspoon peppermint extract (or ground peppermint leaves, 1/2 TBS)
• pinch of salt
• 3-6 medjool dates, depending on the sweetness desired
• ½ cup crispie nuts, (soaked 12 hours, drained, rinsed, drained, dehydrated)

Directions:

1. in a large bowl stir together the cacao butter and sweetener
2. heat the mixture slowly on low heat over simmering water (double boiler) until cacao butter has melted
3. combine all ingredients in a food processor
4. pour in a 7x5-inch dish lined with parchment paper
5. refrigerate until chocolate is set then cut into sticks. Store in airtight container in freezer.

Here is the original recipe for Peppermint Sticks