No Sugar Crockpot Apple Butter

This is the season for apples and apple butter. I've been off of sugar of all forms for a few months now but I wanted to have some apple butter. I searched the internet for apple butter crockpot recipes without sugar and all I could find was apple butter made with juice which is sugary and artificial sweetners or stevia. None of those appealed to me. I started thinking about it and thought that raisins are naturally sweet so I decided to give it a try. The results were very pleasing. The apple butter had a little sweetness to it, but, not too much which was fine with me since I'm not a big fan of really sweet things.

I used a 3 quart crockpot because that's what I have and I didn't want to make too much and I wasn't planning on canning it. You could use a bigger crockpot just adjust the proportions accordingly. Make sure the apples come to within 1” of the top of the crockpot.

3 apples, cored and cut into pieces

½ c. raisins

½ t. cinnamon

½ t. nutmeg

Pinch of salt

Water

Notes: I used gala apples because they are sweet apple. You can use any apple you like. I left the skin on my apples since they were organic but if you prefer you can peel them. You could add allspice if you like it. I don’t so I left it out.

Put the apples in the crockpot making sure they come up to about 1” below the rim of the container.

Put the raisins and ½ cup water into a blender and blend until smooth.

Put the raisin water, spices, salt into the crockpot with the apples. Add water to almost cover.

Cook on low 14 – 16 hours until the mixture looks dark, dense and fairly smooth. If the mixture is smooth and water is still remaining, take the lid off the crockpot, turn it up to high and cook for about 1 hour until the water mostly evaporates.

Let cool and pour the mixture into the blender and puree until smooth.

Makes 1 ½ cups

Basic Homemade Hummus

I've been making hummus for years and am always appalled at the price the grocery store charges (not to mention that some of their ingredients are not always the healthiest), so it's time I shared my recipe. 

All you need are a few ingredients, a blender or a food processor, and 5 - 10 minutes

It's a basic recipe and should be played with. You might like more or less garlic, tahini, lemon juice, olive oil, etc.

It's also fun to add things to it such as roasted red peppers, parsley, cilantro, etc. Whatever tastes good to you can and should be added.  Just make sure you keep an eye on the consistency of the hummus. For example, I find when I added roasted red peppers, I need to add less liquid.

Basic Hummus

1 can chick peas (garbanzo), drained (liquid reserved) and rinsed

1 garlic clove, smashed

2 Tablespoons Tahini

2 Tablespoons Olive Oil

Juice of one lemon ( 1/2 lemon if large)

Drain the chick peas, keeping the liquid and then rinse the chick peas. Add the chick peas to the blender

Smash the garlic clove so it blends better. Add the garlic to the blender.

Scoop 2 Tablespoons of tahini into the blender.
Make sure you stir it up. It does separate.

And what is tahini anyway?  It has a consistency similar to peanut butter. It's a puree of roasted sesame seeds. The brand I use is the least expensive I can find. Tahini can be a little hard to find in the grocery store. Sometimes it's by the peanut and nut butters, sometimes it's in the natural aisle. If you don't see it, ask. They most likely have it.

Juice the lemon and add it to the blender.  Here I microwaved  the lemon for 15 seconds to get it warm. It helps make it even juicier. Also, I only juiced 1/2 of the lemon because it was quite large.

Here's everything in the blender and it's ready to go. Blend away





You will most likely need to add more liquid. I take the leftover liquid from the can of chick peas and slowly dribble some in with the blender running until it's the consistency I'm looking for.

Here's the finished product for a fraction of the cost of the grocery store and much better because you know everything in it.

Note for the BMC gang:

Hummus is a fat - 1/4 c. is a serving.

I couldn't get a clear picture of the ingredient label on the chick peas or tahini, so here's the info from the pictured ingredients

Nature's Promise Organic Garbanzo Beans

Ingredients:

Prepared Organic chickpeas, Water, Sea Salt.

 Nutrition Facts: (even though we don't need them on this product)

Total Fat: 1 g

Saturated Fat: 0 g

Dietary Fiber: 7 g

Sugars 0 g

Joyva Seaame Tahini

Ingredients:

Roasted Sesame Seeds

Nutrition Facts: (even though we don't need them on this product)

Total Fat: 18 g

Saturated Fat: 2.5 g

Dietary Fiber: 1 g

Sugars: 0 g

The Moon

I have had this post in draft mode for several months. In fact, I completely forgot about it. I was playing with getting a full moon widget on my blog and wasn't successful, so I abandoned the idea.

It was just a full moon earlier this week (9/13/11). The moon does have an effect on us, just like the sun has an effect on us. It brings out more of our yin energy. Yin energy is a feminine energy and no, you don't have to be a female to have feminine energy. Women need both masculine and feminine energy. Men need both masculine and feminine energy. It's possible for a woman to have more masculine then feminine energy as it is possible for a man to have more feminine energy.

Masculine energy is often though of as yang meaning it's light, focused and logical and active. Surya Namaskar (Sun Salutations) are considered a yang or masculine energy.
Feminine energy is often thought of as yin energy, meaning, it's dark, intuitive and receptive. Chandra Namaskar (Moon Salutations) are considered a yin or feminine energy.

A full moon is the strongest time of yin energy. Lunar energy is healing. It's a perfect time to turn inward and contemplative and focus on our intuitive energy.

In my yoga class this week, I lead my students through a quiet, gentle warm-up, Chandra Namaskar (Moon Salutations) followed by a forward folding sequence. Chandra Namaskar consists of the following sequence:

Tadasana (Mountain Pose) - Palms together at heart center
Uttihita Tadasana - Reaching up bring palms together overhead
Chandrasana (Crescent Moon Pose) - arching to the right
Uttihita Tadasana - Reaching up bring palms together overhead
Chandrasana (Crescent Moon Pose) - arching to the left
Goddess Pose or Victory Squat - squat, arms at sides in an L-shape, palms forward
Star Pose - stand, arms out to the side
Trikonasana (Triangle Pose) - to the right.
Parsvottanasana (Pyramid or Head to knee pose) - leaning over straight right leg
Lunge (high or low) to the right
Forward Facing Lunge - turn forward; left leg extended
Malasana (Squat Post) - stay facing front bring hands to prayer position at heart center
Forward Facing Lunge - right leg extended
Lunge (high or low) - to the left
Parsvottanasana (Pyramid or Head to knee pose) - leaning over straight left leg
Trikonasana (Triangle Pose) - to the left.
Star Pose - stand, arms out to the side
Goddess Pose or Victory Squat - squat, arms at sides in an L-shape, palms forward
Chandrasana (Crescent Moon Pose) - reach up, bring palms together overhead; arch to the left
Uttihita Tadasana - Reaching up bring palms together overhead
Chandrasana (Crescent Moon Pose) - arching to the right
Uttihita Tadasana - Reaching up bring palms together overhead
Tadasana (Mountain Pose) - Palms together at heart center

This is one variation of Chandra Namaskar that I particularly like. As with Surya Namaskar there are multiple variations available.

Next time you need to nurture your ying energy be sure to give Chandra Namaskara a try.

YogaMint Reiki

I can't believe it! I'm published. 

http://yogamint.com/_webapp_3941248/Universal_Life_Energy?A=SearchResult&SearchID=2781317&ObjectID=3941248&ObjectType=35

I love it. I'd like to write some more. There I put it out there in the universe. It's time to make it come true.

Kale Chips

I just realized it's been awhile since I posted and it's about time I talk about kale chips. Yes, that's right. Kale chips. They are delicious. They certainly can satisfy that craving for something crispy and crunchy. I've been playing around with a variety of ways to make them.

I saw a recipe for kale chips in Vegetarian Times but it called for a dehydrator. I don't have a dehydrator nor do I want one. I don't know about you, but I don't want another piece of kitchen equipment in the house. In fact, I'm on a mission to rid myself of items that just take up space (but that's another story). I needed to figure out a way to make kale chips without a dehydrator. 

First couple of attempts, I set the oven to 175 and let them 'bake' for hours. It definitely make the kale strips crunchy, but, you definitely need a good 2 - 3 hours of bake time. I also tried making them in a 350 degree oven and they became chips within 15 minutes or so. That makes it a little easier to quickly whip up a batch.
If you are a raw food proponent, then the 350 degree oven with the door closed is not for you since it heats the kale up past what is considered an appropriate temperature for keeping food raw.

I also played with flavorings. I tried various combinations of salt, oil, balsamic vinegar, lemon and nutritional yeast. Kale creates a great blank canvas so I would say play with anything that sounds good to you.

The other thing I have learned is to not overlap the kale when it's in the oven. If you do they will not get crispy, they will stay pretty soggy. Trust me on this one. I speak from experience.

So far my favorite way of making kale chips is to:
Preheat the oven to 350
Wash the kale and remove the tough stems
Cut or tear the leaves into pieces about 2" wide
Put them on a baking sheet. Do not allow the kale strips to overlap. If the kale leaves overlap they will not crisp up.
Sprinkle with salt, olive oil, lemon juice and nutritional yeast.
Mix to coat.
Bake for about 15 minutes or until crispy.

Enjoy!

If you make kale chips, please share your favorite toppings.

Dried Fruit and Pistachio Biscotti

Today ended up being a cooking and baking day. I made vegetarian sausage, tomato sauce (I noticed in some of my pictures, my wooden spoon with tomato sauce on it is there) and meatballs, bread and some beautiful biscotti.  I also sauteed some onions and made a pizza crust for a pissaladiere which is a fancy french word for an onion, cheese and black olive topped pizza. I decided since the biscotti was the most beautiful I would share that recipe. The recipe is King Arthur Flour's Cherry Pistachio Biscotti.

I didn't have dried cherries, but, I did have cranraisins, so I decided to use those in place of the dried cherries. Any dried fruit would work well.

Start with 1 cup dried cranraisins and 1 cup of pistachios. It turns out approximately 9 oz of pistachios with their shells on is about 1 cup shelled pistachios. I coarsely chopped them up and set the mixture aside for later.

Preheat the oven to 350. Line or grease a baking sheet.

In the mixing bowl I added:

6 tablespoons butter

2/3 cup sugar

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

Beat until it's smooth and creamy and then add 2 eggs and beat again. It looks kind of yucky at this point, but, don't despair everything will be alright.

Add 2 cups of flour and stir until well combined

Add the cranraisins and pistachios and stir until they are distributed through the dough. 

Divide the dough in half, form into 2 loaves and put side by side on the baking sheet which has been lined. I used a silpat, but, parchment paper works well too. Shape the loaves to approx. 10 1/2" long and 2" wide rectangle.

 

Bake for 25 minutes

Remove them from the oven. Turn the oven down to 325. Spray them lightly with water. I didn't have a clean spray bottle handy so I lightly brushed the loaves with water using a pastry brush. The water helps keep the dough a little soft which helps keep it from crumbling when you cut it.

After 5 minutes out of the oven, cut the loaves into approx. 1/2" pieces.  The water trick worked a little, but, mine still crumbled a bit. I used a serrated knife to cut the loaves.

Back to the oven for their 2nd bake.



According to the recipe, they should bake the 2nd time for 35 - 40 minutes. I found 30 minutes to be plenty of time maybe even a minute or two too long. The biscotti should be dry but the center might be a teeny bit moist. They should be golden.

Even though it looks like I might have already taken a bit, I didn't (yet). They did crumble a bit when I cut them before the 2nd bake.

I ate one while writing this post and they are delicious. Stored in an airtight container they should last a long time - we'll see. 

Peace Shanti

As I was thinking about what I want to teach in my yoga classes this week, my thoughts keep coming back to to a quote I saw this weekend.

"Peace.  It does not mean to be in a place where there is no noise, trouble or hard work.  It means to be in the midst of those things and still be calm in your heart."
~ Unknown

The thought of peace had me turn toward Patanjali's Yoga Sutras to be reminded of what he says about peace.

Yoga Sutra I.33 - "By cultivating attitudes of friendliness toward the happy, compassion for the unhappy, delight in the virtuous, and disregard toward the wicked, the mind-stuff retains its undisturbed calmness."

Patanjali is giving us keys on how to handle the happy, the unhappy, virtuous and wicked person while retaining our inner peace. Most people do fall into one of these 4 categories at one point or another.

If someone is happy, be friendly with them, don't be jealous or covet what they have. Being around that person can be a comfort.

If someone is unhappy, have compassion, lend a helping hand, be merciful. Keeping compassion will help your peace of mind.

If someone is virtuous, be delighted. Try to cultivate their virtues in your own life.

If someone is wicked, ignore them. Do not try to advise them since they probably will not listen and that will make you lose your peace.

May this week be a week of a serene mind and inner peace.

Om Shanti

Roasted Tomato Soup

This recipe comes from Kripalu. They generously share some of their recipes on their website and the Roasted Tomato Soup caught my eye. This makes a beautiful healthy homemade soup in under an hour.

Vegan Roasted Tomato Soup

Serves 4–6

4 cups plum tomatoes, cut in half
2 stalks celery, diced
1 small carrot, diced
½ medium onion, large diced
2 cloves garlic
1 teaspoon dried marjoram
Pinch of cayenne
¼ teaspoon salt
Pinch of black pepper
1½ tablespoons olive oil
1 cup canned tomato puree (I ended up using sauce since I didn't have puree in the house)
½ cup canned diced tomato (I used fresh plum tomatoes, diced)
1 cup vegetable stock or water, plus additional for blending
1 cup unsweetened rice or soy milk (if you don't want to go vegan, I would add evaporated milk)
1 tablespoon red wine (I used white since that's what I had open and available)
¼ cup fresh basil, chopped
Salt to taste

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Toss tomatoes, celery, carrots, onion, garlic, marjoram, cayenne, salt,

and pepper with olive oil and spread on a large baking sheet.

Roast in the oven until veggies are soft and begin to brown, about 20 to 25 minutes.

Transfer vegetables to a blender and blend until smooth, adding stock or water as needed.

Transfer to a large soup pot and add remaining ingredients.

Simmer to heat though, about 15 minutes.

Serve topped with croutons, sprouts, or fresh avocado.

I went with the avocado. This soup was delicious.

Mother Bear Project

I listen to a lot of knitting podcasts. One of my favorite podcasts is CogKNITive. The host, Dr. Gemma, is fond of a charity called the Mother Bear Project, so I decided to look into it further.

This wonder project gives handmade crocheted or knitted teddy bears to orphaned children in Africa who have little to nothing of their own. The bears bring comfort and friendship to these children. The pictures of the children holding their bears is so moving.

Check out the Mother Bear Project Website. They ask for a small monetary donation to get the knit or crochet pattern, it's so worth it. The actual project took less than a day. I encourage you to support this charity.

Pink Regia Socks

In my continuing quest to make 2011 the year of adding more handmade socks to my wardrobe, I made another pair of toe up plain stockingnette socks using 2 circs. My Pink Regia socks on Ravelry

On this pair, I did a turkish cast on for the first time. Prior to this I've always used Judy's Magic Cast on. I have to say I think I like the turkish cast on better. For me it was a little easier.
I also used a tubular bind off for the first time. I liked that too.
C/O 16 sts. I used Fluffy Knitter Deb's Turkish Cast On tutorial. I thought it was one of the best explanations of turkish cast-ons I found.

Toe:
Row 1: k1, kfb, k to 1 st before end, kfb, k1
Row 2: K all sts
Continue increasing until there are 56 sts and begin foot
K all sts until sock reaches where the top of the foot and leg meet.

Begin Heel
R1: 1st needle (top of foot) K all sts;  2nd needle: (sole of foot) k1, kfb, k to 1 st before end, kfb, k1
R2: K all sts
Repeat thes 2 rows until 52 sts are on needle 2

Heel Flap (only done on needle 2). Do not work Needle 1
K28, ssk, k1, turn
S1, P5, p2tog, p1, turn
s1, k6, ssk, k1, turn
s1, p7, p2tog, p1, turn
continue K and P rows, start ssk or p2tog 1 st before the gap until 28 sts remain

Leg
Continue K all sts on both needles for leg until the leg is 7" or is as long as desired.

Ribbing
k1, p1 rib for 1"

For these socks I used a Tubular cast off. It made a really pretty and stretchy bindoff.

Pecan Mushroom Sloppy Joes

I was inspired by several recipes on eatingwell.com to make vegetarian pecan mushroom burgers. None of the recipes on eatingwell were exactly what I wanted, so I borrowed a little from here a little from there and added a few things of my own.

1/2 c. cooked brown rice, cooled

1 tsp. grapeseed oil

4 oz. mushrooms, diced

1 small onion, diced

dash of balsamic vinegar

1/2 c. pecans, chopped

1 carrot, shredded

1/4 c. panko breadcrumbs

dash of cayenne pepper to taste

I heated up the grapeseed oil in the pan. I sauteed the the mushrooms and onion, with some salt and pepper to taste. When the mixture was dry I put a dash of balsamic vinegar and set it aside to cool down.

Add the pecans to the pan and toast until fragrant about 4 minutes. Add to the mushroom/onion mixture. Add the carrots, breadcrumbs and cayenne pepper.

I formed the mixture into patties. They were kind of crumbly and I set the patties into the refrigerator in hopes they would firm up.

I sauteed the patties in a little grapeseed oil and they kind of fell apart when I flipped them.

I served these sloppy joes with a blue cheese dressing and homemade hamburger buns (will blog on the buns another day soon). For the blue cheese dressing I combined greek yogurt, blue cheese and a couple of dashes of worcestershire sauce.

So, they were delicious, but they did not stay formed in the patties, which is why I decided they were really sloppy joes. Next time I try it I might add an egg and see if that helps them stay together, or I may just decide sloppy joes it is and keep them vegan (minus the blue cheese dressing of course)!

Detoxing in January Week 2

By the end of Week 1, I was thoroughly sick of the meals for that week. In fact, two of the meals, I could barely choke down, so when Week 2's menu plan started I was thrilled.
I also made sure my fish choices were varied and were more of the 'steak' type of fish - tuna, mahi mahi, salmon.

Day 1: everything tastes great (except for the dreaded meal 3 - pumpkin, oats and eggs). Can't do it. I need to leave out the pumpkin.
Day 2 - 5: Things were going well, but, frankly I was a little tired of the same thing over and over again. I totally abandoned meal 3 and was eating 5 mini meals a day instead of 6. This meant I was hungry and I finally caved and abandoned the diet Friday night.

I definitely felt better and was pleased that I lost some weight. It's been 7 days now since I went off the detox diet. Doing the diet for as long as I did helped set me up to be inspired to keep up more healthy eating habits for the past week.

I would definitely do this diet again, but, for me it's more of a non-winter diet since much of what is eaten is cold or raw. I would also find a substitute that works nutritionally as a meal replacement for meal 3.

Universal Toe Up Socks made with Noro Sock Yarn

I just finished my first pair of socks this year. I used Amy Swenson's Universal Toe-up Sock pattern from Knitty: Summer 2006 to determine how many stitches I needed for my gauge and the rest was my own vanilla sock pattern.  I like to do straight-forward stockingnette socks so I can easily tote them around with  me and not worry about where I left off or have to carry a pattern.

This was my first time working with Noro yarn and in the beginning I wasn't sure if I liked it or not. It feels a little rough and stiffer than what I am used to, but, it worked up very nicely. I really like the way the colors change and am overall quite happy with the end product.

Ravelry link to my page

My gauge was 6 st/in I needed 46 stitches to fit my foot my size 8 foot (9") with a circumferance of 8.5"
I used size 1 circs.

Materials: Noro Kureyon Sock - 1 skein = 462yds/100 grams (I had 43 grams left)
Size 1 circs. I used 2 circs. Gauge: 6 sts/inch

Toe:
Cast on 10 sts (5/needle) - using Judy's Magic Cast on
Row 1: Knit
Row 2: K1, Kfb, K to 1st st before end, Kfb, K
End Row 2
Rep Rows 1 and 2 until there are a total of 46 sts (23/needle)

Foot:
K until sock reaches where the leg meets the foot

Heel
Row 1
Needle 1: Knit
Needle 2: K1, Kfb, K to 1st st before end Kfb, K
Continue until 2" shorter than total length of foot. I ended up with 44 sts on Needle 2.

Turn Heel:
Do not work stitches on Needle 1 (top of foot)
Needle 2 (Heel Flap): K 46, K2tog, K1, turn
Sl 1, P5; SSP, P1, turn
Sl 1, K until one st before the gap, K2tog, K1; turn
S1, P until one st before the gap, SSP, P1, turn
Repeat purl and knit rows until there are 23 sts. (original number of sts)


Leg:
K until the leg is the desired length.

Finish:
K1, P1 rib for 1"

Bindoff
I used slipslipkit.com miraculous elastic bind off.

Detoxing in January 2011

I am doing a 21 day detox diet which is primarily protein and produce. I have been feeling bloated and draggy from not eating correctly over the holiday season. Right now, I'm on day 5 and am finally beginning to feel better.
Week 1:
Day 1: No problem. I was all fired up and ready to go and had 'I can do this' attitude.
Days 2 and 3: I had a headache. It was probably caffeine withdrawal. I had no idea I had been ingesting enough caffeine to actually get a withdrawal headache. I was also a little nauseous. Two other people who are doing the same detox diet told me on Day 3 they felt more energy. Yes, I am jealous.
Day 4: Headache gone, but, wanted to give up. Nothing tasted good and it took all my willpower to get through the day.
Day 5: I'm down 6 lbs. It's unbelievable to me how much toxic sludge I must have been carrying around in me. I'm feeling pretty good today, although I'm still a little tired. I am feeling more motivated today to continue forward.
Days 6 and 7 will be more of the same food and then Week 2 starts.

Wish me continued luck!