Thursday, February 21, 2013

Leftover Ingredients...I'll Fix That!


Leftover Ingredients…I ‘ll Fix That!


When I first started cooking I found myself spending lots of money on a wide variety of products because I wanted to keep experimenting.  After making these delicious recipes I found in cookbooks or online, I would look in my pantry or refrigerator and get so frustrated not knowing what to do with the leftover ingredients.  Over the past few years I have developed a deeper understanding of food and flavors.  I am beginning to learn what spices and flavors can be substituted and which ones I really need.  But more importantly, I am getting better at finishing the products that are in my cupboards.

Over the past two weeks I have had a handful of friends express their success in making the cereal recipe I recently posted.  Thanks for reading and keep on cooking!  And as a conscious coach, I am aware that you now have about ½ bag of hemp seeds, ¾ of a bag of flax meal, pecans, maple syrup, some almond flour and gluten free oats sitting in your pantry and refrigerator (flax meal and hemp seeds should be stored in the refrigerator). 

You can use the hemp seeds and flax meal for smoothies and salad dressings.  You can use the oatmeal to make oatmeal and the pecans you can eat or you can go through the following recipes and make something new!
  

Banana Carrot Muffins – Left over ingredients gone wild!

Preheat oven on 350
In a large mixing bowl place the following ingredients:
2 cups of Arrow Head Mills Multigrain Pancake Mix
½ cup of almond flour
3 tablespoons of hemp seeds
2 tablespoons of flax meal
1½ tablespoons of fresh ginger (store in an airtight container and it keeps in the freezer for a few months)
½ teaspoon of cinnamon
¼ teaspoon of nutmeg, salt, baking soda, baking powder
Mix together

Puree 1½ bananas and 3 carrots and place on top of the mixture – don’t mix in yet

In a separate bowl combine the following ingredients:
½ cup of maple syrup
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 eggs
1 stick of butter melted
Beat together for about 30 seconds and add to the large mixing bowl

Mix all the ingredients together and add a smidge more than ½ cup of water (if the batter seems too thick add 2 more tablespoons of water) and continue stirring until the water is absorbed into the batter

Use two muffin trays with paper liners - Fill muffin cups up about ¾ of the way and bake for 25 minutes switching the muffin trays mid way through

These muffins are wonderful the first few hours out of the oven.  On day two and three they are a bit denser than the average muffin but the flavor is still YUM!

Sorry I have no photos to show you because these muffins got eaten too quickly!


Kim’s Fully Loaded Pancakes

Ingredients:  ¾ cup Arrowhead Mills Multigrain Pancake Mix, ½ cup whole milk (or milk substitute), 1 tablespoon of canola oil, ¼ teaspoon of vanilla extract, ½ cooked medium size sweet potato, ½ teaspoon of cinnamon, ¼ nutmeg, 2 tablespoons of flaxseed meal, 2/3 cup of pecans (1 large handful) cut into small pieces or pureed, 1 cup of water – You may have to add more water for a thinner pancake. The sweet potato thickens the batter and can make the inner part of the pancake difficult to cook through.  I like to make the pancake thinner so it cooks through.

1.)   Stir the above ingredients in a medium bowl
2.)   Heat the griddle on medium
3.)   Coat the griddle with butter or coconut oil and spoon batter onto griddle making sure the pancakes are a bit on the thin side so they cook through

Serve pancakes with peanut butter, almond butter or sun butter and a small drizzle of maple syrup.

For pumpkin pancakes just replace the sweet potato with a half a can of pumpkin.


Love deeply and eat mindfully,
Kim Gilroy - kimgilroyinsideout




Wednesday, February 13, 2013

Valentine's Day Moose

 Valentine's Day Moose

This recipe has been a work in progress for about 3 months now.  If you gave up chocolate for Lent, I think you should reconsider with the good stuff.  How about adding in 100% cocoa instead!  



Avocado Moose

Ingredients: 1 avocado, 1 banana, 4 tablespoons of maple syrup, ½ teaspoon vanilla extract, 1 small finger pinch of salt, 4 tablespoons of 100% raw cocoa powder, 2 tablespoons of heavy cream (4 if you are not afraid of a little cream)

Place all ingredients into a food processor and puree for about 30-60 seconds.  Unplug the food processor and use a spoon to scoop out the moose.  Top with almond slivers or coconut flakes.


Love extra deeply today and taste every bite,
Kim Gilroy - kimgilroyinsideout

Monday, February 4, 2013

My Love Affair With Cereal


                                                            My Love Affair With Cereal

I can remember the taste, the crunch in my mouth and the sweetened milk left over:  Cocoa Puffs, Count Chocula, Froot Loops, Lucky Charms, Cocoa Pebbles, Cap’n Crunch (too much in a spoonful would rip the top of my mouth!), Frosted Flakes, Trix.  During the week, I was not allowed to eat these delightful treats.  But come Saturday morning . . . Whoo-Hoo!!!  And although I was allowed to eat these breakfast treats on the weekend only, with the amount of table sugar I added to my Rice Krispies and the amount of syrup I poured onto my Eggo Waffles during the week, I may as well have been amped up on Froot Loops as I headed to school!

I have a deep-rooted love affair with sugar cereals.  The texture, taste and sugar high left me a junkie.  In college, unaware of the harm I was doing to my body, I would often eat 1 or 2 large bowls of one of the above-mentioned delights as dessert after dinner.  YUM!   After eating I would go back to the dorm, turn on Michael Jackson, Jock Jams, or a “Baby’s Got Back” single, and proceed with a full dance routine (much to the delight and amusement of the other girls in my dorm) until I ran out of steam.  After the show . . . I would typically crash and fall into a deep slumber.  And then I would wake up to my roommate (thank goodness she cared) reminding me that I could not graduate without passing Shakespeare! 

I laugh at the memories and then get sad when I see these cereals in grocery stores.  It’s personal.  I know there are other kids out there who, like me, just can’t handle that kind of food.  And just because the packages now proclaim that my erstwhile weekend treats (and dessert in college!) are now fortified with vitamins and prepared with “whole grains” does not mean that they have become any better for us. 

I can’t believe I am confessing this.  One day I was in COSCO and the woman in front of me had a basket full of beautiful fruits and vegetables along with a Kellogg’s Cereal Apple Jack and Froot Loop variety pack.  She had two teenage girls and two toddlers with her.  I put my hand on her vegetables, looked at her, smiled and said: “These look good.”  She just smiled back and at this point I realized she had know idea what I just said.   That’s fine and thank goodness what I really wanted to say didn’t come out of my mouth.  And then it did.  One of her teenage daughters came around to where I was standing.  I looked at her square in the eye, put my hand on the Kellogg’s Apple Jack and Fruit Loop variety pack and with the other hand pointed to her younger siblings and said: “Your mother can’t give this to them.  They are not healthy.”  I don’t even remember what happened after that.  I got really hot and wasn’t sure how to feel about my intrusion into a complete stranger’s dietary choices for her family.  As I reflect, it was really none of my business.  

But my passion runs deep with breakfast cereal.  That is why I now make my own.  I hope you and your family enjoy it as much as our family does! 


Homemade Cereal – Gluten Free

6 Cups of Gluten Free Rolled Oats

1 Cup of Hemp Seeds

½ Cup of Flax Meal

3 Cups of Almond Flour

1 ½ Cups of Pecans Pureed

A Smidge More Than 1/3 of a Cup of Maple Syrup

Mix well in a very large bowl and transfer onto 2 tinfoil lined baking pans.  Place in the oven at 350 and bake for about 25 min (give or take a few minutes). Make sure you stir every 7 minutes and switch the cooking racks once or twice.

After it cools, store in the refrigerator.

Love deeply and eat mindfully,
Kim Gilroy - kimgilroyinsideout