Category Archives: Organic Mama Cafe

Oct 13
0

Homemade Hummus

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And now, a quick break from my Finding Culture in Phoenix posts to finally offer up a recipe some of you have been waiting so patiently to see. I have had a few frustrating weeks of no camera and the pixels on my current cell are just too low to get a good blog pic.
This is the of homemade hummus I took to my visit on ABC15’s Smart Families, I got a lot of requests for the recipes for the hummus and the homemade almond butter. I’ll do another post about the almond butter, another super easy recipe, by the end of the week.
Now, being a frugal and organic mama, I try to cook the beans I use for recipes like this from scratch. I do this for a few reasons, including….
1. It’s cheaper. While I can buy a can of organic beans for about $1.09 (or less on sale), I can make about 5 times that amount of organic beans by buying them in bulk.
2. Avoiding canned food because of safety issues associated with BPA in can liners. A few companies are now using non-BPA liners and you can see a list here.
3. I can cook a lot at a time and freeze it for later use or just have an unending supply of hummus!
If you’re thinking that making beans from scratch sounds like a lot of work, I can reassure you that it’s not. It just takes a little planning. You can see how to make them right here.
Now, I do give an ingredients list but feel free to add a little more (or less) fresh garlic if you like and adjust the salt to your taste. It’s always better to add a small amount of something so you don’t have to go back and find more garbanzo beans to even out too much lemon or salt.
Also, I use a food processor for this. A food processor is an invaluable tool for a cook who has a lot to do and doesn’t want to mess around with a bunch of different tools. I can shred, chop and otherwise pulverize things that would take me forever to chop in this thing. If you don’t have one, you can get a smaller one here or a larger one here.
Hummus Recipe
Ingredients
2 1/2-3 cups garbanzo beans or one can organic beans, reserve the liquid
2 tablespoons Tahini, sesame seed butter – you can skip this in a pinch but it is going to change the texture & flavor a bit
4-6 peeled cloves of garlic
2 T lemon juice (more to taste)
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 teaspoon salt
black pepper to taste
*Optional – ingredients like red bell peppers, spinach, etc or add a little spice like red pepper flakes
Place all the ingredients, minus the bean liquid, into the food processor and blend till creamy.
If it’s too thick, add a little bean liquid – just a few tablespoons at a time – till it reaches the consistency you like.

 

If you like you can drizzle a little olive oil over the top before serving with your favorite chopped veggies. Ours are red, green, yellow and orange bell peppers, carrots, celery, jicama, cucumber, zucchini etc. Just take your pick.
See – told you it was easy!!
Oct 13
0

Making Dried Beans

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Seriously. So. Easy.

Ok, this post goes along with my fresh hummus recipe. I really don’t buy canned beans anymore unless I’ve not planned well and need something in a hurry. It’s just so much cheaper to make them from scratch and they taste amazing. I also use my crockpot for beans because I can leave it on, then go to bed or leave the house and I come home to food that’s already cooked. Nice.

By the way, when I make garbanzo beans (or chickpeas) for hummus, I usually don’t season them at all while they’re cooking.

Here’s how you make beans from scratch –

Beans from Scratch 
Ingredients
1.5 to 2 lbs of Beans – black beans, pinto beans, garbanzo beans (chickpeas), black eyed peas etc. 
1 T lemon juice
Seasonings – paprika, turmeric, bay etc. 
Salt (DON’T put this in till after the beans are cooked!)
1 inch piece of Seaweed – helps to break down bean sugar – (check your health food store)
1. Rinse beans thoroughly. Place in bowl with lemon and cover with several inches of water to soak overnight. This helps to break down those complex beany sugars that make you sing the tooty bean song after you’ve indulged in beans. 
OR
Place your beans in a large pan and cover with water. Bring water to a rolling boil and shut off the heat. These beans will only need to soak for 4 hours and this method is supposed to be even better at breaking down the complex sugar to reduce digestive issues.
2. After soaking, pour off the water and rinse beans again. Then, place in crockpot and cover with water. 
3. Add desired seasoning – minus salt. Adding salt before the beans are done will leave you with tough or undercooked beans. 
4. Cook beans on low for 6 hours OR on high for 4 or more – depending on the beans. Use common sense or check your crockpot book for wisdom. Big beans = more time, little beans = less. 
5. Once your beans are cooked, add salt to taste. 

If you don’t have a crockpot, you can buy one here or just put your beans right back in the same large pot you soaked them in, cover with fresh water and cook them. Cooking time varies per bean but usually between 45 minutes and 1.5 hours. You usually want your bean to still have some shape when they’re done so keep an eye on them. Same rules apply regarding seasoning and salt.

Sep 22
0

A Life Flowing with Milk and Honey

By | Natural Health | 2 Comments

Recently, I happened to visit a friend’s house after I picked up my milk and honey from some local friends. Both foods are delicious and as fresh as food can get. My friend’s husband soon arrived and I had to laugh as he exclaimed, “Wow, this is just weird!” when he saw my glass jars of goat milk and how our dark, raw, medicinal quality honey was crystallized. I sometimes forget how different our shopping habits are from many of our friends despite the fact that one of my sisters refers to me as a “hippie”.

We haven’t always eaten such fresh, delicious food. When I first ventured out on my own as a single girl, my cabinet had plenty of canned/boxed and otherwise prepared foods. But, as I got more interested in fueling my body to do the things I was interested in – like long hikes and martial arts (I know, what a picture!) – I learned to get the most bang for my buck by investing in fresh, whole foods.

I wish I could say that I’ve consistently made healthy choices with my life since the time I learned to make REAL food, but like most people I have regressed from time to time. In the early years of our marriage, my husband and I ate out a lot, made white pastas and bread a staple of our diet and added quite a few pounds to our waistlines.

When we realized (each at different times in our journey) how much these choices affected our health and our ability to do things we love, we each committed to make changes in our lifestyles and food choices. We didn’t try to change everything at once. Instead, we made small adjustments – like cutting out sugar, pasta and bread and adding lots of veggies. We incorporated legumes or organic meat and whole grains (like brown rice, quinoa, couscous, steel cut oats etc). We learned to eat till we weren’t quite full and our attitudes about food started to change. We learned to love eating foods as close to their natural state as possible.

As we tried to find a healthy balance, we discovered we liked cooking healthy food a lot more when we had fun options. We decided that a diet high in fruits and veggies meant we needed to switch to organically grown food so we weren’t eating a lot of pesticides with each bite. We discovered that farmer’s markets sell locally and seasonally grown food at a reasonable price. We learned that we like knowing the people who grow our food and love supporting the local economy. Thanks to our venture into local foods, we now have great friends who provide us with delicious dark honey and milk in glass jars.

Making changes to the way we shop, eat and live has taken us on somewhat of a unexpected journey.  Saying goodbye to mainstream, box stores has brought us closer to our community and has opened our eyes to an abundance of locally grown foods, including those grown in our own yard. It’s given us a way to spend time together as a family each week and helps us to teach our kids about caring for this beautiful world and their own bodies. We have everything we need to live well and we breathe in our food and life with gratitude. In a way, we’ve realized that we live in a land flowing with milk and honey –  and it’s a good place to be.


Dark, raw honey. We use it for medicinal purposes and it has a rich, almost smoky flavor. DELICIOUS!
Sep 21
0

Crispy nuts

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Crispy nuts (meaning almonds, walnuts, pecans etc) are a big hit at our house. I discovered them through a book about traditional food preparations, called Nourishing Traditions, and they have since become a staple in our diet. But what are “Crispy Nuts”? And why not just eat nuts? I’m glad you asked!

While nuts are very healthy for us and a great source of protein and good fat, as well as being in possession of cancer preventing, heart disease preventing and other amazing properties, they can be pretty hard to digest in their natural state. In fact, some of you may think that you can’t eat nuts because they make your stomach hurt or your throat itch. But what you may be experiencing is a reaction to the enzyme inhibitors that exist in nuts. The best way to deactivate those enzyme inhibitors and make those nuts more digestible is to soak the nuts in some water and a little salt and then dehydrate them.

Though I first encountered this information in Nourishing Traditions and other food journals, I can actually vouch for the difference it makes in my own ability to enjoy eating raw nuts. Prior to learning this method, my throat would itch uncomfortably when I ate walnuts and I didn’t really like the taste of raw almonds, though I figured they were probably better for me than roasted nuts because they didn’t have a bunch of salt or artificial flavoring all over them.

After I tried soaking both almonds and walnuts, the itchy problem completely disappeared and I also discovered I loved the taste of the soaked almonds. And, my husband, who has always hated walnuts, thinks these ones taste amazing. They have a toasty, addictive flavor. Healthier than chips and a million times tastier!

Here’s the recipe I use

Crispy Almonds
1 1/2 pounds of almonds a glass container
Filtered water to cover the nuts by a few inches
1 T. SEA salt NOT table salt

1. Leave the nuts in a warm place to soak overnight or for at least 7 hours. See the above pic.
2. After soaking, just pour the water off and dump the nuts on a big cookie sheet and place in the oven at 150 degrees F for 12-24 hours.

When they’re done, the inside of the nuts should look kinda toasty and they’ll have a roasty, crunchy taste and texture.

 
Nourishing Traditions suggests slightly less salt for walnuts and pecans but I confess that I rarely measure for this recipe. I just toss approximately a tablespoon for all three recipes and they always taste great. Also, NT recommends storing walnuts and pecans in the fridge, though ours rarely last long enough for this to be necessary.

Dehydrators work great for this process because the oven stays free for other uses. Unfortunately, my dehydrator isn’t very big and I got tired of making these in batches so, I switched to my oven. It is important to note that according to raw food gurus, you need to keep the temp under 115 F in order to keep those digestive enzymes alive. But, if you don’t have a dehydrator or if your oven doesn’t go below 200, you’ll still be getting a healthier product than what you’d be buying in the store.

I do want to mention that if you have an actual nut allergy – like something that causes anaphylaxis – I am NOT recommending this as a remedy. But, if you find that eating nuts just bothers your stomach a little or you just don’t like the flavor, this is the recipe for you!