I got this recipe from a cookbook I was perusing while at the inlaws on the 4th of July. My father-in-law has an extensive cookbook collection, and I usually take the time to see if he’s added anything new since my last visit. This particular recipe came from the Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives Cookbook from Guy Fieri. I love that show, because most of the establishments they visit have recipes that have been passed down for generations, and they almost always use the freshest ingredients…my ears always perk up when I hear that a particular joint uses only organic produce and ingredients, most of which they grow themselves or buy from local farmers. Anyway, I got away with 3 recipes that day, and this is one of them. I’m very happy I took the time to write this one down…SO GOOD!!!

SO here goes…simply add all of these ingredients into a blender or food processor, blend until smooth, and ENJOY! If you’re using a Blendtec, just use the Sauces and Dips button, and that should do it!

*1 15 oz can Organic Garbanzo Beans (chickpeas)

*1 15 oz can Organic Black Beans (I use Eden Foods for both, no BPA in the can lining!))

*2/3 c Olive Oil (the recipe called for blended canola and olive oil, but I just used the evoo)

*1/3 c water

*1 Tablespoon Tahini

*2 small cloves Garlic chopped

*4 teaspoons Chili Powder

*Juice of 1 and 1/2 Limes or to taste

* 1 and 1/4 teaspoons Sea Salt

*1 teaspoon Cayenne Pepper

*Pinch each of Ground Coriander, Ground Cumin, and Ground Cinnamon

These are photos from Sosnicki Certified Organic Family Farm!

They are worth AT LEAST five thousand words! Check out their Organic Farming board on Pinterest, their website at SosnickiOrganics.com, and their blog…more beautiful photos at all three places! I wish I lived closer to these wonderful farmers who are growing food the right way, with respect for our health and the health of our planet! I told Jesse, when asking if I could share these photos, that I felt a STRONG urge to dive into that field of Kale!

Homemade Roasted Organic Almonds

This is so incredibly easy and delicious…not to mention way better than the store bought options. I actually had people telling me I should bottle and sell them, so I decided to do a post to share how simple it is to do in your own kitchen…yes, it’s also simple to just buy a jar, but these taste better and have no preservatives or additives!

What you’ll need:

* Organic Raw Almonds (you choose the amount that will fit on your baking sheet in a single layer)

* Organic Extra Virgin Olive Oil

* Sea Salt

* Freshly Ground Pepper

* Optional~ Any other seasoning you’d like, such as cajun seasoning, hickory seasoning, anything organic, which you can always find at Mountain Rose Herbs if not at your local grocery store.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees

Put your almonds into a bowl or bag and drizzle with olive oil. No need to soak them, just make sure they all get coated lightly. Add some salt, pepper, and any other seasoning you’re using to the mix…this is all to taste and depends on the amount of almonds you’ve chosen to roast. Mix to make sure seasoning coats the almonds, then put them onto your baking sheet spreading out evenly in a single layer. I sprinkle a bit more salt and pepper once I have them spread onto the sheet, but you can always season them after they are done, if you think they need a bit more. Roast in 350 degree oven for 20-30 minutes. I’ve found mine turn out perfectly in about 25 minutes after having taken them out once to give them a stir. Remove from the oven, and let cool slightly…I say slightly, because they are heavenly when they’re warm, but still incredible after they’ve cooled completely! If you have any left after just a few minutes, they’ll store for a few days in an airtight container in a cool dry area. ENJOY!!!

Thank you FoodandWaterWatch.org!

How to Get Started for $50

Thanks to Frugal Dad!

Source: http://FrugalDad.com

ORGANIC KALE CHIPS

Here’s what you’ll need:
*A Baking Sheet
*One Bunch of Organic Kale
*Organic Extra Virgin Olive Oil
*Sea Salt, Freshly Ground Pepper, and any other seasoning you’d like to try. I usually go with a little Garlic Powder in addition to the salt and pepper, but you can try anything…Cajun Seasoning, Seasoned Salt, Lemon Pepper, etc.
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees
I lightly grease my baking sheet by rubbing a very small amount of Olive Oil, just to make sure they don’t stick.
Wash and thoroughly dry the kale. Remove the leaves from the stalk and tear into bite size pieces.
Place the pieces on the cookie sheet and spread them out, so that they aren’t piled up. They can be touching, but you don’t want any to be covered by others, so they’ll cook evenly. Drizzle with the Olive Oil, then sprinkle the salt, pepper, and any other seasoning you’ve chosen to taste. Then mix them with your hands to make sure all of the pieces are covered and spread back out evenly.
Bake at 350 degrees for 10-15 minutes. As you know, ovens vary, and this did take me a few attempts to get right. My perfect time is 14 minutes. You can peek in around 10 minutes to see how they are looking, and stir them around a bit, if some look like they aren’t cooking as quickly. With my Winter Red Kale, I actually took them out after 11 minutes and lifted them off the sheet with a spatula, then stuck them back in for the remaining three minutes. It is much flatter, as mentioned before, and I thought it was sticking and possibly burning, because it looked like a sticker on the sheet. It came right up though, and turned out beautifully! If it takes a few tries to get them just right, don’t give up…you’ll have to trust me that they are definitely worth the effort!

ENJOY!!!

First of all, make sure to use Organic Celery. Celery is #2 on the Dirty Dozen List, which means it holds on to all of the nasty pesticides used in conventional farming. Organic is the only way to go with this veggie!

Simply cut off the celery stalks about 1 ½ inches from the bottom and place bottom piece in a glass of water that covers about half way up.

Then wait…it only takes a day or so to start seeing the new growth that comes up from the center. I’ve read two different ways to go forward. One said that I could simply soak overnight and then plant in the garden, and another said I should wait until I saw the new roots starting to appear. I decided to meet in the middle and let it soak for a few days. I didn’t yet see new roots, but the new growth was an inch or so tall. I went ahead and put it in my raised bed garden, because we’ve been having pretty warm weather down here. So far so good…it’s grown a couple of inches since I put it in!

What a simple, fun, and instantly gratifying way to grow your own food! Plus, the kids loved it and learned a lot. I can’t wait until I can pull it out of the garden and use it in our cooking and fresh juices!

This is not going to be an actual book review…just a little about the book and why I think EVERYONE should read it. I actually won this book through a contest I wasn’t aware I’d entered…seriously! I was on Twitter one day and saw a tweet from @SlowFoodUSA asking how people intended to eat better and help fix our food system. I just replied back that I was simply going to grow my own organic veggies, support organic companies & sustainable agriculture and share as much information about all of this as possible with ANYONE who would listen.  A few days later they sent me a message saying I’d won a free copy of Fair Food, and I graciously accepted! If you ask me, this is the only way to win…I’m not big on entering giveaways and such, too much work, lol! Rest assured that if I ever start giving things away on the blog, I won’t make you jump through hoops…I’ll just employ the old “draw a name from the hat” method!

On with the non book review! I’m basically recommending this book, because it left me feeling HOPEFUL FOR OUR FOOD! Let’s face it, most of the things you hear and read these days in relation to that subject tend to be negative, and it’s important to know this information….BUT food is supposed to be a good thing…a beautiful thing. This book left me feeling like it really is possible to get our food system back on the right track before it is too late. It is incredibly informative on the many issues that have led us to where we are now, such as corporate concentration, factory farming, pesticide use, GMOs, etc. Most importantly, this book presents solutions as well, as he writes about what steps, small and large, are necessary to restructure our food sytem. He writes about changing not just how we eat, but how we grow, package, deliver, market, and sell our food. In a post on the Fair Food Network’s website, there is a short Q & A with the author, and here is the passage that pushed me to get busy reading this book:

“In 1988, it would have been nearly impossible to find a political analyst predicting the fall of the Berlin Wall. Yet, a point occurred in 1989 when enough activists had been at work with their tools that the political infrastructure and the foundation of the wall were sufficiently weakened, and the wall came tumbling down. In the same way, we have had food systems activists chipping away at the current broken food system for many years. Countless farmers, gardeners, leaders, students, teachers, writers, politicians, businesspeople, academics, and moms and dads, with the equivalent of chisels and hammers in their hands, have been challenging the current food system brick by brick. Every time someone decides to get their food at a farmers market, establishes a small-scale organic farm, or develops a new sustainable supply chain for their company, they are attempting to change the current system, one step at a time.”

That’s just beautiful…and so true. You can read the rest of that post called Perspectives: Food Activism HERE on FairFoodNetwork.org, and I suggest you do…if you don’t have time to read the book just yet, this post will leave you feeling hopeful and inspired too! If you’re ready for the book or just want to read more about it, you can click HERE for a link through Amazon.

Here’s What you’ll need:

*5 T Raw/Unrefined Organic Coconut Oil~ I use Sunfood

*1/4 C Baking Soda

*1/4 C Organic Corn Starch or Arrowroot Powder (I used Cornstarch this time, will be trying with Arrowroot as well)

*10 drops of Essential Oils of your choice

Have I mentioned this is TOO EASY? Just measure the Baking Soda and Cornstarch and put both into an 8oz canning jar. Melt the coconut oil in another jar by filling a pot with a few inches of water and heating the jar slowly on the stove (I just prefer this to the microwave). Then add 5 tablespoons of the melted Coconut Oil to the Baking Soda and Cornstarch mixture and stir. Add the essential oil of your choice for scent. I used Coriander Oil this time, because it was all I had left, and I wanted to make this TODAY, but you can use any number of oils and combinations. Lavender, Ylang Ylang, and Tea Tree Oil are a few I’ve seen mentioned frequently. From my reading, I’ve found that 9 or 10 drops is about the right amount.

You can stop here, let it set a bit and just use the deodorant out of the jar, applying by hand…OR you can go a step further and put it into an empty deodorant container. The mixture will harden once the coconut oil sets. The trick is getting it just pliable enough to put into the container without it leaking through. It was pretty easy when I did it…at first I let it get too hard and had to soften it just a bit so that I could spoon it in. Once I got it right, I just let it set.

I am eager to see how this goes! It gets HOT here during the summer! Heck, it’s February 2nd and 75 degrees today…it’s been like this all week! I am hoping this will do the trick for me, because I’m at the point of refusing to buy the conventional deodorants that are filled with nasty chemicals…but I don’t want to offend either! The blog post I shared above had a very favorable result…I’m as determined as she is to make this work!

Here’s what you’ll need:

*Raw or Unrefined, Organic Coconut Oil

*Raw or Unrefined, Organic Cacao Butter

*A couple of glass jars to melt down the butters and a small pot that both jars can fit inside with a little water

*A mini muffin tin or any shape mold you’d like the bars to turn out…get creative…or not, like me

*A glass measuring cup is easiest but others will definitely do

I get my Cacao Butter and Coconut Oil from Sunfood, because they never heat either above 120 degrees, if that, but I’m sure it will work just fine with whichever brand you choose…just make sure to get unrefined and organic! Afterall, these are all about putting nothing but pure ingredients on your face, body, and lips…don’t want to muck that up by using unpure oils!

*First step is to get the cacao butter and coconut oil into a pourable state, so that you can mix the two together. I just put some of each into separate jars and then heat them slowly on the stove by adding a few inches of water to the pan and heating up the water. Here’s a pic of melting the coconut oil. Just do exactly the same for the cacao butter.

Now, the best ratio I’ve been able to find is 1 & 1/4 Cups melted Cacao Butter to 1/2 Cup melted Coconut Oil. The cacao butter is much harder than the coconut oil. I had to try many combinations before I finally got the bars to harden but still melt properly when touching skin…this is the only one I know, and unfortunately I can’t give an exact number of bars you’ll get. It depends on the size of you’re molds. With 1 & 1/4 C melted Cacao Butter and 1/2 C melted Coconut Oil, I ended up with a dozen bars, and then one HUGE bar, because I only had one mini muffin tin…don’t worry it wasn’t as pretty, but it still got used!

This is where the glass measuring cup comes in handy…you can just poor the melted cacao butter into the measuring cup up to the 1 & 1/4 C mark, and then add the coconut oil until you hit the 1 & 3/4 C mark, and you’re done(1 1/4 + 1/2 = 1 3/4)! Mix it up well, and poor into the molds. This is probably the hardest part of the whole process…YOU MUST WAIT! Just let it be on a counter in a cool dry place and wait for it to set. I try to leave mine for the day I make them and then overnight to make sure they’re set all the way through. I’ve poked many with a toothpick way too early on, but they still eventually set…very forgiving!

Once set, they should pop out of the molds fairly easily! I’ve had to use a toothpick in the corner to pry a couple out, but that’s rare. Remember, if you have any big mishaps, you can always re-melt and start again! Make sure you store these at room temperature or below, because the coconut oil will begin to melt at 78 degrees…otherwise they hold up just fine and only melt when they hit your skin! Have I mentioned I’m in LOVE with these!?! I hope you ENJOY them as well!