Graw-nola

Granola is just so good. Portable-no-perishable hall of fame. It’s also a sneaky “health” food. Sure, there are oats, but there are “natural” granolas loaded with sugar and other unnecessary things. For about 10 minutes of prep time and allowing your dehydrator to do the work, you’ve got yourself some incredibly inexpensive, delicious and healthy granola. And based on these numbers, it’s about 78% cheaper to make it yourself!

Cinnamon Apple Graw-nola (6 servings)

• 2 large firm apples (I used granny smith and Fuji)
• 2 cups oats (if needed, ask for gluten-free certified oats)
• 1/2 cup chopped or slivered almonds
• 2 T coconut/date sugar
• 1 T honey
• 1/4 cup water
• 1/4 tsp pink salt
• 1/2-3/4 tsp cinnamon

Directions:

1. Core and halve apples; coarsely grate. A large slice of peel will be left, making it so easy! Discard peel.
2. Place apple in a bowl with the other ingredients and toss lightly until thoroughly mixed. Excess juice will make the dehydrating process take longer, so drain apples only if they’re super super juicy, you still want the flavor.
3. Spread mixture onto dehydrator sheets (parchment paper works great) and dry for 7 to 8 1/2 hours, or until crunchy. I used a one-setting dehydrator (140º) for 8.5 hours. “Raw” foods are not heated above 110-120º, so I’m not within that range, but close enough for me right now.
4. Store in an air-tight container.

9 grams of fiber and delicious to boot! If you find granola recipes, adapt them to suit your needs. Once you make granola and you see how easy and cheap it is, you will be able to experiment with all kinds of versions, even nut-free. I adapted the recipe above from here, easily changing the sweetener to sugar-free.

Cowboy Cavier

Fun right?!

Cowboy Cavier Bowls (serves 4)

• 1 cup dry black beans prepared (yields 2.5 cups cooked) or 2 15 oz cans
• 1/2 lb frozen corn, cooking is optional
• 1/2 red, yellow, green or orange bell pepper, diced
• 1 vine-ripened tomato
• 1/4-1/2 onion diced
• 1 avocado
• cilantro
• cilantro dressing (see below)
• chipotle chili powder
• taco bowls (see below)
• Optional: jicama, green chilies, hot peppers, jalapeno, lime juice

Directions:

1. Prepare beans by soaking 1 cup of dry beans for 6-8 hours, rinsing and then boiling lightly for 50 minutes. Prepare the night before and keep in the fridge.
2. Cook corn according to directions or thaw frozen corn for extra crunch.
3. In a bowl, add beans, corn, peppers, tomato, onion and cilantro. Add seasonings if desired or make cilantro dressing (see below). The measurements are arbitrary really!! Have fun with it!
4. Add avocado at the end before serving.
5. Serve with chips or scoop into homemade (almost) taco bowls!

Taco Bowls (makes 3 at a time)

• Corn tortillas soft taco size (this brand is the best!!) read labels for sure and look for ones that are refrigerated.
  Sonoma: “water, stone ground organic corn masa flour, contains less than 2% of each of the following: organic guar gum, lime.”
  Mission tortillas: “Ground Corn Treated with Lime, Water, Cellulose Gum (wood!), Propionic Acid (to preserve freshness), Benzoic Acid (to preserve freshness), Phosphoric Acid (preservative), Dextrose, Guar Gum, Amylase.”
• Extra virgin olive oil
• Basting brush (trust me on this! Necessito!)
• Muffin pan
• Baking pan

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 450°.
2. Oil sections of the muffin pan as they would touch the tortillas as you see above.
3. Take tortilla in hand and LIGHTLY brush with oil. Place the tortilla on a baking sheet in the oven (once preheated) for a min until it barely starts bubbling. Using your basting brush (remove excess oil) press the tortilla as you see above into the upside-down muffin pan. If your tortilla isn’t malleable enough, add a bit more oil and heat it so it’s flimsy and fits easily in the mold.
4. Bake for 10 minutes or until nice and golden and slightly brown. Allow them to cool. You may need to bake a bit longer or place on hi broil for a minute or two if the bottoms are chewy. That’s how you would reheat as well.
5. If you mess up? Break it into chips! or Cut tortillas into strips, bake and use for soup.

Cilantro Dressing

Use this recipe or the one below

• 1 huge bunch fresh cilantro, chopped (try to remove stems as best you can, but not necessary I don’t think)
• 8 cloves garlic, minced (yes 8!)
• 3/4 cup olive oil
• 1/4 cup red wine vinegar
• 3 tablespoons lime juice (about 1 lime juiced)
• 1/2-1 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cayenne pepper or chipotle chili powder

Directions:

1. Blend all ingredients and adjust seasonings to taste. This dressing in particular should sit for a while as it may seem mild or bland at first, but once the flavors “marry” the flavors come alive.

Fajitas Huevos alla Jon

When my spouse cooks now, he cooks so well!

He really wanted fajitas, and I really wanted eggs (because huevos rancheros is one of my favorite dishes) so voltron was born.

Jon even made his very own homemade, from scratch, refried black beans. And they were perfect and make canned beans taste…inadequate. They tasted fantastic and had the perfect consistency. And they probably cost about $1. Beans are a super staple in any diet because we can all use more fiber!

Fajitas Huevos alla Jon (serves 4)

For the beans, to be started 8 hours before dinner (or prepared in advance):

• 3 cups dry black beans (recommend presoak and rinse)
• 9 cups water
• 2 jalapenos – 1 seeded, 1 unseeded (optional)
• 5 tsp salt
• 1 3/4 tsp pepper
• 1/8 tsp cumin
• 2-3 cloves garlic

Directions:

1. Place the rinsed beans, jalapeno, garlic, salt, pepper, and cumin into a slow cooker/crockpot. Pour in the water and stir to combine. Cook on High for 8 hours (or your 8-hour setting), adding more water as needed. Note: if more than 1 cup of water has evaporated during cooking, then the temperature is too high.
2. Once the beans have cooked, strain them, and reserve the liquid. Mash the beans with a potato masher, adding the reserved water as needed to attain desired consistency.
3. Save beans in the fridge and reheat or serve with the meal below.

For the rest of the meal:

• 2 bell peppers, sliced
• 1 onion, sliced
• 2 T olive oil
• organic corn tortillas (about 2 per person)
• salsa
• cilantro, chopped
• cultured sour cream
• eggs (look for pastured eggs)
• ghee or butter, for cooking eggs
• Optional: garlic, pepper, chipotle chili powder for seasoning eggs

Directions:

1. Heat olive oil in a large skillet on medium/medium-low. Saute peppers and onions for about 10 minutes, or until slightly firm and semi-soft.
2. In the mean time, you can heat a small skillet and warm your corn tortillas if desired.
3. Melt your ghee/butter in a pan on medium-low. Cook your eggs on medium-low for about 6-8 minutes. Season with garlic, pepper and chipotle chili powder. I prefer them sunny-side-up for this dish, and I can tell they’re done when I see bubbles inside the yolk and the egg whites have all turned white instead of clear.
4. Serve beans, vegetables, tortillas, salsa, cilantro, sour cream and eggs. There’s no wrong way to do it.

Reference:
Refried Bean Recipe