Making raw granola from sprouted buckwheat

It’s been about 18 months, maybe longer, since I last made a batch of cereal.  But it’s so easy to do with a dehydrator, and so tasty, not to mention jolly good for you!
I used sprouted buckwheat to make my cereal.  I bought the buckwheat in Tesco’s and have been using it to make veggie-burgers etc.  But it can be easily sprouted to become more nutritious, more enzyme packed, and much better for the digestion.  Sprouting a grain allows it to make its own enzymes, which aids digestion and means that your pancreas doesn’t have to work quite so hard. Keeping the grain raw instead of cooking it means that none of those precious enzymes, or any of the vitamins and minerals are destroyed.
I sprouted the buckwheat by soaking it over night in water. Then letting is sit in a colander for 2 days, thoroughly rinsing 3 times a day. 
The making of the granola only took me 5 minutes of work. I put the buckwheat into a large bowl and mixed in some olive oil, a cup of honey, some crushed almonds, a cup of ground sesame seeds, a cup of ground linseed (or flax), then threw in some dried cranberries, a few goji berries, raisins, and a few pumpkin and sunflower seeds.  It was so delicious that I could have eaten it like that!
I dehydrated it on a very low heat using my excalibur dehydrator, using the setting for ‘living foods’.  It took over 24 hours to totally dry out.  Dehydrating means that the food feels like its been cooked, but has the same nutrient content as if it was still raw.
We ate a bowl of our gorgeous granola in fresh almond milk, so it was a totally vegan breakfast.  And there’s lots left over. Yummy.
This is the sprouted buckwheat. You can see the little shoots that have appeared…

Next I added all the other raw ingredients…..

Then I dehydrated it for a long time… (you can see Kale Chips dehydrating too)…..

To make yummy raw granola, with fresh almond milk….

Vegan days 2 and 3

   

 

 

Days 2 and 3 of the vegan challenge have gone well. Surprisingly we have found some meals that everyone likes, including Barney! He loved last nights chickpea curry (not photographed), so that was a success.  Rosie liked the marinated bean salad that we had for lunch yesterday. You can see her trying that out in the photo. She also has discovered a love of tomatoes (funny how both the girls love tomatoes and both the boys hate them), and loved roast sweet potato. 

This 5 day diet isn’t just vegan, it’s also gluten free, potato free and corn free. So what does one eat for breakfast if you can’t have toast, packet cereals or bacon and eggs?  Good question. Apart from the obvious, fruit, we have tried a few different breakfasts. The first photo is soaked nuts with almond milk.  The almonds, cashews, walnuts and sunflower seeds were soaked over night to make them easier to digest.  Then I added fresh pear to them, but they really could have used a bit more fruit in.  I made my own almond milk following meghan’s recipe. Almond milk is lovely! And a great cows milk substitute in cereals. The kids have been drinking it neat and calling it a nut smoothie.  It is so simple to make as well.  The second photo is a mixed porridge of various grains… millet, quinoa, buckwheat, brown rice and oats.  It was soaked overnight and then boiled up in the morning.  I added honey and dried and fresh fruits to it.  It is a real stick-to-your-ribs kind of breakfast.  Rosie ate a massive bowl of it, so I will be making it again for her. 

The other photos show our lunches. Marinated bean salad. It was yum; Rosie and I like it more than Marty who ate it but wasn’t all that excited. Lol.  We will have the leftovers for todays lunch, and then any that are still left can be cooked into a curry or veggie chilli for dinner. The roast veggies were really nice, especially the roast sweet potato and leek.  I’ve never thought of eating roast veggies without potato or meat before but it was quite a satisfying lunch, and so easy to prepare.

The bowl of green stuff is raw courgette and avocado hummus dip.  I really liked this.   So all in all the vegan thing has been going well. It’s funny though how much you crave something as soon as you know that you aren’t allowed it.  For instance, Marty is craving cheese; even though he quite often goes more than 5 days without eating it.

I must say that I feel far more energetic and full of life.  I haven’t been suffering with the constant headaches that I get, even though I’ve reduced my caffeine intake right down.  Reducing caffeine usually gives me terrible headaches. 

Day 1 – 5 Days Vegan

Yay! Day one of our 5 day vegan challenge. I couldn't wait to get started on cooking (and eating!)  Some of it didn't go so well, some went well, and some was great. I have asked everyone to score each meal out of 10 so that I know which ones to make again.  I don't want them saying 'mmmm, its nice' just so that they don't offend me and my cooking skills, just to find out when I remake it that they aren't so keen. Lol.

Breakfast was banana pancakes made with buckwheat flour, banana, honey, linseed and apple sauce.  Marty wasn't keen on it (he doesn't like banana's), nor was Barney.  Tarja liked hers and Jimmie went for seconds.  Not so bad.

Lunch was carrot and ginger soup, with Quinoa Tabouli.  The soup was a bit bland in my opinion, but fluorescent orange in colour and nothing to complain about.  I liked the tabouli but Marty thought it was too lemony.

 

I couldn’t make the planned dinner for this evening as I couldn’t get hold of some of the ingredients for it. So we made Indian Lentils instead (see last photo).  As horrible as it looks (I personally think it looks yum, but Marty nearly died when I dished it up!) it tasted really, really, really good. It is definitely a meal that we will make regularly.  We ate it with brown rice, and leftover Adzuki Patties.  Yum.

But more than anything, the kids and Marty are loving the seedy treats.  They are disappearing fast. In the photo you can see a log of seedy heaven, which is frozen and sliced up, eaten straight from the freezer. To the left of that are sesame slices, and the balls are walnut and cocoa truffles.  All are totally healthy and nutritious, and the bonus is that the kids think they are cakes!

I also made a big pot of lentil and lemon soup for another day.  Marty wanted it blended up so that he couldn’t see the ingredients, and it is now yellow soup, but it tastes absolutely divine. I can’t wait to eat it!

A family of cress heads...

Barney has been taking good care of the cress heads that he's been growing. It's amazing how fast cress grows! The little egg family all have a full head of green hair already. Soon they will need a hair cut. Yummy.

Tomorrow Badger is having his 14th birthday party. He has a load of friends from school coming over. Marty is going to supervise and I am going to go somewhere with Rosie and Barney just to keep out of the way. I'm not sure where we are going yet though. I'm pretty sure both Barney and I won't cope with a house full of teenagers, so we are best off out of the way.

There's only one week of school left for the kids before the summer holidays start. I love the summer holidays. No school runs, no uniforms to wash and iron in time, no waking up at the crack of dawn to get ready for school. And lots of time with my precious babies. I can never understand it when I hear parents complaining that they can't wait for their kids to go back to school.

I've ordered some books about Aspergers/high functioning Autism to read from Amazon but they are taking ages to arrive. One called 'When My Worries Get Too Big' has arrived, but it's a book for Barney to read. We haven't tried it yet, but the idea is that it teaches children how to relax and calm down rather than going into panic. We shall see if it works or not. I like the idea behind it, but wonder whether it will make a jot of difference. When Barney gets an idea into his head it's very hard to change his direction.

Here are a couple of photos from today. Rosie at age 6 months, with that lovely chubby baby look. Aren't chubby babies just delicious? And Barney the explorer about to head off on a mission.

I've been thinking about getting back into the healthy eating and nutrition that I was interested in before our trip away. I still love sprouting, but really want to get back into it. Since I was too busy being pregnant and recovering from the c section, I didn't get to plant or grow any vegetables this year. It's a shame as I really enjoyed growing our own food. But I've been so busy with the baby and other things that my own interests have taken a bit of a back seat. I've been reading a few healthy blogs to inspire myself lately. I really want to get back into the swing of things - sprouting, wheat grass, raw foods, veganism and home bread making. I'm not a vegan, as most of you know, but I really do like the idea behind it and appreciate that we eat far too much meat and dairy in our diets. Anyway, here are a few blogs I've been reading lately that have inspired me....

Making Love In The Kitchen
Eat Air - A Vegan Food Log
Green As A Thistle
Urban Organic Gardener

Motivation

It's time to get myself a bit motivated about something. I am trying to get back into nutrition again. As readers of my old blog will know I have been very interested in sprouting and raw foods for many years now. When we ate a lot of sprouts, sunflower greens and raw foods I felt on top of the world and full of energy. I need to start feeling that way again. Instead of sluggish, slow, recently pregnant and tired. If you're not sure what sprouting is, you can read my blog post all about it on my old blog by clicking here. And for a little about eating raw read this blog post.

So today we had our first fresh batch of sprouts which were a detox mix including mung bean, broccoli, clover, beetroot, alfalfa, radish and a few others. Today I've set a jar of clover sprouts to germinate and they will be ready in about 3 days. I love sprouting. It's so refreshing and rejuvenating, and just full of life giving goodness. I got out of the way of it when we were travelling across America, and I really must get into it again. I always feel so much happier when I'm producing good healthy nutrition for my family.

So I've been thinking a lot about what to do to benefit my health at the moment. I want to get back into making my own flour and bread again too. I don't think I have the get-up-and-go this year to get the vegetable garden back in working order. Not with a small baby to look after. Which is a shame because I enjoy the fresh air and I get a real buzz in the summer from spending time in the vegetable garden. It was one of the most beneficial projects I have ever under-taken. I felt so at peace, yet so alive when sitting out in the vegetable garden, pulling up weeds in the summer time. Here is one of my vegetable gardening blog posts, from the good old days! My vegetable garden is now 4 ft tall with weeds. But that's what happens when you leave it all behind to go travelling, and I don't regret that for a second!

So I have ordered two vegan cookbooks. I do like my meat, but I don't like to eat a lot of it. I'm much happier with a mostly vegetarian diet, and I think it's more natural. I have a lot of cool raw food books, but thought a couple of vegan books might inspire me to get back into the kitchen. My kitchen has been taken over by a man. Lol. A man who likes to cook, but likes to eat a lot of meat, and not a lot of veg! It has been nice not having to cook while he's been off work, but I do miss my creativity in the kitchen. I think I will let him cook the main meals while I fiddle around with the raw foods.

So there you have it, I am trying to think positively and to do things to fulfill my life again. I am very cross that I let myself be so affected by someone who obviously didn't give a damn about me in the long run. I must try not to get so hurt by people. But it's never easy. I am what I am. Too caring for my own good half the time. But I am trying to perk myself up before I go into a depression. I have a few good days and then I just feel totally wrecked and sad. I feel sorry for my family when I'm like that. But it's hard to just get out of it.

I have also started a music blog. Well, its just something silly for myself really. A sort of music diary. I tend to use music as therapy and so I've started to document that a bit. Not sure how long I will keep it up for.