RAW creativity

I bought the best book! Its called The Raw Truth (second edition) by Jeremy A. Safron, it is 1/3 pure incredible information about nutrition, life and food and 2/3 recipes. Beautiful recipes, that make my brain flurry with happy hormones and chemicals. I finger the recipes like I am touching something so valuable in my hands. Combinations and flavours I have never seen in recipe form. Many of the recipes are for things I buy, paying upwards of $8/ 100g at health food stores. And right there in front of me on the page are the measurements, the instructions and more importantly, the ingredients, all laid out pretty for me. The possibilities are monumental. So much food, so much vitality written in those recipes... and yet the first thing I make to dehydrate, I just wing-it, that's just like me.

Steve says I can never stick to a recipe, and I am sometimes flustered at how strict he follows recipes. I only need recipes for things I can't feel or create intuitively. The food I know, I know very well. Being a good cook means knowing how food behaves when sliced and mashed or cooked and dried. I have created this recipe because its kinda like fruit leather, and its a nice baby step into the world of dehydrating.

Dehydrating is going to teach me patience and hone my prep skills. A good friend of mine, Barbara, runs an amazing business called B Love. She creates many raw, sprouted and dehydrated foods to sustain and nourish. She recently said to me that working with fresh food can, at times, be stressful. When I first heard this I thought it was a funny idea. Fresh food seemed so simple, i thought, simple because there was no cooking involved. At one point we have all ruined something by cooking it too long or too hot, but never by NOT cooking it. I think I just figured out what she meant while planning out a few recipes I want to dehydrate.

As I started writing out the recipe, then writing out the soaking times for each ingredient, and the sprouting times, and the prep time and then the drying time, I became overwhelmed. How can I fit this into my schedule? As a shift worker I don't have alot of time home, other than day's off, how am I going to work so many different prep steps into my days.... Wow, all of a sudden a little thing like making dehydrated carrot cake balls just turned into a big job. There is alot of planning involved, and I am only preparing enough for Steve and I, Barbara makes hundreds of food items a week.

Soaking? Sprouting?

Seeds and Nuts need to be soaked to release an enzyme inhibitor that makes them hard to digest. Why is that inhibitor there? Well seeds are designed to pass through a mammals stomach intact so that the seed can create a new plant once it is sent back to the earth. Makes sense right? You sprout a seed, nut or grain to increase its nutrition. It is a baby plant, full of life force.

It is little things like this that humble me on a constant basis. Like how in Yoga I will never master a pose, I will never stop learning about food. I will always be seeking, practicing and learning about food. Food teaches me about who I am. What I like, how I like to feel, what makes me feel good. By using what I've learned I can make empowered decisions about what I eat. And feel confident about my choices even if they go against the model of the Standard American Diet. Funny coincidence that the acronym would be SAD.

Nothing is set in stone. You can be whoever you want at any age, in any city, in any room, in any world. You can start this very moment. Change gradually, be nice to your self. You need to support your decisions with love and patience. Eat as well as you can as often as you can, and thank yourself when you make healthy choices. When you feel pressured or weak towards foods you know aren't going to make you feel good, learn from those times. Be strong!

Right now my living room smells like cinnamon and banana. The steady fan sound is just a hum but it is different and exciting. Yes, my dehydrator is in my living room, 1 bedroom apartments break all standard rules. My bathroom is also a second bedroom.

I love our little life here in Hamilton. I love our home together with our cat family members and our sunny tree filled views. I like the sidewalks that take me and my running shoes through neighbourhoods, hills and valleys. I love that there are grains sprouting in my kitchen, that I have friends and family at my fingertips and that I have the means to be who I want to be.

This is all Food. Food nourishes my body, which enables my brain the energy needed to create and practice compassion and patience. Allowing my Chi to flow, my muscles to relax and Life to unfold around me and in front of me every day. I feel good because I am good. How are you today? I'm good. Its simple, but to the point. Do you want a coffee from timmies? No, I'm good. I don't know why I find this funny. But I guess, I'm just good, and I love Good.



These babies wont be done until 4am tomorrow morning. So call me at 8am and I'll let you know what they are like! I didn't follow a recipe because I was too impatient to wait a few days for sprouts to be ready. So these are just fruit leather ball things, I gotta work on my marketing! I am not even sure what tray to put them on so I am using 2 trays together, trial and error is tasty. These are expressions of my creativity, they are filled with Love, Life (literally) and a little bit of cat hair, just kidding, kinda.

Sweet Bites

12 Medjool Dates, pitted, and soaked for 1 hour in purified water (not tap water)
1 Banana
1 cup Coconut, shredded, unsweetened, unsulfured
1/4 cup Ground Flax seed
1 tsp Ground Cinnamon
1/2 tsp Ground Ginger powder
1 tsp Pure Vanilla extract, no alcohol
2 Apples, not peeled, core and grated (cheese grater)

• Drain dates fully (* save water to use later for tea or something)
• In a food processor puree all the ingredients together except for the apples.
• Transfer the date mixture to a bowl and stir in the grated apples.
  
• Using a small ice cream scooper that articulates to release the batter, place balls 12 to a sheet. This gives lots of room between balls.
• Place in dehydrator at 108 degrees F for 14 hours.
• Makes 30 balls.

(This is like 10 mins worth of snacks if we are hanging out with Brittany and Ivan, I'm going to have to make more)

I love branding my stuff. I have written "Oliver and co." on the back of every greeting card I've ever made. I love the world, because now I can look so much more professional! I have had this design created into a rubber stamp, it is in the mail as we speak. I am not creating a business, this stamp just makes me happy. You gotta love the little things, do what makes you happy. Every time I stamp this onto a little paper bag, of my treats, I will feel empowered, and that is a thing of beauty.

What do you do for yourself just because it feels good?

he asked for Date Squares

For the last 9 months I have been on a weight-loss mission. And for the last 4 months I have stopped consuming all bread products, rice, pasta, you know that "filling complex-carb" stuff. Have i suffered without them? No, actually I just finished my first half marathon, without a single carb-loading day. With such impressive results I am confident that my health is so much better without them that I am through wasting my energy eating them. WOW, hold the phone! Right? Does this means no brownies, or cookies, or muffins, or cakes or................ With my active lifestyle, I can freely enjoy a brownie or cupcake whenever I want. But making them part of my diet/lifestyle is a joke, and it should be for everyone, except people like Steve, and this is where Date Squares fit in.

I Bake for my sweetheart like I am on a mission. My lovely husband is doing his best to gain weight. Yes, you read it right. He is a very active Yoga teacher who spends alot of time in the Hot room and an equal amount of time explaining to people that he is, in fact, healthy. You wouldn't comment on someones weight when they are overweight, because its incorrect social behaviour. But the same feelings are often felt by those asked about their a lack of weight.

Steve is in the best shape of his life, but struggles keeping muscle in certain areas. He requires more calories in his diet to give him the energy needed to increase his weight. From where I stand it seems like an easy fix, just eat more. Steve doesn't see things so simply, because simple isn't healthy. Digestion is the big key word here. Our whole life, we just have one body, so you want to be nice to your organs, and not flood them with tons of solids to process. There is alot of action that happens in your body once food enters the equation, and Steve monitors every step. He remembers the time at which he eats, and spaces his meals, and even beverages, out according to Ayurvedic principles of diet. Now I'm no expert, but if you know Steve, he would love to sit and chat all about it with you.

He is so talented in the kitchen now, that he practically makes all his own meals. When I cook, he often spoons a bowl full for himself and then puts things in it like asafoetida. No matter how much he cooks for himself, he still Loves my bake goods. A die-hard sweet tooth on this man.

This morning while we waited in line at Starbucks eyeing up the calorie bombs in the display case, I told him to close his eyes and think of anything and I would bake it for him. Without hesitation he said Date Squares, probably because he picked up a tub of honey dates the other day and there was a plate stacked full of them in the case in front of him, but either way, his wish is my command. But not in an archaic chauvinistic way.

I am excited to say that coming up on Mylk and Beans you will see more and more Raw&Fresh recipes, Raw&Dehydrated things and fun life lessons that I learn along my path. I am feeling better than I have my whole life, with energy flowing out in so many directions I am just now channeling it once again into my wrighting and photography. I write this for people who like to feed off others excitement, because that is why i surf food blogs, and design blogs. I like to absorb what I see and hear. I like to get excited about things, and pass on new things I've learned. Nutrition is of the UP MOST importance in my life right now and will be for the rest of my days. You will see that reflected here. I will post things like Date Squares for times when you want to share and indulge, but I will also share the most simple nutritional food.

I hope you check in from time and time and see what we are eating over here, Its always good!

Date Squares, adapted from the lovely Anna Olson

Date Filling
2 cup honey dates, pitted
1 cup Thompson raisins
1 1/2 Tbsp unsalted butter
1 cup water

Crumble
2 1/2 cup rolled oats
1 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup brown sugar, packed
1 tsp each cinnamon, ginger
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/4 tsp each cardamon, allspice
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup unsalted butter, melted

1 Tbsp granulated maple sugar ( or maple syrup)

Method

• For the Date Filling, in a small pot, bring all the ingredients to a boil. Set aside to cool while mashing with a big wooden spoon. Stir often to help it cool faster.
  
• Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Line an 8x8" square baking pan with parchment using 2 strips so you go up and over both sides.
• For the Crumble, mix all the dry ingredients together except the maple sugar. Set aside while you slowly melt the butter, unless you are a go-getter and you've already done this.
• Pour the butter into the Crumble mixture and mix forcefully until there is no unadulterated flour left, you know what I mean.
• Dump half the Crumble mixture into the pan and press it down firmly, like it owes you money. Then spread the date mixture evenly over top. Then sprinkle the rest of the crumble mixture over the filling, NO firmness required, just sprinkle.
• Then if you are so lucky to have a maple sugar product in your pantry (you should if you are Canadian!) then sprinkle that over top now.
• Bake in the centre of oven for 40-45 mins, until golden brown. It will make your whole small 1 bedroom apartment smell Incredible, or that just happens to me, you be the judge!
• Let cool completely, then cut into 16 pieces.
• This makes a decent Date Rectangle let me tell you!

May your pantry always be full.

Food Porn

If u haven't heard of anything referred to as porn, other than porno, then this heading might seem a little shocking but read on.

Food Porn refers to photos that you love to look at, photos you drool over, ones you make one your desktop background at work. If you have ever stopped to take a photo of a wicked meal you are about to eat, or are half way done eating but don't want to forget, then you might know what I'm talking about.

A McDonald's burger Ad? I wouldn't call that good porn, because it's fake, just like implants and plastic surgery, that burger has had a fleet of folks working before and after the shoot trying to make that burger look hot, thick and delicious, even though it isn't.

I'm talking Real Food Porn, photos taken because the beauty just needed to be captured. The food looking so good you remember the taste so vividly that you salivate at first sight.

Ever tried hand made gnocchi tossed with roasted veggies and fresh pesto? Me neither but if I found a food pic of it you better believe I'm going to oooohhh and ahhh over that pic. I'll post it to my Facebook, others will "like" it, yeah ya do! It's Food Porn baby!

Done right Food Porn can be addictive, you find yourself in the cookbook section of the book store, drawn to the hardcovers because you know they have the most photos. The recipe is inconsequential ( I mean who reads the words next to photos of porn?)
If the food looks like your kinda grub, you flip passionately, fingering the glossy pages.

It's all about presentation. We love being brought a meal where the food has been placed so perfectly angels are singing, the first whiff, is that saffron? If you are slow to indulge and intuitive enough, you will feel your stomach ready it's self for the meal. Once your brain knows about the party, it starts the music sparking the digestive system to get ready to rock!

Food blogs are my porn. They bring me into other people's porn. Their dinner last night makes me excited.

I can't negate lighting though, never post a photo that looks like you lit the shot using the light from your microwave, you are not going to "have me at hello" with that sad plate of, what is it? Cabbage? Take pride with your food pics, anyone of them have the potential for greatness! That delicious bowl of Roasted chive soup with toasted pumpkin seeds may just be lunch in July, but on a cold December night I might end up starring at that photo, longingly, remembering faintly the fleeting delight of eating it's beautiful flavours.

Not everything needs a photo. Some things in life just need to be enjoyed in the moment, with your own eyes. Some things are most enjoyable because they are never to be seen again, embrace this, and know that its ok to eat things that look terrible. It is the flavour, the nutrition and the love that matters most. So take a photo of that $8 cupcake in the window, but enjoy your niece's smashed up gingerbread just the same.

Ontario Peach Cobbler

This time of year Peaches wait for no one. You must grab them by the bushell and eat them no more than a day after you buy them. Their sweetness doubles by the day as their juices release and the sugars mature.

You can bake any peach, no matter how ripe they are. The heat and added sugar with cook them to a nice soft sweetness. But cooking a perfectly ripe peach means you need less sugar and less time in the oven. Which is better for my waistline and it means I can eat them faster. I know when my peaches are ready just by squeezing them. Have some restraint when you are squeezing your peach, but think about smushing it into baby food with your hand. If you think its soft enough to relinquish its power and turn into a juicy squishy mess in your hand, then your peach is ripe. If it is firm enough that you would struggle to smush it with one hand, then it needs to sit on the counter for another day or so.

I made this cobbler to share with friends. Just a weekday after work visit, sharing time in the backyard and some laughs over "Get him to the Greek". What was meant to be 8 servings quickly disappeared between the 4 of us. We just kept going back for more. The biscuits are fluffy and basic so they merely compliment the star of the show, the beautiful Ontario Peach.

Enjoy the fruits of your area and eat whats in season to experience true freshness

8 fresh Peaches

Base mixture:

1/3 cup brown sugar

1/4 cup whole wheat flour

1/2 tsp cinnamon

Cobbler biscuit dough:

2 cups all-purpose flour

1/4 cup whole wheat flour

3/4 tsp baking soda

2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp nutmeg

pinch salt

1/3 cup brown sugar

1/3 cup butter, cold

3/4 cup almond milk

1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract

• Preheat oven to 375 degrees F and hunt down a baking dish.
  
• Mix the base ingredients together in the bottom of your baking dish. Shake the dish to level out the flour mixture evenly.
• Wash and slice peaches, about 8 slices per peach. Layer over the bottom of the dish.
• Mix biscuit dough by sifting all the dry ingredients together, then cut in the cold butter until crumbly. Then pour over the almond milk and vanilla. Mix until the dough comes together.
• Don't over work the dough. Too much movement with make the cobbler heavy. No body likes to be overworked.
• Roll out the dough, to about 2 cm thick. Cut with anything circular, like a drinking glass
• Gently re-roll the dough, getting as many cobbler biscuits as you can.
• Layer biscuits over the peaches, using leftover scraps to fill in the gaps. This will keep all the juicy goodness in.
• Bake for 30 mins, until brown and biscuits are cooked.