Category: Food Recipes

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Nut Milk: How to make your own & recipe

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Why make your own nutmilk?

  1. Many store bought nut milk brands contain additives to prolong their shelf life and to help keep a consistent texture like carrageenan which is destructive to the digestive system and causes inflammation in your body. Carrageenan is hiding in many store bought nut milks, dairy-free ice creams and dairy products. For example, So Delicious is a popular brand in the dairy free world which has carrageenan in their nut milks and DF ice cream products.  Its safer to make your own nut milk (and nice cream-link to nice cream recipes) to avoid consuming additives.
  2. Making your own nut milk has a creamier texture and tastes better.
  3. Just like juicing, there is leftover pulp after milking your own nuts. Another reason to make your own Nutmilk is that there are multiple uses for the leftover nut pulp, which I get into below.image1(1)

Ingredients:

  • 2 cups raw unsalted organic hazelnuts
  • 6 cups filtered of purified water
  • 2 tbsp local raw honey or manuka honey
  • 1 vanilla bean or 1 tbsp vanilla extract
  • 3 tbsp raw cacao powder
  • 1 frozen banana
  • 1 tsp cinnamon

Directions:

1) Soak raw hazelnuts and vanilla bean (if using bean and not extract) in filtered water for 8 hours.

2) Discard soaking water. Rinse the hazelnuts and the vanilla bean.

3) Place soaked hazelnuts, honey, vanilla bean and 6 cups of water in a blender. Cover and blend on high for 1-2 minutes. It will be milky and have a bit of foam on the top.

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4) Strain milk through a nut bag. I use Ellie‘s Best.They are good quality and BPA free. If you order from them, for 10% off, use Coupon Code: Deanna10 at checkout. They also have a free nut milk recipes E-book on their site.

5) Add raw cacao powder, cinnamon, banana to the Nutmilk and blend together. Note: I have seen people add the cacao/cinnamon before using the Nutmilk as well (in step 3).

  • I do not recommend using the cheesecloth, strainer or any other method. These methods are messy and require multiple passes to strain out the bits. Also, it is not as creamy as when I use a good nut milk bag.

What to do with leftover pulp?

  • Add it to smoothies or your morning oatmeal
  • Add it to dips, homemade granola, to the batter of your cookies or muffin
  • Make crackers
  • Dehydrate it and blend it to make almond meal
  • Add it to DIY cosmetics, Ex: body scrubs, face masks. See my DIY  Hazelnut Body Polish
  • Compost it.

Check out my Instagram @dshamptonorganics for more.

References

“Our Nut Milk Bag.” Ellie’s Best. N.p., n.d. Web. 08 Mar. 2017.

Yang, Bo, Sumit Bhattacharyya, Robert Linhardt, and Joanne Tobacman. “Exposure to Common Food Additive Carrageenan Leads to Reduced Sulfatase Activity and Increase in Sulfated Glycosaminoglycans in Human Epithelial Cells.” Biochimie. U.S. National Library of Medicine, June 2012. Web. 08 Mar. 2017.   Web here

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Paleo Peanut/Almond Butter Cups

-Serves: about 6

-Total time: 20 minutes

Ingredients

  • 1/2 cup smooth peanut butter or almond butter
  • 1/3 cup coconut oil (or until you get a smooth consistency between solid and liquid)
  • 2 Tbsp coconut flour
  • 2 Tbsp honey
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract
  • 1/2 cup cacao powder
  • Himalayan salt- optional
  • Optional: Add Raisins and/or Nuts

Directions

  • Mix ingredients together except for peanut or almond butter
  • Place cupcake paper holder into cupcake tins
  • Pour mix into cupcakes holder. I poured mine about 3/4 of the way
  • Pour peanut or almond butter into the mix
  • Add Raisins and/or Nuts
  • Place in freezer for 15+ minutes until set
  • Optional- Sprinkle some Himalayan or sea salt on the top
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Golden Milk & the power of Turmeric

Golden Milk is an ancient southeast Asian health elixir.⠀ ⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀ ⠀                                             ⠀

image1-2📝Ingredients:

  • 1 cup of hot almond, coconut or hemp milk
  • 1/2 tsp turmeric powder
  • 1/2 tsp ginger powder
  • Pinch of cinnamon
  • Pinch of Nutmeg
  • Pinch of Cardamom
  • Pinch of Black Pepper (to activate the anti-inflammatory agents in turmeric)
  • 1/2 tsp of coconut oil to guarantee maximum absorption.
  • Optional: pinch of cacao to add more of a hot chocolate taste

 

 

More info on Turmeric: In New York, Turmeric has been a recent growing trend. I have seen it being added to juices and available in shot forms at places like Juice Generation. Most people must not be aware that it must be mixed with Black Pepper, in order to activate its anti-inflammatory agent Curcumin. You can also buy Curcumin vitimins, but having anything in its freshest form will be most effective.

Scientists have discovered that the root cause of most chronic illnesses is due to oxidative damage and/or inflammation. Curcumin’s powerful anti-inflammatory properties explain why it can help prevent and treat many different health conditions. Inflammation is a common factor for many diseases including heart disease, cancer, diabetes, arthritis, asthma, Alziemer’s, obesity and more. The body’s inflammatory response is a primary component of most chronic diseases.

Other ways I get my  Curcumin (from Turmeric) dosage:

  1. I take Terry Naturally- Extra Strength vitamins daily.
  2. I put a mix of Turmeric, Black Pepper, Cumin and Cayenne Pepper spices on foods I eat (mostly chicken)
  3.  I cut the turmeric root and put it in hot water and add black pepper amongst other ingredients as a detox tea. Other ingredients can include ginger (which is also anti-inflammatory), coconut oil, lemon, apple cider vinegar, oregano, garlic.

If you want to learn more about Turmeric, I recommend this detailed article by Cognitune.

References

Lemerond, Terry. “Inflammation the Wonder Spice Solution Research Confirms Healing Power of Curcumin.” 15 Feb. 2008: 1-30. Print. The Nutrition Healthy Living Guide

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Honey Dijon Brussel Sprouts

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Directions:

  • Steam or Boil the Brussel Sprouts until cooked
  • Mix dressing in a pan & add brussel sprouts.
  • Mix brussel sprouts & dressing in pan for a few minutes

Honey Dijon Dressing Ingredients:

  • Mustard- 2 tbsp
  • Honey- 1 tbsp
  • Olive Oil-1 tbsp
  • White Vinegar 1.5 tbsp
  • Black Pepper
  • Salt (Sea salt or Himalayan)

Note: make sure vinegar is gluten free if this is of concern

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Coconut Water & Green Phactor

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Fresh coconut water and dried vegtables mixed together makes a refreshing summer drink. Coconut water is a great source of electrolytes, such as potassium, necessary for proper hydration, while Green Phactor’s organic dried vegtables mixed in has many minerals, vitamins, phyto-nutrients, enzymes and micro nutrients.

Ingredients:

Coconut water: If you can’t get coconut water from a fresh coconut, make sure you are buying the coconut water from good packaged brand. Here are some things to look out for:

  1. Minimum pasteurization time: to remove bacteria the water only needs to be heated for a matter of seconds, but some brands will heat their water for up to 4 minutes, killing off many beneficial nutrients in the coconut water.
  2. No added sugar
  3. Avoid flavored coconut water

Green Phactor : this is a great addition to your diet. Make sure you are still eating tons of raw and cooked vegetables.

  • Ingredients: kale, wheat grass, spinach, alfalfa grass, broccoli sprout, parsley water, oat grass, barley grass, alfalfa sprout, spirulina, chorella, wheat grass juice, oat grass juice, alfalfa grass juice, barley grass juice, stevia extract, natural berry flavor.
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Cacao Covered Strawberries

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Ingredients:

  • 1/3 cup cacao
  • 6 tbs coconut oil (liquid form)
  • 1 tbsp honey
  • 1 1/2 tbsp vanilla extract
  • Pinch of sea salt
  • Medium sized carton of strawberries

Directions:

  1. Melt coconut oil by putting container in a bowl of warm/hot water
  2. Mix ingredients together in bowl. Keep in bowl or transfer into smaller cup to dip strawberries.
  3. Dip strawberries
  4. Put strawberries on parchment paper on a plate or tray. I used a large zip lock bag since I didn’t have that

Put in fridge for an hour. I put in freezer for 10 min (because who wants to wait an hour?) and they seemed ready and were delicious. Cacao is chocolate in its raw form & has *no sugar*. It is high in anti-oxidants and is considered a “superfood”.

The added salt on this gives it the perfect extra kick

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Roasted Fennel

 

Ingredients:

  • Bulbs of fennel
  • Tsp extra virgin olive oil
  • 1/2 lemon juice
  • sea salt & black pepper

Directions:

  • Cut fennel into slices (see photo)
  • Mix fennel with olive oil in bowl
  • Place fennel on baking sheet
  • Sprinkle sea salt, pepper & lemon juice on top
  • Bake for 25-30 min at 350°F
  • Turn slices over after about 15 min

This recipe is great to add to a salad, use as a side dish or have as a healthy snack. Fennel helps with digestion and constipation.

 

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