Will Run For Coconut Almond Macaroons

Sometimes your Farmer just needs a macaroon (and sometimes regardless of how hard you try the spacing on your blog is just a little off). 

You can tell that she needs a macaroon if she announces that she is going to change into something comfortable before she settles in for a night of homework when she's already wearing elastic waist pants and has eaten several plates of fried frozen perogies (6 dozen for $1.99) with dijon mustard.  Did I mention that those pants are Oscar The Grouch green hospital scrubs?


You can tell that your Farmer needs a macaroon when you pick her up from her placement and you ask how her day went and she proceeds to gag for the next 3-5 minutes (Farmer is working on becoming a nurse.  Currently,  she's about 1/4 quarter of a nurse.  If you need your vitals taken, you need someone to help you with basic hygiene or you need an enema she's your girl) 


You can tell that you might need a macaroon when your Farmer is about 30 days away from the end of her first year of nursing, she needs to write about her feelings (when she only has one feeling) on a regular basis and her second day of placement is tomorrow and her teacher has suggested that her goal for tomorrow should be working on her gag reflex (is that even appropriate?).


About those macaroons....


Check out Choosing Raw for some delicious raw macaroon recipes or drop by in about 16 hours (a ridiculously long time to wait but totally worth it) once our macaroons have finished dehydrating.  These macaroons are crispy on the outside and gooey on the inside.  Most of them were eaten directly out of the dehydrator or out of the freezer.


I tried a second variation once I saw that Farmer & I both obviously needed a macaroon and not in 16 hours from now. 


The first batch I tried I added 1/2 tsp of cinnamon, 1 T of ground cocoa nibs & 1/4 tsp of cardamom, I dehydrated the macaroons at 115 for about 16 hours.  DO NOT try baking them in the oven as the recipe suggests.  That was a disaster!


The second batch I added 1/2 tsp of cinnamon, 1 T of ground cocoa nibs, 1/4 tsp of cardamom and I used date paste (1 C of dates + 1/2 C of water heated until dates can be stirred into a paste + 2 T of agave nectar).  This batch only took about 3 hours to become crunchy on the outside and still soft and chewy on the inside.


Enjoy.  Remember not to ask your Farmer or your favourite nursing student how her day went unless you have a puke bag in hand.

Coconut Macaroons

let the waiting begin

16 hours later

Or if you aren't quite that patient or if you just love date paste (yes, there are people who love date paste).

you could totally eat these raw

and you could totally eat the whole bowl

If you aren't up for all off that waiting and dehydrating check out vanilla almond snackaroons by Laughing Giraffe Organics (try Homesense).

Will Run For Oatmeal Mango Pancakes with Coconut Citrus Sauce

Today I spent the morning in the kitchen with Mama Pea (her cookbook anyway).  It's amazing how much you can get done when you get up at 5:20 (thanks for nothing Hank). 

 A barbecue at pace bunny's was a great excuse to try out some of the recipes in my new cookbook www.peasandthankyou.com/peas-and-thank-you-the-book  Who needs face and mother when you can have chickpea strawberry mango salad with cinnamon vinaigrette (I might start drinking this stuff for breakfast) or mango cupcakes with coconut cream icing?

Mango cupcakes with coconut cream icing were a great excuse to make oatmeal mango pancakes with coconut citrus sauce.  These are a "stick to your ribs" kind of pancake.  Imagine your bowl of oatmeal in pancake form but with all kinds of yummy extras (I'm not the only person that is excited by the thought of this am I?).

Oatmeal Mango Pancakes with Coconut Citrus Sauce

(serves 2 not so hungry people or one really hungry person)

ingredients

1/2 C light coconut milk (I used 1/4 C soy and 1/4 full fat coconut)

1/3 C oats

1/3 C whole wheat pastry flour

1 Tbsp demerara sugar (regular brown sugar works as well)

1/8 tsp salt

1/4 tsp ground ginger

1/2 tsp cinnamon

1 flax egg (1 Tbsp of flax ground with 2 Tbsp of water let sit until it thickens)

1 Tbsp olive oil

1/2 tsp vanilla paste

1/4 C diced mango (I thawed frozen PC mango)

1 recipe Coconut Citrus Sauce

In a small saucepan heat coconut milk until hot and steamy, add oats, bring to a boil and immediately remove from element. Cover and let sit approximately 10 minutes until the oats have softened.

hot and steamy

While you are waiting impatiently in a bowl big enough to accommodate wet and dry ingredients stir together flour, brown sugar, baking powder, salt, cinnamon and ginger.

In a small bowl stir together the flax egg, oil and vanilla.  Add the oat mixture and the flax mixture together then combine with the flour mixture.  Fold in 1/4 cup of diced mango.

Lightly oil your skillet.  Allow your oil to heat thoroughly before adding pancake batter (otherwise the pancake absorbs all of the oil).  Cook for 4 minutes on each side at medium heat or until brown and cooked thoroughly.  Flip pancake when you see bubbles forming.  You may need to add additional oil.

Coconut Citrus Sauce

(1 Cup)

ingredients

1/2 C orange juice
2 Tbsp coconut milk

1 tsp cornstarch

1 C diced mango (again I used PC frozen mango that I thawed)

pinch of cloves

In a small sauce pan stir together orange juice, coconut milk and cornstarch over medium heat.  Continue to stir until mixture is thick and bubbly (about 2 minutes).  Add diced mango.  Lightly mash mango with potato masher (or wait patiently until the mango breaks up).

Will Run For Banana Coconut French Toast

french toast and tropical fruit salad

My first french toast memory (because I'm sure that you are dying to know) is one of my cousin J making me french toast after a sleepover.  J is a year older than me and growing up I always thought she was so cool (how you can be cool with the claw for bangs or a bowl haircut I'm not quite sure).  J hadn't quite mastered french toast at this point so what I had for breakfast was pretty much bread dipped in raw egg.

Banana coconut french toast is definately an improvement over bread and raw eggs.  Try it for yourself (umm J this means you)!

BANANA COCONUT FRENCH TOAST

(Serves 4)

Ingredients

2 medium ripe bananas

2/3 coconut milk (soy or almond work as well)

1-2 TBSP maple syrup (Try not to use table syrup.  I think it's made from tables)

1/4 tsp ground cinnamon (and/or nutmeg, allspice, ginger, cloves)

8 slices of slightly stale high fibre bread (I used Rudolph's)

Blend all ingredients in your blender except for bread (obvious) dip bread in banana mixture, cook in a pan with a generous amount of olive or sunflower oil.  Make sure that your oil is hot before you place the bread in the pan in order to avoid the bread absorbing all of the oil.  You will need to cook each side for 3-5 minutes.  Eat all of the bits that stick to the pan.

banana, coconut milk, cinnamon & grated nutmeg

dip bread until both sides are covered (not soggy)

Enjoy!