My newest endeavors have included spaghetti squash, a pineapple and coconut desert that's not quite ice cream, not quite pie filling - but YUM, and cherries. Have you ever tried to pit a half-dehydrated cherry? Still working on figuring that out. Long story short, I didn't want to buy pre-dehydrated cherries because they are coated with sugar and other junk I don't want. The grocery store I use featured cherries one day so I bought a big bag. They were not pitted. I've dehydrated frozen and they seep juice everywhere. To prevent loosing any goodness I dehydrated them with the pits in, for 10 hours, then cut them in half, dehydrated another 2 hours, then removed the pit. There's got to be an easier way!!
Below are pictures and a few of my newest recipes. The explanations are pretty quick because I've gone into greater detail on similar blog posts. If you'd like more details message me and I'll be glad to do a step-by-step how to. If you want a cook-booklet, send $6.00 to my Paypal account (freedspirit05@me.com). It's not fancy, but all the recipes are in one place.
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| Spaghetti Squash |
First up - Spaghetti Squash. I've always wanted to make it but was a little afraid. I'm not a huge...okay so normally I dislike squash. Avoid it at all costs. However, in the attempts to broaden my horizons I tried it. Simply cut the squash down the middle, drizzle with olive oil, salt, pepper, maybe a little garlic, turn upside down (opposite of this picture) and bake at 350F for an hour. Turn over and scrape the flesh with a fork and it looks like spaghetti. It does have a bit of a crunch and needs salt. I like to put my favorite red sauce on top, just like regular spaghetti. It's good! Filling, too.
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| Flat bread |
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| Whole wheat flat bread |
These are my post-run smoothies. I do a wide variety, depending on my mood. First take a dozen or so ripe bananas, peel, wrap in plastic wrap and freeze. Use one banana, and fruit of choice, add a handful of raw nuts. Optional - a handful of raw spinach, 1/4 cup cacao powder, 1 Tbs natural peanut butter. For the liquid add about a half cup of unsweetened regular almond milk. About to the middle of the blueberries in the picture, enough to get the blender moving but not so much the smoothie is runny. 
Apple muffin. I had an apple and wondered what to do with it. Did I want pancakes? No. So, I took whole wheat pancake mix, added a cup of ground oats, an egg, some almond milk. Then I took an apple, chopped it up fine. Put some in the grinder and made apple sauce. Ground up some almonds, threw that in. Yummy! Don't be afraid to get creative with your food.
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| Coconut delite |
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| Coconut delite |
I don't remember where I got the base recipe for this one. I had a whole coconut and wanted ice cream. Since I'm allergic to dairy I decided to make something yummy and cold. Not quite a smoothie, not exactly ice cream. Take a whole pineapple and cut it in circles. With a paring knife cut just inside the rind to get rid of all the hard stuff. Keep the center. Put half the pineapple in a blender with 1/2 cup canned coconut milk, 1/2 cup shredded, unsweetened coconut flakes, and 1 tsp vanilla. Puree until relatively smooth. The coconut flakes will remain chunky. Pour into two bowls and chill/freeze until the edges are frozen but the center is firm but not hard. So delicious! If you have them available, add some fresh coconut flesh.
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| #Runergy bars |
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| #Runergy Bars |
These are my new favorite #Runergy bars. It's a similar recipe as before but I put them in a silicone chocolate mold. They are raw, not cooked, not even dehydrated. I don't give this recipe away. If you're in Florida (or Utah week of 7/19) message me and I'll sell you some! I eat them before and during my long runs (greater than 10 miles).
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| Pumpkin chip cookie |
This is my son's favorite cookie. It's on the blog. Type it in the search bar to find the recipe. It's pumpkin and chocolate chip, dairy-free.
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| Fruit and Nut and Everything granola bars |
These are the granola bars I travel with. Fruit and nut and 'Everything' or Fruit and Nut plus cacao. I don't give this recipe away either. I sell them for $5.00 for the F&N, $7 for the 'Everything'. I will say the Everything has espresso powder and is so good, I could eat nothing else all day every day for the rest of my life!
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| Cookies!! |
The darker cookie, doesn't it look red? Well, it's the cherries.
1 mashed avocado
1 egg
1/4 cup cacao powder
1/3 cup honey (or agave if you want it vegan)
1 TBs (or a little more) ground oats
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/3 cup dried cherries
My cherries weren't completely dried because I plan on making more granola bars. The original recipe that I found called for apple juice. Since my cherries were juicy, I didn't add it.
Put all the ingredients, except the cherries in a food processor and blend until smooth. Add the cherries and blend another 30 seconds or so. Now, here's the tricky part. I put the first batch on silicone baking pad. Nope. They stuck. Use a non-stick pan and spray with cooking spray - liberally! Bake at 350F 10 minutes, cool, the put in the fridge. I also added 1/8 cup of ground cacao beans for a little crunch. You could add chocolate chips, espresso powder, nuts, coconut, etc.
All of these recipes need to be refrigerated. The granola bars will keep longer if they are dehydrated until crunchy. I like them a little softer. To be quite honest, they are so good they won't last long enough to worry about spoiling! I tend to make a huge batch of everything then freeze. I hope you enjoy making fun, delicious, and healthy recipes. Message me with any questions. If you try a recipe and you loved it, tell me. If it didn't work for you, message me and we'll figure out what to do to make it yummy.
Happy Eating. Be sure to check out my book sale on Amazon!
