The one thing I gave up pretty easily is processed bread.  I have no interest in buying a bag of bread.  The ingredients are so foreign I just get disgusted and lose interest.  I started making vegan breads last year and and they were fun creative and great.  You could make  them in any flavor and a variety of grains.  Cutting out eggs and dairy makes them so healthy.  Your body feels the difference.

This year I’ve been experimenting with live food, sprouting and eating steel cuts oats with fruit for breakfast and looking at all kinds of recipes for my new dehydrator.  This week I start making nut mils and nut cheeses.  I’m also going to try live Hummus, where you sprout the chickpeas before you blend them that way your hummus snack or spread is full of nutritional enzymes.

Eating live is so easy, but I hadn’t yet found a great recipe for bread.  , and now I have this one is so lovely.  It’s full of live nutrients.  You can almost smell the bread from the ingredients.  Just livingg and raw.  He makes the bread into thin little sheets which for me is the perfect solution to my old complaint about not wanting a sandwich with ‘all that bread.”  Going raw is really about learning how much ‘a little goes a long way’.    Enjoy this new live bread.  I will.

http://therawchef.blogs.com/russell_james/2006/03/the_best_thing_.html

Mediterranean Almond Bread

Makes 18 ‘slices’

1/2c olive oil
1c sun dried tomatoes, loosely packed
3c almond flour*
1c flax meal
3 medium courgettes (zucchini), peeled & roughly chopped
2 apples, cored and roughly chopped
3T lemon juice
1t salt
3T Herbs De Provence or herbs of your choice
2T marjoram or herbs of your choice

*You can make almond flour a number of ways.  My favourite is to save the pulp from any almond milk I make and dehydrate it so I can keep it in a glass jar until needed.  You could also use the almond pulp wet.  Another way would be just to grind some almonds into flour in a high powered blender or coffee mill.

- Process the olive oil, sun dried toms, courgette, apple, lemon juice, salt and dried herbs until thoroughly mixed.

- Add the almond flour and process again until a batter is formed.

- In a bowl mix the batter with the flax meal by hand.  The reason you do this separately (not in the processor) is that you are likely to have too much mixture for the size if the processor at this point, and when you add the flax meal it will become quite heavy and sticky and overwork your machine.

- When mixed, process the whole batter in the machine again in small batches to achieve a light fluffy texture.

- Divide the mixture in 2 and place on Paraflexx sheets, on dehydrator trays.

- Use an offset spatula (aka offset palette knife or cranked palette knife) to spread the mixture evenly to all 4 sides and corners of the Paraflexx sheet.  If mixture is too sticky you can wet the spatula to make things easier.  With a knife score the whole thing into 9 squares.

- Dehydrate for 2 hours and then remove the Paraflexx sheets by placing another dehydrator tray and mesh on top and invert so that your original sheet of bread is upside down.  That will allow you to peel the Paralexx sheet off and continue to dehydrate the underside of the bread.

- Dehydrate for approx 8 hours more (do this overnight so you’re not tempted to eat it before it’s ready) or until bread feels light in your hand.  If the pieces don’t fully come apart where you scored, use a knife to cut them.

So there you have it.  Once you have this bread, the only limit you have is your imagination.  I have made bread before and used lasagna leftovers to create ‘cheese and tomato’ sarnies, one of my all-time childhood faves!

Let me know your favorite fillings!!!

Recipe: Morning Mango Fruit Salad with Key Lime Yogurt

http://www.kellevision.com/kellevision/2009/04/how-to-help-someone-grieve.html

There are links to many Christian meditation videos on this Youtube page.  It’s an incredible resource.  Truly beautiful.  I put on of these on while working out or sitting quietly, sometimes I’ll light a candle sometimes I’ll jump on my trampoline, I’ll stretch, I’ll pray.  Just being still inside and quiet of mind so I can hear something other than the daily concerns or worries or needs of anyone else.  They can all wait until I’m done with my meditation.

Here are two incredible additional meditation resources.  There is a lot of garbage out there, so I thought I’d make sure I provide links that serve meditative, intellectual, emotional and spiritual well-being.  Enjoy.

Meditation Videos Dot Net

My Meditation Garden – I just want to make a note here that Angel Meditation is not Christian Meditation.  Please respect you spiritual self enough to understand this difference.  Both are cherished, but they are not the same.

My favorite meditative teacher is OSHO.  He is one person I would have liked to have met in this lifetime.  Bless him.   I’ve read every one of his books, studying OSHO led me back to Christ.  Halleluiah.  OSHO askes you powerfully to come from and be yourself.   To me, OSHO is all things  beautiful, embodying kindness, playfulness, intelligence.

Ingredients:

• 1 cup fresh-tasting dry roasted peanuts, unsalted
• 1/3 cup water
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1/2 tsp. dark soy sauce
• 2 tsp. sesame oil
• 2 Tbsp. brown sugar
• 2 Tbsp. fish sauce (If vegetarian, use vegetarian fish sauce or regular soy sauce)
• 1/2 tsp. tamarind paste OR 1/2 Tbsp. lime juice
• 1/2 tsp. cayenne pepper, OR 1 tsp. Thai chili sauce (more or less to taste)
• 1/3 cup coconut milk

Find the preparation instructions here.

You can make it a great vegan drink recipe by using an organic simple syrup recipe from Chow.com.

You can also find this recipe in Brant Terry’s book Vegan Sould Food.  What I love about Bryant Terry’s book is that even the simple syrup recipe comes with Mood Music recommendations and a book recommendation.

Basic Crêpes
Makes 8-10

1/2 Cup Soymilk
2/3 Cup Water
1/4 Cup Earth Balance, melted
1 Cup Flour
1/4 tsp Salt
1 Tbs Sugar (sweet crepes only, optional)
2 tsp Vanilla Extract (sweet crepes only, optional)
2 Tbs Water, to thin if needed

Place all the ingredients in a blender or in a bowl. Blend or whisk until smooth. Transfer to a 2 Cup measuring cup (for pouring) and refrigerate for 30 minutes. While the batter is refrigerating, prepare your fillings.

Find the pan instructions are at Vegan Yum=Yum.