Different containers for growing seeds

It's time for growing vegetables. As many vegetables are sensible for the frost nights of the north they need to start the season indoors or in a green house. If you have a large vegetable garden you need lots of pots for the seeds. But with a bit of fantasy these pots can be almost for free. 

With a pot maker you can make pots out of news paper. These are perfect for plants that you don't need new pots along the indoor growing. Here are some pots with sweet corn. The paper pots stands on a plastic tray for minced meat.

A tray for lego bits, actually Legos Christmas calendar with 24 boxes is another clever solution. I grow suedes in this tray . 

All my kaleplants have problems with earth bugs. They are completely invisible so it took time until I realised why all my seedlings died. To protect the kale plants, you need a moist air. Plastic containers for baby tomatoes are perfect little green houses. They will keep the air moist.

This is how it looks under the lid.

To be continued ;)

Blood orange

I highly recommend you to buy fruits and vegetables depending of the season. Right now it's the season for buying the Italian blood oranges. They are sold cheap in nets right now.

These oranges are actually ordinary oranges. What makes them red in the meat and peel is the temperature differences between cold frosty late winter nights and warm days. The red colour is antocyanin an antioxidant  good for your immune system. So beat the winter flu with a glass of fresh pressed blood orange.

Weird looking porridge

Chia seeds looks so weird, they reminds of small insects eggs with a grey brown crackled surface, and they taste nothing.

If we think a little positive about this; the benefit of something that tastes nothing is that you can combine with ingredients that taste lovely as they are.

If you put them in water, the chia seeds swells and form a clear gel around the seeds. That makes them look even spookier. The benefits of this seed is that it contains lots of omega 3 oils and is high in proteins and lots of other nutrients.

To get a tasty porridge I top it (hide the weird seeds) with sliced bananas, coconut flakes and pumkinseeds, yum.

Easy peasy porridge

2 Tbsp of chia seeds

100 ml water

mix it in your porridge bowl and keep it in the fridge over night. In the morning the porridge is ready to eat. Just add a little salt to it if you like and serve with different toppings

Irresistable spread

 Those mornings you feel for something heavier or those times when you need a snack, a seed cracker with almond butter is a tasty choice. When I heard about almond butter I googled lots of recipes and found out how easy it is to make. And as many people are allergic to nuts and peanuts (like one in our family) this is a good replacement for peanutbutter.

Almond butter
Roast the almonds 300ml in a hot frying pan. I think its better to roast them quickly than on low temperature and slow. If you wan't to go completely raw, skip this step.
Pour the almonds in your food processor and start the engine.........
......Use a good portion of patience here........
At first it looks like grated almonds but as you continue the almonds will turn to a more heavy dough. Continue to mix until you get a creamy spread, add a little salt and there you have a spread full of energy.

The allergic son has looked at his bigbrothers nutella spread with envy. With this spread you can make something similar, almost exactly in taste. Add honey, cacao, and vanilla powder. Be careful about the cacao the taste of the spread is already quite strong. If it gets to thick, add some sunflower oil to the spread. 

Both the almond spread and the fake nutella is full of calories so it's not a daily treat ;)

Buck wheat crunch

I know, it's strange I tend to post a lot of breakfast recipes. I'm such a novis in this raw food thing and haven't found out any dinner recipes yet, well nothing to write about, or take pictures of. 

These crunchies are perfect for a little heavier breakfast, served with light almondmilk or just as little energy snacks. I have a jar with these to snack on at my office table. 

The perfect thing with this recipe is that you reuse your waste, from almond milk and your juicer.

Buck weat crunch

2 dl of apple pulp from the juicer (this is the pulp that you get when making applejuice, the pulp is without the seed house)

2 dl pulp from almond milk (see picture below)

10 organic dried apricots, soaked in water over night

1,5 dl buchwheat, soaked in water over night (eventually dried in the oven or dehydrator)

 1 hand full of grated coconut 

1 hand full of sunflower seeds

1 hand full of pumpkin seeds

1 Tbsp of raw coconut oil.

Mix the apricots with a little of the soaking water. Pour it into a mixing bowl and add all the other ingredients. Mix all ingredients carefully until fully blended. You can also use a dough blender in this step.

Pour the mix over a baking sheet (teflex) and dry it in the oven under 50 degrees Celsius. Use the fan in the oven and open the oven door even now and then to let the moist out. Stir around a little. It will take 8-10 hours depending how wet it is and the oven. Store the crunch in a paperbag.

If you don't have time to use the pulp immediately you can store it in the freezer.

Friday evening dinner

Our supermarket has started a campain to make their customers to eat more vegetables. I think this is a excellent thing. They promote fruits and vegetables of the season and often sell for lower prices. When I walk past the sweet potatoes I couldn't resist them. In a second, the dinner plan was set.

Roasted sweet potatoes and hot salsa

Preheat the oven to 250 degrees C. Peel the sweet potato and cut into wedges. Pour them in a oven pan and add a tsp of coconut oil and Tbs of sunflower oil. sprinkle sea salt and ground some pepper over them before you roast them in the oven. 30 minutes is enough because they get squishy very easily.

The salsa is made of 3 finely chopped tomatoes, 1 finely chopped onion, 3 mashed and finely chopped garlic cloves, a half finely chopped red bell pepper. The green herb is fresh chopped chervil (a good replacement for those who doesn't like coriander). Blend all ingredients in a bowl and season with himalayan salt, chili flakes and ground black pepper.

For the meat eaters I served grilled chicken filets with lots of barbecue seasoning on top.

Serve with a green salad.

Note: Sweet potato is literally a sweet potato, it contains 10 times more sugar than potato so if you would like to cut down on carbs, this is not a choice for you. 

Green smoothie post

So how about three apples, one banana, a lemon, a huge plate of greens for breakfast. Does it seems too much to eat? That is an example of what I eat for breakfast in the form of a smoothie. I know the internet is flowing over with those green smoothies and about the benefits of them.

So for those who thinks, oh another green smoothie post, you can stop reading now and wait for next post ;)

Our old family relic, the starmix from the 50's is still running strong. The pitcher holds about 1 liter and I pack it loosely with baby spinach leaves and maché sallat.

Three apples are chopped in pieces with the stem and seed house removed. I press these in my juicer and receive a large glass of fresh apple juice. One lemon is pressed + a bunch of  chervil is also added.

 After mixing all the ingredients in the mixer I get half a litre of green thick and chunky smoothie. I fill my 250ml glass containers all the way up to keep the smoothie fresh. If there is space left, just add water. In this way I can make it the day before and drink it at work the morning after.

The only limit for a green smoothie is your own imagination. Add wich fruits and leafs you like and make your own favourite.

NOTE: At first when I drank the green smoothie I got a terrible headache. The trick is to drink and chew for a long time and not starting the day with the smoothie until you have been up and running for a while. Don't forget to drink plenty of water as well.