Crispy, crunchy, salty……these zucchini rounds really satisfy!

First, start off with a few organic zucchini’s and slice them as thin as possible.  I used my mandolin slicer to make sure each slice was uniform.

Lay them out flat on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper or a teflex sheet.

Next, mix up the topping for them!

1/4 cup tahini

1/2 tsp. garlic powder

1/2 tsp sea salt

1 tbsp. honey

1/2 tbsp. coconut oil

Spread a thin layer over each zucchini slice.

Bake at 400* for 15-30 minutes.  Depending on how thick you put the topping it may take longer to get crispy.  If you have any of the topping leftover, use it as a dip for some carrots while you wait for your zucchini to bake!

These are best when served right away…..still warm, and the perfect cruchiness!!

Enjoy!!

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You can now click on the tab at the top of the page and view all of the recipes that I have posted on this blog!!  Of course, each time I create a new post for a recipe it will be added to the recipe index as well!!!

All of these are listed in the recipe index page…..plus so many more!!!!!

Make sure you check it out!!!

RECIPE INDEX

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Coconut Butter is a luxury food……it’s silky, creamy and delicious!

Coconut butter is different than coconut oil……What is the difference, you ask???

Coconut Butter uses the coconut meat and is ground into a creamy butter, coconut oil is extracted from the coconut and is 100% oil.  Think about the difference between almond butter and almond oil…..if I can use this is as a metaphor….coconut butter would be comparable to almond butter….it is spreadable, creamy, and has a consistency close to almond butter.  Want to know how to make your own almond butter?  Read about here!!

Coconut Butter is almost the same process as making almond butter!!

Start with 2 cups dried unsweetened coconut flakes….

place in your food processor and blend….

It takes at least 10 minutes of processing before it starts to become creamy and silky.  I processed even longer because I wasn’t satisfied with the texture and wanted an even creamier coconut butter. Process yours as long as 20 minutes to get your desired creaminess!

The end result is amazing!

You want to make this!!!

So, what can you do with coconut butter??

*eat it by the spoonful

*add it into baked recipes

*spread it onto toast

*add in cocoa powder for a chocolatey spread

*use it as a frosting on ANYTHING!

*mix it with a nut butter for a decadent treat

*place a spoonful on top of a baked sweet potato or on top of pancakes

*make lemon truffle fudge!

This recipe is amazing…it is creamy and fresh…a little tart…a little sweet….a must try!

Lemon Truffle Fudge Recipe

zest of 1 lemon

juice of 1 lemon

1/2 cup coconut butter

1/2 cup coconut oil, melted

2 tbsp. maple syrup or honey

Mix all ingredients together until smooth and creamy.  Pour into candy molds or a baking dish.  Place in freezer for 10 minutes to harden.  Cut into slices or pop out of molds and ENJOY!

Have you ever tried coconut butter??

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Thankfully, we were all safe and the fire did minimal damage in the grand scheme of things.

However, we have been in the process of gutting and redoing our entire kitchen!

We have pulled up the ceramic tile floor, ripped out all of the cabinets, and basically started with a clean slate.

Our new kitchen will have all new floors, cabinets, paint, and much more!!

Almost all of my small kitchen appliances, silverware, etc had smoke damage and some things even got totally ruined in the fire like my husband’s beloved lunch box-which we replaced right away!

During all of this I received an email from someone called the Fairy Hobmother……

Hi Samantha!

I’m the Fairy Hobmother, spreading light and joy across the blogosphere with the help of talented bloggers like you!

I’ve been having a read through your site and I think that your bloggish efforts deserve to be rewarded, so I’ve decided to send a gift your way in the form of an Amazon voucher! I hope that you can get yourself something cool with it.

Wow!!  I have seen other bloggers write about their visit by the Fairy Hobmother, but never expected a visit myself!!

The Fairy Hobmother works for Appliances Online and they sell free standing gas cookers among many other products. But the Fairy Hobmother is more interested in spreading the word by giving. So if you have a blog of your own, then just leave a comment here and the Fairy Hobmother might visit you too!

I cannot wait to go shopping and use my Amazon giftcard to replace one of my kitchen items that got ruined in the fire!!

Don’t forget to leave a comment so that you can be visited too!!

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I love desserts in a mason jar!  They look super cute and they are fun to serve!

My family was invited to our friend’s house for dinner and I was in charge of dessert, so I decided on Coconut Banana Cream Pies in mason jars!

This recipe makes 4 small mason jars plus I made 2 small jars for my kids to have smaller sizes of the dessert.

Coconut Banana Cream Pie

Crust:

1 cup ground oats

1/3 cup dried banana chips, ground

8 tbsp. coconut oil, melted

2 tbsp. date paste (recipe for date paste HERE)

2 tbsp. lucuma (optional)

Mix all crust ingredients well and place equal amounts into bottoms of glass jars.  Press down with fingers or back of a spoon.

Next, slice bananas and layer on top of crust layer.  If using small bananas use 1 per jar, if using larger bananas use 1 per 2 jars.

Cream

4 cups organic coconut milk (I used coconut milk from a can)

1/2 cup organic maple syrup

1 vanilla bean, scraped

pinch of sea salt

1/3 cup arrowroot powder

2 tbsp. lucuma (optional)

Whisk ingredients together on low to medium heat.  Continue whisking until cream thickens.  The arrowroot powder will act as a thickening agent.  This process will take about 5-10 minutes.  Let cream cool and pour over crust/banana layer.

Optional: top with coconut shreds, dried banana slices or chocolate chips!

These turned out so great and were a great end to a wonderful meal!!!  Look at the spread our friend’s provided!!!!  Grilled veggies of all kinds, raw veggies, olive tapenaude, fresh basil, and grilled spelt bread and to drink fresh brewed red roobios tea!!!  So delicious!!

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Have you ever drank fresh ginger tea?  This tea could not be any easier to make either!

I always buy organic fresh ginger root and slice it up into chunks and store it in my freezer to use for this tea.

Lemon Ginger Iced Tea

6 cups of water

several big chunks of fresh ginger

Juice from 2 lemons

Stevia

Place ginger in water and bring to boil.  Turn off heat and cover and steep for 10 minutes.  Let cool and place in fridge to chill.

Place the juice from the lemons into glass mugs and add in stevia and tons of ice.  Pour chilled ginger tea over ice. Serve!

You can drink this tea hot too!!!

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Have you heard of Matcha Green Tea? Matcha Tea has so many health benefits!  Matcha is straight, stoneground tea leaves, it provides you with green teas powerful arsenal of vitamins, minerals, antioxidants, and amino acids in a way no other green tea can. In fact, to even begin to match the potency found in a single serving of matcha, you would need to drink at least ten cups of brewed green tea.

Matcha…

• Is packed with antioxidants including the powerful EGCg
• Boosts metabolism and burns calories
• Detoxifies effectively and naturally
• Calms and relaxes
• Enhances mood and aids in concentration
• Provides vitamin C, selenium, chromium, zinc and magnesium
• Fights against viruses and bacteria
• Is rich in fiber
• Lowers cholesterol and blood sugar
• Does not raise insulin levels

I find Matcha tea at my local health food store but you can find it online as well.

There are many ways to drink Matcha Tea, but my favorite way to consume it is in a LATTE!!

Matcha Latte

1 cup coconut or almond milk

1-2 tsp. Matcha powder

1 cup ice

sweetener of choice (I like to use Stevia powder or Liquid stevia drops, but honey or agave could be used as well)

Place all ingredients into blender and blend!!

Pour into a glass and enjoy the taste and the health benefits!

If you don’t like it slushie…leave the ice out while blending and add it in after!

DISCLAIMER: This drink contains caffeine…I do not give it to my children…:)

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Have you ever made your own homemade sweetener?

This recipe is super cool and it is a great thing to keep in your fridge for when you want to use an all natural sweetener!

This is called Date Paste!

It is made with DATES!!

These are medjool dates with the pits removed…make sure you are using pitless dates or REMOVE the pits prior to making!

First, soak about 1 cup of dates in some water for about an hour.

They will plump up pretty quickly!

Pour the soak water into another container.

Place dates into a food processor….

and process for 1-2 minutes.

Add in 1-2 tablespoons of the soak water and process for another 1-2 minutes…..

Additional soak water may be added to smooth out the date paste.  I ended up putting this mixture into my blender to really get a smooth consistency!

It looks and tastes like caramel!

Dip sliced apples right into the jar!!!

Dates are extremely rich source of dietary fiber, Vitamin B1, Vitamin B2, Vitamin B3 and Vitamin B5, Vitamin C and Vitamin A.

They also contain magnesium, potassium and iron!

Date paste is not an “empty” sweetener- it is sweet, but it contains a lot of health benefits!

Use date paste to replace honey, agave, or sugar in your recipes…you can even bake with it!  Store it in your fridge for up to 10 days!

Stay tuned for a recipe using this date paste!!

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Baked Better sent me 3 of their organic bread mixes to try!

I received:

Dumbo Delicious: Ingredients: Organic whole wheat flour, organic flax seeds, organic sunflower seeds, organic pepitas, organic rolled oats, organic hulled sesame seeds, organic whole grain wheat, dry yeast.

Park Slope: Ingredients: Organic whole wheat flour, organic whole grain wheat, dry yeast.

Cobble Hill Crave:

Ingredients: Organic whole wheat flour, organic whole grain wheat, organic rolled oats, walnuts, cranberries, dry yeast.

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Have you ever heard of the saying, “Smack your momma good”??

Well, these are, “Smack your gramma off her rocker!” good!!!!!

A well trained chef will tell you that a properly prepared dish will hit each taste bud….sweet, salty, savory, bitter, a little spice….this hits even the taste buds you don’t have!

YOU MUST MAKE THESE!

There is some preparation involved before you can make this recipe…..you must first make the mango wrappers….but if you are wise you will make a whole lot of them and store them!  So first, blend as many mangos as you would like to make a fruit puree…do not add in water or anything else!  I used 4 yellow mangos.

Now, we are going to essentially be making fruit leathers….if you need a tutorial please read my post here or if you want to learn how to make homemade suckers using this same puree check it out here.

Spread the mango puree onto a teflex sheet or waxed/parchment paper placed onto a cookie sheet. (These are shown on my dehydrator trays, I made a batch in the oven and dehydrator to test the recipe)

Spread it as thin as you can get it…and if you have enough make several batches to bake at the same time.

If you have a dehydrator than place the mango puree in and dehydrate overnight on 115 degrees.

If you do not have a dehydrator turn your oven on the lowest setting (mine goes to 170) and place in oven.  I keep the door open to keep the oven cooler than 170…..we are drying these out not baking them!!!  Depending on how thick you have spread the puree it may take anywhere from 1-4 hours to dehydrate in your oven.

When they wrappers are finished cut them into large rectangles….now you can make..

Smack Your Grandma Off Her Rocker Mango Wraps

Place one wrapper on a plate and fill with any sort of veggie you like!!

Here is what I used….

Avocado slices, spinach leaves, red pepper, and a dash of salt,and a dash of cayenne pepper…..I would have also liked to have put some sprouts or pea shoots on here but I did not have any

Once you have your fillings placed onto the wrappers, roll up your wrap and slightly wet the very edge of one of the sides so that it will stick and stay closed.

You can also drizzle some hot sauce or salsa over the top…..watch out gramma!!!

or eat them plain…..

but please don’t actually smack your gramma…..

What would you fill these mango wrappers with??

My bestie likes to eat them this way:

Here she used broccoli slaw, maple syrup, cayenne, sea salt, and a splash of soy sauce….

Here she made a mango dressing as a dip -it had mango, onion, jalapenos, apple cider vinegar, olive oil, honey, salt, and red pepper flakes in it!

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