Vanilla Coconut Pudding

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Coconut pudding is a quick and easy dessert filled with healthy fats.

This recipe originally came from Eat Fat, Lose Fat: The Healthy Alternative to Trans Fats by Dr Mary Enig and Sally Fallon Morell. The addition of homemade vanilla extract and vanilla seeds gives this pudding a delicate flavor.

2c hot water and 1c cold water
1c dried organic coconut flakes
big pinch of sea salt
1/4c organic creamed coconut
2T homemade vanilla extract
2-4T organic coconut oil
1T local honey
1tsp organic cinnamon, sprinkled (optional)
vanilla bean seeds (optional)

Bring the 2c waters to a boil. Add the coconut flakes and sea salt. Simmer for 10-15 minutes. At the end of the cooking, melt in creamed coconut. Remove from heat and transfer to a Vitamix machine or food processor. Add the vanilla extract, coconut oil and honey. Blend until the mixture is very smooth. Add the 1c of cold water and blend again. Pour the mixture into a glass bowl. The homemade vanilla extract and vanilla seeds gives the pudding a very delicate favor. Top the pudding with a sprinkle of cinnamon if desired, but I like the pudding best with just vanilla bean seeds.

Let the pudding cool overnight in the fridge. The pudding may separate into a hard top and a liquid bottom. This separation doesn’t happen when using the Vitamix machine. If the pudding does separates using a food processor, just stir before serving. The pudding can also be eaten warm for breakfast or quick snack.

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If you look carefully you can see the tiny vanilla bean seeds in the coconut pudding. Delicious!

Weston A Price Foundation ACTION ALERT for Polish Farmers

I received this Action Alert from the Weston A Price Foundation. They are requesting all Weston A Price Foundation members and people interested in food freedom to commence a letter writing campaign to mobilize against government interference with private property rights and food freedom. This is an act of solidarity with Polish farmers that are facing increased government regulation from the European Union which will put them out of business.

International Coalition to Protect the Polish Countryside (ICPPC) wants to raise “public awareness of the importance of the small family farm in creating an ecologically sensitive, long-term solution to the countryside, which avoids the destructive consequences of CAP policies. ICPPC is non-governmental organization and co-operates with all who want to promote and protect the Polish countryside’s natural and cultural biodiversity.”

Friends!

In Poland the battle to?save Polish farmland from corporate buy-outs’ continues. But that’s not all the Polish farmers are up against… See link to film. Tractors have been blockading government institutions from 14 January…

Regulations that the?Warsaw?government?has imposed over the years have?made?it?virtually impossible?to sell farm?processed foods to local shops, schools or private individuals. The only way farmers can conform with the hygiene and sanitary regulations imposed from above, is by carrying out their simple processing tasks in specially designed and equipped buildings that none can afford to build or to adapt… except the very large producers supplying the food industry and supermarkets. Yes, that’s right — it’s all about destroying the competition — which in this case is the small and medium sized independent family farms that produce the best foods!

There are still one and a half million such farms in Poland!

ICPPC is supporting the protesting farmers to highlight this grossly unfair treatment of all who wish to provide fine quality, flavorful and ‘real’ farmhouse-foods in their own localities.

You too can be part of this vital protest…

Join in by sending a brief letter in support of the farmers to Prime Minister Tusk urging him to change the regulations so that family farmers can sell their products locally! And send a copy of your letter to us here at ICPPC: biuro@icppc.pl. You can donate to ICPPC here.

Contact to Prime Minister:
Premier Rz?du RP Donald Tusk, Secretariat of the Prime Minister
Aleje Ujazdowskie 1/3, 00-583 Warszawa, Poland
F: +48 (22) 694 70 53
E: sprm@kprm.gov.pl

With greetings,
Jadwiga and Julian

Sprouted Buckwheat Granola

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Sprouted Buckwheat Granola is a wonderful breakfast with raisins? and raw milk or yoghurt. It can be eaten as trail mix.

GUEST POST by Celeste Skousen

This recipe is NOT safe for someone on the Specific Carbohydrate Diet.

Walking through the aisles of a local health food store not long ago, I spotted a simple, gluten-free granola mix selling for a typically high price. It was a raw, sprouted buckwheat granola, with only four ingredients: sprouted buckwheat, dates, raisins, and flax seeds. I bought a package, biting the cost bullet once, with the intent of figuring out how to make it myself. Turns out it’s surprisingly easy.

4 cups raw organic buckwheat
2 cups organic dates, pitted
filtered water
organic raisins (optional)

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Pour buckwheat into a large bowl and cover with plenty of water. Allow to soak overnight. The next day, rinse and strain several times until water runs clear.

To start out, all you need is raw buckwheat and water for soaking. Make sure the buckwheat has not been roasted because it will not sprout. Pour the buckwheat into a big bowl and cover with plenty of water. Let the buckwheat sit overnight to soak, anywhere from 8-24 hours is fine.

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Transfer soaked and rinsed buckwheat to jars for sprouting. Allow 24 hours for the buckwheat to sprout. Rinse two or three times during sprouting.

When you’re ready, drain the buckwheat. Now, here’s an interesting note about buckwheat. When submerged in water, the seeds release some sort of starch that causes the water to become thick and very viscous. You can feel it when you swish your hand in the water. It’s important to rinse this starchiness away really well. If you have a large mesh strainer, you can dump the buckwheat into that and rinse with your faucet sprayer. Or you can do what I do: drain, dump the buckwheat back in the bowl, refill with water, swish around, drain again. Repeat three or four times until the water runs clear.

I’ve read websites that caution against soaking buckwheat for too long before sprouting, claiming the buckwheat will never sprout. Mine sprouted just fine. I think the rinsing has something to do with it. I prefer to allow the buckwheat to soak for a good long time, hopefully to help minimize anti-nutrients. I do think the rinsing process also helps to minimize some of the strong taste that buckwheat typically has. My buckwheat ends up light in taste and very palatable.

So on to the sprouting. Dump the buckwheat into your sprouting container. I use half-gallon mason jars with plastic sprouting lids on top. You can get these lids sometimes in the canning section of a grocery store, or order online. Alternatively, you can do the panty hose held in place by a metal ring trick. You just need a way for the jar to drain. Set the jars upside down at an angle, in a large bowl.

It usually takes about a day for the sprouts to emerge. It’s best if you rinse the buckwheat two or three times during that time. Again, you’ll want to dump them out into a big bowl, fill with water, swish and drain, and perhaps repeat once or twice. Don’t try rinsing them by simply filling the jar with water and draining. I’ve tried that; it doesn’t work well. The buckwheat still makes the water too viscous to drain properly.

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Spread on dehydrator sheet or cookie sheet; dehydrate until fully dry and crisp. Here's a picture of how mine look spread out on the dehydrator sheet.

You can dehydrate them in an oven at the lowest possible heat, perhaps with the door cocked open if it’s 170F or higher, or in a dehydrator. I set mine at around 135F, and leave them for about 12 hours. They should be light and a bit crispy when they’re done.

Making the date paste is very easy. Pitt and clean the dates. Put the dates into a bowl and cover with water. Let them soak for at least 10 minutes; it makes them much easier to process. The last time I made this recipe, life happened and I didn’t get to process my dates right away. I stuck them in the fridge, where they ended up staying overnight. Wow, were they easy to process the next day! So that is an option ? you can perhaps start your dates soaking at the same time you start your buckwheat drying. It’s up to you.

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Soak dates in enough water to cover for at least 10 minutes. Transfer dates to food processor and process til smooth, adding small amounts of water to achieve desired consistency.

Remove the dates from the bowl, but reserve the soaking water. Put the dates in a food processor and add some of the soaking water. Process the dates until smooth. Slowly, add a bit of water to get a smooth consistency. You want it to be a bit on the thick side, but not too thick, so it stirs well into the buckwheat. If you end up a bit on the thin side, don’t worry; it’s just water, and will evaporate in the next step.

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Spread on cookie sheet and bake at 325F for 20-30 minutes, stirring every 10 minutes, until lightly brown. Allow to cool, then store.

Finally, add your date paste to your buckwheat in a large bowl, and stir well to combine. Spread out on a cookie sheet and set in the oven at 325F. I set my timer in 10 minute increments, stirring each time. It generally takes about 30 minutes to get to the toastiness I like. Remove from the oven, stir once more to make sure it doesn’t stick to the cookie sheet too much, and allow to cool. Mix with raisins or other fun stuff if you’d like, before storing it. Keeps great on the shelf.

Serve with yogurt, fruit, raisins or eat as a trail mix. Enjoy!

Celeste Skousen is the Weston A Price Foundation Chapter leader for North Fulton County, Georgia, US.

New GMO Documentary: Free Streaming This Week ONLY

genetic-roulette

Jeffrey Smith has written extensively about the subject of genetically modified organisms (GMO). This is just one of his books called Genetic Roulette.

I have just received this news from the Weston A Price Foundation that Jeffrey Smith of the Institute for Responsible Technology has just released a new GMO Documentary called Genetic Roulette: The Gamble of Our Lives. If you would like to learn more about genetically modified organisms please see Genetic Roulette. It will be streamed for FREE for until September 22, 2012:
www.geneticroulettemovie.com