Mom's Visit Day 7 - Corn Butter, Hemp Milk, Kara's Raw Class, Naturally Leavened Bread, and Salmon Fishing in the Yemen

This was a big day for mom and me (as far as food is concerned). We started off the morning making corn butter (scroll down in link to find the recipe). Okay, pretzel rolls and corn butter may not be a typical breakfast, but it was actually pretty good. You could definitely taste the corn meal, but the texture was a lot like a spreadable tub of butter.

Next, we tried our hand at making hemp milk. I know what you're thinking, hemp? really? When you first try it, the hemp taste is very apparent. The more we drank it the more we liked it. It was very creamy and slightly nutty. I don't think I'd make this just to pour myself a glass, but I think it would be great in things. We'll both make this again.

When mom and I were at Goodearth, I picked up the free health magazines by the door. In their Delicious Living magazine, there's an article titled "Bring Back Hemp". When we saw it, we'd been debating on whether or not to make hemp milk. It seemed like a crazy coincidence! Here's the text from the article:

Despite its patriotic beginnings as an American farm staple (even Washington and Jefferson grew it), industrial hemp labors under a federal ban that equates it with its cousin, marijuana—making hemp the only plant that’s illegal to grow but legal to import, process, and use in the United States. June 4–10 marks the third annual Hemp History Week, a campaign to restore the plant’s historic reputation. Learn more about hemp’s impressive qualities, including these, at votehemp.com.

Nutritional star
Gluten-free, low-carb hemp is nutritionally dense, packed with fiber, protein, ten essential amino acids, and an ideal 1:3 balance of omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids. It tastes great, too: nutty and mild. What can hemp not do? Get you high: It contains little to no THC, marijuana’s psychoactive ingredient.

Versatile
Smart body care companies incorporate hemp oil as an outstanding moisturizer. With a smaller carbon footprint than cotton, hemp turns heads as an eco-chic fabric. Alt-energy pioneers tout it as a biofuel. And when it comes to food and beverage—cereals, nondairy milk, raw seeds, bars, powders, cooking oil, and more—the sky’s the limit.

Eco champion
Needing no pesticides, herbicides, or GMO interference, hemp grows like, yes, a weed. Farmers love it because, in addition to being a low-cost, sustainable crop with myriad applications, hemp enriches the soil in which it grows and requires about half the water that other crops do.

Try: Dr. Bronner's Hemp Peppermint Castille Soap; Food Should Taste good Hemp Chips; Manitoba Harvest Hemp Hearts; Nature's Path Organic Instant Hot Oatmeal Hemp Plus; Navitas Naturals Blueberry Hemp Superfood Power Snack; Nutiva Organic Hemp Oil; Vega Shake & Go Bodacious Berry.  

We had a raw food class lined up with Kara (my friend Kendra's sister-in-law) in the afternoon. It was a lot of fun! Kara was an excellent teacher and nice enough to give us any of her recipes that we asked for.

Here's what we learned to make at the class:

Veggie Springrolls with a Thai Nut Dipping Sauce,

Coconut Cream Pie using the meat and water from fresh young coconuts, Pumpkin Pie without any pumpkin,

and finally, Zesty Kale Chips. They're covered in a raw cheesy non-dairy dip that Kara showed us how to make. I guess her kids like to eat the Cheesy Dip with fresh veggies too. Sounds yummy! The kale chips that Kara had going in her oven (on the dehydrator setting) weren't quite crispy yet, so we took home the batch that we'd made during the class and put it in our oven, with the door propped open a bit, on the lowest setting. They turned out very good. The only problem I had, was that we'd put too much cheesy sauce on the kale, so I couldn't eat very many kale chips at one time... just a little too zesty.

Our next class was in the evening at Dr. Matt McClean's Chiropractic office in Provo. It was all about natural leavening. Here's his website about naturally leavened bread. He and his wife, Amy, both taught the class. It was really interesting, but we learned so much over the course of two hours so I think I'll just talk about it in a separate post.

Right after our Natural Leavening class was over we drove down to the Water Gardens movie theater in Spanish Fork to catch the 9:15pm showing of Salmon Fishing In the Yemen. It was a good movie. Ewen McGregor and Emily Blunt did a wonderful job making the characters and emotions seem real. It was a great story (based on true events, I guess) and had some great cinematography. There was something that bothered me about it, though. I don't like love stories where one (or both) of the characters is already married... no matter how bad their marriage may be.

Kara's Raw Recipes:

Raw Pumpkin Cheesecake

Filling

4 c. cashews

2 c. agave

2 c. carrot juice

about ½ c. pumpkin pie spice (start with this and adjust to taste)

Blend to a smooth batter

Crust

1 c. pecans

1 c. almonds

1 T. agave

1 tsp. cinnamon

1 tsp. salt

1 tsp. pumpkin pie spice

Process to mall chunk flour

Add 1 T. (or more) coconut oil until crust comes together in the right consistency to press into a pie tin or springform pan

Press crust. Pour filling on top. Place in freezer until firm. Do not leave out or it will turn runny again.

Raw Coconut Cream Pie

Crust

¾ c. hazelnuts, ½ c. pecans, 1 c. almonds

½ c. fine coconut

½ tsp. salt

large spoonful coconut oil

½ c. soaked date pieces

Process nuts until chunk  flour, add other ingredients, press into 2 pie pans.

Filling

¼ c. coconut yogurt

1 c. coconut water

2 T. coconut oil

1 c. agave

¾ c. soaked cashews

meat from 2 young coconuts (2cups)

½ tsp. vanilla

Blend.  Put in crusts. Put flaked coconut on top.  Freeze until set up.

Raw Corn Casserole

any vegetable except greens, some ideas…

corn

broccoli

cauliflower

bell pepper (2 different)

green onions 

radishes

Sauce 

1 avocado

1 c. almonds

lemon juice

Spike (or other season mix)

salt and pepper

water to desired consistency

Raw Pea Casserole

any veggie except greens, some ideas…

 peas

cauliflower (small pieces pulsed in Cuisinart)

celery

green onion

red bell pepper

mushrooms?

avocado?

Sauce

1-2 c. cashews

lemon juice

salt

water

(raw sour cream)

(seasonings, if desired)

Spring Rolls

Asian rice paper wraps , soaked in warm water until pliable

spring garden mix

micro greens or sunflower greens

sprouts (any variety)

avocado

zucchini strips 

basil leaves

green onion

red bell pepper

Wrap veggies in rice paper and serve with Thai Nut Sauce

Thai Nut Sauce

1 c. cashews, soaked for ½-1 hour

½ c. olive oil

½ c. tamari or Baggs Liquid Aminos

½ c. + 1 T. agave (to taste)

4 cloves garlic

1 T. lemon juice

Blend until smooth

Raw Cheesy Sauce

1 c. raw cashews

1-2 bell peppers

4 garlic cloves

1 c. nutritional yeast

6 T. lemon juice

Seasoning to taste  (smoke, taco seasoning, seasoning salt, etc.)

Salt

For dip – combine and blend in vita mix. For sauce – add water to desired consistency.