baking – Page 10 – GUTSy Performance Nutrition

Hazelnut, Pear & Oat Muffins

November 3, 2014September 21, 2017by Rebecca3 Comments

We arrived just as the wind picked up and rain came on. Most market-goers had deserted and the farmers stood under their tents with their arms raised high, holding on to the beams.

I loaded up the last of Larry’s pears and as we chatted I piled them on to his scale. He had to let go of his tent to weigh and figure a price and Will quickly reached up and held it down for him.

The significance of our simple interaction struck me later. It was one small moment in an ordinary day. The exchange reminded me of how we rely on each other. Constantly. Unnoticeably. And it’s there in those quietly normal experiences, when we’re not realizing the significance, that who we are is revealed.

When I observe the simple interactions that make up most days, I realize I am often either engrossed in my own storm, focused on holding down my tent and getting through, or I am asking, demanding, pushing of others. I like to think the latter, the pushing, helps people become better, reach higher, risk further. I see Will though, and so many others in my life, who reach out to listen, support, and give of themselves easily. In the ordinary everyday, I’d like to do a little more of the holding up of others’ tents.

Watch your interactions today. Are you just holding on, hoping the wind doesn’t blow away all that you’ve been working for? Are you asking and/or demanding of others? Are you instead an encourager or perhaps a helper, willing to take over for another for a while? There’s significance here in the mechanics of our connections. Pay attention. The roles we play in these small moments make up who we are, who we ultimately become.

Hazelnut, Pear & Oat Muffins, makes 12 standard or 8 large

Inspired by Megan Gordon’s Whole Grain Mornings

3/4 cup oat bran, certified gluten-free

1 1/2 cups gluten-free flour mix

3/4 tsp. baking soda

2 tsp. baking powder

1/2 tsp. ground cardamom

1/2 tsp. ground nutmeg

3/4 tsp. salt

2 medium pears

1/2 cup honey

1/3 cup canola oil

1 cup almond milk

1 Tbs. raw apple cider vinegar

2 Tbs. ground flax seed

6 Tbs. hot water

1 1/2 tsp. pure vanilla extract

3/4 cup hazelnuts, toasted and coarsely chopped

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F. Line a muffin tin with papers.
In a small dish, whisk together the hot water and flax seed. Set aside to form a thick slurry.
In a liquid measuring cup, combine the almond milk and vinegar. Set aside.
In a large bowl, combine the oat bran, flour, baking soda, baking powder, spices, and salt. Mix well and set aside.
Grate the pears using the large holes of a box grater. Don’t include the core and seeds.
In the liquid measuring cup with milk, add the honey, oil, vanilla, pears, half of the hazelnuts, and flax mixture. Stir thoroughly.
Pour the liquids into the dry mixture and stir until just combined.
Fill the muffin cups almost to the top with batter and then sprinkle the remaining hazelnuts on the top. Put the muffins in the oven immediately and decrease the heat to 375 degrees F. Bake until the tops are golden brown, for 20-25 minutes.

There are many reoccuring themes in my thoughts and for my own purposes, I’m starting to link them together. Here are a couple more past experiences on connections and listening.

Autumn

Moroccan Eggplant Mini Galettes with Chickpeas + Harissa

October 16, 2014October 16, 2014by Rebecca4 Comments

There’s a platter loaded with all the things I’ve been holding on to so tightly. I’ve got it in my outstretched arms, hoping the precariously balanced load won’t topple over before I can let it go. My fingers have been clenched so tightly around each item, grasping for control.

As if brought in by the winds of seasonal change, this last month has come with significant doubt, mental upheaval, physical pain. It’s brought back past issues I thought were well behind me. All month, I have been holding fast to each day, fingers still entrenched in the managing, yet knowing there is something within trying to break free.

Perfectly situated in this storm are the conversations I’ve been having. They are purely surface conversations and so ingrained are my answers that I toss them out before I think of how I truly want to respond. I’ve spent the better part of 27 years dishing out as little about myself as possible and I purposely avoid asking the tough questions of others because questioning too, might reveal too much. The conversations that haven’t been happening are more honest and they’re haunting me day and night, telling me I’ve got to start being more real.

I had a moment in adoration a couple weeks ago, bulldozed by a message that broke me completely open, empty, crying, hanging on to a vision and His firm truth. That same message has been bouncing off the cavern walls in my mind ever since and each time doubt comes, the message is there, lurking in the background, telling me to trust the process.

As I look at the platter, it’s contents are overwhelming. I hold out my arms as far as I can, shoving it further away. All it takes to let go is deciding. I don’t need to be in control anymore. Hand it over. Trust. The lesson is in the unknowing.

Interspersed with all this internal struggle is the art of everyday living, and in that we’ve been eating these mini galettes. They are extra-spicy, sweet, and comfortable all in one. Our garden’s eggplants finally got ripe and the makings of this recipe have been in the back of my brain for months waiting oh-so-patiently for those plants to yield. The first batch had cayenne and a healthy dose of black pepper, and only jalepeños in the harissa, and it was a touch spicy without enough sweet balance. We threw in raisins because raisins-go-in-everything-round-these-parts, and ditched the cayenne and black pepper. Will complained they lost too much oompf, so the black pepper is back. Seriously, no, we don’t really need to eat black pepper, jalepeño, spicier-harissa and cayenne-infused pie. So we’ll just stick with the first three and it’s perfect. If you’re not such a spice-fan, ditch the jalepeño all-together, cut back on the black pepper, and if you’re purchasing harissa, taste it before adding the entire amount! Do make these though–or request an invite to dinner–because the time has come, both for eating rustic little Moroccan-inspired pastries and getting comfortable in the unknowing.

Moroccan Eggplant Mini-Galettes with Chickpeas and Harissa, makes 8

1 Tbs. olive oil

2 small eggplants, peeled and cut into 1/2-inch cubes (about 2 1/4 cups)

2 garlic cloves, minced

1/2 large onion, chopped

1 jalepeño, diced

2 cups cooked chickpeas

1/4 cup raisins

1/2 cup dried apricots, diced

1/2 tsp. cumin

1/2 tsp. coriander

1 1/2 tsp. salt

1/4 tsp. freshly ground black pepper

1/2 cup harissa

1 recipe Quinoa and Olive Oil Pastry

Quinoa and Olive Oil Pastry, adapted from “Small Plates and Sweet Treats”

1 cup brown rice flour, plus more for dusting

1 cup quinoa flour

2/3 cups almond flour

1/2 cup garbanzo-fava flour

2 tsp salt

1/2 cup olive oil

1 cup water

For the pastry:

1. Combine the first six ingredients in a food processor. Pulse a couple of times to aerate the ingredients. Add the olive oil and 1 cup cold water. Pulse until the dough comes together.

2. Transfer the dough to a work surface, knead it a couple of times and press it into a disk. Wrap in parchment paper, and refrigerate it for 30 minutes.

Make the filling:

1. Heat oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Cook eggplant, garlic, jalepeño, and onion, stirring occasionally, until tender and slightly golden, about 8 minutes. Stir in the beans, raisins, apricots, and spices, and harissa. Taste to adjust seasoning, if necessary.

2. Divide the pastry dough into 8 equal pieces. Dust a work surface with brown rice flour and roll each piece into roughly an 8-inch circle. Spoon 3/4-1 cup filling into the center and pile the edges up around it, pinching it as you go. Transfer the galette to a baking pan, and follow the same process with the remaining 7 pieces.

3. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. Bake for about 10 minutes, and then turn the oven down to 350 degrees F. Cover the galettes as necessary with foil to prevent excessive browning and bake until done, about 20 more minutes. Let the galettes cool slightly before eating.

Harissa, adapted from “Jerusalem”

1 red sweet pepper

1/2 tsp. coriander

1/2 tsp. cumin

1/2 tsp. caraway seeds, toasted and ground in a spice grinder

1 Tbs. olive oil

1 small onion, coarsely chopped

3 cloves garlic, coarsley chopped

3 serrano chiles, coarsley chopped

1 1/2 tsp. tomato paste

2 Tbs. lemon juice

1/2 tsp. salt

For the harissa:

1. Place the pepper, on foil, under the broiler in the oven, turning it occasionally for about 10 minutes, until it is blackened on the outside and completely soft. Transfer to a cutting board and allow to cool. Peel the pepper and discard the skin and seeds.

2. Heat the olive oil in a saute pan over medium heat, and fry the onion, garlic, and chiles for 10-12 minutes until they start to become caramelized.

3. Now turn the sweet pepper, onion/hot pepper mixture, and remaining ingredients into a food processor. Blitz everything together until it becomes a smooth paste.

Summertime

Roasted Vegetable Pizza with Golden Tomato Sauce

September 9, 2014September 26, 2016by Rebecca6 Comments

There are few people I respect more than those who live each day in truth with their whole selves. I’m in awe of these folks and admire how they stubbornly live in their brassy, blunt, comfortably imperfect beings.

I am not of those personalities. I tend to be quiet, small, and gauge how much I share with how well it will be accepted. If feathers will be ruffled or judgement passed, I opt to keep my mouth shut. I’m one that avoids controversy and negative attention. I like to be perceived as put together.

These last few months I’ve been working on letting go a little: Being me without so much filter. Wearing less camoflouge. Going out in public in whatever I happen to have on. Saying things I mean. Sharing parts of me that I previously shoved away into dark little corners.

In my food-world, I liken this process to embracing the ugly vegetables.

William is working on an awesome organic vegetable farm this summer and he brings home bags of crooked carrots, too-ripe peppers, and weedy leaves.

If truth be known, I have a fondness for the most interesting produce cast-aways. A perfectly straight carrot? An apple that has more beauty than flavor? A purely symmetrical tomato? Perfection in the botanical world is boring, sterile, and dare-I-say-it, industrial. Blemishes have their own unique beauty and the taste, what’s inside that really matters, is rarely sacrificed.

If it’s so exciting to embrace ugly produce, why is it like hurdling mountains to get along with personal imperfection?

Tough experiences leave scars which make the good days shine all the more brightly. They leave a life rich with experience. And wisdom.

Exposure to another viewpoint and belief encourages acceptance and understanding.

Having a different opinion is some sort of individualistic awesome.

Critisism can be a catalyst for growth–Or expelling bad juju.

Casting aside worry of another’s judgement is liberating.

Self-acceptance is the best form of freedom.

Back in the kitchen, I’m working with golden heirloom tomatoes of an unknown variety–they were too ripe to sell. I’ve seedy, scarred eggplants, and yellow summer squash from my garden. My squash plant is dying so these are likely the last ones for the summer. I’ve Jimmy Nardello peppers that didn’t come up to size and missshapen bell peppers, still green, which came off with a broken stem from overenthusiastic weeding. There are gorgeous red onions too. I’ve no idea why but they didn’t pass the farm’s to-market test.

As for me, I’m working on being real,worrying less about measuring up or missing out. I’m working on embracing the ugly vegetables in my personality, the crooked roots and misshapenness. I’m working on letting the unique beauty that is the real me overpower the pursuit of being perceived as polished as a tasteless red apple.

We are all glorious in our imperfection. Let’s celebrate a little more of that today. And eat pizza loaded with a bunch of ugly vegetable cast-aways.

Roasted Vegetable and Golden Tomato Pizza, makes 2, serves 4-6

Roasted Vegetables:

1 medium eggplant, chopped

1-2 medium yellow summer squash, chopped

1 red onion, chopped

1-2 sweet red peppers, chopped

1 green bell pepper, chopped

8-10 kalamata olives, diced

extra-virgin olive oil

1-2 tsp. fennel seed

1 tsp. freshly ground black pepper

1/2 tsp. salt

fresh thyme, optional

– Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F. In a large baking pan lined with parchment paper, layer in the chopped eggplant, squash, onion, and peppers.

– Drizzle the mixture with oil, and toss in the fennel seed, freshly ground black pepper, and salt.

– Give it all a good stir and then roast for about 20-25 minutes.

– When the vegetables are sizzling and soft, remove from the oven and let cool slightly.

Golden Tomato Sauce:

1 Tbs. extra virgin olive oil

3 garlic cloves, crushed

2 lbs. yellow or golden tomatoes, peeled and roughly chopped

1 tsp. Italian seasoning

1 tsp. salt

1 tsp. freshly ground black pepper

– Heat the oil in a medium saucepan over medium-high heat. When the oil sizzles, add the garlic and sauté until just golden.

– Add the tomatoes and spices and turn to low. Simmer for 45-60 minutes.

– Let the tomatoes cool for a few minutes and then puree in a blender for a smooth, pizza-sauce consistency. If the sauce is still quite thin, put it back on the stove and simmer a bit longer to thicken up.

Crust:

The ingredients below make enough for two 10-12″ crusts. Each pizza usually serves two to three. You can refrigerate the dough for the second crust up to two days. Due to the differences in the flours, I like to weigh them with a kitchen scale to get an accurate ratio of 70 percent whole grains and 30 percent starches. I’ve then put those weights into cups so it will be easier to measure without a scale, but if in doubt, I’d use a “short measurement,” rather than an overflowing cup.

1 1/2 Tbs. flax seed, ground

3 Tbs. hot water

40 grams (a short 1/2 cup) garbanzo & fava bean flour

80 grams (3/4 cup) brown rice flour

80 grams (3/4 cup) sorghum flour

80 grams (3/4 cup) millet flour

40 grams (1/4 cup + 2 Tbs. tapioca starch

40 grams (1/4 cup + 2 Tbs. arrowroot starch

40 grams (1/4 cup) potato starch

2 tsp. salt

2 1/4 tsp. active dry yeast

~2 Tbs. olive oil, separated

1 tsp. sugar

1 1/3 cup warm water, divided

cornmeal

– Combine the flax seeds and 3 tablespoons of very hot water in a small bowl until a slurry is formed; set aside.

– Combine the flours and salt in a large mixing bowl. In a liquid measuring cup, whisk together the yeast, 1 Tbs. olive oil, sugar and 1/2 cup warm water. Allow it to rest for 3 minutes or so until the yeast is activated.

– Add the yeast mixture to the flour mixture, and stir it all up. Then add the flax seed slurry to the dough and a portion of the remaining water; mix until the dough comes together in a ball. If it is too dry, add enough water to for a tender, pliable dough.

– Cover the dough in the mixing bowl and set it aside to rest for 1 hour.

Putting it all together:

– Preheat the oven to 450 degrees F. Separate the dough into two equal portions. For each pizza, dust your pizza stone or baking sheet with a light sprinkling of cornmeal. Roll one of the dough portions out to desired thickness directly on a pizza stone or baking sheet.

– Spoon a hefty couple of ladlefuls of the golden tomato sauce over the dough and smooth it out. Then, layer on the roasted vegetables followed by the kalamata olives. If desired, crumble a sprig of fresh thyme over the top. Fold the crust edges in when done, and with your fingers, lightly dab the edges with the last tablespoon of olive oil. Pop it in the oven and bake for about 16 minutes.