My 5 Minute Morning Green Smoothie

As I've mused before, since getting back from South East Asia I've been slowly dragging my carcass into the realm of the living with being good about light yoga, upping my workload slowly, amongst other things.  Of course, none of that will do me much good if I'm not sweeping the steps of my body's temple with high fiber green vegetables! 

I have generally had a bit of a hard time with smoothies, finding there is either too much added sugar in the form of flavored non-dairy milks, agave, bananas, dates, etc. lacking in actual vegetable content aside from a cursory couple of de-stemmed kale leaves or dash of spirulina.  

The flipside is me going overboard and forgoing flavor in the name of "healthy," and end up chewing through a thick, fibrous, muddy beet, kale, cinnamon, acai, maca, almond, jalapeno, parsley, grapefruit sludgefest that tastes about as good as the dirt they're all grown in. 

Finally I seem to have found a tasty medium that tastes pretty damn good (For something so healthy), isn't packed full of freaky banana sugar (one banana has approximately 15 grams of sugar in it, thats a tablespoon!), is predominantly vegetable based.

Oh, also, it takes like less than 5 minutes to prepare (though a bit longer to thoughtfully sip as you review your various morning rages), as there is barely any prep involved beyond DUMPING STUFF IN TEH BLENDER!

So, what all goes into this?  Well, lets get onto the recipe below for that.

5 Minute (AMAZING) Green Smoothie
Makes 2-4 servings to fuel you, and maybe company, throughout the day.

• 1 large, organic cucumber, ends trimmed*, and cut into 3-5 chunks
• 1/2 a small bunch organic parsley or cilantro, stems included
• 1 mottled banana (the browner the skin, the less starchy), peeled and halved
• 2 organic kiwis, ends removed, and halved, skin on**
• 3-5 leaves organic kale, torn in half lengthwise
• 1 head organic romaine lettuce, bottom cut off and then cut into 3 or 4 sections
• 1 Organic apple, quartered (I use fuji, but any should work)
• 1 inch knob of ginger
• *optional* juice of 1 fresh lemon or fresh lime
• *optional* A dash of spirulina

Place about half of your ingredients into an uber blender (I use a BlendTec but Vitamix should work), add about 1 cup of water and pulse it a couple of times to create space for the rest of the ingredients.

When you have created space for the rest of the ingredients, load them in and pulverize (my blender has an automatic Whole Juice timed setting).  

If you can't fit _everything_ in (I can usually just eek everything in, sometimes barely), feel free to save it for the next day.  *I usually sacrifice half a cucumber if something needs to go.

From there, enjoy your breakfast! If you are flying solo, it should make enough juice to fill a couple of ball jars to give you some green boosters throughout the day.  Generally since I've gotten back, half of it has been my breakfast and I try to eat mindfully throughout the rest of the day.

**Yes, kiwi skins are edible and under appreciated!  Also as a nice touch, add the kiwis after the juice has been prepared, and blend it just a little more, this makes sure the black seeds are still whole and lend a nice crunch to the smoothie.

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Obviously this can be tailored to your personal preferences, but I've found that the lighter water heavy vegetables like romaine and cucumber really help give refreshing body to smoothie without making it too vegetal, overwhelming the qualities of the apple and kiwi.  The banana also really helps round out the body of the drink, as I learned one morning when I forgot to add said fruit and was wondering what the drink was missing... Speaking of missing, I'm all out of romaine... erk! 

Full Bodied Zucchini Hummus (Low carb! Gluten free! Infused with sass!)

It seems like carbs make me tired, like, really tired if I'm not careful.  I once had an internship at an Special Ed facility, and if it was french fries for lunch before the meetings I was a goner. I'd have to leave the group meeting at least a couple of times and go to the rest room and pump out some jumping jacks just to make sure I wasn't passed out, drooling on my clipboard as I sat on the sidelines.

Needless to say, I took pretty well to the low carb lifestyle one finds in raw food diets (and the generally better levels of energy).  However, there are some heavenly flavors one just can't find in the raw food world, flavors like Tohum roasted tahini.  Mind you, Tohum tahini is a specialty that I don't find my self able to (afford) to use all the time, but if you haven't tried it I do strongly recommend it.  Thankfully, there are other slightly more cost effect brands that are delicious enough.

Anyway, I do digress... Since I got back from Asia, I've been trying to eat better/more healthy, and felt like turning to a diet heavy in fresh fruits and raw vegetables was a good start, while minimizing my intake of processed foods.  So, you can expect to see updates (often green in color), of some of my staples during the past week.

One of the delights I whipped up was thus hummus.  I used some components of the raw base (zucchini in lieu of chickpeas),, and matched it with the flavoring components of my historical favorite hummus (the one on the side of this bag), and tackled the problem of raw hummus traditionally having the consistency of a thick salad dressing (moar flaxseeds!).

The end product was the full bodied, flavorful hummus I fondly remembered, that I could eat freely with carrots and celery without Mr. Sandman dragging me off to Nod.

Speaking of Nod... I'm still a bit jet lagged, and should get this recipe down before I PTFO...

Hummus!

• 2 Large Green Zucchinis, cut into chunks
• 2-4 cloves of garlic, peeled*
• 2 t Vegetable Better than Boullion
• 2 t Franks Hot Sauce
• 6 T Fresh Squeezed Lemon Juice
• 3/4 c Roasted Tahini
• 1/2 T Cumin Seeds, Toasted
• 1/4 c Extra Virgin Olive Oil
• 3 T Nutritional Yeast
• 1 t black pepper
• 3 T Flax**

Throw everything but the flax into the high power blender or food processor. Blend until smooth.  If mix is watery, toss in the flax seeds and again blend until smooth. If you are using a food processor instead of a blender, I'd recommend using pre-ground flax meal for optimum smooth temperature. 

Transfer hummus to a container and place in the fridge until the flax seed has set.  When set, enjoy with carrots, celery, or whatever else you like to dip into hummus.  I've been eating it on raw onion bread with fresh sliced of tomato and a few grinds of pepper. 

*Garlickyness is a matter of personal preference, I go for 4 but that can be a bit much for most folks.

**Every zucchini will have different levels of water content, so you may need more or less hummus. You do not want to add too much, or else you will give the hummus a gummy texture, otherwise, it should be great! 

Christmas Quinoa Tabouli

Tabouli, tabbouleh, tabouleh, tabbouli... So many different ways of spelling this dish.  I have so many slight variations on using making this dish work for me, though I think I may've found my new favorite; a spin is given on this old dish with a blend of lightly toasted spices and pomegranate seeds.  I also decided to kick things up a bit by mixing two types of parsley, flat leaf which adds body and curly which really "grips" the dressing and quinoa. 

As a note, when making tabouli, recipes should be taken more as rough guidelines and always finish more on personal preference or what you have in your cupboard.  If you like your salad extra tangy, use more lemon juice. Have a couple sprigs of parsley left? Toss them in! Prefer Have cilantro over mint? That's your call.

While I use quinoa, classical recipes call for bulgur. I prefer to use more leftover, gluten free whole food oriented alternatives, such as quinoa, brown rice, hemp seeds, coarsely chopped chickpeas, etc.  

Christmas Quinoa Tabouli
(serves six as a side) 

• 1 cup cooked quinoa, lightly fluffed
• 8-12 cherry tomatoes, about 11 oz
• 1 shallot, finely chopped
• 3 T fresh lemon juice
• 1 large head flat leaf parsley (3-5 oz), 
• 1 large head curly leaf parsley (3-5 oz) 
• 1 bunch of mint (1 oz), stemmed
• 2 t ground allspice
• 1 T ras el hanout
• 1/3 c extra virgin olive oil
• seeds of 1 pomegranate 
• Salt & pepper to taste

Using a small, sharp knife, cut the tomatoes into quarters and eights, toss them into a large mixing bowl along with the shallot and lemon juice. 

Grab the parsley by the head and twist off the coarser stems and set aside for another use (such as juicing, blending, making stock, etc. If the stems are tender and not too woody, I often include them in my parsley salads).  For the flat leaf parsley, pack the leaves up tightly, "balling" them a bit, and using a large sharp chef's knife cut them into thin slivers no more than 1/2 an inch thick.  Add to the large bowl. For the curly leaf parsley, coarsely chop so that you get lots of little 'florets' of the tips.  Add to bowl.

For the mint, stack the leaves together, and using a very sharp knife cut the leaves into ribbons width-wise. Be gentle with them, as mint leaves tend to discolor when bruised.  Add to the bowl.

Add the ras el hanout, allspice, olive oil, pomegranate, and some salt and fresh ground pepper and toss.  Feel free to add some more salt/pepper/lemon juice to taste, and serve. 

VegaNanaimo bars

What do you get when you make a rich, dense, nutty base with a soft, airy, ultra sweet whipped (vegan) butter (vegan) cream layer, and top it with a crackling thin layer of dark chocolate?  Probably one of the only good things to come from one of my many past trainwrecks relationships; otherwise known as Nanaimo bars, named after the island of Nanaimo off of Vancouver, B.C. where said ex was from.  So, relationships may come and go, but my appreciation for the New Pornographers, Godspeed you Black Emperor, and obscure desserts even many Canadians have never heard stick around.

What with the holiday season in full swing, one is expected to make cookies, cookies, and more cookies!  One of the better annual parties we have is called "The Cookie Party," which is actually an underground warehouse rave that goes til dawn (plus uhm, a party featuring a mountain of like over 90 different types of homemade cookies such as ghost-pepper ginger snaps to tandoori curry cookies and well.. Nanaimo bars). 

From Cookie Party 2011: Not pictured: cookies.  Pictured: sassy erstwhile vegan food blogger Mary and her awesomer, sassier hair stylist, Joolie. 

 Anyway, on to the recipe...

VegaNanaimo Bars(say that 6 times, quickly)

Bottom Layer:

• 1/2 cup Earth Balance (1/3 c oil + 1T water should work)
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 5 tablespoons cocoa (I use Valrhona)
• 2 T chia gel 
• 2 cups graham cracker crumbs
• 1 cup unsweetened coconut flakes
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 3/4 cup walnuts

Second Layer:

• 1/2 cup Earth Balance (room temp)
• 2 cup confectioners' sugar
• 2 tablespoons corn starch
• 1 t vanilla extract
• 1-4 tablespoon non-dairy (I used Whole Foods unsweetened soy) 

Topping:

• 4 ounces dark (70%+) chocolate
• 2 tablespoon Earth Balance or coconut oil

Prep an 8x8 dish by layering it with parchment paper. 

Bottom layer: Put the walnuts into a food processer bowl and corsely chop, add the remaining ingredients for the bottom layer, except the butter and pulse a couple of times until the ingredients are evenly mixed.  Melt the earth balance and pour into the bowl, pulse until the mix reaches the desired consistency.  I like mine to be dense and cohesive, relatively homogenous, but some people like the elements to be more distinct. Press evenly into 8x8 pan and let cool in the freezer as you prep the second layer.

Second layer: Cream the earth balance, confectioners' sugar, corn starch, and vanilla in a standing bowl mixture fitted with the whisk attachment. Add  a tablespoon of mylk and beat until light and creamy, scraping down the sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula as necessary. Spread on top of bottom layer. Place this in refrigerator for at least 20 minutes.

Topping: Melt chocolate and butter together in a bowl set over hot water. Mix well and spread on top. Chill in refrigerator.

Finished product should look something like this.  When you are ready to cut them up, you want a sharp knife in a vase of hot water to cut through the chocolate with minimum cracking (cracking will likely happen anyway, though). 

 Lift the entire square out of the tray and flatten the parchment, placing the bar on a cutting board.  Remove the knife from the hot water and evenly start to cut squares out into the desired size. I tend to make roughly 1x1 inch squares, as these bars are riiiiiich!  Make sure to rewarm the knife as needed.

Plate up and share as desired... or take all of them and seclude your self in a blanket fort, growling at anything that passes by.

Chocolate Peanut Butter Crunch Ninja Stars!

OK, OK, not stars, but diamonds (that you can shape into ninja stars of [coronary] DETH!),  Who doesn't love chocolate peanut butter bars?  Who doesn't love that crumbly filling in Reeses peanut butter cups? You know what I'm talking about, the sugar substance spackled together with cheap peanut product and wax. Yeah, guilty as charged. So, obviously as soon as I saw this recipe in one of my new cookbook's, it jumped to the top of my 'To make' queue, with butter as the only dairy product, it was pretty easy to veganize.  

The end product was everything I hoped for, including the not-too-sweet crumbly peanut butter filling reminiscent of my childhood (into adulthood) favorite, Reeses PB cups, but now with a high quality dark chocolate topping and cookie bottom, topped with a dash of pink Hawaiian salt to give it a touch of sophistication.  Anyway, I do digress... Onto the recipe

Chocolate Peanut Butter Crunch Bars

Yields 24 bars 

Crust

2.5 cups (9.5 ounces) chocolate cookie crumbs*

8 T (4 ounces, 1 stick) butter substitute, melted

Filling

2 1/2 cups (19.5 ounces) smooth natural peanut butter

1 1/4 cups (3.5 ounces) graham cracker crumbs

1 1/4 cups (3.5 ounces) finely ground puffed rice cereal*

1/2 cup (3.9 ounces) packed brown sugar

1 teaspoon (.2 ounces) kosher salt

8 T (4 ounces, 1 stick ) butter substitute at room temperature

Topping

6 ounces 70% dark chocolate, chopped

1 Tablespoon (1 ounces) coconut oil or butter substitute 

Finishing

Artisan salt, such as sel de guerande, pink Hawaiian, black salt, etc. 

*NOTES* 

You can use any sort of chocolate cookie you like, I used Newman's Own chocolate alphabet cookies pulverized in my food processor.  Pulverize the puffed rice cereal in a similar manner. You can also use vanilla cookies, corn flakes, or a blend of other crispy products for this. 

For the crust...  Line a 9x13 pyrex pan with aluminum foil, then grease with the wrapper of the butter substitute.  Mix the crumbs and melted butter substitute together until it resembles wet sand. Press the mixture into the pan using your palms to flatten and spread until you have a uniform pressed crust.  Chill in the fridge, uncovered, for about 30 minutes.

For the filling... Combine the peanut butter, butter sub, sugar, and salt together into the bowl of a standing mixer fitted with a paddle. Mix on high until well combined, about 5 minutes. Add the rest of the ingredients and mix until well combined. Remove the crust from the fridge and using your palms, spread the peanut butter mixture around evenly on top.  Refrigerate for 1 hour, uncovered. 

For the topping... Melt the chocolate with the oil in a double boiler set over simmering water, about  6 minutes, stirring with a rubber spatula to combine.   When the chocolate is melted and smooth, pour atop the bars and spread quickly into a think layer, careful not to scrape against the bottom, The faster you work the better, as the chocolate will start to seize atop the cooled base.  Return the pan to the fridge. 

Finishing... . After the bars have fully set (about 6 hours), prepare a hot water bath for a knife (a vegetable cleaver or a 7" santouku work well). While the knife is soaking in hot water, take the bars out of the fridge and lift them out of the pan in the foil and place onto a flat cutting surface. Use the hot knife to press down first in straight columns, then once more on diagonals to get that diamond shape, as illustrated below. 

If you would prefer squares, feel free to cut straight down rather than diagonal.   If you desire, a sprinkle of a fine salt really adds a nice touch to them. 

Sharing is caring, blogging is logging.

So, I know I have totally neglected this blog, which is a shame, because I look back and think "I made that!?" I can be a rock star in the kitchen, and if not for my own benefit, for the benefit of others, it is pretty useful for me to keep some track of what I've been up to.

I've been neglecting this blog for a number of reasons, largely disorganization or letting things go unattended too long so that I can no longer remember _exactly_ what I did to make things *pop*, or dissatisfaction with the photos I took.

I have a fair amount of food photos backlogged, and I am going to do my best to make them 'pretty enough,' and post them with what I remember of the recipe, so I at least have some sort of idea of where to begin if I make them again.

That said, I know exactly what I did for one particularly tasty recipe made in recent times, lets just hope I can capture some good photos to do it justice...

Spring! Wait, Summer? Whatever, it is time for refreshments!

Tibicos, this is my blog. My blog, this is Tibicos. Courtesy of a friend, via Clotilde, I was informed of the existence of a new ferment. I have been a big fan of kombucha since GTs started showing up in Whole Foods years ago, and started brewing it my self. Unfortunately a life of transience and a kombucha distillery are not particularly compatible, but I didn't loose my taste for the sharp, dry, fizzy beverage. The only loss suffered were the bills in my wallet for every 4 dollar bottle that point forth.

Enter Tibicos: also known as Tibi, or Water Kefir. According to some, the name Tibi is one given by Mother Therese of Calcutta, who once traveled to Tibet and met the monks and masters of that region who gave her this beverage, hence the name is Tibicos. I didn't have to taste it, I mean who hesitates to try a new fermented beverage? I did have to try it, though, and the only way to do that was to make it my self: I went onto Craigslist and was lucky to find a local fellow giving away extra water kefir crystals (also called Japanese water crystals), and tried my hand...

The end product is one I have quickly become quite fond if, bottling it in those old GTs bottles, letting it do a secondary ferment over night before refrigerating, and starting my day with one. It is dry, with hints of citrus and the lightest of light bubbles that tickle your tongue. I could imagine it going quite well with gin, or sake.

It is rather easy to make, hard to fuck up (at least I haven't managed yet), and oh so very rewarding. You also get the cool bonus of having a jar that looks like the vegan counterpart to those side-show attractions of two headed fetuses in jars.

Anyway... onto the recipe....!

Water Kefir!

• 1/4 to 1/2 cup of Japanese Water Crystals*
• 1 dried fig, halved
• 1/2 lemon
• 3-4 tablespoons of white sugar
• 1 litre (4 cups) of purified water
• 2 litre jar with lid
• *optiona items*
• Cinnamon stick
• Cardamom pods
• Unsulphured dried fruit slice such as mango, pineapple, apple, etc.

Note: You want to use organic as much as possible. The tibi crystals are fungal/bacterial in nature and can be damaged by pesticides and other materials.

The recipe is pretty straightforward from here. Place ingredients in jar, cover with cheesecloth, let sit for 24-48 hours.

Strain and filter liquid into drinking jar.

Let drinking jar sit overnight, then refrigerate.

Place ingredients back in jar, and add another 3-4 tablespoons of sugar, cover with cheesecloth and let sit for 24-48 hours, to repeat above process 1 to 2 more times.

After 3rd bottling, separate crystals from other materials, clean jar, and start again or store crystals in a clean container with enough water or tibi to cover and a tablespoon of sugar in the fridge to let hibernate for a couple of weeks.

Tada! I quickly started doing this in a 4 or 5 liter bottle, so I could keep up with my 16 oz a day habit. I will possibly have more pics later, but go easy on me... I'm just starting this blog, again!