Cooking from one ingredient items, Week 8!

So finally got to the 8th week of this post. A bit after 8 weeks, but it is titled the "Forever Week" so whenever works? The goal here was to have the changes instituted during the course become permanent, which for me they did not. Kinda: I find myself eating less meat and more nuts than I used to. And a lot of veggies: one week's worth of prepped veggies for just myself, though some went into the soon to be opened sauerkraut.

Two recipes of the week, one from the site, one from my heart. Other challenge of Forever Week was "share with someone in your life and reflect on the positive power of real food" so I made the dishes for the Summer Solstice cookout for the community garden, which now has chickens! Challenged myself to cook with veggies we are growing!
http://www.oneingredientchef.com/chard-wraps/
His recipe is probably better but I used more local produce: carrots and radishes instead of peppers and avocados.



Then my recipe:
Wasabi Peas and Ginger candied-sunflower seeds

1 cup wasabi peas (from the store, cheating, I know)

Mixed w/

1 cup sunflower seeds

1 tbsp brown sugar

1 tsp sriracha

1 tsp soy sauce

½ tsp ginger powder

Start a skillet on medium heat, adding just a smidge of oil (I recommend coconut oil spray). Once it warms, throw on just the sunflower seeds. Stir constantly to make sure they cook evenly. They will be ready when they start to smoke a bit and are turning golden brown, probably will take 5 minutes. Once they are the desired degree of toasted: throw on rest of ingredients: sugar, sriracha, soy sauce, and ginger, mixing quickly. Continue to cook in skillet as the liquid is cooked off. Once the seeds start clumping together, transfer to dehydrator at 125 degrees or onto a cookie sheet at lowest oven temperature, watching carefully as they crystalize together. Will take about 2 hour by dehydrator or 30 minutes by oven.

The amount of ginger, soy, sugar, and sriracha was low and mild, definitely could have made a stronger dish. But thought the mildness balanced well against the kick of the wasabi!

P.S. Christiani: thanks for visiting and the pic I snagged!
P.P.S. If anyone wants access to the course, let me know!

Cooking from one ingredient items, Week 7!

Sorry for silence, got distracted by Step 2CK. But that is behind me now. So now it is time for dessert week.
My favorite one ingredient dessert is date-nut balls. Didn't actually make them recently but the recipe is simple:
1 cup nuts
1 cup dates
Pinch salt, some spices of your choice
Food process together. Wet hands and roll 'dough' into balls. Place if fridge until hungry.
Quick, simple easy. I often vary this up depend on my mood: almonds, almond extract, then take out some dates and put in 1/4 cup cranberries. Or use hazelnuts and cocoa nibs as the nut for a Nutella-like dish.
Or you can use the same recipe as a pie crust! I like using springform pans for easy cleaning, but a normal pie tin works well too.

From there, you can get bold.
http://www.oneingredientchef.com/banana-pie/
Ingredients I used:

• 1 cup nuts (pecans), 1 cup date, blended together
• 2 tablespoons cocoa powder, 2 frozen bananas blended together w/ pinch salt
• 3 tablespoons peanut butter, 2 frozen bananas blended together

Important lessons on this recipe: remember to keep it in the freezer, in the fridge it gets a bit.... runny.

And a next up a few recipe from a cookbook, using blended cashews to make 'cheesecake': coffee chocolate and ginger lime berry! I took photos of the recipes here but dropped the pics from the book so my pies didn't look bad in comparison.
But I was happy how my pies of Black and White (almost) for Game of Thrones finale turned out. The characters I liked getting killed off, not so much.


And since we are on the topic of desserts, shout out to Hummingbird Macaron that opened a few months ago but due to the roof collapsing, they have moved over to Granby for a few weeks along with Cure! Maybe not vegan, but that is okay. Hazelnut praline macaron - ice cream sandwich. And bacon in a macaron! They have normal options too, like nutella, pistachio, and lemon meringue.
https://www.facebook.com/hummingbirdMacarons?fref=ts