It’s getting cold and that means some mornings we want more than just our fresh juice or green smoothies. We want warm belly. One of our favorites is Apple Crisp. I say this recipe makes 4-6 servings; we double it for our family of 7-8. But that’s for eating it by itself for breakfast, not as a dessert after supper, which you also could do. Recipe from Good for You-Naturally!™ Weekly Menu & Recipes ~ Level 1 – over 60 recipes and complete menu for transitioning to whole foods that are Good for You-Naturally!™

Apple Crisp

• ⅓ cup Raw Coconut Oil or Organic Butter
• ¼ cup Raw Honey
• ⅓ cup fresh-ground Whole Wheat Flour OR **fresh ground Oat Flour
• 1 cup rolled Oats
• ½ teaspoon ground Cinnamon
• 2 – 2 1/2 cups Apples, cored and sliced (about 1/4” thick) (or other fruit)

Cream Coconut Oil and Honey Lightly cut in Flour, Oats and Cinnamon (with fork – or mix with hands) Spread Apples evenly over bottom of 2 qt. rectangle baking pan (about 7×11) or square cake pan Crumble Topping over Apples Bake at 350° for 25-35 min. until Apples are tender.

 

Tip! Oat Flour is simple to make with Rolled Oats. Just toss Oats into the blender and blend until flour.

Tip! Double or Triple this recipe will fit in a 9X13 pan.

Tip! Make very cute individual servings, by dividing ingredients out into 1/2 pint, wide mouth canning jars to bake and serve.

Bon Appétit!

As per request, here is my favorite granola recipe. Get this and over 60 other Good for You-Naturally!™ family-friendly, easy to make, budget conscious recipes in Good for You-Naturally! Weekly Menu & Recipes – Level 1. See demos of many of these recipes – and TASTE them too, at the Good for You-Naturally!™ Seminar LIVE!

Good for You-Naturally!™ Maple-Almond Granola

• 1 cup pitted Dates
• 1/2 cup Purified Water
• 1/4 cup Real Maple Syrup
• 1/4 cup Raw Coconut Oil
• 1 tsp. pure Maple Flavoring (or organic Vanilla)
• 1 tsp. ground Cinnamon
• 1 cup Raw Almonds
• 8 cups Rolled Oats
• 1/2 cups dried, shredded Coconut

• Blend (or process in food processor) Dates, Water, Maple Syrup and Coconut Oil until smooth. (Add a little more water if you need to, to keep it blending. Medjool Dates will blend creamier than drier dates, like Deglet Noors.) Stop and scrape down the sides as needed. (Food Processor actually works better if you have one. But, add the water a little at a time, or it may splash out at the beginning.)

• Chop Almonds. (If you have a food processor, you can add them to your Date mix, after processing it, and process again until nuts are small chunks.)

• Blend or mix in Maple Flavoring/Vanilla and Almonds.

• Stir Oats and Coconut together in a large bowl.

• Mix Date mix into Oats and Coconut, with hands is easiest.

• Crumble onto solid sheets for dehydrator (or cookie sheets if you don’t have a dehydrator).

• Dehydrate at 105-110° overnight (or so, until dry) for raw granola. If you don’t have a dehydrator, dry in oven at lowest temperature, 45 min. to a couple hours, until dry. (This will depend on what your oven’s lowest temp is.) Stirring every 10-15 minutes.

• Cool and break into clumps.

• Store in air tight container.

• Serve with Raw Almond or Goatʼs Milk

 This is just one of the over 60 Recipes in Good for You-Naturally! Weekly Menu & Recipes ~ Level 1, a family-friendly menu plan and recipes to help you gently transition to a lifestyle of eating for your health. It also includes and shopping guide for real foods and so much more!

Nuts. Flakes. And Fruits. Granola is known as the “health food”. But beyond that granola can be a great Good for You-Naturally!™ food for our health. It is super simple to make, and has endless variations – according to your tastes or what you have on hand.

Granola begins with grains – traditionally flakes, that is rolled oats, but more healthy is soaked/sprouted and dried oat groats or buckwheat. Soaking releases enzymes inhibitors that are in the grain to keep it dormant, (from sprouting,) to preserve it. Soaking will once again awaken it to life, and our health, providing better digestibility. If you prefer, you can leave the grains out and use nuts and seeds only.

Nuts and seeds are the next key ingredient. We stick to raw ones, for their health and life giving factors. Ideally, these should be soaked and dried too, to release the enzyme inhibitors. If you have tree nut allergies, leave those out and just include seeds that you are able to tolerate.

Sweetener and fat are the next ingredients. These can also help hold the granola together, and are both somewhat optional. Dates are a great natural sweetener that also help bind the other ingredients together for a crunchier/chunkier granola. Raw honey and pure maple syrup are other good options, if you use them. Raw coconut oil is our good fat of choice. Of course, the nuts and seeds also provide good fats. Flax seed is a great seed to include that also provides good fat and acts as a binder. While adding these liquid ingredients, you may add a bit of water too.

Seasonings are our next ingredients. Any of your baking spices may be appropriate, such as cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice, even ginger if you really like it. I also like to add real vanilla and/or maple flavors.

Finally we get to that third category, fruits. I’m listing them last, because all the other ingredients are mixed together and dried or baked before adding dried fruits. Dried coconut shreds are a staple in our granola. Raisins, dried apples, apricots, or most kinds of dried cherries or berries – strawberries, cranberries, blueberries, raspberries, etc. –  can be added. You could also add fresh apple bits, or even a bit of applesauce as a binder, before dehydrating/baking.

OK, I’ve said it twice, dehydrating or baking. We recommend dehydrating, at low temperatures, for retention of nutrients. If we’re going to make a good healthy food, we want to keep as many of the nutrients as we can intact. Cooking destroys far more nutrients than dehydrating at low temps does.

That’s it. Mix it together and dehydrate it at about 105°-110°, until dry. Store in an air right container. Preferably glass.

What about proportions. Use what you like. there is no right way. But below are some proportions we like – and in parenthesis one of our fave mixtures. All amounts are approximate. This one is more traditional and uses the more common rolled grains, which are steamed, not completely raw, but still a good whole grain.

Lisa’s Good for You-Naturally!™ Granola

7 cups flakes (rolled oats 5 c., rolled barley 1 c., rolled rye 1 c.)

1-1.5  cup raw nuts and seeds – any combination you like (1 c. almonds, 1/4 c. sunflower seeds, 1/4 c. sesame seeds)

1/2 – 3/4 cup sweetener/water  (1/3 c. maple syrup, 1/3 c. water)

1/4 c. fat/oil (raw coconut oil)

1/4+ c. ground flax seed (These are full of really good fats that we are all so lacking, always add them.)

1-2 tsp. spice (1.5 tsp. cinnamon)

1-2 tsp. flavoring (1 tsp. vanilla, 1 tsp. pure maple flavoring)

Mix all together and dehydrate. When dry mix in:

1+ c. chopped dried fruits (1/2 c. coconut, 1/2+ c. raisins, dried apples or strawberries.)

Store in air tight container.

Serve with milk, or in/on yogurt, or just by the handful!

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Good morning! Mmm – to wake to fresh cinnamon rolls. Well, I’m not today. Off to a homeschool museum day, so quickly to the point today. [Post updated 3/30/09]

Lisa’s Honey Cinnamon Rolls

2 c. hot purified water (steaming not boiling)

1/3 c. raw organic coconut oil

1/3 c. raw honey

1 tsp. unrefined salt (Real®, himilayan, or celtic)

Put above into your mixing bowl.

Add:

approx. 4 c. freshly milled, organic hard white wheat flour

1 slightly rounded Tbl. SAF yeast (instant) (on top of your flour)

Mix and knead, adding enough flour to make a soft dough. (That is, add flour until it cleans the side of your bowl in a Bosch, knead in Bosch for approx. 5-6 minutes.)

Prepare “Carmel Topping” (above recipe makes 2 pans of Cinnamon Rolls – so prepare 2 pans as below.)

For each pan, Melt:

1/3 c. unsalted butter (organic, if you can)

1/3 c. raw honey

(Can use 1/2 c. each for a stickier, sticky bun.)

1 tsp. blackstrap molasses (can use 1 Tbl. unsulfured light molasses)

Stir together well.

Pour into 9×13″ pan, and distribute evenly across the bottom.

“Grease” your working surface, we use liquid lecithin /olive oil (see below).

Divide dough in half, and prepare each half as follows.

Roll out  on your greased surface, into a rectangle, approx. 1/4″ thick. Spread (smear) dough evenly with approx. 1/3 c. soft butter. Pour over that, and evenly distribute, 1/3 c. raw honey (you can also substitute 1/2 c. sucanat, if you wish). Sprinkle well with non-irratiated, organic ground cinnamon. Roll up (like a jelly roll,) slice into 12 equal slices. Place cut side down in your prepared pan.

Cover with a flour sack towel. Let rise until doubled (nice and puffy.) Preheat oven to 350°. Bake approx. 20 minutes.

Notes: Start milling wheat, while water is heating and you’re measuring first ingredients.

You can use milk substitute to replace water, if you desire.

Our “greasing” recipe: 1/3 c. liquid lecithin, 1 c. olive oil, mixed well. Store in a covered container. Use to grease pans and surfaces for dough handling.

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