If you have men who will exclude any of God's creatures from the shelter of compassion and pity, you will have men who will deal likewise with their fellow men.
~St. Francis of Assisi
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February 27th, 2010 
We had some exciting moments this morning as the 8.8 magnitude earthquake that hit Chile set off tsunami warnings on Maui and all the Hawaiian and Pacific Islands. Living in one of the lower coastal evacuation areas and receiving early warnings from neighborhood friends, my husband and I were dashing about loading the car to drive to higher ground upcountry at 5am before the first warning sirens actually sounded. It is interesting to note what one decides to take when moments are precious.
One of the items that went into our food bag was this delicious Cranberry Maple Granola that I made just several days before. It is a recipe from Matthew Kenney and Sarma Melngailis’s book Raw Food Real World. I threw in a few other items that I had prepared like the Macadamia Nut Hummus and the Za’atar Flatbread (from Kenney’s book everydayraw), but I was particularly glad we had this granola as we were skipping out without breakfast. The other day I ate it with some homemade almond mylk and it was simply divine. I also tried a few broken clusters over hot oatmeal one day and topped it with a dribble of almond mylk and a dab of maple syrup — equally yum yum! Check out the recipe below and don’t be afraid to be creative!
In retrospect, today was just a little emergency drill for those of us living on Maui but it was a major catastrophe for the people of Chile. May they be free from their suffering — the loss of loved ones and massive destruction soon.
CRANBERRY MAPLE GRANOLA
makes about 10 cups
“This granola, or grawnola, as we call it at the take-out store, is hearty and crunchy. It’s a really good snack to have around or to take with you when traveling, although we like it best as a cereal with berries and sweet Brazil nut milk. You can easily vary the recipe substituting chopped dried apples for the cranberries and ginger powder for the orange zest.”
1 apple, cored and chopped
1 1/2 cups date paste*
1/2 cup maple syrup
2 TBS lemon juice
2 TBS orange zest
1 TBS vanilla extract
1 tsp ground cinnamon
2 tsp sea salt
1/2 cup sunflower seeds, soaked 2 hours or more
2 cups almonds, soaked 4 hours or more
3 cups pecans, soaked 2 hours or more
1 cup pumpkin seeds, soaked 2 hours or more
1 cup dried cranberries
- In a food processor, place the apple, date paste, maple syrup. lemon juice, orange zest, vanilla, cinnamon, salt, and 1/4 cup of the sunflower seeds and grind until completely smooth. Transfer the mixture to a large mixing bowl.
- Add the remaining 1/4 cup of sunflower seeds, the almonds, pecans, and pumpkin seeds to the food processor (you don’t need to bother to rinse the bowl in between). Coarsely chop the nuts and seeds in a few quick pulses. Add them to the bowl with the apple mixture, add the cranberries and combine well.
- Spread the granola on Teflex-lined dehydrator trays and dehydrate at 115º F for 6 to 8 hours. Flip the granola over onto the screens and peel away the Teflex. Continue dehydrating for another 8 to 12 hours, or until the granola is crunchy. Break into pieces and, once completely cooled, store in an airtight container. To maintain freshness longer, store the granola in the refrigerator for up to a few weeks.
* To make date paste: Soak pitted dates in water for 1 to 2 hours. Drain and reserve the water 1 tablespoon at a time as needed, until you have the consistency of a thick jam or butter. Transfer to a covered container and keep refrigerated. This should keep easily for a week, or much longer if frozen.
Printable Recipe
February 21st, 2010 
I love banana bread for breakfast… and almost anytime of day. This recipe stands out from others as the addition of lime and coconut give it a delicious tropical and somehow exotic flavor — as far as banana breads go. It comes from The 30 Minute Vegan by Mark Reinfeld and Jennifer Murray. As you can probably guess, bananas are abundant and available from many local sources here in Hawaii. The taste difference between bananas that have ripened on the tree vs. those that have ripened on the way to a store or in a store is immense. They seem sweeter. Not in a ooey overly sweet way… but in a luscious oh so perfect ripe fruit way. What can I say… they are delicious and I make banana bread frequently. This however was the first time I tried petite loaves. Smaller than a mini loaves, the petite size is more of a single serving — slightly bigger than a large muffin. Check out the recipe below. I’ve also included the variations that Reinfeld and Murray cite in their book. Enjoy!
COCONUT-LIME BANANA BREAD
Makes one standard loaf, 3 mini loaves (approx 5 3/4″ x 3 1/4″ x 2 1/4″ high) or 6 petite loaves (approx 2 1/2 x 3 3/8 x 1 1/2 inches deep)
Ingredients:
2 Cups whole spelt flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp sea salt
1/2 cup shredded coconut
1 1/2 cups banana, sliced or mashed if preparing by hand
1/2 cup coconut, safflower, or sunflower oil
1 cup Sucanat
1 TBS vanilla extract or Jamaican Rum
1/3 cup soy yogurt
1 tsp raw apple cider vinegar
1 tsp lime zest
Glaze:
¼ cup agave nectar
1 TBS freshly squeezed lime juice
1 tsp lime zest
½ cup shredded coconut (optional)
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Lightly oil the baking pans and dust with flour. Sift the spelt flour, baking soda, and salt through a fine-mesh strainer. Add the shredded coconut, whisk it all together and set aside.
- In the bowl of a standing mixer with the paddle attachment, start to blend the banana on low speed, changing to medium speed as the banana mashes more. Add the oil, sucanat, vanilla, yogurt, vinegar and zest and keep blending for 2 minutes, or until the mixture is uniform and soupy with very few chunks of banana.
- Reduce the speed to low and slowly add the flour mixture. If using a hand mixer, stir in flour by hand. Blend for 1 minute or until dough is blended but still chunky. Don not overmix! It doesn’t need to look like pancake batter; chunks are okay. Transfer to the prepared baking pan (1 standard loaf or 3 mini loaves).
- Bake for 60 minutes for standard loaf and 40 minutes for the mini loaves or until toothpick in the center comes out clean and edges have pulled away from the pan. Remove from the oven and let the pan sit for 10 to 15 minutes before removing the bread and transferring it to a wire rack.
- For the glaze, combine all the ingredients together and let it sit while the bread bakes. Pour it over the bread after it is transferred from the pan to the wire rack. Try to keep most of the coconut, if using on the top. It will stick more as the bread continues to cool.
Variations:
- Add 1/2 cup of your favorite nuts, such as walnuts, macadamia nuts, or roasted almonds.
- Experiment with different flavors and extracts, such as almond, orange and lemon.
- Try toasting the shredded coconut for the bread and/or the topping
February 1st, 2010 
Growing up, Saturday was the day my Mom always cooked pancakes. She greased up a big grill by cooking up Oscar Mayer smokie link sausages. With seven kids, Mom made a lot of pancakes, filing up the grill time and time again. Most often she would make sourdough pancakes, keeping a starter mix in the fridge from week to week. Occasionally, I would help with the flipping and I learned early on that these pancakes were ready when lots of air bubbles formed on the top. I think she made sourdough pancakes because my Dad loved ‘um so much. Me — I prefer the fluffiness of a good buttermilk pancake with lots of melting butter and plenty of maple syrup.
Now I do not eat pancakes every Saturday anymore and I am surely not a pancake connoisseur but without the butter, without the buttermilk or the grease from sausage, you would think that a animal and dairy-free pancake just wouldn’t satisfy…. ahhh, but there is Vegan Yum Yum’s recipe: “Easy Weekend Pancakes”
I tried this recipe last Saturday cutting the ingredients in half for a smaller serving and adding bananas and walnuts — my favorite! They were tasty and very very easy. All the ingredients go into the blender… Whoosh! And you’re finished! I did put a little Earth Balance in between each layer with a smidgen of syrup to make it extra yum yum but I wasn’t totally comfortable with that as I am a little conflicted about the use of butter substitutes and how healthy they really are. (Something to explore on the blog later…)
If I had one minor criticism about this pancake recipe, it would be about texture. Once the batter hit the frying pan, it didn’t “rise” very much and hence the final product was slightly flat and rubbery. One Vegan Yum Yum reader seemed to have a similar problem finding the pancakes “chewy”… and undercooked “but still brown.” Lolo, the VYY’s blogger., responded:
“It sounds like you might have over-mixed the batter and used too-high heat to cook them. Mixing less should prevent gluten from developing and cooking them over a lower temp will allow the insides to cook before the outsides get too brown.”
Sounds like good advice to me and I’ll try this technique next time. And Lolo has yet another recipe called: “Slow Rise Pancakes” that may be more to my liking. In this recipe she adds yeast and allows the dough to rise. My guess is it makes for a fluffier pancake.
Ahh, an excuse to make more Saturday Pancakes.
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