Salted. Caramel. Oats. You like the sound of that? Oh yes you do. Having dessert(ish) foods for breakfast is what life is all about. Seriously, if you haven't tried the Creamy Chocolate Oatmeal that I posted some time ago, get on it, NOW! So next up is this sinfully indulgent beast of a breakfast that'll leave you fully satisfied and ready to take on a new day.
This recipe owes its sweetness to date paste, or date caramel as I prefer to call it (see below). I make mine by mashing a few soft dates with a fork but this may not be so easy if you don't have the right kind of dates. The ones I'm talking about here can be seen above; soft, un-pitted ones that are super easy to peel and have a melt-in-your-mouth consistency. If you can't find these where you live, soaking a few of the drier, pre-pitted dates overnight would probably work as well.
Date Caramel
The wonderful, caramel-y flavour comes from the amazing Organic Burst Maca Powder that I've been putting in everything lately. If you don't have any maca at hand then I suggest you sub it for a spoonful of mesquite powder or simply leave it out and let the dates work their caramel magic all on their own.
Salted Caramel Oatmeal
Ingredients: - 1/2 cup rolled oats - 1 cup unsweetened almond milk - 3-4 soft dates with the pits still in them or 3-4 pre-pitted dates soaked overnight (30 g) - 1/2 tbsp Organic Burst Maca Powder (could sub for mesquite or omit completely) - Salt to taste How to: 1. Bring oats, salt and almond milk to the boil (in a small saucepan) then lower the heat to a simmer. 2. Peel (optional) the dates and mash them to a gooey mess using a fork and a spoonful of water. 3. Add the date paste to the saucepan and stir well until the paste has dissolved in the oatmeal. 4. Stir frequently as you wait for the oats to get to the desired consistency. Add in the maca powder right at the end to preserve its nutrients as much as possible. 5. Add toppings such as banana coins and/or peanut butter and serve immediately.
Adopting an evolutionarily sound lifestyle may reduce the probability that one will develop cancer, but there will be those who will nevertheless have cancer. As we live longer lives, cancer diagnoses are likely to become more and more common.
There are viruses that cause the formation and growth of cancer tumors: oncoviruses. However, and quite interestingly, there are also viruses that seek and kill cancer cells: oncolytic viruses. The video below discusses emerging treatments based on oncolytic viruses.
This Penn Medicine YouTube video is about 6 minutes in length. (A previous HBO video was about 40 minutes in length, and it was worth watching in full. However it became unavailable soon after I linked it here. Its title on YouTube was "Vice Special Report: Killing Cancer".)
Cancer treatment via oncolytic viruses had a promising start in the mid-1990s. However, due to technical complications it has been sidelined for years. Interest has been picking up dramatically in recent years. Could it be foundation for the long promised cure for cancer, as the video implies?
Happy pi(e) day! I always love to celebrate otherwise insignificant days that have somehow come to revolve around food. There is National Cinnamon Roll Day (which is kind of a Swedish thing), Mardi Gras, several pancake days and so on. This day in particular kind is so geeky and amazing at the same time that you just can't help but loving it. I pondered long on which pie to make. There was an idea of making it a banoffee-thingy lurking somewhere inside my mind, and vegan key lime pie had a certain appeal to it as well. As I was brainstorming, I kind of ran out of time. So what better way to save the day than to whip up an extraordinarily simple crumble pie! All you need is frozen or fresh berries and a couple of pantry staples and you're all set and ready to go!
Before going in the oven
Now, I usually make sure to test my recipes more than once before posting them on here but as there is so little that could possibly go wrong with this, I'll share this recipe before pi(e) day has passed. Let me know if you give it a try!
Raspberry and Cherry Crumble Pi(e) for one
Filling: - 1 cup (roughly) frozen or fresh berries, I opted for frozen sweet cherries and frozen raspberries - 1 tbsp cornstarch (potato starch/tapioca flour works as well) - 1/2-1 tbsp sweetener of choice, such as coconut sugar or erythritol Crumble: - 4 tbsp rolled oats - 1 tbsp coconut flour - 2-3 dates (24g) - 1/2 tbsp unsweetened apple sauce - 1/2 tbsp melted coconut oil - Pinch of pure vanilla powder How to: 1. Preheat the oven to 350F/175C 2. Place berries in a bowl and toss in cornstarch until everything is coated. 3. Transfer to a small pie dish and add your sweetener to the berries by sprinkling/pouring it on top. (If you've gone for all sweet berries such as sweet cherries and strawberries, you may want to omit the sweetener.) 4. In another bowl, combine all the ingredients for the crumble -except for 1 tbsp oats- by blending them with a hand blender until a sticky dough forms. 5. Mix the remaining oats into the dough. It should crumble easily and if not, add a bit more liquid/flour until you've reached the right consistency. 6. Sprinkle the crumble evenly on top of the berries and bake in the oven for about 15 minutes or until it starts to brown. 7. Let cool for a few minutes and serve with a few spoonfuls of coconut cream (preferably whipped - mine wasn't) and even more fresh berries if you wish.
I make a half gallon of yogurt, twice a month. I like making my own yogurt for many reasons, but it's a bit of a pain. Since I make large batches, I can't use a standard yogurt maker. I often get distracted and over-heat the milk, and the method I use to incubate the yogurt is wildly inefficient (my beloved Excalibur dehydrator). I also need a constant warm temperature for various other fermentation projects, and that's often difficult to achieve with the tools I have.
I finally found a better solution: a temperature controller that accurately regulates the temperature of a slow cooker by turning an outlet on or off. I simply set the temperature of the controller, place the temperature probe into the slow cooker, and plug the slow cooker into the temperature controller outlet. The slow cooker then stays at whatever temperature I want. Here's what the temperature controller looks like:
Once built, the temperature controller with or without the slow cooker can be used for a variety of other tasks (including regulating cooling devices). Here are some ideas that come to mind:
Sous-vide cooker
High-capacity yogurt maker
Bread dough riser
All-purpose thermophilic fermenter (e.g., for tempeh, natto, koji)
Beer/cider/wine fermentation temperature controller
Kegerator controller
Freezer-to-fridge conversion
Egg incubator
Soil temperature controller for seed starting
Don't worry, I'm not turning into a food blogger. But this sous-vide-cooked chicken I made with my DIY temperature controller was pretty tasty. I used this recipe from NomNom Paleo.
You can build the whole thing for about $40, including the slow cooker.
