New Look!

Mutritious Nuffins now has a NEW look! I am so excited. I am still working on a lot of stylizing and layout settings, so bear with me as new things come and go. After a day or so of researching Wordpress and creating a blog there anticipating moving over, I found WP was way too complicated for my taste and have decided to stay with Blogger. Mnuffins greatly needed an update though!

Currently the header picture is new, but it doesn't look as good as how I made it on the computer?! It seems not as vivid (washed out) and not as sharp. Any ideas?

Grain-free Organic Basil Crackers

My mom is the cracker fiend. She loves crunchy things. She loves bready things. Not a very good combination for someone who is gluten free! I also love the idea of crackers, but sometimes I prefer not to eat any grains. Last summer I came up with a delicious cracker recipe and I've been making them for my mom ever since. These past few days I've been inspired (and urged by my mom) to make some more crackers, and I knew that I wanted to have a new and even easier cracker option. Today I bought another basil plant, and so I made some crackers.

I adapted Elana's easy rosemary cracker recipe. These crackers really are delicious! They are a perfect snack option when paired with some beautiful raw milk cheese, cold crispy cucumbers, homemade nutella or dipped in some goat cheese. Because they are made with almond flour, they are also relatively high in protein, which I love.

Basil Crackers

adapted from Elana's Pantry

1 cup blanched almond flour

3/4 cup unblanched almond flour (Or you can use 1 3/4 cup unblanched or blanched - does not really matter)
2 Tbsp freshly chopped basil

1 Tbsp Tuscan olive oil (olive oil infused with herbed spices)

1/2 tsp: celtic sea salt, garlic powder, onion powder

1 real egg

To make your crackers:

1. In a medium sized bowl, combine almond flour, spices, olive oil and egg. Fold together with a spatula until combined into a paste.

2. On a 13x17 baking sheet, move your cracker "dough" to the sheet, cover with plastic wrap, and roll to desired cracker-like thickness. Peel away the plastic wrap. I used a silicon baking sheet cover, so if you do not have one of these be sure to grease the pan or use parchment paper.
3. When the "dough" is all rolled out, take a pizza roller to cut the unbaked dough into squares. Make lines longitudinally and then across. You can add little fork holes for decoration, but that is optional. 

4. Bake in a 325 degree convection oven for 10-15 minutes or until crackers come together and are golden brown. Enjoy! Keep in the fridge for longer than 3 days or risk annoying mold!

I thought that the recipe didn't make much cracker, but it did fill up my cracker jar nicely. We will just have to see how fast they disappear! I ate some crackers tonight with my stir fried veggies, dipping them in the sauce; they hold up really well.

I gave them to my mom and dad to taste test and my mom loved them. My dad, who has the blandest taste buds ever (he can't handle any different taste or spicy food) declared that they were "strong." My mom and I died laughing!

Basic Dressing

A good salad dressing can sometimes be the one thing between you and a good salad. While I don't mind eating my salads "dry" (most dressings have soy oil), I've found that I tend to enjoy and be more satisfied with my salad if I really enjoy the dressing.

[Photo credit: Amazon.com]

I recently pulled out one of my favorite books, the Versatile Vegetable, a Body Ecology book, which I received for Christmas two years ago. I love Donna Gates and the principles behind BED are very important for good digestion. If you haven't heard of her I urge you to pick of one of her books, lectures or browse the website. There is so much good information there!

Inside the book there are several GREAT vegetable recipes for every kind of vegetable you can think of! There are also several sauces and dressing recipes too. My search for a good basic salad dressing with no yucky ingredients has ended. I found it here!

Basic Dressing

adapted from the Versatile Vegetable

1/2 cup olive oil

1/2 cup apple cider vinegar

2 Tbsp flaxseed oil

1/2 tsp sea salt

1/4 tsp black pepper

other spices as desired - I like kelp flakes, garlic and onion powder, cayenne pepper

To make the dressing:

1. In a glass measure, add ingredients one by one.

2. Whisk well until ingredients are fully incorporated.

3. Pour into a salad dressing jar and refrigerate.

4. Pour liberally over every type of vegetable salad! Enjoy.

Unfortunately, the picture isn't the greatest. In my house we try to reuse things, especially glass bottles. Here is an old salad dressing bottle which we kept (but threw away the industrial oil laden dressing) and now it holds our real salad dressings. As you can see it still has the label gunk on it. Separation is natural. Be sure to shake well before serving!!