Basil & Sundried Tomato Hummus

Hummus has to be one of the EASIEST and most nutritious snack foods you can make. This one took me exactly 10min (I used can chickpeas) to make and that's because I had to cut up the sun-dried tomatoes and find a cute bowl!
This one is a "Basil & Sun-dried Tomato Hummus".
Eat it with crackers, pour it into a veggie pasta salad instead of mayo, eat it with chips!! The possibilities are endless folks. There is a basic recipe and then you can make it "gourmet" by adding "fancy" products.

1 can chickpeas or 1 1/2 cups cooked chickpeas
1/4 cup fresh lemon juice (1 large lemon)
1/4 cup tahini or 1 tablespoon of sesame seeds*
1 small garlic clove
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil, plus more for serving
A pinch of chili powder
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
Salt to taste
2 to 3 tablespoons water or aquafaba

Throw everything into the blender and mix until smooth.

For the "Basil and Sundried Tomato" add fresh basil and sundried tomato at the end and pulse to keep chunky. Cut up some tomato and add to the top. You can pour a little olive oil over the top, but you don't have to.


*Tahini is a paste of sesame seeds and olive oil. Here in Barbados, it can be very pricey. I usually have a pack of sesame seeds in the house. You can literally add them to the mixture and blend a little longer. Add a little more olive oil to your mixture.







#coconutbaby #recipemonday #hummus #sundriedtomato #easysnack #snack#snackfood #Healthy #barbados #foodie

Apple Red Cabbage Slaw with an Orange Kombucha Dressing

Delicious apple slaw with a probiotic kick of Kombucha

• 3 cups coarsely grated red cabbage
• 1 bell pepper, thinly sliced
• red onion, thinly sliced
• green onion, chopped
• 1 apple, grated
• Juice of one fresh orange juice
• 3 Tbs of Kombucha or apple cider vinegar
• 1 Tbs agave nectar
• 1 Tbs dijon mustard
• 2 Tbs olive oil
• Salt and ground white pepper to taste

1. Toss together cabbage, bell pepper, red onion, green onion, and apple in large bowl.

2. Whisk together remaining ingredients in small bowl. Drizzle dressing over cabbage mixture, and toss to combine. Season with salt and pepper, if desired.

Slow Cooker Lasagna: Butternut Squash and Spinach

1 butternut squash 2 tsp Coconut Oil 1 bag of spinach (cooked) 2 cups of Ricotta Cheese 3 cups of mozzarella cheese 1/4-1/2 cup of Coconut Milk 1/2 tsp of nutmeg Salt and pepper to taste 1/2 cup of Sun dried tomatoes
2 cloves of garlic Lasagna shells Cut the squash in half. Scoop out seeds and pour 1 tsp of coconut oil on each half. Massage into squash. Place face down on a cookie sheet. Pre- heat oven to 400°. Place pan in oven and roast 45 min - 1 hour. Set aside to cool. In a separate bowl, place sundried tomatoes. Boil water and pour the hot water over the tomatoes to soften them for the spinach mixture. Butternut squash mixture: In a food processor combine, squash (you can leave the skin on), 1 cup of ricotta cheese, 1 cup of mozzarella cheese, coconut milk (amount of milk depends on size of squash. The bigger the squash, the more milk), nutmeg, salt and pepper. Combine till smooth. Set aside. Spinach mixture: In food processor combine spinach, 1cup of ricotta cheese, 1 cup of mozzarella cheese, garlic cloves and Sun dried tomatoes. Salt and pepper to taste. Combine till semi chunky and set aside. Grease slow cooker pot. Spoon butternut squash mixture on the bottom. Cover with lasagna shells. Break shells if needed. Cover shells with spinach mixture. Sprinkle cheese. Cover with lasagna shells. Cover shells with butternut squash mixture. Sprinkle cheese. Continue this pattern until the mixtures are done. Cover with cheese. Cover the slow cooker. Set on high for 2 hours. Thats it! Enjoy
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Vegetable Potato Pancakes

I went to the Saturday market and saw this huge light green vegetable. It was called Dudhi. My market vendor said it could be used in a stir fry. Never had it, but for $2.50 it doesn't hurt to try it.
Dudhi is in the same category as zucchini. It's like a nutty flavored squash with huge white seeds. The skine is thin and edible.
I LOVE potato pancakes. So, decided to do a vegetable version chocked with dudhi, red onion, carrots and herbs. This isn't your mom's potato pancake, and its awesome!

Vegetable Potato Pancakes
3 cups of dudhi, grated
2 potatoes, grated
1 carrot, grated
1/2 red onion, grated
2 cloves of garlic minced
1 tsp thyme
1 tsp basil
1 egg, beaten
1 cup flour
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp ground pepper

Mix all the vegetables together. Mix the flour and spices, pour over the vegetables. Add egg and a little water till just combined, like a thick paper maché paste. Cover the bottom of  a medium pan with canola oil over a medium heat. Spoon mixture into pan and fry on each side till golden brown. 

Vegan Slow Cooker Stew

As some of you may remember I was very sick a couple of weeks back and I have yet to get back into the swing of things. The house is a mess, cooking healthy has taken a back seat to eating something so that I can take my antibiotics, and junk food has reared it's ugly head. I went to the supermarket and bought four kinds of beans. My objective? To make a tasty vegan stew to eat over rice, cou cou, couscous, whatever.  The point, make alot and stop eating the junk food. There are a lot of recipes out there but I didn't want to follow anything specific. I had three requirements.

1. Use what I had on hand.

2. Use fresh herbs.

3. Finish it with coconut milk.

I wanted all the flavor to come from the fresh ingredients and create a take on the coconut curries of India and Thailand. 

This came out better than I could have imagined. Rich and flavorful, especially with the addition of the coconut milk at the end. Beautiful! Ok... on to the recipe

5 kinds of beans 

(I used lentil, split pea, chick peas, blackeyed and black beans. I used dry. So it was necessary to soak the chickpeas and blackeyed over night, before hand)

1 carrot grated

1 onion minced

2 sweet peppers chopped.

2 cloves of garlic minced

2 tomatoes cut up

1 stalk of celery cut up

Broccoli, small chop

Scotch Bonnet pepper

Rosemary
Grated fresh Turmeric

Thyme

Basil

Tarragon

2 Vegetable boullion cubes

Tomato paste

Salt & pepper

Coconut Milk

Put everything into the slow cooker except coconut milk. Cover the mixture with water and cover lid. Turn the slow cooker on high for 6 hours. At the half way mark, stir it up and remove scotch bonnet pepper. Cover. At the 30 min mark add coconut milk, stir and cover until done.

If you want to add meat to this (cause you can) Just add 1/2 lb of seasoned ground beef or turkey mix to the mixture and omit the coconut milk at the end. :)

Homemade Banana Coconut Granola

I recently went to the supermarket with a friend of mine. As we were leaving she exclaimed "Oh I have to get granola for the kids!". We walked to the cereal aisle to find the fancy bags of granola. Small bags, beautiful packaging, and high prices. I asked her why she buys granola at these prices and she answered the way most mother's answer, "It's something healthy that the kids actually like."
But how healthy is it? Just because it has eco-friendly packaging and says ORGANIC across the label doesn't mean it's healthy.
I love the explosion of "organic" shelf stable food. If you know like I know, then you know that the things they have to add to the product to make it shelf stable negates the organic properties the item once had. To be organic is to be perishable. Point blank.
Back to my friend. I asked her what was in this pricey granola. We looked at the package. Oats, dried fruit, and nuts. In Barbados, nuts can be pricey, but everything else, super cheap. Lets not talk about the high sugar content. How do we combat this? Make your own of course. Granola is easy to make and can be made with left over items. Oats, dried fruit, coconut, nuts, fruit chips, etc. Here is my recipe for Banana Coconut Granola. This is a nice recipe with a great texture and great taste.You can use this as a guide and add to or subtract at your leisure. If you remove the banana you would use about 1 cup of mixed fruit and increase the agave by 2 more tbsp.

3 cups of oats
1/2 cup of almonds
1/2 cup of pecans
1/2 cup of grated coconut
3 tbsp of raw sugar
1/2 tsp sea salt
1/2 tsp cinnamon
2 mashed bananas
1/4 cup coconut oil
1 tsp vanilla
2 tbps of agave, maple, or honey

In a large bowl, combine all ingredients up to the cinnamon. Mix well and set aside. In a separate bowl mix the mashed bananas, vanilla, agave and coconut oil. Mix well. Pour over the oats mixture. Mix well and place on to a parchment lined cookie sheet. Bake at 350° for about 20 minutes. Until dry and crumbly. Be sure to check and stir you granola midway through the baking process

Green Banana Cou Cou

Being from Barbados, Cou Cou is something that we all have eaten at some point in time. You can make it the traditional way with cornmeal and okra, or with breadfruit, or green banana. Green Banana Cou Cou isn't new, but that doesn't mean you can't do something new with it!

The base of this dish is a little different but the results are complex and delicious. I paired it with my "Easy Black Beans" to create a complete, yet vegetarian meal.

Green Banana, boiled and skinned
A dash of olive oil
1/2 red onion
1/2 white onion
2 cloves minced garlic
1/4 cup green onion, chopped
2 tablespoons of tumeric
1/2 tsp paprika
1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
1/2 tsp Italian seasoning
Water
Butter
Salt and black pepper to taste

In a small pot under a medium high heat, add the oil, onions, garlic and turmeric. Cook till soft. Add the bananas and mash. Add water a little at a time to aid with softening the banana and making it a "mashed potato" consistency. Add all the spices, salt & pepper and butter. Mix well and then finish with chopped green onion.

That's it!