Spring Cleaning for our Bodies

Cooking time: 3 to 4 minutes on each side of bread.

10 minutes to slice and sauté onions.

Equipment: blender or food processor, skillet.

Ingredients:

• ¼ package of tofu (any type from silken to firm)
• ½ tsp. rice or almond milk, (will work with water)
• 1/8 cup arrowroot flour
• Pinch of sea salt
• 4 to 6 slices of sourdough whole wheat bread, sandwich style or crusty Peasant or French style
• Sesame or olive oil

Preparation:

1. Blend all ingredients except bread and oil until smooth.

2. Did bread into mixture on both sides.

3. Heat a skillet and coat lightly with oil.

4. Place slices of coated bread in skillet, lower heat to medium and lightly brown on both sides.

Serving options: With maple syrup and soy margarine/ Plain rice syrup or with peanut butter (Suzanne’s brand)/ Fruit flavored rice syrup/ or my favorite, a savory topping of sautéed onions

Munchie Crunchie

Time: This takes about 10 minutes to mix together if seeds and nuts are pre-roasted, 6 or 7 minutes to cook and 5 minutes to cool down.

Ingredients:

• 1½ cups of boxed Brown rice crispies (Erewhon makes one with healthy ingredients)
• ½ cup puffed cereal, rice, millet or oats
• ¼ cup roasted peanuts or any nuts or seeds
• ¼ cup raisons
• ½ cup rice syrup or barley malt (or ½ & ½)
• 1 table spoon of peanut butter, almond butter or tahini
• 1 tea spoon of sweet miso
• A pinch of cinnamon and few drops of pure vanilla

Preparation:

Mix dry ingredients. Mix and simmer wet ingredients on medium or low heat. Let cook for five minutes, do not boil. Pour over dry and mix well. Quickly press into a cake pan and let cool. Cut into squares.

To roast nuts and seeds:

Lightly roasted nuts and seeds are easiet to digest than when raw. Roast each type of nut or seed separately. Place amount desired amount, perhaps a cup or two, in a bowl, cover with cool water and quickly swirl around removing any shells. Pour off water and place in a strainer. Heat a stainless steal skillet, wipe off any excess liquid from bottom of strainer and place seeds or nuts in skillet. Reduce heat and stir, continue stirring and cooking until seeds or nuts are lighly browned and dry all the way through. Let cool completely and store in a glass container until needed.

Fruit Smoothie

Time: This can be made in a couple of minutes and served cool or at room temperature.

Ingredients:

• Fruit juice or rice milk
• Ripe fruit
• Tahini

Preparation: Blend and drink. Avoid the tropical fruit for cold winters. Try some organic frozen blueberries or strawberries along with some overly ripe pears and or peaches. Leftover soft breakfast cereal, like oat meal can be added for thickness.

* Hors d’oeuvres: Puffs
* Stuffing casserole
* Waldorf salad
* Nut cookies

(Makes about 2 dozen)

Prep time: 15 min.

Total time: 30 min.

Ingredients:

- Two cups grated carrots
- One small onion minced fine
- Grated ginger
- ½ cup bread crumbs
- ½ cup whole wheat flour
- ¼ cup arrowroot flour
- Pinch of sea salt
- Herbs of choice
- Crushed roasted nuts or toasted sesame seeds
- Deep fry oil, unrefined safflower oil

Preparation: Mix all ingredients together (except nuts) well. Heat oil. Form small balls, adjust ingredients if needed, and roll in nuts. Deep fry until golden. Mix ½ & ½ shoyu and water, add a little vinegar, heat for three minutes. Squeeze a few drops of ginger juice in and serve.

Dip: Shoyu, water, brown rice vinegar

(Makes about 4 cups)

Prep time: 15 minutes

Total time: 10 minutes to cook

Ingredients:

-2 cups bread cubes, cornbread chunks or a whole grain.
-Oil
-1 cup sliced onions
-¼ cup cranberries
-½ cup sliced parsley
-roasted nuts
-¾ cup sliced celery
-¼ cup raisons
-shoyu
-sea salt

Preparation:

1. Heat a skillet, add oil, sauté onions with a little sea salt, add celery and continue cooking for a few minutes.

2. Add a little water to the skillet, add cranberries, raisons and parsley. Sprinkle with shoyu, cover and simmer for five minutes.

3. Mix into grain and place in a casserole pan. Can make ahead of time and warm up in a low 250 degree oven for 10 to 15 minutes. Serve warm.

Total time:

Ingredients

-4 granny smith apples sliced or cubed
-1 cup sliced celery
-1 cup roasted walnuts
-½ cup lightly steamed raisins

Preparation: Mix together

Dressing: one package silken tofu, 1 ½ teaspoon umeboshi paste, juice of ½ lemon, optional: 1 tsp. rice syrup.
Blend together and stir into salad, serve cool.

Prep time: 10 minutes to roast and mix

Total time: 20 minutes to form cookies (A fun cooking project for kids)

Ingredients

-1 cup rolled oats
-Sea salt
-1 ½ cups ground nuts (nut meal): Almonds, walnuts or pecans work well
-1 cup whole wheat pastry flour
-¼ teaspoon cinnamon
-Pinch of sea salt
-¼ t. pure vanilla extract
-½ t. almond extract
-½ cup rice syrup or barley malt
-½ cup oil
-unsweetened jelly

Preparation:

1. Mix together rolled oats, nut meal and salt.

2. In a dry skillet, over medium heat, roast the mixture, stirring constantly, for five minutes or until lighly browned.

3. Stir in flour.

4. Whip syrup, oil and extracts together and stir into dry ingredients..

5. Form balls and press down into circles on oiled cookie sheet.

6. Press gently to create a well, add a little jelly.

7. Make a glaze out of 2 Tablespoons warm water and 2 Tablespoons rice syrup whipped together. Brush glaze over cookies and bake 350 degrees for 10 – 15 minutes.

She is a regular speaker at the Summer Conference and has taught in several cities around the US, Canada, Australia and the Kushi Institute in the Netherlands.

Macrobiotic Teacher – Kushi Institute

Currently, she is a senior cooking teacher at the Kushi Institute, where she has trained others to become macrobiotic chefs and counselors for more than 22 years. She has a background in Special Education and raised a macrobiotic family of 8 children and 15 grandchildren.

Prep time: 15 min.

Total time: 45 to 60 min.

Ingredients:

-One buttercup squash or any sweet winter squash.

-One pie pumpkin, Cut a circle in top, lift off and hollow out inside.

-½ cup bread crumbs (dry roast for ten min. in a stainless steel skillet on med. – low flame)

-Five cups water or ½ rice milk, ½ water

-One 1 inch piece kombu, wiped clean, soaked for 10 minutes, cut two slices half way through on each side, discard water after soaking.

-One med. onion diced, One or two seeded halved pears. ¾ cup diced seitan, ¾ cup mochi cut into small cubes

-1Tbl. sweet miso dissolved in ¼ cup water, 1 tsp.ginger juice, (grate ginger and squeeze to get the juice). Sliced parsley for garnish

-Two to four dry whole wheat fu rings (pre-soak), 1 Tbl. arrowroot flour & ¾ cup whole wheat pastry flour, pinch of sea salt, deep fry oil, or serve with cubes of hard crusty whole wheat bread.

Preparation

1. Bring water to a boil with kombu, lower heat and simmer for three minutes, remove kombu.
2. Wash, cut in half and remove seeds from squash, brush with corn, sesame or olive oil, sprinkle with sea salt and bake with pear uncovered until soft. (400· oven, 25 min.). Let cool
3. Blend squash and pear in kombu broth, add onion, seitan and bread crumbs. Simmer 10 minutes.
4. Add diluted miso and mochi pieces, and bread crumbs, simmer 5 minutes.
5. Squeeze liquid out of fu rings, dip in flours and deep fry in two inches of hot safflower oil. Drain, cut into cubes, serve on the side as croutons or in soup.
6. Baste inside of pumpkin with oil and salt and bake until almost soft, (15 – 20 min at 300 degrees).
7. Soup is served inside pumpkin, garnished with cut up fu rings, ginger juice and parsley. Each scoop of soup can contain a little of the pumpkin, just don’t take too much and have it spring a hole!

Options: For those choosing to avoid flour and oil just leave out the bread crumbs and seitan, add 1 cup of corn cut off the cob. Steam the squash instead of baking it. Skip the Fu rings and enjoy. Ginger is optional too.