Whiteley Creek Homestead

Having sprouted red lentil, daikon radish, and golden alfalfa seeds, I used a handful of alfalfa sprouts today on our turkey hummus and cuke wraps. After lunch, I was seeking to use some additional sprouts in a more creative way than on salad or sandwiches. I also had leftover tahini in the fridge and an abundance of oatmeal that I had purchased yesterday when a local health food store had their monthly sale of 20% off all items in the store. A while back, I had run across a recipe for alfalfa cookies in a cookbook I've had in my collection for forever titled The Complete Sprouting Cookbook by Karen Cross Whyte copyright 1973. The cookie ingredients' list included alfalfa sprouts, tahini, and oatmeal. Oh, how I love it when that happens unplanned!   

When I bake cookies, my normal aim is to pack as much nutrition into each plop of dough as I can and be tasty enough to share with a friend that drops by. If they don't pass the nutritional value and taste test, they don't show up on my blog. The tastiness of these alfalfa tahini cookies is up for discussion, but I included them on my blog anyway simply because of their nutritional value. They aren't dreadful… just be discerning when choosing who to serve them to.  

Alfalfa Tahini Cookies

¾ cup honey (I used ½ c, but this will depend upon individual taste.)

½ cup tahini (a sesame seed paste)

1 tsp vanilla

 1 cup whole wheat pastry flour (I used ½ c w.w. pastry flour + ½ c oat flour.)

½ tsp baking powder

¼ tsp soda

1 ½ cups alfalfa sprouts (1/8” long)

2 cups oatmeal (Try 1 cup.)

I also added ¼ cup raw pumpkin seeds. Any variety of dried fruit, nuts, and seeds would be tasty additions.

Cream honey, tahini, and vanilla. Sift or whisk together flour, baking powder, and soda. Add to honey mixture. Add remaining ingredients and mix well. Drop by heaping tablespoons onto parchment-lined baking sheet. Bake in 350° oven for 10-15 minutes until lightly browned.

I made a pot of bean soup today with some Good Mother Stallard heirloom beans that I ordered from Rancho Gordo last month. This is a photo of the beans after I soaked them for 24 hours. The colors and patterns of heirlooms, which are old varieties, are so much fun.

 
 
I read that you should always salt your beans at the end of cooking time, about 10 minutes before they are done. This is important because adding salt at the beginning will cause the beans to remain tough. Beans cooked without salt tend to disintegrate, which is O.K. for soups but not if you are making bean salad. 

Kombu seaweed is very good for mild elimination of toxins. After it has been in the water for just a few minutes, it softens and smoothes out. Instead of throwing it in the pot as a whole piece, you can break the crispy dehydrated strip into 4 or 5 pieces, if you like.

Two and one-half hours later… a hot hearty soup perfect for a cold wintery day.

For Christmas, my daughter Jessie gave me this vast array of cupcake papers and picks… so many bright colors, shapes, and patterns! I see some seriously fun cupcake baking in my future.

If you're wanting some Christmas gift buying inspiration, click on over to my daughter Jessica's blog, fort & field, where she has compiled ideas categorized according to interests such as techi, handyperson, traveler, environmentalist, horticulturist, bookworm, letter writer, baker, chef, organizer, creator, mom on the go, and so on. Good stuff… and she continues to add more. One of her ideas led me to ranchogordo.com where I purchased some dry heirloom beans… three kinds. I normally buy my heirloom beans from a neighbor, but her crop fizzled this past growing season. (Click here for a post I did providing a little info on heirloom seeds.)  

 
yellow eye

 
cranberry

good mother stallard

I read in my Holistic Nutrition textbook that the intestinal gas leading to flatulence when eating beans is mainly caused by oligosaccharides in the beans that are fermenting in the lower intestines. Oh, that mental image is comforting… Because the oligosaccharides are contained primarily in the coverings of the beans, soaking the beans in water overnight and then discarding that water before cooking them in fresh water helps leach out some of their fermenting properties (vs. soaking and cooking them in the same water). One strip of kombu, a high protein seaweed, can also be added to the pot when cooking beans to reduce some of the potential gas-inducing qualities of beans. I set out to give it a whirl… I had kombu but no dry beans… not a one. So, therefore, my online order was placed and Iwill impatiently wait for their arrival.