My 101st Post: 'Soaked & Ready' Oats, Rockin' Baby Sling Winner (15% discount) & MORE!!

Whew! This past week has been very busy and fruitful! I've been so preoccupied with things around the house that I failed to notice that my previous post was my 100th! Nevertheless, I figure I could still have fun and be different by celebrating my 101st post... WOO HOO! Come on everybody... cheer with me! Yeah! That's what I'm talking about!! Woo hoo!! :o)

For this celebration I want to share an easy, make-ahead preparation of soaking & dehydrating rolled oats to use for cookies and such. For those who might not know, Oats are the highest in phytic acid and must be soaked before consumed... so all the wonderful minerals can be absorbed properly. I made large batch of this a few weeks ago and this is great to have on hand whenever you have the sudden urge to make cookies. Don't you ever have urges like that, but are unable to make cookies right then and there because you have to soak em' and all? I do!! So, after looking around and thinking what would work... I finally found a solution from a great food blog: Cheeseslave. She had Healthy Soaked Oatmeal Cookies and I saw that she would soak & dry the oats before proceeding on with the rest of the recipe. Believe me, I torpedoed straight to the kitchen to do just that! I didn't make the cookies because I do not have sprouted flour and haven't ventured out to try sprouting my own grains... yet.

Anyway. I know, I know... you all are probably thinking I should be celebrating with ice cream or something festive than old, boring oats. BUT it is worth it because I actually made cookies with these 'Soaked & Ready' Oats yesterday and they were OH SO GOOD! My family couldn't stop eating them... we ate it all in 1 day! PLUS, the cookies were vegan... yes, totally veganlious! Anyway, I'll share those with you another day... right now let's just focus on soaking and drying those oats so you can make them within minutes after getting the recipe, I promise! Okay, is this good enough now? Alright!!

'Soaked & Ready' Oats

• 4 cups rolled oats (NOT instant)
• 4 cups filtered water
• 8 Tbsp. whey, lemon/lime juice, kefir or yohgurt

Warm the 4 cups of water in a saucepan (you don't need a microwave) till warm to touch. Do not let it boil!

Pour the oats, warm water and acid medium (whey, etc..) into a large glass bowl and mix thoroughly. Cover the bowl with a towel or plate & let it sit overnight in your oven or on your counter (wherever you have space).

Important: Let it sit for 8 - 24 hours... 12 hours is okay, but I always soak mine for 24 hours to reduce the phytic acid as much as possible.

Spread the oats on parchment paper in your tray or cookie pan (for oven drying) and put in dehydrator set on the highest temp (if you have that option... I don't) until completely dry. It can take anywhere from 6 to 24 hours... depending on your dehydrator. You can dry the oats in your oven set on the lowest temperature.

When the oats are dried, you will be able to break them into chunks. Put the chunks in your food processor or blender and pulse until coarsely ground (kinda like oatmeal flakes). Don't grind it fine unless you want oat flour.

Pour the oats in a sealed container and store in your fridge or in a cool, dark place. Ta-daaa! There you go... you have 'Soaked & Ready' Oats for satisfying your urge to make cookies! Remember, you can make this however much you want. When I first made these, I used 8 cups of rolled oats. Just make sure you add everything up correctly.

Now keep stay in touch for those veganlicious cookies!!!! UPDATE: Check out my step by step videos on making the S&R Oats!

Now, the announcement you've all been waiting for! The winner for the beautiful Organic Rockin' Baby Sling iiisssssssss.....

Kim Ripley a.k.a stOOpidgErL!!

"My baby isn't here yet but she will be in December. I'm really looking forward to 'wearing' her. It looks like a great way to bond and very convenient too!"

Double congratulations on your win and soon-to-arrive baby girl, Kim!! I clicked on your link from the comments area and found your AWESOME blog & etsy store. Gals, you gotta check her creative, excellent photography & fun jewelry! Ooooh, I really want to buy something from her! :o)

Thank you everybody for entering and sharing your reasons why you enjoy babywearing. There were many good, consistent answers about babywearing being great for cuddling, bonding, safety, hand-free, soothing, getting things done, convenient, closeness, moving around uneven terrain, keeping baby happy, security, comfortable and my favorite..."I love babywearing for so many reasons, but none more so than having my baby close to me - just being able to turn my head and put my cheek against theirs or give them a kiss at any moment - ah!"... so TRUE and important! I am actually liking my sling more and more! Now that I am use to it... I find it very comfortable. That's a good thing!!

Okay, please don't click off too quickly in disappointment! I've got a great deal for the rest of you... a 15% off discount on any sling or pouch at Rockin' Sling Baby! I think that's great deal... just make sure you enter "15%" at the checkout box. Now go look around, they've got some really beautiful unique styles there!

My life this past week... whew!

This past Friday and Saturday I soaked & dehydrated almonds and dehydrated pineapple & papaya. I love the smells that wafted through our house! Especially through the night! My favorite is when we are dehydrating chamomile for tea... ahhh, smells soooo good! By the way, I am on the look out for a good dehydrator with a price tag that won't bite our budget. Mine is definitely heading its way out to the dehydrator heaven :o(

Saturday morning, we had Kid's Club in the neighborhood next to us and it was very simple, but GREAT. It was just me and my hubby along with the girls. Usually my mom and a friend would be there to help, but they weren't available. We had a great time playing games, read a Bible story, sang songs and just hanging out till past noon.

Sunday, had a GREAT day with the girls and my hubby! What more could I want?!

Monday, between taking care of the girls, washing diapers, letting the chickens out & feeding them, playing with the girls, hanging diapers, washing clothes, reading to the girls, hanging clothes, preparing lunch, bringing in the still wet clothes in before it rained, feeding all of us and more... I made about a pound of cultured butter! This is my second round and I feel much more confident! I finally found a great source of fresh organic milk AND cream. The other farmer I was buying our milk from couldn't (wouldn't, really) give me just cream so I could make butter. Anyway, I am happy with our new milk connection. I could not believe how much butter and buttermilk I got out of 1 liter of cream... Woo hoo! I want to do another post and this time... use our flip camera and video the process. Really, it is so easy if you have a good food processor or blender. OR you can put some in quart jars and have your kids shake it all over the place! My girls aren't quite ready for that, but when they are... I will make sure video it and share it with y'all :o)

Tuesday, my parents finally arrived home safely from Panama. They did a seminar and had a great time... they brought with them some seriously RAW honey and RAW coconut oil produced by a Tico in Dominical, Costa Rica. The honey is extremely different from anything I've had and DELICIOUS! It has such a heavy, darkly sweet flavor... hard to describe. The bees are wild from the mountains... oh yummy! The coconut oil has an interesting toasty, nutty flavor and very intense. I am really happy to finally find a local source of coconut oil that actually tastes good, but it is a bit pricey for the 3 small bottles. We've been bringing down coconut oil from the States because I've had no luck finding good tasting coconut oil around here (they all tasted either like gasoline or tar, ugh!). Below, you are seeing my little Tabi playing with the bottles... she just wouldn't leave them alone long enough for me to take pictures. So, I thought it would actually be even better to include her in... is she ADORABLE?! :o)

Yesterday, I spent a good part of the morning writing up my comments on the Foodie Fights Battle 14 entries and choosing the winner. Honestly, I was excited to do this and enjoyed being one of the judges... but very disappointed that only 3 actually submit their entries. Oh well, it is what it is! Please head on over there and see who won this round!

Also, did I tell you that I made some seriously veganlicious cookies?! I haven't made cookies in a while and it was so great to have my 'Soaked & Ready' Oats in hand. I had that urge and realized it has been toooooo loooong since I've smelled cookies wafting outta my oven! LOL! Don't worry, I'll share them with you ASAP!

Well, this was a long post! Not sorry about that :o) I hope you enjoyed reading and celebrating with me! I really can't believe that this is my 101st post and that I've had over 19,000 views since I first started this blog back in March of 2009. I have learned so much, seen so many awesome blogs & met many great people out there! Thank you everybody for your support and looking forward to sharing more recipes and my life in Costa Rica :o)

Have a great weekend and remember to take a moment to enjoy your surroundings!

The 'Soaked & Ready' Oats is part of Pennywise Platter Thursday.

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Foodie Fights, Battle 13 - Bizarre Love Triangle Brownies: Coconut Crust, Black Bean Brownies & Macadamia Glaze

Yesss!! I was chosen this past week to join my first foodie battle over at FoodieFights.com. I found this neat place (created by TFIMB & Macheesmo) through some food blogs and decided to apply before taking off to Colorado. Then, to my surprise, I received an email stating that I've been chosen and to check out the website to see the secret ingredients for the 13th Battle of Foodie Fights!

Before I go on... let me give you a quick run down of how this works: Foodie bloggers sign up for the week and 6 are chosen. The battle is between 6 food bloggers who are required to prepare a course using two secret ingredients. They post their wonderful creations using those 2 ingredients and the judging begins. Basically, this is a blog-version of Iron Chef. The judges won't taste the food, but they will look at it, read the blog posts, possibly lick their screens if the picture looks too good to pass up and make their decision based on which they would rather eat, creativity & overall blog post (methods, good photography, humor, etc...). So, that's how its done! Pretty simple and fun, huh?!

Now, you all know that I live in Costa Rica and don't have access to places like Whole Foods, Sprouts, local health markets, specialty or simple grocery stores that carry almost EVERYTHING the world has to offer for making delicious dishes. So, I was a little nervous about what the 2 secret ingredients were gonna be, BUT they were... Black Beans & Coconut! Yeah!! I felt so giddy... I mean, I live in a country where fresh black beans and coconuts can be picked up anywhere! I HEART fresh coconuts and enjoy black beans. Whew - so glad that was easy, but next was coming up with some creative eye candy. Hmmmm... Curry? No. Soup? Nope. Salad? Nah Burritos? Blah... Well, then what?! After two days of thinking and looking and pondering, I decided to make a dessert... yup, you read that right... a sweet treat, my specialty :o)

Before we get going... let me tell you it took me 3 days to make these babies! Why 3 days? Because I had to sort through the black beans, soak them for 24 hours, cook them, rip & crack open the coconuts, grate them, make the crust, make the brownies, let them sit to cool overnight, make the glaze, prep for pictures, take pictures and THEN enjoy them... was it all worth it? Oh yeah! But you don't have to do it in 3 days, ok. You can use canned beans, dried coconut flakes and whip this up in an afternoon no problem... just need to let the brownies cool completely before serving to keep it from crumbling and it also tastes much better when cool.

Now, let the battle begin!!

Sorting, Soaking & Cooking the Black Beans

These beans were bought directly from farmers that were grown organically, picked by hand, sun dried and sold in the farmer's market. You can read here how to traditionally prepare (don't add the spices!) and cook the beans to prevent the common side effects. I love their brilliant black color!

Ripping, Cracking & Grating the Coconuts

Thanks to my dad... without him I couldn't open these coconuts! My parents picked up about 25 of these guys from Dominical, Costa Rica, a few weeks back and I love having fresh coconuts right on our back porch. If you look at the pictures closely, you'll see one was starting to grow a palm tree! For the dessert, I kept the flakes completely virgin & fresh... meaning that the milk, oil and moisture is all in the flakes. They are so sweet and robust! We all love to snack on fresh coconut meat, even Naomi (my 3 year old) kept asking for more after I told her "no more or there won't be any for the brownies!" LOL! :o)

You can read here how to prepare the coconuts, but we did grate off the brown skin before grating the meat.

Ok, we got the 2 main ingredients taken care of and ready to go! Remember to prepare ahead of time if you are going to go all out with fresh coconuts and black beans :o)

Now let the real fun begin! Woo hoo!

Bizarre Love Triangle Brownies:

Coconut Crust, Black Bean Brownies & Macadamia Glaze

Coconut Crust:

• 4 cups fresh (or dried) coconut flakes
• 1/2 cup coconut oil or butter, soften
• 3/4 cup Earth Circle Organics coconut sugar
• 1/2 tsp. sea salt
• 1/3 cup coconut flour
• 2 eggs

Preheat oven to 350 F. Cut out parchment paper for a 9x13 baking pan and lightly grease it with coconut oil. Mix all the ingredients together in a medium bowl. Pour into prepared pan and spread the mixture evenly around the pan. Press lightly, but firmly. Bake in oven for 20-25 minutes. Do not overbake it! Pull crust out of the oven and let it cool a bit while making the brownie batter. If the crust puffs up a little, take a knife and poke slightly to allow hot air to escape. Leave the oven at 350 F for the brownies.

Note: If you opt to use dried coconut flakes. Add 1/3 cup of butter or coconut oil into the mixture.

Black Bean Brownies:

• 4 cups cooked black beans
• 7 eggs
• 1/2 cup cocoa powder
• 1 1/4 cup Earth Circle Organics coconut sugar
• 1/2 cup butter (or coconut oil)
• 1/2 cup coconut oil
• 2 Tbsp. vanilla
• 2 Tbsp. instant coffee
• 1/2 tsp. sea salt

Rinse out black beans with water and let it drain completely. Pour into your blender or food processor and blend for a couple minutes. Add in eggs, cocoa powder, vanilla, instant coffee & sea salt. Melt and briskly stir the coconut sugar, butter and coconut oil together over low heat. Add in with the rest of the ingredients. Blend till smooth. The batter should be thick, but slightly soupy.

Pour the mixture over the coconut crust evenly. Bake for 45 minutes to one hour, or until the brownies are set. But don't overbake! Use a knife to test the brownies... it should come out clean.

Set aside and let it cool in the pan completely while making the macadamia glaze. For quicker results, put them in the fridge.

Note: You can use 2 cans of black beans instead of making it fresh and use instant grain coffee substitute instead of instant coffee.

Macadamia Glaze:

• 2 cups macadamia nuts, soaked & dehydrated
• 1/4 cup coconut oil, melted
• 2 tsp. vanilla
• 1/2 cup Earth Circle Organics coconut sugar

Store macadamia nuts in the freezer for at least a couple hours. Pour into food processor or blender and give it a whirl till it starts to clump together into a ball. While it is still going, pour in coconut oil. It should look runny. Turn off motor and add vanilla & coconut sugar. Blend it till completely smooth (several minutes). If you want it sweeter... add more coconut sugar. Pour the glaze into a seal tight jar.

Note: you do not have to soak & dehydrate the nuts, but you'll be missing out the benefits and improved flavor from this nourishing technique.

Cut and serve these bizarre, melt-in-your-mouth brownies drizzled with Macadamia glaze.

Now, you all know you shouldn't judge the dish by its ingredients. I have tried things with ingredients that I don't normally enjoy, hate or that sound a little odd and have discovered them to be over the top delicious! Please give these guys the benefit of the doubt and try them before you make a judgement call... they are absolutely delicious, so smooth and VERY RICH. My family all adore these guys, especially my mom who is sensitive to wheat. Even Naomi couldn't keep her fingers out of the brownies!!

How did I come up with this? While brain storming for ideas, I remembered my Fudgy Rich Black Bean Brownies and instantly knew I had to make it, but also taking it 2 steps further to make them unique. I am very happy to point out that they are completely gluten-free, grain-free & refined sugar-free. They are also very high in protein, fiber & rich in coconut goodness! Speaking of coconuts, I really enjoyed trying out Earth Family Food's coconut sugar (love the carmel-like flavor!) and will be doing a review on their products soon! Don't you just love this? A completely guilt-free treat that the whole family (including kids) can gorge themselves on, but be warned... they are very rich and filling!!

Before I sign off, I want to give a big shout of gratitude to Foodie Fights for giving me this opportunity and challenging me to completely create my own recipe for these awesome brownies. Thanks guys, I had SO much fun!!

I also want to thank Jon, my creative hubby, for coming up with the name for the brownies. He is very good at thinking up fun, creative names and titles for my art, photography and now food work! While brainstorming ideas, he thought of the song "Bizarre Love Triangle" from an English rock band in the 80s, New Order. Yeah, the song is a little weird and doesn't make a lot of sense, but these brownies totally live up to their name... black bean, coconut and macadamia?? How weird, bizarre & delicious is that?!

Last, but not the least! I want to thank my sweet foodie friend, Becca, for her help and beautiful hands in some of the pictures... Love ya girl!

Now, go on over to Foodie Fights tomorrow (Tuesday) and look at the yummy creations & vote your favorite!!!

Tell me... what was your FIRST reaction when you saw "black bean brownie"? Have a great week y'all!!

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