Raw Vegan Fruits and Seeds Bar---Muesli bar/ Flapjack

I used to make "Fruits and Seeds bar" and went really popular with my friends and my regular customers at the Country market (former W.I Market---Women's Institute). They were delicious and people often ate as breakfast. Any left over I used to eat them too. Only downside was: high calories...(fat and sugar contents were pretty high, not for calorie count dieters)
Butter & can of condensed milk, made this "flapjack" very rich. Original recipe added more sugar. I felt it didn't need. So I opted. I added lemon juice and zest to cut out sweetness of the milk, and tasted just right!

My dream that time was to make this bar as healthy as I possibly could. Yes, I tried so many ways to make healthy "flapjack" style oats/muesli bars. And none of them were not quite as good as I hoped for. I used maple syrup to honey, rice syrup to date syrup, oats to wheat/ gluten free muesli, butter to coconut butter, baked to non- baked.... In the end, I gave up. 

One day, I was watching muesli Marcus soaked previous evening.... then I had an idea.... "can it possible to dehydrate this mixture making into  bars..."

Now, I got my dehydrator, I tried 3 times, different ways. This is the best so far.

I soaked muesli of my choice, desiccated coconuts, extra seeds and dried fruits with nut/ oat milk, I made, for overnight. Then mix with date puree(soaked and blitzed.) & orange flower water or fresh orange zest. Spread on to dehydrator sheets quite thick, they get thinner out as they get dried. At 46℃ for about 10 hours (over night), then turn onto mesh sheet, cut into bars or squares, dehydrate them further 6 hours or so or till nicely dried.(Sorry, I can't remember how long I dehydrated them...)
Because it has date puree, no need to add any sweeteners. Also, it has dried fruits (find no added sugar ones).  I used about 5 dates enough to make 2 trays. I didn't use date syrup, I thought date puree would add more flavour to it. And did. 

They are bit like flapjack, but no buttery and golden syrup taste. Also, they are very light. Ideal for breakfast -on- a -go. I've been eating quite a bit, and make me go to toilet too. If you are constipated, I recommend this "Fruits and seeds bar"!

Sally's 70th Birthday❀❀❀ 5/May/13

Early this month, Marcus( my boyfriend)'s one of ladies from his Tai Chi classes had big 70th birthday. Sally hired a beautiful village hall just outside Bury St Edmunds.  She asked me to do catering for her, so I did. Since she asked me, I planned and planned and organized  foods and waiting staffs. I never catered AND organized staffs before, I normally make foods, and drop them off. So, I was excited and the same time I was a little nervous especially as the day came closer and closer..... Thanks to Sally and Marcus, they believed to be success, so it did.

I catered for 35 people, young people(kids) to old people. I was pleased they enjoyed my food. Quite often, here in Suffolk, people don't really want to eat different-strange food. so I was a bit worried and tried my best to keep them very simple  but with a little twist. 

My friends came to help me out to do the service. 

It required hard work especially cooking all this foods in my little kitchen, but it was worth it. Marcus asked me if I would do another one like this, I said "yes". But next time, I might just do vegetarian/vegan buffet only. See how it goes.....

I really enjoyed the whole thing, and guess what I spend on with the money from the job...
"Excalibur dehydrator 4 trays-", at last, it'd been 4 years or more, I was gagging to get it. Every time I had money, I spent it on something else. This time, I earned money for a dehydrator AND holiday! ☺☺☺ I'm happy! 

At moment, I've been covering a quite a bit cooking shift at work (old people's home). I don't mid at all, now the kitchen been refurbished to a bigger, better and cleaner kitchen with a wonderful oven! I love it! Bake, steam, braise and roast perfect!!! I wish the oven and the dish washer were in mine ( far, far too big to fit them in to my flat, I want that kitchen!) anyway, next month, I'm buying a high powered blender. I can't wait. It's not a Vitamix. I've got an eye on this blender on eBay. Can't wait!

I was going to take photos of my food, but I forgot and I was busy, I didn't do it.......☹☹☹
All I took was mini chocolate brownies....

I always make them when i do buffet. They go really well with coffee and people love them. they are not just ordinary chocolate Brownies, they contains Rolos inside. So, when you have a few bite, you can taste sticky caramel inside mouth, mmmmm, very nice. and very very  naughty. 
This party was catered for veggies and meat eaters, they were all O.K with sugar and wheat too.

This was the menu on the day:

Savoury things.......

Selection of sushi with lemon soy dressing

Smoked salmon & spinach roulade with cream cheese & dill

Asparagus & goats cheese tart

Cherry tomato, basil & panchetta tart

Salad of avocado, spring beans & feta

Green mixed herb salad with Suffolk honey & mustard dressing

Nutty quinoa & bulgar wheat salad

Parmesan, sun dried tomato and prosciutto sticks

Black olive & emmental sticks

Chicken strips with peanut sauce

Afters.......

Strawberry tart with cream chantilly

OR

Cheese plate with crackers and chutneys

Tea/Coffee....

with mini chocolate brownies

By the way, I made very nice vegan peanut sauce. Grab a good organic smooth peanut butter, 1 zest of orange and juice, chili, ginger, cumin, coriander and very good coconut milk (not tin), splash of tamari (of course! Being Japanese, I need to have it on everything!) and freshly ground black peppers. I had some left over, one evening, I found a bag of spinach in my fridge. So I wilted it mixed through with warmed peanut sauce. Cor blimey, it was delicious. Then I remembered my friend Clair told me about her mum's cooking "spinach with peanut butter". My imagination expanded & imagined it was just like one I made and made my mouth really watery.

Home Made Sugar-Free Vegan Nut Butter

I love peanuts butter. I always loved it since when I was a child. In Japan, I remember eating my breakfast western style ( which was toast and pot of tea), I quite often had butter and peanuts butter. The peanuts butter I used to eat was not like proper nut butter, now I look back, it was more like sweet peanuts flavour creamy spread. So, when I first came here and had unsweetened crunchy peanut butter, I did not like it at all. I really missed my Japanese peanut butter. That was looooooooong time ago. Now, I love unsweetened both crunchy and smooth nut butter. I just can't seem to have enough of it. 

I went through peanuts butter, almond butter (also white almond butter), pumpkin butter, cashew butter, and my favo one is hazelnut and chocolate butter, you name it . I love spread them on my corn cakes/rice cakes etc, I could eat whole packet! But keep buying them becomes expensive ( as I'm on budget every month), as they usually come in small jars apart from peanut butter. And, hard to find sugar-free, vegan chocolate nut butter..... 
Then, one day, "Charity shop Emma " (I know quite a few Emmas, each of them have names) told me her mate in South Africa used to make her own peanut butter, that got me thinking. Up till then, I didn't really think to make my own. Funny that, I used to make my own chutneys, jams, and mustard, I also made home made salad cream and tomato ketchup! Why didn't I think that before!

So, I looked into it, I was surprised how easy to make!
My first nut butter was: "Brazil nut butter"
It was very easy, all it had was 500g brazilnut (not roasted) and pinch of salt. I wanted to make as raw as possible, so, I didn't roast the nuts as most of recipes was roasted (and on YouTube).

This is how it started off after 10-12 mins. 

About 15mins grinding in my little food processor, it became runny and creamy. To finish off, I added pinch of salt to bring out flavour of the nuts. I didn't add any sweetener not even maple syrup or coconut sugar. I think some nuts are already naturally sweet, I felt it didn't need.

I put it into a container, after a few days, this is how much it was left. And it was kept in my fridge, so it was set. I didn't cover oil on top either,  Brazil nuts contains high amount of oil, didn't need it.

Now, after success of this butter, I was ready to make chocolate spread. 
Some YouTube video I watched, people were adding oil to hazelnuts while grinding. I didn't understand why. I tried first time with my funny idea/recipe in my head, and didn't succeed. Then when I made it for 2nd time, I realized why they were adding oil. It didn't get runny like brazils! Oil helps to "puree" better. So, does it mean it's less oilier than brazilnuts??? 

Anyway, my sugar-free vegan hazelnut and chocolate spread contains: raw hazelnut, grapeseed oil, raw cacao powder, alcohol-free vanilla extract, and coconut sugar. I didn't make it too runny, I quite like thick spread, so I didn't add too much oil.

While grinding, this is how it looked when I started adding oil to it, many times, I needed to open the machine and scrape the sides and motor running again till quite smooth paste.

Took me about 20mins or so, longer than brazilnuts. Since I made this, I can't seem to stop eating it. That's O.K, this is a guilt-free chocolate spread(to me)! (..although full of nuts/fat..but good fat...)