The Organic Climber – Blogging about climbing, RAW foods, vegetarianism, running and cycling.

The other day I unexpectedly steeped into a raw food making frenzy. I think feeling run down, as if sickness was creeping up on me inspired me to create some raw foods. In addition to creating some of my raw granola, aka, raw buckwheat treats, I made some really simple flax seed crackers, which are perhaps the best I have made so far. This recipe is also simpler, in that it does not require soaking the seeds. It was purely accident that I did not soak the seeds. Normally I would, but it had been so long since I have made flax crackers I completely forgot about this step, but they still came out amazing.

The Recipe

• 1 cup of golden flax seeds
• 1 cup of brown flax seeds
• 2 TBSP onion granules
• generous amount of garlic salt
• 1/2 cup of Namu Shoyu
• 3/4 cups of water

Directions

1. Combine all ingredients into a food processor and pulse until well mixed
2. Spread the mixture onto a teflex dehydrator sheet, should but enough for one full sheet in a nine tray Excalibur dehydrator.
3. Score the mixture into desired shapes using a pizza roller or sharp knife
4. Dehydrate crackers at 95-100 degrees for about 8-10 hours.
5. Flip the crackers over and dehydrate for another 8-10 hours, until crisp.

These crackers have a slightly salty/spicy flavor without too much hint of garlic or onion. If you like a stronger garlic or onion taste, simply add more garlic salt or onion granules.

These are great just as a side item to a meal, or served as a snack with almond butter. They would also go great with a raw cheese spread or pizza sauce. Best part is, these will stay practically stay fresh forever.

RAW Food, Recipes by OrganicClimber
dehydrated, dehydrator, flax crackers, flax seed, garlic, onion, RAW Food, raw granola, raw snack
2 comments

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One of my favorite fruits is the mango, especially ripe juicy ones. One problem I have though is that often times I can be lazy and not want to mess with deseeding a mango just to eat a snack. I also frequently crave these when on climbing trips, but they are often quite messy and would certainly be a pain to deseed while out on the trail or even while car camping for that matter. So I decided to dehydrate this tasty fruit after tasting a store bought version.  Mine of course are cheaper, taste better and have zero preservatives or artificial ingredients. I would most definitely say this is the beef jerky of fruit. Anyway, without further or do here are the directions on how to dehydrate mangoes.

First grab two to three ripe juicy mangoes.
Step two, deseed those bad boys. See Image below.

To deseed a mango hold the mango vertically and find the “knot” at the top of the mango. Take your knife and move a bit to the side and then slice all the way down. You may have to maneuver around the seed a bit as they are never exactly in the middle. After this, repeat on the other side. Also, it will be worth your time to remove excess mango flesh from the seed to throw into the dehydrator with your slices. No need to waste.

Third, skin the mango. You will notice from the picture I skinned the mango after deseeding. I have since discovered it is much easier to skin the mangoe FIRST, then deseed. However, if you wish to leave some skin on your dehydrated mangoes you will want to skin them after you deseed. In this case I was leaving the skin on several of them so this would be the best method. Although the skins are harder to eat, especially dehydrated, they contain lots of nutrients.

After skinning the mango, cut into evenly sized slices and line them on a mesh dehydrator sheet. I believe one mango makes about a tray of evenly spaced mango slices if using the Nine tray Excalibur Food Dehydrator.

After placing the mangoes on the dehydrator trays, insert them into the dehydrator and dehydrate at 115 degrees for about 24 hours.

The finished product will have a nice leathery texture but still have somewhat of a moist feel to them. You don’t want to turn these into chips, so be careful not to dehydrate for too long. I also recommend about 1/4 inche slices, but feel free to experiment and find out what you like best. But remember the thicker the slice the longer you will have to dehydrate.

For those that don’t have a food dehydrator I highly recommend the investment, especially if you are the outdoors type and spend lots of money on things like granola, nuts, seeds and things like Power Bars and Cliff Bars. With these bad boys you can make your own homemade version for a fraction of the cost, and you have fun doing it in the process. It’s also much more gratifying to eat something you made yourself.

They dehydrator I used and recommend is the Excalibur. They have a 4, 5 and 9 tray model. I rarely use all 9 trays, but when I do need that extra space I am glad I have it. The size of the trays also are different on each model, so that is something else to consider as well when looking to purchase a dehydrator. I would also suggest staying away from the circular dehydrators that are stacked. The downside to these is your drying temperatures are not even at each level, you have to rotate your trays throughout drying times. With the Excalibur you get consistent drying temperatures on every tray.

Feel free to drop me a line if you have any questions about dehydrators or anything else I post about for that matter.

Peace…

Climbing, Health & Fitness, RAW Food, Recipes by OrganicClimber
dehydrated, dehydrator, dried, Excalibur, foood, fruit, mango, mangoes, RAW, vegan, yummy
10 comments

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Recently I had a couple of requests for a homemade Larabar recipe. After loooking at their Web site I realized these would be a piece of cake to make at home. They even had all the ingredients listed on the site, so I wouldn’t even have to go buy one to figure out what was in them. However, I was walking through the Cupboard the other day and decided to buy one just to try them out. They were exactly what I expected based on the ingredients, which we will cover for the Apple Pie bar.

One thing that surprised me was that the ingredients are not organic. Although they are “RAW” they are still not most healthy option. The version I made it home is 100% Organic and 100% RAW. This is not only healthier than their non-organic counterpart, but they are better for the environment because the ingredients used are not sprayed with pesticides.

Anyway, lets get to it. Here is the list of ingredients and quantities I used:

• 1 cup chopped dates (could possibly need a couple more depending on the size of the dates)

• 2/3 cup of raisins

• 1/2 cup coarsely chopped chopped walnuts (I used my Vita-Mix on the lowest speed)

• 1/2 cup coarsely chopped chopped almonds (I used my Vita-Mix on the lowest speed)

• 1 coarsely chopped chopped apple (I used my Vita-Mix on the lowest speed)

• 1/2 TBSP Cinnamon (I am actually going to recommend using more, the cinamon flavor was not quite as strong as the ones I bought in the store, but taste the mixture and adjust to your liking)

Now for the directions:

1. Place the dates in a food processor and pulse using the S blade until a paste is formed
2. Add the rest of the ingredients minus the cinnamon and then process until all ingredients are well mixed *
3. Add the cinnamon and process again. This is where you will adjust the amount of cinnamon to your liking. (the nice thing about making RAW foods is your mixture will taste the same after dehydrating or freezing)
4. Using cookie cutters (or any other thing lying around the kitchen you can use as a mold) spread the mixture into your mold using a spatula.
5. Once you have your mixture in the mold place it on a Teflex lined dehydrator tray, then remove the mold. For my mold, I used the lid to a large canning jar. This allowed me to place it face down on the dehydrator sheet and then remove the outer edge, leaving the lid on top of the “pattie”. I then twisted and pulled that off and then repeated the process until I had five patties total.
6. Now dehydrate at 105 degrees for about 24 hours. After 12 hours flip them over on the tray and remove the sheet, leaving them to dry on just the mesh for the remaining 12 hours.
7. If you don’t have a dehydrator you can refrigerate or freeze them overnight, although I tried this with one pattie and did not have much luck (may not have been thick enough). I saw a few other blogs online that used the overnight refrigeration method. Although I am pretty sure you would have to serve them immediately.

And there you have it, homemmade Laurabars. I know for sure the dehydrated bars will pack well for road trips, backpacking, and climbing trips. The thicknes of my refridgerated version may not have been thick enough to solidify well. You may also try baking them at a really low temperature, just remember to keep it under 115 degrees if you want to keep it RAW.

If Apple Pie is not your thing then just visit the Larabar Web site and find your favorite bar, all the ingredients are listed right there. Then just do some guess work at how much of each ingredient to put into your homemade version. Remember, you can always change it up the next time you make it. It is also better to start out with less of a particular ingredient since you can always add more.

Hope you enjoy these tasty RAW treats!

*NOTE: After actually eating one of these this morning I am going to suggest not blending in the chopped nuts and apples into the food processor. Rather, after creating the date paste dump all the ingredients into a mixing bowl and stir thoroughly.  I found the final product to “mushy”. I think having the nuts and apple chunks mixed in with the date paste will help make them a more solid consistency. Just make sure your apple and nut pieces are not too large. This mistake could have also been why my refrigerated bar did not solidify properly.

Climbing, RAW Food, Recipes by OrganicClimber
Climbing, dehydrated, homemeade, Lara bar, Larabar, Laura Bar, RAW, Vita-MIx
4 comments

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