Experience Nutrition

Category: Get Creative with Nuts & Seeds

  • Experience Nutrition: 2 New Hummus Recipes: Walnut Orange. Sunflower Seed Lemon.

    Experience Nutrition: 2 New Hummus Recipes: Walnut Orange. Sunflower Seed Lemon.

    Create your own hummus!

    Once you’ve made your own home-made hummus the first time, you’ll be inspired to make it all the time.

    The basic ingredients for hummus are beans, nuts or seeds, citrus, and salt. The typical ingredients are garbanzo beans, tahini (sesame seed paste), and lemon, respectively. With the base ingredients in mind, we can intuitively create different versions of hummus using a variety of beans, nuts and seeds, and citrus.

    Use these two newly created, delicious hummus recipes as a guide to create your own hummus recipes with your favorite nuts or seeds, and citrus. – Melanie Albert

    Also enjoy 3 more beautiful and delicious hummus recipes, as featured in Natural Awakenings Arizona, May 2020: 3 Great Hummus Recipes: Classic. Turmeric. Beet.

    Enjoy the Hummus Video.

    Before you get started on creating your own hummus, enjoy the New Hummus Recipes video:

    • Recipe and steps to create Walnut Orange and Sunflower Seed Lemon Hummus.
    • Mindfulness of plating mise en place.
    • Food Art plating featuring edible flowers.

    New Hummus Recipes. Walnut Orange. Sunflower Seed Lemon.

    Serves 4

    Simple Ingredients

    Base Ingredients

    • 2 cups cooked chickpeas (garbanzo beans)
    • ⅓ cup chickpea water
    • 3 cloves garlic, minced
    • Pinch sea salt

    Walnut Orange Hummus

      • ½ cup raw walnuts
      • ¼ cup freshly squeezed orange juice
      • ½ tsp orange zest
      • 2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
    AP_IMG_1708-hummus-walnutorange-mise
    Walnut Orange Hummus: Mise En Place

    Sunflower Seed Lemon Hummus

      • ½ cup raw sunflower seeds
      • ¼ cup freshly squeezed lemon juice
      • ½ tsp lemon zest
      • 2 tbsp Meyer Lemon Olive Oil
    AP-IMG_1706-hummusSunflower-mise
    Sunflower Seed Lemon Hummus: Mise en Place

    Simple Steps

    • Place nuts or seeds, garlic, and oil into a food processor.
    • Blend a few minutes, until smooth.
    • Sunflower Seed Hummus: Be patient, the processing may take 6-7 minutes.
    • After these ingredients are smooth, add the remaining ingredients (chickpeas, chickpea water, sea salt, citrus juice, and zest) and blend until smooth.
    • After the hummus has been blended, taste and add more of any of the ingredients to suit your taste.
    AP-IMG_1756-hummusplate-mise
    Hummus Plating: Mise En Place

     

    Simple Plating

    • Mindfully plate the hummus with fresh edible flowers, fresh herbs, or chopped veggies.

    Pause and Enjoy…

    AP_IMG_1798-hummus-platefinal-side

    Stay in touch with us on www.facebook.com/ExperienceNutritionAZ and Instagram @experiencenutritionaz and tag us #experiencenutrition on your plant-based culinary creations.

    Sedona Plant-Based Cooking Retreat. I’ve now decided that we will be holding the September 18-21, 2020 retreat in Sedona, Arizona. Lots of cooking, self-care, nature, relaxation, hiking, yoga, community in an incredible eco-home and beautiful Sedona with your friends. Please reach out if you are interested in attending the retreat or in creating a custom retreat for you and your group. Call 602.615.2486 or e-mail Mel@MelanieAlbert.com  Click for more information.

    A-SedonaRetreat-S19-Cath-water-DSC_8072 copy-smaller
    WOW! Yoga at Cathedral Rock. Dreams come true!

    By Melanie Albert, Plant-Based Culinary Leader, Founder & CEO, Experience Nutrition in Phoenix, Arizona. Award-winning cookbook author, speaker, corporate wellness, team building, retreat leader, and caterer.

  • A New View of Healthy Eating: Get Creative & Intuitive with Nut Milk

    By Melanie A. Albert, intuitive cooking expert, author, and speaker. Founder & CEO Experience Nutrition Group, LLC

    A few weeks ago I posted a blog with the simple steps to make your own nut milk. Today, I decided to make nut milk with some “left-over” nuts and seeds from a cooking class. When you make your own nut milk, get creative. Try different combinations of nuts and seeds and notice which you prefer. Some may be sweeter, some may be creamer, some may even be a little bit crunchy. Enjoy!

    Steps to Make Your Own Creative Nut & Seed Milk

    • Gather your mise en place
    •  Blend the nuts & seeds and coconut water
    •  Taste your homemade nut and seed milk. This one with pumpkin seeds, almonds, sunflower seeds, and a few goji berries was sweet and smooth.

    a-nutmilk-img_9206

    • Add a banana to thicken and raw cacao, if you are having a chocolate craving. And blend another few minutes.
    •  Mindfully enjoy!

    Come on over and share your nut and seed milks with us on our Facebook page, www.facebook.com/NewViewHealthyEating

  • A New View of Healthy Eating: Simple Steps to Make Your Own Raw Organic Almond Butter

    By Melanie A. Albert, intuitive cooking expert, author, and speaker. Founder & CEO Experience Nutrition Group, LLC

    Today I was working on some recipe development and testing for a new healthy snack. For one of the recipes, I decided to use almond butter, which is so easy to make. And, when we make it, almond butter is so fresh.

    My lesson with making almond butter is patience. Once you add the almonds to the food process, it does take some time for the almonds to become almond butter. So be patient. That’s it.

     

    Excerpt from A New View of Healthy Eating

    Quick and Easy Steps to Make Your Own Nut Butter

    Once you make your own almond butter at home, you’ll want to make it all the time. It’s easy, less expensive than store-bought jars, and tastes great. It’s so mindful to see almonds transform into almond butter.

    1. Pour about a cup of raw organic almonds into a high-speed blender or food processor.
    2. Turn on blender, moving from low to high.
    3. Check almonds every 4-5 minutes for consistency.
    4. Push the almonds down into the blade as needed.
    5. Blend until smooth and you will see the oil from the almonds.
    6. Enjoy with a fresh organic apple.

    “I absolutely love almond butter and love even more homemade almond butter. Making nut butter is one of those simple techniques that I’m so glad I learned. It’s so mindful to see almonds transform into almond butter. And homemade nut butter is so tasty.”

    148-149__pecan-pate

  • A New View of Healthy Eating: 5 Simple Steps to Make Your Own Nut or Seed Milk

    By Melanie A. Albert, intuitive cooking expert, author, and speaker. Founder & CEO Experience Nutrition Group, LLC

    Many people are not aware how easy it is to make a nut or seed milk. This morning I made a really quick smoothie to enjoy prior to teaching a cooking class. The base was a simple homemade sunflower seed milk, with frozen raspberries and a banana.

    Excerpt from A New View of Healthy Eating

    Make Your Own Nut or Seed Milk

    Nut milks are very popular, but often store-bought milks contain added sugars or preservatives. Use these simple steps to make your own nut milks, which are nutrient-dense, more affordable than store-bought milks, and taste so fresh. Enjoy your made-from-scratch nut milk as a beverage, in smoothies, or in recipes that call for milk.

    When making nut milk, it’s important to remember that various nuts and seeds have different flavor profiles, from neutral, to slightly sweet, to slightly bitter. Intuitively create your own favorite nut milk by experimenting with different nuts and seeds.

    • Neutral: Almonds, Brazil nuts
    • Slightly sweet: Cashews, macadamia, pecans
    • Slightly bitter, may need to balance with a sweetener: Seeds

    Nut-Based Milk. Generally, nut milk, such as almond, tends to be white and watery, with a thin texture and a mild, almost bland flavor. Use almond milk as a great plant-based replacement for milk or water in smoothies or with morning whole grains, such as steel-cut oats.

    Seed-Based Milk. Seed milk, such as hemp milk, is thick and creamy. Hemp milk made with dates and vanilla has a lot of depth and a flavorful, sweet, nutty, earthy taste. Drink hemp milk as a perfect healthy beverage.

     5 Simple Steps to Make Your Own Nut or Seed Milk

    1. Pour ⅓ cup raw nuts or seeds (almonds, cashews, sunflower seeds, or hemp seeds) into a high-speed blender.
    2. Add 1 cup water or coconut water.
    3. OPTIONAL: Add 1 organic date (pre-soak 1 hour to soften) for sweetness and/or ⅓ teaspoon vanilla extract for smoothness.
    4. Blend on low to start and increase speed to high for 2-3 minutes, to finely pulverize the nuts or seeds and create a smooth texture.
    5. OPTIONAL: Pour liquid through a cheesecloth-lined strainer or nut bag and hand squeeze the liquid through the cloth.
    6. Use nut milk as a base for smoothies, a liquid in whole grains, or a tasty beverage.

    142-143_Get-fat-nuts

    6 Nut and Seed Milk Tips

    1. 3:1 Ratio. Start with a ratio of 3 parts liquid to 1 part nuts or seeds. Use more or less liquid depending on your personal preference for smoothness.
    2. Make a Little at a Time. Nut and seed milk stays fresh in the refrigerator for a few days.
    3. To Strain or Not to Strain. It’s Up to You. Strain the blended nut milk in cheesecloth, a nut bag, or a fine-mesh strainer. Straining ensures a smooth, milky texture, and you can use this nut or seed pulp as a base for other creations. Do not strain cashews, hemp seeds, and sesame seeds due to their soft texture. If you do not strain the nut or seed milk, the nutrients and fiber from the nuts or seeds go right into your smoothie.
    4. Pulp for Breakfast. Add pulp from the nut milk to a whole grain breakfast.
    5. Dehydrate the Pulp. Dehydrate the pulp to use in crackers or crusts, or grind it into gluten-free flour. To dehydrate, spread the pulp onto dehydrator sheets and dehydrate until crisp, about 4-6 hours. Blend in a food processor and sift to make flour.
    6. To Soak or Not to Soak. It’s Up to You. Many raw foodists pre-soak nuts and seeds to neutralize enzyme inhibitors, make proteins more readily available for absorption, and make digestion easier. From a culinary view, pre-soaked nuts and seeds are easier to blend and result in creamier milk. If you have not pre-soaked the nuts and seeds, you can still make quick nut milk, which works well with morning smoothies. Blend the milk, add fruit, re-blend, and you have a quick smoothie.

    IMG_7767

    I am humbled by the huge positive response to the book and thank those of you who have already purchased A New View of Healthy Eating.

    I’m happy to say, I only have one more copy of the first print run of the book available. If you’d like that copy or one from the next print run, you can order now.

    Pre-order the book today and receive Top 5 Recipes and Culinary Tips.

    STEP 1: Pre-order Book

      STEP  2: Fill out this form and receive the Top 5 Recipes & Culinary Tips.