This is the blender I use.

It’s not even noon yet as I sit down to write this, and I have already used my blender three times. I use it more than any given pot or pan, more than the toaster, more than just about anything else. Granted, if my son weren’t allergic to so many things, requiring me to make things for him, I would probably not use it quite as often. But I use it almost every day.

And today happens to be one of those days when I use it extra.

Let’s see… I started out by blending up some black beans I had cooked for Manny, right before I poured them into ice cube trays to freeze for later.

Then I blended the quinoa I had cooked for Manny’s breakfast. Because he doesn’t chew stuff much yet, I find it better to grind his grains. Most of them I grind before cooking, but since quinoa needs to be rinsed, it’s easier to blend it up afterwards.

A little later, I used the blender to make teff milk, which is very similar to the rice milk I demonstrated on YouTube, except that I use a little less teff than rice (otherwise it gets too thick), and I only cook it for 1 hour instead of 2 1/2, because the grains are so tiny.

When I finish with this post, I will make cashew cheese for haystacks.

After lunch, I will make nut milk with the nuts that are soaking on the window sill right now.

So that makes five times today that my blender is getting used. I honestly don’t know how I could live without one! Anyone want to get me a VitaMix for Christmas? Or my birthday? Or just because? Anyone?

But seriously, please share how you use your blender–if you have one. I’d love to hear your thoughts.

This recipe makes a very tasty roast or loaf that is high in protein and very cheap to make—especially in contrast to the veggie roasts you can buy. It’s one of the ways I can get my husband to eat garbanzos—because it doesn’t taste anything like them. It would be very easy to make soy-free as well—just add more salt in place of the soy sauce and use a soy-free beef seasoning.

2 cups soaked garbanzos (about 1 cup dried)
1 ½ cup bran water (or water or broth or whatever)
2 Tbsp soy sauce
1 Tbsp oil
1 tsp salt
1/8 tsp garlic powder
2-3 tsp beef seasoning (I use Bill’s Best Beaf Seasoning)
½ cup gluten flour
1 cup chopped onion (may be sauted first, but I never bother)
1 cup chopped celery
2/3 cup chopped Brazil nuts or cashews
2 Tbsp wheat germ

Soak garbanzos until fully soaked (at least 4 hours, overnight best). Drain and blend with oil, 1 cup of the water, soy sauce, and all seasonings on high until fine. Pour into bowl, and rinse blender with remaining ½ cup of water, adding to mixture. Add onion, celery, nuts, and wheat germ and mix.

Stir in gluten flour and beat until gluten develops. This will take several minutes. You will notice the mixture becoming stringy—that is when the gluten is ready. It won’t get stiff until it bakes. The garbanzos thicken as they cook.

Put into greased glass loaf pan or medium sized baking dish, cover with foil, and bake for 1 hour at 350°. Remove foil for last 15 minutes to allow roast to brown on top. Serve hot. Reheats well.

Doesn't that look good?

How about a close-up?

This is a great potluck dish. Or if we’re eating it at home, I will serve it with rice—wild rice is my favorite—and a vegetable. It is very satisfying. It could be sliced and served with gravy, though it has plenty of flavor on its own. The pieces of nuts add interest, though they could be ground with the garbanzos for a smoother texture. The original recipe didn’t call for beef seasoning, but I found the recipe needed a little more seasoning than it called for—at least, for our family.

Before trying this recipe, I had never tried making anything with raw soaked garbanzos. I was surprised how wet the mixture was—nearly pourable, nothing like any roast I had ever made before. But then I saw in the book that you can use raw soaked garbanzos blended up to thicken things. I actually thickened pumpkin pie with them once! They can be blended and frozen ahead of time as well. Just a tip that you might find handy some day.

Next week I’m going to share the recipe I love for chicken nuggets. A friend of mine posted the recipe on Facebook, and it was the end of my quest for a good chicken nugget recipe! Watch for it!

This recipe is my slightly modified version of the recipe found in the Oats, Peas, Beans, and Barley cookbook.

If you’ve been following my blog for a while (okay, so it’s only a couple of weeks old…), you might remember my post on cracking nuts together as a family. Well, I finally got the video for that uploaded. It’s adorable! (Sorry, but you’ll have to click the video twice to get to the youtube page… I couldn’t figure out how to make the video fit on the page.)

More recently, Manny decided that it was fun to push the raisin container across the table. I caught it on video. Tried to get him to play peek-a-boo (which he will play spontaneously whenever I don’t have a camera handy), but he wasn’t in the mood. Still, it’s cute!

Thought you might enjoy these!

We always have nut milk for Sabbath breakfast. It lasts longer than soy milk (I’m thinking, no tummies growling in the middle of the sermon). I use a mix of nuts, usually almonds, walnuts, and sunflower seeds. Today I was out of walnuts and sunflower seeds, so I used cashews and Brazil nuts. As long as it’s about half almond, it tastes pretty good, and the other nuts are cheaper than almonds.

Anyhow, I didn’t have either almonds or Brazil nuts shelled, but I had lots of them in the freezer with the shells still on, so I got out the nut cracker and got busy. I can actually go faster with Gislaine, because she takes the nuts out of the shell (almonds, anyway), so I can get cracking on the next nut. Manny wanted in on the action, too! He got to play with the shells.

Update 5/19/10: I finally got the video uploaded. Click here to view.