Recipes To Live By

 

Valia's Organic Recipe Collection

Appetizers are such multi-functional foods!  They can warm up the appetite before a meal.  They can serve as hors d'œuvres with drinks at a party so that guests are less likely to be hungry and become quickly intoxicated.  Quite often, they are the stars of the party in their own right.  They make terrific snacks in a time that has become frighteningly reliant on processed, crispy snacks in a bag or box that bear such negative ramifications on both the health and the waistlines of humanity. 

1.           Soy

2.           Corn

3.           Cottonseed (used in vegetable cooking oils)

4.           Canola (canola oil-also known as rapeseed oil)

5.           Sugar from sugar beets

These are the top 5 culprits in the current GMO nightmare, plentiful in the processed and pre-packaged snacks that have become the choice of convenience for people all over the world.  People who would not deliberately buy or consume anything GMO, may do so quite regularly when they purchase and eat something that relies on GMO products to manufacture it.  Consider that microwave popcorn, that bag of potato or corn chips, those bite-size candies in the candy bowl, those crackers that may be loaded with GMO goods that are not subject to regulation, even in countries that otherwise prohibit the marketing of GMO products in their unnatural "natural" state.  It is said that 75 percent of processed foods contain GM ingredients, so you'll want to avoid as many processed foods as possible.  Only time will reveal, as anti-GMO activist Jeffrey Smith points out, the extent of the unforeseen illnesses caused by GM foods.

 

Avoid the danger.  Make your own appetizers and snacks!

 

 

Whole Wheat Crackers

5 cups organic whole wheat flour
2 cups (16 ounces) organic whole buttermilk or yogurt
1 cup (8 ounces) unsalted butter (softened or melted)
1/2 cup (4 ounces) coconut oil (softened or melted)
1 tablespoon aluminum-free baking powder
2 teaspoons sea salt

1. Add flour and buttermilk or yogurt to bowl of stand mixer and blend until dough starts to come together.

2. Blend in butter, coconut oil, baking powder and sea salt. You may need to add a little more coconut oil or a little more flour to get the perfect texture.

3. Taking a fourth of the dough at a time, roll out to about 1/8 inch thickness on a floured surface.

3. Use a pizza cutter to cut the dough into squares, or a floured cookie cutter to cut into rounds.

4. Place the dough shapes close together on a lightly greased baking sheet. Bake at 350 degrees for 20-25 minutes.

5. Store in a freezer bag or airtight container.