Bruschetta

Ingredients

sliced 12grain & seed sourdough bread
2 tomatoes diced
¼ onion finely minced
¼ yellow pepper diced
1 clove minced garlic
Juice ½ lemon
Salt & pepper to taste
Enough olive oil to mix (approximately 1 Tablespoon)

Directions

1.) Brush sliced bread of your choice with Olive Oil
2.) Bake 350 until just toasted
3.) mix remaining ingredients
4.) Spread on top of toasted bread
5.) grab one and eat it! MMmmmmmmmm! Let the juice dribble down your chin. We don't care. We're refined monkeys, we have napkins!

Couscous with Apples and Cranberries

Ingredients

Couscous:
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 cup couscous (or barley or orzo)
2 cups low-sodium veggie broth
1/4 cup chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley
1 1/2 tablespoons chopped fresh rosemary leaves
1 teaspoon chopped fresh thyme leaves
1 medium green apple, diced
1 cup dried cranberries
1/2 cup slivered almonds, toasted, see Cook's Note
Vinaigrette:
1/4 cup apple cider vinegar
2 tablespoons maple syrup
1 tablespoon kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1/4 cup olive oil

Directions

For the couscous: Bring vegetable broth to boil. Add in couscous. Simmer 2 minutes. Turn off heat. Let stand for 5 minutes. Fluff with fork. Transfer the cooked couscous to a large bowl and set aside to cool. Add the parsley, rosemary, thyme, apple, dried cranberries, and almonds.

For the vinaigrette: In a small bowl, combine the vinegar, maple syrup, salt, and pepper. Whisk in the olive oil until smooth. Pour the vinaigrette over the couscous and toss to coat evenly.

Cook's Note: To toast the almonds, preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Arrange the almonds in a single layer on a baking sheet. Bake for 8 to 10 minutes or until golden brown. Cool completely before using.


Say "Thank-you" to Giada because we modified this from one of her recipes. We used regular couscous because some of the monkeys in our tree don't like Israeli couscous

Stuffed Cherry Tomatoes

Ingredients

8-10 heirloom cherry tomatoes
Generous pawful of spinach finely chopped
2 cloves garlic minced
Olive oil
Feta cheese

Directions

1.) slice tomatoes in half and scoop out insides to form shell
2.) sweat garlic in olive oil
3.) add spinach and sauté
4.) remove from heat and stuff shells with spinach mixture
5.) top with sprinkle of feta
6.) bake at 350 or until cheese melts

Use your opposable digits and pop into your mouth! YUM!!!

Watermelon/ Crystallized Ginger Salad


Ingredients

Arugula
Fresh mint leaves
Crystallized ginger diced (we don't know how much - we're monkeys - whatever looks good)
Watermelon cubed (same thing as the ginger)
Honey Mustard dressing
Sesame ginger dressing

Directions

1.) Mix fresh mint leaves to taste with arugula.
2.) add watermelon and crystallized ginger
3.) Mix 1 part Sesame ginger dressing to 2 parts Honey mustard dressing (or to taste) We mix these dressing because we are new foodie monkeys and can't quite figure out how to perfect this vinegrette just yet.
4.) Dress salad
5.) grab fork - eat

ROSEMARY BREAD

Ingredients

2 1/2 cups whole-wheat pastry flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon sea salt
1 1/2 tablespoons dried rosemary
1 cup unflavored rice or soy milk
1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
2 teaspoons brown rice syrup
1/2 cup olives (the recipe says halved, I slice mine)
1 cup coarsely chopped walnut pieces


Directions

1.)Preheat oven to 350

2.)Sift together flour, baking powder and salt in a bowl.

3.)Add in rosemary.

4.)Whisk milk into oil and rice syrup in another bowl.

5.)Stir into flour mixture until just moistened (sometimes depending on the weather or whatever it needs just a touch more moisture. If so, I add JUST A TOUCH of water until all the flour is absorbed - it's a very thick batter).

6.)Fold in olives and walnuts.

7.)Spoon batter evenly into prepared pan.

8.) Bake 45-50 minutes until the bread is golden and the top springs back to the touch.

9.)Cool in pan 10 minutes before removing from pan and cooling on wire rack.

10.)Eat a big fat piece and delight in the fact that you're eating bread even though you're a monkey with a yeast intolerance!

Banana Bread

Banana Bread

Ingredients

2-3 mashed bananas
1/4 cup organic corn oil
1/4 cup soften organic butter (I don't usually use butter but sometimes you just need that flavor)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/3 cup rice syrup (not quite full topped off with maple syrup)
1 organic free range egg (again- I don't usually use eggs but nothing else holds things together as well)
3 Tablespoons vanilla soy milk
2-3 Tablespoons turbinado sugar (What's that you ask - look here)
2 cups whole wheat pastry flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon aluminum-free baking power (WHY? Here's one reason)
1/2 teaspoon sea salt (fine grain)
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 chopped walnuts
1/2 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips (grain sweetened) (yes, you could use something healthier than chocolate chips but why would you?)

Directions

1.) Preheat oven to 325

2.) grease 8.5 x 4.5 x2 loaf pan

3.) Mash bananas in a large bowl. I use a hand masher because monkeys like to have fun and this is fun!

4.) Add all the other wet ingredients except the egg

5.) taste - YUMMY!

6.) Ok, NOW add the egg

7.) In a separate bowl mix together all the dry ingredients except chocolate chips and walnuts.

8.) Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients s-l-o-w-l-y

9.) Fold in walnuts and chocolate chips

10.) Add in a dozen or so chocolate chips to replace the ones you ate while prepping

11.) Pour batter into prepared pan

12.) bake for 40-45 minutes

13.) Cool in pan on wire rack for 30 minutes

14.) Remove from pan

15.) Give a monkey hoot and let the other monkeys know the Banana Bread is ready!!