Lavender Sugar Plum Peach Chia Jam

What in the world has gotten into me, why am I making all these delicious jams? I don't know. I think it started with, "hey I'm out of jam," and "wow, I have a ton of chia seeds (sale), then, me thinking, "hey don't chia seeds gel up," and "gee I have a ton of fruit," which led to boiling fruit then adding the chia then whala, homemade jam with less sugar, real ingredients, real fruit and chia. Like I am actually getting omega 3's while eating this yummy jam on my toast, I'll take it, then give it to my family. Homemade jam = happy healthy family. And it's fun, simple and easy to make. No need for pectin, preservatives, gelatin, yuk, this jam will go so fast you don't need all those things. So here goes with the longest title ever...............

Lavender Sugar Plum Peach Chia Jam

1-2 cups of Sugar Plums (with our without the fairy) personally I like it with a bit of Fairy lol
2 peaches
2 tbsp. of lavender buds (or use lavender tea if you don't have 100 % lavender) try it, you never know
1 cup stevia
1 cup real sugar
1/2 cup of chia seeds
1 cup of water
1 tsp agar agar powder (what the hell is this? see below)

put everything except agar agar in a pot and simmer for ten min. Strain all liquid after 10 min, and blend all the chunks out, put back in pot with liquid and add the agar powder, boil for one min, then put in a not metallic glass bowl and let cool in fridge, in the morning or whenever put in mason jars. Give some to people if you love them :)
Notes:
This is a very versitle recipe, you could use lemon thyme to season (just put in with the ingredients with everything else) or, you could leave out the lavender all together. You could even use regular plums if you can't find sugar plums. Oh and yeah, what the hell is agar agar powder...........

What is agar?
Agar (or Agar Agar), sometimes referred to as kanten, is a gelling agent coming from a South East Asian seaweed. It is used for scientific purposes (in biology for instance), as a filler in paper sizing fabric and as a clarifying agent in brewing. Agar can also be used as a laxative (it’s 80-percent fiber) and as an appetite suppressant.
And it’s of course an amazing culinary ingredient. It’s a vegetarian gelatin substitute, a thickener for soups, in fruits preserves, ice cream and others desserts.

Where can you find agar?
Agar is available in health food stores, in supermarket that carry health food lines, in Asian grocery stores and online.
Health Benefits
Agar has no calories, no carbs, no sugar, no fat and is loaded with fiber. It’s free from starch, soy, corn, gluten, yeast, wheat, milk, egg and preservatives.
It absorbs glucose in the stomach, passes through digestive system quickly and inhibits the body from retaining and storing excess fat. Its water absorbing properties also aids in waste elimination. Agar absorbs bile, and by doing so, causes the body to dissolve more cholesterol.
A great substitute to gelatin
Agar is the perfect substitute to traditional gelatin. It’s made from a plant source rather than from an animal one. That makes it suitable for vegetarian and vegan diets, and other diet restrictions.
Agar has no taste, no odor and no color, which makes it pretty convenient to use. It sets more firmly than gelatin, and stays firm even when the temperature heats up.
Though agar is a great substitute to gelatin, don’t expect the same results when replacing gelatin with agar in a recipe. First, it doesn’t give the same texture. Gelatin can give a «creamy» texture whereas agar gives a firmer texture. And agar is much more powerful than gelatin : 1 teaspoon agar powder is equivalent to 8 teaspoon gelatin powder.
How to use Agar

• The most important thing to know is that agar needs to be first dissolved in water (or another liquid like milk, fruit juices, tea, stock…) and then brought to a boil. It will set as the ingredients cool down. You can not add agar flakes or powder as it is in your food.

• You should definitively follow the package directions and the recipe to determine which quantity to use. But here is a basic rule you can adapt : use 1 tablespoon agar flakes to thicken 1 cup of liquid, and 1 teaspoon agar powder to thicken 1 cup of liquid.

Here is the basic «recipe» to use if you can’t boil your liquid directly.

1. Dissolve 1 tbsp agar flakes or 1 tsp agar powder in 4 tbsp hot water
2. Bring water to a boil
3. Simmer for 1 to 5 minutes for powder and 10 to 15 minutes for flakes
4. Mix well with warmed ingredients
5. Let it cool to set agar.

Vanilla chia cherry rhubarb jam

Ingredients
1/2 cup chia seeds
2 cups chopped ruhbarb
2 cups chopped cherries
2 cups stevia or 3/4 cup agave nectar or 3/4 cups honey

What to do
Throw everything in a pot and simmer for 10 minutes. Put in a bowl and let cool, then scoop in jars in the morning. You could also use any other type of fruit. Use over yogurt" over brownies or on toast.

Amaranth Protien Bars

This was my first time making protein bars, this recipe turned out awesome, too awesome, since they are now almost gone, but making more is a snap


Here are the ingredients, I didn't measure anything so Just eyeball it, it's a very forgiving recipe so if you muff up don't worry, just add more of this or that to the correct consistency.

Ingredients
1 cup of Amaranth (toasted and popped)
3-4 tbsp. of ground flax
1 cup of millet
1/2 cup of chia seeds
1/2 cup of sesame seeds (raw or toasted)
1/2 cup to 1 cup of pumpkin seeds (or nuts of your choice) if you pick big nuts chop them first
1 cup of dried cranberries or dried raisins or dried fruit of your choice, chop if need be, chopped dates would be good in this too
a handful or two of very small chocolate chips
1- 1.5 cups of quick cooking oats

For the Sticky Sauce
8 tbsp. of honey
8 tbsp. of agave nectar
1/2 cup of brown sugar
1 stick of butter (you could also use a cup of coconut oil, or 1/2 cup of olive oil)

It's so Simple
In a pan, toast the amaranth a little bit at a time, around 1/4 cup as to heat evenly and pop them, it's like tiny popcorn, they turn white when popped, you wont be able to pop all of them but if you get most that is good, do not use any oil, just a dry pan, after it's popped put into a mixing bowl. Now do the same to the millet but just toast (millet does not pop). Your just trying to get a nice toasted flavor out of these grains. Transfer millet into same mixing bowl with amaranth. Mix into the same bowl, the ground flax, chia seeds, sesame seeds, pumpkin seeds (or nuts), oats, dried fruit and chocolate (yum). In a saucepan (the same one used for popping/toasting grains) put in the ingredients for the sticky sauce, wait till it bubbles and become somewhat thick, pour sauce into mixing bowl with all the other ingredients and mix until it's thick, if it's still a bit wet add more dry ingredients. Scoop into a square pan and pat down until it's the thickness you desire and put in fridge to cool completely. These wont get really hard but hard enough to make into squares and eat without falling apart. If you would like them harder, I guess you could put in the oven for a bit around 350 for 10 min.

This is a really versatile recipe, play around with it and post comments of what has worked and what hasn't. Enjoy
The protein in these bars mostly comes from the amaranth, containing 26 gams of protein in 1 cup, the millet about 6 grams. The chia in this recipe is around 5 grams.
A little tidbit about Amaranth

Amaranth’s Health Benefits

Amaranth contains more than three times the average amount of calcium and is also high in iron, magnesium, phosphorus, and potassium.  It’s also the only grain documented to contain Vitamin C.  Very little research has been conducted on amaranth’s beneficial properties, but the studies that have focused on amaranth’s role in a healthy diet have revealed three very important reasons to add it to your diet.
It’s a protein powerhouse.  At about 13-14%, it easily trumps the protein content of most other grains.  You may hear the protein in amaranth referred to as “complete” because it contains lysine, an amino acid missing or negligible in many grains.  One of the first studies to showcase amaranth’s protein power took place in Peru in the late 1980s.  Children were fed toasted amaranth flour, popped amaranth grain, and amaranth flakes as the source of all dietary protein and fat, and as 50% of their daily energy requirements, then later fed a mix of amaranth and corn in various forms.  Because researchers focused on “end results” so to speak, we’ll gloss over the details and sum up their findings with this key quote:  “If amaranths were available at a reasonable cost, they could represent a major component of the diets of children in the developing world…”
Amaranth is also Gluten Free
It’s good for your heart.  Amaranth has shown potential as a cholesterol-lowing whole grain in several studies conducted over the past 14 years.
First, in 1996, researchers from the U. S. Department of Agriculture in Madison, WI conducted studies that showed the healthy oil in amaranth could significantly reduce total cholesterol and LDL (“bad”) cholesterol in 6-week-old female chickens.  This was great news for chickens, but what about us humans?  Cut to 2003, when researchers at the University of Guelph in Ontario, Canada found that amaranth can be a rich dietary source of phytosterols, which have cholesterol-lowering properties.  Just a few years later, in 2007, Russian researchers drew from the 1996 study to determine whether or not amaranth would also show benefits for patients with cardiovascular disease (CVD).  Patients who presented with coronary heart disease and hypertension not only showed benefits from the inclusion of amaranth in their diets, researchers also saw a significant decrease in the amounts of total cholesterol, triglycerides, LDL cholesterol.

Link to millet info: http://www.whfoods.com/genpage.php?tname=foodspice&dbid=53