Oh She Glows Every Day Party Challenge Work Lunch

Sep 13, 2016Oh She Glows Every Day Party Challenge0 comments

Happy Tuesday everyone!  It has been a week since beginning the Oh She Glows Every Day Party Challenge and it has been great so far.  Please take a look at the free e-guide for the Brunch Menu for last week if you haven’t already.  I had so much fun preparing the recipes and sharing it with a friend in Vancouver.  This week, it is the Oh She Glows Every Day Lunch Series!

What is better for a challenge than a work lunch!  For those of you who work at an office, this is a great way to gather coworkers together in an often busy time of year.  I work in a very busy department, with staff around me not able to take lunch breaks regularly.  To boost the moral in the office, I surprised them with a five course meal outside in the sunshine.  Later this week, I will share the review with you and what they thought.

The recipes in this e-guide go well together as they are gluten-free, peanut free, soy-free and can all be made the day before (no heating required).  They also are finger foods which makes things even easier! These recipes can all be made by one person, but might even be more fun to have a potluck and get individuals to share their favourite recipe from the book.

One recipe from this week’s lunch menu is the Sundried Tomato and Garlic Super Seed Crackers! These are found on page 81 of the Oh She Glows Every Day Cookbook.  Angela, from Oh She Glows, has graciously allowed me to share this recipe with you.  I love making homemade crackers, especially ones full of seeds.  These are gluten free and so simple to make, I’m sure I will be making lots of these.  These may be the perfect thing to make for work, perhaps with some of the hummus found in the Oh She Glows Every Day Cookbook?

Oh She Glows Every Day Lunch Guide

 

 

 

 

Here is the recipe!

Sun-Dried Tomato and Garlic Super-Seed Crackers
Recipe Type: Lunch Menu
Author: Whole Foodie Challenge
Prep time:
Cook time:
Total time:
Serves: 35 (2-inch/5cm square)
These elegant, chewy crackers are fit for a high-end bakery! Infused with sun-dried tomatoes, oregano, garlic, oats, and a slew of nutritious seeds, they taste like pizza, but they’re full of health benefits. The combination of seeds is rich in healthy fatty acids and antioxidants, and the recipe is both gluten-free and tree nut-free. They may look intimidating to make, but they come together incredibly fast and easily. If you’ve ever been intimidated by rolling out cracker dough, you have to try this recipe; the dough doesn’t even require a rolling pin. Simply spread it out with your hands! VEGAN, GLUTEN-FREE, NUT-FREE, SOY-FREE, OIL-FREE, KID-FRIENDLY OPTION, FREEZER-FRIENDLY
Ingredients
  • 1/3 cup (75 mL) sun-dried tomatoes (dry, not oil-packed)
  • 1 1/2 cups (375 mL) boiling water
  • 1 cup (250 mL) raw hulled sunflower seeds
  • 1 cup (250 mL) gluten-free rolled oats
  • 1/4 cup (60 mL) hemp hearts
  • 1/4 cup (60 mL) raw pepitas (pumpkin seeds)
  • 1/4 cup (60 mL) white sesame seeds
  • 2 tablespoons (30 mL) black sesame seeds or more white sesame seeds
  • 2 tablespoons (30 mL) whole chia seeds
  • 3 tablespoons (45 mL) ground chia seeds
  • 1 1/4 teaspoons (6 mL) garlic powder
  • 1 large clove garlic, grated on a Microplane
  • 2 teaspoons (10 mL) dried oregano
  • 1 teaspoon (5 mL) coconut sugar or natural cane sugar
  • 1 teaspoon (5 mL) dried basil
  • 3/4 teaspoon (4 mL) fine sea salt, or to taste
  • 1/8 teaspoon (0.5 mL) cayenne pepper, or to taste (optional)
Instructions
  1. Preheat the oven to 300°F (150°C). Line two standard baking sheets (13 × 18 inches/32 × 40 cm) or one extra-large baking sheet (15 × 21 inches/38 × 53 cm) with parchment paper.
  2. Place the sun-dried tomatoes in a bowl and cover with the boiling water. Set aside to soak for 5 to 10 minutes.
  3. In a large bowl, stir together the remaining ingredients.
  4. With a slotted spoon, scoop the softened sun-dried tomatoes out of the soaking water and transfer to a mini food processor, reserving the soaking water. Process the tomatoes until minced. Alternatively, you can chop the tomatoes by hand—just be sure to chop them very fine so the crackers are easy to slice. Scoop the tomatoes into the bowl with the seed mixture.
  5. Add the tomato soaking water to the bowl with the seed mixture. Stir for about a minute, until the water has been mostly absorbed by the seed mixture and is no longer pooling on the bottom of the bowl.
  6. Transfer half the seed mixture to each baking sheet (or if using one extra-large baking sheet, spoon all of it onto the sheet). With your hands, spread the mixture starting in the center and pushing outward, until you form a large, misshapen rectangle, no more than 1/4 inch (5 mm) thick. The mixture will be very wet, but this is normal. Be sure that the dough is uniform in thickness and the corners aren’t too thick.
  7. Bake for 30 minutes. Remove the baking sheet(s) and using a pizza slicer, carefully slice the dough into large crackers. Carefully flip each cracker using a spatula or your hands. Don’t worry if a couple break here and there! If for some reason the crackers are sticking to the parchment paper, just leave them as is and remove them after the second bake.
  8. Return the baking sheet(s) to the oven and bake for 23 to 25 minutes more, until the crackers are golden. Watch closely during the last 5 to 10 minutes of baking to ensure they don’t burn. Remove from the oven and let cool on the baking sheet(s) for 5 minutes. Transfer the crackers to a couple of cooling racks and let cool completely. Store the cooled crackers in a paper bag on the counter for up to 1 week. You can also store them in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 1 week or in a freezer-safe zip-top bag in the freezer for 3 to 4 weeks.
Serving size: 35 Calories: 109 Fat: 9 Carbohydrates: 8.5 Sugar: 1.2 Fiber: 2.9 Protein: 4.8
Notes
If the crackers soften while storing (this can happen in humid environments), toast in the oven at 300°F (150°C) for 5 to 7 minutes, then let cool completely. This is usually enough to return their former crispness! [br]Tip: To make ground chia seed, in a high-speed blender, grind 1/2 cup (125 mL) chia seeds on high until a fine powder forms. Store any unused ground chia seed in the fridge in an airtight container. [br]For 9-Spice Super-Seed Crackers Omit the sun-dried tomatoes and use 1 1/2 cups (375 mL) room-temperature water (it doesn’t have to be boiling since we’re not soaking the tomatoes anymore). Swap the garlic powder, garlic clove, oregano, basil, salt, and cayenne for 1 batch (about 2 tablespoons/30 mL) of my 9-Spice Mix (page 258). Proceed as directed.

From Oh She Glows Every Day. Copyright © 2016, Glo Bakery Corporation. Reprinted by permission of Penguin Canada, a division of Penguin Random House Canada Limited. Photography credit: Ashley McLaughlin.

Below, you can find the link to the free e-guide for this week’s lunch menu.  Also, I will be updating my Instagram all week.

So let’s kick this week off, shall we?

Click here to download your free e-guide for the Lunch Menu

Oh She Glows Every Day Lunch Guidesignature