Recipe Corner

by Christine Eicher
Spring 2003

Wild Rice Confetti Crunch :: Chico's gluten-free Bread :: Chico's Bread -pellet free :: Spicy Gazpacho :: Gelatin Toy Blocks

Organic is always best! 

Sprouts

I feed sprouts to my small flock of 5 every morning. At first they were less than enthusiastic with the new fare but gradually came to look forward to the daily offering of sprouted seed mix. This past month however, I noticed interest waning and decided to try giving them more variety in what I was serving and also in the way I was serving the sprouts. I know I get bored eating the same ol’ same ol’, day in and day out, and I’m sure they do too. In addition to sprouting their birdie sprout mix, I also sprout individual varieties of seeds, beans and nuts not found in the mixes and then mix different ones in for more variety and texture. Some days I squeeze fresh lemon juice over the sprouts just before serving, over which mix I will sometimes sparingly drizzle cold pressed extra virgin olive oil or cold pressed flax seed oil and then top with a sprinkling of crushed basil, rosemary or thyme. On other days I’ll garnish with freshly crushed pecans or walnuts or just mix in fresh, raw cucumber seeds. Sprouts make great garnishes as well. Pele the Caique loves halved cherry tomatoes, with a drop of Udo’s Oil (or any cold pressed flax oil) and a drop of cold pressed extra virgin olive oil in each half, sprinkled with fresh lemon juice and crushed, dried basil. I then garnish with sprouts and lemon peel strips. As a special treat I serve myself and my birds a dish I call Wild Rice Confetti Crunch. 

Wild Rice Confetti Crunch 

Sprouted ingredients:

1. Mix together and sprout/soak orange, red, green, blue and yellow lentils, with daikon, radish, arugula and cress seeds. I usually soak — rinsing and changing soak water several times — for a 24 hour period or until sprouting activity occurs with the lentils. The daikon, radish, arugula and cress usually will not show any signs of sending out shoots within the 24 hours. 
2. Sprouted mung beans with ¼ inch tails. Dehull if desired.
3. Barely sprouted hulled sunflower seeds

Cooked ingredients:

1. Mixture of wild rice and assorted brown rice varieties cooked or steamed and then cooled to room temperature. 
2. Steamed carrots, soft but not overcooked. Plunge in ice water to prevent overcooking. The color should be a very vibrant orange. Cut into cubes as small or as large as desired. 

Drain all sprouts well. Assemble all of the above ingredients. Mix small amounts of each ingredient into rice and taste. Proportions are not given. This is a dish that requires tasting as you mix in the various sprouts. The different sprouts all lend their own unique flavor, crunchiness and crispness to this dish. What is really interesting is that not all lentils are created equal in taste, smell and texture! May be served with a garnish of crushed, raw walnuts or pecans. 

Seed Mixes for Sprouting

www.SproutPeople.com
www.ForBirdsSake.com
www.ChinaPrairie.com
www.SproutMix.com

Individual Organic Seeds for Sprouting

www.SproutPeople.com
www.SproutMix.com
www.SproutHouse.com

The Happy Bird Bakery

Here are two tasty and healthy bread recipes lovingly created by Anne for her special Congo African Grey parrots. Following is the story of how these recipes were born: 

Anne lives with, and caters to two adopted Congo African Grey parrots. Chico is a fully-feathered, self-assured 9-year-old girl and Frankie is a feather-picking, nervous 10-year-old girl. When Anne and husband Bill adopted Chico three years ago, one of the major concerns was feeding. Chico was on a very poor diet of bulk bin wild bird seed and to make matters worse, was very picky about what she would eat. So "Chico Bread" was developed. Last November, Frankie was adopted into their flock, and in an attempt to curb her feather picking, the original Chico Bread recipe was revised to create a Gluten-Free version. Both Greys love Chico Bread in all its forms. To round out the flock, Anne and Bill live with Daisy the Basset Hound (she also loves Chico Bread), Seven the Chinchilla Persian, and the two "boys", adopted stray cats who prefer the great outdoors! 

As long as you keep to the base ingredients in the following two bread recipes, it is possible to add or subtract items. If your bird loves cranberries, raisins and nuts, add some. Any veggie or fruit that is good for your bird can be added. No added salt or sugar please – these are not healthy for your bird. Brown rice flour and kamut flour can be found at any health food store. As always, use organic products when possible and raw produce, nuts, and seeds unless indicated otherwise.

These recipes can easily be doubled; the loaves freeze well. Be sure to cut in slices before freezing for ease of use. 

Chico’s Gluten-Free Bread

Developed by Anne Eilers with all kinds of help from Chico & Frankie 

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Prepare two loaf pans (8¾ x 4½ x 2¾ deep) by using spray-on fat-free vegetable or canola oil. DO NOT use this spray around your birds, as it is bad for their respiratory systems. 

Precook

1. well-rinsed quinoa grain in 1½ cup water, or ¾ cup water mixed with ¾ cup fresh fruit juice, for 15 minutes. 
2. One medium yam or sweet potato. Peel, then mash. Should end up with approximately 1 cup. 

Wet Ingredients:
Mix the following wet ingredients well:

Cooled, precooked quinoa grain
1 cup mashed sweet potato or yam
3 medium carrots, well washed, peeled and grated
1½ medium sized zucchini, well washed, unpeeled and grated
1 large well washed sweet red pepper, finely chopped
½ cup pasteurized natural liquid honey
1 egg lightly beaten 

Dry Ingredients:
In a separate bowl mix the following dry ingredients:

1½ cup Brown rice flour
2 cups Oatmeal flakes
¾ cup Millet
1½ cup Cornmeal
¾ cup Hulled sesame seed
½ cup Whole flax seed measured then ground into a meal
(coffee grinder works well)
½ cup Whole hulled pumpkin seed measured then ground into a meal (coffee grinder works well)
4 tsp No-alum baking powder (from health food store)

Some slivered almonds, hemp seed, sulpher-free dried fruits or berries, frozen cranberries or other additions to make the loaf special for your bird.

Add well-mixed wet ingredients to the well-mixed dry ingredients and stir until all the dry ingredients are moist. 

Spoon batter equally into the prepared loaf pans, pat down and bake for 50 minutes. Watch carefully during the last 10 minutes as oven temperatures vary and changes in the recipe may cause the loaf to take less time to cook through. Loaf should be moist inside and golden brown on the outside when done. 

Chico’s Bread - Pellet Free

Developed by Anne Eilers with all kinds of help from Chico & Frankie 

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Prepare two loaf pans (8¾ x 4½ x 2¾ deep) by using spray-on fat-free vegetable or canola oil. DO NOT use this spray around your birds, as it bad for their respiratory systems. 

Precook

1. Well-rinsed quinoa grain in 1½ cup water, or, ¾ cup water mixed with ¾ cup fresh fruit juice, for 15 minutes. 
2. Precook 1 medium yam or sweet potato. Peel, then mash. Should end up with approximately 1 cup.

Wet Ingredients:
Mix the following wet ingredients well

Cooled, precooked quinoa grain
1 cup mashed sweet potato or yam
3 medium carrots, well washed, peeled and grated
1½ medium sized zucchini well washed, unpeeled and grated
1 large well washed sweet red pepper, finely chopped cup pasteurized natural liquid honey
1 egg lightly beaten

Dry Ingredients
In a separate bowl, Mix the following dry ingredients

1 cup Kamut flour
2 cups Nine grain cereal, triticale flakes or oatmeal flakes
¾ cup Millet
1½ cup Cornmeal
¾ cup Hulled sesame seed
½ cup Whole flax seed, measured then ground into a meal
½ cup Whole hulled pumpkin seed, measured then ground into a meal
4 tsp No-alum baking powder (from health food store)

Some slivered almonds, hemp seed, sulfur-free dried fruits or berries, frozen cranberries or other additions to make the loaf special for your bird. 

Thoroughly mix dry ingredients. 

Add well-mixed wet ingredients to the well-mixed dry ingredients and stir until all the dry ingredients are moist. 

Spoon batter equally into the prepared loaf pans, pat down and bake for 50 minutes. Watch carefully during the last 10 minutes as oven temperatures vary and changes in the recipe may cause the loaf to take less time to cook through. Loaf should be moist inside and golden brown on the outside when done. 

Editor’s Note: Always use cold pressed organic oils in your cooking and please keep in mind that when oil is heated, depending on the type of oil, free radicals may be released and if ingested, are free to roam, damaging precious cells in the body. The following is a list of mono-unsaturated oils that are stable for use in baking at temperatures between 325 degrees and 375 degrees: sesame, pistachio, almond, hazelnut and olive oil.

Sources:

www.gallbladderattack.com
www.annecollins.com 

Soup or Salad Anyone? 

This "Salad in a Soup" Gazpacho recipe, passed on to me by my friend Danni Sivera, originally called for 1 medium white onion to be pureed with the tomatoes, using a small amount of the tomato juice. Because the birds, Pele especially, love tomatoes in chunks, I have eliminated the pureeing. If you wish to add the onions and any salt, please do so after serving your birds. 

Spicy Gazpacho

author unknown 

3 medium tomatoes, peeled and diced
2½ cups tomato juice
1 medium green pepper, seeded and diced
1 medium sweet red, orange or yellow pepper, seeded and diced
½  poblano chile pepper, seeded, deveined and diced ***
2 Tbs balsamic vinegar
¼ cup first cold pressed olive oil
1½ tsp minced fresh garlic
½ tsp coarsely ground black pepper
¼ tsp cayenne pepper

Using a stainless steel wire whisk, mix balsamic vinegar, oil and garlic. Add in the diced vegetables and mix well. Add the tomato juice and mix well making sure everything is well blended. Mix or whip in the black and cayenne peppers.

Can be chilled or served at room temperature. For the birds, garnish with fresh, chopped cilantro, 1 dried red pepper and serve. When serving yourself, garnish with fresh chopped cilantro and a spoonful of sour cream.

***Poblano Chile — capsicum annuum is a large pepper and has a heat index of 2. As with any hot pepper care should be taken when handling. Wear latex gloves to de-seed, vein and chop.

Miscellaneous RecipesGelatin Toy Blocks (comparable to acrylic) author unknown 

9 Tbsp water
3 packets Knox Unflavored Gelatin
5-8 drops of food coloring

Bring water and food coloring to a boil and add in the 3 packages of Knox stir until dissolved. 

Place mixture in a shallow pan or bowl and let sit for 45 minutes (use container according to size of bird — make thicker pieces for bigger birds and thinner pieces for smaller birds). 

Peel out of bowl. Cut into shapes with cookie cutters or anything else you have to use. One thing to keep in mind is that the pieces will shrink by half when air drying. Make a hole in the center so that you can string the pieces together with leather or rope. 

Place on cookie or pie cooler for 2 to 3 days to dry. 

When dry they will be harder than acrylic and edible, although a Moluccan has not been able to eat through one yet. Don’t make the pieces too thick because they dry from outside in which might cause mold to grow inside. If you go over a ¼” thickness, you might want to prick them all over with a fork or toothpick so the inside will dry at the same time.