Articles Grains Overview Grain Recipes Grains For Breakfast Soups Vegetables Overview Vegetable Recipes Salads Beans Overview Bean Recipes Sea Vegetables Condiments Overview Condiment Recipes Pickles Overview Pickles Recipes Seasonings Oil Fish Fruit Nuts Seeds Snacks Sweets Dessert Suggestions Beverages Snacks It is best, especially while healing, to eat softer or sweeter-tasting snacks. They are more relaxing, pick up your energy, and keep you from craving strong sweets, excess beverages, and large volumes of food. Please use baked, hard or puffed snacks in moderation (one or two handfuls of popcom, two or three rice cakes can be eaten, once or twice a week), health permitting . Try not to let snacks interfere with your regular meals. CHESTNUT PURÉE Soak dried chestnuts. Pressure cook or boil the chestnuts with a pinch of sea salt or small piece of kombu. Then purrée in a hand food mill. CHICKPEA SPREAD Soak dried chickpeas and pressure cook them. Then purée in a hand food mill with a bit of fresh grated onion and a dash of umeboshi vinegar or shoyu/soy sauce. CORN Boil or steam in the husk and eat off the cob. Enjoy plain or with puréed umeboshi. KANTEN - CARROT: Cook agar agar and plain carrot juice together and jell in a mold - AZUKI: Cook agar agar and azuki beans (with squash, raisins, dried chestnuts, or wheat berries) together and gel in a mold - SQUASH: Cook squash jam or purée squash. Combine squash with agar agar and water, then jell in mold or dessert cup. LEFTOVERS Boil, lightly steam or serve leftover grains, vegetables, beans, etc., at room temperature. MILLET-SQUASH SQUARES Cook millet and sweet winter squash together, press into a cake pan and cool. Slice into squares and serve. MOCHI - Lightly steam or dry pan-roast, serve with a few tablespoons of fresh grated daikon and a drop of shoyu/soy sauce. - Dry pan-roast and serve with a few tablespoons of sweet vegetable jam (such as squash butter or onion butter). - Slice mochi and roll in a large leaf of Chinese cabbage. Steam for 3-4 minutes. NOODLES - With broth: Cook, rinse, and serve in a mild kombu-shiitake-shoyu/soy sauce broth. - Chilled: Cook, rinse, and chill on ice or in the refrigerator, and serve with a cool broth or dipping sauces. - Sushi: Cook, rinse, and roll with vegetables in nori. OHAGI Cook sweet rice and pound in a suribachi, roll into balls and stuff with sweet vegetable jam or chestnut purée, then roll in toasted seeds. POPCORN Heat a small handful of oil-free popcorn (no salt or butter) in a very hot, dry skillet, with a tight-fitting lid. Shake constantly over a high flame until nearly all kernels are popped. RICE BALLS - Nori: Stuff rice with umeboshi and roll in a sheet of toasted nori. - Chestnut: Fill rice or sweet rice balls with chestnut purée and roll in a toasted (and possibly crushed) sesame, sunflower, or pumpkin seeds. - Squash: Fill rice or sweet rice balls with, or roll them in, squash purée or squash butter. SALAD Enjoy a small dish of boiled salad with creamy tofu dressing. SOURDOUGH BREADS Steamed whole wheat or whole rye unyeasted bread, spread with sweet vegetable jam or chickpea spread. SUSHI - Roll blanched vegetables inside rice (or noodles) and toasted nori. Avoid using too much salty or sour seasoning. - Add tempeh, tofu, pickles, or umeboshi to the above. TOFU - CREAMY DRESSING: Lightly boil or steam tofu, purée in a hand food mill, and mash in a suribachi with puréed umeboshi, fresh grated onion, or scallion. - COLD TOFU: Lightly boil or steam tofu slices. Chill on ice or in the refridgerator, and serve marinated in vinegar or with a cool dipping sauce made from kombu, shiitake, ginger, and cooked shoyu/soy sauce.