Jenphilly
Rollerblading along the road
Avenue Veteran
Celebirdy of the Month
Mayor of the Avenue
Avenue Spotlight Award
I woke up this morning with the mindset to perfect the mix but going in the avicake direction. Here are my notes for the two rounds I did today. I am copying these from my posts to A Helping Wing facebook page, so apologize that it will be long and drawn out, but will include both recipes here. The first is more like the original, but without so much honey. The second are specific to a pellet filled sweet potato 'sneaky' food for my problem eater. Both attempts were very well received by birds - video included as proof 
Jen's kitchen experiment... Round 2, Was at the shelter yesterday with Jeanne and delivered some of the Round 1 avicakes/nutriberries and so far every bird that tried them as eaten them. But, I was not happy with the amount of honey, so went for Round 2 (and Round 3 in the oven now).
For this round, I reduced the honey to less then 1 tablespoon, and added in 2 whole eggs including shell and about 1/3 cup cashew butter (organic, unsweetened, much like almond ...butter) and then went with 3 bananas. Also added in raw unsalted sunflower kernels and about 1/3 cup star anise. These came out smelling soooooooooooooo good and Max and Merlin both were quick to grab a piece and both verbally expressed their appreciation (tho Max refused to say so on camera). So, recipe for this Round is below and you can modify as you need if you want it more dry / crumble. Mine turned out like a soft granola bar, these I would recommend keeping in the refrigerator, and much like avicakes / nutriberries, they will freeze and unfreeze well.
1 cup whole oats
1/3 cup flax seed
1/3 cup quinoa uncooked
1/3 cup steel cut oats
1/2 cup organic / unsweetened coconut
1/3 cup sunflower seed kernels
2 fresh cinnamon sticks put thru nutribullet
1/3 cup fresh star anise put thru nutribullet
about 2 cups leftover bird food (mix included Zupreem and Higgins mix with pellets, as well as seed, nut and fruit mix such as Goldenfeast or Bird Paradise Madagascar and Pacific Coast)
All below put thru nutribullet together to make the wet binder -
3 fresh bananas
2 large eggs including shell
1/3 cup organic/unsweetened cashew butter
1 tablespoons honey
These were also cooked on parchment paper at 350 for maybe 20 minutes. This made 1 oversized cookie sheet and 1 small cookie of squares. These seem to be a major hit with the birds. And with much less sugar, they will be much safer to use as a supplement for your birds that might be very picky pain in the behind eaters.
Dropbox - 2015-08-25 20.52.15.mp4
Video of Max and Merlin... excuse the mess on the floor with Max, that is his kill zone behind the sofa where he tears up egg cartons and such, so floor is always a mess!
Dropbox - 2015-08-25 20.55.13.mp4
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Sweet potato avicakes attempt - Jen's kitchen experiment - Round 3! Was a birdie baking kinda day!
The last round of avicake type baking was tweaked with my problem eater, a bare eye too girl. She is so anti pellet and super picky about everything else. If we let her, she would survive on cucumbers, baked sweet potatoes, zucchini, rice and nuts. Other then that, its mostly a fight... well safflower seeds are a favorite too, but not much else. So we're always finding ways to 'hide' the healthy stuff i...n food for her. I puree veggies and use to make birdie bread and pellets are ground up and dusted on everything else she willingly eats. So coming up with an avicake type food that is an easy feed that is healthy is a huge perk for me.
So this one is loaded with sweet potato, and it is a much softer, almost a moist type avicake block. It holds together, but definitely more cake like then the other ones. I am keeping these in the fridge.
Recipe is not quite as exact as the others because I added as I went trying to get a 'drier' mix, but here is the basics and you can do the same, just add more dry ingredients if you feel you want a drier or something that might have more crunch when baked.
1/2 cup Scottish oatmeal
1/3 cup flax seed
1/3 cup quinoa uncooked
1/3 cup steel cut oats
1/3 cup organic / unsweetened coconut
1/3 cup sunflower seed kernels
1/3 cup chopped raw / unsalted cashews
2 fresh cinnamon sticks put thru nutribullet
1/3 cup fresh star anise put thru nutribullet
1 teaspoon ground ginger
about 1/2 cup safflower gold type mix (used Higgins)
maybe 3/4 cup leftover bird food (mix included Zupreem and Higgins mix with pellets, as well as seed, nut and fruit mix such as Goldenfeast or Bird Paradise Madagascar and Pacific Coast) - I put this thru the nutribullet to get it down to a flour like consistency
2 large eggs including shell (put thru the nutribullet)
2 large tablespoons of organic/unsweetened almond butter
5 smaller sweet potatoes (these were maybe baseball size) - I cut off ends, wrap these in clingwrap and microwave for about 4 minutes, you lose no nutrition. Let cool off and the skin literally slips off.
Wanting to feed this regularly, I did not add any honey at all.
Mixed this all up by hand and added in a little of the dry ingredients to get to a thicker mixture, but this is very very wet due to the sweet potatoes. Baked at 350 for about 30 minutes. I did not bake this on parchment, it was so wet, figured it would be a more moist cake finish. I pulled it out when it was no longer tacky or wet to the touch and a corner pulled out had a slightly brown color on bottom.
This is the sheet before going into the oven, if you turn up the volume, you can hear how 'wet' the mix is as I tap / touch it.
Dropbox - 2015-08-25 21.02.31.mp4
Max, Ivory and Merlin taste test and approvals
Dropbox - 2015-08-26 00.18.22.mp4
Jen's kitchen experiment... Round 2, Was at the shelter yesterday with Jeanne and delivered some of the Round 1 avicakes/nutriberries and so far every bird that tried them as eaten them. But, I was not happy with the amount of honey, so went for Round 2 (and Round 3 in the oven now).
For this round, I reduced the honey to less then 1 tablespoon, and added in 2 whole eggs including shell and about 1/3 cup cashew butter (organic, unsweetened, much like almond ...butter) and then went with 3 bananas. Also added in raw unsalted sunflower kernels and about 1/3 cup star anise. These came out smelling soooooooooooooo good and Max and Merlin both were quick to grab a piece and both verbally expressed their appreciation (tho Max refused to say so on camera). So, recipe for this Round is below and you can modify as you need if you want it more dry / crumble. Mine turned out like a soft granola bar, these I would recommend keeping in the refrigerator, and much like avicakes / nutriberries, they will freeze and unfreeze well.
1 cup whole oats
1/3 cup flax seed
1/3 cup quinoa uncooked
1/3 cup steel cut oats
1/2 cup organic / unsweetened coconut
1/3 cup sunflower seed kernels
2 fresh cinnamon sticks put thru nutribullet
1/3 cup fresh star anise put thru nutribullet
about 2 cups leftover bird food (mix included Zupreem and Higgins mix with pellets, as well as seed, nut and fruit mix such as Goldenfeast or Bird Paradise Madagascar and Pacific Coast)
All below put thru nutribullet together to make the wet binder -
3 fresh bananas
2 large eggs including shell
1/3 cup organic/unsweetened cashew butter
1 tablespoons honey
These were also cooked on parchment paper at 350 for maybe 20 minutes. This made 1 oversized cookie sheet and 1 small cookie of squares. These seem to be a major hit with the birds. And with much less sugar, they will be much safer to use as a supplement for your birds that might be very picky pain in the behind eaters.
Dropbox - 2015-08-25 20.52.15.mp4
Video of Max and Merlin... excuse the mess on the floor with Max, that is his kill zone behind the sofa where he tears up egg cartons and such, so floor is always a mess!
Dropbox - 2015-08-25 20.55.13.mp4
============================
Sweet potato avicakes attempt - Jen's kitchen experiment - Round 3! Was a birdie baking kinda day!
The last round of avicake type baking was tweaked with my problem eater, a bare eye too girl. She is so anti pellet and super picky about everything else. If we let her, she would survive on cucumbers, baked sweet potatoes, zucchini, rice and nuts. Other then that, its mostly a fight... well safflower seeds are a favorite too, but not much else. So we're always finding ways to 'hide' the healthy stuff i...n food for her. I puree veggies and use to make birdie bread and pellets are ground up and dusted on everything else she willingly eats. So coming up with an avicake type food that is an easy feed that is healthy is a huge perk for me.
So this one is loaded with sweet potato, and it is a much softer, almost a moist type avicake block. It holds together, but definitely more cake like then the other ones. I am keeping these in the fridge.
Recipe is not quite as exact as the others because I added as I went trying to get a 'drier' mix, but here is the basics and you can do the same, just add more dry ingredients if you feel you want a drier or something that might have more crunch when baked.
1/2 cup Scottish oatmeal
1/3 cup flax seed
1/3 cup quinoa uncooked
1/3 cup steel cut oats
1/3 cup organic / unsweetened coconut
1/3 cup sunflower seed kernels
1/3 cup chopped raw / unsalted cashews
2 fresh cinnamon sticks put thru nutribullet
1/3 cup fresh star anise put thru nutribullet
1 teaspoon ground ginger
about 1/2 cup safflower gold type mix (used Higgins)
maybe 3/4 cup leftover bird food (mix included Zupreem and Higgins mix with pellets, as well as seed, nut and fruit mix such as Goldenfeast or Bird Paradise Madagascar and Pacific Coast) - I put this thru the nutribullet to get it down to a flour like consistency
2 large eggs including shell (put thru the nutribullet)
2 large tablespoons of organic/unsweetened almond butter
5 smaller sweet potatoes (these were maybe baseball size) - I cut off ends, wrap these in clingwrap and microwave for about 4 minutes, you lose no nutrition. Let cool off and the skin literally slips off.
Wanting to feed this regularly, I did not add any honey at all.
Mixed this all up by hand and added in a little of the dry ingredients to get to a thicker mixture, but this is very very wet due to the sweet potatoes. Baked at 350 for about 30 minutes. I did not bake this on parchment, it was so wet, figured it would be a more moist cake finish. I pulled it out when it was no longer tacky or wet to the touch and a corner pulled out had a slightly brown color on bottom.
This is the sheet before going into the oven, if you turn up the volume, you can hear how 'wet' the mix is as I tap / touch it.
Dropbox - 2015-08-25 21.02.31.mp4
Max, Ivory and Merlin taste test and approvals
Dropbox - 2015-08-26 00.18.22.mp4
