Birdie Bread: Beta-Carotene Variation

Birdie bread is something you can make for any feathered critter in your life, the wild birds, your pet birds or your poultry. 
Not that your poultry can't also be your pets, but I digress.

There are lots of birdie bread recipes that are actually unhealthy and not very nutrient dense, using mostly wheat flour and corn meal or even, horrors of all horrors, Jiffy mix. 

 No creature, human or otherwise, should be eating Jiffy. 
That stuff is seriously bad for you! If you are thinking I'm a crazy lady right now, go read the ingredients. How many of them are actually something you identify as "food"? 
Alright, back to healthy birdie bread!
This version is rich in protein, beta-carotene and good fats. It’s perfect for a before bed snack for your chickens on a cold night or as a nice snack for your parrots.

This is just part of a whole diet, it shouldn’t be fed as any birds sole food source. Serving size for house birds (finches, parrots, and I’m including non-breeding pigeons and such) should be about a square inch cube or smaller. For Poultry or breeding/racing pigeons a half cup serving is probably good.

Ingredients:

1/3 cup flax, such as this

1 egg

1 cup cooked sweet potato

½ large carrot or one small carrot

1 ½ cup cooked lentils, if you need cooking instructions read this

 *all the spices should be salt and preferably preservative free*
1tsp cayenne powder, this is the brand I use and love

1 tsp turmeric

1 tsp cumin

1 tsp chili powder

1Tbs red pepper flakes

1/2 cup chopped greens, I use these flash frozen ones

1 cup buckwheat flour

½ cup oats

½ cup pecans

½ cup raw cashews

¼ cup pumpkin seeds

Method:

 Early in the morning or night before, mix the flax seeds with enough water to just cover them. They will make a nice gel reminiscent of egg that is going to help hold your bread together. 

If you don't want to use an egg just add another 1/4 cup of flax to the recipe. Allowing the flax to soak also helps break down phytates that can bind minerals preventing the body from absorbing them. Initiating the sprouting processes in general makes nutrients more bio- available meaning easier for the body to use.

Next, grind your nuts and seeds, I use a food processor, or rough chop them with a knife and cutting bored. Add that to your mixing bowl. If you want to use soaked or sprouted nuts, all the better! I use them whenever I can, they are delicious and good for you or the birds.
 There is no need to wash up between steps, just dump and grind! 

Now, add your soaked flax to the food processor and wizz until it looks like this.

You can skip this step but I like to break up the flax so my cockatiels can't pick it out of the bread as easily. Now, Add your spices, egg, veggies and lentils to the flax goo and wizz some more until it looks kinda like this, I had already started adding flour when I took this picture so if its thinner than this don't panic!

Alternatively, you can grate the carrots and just whisk everything together. No harm in chunks!

If you haven't already, add that pretty batter to your mixing bowl and whisk in your flour and oats. 

...and it ain't so pretty any more -not that this terrible photo helps at all. No worries, the birds don't care how it looks.
Grease some pie or cake pans with coconut oil or olive oil and plop your batter in. It's going to be thick and terrifying, just man-handle that puppy flat-ish with the back of a spoon. 

Use the handle of a wooden spoon -or something else creative- to make dents all over so it will cook faster. Birdie bread is super dense, this helps it cook more evenly and dry the inside out a little more.

Baking:

I don't preheat the oven for this, I've found birdie bread cooks more evenly when it heats up along with the oven. Slide in your pan-
or pans if you are lucky enough to have an oven where you can fit more than one! 
 And turn your oven to 300°F
It is going to take FOREVER, that's normal. Remember how this is super dense? Well, I think that's why it takes so long to cook and you can't turn it up or the outside turns into hard tack and the inside will be like bread pudding. 
Yeah, I don't think our birds would be any more excited about that than you or I. 
Here's the finished bread. 

 I chunk it up into serving size cubes for my cockatiels and freeze. It thaws nicely and this size batch will last my two little birds a very long time. 

What do you cook for the critters in your life? 
This post is participating in the Homestead Barn hop, Frugal Days Sustainable Ways and HomeAcre blog hops check them out to find other great blogs like ours!