Cool No-Bake Cookie Treat

The summer is no time to be in the hot kitchen cooking cookies, so when I found a great no-bake cookie recipe in my new cookbook A Healthy Gluten Free Life I was intrigued. It is not only no-bake, but it is also has no-gluten, no-grain, no-egg, no-milk or dairy, but full on taste and even my sweet refusing hubby nibbles on these. Since the mixture which holds all the yummy healthy bits together is very simple I went creative with the bits and made up a super antioxidant no-bake cookies.

So what is in this yummy cool treat? Glad you asked...

The stick it all together part:

(Place these into a bowl and microwave or heat on your stove until the coconut oil and almond butter mix well together. It is about 30 sec.  in the microwave)

1/2 cup of Almond butter (I like to use Justin's Maple Almond butter because it has such a good taste. use whatever is your favorite nut butter.)

1 t. vanilla

1/3 cup coconut oil

3 T honey

The healthy tasty bits:

(Place these into a bowl and mix well. Then add the above wet mixture and mix again. Once it is well mixed spread onto a flat sheet and freeze in the freezer for  few hours or over night. Remove them from the freezer once they have completely hardened and cut into squares. You can also drop round drops of the mixture onto the sheet and freeze them that way.)

1/2 c coconut flakes

1/2 c chopped nuts (tamari almonds)

1/2 c chopped GF pretzels

1/4 c of your favorite dark chocolate chopped up into bits

1/4 c dried blueberries

1/4 c dried apricots chopped into bits
1/8 c of spicy pumpkin seeds
1/8 c sunflower seeds

You can keep them in a ziplock in the freezer until you need them.  

Serve them cold on a hot day.

Enjoy!

Nothin' But Fruit

Honestly these are nothing but fruit frozen and boy were they refreshing a sweet. The idea for these comes from nourishing meals.com Ali used blended watermelon in hers and recommended using a honey dew melon if you have one. I did, so that is what I used. 

To make them simply slice fruit and stick it into the popsicle molds. I sliced up 1 and a 1/2 kiwis, 2 strawberries, and add a handful of blueberries. That seems to fill much of the space in the molds nicely. Then I cut up my honeydew melon which was very sweet and blended it until it was liquidy. Then I  just poured that in and around all the sliced fruit in the mold. Freeze the mold for a few hours and presto, a cool summer treat you can offer to your family and feel great about it!

Yum! Can I have another one? 

YES!

Green 'sickles

Now that warm weather is upon us we are delving into more cool sweet treats for afternoon snacks and after dinner desserts. These green 'sickles are so far our favorite indulgence. Though sweet and delicious they are also chalk full of nutrition as well. The green color comes from several large handfuls of kale, spinach and collard leaves.

I used this idea of a green smoothie recipe from Ali and Tom's website Nourishing Meals.com Really any smoothie you love will make great popsicles and give your kids a great nourishing snack during the hot summer months. Here's the recipe I used:

In a blender add the following:
1 honey crisp apple (I used a gala apple)
1 1/2 barlett pear
1/2 of a lemon only its juice
1/2 inch chunk of fresh ginger ginger. (leave the skin on but it is up to you)
1-3 T of maple syrup (I added this because when the smoothie freezes the flavors diminish some so adding a little natural sweetener can keep the sweet and it gives the pop a better consistency)
1 1/2 cups no sugar added apple juice ( you may not need this if you are using a vita mix...I used a ordinary blender)

Blend all of this until well incorporated and then add:
1 1/2-2 collard leaves (with or without the thick vein)
1 1/2 -2 Kale leaves
1 -1 1/2 fist fulls of spinach.

Add more no sugar added apple juice if needed and blend away. Once the mixture is well blended pour into a mold. Set in your freezer and later you will have a nice frozen treat.

Yummy!

The Wonderful, Reusable Power of Oranges

I have discovered a wonderful all purpose natural cleaner using oranges and vinegar. I make it in minutes and it costs less than .04 cents per container. The best thing about this find is that we eat the good parts and what was going into the garbage (the peels) is now being put to use to clean mirrors, stoves, bathroom ceramics, etc. I have two items now in my arsenal against grime and bacteria, baking soda with essential oil, and orange vinegar diluted with water.

I learned about this from the Grocery Shrink. She says this...

"Orange oil is famous for it's cleaning properties. It smells great too! Harness the power of orange by soaking your peelings in vinegar. It will absorb the oils and pigment boosting the cleaning power of the vinegar.



The most economical way to make this is when you are already buying oranges to eat because they are such a great price. This usually happens in winter. I try to make enough during this season, to last me until next year.


To make: Stuff the peelings of 4-6 oranges into a glass quart canning jar. Cover with vinegar and seal with a lid. Shake every once in a while for 1-2 weeks. Strain out peelings. When finished the orange vinegar should be a dark orange color.


It is okay to start the jar with your first orange and add peelings to the vinegar as you eat them. Just be sure to leave room in the jar for the peelings when you pour the vinegar.


Use this in any of the recipes below in the place of white vinegar.


Note: When making infused vinegar, any citrus fruit will work. I've used lemons, limes, grapefruit, and tangerines with success."

What I love about this Orange Cleaner...

• It is inexpensive
• I can use it on everything even on things I used to scrub if I spray on the orange vinegar cleaner and go away for a while it works while I am working and my job is as simple as rinsing it off.
• We use it to sanitize our hands when on the go. I keep a small bottle in my car and in my bag and we are prepared for amything without the stinky smell.
• It smells lovely
• I don't get head aches from inhaling it as I clean because it is natural.
• It feels great to make use of garbage for such a wonderful purpose.
• It doesn't take lots of time or know how to make it. We bring out a clean jar when we eat oranges for a meal and everyone helps to stuff them in.

Happy healthy cleaning!

Mid-Afternoon Snack Attack!

Some time between two and four in the afternoon I get a craving for something sweet. It wouldn't be a big deal except that after the birth of the twins I have been adapting to pre-diabities symptoms and thus have taken refined sugar out of my diet. The cravings, however, are strong. They demand attention and usually I give in and then feel bad about it. But not anymore! I have found a little nugget of delicious and healthy proportions that satisfies that craving and still keeps me in the right zone regarding my insulin. I wanted to share this yummy little treat with you. They are called whatever you like to call them...we call them extra energy orbs.

I found the recipe to make them here and have been making them ever since. (The recipe is on page 14 of the PDF document) They are wonderful! If I am making them just prior to my monthly flow I add about 1/3 cup of flax flour and they really help alleviate my PMS symptoms. They contian 1/4 cup of cocoa which I have been reading lately is very good for you. The cocoa is a wonderfully beneficial when consumed without white processed sugar. I also indulge on cold days with this recipe for hot chocolate using date syrup instead of sugar.

In a sauce pan add:
2 cups of whole milk
1/4 tsp of salt
3T unsweetened cocoa powder
1/4 cup of date syrup or however much you like.

Try adding vanilla, mint or cinnamon flavorings for fun!

Heat until the cocoa is fully incorporated and pour steaming into your favorite mug.

Ode to the Garlic

 "The role of Garlic as an antiviral and anti-bacterial agent is unsurpassed. There are no…repeat, NO…modern antibiotic drugs in the entire arsenal of medical science that even come close to doing what Garlic can do." -John Heinerman (Heinerman’s Encyclopedia of Healing Herbs & Spices)

I am not at all anti-medicine, and we often check with doctors for help in many medical cases, however that said, I am a great fan of what garlic can do and prefer to use it instead of antibiotics or other manufactured drugs. I started to look into using garlic a few years ago when my kids, my husband and myself were getting sick quite alot. We had taken anitbiotics upon the advice of good doctors but we just did not like taking them so much. So when I read that garlic could be used instead I was ready to try it. We have never gone back. The sucess is 100% every time and no side effects, and our body remains strong and sickness free. Note these great uses:

Garlic has been found to be effective in treating a myriad of conditions in the circulatory, urinary, respiratory and digestive tracts by a remarkably simple mechanism. Its vast arsenal of sulfur-containing volatile oils are readily absorbed and transported throughout the body (except through the brain blood barrier).

Unlike proteinaceous and polysaccharide drugs, garlic’s oils can be effective against infections nearly anywhere in the body, which accounts for garlic’s versatility. Thus, garlic is effective against conditions in the circulatory system by lowering blood sugar, blood lipids, free cholesterol, low density lipoproteins and blood pressure while at the same time raising high density lipoproteins.

In the circulatory system, it eases bronchial secretions making it useful in the treatment of asthma.


In the urinary system, volatile oils stimulate (by irritation) the cleanse by purge mechanism of the kidneys, which results in a greater flow of urine.


In the digestive system, garlic stimulates the production of bile and thus aids digestion.


Recent research shows garlic to be an effective immune stimulant. When combined with anaerobic exercise, garlic has shown to increase the quantity, longevity and killing power of natural killer cells ten fold.


On top of all these properties, garlic produces a wide spectrum antimicrobial effect on gram positive and gram negative bacteria, fungus and certain worms.


Contains aromatic compounds that lower blood pressure, heart rate and blood cholesterol while increasing coronary circulation. These compounds also fight infections, reduce muscle spasms, increase immune response, promote sweating, increase the production of digestive fluids and decrease the thickness while increasing the production of mucosal fluid. Garlic has been used to treat colds, coughs, asthma, coronary heart disease, hypertension, atherosclerosis, infections, inflammatory skin conditions, and hemorrhoids.- Nutritional Herbology

The real deciding factor whether you end up taking garlic for cures or not really isn't whether it is effective or not, it is how to take it and not hate doing it. And maybe more importantly how not to drive away everyone around you with your body odor. We have found some practical ways to get around this. One thing we noted right off was that after three days of 10 cloves a day (the general rule of thumb for us adults when we have any cold or virus is 10 cloves a day for 5 days; the boys take three cloves a day) there wasn't even bad breath. We suspect the toxins were flushed out by this time.
My husband takes it like a true stoic, he eats the biggest cloves he can find like an apple with his meals three times a day. He has convinved my three sons that this is very cool and they can all do this, though the boys are not as tough yet as dad they sure feel like men when they can match him. They may get down one or two but soon they need another venue.
I chop up the clove into swallowable pieces and take them like pills. For the boys I mince the garlic and add it to peanut butter or honey. They will beg to take this. We also have found that to saute the garlic is quite pleasent though the fresh crushed cloves have more potency. Can you find the garlic slices in our potatoes?

To learn more about garlic and it's benefits and uses I recomend this article. Or simply google garlic and you will find a wealth of information.

Stock Full of Goodness

Chicken Noodle Soup

About three years ago I got my hands on Nourishing Traditions, a cookbook full of wonderful ideas. The gist of the book is based upon the research of A dentist, Dr. Weston Price, who lived in the 1900's. He suspected that the increase of processed foods in the diet of people then was contributing to more caries and tooth decay.So he took his life savings and did some traveling around the world to see what isolated traditional sociteies who did not process their foods were eating. He discovered that not only were the people healthier in significant ways, they often had similar ways of preparing foods even though in very different parts of the world and isolated from most everyone else. The findings are interesting. Here is an excerpt from the Weston Price Foundation website.

Characteristics of the Tradition Diets

1.The diets of healthy, nonindustrialized peoples contain no refined or denatured foods or ingredients, such as refined sugar or high fructose corn syrup; white flour; canned foods; pasteurized, homogenized, skim or lowfat milk; refined or hydrogenated vegetable oils; protein powders; artificial vitamins; or toxic additives and colorings.


2.All traditional cultures consume some sort of animal food, such as fish and shellfish; land and water fowl; land and sea mammals; eggs; milk and milk products; reptiles; and insects. The whole animal is consumed­--muscle meat, organs, bones and fat, with the organ meats and fats preferred.


3.The diets of healthy, nonindustrialized peoples contain at least four times the minerals and water-soluble vitamins, and TEN times the fat-soluble vitamins found in animal fats (vitamin A, vitamin D and vitamin K2--Price's "Activator X") as the average American diet.


4.All traditional cultures cooked some of their food but all consumed a portion of their animal foods raw.


5.Primitive and traditional diets have a high content of food enzymes and beneficial bacteria from lacto-fermented vegetables, fruits, beverages, dairy products, meats and condiments.


6.Seeds, grains and nuts are soaked, sprouted, fermented or naturally leavened to neutralize naturally occurring anti-nutrients such as enzyme inhibitors, tannins and phytic acid.


7.Total fat content of traditional diets varies from 30 percent to 80 percent of calories but only about 4 percent of calories come from polyunsaturated oils naturally occurring in grains, legumes, nuts, fish, animal fats and vegetables. The balance of fat calories is in the form of saturated and monounsaturated fatty acids.


8.Traditional diets contain nearly equal amounts of omega-6 and omega-3 essential fatty acids.


9.All traditional diets contain some salt.


10.All traditional cultures make use of animal bones, usually in the form of gelatin-rich bone broths.


11.Traditional cultures make provisions for the health of future generations by providing special nutrient-rich animal foods for parents-to-be, pregnant women and growing children; by proper spacing of children; and by teaching the principles of right diet to the young.
 
Sally Falon the Author of Nourishing traditions took Dr. Prices findings of a traditional diet and created 675 pages of information and recipes on cooking traditionally. More than being healthy these recipes are delicious. Our first and most favorite recipe is for stock/broth...mostly chicken stock but I have tried fish and beef as well. This little secrect is the difference between ok soup and wow that is fantastic soup.
I heard about this book when reading a book review on it at the Bulk Herbs website (see sidebar for link) Shoshanna, the author of Bulk Herbs, says this about broth in her article, Healthy Broth 
 
"Old fashioned broth is packed with important minerals that have disappeared from the American diet. They have been replaced with the discovery of monosodium glutamate (MSG). What is MSG? It is a neurotoxic substance that causes a wide range of reactions from temporary headaches to permanent brain damage. You might think you do not use MSG, but it is in bouillon cubes, canned broths and soups, dehydrated soup mixes, sauce mixes, TV dinners, most restaurant food, condiments, and more. Fast food restaurants could not exist without MSG. Enough about MSG; this article is about broth.

Okay! So, what is broth? “It is a flavorful liquid resulting from slow cooking bones, hooves, knuckles, bird feet, eggshells, meat, poultry, fish, or vegetables in water. This process pulls nutrients from cartilage and tendons, like sulphates and glucosamine, which is used as a supplement for arthritis and joint pain.” It all might sound a little disgusting, but, believe it or not, it is delicious. The benefits for the body are amazing, as well. It is an herb in itself, healing and strengthening the body’s digestion. It contains minerals in a form the body can absorb easily, like calcium, magnesium, phosphorus, silicon, sulphur, gelatin, and trace minerals.
Broth has been used to treat arthritis and joint pain, peptic ulcers, tuberculosis, diabetes, muscle diseases, infectious diseases, jaundice, cancer, help cure colds, and even put in babies' milk to aid digestion. Broth is also used as a thyroid strengthening substance. Not only is broth great for health purposes, but it is a MUST in cooking. I use broth for cooking vegetables, noodles, rice, sauces, soups, gravy, stews and more."

Below is the recipe I use from Nourishing traditions.

Chicken Stock

1 Whole free-range chicken or 2 to 3 lbs of chicken parts, such as necks, backs, breastbones and wings
2-4 Chicken feet, (optional)
4 Free-range or organically grown egg shells
4 Quarts cold filtered water
2 tbsp vinegar
2 Carrots peeled and chopped, if organic do not peel
3 Celery stalks chopped
4 Whole garlic cloves
1 Onion chopped
1 tsp pepper corns
1 Bunch parsley

Bring to a boil, reduce heat, cover, and simmer for at least 6 hours or as long as 48 hours.

"Good broth resurrects the dead." A South American Proverb

Johnny Appleseed Butter

In our neck of the woods local apples are in season again. They are a crisp tart variey that when cooked up into anything they are delicious! I have not made apple butter in years, but this season I was most interested to encourage a little boy who when learning that Johnny Appleseed made apples into apple butter so they could have apples in the winter wanted to do just that! It is a simple way to say I love you! So we bought apples and apple cider with no sugar added and this morning went to work cutting up the delcious apples.

After cutting up the apples we added other ingredients from this recipe found at Always Order Desert.

Cinnamon Apple Butter (No Sugar Added)

This recipe is made without any added sugars to highlight the natural sweetness of the apples and juice. You can use any apples you'd like, but try to pick a sweeter variety such as Macintosh or Jonathan; Granny Smith apples don't work quite as well in this recipe due to their acidity. You can also play around with the juice for slightly different flavors. Try using grape, pomegranate, or pear juice (avoid citrus juices).
Ingredients
8 Macintosh Apples, cored & sliced but not peeled
3 cups apple cider or apple juice (preferably no sugar added)
1 teaspoon lemon juice
1 tablespoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg

To make:
In the base of your slow mixer, add the apples followed by the spices, lemon juice, and apple juice. The cider should just cover the apples, but they shouldn't be swimming in it. If you need a little more, add it. Set the slow cooker to "low" for 12-15 hours. (I find it's best to get it going at night just before you go to bed; when you wake up it'll be just about done.)
Once the apples have softened, darkened, and much of the liquid has reduced, use a standard or immersion blender (or a food mill) to process until smooth.
If the apple butter is still a bit wet after the end of cooking time (due to the size of apples or the range of your slow cooker) transfer the apple butter to a large pot and cook over medium heat for 10-15 minutes until the liquid has reduced and the apple butter has thickened (take care because the mixture will splatter).
Let the apple butter cool completely before pouring into a glass jar or air-tight container. This will keep in the refrigerator for 3-4 weeks.

Todays adventure in cooking inspired by Johnny Apppleseed First Biographies