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!

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!

Focaccia Bread

For the last four months I have been eating away a gall stone. Well, not exactly eating it away but by changing my diet and supplementing a few choice herbs I should be gall stone free in about 1 year. So in a way I am eating it away. I can not eat any dairy products, or animal fat. I am not allowed eggs or other foods which are high in cholesterol. So that would include shrimp even though it does not really bother me with symptoms. I have trouble with blood sugar balance before the gall stone I already avoided processed sugar and stayed mainly with natural sugars like raw honey, date syrup, and agave nectar. So my diet has dwindled down to grains, fruits, vegetables, legumes, fish and some other sea foods, and that is about it. I can have coconut milk, coconut oil and olive too.

So with those ingredients I have been finding I have fewer choices sure, but the lack of choices pushes me to discover new foods and ways of cooking I have not yet tried. After all, the saying, "Necessity is the mother of invention" implies limitations and deprivation in one way or another. I happen to love invention so I am not suffering on this new adjustment but I am working a little harder to get myself fed while I continue to feed the men in my house all the yummy things I can not yet eat. One thing I dearly love and have missed is pizza. My mom taught me how to make pizza, gave me a great recipe for sauce and I love to make it myself at home...my men love it too. But if you were reading above you will already know cheese is off my list, and so are meats which are integral to a fantastic pizza. necessity...my longing for pizza drove me to discover how to make focaccia bread, writing about it today forced me to learn how to spell it. :)

I brought out my copy of Martha Stewarts Baking handbook and tried her recipe. It was fabulous. I am now NOT missing pizza for this focaccia bread with a few sautéed veggies on top had filled the niche. Here is how it is made in case you want to try it too.

You start with mixing the flour (about 7 cups) and the water (3 1/2 cups), and only 1 t of yeast. No salt yet. This little concoction will need to set in a warm place until it has tripled in size and it will become a bit sticky. It should look like this:



Once it has tripled and become sticky you add the 2T of salt. I know that sounds like a lot but it wasn't overpowering in the end result. If you use sea salt you can do your body a big favor too and get all the minerals and goodies the white salt has taken out of it. This mixing should take place in an upright mixer, but I don't have one so I simply worked on making more muscles in my arm and whipped it around with a sturdy wooden spoon until all the salt was well mixed in. It is quite wet at this point and you want to add more flour but resist the urge and just keep your hands floured as you gently work the dough pulling up first one third and then another third folding the thirds into the middle. Then return the dough to the bowl and let rise until doubled. after it has doubled do the folding one more time, let double again and then you can proceed.

While you are waiting on the dough to rise (one doubling usually takes 1 hour) you can sauté a few choice veggies to put on the top. I chose to sautéed a yellow onion, a small eggplant, 2 small tomatoes, and 7 cloves of garlic. Sauté the veggies you have sliced or diced in olive oil and salt them and season them. I added a pizza spice mix I buy at Winco. Cook the veggies until they are soft and slightly brown. Then set aside until the dough is done rising.


By this time the dough should be taking on a fun bubbly kind of light texture. Then in a baking sheet or pan with sides add 1/2 cup of olive oil. Place your dough into the pan and press it to the edges. The dough should be not sticky at this pint but it will feel soft and spongy. Once the dough is pressed tot he side it will look something like this:


Add the sautéed veggies to the top and another 1/4 of olive drizzled over the veggies. Sprinkle with sea salt and bake at 450 degrees for about 20 minutes to half and hour. Here is mine already for the oven.

The varity of focaccias that you can concot is endless just as it is with the pizza. Why not try a dried fruit focaccia with cinnamon and rapadura sugar on top. For the men in my house I am going to try to make a real pizza with the foccaia crust next time around. I am sorry I have no picture of the finished product it was eaten up so fast I never thought to take out my camera to get a good shot of it. Try it your self and see what a wonderful alternative it can be to the cheese and meat pizza.

Just a little stone

A few posts ago I miss wrote that I was entering menopause....however the nausea and the indigestion which has been making me uncomfortable is actually a 1.3 cm gall stone. At some angles in the ultrasound pictures it measures 1.9 cm because it is sort of peanut shaped. I was fortunate to be able to figure this out as I learned later because many people can go on and on for months or years never learning why some food just doesn't seem to settle well. Funny how finding out you have something is a real relief, it answers many questions and points you in the right direction.
Some how my gall bladder developed a stone which has been inhibiting the bile flow which in turn inhibits my ability to eat much of anything. I am curious what went wrong...why and how my cholesterol is more than the bile salts. I want to learn about how that system works so I can put the balance back. Has my love affair with butter out weighed my love for exercise? Has my love for creating things at my computer kept me from creating the things my body needs (exercise) to remain balanced and in tune. Though I have been eating a diet based upon whole foods and traditional wisdom from tradition peoples around the world did I miss their traditional lifestyle as well. One that was less sedentary, a life centered more on work and activity than rest and relaxation.

I know many who have had gall stones simply make an appointment with a surgeon and have the entire gall bladder removed. It is a simple, often only a day or two set back from a busy schedule and there seems to be no dietary restriction or side effects to you bile reservoir missing. I am not sure why I mistrust this information but I am not yet ready to cut. I must be an opportunist and often I am optimistic that there are natural ways to reverse what has become out of balance.
I have been enjoying the time I have had to learn more about this little organ, the gall bladder and what it actually does in our bodies. Why did God put it in there? Though it is not all that important and its function seems so insignificant to the body as a whole the liver is probably very pleased to have someone there to pick up the slack. Someone to store up all it has made and lighten its load. The liver unlike the gall bladder is crucial to many other organs such as the spleen. So the gall bladder is playing second fiddle but it has an important job, it supports the liver, it takes the pressure off of its functioning and provides extra bile when it is needed for digestion. It reminds me that second fiddle may not be glamorous and often others may even see you are so ineffective they want to remove you altogether, but God has a purpose for all of us playing second fiddle. He wants us to pick up slack, make someone else’s job a bit lighter, he wants us to store up goodness and kindness and other good things and release them at the proper time so His truth can be digested by those who are hearing it. No part of the body is expendable.

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!

down down to the ground

It was a beautiful fall day great for jumping so we took the boys out to the filed below Tiger Mountain to watch the paragliders glide down to earth.

The jumpers start off on this trail and hike up about 1 1/8 of a mile before reaching the jump spot. They carry their paraglider and gear on their backs. It weighs a mere 35lbs. We watched the gliders for a while as they sailed down and then took the hike ourselves. It is a steep climb but such a beautiful trail. I was so excited I could walk it with minimal trouble with my back. Since the birth of my twins I have had many troubles trying to get back in shape because envitably once I started working out my back muscles would cramp up and I would be resting them for a week or two. UNTIL this summer...I discovered magnesium phospahte. It is a gentle way to ease cramps and keep them at bay. I am now free after several years of cramps and I am running up mountains and getting nearer to the shape I was before the twins.

Cool caterpiller on the trail.

Up close with a slug.

Max

Once on top the wind wasn't so great for jumping so many of the paragliders were simply sun bathing waiting for new winds. We waited with them a while and learned that the boys could take a tandem ride with a paraglide instructor for around $100. A bit pricey for a thrill, however the boys now have something to save for. They would have jumped this day had we let them. perhaps in a year or two.

On the way down we saw Mt. Rainer. Might be the last good view for us this summer.