TF Breakfast Cookies: When Life Hands You Unsoaked Grains, Soak Them!

I've started a little side-activity of selling baked goods at the local farmer's market.  It works out great for me because it fuels my creativity for coming up with new healthy foods, or healthier versions of standard foods.  I start with a recipe that sounds like a good idea in terms of taste and nutrition, and then see if I can make it healthier.  Of course, I don't mean, how to make it low-fat or low calorie.  By healthier, I mean nutrient-dense and along the lines of "non-irriitating to the human body."  Non-irritating to the human body would mean - low in refined sugar, free of refined vegetable oils, and grains that are properly prepared.  Improperly prepared grains can lead to interference with your mineral absorption and gastrointestinal distress.  Essentially, the "healthiest" foods are those that would be included in a Traditional Foods (TF) Diet.  A traditional foods diet takes just a little more "ahead of time" prep work in the kitchen, but it pays off for your body in terms of how accessible nutrients are for your body.  You're not just what you eat, but what you absorb!  

Sweetened with Bananas and Traditional Foods-Friendly!
(13 large cookies if you double the recipe.)

No Time to Cook Breakfast?  Grab a Breakfast Cookie.  (These Babies are Gluten-Free.)

I've been looking for a crunchy way to enjoy oats for a while.  Granola and conventional oatmeal cookies are not the best for your digestion as the mostly raw grains have not been soaked first.  Soaking grains in something acidic helps to reduce enzyme inhibitors and phytic acid.  A quick internet search for pH of bananas puts them at about a 5 (acidic).  This recipe has no refined sugars, only sweetened with bananas and the added raisins and cranberries.  These cookies are crunchy on the outside but soft and oat-cake-like in the middle.  

Recipe: TF GF Breakfast Cookies

(adapted from recipe at Find Your Balance Health)

Makes:  12-15 small cookies

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups rolled oats
 (gluten-free)
1/4 cup of oat flour (pulverize rolled oats in the food processor, does not have to be finely ground)

3 bananas (mashed)
1/8 cup chia seeds (optional)
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon Celtic sea salt

1/2 cup shredded coconut (unsweetened)
1/2 cup walnuts, chopped
 (extra points for crispy nuts)
1/4 cup raisins
1/4 cup dried cranberries
1/4 cup melted coconut oil
 (or butter)

Mix together rolled oats, oat flour, mashed bananas, vanilla, cinnamon, ginger, and chia seeds in a medium-sized glass or stainless steel mixing bowl. Cover with a towel and allow to sit overnight or for 8 hours at room temperature.

Preheat oven to 350F.

Add salt, coconut flakes, walnuts, coconut oil, raisins, and cranberries. Mix with your hands to combine well.

Using your hands form into cookies. Batch makes about 12-15 depending on size. Bake for about 20-25 minutes until lightly golden brown on top.

Walnuts and chia seeds pack omega-3 fatty acids!

I may experiment with adding more fat to this recipe, as that would make it more suitable to my metabolic type that does better with a diet emphasizing protein, fat, non-starchy vegetables, and minimal grains and fruit. Contact me if you would like to eat according to your metabolic type.

Food Review: Will the Non-Rancid Almond Butter Please Stand Up?

Lately I've been on an anti-candida diet to lower the amount of yeast and mold in my intestinal tract.  Yuck, right?  Well, I'm not alone.  At the wellness center I worked at, I estimated that about 75% of people who came in also had too much yeast (Candida albicans) in their body.  Systemic overgrowth of Candida can cause headaches, allergies, food allergies, fatigue, and much, much more.

My anti-candida diet generally consists of fresh meat and vegetables, fats, coconut milk, nuts, lemons, a few berries, and green apples.  Sugars and starches feed yeast.  Since milk has a considerable amount of sugar in the form of lactose, most dairy is out.  Peanuts are also out as they are often found to be contaminated with mold.

Obviously, peanut butter is out as well.  So what to eat with my snack of Granny Smith apples?  Almond butter.  If you read my previous post on "Enzymes" ideally, I should be making own almond butter from almonds that are soaked in salt water (for increased digestibility) and then dried at a very low temperature to preserve the enzyme content.  You then process the dried almonds in a food processor until they form a powder and then process with enough coconut oil to make it into a "butter."  But, hey, we all need short-cuts from time to time.

Not a fan of the rancid taste...

So, I have tried a couple different nut butters.  The latest disappointment was with MaraNatha All Natural No-Stir Creamy Almond Butter.  I admit that I picked it for the $5.99 price tag, with many of the organic 100% almond butters being in the $10 (and up) neighborhood.  I tasted it with my sliced green apples.  Creamy...rancid.  Another bite to confirm.  Yep, still rancid.  I don't know if it was the added palm oil to make this product "no-stir" or if it was old, or made with rancid almonds, but I do not recommend MaraNatha products.  Nevermind that I went to the Natural Food Expo in D.C. with an ACRES U.S.A. press pass and visited their table and they were unfriendly, at best.  (I was probably asking questions about how much of their nuts were grown in the U.S., or something).

Mmmm.....decent!

Next time, at the grocery store, I decided to go with Kettle brand roasted almond butter.  Again, I was interested in a lower price tag - $5.89.  This came in a smaller quantity (11 oz.) and a plastic jar, unfortunately, but I was willing to overlook some things if it meant I could have an almond butter that didn't taste like it had rotten oils in it.

To my surprise, the Kettle Almond Butter tasted great!  It has a roasted and salty flavor (I chose the salted variety).  You do have to stir it, but I now find that to be a small inconvenience to have edible almond butter.

Enzymes! Nutrition Workhorses

Breakfast tacos with an enzyme-rich creamy chili-lime dressing

Last Monday I had the pleasure of holding my first tele seminar on Enzymes, as part of my new nutrition series on Traditional Foods.

A major difference in most modern diets versus those of our ancestors relates to enzyme content.

Why should we care that the standard American diet of canned, pasteurized, microwaved, or irradiated food contains few enzymes?

Enzymes are the nutrition workhorses responsible for carrying out every single one of our body processes and it turns out we are only given so many enzymes at birth. We do fine for a while, but after years of a diet low in enzymes - and subjecting our body to things like toxins, alcohol and stress - we run out. If we do not get enough enzymes from our food, our pancreas has to rob them from other glands, muscles, nerves, and blood to carry out digestion. This can lead to fatigue, premature aging and early death.

Advice from traditional foodists of the Weston A. Price Foundation suggest that 50% of our diet be raw or enzyme enhanced. Surprisingly, raw vegetables and fruits contain few enzymes.

Enzyme rich foods include:

EGGS: raw egg yolks (raw egg whites contain enzyme inhibitors)
FATS: extra-virgin olive oil (cloudy and with a grassy smell), raw butter
RAW FRUITS: Avocados, bananas, dates, figs, grapes, kiwi, mangos, papayas, and pineapple
SWEETENERS: Raw honey
DAIRY: Raw milk and raw cream
CULTURED DAIRY: Cultured butter, raw cheese, cultured cream, yogurt, kefir
SOY FOODS: Miso (unheated), natto
MEAT AND FISH: Rare and raw well-aged meat; lacto-fermented fish, such as gravlax
LACTO-FERMENTED CONDIMENTS: Sauerkraut, pickles, chutneys
LACTO-FERMENTED BEVERAGES: Old-fashioned ginger ale and root beer, kombucha, kvass, water kefir
GRAINS: Grains, nuts, legumes, and seeds are rich in enzymes, but contain enzyme inhibitors that put great strain on the digestive system unless acted upon by sprouting, soaking in warm acidic water, sour leavening, culturing and fermenting.
SPICES: Papaya pepper

Many of these foods are not readily available in our cafeterias, convenience stores, restaurants and common grocery stores. With a bit of work around our buying patterns and food preparation habits, we are able to supply our family with a diet rich in enzymes. Meals featuring traditional foods need not be elaborate, but can be made up of ready-made foods that we have cultured and prepared by setting aside a few minutes a day for enzyme-enhancing food preparation techniques. 


Join in for the Traditional Foods Tele Seminar Series to learn simple recipes and techniques to increase the enzyme content of your family's meals.