This time I decided to write down one of my favorite variations… it makes a very satisfying, fragrant and chunky snack.  Dainty starchy sweets just don’t do it for me… which is why giving up oats was such a hardship.  After having a bad reaction to GF oats a few years ago, I hadn’t tried them again until recently when standing in the Gluten-Free aisle at New Seasons, I picked up the GF Oats and read and saw that they were ELISA Tested.  This convinced me to give them another shot.  I’ve been really craving something something chewy and hearty lately… the perfect fiber-rich topping for coconut milk yogurt!

Recipe:

Mix dry ingredients in a large bowl with a big spoon:

• 6 Cups GF Oats (like Bob’s Red Mill or Gifts of Nature)
• 1 1/2 Cups Raw Buckwheat Groats
• 1 C Raw Walnut Halves, broken by hand into large pieces
• 1 C Coconut Flakes (I like the large flat flakes best)
• 1/2 C Raw Sunflower Seeds
• 1/2 C Raw, Unhulled Sesame Seeds
• 6 Tbs Chia Seeds
• 3 Tbs Cinamon
• 2 tps Ground Celtic Sea Salt

Whisk wet ingredients into a small sauce pan on low heat until well combined:

• 3/4 C Raw Local Honey (if you don’t eat honey you can sub Agave Nectar)
• 3/4 C Real Maple Syrup Grade B
• 1/2 C Virgin Coconut Oil*
• 1/4 C Expeller Pressed Oil (Canola, Sunflower, Grapeseed, Safflower)
• 1/4 C Almond milk (coconut or rice work too)

Pour the warmed wet-ingredient mixture over the dry ingredients and mix well with a big spoon.  Spread batch evenly between two ungreased 9×13 cookie sheets.  I use the silicone mats on my cookie sheets, but it isn’t necessary at all. Bake sheets at 325 F for 25 minutes.  Remove from oven and stir granola to provide even browning.  Place trays back in oven with bottom tray now on the top.  Bake again at 225 for 12 minutes.  If you want to add any dried fruit, add now.  Bake another 10-12 minutes at 225 F.  Turn off oven, open door and let sit for 30 minutes to an hour.  This will make the granola harden enough to be chunky.  When ready, break into chunks and put in storage containers. YUM!!

*If you are like my husband Ian and don’t like coconut, leave out the coconut flakes and substitute in Soy-Free Earthbalance for the Coconut Oil.  If you do this, you probably won’t need to add the salt.

This pumpkin seed butter is an excellent additive to smoothies and also a great ingredient in raw energy bars like the ones in the Thrive Diet book.  I like to make variations on Brendan Brazier’s bar recipes and keep them wrapped in wax paper in the freezer for snacking and quick breakfasts.

So to make the pumpkin seed butter…

Soak the desired amount of seeds for at least an hour.  (you don’t HAVE to soak them, but they will blend easier and break down more easily in your digestive system).

• Add pumpkin seeds (2-3 cups) to food processor or high powered blender.  (I love my 3HP K-Tech)
• Add sweetener to taste (suggestions include: local raw honey, raw agave, grade B maple syrup, or stevia)
• Add a few pinches of salt (use Celtic sea salt or Himalayan pink salt for added minerals)
• You may need to add a little coconut oil or water for added creaminess when blending especially if using stevia.

The chart above is from the World’s Healthiest Foods, they are a great resource for nutrition information on plant-based foods: www.whfoods.com

Well, after going downstairs for a hit of Americano (bad!) and snack, I realized that I really take the Lärabar for granted.

Lärabars are always there when you need them.  They are my food in a pinch.  These bars are vegan and have no gluten, no soy, no gmo’s,  and are only sweetened with fruit. Except for the newer Peanut Butter Cookie flavor, they are completely raw. (I don’t eat peanuts for other reasons though).  All the flavors even have fewer than 6 ingredients.  How many other foods can say that?

They also make a great bar to take on the road for a recovery food.  Every ingredient is a food in a recognizable state to your body!  That means less waist to build up and process and the more nutrients the body can absorb from the food.  Reading the ingredients for most “energy bars” is a frightening and (hopefully) sobering moment.  I wish people would stop to realize that if they can’t pronounce something, they probably shouldn’t be eating it.

My Favorites: Cherry Pie (cherries have been proven to have anti-inflammatory properties, so great after exercise!), Pistachio, Cinnamon Roll and Jocolat Chocolate Hazelnut.

One upside about the company being bought out by General Mills is that you can find them everywhere from cafeterias to gas stations.  And as anyone with food allergies or restrictions can relate to:  they mean not having to go hungry.  So, thank you Lärabars.  I owe you more than one.

Actually what made the difference was all the chocolate research and tasting that I did for my cookie recipes.  I became obsessed with chocolate production, with cocoa mass content, with the purity of the ingredients and with the absence of soy lecithin…. something that I very much contribute (along with low quality milk solids) to the waxiness of my childhood Halloween candies.

It’s no secret that cacao is a superfood.  The bean is high in antioxidants and a delicious source of minerals… including IRON.  Next time you are shopping for dark chocolate, look at the nutrition label and check the iron count.  The brands vary, but all the bars that have a high cocoa content should supply a really decent amount of iron!  It by far my favorite iron-rich foods… pumpkin seeds are second!

So, I thought I would share some of my favorite eating and baking chocolates…. (a note of disclaimer: the darker the better for me!) And although there are some lovely raw chocolates, they don’t have the complexity of flavor that I find from some of these amazing chocolate gurus.  Here are my faves in order for least intense to most hard-hitting.

1) Sweet Earth Baking Chocolate- 65% Big Baking Chips

Small chocolate producer in the Bay area.  These are the big chips I used in the Sift Bakery Double Chocolate cookies.  They are organic and Fair Trade Certified, vegan and soy free!  They have a number of other quality items too.  These were my snack during long days at the bakery!

2) Vivani’s 85% Bar

Just the right amount of bitter bite and smooooth.  When this goes on sale at New Seasons, I buy a case full.  This bar is truly astounding. Organic with just three ingredients: cocoa mass, cocoa butter, raw cane sugar.  They have an Allergy note on the website, saying that the machines are cleaned to a very high standard.  I have never had a problem with these and I am very sensitive.  There are many other chocolate bars that I’ve tried and won’t eat again because of reactions, but these feel very clean to my system.  Chock it up to German fastidiousness.

3) Theo Chocolate’s Venezuela 91% Bar

This company is from Seattle and it rocks.  The Origin Bars all have distinct flavors, like fine wines or coffees where you feel you are tasting the nuances in the soils from different regions of the world.  hmmm.  And 91% is just hardcore, but not bitter.  I love it.  The higher the cocoa content, the less I feel like I need to satisfy the jones.  No soy, no dairy, it’s beautiful!

4) Michel Cluizel’s Noir Infini 99% Bar

OK, I admit that 99% cocoa content sounds extreme, and maybe it is… but this bar is sweeter than expected.  The first time I bought a tiny square of it at Portland’s chocolate boutique (HEAVEN) Cacao, I was expecting it to taste like chomping on a square of baker’s chocolate.  Was I wrong!  The Noir Infini is an intense experience and not for the mainstream snicker’s addict… but it is a cocao-lover’s dream.  In addition to a tiny amount of sugar, it contains bourbon vanilla, a hint of orange and undisclosed spices.  Lucky for me I can’t taste the orange, I just taste intensity.

Here’s my cocoa recipe again:

1-2 TBS Raw Cocoa (I love Nativas Naturals)

pinch celtic sea salt

2 packets stevia (I love NuNaturals)

6-8 oz Hot H2O

2 oz Coconut Milk (like SoDelicious- I use the unsweetened)

optional: sprinkle of cayenne or cinnamon or both!

When we got back to Portland I was elated to find that my very own Whole Foods in the Pearl is carrying both the orginial and the unsweetened varieties. I picked up a carton of the unsweetened version last night and made some hot rice porridge for desert. It was so creamy I wanted to cry.

An aside: Erythritol & xylitol, are natural sugar alcohols so they are digested differently than regular sugar and don’t produce the pronounced blood-sugar spike and insulin response… too much of which is linked with diabetes and weight gain. Erythritol is known for having less gastric side effects than other sugar alcohols because it is absorbed in the small intestine while xylitol is absorbed in the large intestine and larger quanities often lead to gas, bloating and a laxative effect. Erythritol, has 5% of the calories of table sugar (.2calories per gram vs. 4 calories per gram) and 70% of the sweetness. So it is almost calorie-free

But back to the sweet stevia leaf…. after reading this article I want to figure out how it affect fertility in women, not just men. ugh. I really don’t want to give up my little white packets. They make cocoa & tea so much more delightful.

READ THE FULL STORY ON VEG NEWS.COM
Does this sugar stand-in stymie hopes for fertility in the future? VN’s resident nutritionist studies the sweet substitute.
By Ilyse Simon

Confused about whether or not switching from sugar to stevia might hurt your chances at parenthood? Your nutritional debate is understandable. Though the Food and Drug Administration approved stevia in December, there’s still some question about how much is really safe, especially if you’re trying to conceive. The short answer is that adding stevia to a cup of tea or coffee each day won’t compromise your health. However, stevia is worth scrutinizing if you plan to use it often or in large quantities.

Stevia is a shrub native to South America with leaves sweeter than white sugar. It’s calorie-free and one of just a few alternative sweeteners for people with diabetes, and the FDA has designated stevia Generally Recognized as Safe. (This is controversial because there are many products deemed “safe” by the FDA that I would never consider consuming, and the FDA has a history of protecting big agribusiness over human health—but there’s an element of truth to this one.) Stevia has been used in other countries for centuries without ill effects. Used to sweeten yerba mate in Paraguay and in Japan to sweeten pickles since the 1970s, stevia—in small quantities—has not been proven harmful. The main concern is that if we mass-market this plant extract as we have with soy, stevia could become a ubiquitous ingredient in everyday packaged foods. If your energy bar, smoothie, tea, and dairy-free ice cream are all sweetened with stevia, that might be more than is considered healthy.

North Americans, in general, still think more equals better, and tend to go to extremes when we find something we like. Again, it’s similar to the soy story: Asian cultures eat moderate amounts of soy daily in whole-food forms without negative consequences; Western cultures have processed and refined soy into isolated protein components, added it to highly processed energy bars, and continue scarfing them down like health foods. This is where the problems lie. The specifics on stevia show that high amounts affect male reproductive health with reduced sperm counts and possible infertility. In some laboratory studies, stevia acts on a cell’s DNA to cause unwanted mutations and may promote cancer. In other studies, large amounts of stevia interfere with normal carbohydrate metabolism. Recently, the Center for Science in the Public Interest lists stevia as an additive that people should “try to avoid,” but maintains that small amounts are probably safe.

The bottom line is that a little is probably fine, but a lot is not. That’s advice for almost any situation. One or two cups of coffee with stevia is not raising concern amongst researchers. It’s the scenario where stevia sweetens diet soda, fruited waters, and every piece of chewing gum stuck to your shoe that is of concern. Keep your diet clean, eat lots of fruits and veggies, go ahead and ditch the tighty-whiteys, and your fertility will likely be fine.

In your food processor or blender:

Chop 2 cloves of garlic, then add:
1 can Organic Garbanzos
1 can Cannellini beans (which are Italian White Kidney Beans)*
2TBS or Big spoonfuls of Tahini (sesame seed paste)
Splash of lemon juice (add more to taste)
Splash of Olive oil- add to get the consistency that you want. (sometimes I leave it out or just add a splash)
2 tsp of paprika
Salt & Ground pepper to taste

Sometimes I add Cayenne & Cumin for a Mexican variation… and my favorite is when I add roasted red peppers (jarred or roasted in oven and peel skin). I’ve also added palm hearts, kalamata olives, sun dried tomatoes and roasted eggplant. Ian likes it when I add fresh basil and walnuts or pesto to the mix.

The possibilities are endless!

*Instead of Cannellini you can use 2 cans of Garbanzos or substitute Great Northern Beans. I like the Cannellini beans because they give the hummus a really smooooth texture. And if you don’t want to use canned beans you can always buy them dry and cook them, but that takes longer… and usually when I’m making hummus, I’m ultra hungry.

For a hilarious commentary on hummus (and gluten-free white people).
Check out this post from Stuff White People Like.

So, after a beyond-muddy long run on Sunday, I decided that I would usher in nicer weather with some Spring Cleaning. Sometimes there is no greater satisfaction than bringing organization to chaos and disarray! OK… so maybe that’s a bit of an exaggeration. But I have been obsessed with cleaning and detox more than ever lately. I just want to shed any unnecessary baggage and live lightly, freely. I have recently donated significant portion of my clothes, weeded out unused kitchen items, and shredded loads of old receipts and papers.

In the spirit of domesticity and my new creative energy, I embarked on two new cookies- both vegan and gluten free of course…. Pumpkin Seed Hippie Cookies & Sunbutter Delights… one for me and the other for Ian.

Cream coconut oil, sweeteners and almond butter together. Then add dry ingredients mixing well. I mixed these with my hands! If you want it to be sweeter, just add a few sprinkles of stevia. Drop dough in small mounds or spoonfulls onto cookie sheet. (I use the silicone liners so they are non-stick, if you don’t have these you will need to greese the cookie sheet).
Bake for 12-16 minutes at 300 degrees until edges get golden.

We’ve also added beautiful letterpress cards (from Egg Press!) to our inventory that you can purchase to go along with your order. Email us your personal message and we’ll include it in the card.