The Brownie Recipe: Grain-Free/Nut-Free/Sugar-Free/Dairy-Free Brownies

I have been on a grain-free, raw-emphasis diet for about a month now. I've lost 10lbs and it looks good on me. I am also beginning to feel good when I eat. I usually have every known digestive issue: heartburn, nausea, hiatal hernia pain, gas, constipation, you name it. Those are all gone and my mood is also improving.

I've reached a place where most food cravings are gone including some things I was surprised about. Wheat has always been one of the hardest things for me to give up, but now I can't imagine giving in and eating some again. Cheese, on the other hand... I still crave cheese.

I have had a really tough weekend and the emotional cravings have cropped up again. I considered caving and just ordering a pizza or pigging out on something sweet. I did just a little bit of that last weekend, however, and paid for it all week in puffiness, bloating, extra-violent mood-swings, and a return of sugar cravings. I decided, even feeling as dark as I was, that it wasn't worth it. The winning argument in my head was that if I caved I wouldn't have the pleasure of the creative cooking process I've been steeped in this month. If I go back to food I can buy at a drive-through, where's the challenge in that? Where's the glory in a cardboard pizza crust?

But there is glory in a healthy brownie that any kid would devour. I spent all day making pizza and brownies and instead of giving in to harmful cravings I created healthy alternatives. My crown jewel:

Gluten-Free Peppermint Brownies

2oz unsweetened baking chocolate
3T ev coconut oil
2/3c honey
3 eggs
2/3c finely ground flax seeds
2/3c coconut flour (or finely ground unsweetened coconut)
1/4 tsp or two pinches celtic salt
1 tsp vanilla
10 drops Young Living peppermint essential oil

Preheat oven to 375* On the stove on low heat, melt chocolate, coconut oil, and honey in a small saucepan. Stir every couple minutes or so to keep things melting evenly. Beat eggs in a large mixing bowl until pale yellow in color. If not pre-ground, grind flours in a spice or unused coffee grinder until very fine. Mix well with the eggs. When chocolate mixture is melted, pour into bowl with flours and eggs, and incorporate thoroughly. Mix in salt and extracts. Taste batter and adjust sweetener, salt, or seasonings. I believe I used 1c honey, but less may suit adult tastes. (Mine were decidedly childlike tonight).

Place in oven and drop heat to 350* immediately. Check after 20 minutes. Brownies are done when a knife inserted in the center comes out clean.

***

I have a friend with serious nut allergy issues who is also on a diet that excludes all gluten, dairy, eggs, and refined sugars. Most gluten-free recipes include grain flour (which I can't have) or almond flour (which she can't have). She is a serious brownie lover, and his recipe is for her as much as myself. Stacy, I can't wait to substitute egg replacer and baking soda and feed you your first legal brownie in two months! I told you I'd do it :D

What I Ate Today

It was one of those blessed days where I had the time to think ahead about meals. This came about because of a bit of insomnia last night, and I put it to good use, planning the menu for today. This gave me a nice cuddly thought to ruminate on while lying in bed as well, and it finally did the trick. I had wonderful dreams, too!

Breakfast:

Green juice
1 stalk celery, 2c greens, 1 granny-smith apple, 2c water blended and strained.

Lunch:

Delicious chipotle-marinated mushroom tacos on injera flatbread

Dinner:

Poached eggs on a bed of greens with hot bacon dressing and plum tomatoes, plus I finished my childrens' leftover chicken and ranch salads.

Dessert:

Warm smashed banana bread with homemade sunbutter

Unplanned Cheat:

Fuzzy navel with ripe peach, OJ and whiskey

Raw Chili Recipe

This recipe is adapted from Matt Amsden's amazing uncookbook, Rawvolution. It is full of recipes for great American comfort food prepared without cooking. It is genius and the recipes really work. This chili is actually hearty and tastes like chili, only with flavors that are even more vibrant than in the cooked version. The extra-awesome part of this recipe? Aside from soaking, it only takes 10 minutes from start to finish, with no convenience foods necessary. Now that's a refreshing change in dinner.

Hearty Chili in the Raw

1c raw sunflower seeds, soaked 1 hour (optional)
3 medium tomatoes
1/2 cucumber, peeled
2 stalks celery
1/2 red bell pepper, seeded
1c fresh cilantro
3 cloves garlic
1/3c lemon juice
1/4c ev olive oil
1/4c Nama Shoyu or other soy sauce (Nama shoyu is raw)
3T chili powder
1T ground cumin

For garnishing:
Raw or conventional yogurt, chopped orange bell pepper, thinly-sliced jalapeno pepper, sliced chives, and/or tabasco sauce (not raw, but tasty!)

Soak sunflower seeds by just covering them with water for 1 hour (I cheated and just did it for about 20 minutes while I gathered everything and chased children around the house). Put tomatoes and olive oil only in a high-speed or conventional blender for about one minute before you add any other ingredients. Drain water from sunflower seeds, add remaining ingredients (except garnishes) and blend. Pulse a bit until everything is moving, then blend on low for 30 seconds. Switch to high and blend for two minutes more. Pour chili into big bowls, top with yogurt and/or other garnishes, and enjoy! Scoop up a smidge of yogurt with each bite, and experience taste-bud transcendence.

Serve with Matt Amsden's Famous Onion Bread. It's raw and amazingly delicious.

Why Raw Food? (and Why Not HFCS, MSG, or Trans Fats?)

I have a big crush on raw food diets, so I try to include raw foods in as many recipes as possible and have them make up 50% or more of every meal I serve.

As a society there are many factors that lead to poor digestion of food and poor absorption of nutrients. One of the factors is that our jaws and teeth are no longer suited to chewing food well enough to destroy cell walls and release nutrients in fibrous tissue. This comes from generations of eating soft, nutrient-free foods like white bread and sugar. Changing the way we look at food can have dramatic impact on our health and vitality.

Two ways to break down cell walls artificially are to cook the food for a long time or to blend the foods in a blender. Long cooking times are used with tough cuts of meat to break down cell walls and make a tender food. The process is also used with broths, soups, and stewed fruits, which is one reason those foods are traditionally easy to digest. However, long cooking times destroy all enzymes in the food and many of it's vitamins and minerals. When a food is instead pulverized in a blender, the resulting product is very similar in texture and taste to the cooked version, but it retains 80% more nutrients and up to 100% more enzymes, making it even easier to digest and absorb.

Why are enzymes important? Enzymes are used in every cellular process in the body, including digestion. When you eat a food that has no enzymes left to it, your body must manufacture enzymes to digest the food. It is a more energy-intense process than it needs to be. Plus, after about the age of 30, our bodies do not manufacture as many enzymes on their own. If we don't replace them, they are simply depleted. Many think this is one of the main causes of aging. Indeed, when a person switches from a standard American diet to one rich in raw food, some of the first changes that appear are more supple, vibrant-looking skin, more energy, and less wrinkles. Raw foods can provide a fountain of youth from the inside out.

The science of raw food is controversial, but the experiential evidence is positive. Weight loss occurs naturally on a raw diet, but without deprivation. One of the reasons for this is when a diet is full of fiber and nutrients, the body is fully nourished. It will no longer send hunger signals to end it's starvation for vitamins and minerals, because it will have all it needs.

Another reason for easy weight loss is that addictive food chemicals are absent in a raw-food diet. I am not fully raw by any means, but I am about 90% chemical-free, and I have noticed a huge change in my appetite since I've been eating this way. Now that I no longer consume high-fructose corn syrup, MSG, or partially-hydrogenated oils (trans fats), and have cut out allergens like dairy and gluten, I have lost that need to eat until I am uncomfortably full. My son has also seen an 80% reduction in Asperger's-type symptoms just by modifying his diet this way. Click on the links above to see more reasons to avoid chemicals in food.

I am a hedonist when it comes to food, and taste is always my highest priority when preparing a meal. The wonderful thing about raw foods is that they have all their flavor intact. Raw soups are not only simple to prepare, but their flavors are layered and complex. Dishes with just a few ingredients showcase flavors. Texture is amazing with ingredients like fluffy coconut butter and creamy avocado. I love rich foods and I can certainly enjoy them when eating raw. Things like rich chocolate truffles and wicked-good raw cookies and milkshakes.

There is an idea that eating healthy food is about deprivation and self-control. For me, food is an adventure and a love affair. I am not surprised that it has led me, again and again, back to whole foods traditionally prepared. Health, beauty, and fun are meant to go together. So try out my real-food recipes, just for fun. If you get healthy in the process, more's the better.

How to Make Easy Flax Crackers

A friend gave me a bite of a cracker yesterday. It was crunchy, full of flavor, and made from whole foods. I bet it cost at least $5 a box at Whole Foods, too. I have been reading about flax crackers for a while, but hadn't tried to make one since a disasterous attempt a few years ago. I've got much more raw uncooking under my belt since then and I was ready to try again. This cracker tasted every bit as good as the one from the store, and it is perfectly raw.

Everything Bagel Flax Cracker

1c flax seeds
1c sesame seeds
up to 1/2c water, or as needed
1tsp minced dried onion
1tsp celtic salt
1/4 tsp powdered greens
1/4 tsp garlic powder

Whir flax seeds in a clean coffee grinder until they are finely ground. Put in a mixing bowl, and add whole sesame seeds, herbs, powders, and salt. Mix thoroughly, then add water, 1T at a time, till the mixture forms a dough. Add 1-2 tablespoons more water until the dough can be spread evenly on a sheet. With wet hands, press dough into a teflex dehydrator sheet or a waxed paper-covered dehydrator tray if using a machine or a silicone baking mat if using an oven.

Smooth out until it is 1/8" thick and uniform. Dehydrate in a dehydrator or by placing on a cookie sheet in the oven with the light on. Check 8 hours later. The bottom should be dry and it should hold together well enough to flip. Flip, peeling off of teflex sheet and placing directly on the tray. Dehydrate 3-5 hours more, or until desired crunchiness. Break apart into crackers. Snack.
Excalibur Dehydrator




By not cooking this cracker, it is easier to make (I can't tell you how many baked cracker recipes have yielded burnt, uneven crackers stuck to the cookie sheet or how many times I've cursed at a rolling pin trying to roll out sticky dough cracker-thin), but all the nutrients are intact. Snack on these guilt-free. They may taste like your favorite bagel, but there are no chemicals or simple carbs here to make you fat!

See this link for more information on why to eat raw food,

and this link for more information about raw food and weight loss.

The Good Beet: Making Beets Taste Good, part 1

Beets. Just hearing the word can bring up such a range of emotions and memories! Many people have had negative experiences with this vegetable, but I am here to tell you that beets taste good. If you don't believe me now, try a few of these recipes and reserve judgement until later.

Pink Potatoes

7 large russet potatoes
2 medium beets
up to 1c vegetable broth
4T ghee or olive oil

Kids really like this dish. Mine will eat it right out of the pan. What could be better than pink for dinner?

Wash and peel the beets, slice 1/4" thick. Put into a 5 quart pan of boiling water for 8 minutes. Meanwhile, wash and chop the potatoes. It is not necessary to peel them. Add to the pot, boil for 10 minutes more or until potatoes are very tender when pierced with a fork, but not so tender that they dissolve.

Drain by tilting the pot lid a bit and pouring off water, reserving the potatoes. This will keep just a bit of the cooking water in with the vegetables, which adds to their final consistency. Add ghee and broth, then mash with a potato masher or hand blender until the beets are fully incorporated and the dish is a nice, uniform pink. Garnish with salt and pepper to taste, plain yogurt, and/or finely diced beets. Yum!

Starting Out With Green Smoothies, Part Four: A Smoothie By Any Other Color

Green smoothies do not need to be green in color. Who knew? Some people have aversions to drinking sweet things that have the "wrong" color. If it tastes like strawberries, it should be pink, and so on. My mother in-law is one such person. "Drinks should not be green," she says. "Why don't you use food coloring?" my father in-law inquires. Why, indeed?

If you are serving your green smoothie to a child, spouse, or someone else who may have a green aversion, or if you are having an internal war yourself about whether or not it can actually taste good if it is green, you can cover the color with other ingredients.

Try beet slices, raw or cooked, for a red color (and lots of added nutrients!). Blueberries are common ingredients in green smoothies because their purple color will cover most anything. Other colorings you can use are strawberries in large quantities (at least 1c) and blackberries. Food coloring can also be used.

When making a green smoothie, blend the liquid ingredients and greens first, then add other ingredients. Blend, pulsing at first, then on high for at least 2 minutes. Turn off blender and taste. If tastes need adjusting, add more sweetener or fruit, etc until you get a taste that is right for you.

If you can still taste the "green" too much for your preference, try adding another banana or other sweetener. When using sweeteners, remember that honey will impart its own strong flavor. It goes well with "milk"-based or chocolate-based smoothies as well as some fruits such as strawberries. It will mask mild flavors, however.

The herb stevia can also be used to sweeten smoothies. It has virtually no calories but is a food, not extract or chemical. It is the safest of the powdered sweeteners available. Overripe fruit can be used to sweeten as well, and is my preferred method. Add some very ripe banana, pear, or apple, and it will usually be all the sweetening you need.

Starting Out With Green Smoothies, Part Three: Thick and Creamy Smoothies

In part one, we talked about how to choose the perfect greens for your green smoothie, and in part two we discussed using the five flavors to make the smoothie taste great every time. Now we'll cover how to get that smooth texture that makes you want a smoothie in the first place.


To achieve creaminess, a smoothie needs a thickener. The commercial smoothies you may have tried use crushed ice, powerful blenders, and chemical emulsifiers to achieve their namesake texture. With a regular-speed blender and ice, this texture is impossible at home. The best thickener at home is a combination of ripe avocado (peel is black and flesh is soft and green) and slightly-unripe banana (peel is yellow but without spots). When mixed with banana or other sweet influence, avocado's flavor disappears but its buttery creaminess is imparted to the mixture. Try 1/2 avocado and 1 banana for every 12 oz liquid used.

Other good thickeners include freshly-ground flax seed (1T for each 8oz liquid), apple, ground coconut, and raw egg yolks from your local organic farmer-friend.

Creamy Raspberry-Lime Smoothie

2c water
1c spinach
1c raspberries (de-seeded by pushing through a mesh sieve)
juice of 1/2 lime
1/2 avocado
1 very ripe banana
honey to taste

Blend water and greens first. Add remaining ingredients except honey. Blend on high for 1-2 minutes until texture and color are smooth. Add honey to taste, enjoy!

Tune in tomorrow for the smoothie series finale: A Smoothie By Any Other Color, or just check out my eHow article for reference all in one place.

Starting Out With Green Smoothies, Part Two: The Five Flavors

In part one, we discussed choosing the right greens for you: which greens are mild and succulent, which are bitter and vitamin-packed, and which blend especially well in a smoothie.

After blending the greens with liquid, add the fillers and flavors. This could be yogurt, frozen or fresh fruit, sweeteners like honey or stevia, flavorings like lemon or lime juice, or herbs like mint.

The goal in a smoothie or any other recipe is to balance all five flavors: sweet, salty, bitter, sour, and spicy. By balance I do not mean that all the flavors have equal emphasis, which would taste strange. I simply mean all the flavors are present and tweaked until the flavor is "right" to your taste buds.

Sweet flavors are usually the basis for a smoothie and include mild fruits like apple, banana, ripe pear, grapes, honey, bee pollen, and ripe berries. Try ripe strawberries (washed, with their green tops still on), 2 leaves boston bibb lettuce, 1 frozen banana, and fresh-squeezed orange juice to showcase a familiar sweet flavor in your smoothie.

Sour flavors also have high emphasis in smoothies and include unripe berries; orange, grapefruit, or lemon juice; yogurt; and supplements like kombucha tea and fermented vegetables. My favorite sour smoothie uses ruby red grapefruit, 1/2 avocado, 1 frozen banana, and a handful of spinach leaves.

One might add salty flavors directly to a smoothie (try this: sometimes a sprinkle of salt is exactly what a sweet recipe needs to make the flavors smash!) or it might be a component of the rice milk, ground nuts or seeds, or powdered supplement. When making a smoothie with berries that are not quite ripe, or a spicy smoothie like the chocolate banana smoothie described below, I may add salt to bring out the flavors.

Bitter flavors are present in the greens we'll be adding. Bitter is a taste rightly associated with health. Many cultures have used bitter herbs in fasting, rehabilitation, and ritual for their cleansing and nourishing properties. Herbs like arugula, dandelion, and kale are more bitter; greens like spinach and bibb are less bitter. Start low on the bitterness scale with more sweet fruits and step up the bitterness quotient as you step down the sweetness over the coming weeks; you'll find your body begins to crave the bitter taste.

Consuming bitter or sour flavors are some of the best ways to counteract a sweet craving. If you have enough bitter and sour in your diet (especially if the bitter comes from greens and the sour comes from fermented yogurt and vegetables), you will begin to change your body's chemistry as the cravings die down permanently and your gut returns to a healthy balance.

I like to make my smoothies mildly sweet or not sweet at all when I am dealing with sugar cravings and depression, which go hand-in-hand for me. I'll whir up some kale, arugula, and water, then add a peeled cucumber, an apple, and some ginger.

Spicy flavors are not often associated with smoothies or sweets, but they are there. Mint, cinnamon, nutmeg, and ginger are all wonderful, delicious, and familiar flavors. Try adding a tiny slice of raw jalapeno or sprinkle of cayenne to your smoothie. Like salt, this unexpected heat can often create flavor transcendence. Look at this raw guru's site. He adds spicy and sour flavors to nearly every recipe to a delicious end.

Spicy flavors in smoothies are so exciting and delicious! Try coconut milk, spinach, 1T cocoa powder, 1 tsp cinnamon, a pinch cayenne, 1/2 avocado, and 1 frozen banana. Yum!

Are you beginning to get the picture that green doesn't have to equal disgusting? In part three I'll cover thickeners and coloring the green smoothie. It doesn't have to be green!

Check out part three to find out how to make a thick, creamy smoothie every time.

Or, to see the whole series in one place, come see my eHow article.

Starting Out With Green Smoothies, Part One: Choosing Greens

I've noticed a decided green smoothie meme (going along nicely with the elimination diet meme) across all groups lately. It seems like green smoothies are beginning to sound good to just about everyone. That is wonderful news. It means we are taking a collective step toward health. If you want to learn how to make a green smoothie that is delicious every time, read on.

Starting out, it can be good to have some pointers and ideas to get you going. Here are some guidelines for making green smoothies that taste just as good as any other kind of smoothie, no matter what the color.

1. If adding any dry ingredients (flax seeds, bee pollen) that need to be ground, start with a dry blender and add 1T at a time of dry ingredients only. Pulse blender several times until they are a fine powder.

2. Add "green" and liquid. Tear or chop up whatever green leafy vegetable you are using, add as much liquid as you need for your final volume, and blend. Start by pulsing or on low, then run on your blender's highest setting for at least a minute. This is to get the leaves chopped as finely as possible in a regular-speed blender. High-speed blenders (like a Vita Mix with 2 or more horsepower) will homogenize all ingredients without this step.

Choosing the right green can be an important make-or-break factor in a beginning green smoothie. Choose soft, mild lettuces to start with, especially if you are someone who normally doesn't like salads or cooked greens. Boston Bibb lettuce is my favorite mild lettuce. Mild baby romaine or even iceberg would also work. Spinach is mild, soft, and succulent, which makes it especially suited to smoothies and so are Violet leaves, gathered from your own backyard or abandoned lot and washed with water and vinegar. Other mild wild greens include clover, purslane leaves (not stems, they are pungent and sour), and wild strawberry leaves. See this link to wild edibles for more info on getting the good stuff for free!

Other, stronger-flavored greens are also delicious in smoothies. The darker the color, the higher the concentration of nutrients in the leaves. Baby arugula, kale, collards, beet or turnip greens, dandelion greens (wild or cultivated), chicory greens (wild or cultivated), wild plantain, and giant grocery-store romaine are all bitter or spicy and add more flavor of their own to a smoothie. Kale especially when added to the right ingredients can impart a bright "green" flavor that is more sensation than taste when added to a smoothie. It has an awakening effect on the body, sort of like stepping out into a spring rain.

Liquids used in smoothies are often juices like orange, grapefruit, grape, or apple. Experiment with flavors and you'll find that herbal teas like chamomile and raspberry; milks like raw cow's milk, coconut milk, or rice milk; and fresh water also work very well. I like to use the freshest ingredients available to me because the point to a smoothie is to have raw, pulverized energy that my body can absorb immediately and effectively. I will use raw milk or fresh-squeezed, unpasteurized juice (in other words, I squeeze it myself). If they are not available I will use plain water. When using only water the flavors of the fruits and greens are magnified.

Come back for part two and learn about balancing the five flavors of the recipe for great taste! Or come view my eHow article about green smoothies.