Chocolate Chip Cookies

 The simplicity of chocolate chip cookies sounds so comforting. My migraine came on yesterday afternoon and is finally almost on it's way out. I felt so horrible all morning. I was well taken care of, though. Coffee and a yummy omelette were brought to me in bed this morning. 

My boyfriend is the sweetest!

 Staying home sounded like the best plan for me today. When I used to stay home sick from school as a kid I always baked during the day. Most of the time I just pretended to be sick. I never liked school. So for today, baking seemed like a good idea. Something simple, easy, and comforting. Chocolate chip cookies fit the bill. These aren't the classic cookies I remember from my childhood but a healthy updated version that satisfies my sweet tooth these days as I try my best to avoid gluten and sugar. These cookies are almost sugar free. I used bittersweet dark chocolate chips. As much as I use unsweetened carob chips for everything, I knew the result wouldn't be the same... They just don't melt like real chocolate. The recipe I used was from Elana's Pantry. It calls for yacon syrup as the sweetener. For those that aren't familiar, yacon syrup is derived from the root of the yacon plant native to South America. It is free of glucose, therefore having a low glycemic index which doesn't spike blood sugar. It's great for diabetics and people who follow a candida conscience diet. I used to use yacon in most of my dessert making until I discovered Jerusalem artichoke syrup. It has pretty much the same properties of yacon and an almost identical taste. Plus it's about half the price so it's what I use now. Two other changes I made to the recipe was using almond extract instead of vanilla and replacing 1 Tablespoon of almond meal with ground flax. I love the flavor the almond extract gives to the cookies.

Hope everyone has a lovely day! Today is my Sunday so I'm excited to go back to work tomorrow.

Breakfast Bars... kind of

Another reason why I love Mondays... I have the whole morning and early afternoon free. This gives me time to play around in my kitchen and create what ideas and recipes I think up in my head. As you know, I love all things sweet. For breakfast I usually try and stick with veggies. Just ask my boss. She always makes fun of me (in a joking way of course) for bringing my steamed kale to the kitchen in the mornings. I always feel better starting out my day eating that way but sometimes I just want something sweet for breakfast. In my opinion, there is nothing wrong with that, as long as it's prepared using wholesome ingredients and no sugar. Thank you stevia and yacon once again for making this possible. This morning I attempted to make no bake breakfast bars I had been thinking about. 

Cinnamon Carob Almond Breakfast Bars

They didn't come out exactly how I imagined... Revisions will be made for these.  Being a bit on the crumbly side they made a great topping for my yogurt. Here is the recipe if anyone would like to try them out. Modifications or suggestions are always welcome : )

1/2 cup blanched almond flour

2 Tablespoons ground flax

1 Tablespoon chia seeds

2 Tablespoons almond butter

2 Tablespoons cinnamon flaxseed oil*

15 drops stevia

1 teaspoon yacon syrup

1/8 cup unsweetened carob chips

In a bowl combine almond flour, flax, and chia seeds. Mix in almond butter.  The mixture will start to get crumbly. Add in remaining ingredients except for carob chips. Once the mixture turns into a ball of dough you can add in carob chips. 

*I use Barleans cinnamon flax oil. This stuff is amazing in smoothies. If you just have regular flax oil, add in 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon... I think that would work just fine.

Place on cutting board and form into a rectangle "bar" shape.

I placed in the fridge to let sit. This was only for about 5 minutes because I was so hungry. This recipe does contains a lot of fat from the nut flour, butter, seeds, and flax oil so you don't need much. This recipe yields 4 servings.

Happy Monday everyone! Enjoy your week.

Sugar Free Desserts are Possible

When people are faced with certain health issues, it's imperative to avoid foods that will proliferate their condition.  For some, this can be the hardest thing. Many people resort to foods that are convenient... not paying any attention to what they are putting in their bodies. When told they must avoid these foods, they are clueless on what to eat. This is how I felt two years ago when I was told I had a sensitivity to soy and Saccharomyces cerevisiae, a type of yeast. Also having candida, I had to give up sugars. My diet was healthy at the time except for all the sweets I was eating. Desserts are my favorite. When I look at menus online for restaurants I want to try, the dessert section is where my eyes wander first. Okay, I needed to follow a diet free of yeast, sugar, and soy. The yeast seemed easy to avoid but the soy and sugar not so easy. These are two ingredients that are added to what seems like everything. 

Stevia and yacon syrup became my two new favorite ingredients. I needed to get my sweet fix somehow and these two alternative sweeteners made it possible. Many know about stevia but yacon syrup isn't that commonly used. The only place I've found it is at Whole Foods or online. Yacon contains a healthy type of sugar called fructooligosacharides or FOS. It is not digested by the body so it doesn't spike blood glucose levels, making it safe for diabetics, people with candida overgrowth, or even people who just want to watch their weight.

As of now I can include small amounts of soy into my diet. I've been on and off sugars for the past two years and recently went sugar free again. I do feel so much better eating this way and it allows me to be much more creative in what I prepare for myself.  When you can't have sweets all you want is something sweet, right? Which brings me to the photo above. The other night after dinner all I wanted was something sweet. I'm a sucker for cookie dough so I've been playing around with different variations. I based the idea off this recipe found on spark recipes. I love the idea of this recipe because it's the perfect portion size and you won't be tempted to overindulge. Here's my most recent variation.

Gluten free Sugar free cookie dough

2 heaping Tbsp blanched almond flour

2 tsp yacon syrup

1tsp grapeseed oil

1 tsp soy free Earth Balance

pinch of salt

a few drops of vanilla extract

mix everything together and you have a delicious cookie dough. 

I topped this with a little bit of peanut butter and unsweetened carob chips. It was just like eating a chocolate chip peanut butter cookie.

Chocolate Pancakes with Berries and Cherries

How I love and hate PMS. I love it because I crave the yummiest treats but hate it for the way I feel after indulging too much. It's about that time of the month now when all I crave is sweets and carbs.  Since I have been very watchful over my sugar intake lately, I had to come up with something sweet that wouldn't contain too much sugar. After smelling chocolate cupcakes all morning at work I had the biggest craving for brownies, but I thought that my sweet treat, rather my lunch, should be a bit more substantial. I decided to make chocolate pancakes. Last week at the health food store I got a sample of Pamela's chocolate brownie mix. Molasses and honey are used as the sweetener. I mixed 1/4 cup of that with 1/4 cup of Pamela's pancake and baking mix. I added 1 Tablespoon of ground flax seed. The Spectrum brand is my favorite for ground flax seeds. A few drops of stevia and some water will give the mix a runny consistency. I also added some chopped unsweetened baking chocolate.

Chocolate with fruit is such a lovely combination.

To top my Pancakes I added a scoop of plain greek yogurt with blueberries, cherries, and walnuts. I did end up adding a little bit of yacon syrup as well, in place of maple syrup.

Faux Brown Sugar

I love, love, love sweets and not being able to eat them while avoiding sugar is VERY hard for me. I was craving something sweet today and tried to think of what I could have that fit into the anti candida diet guidelines. The other day I came across a recipe for a brown sugar substitute. Since it's pretty much pointless for me to browse dessert recipes, which is what I spend a lot of my internet time doing, I have been on a mission to look for sweets suitable for candida dieters. The recipe consists of yacon syrup and xylitol. I cut the recipe in half and added a few drops of stevia and some madagascar vanilla powder. You mix all of the ingredients until it looks like brown sugar.

hubpages.com/hub/Yacon-Syrup-Sweetener. 

I recently found yacon syrup at Whole Foods. I've also purchased it from therawfoodworld.com. This is an awesome raw food website. The husband and wife owners are very nice people. They offer a wide variety of raw vegan snacks, bulk products, books, and more.

For my sweet treat I spread almond butter and coconut oil on a rice cake and topped with my faux brown sugar and cacao nibs. It was delicious.