I found the original recipe at www.steviashop.com, but it called for peanut butter. Many of us who strive to avoid sugar are doing so for candida reasons, and if we are trying to cut out fungus as well, the moldy peanut is not the best choice. So in this case I’m subsitituting almond butter, but feel free to experiment with a cashew or hazelnut butter as well.
For flour, I recommend teff, an ancient Ethiopian whole grain that’s well suited to baking. You can find it at your local food co-op. The oil should be one with a high smoking point, so butter would do the trick. Coconut oil would add a nice flavor as well.
Almond Butter Cookies
Ingredients:
2 cups flour
1/2 tsp stevia concentrate powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
2 eggs
1/2 cup milk or water
1 1/2 cups peanut butter
6 TBS oil
2 TBS vanilla
How to Prepare:
Mix the dry ingredients in one bowl, mix moist ingredients in another bowl until smooth. Gradually add dry ingredients. Take a teaspoon of dough and roll into a ball, place on cookie sheet and place a whole peanut into the centre. Bake for 10 minutes at 350.
One important weight loss technique is choosing a breakfast of high-quality protein. Organic, grass finished, free range, hormone, antibiotic, nitrate-free, is of course the ideal. Sometimes, though, all those adjectives means we’re spending a little bit more than we’d like. So do what you can within the confines of your budget…or get some chickens for your backyard. Fresh, Omega-3-rich eggs…yum.
There’s no doubt that omelets day in and day out can get dull, not to mention placing stress on the kidneys as they try to handle all that protein. It’s also not good to eat the same foods over and over again. And sometimes, especially in the winter, we humans are known to crave something hot and starchy to start off our day. Of course, french toast and pancakes aren’t ideal for weight loss: grains are carbohydrates, so they will raise your blood sugar where proteins and fats won’t. But, and this is very important, whole grains will raise it significantly less than refined grains. A slice of white bread toast has a GI up to 87, while some whole grains, such as barley, could be anywhere from 48 down to only 22.
If you’d like to keep your blood sugar from spiking like crazy, but you’re also wanting a warm, sweet, and crunchy breakfast, try the recipe below. Quinoa has the highest protein content of any grain – 15 – 20%. Its GI is only 55, which is still fine for a low-GI diet. If you’d like to avoid grain in general, one option for this dish is to leave out the quinoa entirely while adding more nuts and sprouts. This cereal is sweetened with stevia, which is the ONLY natural sweetener shown to actually stabilize blood sugar rather than raise it.
Nutty Sprouty Breakfast Cereal
All measurements are approximate. Feel free to adjust to taste, or to your personal appetite.
10 crushed almonds (or walnuts, or pecans, or hazelnuts…any nut you have on hand)
1 cup sprouts (see the sprouting technique under our “Recession Cuisine” section)
1/2 c quinoa (dry)
1 tbsp shredded coconut
5-7 drops of stevia
1/4 tsp sea salt
dash of almond milk, hemp milk, or rice milk (or whole, raw milk if you can do dairy)
seasonings: allspice, garam masala, cinnamon, nutmeg, cardamon, ginger, vanilla extract – whatever you enjoy
1. Soak the quinoa overnight in water. This removes the saponins, which give it a bitter taste. It will also speed up the cooking process in the morning. You will see that the grain will have transformed and the endosperm will have uncurled (looks like a ring around the seed, or a little tail).
2. When you’re ready for breakfast, drain off any water that’s still remaining in the soak boal. Add the quinoa to a pot with only a dash of fresh water and the rest of the ingredients.
3. Boil for 3-5 minutes.
4. Taste and adjust seasonings.
5. Eat…slowly, chewing everything well.
One of the keys to weight loss lies in stabilizing your blood sugar. Blood sugar can spike from a number of things – for example, consuming sweets, experiencing stress, drinking caffeine, or lack of sleep – and that same sugar, when not burned off, ends up being stored in your body as fat. Avoiding sugar and refined carbs, and sticking to low glycemic index foods, will help you reach your weight goal…as will reducing your anxiety and practicing mindfulness!
What if you’ve got a sweet tooth but you’d like to shed a few pounds? Never fear. Every Monday we will be featuring a tasty low GI snack that will actually work towards stabilizing your blood sugar by making use of the wonderful plant Stevia as a sweetener.
Today we are introducing the STABILIZING SHAKE. Most smoothies contain a banana for texture. However, bananas, and fruit in general, are high Glycemic Index foods and not ideal for weight loss. Instead, this shake is thickened with half an avocado, one of the best plant sources for Omega-3. Rather than using dairy, a common allergen, the recipe calls for coconut milk. Full of good, hearty saturated fats, the oil in coconut milk has been shown to aid weight loss by increasing metabolism. You can make this a vanilla, chocolate, almond, or any other flavored shake depending upon what you add to it, so you’ll never get sick of it. And it will always have that lovely hint of coconut. This shake is filling and satisfying and won’t give you a blood sugar rush. What more can you ask for?
STABILIZING SHAKE
6 oz coconut milk
2 oz almond milk
½ avocado
4-6 drops stevia
Your choice of flavoring: almond extract, vanilla extract, a spoonful of cacao, a handful of mint leaves…
Add everything to your blender and mix. Drink and enjoy, but remember to chew slightly in order to encourage your saliva to begin to digest the smoothie!
NOTE:Â If it tastes bland, it could need some salt. Don’t hesistate to toss in a pinch – it heightens any pre-existing flavor. If you’ve accidentally over-salted, just add more stevia…
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