on my mind monday - 2.13.12

in the news | photo: mconnors

It's a new week and this is what's on my mind:

Cocoa can be the new cranberry - according to this article there are some studies that have promising results for it's antioxidant flavanols.  While I do believe that there is quite probably some health benefits this emerging claim needs to be approached with caution.  Firstly the studies are all being done by major chocolate companies, especially Callebaut, one of the world's largest confectionery producers (formerly Belgian, now Swiss-owned).  Any study done by a company that has a vested interest in it's end results needs to be examined more stringently in order to avoid any potential bias.  Secondly, even if cocoa does have major health benefits that is for cocoa.  The raw product.  This does not cover chocolate products that are made from a cocoa base.  Unfortunately I have visions of Cocoa Rice Krispies trumpeting major health claims on the front of the box if these studies are proven scientifically valid.  So while I will be watching and reading further about this I am advocating that this news be taken cautiously and not as an excuse to add processed cocoa to the diet with abandon.

Potatoes may offer blood pressure benefit - the caveat here is that this refers to purple potatoes.  My personal bias against this article is that it refers to potatoes simply as a vegetable.  In my practice I have gotten into the habit of labeling types of vegetables so that people understand that not all vegetables are equal.  Potatoes are a starchy vegetable, there are also crunchy vegetables and leafy vegetables, etc.  Limiting starchy vegetables in our diet makes sense, if only to encourage people to eat a wider variety of vegetables.  A little research reveals that purple laver (a type of seaweed) also has anti-hypertensive qualities, as did purple carrot juice.  This all seems to suggest that anthocyanins, the substance responsible for that purplish-red pigment, may be responsible.  Should the news media start to promote this and someone begins to manufacture anthocyanin-only pills I'd like to the be the first one to tell you to get your anthocyanins through your food.

Can fermented foods make you healthier - in a word, yes.  We don't eat enough of these in our modern diet.  We've gotten away from traditionally lacto-fermented foods.  We think the saurkraut and pickles that we buy in the grocery store are good for us.  Unfortunately they are not the types of foods that we need to be eating.  Pickles especially are often laden with artificial colors (yup....read the label).  And these foods are made using commercial vinegar, not a culture or a whey to ferment naturally.  I agree that we need to eat more fermented foods in our diet; I would include kefir, kombucha, and kvass in this mixture for those who like those foods.  Want to make your own fermented food at home?  It's very easy...here's a great lacto-fermented saurkraut recipe with pictures.

Thirteen (plus) years of asparagus - I love asparagus.  I planted some in my garden.  This will only be it's second year so we need to harvest with caution (it takes three years for an asparagus garden to be fully functional - or so they tell me).  But I continue to read asparagus recipes and drool for the day that I can plunder with abandon and eat our fill of the tasty stalks.  Of course that's if there is any left.  The little heads have started poking above ground and I've discovered that I made a vital error.  When we have asparagus in our house we cut off the ends.  Most of them go into the compost heap.  A few we feed to the dogs, giggling as we watch them leap into the air to get these tasty-to-them tidbits and chomp down.  Guess what?  Turns out with their highly sensitive noses they've discovered that the tasty treats also grow in the backyard.  Not only that, they're *much* yummier as young tender tops.  ::sigh:: Now to figure out how to protect the asparagus garden from the dogs so that we have some to eat for ourselves.

Chocolate orange macaroons - I love macaroons, they're one of my favorite treats.  I often don't take the time to make them though.  But this recipe from Bauman College is enough to make me change my mind.  The combination of orange and chocolate is one of my favorites.  Add in that it's in the form of a macaroon cookie?  I'm in.

What I'm reading?   Digestive Wellness: Strengthen the Immune System and Prevent Disease Through Healthy Digestion, Fourth Edition I greatly admire Liz Lipski and this, her latest edition of this book, is a great book when it comes to understanding digestive health and it's relationship to overall well-being.

disclosure:  cmp.ly/5

small batch cookie

Every now and then the urge for a cookie hits me.  I don't buy them because most of them are loaded with ingredients that I don't need or want in my pantry.  But baking a batch of cookies is overwhelming because most of them make at least two dozen and having that many cookies in the house is too much of a temptation.

At the library I saw the book Small Batch Baking.  It looked really interesting so I checked it out and realized that this is a great way to satisfy that sugar urge without overdoing it.  Most of the recipes make just enough for dessert.  No more dozens of cookies or huge cakes waiting in ambush in the kitchen.  This is a wonderful option when that sugar urge hits without having to have all those leftovers.

The other day I was in the mood for a cookie; I changed a few of the ingredients to make a vegan, gluten-free small batch of chocolate chip cookies based on the recipe from Small Batch Baking.  I reduced the sugar because I didn't want anything too sweet, just a hint of sugar to satisfy that craving.

The recipe needs a little refinement as the cookies ran more than I liked so they were flatter/thinner than I wanted.  I prefer a chocolate chip cookie that is a little thicker and gooier and these were more crispy.  Feel free to try it and see what you think.

Small Batch VGF Chocolate Chippers


2 T. plus 2 t. coconut oil (this is probably what made them spread so much)
3 T. evaporated cane juice crystals
2 T. ground flax seed
2 T. water
1/4 t. vanilla
1/4 C. plus 2 T. GF flour
1/4 t. baking soda
generous pinch sea salt
1/4 C. dark chocolate chips

preheat oven to 375 F
cream coconut oil and sucanat together
mix flax seed, water and vanilla together
add to coconut oil and sucanat
mix together dry ingredients and add to wet mixture
add chocolate chips and blend well

drop by tablespoonful onto greased cookie sheet
makes 6 cookies

blueberry bliss

I recently went blueberry picking with a friend.  We went to our local blueberry orchard, Moorhead's Blueberry Farm.  The owner, Sid, told us that his dad started the place 35 years ago and he worked there every summer as a kid.  Now he owns it and works there every day during the season.  They don't use chemical pesticides or fertilizers which is a plus in my book.*

These bushes were fabulous!  Over six feet tall and loaded with berries.  In just 30 short minutes I managed to pick two and a half pounds of plump delicious berries.  As I was picking I was hearing parents with small children scattered throughout the field.  I laughed to myself as I remembered blueberry picking with my girls when they were little.  The three of them were more interested in eating the berries.  They would pick for a while, eating as they picked, and then when they were tired of picking they would come raid my blueberry bucket for handfuls of sweet berries.  Quite frankly I never managed to pick enough to satisfy three hungry tummies and have some for home.  I often had to go back without them in order to have a reasonable amount of berries.

I consider blueberries super-fruits, very high in antioxidants they are one of the few native American fruits.  I've written about some of their health benefits in the past.  New research appears to show that higher consumption of blueberries may be helpful in warding off conditions such as Alzheimers and Parkinson's as well as improving general cognitive function in aging adults.

Whatever their health benefits, no one can deny that they taste wonderful.  After my husband and teenaged daughter plundered the batch I brought home I had just enough left to make a gluten free blueberry coffee cake.  Obviously I'm going to have to go back for more....I guess some things never change.

Gluten Free Blueberry Coffee Cake

Preheat oven to 350 F
grease and flour a 9 x 9 baking pan

1 C. buckwheat flour
1 C. gluten free oat flour
1 C. evaporated cane juice crystals
1 t. baking powder
1/2 t. sea salt
1/4 t. baking soda
1 C. blueberries
1 C. chocolate chips
4 T. butter, cold
1/2 C. Greek yogurt
1/2 C. unsweetened almond milk
1 large egg
1 t. pure vanilla extract

topping:

1/2 C. gluten free rolled oats
1 t. cinnamon
1/2 C. evaporated cane juice crystals
1/4 c. chopped walnuts
1 t. pure vanilla extract


Mix together all of the dried ingredients
Shred butter into flour mixture using the large side of a box grater
Mix butter into the flour mixture with your hands until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs
Add blueberries and chocolate chips and toss well to coat
In a separate bowl mix together yogurt, almond milk, egg, and extract, blend well
Pour liquid ingredients into dry ingredients and quickly blend together, do not overmix the batter
In a separate bowl mix together topping ingredients
Spread topping evenly on the coffee cake
Bake for 25-30 minutes until the top of the coffee cake springs back lightly when tapped
Remove from oven and cool
Serve warm or room temperature


*Sid did share that he uses roundup for weed control (obviously not on the blueberries) because it is  a short-lived weed killer.  I'm hopeful that he will consider switching to something else like vinegar which is shown to be effective. 

baking with kids

ready, set, bake

Baking is wonderful and something I love to do.  Even more fun is to bake with kids.  They're so excited and fascinated by the process.  Learning their way around the ingredients, how to measure, the wet and dry combining process; it's a fun edible science and math experiment in the kitchen.

This is one of my baking buddies, Miss A.  She came over the other day with her brother, Mr. C.   I had promised them that the next time they came over we would make cookies so that was our plan.

As it turns out Mr. C's idea of making cookies was to allow his sister and I to do all the baking while he played the part of Official Cookie Tester.  And, might I add, he was rather impatient for those cookies to be done.

Miss A and I got down to business, put on our aprons and got out my "Famous Chocolate Chip Oaties" recipe.  Mr. C. wanted to know why they were famous, had they been on t.v.?  Did someone famous invent them?  I told him that it was a recipe I had created and I simply call them Famous because everyone who eats them really likes them and wants more.  Needless to say he was less than impressed and informed me that unless they've been on t.v. they can't be famous.  Maybe I should send a box to Ellen?

One of the things I love about baking with kids is how curious they are.  Miss A wanted to taste everything.  Of course we decided that the chocolate chips were pretty tasty.  Surprisingly she liked the oatmeal, even raw, and requested a large spoonful of her own to nibble on.  We had two kinds of sugar and she tasted both of them.  Then we got to the baking soda.  Miss A asked if she could taste it.  I was a little surprised and said, "I'm not sure you want to do that."
"Why?" she asked.
"Well," I replied "it's a little bitter tasting and I'm not sure you're going to like it."
"But I want to taste everything." she said.
So I let her taste it.
Her face scrunched up a little and she said, "It's not really bitter but I don't like it."
"Want some chocolate chips to wash that down?" I asked.
Of course the answer was yes.

We wound up making two batches of cookies the regular variety and the peanut butter variety.  The recipe is below and we're sure you're going to enjoy it, just like we did.

Famous Chocolate Chip Oaties

1/2 C butter
1 C evaporated cane juice crystals
1 egg
1/2 t. vanilla
1 C + 2 T white whole wheat flour
1/2 t. salt
1/2 t. baking soda
1 C chocolate chips
1 C rolled oats

Preheat oven to 375
Blend together butter and sugar until creamy
Add egg and blend well
Add vanilla and blend well
Mix together flour, salt and baking soda and sift into butter mixture
Blend in chocolate chips
Blend in oats

Drop by spoonfuls onto a greased baking sheet
Bake 10 minutes
Let sit on baking sheet 2 minutes
Move to rack to finish cooling

For the Peanut Butter variety:
Substitute sucanat for the evaporated cane juice crystals
Add 1/2 C chunky peanut butter

is chocolate healthy?

I recently received a question from a high school Senior doing a paper for an Anatomy class.  It was a simple question about whether or not chocolate is good for us, but one which made me realize that although we always hear that dark chocolate is good for us we don't really understand why.  So I thought I'd share:


Dark chocolate is high in flavonoids such as epicatechin. These flavonoids act as antioxidants; in other words they help the body fight free radicals which can cause cellular damage.


One study about the benefits of dark chocolate published in Nutrition Reviews in 2006 stated " ...favorable physiological effects includ[ing] antioxidant activity, vasodilation and blood pressure reduction, inhibition of platelet activity, and decreased inflammation."  In other words it's good for lowering blood pressure and decreasing inflammation.  It's also good for lowering LDL, or bad, cholesterol.


Additionally there are some other nutritional benefits.  Dark chocolate offers a respectable amount of iron, magnesium, phosphorus, copper, and manganese.  


So what makes it dark?  The absence of milk solids.  Dark chocolate ranges from 35% upward, the higher the number the more cacao there is.  While the darker the chocolate the more it tastes tangy (I'll be honest here, some folks say bitter), the higher amount of cacao it contains, and the better it is for you.  Milk chocolate or white chocolate do not have a beneficial effect on the body and should be avoided.


How much are we talking here?  One ounce per day (about 30 grams) was enough to provide a benefit.  Not a lot, but then I find that the darker chocolate is actually more satisfying, so a small amount is enough.


photo courtesy of Clarita | MorgueFile