Raw Chocolate Fudge Cookies

Are you ever in the mood for something sweet - just a little bite - but there's nothing around to fit the bill? Here's a super-easy, gluten-free cookie recipe that whips up in minutes and really satisfies. Raw almond-based and maple sweetened with the richness of raw cacao, the nourishing green power of spirulina and a starry sky coating of creamy hemp seeds, Raw Chocolate Fudge Cookies are packed with flavor and nutrition: protein, essential fatty acids, antioxidants, vitamins, minerals and all the multidimensional, heart-opening phytochemicals that make us love cacao.

The day I created (you might say channeled) this recipe, I made a tiny batch, using my handy dandy Cuisinart Spice & Nut Grinder to grind up a couple handfuls of raw almonds. I'm crazy about that little Mill but raw foodists take note: friction = heat, so be sure to use cold or frozen almonds and even chill the stainless cup before grinding. (Interesting science fact: when you grind flax or chia seeds in this convenient device, the warming effect is not noticeable. This is because the heat produced from grinding is relative to the size of the original object. Chia and flax seeds, being much smaller than almonds, require far less energy, i.e. heat, to break down.)

Anyway, the old Mill method yielded a small batch of cookies, which was fine for starters but now I was hooked. So the next day (ahem) I made a second batch, this time using more of everything and grinding the almonds in my juicer! Yes, my Omega 8005 juicer has a "blank" attachment that enables perfect (and heat-free) grinding. (The 8003 or 8006 models, as well as Champion juicers also have this attachment.) What I ended up with was almond meal or, what you could call, fresh almond flour. Cool!

The recipe below is given both in measurements and in parts, in case you just want to make a small batch using tablespoons (like I did the first time). The teeny batch approach also ensures that you don't eat too many cookies at once, for anyone out there who might have that problem (ahem again).

If for any reason you'd like to sub raw almond butter for the almond meal in this recipe (Lazy Raw Foodists take note) I'd suggest using only half the maple syrup for starters and adding more from there, to avoid the dough becoming too wet. Raw honey or agave could also be subbed for the maple syrup. If anyone tries these variations, please let me know if results are to your satisfaction. Happy nibbling! XO Diana


Raw Chocolate Fudge Cookies

1 cup (4 parts) freshly ground almond meal (from about 2/3 cups whole raw almonds)
1/2 cup (2 parts) raw cacao powder, sifted to remove lumps
1/4 cup (1 part) spirulina powder
1/2 cup (2 parts) maple syrup
1/4 cup (1 part) hemp seeds or more, as needed for coating

Combine freshly ground almond meal, sifted raw cacao and spirulina. Add maple syrup and stir till well combined. As you like, mix by hand or use the food processor or your Omega 8005 juicer, if you have one, fitted with the blank. (As long as it's already out, why not?)

Pour hemp seeds into a dish or plate. Working with a teaspoon of dough at a time, roll into small balls and press into hemp seeds on top, bottom and sides, to create a thoroughly hemp-encrusted flat cookie about one and a half inches in diameter. Chill to firm and store in the refrigerator, where cool temps along with antioxidants in cacao and spirulina will help keep the liberated almond oils fresh.

Community Superfoods Open Tonight!

Have you heard about Community Superfoods? It's my new, full-service buying group and retail store, welcoming pre-orders and stocking a small inventory. Community Superfoods is only open once a week and tonight's the night!

Community Superfood's doors are open wide just once a week, on Wednesday nights from 4:30 to 7:00 PM, at Montague Integrative Health (432 Greenfield Road, next to the Book Mill). I hope you can stop by.

Store night is a fun opportunity to meet up with your friends and neighbors, taste product samples and enjoy yummy treats that I make like fresh herbal teas and raw goodies. Tonight I'll be serving some sweet, miniature Raw Chocolate Fudge Cookies made with freshly ground almond flour, maple syrup and a trio of raw superfoods: cacao, spirulina and hempseeds. DELICIOUS! (Stay tuned for recipe and pics.)

To learn more about Community Superfoods, click here.

Yours in the Joy & Balancing Light of Fall Equinox,
Diana

Drink Your Greens

Many of you know that drinking green juices and green smoothies is one of the tastiest, easiest and most satisfying ways to help get optimum amounts of mineral-rich, alkalizing LIVING greens into your daily diet.

The word LIVING is capitalized in the previous paragraph (and this one, come to think of it) for an important reason. We need to consume life to generate life. If we consume only lifeless food, we must give up our own life force to turn something dead into something that can support vitality. Of the foodstuffs we consume, only raw living foods provide life force -- as living cells, active enzymes and stored solar energy -- direct to our body.

A new book, Catching Fire, argues that one reason humans started cooking food was to cut down on chewing time (thereby adding more productive tool-inventing, brain-developing hours to the day). Even if this were true, we must admit that just because our ancestral cave-men and -women, in all their primal wisdom (and I mean that), started a trend a million or so years ago doesn’t make that trend the best choice for health.

Yes, chewing pounds of leaves daily can be tedious work. And the hard cell walls of certain plants do inhibit nutrient absorption in some cases. Nevertheless, cooking all of our veggies down to a limp squish is NOT the only alternative! Scientifically, it is well known that cooking leafy greens and other plant foods diminishes or destroys many of their health-giving properties -- from their precious, living vibrational energy force to their proteins, vitamins, delicate phytonutrients and so on.

There must be a solution to the "must I eat these mounds of leafy greens again, Ma?" problem. Enter the BLENDER. Blenders make short work of kale, spinach, chard, parsley and any fresh leafy green you can name. Blending greens yields a product wherein no chewing is required to break down fibers. (It's still a good idea to "chew" your smoothies, to commence digestive action via salivary enzymes.) And JUICERS take the process a step further by removing all fiber from the final product without damaging nutrients or enzymes and enabling almost direct absorption into body cells. Who knows – if cavemen had access to these modern kitchen tools, perhaps they never would have invented cooking in the first place!

I love drinking vegetable juices (what Kristen Suzanne vampirously, and with a wink, calls “plant blood”) for the pure hit of liquid solar energy they provide. And smoothies offer the convenience of a delicious and satisfying meal in a glass – especially filling when they include a handful of goji berries, chia seeds or other whole food soluble fiber source.

Smoothies also provide an ideal vehicle with which to indulge your inner alchemist, as you may add any number of nourishing superfoods and medicinal botanicals to your potion -- think golden berries, green foods, maca, MSM, raw cacao, bee pollen, milk thistle, pau dArco, Reishi mushrooms, and on… and on….

If you are interested in learning more about Green Smoothies, do consider reading Victoria Boutenko’s Green for Life, the book which started it all. For rationale and ideas on juicing, anything by Norman Walker or Natalia Rose’s excellent Raw Food Life Force Energy are sure to inform, inspire and delight.

Very Green Super Chocolate
Hemp Seed Smoothie

1 banana
1 soft pitted date
4 leaves kale
10 raw almonds (small handful)
2 teaspoons hemp seeds*
1 teaspoon chia seeds*
1 Tablespoon raw cacao powder*
1 level teaspoon spirulina powder*
1 scant teaspoon MSM powder (3 grams)*
½ teaspoon cayenne pepper or more, to taste
½ teaspoon cinnamon or more, to taste
1 cup leftover herb tea or water
2-4 ice cubes

Add everything to the blender and blend on high speed till well combined. Pour into a glass and drink. Will thicken up as it sits so be sure to add enough liquid at the beginning.

*These items available at a significant savings to clients and local readers by pre-order and in person at my new discount superfood store, Community Superfoods!

Living in the Raw - Wednesday

My new store, Community Superfoods, opened today for the first time, from 4:30-7:00. It will be open just once a week, operating both as a storefront and a full-service discount raw food and superfood buying club for my clients, friends and local community. Thank you to the folks who came tonight, tasted Sacred Chocolate and purchased items! It was a pleasure to serve you!

Opening the store threw my schedule off a bit, as did my two-hour marathon cavity replacement and tooth rebuild at the dentist this morning. Typically I do not eat a big snack of raw halvah at 4:00 in the afternoon - but knowing that dinner would be late...it just happened! Very yummy as a once in a while treat, and quite filling, hence the light supper at 8 PM. (Shhh! Don't tell Paul Nison.)

Here's what my raw repast resembled today:


BREAKFAST
water, herb tea
6 ounces Carrot-Celery-Apple Juice

SNACK
one perfect peach, post dentist

LUNCH
Kelp Noodles (one package) gently warmed together with last night's Creamy Corn-Zucchini-Dill soup leftovers, to make noodles in creamy sauce. Garnished with nutritional yeast and a dash of tamari.
Dried Yacon slices

SNACK
Instant Chocolate Halvah with Goji Berries

Directions: Mix a few spoonfuls of raw tahini with raw cacao, unhulled raw sesame seeds and raw honey or maple syrup until thick and creamy. Add goji berries, stir and prepare for blast off. :-) I ate this in reverie with a spoon, but it would be quite nice to shape the halvah into little balls or bars and roll them in sesame seeds.

DINNER
Green Salad with Grated Carrots, Pink Beets, chopped Tomatoes and Guacamole
Lemon-Dijon-Flaxseed Vinaigrette


EXERCISE
AM 20 minute dog & cat walk
PM crunches, squats and push ups

Living in the Raw

On August 17th I started a little raw food experiment, upping my raw food intake from high raw to very high raw. Very very very high.

For those who don't know, the "raw food diet" is defined as a diet that contains eighty percent or more raw food. Not necessarily exclusively raw, just 80%. This will come as a relief to many people who are drawn to raw food nutrition but hesitate to give up all cooked food, the option of going out to dinner with friends, etc.

There's a significant degree of confusion or, in some cases, competition in some circles around the whole issue of "how raw" a person is. For many people, there are times or situations when one wants or needs to commit to being strictly 100% raw. Karen Knowler, the UK's exuberant Raw Food Coach, calls this "going through the eye of the needle." I respect people who choose this path, for however long. I've walked on it myself and there's a lot to be said for adhering to that kind of discipline while remaining soft in one's heart.

The current experiment going on here is a step down from 100% rigidity, although exceptions are pretty much limited to things like miso and other condiments (prepared mustard, curry paste, organic soup broth powder) plus some restaurant-friendly items like goat cheese* or olives that make it possible for me to be relaxed when going out to eat with "normal" people. (This happened today.)

Speaking of normal people, many do wonder what on earth a raw fooder actually eats, anyway? Is it just a lot of salad and fruit? Isn't that boring?! I thought I'd answer that question by sharing a few days of my raw food diet-lifestyle, just to show how varied it is, and how delicious!

Let's start with today, Tuesday. FYI, the tostada shells at dinner are a version of a Wild Rice Flatbread from Living Cuisine, Renée Loux-Underkoffler's magnificent un-cookbook. I made these with red rice instead of wild rice and they are fantastic. The soup was gently warmed to 100 degrees, just steaming, to preserve life force & enzymes intact.


BREAKFAST
water. herb tea. Green Juice (celery, kale, carrot, apple, lemon, ginger)

LUNCH
Greek Salad (From Panera restaurant. Feta cheese and olives not raw.)
Apple

SNACK
Sacred Chocolate (69% dark chocolate; 1/3 bar)
2 Seckle pears (from my tree - delicious!)
tea with raw honey

DINNER
big slice of Manchego raw sheep cheese (appetizer)
Raw Blended Soup (Cream of Sweet Corn and Zucchini Dill)
Guacamole Tostadas (Cilantro-Lime Guacamole, Purple Cherokee Tomatoes, Butter Lettuce, Manitok Wild Rice Flatbread)

EXERCISE
AM - 20 minutes rebounding, yoga
PM - 20 minute dog and cat walk (Bonnie, the one-year old kitten accompanied Stella and I. Her brother Clyde stayed home this time.)

* Note: raw fooders are often vegan, but not always. I admire and aspire to an animal-free diet but as a Protein Type O, do well at this point with some goat cheese and even sushi in my raw diet.