In my last post about cookies I spoke about my adoration of the delicious treat. This love for a scrumptious hand held delight has led me on a quest to continue to develop 'healthy' cookies that do not have sugar, flour, fats, dairy or eggs. To most this sounds horrible, a cookie without any of the cookie parts! However, these cookies are satisfying and actually quite delicious. Not as sweet as traditional cookies but as you cut out sugar from your diet you will begin to find that traditional sweets are in fact excruciatingly overly sweet and that you really don't like then after all.

Sugar is probably the number one evil when it comes to our healthy, our waistlines, and our desires. Sugar is addictive and it unfortunately it feeds everything that is bad within our bodies. Bad bacteria, yeast, viral infections, disease - all of these things feed off of sugar and cannot live without it. One thing that tends to happen is that we replace all of our white sugar with natural sugar, that is a step in the right direction, however we still do need to be careful to not only eat sweet foods such as fruit but to incorporate a wide variety of vegetables into our diets as well.

Blackberry, Almond, and Quinoa No-Bake Protein Balls

Back to cookies... Since I have learned a few substitution secrets for vegan and healthy baking I have been amped to get back into that scene. I was an avid baker prior to my dietary changes and missed the peace that creaming butter and sugar together gave me. I always found the process of baking calming although the aftermath of eating too many sweets was not pleasant. As I continue to experiment with different recipes and different flours I have made some great discoveries!

These two types of cookies, hold the same base ingredients; Blackberries, Almonds, and Quinoa but are utilized in a different way. Personally, I love the ease of throwing together no-bake protein balls. They literally take 5 minutes or less and taste amazing! These are fresh with blackberry flavor and hold tons of protein from the quinoa. I did cook the quinoa first so I can not call them raw balls but in the future I may leave it uncooked to get more of a crunch.

The traditional cookies are made with bananas, applesauce, almond butter, flax, and quinoa flour. These cookies are for those of you who like a soft chewy one. They do not crisp on the outside like cookies made with butter but instead say soft and delicious.

I hope that you test out both recipes and let me know of any changes that you make! Enjoy!

Vegan Blackberry, Almond, and Quinoa Cookies: 2 Ways

Blackberry, Almond, and Quinoa Cookies

3 Bananas

1/2 cup Unsweetened Applesauce

1/4 cup Almond Butter

1 tbs Flax Meal + 3 tbs Water

1 tbs Vanilla Extract

1 cup Quinoa Flour

1/4 cup Coconut Flour

1 tbs Ground Cinnamon

1 tsp Ground Nutmeg

1 tbs Baking Soda

1 tsp Pink Himalayan Sea Salt

1 cup Oats

1/2 cup chopped Blackberries

1/2 cup chopped Almonds

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Combine the flax and water to create a flax egg. In a small bowl combine the flours, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg, and salt, set aside.

Using a mixer, combine the bananas, applesauce, and almond butter until smooth. Add the flax egg and vanilla extract, blending. Slowly add the flour mixture until a dough begins to form. Add the oats. Once combined stir in the blackberries and almonds.

Drop spoonfuls onto a baking sheet, spread the dough out into the size of the cookie that you would like (the dough will not spread). Sprinkle with sliced almonds. Bake for 10-15 minutes or until the cookies are browned on the bottom and cooked through. Let sit on the cookie sheet for 1 minute before moving to a cooling rack.

Blackberry, Almond, and Quinoa No-Bake Protein Balls

1 cup Raw Almonds

1 cup Quinoa, cooked (although I may try this uncooked shortly)

1/2 cup Unsweetened Coconut

1 tbs Flax Seeds

1 tbs Chia Seeds

1 tbs Ground Cinnamon

1 tsp Pink Himalayan Sea Salt

1 tbs Coconut Oil

8 Dates

1/2 cup blackberries, divided

In a food processor add the almonds and pulse a few times to break them down a little. Add the quinoa, coconut, flax, chia, cinnamon, salt and coconut oil. Process until combined. With the machine running add the dates one at a time until the mixture begins to come together. Add half of the blackberries, pulsing to combine. Loosely chop the remaining blackberries and stir into the mixture.

Roll the dough into 1 in. balls and place in the freezer for an hour before eating. These can be kept, covered in the freezer for later consumption.

Enjoy and healthy snacking!

Spring has sprung and there is nothing better than the charred taste of the grill. Grilled vegetables is a simple way in which to create a tasty, slight smoky salad especially when paired with quinoas protein packed goodness, fresh sweet corn and the tangy crumble of some goat cheese.

This week a follower sent me a message regarding the alkalinity of grilled vegetables. I am going to be straight with you - any cooking method reduces a vegetables alkaline pH and sends it closer to neutral and even sometimes dips it into ever so slightly acidic. The only way to preserve the natural alkaline state of vegetables and fruits is to eat them raw.

I love raw food and practiced a raw diet for quite awhile, however, the northeast is not the most ideal place for this. In the dead of winter with winds howling outside and temperatures reaching a high of 3 degrees you want warm food and not dehydrator warm but burn your insides warm. So even though cooking your foods, whether grilling, sauteing, baking, boiling, or steaming reduces their nutrient value and pH you still are obtaining a number of health and nutritional benefits and in a plant based diet a wide range of variety of consumption options, which is important to everyone. I personally don't want to only eat any vegetable cooked in just one way no matter how delicious it is.

It is also important to remember that in an alkaline diet you do not want to only eat alkaline forming foods, you want a balance and you want to eat 20% acidic food as well. This doesn't mean processed cakes and cookies but it does mean a little cheese, some eggs, perhaps a chicken breast if that is your thing, or maybe a few plums (they are acidic)! We want to create healthy bodies that are optimally energized through the food choices that we make.

I hope that you enjoy this great salad, it can be eaten warm or cool as it is tasty either way and makes a beautiful presentation when bringing it to summer picnics, yes I am definitely looking forward to summer!

Warm Red Quinoa and Grilled Vegetable Salad

1 Zucchini, sliced longways

1 Summer Squash, sliced Longways

10 baby Peppers

2 tbs Olive Oil

1/2 tsp Pink Himalayan Sea Salt

1/2 tsp dried Oregano

1 cup Quinoa

2 cups water

1/2 cup Fresh Sweet Corn

2oz Goat Cheese, crumbled

Preheat the grill. Add the water and quinoa to a saucepan and bring to a bowl. Cover and reduce the heat, simmering for 15 minutes or until the water has been absorbed. Remove from heat and let stand 2 minutes before fluffing with a fork.

Meanwhile, toss the sliced zucchini, squash, and whole peppers in the olive oil, salt, and oregano, evenly coating. Arrange of the grill, turning over after 5 minutes until slightly charred on all sides.

Place the quinoa in a serving bowl and top with the grilled veggies, fresh corn, and goat cheese. Enjoy and Healthy Eating!