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Blogging for good health!, Recipes

Good Morning, Glory, Power Muffins!

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March on Morning Glory Power Muffins
Food-Talk-4-U-Morning-Glory-7-R
Sometimes you just really want a muffin! I know that often, muffins are just glorified little cakes full of unnecessary carbohydrates. Popping on the label saying they are gluten-free is NOT necessarily a pathway to improved health. There is so much around these days with the label “gluten-free,” and once again, the advertisers are wooing us with products still replete with chemicals, highly refined oils, starch, and sugar!

So, I was determined to make a nutritionally dense muffin that would satisfy and be truly delicious.

I did it!

These Morning Glory Power Muffins have received rave reviews, and it is my pleasure to share this recipe with you today!

Morning Glory Power Muffins

Yield- 20 muffins

Preheat oven to 350

Food-Talk-4-U-Morning-Glory-3-RIngredients:

½ cup golden raisins

4 Tbs. hemp seed hearts

3 Tbs. ground golden flax seed meal

¾ cup unsweetened coconut flakes

1 cup grated carrots

1 cup crushed pineapple no sugar added

1 cup chopped walnuts*

Food-Talk-4-U-Morning-Glory-1-R

2 medium-sized ripe bananas, mashed

1/3 cup brown sugar

1 ½ tsp. vanilla

3 eggs

1 tsp. cinnamon

¼ tsp. ground ginger

¼ tsp. kosher salt

1 ½ tsp. baking soda

1 cup gluten-free flour

½ tsp. xanthan gum

¼ cup coconut flour

1/3 cup coconut oil, melted

Method:

In a large mixing bowl and using an electric mixer, beat the eggs until creamy yellow; add the banana, vanilla, brown sugar,Food-Talk-4-U-Morning-Glory-2-R cinnamon, ginger, salt, and baking soda, beating until well-combined. Add the melted coconut oil and mix well. Add the flours and the xanthan gum, beating to combine.

Then, using a wooden spoon or spatula, stir in the raisins, hemp and flax seed, coconut, carrot, pineapple, and wFood-Talk-4-U-Morning-Glory-4-Ralnuts. Make sure to mix all ingredients well.

Fill muffin tin lined with baking cups about 3/4 full.

Bake in pre-heated 350 degree oven for 28 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean after being inserted.

 *Prior to using, soak walnuts at least 4-6 hours in enough water to cover and 1 tsp. sea salt. Rinse soaked nuts very well, blot dry on a towel, and dehydrate in oven or dehydrator. This process activates the nuts, makes them more Nuts-drying-in-ovendigestible, and increases their crisp tastiness. While I do own a dehydrator, this was the first time I used my oven for nut dehydration, and I was totally satisfied with the results. After using the oven for another purpose, I spread these walnuts out on a large rimmed metal pan and put them in the pre-warmed oven (350) which I then turned off. After a few hours, I stirred the nuts around, closed the door and warmed the oven up to about 200 degrees; theFood-Talk-4-U-Morning-Glory-5-Rn I turned it off, and let them dehydrate some more. This was done before going to bed. By morning, they were crisp. Once you have tasted activated nuts, you will never want to eat plain raw ones again!

I hope you agree that these are the “Best Ever Morning Glories”! Their power comes from the hemp, flax, and walnuts which give great forms of “good fat” as in Omega 3 fatty acids, and in protein! Certainly, the otherFood-Talk-4-U-Morning-Glory-8-R ingredients aren’t too shabby, either!

News Flash!

Deidre has been a little absent from this blog because there is so much good stuff going on!

Sorry for my absence here, but I have been preparing for the next cycle of the Designed for Health Classes, AND I have been working on my book in which I am putting all of this wellness thinking into one work! Plus, I have been doing so much research into habits are born, and how to develop our daily energies into something more powerful than we could ever imagine!

Designed for Health, Series 2 classes will be held at First Baptist Church, New Bern, North Carolina. They will be held in Building A for six weeks on Wednesday nights from 6-7 pm. If you are not a member of First Baptist Church, that’s fine, just email me at foodtalk4you@gmail.com to let me know you want to attend. I want to make sure we have a room big enough for everyone, so a head count is always good to have in advance. This series is free to all.
If you are interested in a class closer to where you live, or your organization would like me to speak with them, please contact me at the same email address to schedule a class or single presentation.

Blogging for good health!

Nutrient Dense Food

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As my personal plate is over-flowing at present, I am posting a summary of a recent Designed for Health class.  Sorry for the slow down on posts, but life happens.  Blessings to all who are marking milestones with graduations right now!  Can’t wait to cheer our daughter as she receives her MD from the University of Iowa!

Nutrient Dense Food—

What does that mean to you?

So, we’re looking at food as close to its original form as possible:Food-talk-4-u-pear fresh, minimally processed, with no long list of ingredients. What we need to be looking at is not counting calories but “is eating this food going to do me good or harm?” Is this food nutrient dense?

We’ll get into this more in the fall postings, but you’ve certainly heard of essential fatty acids and essential amino acids? Those come from (good) fat choices and protein choices, respectively. But did you know there are NO essential carbohydrates! Therefore, to maximize the goal of food being nutrient rich, it’s the carbohydrate category that can do us harm.

Now, if you try going gluten-free for the next month or so, you will automatically avoid the empty calories of breads, cakes, pastas, etc. made from wheat, barley, or rye. While I am sharing with you gluten-free “conversions” for those items, it is still possible to maintain the empty calorie sink hole with gorging on scrumptious gluten-free scones every day! So keep that in mind. Treats are treats. I am trying to guide you toward being gluten-free; that’s baby steps, but carbs are carbs.

Food-talk-4-u-nutrient-densityOkay so where do we spend our carb calories? Nutrient dense vegetables and some fruits of every kind and of every color should be our goal. That’s why I started our first class with the smoothie chart. What a wonderful drink in which to pack nutrients!

For lunch yesterday I fixed a smoothie with a whole pear, 1/3 avocado, ¼ each lime and lemon, soaked chia seeds, sweet spices, three leaves of Swiss chard, two handfuls of baby spinach, unsweetened grated coconut, whey protein, and coconut milk. It made three glasses full so there are snacks and meals already waiting for me in the refrigerator!

Please note the following resources for more information about gluten:

Dr. Mark Hyman, MD – on his home page type in the search box: Three hidden ways wheat makes you fat to read the full article.

On Marksdailyapple.com, Mark gets pretty technical, but has a truck load of information. Click on the testimonials section for folks who talk about massive health turnarounds through food.

What does sugar do to us? Well, briefly…

It skyrockets your blood sugar levels which in turn calls for you to make, release, and respond to insulin. A problem with any part of that process is called Diabetes.Food-talk-4-u-sugar

Sugar is addictive in the same way crack and heroin are addictive. The opiate receptors in our brains are stoked and demand MORE!

By-the-way, starchy carbs are also addictive for the same reason!

Sugar is inflammatory to the body, affecting the heart, joints, skin…pretty much everything.

Where gluten is found –

Well, if you eliminate wheat, barley, and rye, you are well on your way, but gluten is also found in the ingredient lists of packaged and processed foods. Many food labels now sport gluten-free entries under allergy information, but those not labeled gluten-free, you will have to check the list.

Beware of anything with the word ‘wheat’ or ‘wheat starch’ in it. I used to love sautéing artificial crab meat with onions, veggies, and spices for a great hot cracker spread, but in the ingredient list is ‘wheat starch’…

In restaurants, ask for the gluten-free menu. Outback’s original way of cooking their steaks has gluten, but their fire cooked steaks are without gluten! Who would have known! Good news! Their brownie covered with chocolate sauce and ice cream is gluten-free! Birthdays happen!

Food-talk-4-u-nutrition-labelBeware of gravies of any kind; they usually come out of a can and all contain gluten. Soy sauce has gluten, but you can use Tamari or Coconut Aminos instead at home.

Always read labels and look for yourself. While you’re at it, look for items without added sugar, too!

Hope these tips for nutrient dense foods and gluten-free advisories will help you in the coming week.

Deidre

Disclaimer:

The information being discussed in these blogs is NOT intended to replace a relationship with a qualified health care professional. Foodtalk4you blogs endeavor to empower people through the exploration of publicly available resources of information about human anatomy and physiology, and how different foods affect the human body.  Readers should seek the advice of their qualified health care providers with any questions about their medical conditions or health status before attempting any dietary, exercise, or lifestyle changes.