The Best Dough Ever

I don't buy cookies for my daughter, but I do sometimes start to feel bad that she doesn't have any true treats in the house. Today I decided to remedy that in as natural a way as possible. Recently I found out I am allergic to dairy, gluten, eggs, almonds and a few other key foods. What to use to make chocolate chip cookies now?

A few days ago I sprouted and dehydrated some buckwheat groats to use for cereal. I decided to grind some up into flour, with some sunflower seeds and substitute the almond flour in a paleo recipe. I had no idea it would make the best cookie dough I have ever tasted. I ate my three cookies raw, since I am now high raw, and baked the rest for the family.

Here is the recipe, bake at 375 for 10 minutes if you want...or enjoy like I did and save yourself the hassle of washing a cookie sheet.

Sprouted Buckwheat Carob Chippers

1     cups sprouted buckwheat groats
1     cup sunflower seeds
1/4  tsp sea salt
1/2  tsp baking soda
2      tblsp raw honey
1      tblsp vanilla
1/4  cup raw coconut oil
1      tblsp flax meal
3      tblsp water
4      tblsp carob chips

Grease cookie sheet. Set oven to 375.

Put Buckwheat and Sunflower Seeds in food processor and run for 2 minutes until they are a coarse flour.

Mix together first four ingredients in small bowl.

Stir together flax and warm water in a small cup. Let set while you get other wet ingredients.

In a large bowl, combine honey, vanilla, oil and flax mixture.

Stir dry into wet, until a dough forms, then fold in carob chips.

Makes 1 dozen cookies, using a tablespoon to measure out the dough.

Enjoy raw or cooked with your favorite non-dairy milk or a cup of tea!

Going Raw: Week 1

I first heard about the raw food diet in Mysore, India while studying yoga with ShSheshadri. That was 2002. I thought the guy was a bit crazy when he said all you needed to survive and thrive wàs pineapple and avocados. At the time I was still strongly attached to a complicated cooked food diet, even though I was tired all the time and had hip and back pain. 

Three years later I decided to try this raw way of life. Of course, I had to be complicated about it, making dehydrated breads, complex soups and fancy desserts. it was hard for me to really develop a taste for mand my stools are f the foods. The things I liked most were the fruits and the nuts. I never got used to the taste of sprouted grain and beans. I continued to be primarily raw for a coiuple of years, but regularly caved to temptations of dairy and wheat.

I now understand why I had those cravings. I was trying to subsist on mainly salad, with a few pieces of fruit and a few handfuls of nuts. I never ate enough veggies to meet my caloric needs. I was following the Hippocrates suggestions of low glycemic eating and my body was begging for more calories.

This time around I am more educated about the various types of raw diets and have found the 80-10-10 approach to be the soundest. This approach tells you to eat a lot of fresh fruit, some greens and very little fat in the form of nuts and avocados. I already feel much more satiated and grounded. 

I am also going into it with a much less rigid mindset. I am eating a little bit of cooked food, like steamed veggies and gluten-free grains. It ias more about feeling good then fitting into a category. At this time in my life it also has to be about affordability too. Adding a meal of rice and beans every other day helps to spread out the resources. 

Today marks the end of a week eating high raw. It has been surprisingly easy ans enjoyable. I immediately saw results that have helped me stay motivated to keep it up. From day one I have needed less sleep. I do fine on 6 hours now, where as I used to need 8-10 hours, with a 30 minute nap around 3pm. The first few days I had insomnia and woke up at 3 or 4am and couldn't get back to sleep, but it didn't affect the rest of the day. 

My tongue is pink again, instead of the slight white film it had developed eating the SAD. Digestion has improved a lot. No heartburn or gas, and my stools are more frequenrt and have less undigested matter in them. My energy levels are higher and more steady. In general, I feel terrific!

My 40th Year

I have been alive for 39 years and 6 months. For 14 of those years I have had suspicions that I could be gluten intolerant and allergic to dairy. In 1999, a book called Eat Right For Your Blood Type came into my life, while working at a yoga studio in Arlington, Virginia. As soon as I read it I knew there was truth to what it revealed about eating wheat and processed foods. I gave up wheat for a little while, but not long.

By 2005 I was having constant hip and low back pain, as well as muscle spasms in my upper back. I was also exposed to the raw food movement and began experimenting with that lifestyle. I gave up meat, dairy and cooked food, but I never fully let go of wheat. I would regularly cheat by munching some breakfast cereal in the morning and yeast free breads wit my salads.

In 2007, I met my husband to be and we enjoyed eating healthy together.  I began to eat some fish and he tried more raw foods. I felt like I needed the meat and it helped bring some regularity to my cycles. I began experiencing terrible allergies starting in 2006 involving my respiratory system. I couldn't trace them to any one cause, but mold and dust were definite factors. I saw a few different therapists and one mentioned I was allergic to gluten. I moved towards a gluten free diet in 2008, similar to Atkins. I incorporated more super foods as well. In 2009, the hard work paid off and I got pregnant. I was still having allergies though. I miscarried at 13 weeks and spent a month recuperating and recommitting to a clean diet. I got pregnant again in January. By June I had such terrible neck and back pain I started to see another IMT therapist who told me yet again to cut out the wheat, as well as dairy and peanuts. I did for two months and my pain subsided. Stubborn as usual and stuck in old habits though, I went back to eating wheat and dairy for the last two months of the pregnancy and into the third month of Trinity's life.

It was then that my body decided to send me a loud wake up call with serious gallbladder attacks. I cut out wheat and dairy again and the attacks subsided. This see-sawing continued for the next couple of years, with varrying degrees of symptoms such as fatigue, allergies, mood swings, and muscle pain. I would get terribly depressed, but never saw the very clear connection to eating dairy and grains directly preceding the episodes.

It is now 2014 and I am five months pregnant. I began eating gluten again almost as soon as I knew I had conceived. Why? Because the brain of a food addict and codependent does not place personal health first. The brain thinks of a million ways to rationalize the self destructive impulse. My family happily allows the first slip and even encourages the loss of perspective and control. Grandma is relieved to have company in her kitchen and hubby sighs relief when hamburger buns and burritos show up on the dinner table. Daughter begs relentlessly for more refined sugar, cheese and grains. For a little while I feel like I've finally lost the monkey on my back and can be "normal" again. That's about the time my body clears its throat and reminds me...I am not normal. The horrendous allergies that include full days of sneezing and going through boxes of tissue return. The immobilizing fatigue from a child size dose of benedryl leave me with the guilt of knowing that I am endangering the growing baby inside simply because I refuse to accept that I have food allergies.

Today is a new day though. Today I am putting my body ahead of peer pressure and addiction. I am going to let go of wheat and gluten forever and embrace a raw food, living food lifestyle wholeheartedly. I am not going to cave to the pressure of family and mainstream medicine, who would like to believe that a diet without dairy is harmful. I am going to give my babies the best start in life I know.