Health for life

This week, I planned to present you with an alternative to the Christmas cookie, as well as one of my favorite sweets: daifuku, Japanese rice balls stuffed with sweet red bean paste. Three tries ended with me covered in sticky, gelatinous goo.

Let’s just say my technique needs work.

Time was ticking when I decided to scrap the daifuku. My baker’s pantry is still pretty well stocked from Thanksgiving, so cookies seemed like the best choice for a quick and dirty replacement. I turned to the dependable and consistently marvelous How to Cook Everything Vegetarian by Mark Bittman.

Bittman’s How to Cook Everything books take the guesswork out of cooking and baking by showing you how to customize recipes for any situation. If you’re a novice or by-the-book cook, you’ll feel at liberty to make substitutions to suit your tastes or pantry, and you’ll eventually gain the confidence to switch things up on your own.

One recipe reminded me of my mom and I just had to try it: Oatmeal Apple Cookies.

My mom was always trying to get me and my siblings to eat healthy snacks when the rest of our friends and classmates were eating ding dongs and zingers. Oatmeal Apple Cookies are just the kind of cookies she would have made to put in my Muppet Movie lunch box next to the carrot sticks and carob-chip trail mix.

So, at least for today, think of me as your wacky, veggie aunt, offering you whole-grain and fruit cookies when everyone else has laid out chocolate-coated, butter-infused treats rolled in nuts and dripping with icing.

I made a ton of changes, based on MB’s variation ideas and some based on my own perences. He provides a vegan option for most of the recipes in the vegetarian cookbook, and I used his applesauce-for-egg and almond milk for cow’s milk suggestions. I also used nonhydrogenated vegan butter for dairy butter.

Here’s where I ventured out on my own: the original recipe calls for dried apples. I’m not a fan of dried fruit in general and don’t keep it around, so I took a chance and used the real thing. I also swapped granulated sugar for maple syrup. Excellent decisions all around.

The cookies are moist, sweet, and delicious. They may be a little on the soft side —no crispy edges, my favorite part of a cookie—but full of apple flavor and definitely a crowd pleaser; CB, my Roommate, and two of my officemates gave thumbs-up.

The recipe whipped up quickly too, from peeling and grating the apple to pulling the last pan out of the oven, the whole enterprise took less than 90 minutes. Oatmeal Apple Cookies would add a tasty and fast, if not entirely festive, option to the Christmas cookie rotation. And they’re much less sticky than daifuku.

~~~~

If this xx tips your canoe, swim on over to:

• Vegan Ginger Cookies
• Snickerdoodles
• Vegan Bran Muffins

~~~

Oatmeal Apple Cookies
Makes about 4 dozen; 2 cookies per serving


1/2 cup nonhydrogenated vegan butter
1/2 cup maple syrup
3/4 cup brown sugar, packed
1/4 cup apple sauce
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
2 cups rolled oats (not quick oats)
1 cup apple, peeled and grated (about 1 medium apple)
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/4 tsp clove
pinch of salt
2 tsp baking powder
1/4 cup soy, almond, or rice milk
1 tsp vanilla extract

1) Preheat oven to 375. Peel and grate apple and set aside.

2) In a large mixing bowl, cream together vegan butter, syrup, and sugar with mixer, then stir in applesauce.

3) In a medium bowl, combine flour, oats, apples, cinnamon, nutmeg, clove, baking powder, and salt.

4) Alternately, add milk and dry ingredients to butter and sugar mixture until dough is formed, mixing in a little more milk if dough is too dry.

5) Spoon out tablespoon-sized dollops of dough onto ungreased baking sheet and bake for 12-15 minutes. Allow to cool for a minute or two, remove from baking sheet, and continue on a wire rack.

6) Serve with a glass of almond milk or hot tea.

Approximate Calories, Fat, Fiber, Protein, and Price per Serving
137.3 calories, 3.8g fat, .9g fiber, 1.74g protein, $.23

Calculations
1/2 cup nonhydrogenated vegan butter: 800 calories, 88g fat, 0g fiber, 0g protein, $0.96
1/2 cup maple syrup: 420 calories, 0.5g fat, 0g fiber, 0g protein, $2.38
3/4 cup brown sugar: 628 calories, 0g fat, 0g fiber, 0g protein, $0.43
1/4 cup apple sauce: 51.75 calories, 0g fat, 1g fiber, 0g protein, $0.26
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour: 682.5 calories, 1.5g fat, 4.5g fiber, 19.5g protein, $0.32
2 cups rolled oats: 609 calories, 9g fat, 16g fiber, 22g protein, $0.24
1 cup apple: 77 calories, 0g fat, 2g fiber, 0g protein, $0.50
1/2 tsp cinnamon: 0 calories, 0g fat, 0g fiber, 0g protein, $0.02
1/4 tsp nutmeg: 0 calories, 0g fat, 0g fiber, 0g protein, $0.02
1/4 tsp clove: 0 calories, 0g fat, 0g fiber, 0g protein, $0.02
pinch of salt: 0 calories, 0g fat, 0g fiber, 0g protein, $0.02
2 tsp baking powder: 4 calories, 0g fat, 0g fiber, 0g protein, $0.04
1/4 cup almond milk: 10 calories, 0.75g fat, 0.25g fiber, 0.25g protein, $0.12
1 tsp vanilla extract: 12 calories, 0g fat, 0g fiber, 0g protein, $0.26
TOTALS: 3294.3 calories, 90.75g fat, 21.75g fiber, 41.75g protein, $5.59
PER SERVING (TOTALS/24): 137.3 calories, 3.8g fat, .9g fiber, 1.74g protein, $.23

Chocolate are my weakness, if i feel down ill go definitely for baking that to with chocolate. Seriously baking and chocolates gives me more energy  and happiness.Thats why i have loads of baked goodies in my space. Trust me i learned many techniques only after entering to this immense virtual world and am still in learning process. We all know that cookies are small edible cake which suits incredible for an evening snacks. Kids goes crazy for this crunchy small cakes and my kids favourite always goes for chocolate chips cookies.

Coming to this double chocolate cookies,since its has double chocolates in it obviously its a double bonanza for chocoholic persons like me.These cookies are extremely dangerously addictive so that you may forget completely about your waist line. These rich cookies will be bit soft when you take them out of the oven, but they will turn firm once they gets cool.. Do take care not to overbake these super chocolatey cookies.This recipe for the letter D as am running this months long marathon with alphabets and with baked dishes as theme.


1cup All purpose flour
1/2cup Unsweetened dutch process cocoa powder
1/2tsp Salt
1/2cup Dark chocolate chunks (coarsely chopped)
1/2tsp Baking powder
8tbsp Unsalted butter
1cup Sugar
1tsp Vanilla essence

Preheat the oven to 350F,line a baking sheet over a baking tray.

Sift together the dutch process cocoa powder,flour,salt,baking powder in a medium bowl.

Meanwhile beat together the butter,sugar,vanilla in a bowl until they turns soft.

Add in the flour mixture, mix well.

Finally gently fold in the chocolate chunks.

Take a medium sized ball from the cookie dough, drop it on the lined baking tray with enough spaces in between.

Bake for 12-15minutes until the cookies are flat with mild crack on the top.

Let them cool for few minutes.

Enjoy this addictive cookies with your favourite drink.



Logo courtesy : Preeti

Check out the Blogging Marathon page for the other Blogging Marathoners doing BM# 32 );

First of all, Merry Christmas to everyone!  And if you dont celebrate Christmas, then you know what I mean... dont be all hypersensitive and get offended.  The way I see it, if someone said "Happy Hanukkah" to me, I wouldnt take offense, and Id wish them a Happy Hanukkah back.  When someone wishes you a happy-anything, why would you inject negativity into the situation?  Besides, Christmas has become more than a Christian holiday; I dont really consider myself a Christian to be honest (at least not in the traditional sense), its just a cultural thing to me, and its a tradition in my family.  So thats my take.  Of course, this has nothing to do with todays post, but screw it, I needed to get that out there.  Stop being so sensitive.  Im only disrespecting you if you take it that way. 


So today, I just want to briefly talk about something I read about on Whole Health Source about food and opioid receptors.  The opioid receptors, just like they sound, are the receptors in the brain that are hijacked when you take drugs like heroin.  Theyre responsible for the addictive nature of drugs.  This "reward" system is what calls at you to have a cigarette, snort some coke, or inject some heroin.  And the more you do it the more you want it.

But this wiring in your brain has a practical purpose; its not there solely to make sure you end up living in a cardboard box with nothing but your dog and your needles.  Although its pretty good at that too.  But its there to encourage behaviors that promote your survival, so that youll continue to do them.  Like eating food for example.  Obviously, eating is important for survival, so this reward system encourages us to eat foods high in calories and important nutrients.  Eating grass wouldnt get us anywhere; theres no calories for us in grass, and thats why you dont crave it.

As you can imagine, this system is NOT designed for todays food environment, where there are excessively yummy treats at every turn.  This seems like, to me, the driving factor behind obesity.  Foods high calories, sugar, fat, and salt stimulate the reward system the most.  This is why we cant eat just one potato chip; its why theres always room for dessert.  Your body wants those calories like a drug... literally.

Personal example:  Just the other night at Whole Foods Market, my place of employment, I found myself binging on the center of several free cinnamon buns in the dish room.  Everyone knows the center is the best.  But I wasnt even hungry at the time.  Reward circuits just took over.  Luckily I have a metabolism like a ring-tailed lemur.



Manipulating the Reward System
Its been known for a long time that injecting opioids along with a meal will increase the perceived palatability of the meal, hence increasing the amount of food they eat.  In essence, this artificially stimulates the opioid receptors along with a food that wouldnt normally elicit such a response.  It wont change someones perception of the taste of a food, but it increases their wanting for it nonetheless.  Thats the power of the brain.

Interestingly, this phenomenon works in the opposite way too.  Using a drug called naltrexone, which blocks the opiate receptors in the brain, we can reduce ones desire for palatable food without affecting their perception of taste.  From the study, "Specifically, systemic infusions of the opioid antagonist naltrexone in humans reduce reported affective or pleasantness ratings of sweet and fatty foods while not affecting subjective reports of hunger or the ability to detect sweet or salty tastes. Similar data has been reported in rats from a variety of paradigms. (1)"

This is incredibly interesting to me.  Nothing about the food has changed, and in fact, the person is still able to taste it just the same as before.  But the brains perception of the food has totally changed, and that makes all the difference.

This proves that ones wanting for a food goes beyond taste.  Yes, people tend to eat things that taste good... foods that are fatty, salty, or sweet.  But being fatty, salty, and sweet doesnt make a food palatable; its the brain that does that.
  

So there are more than just a few parallels between food and addictive drugs... in fact, the reason we crave that Christmas cookie is the same reason we cant stop shooting up with heroin, and its via the same physiological response.  Is food addictive?  You bet it is. 


Thats it for today, hope you found this as interesting as I did!  Until next time... Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, Happy Kwanza, and Happy Whatever-It-Is-Asians-Celebrate-For-Winter-Solstice!