“Nothing takes the taste out of peanut butter quite like unrequited love.”  Charlie Brown

“Do you have a favorite food from your growing up years?  What could be done to make it in a more healthy fashion?

They feast on the abundance of your house; you give them drink from your river of delights.  (Psa. 36:8; NIV)

I didn’t set out to have this month be a month of chocolate recipes.  As I mentioned previously, no form of chocolate touched my lips for years.  I was allergic to so many foods and my diet was extremely limited.  I would occasionally enjoy a homemade carob treat and had totally forgotten the taste of chocolate until a few years ago.  At one time, I developed a healthy version of the “No Bake Cookies” many of you might be familiar with from your growing up years (using carob instead of cocoa).  Most “No Bake Cookie” recipes call for white sugar (and lots of it), and milk along with the other ingredients.  Today’s recipe does use organic cocoa instead of carob but I also use honey (lots less than the white sugar) and no milk.

Over the past few years I’m sure we’ve all read or heard of chocolate’s controversy and/or its benefits.  This won’t be a treatise on chocolate.  However, Dr. Joseph Mercola says, “If you eat chocolate, eat only DARK chocolate. Dark chocolate has antioxidant properties, which can actually help to protect the body from damaging oxidative stress. It also is far better than milk chocolate, as adding milk cancels out the chocolate’s antioxidant effects.”

Dr Mercola goes on to say, “Only eat chocolate if you’re healthy. Chocolate, even if it is dark, still contains large quantities of sugar, and eating sugar is a profoundly negative influence on your immune system. So the key point here is that if you are sick, the absolute last thing you want to do is eat any sugars.”

And always consume chocolate in moderation. A small bit of chocolate can be very satisfying if you savor each bite, rather than just wolfing it down. Also, if you are constantly craving sweets, your body is lacking in specific nutrients and you’re likely not eating the correct balance of protein, fats, and carbohydrates for your body’s needs.

So, if you’re taking responsibility for your own health and caring for your body in a proper fashion with exercise and a diet of whole, natural and healthy foods, enjoy a “No Bake Treat.”

Prayer Power
Father, we thank You that we can delight in You and that You delight in us.

Link of the Day
Healthy No-Bake Treats

Blessings on you as you enjoy a healthy treat.

“Don’t forget to enlist the power of prayer in your battle against the sweet tooth.”  Sally Fallon

What will it take for me to choose the best food over the “junk?”

It gave me great joy to have some brothers come and tell about your faithfulness to the truth and how you continue to walk in the truth. (3 John 1:3, NIV)

It would appear that our readers have a “sweet tooth,” or is that, “sweet teeth?”  J  The recipe receiving the most “clicks” by far has been the Decadent Chocolate Cheese Pie…about twice the number that looked at the Broccoli Salad recipe.  Hmmm.  I wonder what that’s saying.  Was it the salad?  Or was it the broccoli?

So, I’ll post an easy and quick recipe today to humor the treat lovers.  Just know that there are lots of salad recipes to come.

It’s always best to eat food in the most original state.  Remember the term, “God-food.”  How did God originally make this food?  The least processed, the better.  Any foods that can be eaten raw are much better for us in that state than if they were cooked.

Raw nuts such as almonds, walnuts, or pecans are highly nutritious if prepared properly.  Think of them as a great snack instead of grabbing a donut or chips.  Now for many of you this may seem quite strange but the best way to “prepare” nuts for eating is by soaking them.  Nuts are best soaked or partially sprouted before eaten.  Nuts contain enzyme inhibitors that can put a strain on the digestive mechanism if consumed in excess.  So, nuts are much easier to digest and their nutrients more readily available if they are first soaked in salt water overnight, then dried in a warm oven or a food dryer.

Sally Fallon (http://www.newtrendspublishing.com/SallyFallon/index.html), in her book Nourishing Traditions, gives a clearly defined way of doing this.  If you don’t have the book and would like to know more about how to prepare nuts, feel free to send me an email.  By the way, soaked nuts have a crispy, crunchy texture and are very flavorful.

Prayer Power
Lord thank You for Your goodness.  Thank You that You satisfy our soul like nothing else can ever do.  We honor and bless you this day!

Link of the Day
Goodie Balls

Blessings on you as you enjoy a healthy treat.