Sweet Surprise

Do you ever just want to eat a cookie? And then immediately think of all the reasons you shouldn’t? The sugar, which we all have been told is the worst food for health, the grains, which some of us can’t tolerate, the fats, which we’ve been told make you fat, the possibility of GMO contamination…. There are so many reasons not to eat that cookie, even if it explodes in your mouth and it’s all you can think about!

Add the complication of rheumatoid arthritis, or other chronic diseases, which can affect digestion, increase certain nutritional needs (many medications that treat disease deplete vital nutrients which need to be replenished), and affect appetite, and things get even more complicated.

Living with juvenile rheumatoid arthritis I can’t depend on anyone but myself to know how I need to eat for vitality.  So, over the years, I’ve taken matters into my own hands and learned to adapt recipes that fit my particular dietary needs.

Today, I want to share one of my recipes with you. It is a cookie recipe, of course!!

Grain Free Double Ginger Cookies
These cookies are amazing, both for what they have and for what they don’t have.

They don’t have:

  • Grains, eggs, oil, butter, or white sugar with the exception of the sugar contained in the optional ingredient: crystallized ginger.

What they do have:

  • Ginger, a powerful anti-inflammatory spice.
  • Molasses, which is high in magnesium- essential for bone health.
  • Flax powder, high in omega- 3 fatty acids.
  • Almond flour, packed with vitamin E, protein, and with a low glycemic index.

Moist, chewy, healthy and delicious, these cookies are also very easy to make because the whole recipe can be prepared in a Cuisinart making both preparation and clean up easy. This is important for me because my energy level is always paramount in my mind as something to guard carefully.

Warning: You may want to double the recipe because they won’t last long!

Ingredients:

1/3 cup dried Apricots or Dates

1/3 cup Crystallized Ginger

2 tbls. Agave, Honey, or Maple Syrup

1 tbls. Molasses

1/3 cup Flax powder mixed with 2 tbls. hot water

1/3 cup Applesauce

¼ tsp Baking soda

¼ tsp Salt

2 tsp Ginger

1 ½ C Almond Flour

Preheat Oven to 400 degrees. Puree the dates or apricots and crystallized ginger in Cuisinart. Add the rest of the ingredients and mix thoroughly. Place cookies on a well-greased baking pan and bake for 12-15 minutes. Cool and enjoy! If you don’t have a Cuisinart you can puree the first two ingredients and then mix them in a mixing bowl with the remaining ingredients.

I encourage you to be creative with your diet, and instead of seeing all of the things you CAN’T eat, remember, that with a bit of creativity, (almost) anything is possible!!

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