Something Yummy

Well I think it is time to post another recipe here. Recently I've been researching and learning more about sugar in my families diet. It started when I decided to kick my coke (no not the drug although it was a drug for me) habit once and for all. I had made such strides in my diet and nutrition, making the move to all local and organic food in our house but for some reason I could no give up my coca cola. That was until I read and talked to folks who convinced me otherwise. The biggest factor was the sugar in the coke and all of our soft drinks now to be honest. I read that in the 1970s, food technologists dreamed up some new support for the sweet-tooth culture: High fructose corn syrup replaced sugar as the sweetening agent in soft drinks. Ounce for ounce, corn syrup is six times sweeter than sugar as well as a great deal cheaper. It was a gold mine for the soda pop titans. If you can believe it our American diet now floats on a flood of soda sweetened almost exclusively with fructose. Soda consumption, which averaged 22 gallons per person a year in 1970, reached 56 gallons per person a year by 1999. I was almost sick the more the thought about just how much sugar, therefore extra calories, I was taking in all throughout my day just from cola!
So, in light of that I have spent the last few months learning about sugar and sweetener alternatives. What I have found is amazing! Of course I had already been using honey and maple syrup in many things but little did I know there was a whole world of products people have been using for hundreds of years to sweeten their food.

Below I have added a recipe for whole wheat chocolate chip cookies. They have a few different ingredients whole wheat flour, a hint of molasses and date sugar. I actually substituted the whole wheat flour for spelt flour but if you are new to the world of baking using these type of ingredients I would go easy on your families and not introduce too many new ingredients all at once. However for children I think these are an amazing compromise for their sweet tooth. The whole wheat flour gives us the the good carbohydrates we need and the date sugar (you can find it at natural food stores) sweetens these cookies naturally. If you are unfamiliar with date sugar it is perfect for substituting sugar in baking. You can use it 1 to 1 ratio. It is more a food than a sweetener, as it's an unprocessed sugar made from dehydrated dates that are ground into small bits. It's high in fiber, and has a lot of vitamins and minerals, including iron.

With all that said these cookies were amazing. My all time favorite food is chocolate chip cookies so I would not steer you wrong. Best part is the batch was so large we made a few and froze the extra dough for those days when you just need some cookies and milk



Whole Wheat Chocolate Chip Cookies
If you wish, you can substitute carob chips to make them even healthier.
Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups date sugar
1 cup butter
1 tsp. vanilla
2 eggs
1 tbsp. molasses
2 1/2 cups whole wheat flour + 1 1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
12 oz. (or less) chocolate or carob chips

"I am the best expert on my life and my health"