No-Sugar Superfood Cookies Again, Salads Again, Full Moon, Salt and Garlic - What do You Think?

It's coming up on full moon - here it was, rising in the southeasterly sky around 10pm yesterday, reflecting on runnels of water down on the beach. (The picture doesn't quite capture the color contrasts - it was that wonderful golden-pink.)

We're losing minutes of daylight every day, and as the sun and moon are so far to the south now, it is clear that these are the last days of long, warm evenings. Yesterday was warm enough that we had dinner outside, around the fire! And I wasn't even wearing a jacket! There have been very few days like that this year. Today's another one, though - it feels so good to just be, outside. One of those accidental tomato plants in our garden is even flowering!

The twins both ended up climbing our sixty-foot tall dead spruce tree. Add to those 60 feet its location at the top of a bluff, and it's an exhilarating view indeed. Not everyone who visits us is even interested in going there! Kudos to them.

I figured out what was the matter with those no-sugar superfood cookies! It was the wheatgrass juice powder clashing with the orange zest. The wg powder has a strong and slightly odd taste anyway, but in combination with orange zest, it's not pleasant.

I made another batch yesterday: here they are under the fan, drying out - 

- they are carrot-sunflower seed 'cookies.' All quantities are approximate!

1/4 c melted coconut oil

1 c carrot (ground up in a food processor)

1/4 c soaked sunflower seeds

3/4c pulp from making nut milk

1/3 c 'chia sweet' made with herbal chai tea, rhodiola and reishi

1/4 c flax meal

1/4 c shredded coconut

1/4 c mesquite

2 T maca

1/2 T wheatgrass powder

1 T fo-ti

cinnamon, ginger, cloves, cardamom, nutmeg (lots)

Mixed all together, formed in balls, flattened and dried. 

I realized after I was finished that I'd meant to use poppy seeds as well - I love their flavor and their nutritional profile (super high in magnesium and calcium), and think they'd complement the carrot and chia well.

I'm hoping these will work out for me, as my tummy has been having trouble with carrots lately. I suspected there might be a problem after having upset stomach from beets and then sweet potato - it seems like there are periods of time where I'm just unable to digest any kind of starch and this may be one of those. A carrot before lunch today had me bent over double! Anyone else with 'part time' sensitivities like that?

Another repeat with variations: salad dressing - 

- 1/3c soaked sunflower seeds, 2 heaping T nutritional yeast, good shake of smoked paprika (I can't tolerate bell peppers and the paprika does the same 'cheesifying' that the bell peppers do), 2 T flax meal, shake of dried oregano. Blended those, then added that pile of chopped herbs - it includes cilantro, parsley, arugula and chives. Added kefir whey (more on this soon) and a generous pour of olive oil, whilst blending again.

It's going to make a delicious dressing for tonight's salad. No couch potatoes around here - but couch lettuce, anybody?

It's going to make a delicious dressing for tonight's salad. No couch potatoes around here - but couch lettuce, anybody?

No salt or garlic in this recipe, you notice? Many people think that those two are essential ingredients in any savory food (and many people put almost as much salt in desserts as they do in savory dishes too). But in health-minded movements, there are almost as many people who think both salt and garlic are evil and anathema as there are  those who hail both as essential panaceas. 

I used to be an extreme anti-salt and garlic person. Nowadays, I'm more moderate. I have a very sensitive palate: a little of either goes a long way for me. I also know that mineral salts like pink himalayan salt are likely good for my body, deficient as it is in minerals. And I know that garlic would be useful both for fighting the yeast condition and for the sulphur compounds to help with chelation. 

Ok, small, silly confession: I've been using less salt because I can't find my little himalayan salt shaker since I got back from Fairbanks! (Phil had to move stuff around while I was gone and it's hiding somewhere.) I have a larger jar of the stuff but am often too lazy to bring it out and then rationalize the laziness by 'maybe salt isn't good for me after all!' But as for the garlic, sometimes I can take it just fine; other times, it really rips me up. Perhaps even more so than starchy veggies! I really ought to get back into the habit of a few months ago, of always having a jar of apple cider vinegar full of halved garlic cloves - it makes wonderful garlic vinegar and takes the pungent edge off the cloves themselves so that I can eat them!

Where do you stand on salt and garlic? Or do you just think it's silly that people need to take a stand on condiments and spices? (Or will you lambast me for calling garlic a spice and insist that it's a vegetable?)

love to all