Pretty in Pink Cookies: made from juice pulp

My husband has a vicious sweet tooth which many of you know by now. He is always “looking” for a sweet treat. After a number of you asked me what I do with the juice pulp I thought maybe my husband would like some “cookies”, but a healthy version of course. I have made something like this before and you will find the recipe here. Today I wanted to make a healthier version of the cookie. I reduced the nuts to see what would happen. Here is what I did:

Pretty in Pink Cookies: made from juice pulp
Makes 46 cookies

Ingredients:

juice pulp from 10 carrots, 2 apples, 2 lemons, 1 inch ginger, 2 beets
2 cups raw cashews
1 cup macadamia nuts
2 cups reduced fat shredded coconut
2 teaspoons cardamom powder
1 teaspoon cinnamon, ground
1 teaspoon ginger, powder
stevia, to taste (or you can used a few dates instead which will add moisture as well as sweetness)
water, as much as necessary for the dough to just form (I used ½ cup)

Directions:

Grind the raw cashews and macadamia nuts in your food processor until a rough texture forms. Be careful not to over process or you may end up with nut butter. Add the coconut and pulse to mix. Combine the fruit pulp and nuts in a large mixing bowl. Add the seasonings and sweeten according to your taste. Now add water 1 tablespoon at the time and stir to combine. Take a small amount of the mixture in your hand and try to form it into a ball. Once it holds together you have added enough water. I added ½ cup of water.

Line you dehydrate trays with teflex sheets. You will need 3 sheets for this recipe.

Use a small disher (little ice cream scoop) to form cookie balls. Place the balls on the teflex lined trays. I used 5 rows of 4 to allow air to circulate.

Dehydrate at 105 degrees until the exterior is firm but the interior is still soft and cookie-like. Store in a sealed container in your refrigerator.

Nutrition information:

Amount Per Serving
Calories 56.38
Calories From Fat (80%) - 45.35

Total Fat - 5.04g
Saturated Fat - 1.54g
Cholesterol - 0mg
Sodium - 0.75mg
Potassium - 39.41mg
Total Carbohydrates - 2.46g
Fiber - 1.76g
Sugar - 0.38g
Protein - 1.17g

Comments:

This recipe makes a light tasty cookie. I really like them particularly because they are light. The coconut flavor is very, very light which I did intentionally. Dan is not wild about coconut so I need to keep the coconut flavor to a minimum. I had a couple of these with my afternoon green tea which was a nice healthy treat. I also think they will be wonderful crumbled over a little berry soft serve.

You can also make these cookies with more nuts and/or coconut oil but rather defeats the purpose of a healthy snack, or at least I think it does. ;-)  I have run the nutrtional numbers on the raw cookies on some blogs and many of them are over 200 calories a piece mostly from fat and sugar.  That is just too much for me.

Unrelated Note:

As I expected yesterday ended up being a much longer day than it should have been. I ended up at Costco for a few veggies, because a girl can never have too many veggies, LOL. Now we have two refrigerators full and I can breathe a sigh of relief. ;-) I had to buy two more pair of yoga pants. I swear I don’t know which is worse, my produce or exercise attire addiction.

Being out of the house so long yesterday we had a quick salad and berry soft serve with kale for dinner last night. Nothing exciting this is why I didn’t post it.

Today is another scorcher here. At 6am it was 81 degrees and was 97 the last time I checked. Exercise has moved inside and appears to be staying there for the foreseeable future.

I mentioned the glass straws Dan brought home from 105 degrees for me. I finally broke down and bought little cleaning brushes for them. I wanted to mention this since Aisling asked how I was cleaning them. The little brushes do a nice job and make the process much quicker and easier.

At the moment I have fresh mushrooms marinating to be dehydrated tonight. I have yet to figure out exactly how I am going to use them. But I will come up with something and will try to get it posted tonight.

I hope everyone is having a great Wednesday. Talk to you all soon.

Raw Cookie Dough Truffles

My husband has the world’s most vicious sweet tooth. Giving up sugar and agave his been really difficult for my husband. When we met, decades ago, the man put 6 packets of sugar in a small coffee. When I say he has a wicked sweet tooth I am not exaggerating. Periodically I make him a little sweet treat because he loves them so much. These are things that we eat one or two at a time and only immediately after a meal to keep blood glucose levels down since cancer is a sugar feeder.

When I read a comment that Raw Sierra posted on Vivacious Vegan’s blog about raw cookie dough I knew I needed to make a version of the recipe only with stevia. Instead of adding chips to the dough I decided to turn them into truffles by coating them in melted chocolate. Here is what I did.

Raw Cookie Dough Truffles
Makes 20 small truffles

Ingredients:

2/3 cups oatmeal, dry
1 1/3 cups raw cashes
1 pinch salt
1 pinch cinnamon, or to taste
1 tablespoon vanilla
1 tablespoon water, or as necessary to make a stiff dough
Stevia to taste (I used 3 single unit scoops or 3 grams)
Approximately 4 ounces dark chocolate

Directions:

Place the oatmeal in your blender and grind into a powder. Add the raw cashews to the oat flour and grind those as well. Empty this mixture into a large bowl and stir in the salt and cinnamon. Add the vanilla, and as much water as is necessary to make a stiff dough. Using a small disher that you fill to a level with dough and form each scoop into one or two balls. I made small balls and got two truffles from each scoop. Roll the dough in your hands to form balls. Place the balls on a sheet pan lined with parchment or silpat and freeze until solid.

Depending on your freezer the balls will take about an hour to freeze. When they are completely frozen melt the chocolate in a small bowl in the microwave. I do this on 30% power and stir periodically until it is almost liquid. It will continue to cook from the heat of the melted chocolate and you don’t want to overheat it so stop a little before it has completely melted.

Dip the frozen balls in the chocolate, allow the excess to drip off and return to the cold, lined pan and return it to the freezer. When the chocolate is hard the truffles can be placed in a freezer bag for storage.

Nutritional Information:

Amount Per Serving
Calories - 75.86
Calories From Fat (55%) - 42.03

Total Fat - 5g
Saturated Fat-  0.56g
Cholesterol - 0.28mg
Sodium - 15.85mg
Potassium - 82.01mg
Total Carbohydrates - 6.74g
Fiber - 0.77g
Sugar - 3.21g
Protein - 1.76g

Comments:

These taste surprisingly like cookie dough. Thank you Raw Sierra for the cookie dough recipe. I think this basic recipe can be flavored in many different ways to make different recipes. If you have a craving for cookie dough and just want a little something this really hits the spot. Be warned this may be one of those recipes that are too good to resist. I plan to hide them in the freezer so my hubby doesn’t eat them all in one sitting.

Unrelated note:

Time for me to get back to my research. I will try to be back later today with another post regarding our dinner tonight, but realistically that will probably happen tomorrow. Have a great evening in case I don’t get a chance to say that later tonight.

Raw Cookies from Cashews, Reduced Fat Coconut and Juice Pulp

Those of you that have been reading for a while know that I don’t like to throw things away that still have a use. That also applies to food. One of the reasons I took so many years to buy a juicer is that I didn’t like the idea of throwing away the juice pulp, which I was certain contained fiber and most likely nutrition as well. Because the flax cracker worked so well I knew that the pulp needed to be incorporated into other foods. When my friend Louis mentioned cookies from the pulp and Heather agreed I knew I had to give it a try. They are so easy it is ridiculous. Here is what I did.

Raw Cookies from Cashews, Reduced Fat Coconut and Juice Pulp

Makes 16 cookies

Ingredients:

2 cups raw cashews (not soaked)
1 cup reduced fat coconut (Let’s Do Organic)
Carrot, Apple, Celery, Lemon and Ginger juice pulp from here
4 Medjool dates, pitted

Directions:

Combine all the ingredients in your food processor and process until the mixture forms a ball. If you are concerned about the power of your food processor you can process until they are ground (but before they turn into nut butter) and then add the remaining ingredients.

I used a small disher to form the cookies and placed them directly on the mesh dehydrator sheet. Since I wanted them to be chewy I dehydrated them at 104 degrees for 4 hours.

The resulting cookies are firm on the outside but chewy on the inside.

Nutritional Information:

Amount Per Serving
Calories - 105.69
Calories From Fat (57%) - 60.68

Total Fat - 17.75g
Saturated Fat - 2.18g
Cholesterol - 0mg
Sodium - 8.59mg
Potassium - 156.22mg
Total Carbohydrates - 10.51g
Fiber - 1.65g
Sugar - 5.52g
Protein - 2.63g

The nutritional numbers are a bit of swag since I had to estimate what was left in the juice pulp. If anything I have overstated the numbers above, except the fiber which is probably higher than shown.

Comments:

This is going to sound strange, but I am not much of a sweets person. That is my hubby’s role in the family. I tried one of these to see if they were finished, which lead to a second cookie, because I needed to take its picture whole and the interior. Who I am kidding? These things are really good! Not just good, but really good. I am very happy they only have 105 calories a piece. These things could spell trouble.

Unrelated Note:

I will be back later with another recipe. For now I need to get a few things accomplished at home. Talk to you all again soon.

Peanut Butter and Chocolate Chip Bars

I like to make reasonably healthy little nibbles to have in the lunch bag. Since everyone loves peanut butter and chocolate that was my starting point for this recipe. Of course, I needed to sweeten the mixture with agave (I try to minimize the sugar my sweetie eats). I added puffed brown rice and rolled barley because that is what I had on hand. Overall these little bars taste great and make a nice sweet little treat with your afternoon cup of coffee.

Peanut Butter and Chocolate Chip Bars
Makes 16 bars

Ingredients:

½ cup of organic peanut butter
½ cup of raw agave
pinch of kosher salt
1 teaspoon good vanilla extract
1 ¾ cups of puffed brown rice
1 ½ cups of rolled barley (could substitute rolled oats)
¼ cup of non-dairy chocolate chips

Directions:

Heat peanut butter and agave until it boils. Turn off the heat. Add the salt and vanilla and whisk to thoroughly combine. Stir in puffed brown rice and rolled oats and combine. Add ¼ cup of chocolate chips and stir them evenly thorough.

Grease a 9 by 9 pan thoroughly with oil. Pack mixture into the pan and allow to cool. Cut into 16 squares. I wrap my bars in plastic film and store in the refrigerator in a freezer ziploc to keep them from picking up any odors.

Comments:

These are sweet, but not so sweet they hurt my teeth or make we wish I hadn’t eaten one. I was trying to minimize the amount of sweetener in this recipe intentionally, but I think I need to increase it a little next time. They taste good, but don’t hold together exactly the way I would like them to. Next time I am going to add a tablespoon of both agave and peanut butter and see if that works to stiffen the cookie a little. I may also make them into balls instead of bars. That may help them to stick together. These bars are good just like they are though ..... I tend to be a little picky.