Definitely Healthy Chocolate Chip Cookies

I made two half-batches of chocolate chip cookies last week.  By the time I finished the first one I was so tired of the whole thing since my brown sugar was old and packed together and not mixing well that I made the cookies huge and then left them in longer to cook thoroughly and ended up "kind of" burning them.  But I could tell they still tasted good.  The second half-batch was very good.  That's what the picture is from.  For popularity's sake around the holidays I didn't cut the sugar down too much, but I'm going to start trying to see how low I can go with it soon.

I just followed the recipe on the back of the toll-house chips bag, except that I only used brown sugar (no granulated sugar) and instead of all-purpose flour I used 1/2 whole grain pastry flour and 1/2 whole grain graham flour.  I put some extra chocolate chips in.  I was hoping with the graham and the extra chips that it would be reminiscent of a s'more, but it really wasn't.  It was still a good cookie :)

Carolyn

4 days to the New Year

New resolutions anyone????

Merry Christmas everyone!

Merry Christmas to all the Trinita Health crazies! Many good wishes and blessings in the New Year! ( I got an interesting dessert book for Christmas.....I'll be trying phyllo crusts for the first time....at some point!)

Merry Christmas!!!!!

Better products will come in heaven!

Well, I had to try some other products because of financial need! ...lol. Anyway, I will be trying a fragrance free Whole Foods hand lotion and a Whole Foods brand shampoo. I'll let you know how that goes. The most important thing I got was the chia seed. They didn't have it last time or I didn't see it there. Anyway, it was 6.99 pound. I don't think it is organic, but it will do for now. I really want to keep using it because I know my diet is deficient in Omega 3's.

Well, I hope to keep baking this weekend. I want to keep trying new Italian cookie recipes. We'll see how they turn out.

And as a side note....it is really way too cold right now!!!! Can we pitch in and buy a house down South somewhere? I was thinking out in the Southwest. We can all move there in the winter. Do I have any takers???

A Qualified Disaster

I did some cooking last Saturday!  Even though the results were not good, it gives me hope for the future.  First, let me say that I did not plan very well for this.  I modified a recipe I found in my Mom's Betty Crocker book for some kind of bread that wasn't what I made.  Also, I didn't have a real bread pan so I just guessed on the time.

Another problem was that I used double baking powder but forgot to put half as much in, so you could definitely taste the baking powder even after I "French breaded" it.  But I used a blend of whole grains from Bob's Red Mill and I think that with the right amount of baking powder and salt (I omitted it thinking it wouldn't affect the taste) this could be decent.  The French bread part was a lot of work.  I think that next time I'm just going to dip it in chicken soup or perhaps make it into a tuna melt since Catherine showed me how to do that.  Oh yeah, another thing that probably impaired the taste was that for shortening I used butter, but didn't allow enough time for it to soften, so it was still chunky when I finally gave up and just put the batter in the pan.  I'm hoping that enough things went wrong this time that next time it will taste significantly better.  

Carolyn

Winter Hand woes

Ok, here is the next big problem to solve. What does everyone use for a hand lotion during the winter? Keeping with the all natural theme, I have been using my own homemade concoction of olive oil, shea butter, and cocoa butter. It is not extremely effective on the hands. To get a true all natural product for your hands is somewhat difficult and very expensive. Any thoughts out there?

Happy Thanksgiving!

To all my fellow Trinita Health Crazies,
Wishing all of you a truly blessed day with your family and friends. Maybe some pictures of your favorite food of the day?...or at least a description! I'll take my camera and takes some pics.

Oh, and I have a request. I would like to know everyone's favorite Christmas baking recipe. It could be a cookie, pie, cake, bread, whatever! Let's hear what everyone what you don't want to miss eating this Christmas season!

God is good!

Although the cookie tray was a mess, they at least tasted really good. Next time, I'll close them up more and use less jelly/preserves.

So much for heritage....

Ok, I tried the Italian cookie thing again. I never did a jelly filled cookie. They kinda exploded all over the cookie sheet. That was pretty funny. They are still cooling right now, so stay tuned to see if they at least taste good.

Why must the chia book be final?

......When it is so fabulous? I'm so glad I am continuing the use of it. LOL...I hope it is doing something for me.

Well, maybe I will skip over to a new subject. I have diving into my heritage as well, and I am starting to get some Italian cookie recipes together. I have made three kinds so far. I am still trying to perfect them. The biscotti is much better now that I am baking it twice. ....um...like the directions said to do. (Thanks to Megan!) My brain just completely skipped over it. My anise biscotti is getting rave reviews from the family....but, hey it's family. I found a company, who is apparently from Italy, and they ship their cookies around the world. The fab part is that they have recipes on their website. Here it is if you like that sort of thing: www.cookiesfromitaly.com

Today is All Saint's Day and I continue to keep Sr. Ann Miriam close in prayer. What a great advocate we have in her! All Glory to God!

Blessings everyone!

Chia Book - The Final Installment

Okay, this was a really good book but I have to return it to the library tomorrow so I will just be sharing one more quotation.  "...as quantities of dietary DHA increased, DHA synthesis was reduced but not suppressed, even when the DHA level increased to very high concentrations....concluded that some DHA synthesis persists even when excess DHA is available.  This suggests that DHA synthesis from alpha-linolenic acid is a constitutive process that is required to fulfill an essential function in the brain" (p.33).

My understanding is that DHA is an omega-3 fatty acid found in fish, and so the fish oil tablets.  The fatty acid in chia seed seems to be about 60% ALA (p.106).  I don't know if it's really a superfood, but I'm convinced it's better than fish oil.  I'm sticking with it and I've thrown out my fish oil capsules.

I've strayed a little from my healthy food plan, but I shall get up and give it another try.  And I'm still hoping to make my whole grains pierogi sometime soon.

Carolyn

I've been inspired by Carolyn's post to do a little update of my own.

I FINALLY found this chia stuff at Whole Foods this past weekend. I bought the capsules because they were cheaper (in terms of price per amount) and the gel stuff that you were talking about sounded creepy. I just started taking them this morning; we'll see if I notice anything.

I've been eating really well at school. Every day I take yogurt and granola for lunch with some combination of apple/plum/peach on the side. I was trying to eat salad for dinner every night (either with chicken, shrimp, or almonds) but the glutton in me was craving macaroni and cheese tonight. I feel like at some point I want to actually cook real meals again. I haven't done much of that since I've moved to NOLA.

On a sort of related note, I've also been trying really hard to get up at 5am every day so that I can exercise before school. Let me tell you, 5am is EARLY. But I do feel a lot more alert throughout the day when I get up and play 30 minutes or so on my Wii Fit. One of my new friends here wants us to take up walking in Audubon Park which would be fun (and is a very New Orleanian thing to do!).

An Overdue Update

Lots of things to report, not all good.  Foodwise - the partial disaster with the "rice burgers" that fell apart was the last time I made any kind of burger.  For a while I was just cooking brown rice and putting curry and butter in it, but even with butter and curry I can only eat so much brown rice.  Price Chopper stopped carrying (temporarily?) the whole grain noodles I used to cook, so I got a bag of the Hodgson Mills noodles.  They tasted the same and somehow have 1g more fiber per serving.  They're more expensive, though.  Whole grain noodles with Spanish olives - still a hit.

Sadly, the yogurt and homemade granola has fallen by the wayside.  I ran out of oatmeal for granola one weekend and then by the time I made another batch I couldn't get used to the taste of the yogurt anymore. 


The chia!  In my opinion, the chia flour from The Running Food is not better than the regular chia seed from Bob's Red Mill.  I don't think it gave me any more energy than Bob's stuff, and if you're going for omega 3's, the flour somehow had less than the whole seeds.  Plus, it was very expensive.  I've gotten two bags of Bob's already.  There's a lime or lemon juice with honey drink that I hope to make sometime soon.  Haha, I guess I'll have to find where there's lime or lemon juice in the store.  But I really like the chia seed - it feels healthy.

In my future plans, I'm hoping to make pierogi.  I've been pan frying Mrs. T's in butter because I'm trying to keep from starving.  It doesn't bother me to eat a lot of butter - I think it's healthy for Polish people.  Now I'm thinking if I could make it myself so that the pasta had whole grains and the inside had more vegetables than just potatoes, it would be the perfect food.  I don't have to work next Saturday, so hopefully I will try it then!  When I ordered the chia from Bob's, I also got two bags of Whole Grain Pastry Flour.  It was a monthly special - $1.50 for a 1lb bag!  It's got just as much fiber as anything else, but when you use it you almost can't tell it's whole grain. 

I've also been reading the book I interlibrary loaned about chia.  The name of the book is "Chia: Rediscovering a Forgotten Crop of the Aztecs."  It's by Ricardo Ayerza Jr. and Wayne Coates, researchers at the University of Arizona and it's published by the university press.  It's a great book, although not all of it was the information I really wanted.  Right now I've got one quotation I'd like to share: "The diet of ancient Mexicans can be classified as light.  It was based on corn, which was eaten in cakes, soups, and tamales, and these were consumed along with chia, bans, and amaranth....It is interesting to note that a diet derived solely from the four grains consumed by the Aztecs meets today's dietary requirements as set out by the Food and Agriculture Organization and the World Health Organization" (p.63).  There are a couple chapters I want to reread and I hope to share more quoations later.  So, I'm envisioning working these four grains into their pierogi somehow.  Although I looked at amaranth in the store and it was very expensive.  Maybe that will be the last addition.

Hairwise: There was a break of a few weeks between swim seasons and so during this time I used the Aubrey's instead of Burt's Bees.  At first, the Aubrey's wasn't cleaning my hair very well.  Then I used a very weak baking soda solution and the Aubrey's worked really well after that.  It's the GPB protein one and I love the smell.  I swam again for the first time Friday and switched back to Burt's Bees.  I'd like to stay with Aubrey's but I'm afraid it wouldn't get the chlorine out.

For some reason I'm having trouble commenting on Sharon's post, but I love rice noodles!  My dad makes them with shrimp and clam sauce.  It's also very good.

.....the Tofu Chronicles

Well, I finally did it. I finally made a tofu dish. Yes, it's true....as radical as it may sound. I tried a recipe with a ginger sauce. I actually liked the taste, but I have to work out the frying of the tofu part. Some of it burned in the bottom of the pan. I guess I need to do a little more reading on the subject. But overall, I would like to make it again, because the taste was good. (The ginger sauce was soy sauce, sesame seed oil, fresh ginger, garlic, and water.) I had it over rice noodles.

A Partial Disaster

I made two things last night.  The first was more granola, because I went through the first batch.  My conscience was getting to me about using so much honey and putting so much sugar in, so I decided to try making it with more honey but no added sugar.  This is edible with the yogurt but not as enjoyable.  I think next time I'm going to use less honey and some sugar just less than I put in the first time.

The real problem was with the veggie burgers I tried to make.  I saw a recipe (on doctoroz.com!) that used brown rice instead of beans.  So I had two cups of cooked brown rice (I was impressed I just cooked the brown rice.) a can of diced carrots and a small can of cut up mushrooms.  The recipe didn't even say to put egg in as a binder but I did anyway.  I also used minced onions.  The stuff tasted fine, but it did not stick as patties.  I think next time I'll use less rice and less vegetables and see if one egg can get it to stay.  This also made me think about just making some kind of soup with the rice and mushrooms cooking together and forgetting about the patty part.  Any suggestions about this?  I was thinking of getting broth from the store, even though they have a lot of salt.  But what the heck do I care about salt?  Hmmmmmm.....

Carolyn

I tried an apple cider vinegar and water solution to condition my hair. Perhaps it was too much of a change at once. My hair felt totally dry and stiff. I'm thinking 3x a week for the baking soda might be too much.

I must pick me up some of those pears you all keep talking about.

I miss you all terribly...hoping everyone is doing well.

Granola and Yogurt

Horray!!!!  I have come to an even better breakfast arrangement!  The Kashi granola was really expensive to be dumping by the cupful into my regular fat yogurt in the morning (which I went back to yesterday).  So I decided to try making my own.  I looked online and got a recipe.  I actually did it last night and it worked very well.  It tastes good alone and in the yogurt.  Haha, I may be able to get through a 2lb container in a reasonable amount of time after all!  Here is my recipe:
Mix 3 cups oats with brown sugar (the recipe said 3 TB but I didn't measure it, I just poured).  I also added to this first group of ingredients graham flour and barley flour.  Whole grain of course!  And of course, I didn't measure it.  But I think between the two flours it was still less than a cup.  Then add, mixed together, 1/3C honey, 1/4C canola oil and vanilla (again I just poured this in without measuring).
Then bake it at 300 degrees for 20-30 minutes, stirring after 15.
This came out really well, and I think I might even be able to cut down on the sugar.  I'm also pretty sure I used more than 1/3C of honey.  Anyway, however much I made fit perfectly into one of those round Quaker Oats containers, so that's where I'm storing it.

I'm very excited about this.

Carolyn

Baking soda: Day 2

I don't usually spend this much time thinking about my hair. But I've been particularly cognisant of oil build up. Today was especially hot and humid and my hair still feels great. I'm glad that the solution is very inexpensive. With regards to the concentration, I used 1 tablespoon for every cup of water. There were no little white bits, but I still shampooed and conditioned after application of baking soda solution. I'm still undecided on frequency of use. Thanks Carly for sharing the baking soda route!

Guys! I went to Whole Foods on my way home from school this afternoon, and I bought a woman's multi-vitamin. I don't know if this is a healthy thing to do, but it seems like it is, so I'm going to try it. I totally forgot to look for the chia seed, but I'll probably go again this weekend and hopefully I'll remember then.

Also, I bought these tiny yellow pear tomatoes - and they are DELICIOUS. I love them.

Baking Soda, facial cleanser, and jam

I was looking around my apt for an empty bottle for my baking soda solution and realized I could transform one of my MCV water bottles into a baking soda one. It works really well, and I can squirt it onto my hair. I was a little skeptical about the solution. Having used it last night, my hair feels much better than it usually would and my scalp isn't feeling gross. I think I'm a baking soda convert! =) I won't use the solution everyday...maybe 2-3 times a week?

Any advice on facial cleanser?

O! I made my own jam today. It was easier than I thought it would be. Granted, I didn't go all out with the jamming/jarring process, but it's good enough. From what I hear, the process is relatively similar for all fruits. But here's how my friend and I jammed figs:

1) Dice figs
2) Add diced figs to large sauce pan
3) Add sugar and lemon juice (and spices or honey if you want)
4) Set stove to med high until boiling
5) Reduce heat to simmer ~ 45 minutes
6) Add jam to jars, cover, cool, put in fridge.

Totally easy and preservative free. Jam should last a few months, especially if it's fridged.

Ok, I guess I'm a little behind on reading all of this, but what is this chia seed stuff? I read the website Carolyn linked, and it sounds interesting. I might get some at Whole Foods the next time I go (there is one right down the street from me!). Do you eat it everyday? What exactly do you do with it?

Adjusting to life here in New Orleans has been a challenge food-wise. I've been eating Three Sisters cereal, but it ran out this morning, so I think I'm back to Kashi. School has been feeding us, but tomorrow is our first real day and I need to pack my own food. I think that I will bring an apple and almond butter with a salad and some Kashi crackers. I'm trying really hard to not eat a lot of processed stuff, but I have yet to make it to the farmer's market here (and produce is SO expensive in the stores). Before the move, I was using SparkPeople to track my eating habits because it gives really good nutrient information. I'm going to try to start that again tomorrow.

I'm also trying to eat more seafood since it's so readily available here (they sell shrimp with the head on just sitting on ice, you pick them up yourself, in the middle of the grocery store). More seafood, more non-meat protein, that's the plan :)

Shampoo has been a real issue for me here. There has got to be something going on with my water because I didn't have this problem the two nights I stayed in the hotel. It just feels like my hair never gets clean; like there are tons of oils left after I wash it.

I miss you guys!!

Megan

Really bad nutrition day

All I can say is CiCi's pizza. Have you ever been there? This was my first time. I went with my family. Bad mistake. Bad, very bad. A pizza buffet and hungry me cannot make a good combination. The good news is that there is always tomorrow. As soon as I get myself to Whole Foods....I don't know when that will be...I'll get some chia seeds. Where is Ocean State (Job Lot) when you need it? Ooy! I haven't eaten since early afternoon. I am still full. This is bad. lol

Good Stuff I've Eaten Since Monday

Well, I did in fact buy some plain yogurt with all the fat in it.  I've been eating it with my chocolate granola in the morning.  I've grown to basically like it.  My problem is that it only came in a 2lb container and I cannot eat that much in 5 days - which is how long I think I can leave the container open in the fridge for.  What do you guys think?  5 days or more?  Anyway, it occurred to me that my granola has lots of fat in it, so next time I'm going to see if I can get a smaller container of plain yogurt but fat free.  That seems like it would have more size options.  I'll see.

Also, I made red bean burgers!  We had a can of black beans and a can of red beans but the black beans didn't have an expiration date on them.  My mom said that meant they were really old because now everything has an expiration date.  Of course, I didn't throw them out, I just didn't use them.  I didn't measure anything in the burgers, but they came out well.  I put cheese on them, that might have helped.  They were bland though, so next time I'm not going to be shy with the chili powder.  I even brought two to work the next day and ate them cold and they were fine.  Thank you, Sharon!

About the shampoo, I tried the Aubrey's.  I did notice that it lathered less than Burt's Bees.  I used it right after I got home, but not last night after I swam.  I'm not quite confident enough in it to use it to get out chlorine yet.  But when I didn't swim I thought it cleaned my hair enough.  Sharon, have you tried the baking soda yet?  I think I'm going to trim my hair in a few weeks and I'm going to baking soda again after that.  Remember, it just takes a little bit :)

I almost forgot about the tomatoes!  I got a package of Wasa flatbread crackers before I left this summer and I really liked them.  On the Wasa website it had suggestions for what to eat with them and one was to put humus on them and put sliced tomatoes on that.  At the time, I thought I would never eat a tomato.   Thanks to the daily salads, though, now I like them.  So I got some "roma plum" tomatoes, sliced them and put them on the crackers with the humus.  It was wonderful!  I highly recommend it!  That's all I can think of for now.  I'm going to try to make the burgers again soon and I think I'll need to look at the Wasa site for more ideas about other healthy things to try.

Carolyn

Cake

Is chocolate chip pound cake healthy? Please don't answer that. Well, too bad. I ate a huge piece on the way home from Trinita. It helped me, I think. On another note, I need to purchase some chia seed. This came after a lengthy discussion with Carolyn. I don't want to do the fish pill thing. This seems like a reasonable alternative. I can put it on my cereal in the morning....to make it even more unusual. I have been putting Goji berries on my cereal too. They are definitely easier to deal with in my cereal. Everyone that has tried the Goji berries so far, has given it the thumbs down. Once the bag is done, it is done. They were an impulse item. I'm not sure what possessed me to buy them. I think I bought them because they looked cute. lol

Well, what else do I have say. Well, I am nearly ready to buy a new shampoo. I will be taking myself to Whole Foods for that purchase! Hooray for Whole Foods! Any suggestions out there? I have to admit, it will probably be Aubrey's again. I'll have to wait to see what they have.

I think I am missing the variety of health food stores in CT. I was really digging the Back to Earth store. I didn't really have time to explore it thoroughly. Anyway, I could babble more, but I will try to control myself.

In the beginning...

Finally, a place where I can get all of my "chemical" woes out! Shall we start with shampoo? This is really a big problem. If I was willing to pay more, I would buy a truly organic brand. I just can't seem to get myself to do it. I'm waiting for a big organic shampoo sale! If anyone sees one, let me know! I want to try some of Bubble and Bee's products, someday!! Right now, I continue to use Burt's Bee's (which is highly suspect) and Aubrey's Camomille.

I just bought a bag of Goji berries. At first I really liked them, but now I'm not sure that I would buy more. I think I need to eat them in very small quantities. It says Himalayan superfruit. Maybe it is too super for me.

Thanks Carolyn for starting this blog!!!!

To Begin

Welcome to our blog!  Sharon, Pat and I (Carolyn) knew that we would have to keep supporting each other in our natural care/dietary needs after the summer program ended, so we have created this blog.  All Trinita Health Crazies are invited to share their stories, formulas for homemade products or recipes. 

At this time, I would like to comment on my shampoo.  I have been using Burt's Bees Super Shiny shampoo for several years.  It works.  Although before I came to Trinita this summer I did give my hair a very diluted baking powder rinse to get rid of the residue.  I followed this up directly with the shampoo.  This worked well.  I have to use shampoo after the baking powder because no matter how diluted I make the rinse, I still get white stuff in my hair afterwards if I try to rinse it out with just water.  I like this system.  I'm going to try the rinse again later in August or in September.  I'm also trying to switch to Aubrey's.  I've used their shampoo before, and I don't really remember why I stopped.  I wasn't unhappy with it.  Maybe I couldn't find any in my area.  But I got a bottle at THE BAILEY'S last week and I'm going to start using it when I get home.  Comments to come.

I've also been eating a chia seed/water mixture most days for the last few weeks.  It's supposed to have a lot of omega-3 fats so when I get home and am monitoring the amount I eat each day more carefully, I'm going to stop with the fish oil.  Good riddance!  I have other food plans for when I get home, but I'll write about that stuff when it really happens. 

More personal care stuff: I've been using Tom's calendula bar soap, which I'm very happy with, and also their new liquid roll-on deodorant.  I really like the deodorant, even better than their stick.  The roll-on stuff feels better and I haven't noticed that I smell bad.  However, I have not worked out in this stuff yet, so I'll have to update this when I get home and see how it works after a run or a trip to the gym.

This is all.