Popcorn for Picnics!

Did you know popcorn is a complex carbohydrate? It is! Leave out the refined and processed bread and eat popcorn instead! Try it for picnics, for snacks, for breakfast! Remember to have a small amount of good quality protein such as eggs, organic poultry or meat, or wild fish, and vegetables, and for your carbohydrtate portion, have popcorn! If you are having a vegetarian meal with legumes such as chickpeas, having popcorn could be the grain in the complimentary combination for protein requirements. An example of this would be Chickpea Spread or Hummus with vegetables for dipping, and popcorn, an easy and complete meal.

There are so many options for seasoning your popcorn, savory or sweet. My favorite is the following recipe Special Popcorn (from Eat Away Illness page 52).
I buy organic popcorn in bulk, use a dry popcorn popper, and add my seasonings. In my book Cook Your Way to Health, I have two recipes for sweet versions – Caramel Corn and Maple Popcorn.

SPECIAL POPCORN

1 large bowl popcorn
1 tsp. – 1tbsp. Bragg’s All Purpose Liquid Seasoning
1/4 tsp. dry mustard
1/4 cup melted butter, ghee, coconut oil or hemp oil
1/4 cup nutritional yeast flakes

1. Mix butter, ghee or coconut oil with Braggs and mustard in a small saucepan over low heat and stir to dissolve. Do not heat hemp oil.
2. Pour over popcorn and stir until evenly coated, adding hemp oil if using.
3. Sprinkle yeast flakes over all and stir to combine.

Serves 4.

Some ideas I’ve found in magazines:

Savory Ideas:
curry, paprika and oil of choice
rosemary and celtic sea salt
turffle oil and parmesan cheese
fresh squeezed lime juice and paprika
equal parts butter and peanut butter, then add garlic powder, honey, and tamari to taste. Sprinkle with nutritional yeast.
yellow mustard to dip the popcorn in
seaweed flakes, toasted sesame seeds, and a dash of sea salt

Sweet Ideas:
sugar (use coconut sugar), salt, turmeric and cayenne
wasabi and turbinado sugar
maple syrup and cinnamon
sea salt and cracked pepper with chocolate chips sprinkled on top

Popcorn for snacks while travelling and picnics is easy to prepare, pack, and eat in place of junk food.
Enjoy!

Paulette Millis
Author, Speaker & Registered Nutritional Consultant
www.EatAwayIllness.com

Chocolate Chip Chickpea Cookies

Who doesn’t love chocolate chip cookies? Now you can enjoy them, and give them to your kids, knowing they are eating beans!!!! Thank you to Meghan for this recipe. I don’t know where she got it, but it is a winner! I buy the best quality chocolate chips I can find. Foley’s are made with raw cane sugar. Possibly you want to look for grain sweetened, or gluten-free chocolate chips. Maybe you are very ambitious and want to make your own chocolate chips. The recipe follows the cookie recipe, and ensures no sugar, no additives, and wonderful healthy ingredients.

These make an excellent lunch box treat. The bonus is the bean compliments whatever grain is in the lunch for a high quality protein. For peanut and nut free school lunches, experiment with using pumpkin, sunflower, or hemp seed butter. Please let me know if this works…..

Chocolate Chip Chickpea Cookies

1 1/2 cups cooked chickpeas (garbanzo beans) (I prefer to use my own frozen organic beans – no additives)
2 tsp. organic vanilla
1/2 cup organic peanut butter
1/4 cup honey
1 tsp. baking powder
pinch of unrefined sea salt
1/2 cup chocolate chips (dark chocolate; gluten-free; carob, sugar-free; homemade – your choice)

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees fahrenheit.
2. In a food processor, place dried chickpeas (use a cloth or paper towel), vanilla, peanut butter, honey, baking powder and salt.
3. Process until mixture forms a ball, scraping sides periodically, to ensure beans are well pulverized.
4. Place ball on a plate, flatten, add chocolate chips, and knead lightly to combine. If mixture is a bit runny, use a fork to combine.
5. With wet hands, make 1 1/2″ balls and place them on parchment paper. Makes about 20 – 25 balls. Press slightly to flatten.
6. Bake 15 to 20 minutes or until bottom is slightly browned.
7. Cool in pan on wire rack.

Try and have some left over to freeze for the kid’s lunches!

Homemade Chocolate Chips

These are a little more work to mix into the dough, but well worth the effort.

This recipe comes from Stacey Tress, via the Wholife magazine. I switched the cocoa to raw cacao to increase the nutrition.

1 cup coconut oil

½ cup raw cacao

½ cup honey

1. Heat the above ingredients in a saucepan and mix until smooth.

2. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and pour mixture on paper, being careful to make the layer very thin. ( a thick layer means the honey settles to the bottom)

3. Freeze.

4. Once the mixture has hardened a few hours, remove from freezer and chop it up to the size you would like.

5. Keep these in a covered container in the freezer for later use.

Paulette Millis
Author, Speaker & Registered Nutritional Consultant
www.EatAwayIllness.com

Dominical Rice and Bean Bowl

I want to share with you an idea for an easy meal. While in the Dominican Republic in February, I consumed several of this wonderful complete meal in a bowl. You could change the vegetables, change the type of beans, and/or change the type of grains to suit your tastes. They used iceberg lettuce, but I’m thinking romaine, spinach, cilantro, kale or any other green that has more nutrition than iceberg lettuce. Black beans are lovely, but if all you have on hand are white beans, or garbanzos, or kidney beans, go for it. It is so simple to take 1/2 cup of frozen beans from your freezer, run them under hot water and add. In place of the brown rice, try wild rice, quinoa, or buckwheat, whatever you have on hand.

To serve 1:

shredded greens – romaine lettuce, spinach, cilantro, kale, or a combination
hot cooked brown rice (1/2 to 1 cup for a larger serving)
1/2 cup cooked black beans, or beans of choice. (try the Black Bean recipe below)
dollop of guacamole
dollop of organic yogurt or sour cream
dollop of mild, medium, or hot salsa
toasted sunflower seeds

1. In a serving size bowl, layer greens, hot rice, then hot beans.
2. Arrange guacamole, yogurt or sour cream and salsa in three little scoops on top of the beans.
3. Sprinkle with toasted sunflower seeds.
Enjoy!

For a family dinner, place all of the fixings on the table and let each person build their own bowl. This way you could have a choice of quinoa or rice, or garbanzos or black beans for example. Some people prefer different greens than others, so this allows individuality as well as creativity, especially for children.

Black Beans – Wrap ‘em Up!

1 tbsp. coconut oil
2 cloves garlic, chopped
1 medium onion, chopped
2 tsp. chili powder (or to taste)
1 tbsp. cumin
4 cups cooked black beans, drain well if using canned
1 1/2 cups vegetable broth or chicken broth
unrefined sea salt
1 tbsp. lime juice

1. Heat oil in heavy saucepan over medium heat.
2. Add garlic and onion and cook until golden.
3. Stir in chili powder, cumin and stir and cook 1 minute.
4. Add the beans and the stock and simmer for about 15 minutes, adding a bit more stock if necessary to moisten.
5. Season with salt, lime juice and more chili powder if desired.
May use in the above recipe for bean bowl, or on a whole grain wrap or pizza.

Black beans are loaded with nutrients, so make a big batch of this and freeze in small containers for quick meals.

Thank you to any new subscribers to my blog. Please check the archives for many tasty recipes that are not in my books.

I invite you to let me know what works best for you when introducing new ideas to your children.

Blessings and Happy Eating!
Paulette Millis
Author, Speaker & Registered Nutritional Consultant
www.EatAwayIllness.com

Caramel Sauce with Healthy Ingredients!

A big thank you to all of the people who attended my Eat Yourself Thin! presentation January 24th. The new venue, St. Joseph’s Parish Hall worked well. We even had hot water for herb tea! I look forward to using the lovely kitchen to do a cooking demonstration.

I wanted to share the Caramel Sauce recipe that I am now using – a much healthier version than the bought variety. It contains very healthy monounsaturated fat in the macadamia nuts, and all natural sweeteners. A little goes a long way. It can be made less sweet if desired.

Caramel Sauce Extraordinaire!

Thanks to Lindsay who found a version of this on the internet for me when I was wanting a chocolate, peanut butter, and whipped cream fix. With my flourless zucchini cake made with peanut butter, this sauce, with a dab of whipped cream is heaven.

1 cup raw macadamia nuts

5 – 6 tbsp. pure maple syrup

5 – 6 tbsp. raw blue agave syrup

Pinch of unrefined sea salt

1. Grind macadamia nuts, ½ cup at a time, in Magic Bullet or blender.

2. Add remaining ingredients and blend to a smooth sauce.

3. Serve over Chocolate Zucchini Cake, ice cream or anywhere a lovely caramel sauce is required.

Check a previous blog for the flourless cake. This sauce keeps well if the fridge for a long time, if you can keep your hands off it!

I experimented with the cake recipe using spagetti squash from my Mom’s last summer’s garden instead of zucchini. It was excellant! So if you have several of those wonderful yellow spagetti squash sitting in your house, here is another idea for them.

Just a note to the new blog subscribers: be sure to access many recipes through the archives.

Have a wonderful February…

Blessings,

Paulette.

Paulette Millis
Author, Speaker & Registered Nutritional Consultant
www.EatAwayIllness.com

You’re Invited to EAT YOURSELF THIN!

Ever wonder why some people find it easy to stay slim while others battle with their weight? In this session you will learn the secret to eating yourself thin! No more starvation and deprivation..youll learn the lifestyle and nutritional habits that work.

What: Eat Yourself Thin!

A one hour presentation to help set you up for lifetime health and weight. A look at the role played by thyroid, liver, adrenals, sleep, and stress.

When: January 24, 2013, 7:00 8:00p.m.

Where: St. Josephs Parish Hall basement, 1006 Broadway Ave.

Fee: $10 preregistered; $15 at the door. Free $10 in gift cards.

Time permitting, we will discuss as many of the following as possible:

• Why an overweight body is usually OVER-fed and UNDER-nourished.
• How to nourish your body and satisfy your taste buds with nutrient dense food
• A simple menu planning system that turns mealtime into a breeze
• How balancing blood sugar prevents cravings and bingeing
• What nutritional supplements to consider for optimal weight loss
• The most common emotional issues underlying weight problems and why exploring and healing these issues is important
• How to balance your life in order to balance your weight

Advance $10 registration at eatingforhealth.

Waveshields and books will be available for purchase.
I look forward to seeing you there!

Blessings,

Paulette Millis
Author, Speaker & Registered Nutritional Consultant
www.EatAwayIllness.com

The Ultimate Chocolate Zucchini Cake! (no flour)

We all struggle with keeping the processed and sugary foods out of our diet during the Christmas season. Why not treat yourself with a decadent chocolate cake that is actually healthy for you? This easy to make cake could be doubled, and/or made in two round layer pans for a wonderful chocolate layer cake. Make sure the filling and icing, if using, is made with honey, maple syrup, raw agave, or coconut sugar. Test yourself this Christmas and see if you can make everything with healthy sweeteners. My next challenge is to make a healthy caramel sauce; any ideas anyone?

This year I grew round zucchini. They looked great sitting on my counter until this week, when the last one became cake.

The Ultimate Zucchini Chocolate Cake (no flour!)

Any non-dairy sauce you like would make an icing, but if you have dairy products in your diet, you may want to serve this with a cream cheese icing, or whipped cream with a caramel sauce, or a bit of ice cream!

1 cup organic peanut butter, crunchy or smooth (may use other nut butter)

1/3 cup honey

1 tsp. vanilla

1 tsp. cinnamon

1 tsp. baking soda

1/3 to ½ cup raw cacao powder

1 ½ cups shredded zucchini

1 egg, preferably organic

1. Place peanut butter, honey and vanilla in saucepan on low heat and stir until combined and softened. Remove from heat.

2. Add remaining ingredients in order listed, and stir to combine.

3. Preheat oven to 325 degrees Fahrenheit

4. Oil a 9 x 9 glass pan, and add batter.

5. Bake for 40 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean.

It seems that more and more people are learning to make good foods without flours. Yesterday my neighbour came over to get the recipe for the flourless muffins as she and her husband are on a grain-free diet. With the wonders of phones with cameras, she just took pictures of the recipe. A novel approach to me, which dates me for sure!

You will find other flourless goodies in my books Eat Away Illness and Cook Your Way to Health, for example Cashew Cheese Loaf, Wonderful Nut Muffins, Banana Nut cake. Check the website if you wish to order these for Christmas gifts! Although not sweet, this week I made the Quinoa Spoon Bread, and have used it in a variety of ways. I like it with a poached egg on top, with melted goat mozzarella, as a base for a chickpea curry, and heated up with a drizzle of honey.

Have a healthy holiday season!

Paulette Millis
Author, Speaker & Registered Nutritional Consultant
www.EatAwayIllness.com

Invitation to join Paulette Millis who will be reading and signing Eat Away Illness: Strategies & Recipes for Healing

Email not displaying correctly? View it in your browser. Books | Kids | Events | Prairie Ink Restaurants | More Information McNally Robinson Booksellers is Pleased to Present Paulette Millis Reading and Signing Eat Away Illness: Strategies and Recipes for Healing Wednesday, December 5, 7:30 pm, Travel Alcove Eat Away Illness, Second Edition: Strategies & Recipes for Healing is two books in one! It has a simple to use format, with theory on one side and recipes on the other. Readers will learn that they often do not need prescription or over the counter drugs to treat or avoid diseases. Healing by eating natural, unprocessed, nutrient dense foods, along with information on holistic healing (physical, hormonal, and emotional) gives people the inputs they need to overcome many symptoms or prevent illnesses such as arthritis, diabetes and all auto-immune diseases, any bowel disorders, digestion problems, menopausal symptoms, PMS, cancers and many more. The recipes include gluten and dairy-free instructions. Anyone who eats will benefit from this book! It contains many helpful tips for meal planning and shopping. This book has approximately 200 recipes that do not contain white flour, sugar, trans fats, or processed ingredients. Paulette Millis resides in Saskatoon, and has over twenty years of teaching, facilitating and counseling experience with people dealing with life issues and healing challenges. She is the author of three books and numerous articles and columns on healing through nutrition. She also has fifteen “Cooking for Health” information segments on SCN. Her presentations on healing have become a desired addition to many events, organizations, and corporate wellness programs looking to increase energy, improve productivity, and overall well-being. Join us on Facebook, & twitter@McNallyevents McNally Robinson Booksellers Saskatoon 3130 8th St. E. Saskatoon, Saskatchewan S7H 0W2 Phone 306-955-3599 (Toll Free 1-877-506-7456) Copyright (C) 2009 McNally Robinson Booksellers All rights reserved.