A Stevia Solution That has No Bad Aftertaste for Favorite Oatmeal Raisin Cookies

 Thank you to all those who have enjoyed cooking with Mom's Island Bakens and have written to me about your experiences.

A couple of months ago, I had a reader ask how he could bake my recipes using Stevia instead of agave or honey. He also revealed that he, like so many of us, does not like the aftertaste of Stevia. His idea was that maybe there is a way to hide the aftertaste and at least cut down on the other sweeteners. We know that Stevia is a natural plant (provided you buy an organic product that has not been artificially processed) and that your body does not recognize it as a sugar. So for a diabetic or anyone trying to cut down on sugar in the body, this may be a good option for sweets. I started working on using my recipes and trying to come up with a Stevia solution.

Here is what I came up with and have tested on a number of my recipes. I think this Stevia-Honey/Agave combination would work for any recipe you have:
If your recipe calls for 1/2 cup agave/sugar/honey, then only add 1/4 cup raw organic honey (or agave) and 1 & 1/2 tablespoons of Organic Stevia powder (about 4 or 5 packs of Sweetleaf).
Easy! This cuts down the sugar content by 1/2 and your "bakens" are just as delicious because you can not taste the Stevia aftertaste. The honey does so well at covering the Stevia aftertaste, but I also tried it with Raw Organic Agave and that also worked. Any more Stevia began to not work as well. Although if you double the recipe, you can just double the amounts of both Honey and Stevia.

So, here is the recipe for Favorite Oatmeal Raison Cookies from Mom's Island Bakens and I have modified it to include this Stevia option:

Favorite Oatmeal Raisin Cookies

(Preheat oven to 350 degrees)

Ingredients

1 cup rolled oats (Red Mill brand or organic)

1 cup organic whole wheat flour * or

    gluten-free flour mix (see page 22)

1 cup almond or quinoa flour

1 organic omega-3 egg

1/2 cup organic raw agave or try a Stevia-Honey option to cut down on the sugar (use 1/4 cup Organic Raw Honey or Agave and 1 & 1/2 tablespoons pf Organic Stevia in powder form)

4 tablespoons black strap molasses

1/2 teaspoon baking powder (organic or

      Red Mill Brand non-aluminum)

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

2 or 3 tablespoons organic vanilla **

2 tablespoons cinnamon

1/2 cup organic olive oil (or a little less since

     you are also using flax meal)

     pinch of Himalayan salt

4 tablespoons of organic flax meal or Red

     Mill Brand ***

1/2 cup organic raisins (add a little more if

     you like, I do sometimes.)

1/4 cup chopped walnuts

Directions

1. Mix all dry ingredients and then in a separate bowl mix all wet ingredients. Add them together in one bowl.

2. On lightly oiled cookie sheet, drop one-inch balls of dough (about 2 tablespoons per cookie or a little less). Press each cookie with large spoon and flatten on pan.

3. Cook on highest rack (so bottoms do not burn) for about 12 to 15 minutes.

Mommie’s Notes and Tips: For Oatmeal Raisin Cookies

* Here is a tip for all your flours and grains like rice, corn meal, etc: When you first buy it, put it in the freezer for 48 hours, then you can move it to your regular grain storage area. This amount of freezing will kill any microscopic maggot eggs, meal worms and other larval forms, etc. I always do this and even store flours in the freezer for longer periods if there is room, just to fill the space. (remember, a full refrigerator cuts down on electricity and this is true of your freezer as well). Of course, it goes without saying that if you see any wiggly or dormant worms in your grains, toss it all out!

** If you can find fresh vanilla beans, split them down lengthwise and scrape out the inner substance. This makes the best vanilla flavoring!

*** If you can only find flax seeds, grind them finely in your coffee bean grinder. You can use your coffee bean grinder to grind nuts and seeds like Chia to add in recipes for flavor and nutrition.

Enjoy This Holiday Recipe for Double Chocolate Cherry Almond Cookies

Double Chocolate Cherry Almond Cookies Recipe

Happy Holidays to One and All. Here is a recipe from Mom's Island Bakens that you can try out while waiting for your copy to arrive to you. Remember that you can order Mom's Island Bakens from Amazon.com in both the Amazon US and Amazon UK. Enjoy!

(Preheat oven to 350 degrees)

These delicious cookies are heart healthy cookies, in that not only is the dark chocolate, olive oil, and the flaxseed meal heart healthy ingredients, but also the flour used is half organic whole wheat and half almond flour, which makes it 1 to 1 on the carbohydrate to protein ratio. This recipe makes about 2 dozen cookies. I suggest doubling all ingredients in it to make 4 dozen because these cookies freeze really well in small batches in the refrigerator, so you can spread eating them out over a few weeks.

Ingredients

1/2 cup organic whole wheat flour or

    gluten-free flour mix (see page 22 in Mom's Island Bakens)

1/2 cup almond flour

3 or 4 medium organic omega-3 eggs

1/3 heaping cup Mayan Organic Raw Cacao   

     Powder

1/3 cup organic raw agave

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 tablespoon organic vanilla

1/3 cup organic olive oil

3 tablespoons of organic flax meal

1/4 cup dried organic cherries (no added

    sweeter)

2 tablespoons finely ground chia seeds

10 chopped organic almonds for topping

Directions

1. Mix all dry ingredients first and then add the wet ingredients. I suggest that you add the eggs last in case you want to taste batter for adding any

extra agave for sweetness to your liking (using spoon of course).

2. On well-oiled cookie sheet, drop about 1 heaping tablespoons per cookie. If you need to use your hands, slightly wet them so the batter does not stick to your hands. Sprinkle a few chopped pieces of almonds on top of each cookie and then press them with large spoon and flatten lightly on pan.

3. Cook on highest rack (so bottoms do not burn) for about 12-13 minutes. These cookies will harden slightly after they come out of the oven, so do not overcook them. 

Join Author Martha Char Love of new cook book "Mom's Island Bakens" on It Matters Radio

Join Martha Char Love, author of new cook book Mom's Island Bakens for a live Broadcast on "IT Matters Radio", Thursday, December 4th 9PM ET, 8PM CT, 7PM MT, 6PM PT. Find out about cooking nutritious food that is also delicious.
http://www.spreecast.com/events/from-r-b-to-healthy-eating

If you missed the broadcast, then you may still see the full interview here:
 http://www.itmattersradio.com/#!martha-char-love/cx6y


Review by Co-Host Ken Weene of Mom's Island Bakens:

Anybody here not like to eat?

I admit it; I like to eat and I love tasty food. The problem is that nagging worry about health. You know the one, the one asking will this be healthy for me as well as tasty? Eating well — not just delicious  but healthy — requires a lifestyle change for most people. Martha Char Love tries to help with Mom’s Island Bakens. It isn’t just the over fifty recipes in the book that are helpful, there are chapters about how to alter recipes in general, for example some advice on how to lower the glycemic index and how to balance acidity and alkalinity. She offers specific recipes for specific problems such as poor sleeping and jetlag. Martha also gives tips for cleaning your kitchen without using dangerous chemicals.

While neither a nutritionist nor a chemist, Love condenses a lot of useful information into her book, much as she encourages her readers to pack nutrient density into their food. This is a book for people who care what they put into their guts and that is certainly something for all of us to care about.

Review by Kenneth Weene,

Co-Host, It Matters Radio

Mom's Island Bakens is Given a 5 Star Review by a Guy Who Says He is "Next To Useless In the Kitchen"

The following 5 star review of Mom's Island Bakens is by T. R. Heinan, author of
L'Immortalite: Madame Lalaurie and the Voodoo Queen

Mom’s Island Bakens by Martha Char Love is the only cookbook I have ever actually wanted to recommend. As a guy who is next to useless in the kitchen, I nearly gave up on cookbooks, and even magazine recipes, when I discovered that they always seem to require at least one ingredient that can only be purchased at two mom and pop stores in New Delhi or only sold in Alaska on Tuesdays during the month of July.  

At last here are recipes that only require ingredients you are likely to find at your local grocer. When it comes to making substitutions in recipes, the author has already done it for you. The entire book is filled with the substitutions needed to make old family recipes healthier. In fact, the first four chapters are devoted to learning how to make everything you cook heathier, with an eye to nutrient density, lowering the glycemic index and balancing pH levels. There is even a easy to follow section on how to make a gluten free baking flour mix. This book also gives you the tools to modify your own family recipes in order to make them healthier. As a heart patient, I really appreciate having this information. 

Mom's Island Bakens provides over fifty recipes and even entire meals that you can make to enjoy truly healthy eating without having to acquire the tools and skills of a top chef or ingredients you’ve never ever seen anyplace you shop. So glad I discovered this little book. I give it five stars. 

Mom's Island Bakens, available on Amazon US and on Amazon UK

Smell that Organic Mayan Chocolate! Healthy Double Chocolate Cherry Almond Cookies

C

an't you just smell that Organic Mayan Chocolate cooking! Just cooked 4 dozen cookies from my new cookbook, "Mom's Island Bakens". So Delicious! And the best thing about it is that they are half almond flour (and use half other whole grain) so they are high in protein, low in glycemic Index with organic raw agave and dried cherries for sweetening, and high in nutrient density with flax meal and chia seed, with heart healthy organic olive oil, walnuts, and omega-3 eggs. Easy to cook! 

Double Chocolate Cherry Almond Cookies from page 84, "Mom's Island Bakens"

Check it out! http://www.amazon.com/Moms-Island-Bakens-Altered-Recipes/dp/1500108235/ref=la_B006L3QXUG_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1406518046&sr=1-2

"Mom's Island Bakens" Cookbook Shares a Simple Gluten-Free Flour Mix Recipe for People with Celiac Disease

T

his has been a fun week with the new release of Mom’s Island Bakens and it now being available on Amazon! One of the first people who bought my book, author Mamie Adkins, has emailed me and asked me if I would suggest this book for people with Celiac disease. Thank you, Mamie, because that is a great question and I think other people may wonder the same thing. Celiac is a disease in which eating gluten triggers an immune system reaction in the small intestines and overtime causes mal-absorption of some important nutrients. Following a gluten-free diet can help manage the symptoms and promote intestinal healing. While Mom’s Island Bakens is not written specifically for those with Celiac disease who are needing to become gluten-free, it does include in most of its recipes that use grains a substitute flour mix suggestion that is gluten-free. There are also a few delicious gluten free recipes using other gluten free grains than suggested in the gluten-free mix.

Likewise, the ingredients included in a few of the recipes in Mom's Island Bakens may have dairy products listed but usually also will include suggestions for non-dairy alternatives like almond or rice milk. I almost always use almond milk in all the recipes. And best of all, Mom’s Island Bakens takes a look at other important things to consider in your ingredient lists like how to make a recipe nutrient dense and have every bite packed with as much nutrition as possible. There are times that I select to forgo making a recipe absolutely dairy-free (even though most of my recipes include suggestions for doing so if you are allergic to dairy) because I want to make sure the nutrient density is as high as possible.

An example of allowing for milk products in a recipe to increase nutrient density is seen in the chocolate cream pie recipe on page 99 of Mom’s Island Bakens. I noticed tonight that for the chocolate pie recipe (I made one as a birthday gift for a family member) that I have listed as one ingredient a cup of almond milk thickened to kefir consistency using organic non-fat dried milk. The dried milk makes this recipe not absolutely dairy-free. However, you can make this recipe without using the non-fat dried milk and instead add two more tablespoons of cornstarch to thicken the almond milk. Since cornstarch has no nutritious value what-so-ever, I prefer to use dried milk as a thickener when possible. Of course, you would need to consider your own health needs to make this decision. I have cooked this pie both ways and it is delicious either way!

And yes, there are a number of recipes that are gluten free in Mom’s Island Baken’s. However, if you would like to simply have the gluten free baking mix recipe that I include in Mom’s Island Bakens, I am happy to give that out freely. Just use this mix to substitute 1 to 1 for wheat or other gluten flours in any of your favorite recipes and enjoy good health:

1 cup certified gluten free organic millet flour or certified gluten free oat flour

1/2 cup organic almond meal

1 cup potato starch

1 teaspoon xanthan gum

So back to the original question, is Mom’s Island Bakens a good cookbook for people with Celiac disease? My answer is yes, because it is written to help everyone consider how to make ingredient substitutions for good health. And if you would like to consider not just how to substitute ingredients to make your diet gluten-free, but also how to have your cooked food higher in nutrient density, lower on the glycemic index, using all heart healthy oils like olive oil, and more digestible as a more alkaline diet, then you would certainly find Mom’s Island Bakens helpful. I suggest Mom’s Island Bakens to anyone as a helpful guide in making an overall more healthy diet change through learning to alter recipes for gut and heart health. And surely, you will find a number of Mom’s tried and true recipes not only healthy for you but also very delicious.