Chocolate Chip Cookies

Baking with Stevia requires a lot of trial and error. We have made about a dozen batches all with different ingredients trying to make the best cookie. Because Stevia is so sweet you only use a tiny amount and then have to add something to add moisture and replace the bulk of the sugar.

Our first attempt was to make cookies following the exact same recipe on the chocolate chip bag except we just added Stevia instead of sugar using the proper conversion ratio. We liked them a lot although they were dry and white....almost more like a sweet biscuit than a cookie. Since then I have learned that baking with Stevia requires a 25% reduction in dry ingredients or else an addition of something to add moisture such as applesauce, yogurt, peanut butter, etc... You can get creative...we have! In one recipe we used applesauce but the liquid boils out of the cookie and makes a shiny smooth outer surface on the cookie almost like a bagel. It also changed the flavor significantly. In one batch we added chia gel which is just soaked chia seeds that get very gelatinous. Those cookies had the best texture and the chia gel didn't change the flavor at all.

Last night I decided to use apple butter because in making apple butter most of the liquid is boiled out already so I was hoping it would make the cookies moist without the boil-off affect of applesauce. Success! Those were the best of all the cookies we've made so far! Also having the Stevia chocolate chips made them even better because we could eat them guilt-free! Here is the recipe:

2 sticks of butter at room temperature

1/2 cup of SteviaPlus

Mix together until creamy and fluffy. Then add

2 large eggs

1 tsp. alcohol-free vanilla (if you are on the Candida Diet)

1/4 c. apple butter (our apple butter was made with green apples and no sugar)

Beat together. In separate bowl mix dry ingredients.

1 cup Organic White Wheat Flour from Bob's Red Mill

1 cup oatmeal blended into a coarse flour

1 tsp. baking soda

1/2 tsp. salt

Add dry ingredients to wet ingredients and mix together until just blended. Add chocolate chips.

1/2 cup Kona Kava Stevia sweetened chocolate chips

Bake at 350 degrees for 10 minutes.

Usually we have to press down the cookies because they are so dry but these were moist going on the pan and they spread out just enough! Enjoy!

Alternative Sweeteners

Lakanto This product is recommended in "The Body Ecology Diet" so we wanted to give it a try in baking. In our apple pie, it didn't taste any different than sugar. In cookies, it had a "cool" taste...almost cold...hard to explain. We agreed that the coolness came from the sugar alcohol Erythritol and not the fruit extract. I would not make cookies with it again but I would use it in pies!



Steviva Blend (with Erythritol) Stevia extract is so sweet it requires only a fraction of a teaspoon to sweeten. It makes it more difficult to use in baking so manufacturers add bulking agents to stevia extract. Look for the stevia blends that contain erythritol (an all natural, gluten-free fermented grain extract) which doesn't affect insulin levels making it safe for diabetics and doesn't feed yeast, making it safe for those suffering candidiasis. Stay away from Stevia mixed with Maltodextrin! Table sugar is at 65 on the glycemic index and Maltodextrin is at 100! Watch out for it in packaged foods as a hidden sugar. Because Maltodextrin is considered a "complex carbohydrate" and not a refined simple sugar, manufacturers are allowed to state "no sugar" or "low sugar" on product labels but it will impact blood sugar more severely than table sugar!



Stevia Plus This product is blended with Frutafit Inulin Fiber which is considered a prebiotic because it is digested by the good instestinal bacteria. It feeds them and makes them happy and doesn't feed the bad bacteria. This NSI brand says it contains Maltodextrin listed under "Other Ingredients" so I called the company and they said there is less than 1 mg per serving and because it is too small to quantify it is listed under other ingredients. One serving includes 475 mg of Frutafit Inulin Fiber and 25 mg of Stevia Extract.



Green Stevia Leaf Powder If you really want to be healthy and avoid even refined stevia, this is the way to go. You can even grow your own stevia, dry it in a dehydrator and grind it up with a mortar and pestle when you need it. Or, you can boil down fresh leaves and make your own liquid extract!



Stevia Extract Powder Used in conjuction with other sweetener such as honey, maple syrup, molasses and it will mimmick the flavor of the other sweetener. This means you won't taste the aftertaste of stevia and the other sweetener flavor will be intensified. This is also why, when shopping for liquid stevia extract you will see many flavored extracts such as Vanilla Creme.



Vanilla Creme Liquid Stevia Make your own flavored yogurt by purchasing one of the many flavors of the liquid stevia and adding to plain yogurt. I haven't found stevia sweetened yogurt in stores! What a great way to make your own! We compared the amount of added sugar to yogurt compared to ice cream and it was much higher and doesn't even take into account the natural sugars in the added fruit! How about Chocolate Raspberry flavored yogurt? Or lemon? I like adding lemon or lime halves to our green smoothies to make them taste great. We'll have to try this liquid extract. With the stevia adding sweetness, I will be able to make green smoothies without adding any fruit! So far our favorite drink that replaced soda in our home is carbonated mineral water with lemon or lime squeezed in and a few drops of liquid stevia extract. It's great! The convenience of the liquid drops has me sold. I will most likely try all the available flavors in different applications. I did melt down bittersweet baking chocolate and added drops of the vanilla creme to it and it tasted delicious. Now I can't wait to buy the Chocolate extract for next time!



Liquid Stevia Root Beer Flavor Purchase inexpensive carbonated mineral water and add this flavoring to make your own healthy soda! I will have to buy this, try it out and post my results on the blog!

Daily Diet Recomendations

I listened to Donna Gates speak today and she recommended following a daily diet regimen such as this:

Upon arising drink 2 glasses of water. Drink the best filtered water that still retains it's minerals. Brita water filters remove chlorine. Carbon block filters such as those by Multi-Pure remove chlorine and many other impurities but leave behind the minerals we need. My family is using Brita and adding Concentrace mineral drops to our smoothies but we want to buy a Multi-Pure under sink filter soon. My friends at Blessings Nutrition sell that water filtration system.

30 minutes later drink 3 oz. of probiotic juice. Kombucha is great naturally fermented drink just not for anyone who suffers from Candidiasis because it is a naturally occuring yeast. Donna Gates recommends young green coconut kefir. You can make it yourself or purchase it from the Body Ecology website or Amazon. The product is called Cocobiotic.

Follow with a green smoothie. Donna's recommended recipe:

Fill your blender 1/2 full with filtered water and/or filtered water ice cubes
add 1/2 lime (if organic leave peel on)
celery
zucchini
fresh mint leaves
cucumber
Barleans Swirl These come in many flavors and is a great way to give kids their omega 3 oils without having to swallow a big pill or chew a sugar-loaded gummie. Barleans Swirls are a great sugar-free way to sweeten up a smoothie.
Potent Proteins powder
Vitality Super Green powder

She didn't give any specific amounts so you'll have to taste it as you add ingredients.

Starting your day this way will keep your digestive system healthy and give you so much energy. Then at lunch time you are ready for your largest meal of the day and the meal that will include your meat dish if you aren't vegetarian/vegan. She suggested:

eggs
cultured vegetables
salad with salmon
soups with quinoa or millet
organic miso soup with komub and shiitake

Your last meal of the day should be vegetarian. Eating meat at the end of the day when you are less active can create all kinds of problems with digestion which can lead to health issues. For more information you'll have to read her book. I am just passing on the information as I understand it and from experience. Before starting this diet, my stomach churned all night long and I woke up with a stomach ache. Since quitting sugar, eating meat earlier in the day and striving to combine foods properly I have seen huge improvements in my digestion and I don't have any more gas or morning stomach aches. Everyone in my family experienced the same change!

Tips For Giving Up Sugar

Two things inspired me today to get back to posting on my blog! One was listening to a recorded call with Donna Gates, author of "The Body Ecology Diet". You can hear it and many other great speakers at http://www.wishsummit.com/. The second motivation to begin blogging again was receiving an email from a college student who is like my daughter telling me that her and her roomies are giving up sugar! They already got everything out of the house with sugar in it and they want tips to make the process easier. It makes me happy when I hear people making healthy changes in their lives, especially people close to me. Today Donna is passionate about finding cures for autism and she advocates mothers eating healthy diets before conception so as to pass on healthy DNA to her children and her grandchildren. She spoke about female fetuses developing their ovaries in the first month in the womb and getting all of their eggs in the 6 month. The quality of the pregnant mother's health affects the quality of those eggs. So, in effect, every pregnant woman is affecting the health of her grandchildren! For that reason alone, I am happy to hear about an apartment full of college age women making big changes in their health.

Tip #1 - Drink lots of water. When you give up sugar, all forms of sugar, you will detox and possibly not feel well. Drinking more water than normal will greatly help the process. "You're Not Sick, You're Thirsty" is a fantastic book on the healing power of water. I highly recommend it!

Tip #2 - Read labels. Become aware of the names of ingredients that are used to hide what is really in a product. Even potato chips contain maltodextrin which is one of the worst forms of sugar and causes an addiction to those chips...you know, "once you pop, you just can't stop"...the infamous Pringles jingle.

Tip #3 - Stop eating out of boxes. Make simple meals at home with fresh ingredients such as grilled chicken with steamed veggies rather than packaged convenience foods that really cost you more in the long run. Large salads with baked salmon, tuna, or hard boiled egg on top are a good option. Learn to make simple salad dressings to avoid the added sugar.

Tip #4 - Be patient. After 4 or 5 days you will overcome the cravings. Adding more healthy foods to your diet will also reduce cravings for sweets and treats.

Tip #5 - Have stevia sweetened treats around the house for those times when you do want something sweet. We are learning to bake with stevia and we found a diabetic bakery that makes delicious desserts with stevia. One of our favorites is the bowl of caramel from Just Delicious Diabetic Bakery (only $3) that can be used to dip apples or drizzled on crepes and homemade cookies. I recently purchased chocolate chips that are sweetened with stevia. They are $7 for an 8 oz. bag which sounds like a lot, but, if you just snack on 3 or 4 when a craving hits, you will save your health and stick to your goal for not much money. I have only found one source for these chocolate chips.
http://www.shamansgarden.com/p-211-chocolate-vegan-chips.aspx
There are other sugar-free chocolate chips but do your research on alternative sweeteners. Artificial sweeteners can be very dangerous to your health. We found another diabetic bakery that sweetens with Acesulfame K. After reading the research on this sweetener, I know I will not eat that again! I got a headache shortly after eating one of their cupcakes, which is the same result when I eat aspartame. Here is a link to a good article on several artificial sweeteners: http://www.sweetpoison.com/aspartame-sweeteners.html

Tip #6 - Have a support system. I tried to quit eating sugar alone several times but this time I was successful because my whole family committed to doing it together. It's a fun experiment for a group of college roomies. I think they will be proud of themselves for their accomplishment especially when they start seeing one of the positive side effects...weight loss!

Tip #7 - Write! Writing about your experience in your journal, keeping a daily food journal or blogging about it will keep you motivated and accountable. I decided to blog about our family's journey for that reason because I knew there would be hard times. After a month of being sick, I was glad I started my blog because I did start to wonder what I was doing to my body. My next post will be about that month of illnesses that kept me from blogging but didn't make me go back to life with sugar.

Tip #8 - Stay motivated. I have been motivated to keep on going because I have been reading so many books and articles relating to the damage sugar can do in our bodies. If you don't have time to read and study on the subject as much as I do, take an hour and a half and watch the video I posted previously: Sugar: The Bitter Truth That will be all the motivation you need to give up sugar!

You can do it! Once you start, you will find so many people who are on the same path with you!