I recently made chocolate chip cookies for a friend’s baby shower and got tons of compliments. I was being asked what the secret ingredient was and how they got so “puffy”. Naturally, I was going to be funny about it and joke that my cat provided a valuable ingredient, but bit my tongue. I wouldn’t say that there is a secret ingredient. It just was the quality of the ingredients, mostly organic and non-processed. So, go ahead and indulge in these decadent chocolate chip cookies. You are so worth it.
Decadent Chocolate Chip Cookies
(About 40 cookies)
2-1/2 cups of unbleached flour
1 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
½ tsp ground cinnamon
2 sticks of organic butter, softened (highly recommend Trader Joe’s Organic Butter)
2 large eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
¾ cup – 1 cup of organic sugar (depending on your taste for sweetness)
½ cup of maple sugar
12 oz bag of chocolate chips
½ cup of chopped nuts, such as walnuts or pecans (optional)
Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Mix flour, salt, cinnamon and baking soda in a medium size bowl. In a large bowl, mix softened butter, vanilla extract and sugars with a hand mixer. After thoroughly blended, add 1 egg at a time and continue to mix until smooth. Slowly then add flour mix and continue until batter has been fully mixed together. Then by hand, with a large wooden spoon, mix in chocolate chips and nuts (if using).
Using two teaspoons, scoop batter and place on cookie sheet (approximately 12 scoops per sheet). Bake for 8 minutes. Remove from oven and allow to cool on cake racks.
This recipe is pure and simple! Remember to enjoy the cookies slowly… Also, quality over quantity. The cookies also freeze nicely.
The international organic food grid that is. While I say this, it also slightly tears at my heart given the fact that the seeds for real foods and local sustainable farming were planted while being raised in Germany and observing how my grandmother approached the gardening of our fruits and vegetables. Everything was organic and local. I can still smell the cow manure that she wheeled down to her garden in her wooden cart.
Here I am 20+ years later and getting extremely frustrated with the fact that my weekly organic produce delivery contains pears from Argentina, tomatoes and honeydews from Mexico and kiwis from Spain or Italy. I have always used my European background in how I embrace food and the approach to enjoyment thereof. However, as much as I honor international cultures and foods, I am becoming very resistant to seeing organic foods imported from outside the US. Importing totally defies what traditional and real food is all about. The French and inhabitants of the Mediterranean region are always touted as the best examples of healthy and joyful people. Do you think they would enjoy a tomato from Holland, zucchini from Germany or an apple from Sweden? I don’t think so!
So, let’s get off the international food grid and support sustainable farming here – local as the ideal, but national as the foundation!
Where Are Good Places to Shop for a Healthier Lifestyle?
• Chain Supermarket – most stores nowadays have natural and organic food selections
• Whole Foods
• Trader Joe’s
• Health Food Store
• Wegman’s (in Northeast)
What Are Some of the Brands And Products I Recommend?
Baked Goods
French Meadow Bakery (yeast-free products)
Rudolph’s Bakery (organic selection)
Ryvita (crisp bread and crackers)
Beauty Products
Annemarie Borlind
Aubrey Organics
Dr. Hauschka
Kiss My Face Organic
Naturopathica
Cleaning Products
Eco Clean
Method Home
Seventh Generation
Dairy
Natural by Nature
Vermont Cheese Company
Flours/Grains
Bob’s Red Mill
Herbs/Spices
Simply Organic
Whole Foods Brand
Trader Joe’s Brand
Juices
R.W. Knudsen
Whole Foods Organic Brand
Nut Butters
Whole Foods Organic Brand
Trader Joe’s Organic Brand
Oils
Garden of Life
Spectrum
Trader Joe’s Organic
Tree of Life
Tropical Traditions
Whole Foods 365
Vitamins/Essential Fatty Acids
Food of Life
Barlean’s
Carlson’s
How Do I Organize Myself?
Why most people fail with a new nutrition plan is that they become overwhelmed with the day-to-day maintenance of such a plan. This is easily avoidable with some basic organization. Here are some simple techniques to get organized:
1. Prepare a weekly or monthly meal planner. (I personally use Excel to plan my weekly meals.)
2. Have a shopping list template organized by the store layout and standard staples purchased to eliminate any guessing of what you need and where to find the items.
3. Prepare meals in batches and prepare snack bags to help reduce time requirements and temptations to stray from your plan.
4. When eating out, don’t hesitate to make special dietary requests. After all, you are the customer!
5. Most importantly, tell yourself that you deserve to be healthy and happy!
Most people start right away with focusing on the bad portion of their nutrition plan. If you’ve been diagnosed with food allergies, I definitely recommend you follow this principle. However, if you’re looking to convert to a healthier lifestyle, focus first on integrating healthy options into your daily life. From my experience, I can tell you that it is easier to experiment with good food choices and gain momentum with feeling more energy than to both learn what is good and try to remember what is bad. This is where people fall off track and lose confidence in trying to overhaul their daily nutrition plan. Since I’m such a big fan of planning and organizing, I typically recommend that you put together a written plan to organize your new healthy lifestyle. Let’s look at what I call “The Good” and then at some tools to help you get organized in your approach to overhaul your food plan!
Here are some nutrition success factors, which have worked for me:
• Focus on living healthily versus dieting. I love to call it feel-good eating!
• Moderation and portion control are absolutely essential.
• Always eat breakfast, lunch and dinner, along with a mid-morning and afternoon snack for continued energy.
• Combine these healthy foods into your daily meal plan for optimal health:
Vegetables
Fruits
Protein (Meat, dairy and fish)
Grains
Legumes
Seeds/nuts
Oils
• Eat only whole and unprocessed foods for the majority of your plan.
• Opt for natural sugar in snacks, such as fruit.
• Combine your fruit snack with a handful of nuts to avoid a big sugar surge.
• Limit desserts to special occasions and enjoy something truly delectable. (85% dark chocolate is excluded, which is a daily “health food” for me…)
• Choose lean meats and experiment with different varieties, such as buffalo and bison.
• Enjoy eggs, if eating whole (yolk & whites).
• Finish eating before you feel full.
• Experience new foods. (A food rut can often lead to binge eating…)
• Consume alcohol in moderation. Enjoy the healthy flavonoids in red wine versus the sugar-sweet and calorie-dense margaritas and daiquiris. (Also, make sure that you’re drinking for the right reasons. Drinking to tune out pain, anger or resentment will not make you feel good.)
Remember, it takes 30 days to create a new habit. So, allow yourself the time to have your changes form habits. There are times when you’ll get utterly frustrated and feel deprived. However, your body is essentially detoxing from years of “abuse”. I commend you for your willingness to move beyond this mini hurdle and clear yourself from toxicity. Your renewed mental and physical clarity will be a big reward for all your efforts. You’ll then ask yourself why you didn’t do this earlier!
Can you relate to this? I know I can. I’ve always thought that if you eat healthy, meaning you eat lots of fruits and veggies, healthy fats and good proteins; you are set to maintain your clothing size. Little did I know that this isn’t the only factor to being healthy… Also, when I say healthy, I don’t consider organic “processed foods”, such as microwave dinners, cookies, snack and food bars to meet this qualification. I’m talking about eating real foods. So, after struggling to understand why my pants were getting tighter, I realized that there had to be more to this situation and set out to do some research.
I came across articles on how stress causes weight gain. I took a look at my own life and realized that I was internalizing a lot of frustration, resentment and anger. Plus, if I wanted to admit it or not, I was shifting from hero to martyr to victim at work a lot. I was also being held hostage by thoughts of my past. So, what was the result? Sneaky little stress hormones had been adding extra padding to the stomach and thighs. On my mission to not be a victim, but to be responsible and apply the act of self-appreciation a lot more, I’ve embraced expert recommendations and am using this as a valuable learning lesson (vs. my normal beating myself up!). Here are some wonderful ways to apply self-appreciation:
• Express emotions in a feel good manner, don’t always bottle them up or berate yourself for having the thoughts. According to Dr. Christiane Northrup, “Emotions are our inner guidance system, our aliveness. I’m not suggesting that we wallow in anger, grief, or self-pity, mind you! But emotions make us human. And they provide us with an incredibly accurate blueprint for how to live our lives with maximum access to our joy and creativity!”
• Commit to regular exercise. It’s easy to make excuses to not do it. However, you do feel so much better afterward and are full of positive energy. (My excuse was: French women don’t exercise… However, I forget to let my brain in on the fact that they walk, bike or do garden work a lot more than I do…)
• Set aside daily time for meditation, inner retrospection or silent gratitude expression. I’m not perfect at this either. But – believe me – even 5 minutes a day is a great start.
• Add beauty to your daily living by surrounding yourself with wonderful colors and simplicity. It only takes simple things as putting flowers on your kitchen table (after all paper piles have been removed), wearing a bright scarf (from an organized closet) or enjoying a delicious cup of tea (in some quiet and clean space).
• Reaffirm daily that you deserve to be happy and joyous. Watch how you talk to yourself. If berating yourself for something, stop and tell yourself that it’s okay and just breathe. Then loop back with a thought of self-appreciation (beautiful smile, anyone?).
Most importantly, don’t forget to be kind to yourself. We’re a nation of instant gratification seekers. Healing from within doesn’t happen overnight. The only thing you can do is to enjoy the here and now. So, make it more pleasurable by finding opportunities to experience joy. Hmmm. Those pants already feeling looser again, don’t they?!?!