Welcme to My World – Ancestry – Well Being – Healthy Cookie Dough
Hello World! Hope you’re having a good day & it isn’t too cold where you are. It is in the 50’s here but it’s cloudy & nasty so it feels colder than it is.
It is one of those days where I woke up feeling annoyed. I’m sure lack of sunshine has something to do with it. I tried doing something physical (mowed front & back yard), thinking that would put me in a better mood. Didn’t work (especially after I stepped in poop 🙂 Well, my mother always told me that was good luck – probably to get me to shut up & quit complaining. ).
So now it is time to write. That always works & makes me feel better. I am a person that needs the sun shining… It can be cold; that’s okay, as long as the sun shines. 
Been talking to my cousin about my ancestry. Since my family is originally from eastern Europe, it’s hard to trace my family tree back very far, but she gave me some good info that one of our aunts told her before she died. I have relatives in France that I never knew existed so now I can look for them. 
I never knew my grandmother came from a family of 9 kids! She never talked about it & now she’s gone. My mother never talked about it either, so now I have another project to work on. I’d like to leave my son more info about our family tree than anyone gave me. I’m not blaming anyone as I wasn’t terribly interested when I was young, & you know what they say about hindsight! I’ll let you know if I find any long lost relatives – branches of the family tree I didn’t know existed. It’s kind of exciting! It has been proven to me over the years that the world is really a smaller place than we can ever imagine & we can find people where we least expect to.
Now my cousin is going to send me pics from Russia that are probably from late 1800’s – WOW! 
I’ve talked a bit about mental health (mine 🙂 )… Now it’s time for a bit of physical health that may taste good… I found this interesting info online,
A Healthy Cookie Dough to Quell Sugar Cravings
As the new year peaks over the horizon & 2016 comes to an end, it’s time to reset, rebalance & take some time for introspection.
But, perhaps most pressing, it’s time to rid yourself of those nagging sugar cravings you’ve cultured after weeks of snacking on cookies, cakes, alcohol & sweets. It can be a difficult cycle to escape. Sugar is so tasty, just a little bit more won’t hurt, right? Sugar cravings can quickly spiral out of control, which is why I developed my own recipe to quell sugar cravings, but still satiate that need for a subtly sweet comfort food. 
For me, there is nothing better than a sweet, doughy spoonful of chocolate chip cookie dough. But, cookie dough is full of refined sugar & flour. It’s a great treat, but it will set you right back on the wonky sugar train. This healthier alternative I have developed—grain-free, nut-free, vegan & with no added sweetener—is pretty darn close to the real thing, but way better for your body, especially your blood sugar.
This recipe relies on the magic of tigernuts, a small tuber with a natural sweetness, a little like sweet potatoes or parsnips. (Organic Gemini is a reliable producer that can be easily found in some health food stores, Whole Foods, or online.) One thing that sets tigernuts apart from other root foods is how incredibly rich in resistant starch they are. Resistant starch functions as a prebiotic in the digestive system, resisting digestion & acting as fertile breeding ground for good gut-dwelling critters. It can also be found in green bananas & cooked-then-cooled white rice.
As we know, the microbiome exerts huge control over blood sugar, cravings & metabolism, so the prebiotic action of tigernuts can actually help you replenish good bacteria in your gut after a holiday season of feeding all the less-desirable, sugar-seeking critters.
Tigernuts, when paired with the subtle sweetness of coconut oil, make a just-sweet-enough dough to make you feel great while satiating that incessant call for sugar. What’s better is that it is absolutely loaded with beneficial fiber, allowing it to act as a chimney sweep in your digestive system. 
Can tigernuts quell your incessant holiday sugar cravings? Try it for yourself. Here is my recipe:
Tigernut Cookie Dough
- 1 cup tigernut flour
- 3-4 Tablespoons virgin coconut oil
- pinch of salt
- unsweetened chocolate chunks or cacao nibs (as much as desired)
- Combine the flour, oil & salt in a bowl with a fork. (Alternately, you could briefly pulse them in a food processor until a loose ball forms.)
- Stir in the chocolate chunks.
- Grab a spoon & dig in!
*I have never attempted to bake these, as they are designed purely for spoon licking. I imagine they would require some sort of binding agent, like eggs. Feel free to experiment on your own!
I haven’t tried this but it sounds good & since it is “no bake”, it might be right up my alley. I may try it. Sounds good to me!
