Brownie Chocolate Chip Cookies - Free of: Grains, Gluten, Eggs, Casein, Sugar*

Brownie Chocolate Chip Cookies

A grain-free and sugar free diet may not be the easiest diet to follow, but you know I am absolutely grateful that the diet I eat is a health and life giving diet.  I am looking back with eyes that see how I was being led in the right direction for the best health.  My thoughts lately have been a lot about sugar and how detrimental sugar is to health. Specifically, I am pondering the recommendations of drastically reducing sugar for cancer prevention.. (I find all nutrition studies very interesting.)  It makes sense to me because sugar weakens the immune system.  My studies have taught me that the body turns grains into sugar. It is after reading these studies that I am totally grateful I have eaten sugar-free for the past 11 years or longer and grain-free for 2 years.  Grain-free was my missing puzzle piece.

My readers may know that my boys have been riding along with me on my "sugar-free" diet for quite awhile.  My blog has a mixture of recipes...most that my boys like, but always low in sweeteners and most often use stevia.  Some of my blog posts share recipes that my boys are allowed to eat,  but I may not be able to eat due to the fact that I began slowly introducing small amounts of raw honey into their diet this past year.  I think they are doing well with it.  They are pretty happy with this diet change.

Most of the recipes I share are the recipes that I feel meet the needs of most readers or may be easily adapted.  I may be a bit shy sharing my candida-friendly recipes for fear that no one except me would eat them! Maybe that will change, but for certain I don't feel I can label my recipes as candida-friendly for everyone. After all, I am not a doctor, so I don't give medical advice! ;)  I just share what works for me and my family.

My boys are now 17 and 11 (for one more week). It is a balancing act to guide and teach our children, but yet at some point we need to let out the ropes, so to speak, and allow them to learn about food and their bodies.  We hope that our teachings will be past down to generations to come and that our firm stance against "bad" unfood will produce healthy eating habits and not rebellious eaters.

This week, I have had the pleasure of observing my teenage son while he has been studying the Real Food and Nutrition E-Course written by Kristen Michaelis. You may know Kristen as the writer of the popular blog Food Renegade.com.. The lessons in this E-Course reinforce the healthy lifestyle and  principles that I have adopted in our home. It excites me that my son is gaining knowledge about "real" food in this e-course.

I love that he wants to engage in conversation about the cool things he is learning about health and nutrition regarding whole unprocessed food.  Today he asked me, "What is buttermilk?" Then he decided to research for himself just how to make it with non-dairy milk and told me he wants to make pancakes next time with "buttermilk".  I am delighted to see this spark of interest in the food he eats and especially that he wants to cook for himself. 

Hopefully, my story will encourage you to keep on setting a healthy example for your family and one day you will see that they will understand.  It is all worth the effort to have a healthy family.

Okay, so here I share with you a healthy cookie to enjoy while I ponder more about sugar....
With our love to you!

 Brownie Chocolate Chip Cookies

Free of: Gluten, Grains, Casein, Eggs, & Sugar*

Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit

Equipment:

• electric mixer  
• "Measure-All" wet dry measuring cup -optional, but very helpful for measuring

First, mix the wet ingredients in the electric mixer bowl.

  Wet ingredients:

• 2 Tablespoons chia seed meal
• 10 Tablespoons applesauce (1/2 cup + 2 T)
• 5 Tablespoons palm shortening
• 15 drops stevia 
• 2 Tablespoons honey
• 1 Tablespoon apple cider vinegar

Add in dry ingredients and mix well.

  Dry ingredients:

• 3 Tablespoons raw cacao powder
• 1/4 teaspoon sea salt
• 1 cup pecan meal
• 1/2 cup coconut flour
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon baking powder

Shape into small cookies with your hands.  They do not spread out on their own so they need a little help from you.

Press Enjoy Life Chocolate chips into the top of each cookie before baking

*To be truly "sugar-free" you will need to leave this brand of chocolate chips off.* 

(Today I saw a recipe for DIY homemade chocolate chips made with honey and I would love to make them for my boys.  If you have made them I would love to hear from you.)

Bake 10 minutes on parchment lined baking sheet.