Tag Archives: no-gluten

Quick Healthy Recipes

Oatmeal Chocolate Pudding – Healthy, Gluten-Free Breakfast, Snack or Dessert Idea

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What’s For Breakfast?

Oats-Choco-Pudding-Gluten-Free-Blog

Oats, rich with fiber and unique antioxidants help remove bad cholesterol, reduce risk of cardiovascular disease, enhance immune response to infection, help protect from breast cancer source 

Oats are also known to produce a chemical that releases testosterone into the blood supply.

Whilst eating grains altogether can be a controversial subject, oats represent one of the safer, gluten-free variety.

I share a really simple recipe that has become one of my favorite choices for breakfast.

This pudding is really filling, slow-release energy and packed with healthy ingredients. It provides antioxidants and feel-good serotonin from the cocoa, protein from hemp/chia, good fats from coconut oil, omega-3 from nuts and numerous other beneficial nutrients, vitamins and minerals – all you need to have a fabulous and productive day!

As a bonus, it limits cravings for chocolate so I eat it as a snack or even sometimes as a dessert 🙂

You can add almost anything to it – coconut milk, cinnamon, almonds, vanilla… whatever you feel like – here is one of my favorite combinations designed to provide a complete breakfast.

Oats-Choco-Pudding-BlogOatmeal Chocolate Pudding Recipe

Ingredients

Water – 1 liter (4 cups)
Oats – 120gr.  (1.5 cup) (oatmeal, organic and free of any additives)
Pinch of salt
1-2 tbs Organic Extra Virgin Coconut Oil
1 tbs Organic Hemp Powder or Chia Seeds
2 tbs Raw Organic Cocoa Powder
1-2 tbp Raw Honey or 2 medjool dates
1 tbs Walnuts (or other nuts)
1-2 bananas
1 tbs of berries for topping.

Preparation time: 15 minutes.  Makes 4 servings.

Directions

In a medium sized saucepan bring the 4 cups of water to boil. Sprinkle the oatmeal over the boiling water, stirring constantly to prevent any lumps from forming. Add a pinch of salt and reduce the heat to low and allow the porridge to simmer for 10-15 minutes (see the product directions), stirring occasionally.
Let it cool (important! so you don’t destroy the beneficial properties of honey, raw cocoa etc.) and then add the rest of the ingredients. I like using a hand blender to make a smooth, pudding like texture.
You can eat it warm or refrigerate and eat later.

Enjoy and let your day begin!

Please feel free to comment/share your favorite Oatmeal porridge recipe.

Quick Healthy Recipes

Vanilla-Coconut Tapioca Pudding

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Gluten-Free Dairy-Free Vanilla-Coconut Tapioca Pudding

Cassava flour is great alternative to wheat flour, since wheat flour is typically refined, bleached, and stripped of nutrients.Instead of wheat flour which contains gluten to which many people are highly sensitive to, you can use organic cassava flour.

Cassava (also known as tapioca, yuca, and manioc root) is an edible starch and major source of carbohydrates.

Used as a major staple food for many South American tribes since Pre-Columbian times, cassava flour is a great alternative to wheat flour, since wheat flour is typically refined, bleached, and stripped of nutrients. Cassava flour is a good source of calcium. Did I mention it is also gluten-free :)?

Here is a quick recipe for a delicious pudding that is very easy to make.

If you are on a long detox where tapioca is occasionally allowed (please check :)) and crave a desert, this may work provided you use a tiny amount of stevia instead of sugar, skip on salt, and use a simple topping like cinnamon.

Check it out!

Preparation time

  • 15 minutes

Ingredients

  • 1 can (400ml) unsweetened coconut milk or homemade almond milk
  • One-quarter cup (2 tablespoons) of quick cooking tapioca
  • Pinch of salt
  • 2 teaspoons of Madagascar Bourbon Pure Vanilla powder
  • 2 tablespoons unrefined brown sugar or some pure stevia extract if you are on detox
  • For topping – use your imagination :).  Examples 2 ripe bananas, sliced; toasted almonds with a tablespoon of dark rum is another option.  I also like crashing some berries in the blender.  Or adding some aronia powder or cinnamon.

Steps

  1. In a medium saucepan combine coconut milk, tapioca and salt. Slowly bring to a simmer over medium heat, stirring constantly.
  2. Add vanilla. Keep stirring until mixture begins to thicken.
  3. Remove from heat; stir in sugar until melted.
  4. Let it stand in the saucepan uncovered for 10 minutes or until thickened, stirring occasionally.
  5. Cut bananas in small pieces and stir in. Transfer to serving cups.
  6. Top with almonds and rum or any other topping that you prefer or have at hand.

Food In, Love Out 🙂

Carbohydrates, Healthy Food Essentials

Grains & Starch – How Much?

Excess carbohydrates from our starch and sugar-loaded diet is greatly contributing to creating epidemics of modern diseases like obesity, cancer, diabetes 2 and similar.

How Much Carbohydrates Controversy

For millions of years, human’s diet was based only on meat/plants. It was only 10,000 years ago when we began introducing sugar, starch and grains (carbohydrates) into our diets.

Consuming far too much bread, cereal, pasta, corn, potatoes, cakes, rice etc. is very common in Western world, yet it has serious consequences to our health. Starchy and sugary foods create addiction.  The body’s storage capacity for carbohydrates is quite limited, and excess is converted to fat and stored in the fatty tissue.

Excess carbohydrates contributes to excess weight, fatigue and sleepiness, depression, bloating, allergies, digestive disorders, high blood pressure, diabetes 2, cancer etc.

Contrary to popular belief that the fat is making people obese and unhealthy, in fact the excess carbohydrates from our starch and sugar-loaded diet is greatly contributing to creating epidemics of diseases such as diabetes 2, obesity and many other diseases.

That being said, we do need a certain amount of carbohydrates, but not as much as we typically consume (in excess of 50%).

How Much of Carbohydrates?Food-Plate PerfectHealtDiet

The amount of carbohydrates one should consume for optimal health is a widely controversial topic.

My conclusion is that there is a certain minimum carbohydrate threshold most likely in the range of 25 to 30 percent or approximately 200-250 calories per day for the average person.

Most of those calories can come from non-starchy vegetables, but you’ll need some starchy carbs, such as potatoes, rice, tapioca and starchy vegetables like carrots and squash.

Use of wholegrain sorts like oatmeal, kamut, rice, barley, rye, buckwheat, quinoa etc. is also controversial, but many consider them as healthy alternatives. White rice appears to be safe as well.

Sweet potato, although high in sugar but high in vitamins/nutrients is a good alternative to “regular” potato.

Tapioca made from the root of the cassava plant, is high in carbohydrates and contains NO gluten.

Key Things to Consider

  • Reduce the intake of grains/starch (especially wheat/gluten) to 25-30% of your total food intake.
  • Replace the excess carbs with healthy fats such as avocados, coconut oil, egg yolks, healthy butter (from raw, organic milk), olives and nuts.

Whatever the guidance is you should always listen to your body, as it will give you feedback about whether or not the approach you’ve chosen is right for your unique needs, biochemistry and genetics.  Do what feels right for yourself. Experiment. As soon as something doesn’t feel right or doesn’t make sense to you, you should tweak it.

References and Credits

http://www.mercola.com/article/insulin.htm

Perfect Health Diet, by Paul & Chou-Ching Jaminet