This is not a sponsored post
Over the week-end some friends came over for supper, and I was in the mood to try a new desert recipe that I had seen on another website. We rarely enjoy lounging around after dinner, so having company is the greatest excuse to do so, especially with some coffee and desert. And since most of my friends read my blog (I don't really give them a choice ;-p), when they come over, I always like to either give them a preview of what's coming or have them choose a recipe from older posts.
Over the week-end some friends came over for supper, and I was in the mood to try a new desert recipe that I had seen on another website. We rarely enjoy lounging around after dinner, so having company is the greatest excuse to do so, especially with some coffee and desert. And since most of my friends read my blog (I don't really give them a choice ;-p), when they come over, I always like to either give them a preview of what's coming or have them choose a recipe from older posts.
So this desert recipe comes from Raw Food Recipes' chef Natalia. One of the reasons I wanted to try hers was that it required few ingredients and included maca powder. For those of you unfamiliar with maca, it is native to the Andes of Peru and is in the turnip and radish family. It has been used for thousands of years by the Incas for its medicinal properties. According to the Natural News, "maca is a nutritionally dense super-food that contains high amounts of minerals, vitamins, enzymes and all of the essential amino acids. Maca root is rich in B-vitamins, which are the energy vitamins, and maca is a vegetarian source of B-12. To boot, maca has high levels of bioavailable calcium and magnesium and is great for remineralisation."
I have been relying on my diet for most of my symptoms (joint pain, dizziness, ringing in the ears, digestive problems, tingling in my extremities and the list goes on), but to really increase my energy level, my naturopath suggested I take maca root extract daily (in liquid form for better absorption). Ever since I have been diagnosed with Chiari Malformation I have had "excessive fatigue". I have had bouts of being bed ridden for weeks and not really being able to care for my kids. So for the past 2 months I have used it and have seen a tremendous difference. I may not be ready to run a marathon, but I can get through the day without many hiccups. So including the powder form into recipes is something that I really am keen on doing. And for those of you wondering if it is safe for children to consume, studies suggest that there is no toxicity associated with it. And apart from not being recommended for people with thyroid disease (it increases symptoms) or pregnant or breast-feeding mothers, the only known side effect that has ever associated with to maca is that it may cause goiters in people on a low iodine diet.
I have been relying on my diet for most of my symptoms (joint pain, dizziness, ringing in the ears, digestive problems, tingling in my extremities and the list goes on), but to really increase my energy level, my naturopath suggested I take maca root extract daily (in liquid form for better absorption). Ever since I have been diagnosed with Chiari Malformation I have had "excessive fatigue". I have had bouts of being bed ridden for weeks and not really being able to care for my kids. So for the past 2 months I have used it and have seen a tremendous difference. I may not be ready to run a marathon, but I can get through the day without many hiccups. So including the powder form into recipes is something that I really am keen on doing. And for those of you wondering if it is safe for children to consume, studies suggest that there is no toxicity associated with it. And apart from not being recommended for people with thyroid disease (it increases symptoms) or pregnant or breast-feeding mothers, the only known side effect that has ever associated with to maca is that it may cause goiters in people on a low iodine diet.
Superfood Brownie Bites
(Yields 15 bites!)
Ingredients
1 cup almonds
1/4 cup cacao powder
1/8 cup mesquite powder (I didn't have any on-hand, so I substituted with a single tablespoon maca powder as recommended, but could have also used shredded coconut or more almonds while keeping the 1/8 cup quantity)
1/4 cup + 2 tbsp. raw honey or equivalent agave nectar
1/3 cup hemp seeds
2 tbsp. cold-pressed virgin coconut oil
1 tsp. pure vanilla extract or the seeds scraped from one vanilla bean
A pinch of Himalayan salt
Method
Place almonds in food processor and process until the almonds are shredded to a nice fine powder.
Add cacao powder, mesquite powder or substitute and salt and process again. Pour in the honey or agave nectar, hemp seeds, coconut oil & vanilla and process until it holds together as a paste.
Using your hands, roll paste into 1.5" balls. You may leave them as is, or roll them in some cacao powder or icing sugar as I did (I figured it would help tone done the taste of the maca powder which is quite strong, although I preferred mine au naturel).
Refrigerate or freeze for storage. Serve from the fridge and enjoy! We certainly did as they were gone before the company arrived and we had to figure out a plan B for desert!!!
Hope you had a nice long week-end!
Amelie
Place almonds in food processor and process until the almonds are shredded to a nice fine powder.
Add cacao powder, mesquite powder or substitute and salt and process again. Pour in the honey or agave nectar, hemp seeds, coconut oil & vanilla and process until it holds together as a paste.
Using your hands, roll paste into 1.5" balls. You may leave them as is, or roll them in some cacao powder or icing sugar as I did (I figured it would help tone done the taste of the maca powder which is quite strong, although I preferred mine au naturel).
Refrigerate or freeze for storage. Serve from the fridge and enjoy! We certainly did as they were gone before the company arrived and we had to figure out a plan B for desert!!!
Hope you had a nice long week-end!
Amelie
No comments:
Post a Comment