Healthy Holiday Cookie Recipes: Gluten-Free, Dairy-Free, Sugar-Free, and Low-Glycemic
It’s unfortunate that many of the holiday foods out there contain processed and damaging ingredients like gluten and sugar. Many holiday recipes contain foods that also contribute to hidden food allergies.
When you choose to make healthy alternatives for your favorite holiday recipes like these delicious holiday cookies and the recipes in my e-book, Healthy Holiday Traditions: Nourishing Recipes for Christmas, Hanukkah and New Year’s Celebrations, you’ll feel more energetic, lighter, enjoy a smaller waistline, and think more clearer!
Those are *my* kind of cookies! Enjoy these gluten-free, dairy-free, sugar-free, and low-glycemic cookie recipes and give yourself a healthy treat for the holidays!
Dr. Ritamarie’s Healthy Holiday Cookies
Ingredients:
- 1 cup pecans
- 1/2 cup almonds, soaked overnight, rinsed and drained
- 1/2 teaspoon coconut oil
- 3/4 cup dates, pitted
- 2 teaspoons cinnamon
- pinch sea salt
Directions:
- Process nuts and dates with salt and spices in food processor until they are completely chopped. Mixture should be a little coarse and should hold together. If needed, add 1 or 2 tablespoons of water.
- Roll or press dough onto non-stick sheets and use cookie cutters to make into desired festive shapes.
- Place in freezer until they are firm.
Dr. Ritamarie’s Low-Glycemic Healthy Holiday Cookies
Ingredients:
- 1 cup pecans
- 1/2 cup almonds, soaked overnight, rinsed and drained
- 1 cup unsweetened dried coconut
- 1 tablespoon Chia Gel
- 2 teaspoons vanilla
- 2 teaspoons cinnamon
- pinch sea salt
- 10 – 15 drops stevia concentrate, to taste (Sweet Leaf)
Directions:
- Process pecans, almonds, coconut, and chia gel with salt and spices in food processor until they are completely chopped. Mixture should be a little coarse and should hold together. If needed, add 1 or 2 tablespoons of water.
- Roll or press dough onto non stick sheets and use cookie cutters to make into desired shapes.
- Place in freezer until they are firm.
Chia Gel
Ingredients:
- 1/2 cup chia seed
- 2 1/2 cups water
Directions:
- Put chia and water into a quart sized Mason jar or a glass bowl that can be covered.
- Shake or mix well.
- Allow to stand at room temperature for 8 hours or overnight or for 12 or more hours in the refrigerator. Store up to a week at room temperature.
The healthy holiday cookie recipe above can be found inHealthy Holiday Traditions: Nourishing Recipes for Christmas, Hanukkah and New Year’s Celebrations containing:
- Gingerbread Men
- Latkes
- Christmas Cookies and Pudding
- Eggless Egg Nog
- Hors D’oeuvres
- Apple Pie and Ice Cream
- Candies and more!
Tags: chia, chia seeds, cookie recipe, dairy free recipes, Dr. Ritamarie Loscalzo, food allergies, gluten free christmas, gluten free cookies recipes, Healthy Holiday, healthy holiday recipes, low-glycemic recipes, sugar free desserts
Posted in Gluten Free Diet, Healthy Holiday, Holiday Recipes, Raw Food Recipes, Raw Foods
Dr. Ritamarie’s Thanksgiving Day Celebration and Recipes
Each year, we celebrate Thanksgiving Day with my husband’s family. This year there were 37 of us present, ranging in age from 14 months to 97 years.
I wish I could say that the past 26 years I’ve been involved in the celebrations has influenced the food choices of the group, but sadly it has not.
The majority of the food served is loaded with processed grains and sugar.
Each year, up until this year, I would make a sweet potato dish, sweetened with dried apricots and topped with pecans. Each year there has been so much left over as our guests opted for the sugar sweetened yams instead, that this year I opted not to make them. They were not missed.
I have also made a cranberry dish each year, using fresh cranberries, raisins, pears, and oranges. Each year there was a huge quantity left over as people favored the sugar sweetened cranberries, and I would get tired of eating them for days to some. This year I made a small quantity only and there were still leftovers.
Next year I may opt out of the cranberries as well.
Personally I’m happy to eat the veggie appetizers with garlic dill dip, salad with a yummy dressing (sesame garlic ginger this year), and some steamed or sauteed vegetables.
My desserts are usually a big hit, but this year all I made was a low-glycemic coconut carob mint “candy” because I’ve been avoiding sweets. I didn’t make enough to share, just enjoyed them myself because I figured they were no match for all the store bought sugar drenched pies served along with a homemade marble cake, my mother-in-law’s recipe.
As I watched my family members fill their plates with all the sugar, starch and meat with fatty gravy (store bought, not even home made), I wondered HOW can I make a difference. The vegetables were eaten in tiny amounts by most. My husband, kids and I ate a lot more vegetables that everyone else in the room combined.
How do I reach the masses with the message that this food is destroying their health?
Maybe I’m naive, but I thought it was common knowledge that sugar and white flour are harmful, cause hormone imbalance, diabetes, heart disease and cancer?
I’m scratching my head, and thinking.
I care about these people and hate to see them suffer.
In the meantime, I want to share with you ideas for creating holiday celebrations that focus on the people connections and offer foods that delight and nourish.
Here are a couple of delicious recipes I made for Thanksgiving this year , including a sugar-free cranberry gel.
Thanksgiving Raw Food Recipes
Garlic Dill Dip
(variation of recipe in Healthy Holiday Traditions)
Ingredients:
- 1/2 cup cashews
- 1/2 cup macadamia nuts
- 3/4 cups water
- 1/8 cup lemon juice
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1 tablespoon dried dill
- 1 teaspoon garlic powder
Directions:
- Blend nuts, lemon juice, water and salt
- Put mix in a bowl and stir in dill and garlic.
- Add more dill and garlic to taste if needed.
Sesame Garlic Ginger Dressing
Ingredients:
- 2 tablespoons sesame tahini
- 1/2 cup water
- 1/8 cup lemon juice
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1 slier of fresh ginger
- 1 clove garlic
Directions:
- Blend all ingredients.
- If too thin, add extra tahini, if too thick add water.
Cranberry Orange Relish
(variation of recipe in Thanksgiving Feasts)
Ingredients:
- 2 cups fresh cranberries
- 1 orange, peeled
- 1 pear
- 1 cup raisins
Directions:
- Process everything in a food processor until smooth
- Add extra raisins if you prefer a sweeter relish
Spicy Cranberry Blood Sugar Balancer
Ingredients:
- 1 cup cranberries
- 1/4 cup coconut cream (Artisana)
- 2 teaspoons konjac powder (http://www.konjacfoods.com/product/1.htm)
- 1/4 cup water
- 1/4 teaspoon almond extract
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- 1/8 teaspoon cloves
- 1 sliver ginger
Directions:
- Process all in blender or food processor until smooth
- Add stevia if desired for sweetness
Tags: cranberry, Healthy Holiday, healthy holiday recipes, raw food recipes, raw food Thanksgiving, Thanksgiving, thanksgiving day, thanksgiving feast
Posted in Healthy Holiday, Holiday Recipes, Raw Food Recipes, Raw Foods, Raw Foods Diet
Gratitude Weekend: Celebrate Your Health with Raw Food Recipes and Health Enhancing Resources
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So this year, I decided to offer a “Gratitude Weekend” sale, filled with very special offers of products and services to empower you to be healthy and vibrant throughout the holiday season. The average person gains extra pounds of fat during this season, because food surrounds us at every turn. Yesterday, as I watched my relatives consume processed, nutrient depleted, and dangerous to their health foods without thought about how it affects their “bottom line”, I started thinking about ways to reach the masses with the message that their food choices are hurting them. Read on for details of my “Gratitude Weekend” sale. You’ll see 5 special sales! Enjoy these special offers through the end of the weekend. Order Today and Win!
Gratitude Weekend Specials:
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Tags: adrenal exhaustion, black friday, cleansing, dessert, Dr. Ritamarie, Dr. Ritamarie Loscalzo, Exhaustion, Green Cleanse, Healthy Holiday, healthy meals, holiday feasts, living food, raw food breakfast, raw food recipe, recipe collections, vegan, Vibrant Health
Posted in Appreciation for Health, Cleansing Programs, Events
Leptin and Ghrelin: Two Powerful Hormones to Heat Up Your Holiday Fat Burning Furnace
Have you ever wondered what goes on behind the scenes when you get hungry?
What gives the signal that you’re full?
Have you ever eaten beyond full and felt uncomfortable?
With Thanksgiving coming up in just a couple of weeks followed by the winter holidays – Christmas, Hanukkah and New Year’s – holidays focused around food, you may have thoughts of getting out your “eatin’ pants” to avoid the painful dig and pinch of a waistline that often becomes too tight this time of year.
You’ll need those pants, unless you learn to make friends with leptin and ghrelin and the powerful effects you can have on fat burning when you understand how to make them work for you.
The Fat Burning Benefits of Ghrelin
Neither ghrelin nor leptin has a gland the way that estrogen, thyroid, cortisol, and insulin do. Ghrelin is secreted by your stomach and leptin by your fat cells.
Your stomach secretes ghrelin when it’s empty, signaling the hypothalamus to turn on your appetite. As a society, we’ve come to fear hunger and avoid it like the plague. As soon as we feel hungry, we look for ways to satisfy our desire for food.
But what if you could make friends with hunger and actually learn to enjoy the feeling?
There are benefits to prolonging eating and staying hungry for a while. You see, ghrelin is a potent stimulator of growth hormone, and growth hormone has profound effect on fat burning and building lean muscle. It is often considered an anti-aging hormone.
So the next time you get hungry, remember that the longer you hold out (within reason) the more you rev up your fat-burning furnace.
The Appetite Attacking Benefits of Leptin
Did you know it is now believed that eating many small meals actually contributes to increased fat rather than decreased?
By delaying eating and spacing your meals 5 – 6 hours apart, you profoundly affect leptin levels. Leptin is the hormone your fat cells secrete after a meal to tell your hypothalamus to turn off your appetite.
Leptin levels are optimized when you space your meals 5 – 6 hours apart, avoid snacking, stop eating within 3 hours of bedtime, avoid high carb breakfasts and instead include protein at breakfast, and avoid overeating.
“Whoa!” You might be thinking, “That sounds hard AND it flies in the face of what I’ve been taught. I thought it wasn’t a goodidea to let myself get too hungry because that’s a sure-fire trigger for overeating.”
Yes, indeed. Getting too hungry can cause you to eat everything in sight. That’s why I recommend a gradual approach, so you can retrain your conscious brain as well as your hormones.
Eating small meals may keep you from getting hungry and overeating at your next meal, but generally the results for weight loss are short lived. When you eat all day, you keep your insulin and leptin levels elevated all day. Insulin puts you into fat storing mode, which is the exact opposite of what you want.
Elevated leptin does indeed turn off your appetite, which is a good thing, but chronically elevated leptin results in leptin resistance, wherein your hypothalamus doesn’t hear the cry of leptin any more and it shifts your metabolism into starvation mode. You’re constantlyhungry and your metabolism is so low that every morsel you eat gets protectively stored away around your waist like an energy insurance policy.
In my B4 Be Gone program, I share my Snack Attack Strategy for dealing with the desire for food that creeps up on you in between meals as you move towards spacing your meals.
Part of the trick is to eat enough at each meal to hold you for 5 hours. Many of my B4 Be Gone members are finding that they can’t even finish the meals I’ve laid out for them because they get too full, so they’re not hungry again for many hours.
When retraining yourself, it’s important to start with choosing snacks that are nutrient dense and calorie and carbohydrate sparse to prevent insulin spikes.
Things like green smoothies and juices, vegetable sticks with delicious omega-3 fat-rich dips, steamed or raw vegetables, and chia seed drinks or porridges are the most helpful here.
Ghrelin and Leptin Optimization Strategy for the Holidays
To keep the extra weight from creeping in this holiday season, follow these guidelines:
- Start your day with a low to moderate carbohydrate meal that includes ample protein. You can include choices that will stabilize your glucose, insulin, and leptin levels and keep you satisfied for hours if you include more:
- green smoothies made with low-glycemic fruits like berries and green apples
- green juices
- shakes made with powdered greens and veggie protein powder for when you’re in a hurry
- chia-rich meals like shakes or porridge
- Do a 30-second burst of high intensity exercise every couple of hours to increase fat burning.
- Be prepared. Make a variety of delicious vegetable dishes and dips to satisfy the nibbles when everyone else is eating the low-nutrient, high-calorie hors d’oeuvres and hoarding away the extra pounds. If you’re looking for ideas, click here.
Learn delicious alternatives for traditional dishes. There are all sorts of great book resources for Thanksgiving and winter holiday ideas. You can also find videos and recipe guides.
- Satisfy your sweet tooth healthfully. While sweet desserts, even the healthy, gluten-free raw kind are not the best for daily consumption when you have a few extra pounds, they are welcome and delicious alternatives to traditional apple pie, pumpkin pie, cookies and truffles. All you need are some mouth-watering recipes and some guidance on how to recreate some sweet treats.
- Pace yourself. Eat slowly, give thanks for every bite and truly enjoy. Then stop when you get the signal you’ve had enough.
- Wait to be really hungry before you eat your next meal. Remember, ghrelin, the appetite stimulating hormone, is your friend. You burn more fat when you’re hungry than when you’re full. Spacing your meals allows for the normal ebb and flow of leptin so you can retrain your brain to turn off your appetite when you’ve had enough.
Above all, learn to eat with an attitude of gratitude, fully conscious of the effects the food has in your body. You are what you eat, digest, and absorb. Keep that in mind as you eat.
Do I want this to become a part of my cell structure? What you put in and on your body becomes your body, so choose wisely.
Tags: belly fat, cortisol, ghrelin, Healthy Holiday, holiday diet, hormone health, hormone imbalances, leptin
Posted in Healthy Holiday, Holistic Nutrition, Hormone Imbalance, Natural Hormone Support, Reduce Belly Fat, Sleep for Vibrant Health
Peppermint Patties Go Raw: Gluten Free Raw Food Recipe for Superfood Candy Made with Hemp Seeds and Green Powder
My latest Yummy treat – I just made this as a variation of my Peppermint Patty Recipe from Healthy Halloween Treats , a complete guide to raw and living foods, gluten-free recipes for Halloween.
This 100% raw foods recipe is also gluten free and sugar free. Much better for you than the peppermint patties you may have eaten before. It’s high in omega 3 fats from the hemp seed, selenium from the brazil nuts, copper from the macadamia nuts, chlorophyll from the greens and antiviral lauric acid from the coocnut. They are very low glycemic, as they contain no sweeteners. If you prefer the filling a little bit sweeter, you can add 1/4 cup pitted dates.
Super Food Peppermint Patties
by Dr. Ritamarie Loscalzo
Ingredients
Filling
- 1/2 cup hemp seeds
- 1/2 cup brazil nuts
- 1/2 cup raw macadamia nuts
- 1 1/2 cup dried coconut shreds
- 1/8 teaspoon green stevia
- 1 Tablespoon each chlorella and blue green algae powder (or your favorite green powder)
- 3 drops peppermint essential oil
Chocolate Coating
- 1/4 cup cacao paste, softened in the dehydrator for 15 minutes at 115 degrees or in a double boiler
- 1/8 cup cacao butter, melted as for the cacao paste.
- 1/8 teaspoon stevia
- 2 drops mint essential oil
Directions:
- Process the filling in food processor until almost smooth.
- Press the filling into silicone molds, disposable mini cupcake papers, or any other shapes desired. If you prefer, you can spread it on a piece of wax paper and score into desired sizes.
- Freeze the filling for at least half an hour.
- Stir all sauce ingredients together in a small bowl or blend in blender.
- Pop the filling from the molds or cut into desired sizes.
- Dip the filling pieces into the chocolate sauce (you may need to re-soften it unless you made it right before dipping.)
- Place carefully on a piece of wax paper to harden. Store in refrigerator or freezer.
Chocolate topping variation
- 1/4 cup cacao powder
- 1/8 cup melted cacao butter
- 2 drops mint essential oil
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla powder
Other Variations
You can add a couple of drops of mint essential oil to your favorite chocolate sauce or any of the chocolate sauce recipes in my books Healthy Halloween Treats and Healthy Holiday Traditions: Nourishing Recipes for Christmas, Hanukkah and New Year’s Celebrations. Both of these books are filled with gluten free raw and living foods recipes for holiday treats using health promoting ingredients.
Enjoy this recipe.
Love, Health and Joy,
Dr. Ritamarie
Tags: Dr. Ritamarie Loscalzo, DrRitamarie, Gluten Free Diet, gluten free holiday, Halloween treats, Healthy Holiday, Holiday Recipes, Living Foods, livingfoods, Omega 3 Fats, raw and living foods holiday recipes, Raw Foods, raw foods recipes, selenium, whole foods
Posted in Articles, Gluten Free recipes, Healthy Holiday, Raw and Living Foods
