Undercover Recipes: Baked Cinnamon Apples with Creamy Honey Cashew Butter

Every now and then I whip up something in the kitchen that no one in my house full of pickies can seemingly get enough of their fill.

This is one of those recipes. And I kind of don't mind. With no refined sugar, no grains and no packaged ingredients while boasting healthy fat and the hearty goodness of in-season fruit, as far as I'm concerned, the kids and hubby can eat as many helpings as they please of this Baked Cinnamon Apples with Creamy Honey Cashew Butter dish.



What began with having a surplus of apples and not nearly enough room in the dehydrator to preserve them all led to a brilliant find: not only are baked apples good when bathed in cinnamon, vanilla and butter.

They are all the more fabulous when they take a dip with homemade honey cashew butter.

Admittedly, this recipe takes a little work, but if you love the cashew butters, as everyone in my house does, we make it in bulk once every week or two and keep the fridge shelves lined with it for such soiree dessert nights.

Honey Cashew Butter 
{this recipe has been adapted from The Rawtarian}


Two cups of soaked and sprouted cashews
1/2 cup of unsweetened shredded coconut
1/4 cup of raisins
1/2 teaspoon of pink Himalayan salt or sea salt
1 teaspoon of fresh honey
a couple grates of lemon peel
3/4 cup of water

Toss everything into your blender or Vitamix in the order listed above and blend until smooth and creamy. Consistency should be less dense than peanut or almond butter but not watery either. Refrigerate and use in any way you'd use any other nut butter.

Baked Cinnamon Vanilla Apples



Five peeled and diced medium to large apples in an oven-safe pan with lid
Two Tablespoons of butter {use coconut oil to make this dairy free!}
3/4 teaspoon of cinnamon
dash of nutmeg
dash of cardamon
three splashes of vanilla
1/4 cup of water

Preheat the over to 350 degrees. Peel and dice the apples and toss them into an oven-safe pan. Cut two tablespoons of butter into several chunks and intersperse the butter among the apple pieces. In a separate dish, mix dry spices together with a fork. Slowly sprinkle the dry spice mix atop of the apples and butter, evenly distributing among all of the apple pieces. Add three splashes of vanilla to the apple mixture. Pour 1/4 cup of water into the bottom of the pan, taking care not to wash spices from the apples. Cover with a lid and bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes.



After the apples are finished baking, immediately place a few heaping spoonfuls of cashew butter atop and then mix it all up.

Enjoy! And? Prepare to dish out seconds.

Living Healthfully: When Food Proves It Matters

The heat spread across my face breaks apart and flees the moment the cold wind rushes into me.

I am sweating bullets, and I am grinning like an idiot, riding out the door of a doctor's visit on a windy gale of hope and astonishment, high above the ground I walked in on.

During 3-year-old E's evaluation, she'd said much of what we suspected was happening inside our youngest's body: poor digestion, inflammation, candida overgrowth in the gut suppressing his immune system -- much of which can be helped holistically and through simple remedies like taking digestive enzymes to help break down proteins.

It's good news, yes, that he can be treated well without strong herbs or medications or, gosh, that he can be treated in any way other than just following a life sentence strict elimination diet, avoiding those key foods that seem to irritate those of us whose digestive tracts are far more sensitive than most.

So I'm riding high on that hope, but I'm also thanking God for what has been sewn into our youngest's small body: real, nourishing food.

Little ones with such weak digestion normally have various, plentiful nutritional deficiencies that delay their growth and development; E, our little lineman, is pretty nutritionally rich.

Some parents say that they try to feed their kids healthy food, the doctor says after scanning his body, but you two actually have.

Wait what? We have? Despite the no broccoli and his desire to eat only pasta-esque dishes? Really?

These are exactly the words needed for parents who have been scrupulously trying to help heal a visibly and invisibly ailing little body in any ways they can -- avoiding gluten {his sensitivity} like it's rat poison, making foods from scratch the majority of meals*, sneakily pureeing vegetables into any sauces or meatloaf or homemade breads that promises to hide even the vaguest shade of green.

These are exactly the words needed for parents who have begun suspecting more and more that the list of ailments from which our children, from which we suffer are consider "normal" are rooted deeply in nutrition or lack thereof.

That by the vast grace of God of all the messages that are broadcast constantly about health and healthy food, we heard, amid all the noise, the ones about what it takes to build a healthy body from the inside out, from the cell level.

So I'm riding high and the nervousness bound up and wound tightly in my stomach has unraveled and come apart at the sharing of the words from our crazy-smart doctor:

we are not crazy.

We are not crazy for fighting the school-snack fight with our oldest.

We are not crazy for having a food budget that is almost double that of what it used to be

And we are not crazy for having been so invested -- time, money, energy-wise -- in what our family has been eating.

There is something to this whole food journey we've been wildly trying to navigate that is finally, finally, finally showing itself true and well and alive in a little boy who could be much worse for the wear had he been on the Standard American Diet his mother and father and brother have been weaning off for the past three years since his birth.

I take those words home with me, hold them close as I offer praise to God for E's body and the ability He gave it to heal itself through the foods He intended for us to eat.

I take those words home with me, hold them close as I begin to wonder how I can possibly even begin to share {without sounding like a broken record or uppity or preachy or judgey} how food has been proving it matters in my life, E's life

because I desperately and passionately desire for it to prove it matters in, well, all of our lives.

And I finally feeling a little braver and beginning to think I might not be crazy for it.

{Just keeping it real: we don't eat perfectly all of the time; we just simply strive to eat well 80 percent of the time. My kids would swim in a vat of mac n cheese if we let them, and they can list at least six menu items on the Culvers **shudder** menu from having gone there on non-mommy endorsed dates.}

Living Healthfully: Blueberry Vanilla No-Milk Shake

During the summer months especially, I crave sweet, creamy, thick, frozen treats.

In years past, when I wasn't as conscious about health and sugar intake and was still consuming dairy, I'd normally satisfy the craving with a Starbucks frappacino or, on special occasion, a Culvers milkshake {I cringe at this now as I remember the shock I'd voiced when I was first diagnosed with gut flora imbalance last year. Back then I asked how such an imbalance could be. Now I ask how such an imbalance could NOT be!}.

So, anyway, though no one could pay me to drink either of those treats now, I still do daydream about healthy shakes, especially on hot days.

After making no-dairy ice cream for the kids this week, I decided to get brave in the kitchen and attempt to recreate a healthy sweet, creamy, thick frozen drink -- without sugar and without dairy.

A challenge, yes, but not impossible with the help of the sweet herb Stevia, a little good bacteria and some high quality ground vanilla beans.

The first try was a dud. Oy was it bad.

The second? So good.


The third? Awesome!


My treat-snob husband who groans at the thought of subbing probiotic milk for real make says this drink tastes more like a custard shake than a milkshake, but he agreed it was good tasting with amazing consistency. I've included alternate ingredients for those who can handle more sweetness. 



Ingredients:
Probiotic Milk:
1/2 Cup of Filtered Water
10-12 Drops of Stevia*
1.5 Tablespoons of Nielsen-Massey Madagascar Bourbon Vanilla Powder or ground vanilla beans
1 Tablespoon of lecithin granules 
1 teaspoon of Maca Root Powder
1 Tablespoon of probiotic powder {like Acidophilus; we use Primadophilus Kids}

1/3 heaping cup blueberries {if you have no sugar sensitivity,  use 3/4 cup of blueberries}
1/2 large avocado
1/3 cup of frozen spinach
1 cup of whole-cube ice



Directions:
First, make the probiotic milk by blending all ingredients expect for the probiotic powder for 30-45 seconds at 10 in a Vitamix or Blendtec or blender of choice.

Add the probiotic powder and blend on low for about 10 seconds.

Add the blueberries, avocado and frozen spinach to the blender and blend on high for about 45-60 seconds, The mixture should turn creamy and thick like a shake. You may need to add additional water to help smooth it out, so have about 1/2 cup on hand while blending.

*John advises those who are not/have not been on a sugar-restrictive diet to add one tablespoon of agave syrup or coconut sugar and omit the Stevia for a truer shake taste.



Lastly, enjoy!

Hey, while we're talking about REAL food that's real good and real good for you, maybe whip up your shake and then head over to the Real Food Summit and enjoy this tasty treat while feasting on some food for thought regarding health, eating real food and preventing/reversing disease. Specifically, I recommend the Joel Salatin talk -- SO GOOD!

Thanks to Neilsen-Massey Vanillas for sending me a bottle of sugar-free and alcohol-free Madagascar Bourbon Pure Vanilla Powder to help me get creative with new recipes while still adhering to my gut-restoring diet! No other compensation was received for a shout-out in this post. 

Living Healthfully: A Mirage in the Desert

Editor's Note November 2012: If you are looking for information on restoring your digestive system, please know that The Body Ecology Diet helped me, but it didn't completely restore my health. My body actually stalled out on the the diet, and I needed to go off it to heal other parts of my body. You can read about my last steps in healing by clicking here. 

At first it was so very much about arriving at destination deep dish pizza.

If I could just make it to the point of indulgence without suffering from a debilitating stomach ache and nausea in the aftermath of such a feast, I'd have successfully arrived at the end of my super-restrictive dieting. 

My eyes were set on a finish line of Lou Malnati's and a piece of Baklava by my January 2013 birthday. 

But at the start of 15 weeks{!!}on the Body Ecology Diet*, which has been aimed at restoring my inner body ecology and recovering my health from a candida overgrowth in my gut, it's becoming clearer now that the finish line I'd set eyes on was a mirage. 

Not an insanely delusional mirage like that of shack taking the shape of a well in the middle of the desert; it's been much more like that of an actual well taking the shape of an actual well ... but one that bears only still, stagnant water.

The kind of mirage that looked so good and so refreshing in the distance but dips its bucket into bitter, smelly water ... 

That's where I find myself at the completion of 14 weeks of eating only vegetables, eggs, protein, good fats and no sugar; I am approaching the well that looked so promising -- my GI tract having been healed graciously by God, in part through this way of fresh and whole eating -- and finding I could dip my bucket in ... but why would I want to?

As I'm approaching the well, there's some sort of off-stench wafting through the air, a screaming, halting warning to bypass. 

I don't dare drink it because I'm realizing this isn't the finish line. 

Though I couldn't see it until I got nice and close to the well, there's actually this fresh spring-fed river flowing just a few miles beyond it.

And destination deep dish pizza just doesn't hold a candle to fresh, whole foods anymore, to health. 

Instead of craving cheese and crust, I'm finding myself craving the foods that make me feel how the healthiness I've felt while eating what I've considered to be desert manna:

Energized, healthy, light, satisfied. 

I just don't want to lose that. 

Now that my body seems to have overcome a good portion of the gut flora imbalance and defeated a good deal of the bad candida, I only want to grow stronger and stronger.

I don't want to take steps back toward the heaviness, the bloating, the stomach pain, the brain fog, the irritability, the intense cravings; it just doesn't seem worth it for a slice of deep dish anymore. Or a piece of coffee cake on a special morning. Or even an occasional frozen cup of sweet java and cream. 

And taking that step back ward actually seems like it would be a welcoming invitation to have to walk through that desert of painful detoxing again; I don't want to relive the hives, the night-sweats, the chills, the exhaustion, the stomach pain, the anxiety, the tightness in my chest and the weakness in my bones. 

This way of eating, this desert manna diet, isn't just a diet aimed at merely sustaining energy and fixing an impaired digestive system; this way of eating is more a lifestyle geared at healing the whole body.

I believe this is how we were intended to eat -- food grown from the soil, unaltered and whole -- food harvested from growing healthy animals in the wide-open space of pasture. 

I'm trading in the dirty well water for the fresh-running river and praising God for the revelation of a promised land overflowing with honey. 

Because I'm just not willing to settle any more for a mirage being my destination point. 

{It's such a huge praise to bring news of such healing! Though I'm not at 100 percent, by the grace of God I am worlds away from where I began in the beginning of January. 

Would you offer praise on my behalf for his goodness in healing my body? And would you also pray for wisdom and discernment as I very {epicly} slowly add back in some of the whole, fresh foods that have a bit of sugar content during these coming weeks? I'll be doing quite a bit of listening to my body to make sure the candida that remains isn't being fed by the new additions of things like Granny Smith Apples and plain Greek Yogurt.}

*I have been following the Body Ecology Diet along with some additional protocol {and food restrictions from the experts at The Candida Diet forum.