In Cambodia I started dreaming about baking. I didn't have access to an oven for 2 1/2 years while we lived in our apartment in Cambodia. So once we landed in the states, I immediately started searching through cookbooks and making lists of the recipes I wanted to try.
Through the winter I started experimenting, modifying the recipes I found. When a recipe called for white flour I replaced it with whole wheat pastry flour or oat flour. When a recipe called for a 1 cup of sugar I reduced it to 2/3 of a cup or even 1/2 of a cup. When butter was in the ingredient list I used vegetable spread made with olive oil or even part yogurt. And the recipes were actually really delicious. I started baking because I wanted a healthy version of pastries I often buy, but the process of creating recipes and making muffins, cookies, cakes, and scones was just as enjoyable if not more than eating the delicious result.
So I got out one of my favorite cookbooks, "Deceptively Delicious" by Jessica Seinfeld. She developed the recipes to get her children to eat more vegetables and fruit. Her secret weapon was puree. She hid vegetable and fruit purees in lots of different foods from cakes and muffins to chicken nuggets and tacos. She was able to get more nutritious food into her children's diet while they happily ate the food they liked. Well, for me, it's not that I don't like vegetables. I do. Vegetables, prepared well, are absolutely delicious. So I wasn't going to use the recipes so much to get vegetables into my diet but rather to make pastries nutritious enough to be included in a healthy eating plan. My husband wants us to give up dessert entirely. Because traditional desserts really have almost no nutritional benefit. They're just a bunch of empty calories. But what if I could make desserts that had some nutritional value? What if I could enjoy a muffin and also get some whole grains, some fruit, and some veg?
Well I can, and I have. I used Jessica Seinfeld's brownie recipe as a starting point and created these cherry brownies with spinach, carrot and cherry puree. They are made with 100% whole grain oat flour and vegetable spread made from olive oil. For the chocolate I used dark chocolate chips. Each brownie is 106 calories. Two brownies give me 1/4 cup of vegetables, 1/4 cup of fruit, 1/2 oz of whole grains, and heart healthy dark chocolate My husband loved these and kept going back for more. To try to limit how much he ate, he cut them into thirds. Which made them a really fun snack size.
For a about a week I devoted a lot of my time to baking. And it was so fun. And I realized that baking is CREATIVE!
Because I am so unhealthy it is really hard for me to paint. My art is a main source of peace and tranquility for me, but it's also extremely taxing. When my fatigue becomes severe, it seems that doing my fine artwork just depletes my energy tank instead of filling it up. But being creative is like air for me, I have to have some artistic outlet to live. Cooking and baking can be my creative outlet, until I can get back to drawing and painting. As I mix, blend, and puree, I am observing and making note of every artistic element that develops. Like this pattern in the peach smoothie I made for my husband...
Something else pretty great resulted from my baking. I was standing up in the kitchen, a lot, and that means I wasn't sitting. I've read in a number of different sources (and hear it from my husband all the time) that being sedentary kills. I can work out a lot, and when I do I think I'm doing enough physical activity. I consider myself "active". But generally when I'm not working out, I sit and sit and sit. Many of things I like to do are sedentary activities: writing, painting, drawing, quilting. But cooking and baking require that I stand. So cooking and baking is like a one-two punch for good health. And that's really fantastic.
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