(I have so much gratitude to give to Hungry Hobby for their savory oat sandwich bread recipe! It saved my newly minted and ongoing gluten-free life. I needed “bread” options, and this recipe is a life saver!!!)
Once again, I’ve tweaked and twinkled to get a delightful, nutritious, good-for-me yummy! I make it year round, but with the cinnamon and nutmeg and sweet potato … it makes me think of Fall, Thanksgiving/Gratitude-Giving and happiness!
It seriously takes all of a few minutes to mix, 5 minutes to sit in the baking dish to set, and 45 minutes to bake. Then devour!
Ingredients and How-To:
2 3/4 cup course oatmeal flour
1/4 cup ground flaxseed
3/4 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1 tbsp cinnamon
1 tsp nutmeg
1 tbsp vanilla extract
1 can sweet potato puree
1/8 cup milk
2 eggs
Mix all the dry ingredients in your big mixing bowl really well. Add in all the wet ingredients. Mix thouroughly, and dump/spread into greased/sprayed loaf pan. Let sit for 5 minutes to set up. Bake at 350 degrees F for 45-50 minutes. Cool, slice, devour!
For those of you not ready to cut out sugar, you could add up to 2 tbsp of sugar. But … maybe try without first.
This sweet potato oatmeal bread pairs really well with a hot ginger cinnamon tea/milk!!! OMG! Also pairs really well with turkey breast … drooooooooooooooool! It will definitely be part of my Gratitude-Giving Day dinner celebration!!!
2 tsp coconut sugar (This is 8 grams of sugar, total, for the whole batch, which means about ½ gram of sugar per cookie!)
¼ c butter
1 egg
½ tsp peppermint extract
½ tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp baking power
1/8 tsp salt
1 ¼ c almond flour
Add coconut sugar, butter, & egg into medium sized mixing bowl and blend with a handheld mixer until mixied up … about 30 seconds to a minute. (You could use a stand mixer, but this is a smaller sized recipe … so, maybe consider doubling if using a stand mixer.)
Add in peppermint and vanilla extracts. Mixy up for about 20 seconds.
Sprinkle salt and baking powder on top of batter (to distribute around a bit). Dump in almond flour. Mixy up until well blended.
You should have a softish batter that drops like little, perfect, lil magic cookie drops onto your cookie sheet.
If you like, line a cookie sheet with some baking paper.
Spoon dropfuls of cookie batter onto your pan a lil bit apart from each other. (They don’t raise up or spread out much, so you can place them lil bit close together.)
You should get about 15 – 18 cookies (depending on how big you make your drops).
Let cool for as long as you can stand to wait … then devour!
MK’s thoughts & notes:
Once upon a time, I used to eat cookies … lots of different, happy, delicious cookies, especially at the holidays!
But then, my health went super duper wonky, and I found out my inflammation markers were elevated. As inflammation leads to chronic diseases (none of which I want), I decided added sugar HAD TO GO!!! I started with a straight up elimination. If it had added sugar, no matter what kind, I didn’t eat it. Over the year, I’ve learned that some sugars aren’t quite so bad for you (things like coconut sugar, maple syrup, molasses, monk fruit, etc) as they have healthy nutrients not found in processed sugar. So for this past Christmas, I decided I would seek out recipes that could help me have some of my favorite cookies of old, but in a far more healthier and nutritious way.
I chose this original recipe from naturalpaleofamily.com, because I considered making cut out cookie shapes for the holidays. But I also wanted it for making a childhood favorite, peppermint candy cane cookies. In my sugar days, I used to simply take a sugar cookie dough and tweak it with some peppermint extract and some red food coloring (in half the dough) the roll out lil strands of red and white dough, twisty them together, and voila … candy cane cookies.
Long story short, the batter looked so droppable, I just decided to make drops. And since I only eat organic foods now (see above chat about inflammation and my desire to reduce mine), I didn’t add any food coloring.
These cookies have a super yummy light peppermint flavoring with just a hint of sweetness. The almond flour gives them a chewiness … meaning you have substance to chew on rather than the fluff of empty calorie/almost zero nutrition/inflammation promoting processed flour and sugar in the cookies of old.
Prefer more sweetness? You could add more sugar if you like … the original recipe calls for more. Play around with the sweetness, but use a healthier, more nutritious sugar.
I hope you love and enjoy these! They go really well with cupp hot chockit (pictured above: milk, vanilla extra, and cacao powder – a straight up superfood), and probably coffee (but yucko, I don’t like coffee, so you’ll have to try it and see.)!
A beautiful
blossom emailed me the other day. She
told me she is going through some things, and that there isn’t anything she can
do about it.
It truly sucks
when life falls on you like this. It
happens. It’s usually hard, seriously
unfun, and oftentimes, it leaves us feeling terribly isolated, anxious, and
depressed when it does.
So that’s what I want to talk to you about today. What in the world you can do when life falls on you, and the circumstances aren’t in your control? How can you feel better?
Spoiler alert … what can you do when life falls down hard on you? … you can take care of you … lemme explain …
How does taking care of you help?
When life gets hard, our survival mode usually kicks in, and our stress levels go up. If this life-falling event has a chronic, persistent flair to it – and it seems like it’s never going to end – our increasing stress levels can teach us how to ride a new, elevated baseline, which is great for coping. But for our long term health (mental, physical, emotional, … all of it) … it suuuuuuuuuuuuuuuucks!!!!!
These stress
levels attack our bodies through the increase of a hormone called cortisol. Cortisol is produced by your adrenals, which
are little organs sitting on top of your kidneys. It can be fatiguing to your adrenals to be on
the constant alert like this. And the
long story short = stress leads to inflammation, and inflammation leads to
unwellness, even disease.
So. Life happens. And when it happens hard and persistently, we can get hit with a double whammy. Not only do we have to deal with whatever the unpleasantness of the moment/time is, it can lead to physical illness, and that just ain’t good!
Sooooo. When you can’t fix life – when you are trying to cope and waiting for all the pieces to come together and get righted – this is most definitely the time for you to invoke your right to self-care! And then to make time for it! This is a something that you can definitely do!
And only you can do this.
Plus you get to decide how much time you give yourself. Balancing you against all of your commitments (family, work, household stuff … whatever your long list is that I know is calling you) … this balance is definitely a challenge. But you are important! You are worth your time! And the good news is that you can even start small and work your way up.
Let’s hit some highlights:
There’s basic biology.
You can eat nutritious food. Grab a banana, an apple, a can of
sustainable, wild-life-safe, wild-caught tuna.
Add a bag of frozen blueberries to your next bowl of oatmeal. Nutrient-dense food helps your body heal and
decrease inflammation.
Drink your water.
That whole 8 glasses of water a day is a real thing. It helps you keep your electrolytes balanced
and to flush out toxins. This helps you
to heal and to decrease inflammation. Plus, insufficient water can, among many
things, give you headaches and make you feel hungry. And you don’t need that on top of everything
else!
Get enough sleep.
Sleep is rest. Rest heals
you. You must sleep, my beautiful love
muffin. It’s so important!!!
Get some exercise. Walk.
Run. Ride a bike. Punch a punching bag. Do some yoga.
Get your blood flowing; help your body breathe and nourish itself. Studies show yoga changes your brain
chemistry – it helps to regulate nerve activity and reduces stress levels. It can induce a feeling of calm. This is helpful and so very good! Even 10 minutes a day is better than no minutes a
day. Help yourself feel better!
Take an intentional, calming breath every
day. Even if you only have a
moment. You’re in your car sitting at a
stop light. An elevator. Standing in the shower. … Take a moment. Close your eyes. Inhale deeply for a count of 4 to 7, hold it
for 4 to 7, and then exhale slowly for 4 to 7.
This breath is just for you. It’s
your moment. Your time. Your healing.
Let calm wash over you and hold you.
There’s positive energy reinforcements.
Practice POSitude. Think, focus, and act on positive thoughts.
Reaffirmations.
Talk to yourself with positivity.
You can do this! You will heal! You are worth your time! You are worth your love! You are wonderful and have so much to share
and love!
Practice gratitude. Tell yourself every day at least one thing
you are grateful for. The more heartfelt
and genuine your gratitude, the more healing and calm it will bring you.
Smiling.
Seriously … it helps! Smiling
makes you feel better. Add in some
positive self-talk, gratitude, calming breathing … it’s a formula for feel
better.
Color or create something.
Creative energies exercised change your thinking, reduce your stress and
anxiety, and increase your calm. I
recommend coloring with your favorite colors!!!
This helps me tremendously!
Journal.
Write it out. Get those thoughts
racing around in your head out of your head.
Write them down on paper.
Acknowledge them. Acknowledge any
limitation or frustration you feel. If
any actionable thoughts come to mind, write them down and figure out a way to
do them if it will help you cope or solve your problems. Write out your feelings about what’s
happening. And remind yourself your
feelings are 100% valid. You can’t
control everything, but you can focus on what you can do. And you can love yourself for coping through
this challenge.
Laugh!
Laugh out loud. Watch something
funny. Read a joke. But laugh heartily. Every day!
Connect with
a loved one! Get a hug! Share a moment. Have a cup of herbal tea with a friend. Go for a walk together and be there for each
other. Connect, love, and hug!!!!
Love yourself!
Think of something you do well.
Be genuine and heartfelt. Focus
on this something and love yourself for it!
All of these are shown to change your brain chemistry and to help you to feel better. Happier. Even if only for the moment. You are still helping you to cope, heal, and reduce your stress. And this is helping you to keep healthy.
And one last, super helpful thing.
Surround yourself with love and
support, with people
who will bring you up, and help you walk forward through this difficult time! Good people – special family and friends – in
your life can most definitely make all the difference in the world!
And in the
times when you feel yourself not coping as well as you need, reach out for
help. Get the help you need! Talk to your doctor, therapist, counselor,
spiritual advisor, life coach … someone who can dig the extra deep with you to
get you past this hump. Get the care and
love and help and big hugs you need!
When life falls down hard on you and you feel like there’s nothing you can do, know that you CAN do something.
You can take care of you!
Self-care and self-love are vital – and these give you something helpful to focus on. It gives you actionables, and getting things done helps us to feel productive and useful. And the actionables I’ve shared above will also help you be happier and healthier, so you are getting so much bang for your taking-care-of-you bucks!
Every day, I remind myself: Focus on what you can do!
What can you do when life tackles you? You can self-care and self-love!!! Certainly, these may not make the life beat down you are getting go away any faster, but they will help you to cope better and stay healthier while you are dealing with it … and that’s just gotta be a good thing!
Want to dig even deeper into your Self-Care? Snag your copy of my “Mary Kate’s Be-Kind-to-You Interactive Self-Care Love Letter to You!”
When you find yourself feeling low, negative, unhappy –
doubting yourself – maybe your confidence has taken a bit of a tumble &
your self-worth is low …
Grab my Be-Kind-to-You Interactive Self-Care Love Letter to You!
You can start feeling better and start smiling again!
Filled with empathetic & supportive Love and Big Hugs!
Delightfully cheerful & colorful art will lift & brighten your smile!
14 loving, big hugging, and supporting pages include proven feel better strategies:
Reaffirmations & Positive Self-Talk
Gratitude Acknowledgements
Smiling POSitudes
Additional supporting ideas to help you find your calm and happiness again through self-care and self-love
