Recipes: Power Date Squares – Breakfast/Snack

powerdateIngredients

Date Mixture
• 2 ½ cups of cut and pitted Medjool dates
• Juice and zest of one Meyer lemon and one lime (about ½ cup)
• 1 cup water
• ½ tsp vanilla extract
• ½ tsp baking soda
• ¼ tsp Himalayan salt

Top and Bottom
• 1 3/4 cups raw oats (soaked) or quick oats
• 1 cup (250 ml) spelt flour
• 1/2 cup coconut flour (if you are O blood – use 1 1/4 cup spelt and ¼ cup maple syrup)
• 1/4 teaspoon (1 ml) baking powder or substitute like arrowroot flour
• 3/4 cup (180 ml) salted butter, softened (if you are paleo you may substitute coconut oil cold in place – or a mix of both if you want the buttery overtones in the pastry mixture.

Method
• Line an 8” pan with parchment paper that runs up all sides
• Preheat oven to 350 degrees
• In a saucepan, bring the dates, water, lemon & lime juice to a boil. Add the baking soda and simmer for about 5 minutes, stirring constantly with a wooden spoon, until the dates have fallen apart. Let cool.
• In a food processor, combine all the ingredients in the bowl and pulse until mixed – but not overly so.
• Stick this in the fridge for 15/20 minutes
• Take after the mixture and press evenly into the lined pan. Bake for around 8 minutes or until it starts looking slightly golden.
• Remove and evenly spread out the date mixture over this layer.
• Crumble – hand and fork are best method – the rest of the mixture on the top.
• Return to oven for 20 minutes – or until it is nice and golden
• Allow to cool completely before cutting into squares

didyoudates

Snacks: High Protein Quinoa & Whey Lemon Cranberry Shortbread

qinwhey

This recipe is going out to the Oakville Gymnastics Club in Ontario. One of our patients was the recipient of the above cookies and now everyone wants to make them.

Quinoa and whey make these a great post-workout high protein treat, with an added punch of vitamin C.

Quick notes:
We never add sugar to our recipes – however, because of the complexity in working with these flours for binding dough we recommend the first time to add a small amount of granulated coconut sugar. Coconut sugar has a lower glycemic count than other sweetners and you need very little to help bind the dough. If you are up to it try making without – it works!

Ingredients
• 1 3/4 cups of quinoa flour
• ¼ cup unflavoured New Zealand Whey Protein
• 1 cup of organic butter – unsalted
• ¼ teaspoon sea salt
• 1 teaspoon organic vanilla extract
• 2 packets of True Lemon
• ½ cup of organic dried cranberries cut in ¼ size pieces
• Very optional: ¼ cup of granulated coconut sugar.

Method:
Take 1 packet of True Lemon and pour over the cranberries – add ¼ cup of room temperature water.
Let these rehydrate for 1 hour – this is where the sweetness comes from.

Dough
Gently remove the excess water from the cranberries. Now mix all the stuff together then roll it into a log shape in some plastic wrap or wax paper. Toss it in the refrigerator for 30 minutes or longer to get it very cool and semi-solid. Make the log dimensions to the size of cookie you want – these are best thin and about 1 to 2 inches in diameter.

Then slice it into quarter inch (0.6 cm) pieces using a warm knife blade (run it under some hot water), place the slices on a baking sheet, and bake for about 15 minutes (or thereabouts) at 350 F (176 C).

WARNING THIS TYPE OF DOUGH IS VERY BRITTLE – BE PATIENT WHEN CUTTING AND IF NEED BE RECHILL A LITTLE AND RE-WARM KNIFE.

Yields between 12-16 cookies