Sprinkle a little flour on the fruit while you are chopping or dicing to prevent the pieces from sticking together.

I’ve been working on a cookie project to make cookies more nutritious by cutting back on sugar and adding two eggs to recipes that call for 1 egg. I also add tahini (sesame butter) to replace some of the butter, and to increase protein and calcium. And, I like the depth of flavor the tahini adds. I’ve always used whole wheat flour in my baking, now I use white whole wheat flour for all of the cookies I bake.

This recipe is adapted from Laurel’s Kitchen.

I use all organic ingredients.

This recipe makes about 40 small cookies.

• Oatmeal Cookies with Walnuts and Dried Cherries

Preheat oven to 375°F

¼ cup tahini (raw or toasted)

¼ cup softened butter

2/3 cup dehydrated cane sugar or other crystallized sugar (nothing artificial)

2 eggs

1 ½ teaspoon pure vanilla extract

¾ teaspoon baking powder

½ teaspoon sea salt

1 cup rolled oats (not instant)

1/3 cup dried organic coconut, grated

½ cup toasted walnuts, chopped

½ cup dried cherries, diced (or cranberries)

1 cup white whole wheat flour

1. Add to a mixing bowl and beat together the tahini and butter until smooth and creamy.
2. Add and cream the sugar and butter/tahini. Using a rubber spatula scrape down the sides of the bowl several time so everything mixes together well.
3. Add and beat in, one at a time, the two eggs.
4. Add the vanilla, baking powder, and salt and beat in well.
5. Stir the oats into the bowl by hand with a wooden spoon and mix well.
6. Stir in the coconut, walnuts, and cherries and mix well.
7. Add the flour and mix well.
8. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper or grease the pans with butter.
9. Using a small scoop or tablespoon drop the dough onto the baking sheets.
10. Flatten the cookies with the bottom of a moistened drinking cup or your hand which is what I do. If you do not flatten them, the cookies will be softer.

Bake 15 to 20 minutes until browned around the edges. I like my cookies crisp and baking for the longer time until they are brown around the edges assures a crisp cookie.

To mix a softened ingredient, like butter, alone or with another ingredient, like sugar, till completely blended and soft.

White whole wheat flour has been grown in Europe for decades and only recently has organic white whole wheat flour become available here in the U.S. I use it for all my baking except bread where I continue to use whole wheat bread flour. Two national brands of white whole wheat are King Arthur and Bob’s Red Mill.

Is a peanut butter-like paste, made from sesame seeds. Tahini is sold either raw, sprouted, or toasted. Raw has a much milder flavor than toasted and it’s what is usually used in most recipes like baba ganoush and hummus and is used in the cuisines of many Middle Eastern countries in both sweet and savory dishes. Tahini is also an ingredient in some Asian cuisines.

Sprouted tahini is the most nutritious, and the most expensive. It can cost up to twice as much as other options.

I like roasted tahini for sandwiches.

Sesame seeds are a good source of calcium, iron, magnesium, phosphorus, copper, and manganese. And one ounce has 5 grams of protein.

Because of its mild flavor, tahini makes a good base for dips and sauces.

I use it to enhance the nutritional profile of cookies.

When I first started teaching myself to cook beans and grains, I dutifully presoaked beans as recipes recommended. At the time, I thought the function of presoaking was to make the beans cook faster. I never noticed much cooking time difference between presoaked beans and non-soaked beans when I forgot to soak them, so I gradually stopped the practice altogether. That is until I learned there is another reason for soaking.

Soaking dried beans, grains, nuts, and seeds deactivates phytates naturally present in plants. Phytates make growing plants insect resistant. Phytates also inhibit absorption of several important nutrients including phosphorous, calcium, iron, and some vitamins. People who consume a mainly whole grain vegan or vegetarian diet can suffer ill effects. These range from tooth decay to inadequate bone production.

This is especially important for growing children. Consider breakfast, which is often grain based. For convenience, cereal has become what we feed kids, along with maybe a piece of toast or a granola bar.

Luckily, most people eat their cereal with milk. Whole milk counteracts phytates in cereals. However, the modern practice of eating lower fat milk products doesn’t produce the same beneficial results that full fat milk or yoghurt does in reducing the effects of phytates. Citrus fruits also help neutralize phytates.

An easy way to neutralize the negative effects of phytates is to presoak beans, whole grains, nuts, and seeds. So this was the reason I originally soaked foods. In addition to neutralizing phytates, soaking also releases important, otherwise unavailable, phytonutrients and vitamins.

• To soak:

Put 1 to 2 cups of the dry food(s) you are going to cook into separate bowls large enough to handle the swelling—especially the beans which can swell to twice their dried size. Pour in enough water to keep everything underwater during the whole soaking time. Add a tablespoon or two of vinegar or lemon juice. Cover with a lid and let sit on your counter overnight or longer—at least 7 hours. Tip: if you get past 24 hours, be sure to change the water. If longer than that, put the bowl in the refrigerator or the food will sour.

When you are ready to cook your beans, drain the soaking water and put your soaked food in a pot with fresh water to cover. Bring to a boil. Once the beans have come to a boil remove the foam, containing impurities, into a bowl and discard. From this point follow whatever recipe you are using.

Some studies claim that phytates may help prevent colon cancer. I’d rather eat a healthful diet, including the nutrients in whole foods, to increase my resistance to cancer. The idea that phytates may help prevent cancer is controversial with no definitive answer.

I sometimes skip the soaking step when cooking grains based on how I’m going to use the food—some grains, like rice, have few phytates. I regularly soak beans because soaking also improves the texture of most cooked beans, and because it helps with digestion.

Your diet should consist mostly of things without labels, like fruits and veggies, and beans and grains from bins. If you read the labels on every food product before buying it, you will probably change your buying habits. This in turn will lead to better health. Salad dressings are no exception.

Even natural salad dressings with organic ingredients often contain sugar. Other more affordable dressings have flavor enhancers and refined oils. To have control over ingredients and to save money, you get to make your own.

Great summer mixed salad greens are available in bulk or bags. Sometimes they are called mesclun, from the French mescal , for mixed. These greens are beautiful and delicious and so nutritious. They are also convenient. The cost per pound can seem high, but remember that there is no waste and, if you buy in bulk, you need buy only what you can eat.  I eat a salad based on mesclun every day in summer. I dress it with a few splashes of extra virgin olive oil and/or walnut oil, some balsamic vinegar and some Ume plum vinegar. I don’t premix this dressing.

If you have old salad dressing bottles, preferably glass, save them for storing your homemade versions.

In winter, when I eat heartier salads with a Napa cabbage base, I dress my salads with one of the following:

• Garlic Ginger Dressing

I adapted this dressing from a 1990 newsletter. It was called Cancer Prevention Salad. The salad had shredded cabbage, carrots, cauliflower, bell peppers, radishes, and green onions. I make a variation of this with winter veggies and Napa cabbage. I toss enough together for a few days.

The dressing:

2 teaspoons grated fresh ginger or ½ teaspoon powdered ginger

2 cloves garlic, smashed

¼ to ½ teaspoons red pepper seed

½ cup unpasteurized apple cider vinegar, preferably raw

2 tablespoons soy sauce or Bragg’s liquid aminos

2 tablespoons toasted sesame oil or extra virgin olive oil

Place all ingredients in a glass jar or bottle with a tight lid and shake well.

This dressing will need to be shaken well before each use.

• Elephant Garlic Dressing

Elephant garlic is huge, as its name implies, and is much milder than its smaller cousins.

This is especially good on cooked greens some of which can be bitter. This delightful creamy dressing reduces the bitterness.

1 clove elephant garlic, coarsely chopped

2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice or bottled 100% pure juice

3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

¼ teaspoon salt

1.       Place the garlic and lemon juice in a blender, blend until mixed.

2.       Add the olive oil and salt.

3.       Blend till smooth.

Keep refrigerated.  Olive oil gets solid when cold so remove from refrigerator ½ hour before you plan to eat it.

• Moroccan Vinaigrette (adapted from recipes from an ecological kitchen by Lorna Sass)

This is a great all around dressing for tossed salads, it is also good over a quick lentil salad made with cooked lentils, thinly sliced celery, and finely sliced sweet onion.

Combine all of the following in a glass jar with a tight lid and shake well:

2/3 cup extra virgin olive oil

2 tablespoons lemon juice, fresh or bottled 100% pure juice

2 tablespoons red wine vinegar

1 ½ teaspoons sweet paprika, ground

1 teaspoons cumin, ground

1 small clove garlic, smashed (optional) smashed

1 teaspoon unrefined sea salt

Freshly ground black pepper to taste

¼ tsp to  ½ teaspoon of your favorite hot sauce, optional

Store in the refrigerator and shake well before each use.

• Tofu “Ranch” Dressing

Combine in a blender or food processor, mix until smooth.

4 – 6 ounces soft silken tofu

2 tablespoons lemon juice, fresh or  bottled 100% pure

1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil

1/2 teaspoon unrefined sea salt

1/4 teaspoon pepper, freshly ground

1 tablespoon chopped fresh Italian (flat leaf) parsley,

1 clove garlic, minced

1 ½  tablespoons unpasteurized raw apple cider vinegar

Store in a glass bottle or jar with a tight fitting lid in the refrigerator.

• Creamy Mustard Dressing

3 tablespoons unpasteurized raw apple cider vinegar

2 tablespoons Ume plum vinegar

1 tablespoon tahini, preferably raw (or roasted)

1 tablespoon Dijon mustard

½ cup extra virgin olive oil vinegar

1.       Place the cider vinegar and the Ume plum vinegar in a small bowl.

2.       Wisk in the tahini, a fork works well.

3.       Stir in the mustard.

4.       Add the olive oil, stirring well.

5.       Pour into a glass jar or bottle with a tight lid so the dressing can be shaken before each use.

• Tofu Mayonnaise

While I no longer eat much tofu since it is processed, I do occasionally consume it especially when I’m making something that needs mayonnaise. I don’t keep mayonnaise on hand since I rarely eat it and it would go bad before I could finish a jar. Making tofu mayonnaise is simple, and for vegans, the only way to get to eat mayo. I occasionally make regular mayonnaise from scratch.

Blend in blender till smooth:

8 ounces firm silken tofu

2 tablespoons lemon juice, fresh or 100% pure juice

2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

½ teaspoon unrefined sea salt

This  can be used in place of commercial mayonnaise in most recipes.  It won’t cut it on sandwiches if you’re a devoted mayo fan because the taste is so different.  It will work well in dressings.

This won’t keep too long stored in the refrigerator and freezing it will change its texture.

Make sure to eat a variety of fruits and veggies. Use color to help with your choices. Different colors indicate different nutrients. Our eyesight is the first sense we use to eat—make your plate a color palette. Eat greens at least three times a week. Greens can be: kale, Collard greens, Swiss chard, mustard or turnip greens, the leaves of any root vegetable.

For the picky eaters in your life who say they don’t like veggies, sneak vegetables into anything you can by dicing them into sauces and pureeing them into dips. Have clean cut up veggies on hand ready to eat when anyone wants a snack so there’s no excuse for not eating something healthy.

The fruits and veggies we consume ideally should be organic and local; about one-third to one-half should be consumed raw (seasonally).

The web site of the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has a section called ‘my pyramid‘ which is an interactive tool to help folks learn to eat more produce. The site is easy to access. If you are interested in food and nutrition be prepared to spend hours on the site as there’s a ton of information to take in. Be careful though because some of the information is controversial due to the USDA’s dual role as the overseer of health and nutrition, and as the promoter of farming—both commercial and family farms.

As a general rule of thumb, divide your plate into thirds: animal protein (if you eat it) should take up no more than one-third of your plate—about the size of a deck of cards or your palm. One-third will be whole grain or starchy-vegetables, the remaining third will be other vegetables. Have a salad in its own bowl. If you buy ready-made dressing make sure it has no sugar nor sugar substitutes. Better yet, make your own.

Here are some ideas for eating enough produce each day:

1.       Have seasonal fruit with breakfast.

2.       For your morning break have a carrot or other raw crunchy veggies like a turnip or kohlrabi or celery with some nut or seed butter.

3.       For lunch have a tossed salad with garbanzo beans and/or pile veggies on your sandwich: lettuce, onions, cucumbers, avocado, tomatos in season.

4.       Have some steamed broccoli with hummus for your afternoon break.

5.       Eat a seasonal salad with dinner.

6.       Have steamed greens or other above-ground veggies.

7.       Have a starchy veggie like winter squash, yams, beets, or potatoes.

8.       Make a whole grain pilaf with onions and mushrooms, or bell peppers in season.

9.       If you eat dessert make it a fruit based dessert.

Become friends with the folks at your Farmers’ Markets. They are the best source of information. They know what’s in season and can give you ideas for ways to prepare unusual ingredients.

I continued to eat a diet low on the food chain. As Frances Moore Lappé wrote eloquently—with statistics and charts to back it up—eating  plants rather than feeding them first to animals is best for the planet. A vegetarian diet supplies ample nutrients for humans. Lappé recommended eating eggs and dairy. Luckily, I followed her advice.

Lappé has since evolved into an avid promoter of democracy “as a rewarding way of life” via the Small Planet Institute that she founded with her daughter Anna in 2001. Lappé believes that political systems around the world prevent poor people from getting the food they need. She was an outspoken proponent of living sustainably before it was a popular concept.

Though on a much smaller scale, my journey parallels Lappe’s. I continue to eat a 90% vegetarian diet. I eat dairy and eggs from humanely treated hormone-free animals. I’ve always eaten animal products—except for several years ago when I tried to eat vegan because I thought it was right for the planet. I had serious problems with a vegan diet. I have since learned that there are fatty acids, and other nutrients needed for human health not available in plants. It’s not only about the protein.

I’ve been studying and experimenting with health and nutrition for a long time. I’ve learned to examine nutrition information with a skeptical eye and an open mind. Reports on nutrition research can be confusing and flip-flop almost daily. Through decades of study, I have developed a good instinct for distinguishing the useful from the trendy. I base the value of diet claims on their relationship to traditional diets eaten by our ancient ancestors.

We are biochemical individuals and cannot all thrive on the same diet. However, all traditional diets had several things in common. They all ate:

• Natural, unprocessed, organic foods
• No sugar except some honey or maple syrup
• Locally grown foods from their native environment
• Fermented and cultured products
• Some kinds of animal products

Your nutritional profile can identify the details of the diet that is right for you. (I will devote a later blog to this topic.)

My vegan experiment ended when I learned that due to my nutritional profile I need to eat animal products. This information sent me into a deep existential angst. Sometimes on our journey through life we must make trade-offs between our wants and our needs.

It didn’t take me long to realize that I could get the nutrition I need, without compromising my values, if I put eggs and dairy back into my diet. I sometimes eat wild caught fish. I make my choices with as much information as I can get, and with awareness that I love to eat. I love animals, too, but not as food.

Here’s a joke from a female stand-up comic I heard the other night on Comedy Central:

“How can hunting be called a sport when in sports both sides know the rules?”

After leaving home I immediately stopped eating meat and started teaching myself how to cook my own way. Eating during my early visits home was often a challenge. Mom became convinced that my new diet was a direct reflection on her. I can’t imagine why. But it could’ve been my ceaseless chatter about vegetarian nutrition which competed with her style. I was reading Let’s Eat Right to Keep Fit by Adelle Davis for nutrition information which opened my eyes to eating as a way to good health. And I read Frances Moore Lappé’s Diet for a Small Planet with its radical vegetarian philosophy. Both were totally different from how I’d grown up.

My Aunt Mary was a nurse and knew I’d become a vegetarian. Every time she saw me over the years she’d ask, “How do you get your protein?” I answered her with probably less than respectful tones, “You don’t have to eat meat to get protein. Protein is in every living thing and it’s just a matter of eating the right foods together to get all you need.” And, “Most people in this country get too much protein which leads to health problems.” I felt challenged by and was challenging to anyone who would listen before walking away shaking their heads. Or did I imagine that part?

I was living in Columbus when I decided to enroll at Ohio State University and study nutrition by getting a degree in Home Economics. I made an appointment to see the Dean of the Department. I can see her face now, she was quite old with white hair and looked like a Home Economics instructor. When I mentioned I was reading Adele Davis she said, “You’ll have to stop reading that stuff or you won’t get anywhere in this department.”

Flatly.  Just like that, she dashed my dreams.

I walked out of there knowing I didn’t want to fight my way into a degree and decided I’d do this my own way.

In Diet for a Small Planet I learned that by combining beans and grains, a diet low on the food chain, I could get all the protein I needed. Soybeans were at the top of the non-meat protein list having a protein profile close to that of meat. I hunted for soybeans by calling area farmers. I was living in a state where soybeans are one of the top crops—as animal feed.

I spoke to a soybean farmer about buying beans from him. He asked what I was going to do with them.

I said, “I’m going to eat them.”

He said, “They’re not fit for human consumption.”

I asked what they were for.

He said, “They’re pig feed.”

Since pigs are grown for human consumption, I wondered why humans couldn’t eat his soybeans and leave out that middle consumer. He told me there was straw and other non-edible things mixed in. I figured that at 6 cents a pound I could pick out what I didn’t want to eat. I drove to his farm and bought ten pounds of soybeans for 70 cents—he charged me 10 cents for the burlap bag he put them in.

Those soybeans lasted several months as I experimented with various recipes that I cooked for four male friends, OSU students who ate anything—not to say what I cooked wasn’t tasty! Decades later one of those students (my husband at the time) fondly remembered a soy croquette dish I had made with tomato sauce that he said “tasted like pizza” and asked me to make it for him.

I made it for him. He said it was just like he remembered.