Wholesome Chef Class #3 - Sugars!!

In one word, the class was amazing! It was my favorite one, mostly due to the fact that I have such a sweet tooth. But we had THE MOST AMAZING chocolate mousse. I immediately went home and remade it. Mine doesn't look as pretty but it still tastes fantastic!

Before I get started, let me go make a green smoothie so I can sip it as I write... ok, ready to type!

I want to first give a quick shot out to Paula who is the amazing teacher of these classes. If you wish you could have Paula's amazing and insightful help, you can! Virtually! Check out her program. I've met several ladies who Paula is helping and they are making great lifestyle changes.It's starting up again on February 1st!!

These were the tasty delights Paula prepared for us:

Vegan Chocolate Mousse - this was AMAZING!!!!
Sesame-Almond Cookies - making these today :)
Sweet Potato Surprise
Chocolate Smoothie Decadence
Breakfast Greens Frittata

And I'll be making ALL of them on here, so just wait :) Except for the frittata as I don't have a pan that can go in the oven. I already know what I want for my birthday!!

The first part of the class was focused on understanding how both refined sugar and artificial sweeteners can have a very negative impact on our eating and health. And the second half was all about how you can make amazingly sweet things that are HEALTHY! Without refined sugar and without artificial sweeteners. I don't want to make this a blog about all things that our wrong about the American diet, but lets just say that sugar has long been my downfall and now I'm understanding a little bit more of WHY!

Fun (and kinda sad) fact: McDonald's puts sugar in their french fry recipe!

After class, I headed to Whole Foods and once again invested a whole lot of money with the idea that this will make a big difference in the long wrong.  But friends, this is expensive! Between buying all the basics like brown rice flour, chia seeds, ground chia, sesame seeds, natural cane sugar, etc... I have THE most expensive and healthiest kitchen I have ever had in my life. I ended up spending almost 5 hours in the kitchen yesterday cooking and baking for the week.

They looks like regular chocolate chip cookies!

Recipe for the day: Decadent and Healthy Chocolate Chips!!

Mix in one bowl:
½  cup butter
½  cup olive oil
½  to ¾  cup brown sugar
½  to ¾  cup sugar
2 eggs
1 t vanilla extract

Mix in a second bowl:
¾  cup buckwheat flour
¾  cup brown rice flour
¼  cup ground flaxseed 
½  cup finely ground oatmeal
½  cup finely chopped walnuts
¼  cup chia seed
1 t salt
1 t baking soda


Mix it all together, add in 1 cup organic semisweet chocolate chips. Bake at 350° until medium brown.


The great thing about this recipe is that it is flexible. I used natural cane sugar in place of the brown and regular sugar. I also used steel oats instead of oatmeal and left out the flaxseed.