Food Stress: A Little Levity on Healthy Eating

Tags

Eating right, Effective living, Feeling energized, Food Stress, Health, Humor, Kebba Buckley Button, lighten up, stress, UpBeat Living

© 2016 Kebba Buckley Button, M.S., O.M., World Rights Reserved.

Do you ever feel like there are so many rules for eating that you never enjoy a meal or snack anymore?  With so many experts and so-called “gurus” giving pointers, do you ever feel like you’re in Food Jail, boxed in by too much conflicting advice about dieting and exercise?  How are you supposed to be in Upbeat Living, if you aren’t allowed to enjoy food and beverages?  If this sounds like you, then the following interview with Dr. Hart A. Tack may provide some comic relief.  A few years ago, this interview circulated the Internet, interviewer unknown.

Dreamstime

Q: Doctor, I’ve heard that cardiovascular exercise can prolong life. Is this true?
A: Your heart is only good for so many beats, and that’s it…  don’t waste them on exercise. Everything wears out eventually.  Speeding up your heart will not make you live longer; that’s like saying you can extend the life of your car by driving it faster.  Want to live longer?  Take a nap.

Q: Should I cut down on meat and eat more fruits and vegetables?
A: You must grasp logistical efficiencies.  What does a cow eat?   Hay and corn.   And what are these?  Vegetables.  So a steak is nothing more than an efficient mechanism of delivering vegetables to your system.   Need grain?   Eat chicken.   Beef is also a good source of field grass (green leafy vegetable).   And a pork chop can give you 100% of your recommended daily allowance of vegetable products.

Q: Should I reduce my alcohol intake?
A:  No, not at all.  Wine is made from fruit.  Brandy is distilled wine. That means they take the water out of the fruity bit so you get even more of the goodness that way.   Beer is also made out of grain.  So have a cup now and then!

Q: How can I calculate my body/fat ratio?
A: Well, if you have a body and you have fat, your ratio is one to one.  If you have two bodies, your ratio is two to one, etc.

Q: What are some of the advantages of participating in a regular exercise program?
A: Can’t think of a single one, sorry.  My philosophy is: No pain…good!

Q:  Aren’t fried foods bad for you?
A:  Nonsense.  Foods are fried these days in vegetable oil.  In fact, they’re permeated in it.  How could getting more vegetables be bad for you?

Q:  Will sit-ups help prevent me from getting a little soft around the middle?
A: Definitely not! When you exercise a muscle, it gets bigger. You should only be doing sit-ups if you want a bigger stomach.

Q:  Is chocolate bad for me?
A:  HELLO: Cocoa beans! Another vegetable!!! It’s the best feel-good food around!

Q:  Is swimming good for your figure?
A:  If swimming is good for your figure, explain whales to me.

Q:  Is getting in shape important for my lifestyle?
A:  Hey!  ‘Round’ is a shape!

Well, I hope this has cleared up any misconceptions you may have had about food and diets.
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I hope this piece gave you a chuckle.  Now, for real food advice, and pointers you can really use to feel your best, read the next two articles and generally look around this blog.  Or send your questions to Kebba Buckley Button at kebba@kebba.com .

__________________________________________________________________

 

Energy – Peace – Meditation

 

 

• Kebba Buckley Button is a stress management expert.  She also has a natural healing practice and is an ordained minister. She is the author of the award-winning book, Discover The Secret Energized You (http://tinyurl.com/b44v3br), plus the 2013 book, Peace Within:  Your Peaceful Inner Core, Second Edition(http://tinyurl.com/mqg3uvc). Her newest book is Sacred Meditation: Embracing the Divine, available through her office.  Just email SacredMeditation@kebba.com. 
• For an appointment or to ask Kebba to speak for your group: calendar@kebba.com .
• Recent changes have made our Facebook likes look low.  Would you click “Like” in the right-hand column?  You’ll get our appreciation and a huge rise in your good karma!

Upbeat Living: Beat Acidosis to Beat Illness and Feel Great!

Tags

Acidosis, beating fatigue, breath, Eating, Eating right, energy, exhaustion, fatigue, Feeling energized, Health, pH balance, stress, Stress Management, tired, UpBeat Living

© 2014  Kebba Buckley Button, MS, OM.  World Rights Reserved.

Microsoft

The Upbeat Living philosophy is to encourage people to switch little habits that will lead to big results, to feel our best and enjoy life the most. And little changes often can help you have a lot more energy, plus feeling and looking younger!  Would you consider making one or two easy changes in your daily habits, if you could feel much better as a result?

Here are some points to ponder regarding a condition affecting many people and causing silently deteriorating health, yet which you can easily and inexpensively control. It’s called acidosis, meaning excess acid in the body’s fluids.  Stress, eating habits, lack of exercise, and too little sleep all contribute to this condition.  And dealing with stress, changing your eating habits, exercising, and sleeping more—these can all help correct the condition.

Relative acidity is measured on the pH, or potential hydrogen, scale that indicates hydrogen  ion concentration. The pH scale goes from 1 (extremely acidic) to 14 (extremely basic, or alkaline). The body operates best when its acid balance, or pH, is between 7.35 and 7.45, ideally at 7.4. Yet diet and stress tend to acidify the body’s fluids. More biochemical waste in the body can also lower pH, making the body more acidic.  To see some beautiful graphics of the pH scale, put “pH scale” in your search bar and enjoy.

While the condition is simple, the symptoms are many. A person with acidosis may experience frequent fatigue, allergies, bronchitis, colds and flu, foot fungus, acne, boils, eczema, age spots, arthritis, diarrhea and/or constipation. Effects less easy for the individual to see are serious internal processes, such as the inflammation of veins, arteries, and the muscle tissue of the heart. This creates cardiac system issues that result in elevated blood pressure, which in turn increases heart deterioration.

Fotolia

Acidosis also leads to premature aging via accelerating free-radical damage to cells. Cells are actually poisoned by inefficiently eliminated cell waste. An acidic pH prevents the proper storage and release of cellular energy, meaning that the body cannot respond fully to stress or infection.  This means you’re tired! Red blood cells clump together, which limits their oxygen-carrying capacity and leads to fatigue and weakness. Cancer cells thrive in lower-oxygen  (acidic) environments such as acidosis can create. Other mechanisms caused by acidosis may lead to pancreatic dysfunction, diabetes, weight gain, and osteoporosis.

The body has natural mechanisms for monitoring and controlling its acid-base balance. When plasma is too acidic, the respiratory system speeds breathing, and the kidneys can produce substances that turn the pH around. The body also uses intracellular absorption of hydrogen atoms by molecules of protein, phosphate, and carbonate in bone, thus raising the pH to less acidity.

So what can you do to help yourself beat acidosis? First, get litmus paper from your pharmacy and test your saliva. The litmus paper will turn color to show the acidity of your saliva. If your saliva’s pH is too low/acidic, re-assess your current stress, exercise (or lack thereof), sleep, and diet. Consider these dietary changes:

1. Stop drinking any sodas or sugared drinks, or any artificially sweetened products. Switch to juices or filtered water.
2. Stop eating sugared desserts and foods made mainly with white flour and yeast, such as pizza and bagels.
3. Eat dark-green leafy salads, other green vegetables (broccoli, cabbage, celery, parsley), and root vegetables (carrots, yams, daikon radish).
4. Eat fruits, especially fresh fruits, such as apples, apricots, bananas, cantaloupe, dates, figs, grapefruit, peaches, and grapes. For dried fruit, try raisins.
5. Eat rice and buckwheat, almonds, dairy products, and eggs.

Try changing your diet for a week, and add exercise and sleep more. Check your pH again. Notice if these changes make you more relaxed, clear-minded, and vital. If so, you are making a major investment in your long-term health. Why not feel your best, starting now?  That’s Upbeat Living!

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● Kebba Buckley Button is a stress management expert.  She is the author of the award-winning book, Discover The Secret Energized You (http://tinyurl.com/b44v3br), plus the 2013 book, Peace Within:  Your Peaceful Inner Core, Second Edition (http://tinyurl.com/mqg3uvc).  She also has a natural healing practice and is an ordained minister.

● Liked this article?  You can buy Kebba’s books:  just click the links!

• Discover The Secret Energized You (http://tinyurl.com/b44v3br). 
• Peace Within:  Your Peaceful Inner Core (Second Edition) (http://tinyurl.com/mqg3uvc)             

● Enjoyed this post?  Please click “like” in the FB widget in the right hand column!  You’ll have our undying gratitude plus a huge rise in your Good Karma.

● Please comment!

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● Reach the writer at kebba@kebba.com .

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Upbeat Living: Getting A Bigger Better Brain!

Tags

Alzheimer's Disease, antioxidants, Brain health, Dr. Daniel Amen, Dr. Majid Fotuhi, Eating right, Kebba Buckley Button, Memory, stress, UpBeat Living

© 2014 Kebba Buckley Button, MS, OM.  World Rights Reserved.

 

© Tijana – Fotolia

Got memory problems?  Feel stressed when you can’t remember things?  Want to prevent or minimize Alzheimer’s Disease?  There’s new hope from the latest brain research!

 

Your brain is involved in everything you do!

~Dr. Daniel Amen

 

A few years ago, Dr. Daniel Amen, a clinical psychiatrist and medical director of the Amen Clinics, introduced us to a conversational level of brain science.  Dr. Amen (say, “AY mn”) has studied tens of thousands of brain scans and made many practical conclusions.  First, he offered programs on PBS about brain types and personality.  He taught us how to identify different brain types and how to feed people with different brain types, to get them to relate pleasantly.  More recently, he has given programs about how the brain ages, what affects it negatively, and how you can keep yourself and your brain young.  He also talks about the ability of the brain to recover from both injury and toxic exposures.  He illustrates his points with brain scans of patients, before and after recovery treatment.  Your brain can bounce back after injury or insult, with the right treatment!

 

Which brain do you want?

~ Dr. Daniel Amen

 

Enter neurologist Majid Fotuhi, M.D., Ph.D.  Dr. Fotuhi is not only on the neurology faculty at Harvard Medical School, but also a consultant in neurology at the Alzheimer’s disease Research Center at Johns Hopkins Hospital.  His specialty is research in protecting the brain from degeneration, especially in patients with Alzheimer’s disease and general memory loss.    Dr. Fotuhi has found that brain size is important in memory functions, especially the size of the hippocampus.  The hippocampus handles the relationship of short-term memory to long-term memory and to spatial orientation.  Dr. Fotuhi has studied the causes and effects of brains shrinking or enlarging.  One of his amazing findings is that patients can have Alzheimer’s disease present in the brain but have no memory loss, if the hippocampus is large.

 

Cells in other parts of your body—such as your skin, stomach, and liver– slough off and get replaced, but for the most part, the cells in your brain are the ones you were born with.

~ Dr. Majid Fotuhi

 

Large brains are good!  So how can you have a larger brain?  Dr. Fotuhi has 5 steps for you, summarized here:

1. Take a DHA supplement.  This will provide Omega-3 fatty acids, which actually reduce the plaque formation of Alzheimer’s Disease.
2. Use brain-stimulating switchups. Use your other hand to shave or clean a counter, or write backwards.  These practices will build your hippocampus.
3. Use breath exercises. Since stress increases production of cortisol, and cortisol reduces memory, any stress reduction techniques can increase your memory.  In particular, Dr. Fotuhi recommends this breath technique:  inhale to a count of seven, hold for a count of seven, then exhale to a count of seven.  Shortly, you will feel your entire system relaxing.
4. Do pushups. This pushes blood to your brain.  One third of your brain is blood vessels, so the increased circulation is powerful.
5. Eat superfoods.  Those most helpful to the brain are:

• Elderberries.  They contain corsitine, an antioxidant which stimulates the activity of the cell mitochondria, the cells’ energy factories.
• Pecans.  These contain choline, which supports brain health and specifically memory functions.
• Chicken giblets. A powerful source of Vitamin B12.  People with low B12 have a smaller hippocampus.
• Clams. In addition to B12, they contain zinc and iron, which also support brain function.
• Vegetable juice. This contains a potpourri of both known and as yet unidentified vitamins.

 

So current research shows that we can help ourselves, with simple methods, to have better brains and better memories, even with Alzheimer’s Disease.  Why not pick three of these and work them into your daily routine?  Living well is the best revenge!  Support your brain and enjoy your memory for many years to come. Now that’s Upbeat Living!

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● Kebba Buckley Button is a stress management expert.  She is the author of the award-winning book, Discover The Secret Energized You (http://tinyurl.com/b44v3br), plus the 2013 book, Peace Within:  Your Peaceful Inner Core, Second Edition (http://tinyurl.com/mqg3uvc).  She also has a natural healing practice and is an ordained minister.

● Liked this article?  You can buy Kebba’s books:  just click the links!

• Discover The Secret Energized You (http://tinyurl.com/b44v3br). 
• Peace Within:  Your Peaceful Inner Core (Second Edition) (http://tinyurl.com/mqg3uvc)             

● Enjoyed this post?  Please click “like” in the FB widget in the right hand column!  You’ll have our undying gratitude plus a huge rise in your Good Karma.

● Please comment!

● Get these articles by email– just click the Subscribe Free option in the right column.

● Reach the writer at kebba@kebba.com .

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Upbeat Living: Foods to Lift Your Moods!

Tags

Cathy Guisewite, chocolate, cravings, Eating right, energy foods, food, food and drink, foods and moods, glycemic index, green leafy vegetables, health food, kale, Kebba Buckley Button, stress, UpBeat Living

©2014 Kebba Buckley Button, MS, OM.  World Rights Reserved.

 

© Pamela Hodson | Dreamstime Stock Photos

When you feel stressed or depressed, do you reach for the snacks?  A lot of us do! Remember the cartoon strip, Cathy?  For over 30 years, we watched as Cathy ate an entire cake in one sitting, after her boyfriend did something puzzling or frustrating. After eating a cake, Cathy would be sprawled out on a couch, obviously sick and frazzled.  Did eating like that bring her joy and resolution?  No.  Eating an entire cake when she was stressed—just made her sick and stressed! It was not a successful strategy.  Maybe that’s the very reason award-winning cartoonist Cathy Guisewite made us laugh so much.  We understood.

 

However, there are successful ways to use foods to have the best moods.  Bear in mind that the body has about 70 trillion cells.  And your body has only what you put in your mouth—food and drink—from which to make new cells.  So does it make sense that your cells would function well on a diet of, for example, cake and diet soda?  A well-rounded diet of lean protein, dark green leafy vegetables, other non-starch vegetables, fresh fruits, and whole grains, will give you a baseline of great nutrition.  Switch to this simple list for a few days, to begin feeling strong and clear-minded.   Vegetarians can use organic beans, including garbanzos, instead of lean meats, in salads and stir-fry dishes.  Of course, coordinate with your doctor before making drastic changes.

 

 If we’re not supposed to have night-time snacks, then why is there a light in the fridge?

 ~Unknown

If you eat out a lot, order the whole grains, egg dishes, other lean proteins, and dark green salads every day.  Of course, gluten-free people, skip those grains!  Kale salad is a current fad food that is available in many restaurants and offers great nutrition.  Grilled chicken- or tuna- Caesar salad is another very nutritious, popular dish that is available at most restaurants.  These dishes will leave you feeling clear-minded and balanced.  And you will be, um, regular, which will also clear your emotions and mind.  Bean dishes contain a phenomenal amount of fiber, so if you like those, they can assist in cleansing your intestines and even help you lose weight.  In Chinese medicine, sadness or depression can be related to the energy of the large intestine.  See if your mood improves when you are eating a high-fiber, low-sugar diet.

 

The only time to eat diet food is when you’re waiting for the steak to cook.

~ Julia Child

Speaking of sugar, the more nutrition you can get for your calories, the better you will feel.  So reach for cherries, grapes, berries, a banana, or a peach.  On the run, keep packets of dried fruits with you.  There are many vitamins, minerals, and anti-oxidant compounds in fruits.  Fruit without added sugar is now widely available in your grocer’s frozen food section.  And in the canned-food section, it is easy to find fruit in its own juice.  Health food stores even have fruit-sweetened waffles and other baked goods, plus powdered fruit sweeteners.  Switch to fruit and fruit-sweetened foods, and you will be eating at a lower glycemic index.  That index is a measure of how fast a food is metabolized, compared to glucose.  Many people feel better, have a flatter abdomen, and lose weight easily on a low glycemic index diet.

 

© 2014 Kebba Buckley Button

For low-calorie snacks, veggie sticks—carrots, celery, jicama, green beans, cucumbers, Chinese pea pods—are very filling and massage your intestines from the inside out.  So, in addition to being satisfying, these leave you more relaxed.  For quick energy snacks, consider going nuts.  Yes, nuts!  Brazil nuts, pistachios, almonds, cashews, and hazelnuts are great for both giving you energy and supporting your health.  Brazil nuts are very high in protein and also contain selenium, a mineral linked to mood improvement.  Almonds are high in potassium, which is key for metabolic balance, mood and blood pressure regulation.  Almonds, cashews, and hazelnuts are all rich in magnesium, a vital mineral in converting blood sugar to muscle energy, via the Krebs Cycle process.  Low magnesium is also a cause for constipation; so nuts can help by contributing both magnesium and fiber.  When the intestines are well, you will be in a better mood.

 

 

New snack food technology is making some great new options available.  Now you can buy crunchy, flavored freeze-dried veggies in snack packs.  You can get rice-and-bean chips in the chips department. And my current favorite is crisp kale chips!  Perhaps the ultimate energy snack, chocolate covered kale chips, is now available. Just look around your health food store, or the health food section of your regular market, for some great, tasty surprises.

 

So experiment with less sugar and more taste satisfaction.  You’ll be less hungry and have fewer cravings.  Plus, your moods will even out, and your abdomen may flatten out!  Now that’s Upbeat Living!

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● Kebba Buckley Button is a stress management expert.  She is the author of the award-winning book, Discover The Secret Energized You (http://tinyurl.com/b44v3br), plus the 2013 book, Peace Within:  Your Peaceful Inner Core, Second Edition (http://tinyurl.com/mqg3uvc).  She also has a natural healing practice and is an ordained minister.

● Liked this article?  You can buy Kebba’s books:  just click the links!

• Discover The Secret Energized You (http://tinyurl.com/b44v3br). 
• Peace Within:  Your Peaceful Inner Core (Second Edition) (http://tinyurl.com/mqg3uvc)             

● Enjoyed this post?  Please click “like” in the FB widget in the right hand column!  You’ll have our undying gratitude plus a huge rise in your Good Karma.

● Please comment!

● Get these articles by email– just click the Subscribe Free option in the right column.

● Reach the writer at kebba@kebba.com .

 

UpBeat Living: Yummy Gluten-Free (GF) Desserts, Part 5, Lemon Squares

Tags

Eating right, GF, Gluten, gluten-free, Recipes, UpBeat Living

© 2014 Kebba Buckley Button.  World Rights Reserved.

Today we offer a recipe for dessert squares that can be dressed up or down, cut small or large, depending on the occasion.  Your gluten-free (GF) family and friends will love these lemon squares.  And your neighbor with the lemon tree will be thrilled.

GF Lemon Squares

Image by FreeRecipeNetwork.com

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees F
• Liberally butter an 8 x 13 Pyrex pan
• Mix together: 1 c butter, ½  c GF confectioners sugar OR very fine organic sugar, 2 c white rice flour, 3/8 t sea salt
• Press that mixture into the prepared pan.
• Bake that for 20 minutes at 350 degrees.

• Now mix together:  4 eggs, 2 c organic sugar, 6 T lemon juice, grated rind of 1 lemon.
• Pour over the crust and bake 25 minutes at 350 degrees.
• Dust with GF confectioners sugar OR very fine organic sugar OR coconut flour. Use a tea strainer as a sifter to artistically dust this over the pan of lemon squares.
• Cool on a rack for 30 minutes or until completely cool, before cutting into squares.
• Once you have cut them, decorate with squirts of whipped cream and strawberry slices, if desired.

Enjoy!

And what other recipes would you like to see in a GF version?

——————

● Kebba Buckley Button is the author of the 2013 book, Peace Within:  Your Peaceful Inner Core (Second Edition).   Keep this book with you constantly, to quickly recharge your Peace Within, with quotes, photos, and poems that take you directly there!  Kebba is a corporate stress management trainer, and she also has a holistic healing practice.

● Liked this blog?  Why not buy Kebba’s books?  Just click the links!

• Peace Within:  Your Peaceful Inner Core (Second Edition)( http://perfectboundmarketing.gostorego.com/authors/kebba-buckley-button.html)
• Discover The Secret Energized You (http://tinyurl.com/b44v3br). ● Enjoyed this post?  Please click “like” in the FB widget in the right hand column!  You’ll have our undying gratitude plus a huge rise in your Good Karma.

● Your comments are welcome!

● Reach the writer at kebba@kebba.com .

 

UpBeat Living: Yummy Gluten-Free (GF) Desserts, Part 2

Tags

Eating right, GF, Gluten, gluten-free, stress, UpBeat Living

© 2014 Kebba Buckley Button.  World Rights Reserved.

If you are sensitive to gluten, or simply wheat, or you have a loved one with those sensitivities, you’ll want to have some quick and simple gluten-free (GF) recipes handy.  Here are two easy ones that require no technical expertise at all.  The GF Almond Cookies are the simplest cookie recipe I have ever seen, and they freeze well. Not that they will last long, once your guests taste one!  The Honey-Pecan-Pumpkin Cake is a classic winter cake with a Southern flare, and it freezes well also.  You can make it with- or without the nuts.  Have fun with these!

GF Almond Cookies

Image by Microsoft

 

• In a medium bowl, mix:
  • 1 c. almond butter (organic if possible)
  • 1 c. organic sugar
  • 1 egg
  • 1 T vanilla
  • Optional:  6 oz GF chocolate chips

• Drop by teaspoonfuls onto a cookie sheet you have sprayed with GF baking spra
• Bake at 350 degrees about 13 minutes or until firm. Time will vary by the brand of almond butter you have.
• Cool on a rack for 10 minutes, if you can wait.  Makes about 20.

GF Honey-Pecan-Pumpkin Cake

• Spray, or butter-and-flour, one bundt cake pan or two 5” x 9” loaf pans.

• Assemble:
  • 1 c organic sugar
  • ¾ c medium honey
  • 1 ¼ c olive oil
  • 4 eggs, well beaten
  • 1 ½ t baking soda
  • 1 ½ t baking powder
  • 1 t sea salt
  • 2 c white rice flour
  • 2 t cinnamon
  • 2 t ground coriander
  • 1 t ground cloves
  • 3 c well-mashed steamed pumpkin (or 24 oz canned pumpkin)
  • 1 c chopped pecans

• Try to mix the sugar and honey.  Add oil and eggs, mix well.
• Add pumpkin, mix well.
• Combine dry ingredients, add and mix well.
• Bake at 325 degrees for at least 30 minutes, depending on your oven.  Cake/s will be done when springy to the touch.  Let cool in pan for 20 minutes before turning out.
• If desired, serve with whipped cream and tangerine sections.

Enjoy!

——————

● Kebba Buckley Button is the author of the 2013 book, Peace Within:  Your Peaceful Inner Core (Second Edition).   Keep this book with you constantly, to quickly recharge your Peace Within, with quotes, photos, and poems that take you directly there!  Kebba is a corporate stress management trainer, and she also has a holistic healing practice.

● Liked this blog?  Why not buy Kebba’s books?  Just click the links!

• Peace Within:  Your Peaceful Inner Core (Second Edition)( http://perfectboundmarketing.gostorego.com/authors/kebba-buckley-button.html)
• Discover The Secret Energized You (http://tinyurl.com/b44v3br). ● Enjoyed this post?  Please click “like” in the FB widget in the right hand column!  You’ll have our undying gratitude plus a huge rise in your Good Karma.

● Your comments are welcome!

● Reach the writer at kebba@kebba.com .

UpBeat Living: Yummy Gluten-Free Desserts, Part 1

Tags

Eating right, GF, gluten-free, stress, UpBeat Living

 © 2014 Kebba Buckley Button.  World Rights Reserved.

Cherry-Cinnamon Mini Cakes. Photo by Kebba Buckley Button

Do you love desserts?  But your body hates wheat or gluten?  Then you are actually lucky, because these days, the solutions are easy.  And generally any non-gluten-sensitive people can enjoy your GF desserts with you.  So many people have realized that gluten doesn’t work for them, that gluten-free (GF) products are now widely available.  If you know you are wheat-sensitive, but you haven’t considered gluten, you’re in luck again.  Since all wheat has gluten, you wheat-sensitive people can generally feast on GF foods.

Here are two easy desserts, which you can use as coffeecake, desert cake, or snacks.  Notice there is no oil in either recipe, and the topping is simply cinnamon sugar—light, satisfying, and very low-calorie.  The quickest version of either is made in an 8” square pyrex pan, in a toaster oven or countertop oven.  However, you can bake the recipes in muffin tins you have sprayed with GF baking spray, taking about 5 minutes off the baking time.

GF Apricot Coffee Cake

o  Drain 1 15-oz can of apricots (packed in fruit juice, if you can find it), reserving the juice, and chop the apricots.

o  In a large bowl, mix just until smooth:

1 ¼ c GF baking mix (such as Pamela’s Baking and Pancake Mix)

½ c organic sugar

1 extra large egg

½ c  juice from the apricots (there is no oil)

2 t cinnamon

¼ t coriander or nutmeg

1 ½ t hazelnut extract

o  Add the apricot pieces and stir until well-distributed.

o  Spray an 8” x 8” pyrex baking pan with GF baking spray, or butter and flour the pan.  Pour the batter in the pan, and sprinkle with cinnamon sugar. [If you don’t have cinnamon sugar, fill an empty spice jar with half organic sugar and half cinnamon.  You may prefer more cinnamon.  This looks pretty when baked, and provides more flavor than calories.]

o  Bake at about 330 degrees in a toaster oven, for about 25 minutes.  It’s done when springy in the middle.  No overbaking!

GF Cherry-Cinnamon Mini Cakes

o  Spray, or butter-and-flour, one 12-cupcake pan and about 4 depressions in a second 12-cupcake pan.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees and be sure one rack is in the middle of the oven.

o  In a large bowl, mix, and stir until smooth:

1 ¼ c GF baking mix (such as Pamela’s Baking and Pancake Mix)

½ c organic sugar

1 extra large egg

½ c water (there is no oil)

2 t cinnamon

1 ½ t almond extract

o  Add: 1 6-oz package of dried cherries (unsweetened, such as Mariani)

o  Stir until well-distributed.

o  Using a large spoon, fill the cupcake tin depressions halfway, until you are out of batter.

o  Bake at 350 for about 18 minutes.  Mini cakes will be springy to the touch when done.

Enjoy these light, delicious, and guilt-free GF desserts!

——————

● Kebba Buckley Button is the author of the 2013 book, Peace Within:  Your Peaceful Inner Core (Second Edition).   Keep this book with you constantly, to quickly recharge your Peace Within, with quotes, photos, and poems that take you directly there!  Kebba is a corporate stress management trainer, and she also has a holistic healing practice.

● Liked this blog?  Why not buy Kebba’s books?  Just click the links!

• Peace Within:  Your Peaceful Inner Core (Second Edition)( http://perfectboundmarketing.gostorego.com/authors/kebba-buckley-button.html)
• Discover The Secret Energized You (http://tinyurl.com/b44v3br). ● Enjoyed this post?  Please click “like” in the FB widget in the right hand column!  You’ll have our undying gratitude plus a huge rise in your Good Karma.

● Your comments are welcome!

● Reach the writer at kebba@kebba.com .