With my new cookbook well under way and keeping me very busy, I’ve lined up some fellow bloggers to do guest posts for me two Saturdays a month. My autoimmune condition is heavily fueled by stress, so in an effort to stay healthy, these friends will help relieve some of the stress and keep recipes still coming your way! Today we have Lea from Paleo Spirit. Lea's shares stories of her 2 boys, tips on health & fitness, and Paleo recipes on her site which is all accompanied with beautiful photography. Today she’s guest-posting on Against All Grain to share a vegan double chocolate pecan cookie with you. Welcome Lea!
Most of us love to eat. We crave delicious food, hopefully we enjoy healthful food, and we appreciate food that is visually appealing. We intuitively understand the importance of the full sensory experience when something beautiful is incorporated into our everyday lives. But have you ever considered how important beauty is to health?
My website Paleo Spirit focuses on the joys of eating whole foods and the importance of caring for ourselves in a holistic way – mind, body and soul. One of the best ways to do this is to incorporate beauty into our daily lives. The German writer, artist and philosopher Johann Wolfgang von Goethe wrote,
“A man should hear a little music, read a little poetry, and see a fine picture every day of his life, in order that worldly cares may not obliterate the sense of the beautiful which God has implanted in the human soul.”
Just as we need food, water and oxygen to live, so also do we need beauty in our lives to survive and thrive. Exposing ourselves to beauty on a daily basis helps maintain good mental, emotional and spiritual health and well-being. Beauty brings consolation in sorrow, affirmation in joy and the sense that life is worth living.
I urge you to make sure you find something beautiful to appreciate every day and make it part of your routine. It does not have to take a lot of time and effort because beauty is all around us no matter what the circumstances. Stop and smell a flower, take a photo of something simple and make it beautiful, listen to wild birds singing for five minutes, read a story of heroism, look at a beautiful piece of art or listen to a musical masterpiece – anything to get your RDA (recommended daily allowance) of beauty.
For our family, cooking is one of our great pleasures. My children and I enjoy spending time together making and enjoying delicious, healthful (and often beautiful!) foods. The following recipe for Grain-free Double Chocolate Pecan Cookies is a recent favorite.
My son Nathaniel loves to help out:
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Deborah
Is there a substitute for almond flour? My son can’t have nuts. Will ground pumpkin or sunflower seeds work?
Thanks!
Sheri Curran
I use Gliuten free oatmeal and I grind it in a coffee grinder till fine. 🙂
Jenny Bradford
so oatmeal behaves the same in baking then ? That would make things so much easier as we can’t have nuts , sunflower seed or pumpkin seed 🙁
Kim Wojcuilewicz
These look amazing and I think they’d be a perfect cookie to bake and give away as a gift. Sharing beauty in the form of (yummy!) food. 🙂 Thank you for a great recipe, can’t wait to try it!
Erin @ Texanerin Baking
It’s great that your friends are helping you out. Stress is never fun, especially if it makes you sick.
These cookies look fantastic! And I’ve never thought of needing beauty in my life. I can imagine that it’d certainly help. I will take your advice and try to find beauty in the not so obvious things. 🙂
Karla Fales
I am curious how anything with flour of any kind is Paleo? If caveman didn”t have grains, did they make almond and coconut into flour? (this is a serious question as I am trying to learn about this lifestyle). I also have a very serious Paleo friend who will only eat things that have to be cooked for safety (i.e. meat), everything else is raw and her words “caveman” state – don’t think I could accomplish that, but have been intrigued by our various adaptations ad fun creative idea.
caiti
Being paleo is not about trying to BE a caveman, its about being healthy in our modern environment. I wouldn’t worry about the uses of flour or the simple joy of baking chocolate cookies with your family because people in caves did not do so. You have to take a step back and look at the bigger picture of the diet. Paleo is also all about the 80/20 rule. 80 % of the time you follow the diet, 20% of the time you are allowed to just relax and not stress too much about your food choice. Eating healthy is just as much about a healthy and relaxed attitute towards eating as it is your actual food choices. Coming from someone who has struggled with an eating disorder most of my life, restriction is really not healthy and you shouldn’t be worried about enjoying some homemade cookies once in awhile. As far as your friend goes they must be a raw foodist. I personally think cooking is awesome and you’ll still extract plenty of nutrients from cooked foods as well as raw. But everybody has their own dogmas they must follow. Hope that helps.
Laurence Burris
I’m going out soon to Whole Foods and picking up the ingredients in a few minutes. This really looks delicious. Thank you for posting this recipe. Cheers!
Anne
Is there a way to print this recipe? I cannot copy and paste and do not see a link for printing it.
Spencer
Looks awesome! I would so love to try some.
Ashleigh C. Patakas
I love your Facebook site. Awesome stuff
susan
Hi,
Do you have the carb count for these beautiful cookies?
thanks,
Susan
Linda S.
Looking forward to trying these. Thanks
Maggiemac
Love these! They will be added to the Christmas cookie list. With recipes like this one, there is no reason to miss flour.
Ruth Ann Speer
My daughter is off-the-charts sensitive to almond, peanut, dairy and gluten/wheat. She’s in her first year of college. She asked if I would make these for her. What type of flour do you think the best replacement for the almond flour? A g-f flour blend? Or a different flour? Thank you!
Chelsea
I know this is a little later, but what about using macadamia nuts ground into a flour? Does she have issues with those?
Jen | my BIG FAT grain free life
These look so good, healthy, and great to make for the upcoming holidays! Can’t wait to try them. I think I’ll do that this weekend. Love the presentation too. Thanks for sharing this recipe!
Jen
Naomi Strachman
@ Anne you can hit the “Reader” button on the top bar and most of the page will come up in printer friendly form, all except the list of ingredients. I feel this is done on purpose since you cannot C&P any part of the original page. This is some lame attempt at discouraging someone from keeping the recipe and it really ticks me off because you put something out there to share or you don’t.
Annie
Just made these and they are fabulous! We are a sugar-free family, so subbed cacao nibs for the chocolate chips. Tastes great!
marla
Love this recipe! Will be linking back to this in my upcoming post 🙂
Against All Grain
Thanks Marla – Lea will be happy to hear that I’m sure!
Greenmama
I made these with honey today for my GAPSters and they were a hit! One of my sons can’t have the chocolate chips because of the sugar, so I made a pan without for him and then mixed the chips into the rest for us. They were so good both ways! I had to omit the pecans because we ran out, but tI’m sure they would be great with the pecans too!! Thank you so much for the great GAPS-friendly recipe!
Stephanie
I just pulled these out of the oven and they are really tasty! The only bummer is that they didn’t hold their shape and instead spread out a lot. I’m new to grain free baking and ground my own almond flour from blanched almonds. I’m wondering if that is why they didn’t hold their shape as well, maybe it was too coarse? Also, I didn’t have coconut flour and used ground walnuts instead. Anyone have any suggestions??
Erin
Do you think the cookies would freeze well (uncooked) for later use?
Jennifer
I just made these and they are AWESOME! I was showing my daughter (9yo) the site and she says “is she like famous?” to which I responded “kind of” 🙂 In my world Danielle is absolutely famous! Everyone around here talks about this site….
Against All Grain
Haha oh that word gives me nervous chills! I hope that more than just “our world” will eventually recognize the health benefits of grain-free and my recipes! Please bring your daughter to one of my book signings next year! 🙂
Nan
These cookies are fantastic! Took them to a church fellowship, and they were a big hit with both adults and children.
Eva
I made these this weekend, except the batter was super runny, even after I added more coconut flour. BUT, I just poured it into a 9×9″ square pan, put some pecans on top, and baked it for about 15 minutes. Good news, they are amazing as brownies too. Thank you for the recipe!
Stacy | Wicked Good Kitchen
Mmm…love this post and recipe, Lea! The quote is one I adore, too. Thanks for guest posting. And thank you, Danielle, for hosting Lea! xo
Jen
Just made these – WOW! They are divine. I didn’t have any pecans but toasted some slivered almonds, and added them into the dough (1/4 cup). Used butter for the fat, and added a little bit of cinnamon. They’re amazing, I just devoured two right out of the oven. Thank you for this great recipe!