Raw Cookies

I like girl stuff, as much as any other girl, but when I was eight years old I started to think I was a bit different. It was on the day I wondered away from the Campfire girls meeting. We were making Christmas fancy stuff like candles and Christmas trees out of magazines. I went across the hall to the Boy Scouts meeting. Not, because my father and my brothers were there, I went there because they were learning about things. Like how to sharpen knives, and how to carve things with those knives. They made little race cars and learned to tie knots. The best thing they were learning was about survival in the wild.

On this day the meeting had ended early. To keep the boys busy and out of trouble a sneaker hockey game was being planned. Without fear I cut across the gym asking my dad to let me play. Little Billy D. stepped in front of me and spat, “Boy scouts is for boys!”

Right in his face, I yelled back, “It's just a game.”

I was allowed in on the game, but I was physically yanked out by my father as I went into a batting stance. I had to defend myself against Billy's on-coming high stick, didn't I?

Just like back then I still tend to be different. At most meals I eat food that is totally different from everyone else at the table. One of the weirdest, different foods I have been eating recently, is raw cookies. For those who don't know it, there are people who advocate eating all their food raw. Yes, that includes meat. I'm not into eating meat, cooked or uncooked, but if you like eating nuts and dried fruit, maybe you might like raw cookies as much as I do.

The raw food websites are a great source for delicious dairy-free and often gluten-free recipes. My favorite raw food website is Gone Raw.

My favorite raw food is cookies. They provide energy, vitamins, minerals, and protein in a perfect, quick pick me up, get me to my next meal, cookie shape. I even eat them as a breakfast. They are one of the few snacks that work with my severe hypoglycemia (low blood sugar.)

My latest favorite raw cookie tastes like Apple raisin oatmeal cookies, it doesn't even have oatmeal in it. It uses soaked seeds and nuts. This is an important step for two reasons. First it makes the seeds and nuts more digestible. Secondly, when mixed together, it softens the dried fruit, making the fruit more pleasant to eat.

Apple Raisin Energy Bites

1 cup raw sunflower seeds soaked for 4 hours and then rinsed.

1 cup raw cashews soaked for 2 hours and drained.

2 Fuji apples, grated

2 large bananas, well mashed

½ cup dated, chopped

1 cup raisins

1 tsp cinnamon

Raw food enthusiasts often own juicers and would at this point run the nuts and seeds through it with no grinding plate. I run the nuts and seeds through my meat grinder. Course ground is best as the fine grind tends to plug up.

Form meal/dough into small rounds and dehydrate in a dehydrator at 150°F for 3-5 hours or to desired level of dryness. Since I don't have a dehydrator I place the cookies on parchment paper in my warmed gas oven (200 more or less) for 4 hours. I then turn them over rewarm the oven and let them dry for another 4 hours.