A classic example of one such architecture is the smoothie. Great tasting fruits, superfoods, and sometimes even a few sneaky veggies get blended together into delicious drinks that even kids give a thumbs up to. However, as the seasons take a turn for the colder, the idea of a frosty one can be a little hard to swallow. Luckily, there’s an excellent runner-up out there: the energy bar.

Of course, most stores are already absolutely overflowing with pre-made energy bars. But just because we buy them in little wrapped packages, doesn’t mean they have to come that way. Homemade energy bars are remarkably easy to create, and also allow full control over the ingredients (many “nutrition bars” contain unhealthy filler ingredients, refined sugars, and difficult-to-digest protein isolates). Additionally, the DIY route also produces a bar that is less expensive, cuts down on excess packaging, and (in my opinion) is much more delicious! If you can make a smoothie, you can make an energy bar: they’re that easy.

Needless to say, I often will make these guys to subdue my snack-monster tendencies. I look at energy bars with an opportunistic attitude: how much goodness can I pack into a great tasting treat? Make that energy bar live up to its name! To make a truly natural bar, I start out with a no-fail base of dried fruit and nuts, then blend in various superfoods to douse my snack with antioxidants, vitamins, minerals, and long-lasting energy. I even made a new version the other day using, of all things, a freeze-dried wheatgrass powder — which has become a instant hit as it’s so surprisingly good. The wheatgrass powder has almost no taste at all, so the bars contain all the benefits of highly-condensed vegetable nutrition, without the undesired influence of veg-flavor. Though energy bars in general are a phenomenally flexible recipe; here’s my simple wheatgrass-infused base recipe to get you started. In addition to the mega-vitamins from the wheatgrass, hemp seeds provide protein and healthy omega fats, cashews add an even further protein boost, dates bring minerals and natural sugars, and (optional) goji berries provide broad-spectrum nutrition and antioxidants. Here’s to snacking…

Green Energy Bars

INGREDIENTS:
1 cup cashews
1 cup medjool dates, pits removed (about eight)
2 tsp freeze-dried wheatgrass powder
1/4 cup hemp seeds
1/4 cup goji berries (optional)

DIRECTIONS:
Mix the cashews, dates and wheatgrass powder together in a food processor just until a rough dough has formed (allowing some cashews to remain coarsely chopped). Add the hemp seeds and pulse several times until combined.

Place a sheet of saran wrap on a cutting board and spill the dough out on top. Use your hands to press and form into a 1 inch thick rectangle, then cut into 8 pieces.

Wrap and keep in the freezer for long term storage. Makes 8 bars (double or triple the recipe if desired).
©2010 JulieMorris.net

From time to time, I get this NEED to bake. It’s like a primal urge – and there’s really no stopping me. Deep down, there’s just something so satisfying about mushing things around in a bowl, putting them in an oven, then magically pulling out a tray of fragrant warm delicious comfort in less than an hour. Especially with the cool turn of fall nipping at our heels, I’ve got to admit: I’m looking at you, oven.

One thing I’m not so into, however, is comprising excellent energy, health, and the fit of my favorite jeans simply for the sake of being compliant to my flavor-fueled urges. So I cheat. I use a medley of tricks and sneaky substitutions to make my baked recipes something that are… dare I say… beneficial. One of my favorite baking facelifts is to replace eggs with “superseeds” like flax or chia, which are full of omega fats, fiber, protein and minerals. I swear: your muffins don’t know the difference.

The egg replacement formula:

2 Eggs = 1/3 cup water + 2 Tbsp ground flax seed powder or chia seed powder
Simply combine the water and the seeds, and wait for 15 minutes to form a thick gel.

Wanna see how it works? I made this little video with Navitas Naturals, my superfood company crush, who offers an organic sprouted flaxseed powder and sprouted chia seed powder.  Of course, using a coffee grinder to mill whole flaxseed or chia into a fine powder will work just as well.

I wish I had a brownie for every time I’ve been informed that eating naturally is simply too hard. While making fancy shmancy meals can be a fun project, uber delicious healthy food doesn’t have to be complicated. Some of my favorite “recipes” are not recipes at all. Take, for example, a fig. Bite into it and . . . whoa! All those little seeds and colors and textures are like whole universe of magnificent complexity tucked inside a shriveled-looking edible fruit package. Imagine if the fig didn’t exist, and some company “invented” the recipe for one: would the fig not be the most amazing “product?” So much of our food experience comes down to mindset.

There’s a style of Japanese brush painting called shodo – a form of calligraphy with an abstract offshoot that attempts to capture energy and kinetics through a few simple brush strokes. Whereas most styles of painting take days, months, even years to complete, shodo takes just a few calculated moments. A swish. A swash. Maybe one last accoutremental zing . . . and then, the decision to end. And within this philosophy of “less is more,” the biggest challenge becomes when to step away and recognize perfection in “just enough.” It’s an empowering judgment call – a kind of discipline in a way – embracing simplicity in this funny world of ours that is obsessed with faster, newer, hotter, and anything that begins with “now with more.”

Poor ol’ “less.”

In the realm of food — for the most part — modern cuisine teaches “just enough” is never enough. Our perfectly lovely foods are processed, packaged, mixed, mingled, extracted, added and bastardized until they’re pretty much unrecognizable. Then we process them again, add healthyish-looking colorings, artificial vitamins and preservatives, and reshape the result into forms that pass for food-like. I don’t think most people would be too impressed if I took a beautiful shodo painting, sprayed graffiti all over it until it turned grey, covered it in white-out to get to a white page again, and then drew a couple of lines mimicking the original painting in magic marker.

I find natural foods can take us back to a Tao-like state — appreciating beauty in simplicity. Take the humble parsnip: a wonderfully useful root vastly overshadowed by its more rotund cousin, the potato. While usually just reserved for an occasional hodgepodge-style stew or roasted medley of sorts, the parsnip offers a complex flavor functioning as a gorgeous balance between a potato, a carrot, and fennel . . . all rolled into one (aka a “recipe”). And it even contains more vitamins and minerals than many of its other root friends (especially potassium). What a guy.

Homemade parsnip fries utilize this idea of “ingredient economy.” Slow roasting them allows for a caramelization of their inherent sweetness, and a little coconut oil keeps them crisp on the outside and soft within. There are a billion ways to make this recipe fancier, but in pulling them out of the oven, I’m personally hard-pressed myself to add a thing. There’s simply no need. I find these parsnips perfect: Just. The way. They are.

Here’s the basic recipe for parsnip fries.

The brownie universe isn’t exactly full of surprises. The combination of sugar, butter, flour, chocolate, eggs, a few extraneous ingredients, plus a little oven time, inevitably leads to some form of brownie action. Of course, the resulting degree of deliciousness is all in the details — just talk to the adamant nut-adders, the chocolate chip enthusiasts, or the “fudgy” versus “cakey” people that can seemingly never agree. Yet, by and large, the language of brownies is pretty much the same: delicious chocolate squares that just about everyone loves. Including me.

But I have a secret. With the exception of chocolate (which can be profoundly beneficial in its unprocessed form), I don’t use any of the “conventional” ingredients in my homemade brownies. In fact, I don’t even bake them. (I know — what a rebel.) Instead, by using exclusively natural, whole foods, the inherently gorgeous flavor of each healthy ingredient does all the sweet singing — without needing the crutch of sugar or butter. Undercover health benefits like antioxidants, good omega fats, potassium, magnesium (and more) nutritionally rank this dessert as more of an energy bar than an “extra 20 minutes on the treadmill indulgence.” Best of all, five ingredients plus five minutes is all it takes to go from zero to brownie.

Oh, and as for their decadent texture? Simply put: go team “fudgy.” Here’s the printable recipe.

I follow the rules of natural food. Does it grow out of the ground? Has it been used for a long time? Does it taste good? “Miracles” aside, does it have genuine health benefits? In the case of many potent superfoods, the answer is a simple, exciting, delicious yes. Which means, in my mind, let the party with the ancient gatherer foodies of Amazonian tribes, 6th century Chinese monks, and Mayan astrologers begin.

Recently, I shot a few informational videos for Navitas Naturals to talk about the benefits of a few of their superfood products. The videos turned out pretty fun, and are a great 101 on how to use these “new” foods. Here’s one on goji berries.