Flourless Nut Butter and Chocolate Chip Cookies

Photo credit: Jennifer Brand

Flourless nut butter and chocolate chip cookies!

Ingredients:

🍪1 cup of your favorite nut or seed butter (this is peanut butter)
🍪1/2 cup sugar (I use 1/3 cup, less sweet is better IMO)
🍪1 whole egg
🍪1 tsp baking soda
🍪1 tsp vanilla
🍪1/2 cup chocolate chips

Instructions:

🍪Mix all together except chocolate chips
🍪When well blended mix in chocolate chips
🍪Bake on a greased cookie sheet at 350 for 12 minutes
😋Enjoy

Jennifer Brand, MPH, MS, CNS is a clinical nutritionist helping children with dry, flaky, weepy, red, itchy, painful rashes navigate the journey to healthy skin and enjoy a childhood free from disruptive skin symptoms.

Flourless Chocolate Brownie

Photo credit: Julia Gomelaky

Ingredients:

• 1 1/4 cups semi sweet chocolate chips

• 1/2 cup butter (grass fed preferred)

• 3 whole eggs

  • If you can’t eat eggs you can substitute

    • Duck eggs, often tolerated by those that can’t tolerate chicken eggs

    • Chia seeds or flax seeds

      • Use 3 tablespoon of chia seeds, OR ground flax seeds mixed with 6 tablespoons of water and let the mixture sit for 15 to 20 minutes or you can prepare it the night before

        • The rule is 1 tablespoon of chia seeds or ground flax seeds mixed with 3 tablespoons of water is equal to 1 egg for baking

Add-ins are fun! Chocolate chips, peanut butter chips, white chocolate chips, your favorite nuts, etc. are all options.

Instructions:

1. Melt the butter and chocolate together (about 2-3 minutes in the microwave), stir until well blended and smooth

2. Beat eggs and add (or add egg substitute) to butter and chocolate mixture

3. Stir until well blended and smooth (keep going and trust me, you’ll know when)

4. Optional - mx in your add-ins

5. Pour mixture into a greased baking pan or muffin tin.

6. Bake at 350 degrees for 25-30 minutes. It's done when you stick a knife in the center and it comes out clean. 

7. Let cool and serve!

This is a major crowd pleaser, you WILL want to double the recipe!

Photo credit: Jennifer Brand

Jennifer Brand, MPH, MS, CNS is a clinical nutritionist helping children with dry, flaky, weepy, red, itchy, painful rashes navigate the journey to healthy skin and enjoy a childhood free from disruptive skin symptoms.

Chia Seed Pudding And Hot Cereal

JCB Chia Seed Pudding or Hot Cereal (Chocolate)

JCB Chia Seed Pudding or Hot Cereal (Vanilla)

Chia seeds are my latest obsession. I found organic, 2lb bags of them at my local Costco. Yay!

Chia seeds happen to be super nutritious. Here are my favorite things about them:

1. They are rich in antioxidants.

2. They are carbs BUT basically all the carbs in them are fiber, which means they get digested by your good gut bacteria (they act as prebiotic fiber) rather than you so they don’t raise your blood sugar levels and they are considered low carb. Because they are fiber rich, this also means they are great for digestion and your gut health, and detox (important with skin rashes like eczema).

3. Chia seeds are rich in soluble fiber, so when you add liquid they expand. This helps to fill you up and can aid with weight loss, and constipation.

4. Chia seeds contain some protein.

5. Chia seeds contain omega 3 fatty acids, which are anti-inflammatory (important for skin rashes like eczema).

I’d say they are quite a superfood, don’t you think?

Now for this twofer recipe!

Ingredients:

• 1/4 cup chia seeds

• 3/4 cup water (or milk of choice, I like coconut milk but use water for this step)

• 1 scoop of your favorite protein powder (I like Orgain [recently on sale at Costco :)], chocolate or vanilla)

• 1 teaspoon raw cacao powder (if you are making the chocolate version)

• 1/2 - 1 teaspoon vanilla extract (if you are making the vanilla version)

• 1 cup milk of choice (coconut for me)

• 1 Tablespoon honey, maple syrup, or other favorite sweetener (optional, I don’t add any sweetener)

• 1 Tablespoon butter or coconut oil (optional/if you will be making the hot cereal version)

• Nuts, seeds, berries, cinnamon (particularly good with the vanilla version), other favorite add-ins (optional)

Instructions for chia seed pudding:

1. Mix 1/4 cup chia seeds, 3/4 cup water (or milk), scoop of protein powder, either cacao powder (with chocolate protein powder) or vanilla extract (with vanilla protein powder), and your selected sweetener (optional) in a cup or bowl

2. Place in your fridge overnight or for 2-3 hours (until the seeds soak up all the liquid and form a very thick/solid like paste)

3. Add 1 cup milk of choice, and your favorite add-ins

4. Enjoy!

Instructions for chia seed hot cereal:

1. Follow chia seed pudding instructions numbers 1-2

2. Add 1 Tablespoon of butter or coconut oil and microwave until hot and the butter or coconut oil melts (about 2 minutes)

3. Follow chia seed pudding instructions numbers 3-4

Jennifer Brand, MPH, MS, CNS is a clinical nutritionist helping children with dry, flaky, weepy, red, itchy, painful rashes navigate the journey to healthy skin and enjoy a childhood free from disruptive skin symptoms.

Flourless Chocolate Cake

Because…

Chocolate Cake!

This cake is a twist on my flourless chocolate brownie recipe that never fails to be the hit of every party.

The secret ingredient in this cake is… Avocado!

Why avocado? Avocados are …

Healthy fats.

Rich in fiber.

A good source of potassium, vitamin A, vitamin K, folate, vitamin C, B vitamins, vitamin E, magnesium, copper, iron, and zinc.

And because they add richness and creaminess to recipes, yes even cake!

It deserves mentioning that nothing about this cake ends up tasting like avocado.

Let’s do this.

Ingredients:

• 1 1/4 cups dark chocolate/semi sweet chocolate chips (the darker the better)

• 1/2 cup grass fed butter

• 1 ripe avocado

• 4 whole eggs (for egg substitute options click here)

Whole, real food ingredients

Instructions:

1. Melt the butter and chocolate together (about 2-3 minutes in the microwave), stir until well blended and smooth

2. Beat eggs and add to butter and chocolate mixture

3. Stir until well blended and smooth

4. Mash avocado and add to mixture, stir until well blended and smooth

5. Pour mixture into a greased baking pan or muffin tin. You can grease with butter or oil. I typically use avocado oil, but coconut oil or butter works well too.

6. Bake at 350 degrees for 25-30 minutes. It's done when you stick a knife in the center and it comes out clean. 

7. Let cool and serve

Enjoy!

Jennifer Brand, MPH, MS, CNS is a clinical nutritionist helping children with dry, flaky, weepy, red, itchy, painful rashes navigate the journey to healthy skin and enjoy a childhood free from disruptive skin symptoms.

Chocolate (Avocado, Sweet Potato, or banana) Pudding or frosting

Photo credit: Jennifer Brand

If you don't tell them it's avocado (banana or sweet potato), they won't know... I frost cakes with this too!

Avocado is a superfood, loaded with healthy fats (omega 3s), and fiber. Avocados are a great source of vitamins C, E, K, and vitamins B2, B3, B5, B6, and folate. They also contain important minerals like magnesium, and potassium, and they provide lutein, and beta-carotene, important antioxidant nutrients.

If you can’t use avocado, try this with sweet potato! Sweet potatoes are a complex carbohydrate, and a good source of prebiotic fiber (to feed those good gut bugs). They are rich in vitamins A (in the form of beta carotene, which your body converts to vitamin A) , C, B3, B5 and B6, potassium, copper, and manganese.

The flavonoids in cacao make it a superfood. Organic cacao contains a variety of unique phytonutrients (plant-based goodness), including high amounts of sulfur, magnesium and phenylethylamine. In fact, it's said that if you crave chocolate, you may have a magnesium deficiency. 

*Note: Children under age 2 shouldn’t consume chocolate because it contains caffeine and added sugar, which aren’t recommended for little ones.

Ingredients:

• 1 ripe avocado, 1 baked sweet potato, 1 banana

• 1/8-1/4 cup milk of choice (more, or less depending on how creamy you want it)

• Cacao powder

• Honey or maple syrup

Instructions:

• Put all in a food processor or a blender, add cacao and sweetener to taste (you’ll likely need less sweetener if using banana or sweet potato)

Enjoy!

Jennifer Brand, MPH, MS, CNS is a clinical nutritionist helping children with dry, flaky, weepy, red, itchy, painful rashes navigate the journey to healthy skin and enjoy a childhood free from disruptive skin symptoms.

5 Ingredient Macaroons

Simple, fast, delicious

“Baking doesn’t have to be complicated.”

-Jennifer, Clinical Nutritionist

Coconut meat is nutritious and rich in fiber, vitamins C, E, B1, B3, B5 and B6, and minerals like iron, selenium, sodium, calcium, magnesium and phosphorous. 

Coconut is a rich source of medium chain fatty acids. These fats are broken down faster than long chain fatty acids, they don't contribute to high cholesterol, and may even raise levels of good cholesterol in your body. Because of the way they are metabolized, they become more easily available for your body to use as energy compared to some other fats like long chain fatty acids.

Long chain fatty acids play a role in the development of insulin resistance increasing your risk for diabetes, and they promote fat accumulation. Medium chain fatty acids on the other hand may be associated with increased oxidative metabolism, reduced fat accumulation, and may have a beneficial impact on insulin signaling in the body.

Ingredients:

• 2 cups unsweetened shredded coconut

• 1/4 cup honey or maple syrup (or to your taste)

• 1/2 tsp vanilla

• 5 egg whites

• Chocolate chips

Instructions:

1. Mix all ingredients together in a bowl 

2. Place tablespoon sized 'dough' on a parchment lined cookie sheet

3. Bake at 350 degrees for 25 minutes

4. Let cool and serve

Makes about 1 dozen macaroons

Enjoy!

Jennifer Brand, MPH, MS, CNS is a clinical nutritionist helping children with dry, flaky, weepy, red, itchy, painful rashes navigate the journey to healthy skin and enjoy a childhood free from disruptive skin symptoms.

Banana Ice Cream

Who doesn't love ice cream?

In addition to lactose intolerance, and dairy allergy or sensitivity, studies have shown that dairy can cause inflammation in the digestive tract, and inflammation in the digestive tract can lead to leaky gut. 

Leaky gut (increased gut permeability) can lead to a wide range of symptoms and health problems including skin rashes and skin rash flares, food allergies and food sensitivities, and clearly, gut symptoms.

To avoid the potential pitfalls of consuming dairy, a non dairy 'ice cream' may be the answer to your "I wish I could eat ice cream but can't because it upsets my stomach (and everything else)" prayers. For you, there's 'ice cream' the JCB Nutrition way!

• In a food processor, you can use any combination of these items or similar items

  • Frozen banana

  • Blueberries, other berries (not frozen if using frozen banana)

  • Almond or coconut milk (go lightly because too much liquid will make your 'ice cream' too watery)

  • Chocolate chips (dark chocolate or bitter sweet)

  • Nuts, seeds, nut/seed butters

  • Honey or maple syrup to taste (go lightly on added sugar)

  • Avocado and/or coconut oil

  • Coconut flakes

  • Other healthy treats

• Process until blended, transfer into a bowl (garnish if desired) and enjoy!

Jennifer Brand, MPH, MS, CNS is a clinical nutritionist helping children with dry, flaky, weepy, red, itchy, painful rashes navigate the journey to healthy skin and enjoy a childhood free from disruptive skin symptoms.