Double Chocolate Freezer Cookies! (Gluten Free Vegan)

Our family is vegan by choice, for health, for our children's health, for not supporting animal cruelty, and even for the eco-friendliness! Being vegan has it's challenges, and I can't say I've met every one with tenacity and vivaciousness, but we more than manage. Now apparently, I wrote in some journal somewhere about a year ago that I wanted to go gluten-free too one day, oh and all organic, that'd be nice to afford. But those were luxuries to me, heartfelt desires that were just goals and faraway dreams. Until February. 

My hands have been rid with eczema since before Kaylee was born. It started around my rings, and even in taking them off when fingers swelled in the late summer heat, I never could get rid of it. It got so bad that it hurt to touch water. So finally after almost 4 years of just dealing with it, I went in. I got creams, suggestions of suspending hand-washing, and the cop-out of "you'll just grow out of it." 6 months later I was out of cream subscriptions, and I really don't like daily doses of steroids on my hands, thanks! So I took it up with my girls' naturopath. A blood screen for allergies came back with gluten! Not just gluten, but wheat itself, all parts. So it looks like my dream became a reality...FAST!

I fought it! I had gluten blues, that hankering for my Wheat Thins, a good roll, a decent tortilla to wrap up my burrito. Depression and all out hormonal craziness for a whole week, about a month or so after cutting off gluten, is normal, so if you venture this way, be warned!

So from here on out, all of my recipes will be GLUTEN FREE VEGAN!! And you probably won't find an assortment of sandwiches, we have just learned to eat differently. Now I'm blessed with the best gal, Karina, who knows her way around gluten-free goodies: The Gluten Free Goddess!! So MANY of my recipes are inspired by her! 

But the sunshine is the inspiration for this recipe! Cold, slightly crisp, but chewy, fill your mouth up goodness, oh so perfect for hot summer days...

Double Chocolate Freezer Cookies!

Makes 5 dozen (but I doubt they'll see it to the month's end around here!)

Ingredients:

2 Cups Sorghum Flour (Also known as Jawar or Milo Flour...sold on AZURE STANDARD!! YIPPEE SKIPPY!! And Oh So Much Better than rice flour!)
1.5 Cups Potato Starch (not potato flour! Use Tapioca Starch if you don't have potato starch)
1 Cup Coconut Flour (Don't have coconut flour? Try another sweet flour like Almond or Oats)
2 Teaspoons Xanthan Gum
2 Teaspoons Salt
2 Teaspoons Baking Soda
2.5 Cups Sugar (Packed Brown is best)
1 Cup Olive Oil
2 Cups Soy Milk (Vanilla, or Plain) + 4 Tablespoons Corn Starch
2 Tablespoons Vanilla
1.5 Cups Chocolate Chips, DIVIDED
         or
1/3 Cup Cocoa Powder + 1/2 Cup Chocolate Chips 

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 350

In a large bowl combine the dry ingredients; Sorghum and Coconut Flours, Xanthan Gum, Salt, Baking Soda, Sugar, and 1 cup of the Chocolate Chips (or the cocoa powder if you went that route!) Whisk to fluff and combine.

In a measuring cup, whisk the Cornstarch into the Soy Milk, you can do this step in two rounds if you don't have a 2 cup measuring cup. Microwave the mixture for one minute. Remove, whisk, return to the microwave for 30 seconds, remove, whisk, repeat. For 1 cup of milk it usually takes 2 minutes total, with the full 2 cups, it usually takes 3 minutes. But on that last whisk, the cornstarch-milk mixture will congeal. 

Pour the thick "vegan eggs" onto your dry mix. Add the rest of your wet ingredients; Oil, and Vanilla, then mix.

Mix for 5 minutes, as I've found sorghum to be a sneaky bugger and hides in pockets! Because you poured warm "eggs" onto chocolate chips, they should melt and turn the whole batter brown! After the batter cools, add the rest of the chips in to make a double chocolate wonderfulness!

Spoon the batter onto cookie sheets, watch out--they spread!

Bake for 14 minutes. If you did multiple racks of cookie sheets like I did, rotate at the end of 14 minutes and bake for another 3 minutes.

Remove the cookies and allow them to cool for 15 minutes on the counter. Then, using a spatula, re-home cookies to a container or plastic freezer bag. Allow cookies to set in the freezer for an hour before eating! 

Trust me, they're a crumbly mess if you don't!!

Now that's a cool and refreshing, delectable treat!! 

On the left, freezer cookie, on the right "salvaged" left-at-room-temp cookie!

And you know, I've been completely gluten free for 2 months now, and no, my hands still have eczema, but it's not nearly as bad as it was. Since the switch, my belly isn't so bloated all the time, and neither is Kaylee's! That's worth the switch right there! And, when I started divvying up wheat for my hens, halfway through my throat and lungs started burning, my nose started running, my eyes got all itchy and watery...sooo it took weeding it out for my body to figure it out, but I don't think it'd like me too much if I turned back now. So here's to loving new food! And NEVER feeling guilty about one ounce of it! 

Progressive Sun Exposure

First off, let me just say, MY HAS IT BEEN A WHILE!!

I won't apologize, because I am not sorry--I was investing some time into my girls, my family and friends (close and far), and making a little anniversary magic...it was on the 1st of May. This year was themed the traditional flowers and/or fruit, and boy have these fingers been full of creative power! So excuse me for disappearing for so long!!

So while the sun is shining, I am constantly thinking about little babes and sunburns, so I thought I would share my sun"screen" regimen with you. I get asked about it A LOT, and I feel it's important...but I MUST start off with a disclaimer: My recommendations are in no way the substitute for medical advice, and I cannot guarantee that my method works with all skin types or conditions, please consult your physician if you have any concerns. This is just what works for my family.

We start in March, when the weather hits about 55 degrees around here, we pull on our boots and head outside where the shirts come off! The first initiative of Progressive Sun Exposure is to do exactly that, EXPOSE your skin to the sun when it is weakest. In the earliest parts of warm spring I allow my children to run around topless between the hours of 10 and 12 for the entire duration of TWO hours. In the evening, when the girls are up from their naps, and the day has warmed considerably, I stick their little booties in shorts and short-sleeved shirts (if it seems a little too cold yet, I leave their top halves in long sleeves), then we head back outside for another hour or so. This is the perfect point to gauge their skin! If they look a little "warm" when your child is usually pasty, hold off on the evening sunbathing! Then continue in this fashion through April, which will only end up being a couple times a week because of all the April showers! Just be diligent, as if you were a farmer who HAS to go outside daily to tend crops. Sometimes it can be a challenge to get out there unless the sunshine is irresistible, but there is nothing more beautiful than a body in sync with nature, skin tone obviously kissed by the sun!

I understand that the noon hour can be concerning, because between 11 and 2 the sun's rays are strongest, and normally I would recommend avoiding those hours, but since you're starting in the earliest parts of spring, I have never known the rays to be quite strong enough to burn, unless you're prolonging your exposure past noon...then you're just not following directions, and you are on your own! Still, for the fairer skin types, there are two ways to go about it.

The first way, which is easiest for me:
10-12 shirtless...
4-6 shorts and short sleeves
On any day the sun doth shine! Until May 1st. Then move the hour back to 9-11.
If you're in the water, halve your duration of exposure.

The second way, for babes under 2 and fair-skinned folk: (also helpful for late starters)
Avoiding the sun's witching hours from 11-2, expose as much skin as possible for 20 minutes.
Every 3 days of exposure add 10 minutes.
If that tell-tale pink glow appears, rest, out of the sun, for at least 2 days before resuming, and consider giving your skin a longer adjustment period, such as 4 or 5 days of the same length of exposure, especially when you hit lengths of an hour or more.

River Evelyn 1 and a few months old!

Now, why wouldn't you just use sunscreen and save yourself the trouble? I've been asked a thousand times. Because the ingredients in most sunscreens are carcinogenic, cancer-CAUSING...your great-great grandma didn't have access to sunscreen, and neither do peasants and farmers in present-day countries, such as China, and wouldn't you know it?! Their SKIN cancer levels are markedly LOW!! (Don't bring up Australia, our poor friends down under don't count!) So what about using natural sunscreen? That's decidedly better, but still,
"Vitamin D: it protects against many types of cancer, including skin cancer. Supplementation is in order for people who live in areas with long winters and/or people who do not take sunbaths."(Drake)

River, and Kaylee age 2.5. My babes NEVER burned last year!! They got close once, and we used sunscreen one time when we were in a pool that did not open until 11.

Now tell me, why would I hide my children from the glorious sunshine that God so lovingly made for us to enjoy, and mask them with man-made lotions? When it comes down to it, I always pick God-made over man-made, unless I'm treating a man-made problem with a man-made solution. Plus studies are showing that sunscreen may block rays from damaging the skin, but they do not prevent the rays from penetrating it, causing free radicals to form. So not only are you blocking your body from making Vitamin D to help deal with the free radicals, but you are also taking in the UVA rays anyway, and you are more likely to stay outside longer in this condition, thinking you are protected. (BBC News)

Low levels of Vitamin D are linked to many types of cancer; colorectal, breast cancer, renal, endometrial, colon...etc. Getting your levels above 30 is recommended, and above 60 diminishes your cancer risks by 3/4!! Even Canada has started prescribing Vitamin D to prevent cancer.(Nikoley) The following graphs relating Vitamin D levels to various cancer risks are taken from Free The Animal:

Notice how the USA is markedly above the projected incidence rate of Renal Cancer relative to it's average global latitude position...WE ARE DOING SOMETHING WRONG HERE FOLKS!!!

My girls, in early April!

Progressive Sun Exposure not only exposes the skin to the sun, but also incorporates diet into the method, keeping skin healthy, vibrant and producing Vitamin D instead of constantly repairing skin damage. 

Sure, increasing sun exposure steadily will help your skin adapt to the sun, but your body will have a much easier time if you give it a break from fighting toxins in fast food, and help it along with natural dietary changes to boost skin protection and rejuvenation!

First, and I can't stress this enough, WATER!!! The more hydrated your skin, the more the sun can evaporate before hitting dry tissue. Dry tissue is damaged tissue.

Secondly, look around you! What's in season?? BERRIES!!! Especially BLUEBERRIES!! In the PEAK of summer, berries are abundant, and they just so happen to contain hundreds of antioxidants and other nutrients and vitamins that aid your skin among other things! There are also plenty of tomatoes, watermelon and dark leafy greens!

In addition to tomatoes and watermelon, some other specific fruits, to pick the best out of the abundance: Pomegranate, Broccoli, Spirulina, Red Bell Pepper, Mango, Carrots, Papaya, Cherries, Chocolate. All of these for Vitamin C, Carotenoids, Astaxanthin, Lycopene, Histidines, Anthocyanines, Tocotrienals, Sulphoraphane...all that jargon says HEALTHY SKIN!!!

Also, an in-depth look at how our country's diet has changed over the past few decades--Skin cancer rates have risen annually 4.2% after an initial increase of 77% from 1992-2006, at the same time we are spending less hours in the sun and more of that time in sunscreen. So firstly, we aren't absorbing the sunshine and making Vitamin D, as I mentioned before. Also, we don't eat saturated and monounsaturated fats. We fill our fats with canola oil, veggie and soybean oils, due to the sentiment that these kinds of leaner fats are healthier for you, when in fact it's the saturated fats that help produce healthy skin cells and the other oils that are being used in substitute during cell production can cause skin cancer instead. These oils are also high in linoleic acid which is not only linked to causing skin cancer, but also inhibits the body from effectively fighting cancers too! Other dietary habits to be noted are the higher intake of grains, which cause inflammation in most humans, and the use of chemicals in food (yes, even the lovely artificial sweetener that is 0 calories) and applying chemicals to the skin via cosmetics, hygene products and sunscreen. These products are just acting on the pseudo-skin cells your body created out of fake fats, which are more likely to mutate, so then the constant exposure to the chemicals causes them to do exactly that--MUTATE! Consuming antioxidants, such as the aformentioned berries will get rid of free radicals in the body, but if you don't participate in the dietary behaviors that cause those free radicals to form, you will be MUCH better off! (Katie) 

Kaylee Autumn

Study after study will show you that food is the foundation of natural sunscreen: 2007 Cornell study of Red Delicious apples showed the skin of the apple to contain triterpenoids which block or kill cancer cells; Korean study gave 30 women 30mg of beta-carotene (6 carrots worth/ 1.5 cups, or 1 cup of sweet potatoes) which showed to prevent and reverse photoaging of currently damaged cells. (Goyanes) A University of Michigan study found the Lycopene in tomatoes and watermelon also protect the skin from sunburn after 3 months of daily doses. UC San Diego also found in a study of Green Tea that consuming or applying it directly to your skin will prevent sunburn as well. (Barrymore) Yet another study, this time on chocolate, found that 3 ounces every day for three months not only helped prevent sunburn, but also left skin smoother, moister, and healthier. Even at 6 weeks, the skin reddening was 15% less, and 12 weeks 25% less! (Raloff) You should eat healthily all the time, but if you don't there are supplements that can help you too. Some German scientists studied Beta-Carotene in supplement form and found that taking supplements for at least 10 weeks improved the skin's natural spf. (Although I must stress that supplements can have ill effects compared to their natural form! For example the beta-carotene/Vit A supplement will increase risk of lung cancer in smokers and previous smokers, but not naturally occurring Vitamin A) (European Food Information Council)


To clarify though, I do NOT recommend staying in the sun at noon, I do not recommend sunbathing for infants, because we have thinned our o-zone layer, which is just asking for a sunburn. If you HAVE to be out during those hours, or have a little one who's skin is not developed enough to adapt to sun exposure, please naturally lotion up. There are plenty of natural lotions, so you can avoid the chemicals, but even in the most extreme situations it's better to lather on the chemical crap than to burn. So use common sense! 


Works Cited:

Barrymore, John. "Foods That Prevent Sunburn." HowStuffWorks. 10 Aug 2009.
<http://health.howstuffworks.com/skin-care/beauty/sun-care/how-to-prevent-sunburn2.htm>

BBC News. "Sun Lotions Are Not Effective." 29 Sept 2003.
<http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/3142386.stm>

Drake, Karen Sinclair. "Natural Sun Protection." Dr. Frank Lipman. 22 Jul 2011. <http://www.drfranklipman.com/natural-sun-protection/>

European Food Information Council. "Beta-Carotene Supplements May Help Prevent Sunburns." EUFIC. 5 May 2014.
<http://www.eufic.org/page/en/page/LS/fftid/Beta-carotene-supplements-may-help-prevent-sunburns/>

Goyanes, Cristina. "Eat These Sun-Fighting Super Foods." Women's Health. 2014.
<http://www.womenshealthmag.com/beauty/food-for-skin-0>

Harris, Kimi. "Help Prevent Sunburn With These Beautiful Foods." Mother Nature Network. 5 Jul 2012.
<http://www.mnn.com/food/healthy-eating/blogs/help-prevent-sunburn-with-these-beautiful-foods#>

Katie. "Avoid Sunburn and Tan Better by Eating Real Food?" Wellness Mama. 21 Jun 2011.
<http://wellnessmama.com/2619/avoid-sunburn-and-tan-better-by-eating-real-food/>

Nikoley, Richard. "Vitamin D Deficiency and All Cancer." Free The Animal. 30 Dec 2008.
<http://freetheanimal.com/2008/12/vitamin-d-deficiency-and-all-cancer.html>

Raloff, Janet. "Chocolate As Sunscreen." Food For Thought. Science News. 14 Jun 2006.
<https://www.sciencenews.org/blog/food-thought/chocolate-sunscreen-0>

The Seasonal Family. "10 Foods that are Natural Sunscreens." 26 May 2011. <http://www.seasonalfamily.com/2011/05/10-foods-that-are-natural-sunscreens.html>

"Top 10 Foods Highest in Beta-Carotene." Health-Alicious-Ness. 6 Apr 2013.
<http://www.healthaliciousness.com/articles/natural-food-sources-of-beta-carotene.php>

Bigger Coop On A Dime, In Far Less Time

Now that you have all your chicks that you want to raise into hens, it's time to start thinking about your coop! You won't need to build it for awhile, since the chicks are so little and need hands on care in their first months, but you might want to plan ahead! You could build one out of pallets and scrap wood as we did here, but we are a rescue home for hens, and our latest addition overpopulated our quaint coop without so much as the peeps from baby chicks, warning you they will be full grown soon! So we needed a speedy solution, that didn't cost as much as a Rainbow Play System! This is the gem we found!

The total price was less than 100, delivered within a week, and assembled in less than 2 hours by this lone lady! Plus, it comes with built-in shelves, or shall we say "roosting beds" that cover with hay and straw quite nicely! Additionally, it gave us a convenient place to hang the water dispensary, while providing dry shelter for extra hay (because why build a hay box when you don't have to?! We used to store ours in trash cans, resulted in Blister Beetles...OUCH!), not to mention a convenient door to let myself in and out, and easy access to all of the lovely eggs! But wait, it gets better, it's a greenhouse...so...it heats itself! It has an easy spot to hang my heat lamps, should I want them, but most days it's unnecessary! (PS, I know that heat lamps are controversial. My stance is DO NOT strain your hens! Hens were bred for unnatural amounts of production, which is strain enough already. So if your girls continue to produce eggs in 18 degree weather, then by golly, give them the cozy comfort of a heat lamp! Just don't introduce it if production is dropping off in defense to the weather.)

The only thing we added to the coop was some shelving. We had roosting boxes already made from the last coop we had, so we stuck 'em in there! We added plywood shelves to top the mesh ones that came with it, hello free pile! Just add a 2 inch lip around the piece of plywood, extending the front and rear edges to 3 inches and offsetting them so they reach below the base of the shelf, this way they will nestle onto the shelving and "hook" themselves there. Secure, and able to hold that fluffy straw that slips through the mesh shelves!

The instructions consist of a picture of the completed product, so I thought I'd show you the steps!

Now just tie on the tarp to complete the greenhouse chicken coop!

The ladder is SUPER easy and free to make! Just pallet wood, cut it into 1x1x6 strips, then nail the rungs with a nail gun! 

Our 4x4 spans the width of the coop and rests on the shelving, so everyone has easy access to water!

Just remember to open her up when it gets sunny, because it gets toasty in there, quickly! You can see my heatlamp, but I just put it in for picture purposes, it was warm enough to take it out shortly after! We also used pallets to make a mini deck for the whole thing to sit on, so that when it rains it doesn't soak up through the floor (wet feet is terrible for hen health!!) and after slipping on the tarping, we nailed on a wood surround as a sort of sleeve to keep the sides down an intruders out!

And if you zip it ALMOST all the way closed, they can slip in and out easily!

How's that for some inventive henning solutions?!

Chicken Water Dispensary

Chick Day is coming to our local feed store (March 8th) so I imagine the chicks are coming to your area too! Be prepared with this quick and economical water dispensary for your brood...

First start with those lovely 5 gallon buckets I'm such a fan of! Then drill six or so holes in the bottom of the bucket, with a 3/8" drill bit.

Purchase a bag of chicken nipples, and use the threading tool included to make threads for the nipples to screw into your holes. Now wrap PTFE Thread Seal Tape around the ends. Screw the tip into the drilled hole, the tape will act as a water-tight seal. And presto!

Now all you have to do is find a place to hang it! We took a 4x4 and straddled pre-existing fence posts to start, screwing in a large 100lb rated hook for security! That board is easily relocated to their new coop, which has built-in nesting boxes, for easy access. 

You can also purchase chain link by the foot at your local hardware store, the pound rating will be on the tags of the chain, to lower the height of your water dispenser. 

It will take a couple days for the hens to figure out that's where the water comes from, but for 13 hens, it lasts 2 weeks! You can leave the top open to collect rainwater in the rainy season, or you can drill a hole in the lid with a hole saw, lid it, and stick a water heater in the hole for those icy months when water freezes quickly. The option of mostly lidding it also keeps dirt and feces out, because they will want to roost on it...silly hens! 

Chicken Feeder

Remember that Ace Hardware bucket I used for making coffee dirt?! Well I told you that I usually use Home Depot buckets, despite the aesthetic disadvantage because of their price...and here's proof!

For 13 chickens, you need a viable dispensary that all those beaks can peck at once! This is our cheep, cheep, CHEAP solution! ^_^

To make the feeder, all you need is a 5 gallon bucket and lid, a plastic dish/tray, a hole saw and drill, and a handful of screws. The whole idea was Brandan's, and it was quite the ingenious invention!

Available at Home Depot, or any local hardware store, is the 5 gallon bucket; in the neighborhood of $2.78, the lid is an extra dollar. Also at the hardware store is the screws, for less than $3, and all you need is 5--we chose black wood screws for strength and rust resistance. Keep looking here for a hole saw, depending on your drill and brand preference, the bit should be around $10. This is the one we got, on Amazon:

Now drill trilateral holes at the bottom of the bucket, so that when feed and grain is poured into the top, it will spill out the holes.

The plastic feeding dish was purchased at a feed store for a little over $15, and I'm sure you could hunt around to find something that works for a more economic price, but the rescue chickens all came on fast, so we needed something now! Attach the dish to the bottom of the feeder bucket, so as to create a trough of grains!

And you're finished! Just mix up your grains, pour, and lid the entire bucket. While the lid is water-tight, the trough is not, so you will still need to stick it in a semi-dry area.

We purchased multiple buckets and order all of our grains from Azure Standard. I use The Elliott Homestead's Chicken Feed Recipe, since it is Organic, Non-GMO, and Soy Free! It is cheaper than buying organic (or even non-organic!) bagged feed from the feed store, and cheaper than premixed organic feed from Azure. It is smart to constantly check for what they term "chicken wheat" because it is almost half the cost of the regular wheat berries, just because it is the remnants from cleaning the mill and not fit for human consumption! 

I also recommend buying the 50# bag of kelp granules, because they won't go bad and are SIGNIFICANTLY cheaper per pound. I adapted the Elliot Homestead recipe to suit my hens, as they are free range for the majority of the year and do not care for oats (I believe this is because they get their protein from other buggy sources) and will pick them out instead of eating them! 

Not this little guy! He only lasts one and a half feedings!

I used to fill each bucket up with a different grain, but now to save time, when I get the order home, I mix up all of the feed (sans the oil and kelp called for in the feed recipe) into each bucket. One bucket lasts me one month, so I can mix up 6 months worth, store it under our deck with the watertight lids, and keep the small excess of kelp and various seed remnants in their bags, stashed away. This way it takes up far less time, and does not take up a ton of room to store 6-8 buckets. It all depends on where your storage is.

It is awesome to have little helping hands do your work for you too! You can be working on one bucket, while they do another!  

Mixing all of the food into individual buckets also helped me sort out the price. One order of feed stuffs (minus the excess kelp) was $210. I mixed up 7 months of feed, making it $30 a month to feed my hens. Throw in one bale of ultra-compact straw for $10, and that makes $40 a month, or $10 a week. I get about 4 dozen eggs per week, which means I need to sell them for about $2 a dozen to break even. Sometimes I get 6 dozen, which turns a profit, or pays for a little heat lamp when the average temperature is 18 degrees (wait, Seattle, say what?!), or upsizing the coop! 

We do not "Date Stamp" our eggs anymore, because they are purchased up so quickly, and one buyer pointed out that not only do eggs last a significantly long time (longer if left unwashed), as in 6 weeks, but also our stamp ink is probably not organic! You could buy organic ink...we have some for other purposes...but if your turnover is high, the stamping is insignificant!