So, as an appropriate follow-up to my “sugar is bad” post, here are some hibiscus sugar cookies!

Good for the soul, right?

A coworker just came back from Egypt, and brought with him a large amount of hibiscus.   Of course, my first reaction was, “Will this be good in cookies?”  Short answer?  Yes.   Yes, it was.

Tastes of Egypt.

I did a bit of research, and it turns out that hibiscus is some sort of magical flower.

“A 2008 USDA study shows consuming hibiscus tea lowers blood pressure in a group of pre-hypertensive and mildly hypertensive adults. Three cups of tea daily resulted in an average drop of 8.1 point in their systolic blood pressure, compared to a 1.3 point drop in the volunteers who drank the placebo beverage. Study participants with higher blood pressure readings (129 or above) had a greater response to hibiscus tea: their systolic blood pressure went down by 13.2 points. These data support the idea that drinking hibiscus tea in an amount readily incorporated into the diet may play a role in controlling blood pressure, although more research is required.”

Cool, right?  Not to mention:

A report by Medical News Today states that one of the benefits of hibiscus is its capacity to control cholesterol. It references a study by the Chung Shan Medical University, Taiwan, which found that it contains antioxidants that have the capacity to lower the buildup of fatty acids and lower levels of cholesterol in the body.

In addition, it is loaded with Vitamin C.  Also:

Hibiscus is also the source of the hydroxycitric acid (HCA, or hydroxycut) used in many diet formulas. This compound has been long used to fight obesity. Scientific studies with lab animals find that it stops the conversion of carbs in food to body fat. It fights appetite and encourages weight loss not by increasing energy expenditure but by encouraging the “wasting” of carbohydrates.

Seriously, you could write a book about all the properties of hibiscus tea.  I also read that it’s used in traditional Eastern medicines to prevent hair loss and to treat cramps.

But me?  I went ahead and made cookies and probably more than negated the good aspects of the flower.  But it was worth it because it tasted awesome.   Super delicious.

Blood Pressure Cookies?

So, what I did was mix together some cookie dough, roll it into tubes, and cut off neat little round slices of cookies.   These were just as good a week later, so you know it’s good stuff.

I ate like 6.

Here is the recipe, yo!

Hibiscus Tea Cookies

• 3/4 cup Earth Balance, softened
• 1 cup sugar
• 3/4 cup soymilk
• 2 tablespoons hibiscus tea
• 1/4 teaspoon rose water
• 2-3/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• Pink Sugar (Optional)

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350.
2. Boil 2 tablespoons of hibiscus tea in 3/4 cup soymilk until it is a deep red.
3. Cream together Earth Balance and sugar.  Mix in tea and rose water (The kind in the baking section. Not the perfume kind).
4. In a separate bowl, combine flour, baking powder, and salt.   Fold into the tea and Earth balance mixture.
5. Refrigerate dough for 2 hours.  Divide in half and roll into logs/tubes.   Roll in pink sugar and slice off little cookie rounds.
6. Bake cookies 8-10 minutes, or until golden on the bottom.

Notes: I started with whole hibiscus petals, so it expanded when boiled in the soymilk, and possibly helped absorb more flour.  If starting with ground up petals, keep an eye on how moist the cookies are and adjust as needed.

As a vegan, I spent quite a bit of time thinking about nutrition and health.   I even have little obsessive stretches where I track and log everything I eat on caloriecount.com, which produces a nutritional analysis, letting me know if I’m getting enough calcium, iron, protein, fat, etc.  What I’ve found is that, without fail, I eat between 140% – 200% of my daily recommended value of fat.   Why?  Because I love avocados, nuts, coconut milk, and olive oil.   I won’t worry about it because I’m pretty darn healthy, and I’m convinced that healthy fats can’t hurt me.  But you know, I’m not a scientist or a doctor, so if I told you that fats are good for you, you don’t have to believe me.

However, you might want to give a listen to health writer Tom Naughton, maker of the documentary, Fathead:

I think my favorite bit was the discussion on clinical studies vs observational studies and confounding factors.  Ever since my statistics class back in college, there are all these little bells that go off in my brain when people start new weird weight loss diets based on “science.”

Basically, I’m not going to cut back on my peanut butter and coconut milk any time soon.  Bring on the fat, baby!

Update: While I liked his lecture, I tried watching FatHead and couldn’t make it past the beginning.  I’m sure some good science pops up in there later, but the part where he made fun of vegetarian food made me very promptly turn the thing off.  He’s anti-vegetarian and doesn’t acknowledge that when done correctly, vegetarianism and veganism can be very healthy.

When I was little I reeeeeally loved those sugary packs of  instant oatmeal, but my mom never bought the stuff.  As a result, I still think of it as a really big treat!  It was so sugary and tasted more like a dessert than breakfast.  Apple Cinnamon, Maple Nut, Peaches and Cream!   What’s not to love?   Ah, but my mom insisted on making old fashioned oats or malt-o-meal or whole wheat oat-laden pancakes…  you know, healthy stuff.  In my wise old age, I can see why we were never an instant oatmeal family.  Those little packs oatmeal are over-priced, over-sweetened, and over-preserved.  Heck, these days I think some of them even have candy in them.   I mean, dinosaur eggs?  What’s that all about?

Can't be good for you...

Well ladies and gentlemen, I’ve found a way to have my cake and eat it, too.  Or rather, have my oatmeal and eat it, too.

Jars make everything exciting.

I made my own oatmeal mix!  And, if I do say myself, it’s way better than the instant stuff.   It’s nice having a mix all ready for breakfast whenever I want it.  I don’t have to think about adding things to my oatmeal… I just take half a cup of the mix, throw it in half a cup of boiling water, and bam!  Delicious amazing oatmeal.  And when you’re half asleep, it’s really great not to have to use the brain too much.

All cooked up and looking scrumptious

We’ve got dried apples, flax seeds, cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, and of course, old fashioned oats!

Mmm

Oh yes! And some brown sugar.  I’m not completely a grown-up yet.  I’m not going to leave the brown sugar out of my apple pie oatmeal.  What kind of person do you take me for?

Nothing beats breakfast.

Oh, and did I mention that the mix also included dry coconut milk?   The resulting flavor combination was really something wonderful.

Anyway, here is the recipe:

Apple Pie Oatmeal Mix

• 2 cups old fashioned oats
• 1/4 cup coconut milk powder
• 1/2 cup dried apple pieces
• 1/4 cup brown sugar
• 1/4 cup flax seeds
• 1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
• 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg

Additional ingredient:

• 1/2 cup water per serving

Directions:

1. Mix together dry ingredients and store in an airtight container.
2. To prepare oatmeal: Shake mix well.   In a saucepan, combine 1/2 cup water and 1/2 cup oatmeal mix.   Bring to boil.  Simmer for about 3 minutes over medium heat, stirring occasionally.

So, there you have it!   You’re very welcome to use less or more sugar, of course.  Whatever floats your boat!  Also, I like to add cold soymilk to my oatmeal after it’s done cooking.   I think it has a much better flavor and texture than instant oatmeal… and I bet it’d be really good with steel cut oats, as well.  Something to try next time!

So I’ve got some sad news.   My hard drive failed!  I mean, it’s not the saddest news in the world, since I had a fat juicy warranty and hopped over to the apple store and they gave me a brand new hard drive, a new charger, cleaned my computer, and promised to give me new casing too if I wanted to set an appointment for it (I had to go to work so I passed on the casing that day).  The problem is, like an idiot, I hadn’t backed up my stuff in a while.  So, I lost a whole trove of recipes, and some photos, too.  Luckily, I rarely clear out my camera, so there are still lots of photos hanging around on there.   I did lose some really beautiful photos of my pecan pie bars, but I guess that just means I have to make them again.  Worse things have happened.  And now I’ve got to completely reconstruct recipes for goodies like:

Whole Wheat Sandwich Bread

Whole Wheat, Flax, and Oats.

Spinach Basil Quiche

Mmmm Quiche

Inside the quiche.

Cocoa Energy Balls

Chocolate Balls of Healthy

Lemon Poppyseed Cupcakes

Worth failing a drug test for.

Carrot Cake Balls

Delicious and SO cute.

Smothered in "cream cheese" glaze.

Cinnamon Buns

Cinnamon Bun Easter Baskets? Best idea ever. Thank you, Wilton, for the amazing cupcake wrappers.

These were so cute, they made me squeak.

Chocolate Fudge Bunnies

Mr. Bunny was delicious. Rich creamy chocolate fudge with a hard chocolate shell.

Peanut Butter Chocolate Eggs

Nothing beats peanut butter and chocolate. True story.

And un-pictured:

(Gluten Free) Pecan Pie Bars

(Gluten Free) Quinoa Peanut Butter Cookies

Strawnana Muffins

Oatmeal Pumpkin Bars

So, while I try to write some new recipes and re-edit my photos, here are some pictures of my Easter layout.  I know it’s two weeks later, but hey!  My hard drive crashed.  Died.  Kaput!   What can a girl do?   I only just re-installed Photoshop today.  It was a betch trying to find the serial number.   Anyway, my Easter shindig was just sooo cute that I had to share some photos.  Hopefully I’ll re-write the recipes soon enough.

Easter Basket Table

I made little Easter baskets for all of my guests.  They had peanut butter chocolate eggs, oreo truffles, chocolate fudge bunnies, jelly beans, dark chocolate foiled wrapped eggs, some little wrapped squares of fancy chocolate, and Annie’s gummy bunnies.

Easter Basket

I get a little carried away sometimes.

Table

This is how the table looked before it was covered with cupcakes, cinnamon buns, quiche, fresh fruit, mimosas, parsnip pancakes, veggie chips, etc.  It was an awesome potluck brunch.   And the flowers smelled sooo good.

Easter Flowers

Anyway, that’s all for now folks.

Oh goodness tomorrow is Mother’s day!  I don’t think I’ll be able to write a good Mother’s Day brunchy sort of recipe by tomorrow, but I guess that’s just how things are sometimes.  But hey, I can at least remind you to call your mom!  Call your mother!