(Raw, Vegan)
I love these Pink Macadamian Cookies. The ingredients are very simple, and they just have a touch of maple syrup for each serving. Classy cookies.
I got in the mood to have fun with food coloring, but I did not want to use any chemical based, lab created with those weird numbered labels for the ingredients in food coloring (red #40, blue#2, yellow#6, etc). Give me the Real Deal! So what did I decide to use?
Beets!
Beet juice has a deep red-purple color that stains like crazy. Its dark strong color is derived from Betacyanin, which is a cancer-fighting agent. The lovely dark pigment of Beets makes it a perfect food to play with :)
Try using it for shirt dyes, make-up (yes!! works as a nice blush), creative gift presents, to soak certain light colored veggies in the beet juice to change the colors for a colorful salad, cupcake coloring, etc... what comes to your imagination?
Just a little bit more facts on Beets! Beet juice has been shown to improve running endurance better than Nitrate supplements, it is abundant in antioxidants and natural occurring nitrates which helps strengthen blood circulation. With good bacteria in your mouth, the nitrates get converted into nitrites and those nitrites promotes good blood flow. Beet juice also lowers blood pressure, it has shown to improve brain health in older adults, and aids in fighting against colon cancer because of its ability to increase CD8 cells. The role of CD8 cells is to destroy malignant cells in the body by stimulating the immune response against tumor cells. Hmm...Sounds pretty sweet to me!
Recipe:
Have the Beet juice ready. You will need to juice the uncooked beets to get the beet juice using a Juicer. Unless you have a Vitamix blender or a super powerful blender, you won't be able to blend the uncooked beets in the blender. For a regular blender you may need to blend the raw beets with water to get it to blend, but the water will dilute the color of the beets.
Once you have the juice ready, set it aside in a bowl next to a brush to paint the cookies with.
For the dough:
-1 cup Macadamias
-1/2 cup shredded coconut
-2 tablespoons Maple Syrup
-1 soft Medjool Date, pitted and chopped
-2 tablespoons melted coconut oil
-A touch of Sea Salt
-Clean and positive energy hands!
In your food processor, SHORTLY process the macadamias, shredded coconut, chopped medjool date, and salt. Untill it gets crumbly. Then add the maple syrup and melted coconut oil evenly throughout the mixture and process again. Be careful not to overprocess. Check the mixture for a doughy consistency. You want the mixture to hold together when you press a little bit in your hand to form the dough. (Safety tip: never put your fingers inside the food processor when the plug is on).
Now you play with your food. You can shape up the mixture however you want. Once you have your cookies shaped, start by brushing a little bit of the beet juice on top and adding as many layers as you want to achieve your desired color.
I sprinkled raw Cacao Nibs on top. You can also use shredded coconut on top, dusted Chocolate powder, Goji Berries, or just the beet juice. Whatever comes to your mind!
http://www.nutritionj.com/content/pdf/1475-2891-11-106.pdf
http://www.webmd.com/food-recipes/features/truth-about-beetroot-juice
http://www.naturalnews.com/031711_beetroot_juice_brain_health.html
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12070710
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