Good morning! It is Wednesday again and I tell you one thing...I am going nuts! I walked into the office today with a TON of work. I guess with a short week ahead and the upcoming holiday, people are trying to get business done. Needless to say...I am going nuts today, ways than just one.
Over the weekend, I was able to think about today's post and I came up with a great one. With the help of a wonderful company, of course. I have a HUGE passion for the foods I am about to talk about. I thought I would talk about something that I often eat and love more than just about anything. My love....
NUTS!!!
That's right, I am a lover of any kind of nut. Seeds are often added to my meals such as sesame and sunflower but it is very rare that I go a day without raw Almonds, Cashews and Walnuts. Oh Nuts! sent me over a pound of each. I swear when I opened this package I could have died.
Cashews are my absolute favorite nut of all time. I love RAW nuts not roasted or salted.
Let me tell you about the properties that nuts can bring to your overall health.
Love nuts? Eat ‘em raw—here’s why.
If you’re a nut fan, you probably feel good about consuming a tasty food that’s high in Omega 3 oils. After all, Omega 3’s are good for you, right? Correct, but roasted nuts aren’t good for you…and raw nuts are.
Sure, nuts start out high in healthy Omega 3 oils. The problem is that oils are vulnerable to heat, light, and oxidation. Once you heat the healthy oils found in nuts, you degrade them. But it does make the oil shelf-stable, which manufacturers find desirable.
To hydrogenate oil, the manufacturers take huge vats containing thousands of gallons of oil and they raise the temperature to almost boiling. Then they run an electrical current through the oil and bubble hydrogen gas up through it.
The effect is to saturate all the bonds of the fats with hydrogen atoms and to turn the fat from a liquid into a solid. That’s how margarine is made. Other processes can hydrogenate oil and keep it liquid, but it is now a saturated fat rather than a poly-unsaturated fat.
Still other heating processes turn good fats into transformed fats, or “trans-fats.” Trans-fats have been found in studies to be bad for your health.
The same sort of transformation for the worse happens when nuts sit on a store shelf in bright sunlight, or when they’re in a big bulk bin exposed to air.
Once nuts are roasted, the healthy oils they contain are no longer healthy. Sure, they might be tastier, but you can retrain your taste buds to appreciate the healthy goodness of raw nuts and seeds.
Given that the roasting process takes place under high heat, in the presence of air and light, you’ve got a recipe for turning all the good fats in nuts into bad ones just to improve the taste…in some people’s opinion.
A study on the benefits of consuming nuts in the diet recently appeared in the November 14, 1998 issue of the British Medical Journal. Women who consumed nuts 5 times per week had about a 35% lower risk of coronary heart disease than those women who rarely ate nuts.
It was hard for me at first to stop eating the roasted, salted kind but now you couldn't give me salty nuts if you wanted to. Without the salt I feel like I can really taste them .
Let me tell you about the benefits of each one that I got in the mail:
Cashew nuts are a product of the cashew tree, have gained popularity in North America and Europe not only for their succulent flavor but for health benefits, too. Whether roasted, salted, sugared or covered in chocolate, the cashew nut, often used as a flavorful complement to appetizers, main dishes and deserts, packs a mix of nutrients and minerals not found in many common foods.Cashew nuts, native to equatorial South America, are actually seeds, found growing on the end of the cashew apple, an edible and nutrient rich South American treat that is too fragile to export to North America or Europe .Here is the link to the cashews:
http://www.ohnuts.com/buy.cfm/bulk-nuts-seeds/cashews
These California grown almonds are a wholesome and delicious nut. Almonds are high in protein, calcium and zinc, and also contain significant amounts of fiber, vitamin E, Folate, calcium and other vitamins and minerals. Studies reveal that almonds, a diabetes friendly food, can lower the risk of heart disease and bad cholesterol. In order to maintain a safe and healthy standard for the product, raw almonds are now pasteurized as required by law. Due to their high fat content, shelled almonds can easily turn rancid. If store properly in the freezer, they will keep for up to a year. Here is the link to the Almonds.
A gourmet chef's best friend, our lightest walnut to date, makes for an excellent addition to any recipe. Or snack on them plain. Either way, you're certain to enjoy. Walnuts are a great source of antioxidants and the minerals manganese, copper, phosphorus, and magnesium. Walnuts are a good source of dietary fiber, protein, the amino acid arginine, omega-3 fatty acids and alpha-linolenic acid (ALA). it has been shown that Walnuts significantly reduce total and LDL cholesterol levels. Here is the link to the Walnuts.
So as you have read, I have no problem eating these babies. The problem is making sure that you eat just one serving. How do I go about that when I want to eat them?
I count them. I know that this doesn't sound like fun but if you are like me I could eat a TON of them at a time.
***Confesion time**** I ate the entire POUND of raw cashews once in just two days. That is 8 servings in one day with a whopping 1200 calories. Yes, I am not allowed nuts usually in bulk. If I want them I usually go to the bulk isle and buy just enough to eat at that time. If I go into the store and get a whole bag...They are long gone. These are things that I have just had to learn over time. You better believe that when I sat down and calculated how many cals that ate in two one days, it kinda blew me away. Yes, even I have issues with over doing it at times.
Granted it could have been worse (I could have eaten 1200 calories of candy) but you have to be careful with nuts. While they are super healthy and have great benefits, they are high calorie and can add up quickly. I like to count out about 20 to 25 nuts. That comes out to about 160-180 calories depending on the nut. Pair this with a piece of whole grain toast, fruit or yogurt and you have yourself a wholesome snack taht is a complete protein.
I must say that Oh Nuts! have the best of the best to offer. I have never eaten such high quality, fresh nuts. You are talking to a girl that LOVES nuts and eats them all the time. I have bought a ton of nuts over the years and from many different companies. For me to say this about one impaticular company is huge.
I Oh Nuts! You guys get a 10 from me. If you want amazing quality foods at a price that you can afford. Go to their site. They have all kinds of yummy things.They dont just sell nuts. Thier website offers, dried fruits, candy and gifts as well as their bulk nuts.
You wont be sorry that you did!
Thanks so very much for being so wonderful and sending me a great variety, I truly loved every bite! I want to leave you guys with a fantastic recipe using these gems. You better believe that you will be seeing more cashews, almonds and walnuts in up coming recipes and posts.
I bring you...
Homemade Cinnamon Raisin Almond,Cashew, Walnut Butter
This recipe makes about 2.5 cups of amazing, spreadable butter.
First you have to soak your nuts. I get a big bowl and put the nuts in them and then cover them with water (about a inch of water is on top) overnight. It looks like this:
This is one cup raw almonds soaking for the butter to be made the next day. Ingrediants:
-1 cup almonds, cashews and walnuts soaked.
-1 cup of raisins
-1 cup of raisins
-1 teaspoon sea salt
-1 pack of stevia (I like my butters a tad sweet)
-1 table spoon of cinnamon
-3 tablespoon unrefined vegetable oil
(cashews are on the bottom;)Combine the soaked almonds walnuts and cashews and salt and cinnamon in a food processor, blender, meat grinder or nut butter machine and process until the nuts are finely ground. Add the oil and continue processing until the almond butter reaches your desired degree of smoothness, adding more oil if necessary. After all ground up add in the cup of raisin and for chunky butter, stir in ¼ cup chopped almonds, walnuts or cashews. What you get is the most amazing butter you ever had.
This is it in the processor all ground up!
Here is a trick that I do (it is not in the recipe because I wanted to give you just the simple way to make regular nut butter but I also want to share with you a way to have a lower calorie option. Shhhhh, no one will ever know! This is a great way to trick your taste buds and get away with about 100 less calories! This way you will be getting TWO count em, TWO table spoons for about 60 cals!!!!
I add almond milk...I take the finished butter and I add (with this recipe) about a cup and a half of vanilla almond milk (unsweetened) and STIR. You have to stir this up really, really, really well. I will admit...It is not easy but once stirred in the almond milk ,you get a thinned out version of your favorite nut butter but with less cals. When you do this you are going to think to yourself "Oh no!!! It is soupy nut butter." Well my friends, stick the jar in the fridge and it thickens up! It gets nice and thick and you will not be able to tell that you have a lower calorie butter. The best part about this is....YOU get TWICE as much nut butter!!!! Yes, that is right. Just when you thought you would only be getting 2.5 cups of homemade nut butter, by adding the almond milk you will get 5 whole cups of nut butter. YAY!!!
Here you have the finish product!
Here is the mixture after the almond butter has sat in the fridge overnight.
Look at the raisins in there! MMMM.
Store, tightly covered, in the refrigerator.
May you be well nourished,
Heather
