My Skin Healthy Lunch & Active agents, the effective skin care - vitamins, oils & more

My Skin Healthy Superfood Lunch 

Sweet Potatoes with Wilted Spinach, Olive Oil & a little Cotija Cheese. And of course, my favorite spice blend for sweet potatoes, cinnamon, Cayenne & salt. I've started adding turmeric to the blend to get more into my diet.  The Beta Carotene in the sweet potatoes & greens is converted to retinoids in your skin. 

			The excerpt below is from a German skin care product manufacturer's website.  At times, the translations are a bit funny, but it seems to be a valuable resource for information on skin function and skin care ingredients.Some of which, you should have in your kitchen to make fresh products with no need for preservatives & emulsifyers that dry skin. Active agents, the effective skin care - vitamins, oils & more From A like allantoin to Z like zinc. There is a multitude of active agents on the market either as substances to be used for cosmetics or substances contained in cosmetics. Effects as well as efficacy depend on various factors which will be described in detail in the following article. Before the active agent can become effective a number of prerequisites have to be met as for instance its concentration in the product should be adequate, its release out of the cream base has to be ensured as well as the transport to its destination to start its activity. All these prerequisites also demand for an appropriate packaging. Thus, vitamins are most effective if they are not free but encapsulated as esters in liposomes or nanoparticles in order to be released by enzymatic hydrolysis after penetrating into the deeper skin layers. Vitamin C for example can be encapsulated in nanoparticles as a fat-soluble palmitic acid ester and in liposomes as a water-soluble phosphate ester. In both cases, after their hydrolysis there will be only substances released which are also natural components of the skin. Continue

No Grain, Little Sweetener Nut Butter Cookie Recipe

Gluten Free, Low Sweetener Nut Butter Cookie Recipe

I spotted this recipe in the Houston Chronicle. A picture will have to wait until I make them.  And as the instructions call for a food processor and I only have mini one, I haven't gotten around to it yet. 

You've probably heard of bumping up the fiber, protein & other nutrient quality in brownies & cookies by adding mashed beans.  In fact, I've heard you can just add a can of mashed black beans to brownie mix.  But why even include the high glycemic gluten filled empty calorie white flour if it's not needed?

I doubt there's any reason these measurements need to be precise.  In fact, I make so many variations of this with spices, dried fruit, cocoa, etc. Just like I do with the banana cookies. And if that's enough sweetener for the average person, I will cut it by a third to a half.

Ingredients:

1/14 cup Cooked Garbonzo Beans (is that how much is in a can?)
2 Teaspoons Vanilla extract
1/2 cup plus 2 Tablespoons Nut Butter
1/4 cup Honey
1 Teaspoon Baking Powder
1/2 cup chocolate chips (get a low sugar, dark. Like Ghiradelli Bittersweet)

Preheat oven to 350. Pulse the beans in a food processor until well ground. Drain first if using canned. Add remaining ingredients (except choclate if still using processor.) Mix thouroughly. Then stir in chocolate.

The instruction I have call for shaping into 1 1/2 inch balls with wet hands, then placing on the cookie sheet. I don't know why you couldn't just treat them like drop cookies. I wonder how well the balls will spread when the Bake 10 minutes.  The recipe I have states not to over bake.