Living With the Whole Life Challenge

During the times I spend doing the Whole Life Challenge (WLC), there’s a new Well Being Practice (WBP - you’d almost think it’s a gov’t program with all these acronyms) each week. This current challenge started with making a “Do Not Do” list of three items you regularly do daily that you could reasonably skip doing. Those could be extended to not do all week, or you could list three new items each day. The second week was spend ten minutes each day in meditation. Definitely not my favorite practice. This week we are “decluttering” our living spaces. This could also be one large, week-long process, or you could do a smaller space each day. If you really don’t like the WBP in any particular week, there’s a long list of substitute practices you can choose from.

My choices that first week were to not obsessively check Facebook several times a day, not spend more than thirty minutes a day playing games on my phone, and not weigh myself daily. Amazingly, my screen time was down considerably! Dennis is thrilled that I’ve discovered I can easily survive without the distraction of so much social media. (Interesting aside: auto-correct tried to make that into “suicidal media”. I almost didn’t correct it.)

However, I cannot just delete Facebook. Our family is scattered from hither to yon, and Facebook is a good way to keep in touch. Even though we’ve returned from our daughter’s home in Florida, we’re still watching our grandsons play ice hockey there via that app. A few of the parents of the boy’s teammates will live-video the games on FB. The videos remain on their pages, so we can watch live, or, in the case of games being too early in the morning (or during our church service, as happened Sunday) for us in Montana, at a more convenient time.

Since I’m still not spending so much time checking social media, I’ve done some more cooking with new recipes this last week. First I made some flavored peanuts that are WLC compliant for snacking. I’d clipped the recipe from The Prairie Star before Christmas. It took me this long to actually make it, and it’s a keeper. It’s quick and easy. I used jarred salt-free peanuts since that’s what I had.

Peppery Peanuts

2 C cocktail peanuts

1 Tbl melted butter

1/2 tsp leaf thyme, crushed

1/2 tsp marjoram leaves, crushed

1/2 tsp garlic salt

1/4 tsp cayenne pepper

Toss all ingredients together. Spread on a jelly roll pan. Heat in a 350° oven for 10 minutes. Cool. Store airtight.

Next up were WLC compliant cookies. I need to find a compliant substitute for powdered sugar. I know there’s some out there, I just haven’t bought any yet. I used granular erythritol sweetener, which made a chunky glaze (icing?). It tends to break off from the cookies in clumps, but it still tastes good. In fact, I find it hard to believe it isn’t really sugar. I didn’t have oatmeal flour, either, so I subbed in an equal amount of almond flour.

Gingerbread Breakfast Cookies

1/3 C oatmeal flour

1/2 C quick oats

1/4 C flax seed meal

1/2 C walnuts, finely chopped

1/2 tsp EACH cinnamon and ginger

1/4 tsp EACH ground cloves, nutmeg, and allspice

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp salt

1/3 C almond butter

2 Tbl maple syrup

1 Tbl molasses

1/2 tsp vanilla

1 egg

Oven at 375°. Line a baking sheet with parchment or a silicone mat. Mix together the dry ingredients from flour through salt in a bowl. Whisk together in a separate bowl the almond butter through the egg, then mix into the dry ingredients. Drop by a scoop into 12 mounds, flattening the mounds. They won’t spread. Bake 8-10 minutes. Cool on the pan, setting the pan on a rack.

Glaze for the above cookies: whisk together 1 C powdered sugar (or substitute), 1 Tbl almond milk, and 1 Tbl maple syrup. Drizzle on cooled cookies. Store airtight up to one week, or freeze.

After that, wanting chocolate, I made a WLC compliant chocolate coating. I used about 2-3 tablespoonsful each of coconut oil, nut butter, and cacao powder. I microwaved them together, and stirred into a runny icing texture. Play around with the amounts - I didn’t really measure. I sliced a banana and drizzled some of this over it, and ate with a spoon. This mixture will work on other fruits as well, or on nuts of your choice. I’m really glad the peanut butter is on the compliant list.