Vegan desserts with no added sweeteners

After my appearance on KCBX yesterday, I received many requests for these cookies from my cookbook Simply Natural Baby Food. They are sweetened only with bananas and raisins, and have been very popular at my book signings.

Banana-Oatmeal Cookies
These moist cookies contain no sweeteners, butter, eggs, or wheat.

2 cups rolled oats
2/3 cup almonds
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon sea salt
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1 1/2 cups mashed banana (about 3 bananas)
1/4 cup safflower or other flavorless oil
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
3/4 cup raisins

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Lightly oil baking sheet. Grind oats and almonds to a coarse powder in food processor or blender. Pour them into a large mixing bowl. Stir in baking powder, salt, cinnamon, and nutmeg.In separate bowl or in food processor, beat together bananas, oil, and vanilla until smooth and creamy. Add banana mixture and raisins to oat mixture. Mix well. Drop cookie dough by tablespoons onto prepared baking sheet. Bake for 13 to 16 minutes, or until bottoms are golden brown.

Makes 3 dozen

Variation: You can also replace the raisins with chocolate chips if desired (you can get grain-sweetened chips from Sunspire).

And here is a sorbet from Lick It! Creamy Dream Vegan Ice Creams Your Mouth Will Love made without sweeteners.

Blueberry-Banana Sorbet
Makes 1 quart
No sweeteners are used in this delicious sorbet—it’s all fruit!

3 bananas
1 cup blueberries
1 cup unsweetened apple juice

Combine all of the ingredients in a blender and process until smooth. If the mixture is cold, it may be frozen immediately; otherwise, chill it in the refrigerator for at least 2 hours. Freeze in an ice cream maker according to the manufacturer’s directions.

Sugar, High Fructose Corn Syrup, Agave Nectar: Which Should You Choose?

Someone told me recently that they'd stopped using agave nectar because they'd heard it was as bad for you as high fructose corn syrup (HFCS). I was rather stunned because I use agave nectar and like it a lot. Long before HFCS and agave nectar were even on the market, health experts warned about the overconsumption of refined sugar. But lately, it's like sugar is fine and HFCS and other high fructose sweeteners are the bad guys. What is this opinion based on? As I researched, I found that the negative press about HFCS started when researchers put a graph of the rise of obesity in the U.S. over a graph showing the increased use of HFCS. The rises were similar, so they assumed that HFCS must be causing obesity. Well, that's not enough proof for me. I decided to find out more about sugar, HFCS, and agave nectar and how different sweeteners are metabolized before coming to any conclusions. 

See the results of my research here.