Something Seedy

Seeds may be tiny, but they pack a big nutritional punch. Adding flavor is only the bonus, what they really add is nutrients and antioxidants that help protect you against heart disease, cancer, and arthritis. There are lots of ways to incorporate seeds in to your daily diet. Read on to learn about a few of my favorites. Keep all your seeds in the fridge or freezer so they stay fresh longer.

Sunflower Seeds

This is the easy one. Chewing and spitting seems to be as important as batting when it comes to Little League, so come baseball season, my youngest son will be getting plenty of these. ¼ cup serving of sunflower seeds provides 82% of the Vitamin E and 34% of the selenium you need for a day. They're also loaded with folate. These are powerful antioxidants, so load up. It’s easy to toss sunflower seeds on salads and in your baking, but try sprinkling some on your pasta or stir-frys for an interesting nutty crunch.

Pumpkin Seeds

Another easy one when it comes to snacking. Make your own when you carve your pumpkin, or buy them ready to eat. They are a nice neat snack to take in the car or hiking (if you drop a few, you might start a wild pumpkin patch). Besides serving up some protein, pumpkin seeds also offer magnesium and zinc. Eat them with the shells on and you add some fiber to boot.

Shelled pumpkin seeds (also called pepitas) are the secret ingredient in my yummy whole wheat bread. I grind them up so that no children notice their green color or suspect I’m adding nuts (heaven forbid!) to their bread. They are also delicious added to salads and granola. Experiment with adding pepitas to your cooking for their sweet, nutty flavor.

Whole Wheat Bread with Flaxseed and Pumpkin Seeds

(for bread machine)

1 ½ cup water

2 Tablespoons oil or melted butter (I use butter-flavor grapeseed oil)

3 Tablespoons honey

¼ cup Flaxseed Meal

¼+ cup chopped pumpkin seeds (I process them in a big bunch and freeze them to use in recipes)

2 Cups Whole Wheat bread flour

1 ½ Cups White Bread flour

1 ¾ teaspoons yeast

Place ingredients in bread machine in the order above and bake on whole wheat setting.

Flax Seeds

I’ve written so much about flax seeds, there’s no need to repeat myself. You can catch up by clicking here.

Chia Seeds

And what’s not to love about chia seeds? They are chock full of omega 3’s, calcium, and antioxidants. A serving (1 oz) of chia seeds gives you 43% of the fiber you need for one day! Many people say that after eating chai seeds on a regular basis you will notice clearer skin and glossier hair. Plus, the seeds digest very slowly making you feel fuller longer and aiding in weight loss. Several websites proclaim that eating chia seeds helps you think more clearly, increases your energy, and puts you in a calmer, happier mood. I’m also thinking if you plant your chia seeds in fancy pot, you can grow that cute little grass patch you see sold as a decorative touch in fancy magazines. Again, what’s not to love?

Chia seeds are tiny black seeds (but can also be white). I bought a small bag from the bulk aisle at Sonnewalds. They sat on the counter for the first few days while I wondered what to do with them. My daughter enjoyed using the bag as a stress reliever saying she liked the way the seeds felt when you squished the bag. I was determined to find a better use for them. 

First I mixed up some cinnamon chia pudding. I found this recipe in a comment on a blog called chowhound. The commenter who goes only by alexa52, says her 9-year-old loves it. I have my own suspicious 9-year-old who needs some healthy options, so this was all I needed to hear to send me off to the kitchen. I happened to have almond milk on hand (the only odd ingredient beyond chia seeds), so I whipped it up in a matter of minutes.

Cinnamon Chia Pudding

1 ½ cups almond milk

¼ cup chia seeds

1 T honey or maple syrup (I went with honey on this and was very heavy-handed)

1 vanilla bean or a dash of vanilla extract

½ t cinnamon

Pinch of sea salt

I have to admit it looked pretty unappetizing when I slipped it in to the fridge. The directions said to chill it for 1-9 hours. Apparently when you add liquid to chia seeds they become gelatinous. That would be good, because otherwise what you would basically have is poppy seed pudding and that could be pretty tough on the teeth. They have a subtle nut-like flavor and one of the cooking sites I checked said they take on the flavor of whatever they are mixed with which makes them excellent for thickening.

When offered the lovely chia pudding (see pic), my older children put on a brave face and each took a spoonful. My son said it was fine, but didn't need another taste. My daughter had a bowl for breakfast!  My nine-year-old wouldn't even consider a spoonful. It reminds me of tapioca and tastes like chia tea. While I'm not sure I'd make it again, if I had an unsuspecting (and trusting) younger child, I might pass it off as dessert and raise them on it. So much good stuff in there. 

I also used chia seeds to make banana bread. Although there isn’t a ton of chia seeds in there, I am treading lightly on this first run-through. I don’t want to scare off the natives. The bread turned out delicious. The recipe directs you to make mini-loaves, but that’s just too much pan cleaning, so I made one big (relatively short) loaf, and that worked out fine. The banana bread was gone in less than 24 hours, so that’s a “yes” on the question of did they like it (one of them even chose the last piece as the dessert for his lunch box).

BANANA BREAD CHIA SEED MINI LOAFS (Shape Magazine)

The addition of banana to these mini loafs makes them both moist and flavorful. Bake two mini loafs and freeze one for later, or give one to a friend or coworker to share the love!

Ingredients: 
Makes 2 full mini loafs or 3 smaller loaves
½ c. sugar
¼ c. brown sugar

1 egg

¼ c. canola oil (I used grapeseed oil)
1 tsp. vanilla extract 


1 ½ ripe bananas, smashed

¼ c. whole wheat flour

1 c. all-purpose flour

½ tsp. baking soda

½ tsp. cinnamon
¼ tsp. salt

1 tbsp. chia seeds


Directions:

Preheat oven to 325 degrees and spray two mini loaf pans with cooking spray. Beat sugars, egg, oil and vanilla extract in a large bowl. Once sugar mixture is combined, beat in bananas. In a separate bowl, combine flours, baking soda, cinnamon and salt. Slowly beat flour mixture into sugar mixture. Beat in chia seeds. Pour batter into two loaf pans. Bake for approximately 40 minutes, until the tops of the loaves are light brown.

For breakfast, I whipped up Chai Pumpkin Pancakes. This caused quite a stir. Instead of heading out the door or downstairs to the treadmill to run, I was hanging around with the kiddos at breakfast time. Plus, I only make pancakes for them on special occasions. So the mere fact that I was cooking breakfast instead of grumbling at them not to miss the bus, made them sit up and pay attention. They loved the pancakes! They were delicious and although I occasionally found a seed stuck in my teeth later in the morning, it wasn’t a bad thing. Especially knowing that I’d loaded the kids up with lots of healthy goodness (under all that syrup!). Even the fussy one who wouldn’t touch the hemp cookies (see below), loved the pancakes and asked for seconds.

WHOLE WHEAT CHIA SEED PANCAKES (from Shape Magazine)

While normal pancakes may not pack much of a nutritional punch, these pancakes, made with whole wheat flour, oats, honey, and chia seeds are full of fiber and whole grains.

Ingredients:
Makes 8–10 pancakes

1 c. milk

1 egg

1 tbsp. canola oil
1 c. whole wheat flour
1/2 c. old fashioned oats

1/2 tsp. pumpkin pie spice

1 1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. salt

2 tbsp. honey

1 tbsp. chia seeds (plus more for garnish)
Syrup or other desired toppings

Directions:

Spray griddle or pan with cooking spray and heat to a medium heat. Beat egg and add milk and oil. In a separate bowl, combine flour, oats, pumpkin pie spice, baking powder and salt. Slowing stir flour mixture into egg mixture. Add honey and stir until combined.
At the last minute, stir in chia seeds. Pour 1/4 c. portions of batter onto griddle and cook until edges of pancakes start to bubble and bottoms are light brown. Flip and cook until centers are completely done (about three to four minutes). Top with syrup, additional chia seeds or desired toppings and enjoy.

Hemp Seeds

Hemp seeds were my other project this week. Luckily, my hubby was away and I was spared the endless cannabis jokes that would have ensued had he been here to witness my efforts. Two of my kids are either too young or excellent actors because they raised nary an eyebrow when I told them I was making hemp cookies. My 15-year-old came closer and whispered, "Really?" He excuses much of my behavior by joking that I'm a hippy, but maybe now there would be proof!  Yes, hemp seeds do come from the same Cannabis species as marijuana, but they have drastically lower levels of the psychoactive chemical that gives pot its power. I'm not sure he completely believes me.

At any rate, cookies being the operative term, most everyone was game. They thought the cookies were a bit crunchy (they are), but passable. They even came back for seconds and knowing these cookies were loaded not just with hemp seeds, but plenty of flaxmeal as well, I served them right up. My 9-year-old heard the words “seeds” and “good for you” and ran the other direction. He’s seen too much to trust me when I tell him, “It’s delicious!”

Joking aside, there is much to appreciate about hemp seeds. Hemp is loaded with protein. Two tablespoons cover 24 % of your daily requirement. It’s the best kind of protein too, with all the essential amino acids. Hemp is also a rich source of omega 3 & 6 and contains plenty of antioxidants like vitamin E and chlorophyll.

Christina's Hemp Seed Cookies (from the blog, A Few Scraps)
2 Tbsp butter, melted
1/4 cup applesauce (a little single serving applesauce cup happens to be 1/4 cup!)
1/2 cup brown sugar
3/4 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 cup hulled hemp seed
1/2 cup ground flax meal
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking powder
1 handful each chopped hazelnuts and chocolate chips (I went heavy on the chocolate chips, figuring chocolate covers a whole host of evil)

Preheat oven to 350 and grease a cookie sheet. Mix butter, applesauce and brown sugar together in a small bowl. (I had to add a little more melted butter because the mixture was too dry) Mix all remaining dry ingredients (except nuts and chocolate chips) in a large bowl. Add wet ingredients to dry, mix with a spoon. Add chocolate chips and hazelnuts. Drop by rounded tablespoonfuls and flatten with the palm of your hand. (I didn’t notice this directive to flatten cookies, but they flattened on their own) Bake for 10-12 minutes, let cool on a cooling rack. Makes about 24 cookies depending on how much of the dough you eat.

I know I left out several other fabulous seeds, but my kids could only take so much of my experimenting this week. If you’ve got your own favorite seed recipe, I’d love to hear about it.

A Pumpkin A Day....

Wait! Wait! Don’t toss that pumpkin on the compost pile now that Halloween is over! Did you know that the pumpkin is a veritable boatload of healthy eating? Me neither, but this morning I did a little research. We finally carved our jack-o-lantern last night after the urgent pleading of our youngest. We even took the obligatory pictures of the kids scooping out the seeds, although the older two participated under some diress. My daughter even donned the rubber gloves (“I’m not touching that – it’s disgusting”). When it was all said and done my 9-year-old chased my 15-year-old out of the kitchen with pumpkin gut loaded hands outstretched and I rinsed the seeds and spread them out to dry over night.

This morning I surveyed the yucky mess. Pumpkin guts spattered on the counter and floor, dried pumpkin seeds now laminated to the towel where they were drying. The jack-o-lantern does look cute though. I was all set to roast our seeds, when I noticed an e-mail from one of my favorite blogs – Maria’s Farm Country Kitchen. A recipe for pumpkin seeds! I quickly clicked over and was dismayed to see that I’ve been doing my seeds all wrong forever. Every recipe I’ve ever seen, and every person I’ve ever asked, has said that you should rinse your seeds. Not so, Maria! Rinsing them takes away much of their delicious flavor. And this makes sense because really, why would you rinse them? They’ve been in a somewhat sterile environment inside a pumpkin for months. And we cook the pumpkin insides without rinsing them. So why would we rinse the seeds – it can’t be for the joy of prying them off the towel where they’ve been drying (according to directions!).

Too late for my seeds, but it got me wondering what else I don’t know about pumpkins. A lot, it turns out.

Let’s start with the pumpkin itself (if you want to know how to cook fresh pumpkin, check out my post of a few years ago), here’s the nutritional breakdown:

Pumpkin Nutrition Facts
(1 cup cooked, boiled, drained, without salt)
Calories 49
Protein 2 grams
Carbohydrate 12 grams
Dietary Fiber 3 grams
Calcium 37 mg
Iron 1.4 mg
Magnesium 22 mg
Potassium 564 mg
Zinc 1 mg
Selenium .50 mg
Vitamin C 12 mg
Niacin 1 mg
Folate 21 mcg
Vitamin A 2650 IU
Vitamin E 3 mg

Notice the Vitamin A, not bad huh? And folate and fiber? Those are good numbers too. All the Vitamin A comes from the beta-carotene in the pumpkin. Bet you were already clued in to that fact due to the pumpkin’s bright orange skin. Bright colors always seem to be a good thing in vegetables. Brilliant how we were designed to be instinctively attracted to what is healthy for us. Too bad that also makes us reach for the M&M’s.

According to research, beta-carotene may reduce the risk of certain types of cancers and offer protection against heart disease. It also may help us avoid some aspects of degenerative aging. I’m all for that.

I’ve been reading lately on the benefits of selenium, plus B-complex vitamins found in pumpkin like folate and niacin. It’s all good (but I’ll save it for a later post). So cook up that pumpkin and make it in to bread, soup, ravioli (yum), or if you must – pumpkin pie.

Now back to those seeds I shouldn’t have rinsed. As I surfed over the internet this morning, I came upon site after site proclaiming that pumpkin seeds are miracle workers when it comes to prostate health! Who’d have thought? Apparently pumpkin seeds have been prescribed by alternative practitioners for years to alleviate difficult urination associated with enlarged prostate. Hmm. Good to know. But they also are believed to improve bladder function in general.

Here are a few more claims found repeatedly (for what it’s worth) on websites far and wide:

Depression Treatment
They contain L-tryptophan, a compound naturally effective against depression.


Prevention of Osteoporosis
Because they are high in zinc, pumpkin seeds are a natural protector against osteoporosis. Low intake of zinc is linked to higher rates of osteoporosis.


Natural Anti-Inflammatory
Pumpkin seeds effectively reduce inflammation without the side effects of anti-inflammatory drugs.


Prevention of Kidney Stones
They prevent calcium oxalate kidney stone formation, according to studies.


Treatment of Parasites
They are used in many cultures as a natural treatment for tapeworms and other parasites. Studies also show them to be effective against acute schistosomiasis, a parasite contracted from snails. (snails??)


Great Source of Magnesium
1/2 cup of pumpkin seeds contains 92% of your daily value of magnesium, a mineral in which most Americans are deficient.


Lower Cholesterol
Pumpkin seeds contain phytosterols, compounds that that have been shown to reduce levels of LDL cholesterol.


Cancer Prevention
The same phytosterols that lower cholesterol also protect against many cancers

While some of these claims may seem far-fetched, I saw nothing in my reading or online claiming that pumpkin seeds aren’t good for you. So at least we have some agreement.

Pumpkin seeds are also known as “pepitas” and look flat and green when you buy them in the bulk aisle. I grind them and add them to my whole wheat bread. They give it a sweet, nutty taste and add some more nutrients. I bet they’d be good in pastas and soups too.

So, if your jack-o-lantern was left with the candle burning too long, like mine, and is now blackened on the inside (adding carcinogens to cancel out all the good stuff), head out to the market or, better yet, the roadside stand and pick up a few pumpkins to cook. Starting tomorrow, they’ll probably be reduced for quick sale. It’s pumpkin season – don’t miss out on this nutritional windfall!