Holiday Nuts

With the holidays upon us it is the season for parties and get-togethers. These kinds of holiday foods are usually hard to digest, full of processed sugar and refined carbohydrates. These kind of foods will stick to your waist at the best and at the worst potentially degenerate your immunity and health. So what do you do? When I go to I like to bring along a healthy snack to share if I can and one of my favorite things to bring are nuts. They contain fiber and healthy fats so they keep me full and help keep me from snacking on other less healthy options. Nuts also prevent my blood sugar from crashing mid-way through the evening, something I struggle with more now that I am nursing.

So I go out and buy a can of nuts from the store and am ready to go, no not really. Nuts contain a compound called phytic acid that binds up minerals and prevents the nuts from being properly digested. It is a defense mechanism that all tree nuts have to keep animals from eating the ripe fruits. The good news is that you can still eat nuts,  all you have to do is soak them in water with a Tbs of salt! Each kind of nut requires a different amount of time soaking in salt water. At this point you can rinse them off and eat them soggy or if you are like me and prefer crispy nuts then you will want to dehydrate them at around 200 degrees in an oven or dehydrator.

• Almonds: soak for 12 hours, dehydrate for 15 hours
• Brazil nuts: soak for 12 hours, dehydrate for 18 hours
• Cashews: soak for 6 hours, dehydrate for 15 hours
• Hazelnuts: soak for 8 hours, dehydrate for 12 hours
• Macadamia nuts: soak for 4 hours, dehydrate for 12 hours
• Pecans: soak for 8 hours, dehydrate for 12 hours
  
• Pine nut: soak for 8 hours, dehydrate for 12 hours
• Walnuts: soak for 8 hours, dehydrate for 12 hours

Once you have properly soaked and dehydrated your nuts you can make a yummy mix like this to take to your party.

Rosemary Nuts

• 2 1/2 cups mixed nuts (that have been soaked and dehydrated!)
• 2 Tbs melted butter
• 1/8 cup coconut sugar
• 1 tsp sea salt
• 2-3 drops rosemary essential oil
• 1/2- 1 tsp of cayenne pepper 

Pre heat your oven to 350 degrees and spread your nuts on a baking sheet.

Roast the nuts for ten minuets until they are starting to brown.

While nuts are roasting mix the butter, sugar and rosemary oil together till sugar is dissolved. (I skipped this portion and my coconut sugar never completely melted and adhered to the nuts so learn from my mistakes!)

When nuts are nice and golden, remove from the oven and put in a mixing bowl with the butter mix and salt and cayenne. Mix it all together till all the nuts are coated.

These are really good warm or when they are cooled off.

Enjoy and nurture your friends and family this advent season, be blessed!
                                                                  The Farmer in the Dell