The Adventures of a 50 Cent Cookbook

I am baking a cookie recipe from this book as I type. It is the second cookie recipe, and the 4th recipe total. I found this book at a local book sale and bought it for 50 cents. If you look closely you will notice that it says Recipes From the Weimar Kitchen. So what is this "Weimar Kitchen"? Well about 20 minutes from here in a town called Weimar (original huh?) there is a wellness institute that has a program called Newstart. Newstart offers a proven alternative to the treatment and prevention of degenerative diseases such as; Atherosclerosis, Coronary heart disease, hypertension, Stress, Obesity, Diabetes, Arthritis, Chronic Pulminary Disease.

Pretty awesome huh? So what does this cookbook consist of? What is it's magic healing potion? Well it is a vegan diet and none of the recipes contain cholesterol, free fat, or refined sugars. So for example..say you are making a pesto. Instead of using olive oil, the recipe would call for whole olives. Pretty awesome concept I would say. You get more fiber and nutrients that way. Go Weimar. So for these cookies there is also no refined sugar. I will leave you the recipe below. Because upon this tasty bite I would say the are quite cookielicious.

Perhaps the most surprising thing is that this book was published in 1992, before I even knew what nutrition was, and the institute is run by Christians. (Christians love their meat ). You really don't come across many vegan christians. Technically I think they are 7th Day Adventists though, which maybe I should just be a 7th Day Adventist huh? These people were way ahead of our times and this cookbook looks like it could of been published yesterday. ( minus the awesome yellow pages and 90's clipart.)  I think another thing that drew me to this book is that I remember my friends mom used to cook out of it occasionally and take cooking classes from Weimar. Back then of course I was taught that it was a weird place to go and laughed at my friend for having black bean burgers for dinner. Little did I know that I was missing out. 

Check out these sparklin tubnotes

Yep delish Sooo for the recipe.

Okay so I made a few Alterations...
Column #1
1 1/4 cup water
1 cup of raw cashews or walnuts
1 Cup of pitted dates
2 teaspoons of Vanilla
1/2 teaspoon of salt

Column #2
1 1/4 cup Sourghum flour or brown rice flour ( I did this to make it gluten free but you can use whole wheat flour )
1 cup carob chips ( I just used vegan/gluten free chocolate chips )
1 Cup of raisins

Blend cashews and water until very smooth, then add remaining ingredients in first column and continue blending until very smooth. Pour into a mixing bowl and add remaining ingredients. Mix well. Drop by tablespoon onto sprayed cookie sheets. Bake at 350 for 20 minutes. ( you might need to adjust that )

Try them! I know they are super weird and I was skeptic myself...but they are good. I promise.

Happy Baking!