Chocolate Cookie Sandwiches

Thanks to Sydney on Instagram (@bigtasteleanwaist) for this great idea for making chocolate cookie sandwiches with Pines Wheat Grass

She says: "I followed @chocolatecoveredkatie's recipe for gluten free Oreo cookies and added a mint chocolate drizzle - melted vegan dark chocolate chips and added 1/4 tsp peppermint extract. I added 1/4 tsp Pines Wheat Grass powder to the coconut butter cream for the filling to make it green! Worked like a charm."

Ingredients

• 3/4 cup spelt, white, or oat flour
• 1/4 cup + 2 tbsp dutch cocoa powder - regular cocoa is fine; they just won’t taste as authentic
• 1/4 cup + 2 tbsp unrefined or regular sugar, or xylitol for sugar-free
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/4 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp pure vanilla extract
• 1/4 cup vegetable or coconut oil
• 3 tbsp milk of choice
• 2 tbsp pure maple syrup, honey, or agave
• vegan dark chocolate chips
• 1/4 tsp peppermint extract
• 1/4 tsp Pines Wheat Grass powder

Instructions

For the Oreo filling, beat together 1/2 cup powdered sugar or sugar free powdered sugar, 1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract, and 1/4 cup melted coconut butter OR non-hydrogenated shortening (such as Spectrum) or Earth Balance spread, either with beaters or a food processor, or patiently by hand, until completely smooth. 

For the mint chocolate drizzle - melt vegan dark chocolate chips and add 1/4 tsp peppermint extract and 1/4 tsp Pines Wheat Grass powder to the coconut butter cream for the filling to make it green!

For the Oreos, combine first 5 cookie ingredients, and stir very well. In a separate bowl, combine remaining ingredients for the cookies. Mix wet into dry to form a dough, then refrigerate 30 minutes before baking. Preheat oven to 300 F. Put dough in a plastic bag, and smush into one big ball. Remove from bag, roll into a thin dough, and cut flat circles using a circle cutter or a circle-shaped lid. Bake on a greased cookie tray for 10 minutes; they’ll still look a little underdone when they come out of the oven, but that’s okay. It’s important to allow them to cool 10 minutes before removing from the tray, as they firm up during this time. Put about a teaspoon of filling on half of the cookie discs, then top each with remaining cookie discs and refrigerate to set. Store in the fridge so the filling stays hard.

The original Katie's Gluten Free Oreo cookie recipe can be found here: https://chocolatecoveredkatie.com/2017/11/02/healthy-oreos/

There are many ways to incorporate high quality Pines Wheat Grass into your recipes.

All About Sydney…

Sydney is on Instagram as @Bigtasteleanwaist. Her slogan is "Transforming naughty treats into clean eats!" As a result, Sydney provides dozens of tasty recipes on Instagram and her website.

Sydney is from Vermont, birth place of Ben and Jerry’s ice cream excellent maple syrup and snow…lots and lots of snow. The pattern? Things that require cold temps! 

She is a hairstylist by trade and an improvisational actor/comedian. She's held a position on Vermont’s premiere Improv team, The Spark Arts Improv Troupe and is now studying improv at The Upright Citizens Brigade Theater in NYC. She has a passion for entertainment and laughing! Improv allows her to combine both of those things while keeping her mind quick and having an absolute BLAST!

She has been an athlete all her life with a focus on competitive running. In high school, she ran cross country 5Ks and now enjoys (using this term loosely, cuz we all know it’s a love/hate recreation) longer distances (up to 1/2 marathons).

In 2013, she ran for Miss Vermont USA. She had no prior experience and won 1^st runner up, Miss Congeniality and Miss Photogenic.  Long story short, her recipes have to be clean, lean and green. She hopes you love them as much as she does (and everyone else who has tasted them). If you’re on a journey to a healthier you or just want some delicious variation in your diet, her blog is sure to please!

Please click here to see all the recipes on Sydney's blog.

Pines Wheat Grass is NEVER Grown in Trays

The bottom picture shows the way Schnabel grew his wheatgrass compared to the top picture of growing it indoors.

No other wheatgrass grower follows the standards established in 1937 by Charles Schnabel.  Known as "the father of wheatgrass," Dr. Schnabel found that wheatgrass needs to be harvest at a special time.  That once-a-year time lasts only a few days in the early spring in northeast Kansas.  It occurs only after months of slow growth in often freezing temperatures. With roots going down a foot or more in rich glacial soil, Pines Wheat Grass (bottom picture) at harvest is still shorter than unnaturally-grown wheatgrass grown in trays (top picture). It is also shorter than wheatgrass from other farmers, who let it grow too tall in an effort to make bigger profits. Unfortunately, in their greed for more production per acre, they fail to capture the nutritional level that Schnabel and other scientists discovered in their research.

Curiously, books on wheatgrass often praise Schnabel's research and quote it to justify their claims but fail to follow his standards. Schnabel never grew wheatgrass in trays and never used juice. He supplied whole food grass powder to the doctorx and hospitals whose research is praised in books by Ann Wigmore and other authors.

Besides using our green super food powders in recipes, Pines' tablets and capsules are also available as a convenient and economical way to get more greens in your diet.  As a result, a rounded teaspoon of powder, seven tablets or six capsules provide the nutrition of a generous serving of spinach or kale.

Plastic is an Inappropriate Way to Package Nutrient-Rich Green Super Foods

Pines is also the only company to package in amber glass bottles with special metal caps that allow us to remove the oxygen from each bottle to protect against oxidation. That loss of nutrition and color occurs with cheaply produced green super food products in plastic tubs or paper packets.  The opposite occurs when removing the oxygen.  Without oxygen, oxidation cannot occur.  Consequently, we provide green super food powders as fresh as when packaged. The tight fitting caps allow you to seal the bottle between uses. Hence, the seals in the special metal caps and glass bottles ensure the freshest product both before you open it and after you open it.  With Pines you will always see a vibrant green color.  That' what you want to see in the filling for Sydney's chocolate cookie sandwiches!

Dating back to the 1930s, green food producers always packaged their green food powders in oxygen-free amber glass bottles to maintain high nutritional levels and vibrant color. About 20 years ago, brands began to capitalize on Pines success. In order to make more profit, they quit the 60-year tradition of appropriate oxygen-free packaging. Instead, they started packaging in cheap plastic containers made from fossil fuel.  These kinds of containers offer no protection from oxidation, which causes a loss of color and nutrition. You can see the color of popular "green" food brands in plastic tubs and packets compared to Pines in the picture above.  These poor quality products would not be attractive for chocolate cookie sandwiches

Find a Store Near You or Order Online

The Centers for Disease Control found that only one in ten people eat enough dark green veggies. They also found dark green veggies protect us from disease common to modern society.  That's why the USDA food plate (at left) made veggies the most important food group.

No matter how many vegetables you eat, you probably need more.  PINES products cost less than other vegetables and provide more nutrition. Use the powder for recipes like Sydney's chocolate cookie sandwiches or for a quick veggie serving, use tablets or capsules. Please use our store locator to find a location near you where you can buy Pines. Also, feel free to order online.