Chocolate Brownies Easy and Quick Gluten-Free, Vegan

Homemade Chocolate Brownies… mmm.

Jump to Chocolate Brownies Recipe.

Even though reducing our consumption of chocolate and sugar probably ought to be a priority for anyone wishing to have the least negative impact on their planet and body. Let’s be real, sometimes you just need to indulge and I’m not here to judge…

Let me paraphrase an eccentric sport and health coach who once said,

“Better a happy [Chocolate brownie] than a sad salad”.

So with that in mind, should one absolutely must… It’s much better for all involved to handmake these Chocolate Brownies from whole, fair and organic ingredients. That way, you have more control over the quality and quantities. Rather than buying dodgy mass-produced, mystery flavour-packs of pre-fabricated, questionable and chemically-laden products made by these faceless corporations, machines and robots that certainly don’t care about the planet or your well-being. No matter how many green and ‘nice’ keywords words figure on the packaging, homemade – with love by real people is always best.

On Fertile Future Freedoms

Today I am not uploading (yet another) archive post, nor am I bringing you new words from my being but actually words born of another that I recently discovered @slowdownfarmstead on Substack – if you resonate or feel moved to discuss, please also consider subscribing and supporting the author Tara using her links at the end of the post.

counterfeit comestibles

_{Written by Tara at Slowdown Farmstead for Substack}

So much of what I’m going to touch on here must be augmented with an understanding of the globalization of our planet and how the corporate players that got us into this hot mess are the same ones holding themselves up as messiahs of salvation. If we buy their solutions to the problems they created, we are headed into the dark wood without a compass. They hold up promises to get us out of our predicament, but only if we are dutiful and listen to what must be done. Of course, what must be done further ensures the destruction of our mother earth, our bodies and spirits, and the increasing serfdom of humans dependent on soylent green factory slop in order to live. There are some references at the bottom of this essay to help put some of this in context if what I’m writing seems in anyway far fetched to you. Please feel free to share your own so we can all continue to learn together.

Hair Like Water, Wavy Like the Sea

Hair. Straightened, bleached, coloured, curled, relaxed, suffocated under layers of toxic products, few are the women (and even men nowadays) who accept their natural hair or head as it is.

Marketing campaign after marketing campaign, product after product, they’ve destroyed our self-esteem, we’ve lost faith in our ability to love ourselves as we are, replaced it with the quest for an illusion that is ever-changing and most times, just out of reach.

Five a Day? Try Again.

Organic, in-season and locally grown by a lovely couple in the area

Most people suffer intense cognitive dissonance, they cannot accept that those up top, those running things on an international level and making decisions that concern most of us, do not care for us, or about us in the slightest.

The truth is that our global corporations, institutions, authorities, foundations and even charities of a certain notoriety are all motivated by power, control, money, growth and margins, and rarely by protecting our personal health and what is truly best for humanity in the longterm.

Choose Life

We can’t completely control how many chemicals we are exposed to, so why would we choose to add a whole load more with what we eat?

The water we drink and wash with has a surprising quantity of chemical residue from treatment plants, agriculture and pharmaceutical runoff, and bottled water isn’t any better. The plastic it is often stored in leeches chemical toxins and research has shown that most bottled water brands are no better than tap water anyway.

Health is Wealth

If you are worried about getting ill, start caring about what you consume and give your body the best chance of healing itself. Don’t let corporations cook for you.

Learn about the ingredients of the food you eat. Where did it come from? How is it made? What effect does it have on human cells and the body?

Relearning Health

Bioenergy – also known as prana, chi or vital energy – is what keeps the body alive and maintains an ideal state of health.

Bioenergy is available abundantly in local and in-season (therefore freshly picked) organic fruit and veg.

Processed foods: frozen, dried, canned, prepared, cooked, imported and anything that hasn’t just been picked from nature, ALL have diminished amounts of bioenergy or none whatsoever.

Peace, Presence and Passion

At times it can be tricky for us to be present with ourselves, others and the world as we are constantly being bombarded with thoughts and information. It isn’t always easy to decipher which passions are ours, or those of the collective.

Our unconscious takes us way back to our past, projects us far into the future, and leads us away from the place where we actually are right now.

We do many things without really paying attention. We listen to close-ones with our minds elsewhere. We traverse splendid landscapes without even seeing and rejoicing in the beauty of the world around us.

No real joy, nor quality of being, or relation can exist without a certain quality of presence.

Forbidden Rice

Riz noir de Camargue (organic and local).

Black rice aka forbidden rice was known in China as the Emperor’s rice because it was apparently kept from the lower classes. It’s extremely high in anthocyanins due to its dark hue, which means amazing nutritional value and antioxidants! 👌

I’ll be honest, I do actually prefer Asian rice but I don’t really like the idea of my food travelling the world to get to me. Nor do I appreciate long production and distribution chains where numerous abuses to people and planet are often hidden for greedy profits. For a few years now I’ve been trying to reduce my consumption of imported products for this very reason.

Camargue is known for its white horses and pink flamingoes but is also a rice-growing region here in France. This means I have a choice to avoid unnecessary and overly polluting distribution in buying locally grown rice.

Supermarket-Free February

Today’s post is to show my solidarity with the social media challenge #fevriersanssupermarche ‘No-Supermarket February’ – that means no supermarkets for a month! Food shopping is to be done at farmer’s markets and small greengrocers, butchers, organic, bulk or specialist food shops instead.

The aim is to detach people from the belief that they must fund overly polluting mega-nationals to survive, and return some cash flow into the smaller, local economies that help our communities thrive.