If it’s early May, then I’m baking while I still can! It’s not summertime yet in this mountain town and that means I’m still using my oven for another month at least. It’s also that time of year when the trails of San Gorgonio have a lot less snow. It’s time to get in a few long-distance hikes. After a winter season of suffering through the pain of a sprained ankle, I’m finally starting to feel better. I’m dying to hit the trails and hike again. I just need to pack some yerba mate tea in my thermos and some gluten-free cookies in my day pack.
It was six a.m. I had a thermos full of yerba mate tea, nature’s Ozempic, packed in my day pack, as well as just one of these cookies I was looking to inhale at the summit. Let’s face it, I’m in my mid-forties, and I’m not running up these 12,000-foot mountain peaks like I did in my twenties. I need some help from my old buddy caffeine. And maybe the inspiration of a trailside treat after sweating uphill for four hours.
What is yerba mate? Well, it’s a grassy tea (I never said it tastes good) from South America that tastes like the love child of green tea and an energy drink. Why is yerba mate basically your sassy new best friend in a cup—especially if you’re trying to lose a few pounds without selling your soul to kale?
This slightly earthy, vaguely herbal tea—beloved by South Americans and LA wellness influencers alike—is so good for you. You know that feeling when coffee turns you into a hummingbird on meth? Yeah, yerba mate doesn’t do that. It’s got just enough caffeine to wake you up, help you pretend to care about your inbox, and maybe, maybe go on that whole day hike your fitness app keeps passive-aggressively suggesting.
Yerba Mate is like coffee’s chill, boho cousin who listens to vinyl and does Reiki. She will show up in a Bernie Sanders shirt, won’t give you he
art palpitations, and she will help you survive Monday.
One of yerba mate’s magical powers is that it makes you feel full. Scientists think this might have something to do with how it messes with the hunger hormone ghrelin. (Yes, that’s a real name. Sounds like a troll who lives under a bridge, but no, it’s just a hormone that lives in your stomach.)
Thermogenesis: Fancy word for “burning fat while sitting there like a majestic potato.”
Yerba mate has compounds that can boost your metabolism and increase thermogenesis, which is your body’s way of burning calories just for existing. So basically, you’re losing weight by breathing. Dream come true? Absolutely. Yerba mate is loaded with polyphenols, which are antioxidants that fight off the evil free radicals trying to make you age like a banana left in the sun. Plus, they support your immune system, which is perfect because getting sick mid-keto lifestyle is how pizza sneaks back into your life.
Why yerba mate tea? Because life is short, your jeans are tight, and sometimes all it takes to feel like a functional adult is a hot beverage and a little metabolic voodoo. And also I’m sure, just like me you want to climb to a high elevation lake and spend your entire day off sweating and cursing your way up a mountain. Plus, there are gluten-free cookies to snack on once you reach that lake!
Just carrying yerba mate tea around makes you look like you know what intermittent fasting is and you might have done a juice cleanse once.
The Perfect Gluten-Free Nut Butter Cookie
3 teaspoons coconut oil, melted
2 teaspoons salted butter, melted
1/2 cup of cashew butter
2/3 cups of almond flour
1/4 cup coconut flour
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/4 cup powdered sugar
1/4 cup brown sugar
1 egg
1/8 teaspoon baking soda
1/8 teaspoon salt
Mix your coconut oil, softened butter, cashew butter, sugars and vanilla. Mix in the egg. Mix in the almond flour, salt, baking soda and coconut flour. Roll these into a ball and of course, you have to make the pound symbol on the top of them with a fork.
Preheat your oven to 325°F, and bake for 15 minutes.
