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If you haven’t noticed already, I highly recommend Nourishing Traditions by Sally Fallon, with Mary Enig. This book is available at my local library, it just might be available at yours.
This book opened my eyes to a lot of things. But I must say that the first time I checked it out, I was overwhelmed and didn’t even read it. It is so thick. Then I learned that it is mostly recipes. The portion on nutrition is only the first little bit, maybe 60 pages. That was doable to me. I have read that portion, now, over and over, each time gleaning new information.
The authors cover everything you need to know on the subject of fats, carbs, protein, vitamins, minerals, and enzymes, and more.
This is a general resource that everyone should check out, whether you’re just starting to eat healthy, or you grind your own wheat and make your own bread. 
This is something new I’m doing. I am going to issue a new challenge every month. The challenge will be for 7 days.
This month’s challenge is to cut out High Fructose Corn Syrup. Now this is only for 7 days. You will want to start checking your labels to see what foods have HFCS in them.
Why? Why do we care if there is HFCS in our diets? Isn’t it just sugar? A little sugar does no harm, right?
Well, all sugars are not equal. The closer a food is to how God created it, the better it is for you. Natural sugars contain enzymes, vitamins and minerals. Refined sugars are stripped of all that and rob your body of those things as they’re digested. If we’re going to chart things on a Great-Good-Bad-Worse chart, sugar would be bad, but HFCS is worse. You can’t make this stuff in your home kitchen. It actually takes battery acid to make and is reported to contain levels of mercury. Read this article on that subject.
Most of the junk food my generation grew up on was loaded with sugar, but the same foods today are loaded with HFCS instead. Could there be a link with this change and the rise in obesity rates?
So check your labels. I challenge you to cut this one ingredient out for just 7 days. Let me know if you have questions. Get creative. Remember, I didn’t say you had to cut out all sugar. If there is a food that you like that contains HFCS, make it from scratch with sugar instead.
I will report back here at the end of the 7 days and let you know what I’ve had to cut out. (Yes, I’m sure I’m ingesting some HFCS, too!) See you then!
This is my fourth entry in Personal Care 101. To read about deodorant, click here. To read about natural soap, click here. To read about toothpaste, click here.
Today I will talk about facial care products, cleanser, moisturizer, eye makeup remover, and lip balm.
First I will tell you where I came from and where I’m headed.
I had acne issues as a teen, but not tremendously terrible. I have had adult acne ever since. I don’t know if this ever goes away. It didn’t at 30, will it at 40 or 50? But I can say that this past year has been the best ever.
I started wearing makeup at 14 and was taught to do the full routine, liquid foundation, concealer, powder to set, eye shadow, eye liner, mascara, the whole nine yards. Over the years I became quite skilled at camouflaging blemishes. I’m sure this did not help the acne issue, but rather exacerbated it further.
Over the years I have tried every product under the sun and spent a load of money! Mary Kay, DHC, Arbonne, Murad, Proactive, to name a few. Some of them were awful–in addition to acne, my skin was VERY sensitive, some of these products would cause a rash. Some of them did work for a while, though. But it seemed it would last for so long and then maybe my skin became immune. Plus it wasn’t easy to drop $60 to $80 each time I needed new products! I dreamed of being able to buy whatever cheap cleanser was available at Walmart!
One day I hope to be able to go foundation-free. I do some days, more so in the summer. I now use Neutrogena Mineral powder makeup (which I’m sure isn’t as pure as some more expensive mineral makeups) and I think that has helped clear my skin a bit. Also, when I started eating better, I noticed a change in my skin. (Sugar and refined carbs cause inflammation.)
But I’ve been the most happy with this new product. If I freaked you out with the baking soda for toothpaste, brace yourself–I use castor oil on my face!
This is called the Oil Cleansing Method. The oil actually dissolves the oil that is clogging your pores! People typically use a mixture of castor oil and olive oil or jojoba oil. The ratios depend on your skin type. My skin is VERY oily (although it has toned done since using this oil). I use 3 parts of castor oil to 1 part jojoba oil. I used olive oil when I first tried this. I already have Extra Virgin Olive Oil in my kitchen (I hope you do, too!) and castor oil was only a few dollars at the store. Even if you’re a skeptic, it won’t cost you much to give this a try! You will find some great information here and here, and here. The latter is where I got my info.
I thought it was just something that came with age, but my pores had become so large and my skin was becoming more dull and rough feeling. Now my skin has a rosy glow and feels soft and smooth. My pores have shrunk significantly!
I pour about a nickel sized portion of oil into my palm and then spread the oil on my face. I massage it in for a minute, steam my face with a hot washcloth for a minute, then rub all the oil off, gently exfoliating with the cloth. I then will put a drop of oil on my palm and pat my face and neck with it as a moisturizer. That’s it! I used to be quite addicted to toners that contained salicylic acid, but I don’t need them anymore!
I was already familiar with using oil as a moisturizer, since I had used DHC and their main moisturizer is pure olive oil. If I ever get too much oil, I just pat it on my hands, elbows, anyplace that needs moisture. My face never feels greasy, just soft. In fact, it has helped balance my oil level. Our skin will produce extra oil if we keep stripping it with harsh cleansers. My face is still oily, but I can tell it is less so now.
I decided to try this oil as an eye-makeup remover. I first get some tissue handy and then pour about a dime size amount in my palm. I rub it on my lashes with my eyes closed. Then pat it off with the tissue. I don’t rub too hard, since the eye area is so fragile. I am very happy with this. It will vary depending on your mascara. I don’t use waterproof mascara. I am using a new mascara lately and sometimes I notice a little residue under my eyes, but I just take a Qtip, dipped in the oil, and wipe off the remaining residue. It’s okay to leave it on your eyes, since it’s your moisturizer, too. I just pat off any excess.
This oil makes a great lip balm. Castor oil is the main ingredient in lip gloss anyway. It is an oil that doesn’t soak in too quickly, keeping a nice shine.
I have even used it as a hand moisturizer and body lotion! I think I should probably use a different ratio for that, though.
Occasionally I’m lazy and I just wash my face with Kiss My Face soap, but I can tell the difference, it’s not as good as the oil cleansing. And occasionally I will use bentonite clay (mixed with water) as a mask, but it’s hardly necessary. I bought my bentonite clay, castor oil, and jojoba oil from Majestic Mountain Sage. They also sell inexpensive bottles, if you need a container for your oil mixture (or you could find a bottle in the travel section of the grocery store). Buy their small dropper bottle (I think they come in 1/2 oz. or 1 oz. sizes) and keep some oil handy in your purse, for your hands or lips!
Stay tuned next time, when I give details about hair care!
This post is part of the Real Food Wednesdays Blog Carnival, hosted by Cheeseslave and Kelly the Kitchen Kop. Follow this link to find out more great natural alternatives for beauty!
You can make this with raw or pasteurized milk, but raw milk will give you more benefits. This makes a nice, mild yogurt, not too sour. My daughter and I eat it plain, my son prefers some all-fruit jelly added to his. You could also sweeten with raw honey. Yogurt provides us with beneficial bacteria and protein. Plus, yogurt is very low in carbs!
This recipe is really easy; I think it takes be about 40 minutes at the most. Just read through the entire recipe before starting (and check out the pictures at the end of the article). Last time I made it, I also folded a load of towels at the same time J. I do this once a week to keep us supplied. It will make almost 2 quarts.
For the starter, I use Dannon Plain whole milk yogurt. Some say you can always save some of your yogurt to start another batch, but I have heard that it will not set up as firm each consecutive time. I buy a container of Dannon yogurt and then freeze it in an ice cube tray for later batches. I use ½ cup fresh yogurt or 4 yogurt cubes as my starter.
I pour 6 cups of milk into a two-quart saucepan and heat over medium heat on the stove until it reaches 180°F. I stir frequently (or rather, I whisk) and use a meat thermometer to accurately test the temperature.
Then I turn the heat off and cool my milk down to 110°F. You will kill your starter if you add it to milk that is heated to 115°F or higher. To cool down quickly I set my pan over a plate of ice and constantly stir or whisk it. When the temp is at 110°F, I then stir in the starter (see above). This will bring the temperature down a bit. If I’m using the yogurt ice cubes I will actually add them at 120°F, since they will bring the temperature down quite a bit. You want the temperature to be 100°F when you are ready to pour into your jars. If it has dropped below this, just put it back on the stove and gently warm it, stirring constantly. If it’s a little about 100°F, don’t worry; it will cool when you put it in the jars. Now you are ready to pour into quart jars and put on the lids.
You need to keep this warm for 6 hours. Some people will put them in the oven with the light on. I don’t think my oven stays warm enough for that. Some people will put them on a heating pad and wrap them in towels. I put mine in a little cooler. Before I start the process I will fill the cooler halfway with hot water to get it warm. Then I dump the water out right when I’m ready to put the jars in. I will put the jars in and pack a few hand towels around and on top of them to insulate even more. Then I set the timer for 6 hours. When it goes off I take the yogurt out and chill it overnight before we eat it.
Homemade yogurt has more of a custard-like texture than store-bought yogurt (I am speaking of plain store-bought, not fruit flavored). This is because the manufacturer has added powdered milk to thicken it up. Store-bought plain yogurt is not a food to avoid, but it is a compromise food; homemade is ideal. Powdered milk is processed milk and you know what I say, “If God created it, it is healthy; if man has processed it, it is unhealthy.” According to Nourishing Traditions, by Sally Fallon, “commercial dehydration methods oxidize cholesterol in powdered milk, rendering it harmful to the arteries. High temperature drying also creates large quantities of cross-linked proteins and nitrate compounds, which are potent carcinogens, as well as free glutamic acid, which is toxic to the nervous system. (pg. 35)” So powdered milk is something you want to stay away from. Powdered milk is added to skim, 1%, and 2% milk to give it body, also to yogurt to thicken it, and many other packaged food items.
I like thick, creamy yogurt, so I strain some whey out of mine. Plus I need the whey anyway; I use it in my oatmeal, pickles, sauerkraut, and more. You can place some cheesecloth in a wire strainer set over a bowl and fill it with yogurt. Cover it and place it in the refrigerator for an hour or more (I usually leave overnight). I buy unbleached coffee filters (basket-style) from Whole Foods and use them instead of cheesecloth. The longer you let the yogurt strain, the easier it will be to turn it out of the cloth or filter. I strain some of the yogurt and then mix it with some that is unstrained. You will have to play with it to get the thickness you are looking for. I usually end up with a little more than half the amount I originally made. But it’s worth it, to me. It’s oh so creamy and delicious! If you want to make dip out of it, just strain more whey out of it. Some use strained yogurt in place of cream cheese, too.
When I first picked up Nourishing Traditions by Sally Fallon (as I mentioned in My Food Journey) I just read through the nutrition information, I didn’t really pay much attention to the recipes. Quite frankly, a lot of them looked odd to me, leaving things out on the counter for days to ferment and such. Kombucha was one of those things—this weird drink that you could only make if you had a special “mushroom”.
Well, as I also mentioned in My Food Journey, I grew a lot while I was a member of the discussingNT Yahoo Group. A support group really is a great thing! People there were talking about kombucha all the time. One day someone mentioned they were giving away the mushrooms, really called SCOBYs. So, about a year ago, I sent this kind lady some postage and she sent me a starter. I have been making the drink ever since.
I don’t drink soda (maybe once a year at a restaurant), almost never drink coffee, and rarely drink hot tea. I enjoy my raw milk daily, but mostly drink water. Kombucha is a nice alternative drink I can enjoy that is healthy at the same time. To me, the drink tastes appley and tangy. Sometimes it has some carbonation. (You can actually work on increasing the carbonation, but I don’t bother.) Some say it tastes like apple cider vinegar, I would say it is reminiscent, yet not quite so sour. Others say it has a wine taste. You have the ability to make it as sweet or sour as you like, but the longer you let it ferment, the less sugar/carbs it has in it.
What is kombucha? (I say kom BOOK a, but there is debate on the pronunciation.) It is sweetened tea that has been allowed to ferment. This is where it is going to sound weird, we know sugar isn’t good for us, BUT the SCOBY (Symbiotic Colony of Bacteria and Yeast) feed on the sugar and the caffeine in the tea and produce glucuronic acid. (The end product tastes nothing like sweet tea.) I use a mixture of black tea and green tea to make mine. (Only organic to avoid fluoride and other toxins.) The acid lightens the tannins of the tea, also, so it is a lighter color. Besides the glucuronic acid, Kombucha contains B vitamins, protein, and probiotics.
Your liver normally produces this glucuronic acid to neutralize toxins, but in today’s world we are overloaded with toxins so drinking Kombucha can boost our liver’s detox ability. Because this drink is clearing your system of toxins you need to start out with a small amount each day and slowly increase. When I started drinking it I would feel a very slight headache in the forehead and a slight neck ache and aches in my kidney area (it flushes through the kidneys). (I have a theory that it was flushing the lymph system also, since I had neck muscle aches.) These side effects never lasted very long and they weren’t at all severe, just slight. They did last for a couple months, though. I almost thought that maybe the drink wasn’t agreeing with me and was about to stop, but then the side effects stopped, the sign that the toxins were gone. Some don’t have any side effects whatsoever, though. Perhaps I was quite toxic!
You can read about the wonders of Kombucha on the Internet or in books. I checked out a couple at my local library. One in particular makes it sound like a cure-all. Perhaps if you are in severely poor health you will find that Kombucha does wonders. For me I wouldn’t say it’s a cure-all, but then, I wasn’t in severely poor health, either. I feel more energy when I drink it (maybe the B vitamins) and I feel it releases a bit of water retention. When I eat carbs I hold water, but the Kombucha seems to balance that out for me. Some believe that by eating certain foods our bodies become too acidic, but others don’t. The people that do go along with this theory tell us that animal protein makes us acidic, but veggies alkalinize us, carbs (like bread, pasta, cereal) make us too acidic, but acidic foods like citrus fruit, vinegar, pickles, sauerkraut, and plain yogurt will alkalinize us. Kombucha fits into this category of foods that are acidic, but in our bodies they bring us back into balance. I don’t know if this theory is right or not, but I do know that I feel better when I drink Kombucha. On a side note, when I watched King Corn I learned that the modern treatment of cattle is very poor—they are kept in small quarters, not allowed to graze on their natural diet of grass, but are fed corn/soy feed. The result is that these cows die early from acidosis. Hmmm—cows eating refined carbs, rather than grass (our version of veggies), and their systems become too acidic? Perhaps the acid/alkaline theory is correct. Whether it is or whether it isn’t, guess what? The foods that keep us in balance are whole foods that aren’t processed! If God created it….
I will add that I believe you can have too much of a good thing. There are some that say there are no limits with Kombucha, there are others that say the limit should be 8 ounces a day. I worked myself up to quite a bit a day, around 20 to 24 ounces. I have been dealing with, what I feel is, a mineral deficiency ever since I gave birth to my 3 year old and I noticed the symptoms return when I was consuming this high amount of Kombucha. I have backed off to an average of 8 ounces a day and am fine. I really hope this won’t scare anyone off. I had these same symptoms if I drank too much water daily, too. I feel that too many years of whole grains (not properly prepared), sugar, and distilled water stripped my system of minerals.
If you would like to learn more about this unusual drink, click on these links.
Gunther Frank – lots of info here
(You don’t have to make quite as large batches as him, though.)
If you would like to try making your own, let me know and I will get you a free starter. (If you’re out of state, I will ask that you cover postage.)
Any questions, just let me know.
If you are just now joining this blog, you will want to read Part 1 and Part 2 of My Food Journey.
Here I pick up with what I learned from my research into lowcarb dieting. I learned many things. I learned about how our body releases insulin and about the insulin rollercoaster. I learned more about how important protein is. I learned about the glycemic index and how we can lower the glycemic index of the carbs that we eat by including fat and/or fiber. But the thing that was most enlightening was that fat is not evil!!! This thrilled me, to say the least—I do love my butter! I learned that there are good fats and bad fats and I learned what trans fats are.
This information made me feel great that I was raised on the good fats, butter, cream, and red meat, so I wanted to know more. I picked up a book called, Know Your Fats, by Dr. Mary Enig. This is the definitive guide to fat. I learned about Omega-3s, Omega-6s, saturated, polyunsaturated, and monounsaturated oils; and much more. Everything you wanted to know about fatty acids can be found in this book. Dr. Enig was pushing the FDA to include trans fats on food labels YEARS before they actually did. She is a champion of healthy fats. It was all starting to make sense to me. As a child I was told that hydrogenated oils were bad, but now I was learning why.
This started an obsession for me. I kept reading and researching and learning, I couldn’t get enough! This is the point that I started to make changes to my diet. I threw out all the margarine, Smart Select butter, shortening, trans fat peanut butter (Skippy, Jif, Peter Pan), and starting scrutinizing labels. At this point trans fats were not labeled on food labels. I checked out the book, The Trans Fat Solution by Kim Severson and Cindy Burke. This is a really short informative book that tells you why trans fats are bad, but also how to tell if food contains it. With this knowledge, now I know the REAL way to tell if an item has trans fats in it and guess what? It’s not by looking at the gram listings.
Some time after this I found the book, Nourishing Traditions by Sally Fallon. This book is really big, most of it being recipes. The first time I checked it out from my library I just read the nutrition information, it was really eye opening. I kept checking it out from our library and kept reading new things in it. After borrowing it from the library about ten times I decided it was time to buy it. This book opened my eyes to phytates, the substance that is in grains that leaches minerals from our bodies. I then started playing around with whole-wheat sourdough. I learned all about raw dairy in this book and then quit buying pasteurized dairy products and started making my own yogurt. From this book I learned how important animal protein is so I started making my son eat meat at dinnertime. He never liked meat very much and I convinced myself he was healthy if he had peanut butter and eggs. Not so after reading Sally Fallon’s book. (He enjoys most meat now.) J
About a year ago I joined the Yahoo group discussingnt; these are all folks that have read Nourishing Traditions. This really helped me along in my changes. I started making a lot more changes when I joined that group. There is something to be said for support, whether that is a friend, or an Internet discussion board, or even a private journal (this at least helps with accountability). Anyway, I saw that there are so many real foods that we’re missing out on because of mass marketing. According to FDA safety guidelines, food must be sealed in order to be shipped and sold on a mass scale. This is good because it prevents rotten food from being sold, but the bad news is that this process kills the nutrients in those items. (Moral: We should be getting our food locally.) So I started making my own naturally fermented sauerkraut, dill pickles, ginger carrots, and beet kvass. When these items are let to naturally ferment and then stored in the refrigerator instead of heat-sealed through traditional canning methods they are alive and full of nutrients and beneficial bacteria. Also while I was a part of that discussion group I started making Kombucha and still drink it practically every day.
Other changes I have made include less cooking with olive oil, I do use it on salad, on pasta, and to dip bread in. It is a very healthy oil when it is cold, but it will get damaged when heated. I do most of my cooking with butter and some with coconut oil. When I switched to lowcarb eating I learned to like a lot more veggies, since veggies have a lower glycemic index than breads and pastas. Thankfully when my husband went on his diet we cleared the cupboards of the snack cakes and boxed macaroni and cheese. He had quit drinking soda and Kool-Aid many years before. He switched to Baked Lays in his diet days and I have since got him to switch to plain corn chips (Baked Lays are about as processed as you can get). I have since got him off the granola bars; I now make him muffins to take to work for breakfast. I now make our own lunchmeat from boneless, skinless chicken breasts, rather than buying processed lunchmeat. He lost his weight by really watching his portion intake and cutting most fat out. Since I learned all about healthy fat, I now feed him lots of fat in his meals and he hasn’t gained any of the weight back. He still watches his sugar intake. I take coconut oil daily now. I started taking cod liver oil last fall. I occasionally take a probiotic supplement, but I feel I am getting a lot of beneficial bacteria from my homemade yogurt, Kombucha, and naturally fermented veggies. I started making my own sour cream and buttermilk (more beneficial bacteria). I have switched to aluminum-free baking powder (Rumford). About a year ago I stopped using commercial shampoo, conditioner, bar soaps, shower gels, lotions, and facial cleansing products (I’ll give more details in a later post) because of the chemical content. I switched from drinking distilled water to filtered water (spring is best, we’re just not there yet). And I use plastics a lot less now, I’m not completely away from them, but I am taking my babysteps.
Now keep in mind that all these babysteps I took were over a period of years, this really all started about 6 years ago. I’m just hoping that my list will inspire you and encourage you in your changes.
Looking back over my food journey shows me 1) I ate pretty good as a child, but there was a high level of phytates, which I think accounts for my dealings with mineral deficiencies now and 2) it is SO important to teach your kids about healthy eating and why you choose to eat what you eat. I wasn’t taught and had to educate myself as an adult after eating poorly for about 10 years. It may look like I have come full circle and now eat the way I did as a kid, but there are a few differences. I watch my carb intake; I don’t eat a lot of breads and pastas. Even if you’re choosing all whole-grain bread products you can still go overboard, remember, balance is key. We ate a LOT of grains in our family; my blood sugar just can’t handle that now. I feed my kids more carbs than I eat, but I do make sure they are getting animal protein every day.
The journey doesn’t end here—it goes on and on. We all should never stop growing, never stop learning, and never stop changing!
Update: I forgot to mention that I have started soaking some grains, we eat soaked old fashioned oatmeal once a week and soaked multi-grain pancakes on occasion.
Last week I started detailing my background with food and what changes I have made. If you haven’t read it, click here.
Even before I got married my metabolism started slowing down. Growing up, I felt like I could eat as much of anything I wanted and never gain weight. It wasn’t too long after high school graduation, though, that this way of eating started to catch up with me. I’m sure the desk job didn’t help, either.
I let this go on for a few years. In reality, I just didn’t really notice the weight gain; I guess it just happened so slowly. I don’t think I owned scales back then, either. Then I got pregnant with my first child. This is when I learned how important protein was. I started paying attention to food labels to make sure I was getting my daily requirement of this important nutrient.
After I had my son, the pounds started melting off. Nursing really burned the calories for me and I was now more active taking care of a baby rather than sitting at a desk all day. Looking back, I also think that sitting at the desk all day was bad in another way—it was very conducive to snacking. So anyway, it was then that I realized just how much weight I had put on. I looked back at pictures and saw that I didn’t want to be that size again.
I nursed my son for 18 months and my husband told me one day, “You’re not going to be able to eat like that once you quit nursing!” And he was right! (I have always had a big appetite. J) I slowly started putting the weight back on. When my son was two years old my husband decided to lose the extra weight that he had gained in our marriage. He successfully lost 35 pounds and has kept it off for 6 years. At some point after this I decided I needed to get a handle on my weight so I decided to cut way back on my fat intake.
Right here I will backtrack a bit. Like I said in part one of this series, I grew up eating plenty of fat in the form of butter, cream, whole milk, and red meat. It wasn’t until I had moved out on my own that everyone around me told me that was bad. I would eat in the cafeteria at work with my coworkers and they always had comments for me about the evils of fat. I would pile the butter and sour cream on my baked potato higher than anyone—that always solicited comments. I ignored their comments because I was young and all my family was thin and, as I said above, I didn’t notice my weight gain. I think it’s safe to say that most young people don’t care much about their health.
So a few years later, when I wanted to lose a few pounds, all those comments about fat came back to my mind. So I tried dieting for the first time in my life. I would eat a packet of instant oatmeal for breakfast; I think the label said it had 2 grams of fat in it. Then for lunch I would grab a granola bar for 6 grams of fat. I ate normal dinners, but I tried to cut back on the portions. But it wasn’t working! I was STILL slowly gaining weight and I was STARVING all the time!!! I felt awful to say the least, so I gave up.
At some point I decided to give low-carb dieting a try. I had seen others eat low-carb and it certainly didn’t seem healthy, all that bacon and cheese! But it did seem to be working for me, so I thought I would do some research. I checked out numerous books from the library, Living the Low Carb Life by Jonny Bowden, The Zone by Dr. Barry Sears, The South Beach Diet book, and Suzanne Somer’s Somersize book. My thinking was, perhaps I could eat low-carb AND low-fat and be healthier.
I learned a lot from all that research. Want to know what I found out? Tune in next week…
Need a quick breakfast or snack? Instead of reaching for a granola bar, keep these on hand. Refer to the Epiphany article to see why you don’t want to eat granola bars. I feel like I’m always the bearer of bad news, but I have to tell you that muffin mixes in the boxes or pouches have trans fats in them and/or they call for unhealthy vegetable oils. Making muffins from scratch is just as easy; it may only take 5 extra minutes. On a side note, please know that I don’t tell everyone to make things from scratch to be like a Martha Stewart. I wasn’t raised to eat packaged, processed food, but I easily slipped into eating them all the time once I was on my own because I was not educated about why we ate whole foods at home. Now that I have educated myself I am on a mission to educate others and show how making things from scratch is easy, but also much better for you.
I make one batch of these each weekend for my husband to take for breakfast in the car on the way to work. He thinks they taste like Twinkies, I suppose that’s a compliment?! I can handle them with less sugar. If you want, you can try 3 tablespoons of each sugar. Muffin recipes (quick-breads) are really easy to tweak.Preheat oven to 400°F. Butter a muffin pan. You can make 12 small muffins, 8 med-large muffins, or 6 extra large muffins that really hang over the top (I make 8). Note: I use a stoneware muffin pan, so cook time may vary slightly.
Mix together in a large bowl:
2 Cups all-purpose flour
¼ cup white sugar
¼ cup dark brown sugar
1 Tablespoon baking powder (I prefer Rumford, it’s aluminum-free)
1 teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon cinnamon
Melt 4 tablespoons butter, let cool and set aside.
In a smaller bowl beat 1 egg and add:
1 cup unsweetened applesauce
¼ cup milk (preferable whole)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract (or almond is good, too)
Then slowly drizzle in the melted butter as you are whisking the liquid ingredients.
Then pour the liquid ingredients into the dry ingredients and stir just until combined. Spoon into the muffin pan and bake for 25 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean.
If you want to make these healthier you can replace half the flour with whole-wheat pastry flour (soft wheat), anything more and they will be dense, but feel free to experiment. If you want a more natural sweetener, I suggest Sucanat or Rapadura (one and the same). Sucanat/Rapadura is REAL sugar; click the link to see how this sugar differs from the refined product we’re used to. It is unrefined, truly a whole food product. I like to use it in muffins and especially oatmeal, mmm! It is a stronger flavor, since the molasses isn’t separated out, but it also retains its vitamins and minerals, unlike refined sugar. Take your babysteps, make these muffins, then try them with less sugar, then try them with a little whole-wheat flour and then try a natural sweetener. Don’t try to jump too far ahead, too quickly.
Part of the advantage these muffins have over granola bars is their fat content. (I even eat these with more butter spread on them.) If you haven’t read my article on fat, you simply must, it is a foundational point. Fat will give you energy for longer and will help slow the absorption of sugar and carbs into your bloodstream, thus keeping your insulin at a steady level. When your insulin spikes up, it comes back down rapidly, causing a crash and making you feel hungry, irritable, tired, lightheaded, headachy, and sometimes nauseous. (We especially don’t want our children to experience this, can you say cranky? Yet, children eat these foods all the time, perhaps they would behave better on healthier foods?) So you typically reach for another carb item to snack on and go through the whole roller coaster again. This blood sugar roller coaster is one I knew all too well and now take precaution to avoid (now that I know how). My secret weapon is fat. Fat does not make you fat and if you are eating healthy fat, like butter, it will not harm your heart or arteries, either. A few years ago I heard a nutritionist, at a meeting, say that we should NEVER eat sugar without fat. I took that message to heart and it has cured me of the blood sugar roller coaster. (Keep in mind, too, that by sugar I mean ALL carbs, because they are made up of different sugars or are broken down into sugars during digestion.) If I have a carb, even fruit, I HAVE to eat fat with it. If I eat an apple, I eat it with peanut butter or cheese, or else I will be starving in an hour (often with lightheadedness and nausea). If I eat a dessert, I choose richer desserts, like cheesecake, etc. I have found, too often, that if I eat a dessert with little or no fat it will make me feel terrible. I have also discovered that I can eat really small meals if I want (usually lunch) as long as I include a healthy portion of fat. This way I can keep on top of my weight and that’s always an added plus!
I know what you’re thinking, a blog about health including a recipe for dessert? Sugar IS one of our biggest enemies, but we are taking babysteps away from it. If you cut out all sugar today, I guarantee you would not be able to stick with it for life. It takes time to cut out sugar from our diets. The very first step is to stop buying packaged desserts. All those box mixes, refrigerated cookie doughs, and boxed snack cakes have deadly trans fats and high fructose corn syrup. I’m not telling you never to eat another cookie again, but please make them at home, with butter; they will be better for you!
I don’t “health-up” my desserts. I have memories of whole wheat and honey treats as a child and they just aren’t the same. My answer is to limit myself. We should practice moderation in all areas. Our family enjoys a movie and treats on Sunday nights. We always make popcorn, this helps us eat less sweets. Most of the time we have cookies with it and I only bake as many as I want us to eat. This way there are no leftovers to tempt us to overeat or indulge the next day! We can freeze the rest of the dough for another day. I always freeze my cookie dough in a log shape so I can get it out and slice just as many cookies as I want.
I have searched long and hard to find recipes for cake and brownies that taste as good as box mixes. My husband loves how the box mixes taste; I hate how unhealthy they are, so I was very glad when I found this recipe for brownies that we both agreed on. This recipe is really very easy. I can have the batter mixed up before the oven is even done pre-heating. There are no special tools required and no chopping of chocolate (that’s not fun). These brownies are the type with the crackly layer on top. I adapted this recipe from an Alice Medrich recipe; she is the queen of chocolate. So this Valentine’s enjoy a homemade sweet treat!
Brownies
8 oz. Semi-sweet chocolate chips (on my digital scale this came to 1 1/3 cups in a Pyrex liquid measuring cup)
6 Tablespoons unsalted butter, cut up
3 eggs
1 cup sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
¼ teaspoon salt
1/3 cup plus 1 Tablespoon all-purpose flour
Heat oven to 350°F. Line 8-inch square baking pan with foil. Grease the foil with butter and any parts of the pan that are exposed. Place chocolate chips and 6 tablespoons butter into a microwave-safe dish and heat just until nearly melted, stir to melt the rest of the way (this only takes 1 minute in my microwave, I stir halfway through).
Beat eggs, sugar, vanilla, and salt in medium bowl at high speed 2 minutes or until thick and light-colored, with a hand-mixer. At low speed, beat in melted chocolate until combined. Fold in flour.
Spoon the batter into pan. Bake 25 to 30 minutes or until edges are puffed and slightly cracked and toothpick inserted 2 inches from edge comes out with a few moist crumbs attached. Cool completely on wire rack (center will sink slightly).
As far as I can tell*, potatoes give us a nice amount of potassium, but did you know that butternut squash has almost the same amount of potassium, plus it has more fiber, calcium (almost 4 times as much, 10 times if you skin your potatoes), magnesium, vitamin C, folate, and it’s real claim to fame is that it is high in vitamin A. If you’re watching your carbs, butternut squash is lower than potatoes. The vitamin A contained in butternut squash is in the form of beta-carotene. Your body converts the beta-carotene into retinol, but it won’t do that unless you are eating plenty of fat with your meal. (Read more here.) So eat your squash with butter or try this recipe that calls for olive oil.
2 Tb olive oil
1 Tb minced garlic – yes, a tablespoon, mmm!
1 ½ pounds butternut or other winter squash, peeled and cubed (1/2 to 1-inch)
¼ cup chicken, beef, or veggie stock, or water (I used water)
salt and pepper, to taste
Minced fresh parsley leaves for garnish (I just used dried Italian herbs)
Place olive oil and garlic in a large, deep skillet and turn the heat to medium. When the garlic begins to color, add the squash, stock or water, salt, and pepper. Bring to a boil, cover, and turn the heat to low. Cook, stirring once or twice, until the squash is tender, about 15 minutes.
Uncover the pan and turn the heat to medium-high. Cook, shaking the pan occasionally and stirring somewhat less often, until all the liquid is evaporated and the squash has begun to brown, 5 to 10 minutes. Turn the heat to low and cook until the squash is as browned and crisp as you like. I was using a stainless steel pan and my squash kept sticking to the pan so it didn’t get very brown, but was very good anyway. I think I had the heat too high, though; I kept it on med-high. I also used more than 1 ½ pounds of squash; I should have used more oil. Anyway, it was great.
Taste and adjust seasoning, garnish, and serve.
*I got the nutrition information from the USDA nutrient database.
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