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Thank you everyone for participating in this month’s Mystery Food guessing game. Most of the responses were on facebook, so I will list them here. Here are the guesses:
- canned buttercream frosting
- ice cream
- pudding
- sweetened condensed milk
- Miracle Whip
- caramel ice cream topping
Caramel ice cream topping was SO close! Good job! This happens to be Marzetti’s Light Caramel Apple Dip.
Let’s review these ingredients again:
HIGH FRUCTOSE CORN SYRUP, CORN SYRUP, NON FAT MILK, POLYDEXTROSE, MODIFIED CORN STARCH, BUTTER (MILK, CREAM, SALT), SUGAR, LESS THAN 2% OF: DISODIUM PHOSPHATE, SALT, PARTIALLY HYDROGENATED SOYBEAN OIL, NATURAL AND ARTIFICIAL FLAVORS, POTASSIUM SORBATE (PRESERVATIVE), MONO AND DIGLYCERIDES.
Is nothing made from good old-fashioned sugar anymore? Everything is high fructose corn syrup based. Notice it’s the first ingredient, meaning, of all the ingredients, this one is the highest quantity. Then corn syrup. Sugar is the 7th ingredient listed. And then…aaaah!–partially hydrogenated soybean oil–this is the trans fat we talked about, just the other day. Mono and diglycerides are also trans fat.
But you may be thinking, it’s a treat, all treats are bad for us. We can have a little, right?
There are levels of bad. If you were to make your own caramel dip (not that hard) at home, you would use sugar, butter, cream, salt, vanilla, and maybe a little corn syrup (I use Griffin’s since it lists corn syrup and sugar syrup on the label, not high fructose corn syrup). These ingredients are much better for you. (Note, I did not say “healthy”, but better. For more information, check out my Ladder of Healthy Eating.)
This is an October treat for us, we don’t eat it all the time. I used to buy the Marzetti dip. No more, we are taking our steps up the ladder. Checkout any good cookbook for a recipe for real caramel. Make some at home. I especially like Mark Bittman’s How to Cook Everything and The Joy of Cooking. Real food–this is what grandma lived to 90 on!
Little late here with my update on the trans fat challenge–been busy!
Well, trans fat is probably the number one thing I look out for. I avoid it like the plague. I don’t just look for the grams of trans fat listed on the label (it’s often not correct), I look at the ingredients list and check for partially hydrogenated oils. That’s the true tell. So, I don’t have a lot in my house that contains it. The only staple I can think of is flour tortillas. Some day I will get around to making my own, but for now I still buy them. However, I abstained during the challenge. 
My family wanted Oreos with our movie night. In the past I bought Newman’s Own Newmanos, because the cream filling was trans fat free. Since companies are now required to label trans fat, Oreos has reformulated their product. They couldn’t risk everyone knowing just how many grams of trans fat their product contained. So now I will buy them about twice a year. The other night I indulged in one cookie.
Other things that come to mind are peanut butter. I buy Smucker’s Natural because it truly only contains peanuts and salt. Don’t be fooled by the other brands that try to say they don’t contain trans fat. They do, and they’re loaded with sugar.
Many bread products have trans fat added to soften them–sandwich bread, hamburger buns and hot dog buns. Packaged cookies, cakes, and chips contain trans fat. Packaged cookie dough is a big one–it’s loaded, and also packaged biscuits and rolls. Make your own cookies and use real butter. Believe me, they will be much better for you!
I used to buy crescent rolls in a tube. Pampered Chef recipes call for this ingredient all the time. Well, not any more! Not since I found out about the trans fat! Packaged pizza crust, too. Make your own with my french bread recipe. It’s so very easy and much, much more delicious!
Boxed cake mix contains trans fat and canned icing is pure trans fat and sugar. Think of it as a can of Crisco with sugar and flavoring added. I do not eat store-bought cakes anymore and trans fat is the reason. If you invite me over for a party and see that I do not partake of the cake, don’t think I have immense will power to avoid junk food. I have just read about trans fat and what it does to your body and it totally turned me off to store cakes. I make my own and enjoy them fully! Click here for my chocolate cupcake recipe.
I could go on and on about trans fats. Learn to check your labels. Cook with butter, coconut oil, and olive oil. Start making more things at home from scratch. Take your babysteps and checkout The Trans Fat Solution by Kim Severson for more information. I don’t agree with everything in this book (she mentions using soy protein, for example), but her information on trans fat is wonderful. And she has good information about coconut oil, too. The informative part of the book is only 31 pages, the rest are recipes. It’s available at my local library, it might be at yours, too.
Convenience food is so bad for you, but what’s a person to do when they want something quick and easy?
Plan ahead. I learned of this idea from moneysavingmom.com. She does a once-a-month baking day and freezes all the items so she can pull them out anytime she wants.
This works great for me, a homeschooling mom of two. We do our schooling on a six weeks on, one week off schedule. So on the week off, I do a baking day. I bake up lots of muffins, so that once a week we can have a quick easy breakfast, without cooking. I just place the frozen muffins in a baking dish the night before, cover with a heat-proof lid or foil and leave out on the counter. The next morning I turn the oven on and pop them in. They come out tasting just like they were fresh-baked.
I also make up a couple batches of my french bread recipe, so that I can make croutons or french toast easily. I just cut the bread up into cubes and freeze them for the croutons or slice the bread and freeze it for french toast. French bread makes the best french toast ever!
I have also made up waffles the same in the past. Just pull them out of the freezer and pop them in the toaster.
Cooking from scratch doesn’t have to be intensive labor, just plan ahead, make life easier!
Are you ready for another challenge?
This month, the challenge is to cut out hydrogenated and partially hydrogenated oils for 7 days. Check your labels, you might be surprised to learn what foods contain these oils.
Partially hydrogenated oil is the same thing as trans fat. The problem is that a lot of packages claim 0g of trans fat per serving, but it really is anywhere from 0 to .49g. The FDA allows the manufacturer to claim 0, if it is less than .5. Well, half a gram doesn’t sound bad, does it?
Let’s think about it this way, though. When was the last time you just ate 1-oz. of chips. If you have a scale, try weighing out 1 ounce. It isn’t much. Most of us eat more than one serving of most foods at a time. The manufacturer makes that serving size so small so that they can hide how much trans fat and/or sugar the item really has. So, then you are really eating possibly 1.5g of trans fat, every time you enjoy those chips. Studies show that even 2 grams of trans fat a day are dangerous.
If you normally cook with Crisco, use butter instead. Butter is a very healthy fat. It has had such a negative connotation for far too long. Click here to read about that.
Click here to learn more about hydrogenated oils.
I will check back in at the end of the 7 days and report my results. See you then!
Here is what I’m reading this month:
First, a testimony of healing to encourage you – Robin Sampson’s Heart.
Next, a topic near and dear to my heart – Healthcare – this author makes some very good points.
This week I rendered tallow, following this recipe. I was amazed how easy it was. We made homemade fries in it and they were great!
Next, a warning about soy and birth control pills. This is great example of following your gut instinct despite what the doctors are telling you.
And finally, another recipe I tried, whole wheat crackers. These, too, were super easy to make. This is a soaked wheat recipe, so the phytates will be neutralized in the wheat. I really probably spent about 5 minutes in the evening mixing them, then they sit overnight, and another 5 minutes rolling them out the next morning. They bake in about 10-15 minutes.
My kids loved them with cheese slices. There are a couple things I will tweak, but I will be making them again and again.
I have been harvesting plenty of basil this year, I love it! Most of the time, I like to make pesto with it.
I don’t really follow a recipe. I just pack my food processor bowl with basil leaves. Throw in a few tablespoons of walnuts, a couple garlic cloves, some Celtic Sea Salt, and start pulsing. When it’s chopped down nicely, I will pulse and drizzle with olive oil. Pesto calls for Parmesan cheese, but I have heard that if you are going to freeze it, you shouldn’t add the cheese. So I just add some Parmesan to it when I thaw and am ready to use it.
What do you use pesto for? It’s wonderful on pasta! But did you know, there is more to pesto than just a pasta sauce?
You can use it on pizza instead of tomato sauce, it is awesome! You can dip fresh veggies in it. You can use some to make homemade salad dressing. Just look in a basic cookbook, like Joy of Cooking for a basic ratio of oil to vinegar/lemon juice. And don’t forget about my Pesto Cheesecake! It’s really more of a cracker/bread spread. Think cream cheese, basil, garlic, and sund-dried tomatoes. It’s wonderful!
Do you have other ideas for pesto? Please share.
I am making homemade buttermilk this week from my raw milk. I let my starter go, so I’m starting over from scratch. I like to keep buttermilk on hand for pancakes, biscuits, etc. Plus it’s a great way to keep from wasting my raw milk. Once it’s cultured, it lasts a long time in the fridge.
You can use store-bought buttermilk as a starter, but I found that it only works well for a handful of times. When I start it from scratch myself, it lasts longer (the culture, that is).
Click on this link to see just how easy it is to make buttermilk at home.
If you need more information, check out this link.
Also, you can use this same method to make sour cream. Once you have a starter, either store-bought or homemade, use it to culture your raw cream. If you want it ultra-thick, you can strain some of the whey out (I use a coffee filter, basket-style).
The benefit of both these products, is that they are live foods, without any added junk. They contain necessary probiotics, and even if you are using the buttermilk to bake with, there is evidence that dead probiotics still benefit us (the heat will kill the probiotics)!
Other articles on live foods that you may enjoy:
I tried something new today. I made a batch of my Sourdough Molasses Bread, but instead of molasses, I used honey and then when it was time to shape the loaf, I rolled it out flat and spread it with butter, sprinkled it with cinnamon, sucanant, and raisins. Then I rolled it up and let it rise in the loaf pan. I baked it for 45 minutes at 350F.
I want my kids to start eating whole wheat toast with their eggs, plus I just thought cinnamon raisin bread sounded good. It was a hit! This will now be part of my baking repertoire.
Why do I have whey in my fridge?
And where did I get it?
What am I going to do with it?
All very good questions!
Whey is a component of milk. Milk contains fat, protein (casein and others), sugar (lactose), enzymes, vitamins, and minerals. In the process of making yogurt, the beneficial bacteria convert the lactose into lactic acid, giving the yogurt its sour flavor. I like to drain some of the whey out of my yogurt to make it thicker. Whey contains some protein, lactic acid, and I’m sure some other things. Read about making yogurt, here.
Since the whey is acidic I can use it to neutralize the phytic acid in my grains (in the bran of grain). The phytic acid, if left un-neutralized, will rob your body of important minerals. For example, I know people like to eat Cream of Wheat for its iron content, BUT you won’t be absorbing that iron because of the phytic acid! Ideally, we should be eating all whole grain foods, but only those that have been soaked or sprouted. Read more here.
If I want to cook brown rice, I will soak it in filtered water (for a few hours) with some whey added.
I have switched my family from modern oatmeal (rolled oats, quick oats) to old-fashioned oatmeal. The less something is processed, the better. Instant oatmeal is the most processed, quick oats a bit less, rolled a bit less, but THE best are whole oats! I buy whole oats (called groats) from Whole Foods.
Old-Fashioned Oatmeal
I like to use a mixture of oats, rye, and wheat. The rye gives it a flavor reminiscent of the Roman Meal hot cereal I ate as a child. The reason I started adding the wheat and rye is that oats are particularly low in phytase, the enzyme that breaks phytic acid down. Regular soaking methods don’t reduce the phytic acid very well (in oats). Amanda Rose, from Rebuild From Depression, suggests adding 10% wheat to your oats. I started doing that and thought rye would be good, too.
I place 3/4 cup whole oats, 2 tablespoons wheat berries (soft or hard), and 2 tablespoons rye berries in a blender. I grind for about 30 seconds. I then put the semi-ground grain into the pan I’m going to cook it in the next morning, or if it’s unavailable, a mason jar. I add 1/2 cup whey and about 2 1/2 cups filtered water. (Here you will have to see how much water works for you. We like really thick oatmeal. Add more or use less according to how your family likes it.)
I let this soak overnight and then in the morning I just bring it to a boil in a saucepan, with a bit of salt added. I stir constantly until the mixture boils and then turn the heat down to simmer, place the lid on the pan and let it simmer until thick. I don’t really watch the clock at this point. It could take 5 minutes, it could take 30. I usually cook this and then set it on simmer and go blow dry my hair and put on some makeup. The first step of stirring until it boils only takes a couple minutes, so overall this is an easy breakfast!
These proportions make 3 large servings. If you are accustomed to eating instant oatmeal, then this recipe would give you at least 6 servings. I have actually been doubling it lately so that we can eat oatmeal all week, but I only have to soak and cook it once. I reheat portions of it in oven-proof ramekins (covered in foil) in a 350°F oven. I think it even tastes better the next day!
We like our oatmeal with a generous pat of butter, lots and lots of cinnamon, some sucanat (unrefined brown sugar, contains the vitamins and minerals that are stripped from refined sugars), and cream. Mmm! You could add fruit to this, nuts, maple syrup–make it the way you like it. (The picture above in the bowl is oatmeal without anything added yet.)
Now, when I switched my kids over to this new oatmeal, I wasn’t sure they would be on board with me (especially my son, he’s the picky one), so I just decided to call it oat porridge instead of oatmeal. That way their wouldn’t be a comparison, this was something new! Porridge! Not oatmeal. My son didn’t take to it whole-heartedly at first, so I tried toasting it. In Nourishing Traditions, by Sally Fallon, there is a recipe for Irish Oatmeal and it calls for toasting the grains before soaking them.
Here they are spread on my pizza stone. I would bake them in a 350°F for about 10 minutes.
When I tried this, my son liked his “oat porridge” much better. I did, too. After a while, he started loving it and said it was his favorite. I eventually stopped toasting the oats, since it was an extra step and he didn’t notice the change. I think he just needed time to develop the taste for this new oatmeal. Now we even call it oatmeal, too.
I recommend starting out with just a little bit of whey (like a tablespoon) and increasing it each time you make the oatmeal, to become accustomed to the taste. Like I said, I now use 1/2 cup, I think Sally Fallon’s recipe only calls for 1/4 cup. I figure the more the better and I always have an excess of whey from my yogurt. (You can also use lemon juice instead of whey.)
I recommend reading Nourishing Traditions by Sally Fallon for more information on properly preparing grains. And checkout this excerpt of Amanda Rose’s book, Rebuild from Depression. This excerpt has some excellent information from studies that have been done that we aren’t hearing about in the mainstream media.
In the last installment, I posted a link that answered the question of why I drink raw milk. I should add that the number one reason is because of my motto–if God created it, it is healthy; if man has adulterated it, it is unhealthy. Pasteurized milk is one of our most processed/adulterated foods (that everyone thinks is healthy). Now on to this week’s topic.
Celtic Sea Salt
You may have noticed that I call for this in most of my recipes. Specifically, my Curried Sweet Potato Soup and my Molasses Sourdough Bread.
Why?
Let’s go back to the beginning.
I first heard of Celtic Sea Salt when reading Nourishing Traditions. Sally Fallon calls for it in all her recipes. So I bought some so I could try making homemade sauerkraut. It was quite expensive, I think I paid about $6.00 for a one-pound package.
So I made some sauerkraut and then left the salt up in the cupboard and didn’t dare use it for anything else, since it cost so much!
Well, one day I was talking to a friend and she told me that she had started using Celtic Sea Salt and it tasted so much better than regular salt in her food. My package had been in the cupboard for quite a while at this point. I figured I should start using it.
So I tried it out and she was right–it tasted great. But another very interesting thing happened. An issue I had been dealing with cleared up. Around the time I had my daughter (she’s 3 and a half now), I started having dizzy spells. They weren’t like anything I had ever experienced before. It wasn’t lightheadedness, like low blood sugar–I knew what that felt like. It wasn’t full vertigo, the room didn’t actually spin, but it was just a very weird feeling. My legs would feel weird and my stomach would feel weird and I would just close my eyes until the feeling passed–it usually lasted a few seconds. Well, these episodes started happening more frequently and were becoming longer in duration. I am the type of person that only goes to the doctor in emergencies, but this was starting to concern me.
When I started using Celtic Sea Salt on my food the dizzy spells stopped! I was thrilled! This told me that it must be some sort of mineral deficiency causing them.
I used up the bag of salt that I had and didn’t rush back out to buy more since it was so expensive. After a bit, the dizzy spells returned, so I ran right back to the health food store to buy more salt. I didn’t care how much it cost now, this was medicine to me! As long as I keep using the Celtic Sea Salt, the dizzy spells seem to stay away. And interestingly, the RLS I had for many, many years is almost non-existent!
Celtic Sea Salt is an unrefined salt. Therefore it has a range of minerals that are not present in regular table salt or even other sea salts. You will notice that it is gray, that is because of all the minerals.
It comes in coarse or fine. I have found that the fine salt is more expensive. I just buy the coarse and grind it in my food processor.
You will notice that it is moist when you buy it. Dr. Hulda Clark recommends sterilizing it in the oven (400F) on a plate for 5 minutes, to kill mold. I did not know this for a while, but a batch of my ferments molded, so now I am taking this precaution.
I do keep Hain Sea Salt on hand for certain things, to keep in the salt shaker, but I use Celtic Sea Salt in all of my cooking.
So why use Celtic Sea Salt? It will help supply your body with needed minerals, it is unrefined (therefore in line with my motto), and it tastes great!
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