Confession time: I had a piece of my daughter's birthday cake today. I was really looking forward to it. It looked great and smelled sinfully sweet. So after singing Happy Birthday to my sweet 9-year-old I indulged in my first piece of (store bought) birthday cake in quite some time. It was fine...maybe even good, but so sweet. Sickeningly sweet actually. So sweet that I actually have no desire to have a second piece. In no way am I complaining about the cake or feeling guilty for eating it, but rather I'm feeling victorious that I just may have (finally!!) kicked my sugar addiction! The 'old me' would have eaten at least 3 pieces of cake...per day...til it was gone. Yaaay me! Now that I've got that off my chest and out of my system, I'm ready to start the 10 Days of Real Food Pledge tomorrow! If you have decided to join me, don't forget to sign up on Lisa Leake's website so you can earn your free prize too! One of my go-to Real Food breakfasts is Overnight Oatmeal. I've had Overnight Oatmeal for breakfast most mornings for more than a year now. I expected myself not to want it during the long, cold (very cold in PA!) winter months but I ended up craving it just as much in February as I do in July! It's super easy to make, portable, versatile, filling, healthy....it's pretty much the perfect breakfast! Overnight Oatmeal Serves 1 1/4 cup steel cut oats 1/4 cup whole milk 1/4 cup plain, whole milk yogurt 1/4 cup berries Place all ingredients in a bowl or jar. Stir until combined. Cover and refrigerate overnight. Eat within 2-3 days for best quality. Top with a dollop of almond butter or other nut/seed butter.
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It seems like sugar has been all over the news lately. We are learning each day about more and more dangers associated with a high sugar diet. Personally, I have known I should cut back on my sugar intake for awhile, but I've never been able to commit to it (see all the cupcake recipes on the old blog) and for very good reason: sugar is addictive! Fortunately for me, my sugar 'addiction' has never manifested into any health issues, but too much sugar can lead to diabetes, obesity, food cravings, heart disease and behavior issues in children. In my opinion, one of the biggest issues with sugar today is that we aren't finding our sugar in our nightly after-dinner bowl of ice cream. No, today we're finding loads of it in our morning breakfast cereal, in that mid-morning granola bar or the soup/sandwich combo at lunch. Simply put, once you start reading the labels, you see that sugar is in nearly everything we eat. Trying to cut it out is so very, very hard. For that reason, I was super excited to find this brownie recipe that uses honey instead of white sugar! One of my passions is teaching my young daughters how to choose healthy foods or even crave them. My older daughter is definitely my bigger challenge. She loves sweets! And lucky for her, some sort of sweet is provided to her nearly every day. She has been offered (and usually accepted) cookies/lollipops/candy/mints at more places than I can even count - school (this is a big one!), the grocery store, restaurants, CCD, story time at the book store and even boutique shops! I don't want to be the parent who always says 'NO' but I want my girls to understand that those things should be thought of as a 'sometimes treat'. If I can't control what is going on 'out there' at least I can control what I am doing 'in here'. We recently went camping and s'mores were a requirement for my daughters. I found a more wholesome option for the chocolate and graham crackers we used to buy, but when it came down to finding better marshmallows, they just didn't exist. I did find vegan marshmallows, but they too had sugar listed as the first ingredient. What to do? Find a recipe without sugar and make them myself! This recipe uses honey to sweeten the marshmallows. Honey has been found to have more nutrients than white sugar so it is slightly healthier, but it raises the blood sugar and is quite dense in calories so it should still be consumed in moderation. I, personally, prefer honey over sugar because it is less processed and in a more natural state than sugar. These marshmallows were extremely well received by my two toughest critics - Jordan and Brecken! They melted nicely over the campfire and oozed out of the graham cracker just like they were supposed to! The honey flavor is very predominant, so you can have a lot of fun with different flavors of honey - orange blossom would be amazing!! DIY (Sugar-Free) Marshmallows 1 cup water 4 tablespoons unflavored gelatin 1 cup honey 2 teaspoons vanilla Pour 1/2 cup of the water into the bowl of a stand mixer. Sprinkle the gelatin on top of the water. Whisk until combined. Pour the other 1/2 cup of water into a small saucepan with the honey. Heat the mixture over medium heat until a thermometer registers 230° F - don't stir the mixture! Keep the heat at medium and 'swirl' the pan if necessary. This step could take a few minutes. With the mixer running on low, very slowly pour the honey/water mixture into the gelatin mixture. Once the mix is incorporated, turn the mixer on high. Whisk on high for several minutes (5-10) until the mixture turns white and fluffy. Do not overmix. Pour the mixture into an 8x11 pan lined with parchment paper. For thinner marshmallows, use a 9x13 pan. These come out pretty thick and were great for roasting over the campfire! Tap the pan on the counter a few times to release any air bubbles. Allow the marshmallows to set in a dry place (not the refrigerator) for at least 8 hours before cutting. Cut into squares about 1x1 inches big. A pizza cutter dipped in coconut oil would work well here. Place them on a cutting board and cover with a dry, clean dishtowel overnight so that they dry out a little more. This step allows them to become easier to handle. Store the marshmallows in an airtight container for 1-2 weeks. If you are planning on toasting them on the campfire, try to make them at least 2 days beforehand so that are sufficiently dry to the touch. I see endless possibilities of the fun we can have with these marshmallows! I'm planning on experimenting with all sorts of flavors of honey...maybe adding some cocoa powder to the honey mixture....maybe some fresh mint leaves around Christmastime.... let your imagination go crazy! Source:
Adapted from An Organic Wife In less than one week I will start the 10 Days of Real Food Pledge and I'm really excited! We've been on several mini-trips over the past month and eating clean has been challenging at times. My body is so ready for a little detox! If you haven't read about the pledge, you can read about it on 100 Days of Real Food. I plan on starting the pledge on August 12 (the day after my daughter's birthday which will surely be filled with NON-real foods!) and I'd LOVE for you to join me! I'm getting ready for the pledge by prepping some of my favorite foods like almond butter, whole wheat sandwich bread and whole wheat flour tortillas. I'm also stocking up on fruits and veggies and local dairy/meat from the farmer's market. Here is a picture of some local tomatoes and peppers as well as some whole wheat, homemade hamburger buns from my freezer - I adapted this recipe. My menu plan for the 10 days on the pledge is:
Tuesday, August 12 - Pizza Stuffed Peppers Wednesday, August 13 - Quiche & Salad Thursday, August 14 - Baked Fish (hopefully from my husband's upcoming fishing trip!) & Carrot Fritters Friday, August 15 - Cheeseburgers (using rolls from the freezer and local, grass-fed ground beef) Saturday, August 16 - Whole Wheat Pizza (using this DIY Pizza Sauce recipe) Sunday, August 17 - Eggplant Parmesan Monday, August 18 - Salmon Salad Tuesday, August 19 - Grilled Cheese (using homemade whole wheat bread) & Tomato Salad Wednesday, August 20 - Baked Fish & Sauteed Kale Thursday, August 21 - Mexican Quinoa with Poached Eggs Will you take the pledge with me? I'd love to have some company along for the ride!! I picked up a very good habit back in January when my family started "Clean Eating": Label Reading. Before I became a faithful reader of 100 Days of Real Food I would haphazardly look at a label, maybe frown at it, then buy it anyways. I never completely understood the effect of putting all those synthetic, man-made ingredients into our bodies, not to mention the abundance of sugar. Some form of sugar is in nearly every processed food we eat! After reading Michael Pollan's In Defense of Food my eyes were WIDE open to it! Some of the physical/medical results after decades of ingesting these 'non-food' foods (chemicals, additives, preservatives) and excessive sugar include: **
The link between the highly processed foods in this country (aka, The Western Diet) and our declining health is truly astounding. If you haven't read In Defense of Food, I highly suggest you do! An easier read, with the same message is Food Rules. The science and research behind what we are eating is so complex. I don't know if I'll ever really know it all, but I'm still reading and learning every day! One thing I have learned is to always ignore any labeling/advertising on the FRONT of a packaged product. Most of the time, it's just that: Advertising. Turn it over and read the ingredients on the back. Some basics about label-reading are:
Since label-reading is such a big part of how I shop I thought I would periodically share some common labels with you and offer a healthier alternative. Today I wanted to talk about marshmallows since we're smack in the middle of campfire season and s'mores. We're actually going camping this weekend and s'mores are a MUST! A few weeks ago we went on a hiking trip with friends and the kids wanted s'mores. Out of desperation and lack of time, I bought a bag of marshmallows from the grocery store. The kids didn't mind them, but I took one bite and I was overwhelmed by the pure sweetness of them (and not in a good way!) According to Fooducate, these marshmallows contain:
corn syrup, sugar, dextrose, modified food starch (corn), water, gelatin, natural and artificial flavor, tetrasodium pyrophosphate. Basically we have sugar, more sugar, a thickener, gelatin (ok, that's fine), natural and artificial flavors and....hmm...tetra-something! These are definitely not ingredients I want to put into my body or the bodies of my little ones! I'm working very hard to teach my daughters that there are better options out there! I've actually made my own marshmallows for years now but they, too, are laden with sugar and corn syrup. In an effort to "clean up the s'more" I looked for a marshmallow sweetened with something other than sugar. I finally found a recipe that is sweetened with honey instead of sugar! I just whipped up a batch yesterday and I'll be sure to put the recipe up on the blog very soon! Until then, take a peek at what we are packing for camping this weekend! |
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