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This is a recipe that I meant to post a month or two ago before the cooler weather started, but as you all know, my life has been a crazy, busy mess. With the cold front coming through this weekend, we will be starting our second pot (of the week) tonight. =)
This warm, comforting drink has been a family favorite ever since I can remember, and now that we've made some changes to our eating habits, we have also made some changes to this recipe and still thoroughly enjoy it! Let me know if you try it and how you like it...
Ingredients:
*14 cups water
*12 regular-sized tea bags (We use a lemon herbal tea to cut out caffeine. FYI: Decaf tea only decreases its caffeine content by 2% from regular tea.)
*3-6 cinnamon sticks (I use 6 to make sure we can taste it...it's not too strong.)
*2 cups sweetener (We have used evaporated cane juice, but to eliminate glycemic index concerns, we use agave nectar. I haven't been able to tell a difference between the two.)
*3 cups unsweetened orange juice (We like it with extra pulp, but you can get it without if you don't care for that.)
*1 cup unsweetened pineapple juice (We get the big cans and then freeze the leftovers in 1 cup portions so that they are ready for the next batch.)
*3/4 cup lemon juice
Boil water, tea and cinnamon sticks for 7-10 minutes. Remove tea bags and sticks and add sweetener. If using a granulated sweetener, stir until dissolved. Add juices and heat just to boiling. It's now ready to drink...Enjoy!
I can't take a lot of credit for this recipe, since Jason's mom gave it to us. She had never tried it, though, so we were essentially the "guinea pigs." =) We pretty much followed the recipe, only deviating a couple of times. There are some herbs used in this recipe (parsley, oregano and basil) that we did not put in individually. We had a mixture of herbs called ***"Herbs of Italy" that we used in the place of the total amount of herbs in the recipe. The recipe calls for a total of 5 Tbsp. plus 2 tsp. of the herbs, so we just put in 6 Tbsp. of the "Herbs of Italy." We also added 1/4 tsp. - 1/2 tsp. of red pepper flakes. We like the extra kick, but this is certainly optional.
This recipe will make enough sauce to cover 2 lbs. of spaghetti. We add a couple of pounds of our homemade sausage to the sauce as well. Yummy!!!
Ingredients:
6 medium onions, finely chopped
8 cloves garlic, minced
1/4 c. olive oil
4 cans (1 lb. each) tomatoes
4 cans (15 oz. each) tomato sauce
2 tbsp. agave nectar
1 1/2 to 2 tbsp. salt
3 tbsp. parsley flakes (or ***"Herbs of Italy")
1 tbsp. plus 1 tsp. oregano (or ***"Herbs of Italy")1 tbsp. plus 1 tsp basil (or ***"Herbs of Italy")
1/4 tsp. to 1/2 tsp. red pepper flakes (optional)
In a large pot, cook onion and garlic in oil until tender. Stir in remaining ingredients and simmer for 1 to 1 1/2 hours.
Unless you are feeding a big crew of people or you want to have leftovers for 2 weeks, you will want to (after it is made) divide it in half and only serve one half of the sauce over 1 pound of pasta. You can freeze the other half for another time. I don't generally add the meat to the sauce until I'm ready to have this as a meal. In other words, I don't freeze the meat with the sauce, but I'm sure you could if you wanted to.
Once you've added the meat to your sauce, go ahead and combine it with the cooked pasta, and don't forget to saute some mushrooms in a little bit of olive oil to put on top of your plate of spaghetti. Enjoy!
This recipe was stumbled upon unplanned and was really good! The meal I had planned to fix required a certain ingredient that I didn't have enough of, so I had to change plans at the last minute. We call that a "happy accident." =)
For a while, I had been craving cornbread and just kept forgetting to work it into my menu plan. When I had to come up with a meal at the last minute, I looked in the refrigerator and saw some chopped onions and bell peppers, some jalapenos and our homemade turkey sausage. I also knew that I had some corn in the freezer. We found a cornbread recipe in our recipe book and decided to just throw it all together in a casserole dish to see what would happen. We enjoyed it so much last week, that we decided to make it again this week with a crock pot of beans. We just had it Tuesday night, and it was delicious! (FYI: We cooked a 1 pound bag of dried navy beans [soaked the night before] with some chopped onion, minced garlic and some salt in the crock pot on high for about 6 hours.)
Here's the recipe...Enjoy! Let me know if you try some variations and whether or not you like them.
Cornbread
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 cups cornmeal
2 Tbsp. double-acting baking powder
2 tsp. salt
2 eggs
1 1/3 cups milk (we use plain soy milk)
4-8 Tbsp. agave nectar (This depends on how sweet you like your cornbread...I used 6 Tbsp.)2/3 cup oil (We used coconut oil the first time and grapeseed oil the second time. Both worked just fine.)
Ingredients to add to cornbread mixture:
1 1/2 cups turkey sausage
1/2 cup corn
1/2 cup bell pepper, diced
1/2 cup onion, diced
1/3 cup canned or fresh jalapenos, chopped (obviously, less if you don't want it too spicy, more if you want it more spicy.)
This is all we used because that's all we had on hand at the time, but feel free to experiment with additional ingredients. I imagine this would be a good mixture to "sneak" in some veggies that your kids might not eat alone (ie. chopped spinach, diced zucchini or squash, diced mushroom, etc.).
Preheat oven to 375 deg. F. Grease 9" X 13" baking dish (We use grapeseed oil).
Dice and chop pepper, onion and jalapenos and combine with corn and sausage. Set aside.
In medium bowl with fork, mix together flour, cornmeal, baking powder and salt. In small bowl with fork, beat together egg, milk, agave nectar and oil. Pour egg mixture all at once into flour mixture. Stir just until flour is moistened. Do not overstir--It should be slightly lumpy. Add vegetable and sausage mixture to batter and gently combine. Pour batter into the prepared baking dish and spread evenly. Bake 30 minutes or until golden.
This is a recipe that we have adapted from one of our favorite recipe books but have changed certain ingredients to meet our needs. You can make them with either the raspberries and poppy seeds or with just blueberries. This particular recipe can be made with either all-purpose flour, whole wheat flour or a combination of both. If you use whole wheat flour, you will want to increase the baking powder to a total of 4 teaspoons.
Dry Ingredients:
2 cups flour (all-purpose, whole wheat or both)
1 Tbsp. and 1/4 tsp. double-acting baking powder (4 tsp. total if using whole wheat flour)
1/2 tsp. salt (slightly mounded)
2 Tbsp. poppy seeds (omit if making blueberry)
Wet Ingredients:
1 egg
1 cup milk (we use soy milk)
1/4 cup oil (we use grapeseed oil)
1/2 cup agave nectar3/4 cup fresh or frozen unsweetened raspberries or blueberries (Run the raspberries in a food processor for a few seconds so they will spread throughout the muffins more evenly.)
Directions:
Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Grease muffin-pan cups or fill muffin pan with disposable cups. Recipe will yield 16-18 muffins.
In large bowl with fork, mix dry ingredients. In small bowl with fork, beat egg slightly, then stir milk, oil and agave into beaten egg. Add fruit to wet ingredient mixture and slightly stir to make sure fruit doesn't clump. Add wet mixture all at once to flour mixture and with spoon, stir just until flour is moistened. (Avoid overmixing which causes toughness; batter should be lumpy.) Spoon batter into muffin cups. Be sure to wipe pan clean of any spills.
Bake muffins 20 to 25 minutes until they are well risen and golden and toothpick inserted in center of one comes out clean and dry.
***Now...this next step is VERY, VERY important!!! =) Do NOT put butter in your muffins! You must, Must, MUST get some coconut oil to spread in your muffins! That is the best stuff you will ever taste, and it is SO much better for you than butter! Try it! =)
For the last couple of months, we have been trying to make a lot of our food from scratch. It's not always a time saver, but it sure is less expensive and more healthful than all the pre-packaged, convenience foods. The way I feel about the time issue is that most of it is spent as a family, so we are all learning to work together and to make all this great food. My kids are learning invaluable lessons in homemaking and family togetherness that I hope they will carry with them as they get older and start their own families.
All that said, to say...We make our own lemonade! It is so good and easy to make, and we really look forward to having it as an occasional special drink. Here's the recipe:
For 1 gallon:
Mix 2 cups of lemon juice (we get organic) and 2 cups of agave nectar with enough water to fill a gallon pitcher.
That's it! So simple! Now that you know, promise me you won't buy those drinks that are filled with high fructose corn syrup or even artificial sweeteners. They're really bad for you!
I hope you enjoy! =)
P.S. It just dawned on me today that I didn't provide a pronunciation guide for the word "Agave." When we first discovered agave, I looked at the word and immediately compared it to the word "agape" (the Greek word used in the Bible for unconditional, self-sacrificing love), so we were pronouncing it "uh-GAH-vay." I looked it up and found that it's actually pronounced, "uh-GAH-vee."
I have a weird obsession with words, especially with the pronunciation, spelling and usage of those words. It's one of my biggest pet peeves! =) I'm sure that stems from my childhood when my dad used to try to teach us really big words and some uses of them. There was a "funny" phrase that he used to say a lot when my sister and I would get a little too giddy, and I've never forgotten it. He would say, "Your ludicrousness is ostentatiously superfluous!" In a nutshell, that phrase means, "Your silliness is obviously excessive." =)
These two recipes have got to be one of our absolute favorite meals! I don't think a week has gone by since we first made these that we haven't made them. Generally, we make them for dinner one night during the week, and then the rest of the week, the girls and I (and sometimes Jason if he's home during the day) will have them for lunch. We have no problem with leftovers! In fact, the way I feel is that if a meal doesn't make enough for at least 1 or 2 more meals, it's not worth making. =)
Both of these recipes I got from the recipe blog "Delicious Wisdom." One of the things I like about this site is that she gives health benefits and other information for certain ingredients used in each recipe. Some of the recipes might be considered a little strange, but I just pick through and find the ones that we would be interested in trying. If you look on the right-hand side of the page, you will see a monthly archive. After you click on a certain month, you will see all the entries listed by title. Click on the name of a recipe to view the entire recipe.
Okay, let's start with the bean burgers. They are actually called Any Bean Burgers, because you can choose the kind of bean that you want to use. Since I've already given credit to "Delicious Wisdom," I'm going to just copy the recipe from her site. She gives such good information, and I don't want to leave anything out or have to change the wording around. =) Here it is:
So this is basically a bean burger, with some nuts thrown in for extra nutrition, flavor and protein. I've made the recipe completely adaptable, so that you can make things like "White Bean and Walnut Burgers", which sounds really chi chi. Or "Peanut and Black Bean Burgers", which sounds a little more...Latin, maybe? The point is, once you make your own 'veggie burger', you must promise never to buy the chemical-filled frozen ones again. Make your own and freeze them, because they freeze nicely.
Make beans from scratch, use leftovers, or use quality canned organic. Wheat germ serves a few purposes here: helping to shape the burgers, upping the fiber content even further than the beans already do, and providing a source of vitamin E, folic acid and other nutrients. Ground flaxseed will work in much the same way, but keep these things in mind: always keep it in the fridge, grind the seeds yourself in a coffee grinder if possible, and know that the omega-3 fatty acids do not survive high heat. For this reason, the main benefit of the flax in a cooked recipe like this would be the fiber.
Prep Time: 10 Minutes
Cooking Time: 25 Minutes
Yield: 6-8 Servings (Freeze the leftovers or crumble into a wrap for lunch the next day with some lettuce, veggies, and a condiment)
Ingredients:
2 Cups Cooked Beans (Any Type of Black, White or Red)
2/3 Cup Finely Chopped Nuts (Like Walnuts, Almonds or Peanuts)
1/4 Cup Chopped Red Onion
1/2 Tsp Chili Powder
1/2 Tsp Cumin Powder
1 Tsp Sea Salt
2 Tbsp Olive Oil
3 Tbsp Tomato Paste
1/2 Cup Wheat Germ (for the gluten-intolerant, use ground flaxseeds or try rolled oats)
Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Combine all ingredients, using your hands to mush the beans into a chunky paste. Form into 6-8 burgers and place on a lightly oiled baking sheet. Bake for 25 minutes. Serve on the best multi-grain bread you can find with tomato, sprouts, dark green lettuce and optional condiments like mustard, salsa or hummus. They can be slightly crumbly, so use some finesse when loading onto the bread.
We triple this recipe and make it with black beans and walnuts. We use yellow onion instead of red, and we use ground flax seeds instead of wheat germ. The kids love helping with this recipe. I usually measure out a little over 2 cups of nuts and put them into a Ziploc bag. Then I give the girls a rolling pin and let them crush the nuts. If you are pressed for time, just toss them in a food processor until they are well chopped. The bean mixture can either be mashed by hand, with a potato masher or dough blender, but the easiest way that we have found to do it is to put all the beans in a food processor and run it for about 5-10 seconds - just long enough to mash the majority of the beans without completely pureeing it. You want to have some "bean chunks" left in. After you've run the beans through the food processor, you can then just stir in the rest of the ingredients. We recently bought a 2 1/2" stainless steel ice cream scoop to form same-sized burgers. After we scoop the mounds onto a baking sheet, we press them down flat with our fingers. I also put some olive oil and pepper on each side of our wheat hamburger buns and lay them open faced on a baking sheet under the broiler to toast. You can "dress" your burger any way you like. We use the ketchup from the recipe below and some green leaf lettuce (not iceberg).
The thing about this recipe is that you can't go into it thinking that it's a hamburger. It is not the same texture. We compare it more to a bean burrito on a hamburger bun. The textures and flavors are so good, that chances are you won't even miss the high-fat red meat. We don't!
If you decide you like this recipe and would like to triple it like us, here are the "amounts" to make it easier for you.
4 cans of beans
1 can tomato paste
2 cups nuts
3/4 cup onion
1 1/2 tsp. chili powder
1 1/2 tsp. cumin
1 T. salt (We are actually cutting back on salt, so we only use 1 1/2 tsp.)
6 T. olive oil
1 1/2 cups flax seed
What would a "burger" be without ketchup? This ketchup recipe is so yummy, that once you taste it, you will never want store-bought ketchup again! Here is the original recipe on Delicious Wisdom. Once again, I'm just going to copy her recipe below.
One of many blessings of home-made ketchup is that it contains no high fructose corn syrup. Use agave nectar, a sweetener made from a cactus-like plant with a honey-like texture and mild flavor (find it in your local health food store) and you’ve got ketchup with a very low glycemic index. Spread it on burgers, dip your sweet potato fries in it, use it to make barbeque sauce, or substitute it for tomato paste for an extra kick of flavor in your recipes. And, by the way--stop wasting tomato paste! Buy organic canned tomato paste and freeze the leftovers in tablespoon-sized chunks. Use as needed.
Prep Time: 10 Minutes
Cooking Time: 60 Minutes
Yield: About 2 Cups
Ingredients:
1- 28 Oz. Can Crushed Tomatoes
1 Medium Sweet Onion, chopped
2 Tbsp Olive Oil
2 Tbsp Tomato Paste
1/2 Cup Honey or Agave Nectar
1/4 Cup Apple Cider Vinegar
1/2 Tsp Sea Salt
1/2 Tsp Dry Mustard
Pinch Cloves
Pinch Allspice
Pinch Cinnamon
Cook onion until soft and translucent, about 5-7 minutes. Add all other ingredients and simmer on low, uncovered, for about one hour or until very thick. Stir occasionally while cooking, but more often at the end. This will prevent scorching or sticking. Blend in a food processor or blender once cool. Keep refrigerated. Keeps for about three weeks. Delicious!
The only change I make to this recipe is that I use the Muir Glen Fire-Roasted Tomatoes. These are not crushed but will be run through the food processor at the end, and they will leave the little black flecks from the fire roasting. A single recipe of this makes plenty of ketchup for our triple recipe of burgers.
Let me know if you try this and how you like it...
In an effort to save more money, we have been doing our best to find the best deals on the organic food that we want to purchase. Jason has been scouring Amazon over the last week or so and decided to order Agave Nectar from them. When we purchase Agave Nectar from Whole Foods, the cost is $6.59 per bottle. On Amazon, you can order 6 bottles at a time and get a 15% discount by being put on a recurring delivery from every month up to every 6 months. (You can change/cancel the delivery frequency at any time without any consequence.) By ordering it this way, we are only paying $4.58 per bottle!! That's over $2.00 per bottle we are saving! The total cost is $27.46, and there is no shipping cost since the order is over $25.00! Sweet!
We would like to find a co-op in this area, so that we could also get other things even cheaper. If you know of one in this area, let me know. Since we have found some things on Amazon that are mostly available in bulk, we have considered doing a little co-op type thing with our local friends and family. If any of you are interested in ordering some Agave or any other organic foods with us, let me know, and we'll see what we can work out.
I know I haven't explained why we aren't having dairy any more, so I will try to do that soon. No, we are not lactose intolerant...you will just have to wait to find out. I know, you are just on the edge of your seat with enthusiasm, aren't you. =)
This first recipe is for the cake, and we actually got it out of one of our cookbooks and just substituted where necessary. I will type up the actual recipe and then put in parenthesis what we changed.
Yellow Cake:
2 1/4 cups flour (all purpose, unbleached, organic)
1 1/2 cups sugar (agave nectar)
3/4 cup shortening (coconut oil-this is thick like Crisco)
3/4 cup milk (soy milk-plain)
3 eggs
2 1/2 tsp. double-acting baking powder (aluminum free)
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1/2 tsp. almond extract (we left this out because we didn't have any)
Preheat oven to 375F. Grease two 9-inch round pans (or one 9x13 - we tried both ways but did the two layers for Larissa's birthday cake).
Measure all ingredients into large bowl. With mixer at low speed, beat until well mixed, constantly scraping bowl with rubber spatula. Increase speed to medium; beat 5 minutes, occasionally scraping bowl.
Pour batter into prepared cake pans, smoothing top with rubber spatula. Cut through batter with knife to remove any air bubbles.
Bake layers 25 minutes or until toothpick inserted deep into center comes out clean. Cool in pans on wire racks 10 minutes then remove from pans and cool completely on racks.
Chocolate Frosting:
1 cup Dagoba chocodrops (We used Sunspire grain-sweetened chocolate chips)
1/2 cup grapeseed oil
2 Tbsp. agave nectar
1 Tbsp. vanilla extract
pinch celtic sea salt (I left this out)
1. In a small saucepan over very low heat, melt chocolate and grapeseed oil.
2. Stir in agave, vanilla and salt
3. Place frosting in freezer for 15 minutes to cool (leave in until the outer edges begin to "harden" - might take longer than 15 minutes)
4. Remove from freezer and whip frosting with a hand blender until it is thick and fluffy.
5. Frost over cake, cupcakes or between cookies.
Strawberry Coconut Milk Ice Cream: (For some reason, I didn't get a picture of this. I'll try to remember to get one next time we make it.)
3 cups (a little over 1 1/2 cans) of coconut milk (NOT Lite)
10 oz bag of frozen strawberries (1 1/2 cups)
6 Tbsp. agave nectar
1 tsp. vanilla extract
We quadrupled this recipe to make 6 quarts. Here are the amounts for that:
12 cups (7 cans) of coconut milk
4-10 oz bags of frozen strawberries (6 cups)
1 1/2 cups agave nectar
4 tsp. vanilla extract
Defrost the strawberries enough so that they can go through the food processor. Slightly puree, making sure to leave a few chunks if you so desire. Combine all ingredients into ice cream canister and mix well with a long spoon. Make according to your machines instructions. Ours took about 40 minutes to freeze.
As you can see, all of this is dairy free and sugar free, and it was all very, very good! No one felt deprived at the party, and in fact, at one point, my mom made a "yummy" noise and said, "I'm so glad I'm on a diet!" She recently started going to Dr. C for some health issues and has cut out sugar, artificial sweeteners, caffeine and dairy, and now she's losing weight and feeling much better than she was before! Yay! =)
What is the difference, you ask? Let me explain. I did some research online and found some specifics about the differences between the two types of farming. The following lists were obtained from The Mayo Clinic's website.
Organic farmers:
1. Apply natural fertilizers, such as manure and compost, to feed the soil and plants.
2. Use beneficial insects and birds, mating disruption or traps to reduce pests and disease.
3. Rotate crops, till, hand weed or mulch to manage weeds.
4. Give animals organic feed and allow them access to the outdoors, and they use preventative measures - such as rotational grazing, a balanced diet and clean housing - to help minimize disease.
Conventional farmers:
1. Apply chemical fertilizers to promote plant growth.
2. Spray insecticides to reduce pests and disease.
3. Use chemical herbicides to manage weeds.
4. Give animals antibiotics, growth hormones and medications to prevent disease and spur growth.
You will have to make the choice as to which one you will purchase. Personally, I don't want to be exposed to all the chemicals, hormones...etc. that are found in conventionally-grown products. Check out Wikipedia's entry on "Organic Foods" to get a better picture of how it's grown (or better yet, how it's NOT grown). You can also read about how farmers (and even migratory birds) are affected by the pesticides used in conventional farming---it's really bad!
There are strict standards placed on organic food producers. Don't be confused by labels placed on products that read, "all-natural," "free-range" or "hormone-free." Unless it is USDA Certified Organic, these products can NOT be interpreted as being organic. In order for a product to have the above-pictured "Organic" seal, it must be 95-100% organic. If it is only 95-99% organic, it is because some ingredients are not organically available but are approved by the USDA's National Organic Program (NOP). You may see products labeled, "Made With Organic Ingredients." These only contain 70-94% organic ingredients and will not have the USDA Organic seal. If a product has less than 70% organic ingredients, it will only be allowed to list the ingredients on the information panel of the packaging and will not show the USDA Organic seal.
Take into consideration that the use of the USDA Organic seal is voluntary. Some smaller farming operations may not want to go through the complicated process to become certified organic, so if you shop at a farmer's market, don't be afraid to ask how they grew and managed their crops.
At this point, we buy all of our produce at either Whole Foods Market (in Tampa) or Publix. If you know of a farmer's market that strives to meet organic farming standards, please let me know. Most all of our other grocery items are purchased at Whole Foods. Sometimes, we can find better deals at Wal-Mart (or Publix) on items like cereal, canned goods and soy milk.
Let me warn you, though. Just because a product is labeled "USDA Organic" does not mean that it is "good for you." Organic products can still contain ingredients like sugar and milk. "Organic Sugar" is NOT "okay." If a product contains Evaporated Cane Juice, Fructose, Agave, or some other type of natural sweetener, then it would be fine to eat.
Dr. C. has told me several times that he considers sugar consumption to be a bigger "killer" than cigarette smoking. If you want to make changes to your diet, my recommendation is to start with the sugar. This is not a "Carb-free" way of eating, so don't view this as one of those fad diets. A serving of Agave Nectar (1 Tbsp.) has 60 Calories and 16 grams of Carbs, but like I said in my post about sweeteners, Agave is a natural sweetener that your body will know how do digest and therefore will not store it as fat.
If you have any questions, please let me know, and I'll do my best to answer them. I am by no means an expert (yet), but I have plenty of resources to answer my questions. I hope you are enjoying all of this unsolicited information. =) I look forward to sharing more with you all.
We all know that sugar is not good for us, right? If you don't know this, you really should read this article entitled, "Refined Sugar - The Sweetest Poison of All..." It is a lengthy article, so if you don't want to read the whole thing, at least read the first section entitled, "Why Sugar is Toxic to the Body." It's only a page of reading, but it is filled with a lot of information that will show you exactly what sugar is doing to your body. Please read it!
Now, for those of you who already know how bad sugar is for you and are thinking how good you are for only consuming artificial sweeteners, let me burst your bubble for a minute. They are just as bad!! For more detailed information on the subject, read this article entitled, "Sugar substitutes and the potential danger of Splenda." We've all heard about the carcinogenic effects of sweeteners such as Saccharin, Aspartame and Acesulfame K. That's why everyone was delighted when the FDA approved Splenda (sucralose) to be placed on the market. At the time the FDA approved Splenda for human consumption, there had only been 2 human trials completed and published. In those 2 trials, there were 36 human subjects where only 23 of them were actually given sucralose. The longest trial lasted 4 days and did not test sucralose for human tolerance but rather for tooth decay!
So, what is sucralose, you ask? In a nutshell, it is sugar that has been chemically altered. Three chlorine atoms have replaced 3 hydroxyl groups in the sugar molecule which, incidentally, gives it characteristics of a chlorocarbon. Most pesticides, like DDT (banned in 1972 in the US), are chlorocarbons! In fact, Splenda (sucralose) was discovered by 2 British scientists in 1976 who were trying to find a new pesticide formulation. Wikipedia recounts how one scientist told the other one to "test" the powder, and the other one thought he said to "taste" it, so he did! Moron! There is naturally-occurring chlorine in some foods that you eat - like tomatoes, mushrooms, peas...etc. This chlorine will not accumulate in your body fat and is not toxic, and your body actually needs that to help cleanse your liver. The chlorine added to make sucralose is a synthetic form which OSHA warns can burn your internal organs.
One of the reasons for the FDA's approval of sucralose is that because it has the chlorine atoms added to it, the body will not be able to metabolize it and will eventually just flush it out. This is also how Splenda's makers are able to claim that it has ZERO calories. Here's the problem: Since Splenda's approval, more testing has been done, and it has been found that in fact the average person will absorb and ultimately store 15% of the sucralose into the body. That means that some people in the study actually absorbed more than 15%. In one study, 1 person did not excrete the sucralose even after 3 days which means he was absorbing and metabolizing the chemical! I can only assume that Splenda's claim to be ZERO calories is only true if your body's chemical makeup does not allow the chemical to be absorbed.
Do you really trust the FDA? Do you think they are really looking out for your best interest? Take a look back at the Vioxx disaster. Keep in mind that Splenda is a food additive not a drug. In order for a drug to get passed by the FDA, it must undergo extensive research and testing...much more than a food additive would. Even with all the testing done on Vioxx, the FDA was not able to deem it unfit to be on the market, and that mistake cost 55,000 people their lives!
My questions for you are these: Do you want you and your family to be the "test subjects" for this inadequately tested product? Do you want to end up as just another "statistic" down the road? Why would you want to put something into your body that God did not intend for your consumption?
There are more natural alternatives to sugar and artificial sweeteners. For those of you who like the taste of artificial sweeteners, you will like the herb called Stevia, which can now be found in most regular grocery stores and definitely in health food stores. For those of you who like LOVE sugar like me, you will find that agave nectar is an excellent substitute. This is a natural sweetener found in (believe it or not) a cactus plant and has a glycemic index of 19 which makes it suitable for diabetics. Agave nectar is 25% sweeter than sugar, so you won't need to use as much, thus saving you some calories. Agave can be used in cooking/baking and as a sweetener for drinks like coffee and tea. The appearance of Agave is somewhat like honey but much less viscous. There is no weird taste to it at all! It is just sweet! The light-colored agave has no flavor...it's just sweet, but the darker, amber-colored agave tastes more like caramel. They both are really good!
For the last couple of months I have completely cut out sugar and sugar substitutes and have only used agave nectar, honey or 100% maple syrup to sweeten our food. Now, I know that some of you are going to look at the caloric content of these and tell me I'm crazy for intaking all those calories. Here's the thing: These are natural sweeteners! Your body knows how to digest them, so they will not be stored as fat. Refined sugars and artificial sweeteners are not digestible, so your body says, "I don't know what to do with this, so I'll just store it." That's why you gain weight in all the "inactive" places of your body.
So, you want our stats? In the last 2 months since we have changed our eating habits, Jason and I have both lost over 15 pounds each! Keep in mind that we were doing South Beach last year and had already lost a significant amount of weight but eventually just plateaued when we reached our initial goals. We weren't necessarily looking for weight loss when we made these recent changes, so we weren't "dieting" but rather just living. We really just wanted to be healthier and ended up with the bonus of losing weight.
I'm going to start sharing some of our favorite recipes, but I felt it was necessary to explain all of the above information before I did that. We use agave nectar for almost all of our cooking (that requires sweetening), and the kids even like it in their oatmeal. We made some ice cream with the agave, and it was delicious! Of course we made it with coconut milk since we're dairy free. I'll explain that one later. I don't want to overload you. =)
A couple of months ago, I found a recipe for homemade ketchup that is to die for, and I've been making it ever since! Don't buy the store ketchup that is full of high fructose corn syrup! That stuff is awful! Fresh is better anyway. =)With Larissa's birthday coming up this month, we've been experimenting with birthday cake ideas that would be sugar-free and dairy-free. We made a carrot cake with coconut cream frosting, and it was fabulous! We also made a yellow cake with chocolate frosting that is heavenly!
I hope this hasn't come across as a lecture from a soapbox or something, but I feel very strongly about this right now and feel that I need to share this information with others. I was completely ignorant to so many things, and due to my recent health issues, I've basically been "forced" into a better way of eating. The thing is, though, I'm so happy with our changes, and we really do feel so much better than we did before. If I can help one person to avoid going through what I've been through or any other health problems for that matter, then this has all been worthwhile.
No one imagines themselves ending up with health problems such as diabetes, heart issues or even cancer, but let me remind you, we are not invincible. If you don't take care of the body that God has given you, then you might just have your life taken from you with one of these dreadful maladies. A few days ago I was having a talk with Alyx, and I told her that we need to learn not only from our mistakes but also from other peoples' mistakes. Of course, this was not in reference to health issues, but it can still be applied. No amount of physical satiation with food is worth a life riddled with health problem after health problem. My choice is to eat right, so that I can enjoy the life that God has given me. I'm just glad that my "rude awakening" hit while I'm young and still able to make some serious changes.
My hope is that you will keep an open mind as you read the information I'll be sharing and realize that the changes are not as drastic as you would imagine. The idea is that you want to eat foods that are "whole," meaning that they are as close to nature as possible with minimal processing. The more processed and refined a certain food is, the harder it is for your body to digest. We need to realize that the point of eating is to "feed" our body not to bring physical or emotional pleasure to ourselves. Certain foods are addictive, and once you get over those addictions, you will be amazed at how great you feel!
