Sweet Enough Already

I took my Shelf Reliance food camping...

2011-11-18T18:25:00.004-05:00

I just went on a 10-day camping trip. Living History kind of camping. I took a selection of THRIVE foods with me this time.

I made up single serving omelets. Whole Egg powder, FD onions, red and green bell peppers, ham dices. If it was just me eating breakfast, it was add water, wait a minute or so, pop it in the pan and cook like normal. Quick, easy, yummy.

If it was a group eating breakfast, someone cooked a huge skillet of stuff and I didn't have to use my breakfast - and I didn't have to worry about it spoiling.

I contributed veggies to group meals - and everyone liked them.

I had my choice of raspberries, strawberries, blueberries or peach slices in my yogurt and my cereal whenever I wanted, even on the 9th day.

This will become standard camping fare for me (and I camp a lot!) because

I can have natural, unadulterated food throughout a 10-day event without refrigeration. Saves cooler space, saves ice money.
I can have food I'm proud to share, but if it doesn't get eaten it doesn't spoil.
I can pack a whopping amount of it without hurting my back - it's light!

Want to know more?

go to

http://www.JaneCassidy.shelfreliance.com

or email me.

2011-10-14T11:36:00.005-04:00

You know, normally I say if it has a label, don't eat it. However - that doesn't always realistically allow for having stuff on hand when you need it - because you just plain ran out, or because an unexpected expense came up and you spent your grocery money at the auto mechanic's, or because a natural disaster happened and disrupted the food supply...

Over the years I have looked into storage foods to deal with these situations. I was never able to find what I really wanted until now, though. I did not want unpalatable food I wouldn't eat except in an emergency, and would have to throw out and replace when the emergency hadn't happened. I did not want a food plan built around meals I didn't like and high-carb fillers put in because manufacturers find pasta convenient.

I wanted good, wholesome, natural FOOD with no additives, no preservatives, no added ingredients. Food that is shelf-stable and yet when opened will be GOOD to eat, GOOD tasting and GOOD nutritionally. Food that is just, well, FOOD. Basic ingredients you cook with, using your own recipes. Green Beans. Carrots. Apples. Strawberries. Chicken. Beef. (They do have a few Entrees available, but that's really not their focus.)

I discovered a company - Shelf Reliance - that produces high quality natural freeze-dried foods - THRIVE foods! I tried their green beans first - and was seriously impressed. Freeze-dried food retains the shape, texture and nutrition of the fresh food, removing only the water. When I added hot water to the beans, they became green beans. Ready to eat, right then, in my opinion, although other people might like them cooked more than I cook them. (I'm into fresh, minimally cooked. If you like them cooked to death, go ahead - I'm sure they'll come out just the way you like them.)

Not only were they delicious - the remaining beans in the package will be good to eat for a long time (like 2 years! Opened). Just store airtight, dark and dry. They will not get freezer burned. They will not thaw out when my motor home freezer decides to be less than efficient in the heat of the summer. They will not become science experiments in the back of my fridge.

So I looked into the company and decided to become an Independent Shelf Reliance Consultant so I could share this discovery with others.

My kit arrived last night, and I spent the evening checking the shipment and studying the materials and all those things a new Consultant needs to do.

But this morning, I get to play with the food! I already know that the veggies and fruits will be yummy, so I started with some things I was skeptical about. Like Whole Eggs. I'm picky about eggs. In the name of product knowledge, I fixed breakfast.

Once again, I am impressed. I reconstituted enough egg powder for 2 eggs and made scrambled eggs. I had figured they'd be good for baking - but that they are good all by themselves as scrambled eggs was a very pleasant surprise. Next time I'll make up more eggs! They were quite yummy!

Another thing about THRIVE foods is that most of them are available in 3 sizes: #10 cans (gallon), Pantry Cans (5.5" high, 4" diameter), and Mylar Pouch. (a pouch of green beans contains 7 servings). The Pantry Cans are excellent for those of us who live in RVs and have limited storage space. The pouches are great for camping. The # 10 cans, of course, are the best value per serving and truly excellent for serious food storage.

Please make sure that you see
Jane Cassidy Store
in the upper right of the website before you place an order with Shelf Reliance. (That way you'll get the best pricing and I'll get credit!) Or email me for more information at shelfreliance@buffalo-woman.com.

Or come back here, where I'll be reporting on my continued adventures with these foods.

The Search for the Ideal Ice Cream Maker

2011-08-21T01:19:00.003-04:00

I like to eat healthy food and I like to eat ice cream. This is only a problem if you don't make your own. However, I have been looking for the ice cream maker of my dreams for a few years now.

You may remember my early blog post about making ice cream in plastic bags. If not, you can read it here. This works. You can make single servings of ice cream, and it's fun... Of course, it is true that sometimes a plastic bag breaks... It still is the way to go for camping, or for a fun thing to do at parties where everyone can make their own and choose their own flavor...

But I did want an ice cream maker.

I tried a bowl-in-the-freezer kind, but it made too much for one person to eat, and homemade ice cream doesn't really keep as well as if it had all the nasty conditioners and stuff in it. It's best eaten fresh.

I found a smaller bowl-in-the-freezer one, with a hand crank. That was good. But still too big for one.

I gave those away and then got the kind you put ice and salt around the ice cream tub. It's not the traditional round tub - this one's more trash can shaped. Smaller. Fits nicely in the motorhome. But I made a half-tub of ice cream and fed 2 people and still put away a quart in the freezer. I'll keep it, but it's not for regular personal use.

This week, I solved the problem.

I was in Target for something else and happened to notice an ice cream machine in a box that was way too small for any ice cream machine I've ever seen.

Hamilton Beach Half Pint. It comes with 2 pretty blue freezer bowls and a motor with paddle.

These bowls are small enough for even my RV freezer and hold about a cup of ice cream to be. Pop the motor on top, plug it in, turn it on, wait 10-15 minutes, and it's ready to eat as soft serve or you can ripen it which makes it harder. That's about as convenient as it gets. You can eat it in the bowl.

You can make a cup, or a half-cup, as you wish.

Stevia-sweetened ice cream, fruit-sweetened ice cream, sherbet...

Today is Non-GMO Day

2010-10-10T10:39:00.003-04:00

Today is Non-GMO day. Please spread awareness about frankenfoods vs Real Food. Rather than write anything myself, I will suggest you go to Non-GMO Project and read and download their guide and....

I am impressed.

2010-06-05T10:44:00.004-04:00

This has nothing to do with eating healthy. But when something works really really well, I want to tell about it. I have a copper coffee pot in my 18th century camp, which has seen many fires and had years of soot baked on.

After trying lots of things, none of which made even a dent in the black crud, I found SOKOFF. This stuff really works.

Read the full post in my other blog,

My other favorite kitchen item

2010-05-01T00:16:00.003-04:00

I've told you about my Soda-Stream. My other cool thing in my tiny RV kitchen is my Bullet-To-Go. This is what I mix my breakfast shake in, or scramble eggs, or... so you know I use it daily. (and no, this is not an affiliate link.)
You've seen the Magic Bullet on TV, certainly - and you can get them in retail stores - but the existence of the Bullet-To-Go is not so widely known.
The truth is I'm not overly fond of their website. It's kind of As Seen On TV hype-ish, and I prefer to just be given straight-forward information and ordering... but the product itself makes up for it. The blender parts and cups and lids are the same as the regular plug-in version, but it comes with a battery base and charger. It holds its charge quite a long while and is easy to use. And it's LOTS more versatile than the smoothie blender I used to use.

Soda Stream

2010-04-29T18:34:00.002-04:00

A reader asked which model Soda Stream I have. Although I answered in the comments, I thought I'd also answer up here so it won't be missed. I have the Fountain Jet.
And yes, well over a year after I first bought it, I'm still loving my Soda Stream. And it's contagious. Quite a few people have seen mine and are now loving theirs.

Yogurt

2010-04-06T21:11:00.003-04:00

I remember when Yogurt was first getting attention as a healthy food - when it first turned up in supermarkets... Now it has a whole section of its own. But most of the yogurt on the shelves is sweetened with sugar or NutraSweet... Whatever happened to healthy yogurt?

Personally, as I am quite capable of adding my own fruit, I have always bought the large tubs of plain yogurt. Store brand... Dannon... oooh, Stonyfield organic....

And then I picked up a tub of Greek Gods yogurt.
And now I make regular trips to the Kroger that carries it, buying 3 or 4 tubs at a time so I don't run out and have to buy some other brand.

Just sayin'.

Truth in Advertising -

2009-09-09T19:54:00.001-04:00

Alternative HFCS ad from the folks over at Pay Now Live Later

2009-07-18T16:09:00.003-04:00

On my way from Santee to Jackson Springs I stopped at a farmer's market and bought a GALLON of seedless blackberries. Ripe, juicy, huge, delicious blackberries. A gallon is pretty many for one person to eat before they get old, but I think I'll manage. *wink*
I decided to try a blackberry soda. Delicious. I put some blackberries in my Magic Bullet with a little water, which pretty much liquified them. Added soda from my SodaStream, and there it was. Try finding Blackberry Soda in the grocery store. With real blackberries? NOT.
I drink mine as is. Some people might like to use a straw or strain it as there is a little pulp.

Pitting Cherries made Easy

2009-07-04T08:20:00.003-04:00

Cherries are in season. Cherries are delicious. So - I'm eating cherries.
Problem: cherries have pits. One or two of them always seemed to make it down my throat before I could catch them, so I went looking for a cherry stoner on the internet (a local market search having been fruitless, so to speak). I found lots of expensive items suitable for someone with a whole orchard of cherries, but nothing for a single woman who lives in a motorhome with a tiny little kitchen. So I made one, and it works very very well.

I took the smallest wire wisk they make and bent back 2 of the 3 loops toward the handle. I squeezed the remaining loop so it was only about half an inch wide at the most. That's it. New kitchen gadget!

How to use it:
Pull stem off cherry.
Insert loop into cherry where the stem was.
Hook it under the stone and pull it out.

That simple. A little practice and it gets amazingly easy.

Then you take some unsweetened yogurt, add the cherries, and - YUM!

Blog Award

2009-07-03T01:00:00.000-04:00

Annalisa of Indulging My A.D.D.
just made my day by
nominating me for a blog award!!
Cool!

Before passing on this award, you must follow the RULES:

1. Accept the award, post it on your blog together with the name of the person who has granted the award and his/her blog link.
2. Pass the award to other blogs that you've newly discovered. Remember to contact the bloggers to let them know they have been chosen for this award.

Now, I have the pleasure of passing it on. After much thought, I am passing it on to Jared Akers at Spiritual Zen, who writes the only blog (other than by personal friends in real life) that I absolutely always, without fail, without skimming, read word for word every time he writes.

Loving my SodaStream!

2009-06-28T11:36:00.002-04:00

OK, I've had my SodaStream for 6 months now. It is no longer a new toy. It is an essential part of my kitchen and worth every square inch of space it takes up in my motorhome. Believe me, if you live in a motorhome, an appliance MUST justify its space.

It's summer now so cold drinks are essential. A squirt of lemon juice, a few drops of STEVIA, a bunch of ice and carbonated soda water is delicious. A little orange juice and soda water beats any orange soda I've ever had. How about cherry vanilla? Use the 100% cherry juice from the health food section of the supermarket and a splash of vanilla extract.

I have given some of these as gifts and the recipients have loved theirs as much as I do mine.

If you are a regular reader, you know this is not a business site and do not do this blog for money. The affiliate link is to make it easy for you to find it. I will only ever put links up for something I 100% believe in.

Fish & Felons - Interesting

2009-06-27T22:36:00.001-04:00

I found this quite interesting.

http://neopaleo.typepad.com/the_neopaleo_gourmet/2007/02/fish_oil_and_fe.html

SodaStream! My new toy.

2009-03-13T04:10:00.004-04:00

I have a new toy, and a new solution!

I like to drink soda. I don't like to drink sugar, much less the HFCS that most soda is made of. A bunch of yummy chemicals with bubbles added isn't really what I want - but there's that yummy part, right? And then, while I was shopping for something totally unrelated, I found the solution.

The SodaStream carbonates tap water. Or bottled water, or filtered water - whatever water you drink. You add either the mixes they sell or better yet 100% juice.

My personal current favorite is 1 part orange juice to 4 or 5 parts carbonated water. I have already given 2 of these machines as gifts. My older daughter, who received one of them, likes to juice a clementine into her sparkling water. Cranberry juice. Grapefruit juice, fresh from the grapefruit. A little lemon and a little lime, for those of us who miss Mountain Dew. Grape. The possibilities are endless.

You can get one online at Soda Club USA, or in person at Camping World, Boater's World, or Williams-Sonoma.

Banana Ice Cream

2009-02-03T11:19:00.000-05:00

How easy can you get:

2C cream
1C milk
4 bananas
STEVIA to taste

Whizz in blender
Freeze in ice cream maker
Enjoy

Food

2009-01-31T11:08:00.005-05:00

This:

Food is an important part of a balanced diet.
- Fran Lebowitz

came across my the top of my email this morning. I love it. Here are some more.

“Eat food. Mostly plants. Not too much.”
- Michael Pollan

* Food grows and dies. It isn’t created.
* Food rots, wilts, and becomes generally unappetizing, typically rather quickly.
* Food doesn’t need an ingredient label (and probably isn’t in a package either).
* Food doesn’t have celebrity endorsements.
* Food doesn’t make health claims.
from Modern Forager by Scott Kustes

"If it has a label, don't eat it"
- Mark Hyman, MD

If you're going to America, bring your own food.
Fran Lebowitz

We are living in a world today where lemonade is made from artificial flavors and furniture polish is made from real lemons.
~Alfred E. Newman

The breakfast slimes, angel food cake, doughnuts and coffee, white bread and gravy cannot build an enduring nation.
~Martin H. Fischer

Sugar is a type of bodily fuel, yes, but your body runs about as well on it as a car would.
~V.L. Allineare

As for butter versus margarine, I trust cows more than chemists.
~Joan Gussow

Chemicals, n: Noxious substances from which modern foods are made.
~Author Unknown

And from a sticker on my fridge:
SUGAR: THE GATEWAY DRUG

Even Better Cranberry Sauce

2008-12-14T07:24:00.001-05:00

This year I made even better sugar-free cranberry sauce:

I boiled the contents of a bag of fresh cranberries until their skins popped, and drained them.
I added stevia powder equivalent to 2 cups of sugar (read your brand's package) and
an apple cut into tiny chunks and
a packet of gelatin.
Mashed it all up with a potato masher and
put in the fridge.

How Do You Cut Down On Sugar?

2008-07-26T11:17:00.002-04:00

This comment was posted by Anonymous to an old post, so I thought I'd bring it forward to current time:

okay, this is somewhat of an old blog, but i'm just catching onto this whole sugar thing...

how do you cut down your sugar? i struggle with eating in general. what type of items do you eat for lunch and dinner?

are we talking replacing cooking oils or actual food items or both.

recipes would be helpful and so would brands of items...

How do you cut down on sugar? First, there's the obvious: cakes, candy, cookies, ice cream (ouch). Then there's the process of learning what other foods have sweeteners hidden in them. Reading labels, being shocked at the prevalence of all those words ending in -ose and -ol, among others.
Kathleen of Radiant Recovery recommends moving sugar to mealtimes first, eating it with protein. After a while of that and some other steps - see her website - you detox from sugar.
Mark Hyman of Ultra-Wellness recommends going cold turkey. Whatever works for you is fine. And if you occasionally make an exception and eat some - well, you're still eating less than you were.

What do I eat for lunch and dinner? That depends. I work days sometimes and nights sometimes and have no truly dependable schedule. But a typical lunch might be a chicken quesadilla on a whole-grain tortilla. Or a salad full of veggies and chicken or salmon or ???. Or a bowl of yogurt with fresh fruit. Careful of the yogurt: only PLAIN is sugar-free. The rest are ALL sweetened with either sugar or artificial sweeteners. My favorite dinners are grilled - say burgers, sweet potatoes, veggies. The above is still rather vegetable-deficient but I'm working on that.

The oil question: I'm told olive oil is healthiest. It also doesn't like high heat, so if I'm cooking in the wok I use peanut oil. Flax oil is good in a breakfast shake: when I put it in, I notice less dandruff kind of stuff. I use olive oil and balsamic vinegar on most of the salads.

Recipes: I'm not really a good one to ask. I'm a "keep it simple" kind of cook. You know, "spray the grill with grill spray, marinate a steak, throw it on the grill along with a couple of sweet potatoes and some chicken strips seasoned with whatever I feel like using and cook over medium flame 'til done." Or, "fill a steamer basket with veggies, put over an inch of simmering water until tender but not mushy". That's my kind of recipe. I have put some Real Recipes on the blog, for chocolate candy and stevia sweetened ice cream, and will continue to as I come up with ideas - and readers, please feel free to share your own favorites too - but the internet is full of recipes already and I'm usually on the searching end of those, rather than the posting end.

Brands change their formulas. The only thing better than reading labels yourself is eating fresh things that don't have labels. I can tell you that Duke's is the only mass-market mayonnaise that doesn't have sugar - and that's only the regular, not the low-fat - but then if they change the recipe, will you notice? (As of the last time I bought mayonnaise, that was true in this part of the country, for products at the stores where I shop. There certainly may be others, but I haven't found them.)

In short, there are no easy answers to the "how to eat" question - but it's an interesting and worthwhile adventure. Enjoy the road.

The Omnivore's Dilemma

2008-07-02T19:23:00.002-04:00

Oh how I wish I were good at doing book reviews! Because I would so review the book I just read: Michael Pollan's The Omnivore's Dilemma, A Natural History of Four Meals.

In this book, Mr. Pollan follows 4 very different meals ranging from a fast-food burger meal to a meal entirely and personally hunted and gathered. What are we REALLY eating? What are the ramifications? What are the true costs?

It would be a very favorable review. I would begin by telling you how his writing style is such that I couldn't put it down. Although seriously non-fiction, this is not a boring read at all. This is an adventure.

And then there is the subject matter. We are talking serious eye-opening here. Make-you-think stuff. Nitty gritty stuff.

Oh, never mind - just read the book! I'm champing at the bit to read his others.

www.michaelpollan.com

Chocolate, again!

2008-07-02T19:19:00.002-04:00

More ways to enjoy chocolate without sugar or other yucky sweeteners:

Almost Pudding:
Puree ripe bananas, with a soup spoon of cocoa powder for each banana. Chill. This makes a delicious pudding-like dessert. It doesn't gel as gelled as regular pudding, but it will thicken up nicely. I will try it folded into whipped cream sometime soon.

More ice cream flavors:
Making ice cream in individual serving sizes in the plastic bags, I've tried several yummy flavors:

Cherries & Almond flavoring. A special favorite.

Orange flavoring and vanilla. Makes something amazingly Creamsicle-like. Yum.

Cocoa powder and mint flavoring. Also good.

Tips for a Better Life

2008-06-26T14:01:00.003-04:00

My oldest friend (meaning how long she's been in my life) sent me this this morning and I thought it deserved posting here - and on my other blog - and on my refrigerator too. So, in no particular order except the way I received them:
40 Tips for a Better Life in 2008

1. Take a 10-30 minute walk every day. And while you walk, smile. It
is the ultimate anti-depressant.

2. Sit in silence for at least 10 minutes each day.

3. Buy a DVR and tape your late night shows and get more sleep.

4. When you wake up in the morning complete the following statement,
'My purpose is to __________ today.'

5. Live with the 3 E's -- Energy, Enthusiasm, and Empathy.

6. Play more games and read more books than you did in 2007.

7. Make time to practice meditation and prayer. They provide us with
daily fuel for our busy lives.

8. Spend time with people over the age of 70 and under the age of 6.

9. Dream more while you are awake.

10. Eat more foods that grow on trees and plants and eat less food
that is manufactured in plants.

11. Drink green tea and plenty of water. Eat blueberries, wild Alaskan
salmon, broccoli, almonds & walnuts.

12. Try to make at least three people smile each day.

13. Clear clutter from your house, your car, your desk and let new and
flowing energy into your life.

14. Don't waste your precious energy on gossip, OR issues of the past,
negative thoughts or things you cannot control. Instead invest your
energy in the positive present moment.

15. Realize that life is a school and you are here to learn. Problems
are simply part of the curriculum that appear and fade away like
algebra class but the lessons you learn will last a lifetime.

16. Eat breakfast like a king, lunch like a prince and dinner like a
college kid with a maxed out charge card.

17. Smile and laugh more. It will keep the NEGATIVE BLUES away.

18. Life isn't fair, but it's still good.

19. Life is too short to waste time hating anyone.

20. Don't take yourself so seriously. No one else does.

21. You don't have to win every argument. Agree to disagree.

22. Make peace with your past so it won't spoil the present.

23. Don't compare your life to others'. You have no idea what their
journey is all about.

24. No one is in charge of your happiness except you.

25. Frame every so-called disaster with these words: 'In five years,
will this matter?'

26. Forgive everyone for everything.

27. What other people think of you is none of your business.

28. REMEMBER GOD heals everything.

29. However good or bad a situation is, it will change.

30. Your job won't take care of you when you are sick. Your friends
will. Stay in touch.

31. Get rid of anything that isn't useful, beautiful or joyful.

32. Envy is a waste of time. You already have all you need.

33. The best is yet to come.

34. No matter how you feel, get up, dress up and show up.

35. Do the right thing!

36. Call your family often. (Or email them to death!!!)

37. Each night before you go to bed complete the following statements:
I am thankful for __________. Today I accomplished _________.

38. Remember that you are too blessed to be stressed.

39. Enjoy the ride. Remember this is not Disney World and you
certainly don't want a fast pass. You only have one ride through life
so make the most of it and enjoy the ride.

40. Please Forward this to everyone you care about. (Actually I didn't forward this to anyone. But the link to the blog is on every email I send, so sooner or later...)

Now, I invite you to post anything that you think should have been on the list!

Yummy Chocolate Candy sweetened only with STEVIA

2008-05-09T15:27:00.000-04:00

I think I have the chocolate candy thing figured out!
Chocolate doesn't like liquid. So I break up unsweetened, just cocoa, baking chocolate into small pieces and put in top of double boiler with stevia POWDER. Boil the water under it. Take care not to let steam get into the pot with the chocolate - don't cover it. When it begins to melt, I take it off the heat and stir like mad to melt the rest - and make it be shiny and not lose its temper. (Temper means the cocoa butter is properly attached to the cocoa and doesn't "bloom" in unsightly white streaks on your finished chocolate.)
How much stevia? I liked the results I got with 5 soupspoons of Stevia Plus. Stevia Plus also has inulin, a fiber supplement, which makes it easier to measure - 2 Tablespoons would equal a cup of sugar. Some powdered stevia is just stevia and very very small amounts would be needed.

Yesterday's batch I made some with dried fruit and nuts, some with unsweetened coconut, and some plain, with mint oil. I liked that especially well.

Delicious Tortillas! sin masa o azucar! (without flour or sugar)

2008-04-24T21:30:00.001-04:00

I found something delicious this week.

It seems all the "whole wheat" tortillas on the market, at least in my stomping grounds, are part whole wheat but still contain white flour. Except Tam-X-ico's whole wheat tortilla, which is actually whole wheat and other whole grains and is delicious. But it does have a small bit of sugar and some other ingredients that sound more like chemistry than food.

And then I happened upon Ezekiel sprouted grain tortillas. This is their ingredient list:

INGREDIENTS: Organic Sprouted Whole Wheat, Filtered Water, Organic Unhulled Sesame Seeds, Organic Sprouted Whole Soybeans, Organic Sprouted Whole Barley, Organic Sprouted Whole Millet, Organic Sprouted Whole Lentils, Organic Sprouted Whole Spelt, Sea Salt.

Now, that's FOOD. I bought a pack to try, and 2 quesadillas later trotted back to the health food store at which I found them to stock up.

Here's their website: Ezekiel Tortillas

Eureka! I have solved the ice cream problems.

2008-04-18T17:12:00.005-04:00

In a previous post about ice cream I complained about the texture of the ice cream I was making. It is also a problem that it's just me and my ice cream maker makes so much. Not to mention it takes up lots of precious motorhome cargo space. Then an internet search turned up this method of making ice cream:

Fill a gallon ziploc bag one-third of the way with ice and 1 cup ice cream salt.
Put 1 cup of ice cream mixture in a quart ziploc, seal it and put it in the gallon bag.
With a towel or gloves, knead it, having the small bag in contact with the ice mixture as much as possible, until it thickens, about 10 minutes, let it sit another 5 minutes to harden, and voila! Ice Cream.

My campground neighbors and I did the experiment this evening and the results were truly excellent. Now I can make 1 single serving of good ice cream at a time, or enough for a group and have them knead their own - it's fun.

Here's the recipe I used:

VANILLA ICE CREAM
Mix:
1 C milk
1 heaping Tbsp STEVIA
1/8 tsp salt
3 beaten eggs
Cook (stirring) the mixture in top of double boiler until you see bubbles start to form around the edge, and the mixture begins to thicken slightly and coat the spoon.
Let it cool to room temperature.
Stir in:
1 Tbsp vanilla
2 C half-and-half

Put 1 cup of the mixture in each quart bag and proceed with the instructions above.

Next time I'll add berries, and start trying other flavors. But I'm really excited: I now have a good tasting good textured ice cream - which also passed muster from my neighbors who DO eat regular sugar. To quote: "It tastes like Real Ice Cream". Can't beat that!

Chocolate! and Children's Tums??

2008-03-22T02:49:00.003-04:00

Chocolate. This is a work in progress.
The antioxidants in cocoa are supposed to be so good that even the Ultra-Prevention folks advise eating some dark chocolate even though it comes mixed with sugar. But I know what happens when I eat sugar and I don't like it. So I got a couple of 4 oz bars of unsweetened chocolate. Put them to melt in a pot over lowest possible heat. Added a stick of butter, 4 droppers-full of stevia, and a little milk. When I added the milk the melted mixture took on a fudgy texture.
I covered some frozen bing cherries with some of it. I spread some more out to be plain chocolate candy, and mixed in raisins into the rest and spread it out to be raisin candy. I poured a cup of milk and some cinnamon into the pot, stirred it around over low heat to mix in the chocolate that was stuck to the pot and had a Most Enjoyable cup of Hot Chocolate with NO SUGAR. It was as delicious as any I've had and more so than most. The candy was good too - a bit fudgy/grainy textured compared to commercial chocolate bars, and not as sweet because I prefer less sweet. I'm going to work on this and perfect it. And not use frozen cherries - they thawed and leaked. But they were delicious.

----
Here's an interesting sign of the times: TUMS for Children. When I was a kid I'd never even HEARD of heartburn. Never experienced it until I was pregnant. Now enough kids are suffering from acid indigestion / heartburn / reflux to market TUMS to them? And on reading the label: the ingredients are the same - the same as the EXTRA STRENGTH tums, not the original regular tums.

Dare I suggest that the national diet of sweetened everything and HFCS in the sodas that are everywhere might have something to do with this?

2008-02-29T15:35:00.003-05:00

Everyone knows that Cranberry Juice is good for you. But when you try to buy it - there's Cranberry Juice Cocktail, which is a blend of Cranberry and other juices, sweetened with HFCS or sugar or something you don't want. Or you get Cranberry Juice, no sugar added - and it really isn't. In that instance I found it was NOT a code name for "Splenda added instead". But it was a blend of Cranberry and other juices, mostly apple. Apple juice is good for you too, but when I want Cranberry, darn it, I want Cranberry.
Then there's pure Cranberry juice from the health food section. At $7-something a bottle, I don't drink much of that either.
I'd found this a few months ago - for $3-change - and couldn't remember where I'd found it. Found it again last week - at Wal*Mart. Stocked up. Pure Cranberry Juice. Ocean Spray. Pure Cranberry Juice is quite - QUITE - tart. I dilute mine with water and drop in a few drops of Stevia. And know my urinary tract is getting that good Cranberry stuff, not a blend with a little Cranberry in it.

When your dentist says avoid sweets...

2008-02-22T11:27:00.004-05:00

When your dentist says sweets are bad for your teeth, he must be right. I do know that when I'm not eating sugar, my dentures rinse off easily. When I was eating sugar, they collected a plaque of gunk that only Stain-Away and vigorous brushing would remove. Last week I was Sick - there were like 7 different strains of flu going around among my co-workers - and in desperation sucked on some Ricola cough drops - excellent drops except for the sugar - and there was a spot of that darn stubborn plaque again.
It's that simple: eat sugar, get plaque. Don't eat sugar, don't get plaque. If I still had natural teeth, I might not notice the direct cause/effect thing because I couldn't take them out - but it'd still be there. Your teeth, your choice.

Oatmeal and Lasagna

2007-12-27T12:26:00.000-05:00

I learned this cool thing this morning: Instant Oatmeal is a scam.
Not only is instant oatmeal overpackaged, overprocessed, and oversweetened, it's not necessary. You do not have to cook oatmeal. I'm not talking about instant oatmeal. Not even Quick oatmeal. Regular Quaker Old Fashioned Oatmeal.
I had breakfast this morning with my friend Sue and she made oatmeal like this:

Boil water.
Mix in serving bowls 3 parts boiling water to 2 parts oatmeal. (2/3 of a cup of oatmeal, 1 cup of water)
Let it sit until the water is all absorbed, and it's ready to eat.

Being back on track and off the nefarous sugar, I top mine with unsweetened applesauce.

As we talked about unnecessary products, I remembered how I had laughed when I first saw packages of "no-boil lasagna noodles" in the early '80's. The joke is: no lasagna noodles need to be boiled. You build your lasagna, make sure the sauce completely covers the top, cook it for the normal 50 minutes and poof: lasagna. Yeah, I know, when I first read it (in Mother Earth News, circa 1980) I had to try it to be sure - but I haven't boiled a lasagna noodle since.

Human for the Holidays

2007-12-27T12:11:00.000-05:00

Hello everyone and a Merry Midwinter to you all.

This time of year presents special challenges - obstacles - traps - for those of us who are trying to avoid sweeteners and eat Real Food. We show our love of friends and family by giving them stuff that's bad for them and sharing it with them. Go figure. Last year I survived just fine. This year I *gasp!* ate some of the sweets. Enough to remind me why I don't do that. Armed with a brand new bottle of Tums as I pay the consequences, my food is back on track. Yay.

I could have gone on posting like that didn't happen, but I like to sleep well at night. I am not The Queen of Eating Right, just an ordinary woman who knows her body works better when fed properly and tries real hard to accomodate it. Sometimes I do better than others.

What I learned: Nothing's changed. Sugar and it's brethren STILL turn off the "that's satisfying, that's enough" switch and invite their friends. Eating it STILL makes for foggy thinking, lower energy levels, leg cramps and heartburn. It hasn't gotten any better out there.

Next post (in a couple of minutes) I'll post a couple of other, more pleasant, things I've learned about food.

Wishing you all a Prosperous, Happy and Healthy New Year!

Pumpkin Pie Ice Cream and Mint Chocolate Shakes

2007-12-02T13:19:00.001-05:00

Sometimes you want a taste that's not commercially available unsweetened. Chocolate plus mint comes to mind, and Three Musketeers now comes mint-flavored. Sometimes it's really hard to leave it alone, and it's not the sugar doing it.

But: I win. What I did:

Standard Shake recipe
plus 3 T cocoa powder
plus 1 T peppermint oil.

Voila! Chocolate Mint craving satisfied, no sugar added.

I promised I'd report on the results of the pumpkin ice cream experiment. I finally got around to making it - and broke my dasher.

What I'd done was freeze the contents of a small can of pumpkin, thin and flat, so little chunks could go in the ice cream mix and have a good head start on frozen-ness. Well, oops, I didn't make the chunks small enough. I added the cream and pumpkin pie spices and turned it on and the whole thing instantly froze together and the dasher - plastic, of course - broke.
So I took a heavy mixing spoon, broke everything up small, and ran the ice cream maker using the mixing spoon as a dasher. That worked ok and before long I had pumpkin pie ice cream.
It was good.

Now here's the thing about not adding sugar. Sugar shuts off the "I'm satisfied" switch and turns on the "I want more" switch. A normal serving of ice cream without sugar turns on my "I'm satisfied" switch about half-way through. Not that it's not yummy, it is. But I don't eat as much because I get satisfied when I'm supposed to.

So I had been looking forward to pumpkin pie ice cream for a while and finally made it and dished myself a good sized bowl of it. Hah. Half that much would have been plenty.

The only thing about these ice creams I'm making that I'm not happy with is the texture - I guess I'm not putting in carrageenan or something? or maybe it's the kind of ice cream churn I'm using. I'm working on it. Next time I do pumpkin, I'll mix it in the blender first, and add bits of pecan and apple at the end. That should be outstanding.

Happy Thanksgiving!

2007-11-22T13:53:00.001-05:00

The oven's pre-heated and I'm putting the rolls in. 20 minutes of baking, 20 minutes of blogging.

Happy Thanksgiving to all of you.

Two things come to mind: Gratitude and Fatty food. Counting blessings and Counting calories. Life is neat so let's all eat. Yeah, ok.

So let it be said: I'm grateful I got off sugar. I don't miss TUMS or those extra pounds. I'm grateful my off-sugar mentor got off sugar: she's still alive and healthy.

The rolls baking in the oven are the store-brand frozen enriched white dinner rolls my honey has taken to his family's Thanksgiving gathering forever. They thaw, they rise, they get baked, some of them get eaten. Tradition.

For this gathering, though, I made my Cranberry Sauce , which I mentioned in a previous post.

Dissolve 1 packet of unflavored (Knox) gelatin in 1/2 Cup pure cranberry juice. (NOT cranberry juice cocktail or juice blend.)
Heat 1 1/2 Cup pure cranberry juice to simmering, and stir it into the dissolved juice/gelatin.
I also add a packet of Stevia - cranberries are pretty tart.
Whizz half a bag of fresh cranberries in the food processor and stir them into the juice.
Let it gel in the fridge.

No sugar, no artificial sweeteners, and NO HIGH FRUCTOSE CORN SYRUP.

I also made Deviled Eggs . I turned the jar of dill relish backwards so my honey wouldn't notice it's not SWEET pickle relish.

Hard boil eggs.
Peel, cut in half, pop the yolks into the food processor and the whites on a plate.
Add a spoonful (don't make it watery) of DUKE'S regular mayonnaise (the only commercial mayo I know of without sugar), a good healthy squirt or so of jalapeño mustard, and some dill pickle relish. Whizz. Stuff the eggs.

No sugar, taste great.

Incidentally, I like to use cake decorating tips and frosting bags for this, or a zipper food bag works fine too: no mess and pretty eggs.

Now, you may remember from an earlier post that stuffing mix is sweetened. I can only hope that the ones in charge of the turkey make their own.

Oh yes - I have the ingredients chilling for Pumpkin Ice Cream . Cold Stone Creamery has pumpkin ice cream and I confess I did taste some and it was delicious - except for the obvious fact that there's sugar in it. I will be making a batch my way very soon, and I'll let you know how it turns out.

Artificial Sweeteners

2007-11-03T12:30:00.000-04:00

Now, THAT'S a lot of sweet!

While searching the net for the list of artificial sweeteners at the bottom of this page, I ran across this information from the USDA.

In 2006 the average PER CAPITA DAILY consumption of HFCS was 197 calories, according to The USDA.

And 211 calories of cane and beet sugar.
Per person.
Per day.

Not to mention all those other sweeteners.

Wanna lose weight?

No wonder 20 pounds dropped off me when I quit eating sweeteners.

_________________________________

List of artificial sweeteners

Natural sugar substitutes:

* Brazzein
* Curculin
* Erythritol
* Fructose
* Glycyrrhizin
* Glycerol
* Hydrogenated starch hydrolysates
* Lactitol
* Mabinlin
* Maltitol
* Maltooligosaccharide
* Mannitol
* Miraculin
* Monellin
* Pentadin
* Sorbitol
* Stevia
* Tagatose
* Thaumatin
* Xylitol

Artificial sugar substitutes:

* Acesulfame potassium
* Alitame
* Aspartame-Acesulfame-Salt
* Cyclamate
* Dulcin
* Neohesperidin dihydrochalcone
* Neotame
* P-4000
* Saccharin
* Sucralose
* Isomalt

With thanks to http://www.diet-health-nutrition.org/list-of-artificial-sweeteners/
even if they do think these things are food.

Mint Jelly is History.

2007-11-03T12:16:00.002-04:00

I grilled a lamb steak last weekend, for the first time in a loooong time.

I've always liked
mint jelly
with lamb- but I find it's all full of high fructose corn syrup. what to do?

I found this delicious mint sauce imported from England at Fresh Market. Lots of real mint and vinegar, no sweetener at all, and way better on the lamb. Good Stuff!

2007-10-29T19:09:00.000-04:00

They put sweeteners in EVERYTHING! The easy part of being sugar-free is the cake, candy, cookies thing. The hard part is that the stuff is in nearly everything.

I decided to check the labels at my friend's house to show how sneaky sugar is. She eats fairly healthy, as food goes these days - lots of home cooked food, meat and veggies...

Note: these foods just happened to be in her cabinet. They represent absolutely no bias for or against any particular brand. I pulled them out at random.

The first can I picked up was kidney beans.

"There's sugar in kidney beans?" she exclaimed, surprised. Yep, sure is.

Hmmm - green tea. Should be good for you... - Oops - SUGAR.

Shake-n-Bake? Yep, sugar, dextrose, and maltodextrin. For chicken coating?

Stove Top dressing - another item you wouldn't necessarily give up if you were giving up sweets, right? Wrong. High Fructose Corn Syrup, Maltodextrin, sugar, corn syrup. Stuff I surely never put in my homemade stuffing back when I ate sugar.

We all know ketchup is sweetened. Did we know it took three different kinds of sweetener? High Fructose Corn Syrup, regular corn syrup, and sugar.

Mexican rice: sugar and maltodextrin.

What's sugar doing in the peanut butter??? And, although I didn't get a picture of any, it's also in most mayonnaise.

The Rasberry Vinaigrette dressing is Organic, which is a good thing. But I really don't care that the sugar is organic - it's still THERE - and I still don't want to eat it.

The pretzels had only one sweetener - dextrose. Still too much. BTW, another name for dextrose is glucose. I don't want it in MY pretzels.

Pet Peeve - although I can find sugar-free pretzels, I can't find Whole Wheat Sugar Free Pretzels. Why the heck not???

Camping with The Shakes.

2007-10-02T19:08:00.000-04:00

I just got back from a 10-day camping trip. Yes, I had a cooler, and I started out with my usual shake recipe. Later in the week, though, when the fresh food's been eaten up, it gets silly to buy ice. Also, washing dishes at camp is a bit more iffy than doing it at home. So, I present to you now, the Camper's Shake:

Take 1 good quality ziplock sandwich bag containing pre-measured MLO protein powder and oat flour.
Pour in 1 12-oz can V8. (I prefer Spicy Hot, but the regular is good too.)
Zip it up, shake it up - massage the corners gently - open a bit and sip through a straw.
Throw out the remains. No dirty dishes. No refrigeration required.
(assuming you use vitamin tablets instead of liquid vitamins when you go camping.)

Breakfast just doesn't GET any more convenient than that.

Cranberry Sauce

2007-08-26T20:22:00.000-04:00

Cranberry Sauce - REAL Cranberry Sauce.

I was going to post this closer to Thanksgiving, but maybe this will give search engines time to find it.

Last Thanksgiving I wanted Cranberry Sauce. Guess what - they're all High Fructose Corn Syrup. In the organic section, it's organic High Fructose Corn Syrup. I still don't want it.

I took plain Knox gelatin and made it up with pure cranberry sauce and added crushed fresh cranberries, sweetened only with a half-packet of Stevia. Nothing bad for ya there, and it tasted great. Give it a try.

2007-07-29T16:32:00.000-04:00

GOT HEARTBURN?

The price of Nexium can be $.50 to $1 each online.

The price of Prilosec, likewise.

Ultra maximum strength TUMS, $9.00.

The cost of quitting sugar is of course a negative number - I don't spend money on candy bars, cakes, sodas, cookies, etc.

And I don't spend money on Nexium, Prilosec, or Tums.

When I ate sugar, I was NEVER without TUMS within arms reach. I had constant heartburn.

Since I quit sugar, I have not bought any TUMS. I may have taken a handful of them in the past year and several months, when I was dumb enough to eat and go to bed too soon.

When I tell people this, they have a tendancy to go buy cookies. I don't understand.

Well, maybe I do - addiction is addiction.

2007-07-27T22:21:00.000-04:00

When I was a kid, my stepfather was the only person I ever heard of with diabetes. Nowadays, it seems like nearly everyone has it. I decided I'd check if it was just my perception, and it's not. There's an epidemic of type 2 diabetes out there, and I don't want it.

Is it related to how we eat? All the non-food in our food? You bet.

This study, among many others, discusses the causes. It's pretty technical, but basically today's food has more calories and less nutrition and more sweeteners and less fiber.

To quote: "In this ecologic analysis, in which national data from 1909 to 1997 were used, we found a strong association between an increased consumption of refined carbohydrates in the form of corn syrup, a decreased consumption of dietary fiber, and an increasing trend in the prevalence of type 2 diabetes in the United States during the 20th century. Furthermore, our data are consistent in that obesity and the prevalence of diabetes increased proportionately to the increase in consumption of refined carbohydrates in the United States."

In a nutshell, our national diet is making us fat and sick.

More Ice Cream

2007-06-02T15:04:00.001-04:00

I hope you tried and enjoyed the Strawberry Ice Cream. Here are two more cold and creamy treats for these hot summer days.

Cherry Vanilla Ice Cream:

Mix directly in ice cream maker:

1 pint half-and-half
1/2 bag frozen cherries
2 T. vanilla extract
1/2 packet Stevia if you want.

And, for the ultimate in simplicity,

Mango Ice Cream
1 pint half-and-half
1/2 bag frozen mango

blend in blender, pour - ok, scoop - into ice cream maker.

This one, if you don't happen to have an ice cream maker, will make soft ice cream in your blender if you use very cold cream and frozen mango.

Bon Appetit!

Waking Up With The Shakes :)

2007-05-11T20:56:00.000-04:00

I was asked to post the shake recipe with which I start the day. So, OK, I will. Let me tell you about shakes.
Several years ago I was lucky enough to stumble onto a website - Radiant Recovery - the link is in my links on the sidebar. This is a wonderful resource for those of us who would like to eat real food and quit eating poison. I basically got the shake recipe from Radiant Recovery.
Here's why I have this shake for breakfast:
1. It's quick and easy and I can write my journal while I'm eating it and get off to work on time.
2. I don't get ravenously hungry before I even get to work. In fact, a small healthy snack at break time and I'm just getting ready for lunch at lunchtime. Heck, if I got to choose my own lunchtime (yeah, that'll happen!) I could skip the snack. This from someone who used to walk around work with a pocket full of pretzels just to drag myself through the day.
3. I'm much saner. Since I've been doing breakfast for so long, I've had a few (very few, thank goodness) opportunities to observe what happens when I skip it. Any time in the last several years that I've sunk into poor poor pitiful me kinds of thoughts - yep, you guessed it - I found I'd skipped breakfast. Now, I don't like to feel that way. So I eat breakfast. (If you go to Radiant Recovery, you'll discover that breakfast means with adequate protein and within an hour of getting up.)

OK, so here's the shake. This is the one I use. Adequate protein for you may be more or less.

1/2 C orange juice
1 1/2 C milk
1/4 C oat flour
1/3 C MLO protein powder with no sugar, no flavoring. The milk and egg is good, so is the protein power formula.
2 Tbsp liquid multiple vitamins

I vary this sometimes. Like last week: fresh strawberries went into the blender with it.
Sometimes I put instant coffee granules, or plain unsweetened cocoa powder - lots of anti-oxidants they say, and the OJ makes it all sweet enough already. Frozen berries are good, blackberries, blueberries, rasberries. I've done fresh pineapple and unsweetened coconut. That took some searching! Why do they think coconut requires sweetening???

So that's the breakfast shake.
Bon Appetit!

STRAWBERRY ICE CREAM

2007-05-04T00:58:00.000-04:00

Recipe!
Combine:
1 pint half-and-half,
roughly a cup of FRESH YUMMY STRAWBERRIES, cut up,
2 Tablespoons vanilla extract.
Put it in ice cream maker and follow its directions.

When I made the decision to cut out sugar, the thought of giving up ice cream horrified me. I looked at the sugar-free ice creams, and they all replaced sugar with other sweeteners. Oh, no - at least we KNOW in what ways sugar is bad for us. I can no longer find the wonderful frozen pureed banana pops with no other ingredients. So I bought an ice cream maker and started experimenting.

The above is one of several delicious totally-food recipes I've come up with. I will post more later.

An interesting thing about Real Food ice cream: It's delicious, but not addictive. I used to eat HUGE bowls of commercial ice cream. When I make ice cream, I package it in 4 oz. containers, and find them quite satisfying. Sometimes I eat half of one and put the rest back in the refrigerator for another day. No wonder the Food Manufacturers (oxymoron!) don't sell this stuff. Without the addictive sugars, no cravings, no pigging out, no profit margin.

The reason I started this off with Strawberry Ice Cream is - I'm visiting my daughter in SC and strawberries are in season. There's a strawberry farm nearby and we came back with 3 gallons - some for her, some for me, some to freeze for later.

Bon Appetit!