About
OVERVIEW
This site is dedicated to those who seek a healthier lifestyle and would like some extra guidance. Modifying a lifestyle is a big undertaking and should be done gradually. Many women express their desire to be totally dedicated to nutritious cooking but their family would never go for it. Change needs to be slow. It will grow on them. The journey to this stage in my life has taken over 7 years.
The recipes on this site are not particularly low fat but they are nutritious. Our bodies are like engines and we need to feed it good stuff to run on; i.e. proper calorie intake, healthy fats, whole grains and foods that are filled with good nutrients. Empty and minimal calories will not make that engine operate in its fullest capacity. And, please stay away from artificial ingredients if you can.
The recipes on this site are all 100% WHOLE GRAIN. Hopefully you will find some delicious foods to serve your family so you can feel confident you are doing a great job of providing your loved ones with tasty and nutritious food.
A BALANCED APPROACH
Cooking philosophies today often focus on one area of health. There seems to be very little cooking literature available that addresses healthy eating encompassing multiple arenas. We need to consider health as a whole, not just address the goals of heart healthy, diabetic, weight loss, vegan, etc. For example: A typical “Light” or “Healthy” cookbook on the shelf at Barnes and Noble will commonly list a recipe with olive oil instead of margarine butter but 3 cups of white flour and 2 cups of sugar. Then there are those recipes that call for margarine and whole wheat flour! The goal here is to address health as a whole.
Balance is very important. Too much of anything isn’t good. Sugar is probably the only element of our diet that we could cut out completely except that we need it for our comfort foods as we have been indoctrinated since our childhood and that of our ancestors. It has no nutritional value and our bodies can live very well without it. Since converting to a healthful lifestyle I find myself craving things like wheat berries, quinoa and vegetables way more often than cake and cookies. I hope you will appreciate the recipes on this site as I have…I find them to be bursting with flavor that is addictive, partially because I know it’s good for me and my family.
GOOD NUTRITION-GUIDELINES
- Use natural ingredients – avoid processed foods
- No hydrogenated fats! Substitute with healthier alternatives such as olive oil, coconut oil, butter or Earth Balance (soy margarine)
- No MSG!
- Moderate saturated fats
- Consume mostly whole grains and whole foods
- Cut down sugar – do not replace with artificial sweeteners unless you have diabetes
WHOLE GRAINS
Whole grains are unique in their flavor. Embrace it without trying to mimic that of white flour foods, especially desserts. They will never taste the same. Whole grains also fill us up more easily so we should need to eat less of it. Homemade muffins should be 2/3 the size of a bakery muffin (try not to use the oversized muffin tins.)
Whole grains are chewy and therefore take longer for our body to process thereby avoiding a spike in blood sugar (learn about Glycemic Index.)
Please review this link on the nutritional content for white whole wheat flour. It is not white flour.
Other flours which I use instead of regular whole wheat flour to cut the density a little is barley flour and whole wheat pastry flour. For those who are sensitive to blood sugar spikes barley helps stabilize blood sugar.
http://www.wholegrainscouncil.org/whole-grains-101/whole-white-wheat-faq
1. The desserts we eat today are way too sweet. If we re-condition our palette to appreciate mildly sweet foods that will help create a much healthier generation.
2. Try to focus on drawing natural sweetness from fruits and veggies without added sugar. i.e. swt potatos, apples, pears, squashes, onions etc.
True: less processed sweeteners are pricey but:
- The more we learn about eating better the less we will bake (portions should be smaller too.)
- We should be cutting down amount of sugar (as I’ve already done in my recipes for you) i.e. 3/4 = 1/3 so we are using less of it.
