Great Holiday Sugar Substitutes and Alternatives

Let's face it . . . sweets taste good. Holiday treats bring some of the sweetest delicacies of the year. But that doesn't mean that you have to load up with table sugar, or sacrifice flavor to stay healthy during the holiday season. There are plenty of healthy sugar substitutes and alternatives to create your holiday goodies.

For bread type deserts as well as cookies, you can use concentrated white grape juice. Since it is a liquid, as opposed to sugar, you will need to adjust the amount dry ingredients to compensate for the extra moisture. White grape juice concentrate is extremely sweet, and yet doesn't give the desert an overpowering fruity flavor. Be careful to get 100% fruit juice, and not a cocktail type juice, which has added sugar or high-fructose syrup.

Honey is a well known sugar substitute, and offers a sweet alternative to sucrose (or table sugar.) Again, be sure to adjust any recipe to compensate for the additional moisture that honey will give to your cookie doughs or cake batters. Honey is great in cream cheese frostings, especially with a touch of vanilla, lemon, or almond flavoring!

Raw agave nectar is a delicious and healthy sugar alternative, and is much like honey in texture. It is available in most health food sections of the grocery store, or your local herb or health food store. While it is much more expensive that other sugar substitutes, it is a great alternative to syrups for breakfast, sweetening tea, or recipes that don't call for very much sugar. For the price, you probably won't want to use it for all of your baking needs, but you'll definitely find use for it, and it's a great sweet substance to have on hand. Both honey and agave nectar are wonderful in holiday drinks, such as egg nog.

If you have a recipe that just won't work without that sugary sweet flavor, try using natural sugars, such as unbleached sugar or raw sugar. It is still sugar, but much healthier than the ever popular, highly processed and bleached table sugar. So go ahead - have your sweets and eat them too!

What Grocery Items Can You Not Live Without?

Everyone has different likes and dislikes, and items they just can't seem to leave the grocery store without buying. I happen to have a few things that I buy on a regular basis, and instead of buying ingredients for specific recipies, I generally try to find things I can make with my favorite ingredients. This may seem strange to some people, but if you have a favorite flavor that you try to work into your meals, you just might understand.

When I shop, the first things that end up in my cart just about every time are lemons and limes. I love to cook with garlic, so I usually have several variations of garlic available in my kitchen, as well. This includes fresh garlic, minced or chopped garlic, and powdered or granulated garlic. This, combined with a selection of fresh italian herbs, makes for a wonderful lemon-butter sauce for pasta, chicken, potatoes, broccoli, asparagus, or just about any other vegetables or grains that you may cook up. If you like things raw, you can make a garlic-lemon dressing, throw in some raisins, and create a fresh salad with all natural raw ingredients that beats the pants off of store bought dressings! What are your "must have" ingredients, found in your kitchen nearly all of the time?

Turning Watermelon into Candy

My kids just love watermelon. But they always leave a mess when they eat it, and making melon balls just gave me the opportunity to make my own mess. I wanted a cleaner way to let them eat it, and have a large supply of the fruit available for them to eat. So a few years ago, I decided to try out dehydrating watermelon. I wasn’t sure how well it would work, due to the large water content, but the end result was a treat for the taste buds comparable to candy. Here is how I did it:

Slice watermelon about ¼ inch thick, and place in the dehydrator. Dry the fruit for about 12 hours, then turn it over. At this point, it may be extremely sticky or soggy, but don’t fret – just continue to dehydrate another 12 hours on the other side. Once the melon is dry, pull it off, it may be stuck and similar to the consistency of a fruit roll-up.

I found that dried watermelon was passable as candy when I tested it on a few children in the neighborhood. Not only was it a hit, but the parents asked me where to buy it! They couldn’t believe that it was just dried watermelon – but they were sure impressed.

You can grow your own watermelon in the spring, summer, and fall - dehydrate anything you don't eat, and save it for winter. This is an excellent way to enjoy the flavor and healthy benefits of real watermelon all year long, without worrying about high supermarket prices or seasonal shortages!

The Sourdough Came Out Great!

Okay, so I haven't posted very recently, but I was extremely distracted by the fun of making sourdough! With my first jar of sourdough starter - I didn't throw away the recommended 1/2 portion, I actually transfered it to another jar (jar #2), and fed it along with jar #1. The next day it had grown again, and I poured the hooch off the top of jar #1's contents, discarded the hooch, then stirred the remaining starter. (Hooch is the liquid that forms on the top of your starter.) With jar #2, I stirred the hooch that had separated - back into the starter. I fed both jars of starter equally, not throwing away any again. After the third day of feeding the two starters every 24 hours, I had a pretty sour smelling (in a pleasant way) starter in both jars. That's where the fun started.

I took half of each, and made the bread recipe first with one jar, and the other portion I put into jar #3. The kids loved the bread, my husband loved the bread. (He actually doesn't like sourdough, but he kept sneaking bits off of my portion, and said it was wonderful bread, but a little too sour for him.) So I fed the three starters, and planned some neat ideas to try for the next day.

When I awoke, my three jars of starter had each doubled, and I knew I'd better get ready to bake. The starter had a layer of froth on the top, and was bubbly throughout, so I knew it was ready, and is what you would call "proofed starter". So I made an unmeasured version of a cross between the bread and soft pretzels. (Just thought I should experiment while I had multiple batches of starter ready to go!) I probably used about 1-1/2 cups of starter, about 3 tbsp. sugar, 1 tbsp. salt, 1 tbsp. oil, and enough flour to make a flexible soft dough. I set the dough to rise in a warm place (my oven - every hour or so I would turn it on, wait a moment, then turn it off, but if you have a light bulb in the oven, leave it on and that will be warm enough.)

When the dough had about doubled, I kneaded it again, and then separated it into golf-ball sized pieces. I rolled each piece between my hands to make a rpe. and then shaped them into pretzels. Back into the oven they went, and I let them rise and nearly double again. This sime when I took them out, I dropped them into boiling water one at a time until they float, then removed them. If they floated upon dropping them in, I removed them right away. I placed them onto a lightly greased pizza pan (comparable to a cookie sheet). I then used an egg wash (1 egg mixed with a tablespoon of water) and topped with sea salt. You can also use coarse salt. I baked them at 400 degrees on the top rack for about 10 minutes, or until golden. I have also had success baking them at 350 degrees for about 10 mintes, and they were just as delicious. (As I said, I've been having fun with the starter!)

Another thing I did with the sourdough bread was add about 1/4 cup of parmesian cheese, 1 tbsp. Italian seasoning, 1 tsp. pepper, 1 tbsp. garlic, 2 cups of proofed starter, 2 tbsp. sugar, 1 tbsp. salt and enough flour to turn the dough into a light and silky dough. I let it rise to double the size, and then shaped it into a loaf and let it rise to double again. Then I turned on the oven, with the risen loaf inside, to 350 degrees, and baked it for about 20 to 40 minutes, or when browned on top.

I am now down to just two jars in the fridge, jars #1 and #2. I made about 4 dozen pretzels, 2 loaves of bread, 10 breadsticks, and 1/2-dozen bagels. It was loads of fun, and I took a rest from it for a few days, and my starter jars now reside on the top shelf of the fridge for now. I plan to use them again in a day or so, but perhaps I'll take it a little slower next time.

Easy Sourdough Starter Recipe - No Added Yeast!

Years ago, I used to make sourdough bread with just the yeast the flour and the air contained. I searched the internet recently, and actually found a very similar recipe, and as it turns out - one that's centuries old!


The starter is simple to make, just one cup of flour, and one cup of water. That's all you need, and probably a jar to keep it in once you've got your starter. For more information on making and fermenting your starter, and how to keep it and store it, this site seems to have very clear-cut instructions. I've purchased my jars, and am ready to get going on my starter. Hopefully I'll have a really tasty loaf of sourdough in a few days to a week!

If you enjoyed this article, you may also enjoy reading these:

• The Sourdough Came Out Great


• How to Make Artichokes and Eat Them Too
  
• You Too Can ROAST a Great Cup of Coffee

A Few Things You May Not Know About Parsley

Parsley is quite a wonderful and nutritious herb! Most people know that it's great for the breath after eating garlic, but not too many know what a power packed veggie it really is. Parsley is loaded with vitamin A, just like it's relative, the carrot - but parsley contains nearly 30,000 I.U. per ounce! Parsley is loaded with calcium, phosphorus, and potassium, and would be similar to eating the same amount of spinach. It is also quite rich in vitamin C and iron.

But what else could parsley help you with? Parsley is a diuretic, which means that it can help you shed extra water weight, or help combat water retention, especially during menstruation. But don't over do it, just drop a teaspoonful intoboiled water, and slowly simmer for 10 minutes. You can drink it like you would any other herbal tea.

If you prefer fresh parsley, try adding a small handful into your salad, or drop it into your soup as you would with fresh kale. For an extra special treat, you can eat your parsley in a wonderful dish like tabouli (which is made with lots of parsley), falafel (also contains parsley), hummus, and lettuce folded into flatbread, and either topped with tahini or yogurt mint sauce. Yum!

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Getting the Most Leafy-Green Nutrition Out of Your Salads

Chances are, if you don't know a whole lot about the valuable nutrition of the various types of lettuce, you're buying a bag of pre-mixed lettuce, carrots, and cabbage, dabbing some dressing on it, and calling it a salad. Don't get me wrong, eating a salad of any kind beats a burger in the vita-race hands down. But iceberg lettuce is not the most nutritious lettuce you can offer up in your salads. Iceberg lettuce is mostly water, and does not offer a great deal of nutrition or dietary fiber. However, there are plenty of options to make your salad a gourmet treat, while getting more of the vitamins and fiber your body needs.

There are a great number of colorful varieties of lettuce and leafy greens you can put in your bowl, but some of them offer more vitamins than others. If you want to get the most nutrition out of your salad, try experimenting with the more colorful varieties of lettuce. The general rule of thumb with salad nutrition, is that the more colorful the ingredients in your salad bowl, the more nutrition it will offer. Dark green leafy vegetables offer a great deal of calcium, which is a suitable replacement for the suggested intake of dairy milk.

Romaine lettuce is an emerald green variety that is perfect for a Caesar salad, as well as a great addition to any chicken salads, and tastes great with heavy flavored dressings, such as sesame. You can usually buy Romaine in packages of three oblong heads, and most grocers also offer an alternative organic brand as well. Kale is very dark green, thick, and crisp. It makes an excellent last-minute addition to soups because it holds up well under the heat, and adds a wonderful flavor - great with small pieces of Italian sausage (or vegetarian substitute). Loose-leaf varieties, such as butterleaf, green, and red lettuce, have ruffled edges, and are an excellent lettuce for making dinner salads. Mesclun mixes are available either in pre-mixed bags, or in self-serve bins in the produce section. It usually includes endive, arugula, and chicories, and creates a beautiful mixture of varied greens, reds, and mohagany in your bowl.

For a real treat, try using a combination of lemon juice, sunflower seeds, and raisins instead of salad dressing - it produces a sweet and sour flavor, is low-fat, and compliments the flavor of almost any salad blend. Adding other colorful fruits, vegetables, and natural foods can help pack in the vitamins, protiens, and minerals your body needs to function properly, such as tomatoes, yellow or white corn, kidney beans, avocados, parmesian or cubed cheese, tofu, seeds (sesame and sunflower are delicious!), nuts, sprouts, bell peppers, jalapenos, onions, and garlic are just a few flavorful additions you can add to your creations!

You Too Can Roast a Great Cup of Coffee

Many ages ago, I worked as a barista for a local coffee roaster and restaurant, learning a few tricks of the trade that just may be worth sharing. For decades, coffee houses are striving to make the claim of brewing the world's best cup of joe, but most seem to come up short and make the average tasting brew. Quite a few will just come up with creative concoctions of flavor to pour into your cup, top it with a few sprinkles of cinnamon and some whipped cream, and charge $5 a cup. Quite a scam when you consider that you can buy a whole pound of fresh coffee beans for about the same price. But isn't it expensive to buy a roaster? In reality, coffee can be roasted on a small scale without expensive machinery.

One of the best tips that I was able to get from our master roaster during that time was that the giant roasting machine was simply for volume - in other words, the bigger the roasting equipment, the quicker you can roast a large amount of beans. This works out well for a business that supplies a growing population of coffee drinkers in the area, but how can you go about creating your own roasted coffee beans right in your kitchen? Fairly simply. . . and it's a lot of fun as well. If you've never walked into a room full of the aroma of freshly roasted coffee beans, you're in for quite a pleasant treat.

To keep things simple, you basically need only three things to create your very own special roast, all of which can be acquired or purchased very cheaply: Coffee beans, a roaster (don't panic - we've got you covered,) and an air-tight container to keep your fresh roasted beans in. For true experimenting coffee drinkers, you may even want to keep a few containers handy, for the different flavors you create. You may already have everything you need right in your kitchen cupboards. But you'll first need some fresh green coffee beans to roast, and your choices are abundant! There is shade grown, mountain grown, organic, etc.

The Cheap Version of a Home Coffee Roaster

There are quite a few ways to roast your own coffee right in your home, but by far one of the easiest would be the air-popped popcorn popper. (For tips on purchasing the right kind of popper for roasting coffee, take a look at Sweet Maria's tips!) There are also quite a few people who roast their beans in a cast iron skillet, which can also add trace amounts of iron to your diet, which is a nutritional plus for your caffeinated drink! Oven roasting is a method that is used as well, but can also lead to unevenly roasted beans, and harder to hear the "crack" that lets you know how close to done your beans are. Since most commercially roasted beans are air roasted, your best bet for a cheap version of the coffee roaster would be the popcorn popper. But make sure you follow Sweet Maria's advice on purchasing the right popper, or your coffee could go up in flames!

So now that you know you can roast coffee at home, you're probably getting excited about the ideas running through your head, flavored coffees, light roasts, french roasts, dark roasts, and even ways to grind and make your own espresso! Here are a few sites you can learn some very special and unique techniques to developing your own roasts, brews, and blends:

• HomeRoasters Association (My personal favorite!)
• Sweet Maria's Roasting Instructions (Get inexpensive beans here, too!)
• The DIY Guide to Roasting Your Own Coffee (Great inspiration!)