Some of My Favorite Things
Part of my journey of learning how to eat healthier has been learning that better ingredients make better food. When I am baking I have a few items that I never let run out and I wanted to share them with you. Although there are other brands that are just as good…this is what is my cupboard today…and most days because this is what I can find where I live…
Sea Salt
We hear so much about salt and which one is better. Hello! Sodium is sodium and the trace amounts of minerals may not matter to everyone, in the scheme of things. In a perfect world we would all have Himalayan Sea Salt ready for use…but my grinder is getting tired and so is my arm.
So for baking I use sea salt. It too has lots of trace minerals, but mainly I think it has a cleaner taste than table salt so you can sometimes use less and I love that this container is easy to pour when measuring.
Real Vanilla Extract
I make this myself and I must tell you, it is super easy and so worth a few minutes of effort. I have bought kits online and seen them at the health food store. You can also just purchase the beans in the same manner. You can use rum, vodka or bourbon. We don’t drink very often in our house…so even with a few toddies or spiked hot chocolate I only have to buy a pint each year.
Put your beans in the bottle, fill the bottle with your preferred liquor (this bottle is made with rum) and then set it in a dark cool place for at least a month. Shake it once per week. Once you start using it you can just refill the bottle with the liquor.
Organic Cinnamon
I was raised by a mother who didn’t enjoy cooking and probably just bought the cheapest cinnamon she could find whenever she felt the need to make something with it. As I got older and learned that I could make food that made my taste buds dance I started using other types of ingredients and learned that the ingredients you use matter…a lot! I love Simply Organic Cinnamon. If you aren’t going to fresh grind your cinnamon…don’t scrimp on the cinnamon!
Aluminum Free Baking Power
I was wandering through the natural baking section on a day that I needed to buy baking powder and noticed that they had one that said Aluminum Free on the label. Mom had always used Clabber Girl…but that day I bought Rumford…and soon I promised to stay away from the aluminum.
Aluminum is not necessary for our bodies and some people are nervous about what they fear eating it could cause. I use it because my baking is lighter and fluffier…definitely use Aluminum Free Baking Powder…
On Thursday October 9, 2014 I decided to put into action a change. I have always been fat. I was a fat child. I was a fat adolescent. I have been a fat woman for as long as I have been a woman. Don’t get me wrong, I know that people that are overweight can be fit. But I am not. I get winded on the stairs. I have pains in my hips and back when I walk too far, which isn’t that far. I can’t get on my knees to even consider sitting on the floor. My belly gets in the way of things I want to do. My weight stops me from living the life I want to live.
Recently Karen and I were loaned a copy of The Isaiah 9:10 Judgement DVD by a friend, who has watched lots of times and felt that we really needed to see it. So that is what we did on our day off, actually it played twice through because Karen had fallen asleep at the end and I was inspired to pray and search the bible for a few words about themes that I saw throughout the production. The editing team that created it made sure that it looped and so, in the end it was at least listened to twice in our house.
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