Waste Not Want Not Wednesday cancelled this week

Hi folks,

So sorry, but I'm running very behind this week on things. I'll be doing a fair amount of traveling this next week (flying out to visit my grandmother in the hospital in Winnipeg, Manitoba, then flying on to British Columbia to see the rest of the fam for the Christmas holidays) and as per usual, I'm behind on packing, cleaning my apartment and so on and so forth.

Blame it on my German grandmothers, but usually the night before I travel I find myself scrubbing the stove and bathroom with an old toothbrush. You know, in case anything happens to it while I'm away, or I come home to a dirty apartment, or I stay awake at night wishing I'd just wiped down the cupboards once more, or who knows what else causes the neurosis, but it is what it is. 

I should, however, be better prepared next week and WNWNW should be up and running for you to share your holiday posts. 

On another note, anyone got any good suggestions for gluten free dining in Winnipeg? Somewhere downtown?  Not too far from the Forks, perhaps? 


Have a great week everyone and sorry for my bad planning!

The Health Benefits of Cooked Vegetables + Raw Vegetable Allergies

Most people believe that raw foods are better for you than cooked ones. The basis of this is often bound up in myths of what people think constitutes our “natural diet”, particularly given the popularity in recent years of diets like the paleo diet and the raw food movement. The assumption is that, since fruit and vegetables are naturally in a raw state, and before the invention of fire our ancestors ate food raw, this is a more “natural” state, and therefore better, way to eat food.

That said, the average lifespan of someone in the Paleolithic period was about 33 yrs.[1]  You would have been lucky to make it to 40. Sure, some of them probably got eaten by saber toothed tigers and infant mortality was high and what-not, but diet was certainly not uniform around the world. What about the Inuit, who have survived mostly on whale blubber?

 

So is raw food really that much better for you? And, here’s what I really want to focus on:

What if you are allergic to raw fruit and vegetables? 

If you’re like me and have oral allergy syndrome and can’t eat certain fresh fruits and vegetables, you might be wondering if cooking, boiling or steaming destroys the nutrients in foods. You might be worried about eating a balanced diet if you’re allergic to most raw foods. 

The good news is that the nutrients in many vegetables actually improve with cooking, steaming, sauteing, and yes, even microwaving.

Waste Not Want Not Wednesday #55

Got a great gluten free recipe, some frugal, eco-friendly tips or  a healthy living article? Well come join the party!

The Waste Not Want Not Wednesday link-up party is inspired by World Food Day (Oct. 16), and recent articles such as this one that show between 40-51% of food in Canada and America ends up in the garbage.  Over-consumption, lack of knowledge, low cost and over purchasing are common causes of food waste in North America.  This unsustainable over-consumption extends to so many aspects of our lives.

So perhaps if we all share our tips for consuming a little less stuff in general, cooking more responsibly and frugally, and living eco-friendly, we can each take a small part in making our world a little more sustainable.

And besides, who couldn't save a little bit of $$$ anyway? 

Gluten Free Chocolate Cranberry Bread {Healthified and Dairy Free}

Recipe is free of gluten, dairy, soy, nuts, and corn

My husband has, periodically, reminisced about a chocolate cherry bread he used to love when he was a kid. He would go with his parents to Granville Island (a picturesque place by the water in Vancouver, BC popular with tourists and locals for its fish and produce market and funky shops) to get the bread.

Of course I've searched around online for both the bakery and the recipe. But the bakery has long since closed, and all the recipes I could find for chocolate cherry bread were far more cake-like than bread. They're loaded with sugar and oil or butter. 

Well I recently found myself with two bags worth of fresh cranberries (bought on sale) and I thought, "what the heck? Why not try and make a chocolate cranberry bread like the chocolate cherry one, but make it gluten free and healthy?"

So I concocted a recipe, and the first time I tried it I absentmindedly forgot to add xanthan gum. "Doh." It came out crumbly and drier than a witches teet (what an awful, visual term, eh?). I thought it would be terrible, BUT, my husband put the crumbs in a bowl and ate half of it in one go with a spoon anyway, so I knew I was on to something. So I tried it again and this is what I've come up with.

For those of you with cranberries left over from Thanksgiving, this is a great way to use them up! 

Waste Not Want Not Wednesday #54

Got a great gluten free recipe, some frugal, eco-friendly tips or  a healthy living article? Well come join the party!

The Waste Not Want Not Wednesday link-up party is inspired by World Food Day (Oct. 16), and recent articles such as this one that show between 40-51% of food in Canada and America ends up in the garbage.  Over-consumption, lack of knowledge, low cost and over purchasing are common causes of food waste in North America.  This unsustainable over-consumption extends to so many aspects of our lives.

So perhaps if we all share our tips for consuming a little less stuff in general, cooking more responsibly and frugally, and living eco-friendly, we can each take a small part in making our world a little more sustainable.

And besides, who couldn't save a little bit of $$$ anyway? 

Review of Cändy Meister Candies

Most of you know I'm not a fan of super sweet stuff. I recently railed a bit on my Facebook page and Google+ against the current, rather sickening, trend of wrapping and rolling sweets up in other kinds of sweets. One of the grossest ones I've seen was cookie dough wrapped around marshmallows encased in graham crackers and dipped in chocolate. Another one guaranteed to make your teeth fall out of your head was store-bought peanut butter cups pressed into a tube of cookie dough then covered with a boxed brownie mix. As if one of these isn't enough?!

For this reason, I reject most of the review requests I get, as many of them involve things made with corn syrup, food dyes and other weird things I don't consider to actually be food. 

But the candy I'm reviewing today is not like that, that's why I'm reviewing it. It's not overly sweet, it's gluten and dairy free, vegan all natural with sugar from sugar beets, not corn, and the dyes are all natural (like beets, and you know I love to dye my food with beets).

How to Freeze Brown Rice (Gluten Free, Done Dirt Cheap), the Benefits of Soaking Rice, and 6 Quick Brown Rice Based Meals

Sometimes I think as food bloggers we feel compelled to come up with exciting and eye catching foods to wow our readers. But lately I've been getting some emails and questions that have grounded me again, and reminded me that some people are still struggling with the very basics of cooking healthy, gluten free meals that are quick and budget friendly.

Hence the inspiration for the new recipe section I'll be putting together in the next couple of days: Gluten Free, Done Dirt Cheap. Yup, insert AC/DC Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap tune here.

Brown Rice, Tapioca Starch
Done Dirt Cheap
Gluten free and it's done dirt cheap
Gluten free and it's done dirt cheap
I gotta lotta gluten free 
Done dirt cheap! 

Yes, I'm an uber nerd and these are the things that go through my head when I'm in my kitchen doing things like rolling out gluten free pie dough.

Anyway, in honour of doing gluten free on a budget, I'm sharing how I cook big honkin' batches of brown rice and freeze them for super quick dinners! Brown rice is naturally gluten free and cheap! BUT brown rice seems to be daunting for some. It can be a teeny bit more time consuming to cook than white so some people avoid it, but making and freezing big batches can make healthy dinners quick and easy.

You may now commence head banging in your kitchen.

Now Available: Living with Oral Allergy Syndrome: A Gluten and Meat-Free Cookbook for Wheat, Soy, Nut, Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Allergies

 

Now available:  

Living with Oral Allergy Syndrome: A Gluten and Meat-Free Cookbook for Wheat, Soy, Nut, Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Allergies

If your lips, mouth or tongue have ever tingled after eating fresh fruits or vegetables, if wheat makes you wheeze, if soy makes you sick, or if nuts knock you out, there's a good chance you have oral allergy syndrome, a hay-fever related food allergy.

Oral allergy syndrome, also known as pollen food allergy syndrome, or food pollen allergy, occurs when people react to foods that are related to certain pollens. For example, if you're allergic to birch pollen, you may notice your lips tingle when you eat a fresh apple, peach, or almonds. If you're allergic to grass, ragweed or latex, you might find that kiwis, bananas, or tomatoes give you hives or belly aches.

If any of this applies to you, you'll want to read this book, the most comprehensive resource on oral allergy syndrome to date.

Waste Not Want Not Wednesday #53

Got a great gluten free recipe, some frugal, eco-friendly tips or a healthy living article? Well come join the party!

The Waste Not Want Not Wednesday link-up party is inspired by World Food Day (Oct. 16), and recent articles such as this one that show between 40-51% of food in Canada and America ends up in the garbage.  Over-consumption, lack of knowledge, low cost and over purchasing are common causes of food waste in North America.  This unsustainable over-consumption extends to so many aspects of our lives.

So perhaps if we all share our tips for consuming a little less stuff in general, cooking more responsibly and frugally, and living eco-friendly, we can each take a small part in making our world a little more sustainable.

And besides, who couldn't save a little bit of $$$ anyway? 

Natural, Homemade Pumpkin Pie Spiced Coffee

I don't drink a lot of coffee. It makes me jittery. But from time to time I do need a bit of a "pick-me-up" (especially on these cold almost-winter mornings). And when I do sip a cuppa, I like a bit of flavour.

But a tall, 12 oz Starbucks Pumpkin Spice Latte is a whopping 300 calories [1] and costs somewhere in the $5 range. Even store bought flavoured coffee grounds are more expensive, usually contain artificial ingredients and sweeteners and questionable flavouring, and many of them are not fair trade or organic.

However, a plain cup of homebrew with no milk or sugar is only 2 calories [2] and costs only a few cents. Making it pumpkin spiced is as easy as brewing a cup of coffee. Here's how I do it...

Waste Not Want Not Wednesday #52

Got a great gluten free recipe, some frugal, eco-friendly tips or a healthy living article? Well come join the party!

The Waste Not Want Not Wednesday link-up party is inspired by World Food Day (Oct. 16), and recent articles such as this one that show between 40-51% of food in Canada and America ends up in the garbage.  Over-consumption, lack of knowledge, low cost and over purchasing are common causes of food waste in North America.  This unsustainable over-consumption extends to so many aspects of our lives.

So perhaps if we all share our tips for consuming a little less stuff in general, cooking more responsibly and frugally, and living eco-friendly, we can each take a small part in making our world a little more sustainable.

And besides, who couldn't save a little bit of $$$ anyway? 

Gluten Free Beet Hummus (Tahini Free), Sesame Seed Allergies & Oral Allergy Syndrome

Free of gluten, dairy, soy, eggs, nuts, tahini, corn

So this happened. And it looked so awesome I was kind of sorry to see the last of it go. It was really fun to eat, especially with some organic, purple tortilla chips.

I served it at a little get together I had for my writing group a couple of weeks ago along with some chopped veggies and chips and it was a big hit.

It was also very easy, so I thought some of you might like it, too!

Some of you, like me, might be avoiding hummus because of the tahini in it. So before I share this lovely pink hummus, I'm going to explain all about sesame seed allergies and why I avoid tahini.