Intuitive Foodie

Chocolate frosting, intuitive foodie style

The more I eat fresh fruits and veggies, the less I crave sweets or salty treats. But I must say, I do love me some chocolate. To be able to make a healthy version of it for myself, while creating a mess in the kitchen, is one of my favorite ways to spend the day.

A dear friend was coming to visit around the time of his birthday. You know that means I gotta make cake, light a candle, and sing birthday praises. Can't have cake without frosting! I perused the isles of health food stores, noting the simple ingredients in the pricey frosting boxes. Why not save packaging and put a homemade spin on it? 

The past few months have included lots of experiments with baked goods, once I discovered that I can have grain free delights (forever grateful to Elana's Pantry for illuminating this). My kitchen is pretty well stocked with key ingredients, and once you learn how to work with them, that's when the experiments actually turn out to be quite good.

This chocolate frosting turned out much better than my "Hmmm, interesting," comment in the video below. It was rich without being overly sweet or too much. It had a frosting consistency with a dark chocolate bar taste, which matched perfectly with the vanilla cupcakes I made with coconut flour.

The ingredients:

★ Natural Spectrum Shortening (you can buy it here and learn more about it here)

★ Vanilla powder (the spice)

★ Brown sugar (I normally go for agave or other more natural options, but this is what was in the house)

★ Cacao powder (dark, organic)

Blend it all together with a hand mixer. Don't have measurements for you, as I used my intuition and didn't write it down. My philosophy is start with small amounts and keep adding more until it tastes good. Then you're done!

Buying in bulk, pt.2

If you've read this part 1 of this post, you know that I care as much about my food as I do about where it comes from as I do about the planet itself. Most of the time, I remember to take my reusable bags to the store. But I started to realize, especially since I shop a lot in the bulk and fresh fruit/veggies section, that I was using an awful lot of plastic bags to hold my items. What are the alternatives?

Glass jars - You can buy them at larger grocery stores in packs of 12 and various sizes. Often used for canning, I use them for storing and carrying home my bulk purchases. Purchase them online here. I also wash out and reuse the glass jars that my nut butters and saurkrauts come in.

Reusable produce bags - There's a wide selection of bags that you can use that come in various sizes to hold different types of items. It doesn't stop with the grocery store, you can also get reusable sandwich bags. Check out Eco Bags and Reusable Bags. For those of you crafty folk, here's a DIY reusable cloth produce bag. 

What other ideas have you tried out to keep your shopping in bulk as sustainable as possible?

Buying in bulk

When you go grocery shopping, do you pick the same items over and over? We all get into habits and ruts around food. One of the best ways I've found to break out of that mold is by shopping in the bulk section.

Shopping in bulk is wonderful because:

★ You save money. You can choose how much of an item you want, rather than get a prepacked amount.

★ You save packaging. Food is way over-packaged. Individual plastic wrapped items, sitting in a plastic container, then wrapped again in plastic, sitting in a box. What?! It may not seem like a big deal for one person, but it adds up...and ends up in our oceans and landfills where it won't break down. Consider this a reminder to bring your own reusable glass jars and fill up in bulk. This might help you remember. 

★ You increase variety. There are often more options in bulk than there are on the packaged food shelves. It gives you the opportunity to try new food that not only you hadn't considered before, but didn't even know existed.

Now, go to your store, find the bulk section, use your intuition to pick one new item you haven't tried yet, go have a kitchen adventure, and then report back here. How'd it go? What did you have?

Growing up foodie

Born into a foodie family, I couldn't help but follow that route myself. Not chef foodies, farmers, or even those that are really into health. These people, my family, we just liked to eat food.

One of my favorite activities growing up, besides double dutch, was making macaroni, tomato, and cheese. I was encouraged to be messy, massaging the noodles, dispersing the cheese, and crumbling the crackers with my hands for the oh so crunchy topping. I ate Count Chocula regularly. Chicken in a Biskit crackers were often on the shelf. It was common for me to have 4 pieces of toast in a row soaked with butter and cinnamon sugar. On the weekends, my Dad and I would fry bologna, brown potatoes, scramble eggs, make orange juice, coffee, hot chocolate, and leisurely eat while we read the newspaper.

My mom was the enthusiast. She oooo'ed and aaaahhhhh'ed over aroma and taste. She is my role model for food excitement. Food is something to be excited over. Excited like jumping on a trampoline excited, joy that you can't contain. My mom was also the experimenter. "Sure Ness, you want to know what a grilled banana sandwich tastes like? No problem. Olive and tomato on toast with extra mayo? Sounds good."