WHATS ESSENTIAL IN MY PANTRY?

Have you ever walked into a natural health food store and realized, what the $%^& is all this? Breathe, take it easy and read this blog. Take it slow, start with some essentials then move on. You can't paint Monet's unless you've learned the 101 on colors right? so here is the 101 on Essentials for baking.

This blog isn’t meant to be entirely gluten free or at all vegan, and most of the time not even vegetarian. Heck no! This blog is to share with you damn good food, to do it with style and with the best ingredients. Ironically that usually means, organic, farm fresh, free range, the best of the best. Believe it or not, to lose weight you can’t starve, you have to eat. I’m about to give you the skinny on why I am choosing to go gluten free whenever I can. I recognize I need a social life and sometimes that’s going to include going out to restaurants to eat…ever dieters dread. But not really. I have learned to do what I can, and celebrate when I can too. While I use to eat out and feel it was my right to do so. I now see going out is a “special occasions only” event. This makes cooking for myself essential, but going out just THAT much more fun!

Yes times are tough and to be fat is cheap. A 2 liter bottle of soda aka liquid Satan, is $2? I don’t even know anymore. But a half gallon bottle of Odwalla orange juice is what, $14? I find that I don’t eat as much, because I’m satisfied with little. My groceries actually last FOREVER and I’m fighting to eat it before it spoils. Eating crap just makes you want more crap, it’s like a crack. How about another irony for you? Eating crap won’t help you crap.

Ok on to…

WHY STRIVE FOR GLUTEN FREE?

It’s trendy…just kidding. I have lived my whole life thinking it’s normal to have allergies. It’s normal to pop meds for it. It’s normal to suffer. It’s normal to wake up itchy or have rashes, or patches of dry skin. It’s normal to have dry skin in the winter, itchy eyes in the spring, heat rashes in the winter and the flu in the fall.

Does this sound familiar? I once use to have to keep Benadryl in the glove compartment of my car. In my purse, in my room and in my bags when I travelled. It seemed so crucial, without it I couldn’t breathe, or live. I had lost smelling abilities because my nose was always itchy, and stuffed up. Much like a smoker who loses their taste buds to the nicotine

If this is you, go gluten free, or try to most of the time. Gluten isn’t evil per se, it’s the stuff dreams are made of, but it’s ok to admit, sometimes it’s just not for you. Some girls like diamonds and expensive purses. I’m not exactly one of those girls. I was a closeted nerd; I get more excited over my new Hard drive coming in the mail than anything else. So guys, it’s ok to put on an apron and get mixin!

Gluten free isn’t the only answer. For a full and holistic guide to what I do to be healthy and lose weight will take several blogs but take note on one of my favorite tips is: SLEEP! My generation has become obsessed with being envious with one’s time. Partying till 4am, and then waking up for yoga? Seriously? Super model Kate Moss once said that the key to keeping thin is healthy and quality sleep. Sleep allows your body a time to regenerate, your cells a chance to recoup. Without it you’ll be sure to crave and binge. You want caffeine and sweets to compensate. You’ll be grumpy and rationalize that you deserve that donut. And most of all, it will put wrinkles on your face!

In fact, if you could whole grains are great. Not the white stuff. I don’t know why we’re so obsessed with white. White flour, white sugar, white rice…it’s gross. Besides the rice, they take the stuff and bleach it, strip it of any nutrients and turn it into stuff our bodies can’t use. But whole grain is good for you, jammed packed with nutrients you need and crave. Whole grain is actually tastier because sometimes the baker will sweeten the bread with honey. White sugar is even more disturbing, and if you think that’s bad? Aspartame isn’t even at all a semblance of a real food. It hits your body and reacts with the chemicals in your body. It doesn’t digest well and sits inside you, turning into formaldehyde. Remember that yucky preserver you gagged over when you had to dissect a frog in High School? Ok so if you can’t have the “real” stuff. What can you have? I’m getting there. Remember I’m going through this journey with you too. Last night was my first gluten free attempt, and I’m soooo proud of myself. I was reluctant and scared because to me pastries are sacred to me. But it was successful and I am grateful for all this wealth of knowledge that is at my finger tips to guide me. So let me help guide you.

What is now in my baking pantry? Let’s go to the store and find out:

If you’re anything like me, new things can seem time consuming and stressful. So take a day, and if you don’t have a day, take at least a few hours to call it “Me time.” Make a grocery list, go to the market and shop away. Once you have the essentials, then it’s just a matter of throwing them together in the appropriate manner. I’m going to take you through a few things in my pantry and why I have them. Most of them substitute essential things that are normally deemed bad for you. These subs aren’t “fake” on the contrary they are very REAL. We have been programmed to think that white sugar is the real deal…but you already know how I feel about that, no need to drill it into you again. Alright, Don’t stress, take a deep breath, here we go:

Xantham Gum: commonly used as a food thickening agent (in salad dressings, for example) and a stabilizer (in cosmetic products, for example, to prevent ingredients from separating). It's derived from a plant and when mixed with water has a gooey texture that is necessary to replace the gluten chewiness.

Once I open bags of things like this, I will store them in glass jars. Especially if you won't be using it for awhile. Storing things in plastic can ruin something healthy. After awhile the chemicals from the plastic will seep into the food. If you've ever tasted water that was sitting in a plastic bottle in the car for ages in the sun you know what I mean. Or that cheese expensive cheese your cheap ass decided to saran-wrap it? Its OK to make that mistake I've done it. Just don't do it again. First of all its like buying an expensive bottle of Chateau du Lu Mond and then drinking it out of a Dixie cup. Treat your food well and it will serve you like royalty.

Agave is a cactus. I'm tired of typing so you can just read more about it it here: www.allaboutagave.com, its easier this way to visit this site because it will also give you measurement conversions. If your trying to make cookies with a conventional recipe, this site will tell you how to convert one up of white sugar into "X" amount of agave. There's also simple recipes you can try.

Our brains aren't yet programmed to predict what it will taste like just yet so I understand your reluctance. But take a dive and just do it.

I can bake cookies the old fashioned way, and before I even start, I can already taste it in my mouth. I've never had agave, so to me it looks like it'll taste like syrupy cactus. However I got the courage to try Organic ice cream from Arcata Scoop. They sweeten their stuff with Agave and I was hooked! It's light and delicate. It was guilt free goodness!

Feed the cat with your bleached nasty regular sugar. Get yourself some evaporated can sugar. Evaporated cane sugar is a healthy alternative to refined sugar. While both sweeteners are made from sugar cane, evaporated cane juice does not undergo the same degree of processing that refined sugar does. Therefore, unlike refined sugar, it retains more of the nutrients found in sugar cane.

NEVER NEVER NEVER EVER skimp on chocolate. Good chocolate is good for your. Before Hershey doused it with more sugar and milk then your Starbucks frap, sugar is a refined treat that was once banned for being too provocative. It was the food for Kings! Chocolate is a fruit and the less milk and sugar in it, the more tart, bitter fruitiness you can taste. The new trend is for makers to put the percentage of chocolate on the label. 72% means that there's only 28% sugar in it making this chocolate very dark and somewhat bitter. The darker, the better. Dark chocolate can have the same health benefits as dark vegetables, chalked full of antioxidants. Cacao nibs (what they are before they become ginded into chocolate) is now used in savory cooking too. you can grind up the nibs and use it as dry rubs for your meat to BBQ. Scharfenberger chocolates has great recipes on this! Good chocolate is comparable to wine. And while many people may claim to love chocolate, it takes time too refine your taste buds to see this fruit to its potential. Spend the extra dollar for a really good bar, savor it. For me a good bar can last 3 weeks. A square a day is enough to leave me feeling divine!

So olive oils isn't suppose to be in baking, but I needed a photo since I accidentally deleted my sea salt photo. But while we're here I'll have to say that in your pantry should always be good sea salt and cold pressed olive oil. This stuff makes or breaks any meal. The delicate and light taste of sea salt, will hook you and you will NEVER go back. This stuff comes from the ocean why would you want anything else? Cold pressed olive oil, brush it only french bread and pop it into the oven till it's crisp. The flavor will make you squeal, its nutty, and wholesome. It's deep and makes you realize how necessary it is to have quality essentials.

"Honey I'm making Fillet Mignon tonight for dinner, but I'm cooking it in Walmart brand olive oil."

Needless to say, I'm a food snob because I wish I could send through cyber space to you, what it does to your soul to have the best of the best. Just do it! in fact stop reading and just go to Trader Joe's and invest into yourself, and your family.


Take it from me, each day counts. Having been on this journey for 7 months now, I see every single day how much each and every daily choice counts and contributes to my end goal. I use to think, I'll eat organic veggies, but then I can be cheap and use regular salt. Slowly but surely, I could taste the difference, my body tells me, and I have to listen to what it wants. Be good to yourself. When I began all this, I said to myself its time to push myself to see my potential. To do that I had to invest into myself. Now I really really have cleared my eyes to see that I am limitless. So I'm going to end this little novella here. There's much more to go over, with whats in my healthy pantry, but I'll save that for next blog. So keep reading treat yourself to something fun, you deserve it!

***today I spotted a kickass recipe for gluten free bread and I can't wait to take it and make it better ;)***