raw honey

Whole Wheat Banana Muffins with Cream Cheese Filling

August 20, 2014 by Dana

I’ve been gawking… foodgawking that is! One thing I’ve really been gawking are all of those cutesy desserts covered in sprinkles galore. I’ve always loved sprinkles because they are cute, colorful, and well, they can make ugly things look pretty. However, once I grew up and realized what sprinkles actually were we kind of had a falling out. How could they have been lying to me this whole time? Pretending to be cute when in reality they are chemical bombs covered in artificial colorings! We’ve been broken up for quite some time now, and every time I see a sprinkle my heart sinks a little more. Until now!

I have no idea why it took me so long to realize that there ARE naturally dyed sprinkles out there, and they were right in front of my sprinkle-less little eyes this whole time. I’ve passed by them time and time again, never looking twice at their vegetable dyed awesomeness. One day when my kids weren’t screaming for Annie’s crackers (yes I do fall victim to those stupid bunnies sometimes too) I had a moment of clarity in the grocery store for the first time in over 7 years. All of a sudden there they were… the sprinkles I have been longing for all this time, so I scooped them up for $1.99 and was on my merry way home to think of reasons to use them.

Naturally I thought I’d be using the sprinkles for cupcakes but when I made these banana muffins I thought they needed a bit of a sprinkle face lift. My husband said “Don’t waste sprinkles on muffins” but seriously, he’s no food stylist so I started sprinkling, and how cute are these!?!? Muffins are no longer the “ugly cupcake” or the “stepchild of cupcakes” or the “duff” (totally not explaining that one if your not familiar with that term 😉 ), but they are now holding their own on the cuteness scale. These muffins are worthy of being a healthy classroom treat, or the lunchbox item all the kids are secretly longing for. We’ve re-invented muffins here people and I’m loving these!

What I love most about these muffins is they aren’t just cute muffins… they are healthy muffins! I don’t play the “whole wheat” game that is actually half whole wheat and half refined flour. What is the point of that again? Not only are these muffins whole wheat, they are also naturally sweetened which is almost always my goal when baking. On top of that they have a rich and creamy center with just enough cream cheese to make you feel like your eating something dreamy and decadent. Even better then all of that, they are so easy to make. Simply mix wet, mix dry, and combine just until mixed and bake.

Muffin Tip: I always fill my muffins to the top of the liner because nobody likes a muffin without tops!

*If you are looking for naturally dyed sprinkles here are the ones I used. It is a bulk pack but if you love sprinkles as much as I do it might be worth it!
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My First Canning Experience: Canning Peaches With Honey

August 9, 2014 by Dana

Canning Peaches with Honey is easier then you may think! In this post, I will go through everything you need to know and all the obstacles I faced during my first canning experience.

This year I really wanted to try canning some fresh summer produce to enjoy through the winter, and to help me pack lunches for my son that I feel are nutritious. Last school year I felt myself sending the same few fruits the whole winter because there aren’t as many options in season during the winter. Eating in season has so many benefits, but my main motivator is that is it is much cheaper to eat produce that is in season because of the abundance at that time. Abundance = lower prices! When I saw peaches for 39 cents a piece, I HAD to bite the bullet and give it a try, so my husband and I went to Target and purchased the necessary equipment… and then I procrastinated!

Equipment I Used

Products from Amazon.com

As with anything I’m skeptical about, I waited. I waited, and waited, and waited. The peaches weren’t going anywhere, and they weren’t going bad either. I was scared! What If I screwed this up and wasted all of these beautiful peaches? A friend at church who has been in a canning frenzy lately told me this: it isn’t hard, it is just a process.

Being completely unfamiliar with the process, I was intimidated to say the least. I got a canning book and I read up about everything on the internet but every source explained things in a different way. Did I need to sterilize the jars? How much water did I need to put in the water bath? Would I be able to do this WITHOUT cups upon cups of sugar, as suggested by Ball? These are a few of the questions I had, but I worked my way through the process and guess what? It wasn’t as complicated as it sounds!

My Obstacles

Let me just throw this out there, I have a SMALL kitchen, and by small I mean galley style in an apartment with about a square foot of working space. If you have more space (you almost have to) then this process will be a lot easier for you. I guess my biggest obstacle was space and timing, but that is essentially why I’m writing this. A lot of the directions tell you what you need to do but don’t necessarily say do all of these steps at the same time then go on to these steps at the same time.

My other obstacle was the amount of sugar that my Ball canning book suggested using. I just don’t understand the concept behind taking fresh produce and dumping mass amounts of refined sugar on it, so I did not follow Ball’s suggestion for the syrup. Even their honey based syrup was equal parts honey to water. I’m not judging here, don’t get me wrong. If you’ve canned with refined sugars and you are fine with that, then awesome! What works for you, works for you. But for me, I would never purchase sugar laden fruit cups at the grocery store so I sure won’t be canning sugar laden fruits at home.

Ball suggests using 20% sugar for their “extra-light syrup” which equals 5 1/2 cups of sugar and 6 cups of water. WHOA! Basically this is equal parts sugar to water, and this is the “extra-light”. Stated above the syrups chart, it says that you CAN can whole, halved, or sliced fruits in water. This let me know the sugar isn’t essential. I read a few times on various canning sites that sugar helps with browning so maybe that is why people use so much sugar. I was willing to take the chance that I might have a slight color change over using refined sugar. My solution was that I was just going to mix up my own syrup to taste using raw honey and water. I ended up using about a Tablespoon of honey per cup of water. To me this was actually pretty sweet. In comparison to Ball’s ratio, mine would be 1/4 cup + 2 Tablespoons honey to 6 cups of water. Ball’s suggestion for their honey syrup still contains a full cup of refined sugar + a cup of honey per 4 cups of water. To me this is still a ton of sugar even if you are substituting some of the refined sugar for honey! Overall, my syrup tasted just sweet enough for me and so far I haven’t had a ton of color change.

To recap, the solution I used and I’m suggesting is 1/4 cup + 2 Tablespoons of honey to 6 cups of water. I used about a cup of syrup per jar, so this would have given me about 6 pint jars filled with about 10 peaches

The Steps I Used

As I mentioned before timing is essential. Somehow I timed everything perfectly but it kind of just happened that way. You will need all four burners of your stove to do this. I’m suggesting to get everything hot ahead of time so when your peaches are ready you can go, go, go!

Start your syrup: Place your water and your honey in a pot and bring it to a simmer. Keep it hot, because you need hot syrup to pour over your peaches.
Start your lids: Place your lids in a small saucepan and bring them to a simmer. Your lids also need to be hot when you put them on your cans. Having them already hot is a good idea because then you don’t even have to think about it later. Yes, you are doing this kind of early but it is better to have everything ready to go.
Get your cans hot: You can do this by putting the water in your canning pot and using the rack with your cans upside down. The steam from the boiling water should make your cans hot, and sterilize them at the same time. You can leave the water boiling so your cans stay hot until you are ready to use them. It will take some time to get your water boiling, so this is why I’m suggesting to do this ahead of time.
Peel your peaches: Bring a pot of water to a boil and submerge your peaches into the water. While your peaches are in the water, take a large colander and place it in the sink. Also take a large cutting board and get it ready to use. After about a minute take one peach out of the boiling water and run it under cold water. This is a test to make sure your peaches are ready to be peeled. If you take your thumb and try to push the skin to remove it and it moves, then they are ready and you can drain them and peel the rest. If not, return it back to the water and give them another 30 seconds to a minute. Your peaches should peel easily unless they are under ripe. Once you run them under cold water the skin should slide off with some help from you.
Pit and slice your peaches: Cut along the “buttcrack” of the peach and it should separate perfectly with a little pressure. If it doesn’t separate, this might indicate that your peaches are not completely ripe, which isn’t a good thing if you are canning them. The center should be nice and red as well. You can slice your peaches or keep them in halves. I chose to slice mine.
Fill your jars: At this point, everything will be set up perfectly for you to fill your jars with ease. Place your peaches in your jar leaving 1/2 inch headspace (according to Ball). Ladle hot syrup over peaches, again leaving 1/2 inch headspace. Remove any air bubbles using the rubber spatula tool included in your canning kit. Place hot lid on top of can using the magnetic lid grabber from your canning kit, and seal lid with hot ring. Set aside until you fill all of your jars, making sure each lid is on tightly.
Process your jars: This is the easy part! You’ve set everything up, now you get to let some boiling water in your canning pot finish the job. Move your rack down to the bottom of your canning pot and make sure your jars are submerged at least 2/3 of the way up with water. Your jars should never touch the bottom of the pot. You may have to add additional water to your canning pot and that is fine. I had to, and I used a liquid measuring cup to add the additional water. Before you start your processing time your water has to be boiling! Bring your water to a boil then start your time and place the lid on your canning pot.
Remove your jars and wait: After your processing time (25 minutes for pints, 30 minutes for quarts according to Ball) remove your jars with the hot jar handler from your canning kit and set them to cool on a kitchen towel. This is the part that takes some patience, because of course you want to know if your jars sealed correctly right away. It does take quite some time for the jars to cool completely so leave them alone and walk away!

How to Tell if Your Jars Sealed Correctly

This was the big question for me, did I do it correctly? Obviously, I had no idea of knowing how to tell if my jars were sealed correctly so I stumbled upon the website PickYourOwn.Org that had all of the information I needed to know. According to Pick Your Own here is How to Tell if Your Jars Are Sealed Correctly:

Your lid should not be able to spring back up at your when you press on the center. I knew my jars were sealed because the center was firm. I could not have moved it!
Lid should make a ringing sound when tapped with a metal spoon. If you tap your lid with a spoon and it sounds dull, your jars are not sealed correctly.
At eye level the middle of your lid should be curved down slightly. If your lid is flat or bulging in any way, your jar could possibly be unsealed.

There is a ton of other great information on Pick Your Own of what to do if your jars aren’t sealed, so check that out!

My Closing Thoughts

I thought it was going to be really hard.. heck I even procrastinated quite a bit. I might have never even done the canning had I not kept thinking my husband would be so mad at me if I wasted all of those peaches!! But after I was finished I realized I was my own worst enemy because IT WAS SO EASY! The most important part is really setting everything up ahead of time and making sure you have everything hot and ready to go. One of the first thing I learned in Pastry School were the words Mise en Place, which just means “Everything in It’s Place” and that is exactly what I recommend. Get everything in it’s place, then start. If you don’t have everything in it’s place, you will be thinking AHHHHH I don’t have the lids or AHHHH my jars aren’t ready. Again, I am NO expert, heck I wasn’t even planning on talking about these peaches here, but I thought why not? There are plenty of mom’s out there thinking canning is hard and I know now that it is super duper easy. The only thing I might have done different was I would have tried to put more peaches in each jar. After the fact it looked like I could have fit more, and I could have filled the jars a little bit more. I might have been over concerned with the 1/2 inch headspace, but hey… I sealed the jars and I’m happy about that.

Frozen Banana Acai Bowl

August 6, 2014 by Dana

Breakfast can be a really chaotic time at my house, and with back to school approaching it is bound to get a lot worse. I am then going to be accountable for making sure another little human is well fed until lunch time. I sure don’t ever want to send my child to school with no food in his belly, but boy sometimes it is really tempting to whip out a box of crappy cereal and tell him to have at it! Then I would be able to get my last 5 minutes of sleep (does this qualify as a snooze button?) But who am I kidding, my son would be overjoyed if that happened! However, there is a healthy voice inside my head that says “Dana, it is time for breakfast, the most important meal of the day. It is now time to get up and make sure your son is nourished and energized to go to school and learn. Please get up and prepare something super awesome and nutrient dense for him!” Of course I always listen to the healthy voice because I know it is right! This year nutrient packed breakfasts might not be as hard as they used to be. I’m always looking for new ideas because let’s face it, when you don’t eat processed foods your options can be limited when time isn’t abundant. Most of our mornings contain eggs, oatmeal, or homemade whole wheat pancakes. Thankfully over the summer I found a new breakfast that my family has really been fond of to put into the routine….. acai (ah-sah-ee) smoothies and bowls! I know, it sounds really “health nut” of me, but I’m telling you… they are glorious! So, I have to throw this in here…I saw this “bowl” concept on Istagram and didn’t really get it. There were lots of colorful and nutrient dense foods on top but what was underneath? Well, I can’t say for sure that all of them are Sambazon Acai Smoothie Packs, but that is what I recommend and that is what this recipe contains. Essentially it is a thick, smoothie-like consistency that you put all of the beautiful toppings on. It is served cold, just like a smoothie. What makes this recipe I’m sharing a little different is the banana is frozen beforehand, so the consistency of the bowl is thicker, creamier, and even more delicious! Ok, I may or may not have gotten the frozen banana idea from Instagram too, but who is keeping tabs?!?! 😉

Let’s talk nutrients… this bowl is packed to the brim. Acai is loaded with antioxidants (2 times as much as blueberries) and also contains a heafty dose of Omega fatty acids. Hello awesome breakfast! Pair the acai with a banana, various other fruits, nuts, and oats, and you are set until naptime, I promise! My kids really loved the smoothies with watermelon and banana, and I really loved the bowls just like the ones pictured. Both are awesome options but you can really get creative and throw in what you have on hand. We don’t always keep the same fresh produce on hand so I tried a number of fruits in my Rio Bowl and all of them were great (watermelon was my favorite!!)

If you’d like to know where to find Sambazon Acai Smoothie Packs in your area their website can tell you exactly where to go! 2 stores in my area had their products and I don’t live in a huge city. They also have various other smoothies and health products in grocery stores as well. Also very noteable, their products are Non-GMO verified, USDA Organic, EcoCert Fair Trade, Vegan, and Gluten Free!!

Brown Butter and Honey Glazed Carrots

August 2, 2014 by Dana

Brown butter… what can I say.. if you’ve never made it I suggest you put it on your bucket list of cooking immediately. I don’t want to say it will change your life because that is kind of gimmicky, but it will. Once you taste it, your mind will start going a mile a minute thinking of how your going to use brown butter next. I have just what you are looking for right here with this Brown Butter and Honey Glazed Carrot recipe!

I don’t know what is better, brown butter or raw honey. After we started becoming more conscious of our sugar intake and source, I found raw honey. Boy, was I ever missing out when I was purchasing those cute little plastic honey bear bottles! Turns out honey, like the really liquidy honey bear kind, is actually more refined then you would think. It is filtered of all the good pollens, enzymes, minerals, and vitamins, and pasteurized. The pasteurization process takes many of its health benefits away as well. Honey has long been used to treat many illnesses, and I can verify that raw honey will soothe a soar throat in minutes! Of course like most foods, raw honey is more expensive then its refined counterpart but do yourself a favor and give it a try, you will never be tempted to squeeze that cute honey bear again!

Here are a few notes about browning butter for those of you who have not done it before. It is really easy, but at the same time complicated because you need to remove the butter from the heat at the correct time. My best advice is to stand with your butter the whole time, and watch it transform. You should be whirling your butter around your pan the whole time, and this will help to ensure your butter doesn’t burn. To watch the color of your butter transform you will need a pan that isn’t dark colored. A dark colored pan will make it impossible to see when your butter is done so the non-stick pans will not work for this (I don’t use them anyway). When you start smelling something REALLY good, your butter is getting to the point of almost being done. You will smell it first, then see it go from tinted, to light brown, and finally a darker brown will be reached when you remove the pan from the heat. I know it sounds intimidating but what is the worst that can happen? Some burned butter? Let me assure you, burning some butter is totally worth discovering how amazingly delicious browned butter is!

Strawberry and Poppy Seed Salad

July 2, 2014 by Dana

We’ve discussed store-bought dressings and how horrible they actually are for our health a few times before. To catch anyone who missed those posts up, turns out store bought dressings are nothing more then highly refined and cheap oils, MSG, abbreviated chemicals, and preservatives. My theory on store-bought dressings is this: If you are going to make a beautiful and nutritious salad why pour a bunch of crap on top of it? It kind of defeats the whole purpose! The other problem with store bought dressings are the unethical companies who make them. They love to pretend they are using olive oil, when in fact if you turn the bottle over you will see the main ingredient is soybean oil. Why label the front “Olive Oil” when olive oil is the 5th or 6th ingredient? Nothing makes sense about the marketing tactics they use, and I hate to see consumers who are trying to be healthy be fooled by these companies!

With that being said, I am so happy to share this recipe with you! Nothing says “summer” quite like a strawberry and poppy seed salad. My favorite season is summer simply because of the delicious local produce stands that pop up along the country roads of Central Pennsylvania. I love, love, love local strawberries that are red throughout, small, and sweet. They are vastly different then the grocery store strawberries, and so much tastier!

For the salad I used dark, nutritious, leafy spring mix along with feta cheese, strawberries, and walnuts. For the dressing, all you have to do is put a few simple ingredients into a food processor, and drizzle olive oil into it. After the oil is in, add the poppy seeds and your done! There is no reason to even use store bought dressing when making your own healthy dressing is this easy!

Red Wine Vinaigrette

June 10, 2014 by Dana

I love this dressing on a spinach salad with feta, strawberries, and walnuts. This can also be used in place of Italian dressing in pasta salad recipes, or use for marinating chicken. It is super versatile and easy to make!