New Food Ingredients To Play With

For the past several years I have been on an incremental journey to improve my eating habits, not only to reach my potential of good health, but also in hopes of avoiding a preventable disease, and also to stave off future stomach flare-ups. And because I just wanna feel good. The first thing I gave up was soda and anything carbonated.  That was a LONG time ago.  And I only did that because I realized that all it did was make me bloat.  What female wants to be bloated?  It's not sexy or attractive (not that I wanna be sexy). Besides, like I keep telling Hubby when he drinks his Dew, that stuff is "diabetes in a can".  When I reached my upper 40s, I started to notice subtle feelings of just not feeling the same, like less energy.  So I started cutting back on other things that I knew wasn't good for me, especially fast-food.  I no longer eat fast food unless I really have to, and even if I really have to, I am choosy about which fast food I eat.  I refuse to eat at McDonald's, Burger King, and Taco Bell, and other similar burger joints, but will occasionally eat something light at Arby's or Subway - if I'm desperate enough.  Then over time I decided to quit drinking cow's milk, just because I kept reading about how it's not good for you, despite what "they" say.  Then I started developing stomach issues for some unknown reason.  After the 7th flare-up in a 3-1/2 year period, I decided to get my blood tested for sensitivities.  How ironic that cow's milk came back as the biggest culprit.  I had already eliminated cow's milk from my diet anyway and replaced it with almond milk, but apparently that wasn't enough to keep the tummy troubles away.  I haven't eliminated ALL dairy from my diet, but after trying an elimination diet, then testing certain dairy products, I am now "afraid" to consume sour cream and whipped cream.  The rest of the dairy products I am still cautiously "playing" with.  Hard cheeses don't seem to bother me, but I'm not sure if the delayed effects of casein buildup is affecting my joints or not.  Anyhoo, I didn't want this post to be about my health issues, I just said all of that to explain another reason why I am incrementally trying to improve my eating habits and weaning myself from the good and replacing it with good stuff.  So, every two weeks when I make my trip to Anchorage, there are two stores that I try to go into to see what I can find - something new.  One store is the Natural Pantry.  We don't have a Whole Foods or a Trader Joe's up here, so I am very thankful for the Natural Pantry cuz they have just about EVERYTHING weird that a recipe might call for.  The other store I like to go to is the Summit Tea & Spice store - they specialize in, well, teas and spices, of course, but they also have all kinds of exotic things in there that I never even knew existed.  I always buy my cinnamon there because I have become quite particular about my cinnamon - the stuff you buy in a regular grocery store just doesn't cut it for me anymore.

ANYHOO!!!!  (I got myself off track.)  My daughter gave me this cookbook for Christmas that is full of recipes that are supposed to be alkaline.  I never really thought about becoming alkaline, but the recipes look very interesting, and they are all mostly vegan, so it'll be an interesting way for me to learn how to cook "weird" stuff that I know will be healthy for me.  Up till now, I've always just cooked the typical American meals that are high in fat and refined carbs, so I am excited to learn how to cook healthy stuff, even if it's weird.  I picked a couple recipes to start with and found some ingredients at my two said stores, ingredients that I never bought before:

Whole grain spelt flour has some gluten in it, but I guess the protein (or something) in it is different so it's supposed to be easier to digest - my tummy is smiling already.  I plan to try making "Spelt Soda Bread" with it.  Yeah, we'll see how that turns out.  The recipe also called for sheep's butter and goat's yogurt, which I didn't have time to look for, so if I can't find it at "Freddie's", I'll just have to use regular butter and organic soy yogurt, which BTW, is another recent new addition to my diet (I use it in smoothies).

I never even heard of Himalayan pink salt until I saw it in practically all of the recipes in that book.  It's supposed to be full of minerals. Putting a little bit on my tongue, it tastes just like salt, as I expected.

I have had soy milk before, when I order my occasional lattes at Starbucks, but I've never bought it myself.  Supposedly it's the closest thing to cow's milk so it is supposed to be good for baking with.  I plan to try making macaroni and cheese with it (with quinoa macaroni), and also some rice pudding. It's also supposed to be good for "creamed" soups. It's been a long time since I've had creamed soup because they are typically made of milk and/or heavy cream, so I would like to try making some with soy milk.  Soy milk is supposed to be good for regulating hormones, which I'm sure I need, but I'm also aware that it's a controversial product.  For one thing soy is a GMO food, so you have to be careful to buy organic.  Also, I guess some people say it can mess up your thyroid.  I really don't know what to believe, so I am using it fully aware that I might be taking a risk with it.  But, you know what they say about "picking your poisons".  Speaking of which, the alkaline recipe book also uses agave syrup in most of the recipes.   Some say it's a healthy alternative, but after doing some research, I decided it's a "poison" that will shut down my liver in the long run.  So unless I can substitute it with regular sugar, I will probably skip all the recipes that call for agave syrup, which would make the food non-alkaline, of course.  But at this point, becoming alkaline isn't really my goal; I'm just trying to expand my horizons with healthier alternatives in general - incrementally.  And sugar is one of those ingredients that I may never give up, especially since it seems to be the "least evil" of all sweeteners out there, I mean for a non-diabetic.  Not saying that sugar is good for you, it's just that, based on my research, every other "healthy" alternative has something about it that makes it worse than sugar.  That being said, I'm glad I'm not diabetic.  (knock on wood)

The hemp milk isn't too new.  I have been using that in my smoothies.

The ginger syrup is probably not good for me - the main ingredient is "organic cane sugar", which is a fancy name for plain ol' regular sugar.  But I thought it might taste good in tea.  It also claims that it tastes good on pancakes.  We'll see.

The cinnamon chocolate bar - what can I say?  It's 70% cocoa (good for me) and has cinnamon in it (I love cinnamon!).  I couldn't resist buying it.

So now that I have some new ingredients to play with, we'll see if my culinary skills are good enough to make something edible.  I'll let you know...