I love when a single ingredient transforms a dish. On our trip to San Diego last month, I ordered a fruit salad containing simple ingredients: apple, strawberries, banana, dried cranberries, and a sprinkling of DRIED COCONUT!
That last ingredient made all the difference.
I gobbled it up and couldn’t wait to make it at home.
An easy, tasty fruit salad that feels truly decadent. I love a healthy dessert.
We’ve tossed the BPA-laced canning lids and only buy BPA-free canned goods, yet we still have BPA lurking throughout the kitchen. Here’s my plan of attack.
Replace our old salad spinner with a metal
Toss out our old plastic cutting boards in favor of bamboo ones
Many countertop appliances like food processors or blenders contain BPA in the food bowls. (Yet another reason to switch to the BPA-free Vitamix blenders — we LOVE ours!)
I just contacted KitchenAid and evidently the bowls for their brand new 7, 9, and 13 cup food processors are now BPA free! (The 7 cup is model KFP0711, the 9 cup is model KFP0922, and the 13 cup model is KFP1333.) Since Cuisinart has yet to jump on the BPA-free band wagon for their full-sized food processors, it looks like I’m going to be asking for a BPA-free KitchenAid food processor
Updated November 2012:
Great news! There are now MANY more food processors that contain BPA-free bowls: Breville BFP800XL Sous Chef Food Processor
Donate our plastic cooking tools (like spatulas and ladles) and keep our bamboo, wood, silicone, and stainless steel ones:
But it’s not quite so simple.
There are so many other places BPA may be lurking:
– plastic strainers
– plastic mixing bowls
– plastic measuring spoons and cups
– plastic tupperware (instead we use sets of these Pyrex glass and BPA-free lids
– plastic water pitchers (Brita pitcher
– any type of canned product that doesn’t specifically say BPA-free; including soda pop cans, not just that can of soup! (I recently stopped buying cans of coconut water and now buy terta pak containers instead.)
While I believe that making the above changes are important for our health, it’s difficult to justify the expense of replacing kitchen items that remain functional! I need to remind myself that while it may seem like an extraneous expense, we feel it’s an important one. I guess we had better budget for those new kitchen items. Check back in to see how we do.
David gave me an electric pressure cooker
You see, modern pressure cookers are so easy to use and the particular one that David bought contains a stainless steel insert (so no nonstick coating touches our food!).
I can make chickpeas, black beans, brown rice, etc, with the push of a button. No need to soak the beans beforehand or keep an eye on the stove. I simply put the ingredients in the pressure cooker, plug it in, pick a setting with the push of a button, and about an hour later a weeks worth of beans are fully cooked and being kept warm, ready to be devoured.
Exactly how did I prepare meals before this?!
It’s so easy! Plus, we’re saving quite a bit of money making our own beans instead of going through cans of them each week.
This pressure cooker is my new favorite kitchen tool. Thank you, David. I’m sorry it’s taken me three months to use it finally. I really love it now.
Our family has been enjoying two new(ish) gluten-free products:
Jovial Rice Pasta truly tastes better, much better, than the competition and comes in a variety of shapes. (I particularly like their capellini that cooks in seven minutes flat.) In addition to being organic, whole grain, and incredibly tasty (I honestly feel this is the best gluten-free pasta on the market!), I love that the inner bag of their packaging is compostable:
How cool is that?! Eco-groovy and tasty, you can’t go wrong with this pasta.
FYI: If you get hooked on the Jovial pasta and, like us, exclusively eat it, then know that Jovial pasta is much more affordable at Amazon
The other product we recently found and adore are WholeVine Gluten-Free Cookies made right here in Sonoma County. While I feel that totting health benefits from grape-extracts in the cookies may be a bit gimmicky, their product is first rate. David and I both enjoyed this batch of 2-Chocolate Chips cookies.
If you don’t live in Sonoma county (where they’re available at a growing number of stores), you can order from them directly at their website. I’m excited to try their other flavors… not that I should be eating sugar or anything. Whoops!
p.s. You don’t have to exclusively eat gluten-free to enjoy these products! My husband particularly likes these cookies and he’s a hard sale on any cookies. Bon appétit!
This chocolate pudding tastes decadent, but is actually quite healthy! You’ll never guess what’s in it…
… chia seeds!
I’ve heard for years that chia seeds are good for you — they’re rich in omega-3 fatty acids and once soaked in water they can help with hydration. While David drinks a cup full every morning, I have never been able to get past their texture… until now!
David added his own spin to this chia seeds chocolate pudding recipe I found on Pinterest, adding a banana to the mix and blending the chia mixture in the Vitamix to create a smooth texture.
Here’s how to make this rich tasting, yet healthy dessert:
In a medium sized bowl, add 1/4 cup chia seeds, 3/4 cup milk, 1 heaping tablespoon of cocoa powder, and a splash of vanilla extract (optional):
Thoroughly stir the mixture, then allow it to sit for at least 10 minutes so the chia seeds can absorb the chocolate milk. Look how it thickens during that time:
Add this mixture to your blender with a banana, sweetener of your choice (we used 2 tablespoons of maple syrup since our banana was barely ripe), and enough milk to thin the mixture so it moves freely in your blender (we used about 1/2 a cup):
Blend on high until smooth:
Serve and enjoy!
Yum!
