Recipes recipes recipes

So as I promised yesterday I have lots of great recipes to share!!

First let's start with my BBQ sauce recipe... hands down this was the best BBQ chicken I have ever had! At the local co-op that Nate and I work at, there was a huge sale on a particular brand of chicken because they had accidentally ordered too much. Now I've always been a run of the mill, boneless skinless chicken breast kinda girl... but the tenderloins that were on sale just looked so small so I branched out and bought party wings and drumsticks as well. So now we have all this chicken... what do we do with it??? Well it's summer time so we broke out the grill and I went on the hunt to find a healthy unprocessed BBQ sauce... it sounds a little strange, and I modified it a bit from the original recipe I found (partly on accident because I didn't buy all the ingredients and partly just for preference) so feel free to play with it a little bit. I hope you enjoy it as much as Nate and I did!!

Ingredients:
4 strips of nitrate and nitrite free bacon
1/2 onion diced
9 oz container of unprocessed yellow mustard (I used Annie's organic yellow mustard) - the original recipe called for 2 (9oz) containers which personally I think would make this way too mustardy
Approx 3/4 cup honey - I went by taste with this and added slowly
1 tablespoon garlic powder
3/4 cup apple cider vinegar - Again I went by taste with this
Salt and pepper to taste

-Saute the diced onion and chopped up bacon until onions are soft and bacon is cooked.
-Add the rest of the ingredients and let simmer for at least 10 minutes.

For the recipe in the picture we grilled drum sticks - we seasoned them with a dry rub we had purchased down in Charleston and put them on the grill until they reached an internal temp of 160 degrees and then slathered them with the BBQ sauce and let them go for a couple more minutes. Ideal internal chicken temp is 165 degrees. We paired it with some local green beans and Ginger Cider from NY's first cidery Nine Pin... YUM YUM YUM!! I hope you enjoy this as much as we did!

Next... Tortilla Wraps! First let me say, don't get discouraged if they don't come out looking super pretty the first time you make them... mine definitely did not but they tasted great, were fairly simple and I think with a little practice you'll be able to have them looking like perfect little round tortillas in no time!! I found this recipe at one of my favorite sites...100 days of real food. I've mentioned it before and also have a link at the top of my page.

I had been craving bread and wraps and all things that are most likely going to be processed at the grocery store... but I was determined to continue this unprocessed lifestyle and find a substitution...so I was really happy when I stumbled across this recipe. I hope you enjoy this one as well!

Ingredients:
2 and 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
1/2 cup oil (I used coconut oil that I liquified )
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup warm water (microwaved for one minute)

You'll need some type of equipment with dough hooks whether it be a mixer, or in my case I used my food processor, which worked fine.

-In the food processor (or whatever you choose to use) using dough hooks, pour in flour, oil and salt - beat for 3-5 minutes or until it's crumbly.
-With the mixer running, gradually add the water until the dough is smooth - about 3-5 minutes.

-Take the dough and divide it into 12 equal pieces and then roll them into balls.
-Flatten the balls out, cover them with plastic wrap and let them rest/rise for at least 15 minutes, up to an hour.
-Heat a skillet or cast iron pan, you want it to be pretty hot to cook them, about medium to high heat.
-Being careful not to use too much flour (it'll burn on the tortilla), roll them out into 8-10" circles (I had some real trouble getting them this big... they were just so thin!!) on a floured board.

-Grease the pan with a touch of oil (I used olive oil) and then cook each tortilla until they're slightly brown on each side - about 30 to 45 seconds per side. Set aside and let cool - either enjoy immediately, refrigerate or freeze for later!!

Thanks again 100 days of real food for the recipe!!

Last but not least... it's time for some delicious dessert recipes!!! I have to thank my mom for stumbling across this site -  My New Roots. I really love this woman's attitude, perspective and RECIPES! You should definitely check out her website, my mom made an absolutely delicious unprocessed raw cheesecake and I've been wanting to try out her bread and cracker recipes!! I'm about to give you her  raw brownie recipe and nut butter and jelly sandwich cookie recipe! Yum Yum!!

It was Nate's birthday and I debated for a bit... do I go unprocessed or processed??? I decided unprocessed... if this is the lifestyle I want to live, I told myself I needed to branch out and find recipes for all occasions in life. And boy am I glad that I did!!! Not only did Nate love his birthday desserts... but so did his family... who don't eat unprocessed!! Anything I can do to convert more people to eat unprocessed the better!

First... raw brownies!

Ingredients:
2 cups walnuts
2 and 1/2 cups Medjool dates - pitted
1 cup raw cacao
1 cup almonds
1/4 teaspoon salt.

Again, you'll need a food processor for this one.

-Put the walnuts in the food processor and blend until they're finely ground.
-Add cacao and salt
-Add the dates one at a time.
-In a large bowl mix the walnut mixture and almonds together (I chopped the almonds up first.)
-Press into a lined cake mold (I just used a glass baking dish and didn't put anything down) and put in the fridge!
And you're done! The brownies will be easier to cut once they get cold.

Now...nut butter and jelly sandwich cookies....

Ingredients:
4 tablespoons coconut oil (or butter)
4 tablespoons nut butter
1/2 cup coconut sugar (I wasn't completely sure how I felt about using this - next time I might try to make them with honey, or do a bit more research on coconut sugar.)
2 tablespoons chia seeds
4 tablespoons water + 2 tablespoons pure maple syrup
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 and 1/2 cup oat flour (she made her own blending rolled oats - but my local co-op carries it so I just used that.)
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon sea salt

This recipe will make 20 sandwich cookies (or 40 individual cookies)

-Combine water and maple syrup in a small bowl and then add the chia seeds in and stir well. Set aside for at least 15 minutes until it forms a gel.
-Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
-Combine oat flour, salt and baking soda in a bowl.
-In a separate bowl combine coconut oil and nut butter until creamy. Then add coconut sugar, vanilla and the chia gel. Then add the dry mixture in thirds until the dough is very stiff - I ended up having to use more flour than what was called for to get the right consistency.
-Grease the baking pan.
-Form approximately 40 balls and than flatten them on the cookie sheet.
-Bake for 8-10 minutes or until the bottom is light brown.

Now you can stop here and just have nut butter cookies... or to make the sandwiches -
-Wait until the cookies have cooled, and then take your favorite jam/preserves/jelly (I used our homemade strawberry peach jam that we made earlier this summer) and place about a tablespoon in the middle of one cookie and top off the sandwich with another.
I will say, if you aren't going to eat the sandwiches right away hold off on adding the jam because the cookies get damp/soggy rather quickly once you put the jam on them.

Thanks again My New Roots for the delicious recipes!!

Well I hope everyone enjoys these as much as I did!! I'll continue my hunt for delicious unprocessed recipes and let you know what I find!

What's your perfect day?

First, before I get into my thoughts I want to apologize for how long it's been since my last post... I could say I've been busy, which is the truth...but honestly I just didn't know what to write! It's not that I haven't been cooking (because I have!) or that I've fallen off the unprocessed band wagon (because in fact I'm more committed than ever!)... but I just didn't have the creative juices flowing! But needless to say they're back and I have much to share with you!

Now...before I get all deep into thought (with some recipes thrown in there as well)... I'd love to give you a quick glimpse of my summer!!  We've been beer/wine/liquor tasting in the fingerlakes with friends...

 Birthday bloody mary sipping and Taste NY sampling in Saratoga...

We had arts and crafts day at the house to finally hang my indoor herb garden (woot woot!)...











And canning canning canning... so as not to waste any of this years beautiful peppers...

 

And last but not least... our most recent trip was to Boston to take my future father-in-law to a Red Sox game... we had a very sentimental stop at the bench where Robin Williams sat during the filming of Good Will Hunting and a few more alcoholic beverages along the way. 

 I feel very lucky and fortunate to get to do all the things that I've done this summer. I also love that I've found freedom and peace of mind in my new lifestyle so I can go out and do all of these amazing things and make great memories without guilting myself over how many calories I consumed. Up until about a week ago... 8 days to be exact... I've been living my days about 70% unprocessed and working out rather regularly. The weekends though have always been my doom...until recently anyway. 

It all started when Nate and I decided to put together a bucket list... well it was more like I decided and bugged him while he was sprawled out on the couch watching TV ... haha but it sounds much better the other way. Anyway...as I sat there writing down our bucket list I started to take it rather serious... this was a list of things that I want to do with my life... MY LIFE... now without getting into religion and any other topic, I thought... I only get one life, in this body, with these exact people, facing these exact circumstances... what do I want to make of it, what do I want to get out of it, what is important to me??? Now that's a pretty heavy question that one could take several ways... but I've decided to do the opposite of what I normally do and just keep it simple... or in Nate's words K.I.S.S. ... keep it simple stupid! And that's just what I've done... every morning I wake up and ask myself, what would make today a perfect day? It doesn't need to be all crazy and elaborate, nor do I need to spend the entire day engaged in something, or figure out some way to conquer the world or cure cancer... but instead the question more reflects and requires me to determine, what is it that I need to accomplish today that will make me proud of myself and focused on the things I find most important. It's required me to ask myself what is truly most important in my life and I find my days to be much more simple, less complicated and more enjoyable. 

Now there are many things I've realized since this but since this is a mainly a food blog that's what I'll focus on. One of the things that I've found to be important to me is my health... I want to enjoy so many things in life and that's very hard to do if you're just not healthy. For me, being healthy means taking my game up a few notches when it comes to eating unprocessed (I'm currently on day 8 of completely unprocessed food) and putting in more of an effort when I'm working out. 

Well I think that's enough... I've babbled quite a bit today haha... so it's time for some recipes!! And boy do I have some good ones!!! You'll just have to wait until tomorrow though... I promise I'll be back to share!!

Beer, Bratwurst and Boneless Wings

Hey everyone! Sorry it's been so long since my last post, but I'm back and hopefully with a little inspiration and good ideas!

Summer time is upon us, and for me, while that does mean lots of free time to spend with friends and family, it also means a lot more challenges to face when it comes to clean eating. My first major challenge was about a week ago when the United States played Germany. While I personally am not a huge soccer fan, Nate is all about it, so we made plans to head to a local bar in downtown Albany (The Albany Biergarten) to watch the game. Since I've been there a few times before I knew there wasn't going to be a single thing I could eat, and I definitely wasn't going to be able to make any special orders since there would be a couple hundred crazy soccer fans down there as well. I knew I would probably want at least a little something to eat while we were down there since it would be a couple hours so I needed a plan.

First thing to address...I needed to make sure I fit in!! As an ex-cheerleader I decided I needed to go all out to support my country and my fiance! I think I did pretty good!! USA USA USA!!!

Admittedly I went back and forth for awhile about whether I could actually pull this outfit off, and whether I was comfortable enough to do it... but I said screw it! Who cares what other people think... it'll be fun!! Lucky for me most other people in the bar thought the same thing when they got dressed that morning, so there were lots of us in our crazy  patriotic clothes.





Next thing to address... FOOD! Like I mentioned I knew I would need at least a snack at some point during the almost 5 hours we spent down there. First, I made myself a HUGE breakfast to hopefully help with the future hunger... it definitely took awhile to get down, but it was delicious and quite filling! Scrambled eggs with scallions and mushrooms and two
pieces of ezekiel toast topped with our homemade strawberry peach jam. Here's the recipe in case you missed it!

One of the first things I was worried about having to give up when I first started this whole journey was BREAD! I come from a big Italian family, and I LOVE all things bread and carb related (don't we all?) So you'll understand why I was a bit worried about what my options for bread would be... but I find that I'm rather satisfied with ezekiel. If you're not familiar with ezekiel, it can be found in the freezer/refrigerated section of your health food store (I've never actually looked in main stream supermarkets so I'm not sure if you can find it there as well.) It's made from fresh live sprouted grains that are then blended together into a paste, put in a mold and baked. I'm also starting to venture out on my own (as you'll see in my next post where I share a whole wheat wrap recipe I tried) and experimenting with making my own bread products.

I also thought it would be a good idea to bring my own snacks....which I'm pretty sure a bunch of other people thought was a good idea too since they helped me finish them a little after half time haha!

All in all I thought it was a successful outing and was really proud of myself for ignoring the pretzels, pizza and other food items that were floating around the bar.

BUT... my day was far from over! My next challenge... dinner with friends at Hooters for All You Can Eat Wing Night!! This was also going to be tough... I find that eating out is my biggest challenge, unless you want to stick to salads, you're taking a gamble. I had researched the menu ahead of time and gave myself two options to choose from, either a salad (which I really didn't want) or a plain hamburger, no bun, no toppings and a salad on the side. I'm glad I had made my decision ahead of time because everyone at the table but me got All You Can Eat Wings and thought I was a bit crazy for not doing the same. But I didn't care... I was sticking to my plan. I went with the hamburger, no bun, no toppings, no fries sub salad with lemon on the side instead of dressing. Now, I don't know what the hamburger was cooked with but I was willing to overlook that because I couldn't bare the thought of ordering a salad. It's not that I don't like salads but let's be honest, Hooters isn't known for their salads and I knew if I ordered one it would probably end up being slightly depressing and far from satisfying. Our food arrived, and the waitress accidentally (or maybe I ordered it wrong?) didn't replace the fries with the salad, but instead brought both of them out! So here in front of me sat a sad looking salad with processed cheese and croutons, a burger, and a HEAPING pile of curly fries. I was determined to stick to my plan, so I took the croutons and as much of the cheese as a I could off the salad and offered my fries to everyone at the table. While admittedly it was a little hard watching everyone else pass around the wings in front of me I'm really proud of my strength.

So... with a little planning and determination I successfully survived the day and still had a great time!! Until next time!! Health Travels!

Homemade Jam and Chicken Lettuce Wraps

Session has ended and I finally have my life back! Yay! It's great to have time to do things with friends and family... you almost forget what it's like to be able to relax or socialize whenever you'd like! It's also amazing to have all this time to cook and focus on myself. I realize more and more how important that is to me...I try and remind myself of that every time I lose motivation to be active or accomplish something during the day.

With all this free time I made a list of goals or things I'd like to accomplish... and first on the list... JAM MAKING! Nate and I have been talking about wanting to do this for awhile now so Saturday morning we set out to do some strawberry picking... we headed out to a local farm near us in Scotia (Horstman Farms) to pick our berries. It was so much fun... and such a perfect day! I couldn't have asked for better weather.

I wanted to find a recipe that didn't use sugar or any other processed ingredients, so I spent a little time scouring the internet and came across this website. It's a blog about a normal family of 4 with 2 small kids and a traveling husband who took on the challenge to eat clean unprocessed food for 100 days. I really like reading her stories and it proves that anyone can take on this new lifestyle, even with small children and less time to prepare. So anyway, on her site she has a recipe for strawberry jam using just fresh fruit and honey...and let me tell you it came out delicious!! You should definitely give it a try... here's the recipe.

We made 4 pints of strawberry jam, and 4 pints of strawberry peach jam (we bought peaches from the same farm... I've been going there for a couple years now for the peaches, it's the best peach I've ever had!!)

As she mentions in the blog, the jam isn't as thick as the store bought brand is, but the consistency really isn't that bad and the flavor more than makes up for it.



We didn't really have many plans for the rest of the weekend either (except for soccer watching... GO USA!!!! - Nate would be so proud haha) so I thought I'd do a bit of cooking. It's been awhile since I had any real kitchen time and I was excited to jump back into it. We had some lettuce left from our CSA and I wanted to use it before it went bad, so I decided to make some chicken lettuce wraps and a cold black bean salad for dinner and some homemade ice cream for dessert!

Both dishes were pretty easy, and I think you could be creative with the ingredients, but I think the key ingredient that pulled them both together was the homemade dressings that I found on the Gracious Pantry.

For the chicken lettuce wraps I marinated the chicken in a honey lime vinaigrette dressing for about thirty minutes, seared both sides and than put it in the oven for about 40 minutes at 375 degrees. We had a little brown rice left from the week so I heated that up and tossed in some more of the vinaigrette and then chopped up some radishes and carrots as well. I set it up kind of like a buffet with the chopped chicken, rice, veggies and dressing separate so everyone could help themselves and stuff as much or as little as they wanted. I think they were a big success!

On the side I served a cold black bean salad. I don't really buy canned beans anymore so this recipe took a bit longer since I had to soak and cook the beans, but I always think it's worth it. (If you're buying uncooked beans here's a "quick" easy way to cook them. First dump the beans out on a flat surface and search for any rocks or spoiled beans, then rinse them off. Place them in a pot and fill it up with water. Bring the water to a boil for one minute and then turn off the heat and let the beans soak for an hour. Rinse off the beans and put them them back in the pot with fresh water and let them boil/simmer for an hour... then they're done!) I took my black beans (after cooling them off) and mixed that with red onions, carrots, red bell peppers, feta cheese, parsley, radishes and a homemade italian dressing. I also think this was a really big success! Yay! It always feels good to have people enjoy your food.

Now onto dessert...homemade vanilla ice cream!! I love this recipe, it's my second time making it and I think it tastes better than store bought. Now the website I got the recipe from uses sugar, so I just replaced the sugar with honey. As I mentioned previously, the Gracious Pantry has a good measuring chart for using alternatives to sugar. I used this ice cream recipe and substituted the sugar for 3/8 cup honey. I don't have an ice cream machine so I've tried two different ways to make it... one was putting it in the freezer and stirring every thirty minutes for three hours... the other was using a mixer and an ice bath. I think both work fine... it's whatever you have the time and space for. Both of those techniques can be found on the same page as the ice cream recipe.


One last thought... the last time I blogged I had said I was deciding whether to follow the Science of Skinny's two week transition and I've decided I'm not going to... I'm sure I'll refer to the book for recipes and portions but I don't want to feel like I'm back on some diet...I'd rather just do this on my own. Until next time... healthy travels!!

Eating that processed food was the best thing I could have done!

So after I left work yesterday I decided I was going all in and ordered one of my favorite yet ridiculously processed meals...steak and cheese philly, curly fries, poppers and for good measure I threw in a diet soda too. On the drive home the smell of the fries were intoxicating, I almost couldn't wait to get through the door to start eating them!! I sat down all excited, but then as I started eating, the excitement quickly began to wear off. The food tasted good, don't get me wrong, but by no means as good as I remembered it tasting, or wanted it to taste. There was nothing wrong with the food... it tasted the same as it always has but I started to realize there was nothing special about it. I work a little bit with addiction and the more I think about it, I really was experiencing symptoms of an addict (obviously on a much much much smaller scale.) The idea of the food was so amazing, when I had it near me I could barely wait to dig in... but then when I actually had it, it just didn't satisfy my craving like I had hoped. And I think it's in that moment you have a decision to make...do you keep eating more processed foods in the hopes of satisfying that craving, or do you realize that what your body is truly craving will never actually be satisfied with all that shit! It was really in this moment that I decided I'm truly ready to walk away from processed foods...and not to lose weight for vanity's sake, but because I just don't want to keep causing so much damage to my body.

I also realized, I could easily make something similar (sort of) to this meal that would taste just as good, if not better, and I would feel so much better about what I was putting into my body. I also am pretty sure I wouldn't feel as crappy as I did physically after I was done eating. That's one of the big things I've noticed... I've probably been eating about 85-90% unprocessed food lately and I have yet to eat a clean unprocessed meal that has made me feel overly full or gross when I was done. But the last two times that I've eaten highly processed foods I've noticed that I feel lethargic, gross and my body and digestive track are just off for a day or two.

So I think eating all that processed food last night was one of the best things I could have done for myself in this journey. It did exactly what I hoped it would do.

I'm still debating on whether I'm going to follow The Science of Skinny's two week transition exactly, but admittedly after last night I'm more open to the idea. She doesn't call it a "challenge" but instead a transition to help your body adjust...so I don't know why I'm thinking of it in any other way. Old habits die hard I guess.

Coping with a busy schedule

Unprocessed clean eating has been anything but easy over the last week or so. I'm in the final push at my job, so I've been working some crazy long hours (including the weekends), so I've had very little time to cook for myself and prepare food for the week like I normally do. And with my fiance away on vacation (he just got home last night), I had no one to fall back on to ask for help. I tried to do my best... I ate all our veggies from our CSA,

made sure my snacks were clean (hard boiled eggs, nuts, homemade pickles/pickled eggs and popcorn), and when I did order/eat out I tried to make the best choices I could.

But then came Friday... I was at a friend's wedding and there was really nothing I could do about it. It also didn't help much that I had been so busy that day at work that I didn't really get a chance to eat. It's never a good combination walking into a place full of food you know you shouldn't eat on a completely empty stomach. I'll admit, I failed miserably... but as I've said from the beginning, this is a journey, a learning process, and I refuse to beat myself up over this.

After this week though my busy season will officially be over and I'll have all the time I need to prepare our meals. I even tried to do a little planning today before I had to head into work (yes it's sunday and I'm at work.) I made a quick stop at the co-op and grabbed some essentials that I thought would be easy to prep in advance, or have Nate cook for us. So I think I'll do ok this week... I've got sauteed veggies, brown rice, homemade granola (I'll make sure to post the recipe after I give it a try), fruit, whole fat grass fed yogurt, hard boiled eggs, various types of meat, almond butter, and sprouted bread. We also get our CSA share on Tuesday night... so I'll have a bunch of veggies for the rest of the week.

So that takes care of this week (except for tonight...if I'm being completely honest I have a confession to make... let me finish the first thought though)... now I have to start thinking about moving forward. I'm not necessarily a fan of "challenges" when it comes to the dieting world... that makes it sound like a fad... and this is far from that for me. BUT... in the Science of Skinny she gives a two week transition menu for those beginning on this journey. I haven't decided if I intend to follow it exactly, but I think it would be a good start and opportunity to try some new recipes. I'll let you know what I decide.

As for my big confession... I've decided I'm having one last really ridiculously unhealthy processed meal so I won't constantly be thinking about it once I make this transition. I also need to prove to myself and remind myself that there's really nothing that special about processed foods. Any processed meal I buy I need to remind and prove to myself that I can almost definitely make a clean unprocessed version that'll taste just as good. (One great example of this is my new unprocessed ice cream recipe - I'll post that later too.) So after I leave work tonight I'm going to go pick it up... one of my favorites from a local place... steak and cheese sub, curly fries and poppers. But yes, I do think ( or at least part of me thinks) I'm a bit of a hypocrite right now for going out and actively seeking out such a processed meal. I'll let you know how it goes.

The Perpetual Dieter Part 2

As promised... more photos... with more ingredients that I can't pronounce and sugar added in places it just shouldn't be added...

Onto Goldfish crackers... I LOVE goldfish crackers... whenever I was on a road trip these were the "healthy" snack I brought along in place of potato chips because I thought I was doing something good for myself. Again... not necessarily the case.

First... lets start with how deceiving the front of the box is... "Made with whole grains." Be wary of this label, sure there's whole grains in the ingredient but unless they indicate that the product is made with 100% whole grains you're going to find PROCESSED non-whole grain flours in the ingredient list as well. Second... I love how they use the word "Natural" on the front of the box... there is nothing natural about processed flour, (which is ingredient number 2 on the list) or genetically modified wheat (since the whole wheat flour listed as ingredient number 1 isn't organic.) Now, onto the actual ingredient list. As I've already mentioned, since wheat is one of the major crops that utilizes genetically modified seeds and the whole wheat flour used in the goldfish isn't organic...there's the high potential the flour comes from genetically modified wheat. Next we've got unbleached enriched wheat flour...there is a whole history behind enriched flours going back to I believe it was World War II, when the soldiers were lacking several vitamins in their diet so artificial vitamins were added to flours because it was assumed everyone eats bread. However, the problem is our bodies can't break down or utilize artificial substances as well as it can when they come from natural unprocessed sources. I don't know about you but I'd rather get the real thing than some chemically created vitamin added to my flour. Let's move on to the oil... as I mentioned before I'm not as knowledgeable as I'd like to be about oils, but I do know that there's no such thing as a canola. Canola oil comes from rapeseeds... which if processed the way they used to be (grinding the oil out slowly with stone and consuming immediately) there wouldn't be a problem. Instead since this oil (as well as soybean and corn oil) is unstable and easily becomes rancid (yes apparently oil becomes rancid!) we process the hell out of it and dump a bunch of chemicals in it to deodorize it and make it more stable. So thanks but no thanks I'll pass on the rancid oils. We've got a few other ingredients on there that I don't even know what they are!

Are we ready to move on?  How about nutri grain bars and nature valley granla bars (which are still in my cupboard today as part of our few remaining processed foods)... these were a big fall back of mine. A quick easy, supposedly healthy snack.

So let's start with the Nutri-grain bars... For the crust you start with whole grain oats... not bad, they aren't organic but admittedly I don't know enough about the widespread use of GMOs so these could be fine... next...again you've got enriched wheat flour, whole wheat flour, and canola oil (see arguments above). We move farther down the list...and they hit you with sugar three times! Sugar, dextrose and fructose!! And that's just in the crust!! The first ingredient for the filling is invert sugar... I don't even know what that is!! You can't see it on the label but there are 12 grams of sugar in ONE bar... I'm pretty sure the recommended DAILY intake of sugar is like 6-8 grams (don't quote me on that though.) That's crazy!! The list goes on and on ...a lot of words I can't pronounce like monoand digycerides and dicalcium phosphate...others I can say but have no idea what they are...like calcium carbonate and cellulose. I think you get the point for nutri-grain bars.

So let's move on to Nature Valley Granola bars...the SECOND ingredient is sugar... followed by more processed sugar three items down the list with the brown sugar syrup. These are a bit better than the nutri-grain bars with only 6 grams of sugar PER BAR (remember there are two in a package). To continue on it's got canola oil (see argument above) and some yellow corn flour and soy flour. I need to point out, according to the Science of Skinny and a few other books I've read, soy just isn't healthy (unless it's fermented)... and without the word "whole" in front of either one of these flours in means they have been processed because they're not using the entire corn kernel or soy bean to create the flour. I won't make the argument again, but let's not forget about corn and GMOs. And then we've got soy lecithin. I won't pretend to know enough about this to go into it... but from what I've been reading it seems pretty processed and full of chemicals to me. Look for yourself though.

Are we starting to get the point?? I still have a lot more pictures to go through!! How about we move onto Kashi granola bars... they're promoted as pretty natural and healthy.

As you can see... the second ingredient yet again is SUGAR! Don't let them fool you, dried cane syrup is not natural, it is just another form of processed cancer feeding sugar. Unless it says unrefined organic whole cane sugar/juice it's just another name for processed sugar. Let's move on to the canola oil... they try to be tricky by adding in the expeller pressed... it's still just another processed oil (see argument above.)  I will say there are some items on here that I'm not sure about so I will leave it at that... but I think you're getting the point anyway.














How about the ever popular frozen meal! I tried not to be biased and picked one of my favorites from each brand...

There are a whole bunch of ingredients but I'll try and pick out a few. All three of these use semolina flour...in my book she talks about the make up of a grain, a whole grain is made up of bran, endosperm and germ...semolina flour has both the bran and germ removed, therefore making it a processed (not whole) flour. They have things like sodium phosphate, potassium chloride, sodium citrate, modified cornstarch and ammonium chloride. I will say that Amy's frozen meals are much much better than the other frozen meals. It does however still have processed ingredients like the semolina flour, and low fat milk, but it lacks all the chemicals and unpronounceable ingredients that the other two contain.

I have a feeling you're starting to get my point... no need for me to continue to hammer home how incredibly processed our foods are. But, while I have your attention, I want to take this opportunity, or better stated hopefully you'll take this opportunity to really examine some of the other labels of foods that I feel like are on a lot of your current grocery lists. If nothing else I hope these entries will make you stop, read some labels, and think twice about whether what you're buying is really a "healthy diet" food.

It should be noted that all my knowledge/information provided in the perpetual dieter entries has come from "The Science of Skinny" by Dee McCaffrey, CDC. I should also say that these foods were picked solely because they used to be a main part of my daily food intake. I don't have any bias for them or  against these particular foods or brands. It's not just them... it's the entire processed food industry.