Exchanges

I'm sticking with a theme here today. They say life is a series of exchanges and if so, it certainly describes my week. Mostly I've exchanged sleep for throw up, going out for reading books to coughing kids, and relative peace for whining. However, in the spirit of thankfulness, now that it's the end of the week we've exchanged most of that for health. We've exchanged cool days and jackets for hours of sunny play outside. I got a haircut that helped me trade out my unruly-starting-to-get wavy/curly-post-pregnancy hair for a cut that works with those waves. On the table is a consideration to trade our rental and purchase a home to renovate. I exchanged my nap for hours of pouring over old Cottage Living magazines to help me as I drew up some ideas for those renovations. I'd forgotten how much I love those magazines. So, not a lot of "normal" over in our corner of the world, but God is good all the time.

So, for this week's WHOLE FOOD RECIPE REVIEW I have some small offerings in the form of exchanges.

Homemade Baking Powder

This is a great way to avoid the aluminum in traditional baking powder. I was delighted to run across this as a culinary improvement vs. a health benefit, although it serves both purposes. I didn't know that much about cream of tartar before searching the internet but a cursory search didn't pull up any red flags when it comes to health. I did find a lot on the benefits of cream of tartar, but here is some basic wikipedia info for you.

Arrowroot in place of cornstarch

If you are avoiding corn products, this is a good natural substitute for the traditional thickener. Funny- I'm referring to cornstarch as the "traditional thickener" but arrowroot is actually the more traditional choice. Crazy mixed up world we live in.

General list of substitutes

There is a lot of junky stuff on this list that would never qualify as a whole food, but also some useful info...use at your discretion.

The best exchange of the week...remember last week when I mentioned these?

Homemade Mounds Bars and Peanut Butter Cups

I was dubious about a sugar-free chocolate dessert, but they were just as good as everyone suggested! After reading through some of the comments, I decided to make them in mini muffin tins and even that size was a little too much to eat in one sitting. That's what I love about real, quality food: most of the time it is so satisfying you don't need to eat a lot of it. I also made some peanut butter cups by mixing up some real peanut butter with a little coconut oil and honey, and layering the chocolate, pb, and then chocolate. I'm going to make them again today in actual peanut butter cup molds which will provide a smaller size (and the ridged edges so everyone will be fooled). The only other thing I should mention: they are messy!

I'll leave you with these...

trying to make a sick baby happy

trying to play Battleship (it occupies them for a long time, and they have no idea what they are supposed to do)

happy to be outside

growing up too fast