Healthy Sweeteners

Think healthy sweeteners is an oxymoron? It doesn't have to be! There are plenty of nourishing, better-for-you sweeteners you can use to substitute for refined white sugar. One of my goals for this year has been getting rid of refined sugar from our diet. You don't have to go to even one of the best nursing schools to know that this stuff isn't good for you. I have not cooked with it in several months and have adapted most of my recipes to include Sucanat, rather than white sugar. This is pretty easy, since it substitutes cup for cup. I have also been using some real maple syrup. I haven't used much honey because I haven't found a great source for quality, reasonably priced honey. Suggestions?

I have posted several of recipes with sweeteners, and since this week's Ultimate Recipe Swap is themed "sweeteners", I've compiled all my healthy sweetened recipes here for your convenience. Enjoy!

Desserts:
::Chocolate Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting
::Healthified Carrot Cake

Quickbreads:
::Cranberry Apple Muffins
::Favorite Cornbread
::Super Delicious, Healthy Pumpkin Bread

Others:
::Apple Baked Oatmeal
::Hot Chocolate
::Whole Wheat Banana Pancakes

What are your favorite foods to make with sweeteners? Do you use natural sweeteners like honey, sucanat (or rapadura), molasses, and real maple syrup, or do you stick with white sugar?

This post contains a sponsored link. 

Menu Plan, March 29-April 4

It sure is hard to believe another month has already come and (practically) gone. This year is just flying by! I think once you have children, time goes by about 100x faster. Katie is becoming such a "big girl" lately! One plus is she pretty much eats whatever we're eating, which makes meal time a bit easier.

In any case, here's what's on our menu this week. What are you cooking?

Breakfasts: quiche, bacon & eggs, whole wheat banana pancakes, cold cereal
Lunches: grilled cheese & tomato soup, chicken salad sandwiches, salad, leftovers
Snacks: yogurt, fruit, cheese, raw veggies

Dinners:
Monday~Lasagna, steamed vegetables, salad, homemade rolls
Tuesday~leftovers
Wednesday~Chili, cornbread
Thursday~fellowship meal at church
Friday~homemade whole wheat pizza, salad
Saturday~leftovers
Sunday~Easter meal with family

This post is linked to Menu Plan Monday.

Losing It Challenge: Week 4 (for me--it's really week 5)

Well, I wish it weren't so, but this week was another "maintenance" week. Thankfully, exercising is going really well, and I definitely feel better and can tell I'm more in shape even if the number on the scale stayed the same. Hannah, my sister-in-law and I, just finished Week 3, Day 3 of the Couch to 5K plan today, and I've been doing some toning exercises on the days we aren't running, making for a total of 5 days of exercise this week.

I really do want to lose more than 4.2% of my weight, though, so I reckon I just need to bump up my diligence to what it was week 1! I think I'm too dependent on carbs during the day. I'm always reaching for fruit or a whole grain something-or-other for a snack, and I know I'd lose more if I ate protein snacks (or, uh, didn't eat snacks. ahem).

Are any of y'all trying to work off baby pounds? How's it going for you?

Super Savings Saturday: The Lord is Gracious

I didn't get to take a picture of today's grocery outing, but I did want to share some of the deals I got as well as something that's sort of on my heart.

I was thankful today to be able to find several healthy, organic foods reduced for excellent prices at Kroger. I was able to score a pound of organic butter for $0.99 (marked down from $4.99), some organic cottage cheese for $0.99, organic apples $2.19 for a 3 lb. bag, a free box of Kashi cereal, as well as many other things. I left Kroger with a cart full of healthy, nourishing foods for our little family...much healthier than the standard American diet and yet still for less than most families spend on groceries for the week. I was also able to get a package of Pampers for $3.97 after coupons & ECBs at CVS, and some tooth paste for more than free after ECB's.

I headed home from my shopping with a very profound sense of thankfulness for God's providence. We live on a much lower budget than a lot of people. I stay home full-time and my husband's work has been quite slow the past several months. We are working on building him a new website and getting things going with that, but in the meantime, things are lean. Yet, we have a roof over our heads, cozy furniture in every room of our house (I guess besides the bathroom--we don't keep any cozy furniture in there. ha!), a refrigerator and pantry filled with healthy, nutritious, and even mostly organic foods. And aside from our material possessions, we are blessed beyond measure with salvation in Christ and an amazingly wonderful marriage that is the fruit of His grace. The Lord truly is a faithful Father and Provider to His flock and for that, I am so, so thankful.

This post is linked to Super Savings Saturday.

Major Kitchen Fails

Last week, I had a couple of big fat fails in the kitchen--and both in the same day, no less!

I set out to make a quiche for breakfast before Katie woke up. I was getting my ingredients out and realized the only grain I had ground up already was spelt. I had read that with spelt, you should add a quarter cup for every cup of flour the recipe calls for, but I ignored that and proceeded as usual. The result? A crust that would not unstick from the wax paper to save my life! We had crustless quiche for breakfast.

The second major fail of the day came that afternoon. Our pastor's wife was coming over for a visit and I was scrambling around to get the house ready. At the last minute, I decided I ought to bake something. At 12:30, just an hour before she was set to arrive, I drive over to the farm to get this recipe. It looked easy enough, so I jotted it down as fast as I could and rushed home. Once I got here, I wanted to go ahead and grind some wheat to avoid another spelt failure. While the wheat was grinding, I decided to multitask and wash the dishes. When the wheat finished, I went over to start baking and it turned out I hadn't closed the lid to the canister all the way. There was freshly ground wheat flour all over my counter! Major fail!

Thanks to my sweet hubby's help, everything got clean before company arrived, besides one burner that *ahem* still has flour in it.


This post is linked to Friday Fails.

Coconut Oil Giveaway!

Remember the wonderful Tropical Traditions Gold Label Virgin Coconut Oil I mentioned in this post? Well, Tropical Traditions contacted me and wanted to offer a 32 ounce jar to one of my readers! For those of you interested in trying out coconut oil, this is a great opportunity.

This giveaway will be open for one week. To enter, simply leave a comment on this post! Easy, huh?

For bonus entries (and as always, please be sure to leave a separate comment for each one!):

::Subscribe to the Tropical Traditions newsletter. They will inform you of specials in their online store.
::Follow Tropical Traditions on twitter. (@troptraditions)
::Follow me on twitter (@mrsmurch).
::Blog about this giveaway and be sure to link to this post.
::Tweet about this giveaway. Be sure to include a link to this post and @mrsmurch and @troptraditions.
::Subscribe to my feed on a feed reader or in your email.

Disclaimer: Tropical Traditions provided me with a free sample of this product to review, and I was under no obligation to review it if I so chose.  Nor was I under any obligation to write a positive review or sponsor a product giveaway in return for the free product.

So thankful for Samaritan Ministries

In all the grumbling I've done about the health care bill over the last several months (and what conservative, Theonomic Christian HASN'T grumbled about it?!), I do have something to be thankful for. This is from an email we received from Samaritan Ministries entitled "Health care bill update":

The health care bill that was passed Sunday night by the U.S. House of Representatives, often referred to as the Senate bill, contains a provision that exempts members of health care sharing ministries from the bill’s requirement for individuals to purchase health insurance. This is the bill that is awaiting the President’s signature.

While I think the health care bill is ungodly and will likely hurt our nation more than we can know right now, I am so thankful that it looks like we'll be able to stay with Samaritan Ministries despite all the changes in the health care system as a result of this bill. 

For more information on Samaritan Ministries, be sure to check out the post I did about them earlier this year.

What are you thankful for today?

This post is linked to Gratituesday and Things I Love Thursday.