One of My Favorite Things . . .

Several years ago, I picked up a Betty Crocker cookbook at a thrift store and gave it to my older daughter who was starting to take an interest in baking. I liked the old-fashioned viewpoint and the recipes that are just not around anymore.

A few weeks later, I saw the book on the table and started studying it in more depth and really fell in love with it and tried to negotiate any kind of trade with my daughter to acquire it for my collection. No deal was forthcoming, however, discovered they were still available and some were fairly priced. I have my own copy now and it turned out to be in better condition than the one my daughter wouldn’t sell to me. No, I’m not gloating in the least!

The baking and yeast bread section is wonderful as it goes by the long and slow, olden days of baking approach. I’ve made a lot of cookies from the book and gotten ideas to incorporate into my kitchen life. I’m pretty sure my mother had a copy of this book but it seems to have long gone by the wayside over the years and wasn’t to be found among her collection of cookbooks.

Anyway, if you want a culinary blast back to the past, this is a very enjoyable and actually useful book. It reminds me of bygone days and simpler times. It can be a wonderful addition to a cookbook collection or a fun book to incorporate into a gift basket for a culinary friend or a wedding gift basket.

Whole30 Eating, Paleo, and More!

We started eating low-carb about six months ago. I wasn’t looking for a change in eating but picked up the Whole30 Cookbook and was entranced with several of the recipes. My husband figures any investment in a cookbook that makes me happy, is an investment in coming home to tasty and interesting meals. I also noticed that there were a lot of shared ‘lines’ between Paleo and the Whole30 although the Whole30 is a bit stricter. Another cookbook hit my shelves and my ‘expertise’ in cooking around the restrictions is expanding. The interesting result of eating healthier and avoiding a lot of the carbs is that we lose weight without watching our calories and have no cravings for the ‘fun’ but sugary stuff in life. My kitchen prep has taken on a whole new picture. I never thought that we’d be going through five or six pounds of squash a week (and liking it!) or having Kale a staple on our grocery list. A temptation we can enjoy has become Kale chips I make at home.

Since we avoid all except the natural sugars in fruits and vegetables, a favorite dessert is whipped coconut cream with pureed fruits. We feel positively decadent enjoying that layered dessert without the guilt.

Want to check out our addiction? To date, my favorite books are The Whole30, The 30-Day Guide to Total Health and Food Freedom, by Melissa Hartwig and Dallas Hartwig. Although some of the recipes in this next book have to be adjusted to avoid the sugars, I’ve already made a full Asian meal from Paleo Takeout – Restaurant Favorites Without the Junk by Russ Crandall.

Since the children still at home are over 21 with minds of their own, go figure, huh? We didn’t impose our eating habits on them. Whenever I had spaghetti squash in place of regular pasta, I would make them the regular pasta. The last few meals, the regular pasta was passed by as they started to favor the spaghetti squash.