Trade It Tuesday

Today's subject:  Baking. 

This is an easy one!  Because most of what you buy is probably okay.  Sugar, brown sugar, flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt. . . stick with the main stream brands and you're cool. 

It's all the other stuff you add in that you need to be careful about.

Vanilla:  Only buy "Pure Vanilla" - no more imitation vanilla.  This seems like a no brainer but I swear before Feingold I had no idea, and only bought imitation vanilla.  Heck, it's a lot cheaper!  Read the ingredients on your pure vanilla, too, to watch out for hidden corn syrup.  I just bought Kirkland Pure Vanilla from Costco today and it was a great price, with no corn syrup. 

Chocolate Chips:  I know, we instinctively grab the bag of Nestle Tollhouse, right?  Here's what's in those:  Semi-Sweet Chocolate (Sugar, Chocolate, Cocoa Butter, Milkfat, Soy Lecithin An Emulsifier, Vanillin-An Artificial Flavoring, Natural Flavoring).

So, instead of putting artificial ingredients into your homemade cookies, buy these instead:

Ghirardelli Semi-Sweet Chocolate Chips
Ingredients:  Sugar, Unsweetened Chocolate, Cocoa Butter, Soy Lecithin (an Emulsifier), Vanilla.















Guittard Real Milk Chocolate Chips
Ingredients: Milk Chocolate (Sugar, Milk, Cocoa Butter, Chocolate Liquor), Soy Lecithin and Real Vanilla.

Sunspire Peanut Butter Chips
Ingredients:  Evaporated cane juice, palm kernel oil, partially defatted peanut flour, nonfat dry milk, natural peanut butter, whole milk solids, salt, soy lecithin.  

Sunspire Baking Drops
Ingredients:  (Center) Dried can juice & unsulphured molasses, whole milk powder, cocoa butter, unsweetened chocolate, soy lecithin (a non-GMO emulsifier), pure natural vanilla.  (Shell) Dried can juice, whole rice solids, beta carotene color, beet juice color and caramel color, vegetable & beeswax, pure food glaze (without sugar).






Nuts:  You would think that buying plain nuts would be easy, but not so fast!  Some nuts have preservatives in them.  I used to buy Diamond brand Nuts at Bel Air, but one day I read the package and saw they list preservatives right in the Ingredients list.  Yuck!  So buy from the bulk bins and/or always read the ingredients label before you make a purchase.

Icing:  If you want to be all natural, skip EVERY food coloring and icing flavor in the grocery store.  I special order my food colorings online.  I get the India Tree brand of food coloring and their website even has a special table for helping you get the exact color you want.  (I probably should have found that before my kids' last birthday party when I made Ben's cupcakes a light shade of gray rather than blue.)



India Tree also has a huge line of sprinkles, sparkling sugars, sanding sugars, decoratifs, etc.  Just make sure you plan ahead so you can order them in time.  Amazon.com carries almost every India Tree product.


On another note:  today at Costco I found 32oz of Pure Maple Syrup for only $13!  This is a great deal.  Typically in the grocery stores this size is about $17.  Have you switched your syrup yet?  Check out this blog post from Eating Real Food on the ingredients in typical table syrup.

Remember:  Trade out two things this week to products that read "All Natural" on the label.  Don't go to all that trouble to make homemade cookies and then fill them with artificial ingredients!