Like most parents, I want my children to eat well and to have only the best. If I could afford it, I would buy only organic sadly, it is not in my budget to be truely organic. However, I can controll perservatives, sugars and additives by making our food myself. My partner and I have always eaten pretty well but a year or so before our son was born we started really makning an effort to not eat processed food and to cut down on refined foods and salt. I have to say that I lost weight without trying and generally felt better. Now that we have children we are trying to be even more dilligent about healthy eating. Luckily both my children will eat pretty much anything with no wierd picky habits, like only eating white food (I read this once in a parentling magazine)?
Now, I love sweets. I love chocolate, I really like cookies and I crave sugar. I can't very well deny my children sweets when I want them all the time so, I have started researching alternatives to processed sugars.
I have tried a number of things:
Agave Necture - this works well but is expensive
Molassis - agian, works but is very heavy and has a distinctive flavor
Honey - I actually find this too sweet and you are not supposed to give children under a year honey
Dates - this is one of my favorites, if you majic bullet the dates with a little water you can relace the sugar in a recipe with them. This works best in savory cookies and muffins. It is also O.K. in brownies.
Concentrated Pinapple Juice - this is my favorite. I have used this in cookies, muffins and brownies. I use the same amount as sugar in the recipe and it is sweet enough. I also have been substituting apple sauce for butter or oil and this also lends sweetness.
In my attempt to not have refiend foods I witched to whole wheat flour however, I find this can be a bit heavy in cakes but is O.K. in in cookies, muffins and pancakes. The recent alternative that I have used to much success is Oatmeal. I grind it into a powder in my Magic Bullet and substitute in the same amount for flour. This is great in oatmeal muffins, pancakes and also works in cookies and brownies.
Here a recipe that my son and I made today ( he likes to stir).
Chocolate Mini Muffins:
Mix together
3 tbl unsweetened applesauce
1/4 cup pinapple juice concentrate
1 egg (or just the yolk if you have children under one year of age)
3 tsp of baking powder
1/2 tsp cinnimon
1 tsp vanilla
1 1/2 cup of powdered oatmeal
1/3 cup of cocoa
1/2 cup of white chocolate chips (optional)
spoon into mini muffin tins and bake at 400 for 15 minutes. This will make 24 mini muffins or 12 regular size muffins.
