Pantry Purge

I've been pinning, reading, and researching like a mad woman!  I want to educate myself about what I am putting into and onto my body.

It's scary, folks.

Educate yourself.

Did you know that there are banned substances that the FDA allows in our foods?  If they are banned, why are they allowed?

Did you know that most major food companies pay scientists to find ways to make the food they seel more addictive? 

A friend of my recently directed me to a pin from www.rawforbeauty.com that you must see as well.

Here's  challenge: take this list and go to your pantry.  

Pull out the items you use most in your cooking.  See any of these ingredients?

Pull out your go-to snacks for you and your children.  See any?

Surprised to see sugar in EVERYTHING?

It's there!

Get rid of it.  I'm not kidding.

We've been eating mostly sugar free and fairly clean for a few months now.  Look how much more I had to get rid of.  I'll admit, some of it we haven't been eating, it was just sitting in there and I knew it had to go.  But, a lot of it was pretty shocking. 

The amount of HYDROGENATED and PARTIALLY HYDROGENATED OILS was the most shocking for me.

That's TRANS FATS, folks.  The stuff that isn't allowed anymore - it's still there!  It is allowed as long as it can be rounded down to zero on the nutrition label.

I call that a lie.

Don't tell me zero trans fats when you know it's in there.  They may think, "hey, it's .5 grams per serving" but they know most folks have more than a serving size at a time. 

And think on this: If I eat 4 items that have .5 trans fats in them in one day, I'm getting 2 grams of trans fats and my risk of heart disease, cancer, alzheimer's, etc.

Have I ranted enough yet?

I think you get the idea.  

Read the list.  Check your labels.

We Interrupt This Clean Eating for CAKE!

The hubs had a birthday.  Birthdays mean cake.  Cake means sugar and flour and lots of each!
So, out the window with clean, I made CARAMEL CAKE!
And it was amazing. When I say amazing, I mean my husband said,

"This tastes just like my great grandmother's caramel cake."

Hold the phones, people!  No sweeter words have ever been uttered!  He doesn't just say stuff like that!  As far as he is concerned, no cakes are ever as good as his ancestors' cakes.

Want to know how to make your husband this happy?

I found a recipe for Old Fashioned Caramel Cake from Random Thoughts of a SUPERMOM!  It looked like something I could handle and it didn't have any crazy ingredients in it (other than the processed sugar and flour - oopsies).

So, I gave her a whirl!

I baked my pound cakes and let them cool.  Then I cut each in half to make 4 layers total.

Then came the part that made me nervous...

the caramel.

This was scary because I knew it could scorch and ruin the whole thing.  I've never done with outside of the direct supervision of my mother (when she would usually take over).

But, I remained calm and worked through the instructions.

Beginning of the stirring until my arms hurt.

The temperature FINALLY got up to 230!

Then the fun part.  Stacking and pouring!

I think the birthday boy was pleased!  

I was so pleased as well.  When I tasted it, I was pretty impressed with myself.  It really wasn't that hard.  I would make this cake again, but only for the hubby!