Comparing Different Kinds of Honey

This totally happened on its own and was not planned... but we recently decided to compare all the different kinds of honey we had in our pantry... honestly we weren't surprised with the results.

Raw Local Honey, from our town: a really great taste, hint of wildflower in it. Raw local honey is good for helping fight seasonal allergies, soothing sore throats, can be used to treat burns and minor skin wounds, as a face wash and moisturizer, as a hair wash, and more (Notes 1).

Raw Local Honey, from our state: awesome taste as well! Before I found honey from our town, I bought some at a local store that sold raw honey from a town that wasn't anywhere close to us. While it did manage to help me with my spring and fall allergies last year, I am looking forward to doing even better managing seasonal allergies with the raw honey from our town.

Organic Wildflower Honey, from Aldi: this was my first time to buy organic honey. It has a pretty decent flavor, but is REALLY sweet! Buying "organic" honey can be tricky. (Notes 2) I would personally stick with raw local from what I now know about its benefits.

Generic Honey, also from Aldi: after smelling, and trying the above honey's.... yeah its NO comparison! We had bought this quite some time ago and rarely even use it now... after trying the other types of honey. We all decided it would be difficult to finish using this bottle of honey.

Verdict? Raw Local Honey from our town won the smell and taste test!


Notes

1. The Many Health Benefits of Raw Honey, from Dr. Axe.
   -Benefits of Local Raw Honey, from Livestrong.
   -The Dangers and Benefits of Raw Honey, from SF Gate.
   -7 Healthy Uses for Honey, from Wellness Mama.
   -15 Weird and Awesome Uses For Honey, from Empowered Sustenance.
2. The Mystery Behind Organic Honey, from Living MaxWell.
   -7 Foods You Dont Need to Buy Organic, from Mark's Daily Apple.

Snacking Healthy | Banana Almond Butter Toast

My sister gave me a book called The Carb Lover’s Diet. I am a huge fan of carbs and for most of my life I've eaten too many carbs which has caused a lot of my weight problems (though I’m not horribly over weight, I have had some battles on an off with my weight and carbs have had a huge part in that). I decided to give one of the recipes a try, and I actually really liked it! The banana gives you something sweet, the almond butter gives you protein, and the whole wheat toast helps fill you up!

Ingredients

1 ripe banana

1-2 Tablespoons almond butter*

2 pieces of whole wheat toast

Directions

1. Mash the banana on a plate.

2. Stir in the almond butter.

3. Toast your bread.

4. Spread the banana mix on the toast and enjoy!

Notes

-I say 1-2 Tablespoons because if you need more protein you can add more almond butter. 1 Tablespoon is what I would recommend for the first time you try this recipe though!

Smoothies with Cranberry Juice

I don’t know about you but I think Cranberry Juice is disgusting! Unfortunately my body can’t keep things lined up and healthy so that’s something I have to drink quite regularly since being pregnant. I have a quart of it in the fridge and recently, when I've been making smoothies, I've added ¼ a cup of juice to the smoothie. To hide the flavor I also add delicious bananas, peaches, blueberries, and/or strawberries. The first time I tried half apple juice half cranberry juice for the liquid portion but it was still WAY too much for me so I cut it down to ¼ a cup and now I can’t taste it, but I’m still getting some in my body. Cranberry Juice and I are not friends, but we have to figure out how to get along and this is one of my favorite ways to drink it so far. I doubt I’ll come up with anything I like better.

Strawberry, Banana, Spinach Smoothie

Ingredients

1 handful of spinach (more if you like)

1 Tablespoon honey

5-6 whole strawberries

1 fresh banana

1/2 cup milk

Directions

1. Place all ingredients in a blender.

2. Blend until everything is well mixed.

3. Serve cold.

Snacking Healthy | Nutella Rice Cakes

Awhile back I was looking in my cabinets for a somewhat-sweet snack to eat...and I didn't find anything that looked really good...at first. But then I saw the rice cakes sitting on the top shelf, and the Nutella on the bottom shelf and I was like, 'hmm, I wonder if that would taste good?' If you're looking for something that's somewhat healthy but still sweet this might just be it!

Ingredients

Plain Rice Cakes

Nutella (or chocolate hazelnut spread)

Directions

1. Grab a rice cake and spread some Nutella on it.
2.  Enjoy eating it!

Notes

I have a homemade 'nutella' recipe too if you like making your own stuff!

Whole Wheat Blueberry Oatmeal Muffins

With being pregnant I've discovered that I don't like sweet things very much anymore. This is a recipe for some really delicious, yet mostly healthy muffins. I was really glad they turned out so well since they were an experiment. I'm sure to be making more of these in the future too!

This recipe makes 12 muffins.

Ingredients

1/2 cup honey

3 eggs

1 stick butter

1/2 cup water

1 teaspoon vanilla

2 Tablespoons baking powder

2 cups whole wheat flour

1 cup oats

2 cups frozen blueberries

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.

2. In a medium mixing bowl mix together the honey, and eggs.

3. Melt the butter in a microwave or if it's already soft just add it to the above mix. Add in water and vanilla too.

4. Stir in baking powder, whole wheat flour, and oatmeal.

5. Last, stir in the frozen blueberries.

6. Measure 1/4 cup of batter into each muffin tin.

7. Bake in oven for 20-25 minutes.

Snacking Healthy | Freezing Bananas

I wanted to share with you all one of my favorite ways to freeze bananas for smoothies...although I don't have smoothies very often I've found this method to be quite helpful and work great and I hope it will help you too!

What You Need

Ripe/Fresh Bananas

What You Do
1. Peel the skin off the bananas; remove any strings.
2. Break each banana in half or into thirds and place in a good container. (You can use wax paper to put between the layers to keep them from sticking together. I actually suggest doing so unless you just enjoy prying apart frozen fruit!)
3. Put the lid on the container and place it in the freezer until you're ready for a smoothie or another healthy snack!

Blueberry Oatmeal Muffins

It is a very rare occasion that we have frozen blueberries in our freezer anymore. The other morning I saw that we had some and I asked mom if I could make some muffins. I used the same recipe from the Cranberry Lemon Oatmeal Muffins to make these muffins, but I just made a few slight changes. The main change being this recipe has blueberries instead of cranberries! Oh they were heavenly!



Muffins shown with a blueberry, banana, apple juice smoothie.

Ingredients

1 cup sugar

3 eggs

1 cup powdered milk

2 cups plain or vanilla yogurt

1/2 cup oil or applesauce

1/2 cup water

1 teaspoon vanilla flavor

1/2 teaspoon almond flavor

3 cups flour

1 1/2 cup oats, old fashioned

2 Tablespoons baking powder

2 or 3 cups frozen blueberries

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

2. In bowl one mix together the sugar, eggs, powdered milk, yogurt, oil, vanilla, and almond.

3. In bowl two mix together flour, oats, and baking powder.

4. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients. Stir until everything is mixed.

5. Add in the frozen blueberries. Stir.

6. Using a 1/4 cup measure the batter into 24 greased muffin tins.

7. Bake the muffins in the oven for 20-25 minutes (mine took 22 minutes).

8. Serve warm.

Notes

~To make this recipe healthy exchange the oil for applesauce and the sugar for honey and use whole wheat flour.

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Snacking Healthy | Healthy Granola, Fruit, & Yogurt Snack

The last two weeks I have been enjoying this lovely, easy to prepare, and delicious snack. I usually whip it up in the evenings when I need to eat a little something to take my night meds. Not only is this yummy, but it is very healthy for you!

Ingredients

Granola (1/3 cup)

Raisins, frozen blueberries, fresh diced strawberries/grapes/apples (1/3 cup)

Honey (1 Tablespoon)

Dannon plain yogurt (1/3 cup)

Directions

1. Layer half of each amount of the granola, raisins, and yogurt in a small glass or a bowl.

2. Finish off the snack with the remaining granola, raisins, and yogurt.

3. Top it off by drizzling the honey over it!

Notes

~I usually fix mine up like this and then mix everything together. I think I just like to see all the layers of each ingredient before I blend it up.

Western Chili Mac

This recipe comes from my mom's stash in her kitchen. It was actually her idea for me to make this for dinner this evening and I'm so glad she suggested it! This recipe is really pretty healthy seeing as there are no added fats (other than those from the beef...and you can always drain off the grease for even less fat), and if you would prefer you could always use whole wheat elbow noodles!

Makes 12-15 servings.

Ingredients

1 large onion

1 lb. ground beef

2 Tablespoons chili powder

1 Tablespoon garlic powder

2 cans (15 oz.) Tomato sauce

1 can (12 oz.) Tomato paste

2 cans (15 oz.) diced tomatoes

1 lb. elbow macaroni noodles

Directions

1. Chop up the onion and put it in a large skillet. Add in the raw beef. Cook on medium heat until the beef is browned.

2. In a saparate pot, bring water to boil to cook the noodles.

3. Add in the chili powder, garlic powder, tomato sauce, and tomato paste to the browned meat.

4. Cook the noodles in boiling water.

5. Turn the meat and sauce mix down to low and let it simmer for 15 minutes.

6. Pour the cooked noodles into the sauce mix. Add the diced tomatoes and stir well. Serve warm.

Notes
~To make this healthier, use whole wheat elbow noodles instead of regular noodles.

Healthy Applesauce Muffins

In preparation for getting married and moving out I went through all of my mom's random recipe cards to see if there were any that I should be writing down in case I want them later on. In the process I found this recipe and decided to give it a whirl. I love the ingredients because they are ALL healthy AND the muffins are moist and taste delicious! Double bonus here!

Flowers from the garden and Lemon tea sweetened with honey!

This recipe makes 24 muffins.

Ingredients

3 cups flour

1 Tablespoon baking powder

1 Tablespoon cinnamon

1 teaspoon ginger

2 eggs

1 1/2 cups applesauce

3/4 cup honey

1 cup water

Additional Options

1 cup of chopped nuts

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.

2. In bowl one mix together the flour, baking powder, cinnamon, and ginger. Set aside.

3. In bowl two mix together the eggs, applesauce, honey, and water.

4. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and mix. (Add nuts if you are using them!)

5. Grease 24 muffin cups.

6. Using a 1/4 measuring cup, measure dough into each cup.

7. Bake in the oven for 25-30 minutes. (Mine took about 24 minutes.)

8. Let the muffins sit for a minute or two before taking them out of the pans and serving them.

Other Apple Recipes: Apple Breakfast Cake, "Baked" Apple Oatmeal, Grandma Karon's Apple Pie, Crockpot Apple Butter, Fried Apples, Apple Pecan Spice Bread, Apple Oatmeal Spice Drop Cookies, Apple Oatmeal Breakfast Cake, Apple Raisin Bran Muffins, Cinnamon Apple Swirl Bread, Apple Oatmeal Pancakes, Healthy Applesauce Muffins, Apple Pecan Cake, Healthy Crockpot Applesauce.

Cranberry Lemon Oatmeal Muffins

Lately I have been running short on options for breakfast. The bakery mix I've been using finally ran out so there are no more Bisquick Peach Breakfast Cake's being made, and the apples...well I think most of the family is burned out on them. I'm not, but then one person really doesn't count when you're feeding 6-8. What other options do I have? Well, I came across a package of dried cranberries in the freezer last night. I didn't even think about using them until this morning though. I quickly hopped on Pinterest and looked through boards to see if I had anything saved yet. I didn't so I did a basic search for cranberry muffins and found one on the blog Food Republik.

Now let me be the first to say that while I have some really amazing recipes and I love to cook/bake...muffins have never been easy for me. I always have a difficult time making them and they don't ever seem to turn out quite right. Obviously this is a recipe post so now you know that I have finally made a great muffin recipe! I hope that you will enjoy it. I did, I ate three muffins all together and usually I barely will eat one.

Ingredients

1 cup sugar

3 eggs

1 cup powdered milk

2 cups plain yogurt

1/2 cup oil

1 teaspoon vanilla

1/2 teaspoon almond

Zest from one lemon (1 1/2 Tablespoons)

3 cups whole wheat flour

1 cup oats, old fashioned

2 Tablespoons baking powder

2 cups dried cranberries

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

2. In bowl one mix together the sugar, eggs, powdered milk, yogurt, oil, vanilla, almond, and lemon.

3. In bowl two mix together flour, oats, and baking powder.

4. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients. Stir until everything is mixed.

5. Add in the dried cranberries. Stir.

6. Using a 1/4 cup measure the batter into 24 greased muffin tins.

7. Bake the muffins in the oven for 20-25 minutes (mine took 22 minutes).

8. Serve warm.

Notes

~To make this recipe healthy exchange the oil for applesauce and the sugar for honey.

Whole Wheat Bread

This recipe is almost completely healthy. The only unhealthy thing in it is the butter. Salt is added because I've found this recipe tastes better with salt, but you can always take that ingredient out. This bread is delicious, healthy, and perfect as sandwich bread or a side to a meal.

My loaves would've been taller except I accidentally set a pan on top
of them after they finished rising and knocked down the risen loaves. 

Ingredients

1 1/2 cups water

1/2 cup of butter

1 teaspoon salt

1 egg

2 Tablespoons wheat gluten (optional)

9 cups whole wheat flour

2 cups of warm water

2 Tablespoons of yeast

Flour for surface

Directions

1. In a microwave safe bowl put 1 1/2 cups water and butter. Microwave for 1 minute.

2. In a liquid measuring cup pour the yeast and 2 cups of warm water. Set aside.

3. Stir salt, egg, wheat gluten, and two cups of flour into the microwaved mixture.

4. Add yeast mixture to cooled butter mixture.

5. Mix in 2 cups of flour at a time. Remember you have already added two cups.

6. Divide the dough into two bowls. Set in a warm place to rise for 2 hours.

7. Divide the risen dough into four sections. Try to make them as even as possible.

8. On a floured surface roll out one section of dough at a time into a rectangle shape (don't worry about the shape being perfect).

9. Roll the dough up like you would if you were making cinnamon rolls.

10. Place in a greased bread pan.

11. Repeat steps 8-10 for the remaining three loaves.

12. Set the loaves in a warm dry place and cover them with a cloth or paper towel. Let them rise for 2 hours (yes it has to be two hours. Wheat flour takes longer to rise than white flour).

13. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees when the dough has filled the pan.

14. Bake the loaves for 20-25 minutes.

15. Let the loaves cool completely before putting them away. The loaves can be stored in a Ziploc and put in the freezer for future use.

Notes

~I was very surprised at how light these loaves were. I knew the white bread was good, but this is amazing!

~I really think the gluten made this recipe! I definitely suggest using it if you are going to attempt this recipe. I will try a batch without it and post the results in the future, but for now I suggest using it!

~I used "one loaf" worth of dough and made 12 delicious dinner rolls. Basically just roll out the dough and then cut it into 12 5 inch pieces. Roll each one up and plop it into a greased muffin tin. Let it rise for 30 minutes and then bake at 350 for 13-15 minutes.

Homemade Almond Butter

I saw this on Pinterest about a month and a half ago and knew I needed to try it. I read about this recipe/experiment at Judicial Peach. The almond butter that my mom has purchased lately from WalMart runs about $5 for a 12 oz. jar. I wanted to attempt to make my own and see if it was better, cheaper, etc. Was the experiment successful? I think yes. This almond butter is so rich and delicious! I love the flavor and the texture. Even though it is not as smooth as the store bought kind I would prefer to make my own over buying it from the store.

Here is what I did. And it made 12 ounces of delicious homemade almond butter!

Ingredients

2- 2 1/2 cups almonds

2 Tablespoons honey (optional)

1/2 teaspoon vanilla (optional)

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

2. Spread the almonds over an un-greased cookie sheet.

3. Bake the almonds for 15 minutes.

4. Let them cool for 5 minutes.

5. Pour the nuts into a food processer. Set a 5 minute timer and start blending. You may have to stop blending two or three times to get the clumps down to the blades again but don't stop the timer.

6. After the 5 minutes is up add in the honey and vanilla.

7. Set a 2 minute timer and let the food processer run. This time the mix will be a little clumpy looking, but it's fine.

8. Store in a good container. I used an old container I had from the store bought almond butter. I also had to mash the butter into the jar since it was clumpy. It is soft though so that's good.

9. Let the jar sit out on the counter for 2-3 hours before closing it and storing it in the fridge.

Notes

~I would assume the almond butter would stay good for AT LEAST two weeks.

Savings

It's been a really long time since I bought almonds because I buy the 48 oz. Member's Mark from Sam's (or rather my mom buys them...but still). Best I can remember it is about 14.50 for that bag. There are about 9 cups of nuts. Divide 14.50 by 9 that equals 1.611111... So $1.60 per cup of nuts. I used about 2 cups of nuts today in this mix that would equal about $3.00 for a 12 oz. jar of homemade almond butter. The store bought version (Maranatha Almond Butter) from WalMart? $4.50-5. So it's not a huge savings, but it is a savings AND I think the homemade stuff is a lot better. Try it out yourself and tell me which you like better: store bought or homemade.

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Healthy Crockpot Apple Sauce

Making apple sauce in the crockpot really isn't very hard. Especially if you don't have a better way to make it. I do, but I have avoided it for no particular reason...it's called a Squeeze-O. However, I like the way the apple sauce tastes when it has been cooking a good portion of the day in the crockpot. This recipe is healthy because you don't add a single thing to it! All thats in it is apples.

Ingredients

20-50 apples

Directions

1. Peel the apples

2. Chop the good part of the apple off the core. Throw the good parts in an empty and clean crockpot.

3. Once all the apples are ready, turn the crockpot on high for 3-4 hours. Make sure to check on it and stir the apples regularly.

4. Once the apples are falling apart and can be made into a mush it is time to turn off the heat. Remove the lid and let it sit for an hour or so to cool.

5. Stick the covered crockpot in the fridge overnight.

6. In the morning store the sauce in Ziploc bags or another container. I stored 2 1/2 cups each in a quart size bag and then laid it out on a pan and put it in the freezer so we could have apple sauce once the apples are gone.

Other Apple Recipes: Apple Breakfast Cake, "Baked" Apple Oatmeal, Grandma Karon's Apple Pie, Crockpot Apple Butter, Fried Apples, Apple Pecan Spice Bread, Apple Oatmeal Spice Drop Cookies, Apple Oatmeal Breakfast Cake, Apple Raisin Bran Muffins, Cinnamon Apple Swirl Bread, Apple Oatmeal Pancakes, Healthy Applesauce Muffins, Apple Pecan Cake, Healthy Crockpot Applesauce.

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• Food On Friday: Sauces.

Snacking Healthy | Cucumbers & Ranch

Okay so ranch really isn't 'healthy' for you, but it is delicious and you can have it on occasion (or if you're me...all the time haha!). I love cucumbers; Autry doesn't even like the smell of them.

Cucumbers are a perfect snack because they taste good and they are healthy.

What You Need

A sliced cucumber

Ranch to dip them in

Eat on!

Mom's Taco Salad

When I was a little girl I remember my mom making taco salad. We usually only had it on occasion, but I remember it always tasting amazing. Here is her recipe.

Ingredients

3 tomatoes chopped or 1 can of diced tomatoes

1 red onion, chopped

1 head of lettuce, chopped

1 cup grated cheese

7 oz. Cool Ranch Doritos, crushed

1 can drained kidney beans

1 can olives, drained and chopped

1 lb. ground beef, browned

3/4 cup salsa

1 cup mayonnaise

Directions

1. In a large bowl toss all the ingredients together except the salsa and mayo.

2. In a small bowl mix together salsa and mayo. Use as a sauce for the salad.

3. Serve cold with more chips and the salsa dip.

Healthy Oatmeal Crackers

These crackers are healthy because they have no sugar (only organic sweetener is used), whole wheat flour, oatmeal, and no salt! They are very easy to whip up and taste good with a large amount of things such as peanut or almond butter, cheese slices, apple slices, grapes, etc.

Ingredients

3 cups of oatmeal

2 cups of whole wheat flour

1 cup wheat germ

5 Tablespoons of sucanat (or another organic sweetener)

1 cup of oil

1 1/2 cups of water

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 300 degrees.

2. In a bowl mix together the oatmeal, flour, wheat germ and sucanat until well blended.

3. Add in oil and water. Stir until there is nothing dry left.

4. Grease two cookie sheets.

5. Divide the dough in half. Put on half on each cookie sheet.

6. Use your hands to mash the mixture until it is thin and touching all the edges. Make sure to mash it down well. Also, push down the dough which comes up on the edges. Thinner is better.

7. Use a knife and cut the mashed dough into desired amounts. Fork each square.

8. Bake in oven for 45 minutes or until crisp. (I baked mine for 45 minutes, but they could be baked another 10-15 minutes.)

9. Let the pan cool 10 minutes before removing them and putting them in a storage container.

Healthy Cucumber Salad

This is a recipe I whipped up this afternoon when I saw we had a lot of cucumbers which my Papa had given us. The two people who tried it loved it! It is healthy, easy to fix, and can be used for a snack or a meal.

Ingredients

1 cucumber, diced

1/2 teaspoon parsley leaves

1/2 teaspoon dill weed

1 teaspoon onion powder, optional

1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar

2 teaspoons olive oil

3 dashes of salt

1 dash of pepper

Directions

1. Mix all ingredients together in a bowl.

2. Enjoy with a piece of toast or some crackers.

3. It is even better if you whip this up the day before so the flavors can blend!

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• Sweet & Savory Sundays #22

Snacking Healthy | Frozen Yogurt Bites

This is a healthy snack which keeps for at least a week at least...if you don't eat them up before then. Frozen yogurt is amazing, but frozen yogurt drops are better! If you like to eat ice just for fun then you should definitely try these because they're like little bits of flavored ice...only much much better.

Ingredients

4 6oz. containers of yogurt (any flavor)

Directions

1. Use a cookie sheet and cover it with wax paper. Once you measure and cut the wax paper flip it over so the rolling edges are held out by the edge of the pan.

2. Stir the yogurt before you use it to make the bites. Take a small spoon or teaspoon and fill it with yogurt. Let it drop off the spoon onto the wax paper. Continue until the pan is full or the yogurt cup is empty and go on to the next cup until they are all done. MAKE SURE to keep each drop seperate from the others around it!! I can usually get 48 drops on one cookie sheet.

3. Place in the freezer for 2-3 hours, or until they aren't soft to the touch.

4. Pull the wax paper up off the pan and pop each bite of yogurt off the paper. Put in a bowl to eat right away or in a zip lock bag to store in the freezer immediately. Make sure not to keep them out of the freezer for more than a few minutes when you transfer them off the pan because they will start to melt quite fast.

Notes

~You can also use Dannon Vanilla yogurt which is what I used for the bites in the photograph for this post. Those are my absolute favorite and that is the best yogurt for you that you can by from WalMart, or so I've been able to find out thus far.

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• I Gotta Try That #58
• Clever Chicks Blog Hop #42
• Sweet & Savory Sundays #20