Image Credit If you’ve been around for awhile, you know that I sprout my grains.  Doing so increases their nutritional …

Do you use vanilla extract in baking?  I know I use mine a lot for baking, homemade ice cream, and other things.  There are a lot of reasons why I choose to make my own extract for these purposes, which I will share with you.  And then I’ll get to the good part: how to do it!

Are you canning lots of tomatoes this year?  I am!!  For certain things, like making sauce, you can just chop them, puree them and go (I also like to seed them, though).  But for other things, you really need to peel them too.  And peeling tomatoes can be very annoying.

There are two methods: cut the peels off the tomatoes with a very sharp knife (which takes FOREVER). 

Butter.

It’s a wonderful fat. However, buying GOOD butter (grass-fed, organic) is expensive. We’re talking anywhere from $5 – $9 a pound. That can get expensive, especially if you go through butter like we do (about 1 – 1.5 lbs. per two weeks). However, making it yourself is MUCH cheaper! And it’s easy, too. Today I’m going to show you how.

Sprouted grains. I’ve mentioned them before, but I’ve never told you HOW to do it, have I? Hence, today’s tutorial. 🙂

Sprouted grains have a ton of health benefits.  They’re more easily digested and nutrients more readily absorbed, they are full of extra vitamins, especially B vitamins (did you know that’s why white flour is enriched with B vitamins?  Because manufacturers know they should and do contain these, but stripping the bran off gets rid of them), some gluten-sensitive individuals can eat them, they contain few to no anti-nutrients — they’re wonderful!  Of course, it’s best to reduce your intake of grains overall, but when you eat them, sprouted grains are the best you can get.

French Fries.

They aren’t exactly “real food,” so maybe you don’t eat them anymore.  We don’t (usually) eat French fries that came in a bag, frozen or from restaurants.  But from home?  Absolutely!  There is redeeming value to eating real, homemade French fries.  Yes, because they’re so starchy it probably isn’t a good idea to have them all the time, but hey — sometimes is fine!  We love these so I do make them a couple times a month.  They are so good, though!  You’ll have to try them for yourself. 🙂

Pancakes.

Depending on the recipe, I can love them or hate them.  I grew up eating your standard Bisquick pancakes, and although I liked them, I got tired of them really fast.  But it was what I was used to, so the one time my mom hauled out her cookbooks and made “real” waffles (yes, I know, not pancakes…but we used Bisquick for both), my brother and I both didn’t like that they were slightly sweet and said we preferred the mix.  As my mother didn’t like to cook much anyway, she never bothered again.

Jerky!

This is a really great snack for us on our new diet. But when you buy it, it’s expensive, made from factory-farmed meat (often, not always…but if not it’s even more expensive!), and can contain sodium nitrite. No thanks!