Nutrition BOOST - Healthy Ingredients and Substitutions

[Jan Ferrante]

I don't remember the last time that I made a recipe without substituting something for a healthier choice.

There are a lot of things that you can do - tweak the flour, the oil, the sweetener are a few quick things that you can get in the habit of.

I'd love to hear what you use in place of plain white flour, sugar and generic vegetable oils for starters.

What's your favourite nutrition boost?

[Jan Ferrante]

I have been rehauling my freezer and need to restock pretty much everything that I regularly use.

I came across an article on using almond flour instead of wheat flour - it is superior in nutrition and also is of benefit to anyone with gluten sensitivities - celiac disease and the like.

My MIL has it and I suspect my husband and daughter may have tendencies that way as well.

I've always used ground nuts and seeds as part of the flour portion of my recipes so I would love to experiment with this.

Right now there is issue with obtaining almonds that have not been sprayed with pesticides. Apparently the only other option given right now is steam treatment but they are hard to find.

There is more info on this and a ton of other info at the forum for this blog.

It's all about healthy recipes etc, very good read, bursting with info and recipes using real, healthy, food (imagine that!).

Elana's Pantry

If anyone has a good source of almond flour (I've priced it from $150 for a Canadian source to $89 in California - it's on the forum at Elana's Pantry), I'd love to hear.

These are the links that I've found.

Gluten Free Recipes - 2 recipe books available and a link to buy Almond Flour in ON, Canada

Houghson Nut - lots of almonds, reasonably priced.

Honeyville - lots of stuff and 4.99 shipping in US

OR MAKE IT YOURSELF

Instead of buying it, you can grind your own.

I do my own in a coffee grinder.

It's not fast, but you can do some ahead and put it in the freezer. Or if you have a good food processor, you can use it. You need to watch that you don't grind to much or you will get a butter.

For lighter flour use blanched almonds. For things that will take a heavier meal like consistancy, like some cookies, granola bars etc, you can use regular almonds.

Making it yourself can be handy and give you a fresh batch, but with the price of almonds these days, I'm not sure that it is any cheaper.