You're so granola...

Wowza, it has been a while without a new food obsessed blog!!!! It has not been a lack of food obsession, my dear friends but really.... a lack of foodie time outside of work. That being said, new job = wonderful and fabulous... but it has been an adjustment getting back into the groove of 50 hour work weeks (I got spoiled waiting tables 25 hours a week for over a year, sure, we were broke, but I had a TON of free time).

Anyway, I'm back and better than ever! Or... attempting to be. One of my goals for this next few months is to CUT preservatives and high fructose corn syrup OUT of my daily diet. No -ates, no -ites, and, frankly, pretty much no premade sweets since they all have high fructose corn syrup in them these days. You may ask why, and I say, "Why not?" Frankly, I feel that we are a little too obsessed with our food hygeine and our genetically modified, decade shelf life, everything treated with antibiotics lifestyle is not improving our quality of life (and some would even suggest it doesn't even improve quantity, er, lifespan given the issues with the obesity epidemic, diabetes, heart disease, food allergies, etc etc etc).

So, as I get ready to undergo this label reading, careful selection, fresh foods endeavor, I know I have a couple areas of weakness that I need to resolve in order to set myself up for success.
A) I have a SWEET TOOTH! There is hardly a day that goes by as of late that I don't have... just a little something. A brownie, some ice cream, a popsicle, a candy bar, etc etc. I am fully confident that a little sweet now and then is not bad, but there is no doubt that High Fructose corn syrup is an ever expanding problem (on our waistlines!). To resolve this, I just have to have some homemade sweet treats on hand at home for when the need strikes. I don't mind this, I like to bake and I have some darn good recipes, I just have to plan ahead in order to bake... Nothing is more frustrating than having a craving for something you can pick up premade at the grocery in five minutes, but instead trying to shop and correctly prepare a recipe for it instead. My plan is just to make up one batch of "little somethings" to have available when the sugar goblin gets me.

b) Soda! I don't even really like it. Its too sweet, the carbonation gives me gas, I know it is terrible for me... but here is the thing: being a restaurant manager can sometimes feel like the quickest way to starve yourself. I spend so much of my shift too busy to eat. So suddenly, I'm left feeling completely wiped out, shaky, faint, and other miscellaneous low blood sugar symptoms. And especially if this happens at the same time as the lunch / dinner rush, I'm not running to take a meal break. I'm going to find the first, simplest form of sugar to ingest and suck it down. So suddenly, as someone who doesn't even really enjoy soda, i'm drinking it about once a day. What I really need at work, are snack foods. Avoiding preservatives and high fructose corn syrup also cuts out a large majority of even the "healthy" snack foods.

So this past week, I put my madness to the test and made homemade granola bars. And low and behold: they are quite tasty!!! Here is the recipe: (you will need a kitchen scale for this one)

8 ounces rolled oats
3 ounces sliced almonds
1.5 ounces RAW sunflower seeds
1.5 ounces wheat bran
3 ounces honey
4.75 ounces dark brown sugar
1 oz unsalted butter
2 tsp vanilla
1/2 tsp kosher salt
7 ounces dried fruit (I used craisins and dried mango, my two favorites, and diced them up really small)

Toast the nuts, oats, and wheat bran at 350 degrees for 15 minutes, stirring every couple of minutes.Combine honey, brown sugar, butter, vanilla and salt in medium saucepan over medium heat. Cook until brown sugar is completely dissolved.
Once oat mixture is done, remove from oven and reduce heat to 300 degrees. Immediately add oat mixture to liquid mixture. Add dried fruit, stir to combine. Turn mixture out onto buttered baking dish (I used a rimmed cookie sheet) and press down.
Place in oven and bake for 25 minutes. Remove from oven and allow to cool completely. Cut into squares, store in an airtight container for up to 2 weeks.

Nutrition information:
Calories 175
calories from fat 59
total fat 6.5 g
saturated fat 1.4 g
cholesterol 4 mg
sodium 88 mg
total carbohydrates 27.6 g
dietary fiber 3.8 g
sugars 14.3 g
protien 4.1 g

So I think this is the type of snack that could help with both problems a and b. I want to switch things up and see what other great combos are waiting to be discovered (aka: peanut butter and chocolate chips anyone?). My expected date for the complete preservative fast is august 1 for atleast 30 days (hey, maybe I will feel so much better that I will never look back, right?). Over that time, I will be bringing you more research about preservatives and how to avoid them (aka: probably a ton of tasty recipes for things neither of us even realize are laden with things closer to chemical warfare than real food).

Until next time,
Cheers! LiA