Honey Cookies

This time of the year is honey time. Many people prefer the flavor of honey over sugar. Others eat it because they believe it is healthier. (It is not healthier than sugar.)  I eat it because it’s a traditional food this time of the year, and I enjoy the taste if it isn’t overpowering. I have this delicious honey cookie recipe that I have been making for about 9 years. The cookies are soft and almost cake-like. Best of all (for me) is that the honey flavor is not overwhelming. Here is the recipe.

1 cup sugar
1/2 cup oil
3 eggs
3 Tbsp honey
3 cups flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp cinnamon
pinch salt

Beat together sugar, oil, eggs, and honey. Combine dry ingredients. Mix dry ingredients into wet ingredients. With moistened hands form dough into small balls and place on baking sheet, OR drop by teaspoonful onto lined baking sheet. Bake at 350° for 10 minutes.

honey cookies!

For other honey thoughts, click here!

What’s worse? Soda or diet soda?

                This is a question my patients often ask me. They are trying to get on the road to healthy eating, and they have heard in the media about the evils of artificial sweeteners. There are many different artificial sweeteners on the market.  Some of the more common ones are saccharin (Sweet “n Low,) Aspartame (Equal,) and Sucralose (Splenda.) We have all seen and many of us have tasted these sweet packets. These calorie-free sweeteners are often used by people with diabetes or people who are trying to lose weight.

                But are they safe? Over the years, there were studies that linked these studies to cancers, but these studies were often poorly designed, in rats (not humans,) and the quantities fed were very large. The FDA approved artificial sweeteners if they are eaten in moderation. This means that 1-2 packets in your coffee 2-3 times per day is considered safe by these standards.

There has been a lot of more recent research on this topic. Some studies link these sweeteners to adverse metabolic effects—that is weight gain, higher blood sugars, and heart problems. There have even been proposed mechanisms to these metabolic effects. Yet, a conclusive answer in this area is not known yet.

Practically, when I am advising a patient, the answer will be customized. Is the patient newly diagnosed with diabetes and currently drinks 1-2 cans of regular soda per day? If the patient is ready and willing to drink 1-2 cans of diet soda per day instead of the regular soda, this might be a good swap. For this patient, the risks of regular soda are likely greater than the potential risks of diet soda. What if the patient has never been much of a sweet drink-drinker and is asking if it is okay to start drinking diet soda? I would likely recommend that this patient choose other beverages, such as water, seltzer, or fruit-infused water. This risks of adding diet soda with potential adverse health outcomes is definitely greater than the “risks” of fewer beverage choices.

In short, it is important to take all health news in context. Every person’s health is different, and what might be an obvious choice for one person might be the wrong choice for another person.

Leftovers

     Last weekend, we had chicken soup. There was a fairly large amount of broth leftover afterwards, and I didn’t want to waste it. I had heard of people using soup broth to make other foods, so I decided to give it a try. First, I strained the broth to remove any leftover solids. Then I measured it—it came out to be about 5 cups. The perfect amount to make rice! I cooked the rice like I typically do. The resulting rice was so fragrant and delicious!

               

     Other uses of leftover soup broth:

• Cook any grains, including rice, quinoa, and barley in soup broth
• Use it to start another soup or stew
• Add a bit to mashed potatoes
• Use it to make stuffing
• Cook beans, lentils, or chickpeas in soup broth

Some yogurt troubles

            I have not written in a while, but let’s try to get back into it.

I recently made a failed yogurt. It seemed to be all right when it was done fermenting, but then it unexpectedly spoiled faster than any prior batch. I looked into potential causes of this, and I found that this can be caused by contaminated yogurt starter, improper storage of the finished yogurt, or the yogurt itself getting contaminated. It definitely was a bit discouraging, and I was disappointed to have to throw out about a third of a gallon of yogurt, but I am hoping it was a one-time fluke of the yogurt getting contaminated. Last night I made another batch, and it will be ready in a few hours. I hope I will have better yogurt this time.

I have been mostly using my yogurt in overnight oats that I eat for breakfast. I have also been using it to make a really quick homemade pizza dough that has been a favorite. I have also frozen leftover pizza dough for later use, and it froze, defrosted, and baked really well. I love decorating the pizza with all sorts of vegetables, especially onions, peppers, and mushrooms…yum…

Other exciting uses of yogurt are always fun to discover. It is such a versatile ingredient that can add protein and calcium to your diet.

How to make homemade hummus

                As you know, I am a fan of making homemade food when I can. I have wanted to make hummus for a few months already. One of the ingredients in hummus is tahini, which I had bought a few months ago already. For some reason, I never got around to it until a few weeks ago.

                The ingredients are 1 can of chickpeas, ½ Tbsp parsley, 1 large clove of garlic, ¼ tsp ground cumin, 3 Tbsp lemon juice, 4 Tbsp water, 4 Tbsp tahini paste, 2 Tbsp olive oil. I blended these using an immersion blender until they were pretty smooth, but with a bit of texture remaining from the chickpeas.

                Besides for it being really yummy, it is definitely cheaper to make this at home. A can of chickpeas is 50 cents, and the container of tahini was about $4.00, and that will last a while. A small container of hummus from the store often costs around $4.00.

it's hummus!

How to choose a healthy yogurt

Regular yogurt have around 6 grams of protein per serving, but Greek yogurts can have up to 17 grams per serving. This makes it a great source of protein and it can be the protein source for your meal. Protein helps contribute to feelings of satiety after a meal, so it’s important to always have protein at a meal

Some yogurts have a lot of added sugar, often listed as various names such as sugar, cane sugar, fruit juice, juice concentrate, and honey. Plain yogurts, while they do contain the sugar naturally found in milk called lactose, they do not have any added sugars. You can add your own fresh or frozen fruit to yogurt for a sweeter treat.

Yogurts with live and active cultures contain probiotics. These are bacterial species that are good for health and can help promote adequate quantities of good bacteria so bad bacteria can’t flourish too much. Look for a package that says "live and active cultures" or lists the bacterial species in the ingredients. 

Yogurt contains calcium, which we need for our bone health. Regular yogurt actually has more calcium than Greek yogurt, because some calcium is lost when the whey is strained out to turn regular yogurt into Greek yogurt.

Spreading the (yogurt) joy

                I visited my parents for a weekend recently, and I made them a batch of yogurt. I tried out the double boiler method to prevent the the milk from burning and sticking to the bottom of the pot. They have a larger supply of pots than I do, so it was a good place to try this! I did stir the milk occasionally, but I never once began to feel burnt milk building up on the bottom. This definitely is a good idea in order to make yogurt-making a more hands-off project. I left the milk on the stove, and whenever I happened to pass through the kitchen, I stirred it. Once I inoculated it with starter yogurt, I left the milk incubating between two pots of boiling water covered in towels and went back home. I asked my mother to put it in the fridge the next morning. But before she did, she added it to her breakfast smoothie! After the yogurt was transferred to a container, I received a report that there was no burnt milk stuck to the bottom. 

the milk is in the top pot, and water is in the bottom pot

in a container