HFCS-free foods

My friends and I came upw ith this list about a year ago:

Kashi TLC crackers (and their cereal bars)
Melba "toast" crackers
Kraft string cheese and they now have a version that is hormone free!
plain oatmeal in the giant tubs, even off brand Best Choice.
Quaker Simple Harvest insant oatmeal (not healthy harvest, sorry!)
Wild Garden Hummus. We like the sun dried tomato. (These are shelf stable until you open them)
Cheerios
Kix
Malt O Meal "Frosted Mini Wheats"
Best Choice canned tomato products
Best Choice plain/unsweetened applesauce.
Mott's Healthy Harvest mixed applesauces. I THINK the name is Healthy Harvest but it is the kind with apples, different fruits, water and vitamin C.
Thomas Whole Wheat mini bagels
Pepperidge Farm Whole Wheat Mini Bagels
Mission Tortillas (98 per cent FF whole wheat/grain)
Toufya whole wheat pita bread
ETA: Dannon all natural yogurts, including plain, vanilla and berry flavored ones
Yoplait Blue's Clues and Dora yogurts
Pace Salsa
Aldi brand pasta sauces
Classico brand pasta sauce at Costco
Goldfish
Kozy Shack pudding
Quaker "Simple Harvest" oatmeal packets & granola bars
Orowheat brand bread
Smucker's "Simply Fruit" jellies, any flavor
Santa Fe Whole-Grain Tortillas
Anything "fruit leather" including the Target brand, the brands found at Whole Foods and the new ones put out by Fruit Roll-ups (The latter are NOT organic but have ingrediants that I can read, ya know?)
Most organic ketcups

The above is what I buy, pre packaged, on a fairly regular basis. I don't buy fruit or veggie breads, since my mother and grandmother each have about ten zillion recipes for them and I have most of those recipes. I use my "Better Baking Mix" for pancakes and muffins. I make my own applesauce and freeze it but buy BC when it runs out. I also make my own mac and cheese (which takes the same amount of time as the boxed, believe it or not).

I have to watch but anything labeled "sugar free" has splenda or nutrasweet in it, which giveme migraines.

It's not an all inclusive list. I need to look out for bread and ketcup again. I made my own ketcup for awhile and I need to make my own bread (because we seriously can go through a loaf in one meal if all five of us eat) but I'm too tired for that right now.

I gave it to the Chickens!

Just wondering does anyone really eat this stuff.
I was grocery shopping for Thanksgiving and my mother-in-law reminded me several times about the blasted cranberry sauce. ICK! I've never liked it. I've always wondered about the process that made a perfectly good fruit look like the inside of a can and transform the taste into something that is completely unexplainable. My Hound Dog doesn't even like it and she likes petroleum jelly on roofing shingles. I didn't bother to check out the nutrition information although now I wished I had. Turns out only the mom-in-law ate some, the rest was fed to the chickens on Friday morning. Chickens love just about anything including cranberry sauce. Hope my eggs don't taste like it!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Wow--Dawn, you are blowing me away with your fabulous recipes and photos! I can't wait to try the sweet potato fries. I'm actually doing the canned version of sweet potatoes today for our turkey dinner ... and, alas, I'm going to put marshmallows on top. Can't help it.

The turkey's in the oven (okay, turkey breast), and I think Trent is peeling potatoes now. He better be anyway. :-) We went for a 3-4 mile run around the neighborhood this morning after sleeping in, and I'm going to be ready for some chow in a couple hours. Can't wait.

I got back from Philadelphia a couple days ago. I'd never been there before, but the NCTE Convention was held there this year, so in between sessions, I had the opportunity to get out and about and explore the city. Did a lot of walking, and it was lovely. Liberty Bell, Chinatown, City Center, Reading Terminal Marketplace. So much good food. I totally indulged (cheesesteak, lo mein, lamb pita sandwiches, falafel, baklava, fettuccine Alfredo, sea bass, pretzels, chocolate covered marshmallows, tamales), but I didn't feel guilty. I worked out in the hotel fitness center almost every morning (stress relief mostly), and I probably walked 2-5 miles per day since our hotel was about a mile from the convention center.

Tomorrow, we're off to Savannah. I'm reading Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil in preparation.

Love to you all. Happy Thanksgiving!

Sticky Buns? Recipe? Anyone?

Shelly has requested Sticky Buns for Thanksgiving instead of pie. Does anyone have a favorite recipe?

Sunday Morning Bagels

I woke this morning with a craving for peanut butter bagels. I've no idea where it came from. In my youth I worked part time at a little bagel shop called, Mostly Bagels in Pueblo CO. They could have paid me in bagels and I would have been in heaven. About 10 or more years ago, Boss who owned and operated the store passed away from cancer and the shop closed. I really miss those bagels. I've yet to find a store that has better bagels. I couldn't kick the craving so I surfed around until I found a recipe that I liked and commenced to boiling bread. I didn't find a recipe for peanut butter so I settled for plain and poppy seed. I'm taking bites between typos right now! Here is the link for the site that has the recipe I used. Happy Bagel Sunday!

http://hubpages.com/hub/Homemade_bagel_recipe_Make_great_nadrolled_water_bagels__its_as_easy_as_baking_a_loaf_of_bread

Ruined Lunch

I was sitting her, zooming around Facebook with the local news in the background, trying to decide what to have for lunch. I had almost made up my mind on leftover steak and green chili, the news blurted out a story about how BAD movie theater treats are, specifically the popcorn. It seems that theater popcorn is popped in coconut oil which is high in saturated fat. UGH! I love movie theater popcorn. I can't stand that stuff you throw in your microwave. I grew up around my grandparents movie theater. They lived in a very small town here in Colorado. The movie theater was the hub of the town and my grandmother the personality behind that hub. When I was very young I would have to endure previews and at least five minutes of the beginning of the movie before I was able to "go see Grandma Mac." Only when I was in high school did Grandma sell candy bars and pizza. In my youth it was popcorn and ice-cream. Crazy I know! They had a soft serve ice-cream maker. My grandfather usually ate most of the ice cream as it would not keep over night and he didn't see any reason to waste all of it. I ramble....My shock today was the movie theater popcorn, so I did some surfing and read the article on MSN's homepage about the risks of a night at the multiplex movie house. While I was reading I got distracted by the link titled, "7 Foods that Should Never Cross Your Lips." My,My, My was I ever surprised. One of the items listed is corn-fed beef. I know that corn-fed is not as good for you as grass fed. I know that cattle weren't meant to eat grains. I know that cattle are the U.S.'s biggest consumer of bicarbonate because of this. The only problem is I like corn-fed beef SOOOOOO much more than grass fed. That's not the only surprise. I'm even more convinced after reading that ORGANIC food is the safest way to go.

Here's the link to the article: http://health.msn.com/nutrition/articlepage.aspx?cp-documentid=100246775&page=1

Don't eat canned tomatoes but canned salmon is okay? What?

Yum Sweet Potato Fries

Katie made a comment about sweet potato fries on a previous blog. I'm not ashamed to tell you that my mind drifted off to sweet potato land. I stayed there for a thirty minutes at the least. I love sweet potatoes. It took awhile for me to realize the absolute perfection of the Ipomoea batatas tuber. Growing up the only sweet potato that came across my plate was of canned variety and then only at holidays like Thanksgiving and Christmas. It was always covered in mini marshmallows and usually burned to a "bloody crisp" (an expression coined by my Grandma Mac.) My mother would over-purchase cans of the goop, over cook it, and over-guilt trip guests. She would pretty much over do anything. It was not until I was much older that a friend showed me the ecstasy of the orange fleshed food. Since then I have searched out restaurant menus in search of them. A few chains, like Texas Roadhouse serve them here in my mountain state. I love taking trips to the South so that I may partake of sweet brewed tea and sweet potatoes. Maybe everything is sweeter in the South. Since Shelly doesn't like them I'm left to buy, cook and eat them all by myself. I've no problem with that. Following is a recipe for Sweet Potato Fries, they are actually baked. I got the original recipe from Our Best Bites blog and have tweaked it to my liking. Sorry I've got no silly pictures but I will have my camera ready this sweet potato holiday season. The Hound Dog loves them too! Maybe it is her southern roots. Aren't Bloodhounds from the south?


Baked Sweet Potato Fries

2 medium-sized sweet potatoes or about 1 1/4 pounds.
2 T extra virgin olive oil
1/2 t cumin
1/2 t oregano
1 t kosher salt
1 t parsley
fresh ground pepper


Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Spray a cookie sheet lightly with cooking spray or run a stick of butter over it.

Slice your sweet potatoes into french fry shape or whatever shape you like. Jolene likes big potatoes so she can use her cookie cutters to make shaped fries. I like crispy fries so I slice fairly thin. Cutting them larger, like steak fries, will sometimes result in a big soggy mess, so stay small to get the best results.

I guess a straight laced person would want them all about the same size, so some don't get over crispy and others mushy. I'm not that way. I like the variety but do what you like the best.

Put the sweet potatoes in a bowl and drizzle the olive oil over them. Use your hands to make sure each one is coated. If you've got more than a pound of sweet potatoes, add a little extra olive oil. They should all be glistening, just eyeball it.

Then sprinkle on all of the herbs and spices and continue to toss until well coated.

Place the fries on the baking sheet. The original recipe said to make sure they are not touching but again I'm a rebel...just go with it.

Place cookie sheet in pre-heated oven and set the timer for 15 minutes or 14.27 minutes. Don't open the oven door, not even for a peak! Let them do their thing.

After 15 minutes take pan of oven and flip the fries. Be careful because at this point they're quite soft.

Put the pan in the oven and cook for another 15-20 minutes. Just keep an eye on them. They should be nice and golden brown. Crispy crunchy on the outside, and sweet and soft in the middle.

Take them out of the oven and serve immediately. They cool off very quickly so they're best eaten right away. Serves about 4 or one of me and a Hound.

Here is a recipe for a dip for your fries. I like them plain but some people just have to dip. I've no idea if it is any good, alas I'm allergic to honey!

Honey-Lime Dip for Sweet Potato Fries

6oz container plain, low-fat yogurt
1 T mayo (low cal is fine)
1/2 T honey
1/2 lime
1/4 t cumin
1/8 t oregano
1 t parsley
1/2 t granulated onion
3/4 t kosher salt

Mix honey and yogurt until combined and give it a big squeeze from the lime half. Add in spices and herbs and you have a dip.

Hope everyone has a very splendid Thanksgiving day. Ask me and I'll tell ya about our turkey this year!