Spring cleaning...for the body Part 1

About twice a year I get in a fight with food. I get to the point where I'm constantly craving something (beats me what it is..) and eat everything in sight trying to figure out what it is. (And no, it's not red meat, those of you who think I'm dying from a protein deficiency) Or I just don't really want to eat anything, I wander around starving, but grossed out by everything in the fridge.

Hopefully it doesn't get worse when I'm pregnent.

But this time, after an especially bad bout of bouncing back and forth between the two I decided to detox. The idea behiend the detox (or at least my detox) is to cut out all the yucky stuff (extra sodium, sugars, etc.) and let my body clean itself out and get my metabolism evened out (metabolism here meaning the chemical processes of the body). So here's the menu for the next couple days:

• fresh or steamed veggies (no adding salt or butter)
• fresh fruit or fruit juice
• tons of water
• lots of ginger tea with lemon and peppermint tea (helps clean up the mess)
• whole grains cooked with water
• plain whole milk yogurt (no additives)
• tofu (usually blended with fruit)
• extras allowed: lemon juice, balsamic vinegar, olive oil, spices

Seems extreme, but it's only for 3 days. I'll check in and let you know how I'm doing tomorrow.

Nacho's for Breakfast

My thought process this morning as I lay in bed...

Tummy: Mmmm..... breakfast.....
Intellect: Hmm. Breakfast. Pancakes? No.... no oats. Omlet? No... I was going to make eggs for lunch.
Tummy: Naaacchhhooooosssss............
Intellect: Nachos? What are you on?
Tummy: Nachos!
Intellect: Well I do have extra fajita stuff from last night I could do a type of breakfast burrito with hashbrowns and ....
Tummy: Nachos!
Intellect: No! No Nachos for you! The fake nacho cheese is reserved for PMS days when all you want is junk!
Tummy:.......please?!
Intellect: No! You'll won't be able to move for the rest of the day!
Tummy: Nachos.
Intellect: Ok.

Ahhhhhh.... Summer......

So I've decided to disappear from the face of the internet world for the past 3 months.

Why?

Because I can. Because I've needed time to think, and to play, and to figure out what makes me happy. ( Because that's the goal--- Be Happy)

So I've decided to emerge from my cave and began again to share with you some of the things that make me happy.

So right now granola makes me happy.


I've been cooking a lot... for a lot of reasons.

1. I'm a vegetarian and a nutrition minor, but I still really like good tasting food. This necessitates learning to cook.
2. I work at a grocery store. I look at food 8 hours a day.
   
3. I see lots of fat people buying lots of greasy gross things all the time, and I like to think of solutions.

So I choose a dish and research it until I understand the basics behind it (food chemistry... how the ingredients affect one another... ) then I start experimenting. Recently I have chosen granola.

So my goal was to create a granola somewhere between store bought, which is practically candy with all the sugar and oil, and my fathers granola, which is close to horse feed.

Here is the fruits of my labors:

Bethany's Basic Granola Recipe:

Dry Ingredients:
4 cups old fashioned rolled oats
1/2 cup wheat germ
1/2 cup wheat bran
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
1-2 cups nuts and seeds of your choice
1/2 tsp salt
seasonings (optional)

Glaze:
1/2 cup flavorless vegetable oil
1/8 cup water
1/2- 3/4 cup sweeteners (a mixture of dry and wet sweeteners works best: honey, maple syrup, corn syrup, agave nectar, brown sugar, white sugar, etc...)
seasonings (optional)

1/2- 1 cup of dried fruit (optional)

Preheat oven to 275. Mix dry ingredients in a large bowl until combined. Put all of glaze ingredients in a sauce pan, cook over medium heat until they come to a boil. Pour glaze over dry ingredients and stir until evenly coated. Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper. Take the granola mixture by handfuls and squeeze it tightly before placing it on the baking tray. It will soon look like you've created a small mountain range of uncooked granola. This is good; the mountains will turn into clusters, and we like clusters.

Carefully put the cookie sheet in the oven without demolishing your mountain range and set the timer for 30 minutes. After 30 minutes carefully turn the granola, bringing the edge granola to the middle (you may have to demolish some of your mountains, but try to keep the clusters in tact). Bake the granola for another 20 minutes. Take it out and add any dried fruit you desire and stir it again. You may now break up the mountains into your preferred cluster size (Shoe size? dress size? preferred cluster size?), And bake it for another 20 minutes. Take it out and let it cool. It may not seem done but with dry out as it cools, so don't worry if it's still a little soft when it comes out of the oven. Eat with milk, yogurt, plain. or however else you fancy.

Here is my favorite variation (Beware: This is for adventurous taste buds!):
Spicy Cranberry-Ginger Granola
To dry mix add:
nuts and seeds- pecans, sunflour seeds, seseme seads
1/8 cup turbinado sugar
2-3 tbsp candied ginger (minced finely)
2 tsp allspice

To syrup add:
sweeteners: 1/2 cup corn syrup, 1/4 cup sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp allspice
1 tsp ginger
1/4 tsp cayenne pepper

Add: 1 cup dried cranberries during baking.

Enjoy.