"Finally..."

"Finally," says the blandly friendly voice from the TV, "you can have fruit without refined sugar, syrup, or artificial sweetener!"  And I stare at the TV in slack-jawed disbelief.  Surely that's not what the woman said, right?  Rewind the DVR, let's try that again.  Wow.  Amazingly, that is exactly what she said.  And I thought to myself, "Yes, you can have fruit without any of those added things...it's called FRUIT!" 

The commercial was for one of those prepacked little plastic cups of processed fruit, and their big epiphany was that rather than packing it in corn syrup and water, or in sugar water, they pack it in fruit juice.  Which would sound kind of reasonable until you realize that, with the exception of the pineapple, the fruit isn't packed in its own juice, it's packaged in white grape juice, which is essentially nature's equivalent of, well, sugar water.  Sure, white grape juice has Vitamin C, but that's pretty much the extent of it.  Other than that, all it does is add unnecessary (albeit natural) sugar and calories.

Why do we need prepackaged cups of fruit anyway?  They are many times more expensive than fresh fruit, and quite frankly, they don't taste very good.  The disposable bowls are wasteful, made from petroleum and ending up sitting in landfills forever after just one use.  On the other hand, fresh fruit has its own built-in containment system, and it's totally portable!  If you have fruit that you'd rather not eat whole or that you'd rather not peel "on the go", no problem--peel it, cut it up, whatever you need to do, and toss it into a reusable lidded container.



Wow, that took all of about a minute to prepare, and fruits like apples, bananas, oranges, and peaches are even faster, just grab and go!  (TIP:  If you're concerned about bruising your peach or apple, just toss it whole in a reusable container like the one in the picture and it will be fine everywhere you go.)  And I absolutely guarantee fresh fruit tastes better than any prepackaged, processed fruit cup you'll ever see!

So please, don't fall for advertising tricks.  Remember, they're trying to get you to buy a product you don't need and that is bad news all around...it's not as healthy as fresh, it's bad for the environment, it's more expensive, it doesn't save more than a minute or two of time, and it doesn't taste as good!

Pancake Mix Still Not Fast Enough? Never Fear!

So it's a weekday morning and you want pancakes, but there's no way you have time to even make them with a mix?  No problem!  Don't turn to those questionable quality frozen pancakes, just premake your own homemade pancakes from your own homemade mix, and freeze them yourself!  Frozen pancakes are not only vastly overpriced, but they have little nutritional value and often have a list of ingredients that reads like a novel...or a science project.  Homemade pancakes can pack a great nutritional punch, and like most bread related products, they freeze beautifully. 

To see how you can always have beautiful pancakes like these on hand, click "read more".

Please, Make Your Own...Pancake Mix

Just about everyone loves to have a pancake breakfast every now and then, and just about everyone makes their pancakes from one of the various mixes that are available in the grocery store.  Well, I'm here to tell you that you can do better, and without sacrificing convenience.

The good news about store bought pancake mixes is that most of them are at least made with ingredients that we all recognize.  The bad news is that even though the ingredient list doesn't read like a science project, it's by no means a list of nutritional all-stars.  With a few notable exceptions, pancake mixes are made with enriched white flour (wheat flour that has been stripped of various healthful components and then had vitamins added back in).  Not only does this not give your pancakes much character or flavor, it is largely devoid of any real nutritional value.  Of course we want our food to taste great, but let's face it, getting some nutrition is at least part of why we eat breakfast in the first place.  And the majority of store bought pancake mixes are pretty much failing on both counts.

To see a better way to make pancakes in a flash, click "read more".