All Posts Tagged With: "stevia"

THANK YOU Chef Rachel….this is yummy….I highly recommend that people buy her cook books….they are OUTSTANDING…..Yes, we can enjoy the good things in life, by buying organically and going Gluten free is painless…….enjoy…

Linda

Recipe of the Month
Apple-Apricot Compote

Hands-on: 30 minutes/ Cooking: 30 minutes/ Yield: 6 cups/8 servings

This is one of my favorite fall and winter recipes. Serve it as a side dish for 
breakfast, as a snack, or as dessert after lunch or dinner, topped with chopped,
toasted nuts, a drizzle of macadamia nut butter, or a scoop of vanilla Ice Dream
(from The Ice Dream Cookbook). This  sweet, simmered fruit medley makes a great 
alternative to apple pie during the fall, winter, and spring. It’s simpler to make
and much more nutritious because it’s sweetened with dried fruit instead of sugar.
You can vary the basic recipe with different varieties of apples and spices. Leftovers
taste delicious warmed in a heatproof bowl in a toaster oven or served at room temp,
topped with Ice Dream.

FYI: Turkish dried apricots taste much sweeter than other varieties. When I use 
them I rarely need to add any sweetener to my fruit compotes. Look for them in natural
foods stores and specialty markets. If you use conventional American-grown dried
apricots, use the higher volume of dried fruit listed and replace the water with
apple, peach, pear, apricot or white grape juice. or add the optional stevia to 
produce a sweet flavor.

Note: If you don’t have apple or pumpkin pie spice, substitute 3/4 teaspoon ground
cinnamon, 1/2 teaspoon dried ginger (powder), 1/4 teaspoon each of ground nutmeg
and dried orange zest, and 1/8 teaspoon ground cloves.

Ingredients:

1/3 to 1/2 cup dried, sulphite-free, unsweetened dried (preferably Turkish) apricots

1/3 to 1/2 cup raisins

3 to 3 1/2 pounds tart-sweet apples (6 large or 8 medium; 1 to 3 varieties):

gala, Fuji, pink lady, cameo, Braeburn, ginger gold, Melrose, or Cortland

1/2 cup filtered water

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon or apple pie spice

1 tablespoon arrowroot starch dissolved in 3 tablespoons cold water, optional

1/8 to 1/4 teaspoon pure stevia extract powder or 1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon clear stevia
extract  liquid or 1 to 2 tablespoons honey, optional

3/4 cup chopped, toasted almonds, walnuts or pecans or 1/2 to 1 recipe Vanilla Ice
Dream, optional

1. Chop or cut dried apricots into 1/4- to 1/2-inch pieces with kitchen shears or
a knife. Add them to a 3- to 4-quart pot with the raisins. Wash and core the apples.
Peel if waxed or desired. Halve, quarter, then cut each apple into 1/4-inch to 1/2-inch
thick slices. Layer over the dried fruit and sprinkle with the spices.
2. Add the water. Cover and bring to boil without stirring. Reduce heat and simmer
until tender and saucy, 20 to 25 minutes. Uncover and stir gently. If much liquid
remains, remove lid and cook away the juices or add dissolved arrowroot, and then
simmer and stir until thick. For a sweeter taste, add stevia 1/8 teaspoon at a time,
or honey 1 tablespoon at a time. Stir, taste and repeat as needed.
3. Serve warm or close to room temperature, topped with freshly churned Ice Dream
or solidly frozen Ice Dream softened at room temperature for 20 to 30 minutes.
4. Refrigerate leftover compote in wide-mouth jars or Pyrex containers with lids.
Once chilled, freeze what you don’t plan to consume within 5 days. Always leave 
1 1/2 to 2 inches of space at the top of the jar and chill to refrigerator temperature
before freezing to keep the glass from cracking.

1 serving w/out topping (about 3/4 cup): 139 calories, 32 g carbohydrate (5 g fiber),
1 fat, 20 mg calcium, 1 mg sodium

Variations:

*      Apple, Prune & Apricot Compote with 5-Spice: Replace cinnamon or pie spice
with 1 1/2 teaspoons Chinese 5-spice powder and replace the raisins with pitted 
prunes.

*      Replace cinnamon or pie spice with 2 teaspoons ground caraway, anise, or 
fennel seeds or 1 tablespoon peeled and grated fresh gingerroot.

For more great recipes like this, pick up a copy of T [http://r20.rs6.net/tn.jsp?llr=nokbepcab&et=1103656465874&s=1207&e=001GnGMJMbEAM0KZZucdCGO_X4ybDylBeDEkCSf6pzCg3qNyUwRX5-ju8Ds9FRv3ODyzQKOO-cOD-TbO2i9-gj_W0Odp1uWAI4LvNtWd0b9yveCQUj_701sAQ8aJ-PS-Lp6]he
Ice Dream Cookbook: [http://r20.rs6.net/tn.jsp?llr=nokbepcab&et=1103656465874&s=1207&e=001GnGMJMbEAM0KZZucdCGO_X4ybDylBeDEkCSf6pzCg3qNyUwRX5-ju8Ds9FRv3ODyzQKOO-cOD-TbO2i9-gj_W0Odp1uWAI4LvNtWd0b9yveCQUj_701sAQ8aJ-PS-Lp6]
Dairy-Free Ice Cream Alternatives with Gluten-Free Cookies, Compotes & Sauces by
Rachel Albert-Matesz.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

About Chef Rachel
Chef Rachel is a natural foods chef, cooking instructor, freelance food and health
writer, author, speaker, cooking coach, and blogger. She’s on a mission to put people
in touch with the joy of cooking and the nourishing power of natural foods. She 
delights in demonstrating that great taste and good nutrition can go hand in hand
and empowers people to lose weight and look and feel great eating wholesome and 
delicious food.
Rachel has led more than 900 cooking classes in seven states. More than 250 of her
articles have appeared in national and regional publications. She is the author 
of The Ice Dream Cookbook: Dairy Free Ice Cream Alternatives with Gluten-Free Cookies,
Compotes & Sauces and co-author of The Garden of Eating: A Produce-Dominated Diet
& Cookbook.
She lives in Phoenix, Arizona.
If you would like to learn more about cooking & nutrition coaching and private classes
with Chef Rachel, please email her at ChefRachel@TheGardenOfEatingDiet.com [mailto:ChefRachel@TheGardenOfEatingDiet.com]

Excerpt:

Dear Sherrel,

Thank you for your note.  As I told you by phone we have been getting 
quite a few reactions from Truvia.  Pure stevia is fine but Truvia is 
made by Coke, and has chemicals.  It is sweetened with Erythritol and 
has added an ingredient of stevia only.  In fact, I did an expose on 
it which was shown in France.   You can be sure if Coke and Pepsi 
have anything to do with sweeteners we have no way of assuring 
safety.  Here is an email I wrote about 
it:  http://www.mpwhi.com/health_problems_and_truvia.htm and an 
investigation by Arthur Evangelista who use to work for the FDA.

Also, what worries me is aspartame and MSG are hidden in artificial 
and natural flavors.  As a heart patient you have  to be absolutely 
sure you never get aspartame.  It even damages the cardiac conduction 
system and causes sudden death: 
http://www.wnho.net/aspartame_and_arrhythmias.htm and 
http://www.wnho.net/aspartame_msg_scd.htm  They know that aspartame 
is addictive and sells lots of pop.  So unless somebody analyzes 
Truvia we have no idea what is causing people to have all these 
reactions from it.  The reactions you describe are exactly like 
aspartame which causes chemical hypersensitization.  One man got off 
it and got well, and then later was given a cookie sweetened with 
aspartame and had tachycardia, fast heart rate, so bad they had to 
stop his heart to save his life.

I would stay away from artificial sweeteners.  Just Like Sugar is 
okay because its food and not additives, just chicory used 70 years 
to improve the health of diabetics.  There have been no reactions to 
it or complaints.  Stevia that you get from a health food store is 
fine as long as it does not  contain additives.  In Brazil they even 
add aspartame to it.  Until aspartame is removed from planet earth we 
can’t be sure where its hidden.  Somebody needs to analyze Truvia 
because there are far too many complaints.  I’m glad you have not 
knowingly used aspartame.  Below my signature is the Aspartame 
Resource Guide with detox and other information.  The knowledge will 
prove useful to you.  The detox is very helpful.

From http://www.endfatigue.com,

Lemonade Iced Tea Cocktail