Saturday, March 31, 2012

Make your own Nutella


If any two ingredients were a match made in heaven it's chocolate and hazelnuts! Spread on some really great bread or rolled up in a crepe = sublime.

I love this stuff but in my quest to eat as few preservatives, over-refined nasty oils and ingredients that I can't pronounce, I have stayed away from the commercial brand of Nutella.

Here is what the label on Nutella says:

          • Over 50 Hazelnuts per 13 oz. Jar
           Contains No Artificial Colors
           Contains No Artificial Preservatives
 
ingredients: sugar, palm oil, hazelnuts, cocoa, skim milk, reduced minerals whey (milk), lecithin as emulsifier (soy), vanillin: an artificial flavor.

Food manufacturers today think it' perfectly okay to put soy in everything (which BTW is not as great as it has been made out to be- I will riff on that subject on another post), and wow- it has no artificial colors or preservatives, but artificial flavor is okay?? C'mon! Only 50 hazelnuts? ....and notice that sugar and palm oil are the first ingredients. 

If you are a food label fanatic like me, you know that ingredients are listed in order of the most to the least- so if you want a mouthful of sugar and palm oil get this stuff and be done. You also need to be mindful of what type of palm oil is being used- here they don't specify but there's palm fruit oil (taken from the fruit) and palm kernel oil (taken from the seed which is super high in saturated fat- 80% to be exact as opposed to 50% in the palm fruit oil). Consuming this type of oil can lead to heart disease and a host of other health issues so always read your labels and try to find better oils like olive and canola. Not to mention the environmental impact that farming palm oil has created.

I stumbled upon this blog where I learned to make it from scratch and I agree- it's so easy and worth it. All I can say is yum! Get the full recipe here and enjoy!


 
photos via missmoss.co.za

Tuesday, March 27, 2012

Food Forward

I just found out about this new series on PBS that will be airing next month called: Food Forward.

Take a look at the trailer- I know I will be tuning in! This gives me goose bumps and makes me want to move somewhere right now where I can grow my own food!!