So I got some new food items that are blowing my mind. I watch this YouTuber named Flavcity (https://www.youtube.com/user/flavcity) and he shares a phenomenal amount of information about ingredients. I will say some of it is a bit over the top for me but I am learning so much! He shares a lot about “Keto and Paleo”, which I probably won’t ever get into, but the ingredient breakdown is where it’s at!
The first thing I discovered was this delicious 100% grass-fed yogurt from Organic Valley (who also makes my favorite lactose-free milk…and I don’t really even like milk). It is pretty tangy, especially by itself, likely because it doesn’t have any added sugar. Seriously, the amount of added sugar in yogurt is kind of ridiculous! But it tastes positively delicious with one of my other favorite finds which I will get to here in a minute. The other bad thing to note about sugar in yogurt is that it inactivates the bacteria, so if you’re like me and eat yogurt for gut bacteria that is bad news bears.
Every morning I have been having this yogurt with some equally amazing (if not better) granola that doesn’t have oats. His reasoning was that oats are dirty because of the chemicals sprayed on them. That is similar to why he recommends grass-fed yogurt, milk, meat, etc. Back to the yogurt, I would say that’s why I picked this up but really it’s because I don’t love the texture of oats…AT ALL. The granola is from a brand called Purely Elizabeth and it does have some added sugar but it is coconut sugar (which we’ll also get to here in a minute). I got the Blueberry Hemp flavor and I’m in LOVE with it.
I have been trying to decrease my sugar intake because I was getting some major cravings. I’m not sure it is much better than traditional cane sugar, but I have been experimenting with coconut sugar and it’s yummy! If anyone has any good info to contribute, I would love to hear it! So far, I’ve mostly just used it in a few sauces and to make cinnamon sugar toast (using the next item I’m going to talk about).
The bread that I use with that is made my Silver Hills and it is my freaking favorite!! It is great particularly to make grilled cheese with! Even Cec adores it, which surprised me because it is pretty hearty. Admission time, I am not a huge bread fan normally; it sometimes leaves me a little bloated feeling. Also, I’m picky about bread that has seeds in it normally (that is my beef with a lot of Dave’s Killer Bread), but this isn’t like that. They do also make a white bread kind of version, but I cannot speak for how good it is because I haven’t tried it.
I usually use extra-virgin olive oil to cook with but I was curious about avocado oil and have been for a while. The Flavcity guy (whose name is Bobby) recommends avocado oil for any chips, so it made me even more curious. I have cooked with it a handful of times, and meats and veggies have browned and/or roasted SO much better! Who knew? I guess I should have because apparently because it has a considerably higher smoke point. Anybody with more info about that would also be appreciated!
Wow. I really didn’t anticipate this would be this long. I kept remembering more things. HA! I love food! I just picked this next one up and tried it literally yesterday. Ketchup, again, has a lot of added sugar in it. So I wanted to see if I could find one that didn’t/had less. It should also be said, I suppose, that our household doesn’t eat a super lot of ketchup. However, I had picked up some Applegate 100% grass-fed hot dogs (Applegate hot dogs are delicious, btw…totally worth the additional price!!) and it seemed a bit counterproductive to put regular ketchup on them. Back to the point, the ketchup I picked up (or if I’m being honest, had my hubby pick up) is Primal Kitchen Unsweetened Ketchup. I had no idea what to expect, but it tastes fantastic. However, I will say it is a different taste than “regular” ketchup.
So there it is. Whew! That was a lot of stuff. What have we learned? Other than I love me some Fresh Thyme. HA! Seriously though, my take-away is to read the label, read the label, READ the label! I feel like there is a lesson of happy mediums also to take away from this. Not everyone can afford $5 ketchup, particularly if they eat much more of it than we do and I get that. Another thing I also realized and the reason I like to read the ingredients and macros is that the label/marketing can be tricky. So I will wrap it up by saying read your labels and do what works for you. I just wanted to share some of the foods/items that were rocking my world.
Until next time, be kind and have a great day!