Ingredients:
¾ vegetable fat
4 tbsp sucanat
1 tbsp molasses
¼ tsp stevia
4 tbsp soy flour
1 cup water
1 cup white rice flour
¾ cup brown rice flour
¼ cup potato flour
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
2 tsp cinnamon
½ tsp nutmeg
¼ tsp cloves
¾ cup walnuts
¾ cup sultanas

Directions:
1.    Preheat oven to 400 F.
2.    Combine butter, sucanat, stevia, and molasses until creamy.
3.    Stir in soy flour and water
4.    Then mix in other flours, baking powder, salt, and spices.
5.    Mix in fruit and nuts.
6.    Roll into 1 inch balls and flatten with a fork on a greased baking sheet.
7.    Bake for 10 to 15 minutes.

Cinnamon is one of the oldest known spices. The darker the cinnamon the better it is.

Benefits of Cinnamon:
•    In traditional Chinese medicine, cinnamon is used for colds, nausea, diarrhea, and painful menstrual periods.
•    It can improve energy, vitality, and circulation.
•    Recent studies have shown that cinnamon maybe have a beneficial effect on blood sugar.

Copyright © Diana Herrington  You are welcome to share this article with anyone who you think may benefit from this information as long as you give credit to Real Food for Life by including the link to the home page www.RealFoodforLife.com  or the direct link to this post.

NUT LOAF

Ingredients:
½ cup cashews
½ cup almonds
10 almonds for decoration
2/3 cup sunflower seeds
1/3 cup pumpkin seeds
½ cup walnuts (chopped)
1 cup short grain brown rice
1/3 cup soya flour
4-6 tbsp soya sauce
1 onion
2 pieces of celery
¼ cup water
2 tsp basil
2 tsp. marjoram
2 tbsp flax meal

Directions:
1.    Lightly roast cashews, almonds, sunflower seeds and pumpkin seeds in the oven.
2.    Chop and sauté onion and celery.
3.    Chop all the nuts and seeds.
4.    Mix all the ingredients together and moistening with water.
5.    Pat mixture into a well-oiled bread tin.
6.    Decorate top with 10 almonds and line bottom of tin with grease proof paper.
7.    Bake at 350 degrees for 25-35 minutes.
Serve with mushroom or onion gravy.
   
Usually the problem with cranberry sauce is that it is full of sugar. Here is my version of the popular Cranberry Sauce without any sugar which is no easy thing when is comes to cranberries as they are so tart.

CRANBERRY SAUCE (sugar free)

Ingredients:
1 Package whole, organic cranberries (fresh, not frozen)
1 Organic Apple, cored and chopped
1 Cup Apple juice
1/4 Cup Organic, Brown Rice Syrup
1 tsp Stevia (Sunny Dew is best)
Pinch of salt

Directions:
1.    Put all ingredients into a sauce pan and let simmer for a few moments.
2.    Remove and let cool.
3.    Taste and add more Stevia or Brown Rice Syrup if you like it sweeter.

Nutritional Tips: Cranberries are high in vitamin C, and have antioxidant and antibacterial effects in the body.

In clinical studies cranberries have been shown to help maintain a healthy urinary tract and be especially beneficial to the eyes (significantly improve symptoms of cataracts, macular degeneration, and diabetic retinopathy)

ASPARAGUS WITH LEMON JUICE

Ingredients:
1 pound asparagus, washed, trimmed, and cut diagonally into 2 inch lengths
1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
1/2 lemon juiced
Dash of Spike seasoning

Directions:
1.    In a large frying pan over low heat, heat the olive oil
2.    Add Asparagus and cover and cook for 5 minutes.
3.    Add Spike and stir cook an additional 1 minute.
4.    Add lemon juice stir well and serve.

Nutritional Tips: Asparagus is full of nutrients!  It is a very good source of vitamin K, the B vitamin folate, vitamin C, vitamin A and also numerous B vitamins (B1, B2, B3 and B6) as well manganese, copper, phosphorus, potassium and protein.

 
Here is a simple dish to make and have in the oven at the same time as your nut loaf.
 BAKED SQUASH WITH VEGETABLES

Ingredients:
1 medium squash
2 sweet potatoes
2 medium carrots
2 parsnips
10 very small onions
3 – 7 cloves garlic, sliced (optional)
1 tsp rosemary
3 tbsp. vegetable oil or butter
Salt to taste

Directions:
1.    Cut carrots, parsnips, sweet potatoes and squash into 2 inch pieces.
2.    Remove skins from onions and leave whole.
3.    Place all vegetables into a glass casserole dish.
4.    Mix in sliced garlic, rosemary, vegetable oil, and sprinkle with salt.
5.    Bake in 450º F. oven for 35 to 45 minutes till tender.
6.    Stir occasionally while baking.

Copyright © Diana Herrington  You are welcome to share this article with anyone who you think may benefit from this information as long as you give credit to Real Food for Life by including the link to the home page www.RealFoodforLife.com  or the direct link to this post.

HOT MULLED CIDER

Ingredients:
2 liters of apple juice
3 whole cloves
2 cinnamon sticks
Juice of one lemon
Grated peel of 1 lemon
Pinch of nutmeg

Directions:
1.    Put all ingredients in a big pot, preferably stainless steel or pyrex.  Simmer for 15 minutes. 
2.    Do not let it boil or get very hot.
3.    Serve hot. 

CREAMY SUNRIDER CHAI

Ingredients:
4 cups hot water
4 cups almond milk or soya milk or rice milk, warmed
1 bag Calli Cinnamon
1 Fortune Delight – Cinnamon
1 squirt Liqud Stevia* (or to desired sweetness)
Fresh ginger, grated (optional)
¼ tsp ground cardamom or even better cardamom seed crushed.
Pinch of cloves

Directions:
1.    Place Calli bag into hot water and remove bag after steeping approximately 10 minutes.
2.    Add Fortune Delight and Suncare Plus to Calli
3.    Add milk and keep hot.

Great on those cold winter days.

* Suncare from Sunrider is best

Copyright © Diana Herrington  You are welcome to share this article with anyone who you think may benefit from this information as long as you give credit to Real Food for Life by including the link to the home page www.RealFoodforLife.com  or the direct link to this post.

 A healthy salad is often ruined by drenching  it with a highly processed salad  dressing from the super market which is not healthy as it is filled with artificial flavorings, colourings, preservatives, sugar, and white distilled vinegar (which is hard on the digestive system).

I always make my own salad dressings. This is a simple base recipe that you can make up different each time with a variety of herbs or types of salty flavours. This is the first of many recipes to be posted here.  

OLIVE OIL/LEMON JUICE SALAD DRESSING 

1. Blend all above ingredients in a Blender.
2. Taste and add more of any of the ingredients to your taste.

OIL & Balsamic Vinegar SALAD DRESSING

Ingredients:
1 cup olive oil
2 tbsp Balsamic vinegar
3Tbs Lemon Juice
¼ tsp. salt
1 – 3 tsp. basil
½ – 1 tsp. marjoram
¼ tsp. rosemary
1/8 tsp stevia

Directions:
1.  Put all ingredients into the blender.
2.  Blend together

Can you pick out which ones are good?

At Real Food for Life we are always looking for real foods: foods that are whole, live and are balancing to the body. Last post (Are you Dying to be Thin?) we talked about the chemical sweeteners and their problems.  Now we deal with the more natural ones.

The problem with consuming any simple carbohydrate is that it creates an insulin rush that overworks the pancreas. Over time, the body's ability to handle all sugars, simple and complex, begins to weaken.  Also, most sugars are strongly acid forming in the body.   Not all sugars are completely equal though.  Which ones on this list would you consider real food and why?

Common sugars and sweeteners:

•White sugar (aka sucrose) is a pure chemical extract of sugar cane or sugar beet with no vitamins or minerals; these are stripped during the extraction process. Refined white sugar is a simple carbohydrate with lots of calories, no dietary fibres and is an isolate and isolates never occur in whole foods. Vegetarians may note that it may be processed with bone char.

•Brown sugar is white sugar coated in molasses which will add a few trace minerals but no healthier than white sugar.

•Granulated cane juice is whole cane sugar with before the water removed. Slightly healthier than table sugar as it contains tiny amounts of vitamins and minerals.

•Sucanat is made from sugar cane, usually organically grown, and minimally processed to obtain juice to make syrup (the molasses is not removed). The syrup is dehydrated and milled into a powder. It is ful ofpotassium, vitamin A, calcium, iron, magnesium and small amounts of other vitamins and minerals.

•Fructose is not from fruit; it is a commercial, refined sugar and it is no more nutritious than sucrose. It raises cholesterol, makes blood cells more prone to clotting, and it may also accelerate the aging process.

•Honey is similar to table sugar. Pure raw Honey (not heated above 100 degrees) contains small amounts of vitamins, minerals, enzymes, flavonoids and antioxidants. Some research to suggest honey helps in the treatment of gastrointestinal disorders.

•Fruit juice concentrate is refined, has high sugar content and may contain small amounts of vitamins and minerals.

•Maple syrup is made from the sap of sugar maple trees. Less refined than white sugar, but at roughly 65% sucrose, is basically a sugar equivalent. It has a tiny amount of minerals and a very tiny amount of vitamins. Also, very recent research shows that it is full of antioxidants.

•Rice syrup & barley malt is made from grains and has a higher percentage of complex carbohydrates making absorption rate is slower than white sugar, minimizing the roller-coaster effect of high then low energy levels.

•Molasses is a by-product of sugar cane or beet sugar refining. High in B vitamins, vitamin E, iron, calcium, magnesium, potassium, chromium, manganese and zinc. The blackstrap variety is less refined and higher in nutrients. Buy unsulphured molasses, as sulphur can be toxic in high doses.

•Coconut sugar is made from the sap of coconut flowers by boiling it down to dry sugar blocks or a soft paste or a granulated form. Coconutsugar contains higher amount of nutrients compared to brown sugar as it has some amounts of nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium, chlorine, magnesium, sulfur, and micro nutrients.

•Palm sugar is extracted from the sap of date palm trees and palmyra palms which is said to be the best. It also can be extracted from sago and coconut palms. It is commonly used in Southeast Asia called Jaggery and gur. It high in amino acids, Potassium, Magnesium, Zinc, and Iron and has some vitamins B1, B2, B3, and B6. It also has an absorption rate is slower than that of white sugar.

•Agave nectar is juice extracted from agave which is the same plant they make tequila from. It is 42 percent sweeter than white sugar but has the same caloric value and a low glycemic index, a measurement of the relative ability of a carbohydrate to raise blood glucose levels. It also has an absorption rate is slower than that of white sugar.

•Date sugar is not really a sugar as it is made from ground, dehydrated dates containing all the vitamins, minerals and fiber found in the fruit. Date sugar is rich in nutrients and is metabolized more slowly than sugar.

•Sugar alcohols (Erythritol, Isomalt, Lactitol, Maltitol, Mannitol, Sorbitol, Xylito Hydrogenated Starch, Hydrolysatesl) are neither sugars nor alcohols. They do have calories; Xylitol has more then half the calories of whilte sugar. The only problems I could find about them would that when they are eaten in excessive amounts they can cause gastrointestinal side effects (bloating and diarrhea), weight gain and increased blood sugars. Still they are not whole foods so caution must be used; the recommendation is to not use them on a regular basis.

•Stevia is a natural sugar alternative that actually nourishes the pancreas that has been shown to regulate blood sugar and blood pressure.  Stevia is a complex sugar extract from the plant Stevia Rebaudiana grown in South America.  It is a food herb native to the Paraguayan Indians who used it before the colonization by the Spaniards in the 16th century. The Brazilian Journal of Medicine showed that Stevia Rebaudiana actually 'increased glucose tolerance.' Because stevia is very sweet, you only need to use a small amount and the best thing is that it virtually has no calories.  Just think about it……a plant sweetening your food with virtually no calories…….how good is that!!!

If you would like more information on Stevia; send your request to  diana@realfoodforlife.com  

Which ones do you use and why?    Post your comments below!

This excerpt is from a full article in a magazine I write for http:// www.holistic-health-solutions.com  go there to get a subscription.

P.S. THE COURSE IS COMING,  THE COURSE IS COMING - only days till we release copies of our latest teleseminar:  Radiant Energy and Healthy Slimness. You can review the course and share with your friends!