pantry makeover

as previously noted, change has come to the wilkins home! we are in the middle of our family food makeover. as a part of that makeover, i have been trying to baking as regularly and consistently as possible. in order to do that healthily, i needed to make some changes to my pantry. here is some of the changes that i have endeavored to make over over the past year or so. some i made all at the same time and others i spaced out. some where more expensive changes than others. but so far, none of these switches have changed the taste of any of my usual recipes in an unsavoury way. the goal was just to enrich all baking & cooking to be more healthy, hearty & wholesome.

{flour} multigrain & whole wheat: i started with whole wheat & then gradually switched to multigrain. this was more a texture change than anything else. i still occasionally use "white flour with the goodness of whole wheat" for special christmas baking or ollibollien at new years.

{sugar} agave syrup, pure maple syrup, organic sucnant & stevia: to replace the typical white grandular & brown sugar. the only one of these i found changed the taste significantly was the brown sucnant. it just has a harsher more 'molasses-y' taste than brown sugar. the stevia took some getting used to as well as 1/8 cup of stevia = 1 cup of sugar. math & measurements were never my strength so i always ended up measuring wrong when the recipe called for only a quarter of a cup of normal sugar. the maple syrup & agave syrup were both seamless transitions. they only added delicious! {i have also used natural sweeteners like unsweetened applesauce, raisins & other dried fruit as sweeteners in cereal instead of my lump of brown sugar}

{coconut oil} this little treasure is a fat substitute with reams of health benefits. click on this link to read up on all the amazing benefits. i use it where ever i would have usually used butter or cooking oil in most recipes, even if it's just to grease a pan. it smells awesome but it doesn't change the taste.

{steal cut oats & oatbran} to replace the usual oatmeal. adds extra fiber and nutrition.

{almond milk & goat yogurt} our most recent change. i love the vanilla almond milk as a substitute to dairy milk. i did try goat's milk in a few muffin recipes and they tasted a little goaty to me, so i'll have to research that one a little bit. i have used goat yogurt as a substitute and it tasted fine.

{salt} we use sea salt or veggie salt. sometimes steve likes to add a little more to cooking recipes, but it honestly makes no difference to me.

{veggie purees} i got this idea from deceptively delicious. i have ziplock bags full of purees in the freezer that i pull out and add to just about any recipe 1/2 cup at a time without anyone noticing. it actually makes most muffins extra moist.

i am still working to build my own empire of recipes that already have these ingredients translated into them, but until then, here is a link i use to help substitute different ingredients to recipes that i love but aren't necessarily in line with our new lifestyle change. i'm sure i'll think of a few more things we changed over after i publish this post but that's all for now.