Tag Archives | molasses

Gingerbread Men (and tips for healthier holiday baking)

Almost Raw Gingerbread Men
There are certain foods that we don’t consider good for our bodies, which are actually very good for our souls. They are different for everybody, they are the foods that give us warm, nostalgic feelings. They are the foods whose aromas waft out from the kitchen and immediately make us feel safe and loved. Those are the feelings we all need to feel more often and are just as important as healthy food and clean air.

Almost Raw Gingerbread Men

The not-so-great part of this equation is that those same foods that give us all of the deep and delicious soul food are often the same foods that are full of sugar and refined carbs. What’s worse is that the more we learn about which foods we ‘should’ be eating (or when, let’s say your daughter obsessively researches the foods you should be eating based on your recent cancer diagnosis), we begin to feel guilty about these comforting soul food experiences, an emotion that cancels out all of the health benefits of the good stuff that you may have been feeling from those old familiar smells and tastes.

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Baked Beans

There is something about the shorter days that make this one pot meal veeeery appealing. It’s pretty magical that you can put a pot of ingredients into the oven, looking and tasting one way, and pull it out HOURS later totally transformed. Like all of the best fall/winter food, you put it in the oven before the sun goes down, and enjoy it in the chilly, premature darkness.

Baked beans are a favourite of mine. They were always a made from scratch, once in a while, special occasion food in my family. It wasn’t until I did some traveling through the UK (and other places where British people travel) that I realized that some people ate baked beans…..every day. And often for breakfast.

Beans on toast?! A totally brilliant textural contrast, I totally get it. Although, an even better combo, especially if you’re into feeding your body blood-cleaning chlorophyll and antioxidants: beans with greens. Still texturally contrasting, but you also get the deeply cooked beans heat and flavour with the fresh, enzyme-rich, lemony-ness of the greens. Any fresh green will do, simply toss with some lemon juice.

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