Different type of sugars and sweeteners Last week, I shared our family's journey to cut back significantly on our refined sugar consumption. Journey sounds dumb, but it wasn't a fast change for us. Over the course of the last five months, we reduced our refined sugar consumption from multiple times a day to a few times a week. Ideally, I would love to cut out refined sugar entirely. I am convinced, both through personal research and experience, that it does nothing beneficial for our bodies. But man, it tastes so delicious. We'll see where the next five months takes us! For now, this is where we try to land: Eat sugar in moderation, saving it Keep Reading

Low Sugar Diet About three years ago, after the birth of my second baby, my body was all out of whack. I was seeing a naturopath and my family physician every eight weeks, but none of their ideas were working. I finally narrowed down the culprit: refined sugar. For some crazy reason, sugar and my body were no longer playing nicely with each other. Something had to give, and significantly cutting back on refined sugar was the only thing that made a noticeable difference in my health. On sugar, I feel sick, tired, uncomfortable, and all kinds of other things that are TMI for blog-land. Off sugar, I feel balanced. I feel good and strong and healthy. Keep Reading

How to roast strawberries In most areas of life, I follow a completely predictable pattern: Get really excited about something!!! (Strawberries are in season!) Get too involved. (Must organize everyone I know to meet at the cheapest place I know to pick as much as we can!) Hit a wall. (too many berries.) At this point I either become completely paralyzed (chocolate and Netflix are usually involved) or I muscle through by sheer force. Usually the latter, because I'm stubborn like that. This involves lots of early mornings, late nights, and thoughts of "What in the world was I thinking?!" Last week, I picked 26 pounds of strawberries, Keep Reading

Thanks to this weather my rhubarb plants are big and beautiful, which can't be said of much in my too-shady garden area. So I have been taking full advantage of effortlessly growing something, anything right now. I try to work rhubarb into several different dishes during the late spring/early summer. As the huge leaves spill over our garden beds, I add chopped rhubarb stalks to the top of coffeecake, simmer it down to a sweet sauce, or slip it into fresh juices. Rhubarb provides a tart balance to dishes that would otherwise taste too sweet. As I was flipping through the May issue of Better Homes and Gardens, a pie recipe caught my eye. It Keep Reading