Fresh Eggnog, very easy and oh so good

As we sat down for Advent, the snow was falling peacefully outside. We warmed ourselves by the fire and the kids gleefully sipped on small wine glasses filled with eggnog. They feel so grown up enjoying their special holiday drink.

For me it's not quite the Christmas season unless a glass of eggnog is being sipped on during the joyful time of decorating the Christmas tree, playing games together as a family near the fire and taking a quiet moment to celebrate Advent. While store bought eggnog may have a place, making fresh eggnog isn't hard and all the more enjoyed when the eggs come from your chickens and the cream and milk being used is from a wonderful raw milk source. You could almost call the drink healthy... almost. :)

This particular eggnog is creamy, yet light from the addition of the whipped egg whites. It's also not overly sweet, it more falls into the just right category for me. Some may prefer a bit more sweetness if more accustomed to store bought eggnog. If so, you can increase the sugar to a more desired amount. While it can stay in your fridge for several days, it's best enjoyed right after making it. It only takes about 15 minutes to make. 

Real Food Christmas Basket: Chocolate Almond Butter Popcorn w/ Coconut Flakes (soy free) & How to Make an Origami Box to Put it in for a Gift

I originally found the idea for this recipe on Browned Eyed Baker last winter. The first time I made it I did it just as the original recipe called and it was great, it's essentially puppy chow with popcorn. However, in the end I wanted to make my version a little more real food friendly. This turned out easier to do than I thought and what's great is you don't need pre-made chocolate, which almost always has soy lecithin in it, an ingredient that's best to be avoided if possible.

This isn't overly sweet, but instead just sweet enough and perfect for satisfying a desire for a desert or a fun snack. The kiddos love it too! My son told me today as he was eating a handful of the popcorn, "Mom, this is delicious!"  That's what this momma likes to hear in the kitchen! Of course, can you really go too wrong with chocolate, almond and coconut with a bit of crunch? Umm, I think not. :-)

 Chocolate Almond Butter Popcorn w/ Coconut Flakes

What You'll Need

~ 10 cups 

1/2 cup organic, unsalted butter

7 tbsp. rapadura or other sugar

2 tbsp. organic, whole milk

5 tbsp. organic cocoa powder

2 tsp. pure vanilla extract

1/2 cup organic almond butter

8 cups plain, organic popcorn

2 cups non-sweetened coconut flakes

Real Food Christmas Basket: Great for the last minute gift idea are e-cookbooks by some wonderful real foodies

There are plenty of amazing bloggers out there and many have written some excellent cookbooks filled with more than just recipes, but also knowledgeable information for how to feed our bodies well. If you are still looking for a last minute gift for a real foodie or you want to introduce someone to a real food diet, consider these cookbooks.

The books I have listed are all printable as e-cookbooks, so if you have a printer at home you have an easy gift in a matter of just a couple of minutes. Katie from Kitchen Stewardship also shared the great ideas of giving e-cookbooks on a thumb drive (for the gift that keeps giving) or on a disk (a perfect stocking stuffer).

Click on the title of the cookbooks to go to their website and read a much more thorough overview of what each is about.

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Modern Alternative Momma

Note: Use code CHRISTMAS35 for 35% your purchase through Christmas Eve.

They also have gift coupons and book bundles. 

Real Food Basics
Price: $6.95
Description: Pages of explaining the 'what' and 'why' behind
real food, plus recipes like pizza dough, cheese sauce, meatballs,








 
Healthy Pregnancy Super Foods 
Price: $8.95
Description: A list of super foods, morning sickness remedies, etc. (not just for pregnancy though). Recipes like chicken marsala, chicken and wild rice soup, salmon with garlic-herb butter, maple-cinnamon granola, beef and liver stew.

Against the Grain 
Price: $7.95
Description: Totally grain-free recipes, most that are GAPS-
friendly. Spicy marinated beef strips, tomato cream chicken,
salisbury steak, sausage gumbo, etc.

Treat Yourself: Real Food Desserts
Price: $7.95
Description: Yummy desserts, with no white
flour or sugar! Almond/sprouted flour, honey, maple syrup, and
sucanat only. Cinnamon rolls, soaked chocolate eclairs, strawberry
ice cream, spice cake, scones, lots more.

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Just Making Noise 

Sound Bites From a Deaf Mama

Just Making Icecream
Price: On sale for $8, Reg. $12
Note: All of the book sales go to help the Rancho Oasis for Youth: http://www.ro4y.org/
Description: Love ice cream? Wish you could make ice cream at home, but don't have an ice cream maker? Can't decide what ice cream maker to buy? Have food allergies? Trying to watch your sugar-intake? Want to make something more than just vanilla, chocolate or strawberry? This is the book for you! 113 pages and over 70 recipes to choose through all 4 seasons of the year... who says ice cream is only for the summer?! The book starts off with 25 pages about everything you need to know to make delicious, nourishing frozen desserts.

Real Food Christmas Basket: Sample of sea salts in small homemade envelopes

For any real foodie or food lover, salt is a whole lot more than just the white, bleached stuff you see at the grocery store called "table salt". For the most part we avoid this type of salt in our home and instead take advantage of the wonderful benefits of unrefined sea salt. Unrefined salts have essential minerals in them and the actual range of color that sea salts come in is from their mineral content.

 Many believe that salt should be avoided with the belief that they increase our sodium levels. While this is true, the type of salt being used actually make an extreme difference in how it affects the human body. Table salt should be avoided if at all possible. It's a highly processed ingredient that is mostly sodium chloride mixed with anti-caking agents and other harmful chemicals. Dr. Mercole shares in his article Debunking The Salt Myth,

The Real Food Gift Basket: Homemade pure vanilla extract

Can I just write that it's very difficult to take a picture of a shiny bottle! Well at least in an apartment with a point and shoot camera and lots of things to reflect on the glass. :-)

Pure vanilla extract is an essential ingredient for any baker and purchasing a small bottle of the real thing can be very expensive. It turns out that making your own vanilla extract at home is actually easy and can be more cost affective, especially if you make it in a larger batch.

The first bottle of extract I made was this summer. As I looked into different ways people suggested to make this product, it seems the most common combination was three vanilla beans added to two cups of vodka. I started with this, but after a month of letting the extract age I still had a product that smelled strongly of vodka and only had a hint of vanilla flavor. A bit frustrated that I wasn't getting the results I was wanting and not desiring to throw away what I had started, I decided to add 4-5 more vanilla beans to the mixture. After another month of waiting I had something far closer to a nicely fragrant and well flavored extract that I could actually use for baking.

Slicing a vanilla bean.

Before starting this post I went ahead and researched recipes once again, this time coming upon a site called Vanilla Review. This site seemed to have far more knowledge about making vanilla extract and ended up confirming what I had figured out this summer... you need a decent number of vanilla beans to make a good extract. Their recommendation is around 30 grams of vanilla beans for every cup of vodka, which is roughly about 8 vanilla beans. They also recommend getting grade B beans, which would be a dried out bean. Grade A would be the plump, moisture rich ones that look beautiful, but in making extract can actually add extra unnecessary moisture. In the end get what you can get. I bought my vanilla beans at the local co-op in the bulk section and didn't have a choice between grade A and B. I did see that Amazon sells vanilla beans and for a very, very good price, so if you know you are going to make a large batch, they would be a good place to price check. Don't buy your beans at a regular grocery store. They are outrageously expensive. I paid $1.90 per bean, but Amazon had them around $.75 each when a larger quantity was purchased.

Real Food Christmas Basket: Sourdough fruitcake and I promise this tastes superb, only real ingredients here!

I think I fall into the category of many who shutter when they hear the word fruitcake. The stomach gets a strange feeling when someone offers a piece of this so called Christmas treat that has been wrapped in plastic and a cardboard box, has the most unnatural colors in it and has been sitting on a shelf at some store or warehouse for who knows how long.

As much as I detested fruitcake I have one family member, aka my dad, who loves it and several years ago asked for some for Christmas. There was simply no way I was going to buy one of those bricks of "cake" they sell at a stand in the mall, so I set out to find a version I could bake at home. As first glimpse of looking through recipes I was fairly disappointed to see that most people stuck with the fake candied fruit which almost glows with the food coloring that must be added to it. These recipes also called for many ingredients I don't use, won't use and frankly can't even buy at the co-op where I do almost all my shopping. However, I was determined and so kept searching. That was when I found Alton Brown's recipe for his "Free Range Fruitcake" on the Food Network. Free Range... sounds interesting... could it be... a real fruitcake recipe... why yes it is. There was no fake fruit, no hydrogenated cooking oil, no questionable ingredients at all actually.

This little jewel of a cake went over wonderfully and I can say that all of us who enjoyed it the first year I made it were fruitcake converts. This year I'm trying to incorporate more sourdough baking in my routine, as well as, whole grains and unprocessed sweeteners into as much of my baked goods as possible. One of the main reason I wanted to try this as a sourdough cake is when you make sourdough at home your starter and flour are mixed together and allowed to ferment for typically at least 8-12 hours. During this time gluten and phytic acid are broken down leaving the baked item far easier to digest and also healthier because by breaking down the phytic acid the body can far more easily absorb the vitamins and minerals in the food.