Wednesday, December 29, 2010

Traditions - Healthyfied!




Long time no hear. We traveled to good old Switzerland, had a blast, ate everything healthy and not so healthy, because let me tell you: Switzerland is NOT so healthy.
There is sugar and milk sugar in everything. no good.
So after a few bellyaches and not feeling so well, we all went back to our good balanced, healthy minimally processed diet. YUM! and felt great again!

Back from Europe, it was time to get into holiday spirit.

One big thing over there is to make

'GRITTIBAENZ'

No way you can pronounce this in English. It is basically sweet bread you form into 'Santa's', bake them and eat them up. Really yummy stuff. The original recipe calls for butter and sugar and white wheat flour. Of course I had to 'healthyfy' it and instead of the butter I used vegan butter - and only half of the amount, instead of the sugar we used Maple Syrup and whole grain flour.

(please note: grass fed, pastured butter is a totally healthy option, we have to use vegan butter or coconut oil because we have dairy allergies in this family!)

SO GOOD! gave it a really good flavor.


And what I always do: since my little ones do better without wheat, I use whole grain spelt flour for any baking.

(and a little tip, from learning it the hard way: add a spoon of Xantham Gum to every pound of flour, the bread doesn't fall apart so easy)

Then you let little hands do some work, bake them and enjoy them!

Even my little one joined in the fun and smashed about 50 raisins into a handful of dough.

Got to love baking. (-;