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Baby Steps- changing to healthier fats

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If you’re wishing to change to a traditional foods diet, one of the first changes to make is the type of fat you are using.

  • Shortening- if you’re new to baking your own goodies, the best substitute for shortening in baked goods is Spectrum’s palm oil shortening.  Butter will also work where the fat is cut into flour in order to create a flaky structure in a baked good.  Make sure the butter is cold before you cut it in.  If you are dairy free and making something with enough substance to hold its own structure, such as biscuits, coconut oil will work.  Again, cut it in cold.  Coconut oil will also work for any baked good cooked in a baking dish, since you don’t need to worry about the spreading issue.  Coconut oil will not work in cookies, as the low melting point makes them spread too thin and merge with each other.  Lard can also work as the fat in some pastries, such as pie crusts, for savory dishes.
  • Liquid oils- liquid oils such as vegetable oil, canola oil or soy oil can be exchanged with butter or coconut oil.  You can also use lard or tallow, depending on the dish.  If the flavor of the dish blends well with those fats, it works great.  Tallow, in particular, has a strong flavor and smell and must be used carefully to disguise it or your kids will likely reject it on smell alone.  The first time I used tallow, my husband walked into the house and exclaimed, “WHAT is that smell?!?”
  • Peanut oil- for frying.  If you’re doing french fries, lard and tallow work great.  Coconut oil also does well to fry foods.
  • Olive oil- olive oil is great in unheated applications.  It’s great for drizzling on finished dishes or for salad dressings.  However, because olive oil has a low smoke point, you should use oils appropriate for heat in cooked applications.  The best two options are coconut oil and butter.  You can also use the Spectrum palm oil shortening in heated applications.
  • Margarine- switch to butter.
  • Bacon fat-  Keep using it.  It’s great to put into vegetable dishes for flavor.  You can not absorb the nutrients in vegetables without some fat with them.  Do your best to source a quality bacon that doesn’t have nitrates and nitrites.  I prefer Applegate Farms when I can’t get a locally produced bacon.
  • Mayonnaise- switch to a quality one made with good oils, or make your own at home.  Wilderness Family Naturals makes a mayo with good oils, and is the one I recommend.  WAPF recommends Delouis Fils.
  • Lard- commercially available lards are preserved with BHT and other chemicals.  If at all possible, get lard from a local farmer who raises their hogs on pasture.  You can also make your own lard at home.

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KerryAnn Foster runs Cooking Traditional Foods, the longest running Traditional Foods Menu Mailer on the internet. KerryAnn has over nine years of traditional foods experience and is a former Weston A. Price Foundation chapter leader. Founded in 2005, CTF helps you feed your family nourishing foods they will love. Each mailer contains one soup, five dinners, one breakfast, on dessert and extras. You can learn more about our Menu Mailers at the CTF website. For a free sample Menu Mailer, join our mailing list. You can also join our forum to chat with other traditional foodists and learn more.

Cheap Eats- Budget Lunches I: Lentil Dahl

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I normally try to have enough leftovers from dinner to have lunch the next day, but sometimes that doesn’t work out.  So on those days where I have to cook lunch, I normally turn to vegetarian meals with plenty of veggies.  I like this one because it’s very quick to throw together.  Since we normally eat meat at every dinner and we use a lot of stock, I don’t worry about an occasionally meatless lunch.

 

Lentil Dahl–  from the Menu Mailer Volume 2 Week 7

Total cost for the meal $2.49, 63 cents per serving, not including the rice or $2.90 for the meal, 73 cents per serving including the rice.

2 Tbs coconut oil, butter or ghee (30 cents)
1 onion, diced (10 cents)
2 or more potatoes, peeled and cubed (15 cents)
2 or more carrots, sliced (20 cents)
1 cup red lentils (55 cents from the bulk bin of the HFS)
2 cups water or stock (free if home-made)
1 (14.5-ounce) can diced tomatoes, undrained (99 cents)
1 glove garlic (3 cents)
1 Tbs freshly grated ginger (5 cents)
2 tsp curry powder (6 cents)
1 tsp salt (5 cents)
Dash pepper (1 cent)

In a stockpot or large saucepan, heat the fat over medium heat. Add the onion and sauté for 8 minutes. Add the potato and carrot and cook until soft and the onion is slightly browned. Add the remaining ingredients and turn the heat up to high. Bring to a boil, cover, reduce heat and simmer for 30-40 minutes, or until lentils are tender. Remove cover, stir until lentils completely dissolve, and increase heat. Cook until the dahl is to the consistency you like. We like ours thick.

Serve over rice or other grain.

This recipe doubles well and freezes beautifully.

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‘Fast Food’ Breakfasts

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One of the main complaints about Traditional Foods meals is the amount of time needed to plan and assemble the meals. Sometimes it seems like every ingredient needs advance preparation. There are a variety of strategies to combat this problem. Making a menu plan with a preparation schedule is extremely important. Batch cooking tried-and-true recipes is another essential tool, to have leftovers or freeze the excess for another meal.

By far, the hardest meal to deal with for many is breakfast. It’s not that the planning ahead or cooking is difficult. The issue is that for most people, mornings are the most hectic part of the day. Many moms tell me they throw up their hands and give in to their children’s pleas for a bowl of cereal (with raw milk) when the alarm doesn’t go off or another mishap happens that cuts into the amount of time set aside to get ready. How many mornings have you had the dryer eat your clothing, the baby spit up on your only clean top or the wild hunt for the missing toddler shoe that got up and walked off by itself?

The best way I have found to circumvent these mornings is [Read more…] about ‘Fast Food’ Breakfasts