How now brown cow?
Does it seem conceivable that once upon a time most of our everyday junk
food was actually made at home? I remember the first time I saw my grandma
make pudding from scratch, no box, no Bill Cosby, just ingredients and
(cheesy alert) love.
Can you think of a time when you made a cake from scratch, or your own
potato chips? You can do it! Anything you want from popsicles to candy bars
can be made in the home kitchen, it will take time, it will take a little
gumption, but it can be done.
Let's start with something easy, delicious, and somewhat nutritious.
Chocolate milk! It bothers me that you can find low fat chocolate milk in
every direction from cows to soybeans, but you can't find any low sugar
creamy caramel colored goodness.
Why do I care? A couple of reasons, first off they serve the sugary stuff in
school to get kids to drink milk, but I believe if you make a nutritious
product and then fill it full of bad things then what is the point.
Secondly, it is a cool refreshing drink that is full of vitamins, protein,
and good carbohydrates. There is even a movement right now that is
supporting chocolate milk as a post workout recovery drink.
So now that I have your attention I am going to throw another wrench in the
works, what about chocolate milk for adults?
The nutritional content of 1% white milk is as follows: 1 serving (8 ounces)
100 calories, 2.5 grams of fat, 12 carbohydrates (all of which are sugar)
and 8 grams of protein. There are 4 grams of sugar per teaspoon, so a
regular glass of white milk has 3 teaspoons of sugar. Now when you add in
the chocolate syrup you add typically another 3 teaspoons of sugar for a
total of 6 teaspoons or 1 fluid ounce of sugar. Would you add that much
sugar to any other drink?
So what is the solution? I have fallen in love with stevia. Stevia is a
natural substance that is up to 300 times sweeter than sugar and it is
carbohydrate free. I recently purchased pure stevia powder at a little shop
on 7th and Main streets in Grand Junction, Orrs Trading Company. The pure
powder can be purchased by the ounce (and by our calculations 1 ounce of
stevia at 300X will sweeten a lot of stuff) and then added to your choice of
items. If you go by there you can pick up a lot of other bulk herbs, spices
and teas all at reasonable prices. Tell Deborah I said hi!
A quick note about the new surge of stevia products in the grocery store,
check to see what they are mixed with, since the stevia is so much stronger
it has to be typically cut with inulin, or maltodextrin, or some other
"harmless" additive.
Stevia semi-sweet chocolate milk
2 tablespoon unsweetened cocoa powder
1 oz warm water
1/2 teaspoon pure stevia powder
Add cocoa to water and stir until combined. Once you have slurry add the
stevia and mix to combine. Stevia takes a few minutes to "bloom" so I would
suggest waiting about 5 minutes before tasting a little of the chocolate,
you can add more stevia is needed, but I like mine a less sweet. It will
still seem bitter, but trust me added to the milk it will be very tasty.
To make the chocolate milk add about 1 teaspoon of the paste to 8 to 10
ounces of ice cold milk and stir to combine. Enjoy anytime and I'll bet it
would even be good warmed up this winter. If you are adventurous you might
add some chile powder for a kick.
For other ideas and recipes visit my blog as
www.cookingwithtrace.blogspot.com
cookingwithtrace.blogspot.com
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