Kitchen Tip Tuesday: Roasted Garlic and switching out ingredients

I wasn't sure which tip to use today, so I thought I'd use both. I know....I could have saved one for next week, but I just didn't want to. So tip #1...roasting garlic. Last night I wanted to put some roasted garlic in my mashed potatoes, but didn't need an entire head of garlic, though that would have been yummy. So instead, I pulled out two large cloves (leaving the skin on). Place them on a piece of tin foil and drizzle with a little olive oil. Wrap securely and place in a 350 degree oven. It took about 20-30 minutes to roast. I probably could have went a bit longer, but I thought it was perfect. When I opened the foil to test it, it was soft all the way through and the ends were starting to brown. I even spread a bit on a cracker...YUM-O! Tip #2: is about switching out ingredients to create healthier recipes. Yesterday we made one of our favorite chocolate chip recipes. But this time we changed a few things. We used organic sugar instead of white sugar. The recipe called for 2 c. all purpose flour, but we used only 1 c. white flour and a cup of wheat flour. It also uses oat flour. We could have changed out more items (like reducing sugar, replacing some or all of the butter with something else), but I find that making small changes doesn't usually result in disastrous, wasted recipes. Next time we'll change something else. I'm thinking we'll try reducing the sugar.

I bought this bag of organic sugar from costco. 7 lbs. for $10.00. Which was cheaper than the bulk section at my Winco store.

Nan grinding the oatmeal into oat flour. I love this blender

The finished product. The girls made these all by themselves. They were so good I'm having a hard time not eating them...KAT wanted them to be really moist and chewy so she only left them in for about 1/2 the time that the recipe said, then left them on the pan to cool, so they wouldn't fall apart.

Be willing to experiment with recipes in order to change your eating habits. I love beef, but my hubby can't really digest it well, so I use other things like turkey, elk, or even buffalo. Last night we made meatloaf with ground turkey. I use a darker portion of ground turkey because I think it makes a better meatloaf then white meat. Just keep making changes slowly. Everyone will adjust and you'll be on your way to healthier eating.

With Joy UNquenchable,