NANA'S HEART HEALTHY BAKING MIX

It has been a nice sunny week.  We did get our typical spring winds but not bad.  When it is windy I do spend a lot of time doing things in the kitchen or the sewing room.

Some weeks ago I read an article about eating lard as a natural fat.  Sounded good to me since we raised pigs and I had lard.  The only problem was when I went to take my blood test,  my cholesterol came back doubled.   The doctor was going to put me on two cholesterol meds.  I had not taken even one so far.  They were concerned that in a years time it had jumped so high.  I informed them of my diet change and that I was going back to my  original low fat, low carbohydrate diet.  The doctor then said only take the one med. He then knew why it had jumped.  

I am now waiting on that 10 week test after taking cholesterol medication to see how I did.    So I guess when you are 69 and have health issues,  natural is not always a good thing for longevity.  I sure am glad I had not done this very long.  

Below is a lower fat Baking mix recipe that I have been making for several years now and use it with good results.  This recipe also gives you some of the good fats they now know we need.

I use this mix for several of my recipes, from biscuits, to cobblers, etc.  I will be posting some of these recipes in further posts

Today I am making what I call "Nana's Heart Healthy Baking Mix."  Most recipes use 1/4  or 1/3 cup of fat in their recipes.  I found this way too dry for most things I make with this mix.

Since keeping my "bad" cholesterol down is a priority adding fats that have monounsaturated fat in it is considered a good thing.  So I use Olive oil or Canola Oil to do this.  

With baking mixes we do not want a strong flavored fat used.  Some Olive oils do have a stronger flavor.  My preference is the Canola oil that really has no flavor to it.

Also because being retired there is only two of us to cook for.  I do not want the baking powder to get to the point it does not rise as well.  My batch is smaller than most I have seen on the net.

The recipe is below.  Instructions are below the pictures.

NANA'S HEART HEALTHY BAKING MIX
5 Cups of all-purpose flour (can use unbleached)
3 Tablespoons Baking Powder (see HINT below)
2 Tablespoons of Splenda, Sugar or preferred sweetener.  Be sure to follow sweeteners instructions for amounts to use for equivalents.
1 teaspoon Salt
1/2  Cup of Vegetable Oil.

In Large Mixing bowl add flour, baking powder, Sweetener, and Salt.

Gently combine and mix the dry ingredients.

Measure out your 1/2 cup oil in a glass measuring cup.

Pour the oil on top of the flour as seen in the picture above.

Using a pastry blender, blend the oil into the flour until it looks like pea sized pieces.  I use an antique large pastry blender for the first blending.  You can use your hands if you prefer. 

Since I am only allowed a certain amount of fat a day, I do make sure I get as much of the combined mix and fat off of my pastry blender:)

After using the larger pastry blender I use a smaller one.  This is not necessary.  I just prefer to do this.  At this stage I have used my hands also instead of the pastry blender to make sure all the oil is incorporated into the mix.

The mix is ready for all those recipes that I use it in.  It is very convenient to use.  Since oil is not kept in the refrigerator unless it is unusually hot here, the mix is stored in my cabinet.

Hope this recipe helps any of you who are on diets restricting fats.  

NANA'S LOWER SATURATED-TRANS FAT GROUND MEAT

Hi everyone.  It has been awhile since I have posted.  Life just gets busy and sometimes complicated.

I had recently read an article on eating like our grand parents ate.  Lard, Butter, etc.  Sure sounded good to me.  It was suppose to be healthy for us.  Well-I guess if you are a pre-diabetic, Afib, 69 year old person that is not true.  I had my usual blood test by my heart doctor done and my cholesterol had doubled.    I guess we have to be careful what we read and  we must listen to our doctors.  I had not been on the higher fat content in my diet for very long, so was glad of that.  Just went this last week to have my blood tested again after being on a cholesterol medication for 10 weeks.  Also went back on my lower fat, diabetic diet.    Will let you all know if my lower fat, diabetic eating for the last 15 years or so is better.

Onto how I lower the bad fats (as they are called) in my ground meet.  I could use just ground turkey but I miss the flavor of ground beef.  So I mix half 90% or 93% lean ground beef and  half 90 or 93% ground turkey to make my ground meat.  The percentage depends on the sales at the store.  After all I do try to be frugal with us living on social security

  

Because the meat is dryer I do add water to the mixture.  I cook it till the meat is done and the water is mostly evaporated from cooking.  What you see in the pan is water not melted fat.  There will be that 10% or 7% fat in the meat.

After the meat is completely cooked I drain any water that is left.  

I then measure out the hamburger into the container above till it weighs 4 ounces.  

I do this for recipes that I may want to add meat and beans to.  Also for my taco bowls that we enjoy eating.  That way I know exactly how many fats and calories I am consuming in the meat per meal that it is used.

The 4 oz. of ground meat is put into fold over sandwich bags (they are very frugal to buy at Dollar Tree).  I save the twists from the produce I buy at the grocery store for this purpose.

The individual bags are then placed into a ziplock quart size bag.  They quart bags are labeled with the calories, fat content, saturated fat content and transfat content.  

It is also very convenient to have this meat prepared ahead of time and in the freezer. So when I have a recipe that calls for ground beef, I just pull out one or two of these bags and I am ready to go.  Quick, Fast, and Easy.

Yes, this is my doxie Fritz.  Who patiently waits as I measure out every bag so he can lick the pan.  AND I DO STERILIZE THE PAN AFTER