Truvia and Red Hot

Today's post is all about my favorite combination; Truvia + Frank's Red Hot, mixed together into a beautiful sauce. It's amazing.

Ok, I'm full of it. But really, these are two products I couldn't live without. We'll start with Frank's Red Hot. Isn't it....gorgeous?!


And look, only a mere 190 mg sodium per tiny teaspoon. I suppose when I tell people I "never add salt to my food", I'm lying.


Red Hot was featured on the Food Network show Unwrapped not too long ago. The man who was interviewed actually took a drink from the bottle, just to show the viewers how much he loves Red Hot. Nick and I were both speechless. While we do love Red Hot, we're not so sure we could ever drink it straight out of the bottle, but the man proved his point...it's good stuff! Just like this lady here, we put this sh*t on everything!

Nick and I add a little Red Hot to many of our favorite dishes;

Eggs

Pizza

Stir-fry

Pasta

Oatmeal

Ok, not oatmeal. That's gross. But I'm open to trying anything :)

I was so happy to see a bottle of Red Hot right in the middle of this wonderful spread of food (below) on Easter Sunday. I mean, how can you have an egg casserole without Red Hot?!

And the cayenne pepper, which is the "key ingredient", may help speed up your metabolism, so what's not to love? Buy some. Use it. Love it. Enough said.


Next we have Truvia . I was once a Splenda girl, then I was a Purevia girl, but now I'm 100% hooked on Truvia. It's not that I don't like the others, but my taste buds really think Truvia tastes the most like....well....SUGAR! And isn't that the point?

Source: Truvia.com

Want to learn more about Truvia? Go ahead and read their FAQ page. I've heard a few people say that Truvia isn't really "natural", but you know what? That doesn't bother me. It's more "natural" than many of the other common sweeteners, and to me it tastes a million times better. If it's not truly 100% natural, oh well! In my opinion it's the better of two evils; the other being real sugar. And like I've said before, even foods or sweeteners that are 100% natural have been shown to have negative side-effects. Read my previous post about sweeteners to learn more about the research on some well-known sweeteners.

I love using Truvia in my oatmeal, my smoothies....


...and mixed into some Greek yogurt + unsweetened cocoa. Yum. Sometimes I also add a scoop of almond or walnut butter. Double yum.



QUESTION: What are two condiments and/or sweeteners you can't live without??

Mushrooms and "Apple Crisp"

Thanks for all of your wonderful comments on my last post, which discussed my thoughts on the book The Omnivore's Dilemma. I really encourage everyone to read this book, especially the first hundred pages (the book sort of takes a sharp turn half way in and begins discussing vegetarian diets, hunting, and mushrooms. In other words, I dunno, it gets....kind of boring).


However, the information about mushrooms was rather interesting. As I read the book I was seriously sad that due to my IBS I cannot enjoy mushrooms.


Or.....so I thought.



Mushrooms have always been one of my favorite foods, but after discovering the low FODMAP diet I started noticing they caused me bloating and gas (despite not being on the list of foods to avoid). The other night I just had to have one, so I did, but I had no problems. That's when I discovered it was the garlic that I always add to my mushrooms that was causing the gas and bloating, not the mushrooms!!


So I grabbed a bag of frozen spinach and threw it and a bunch of sliced mushrooms into a pan with some balsamic vinegar. I cooked them until they were both nice and soft, and finished it all within a few days (with no help from Nick, because I was being selfish). It had been almost a year since I had enjoyed a mushroom. Boy am I glad I took the chance and tried a mushroom again!!




Something I still can't eat, due to my IBS and fructose malabsorption, is apples. However, I still have to create recipes using apples at work. I had a recipe for apple cobbler, which I wanted to create at home for Nick. I forgot the recipe at work so I sort of came up with my own. It's hard to just "throw together" a recipe when baking, but when cooking it's another story! This recipe was a huge hit

Gina's "Apple Crisp"

~1 cup water

5 chopped Granny Smith Apples

~3/4 cup chopped walnuts

~3/4 cup rolled oats
(** Choose gluten free oats if you want this to be free of gluten **)

1 lemon to create about 2 T lemon juice

~3 T Smart Balance 50/50 butter blend sticks (these things are awesome!!)

~1/2 cup raisins

~ 3 T ground flaxseed

~2 T sweetener of your choice (I used Truvia, natural sweetener)

~1 T Splenda brown sugar (or 2 T regular BS)

~2 t cinnamon

~2 t nutmeg



Preheat the oven to about 370 degrees. Get a 9 x 9 glass baking pan and layer all ingredients in order of the ingredient list above.

Put in the oven until apples are soft to your liking (took about 35 minutes for me)

ENJOY!!
(Photo above taken with my phone, therefore it's not too great)



QUESTION: Do you like mushrooms? What about apples?