Sweet Treat Replay with Jason: Real food, real simple, and really cold

Real food, real simple, and really cold

Real food is harder and harder to find these days. A quick check of ingredients will show fake this and artificial that and who knows what else. For example, most syrup is just high fructose corn syrup with fake maple flavor. Nilla Wafer cookies have no vanilla in them at all…but they do have wood pulp. No wonder I used to get a strange craving for banana pudding when I’d drive by a saw mill.

If you check McDonalds, the only item that has a real egg is the Egg McMuffin. Everything else that has a folded or scrambled egg comes pre-made in an egg slurry filled with additives and preservatives like soybean oil, flavor “enhancers”, sodium acid pyrophosphate, carrageenan, and modified food starch, just to name a few. Leave it to fast food mega corporations to take one of nature’s most perfect foods and fill it full of things our bodies do not need or want.

Pro tip, if you do find yourself there ordering something with eggs, request a “round egg” so that you can have a natural egg like nature intended. If it’s folded flat like a hotel towel or scrambled, just go without to skip the Micky D’s industrial waste. And as I pointed out in the last article, bright colored candy like Skittles have Titanium Dioxide…the same thing paint companies use to make your walls shiny.

Pumpkin flavored products are no different. Most have no or less than 2% of real pumpkin in them, but what they do have is tons of sugar and preservatives. A 20 oz latte from Starbucks has 63 grams of sugar. That is just insane. It’s a tragedy, because pumpkin is delicious without dumping a bag of refined sugar in it, and is loaded with all kinds of health benefits. It also doesn’t have to be regulated to a cold weather drink.

Pumpkin can be a summer treat as well, and doesn’t even require cooking. In fact, this might be the easiest recipe I’ve ever put here, and it’s also one of the best tasting. All you need is a mixing bowl, a cookie sheet small enough to fit in your freezer, and the right ingredients. Speaking of that, this recipe calls for almond butter, but you can use peanut butter in a pinch. Whichever way you go, make sure you read the label and only get nut butter that lists the nut and salt. That’s it. If it has one more thing listed, walk away.

Many so called natural and healthy nut butters have added oils like palm oil and preservatives. Avoid these at all costs. One more pro tip, when you buy these stir type nut butters, store them upside down. That makes them much easier to stir.

All of these ingredients are easy to find in the local mega-marts or on Amazon. Whip up a batch and have a cold, refreshing, and healthy summer treat…real food for real people.

Pumpkin Fudge:

Ingredients:

1/4 tsp sea salt

1/2 cup coconut oil, melted

2/3 cup (188 grams) all natural almond butter

1/2 cup pure pumpkin puree

1/4 cup Monkfruit maple syrup

Sugar free or dark chocolate chips

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

Instructions:

Melt the coconut oil. If your house is as hot as mine, it comes out of the pantry ready to pour right now. Add in a large bowl with the stirred almond butter. Whisk until well combined and smooth:

Add all the other ingredients except the chocolate chips and whisk again. Line a small metal sheet pan with parchment paper and spread the mix out evenly, and then top with the chocolate chips:

Freeze for at least an hour, then cut with a pizza cutter. Store in a sealed container in the freezer. Just let a serving thaw out for a few minutes at room temp before enjoying: