The Healthy Cooking Coach

Scream for Dairy-Free Strawberry Ice Cream

If you love frozen desserts, July’s an ideal month to indulge. August isn’t a bad time either. The weather’s hot here in the desert of Arizona (and maybe wherever you live as well), making it an especially refreshing dessert. It’s also National Ice Cream Month, a designation made by president Ronald Reagon in 1984. The third Sunday of the month is National Ice Cream Day. If you missed the chance to observe the event with appropriate ceremonies (I did!), now’s as good a time as any to indulge… after you’ve eaten your protein and veggies, of course.

If you like food trivia, here are some ice cream stats courtesy of The International Ice Cream Association, a constituent of the International Dairy Foods Association (www.idfa.org), and Cowabunga Ice Cream. My Ice Dream Cookbook contains some ice cream trivia but these figures are even more current.

Ice Cream Trivia
The average American consumes 23.2 quarts of frozen dairy products per year, including ice cream, ice milk, sherbet, ice milk or other frozen desserts. Yep, that’s about two quarts per person per month. If you’re not eating that much, rest assured someone else is doing it for you.*

For example, people in the Northern Central states consume 41.7 quarts of ice cream and related frozen desserts per person, per year. Hmm, they're eating almost 3 1/2-quarts per person, per year.*

Kids aged two through 12 and adults in the 45 year-old-and-older group have the highest per capita ice cream consumption.*

Ice cream and related frozen desserts are allegedly consumed by more than 90 percent of households in the U.S.* Is yours one of them?

Chocolate, vanilla, and strawberry are the three most popular ice cream flavors in the U.S.* Pretty plain, I know. Homemade strawberry ice cream or ice dream has a lot more fruit in it than store bought. (See recipe below for a dairy-free, fruit-ful version.) You could make it every more fruity by serving it in cantaloupe halves or alongside Avocado, Peach, or Basil Ice Dream with chocolate sauce.

* NOTE: These facts came courtesy of The International Ice Cream Association, and Cowabunga Ice Cream.

Photo credit: Copyright© 2002, Rachel Albert

Dairy-free ice cream alternatives
If you follow a dairy-free or mostly dairy-free diet, you have a lot of commercial options for ice cream alternatives; however, your best option is to make the frozen dessert yourself so you can leave the ingredients you don’t want and substitute the ones you do. Soy-based frozen desserts sometimes have a beany-aftertaste. Consuming large amounts of soy products may contribute to thyroid problems or hormonal imbalances. Rice-milk based ice creams contain large amounts of refined and polyunsaturated (omeg-6-rich) vegetable oils, which can also leave an unpleasant after taste in your mouth. They’re also very high carbohydrate.

If you want the job done right
You can buy non-dairy coconut-milk based frozen desserts but they’re much higher in sugar than what you could make at home using the recipes from my most recent cookbook, The Ice Dream Cookbook: Dairy-Free Ice Cream Alternatives with Gluten-Free Cookies, Compotes & Sauces. I use a combination of honey and stevia, which lowers the total sugar content by one-third to one-half. My book also includes recipes for flavors of dairy-free coconut milk “ice cream” I’ve never seen in stores, e.g., Date-Rum Pecan, Dried Apricot Pistachio with White Wine, Peanut Butter & Jelly, Macaroon Madness, Basil, Avocado, Pumpkin Pie, and Orange Cream, and gluten-free Vanilla Brownie Crumble.

Got popsicles?
If you want to make your own frozen desserts and you don’t yet have an ice cream maker, you can still use this and other recipes from my book. You can freeze the custard-like mixture in popsicle molds. It won’t turn out as light and fluffy as what you’ll create using an ice cream maker, but it will still taste delicious.

Find a deal
If you belong to Costco, check to see if they’re running a seasonal special on a Cuisinart Ice Cream Maker with two pre-chill canisters (so you can make two flavors on the same day) for $40. If you have Bed, Bath & Beyond Coupons, take one to the store nearest you for a $5 off or 20% deal. Or, you can look online for other deals on ice cream makers with pre-chill canisters. Or, if you really want to splurge look for a machine with a built in condenser that doesn’t require pre-freezing a canister. These babies cost more but they don’t require saving freezer space for a canister and they allow you to make a frozen dessert on demand. I describe the various options in the front of my Ice Dream Cookbook.

Strawberry Ice Dream

Hands-on: 25 minutes/ Churning: 20 to 25 minutes/Yield: 4 1/2- 5 1/2 cups; 8 servings
                       
Look for strawberries that smell sweetly aromatic and have dark red skins with moist green leaves.  Avoid berries with white or green shoulders and wilted leaves; they were picked long ago and far away---before they had a chance to fully ripen. For a treat, top this Ice Dream with Hot Fudge Sauce or Chocolate Sauce (see The Ice Dream Cookbook for recipes).

FYI: Ever wonder what it means to hull strawberries? Simply cut off the stems with a small, sharp paring knife. Mystery solved.

Photo credit: Copyright© 2009, Rachel Albert

Source: The Ice Dream Cookbook: Dairy-Free Ice Cream Alternatives with Gluten-Free Cookies, Compotes & Sauces by Rachel Albert (Planetary Press, 2008).

Ingredients:

• 2 cups unsweetened, preservative-free coconut milk (regular, not lite), divided
• 2 teaspoons unflavored gelatin or agar agar powder (not flakes)
• 1/4 cup honey; additional 1 to 2 tablespoons as needed
• 1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon pure stevia extract powder or 1/2 to 1 teaspoon clear stevia extract liquid (start with less; add more only if needed)
• 1/8 teaspoon finely ground, unrefined sea salt(I use Celtic Sea Salt or Redmond Real Salt)
• 3 heaping cups fresh strawberries, rinsed, drained, and hulled (see notes above)
• 1 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract or alcohol-free vanilla flavoring

 

1. Add 1/3 cup coconut milk to a small saucepan. Slowly sprinkle with gelatin or agar agar powder. Let stand for 2 minutes until it softens and dry spots disappear. Warm over medium-low heat, without stirring, until gelatin or agar agar dissolves. Scrape the mixture into a blender, Vita-Mix, or food processor. Add honey, stevia, and sea salt. Cover and process until smooth. Pour into a small bowl and set aside.
2. Purée the strawberries in a blender, food processor, or Vita-Mix. You should have about 2 cups of purée. Combine this with the gelatin mixture, the remaining coconut milk, and vanilla. Blend until smooth, stopping to scrape the sides with a spatula. For a sweeter taste, add an additional 1/8 teaspoon stevia and/or 1 tablespoon honey. Blend, taste, and repeat if needed.
3. Pour into one or more wide mouth jars. Cover and refrigerate for at least 6 hours before churning or use an ice bath to cool it faster. (The custard-like mixture should feel cold to the touch before it goes into the ice cream maker. Chilled for 6-8 hours it will thicken to a custard or soft Jello-like consistency, creating an even loftier frozen dessert.)
4. Scrape the chilled custard into the canister of your ice cream maker. Churn according to the manufacturer’s instructions.
5. Serve immediately or spoon into several 8- to 16-ounce freezer-safe containers. Cover and freeze for 3 or more hours for a firmer texture.
6.  often solidly frozen dessert by placing it in the refrigerator for 30 to 45 minutes or on the counter for 15 to 30 minutes before serving.

1 serving (regular): 166 calories, 2 grams protein, 17 grams carbohydrate, 10 grams fat, 56 milligrams sodium

1 serving (half lite): 131 calories, 1 grams protein, 15 grams carbohydrate, 7 grams fat, 47 milligrams sodium

Variations:

• Strawberry Almond Ice Dream: Add 1/2 teaspoon almond extract or natural almond flavoring or 1 tablespoon amaretto liqueur with the vanilla. Proceed with the recipe as directed. Add 1 cup toasted, coarsely chopped almonds to the machine when the mixture reaches the soft-serve stage. Run the machine for 1 or 2 more minutes.

For more great recipes like this, pick up a copy of The Ice Dream Cookbook: Dairy-Free Ice Cream Alternatives with Gluten-Free Cookies, Compotes & Sauces by Rachel Albert (Planetary Press, 2008). For the fastest shipping, order it online from my web site.

The Primal Blueprint Giveaway

Why go Primal? For the same reason you might adopt a Paleo diet, a gluten-free diet, or a dairy-free diet: to improve your health and fitness. Some people do it to lose weight, normalize their blood pressure, improve their energy and endurance, or to control diabetes without medication. Others do it to relieve symptoms from allergies, asthma, acne, Crohn’s disease, colitis, IBS, or IBD, or Celiac Disease. Still others adopt this way of eating to heal from Rheumatoid Arthritis, Lupus, Hashimoto’s Thyroiditis, and other autoimmune disorders. A nutrient-dense diet free of common allergens can support healing on many levels.

What’s up for grabs?
If you’d like to learn more about the benefits of a primal diet and you’d like to give it a try, here’s your chance to enter a drawing for a chance to win an autographed copy of Mark Sisson's book, The Primal Blueprint: Reprogram Your Genes For Effortless Weight-loss, Vibrant Health, And Boundless Energy (Primal Nutrition Inc., 2009).

You can enter the drawing as many times as you like over the next 10 days. Make a separate comment below in the comment section for each action you take below.

Note: This contest is open to Continental U.S. residents ONLY.

Rules for entering this giveaway (select one of the following):
1) Tell me what appeals to you about The Primal Diet, why you want to win the book, where or how you heard about it, or what you like about it.

To receive bonus entries spread the word about this giveaway:
Do as many of these as you like, just leave a separate comment listing each action you’ve taken.
1) Like my Healthy Cooking Coach Facebook Page
2) Watch one of my YouTube videos and leave a comment about it below
3) Subscribe to my YouTube page, then leave a comment about that below
4) Subscribe to my blog, then leave a comment below
5) Publicize the giveaway, then come back to my blog and leave a comment about what you did, for example
    a) Tweet about the giveaway with a link to my blog
    b) blog about the giveaway
    c) announce the giveaway on Facebook and send me a link
    d) mention the giveaway to your family and friends
    e) come up with your own creative ideas

Deadline
Midnight, August 5th, 2011.

Selection criteria
Note: This contest is open to Continental U.S. residents ONLY.
Winners will be selected by random drawing and announced on this blog.

Mark has also published two cookbooks. To learn more about his books, click the images below.

A review of Old TownTortilla Factory

Old Town Tortilla Factory offers Southwestern cuisine with a Mexican influence. They are located in the heart of historic Old Town Scottsdale at 6910 East Main Street (one block south of Indian School Road and two blocks west of Scottsdale Road).

In or out?
You can dine indoors or sit on their 1400-square foot open-air patio surrounded by greenery and 100 year-old pecan trees, misted in the summer and heated in the winter, next to a water fountain. If the weather permits, I recommend dining outside. It looks especially beautiful at night. The atmosphere is perfect for an intimate dinner for two, a casual meal with family and friends, or a dinner party for up to 200 people. They’ve received more than a dozen favorable magazine and newspaper reviews and they’ve been featured on the Food Network’s “Best of Show.”

Ordering a produce- and protein-rich meal
I find it easy to order a produce and protein-rich, wheat-free, gluten-free, mostly grain-free meals in restaurants. It’s easy enough to have them leave off the bread, substitute a gluten-free grain dish, such as whole corn tortillas, replace deep fried potatoes with baked or roasted potatoes, or request extra cooked vegetables or salad. However, for people with a wheat- or gluten allergy or intolerance, particularly those who have celiac disease or some other medical conditions requiring that no traces of gluten end up in their meals, dining out can be more daunting and potentially problematic. 

Photo credit: Rachel Albert, copyright 2011©

Gluten-free dining
Old Town Tortilla Factory made it easy for me to get what I wanted and for anyone with a wheat or gluten allergy or intolerance to enjoy a safe, clean meal. I was excited to see  that they have a gluten-free menu. Some restaurants offer a very small gluten-free menu.
This place offers one of the most extensive lists of options for wheat-free and gluten-free diners that includes two appetizers, five salads, and 13 entrees, plus a variety of side dishes.

The gluten-free menu
The gluten-free menu tells you what to have your server leave off and substitute and which dishes cannot be made gluten-free. Some of your options include Red Chile Pork Chops, Pollo Margarita, Stuffed Filet Mignon, Carne Camerones, Pork Chile Verde, Carne Limon, and Achiote Ribs. Safe sides include garlic mashed potatoes, steamed seasonal vegetables, grilled vegetables, wild rice, whole corn tortillas with roasted red pepper butter, grilled corn on the cob, shoestring French fries, shoestring sweet potatoes, and Southwest slaw.

Photo credit: Rachel Albert, copyright 2011©

They will gladly make substitutions without charging you extra. So if you’d rather have grilled vegetables than the shoestring fries or prefer wild rice to mashed potatoes, that works. Their menu changes once or twice a year to reflect seasonal variations in produce and other ingredients.

Rather than serve complimentary chips as a starter, they bring warm tortillas and flavored butter to your table. (If you follow a gluten-free diet, let them know and they’ll give you corn rather than wheat tortillas.)

The first time
On my first visit, I started with their House Salad (photo upper right), field greens with thinly sliced jicama, mandarin orange sections, pico de gallo, and a tangy-sweet honey-balsamic dressing. I thought it was great: beautiful presentation, fresh ingredients, great texture, nice crunch, perfect mix of flavors. If I was planning to have that for lunch, I could easily have ordered a larger version with a side of chicken and made a meal of it.

For an entrée I ordered the Shawnee Sea Bass, pan-seared Chilean seabass served over a rock shrimp quesadilla with a drizzle of a tomato-vegetable sauce, topped with escabeche and shoestring sweet potatoes. I had them use a corn tortilla in place of the wheat tortilla and omit the cheese. I thought the fish had a nice crispy exterior and the meal had a pleasant mix of flavors and textures.

My second meal
My favorite entrée, however, was the broiled Pork Ribs glazed with Achiote BBQ sauce that I had the second time around. The ribs come with Southwestern coleslaw with a honey-mustard dressing and homemade shoestring fries. I had them replace the fries with grilled vegetables (thinly sliced carrots and summer squash), which I really liked. I love ribs but find that most restaurants make them syrupy sweet, which I don’t like, or they use wheat flour soy sauce that contains wheat, or some other gluten-containing ingredients that makes them off limits for people on a gluten-free diet.

Photo credit: Rachel Albert, copyright 2011©

Not so with Old Town Tortilla Factory. Their ribs can be enjoyed by anyone who follows a gluten-free diet, even people who have celiac disease. I found the ribs mildly sweet, tender but not greasy, and the portion was extremely generous. My order consisted of a 14-inch rack of pork ribs, a cup of coleslaw, and about half a cup of grilled, thinly sliced carrots and summer squash. I ate all of the vegetables in one meal and saved half of the ribs for the next day’s lunch. I would order them again.

My third meal
On my next visit I ordered the Grilled Salmon and had them replace the Apple-Soy Glaze, which contains gluten, with the Mango-Habanero Sauce. I had them replace the wild rice with the Southwest Slaw because I wanted more vegetables. Grilled vegetables also came with the meal.

My dining companion ordered the Achiote Ribs with the garlic-mashed potatoes and seasonal vegetables (sauteed carrots, onions, summer squash, and grilled corn on the cob). He received a very generous side of vegetables. I thought the farmed Atlantic salmon was ok but it would have been much tastier if they’d used wild Alaskan salmon. (I might phone them to ask if they would consider carrying wild salmon.) I tried several bites of my friend’s garlic-mashed potatoes and thought they were really flavorful. They had a rustic, coarse texture, far more flavor, and less fat than mashed potatoes I’ve tried in other restaurants.

I didn’t take pictures of the meal this time. We were sitting indoors and the light was low. I find in more time-consuming and challenging to get a good shot of the plates under these conditions and we were short on time so I didn’t want to delay our meal.

An inside job
I learned that one of the restaurant’s employees has celiac disease and that several years ago he went over the entire menu, carefully analyzing it to see what he, and others like him, could and couldn’t eat. He catalogued these items on a special gluten-free menu, making sure that it accurately reflected the needs of people who must avoid all traces of gluten. It helps to have an insider like that to educate the kitchen and wait staff and to answer questions diners with special diets may have. I hope that more restaurants will be as careful and thorough. He delivered my meal to my table on my first visit and we chatted briefly. On my next visit, he was my server so I had a chance to chat with him again and to let him know how much I appreciated their having so many options for gluten-free diners.

While they don’t currently offer a special, gluten-free kids menu, if your children are open to eating the many dishes on the adult menu or the side dishes, they’ll be fine.

I found the staff at Old Town Tortilla Factory friendly, knowledgeable about the food, and attentive. I would go back.

Hours of operation for Old Town Tortilla Factory fun Sunday through Thursday from 5 pm to 9:30 pm and Friday and Saturday from 5 pm to 10:00pm. For menus and more information visit their website. Phone: 480-945-4567.

Winners of the Nu Naturals Stevia Giveaway

We have four winners for the recent Nu Naturals Stevia GIveaway: Nicole Thomas of Las Vegas, Nevada, Stephanie Lewis of Montrose, West Virgina, Liz Chin of Arlington, Virginia, and Rebecca Snyder of Goodyear, Arizona. Each of them will receive a bottle of Nu Natural's Vanilla Stevia Liquid and a box of stevia packets.

A caveat about using stevia packets
For the winners and for the rest of you, you may use Nu Naturals Vanilla Stevia or their plain liquid stevia in any of my recipes.

Please note that the stevia sweetener packets will not work in my recipes. The packets contain a filler (a small amount of starch) that increases the volume making them contain roughly the amount of sweetener you'd find in sugar packets and sweetener substitute packets. The addition of this filler changes the total volume of the stevia, so you won't know how much to add to a recipe. If you add what the recipe calls for it will not be sweet enough. I suggest using the stevia sweetener packets to sweeten coffee, Teeccino, tea, hot cereal, or smoothies, where you can add a little at a time, adjusting it upwards as needed. You might not need to use the entire packet at once.

Nu Naturals makes a pure stevia extract powder without maltodextrin or any other fillers; I have used it in my recipes and it also works well. In most recipes I combine it with honey, maple syrup, soft, pitted dates, or a combination of honey and soaked dates to create the flavor, texture, and mouthfeel that people expect in desserts. I find it much easier to make desserts with a great flavor, texture, and wide appeal by pairing stevia with another sweetener. Doing this also makes it easier to adjust the wet and dry ratio of a recipe when I remove the refined white sugar and/or brown sugar.

If you don't find Nu Naturals products in your local natural foods store, you can order them from the Nu Naturals web site. You can use the code an instructions below to receive a 15% discount.

Receive a 15% discount on stevia products
If you order Nu Naturals pure stevia extract powder, clear stevia liquid (regular or vanilla flavored), stevia packets, and other Nu Naturals products, you will receive a 15% discount on your order(s) now and in the future if you follow the steps outlined below.
Here’s how. Go to their web site: www.nunaturals.com

When you go to their website CHECKOUT PAGE, ENTER this CODE:  BLG930. You will receive a SPECIAL DISCOUNT of 15% on your order.  You will also receive FREE SHIPPING in the CONTINENTAL U.S. on all orders TOTALING  $35.00, or more, AFTER this special discount.

A new giveaway
I will be announcing another giveway in the next few days. I hope you'll check back to see what you can enter to win.

A Blueprint for Health

 I first heard about The Primal Blueprint: Reprogram Your Genes For Effortless Weight-Loss, Vibrant Health, And Boundless Energy by Mark Sisson (Primal Nutrition Inc., 2009) through the author's blog, Mark's Daily Apple. I liked what I read on his blog and wanted to read his book. Paleo and primal diets are very similar. My prevous book, The Garden of Eating draws heavily on paleo diet principles. Still, I wondered how the book's author came at the topic. So, earlier this year I read Mark's book. What follows is a brief overview. I don't want to give away too many details, so if this intrigues you, I encourage you to read the book.

“Forget everything you though you knew about diet, exercise, and health!  It’s time to go back to the beginning...” says Mark Sisson, a former 2:18 marathoner and fourth-place finisher in the Hawaii Ironman World Triathlon Championships, and founder of the blog MarksDailyApple.

Where IS the beginning? Farther back than you might think.

Sisson’s book, The Primal Blueprint, provides a convincing argument for a diet and lifestyle with the longest track record of safe and continuous use, one modeled on those of our primal ancestors from more than 10,000 years ago---albeit with some modifications. His approach is based on the evolutionary discordance hypothesis, which asserts that our departure from the nutrition and activity patterns of our hunter-gatherer ancestors has contributed in specifically definable and measurable ways to the epidemic of chronic diseases of modern civilization.

Put simply, we are what S. Boyd Eaton, Melvin Konner, and Marjorie Shostak, authors of The Paleolithic Prescription (Harper & Row, 1988) call “Stone Agers in the fast lane.” Our stone age bodies are at odds with our modern diets and lifestyles, which we have not had sufficient time to adapt to.

Sisson believes that our bodies are not only designed for but actually function best on natural hunter-gatherer foods, such as fresh vegetables, fruits, nuts, seeds, meat, fish, poultry, and eggs and that we can be fit and healthy doing a moderate amount of comfortably paced aerobic exercise with occasional bouts of brief high intensity exertion. He champions the need for plenty of sleep, sufficient sunlight, playtime, and stimulating creative activities to moderate stress and counter the demands of modern living (who can argue with that?).

Photo credit: Rachel Albert 2010© Copyright

The Primal Blueprint challenges many long held assumptions about diet and exercise, such as the belief that we need to eat a high starch, grain-based, low fat diet to lose weight, achieve health and fitness, and prevent degenerative diseases; that we must eat whole grains to meet our fiber needs; and that we should limit or avoid red meat, butter, and whole eggs to avoid heart disease. It contests the notion that aerobic exercise is the key to weight loss and that the more cardio we do, the better, healthier, and leaner we will become.

Like my book, The Garden of Eaing, it presents a diet rich in fresh vegetables and fruits paired with healthy protein sources, friendly fats, and appetizing herbs and spices. Primal meals are packed with vitamins, minerals, fiber, and antioxidants. Most people who adopt this way of eating end up eating more fresh vegetables and fruits than on a typical American diet.

Although The Primal Blueprint draws on the work of many leading biologists, paleoentologists, geneticists, anthropologists, physicians, nutritionists, food scientists, exercise physiologists, coaches, trainers, and scientific researchers whose work Sisson has studied over the past 20 years, the book was written with laypeople, like you and me, in mind.

The Primal Blueprint doesn’t require complicated calorie counting or meticulous food combining nor does it contain rigid rules to eat by. The 10 Primal Blueprint laws consist of flexible principles you can begin to apply immediately. If you have trouble transitioning to a new way of eating and exercising and can’t imagine life without bread, pasta, cereal, wine, or chocolate, Sisson encourages you to apply the 80:20 rule. You can enjoy sensible indulgences on a daily or weekly basis and still reap benefits from The Primal Blueprint. Over time, he believes that you will find that you naturally and comfortably become more compliant and more comfortable with the diet and exercise principles and that you will ant to follow it more fully because of the many benefits you experience.

Photo credit: Rachel Albert 2010© Copyright

Between the covers of this 283 page book you will find a detailed table of contents and index, a mix of nutrition information, anecdotes, quotes, easy reference side-bars, and chapter summaries along with a humorous day-in-the-life comparison between Sisson’s primal man, Grok, a hunter-gatherer from 10,000 years ago, and his antithesis, a sedentary, suburban dad who commutes to a stressful job, eats a diet of heavily processed foods, and takes a collection of prescription meds the interfere with the natural healing process. The contrast between the two men and their lives illustrates how far we’ve drifted from fleshing out our Primal Blueprints with primal foods and activities and how close we are to getting back on the primal track.

Although many people think of genes as inalterable inherited traits that doom them to disease, Sisson views them as traffic cops that direct the function of all the cells in our bodies at all times. The central premise of his book, The Primal Blueprint, is that “…your genes don’t have to be your destiny, that you can ‘reprogram’ them with healthy lifestyle behaviors and thereby make even stronger genetic predispositions to disease, excess body fat, and other adverse health conditions irrelevant.”

You can improve your health and fitness by adopting some or all of the principles outlined in this book and you can do it at your own pace. Remember this is not an "all or nothing" approach.

For more information, click on the book links below and visit Mark Sisson's blog. You can also read about my experience at Mark's annual primal diet conference, PrimalCon 2011, which I attended this past spring where I made new friends, enjoyed great meals, hung out at a beach park in Southern California for three days, and led two Primal Diet cooking demonstrations that some participants described as "the highlight of the weekend."

Enter to Win the Nu Naturals Stevia Giveaway

Are you interested in reducing your sugar intake?
You can avoid the hazards of refined sugar and potentially dangerous synthetic sugar substitutes and still satisfy your sweet tooth.  I’ll show you how to use fresh and dried fruits supplemented with smaller than usual amounts of honey, maple syrup, and even smaller amounts of a sweet herb called stevia.  By using this herb in combination with a concentrated sweetener, you’ll be able to achieve a satisfying level of sweetness with one-third to one-half the customary amount of sugar, honey, or maple syrup.  You’ll be able to enjoy some special treats and still reduce the impact of these indulgences.

In The Ice Dream Cookbook, you can learn all about this amazing herb, including why it’s a healthier alternative.  You will also find a helpful conversion chart that shows you how to convert measurements, plus easy recipes that utilize this, and other, natural sweeteners instead of refined sugars and toxic synthetic sweeteners. You'll find recipes for non-dairy frozen desserts, baked and poached fruit desserts, cookies, bars, fruit sauces, chocolate and caramel sauces, and more.

This month, I am featuring an exciting giveaway for one of my favorite brands of stevia, Nu Naturals Stevia.

How to enter the Nu Naturals Stevia Giveaway
I will award multiple products to 4 of my Blog readers. The winners will receive 1 box of NuStevia Packets (50 count box), AND one bottle of NuNaturals Vanilla Stevia Liquid, 2 ounce bottle.

I recommend using the vanilla liquid stevia in tea, coffee, coffee alternatives, smoothies, and desserts. You can use it in any of my recipes. Note: Stevia packets are not recommended for my recipes but are great added to coffee, tea, smoothies, and other beverages. For more information about using stevia, check out my Ice Dream Cookbook.

Note: This contest is open to Continental U.S. residents ONLY.

Rules for entering this giveaway (select one of the following):
1) Tell me about your favorite sweet treat for a chance at a stevia recipe makeover. (Chosen entries will be converted into a stevia sweetened-version and featured on this blog.)

To receive bonus entries spread the word about this giveaway:
1) Like my Healthy Cooking Coach Fan Page on Facebook
2) Watch one of my YouTube videos and leave a comment about it below
3) Subscribe to my YouTube page, then leave a comment about that below
4) Subscribe to my blog (upper left side of this page), then leave a comment below
5) Follow me on Twitter
6) Publicize the giveaway, then come back to my blog and leave a comment about what you did, for example
    a) Tweet about the giveaway with a link to my blog
    b) blog about the giveaway
    c) announce the giveaway on Facebook and send me a link
    d) mention the giveaway to your family and friends
    e) come up with your own creative idea

Deadline
Minight, July 19th, 2011.

Selection criteria
Note: This contest is open to Continental U.S. residents ONLY. Winners will be selected by random drawing and announced on this blog.

 

 

 

 

Free stevia samples
If you live in the Continental U.S., and would like FREE SAMPLES of our NuStevia Packets, send a SELF-ADDRESSED, STAMPED, # 10 envelope to Nu Naturals at the following location:

NuNaturals, Inc, 2220 West 2nd Ave. # 1
Eugene, OR  97402

Receive a 15% discount on stevia products
If you order Nu Naturals pure stevia extract powder, clear stevia liquid (regular or vanilla flavored), stevia packets, and other Nu Naturals products, you will receive a 15% discount on your order(s) now and in the future if you follow the steps outlined below.
Here’s how. Go to their web site: www.nunaturals.com

When you go to their website CHECKOUT PAGE, ENTER this CODE:  BLG930. You will receive a SPECIAL DISCOUNT of 15% on your order.  You will also receive FREE SHIPPING in the CONTINENTAL U.S. on all orders TOTALING  $35.00, or more, AFTER this special discount.