Since I am barely eating food right now, naturally food is on my mind. All the time. And only desserts. Because why would I crave granola or soy products on a diet? Yeah, that's what I thought. But the important part of this ramble is that since I find I am craving my favorite desserts, I also have the motivation to change my recipes for the future moment when I can eat them.
Part of my motivation comes from hating being on this diet. Yes, my Sexy Husband made homemade french fries for the first time in our marriage while I was on this diet. Nice. But everything he is eating sounds nice, even the stuff I avoided before. Some days I even feel totally food lonely because I am a social eater and watching Sexy Husband and Daughter eat french fries and not even use ketchup was a very sad moment for me.
The other part of the motivation was watching for the first time Super Size Me. I ruthlessly watched the 10 part Youtube version which was supposed to be only for educational purposes. Images of the "Downloading illegal stuff is illegal" commercials flashed through my head, but I truly was educated and I am a student, so I justified it. Besides, if the author was watching me watch his documentary and hear all the gasps coming out of my mouth every time they showed his lab values, I think he would be pleased.
So the moral of today's story is that I think I am on this second diet because I am a slave to corn syrup. I went through my cupboards and looked at the labels of a lot of the food my family eats and cried. By myself. I didn't want Sexy Husband or Daughter to think I was crying because I couldn't eat right now. I was crying because I made the commitment to cut corn syrup out of my diet before realizing it was in EVERYTHING I LOVE TO EAT!
But here is why I want to do this-
-I generally feel pretty crappy, except for while I am dieting. The first time around I figured it was because I wasn't drinking milk and eating wheat and all sorts of jazz. This second time around, I am getting wheat and a titch of milk is okay and it hasn't floored me yet, so trying to be a self listener, I will have to excuse those two in moderation.
-I don't want to diet ever again. Yeah, if there is a magical fix called generally eating healthy, I'll take it!
-I already generally took MSG out of my diet because of my first diet and my headaches decreased. And my siblings and other family members have showed sensitivity to MSG too so I don't have to re-research that one to individualize it.
-The saddest thing about ending my last diet is that I began to crave everything. But especially marshmallows. I know corn syrup is addicting because my favorite peanut butter rice crispy treats have it in it and I really have eaten an entire batch in one sitting because I just could not get enough. And no, my BMI has never reached Obese, but I don't need that kind of threat to decide to change my life.
-Its an easy target. Its in everything I crave that is sweet. Before diet #1, I drank soda and was gaining weight. I stopped. I maintained my weight, albeit bigger than I was comfortable with. The best part is that at this time in the American culture of food, its also on food labels pretty clearly. Finding MSG in stuff was pretty wicked because it is its own controversial additive and so I had to settle for not adding it to my food and avoiding the big offenders.
But the sad part of this story is that my favorite cookie happens to have a marshmallow right on top! And it is my family's favorite too, so I had to find a solution. I have decided sugar isn't bad, of course it needs moderation, but it doesn't need a bed companion of corn syrup. Hence I was delighted to find this recipe on Frugal Kiwi that was free of the offending ingredient.
http://frugalkiwi.co.nz/2009/09/corn-syrup-free-marshmallow-madness/
Homemade Marshmallows with NO Corn Syrup
1 tbsp (6.5g) gelatine
1/4 cup cool water
1 cups granulated sugar
1/4 + 1/8 cup water (halved recipes lead to weird amounts!)
1 tbsp honey
1/8 tsp kosher salt
1/4 vanilla bean, seeds removed or 1/4 tsp vanilla extract
(may substitute any extract here)
1/8 cup cornstarch
1/8 cup powdered sugar
1 tbsp cocoa, optional
In a small bowl, stir together corn starch and powdered sugar, and cocoa if using. This is
Prepare a pan: Grease and dust a baking dish or cookie pan with a rim. If piping your marshmallows out, you can grease and dust some waxed paper instead.
Combine cool water and gelatine in a large bolw.
In a heavy saucepan, combine water, vanilla sugar, honey and salt. Bring to rolling boil and cook, stirring occasionally, until candy thermometer registers 115 degrees C (238-240 F), firm ball stage.
Turn on mixer at low speed. Slowly pour hot syrup into bowl. Splatters hurt! Mix until thoroughly combined, and then turn mixer to high. Beat until very thick, fluffy and lukewarm, about 12-15 minutes with a stand mixer.
Spread evenly into prepared pan, and cool overnight or at least 3-4 hours before slicing. To slice, remove entire sheet of mallows to a sugar/cornstarch dusted cutting board. Grease a very sharp knife or scissors, and cut into desired size. Toss with remaining powdered sugar mixture until all sides are evenly coated and no longer sticky.
If piping into “kisses,” let set for 2 hours. Then CAREFULLY remove from wax paper and coat with powdered sugar mixture.
Will keep for 2-3 weeks in an airtight container, but I doubt long term storage is going to be a big issue for you.
Also heavenly dipped in dark chocolate. But then again what isn’t?
Thank you Kiwi Lady. Now I just need to hit day 40 so I can experiment. It is no fun to make something awesome and leave it to others to eat without trying it myself! And yes, the chocolate cookie part needs help too, but that will come, that will come...
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