by Siobhan | Apr 13, 2015 | Advice, Health, snack
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| Different chocolate cacao forms |
Yes, you read that right. There actually is such a thing as healthy chocolate and it is called cacao. This is the name for the bean from which the main components of chocolate occur, however, over time people found it difficult to pronounce cacao so changed it to cocoa which is the more familiar term. Cacao is used to refer to the unrefined, unadulterated version of chocolate, which is the raw material from the cacao bean.
Cacao can be found in many health food stores mainly in the form of cacao nibs which are bits of the bean simply chopped up into rough pieces, the other form is a powder. Both forms are much stronger in flavour and bitterness than regular chocolate as they do not have anything added (e.g. sugar, milk) but can still be used in certain ways to give a chocolatey taste to food with the bonus of added health benefits.
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by Siobhan | Apr 12, 2015 | Advice, Health
There is such a variety of flours available today to cook/bake with that its sometimes hard to know which one to use, or what properties a certain flour has, so here I have done my best to summarise a few points on the ones I am familiar with.
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by Siobhan | Apr 10, 2015 | Advice, Health
So I’m guessing this is a staple in most cupboards, whether it is used often or not, majority of people have it stocked in their kitchen, however, what some people don’t know is that most cinnamon that is bought in the shops is actually fake, it is not “true” cinnamon.
The cheaper stuff is called Cassia, this is derived from a different plant than “true” cinnamon is, which is called Ceylon cinnamon.
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| Real ceylon cinnamon |
Now this may not seem like a big deal to most people but personally, if I’m spending money on what I think is cinnamon, then I expect to get the real stuff. There are also a lot of benefits to consuming true cinnamon such as regulation of blood sugar & cholesterol, high antioxidant content and lowering of blood pressure. (more…)
