Eat Atlantic Day

If you live in the Maritimes, please consider participating in Eat Atlantic Day challenge on September 2nd. It is a day where you pledge to eat only Atlantic produced foods on that day. It is a great way to think about what you are eating and a jumping point to eating more local food all of the time.

I have been coming up with our menu for the day.

Breakfast: Sunshine Pancakes from Speerville Mill in New Brunswick made with local milk and eggs and NS butter. This will be topped with maple syrup and/or wild blueberry syrup, maybe sprinkled with maple sugar, all from Atlantic Maple.

Lunch: Cavendish french fries from PEI with ketchup I will make from Fred Kingsbury tomatoes with all local ingredients.

Supper: Valley chicken, valley squash, valley carrots with valley honey, mashed potatoes from the valley and baked valley apples (yes, the valley has the best produce, lol!).

Snacks may be Scotsburn ice cream (Pictou county), dulse (Digby co) valley apples or baby carrots from Berwick.

That sounds pretty good to me!

Healthy Cookies

I have mentioned I am on the look out for recipes I can make that are good for the kids lunches when they go to school. I came across a recipe that is a winner! I found it here. They are called healthy cookies and they appear to be very versatile. They were very easy to make and we love them! They are egg free, dairy free and can be gluten free. They are also added sugar free but I put some honey in them. If I take a picture, I will add it here.

So here is the recipe:

Nikki's Healthy Cookie Recipe

3 large, ripe bananas, well mashed (about 1 1/2 cups)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 cup coconut oil, barely warm - so it isn't solid (or alternately, olive oil)
2 cups rolled oats
2/3 cup almond meal
1/3 cup coconut, finely shredded & unsweetened
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon fine grain sea salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
6 - 7 ounces chocolate chips or dark chocolate bar chopped

Preheat oven to 350 degrees, racks in the top third.

In a large bowl combine the bananas, vanilla extract, and coconut oil. Set aside. In another bowl whisk together the oats, almond meal, shredded coconut, cinnamon, salt, and baking powder. Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and stir until combined. Fold in the chocolate chunks/chips.The dough is a bit looser than a standard cookie dough, don't worry about it. Drop dollops of the dough, each about 2 teaspoons in size, an inch apart, onto a parchment (or Silpat) lined baking sheet. Bake for 12 - 14 minutes. I baked these as long as possible without burning the bottoms and they were perfect - just shy of 15 minutes seems to be about right in my oven.

Makes about 3 dozen bite-sized cookies.

Indian Eggplant Recipe from Sonia (Baingan Bhurtha) – A Vegetarian Recipe You Will Love! | Kelly the Kitchen Kop

Indian Eggplant Recipe from Sonia (Baingan Bhurtha) – A Vegetarian Recipe You Will Love! | Kelly the Kitchen Kop (click link for recipe)

Ok I am totally stealing this picture from Kelly The Kitchen Kop because otherwise I may forget where it is and this looks very yummy!! I will be trying this soon because I have an eggplant in the fridge that I need to use ASAP!

I will be back soon to write about our trip and our food adventures with that.

Want to Change

I really want to change what we eat. I want to change how we eat. I think about it a lot. Then there is the issue of the food that we store and the amount of money we have to spend.

Catch 22.

With the kids going to school in the fall, I will have more time on my hands to cook and prepare foods. My question is, will I want to? I love reading real food and nourishing food blogs. They make it sound so easy. I could do it for me but I also want to do it for my family. Mark is the hardest sell. The kids are the pickiest. I would hate to spend a lot of money on nourishing food only to fall back on junk again. I have been restraining myself from buying but it can be just so cheap, easy and I hate to say it...good!

So I am still working out in my mind what I want to do about food in our family. I will still share recipes here that may not be so nourishing or even healthy but I hope the trend will swing towards what my core food beliefs are.

I asked the people in charge of the farmer's market is there was any talk of a WAP chapter in Yarmouth. I haven't heard back but I would volunteer help. I couldn't afford a $50 membership right now but maybe in a few months or after Christmas. I hate that money is what holds us back in so many things.

As of right now, I'm planning on getting a half share in the CSA, a quarter beef (not sure from whom yet) and half a pig, pastured if I can sell DH on it. I am trying to find egg sources but they get snapped up so fast. Raw milk is illegal, although I know some places who sell organic raw milk cheese and yogurt (2 hours away though). I can't find shares.

I am running through it in my mind but money is especially tight right now because we just bought the car, we took a big vacation and Mark got a speeding ticket. Tomorrow we are going on our 10th anniversary overnight temple trip and I plan on making a lot of farm market stops :).

I am sure it will all come together.

Donut Muffins? Yum!

I was looking around for recipes that I thought would be good to make for the kids lunches and came across this recipe . Sure sounded like a winner to me! Note to self, learn to take better food pictures!

It took a while for me to get around to making it. When the kids saw it, they knew they would love it. So last night while making supper, I whipped up a batch. They are very easy to make. Shaylee did a lot of the work. They were done by the time we finished supper. I finished them up and tried them. MMmmmmmm!! Very good! Yummy, donut texture, sweet but not too sweet but it had a different taste that I could not put my finger on....kind of spicy but I thought it was just the nutmeg and cinnamon.

Later when I was putting everything away, I realized I put CUMIN in instead of cinnamon, lol! Yeah, that would account for that spicy taste. I used my cinnamon sugar shaker to coat the tops so it still had that cinnamon taste but despite the mix up in spices, they were still good. It was a good reminder to relabel my spices as the letters were wearing off which resulted in the mix up and I was so harried making supper and helping Shaylee get the muffins put together that I didn't even think to smell or double check before tossing it in.

So I linked the site but here is a text copy of the recipe with a couple of my notes added in.

Muffins that Taste Like Donuts
from lemanda on Tasty Kitchen

for the muffins:

1 3/4 cup All-Purpose Flour
1 1/2 teaspoon Baking Powder
1/2 teaspoon Salt
1/2 teaspoon Nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon Cinnamon (NOT cumin, lol!)
1/3 cup Oil (I used olive oil)
3/4 cup White Sugar
1 whole Egg
3/4 cup Milk

for the topping:

1/4 cup Butter
1/3 cup White Sugar
1 Tablespoon Cinnamon

Grease one standard size muffin pan.

Combine flour, baking powder, salt, nutmeg and cinnamon. Combine oil, sugar, egg and milk. Add dry ingredients and stir only to combine. Fill standard sized muffin tin with the batter, using a scant 1/4 cup per muffin (note from Carla: I used a silicone muffin pan so they would pop right out after)

Bake at 350 degrees for 15-20 minutes. Meanwhile, melt the butter in a bowl. Combine the white sugar with the cinnamon in another bowl. Shake muffins out while still hot. Dip muffins in butter, then into the sugar/cinnamon mix (note from Carla: I just spread the butter on top and sprinkled my cinnamon sugar on top). Let cool. Enjoy!

Makes 1 dozen.

Loving this time of the year

I feel bad that I have no pictures to post. I am really loving this time of the year. Lots of cheap local food and lots of free veggies from the gardens of our families. I have bags of string beans in the freezer, along with all our blueberries. I have a pile of cukes that I plan to make into pickles.

I found some very yummy grass fed beef at the farmer's market that is only $2.50 a pound! It was so lean, it had no fat at all on it. I made it into hamburger and gravy and 1 pound was enough for two and a half meals (half because I made a sandwich for a snack; the kids don't like hamburger and gravy but Mark and I ate enough for two). I had to add lots of water to be able to make gravy and it was delish!! On Saturday I am going to ask if they sell beef by the side or quarter.

They are starting CSA's in our town! Community Supported Agriculture is something I have been wanting to support, unfortunately right now, it will still have to be a dream as it's kind of expensive. I may look into a half share though. From the news article :"One full share (vegetables only) will provide a family of four and cost $680 for 17 weeks. Meats and eggs can be selected in their premium full shares packages at a cost of $1,400 for 17 weeks. Half shares are also available for both."

Tonight for supper, we had a beef roast cooked all day in the slow cooker with some montreal steak seasoning on top and onions (Red and White claims their beef is local but I'm not 100% sure). It was served with garden fresh green beans and the driest squash I've had in ages. I love squash! If someone in my family says it's "Good and dry" you know it's the best! Fred Kingsbury usually has the best squash so it was a welcome treat, especially slathered with butter.

I am going back on a lower carb diet but I am not going to hold back on fresh fruits and veggies. They are just too good when they are so fresh. It would be a shame not to enjoy them while they are at their peak of goodness since through the winter veggies can be a bit boring and I am trying to be more seasonal in my eating. I hope to preserve a lot this summer/fall through alternative methods. I definitely could use a bigger freezer (although I don't regret giving our other one away).

Orange Blossom Honey Cake with Fresh Blueberries — Zoe Bakes

Orange Blossom Honey Cake with Fresh Blueberries — Zoe Bakes

Yummm...I made this cake yesterday and it is very yummy! Actually, I made the cake to bring to a potluck today and a cupcake so I could taste it. It was very good! I never used mace before and it had a nice taste to it so I imagine I'll be using more of it. I did make a couple of changes; I used all whole wheat. It didn't even occur to me until after I made it. I also tried using half olive oil instead of butter since I only had half a cup out. Won't make that mistake again! It overpowered the honey but it was still good. I also used a 9x13 baking dish since my recent bundt cakes haven't turned out so well and I couldn't afford for this not to turn out. I ended up baking it at a lower temperature the second half.

The kids and I picked 14lbs of blueberries the other day and on our vacation, we picked up a gallon of honey even though we have 3/4 of a 7lbs bucket left. Yumminess! Plus these two things go very well together :)

I haven't said anything in my main family blog yet, but my Facebook friends already know this. The kids are going to public school in the fall. The reasons are many. It will be hard to afford lunch and snack foods (their school doesn't have a cafeteria) so I plan to be making a lot more by scratch.

I will be posting more recipes here so I don't lose them, both successes and failures. I also want to try harder to eat more local food. I will be working on alternative food preservation (other than canning) since a lot of my past canning efforts were ruined plus from what I have read, there is a lot of nutrition loss with canning due to the heat processing. I am looking forward to having more free time to do this.

I am bound and determined to at least get a quarter of an organically raised local beef (they're still $2.50 a pound but will probably go up soon since they have finally been certified organic. I am debating between a local side of pork or a local pastured side of pork (as in advertised as pastured), the difference in price being $100. Maybe I should try to contact the farmer of the one not claiming to be pastured to see how his pigs are raised. I once read of how some cities fix their garbage problems by getting pigs to eat it. Gross! I was pretty turned off by pork for a while after reading that.

So we will need to eat down our freezer to have room for this. I want to stop buying convenience foods, which take up a lot of room. One of the blessings of having the kids in school is I will have a lot of free time to do the cooking I have always wanted to do.

Off Track

I kind of fell off track with this blog again. It's too bad. It has been a delicious time of year. I take the kids weekly to the Farmer's Market . There are always lots of goodies there. I let the kids get a treat and they always go to this one lady who is selling cupcakes and donuts. Last week, Shaylee dropped her donut and the lady gave her another one for free. Everyone is so nice there :)

I lucked into a dozen eggs last week. Someone was dropping off a load just as we got there. They go so fast and we never get there early. If you look at the carton, one was a monster egg in comparison to the others. The carton would hardly close, lol! Ethan got to eat it for supper tonight :). My yolks were the darkest, but honestly, they weren't much darker than the eggs we get in the store. They were yummy though.

Last week we went to the Valley for an overnight trip. I think I hit every single farmers market there was, lol! Forsythe's, a couple Averys, Stirlings, Noggins Corner, Hennigars and a bunch that I can't even remember. We got lots of good food. It tastes so good when it's farm fresh. I am really appreciating fresh food this year.

Something good I made last night was I sliced a couple of little zucchini and the greens off a bunch of onions plus a handful of garlic scrapes. I sautéed it in butter and it smelled so creamy. I was going to add a can of tomatoes but it smelled so creamy that I just topped it with cheese and let it melt. It was so yummy and gooey good!

I bought some more beets with the greens and onions with the greens. I'll have to think of something creative to do with them :)

Monday Market Report

I am still hoping to do the Monday Meal Plan but I thought it would be a step in the right direction to have a Monday Market report. If I do my marketing on Monday morning, then it will start my week off with a full larder. Then in the summer, I can do the Farmers Markets on Saturday and that will be less to buy when I do my Monday Marketing (or I will be less tempted to buy in the store when I've already bought locally at the market).

I made three stops this morning. First was Dayton Fruit and Vegetable. There I picked up the following:

Spinach: $2.00

10lbs bag potatoes: $1.99

10lbs bags onions: $2.97

cabbage: $0.67

sweet potatoes: $3.28 ($0.79/lbs)

garlic: $0.48

2 small english cukes: $1.50

Bananas: $1.30

Total: $14.17

Then I went to Sobeys. There I got:
1.5kg bag of blueberries (craving!): $8.49

1 container natural yogurt (need for the cultures): $2.49

8 cans coconut milk: $5.25!! (it was signed wrong so I got one free. It was regular $3.29, ringing in at $2.50 but it was signed 2/$1.50)

Total: $16.23

I went to Superstore next. I wasn't going to but I knew they had some things I wanted:

2L Mac Nut Frozen yogurt (I told the kids I'd get it for them to try): $4.00

2lbs mussels: $3.00

small carton sauerkraut: $1.59

900g bag brown rice: $2.39

pack "natural" cheese strings: $3.00 (with coupon)

3pack large english cukes: $3.00

omega eggs: $1.99 (half off)
free range, farm eggs: $2.39 (half off)

4L Cooks milk: $6.93

Total (including cents off for using cloth bags): $28. 14

So $58.54 isn't too bad. We have a lot on hand and a lot of this will last longer than one week. I got mostly whole foods so it was a good trip in my opinion. I am seeing some stew in my very near future as well as some blueberry smoothies. I have really been craving veggies lately and need to get some more greens growing.

I hope to later get a meal plan up. I have a lot to do from our trip including lots of laundry and dishes, plus even though we left with the apartment clean, it seemed to spawn filth overnight.

Aw, Honey, Honey

I was up early and thought I would write. We are in Dartmouth right now and I've been up for a while. We had an interesting day yesterday on our way up. It was raining buckets and often dark. We made a few stops. I got a couple of big bags of apples (one red delicious and the other crispin) and parsnips from Noggin's Corner. We got lost looking for honey. Mmmmm, yummy raw honey. I wanted to get our bucket filled since it was cheaper but the man there seemed kind of rushed to get lunch so we just bought a bucket off the table at Foote Family Farm. I guess the kids explored a little bit outside and saw the hives and other farm stuff but I didn't (otherwise I would of got some pictures). Since we felt like we were intruding, we kind of hurried along. The kids were so fascinated with the honey they wanted to play with it. Not the honey, but the bucket to pretend they had a honey store. While I was out, Ethan managed to accidentally pour out about 1.5 or so cups of honey. I wasn't too impressed by that.

In the city, we stopped at the Real Canadian Wholesalers on Connaught Street in Halifax. Wow, I can see why metro saints can build their storage on the cheap! There was so much stuff but we contained ourselves, lol! Dad's car has a much smaller trunk than ours. I could not believe milk was only $5.29! That's about $2+ cheaper than the price at Sobeys home (I never pay that price though). If we had a portable cooler with us, we would of been stocking up on a lot of stuff but it's probably a good thing we didn't. We did buy a 20kg bag of whole wheat flour and managed to only pay $7.50! (there was a tiny hole in the bag so half off). I also stocked up on coconut milk and some other things. I wanted to get more flour but the 20kg bags of regular Robin Hood weren't much cheaper than what we have home and as I mentioned, we have limited trunk space.

Last night Mark took the kids out for supper while I was at the temple. When I was done, I was starving and was craving veggies. I went to Sobeys and man the salads and fresh to go foods were awfully expensive. I went looking at the frozen foods and it took about three passes through the frozen dinners to find any that had even a minute amount of veggies. I ended up getting a General Tao Chicken entree and a small sweet potato to cook in the microwave. I really wanted asparagus but I didn't have anything to put it on to heat up (although I after thought I could of used the empty food tray).

Today, among other things, we are planning to go to the Halifax Farmer's Market. I have heard that is an awesome experience and can't wait. I know there is local spinach growing and I am regretting not getting some in the valley. I am craving greens! Must be spring, lol!

How Much We'd Need For A Year

I deleted the original post because it wasn't formatting correctly. Visit http://lds.about.com/library/bl/faq/blcalculator.htm to find out how much food storage you would need to sustain life for a year (we are a family of 4, entered all as 7+ years old). It is rather eye opening thinking of so much food at once. I know it would be bad for us. Since we can't can our dry goods at a cannery, most of that would go bad before it got used. Trust me, I'm in a situation where I got too much of what we never used simply to have storage and now I will be giving most of it away.

I love how the church emphesizes store what you eat and eat what you store. They focus more on just having storage and not so much wheat, wheat, wheat now. Everyone is at a different place with their storage. 1200lbs of grains, yeesh! What are we, cattle? lol! It is hard building storage when most of what you eat is fresh (or try to). That is why gardening and preserving skills are very important to home and food storage. I hope to sharpen my skills a little more this summer :)

Traditional Foods in a Nutshell

Traditional Foods in a Nutshell

Great link, I had to share it. I am already struggling with eating clean being Easter weekend and all the treats. Why does every holiday have to become an excuse to eat?? Baby steps is what I keep telling myself. We can't fully expect ourselves to fully delve into a new way of anything without priming ourselves a bit first. I have been preparing but I've had a very hard week and am coming into this with low mental and emotional reserves. Sadly, sometimes a bit of chocolate does make me feel a bit better, but only temporarily.

Then last night I made the family a pepperoni and a donair pizza. I could not resist having some donair pizza and it was soooo good (but such a bad idea for someone who is supposed to be avoiding wheat!). I need to learn to make my own donair meat as all my attempts have been flops. The last time I used very lean fresh from the pastured cow ground beef so I think it was simply too lean. You need good fatty meat for donair meat. Yum!

Pickles, I love Pickles

Real Food, My Way: Pickle FAQ

Yes, I love pickles but I have never been able to make them. I just wanted to mark my spot for when cucumbers are in season and I can attempt to make some using traditional methods. I also found the following sweet pickle recipe from the link above and I want to make sure I know where it is. How great to make pickles with honey instead of sugar! (note, these would not be probiotic, just yummy :) ).

Canned Sweet Pickle Slices, Sweetened with Honey

As noted, I haven't made these yet. I have bought the Strubbs lacto-fermented pickles. I thought they were good but Mark thought they tasted like an outhouse, lol! I guess when you're used to vinegar pickles, it is a bit of a taste adjustment. I am just trying to come up with more probiotic ideas that I like to help my gut heal.

Silly Me!

I thought the challenge started today but I guess it's tomorrow. I still haven't received a confirmation.

I made the bacon egg and avocado salad for lunch and it was pretty good. I made homemade dessing and didn't care for that but the rest was scrumptious! I may make it again soon as I have 3 ripe avocados.

I took a pack of chicken breasts out for supper. Not sure how I'm making them, probably just baked with some seasoning. I like mine spicy. I also have some asparagus that is calling my name. I'll make some baby potatoes for the rest of the family but I won't have any.

Day One

Today is day one of the big 28 day Real Food Challenge. It didn't start out well, lol! I was up early and hungry and for some odd reason, I was craving a hot dog. So I had an angus beef weiner (PC brand) and all was well. Except I remembered after I ate it what day it was. Ooops! I don't think processed weiners are acceptable in the real food realm. Oh well, learn from mistakes.

I boiled a bunch of eggs and am trying to think of what to have for the rest of the day. My stomach is feeling kind of dodgy now. I hope I'm not getting the stomach flu like everyone else seemed to had and is still making rounds. Still, I think I will make this bacon egg and avocado salad and if we don't eat it today, it will keep until tomorrow :).

I did clean out the fridge a bit. I got rid of some old stuff, artificially sweetened stuff and some things that I wasn't quite sure what of what they were. It made a lot more room. I have a big can of ketchup in there I need to put in smaller jars (I know, not nourishing food, but the kids don't want to give up their ketchup and I don't get the kind that has glucose/fructose).

I'll probably update more soon, frequently, lol! I haven't gotten the challenge of the day yet and I plan to write a lot. Part of the challenge is writing about it and I plan to do lots!

Marmee's Pantry ~ For Such a Time as This: Butter vs Margarine

Marmee's Pantry ~ For Such a Time as This: Butter vs Margarine

This is a good link to why I am choosing real butter over margarine now. I have a few boxes of margarine squares that I use for baking (and feel pretty guilty about), but after they're gone, it's just butter and good oils and pure fats for us from then on in :)

Episode 2 Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution

I think I posted about the first episode on my other blog but since it's food related, I'll write about it here.

All I can say is wow. I was totally flabbergasted at the kids in this episode. They did not know what a single vegetable was in it's natural form. I mean really, they didn't know what a tomato or a potato was? My jaw literally dropped. I think I had tears of gratitude that my kids know what everything is. I love taking them around the produce isles and if they don't know what something is, we find out. We often buy new things to try, although they usually pass in the end. I'm glad my kids know what to do with vegetables, they know how to peel, cut, even how to grow them. They just don't like to eat all of them, lol!

I was also shocked after the chicken nugget demonstration, how disgusted they were with the ground up chicken carcass, bones and all. They wanted to eat it simply because they were hungry, yet turned their nose up at real chicken. So basically because it resembled what they knew, they ate it even if it disgusted them. Now I'm not opposed to not wasting. Chicken carcass is great for making stock.

I was also surprised at the visual of the fat and food. Again, I'm not opposed to fat but when it is overly processed junk that has no nutritive value, it isn't good for little bodies, day in and day out.

It was shocking when they went to the doctor. I think of that poor boy and how drastically life altering it would be if he was diabetic, how hard for the family. I know I am worried about it and honestly surprised I am not diabetic. Their whole family just seemed so sad and unhealthy and I hope that was the wake up call they needed.

Food is one of those hard things. We need it to live but it can kill us if we do not eat the right things. There are so many good food options in this world that we have options. It makes me want to eat healthier :)

2010: Ushering in the Decade of Food and Agriculture

Steve Ettlinger: 2010: Ushering in the Decade of Food and Agriculture

I posted this to Facebook but I'm not sure if it went through properly. All I can say is Hear Hear. Get the junk off the shelves and help us eat real food!

Gluten-Free Crusty Boule

Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day � Gluten-Free Crusty Boule

I have been perusing this site because I want more information on the 5 minute a day bread (which I will make as soon as I arrange my fridge a little better). I was pleasantly surprised to see there was gluten free bread! I don't know if I can get the ingredients here but maybe someday. Sometimes it is nice just having the option.

As a side note, I don't think I am going to be buying and grinding our wheat. I have my limits. It is too hard, time consuming and I don't get favourable results.

Another side note, from the above site, I finally found out how to make proper hamburger buns. Bake them in english muffin tins! How easy is that? I had one but it got warped so I went and bought all they had at Bulk Barn (note, they are sold as large 4" circle cutters but they are exactly the same as the ones online and much cheaper). I didn't realize you actually baked it with the dough in the round. So that will make making buns easier, especially if I keep dough in the fridge. Now, if I could only figure out hot dog buns....

Do Nut? No, Donut! Or is it Doughnut?

We love doughnuts. It is something I don't miss often but when I do, it can be hard to resist. I made some sprouted wheat doughnuts last week and they were really good. However sometimes you just want a doughnut quicker. Here is a simple solution!

Bread Machine Doughnuts

Ingredients

• 1 1/4 cups milk
• 1 beaten egg
• 1/4 cup oil
• 1/4 cup sugar or honey
• Pinch of teaspoon salt
• 3 1/2 cups flour
• 1 1/2 teaspoons yeast
• (after though that I should of added a couple pinches of nutmeg)

Directions

Measure into your bread machine pan and put on dough setting. Let it run through the whole setting (it is 1.5 hours on my machine. You can take it out after it has totally mixed and either rise, cut out doughnuts to rise or simply cook at this point).

Start heating up your deep fryer or a pan of fat (be extremely careful if doing on the stove and have a box of baking soda close by just in case! Better safe than sorry!). You can even bake them if you wish, but I am not sure how long it would take.

If the dough has run the cycle in the bread machine, roll and cut out in doughnut shapes. I used a round cookie cutter and an apple corer, which made perfect doughnuts. Deep fry two or three at a time. I was cutting them out as they were frying so I wasn't just standing there doing nothing while they were cooking.

After they are done, either leave as is, roll in sugar or cinnamon sugar, frost or glaze. We used sugar on half and cinnamon sugar on the other half. In the future when we have maple syrup and more than a tiny bit of honey, I will use those as glaze. Ethan can't wait for me to make maple doughnuts!

They came out of the deep fryer all puffed up, soft and golden delicious. Lovely little air pillows they were. I got about 3 dozen out of this batch. Although I paid the piper, I had ate some and they were good. The only thing I would change would be to add some nutmeg since I grew up eating doughnuts with nutmeg in them (but forgot when I was making them). Ethan ate at least a solid dozen on his own, lol! He told me they were way better than Tim Hortons, which is high praise indeed. Everyone else, including some neighbors, got to indulge too.

This morning, this was all there was left:

One lonely doughnut. Not as puffed up and soft anymore but I'm sure it is still delicious. I will not eat it though because today I am getting back on track with strictly gluten free and lower carb.