Gluten and Sugar Free Mini Apple Pies

Yields: 6 mini pies or 1 large pie

1/2 cup grass fed salted butter 

2 cups gluten free high protein flour blend 

1 cup high starch gluten free flour 

1 teaspoon guar gum 

1/2 teaspoon gluten free baking powder 

3/4 cup cold milk 

5 large apples, remove skin and core, chopped 

2 teaspoons cinnamon 

1/2 raw local wild honey

Preheat oven to 350 F

Combine apples, cinnamon and honey. Set aside. Combine all the dry ingredients. Cut butter into the flour mixture until crumbly. Drizzle in enough milk to bring the dough together. Divide dough into 12 equal size portions. Put a piece of dough in between two pieces of parchment paper and roll into a 6" round and place in a small tart pan. Fill with the apple fillings and add another piece of pastry to cover the top. Cut a small slit on top.

Bake for 40 to 50 minutes or until crispy and golden.

Think Outside the Box, Especially When it Comes to Cake

www.huffingtonpost.com - September 27th, 2011

Cake mixes, which were first introduced in the 1930s, didn't really catch on until after World War II. And even then, despite stereotypes of the apron-clad '50s housewife juggling taking care of kiddos and cleaning the house with just enough time to whip together instant baking creations, cake mixes actually weren't popular at first.

Simply adding water to a dry mix wasn't enough to make consumers feel proud of their baking handiwork. So, those crafty manufacturers reformulated their mixes so that consumers had to add fresh eggs themselves. Sneaky.

Today, the same appeal exists. Just add a few ingredients and baking a masterpiece of a cake (that's all your own) becomes a piece of cake. Whether a mix or a homemade cake rates better on the tasty-scale, will probably be a debate that goes on, well, forever. But from a health standpoint, there's no debate. Homemade cakes are healthier, even if it is dessert.

Why? Because you're in control. You can choose what ingredients go into your cake. Using whole, fresh and organic flours, sugars and butter, will blow any conventional cake mixes' ingredients out of the oven.

Need proof? Take a look:

Ingredients in Duncan Hines Classic Yellow Cake Mix:

(I'm going to pick on Duncan Hines, although other popular cake mix brands including Betty Crocker and Pillsbury have similar ingredients.)

Sugar, Enriched Bleached Wheat Flour (Flour, Niacin, Reduced Iron, Thiamine Mononitrate, Riboflavin, Folic Acid), Vegetable Oil Shortening (Partially Hydrogenated Soybean Oil, Propylene Glycol Mono- and Diesters Of Fats, Mono and Diglycerides), Leavening (Sodium Bicarbonate, Dicalcium Phosphate, Sodium Aluminum Phosphate, Monocalcium Phosphate). Contains 2% Or Less Of: Wheat Starch, Salt, Dextrose, Polyglycerol Esters Of Fatty Acids, Partially Hydrogenated Soybean Oil, Cellulose Gum, Artificial Flavors, Xanthan Gum, Maltodextrin, Modified Cornstarch, Colored with (Yellow 5 Lake, Red 40 Lake).

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McDonald's and Coca-Cola -- An Unhealthy Alliance

www.huffingtonpost.com - September 13th, 2012

This week, the New York City Board of Health approved Mayor Michael Bloomberg's proposal to limit the size of sugary soft drinks. Motivated by rising diet-related chronic diseases (along with healthcare costs), the mayor's attempt to rein in out-of-control portion sizes caused quite a media firestorm. Predictably, the soda lobby has come out swinging, complete with an industry front group called, "New Yorkers for Beverage Choices."

A better name would be, "Soda Pushers for Continued Profits."

According to Beverage Digest, fountain sales (versus packaged) make up about 24 percent of the 9.3 billion cases of soda sold each year, or $18 billion in a total market worth $75.7 billion.

Coca-Cola will be especially impacted by cup size limits, as that company controls 70 percent of U.S. fountain sales, followed by Pepsi with 19 percent and Dr Pepper Snapple with 11 percent.

While it's obvious that the soda industry would be on the defense, largely missing from the debate so far has been the role of the fast food and restaurant industry as a significant driver of soft drink sales. (Due to legal constraints, the city's soda proposal would only apply to food service establishments and not retailers.)

The fast food industry has gotten plenty of flak for pushing a diet of cheeseburgers, French fries and other highly processed pseudo-foods, but they should also be recognized as a major purveyor of sugary beverages.

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