Week 5- Unprocessed Kitchen Series

 

 Welcome to our fifth week of the 14 Weeks to an Unprocessed Kitchen.

Have you already started your unprocessed journey or are you new to this? 
This is a great place to start by taking 14 weeks to getting yourself on track for healthy living. 

You can find Week 1's post HERE
You can find Week 2's post HERE

You can find Week 3's post HERE

You can find Week 4's post HERE 

This week I'd like to touch base on another item you may have in your kitchen cupboard: 

Shortening 

Although vegetable shortening can be helpful for cooking, that doesn't mean it's a healthy food. Vegetable shortening offers little more than a large dose of fat with few other nutrients. Shortening undergoes a chemical process, called hydrogenation, to make it solid at room temperature, and this process leads to the generation of trans fats. Trans fat is the most harmful type of fat you can consume. It boosts your harmful blood cholesterol levels while reducing the level of good cholesterol in your bloodstream.

So what can we use in replace of Crisco, shortening in our baking and cooking?

My go to is Organic Coconut Oil. 1 to 1 substitution for any recipe that calls for shortening. This not only allows a better taste for your food, but gives you the benefits of coconut in your daily diet. 

You can also use applesauce as a replacement for shortening if you don't like coconut oil or maybe allergic to it. Substitute 1 cup of shortening with ½ cup of applesauce.

The other option is 'real' butter. Not margarine. Organic butter is the best. When using butter as a substitute, you should use 1 cup of butter—or 2 tbsp more than a cup—for every 1 cup of shortening needed for the recipe. When using butter as a substitute for shortening, use less salt in your recipe or choose no salt butter.

Thanks for taking the time to stop by and read this week's post. Please stop by for Week 6 of 14 Weeks to an Unprocessed Kitchen next Monday.. Until then...