Perfect Snack or Hot Weather Meal

This article is beneficial to Fibromyalgia patients, but the energy benefits described here benefit everyone.  The almonds have plenty of magnesium and the apple delivers the malic acid. Which gives low energy the one/two punch, bang zoom a trip to the moon.

This is one of my favorite snack combos; an apple and 1 ounce of almonds, and I can turn it into an evening meal by eating 3 ounces of almonds, and carrot and/or celery sticks. This combo is loaded with vitamins, but the mineral magnesium and malic acid content is what makes it an excellent choice. 

The apple is, of course, what I consider a perfect food. I eat at least one apple a day, because it really can keep the doctor away. The peel should be left as the concentration of vitamin C and malic acid is just under the peel, along with most of the soluble fiber.

I have included a couple of tables with the nutritional values for both of these foods. It is not surprising that both of these foods get huge accolades from most nutritional experts and doctors. With the low ratio of calories to nutrients they are a good clean burning powerhouse. Magnesium is an essential mineral abundant in almonds, and malic acid is an alphahydroxy acid derived from apples and other fruits which makes this snack a good energy source combination.  Read More here.

This is a low calorie, high energy snack of the kind that will stick with you for a long time.  The sugar to protein ratio will have this moving through your system at a slow, steady pace to keep the energy level high.  There won't be that crash associated with sugary snacks, and there is no sodium if you get unsalted almonds.

I want to say something here about organic apples.  I always buy organic as apples are number one on the 2012 Dirty Dozen List for the highest concentration of pesticides.  The link leads to my pinterest and article about the Dirty Dozen here.  There are huge conversations about this between health care providers, dietitians, USDA, FDA and produce farmers associations, and they can't agree on this issue.  Frankly, I don't care what any of them say.  My own intelligence tells me what I need to do, and that is buy organic when I can afford it.  Other times, I will buy conventionally grown and wash it really well with a cleaner I make myself.  Cleaner Recipe here.  I buy the ones in the bags as they are cheaper, and have less wax on them.  The wax coating is to help keep them longer, but makes it harder to clean the pestisides off them.

Nutritional Value of Unsalted Almonds 1oz Serving-Snack Size

Macronutrients

Calories 170
Protein 6 g  12% DV
Carbohydrate  6g 2% DV
--Dietary Fiber 3g 12%
----Soluble Fiber 0.057g
----Insoluble Fiber 2.436g
--Sugar 2.0g
Fat  15g  8% DV
--Cholesterol 0mg  0%
--Saturated 1.5g 8% DV
--Monounsaturated Fat  10g--This is a good fat
--Polyunsaturated Fat 3.0g--This is a good fat
Vitamins
--Vitamin E 10 IU 35% DV
--Thiamine 0.06mg 4% DV
--Riboflavin  0.22mg 4% DV
--Niacin 0.95mg 4% DV
--Vitamin B6 0.03 mg 2% DV
--Folate 17 mcg 4% DV
--Biotin 6 mcg 2% DV
Minerals
--No Sodium
--Potassium 207mg 6% DV
--Iron 1mg 6% DV
--Calcium 75mg 8% DV
--Magnesium 84mg 20% DV
--Phosphorous 147mg 14% DV
--Zinc 1mg 6% DV
--Copper 0.27mg 14% DV

 Nutritional Value of one medium Apple

One Medium 2-1/2 inch apple, fresh, raw with skin

 

Calories 80

Carbohydrate 21 grams

--Dietary Fiber 4 grams

--Sugar 16 grams approximately

Vitamins

--Vitamin C 8mg

--Vitamin A 73 IU

--Folate 4mcg

Minerals

--Calcium 10mg

--Phosphorus 10 mg

--Iron .25mg

--Potassium 159mg

 

Sources

University of Illinois Extension

USDA National Agricultural Library

 

I put this here in hopes that my children and grandchildren will want to explore my blog, and find out what good nutrition is all about. However, this is also something that I like to do just for myself, and hopefully it might help others.

 

 

Shortbread Done Right

Tips & Tricks

Ingredient Tips
Shortbread recipes are pretty simple, but there are a few techniques that make them great.  The first thing is to start with good "Butter"; real butter.  Margerine is noticably different.  This is not a recipe that you will make if you are worried about calories.  This is a simple indulgence, and very tasty. 

The second secret to really flaky, great textured shortbread is rice flour.  My recipe is made with one cup of flour, and it does pretty well with just all-purpose flour.  By substituting 1/4 cup of rice flour as part of the one cup flour, the texture is improved greatly.

Flour Freshness is important to this delicately flavored recipe.  Because there aren't many ingredients in the recipe the rancid taste of old flour will stand out, you need to be sure that the flour is fresh.  One of my favorite tricks for keeping flour fresher longer is storing it in the refrigerator.  I put it in a glass or PBA safe plastic cannister.  PBA safe plastic is simple, play by the numbers, use containers with recycling numbers of #1, 2 or 4 and avoid the others.

Utensil Tips
I use the Brown Bag Shortbread Pans.  These have proven to be outstanding for shortbread, and you can put them in the dishwasher, what a time savings.  Most of the shortbread pans have intricate designs, and trying to wash them by hand proves to be very difficult.  A pie plate will also work for this, but does not give the same browning on the bottom.

Do not try to process this with a mixer; I don't care how fancy it is.  For one thing it makes the dough texture coarser, and for another the dough doesn't come together as nicely.  Quite a lot of uncessessary cleaning also.  This is sooo easy to do by hand.  All there is to clean is a bowl, spoon, and pan.  Oh yeah, and a measuring spoon.

Ingredients

 

1 Stick of Unsalted Butter at room temperature

¹/₃ Cup Powdered Sugar

¼ teaspoon Vanilla-I prefer Watkins Double Stregth Extract

¾ Cup All Purpose Flour-Make sure it is fresh with no rancid aroma-I like King Aurthur.

¼ Cup Rice Flour-Fresh with no rancid aroma-Bob's Redmill is what I use.

 

Directions

 

Preheat oven to 325° Farenhiet.  Spray Brown Bag shortbread pan with nonstick cooking spray; be sure you get good coverage of the surface so you don't have a sticking problem.  Make sure the spray is fresh and doesn't have a rancid smell.  Using any other method to grease the Brown Bag pan may result in areas of poor coverage due to the patterns in the pan.  A pie plate can be greased anyway you want.

 

In a small mixing bowl cream the powdered surgar, and butter together.

 

Add the vanilla to the butter & sugar, and mix thoroughly.

 

Add the flour and work it into the butter mixture.  When it comes together, I just pick it up in my hands an knead it by folding it in half, and squeezing it together; then in half again and squeeze.  I keep doing the fold/squeeze until I have a nice smooth dough. This can take a few minutes to do right.  I've been know to walk into the livingroom to check on the TV while kneading the dough. :)  You can use conventional kneading methods on a floured board, but my texture is lighter because I'm not incorporating additional flour into mine.

 

Place the dough ball into the center of the pan.  Press it out to the sides of the pan, try to maitian and even layer.  I make sure that I press all cracks from the edges of the dough.  Prick the dough with a fork all over, to allow steam to escape from the bottom of the pan.

Place in the oven for 30 to 35 minutes, or until golden brown. 

When it comes out of the oven I run a knife around the edge of my pan to loosen the shortbread.  I place a dinner size plate over the top of the shortbread pan, and flip both of them over.  The shortbread will probably just drop out of the pan, but if it doesn't, wrap the plant and pan on the counter, and it will drop out.  If you didn't get enough nonstick spray, then some may stick in th pan.

I cut mine on the cut lines of my pan design, whick is 8 pieces as soon as it comes out of the pan.  A pie plate works for this also, and you can cut that into 8 pieces as well.  Cutting it immediately make a much nicer presentation than when it cools more.  If it is cold, all you get is a bunch of crumbs, and that looks, well...crumby.

This is so simple, and so good.  I make this when I deserve an indulgent treat.  My poor skinny hubby would like it more often, but my health just won't handle that, and I can't eat just one.  I'd be willing to bet that most people would have trouble just eating one piece.

I hope you enjoy.

Namaste