each of you raise your right hand and say - "after reading this post, i promise the skinny bovine that i will rid myself of any and all vegetable oil in my kitchen! yuck!!!"
you promised, now here are the reasons why:
- it has no redeeming nutrional value. it is terrible for you. we all know oil has fat, but vegetable oil has all of the wrong kind of fat.
- you can use olive oil instead for cooking. despite the extra cost, your arteries will thank you later.
- you can use substitutes in baking too. does your brownie, cake or muffin recipe call for 1 cup of oil? be honest with yourself - that is gross. use yogurt or applesauce instead. and yes, your baked goods will still turn out moist and delicious!! if you're one of those who can "taste" applesauce and are opposed to it in baked goods, try yogurt and you won't taste it! i usually use plain, non-fat yogurt, but you could also use vanilla yogurt and use a bit less sugar in your recipe.
i've been on a muffin kick lately - or i guess i should say my husband is on one. my freezer is full of muffins he can take to school with him to snack on. so, here's a yummy one to try - its one of my favorites because it sneaks in a few veggies too!
zucchini carrot muffins
24 muffins
1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
3/4 cup oat flour (put oats in the blender and voila! oat flour!)
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
2 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
3 eggs
1 cup unsweetened applesauce
1 cup plain yogurt
1 cup white sugar (or brown or 1/2 brown, 1/2 white - whatever you prefer!)
3/4 cup honey (if honey is a budget buster right now, use more brown sugar instead)
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups shredded zucchini
1 1/2 cups shredded carrots
1. preheat oven to 400 degrees. lightly grease 24 muffin cups.
2. In a bowl, sift together the all-purpose flour, whole wheat flour, oat flour, salt, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, and nutmeg. in a separate bowl, beat together eggs, applesauce, yogurt, sugar, honey, and vanilla. mix the flour mixture into the egg mixture. fold in the zucchini and carrots. scoop into the prepared muffin cups.
3. bake 18 to 20 minutes in the preheated oven, until a toothpick inserted in the center of a muffin comes out clean.
zucchini carrot muffins modified from "zucchini yogurt multigrain muffins" from allrecipes.com
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8 comments:
I am a fan of the applesauce substitution also. But vegetable oil is good for keeping dutch ovens or other cast-iron pans in good, seasoned order. :)
Also, I had read somewhere that virgin and extra-virgin olive oil weren't so great for stir frying because they have low smoking points. And, well, to stir-fry it needs to get pretty hot. I was just using vegetable oil for that but then just now I read at chinesefood.about.com that you can use standard or "pure" olive oil instead and it can take the heat. Good to know!
and you wouldn't recommend it anyways, but if anyone is thinking of doing some deep-fat frying, they'll want to use vegetable oil for that. I can't do fried food anymore...had an issue with homemade egg rolls once and I've never been the same since. Unless it is shrimp, my favorite food. :) Wow, too long, sorry. Just wanted to share that you piqued my interest enough to do even more research. Thanks!!
I must say I gave up most vegetable oil, but I still buy canola because it's "healthier", then again it is really it is the lesser of the evils-perhaps I should change. I often get coupons for olive oil-ask me when you run out and I'll give you some. I wanted to compliment your photo taking abilities. You must have had fun stacking all the muffins. And hooray for daisies! :)
Oh. I thought that vegetable oil would be healthier because it says "vegetable" :) Just kidding. I'm new to this whole "eat healthier" business, but I'm trying to do a 180. Thanks for your help :)
stacey - long is good, i'm glad you had so much to say! :) i guess i don't stir fry, which would explain why i didn't know that. haha. and it isn't to say fried food isn't delicious. it is! i'm totally for french fries, chicken fingers, etc. (on occassion and as long as someone else does the frying. grease can be an "out of sight, out of mind" type of thing sometimes!)
i totally had fun stacking the muffins, kimberly! thanks for noticing. i'm totally food photography challenged so its nice when a picture turns out well once in a while. and canola oil is way better. i'm just over-the-top crazy about not using any. i'm the cookoo one - not you!
and amy i have totally wondered the same thing about vegetable oil - is it made out of vegetables? if so then why is it so dang bad for you? why is it even called vegetable oil if it isn't made of vegetables? totally misleading!!!! :) and welcome to the pack of healthy eaters. it's a fun place to be especially if you get to splurge and eat what you want one day a week because the rest of the week you were so good! :)
and stacey - good point on the dutch oven. i didn't know that (my dutch oven is in storage). if it is functional it wouldn't count as breaking the oath you made in the post! haha.
It is a good feeling :) So far I have tried your homemade whole wheat pizza (twice! SO good...) and your cream cheese spinach pasta (SO good...). Also I have started putting spinach into EVERYTHING (almost...). Miss you!
I made these muffins and they were very good. Its been nice just to go and grab one out of the bag when I am hungry. I didn't have any applesauce but I did have pearsauce so I used that (who has pearsauce but not applesauce, only a crazy person I guess). My muffins turned out really moist and they didn't get that raised muffin top ... Any ideas why?
glad you liked them kristi! you can't even tell they are chuck full of veggies, huh? and as for the muffin top... i'm not sure why they would do that. anyone else have any ideas?
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