Listen up, instead of depriving yourself of the foods you love, it’s much more sustainable to INSTEAD add more nourishing ingredients to your recipes.

How do you make a great recipe even better?
By making it healthier.

🧁Flour:
White flour has little nutritional value. It’s high in carbs and calories, and low in what’s important like fiber and nutrients. Eating white flour can also cause insulin spikes.

Instead of all-purpose flour, why not try... Organic almond flour — Swap one of cup almond flour for one cup of all-purpose flour. Just make sure to add a rising agent, like one teaspoon of baking powder or baking soda per cup. It’s also best to add an extra egg to the recipe.

Coconut flour — Swap 1/3 cup of coconut flour for one cup of all-purpose flour. Coconut flour is more dense and absorbs more moisture, so you’ll generally need to add an extra egg and a bit more water for every 1/3 cup of coconut flour.

🧁Sour Cream:
Full-fat Greek yogurt has less than half the calories as sour cream, is higher in protein and lower in fat and cholesterol. Whether it’s a dip you're making or baked good recipe, you can swap one cup of full fat organic Greek yogurt for one cup of sour cream. You'll still get the richness and moisture you’re after.

🧁Sugar:
Yes, sugar tastes great in baked goods, but it’s not so great for the waistline — or overall health. Besides weight gain, sugar tops the list of foods that cause chronic low-grade inflammation. Inflammation is the root cause of many diseases. When it comes to swapping traditional refined sugar, you have lots of options.

Apple sauce — If you’re looking to cut calories from your baked goods, swap out sugar for unsweetened applesauce. One cup of sugar has over 770 calories compared to unsweetened applesauce that has about 100.

Coconut sugar — calorie-wise, is about the same as regular sugar, BUT coconut sugar has a lower glycemic index, meaning it doesn't spike your blood glucose and insulin like refined sugar does.

And while refined sugar basically provides empty calories, coconut sugar contains a small amount of minerals like iron, zinc, calcium, and potassium.

Monk fruit sugar is a healthy option to sweeten jellies, or any raw desserts. It contains no calories and no carbs, and of course, is low-glycemic — so it won’t spike blood sugar either. (in it's purest form, it doesn't bake well so I'd use coconut sugar for that).

🧁Milk:
It's easier than you think to replace dairy milk with plant-based milks in your favorite recipes. If you're lactose intolerant or simply want to avoid dairy: then almond, coconut, soy, and oat milk all make good substitutes for cow’s milk.

While you can substitute 1:1, keep in mind that due to higher water content, baked goods made with non-dairy milks tend to bake faster.

🧁Egg:
Instead of regular eggs, opt for organic, free-range, USDA A or AA eggs.

If you’re looking for a vegan egg alternative (which some of my clients are), or simply have run out of fresh eggs, you can swap traditional eggs with a flaxseed “egg”. They’re incredibly simple to make. Just mix one tablespoon of ground flaxseed meal into three tablespoons of water. Allow the mixture to set and thicken for about 10 to 15 minutes and you’re ready to go. You can swap in a flaxseed “egg” 1:1 for traditional eggs in recipes like your favorite banana bread, muffin, pancake or veggie burger recipe. Plus, you’ll get the added health benefits from flaxseed, like additional fiber and omega-3 fatty acids.

🧁Butter:
Swap your regular butter for organic grass-fed butter

🧁Collagen:
Adding collagen peptides to your baking and smoothies is an incredibly easy way to get more collagen and protein into your diet. They’re flavorless and dissolve completely, meaning they won’t alter the end result of your favorite recipe. We add them to Kodiak pancakes all the time.

Happy Baking! (Bring us some)...

Love,
Ashley & the BHBA Team