Forever and ever since I posted on this blog. And yet, the Fair Trade journey continues! And now that I have almost successfully completed grad school, I am back, with new and better Fair Trade ideas and hope to share.
So let's start simple. This week, I made this:
Er. No, I didn't make the delicious can of Fair Trade Baking Cocoa that is on the counter. That was made by farmers who partner with Equal Exchange, a Fair Trade company, to produce great product that provides a living wage and safe working conditions to the farmers and laborers. (Thank you, Equal Exchange)
No, I made the homemade nutella sitting in front of it. Oh yes, indeed. It took me about 20 minutes. I can't take credit for the recipe. That credit goes to Chocolate Covered Katie, who has inspired some happy and healthy times in the old kitchen lately. (Thank you, Chocolate Health Queen)
Chocolate Covered Katie
So, a few thoughts about this little endeavor.
1) YUM. Yes, it was delicious. Rich, chocolatey, and luxurious. I gave it to my kids in a number of ways. I spread it on banana for snacks. I let them dip pretzels and apples into it. I spread it on buckwheat pancakes and called it breakfast. And I sat back and patted myself on the back for adding a nice big dose of fiber and protein to each meal with a minimum of sugar (I used 4 Tbs of pure maple syrup for the whole batch). I just ate it off a spoon while I drank my coffee. That worked well.
2) It was cheap. Well, okay, let me clarify that. It cost the same amount to make this as it would have cost to have bought a container of Nutella. I did the math. $3 Hazelnuts from Trader Joe's, plus 68 cents worth of Fair Trade Cocoa, less than 10 cents of vanilla extract and ditto the maple syrup. Voila. Same amount of money for a product that has no additives, or preservatives, or other junk. And is Fair Trade. Such a deal. (There is, in fact, a very nice Fair-Trade Nutella called Choco-Dream which is available at Whole Foods Market and on-line, however it costs about $6, which is more than either my version or Nutella's version)
3) It was "Real". As you can probably tell, from reading "It was cheap", I am happy that all of the ingredients in this recipe were simple whole foods. (Okay, I don't know about the vanilla extract being whole, since there is alcohol in it, but it was "pure" at least). The real food thing has become more and more important to me since the time I last posted on this blog. For one thing, I watched Food Inc. and read Animal, Vegetable, Miracle. And then I discovered Lisa Leake and her awesome blog, 100 Days of Real Food.
100 Days of Real Food
And it all started adding up for me. I would like to give my kids the least amount of processed food that I can. (Don't be too sad for them, they get more of that stuff from birthday parties, school, and holidays than I ever got in my whole childhood ever). And I would like to not go broke.** So in short, I have been making my own stuff a lot more. And using Fair Trade cocoa for the chocolate component has been easier than I ever imagined possible. It's delicious. And Fair. And how nice, that moving away from processed foods has included a move towards Fair Trade. Because let's not kid ourselves, Real Food people. Hershey's and Nestle and all the big Chocolate makers are in fact the same as Kraft, General Mills, Kelloggs, and all the other food giants who helped to campaign against GMO labeling in the state of California. Big business, banking on our dependence.
** As we all know, it is more expensive to purchase organic and Fair-Trade ingredients than to purchase regular. This is not to imply that the raw ingredients cost less. But rather, the cost of the processed, prepared food, when compared to the homemade kind is way closer than I would have expected.
So in a nutshell: DIY - who knew? The journey continues.
