Flavorings

There are SO MANY great flavorings out there to use in your baking!  So many, sadly, are artificial, so I can't use them in my kids' foods...  :(  Here's a small sampling (not even exhaustive) of what I have in my cabinet right now:

I have several things that I keep around because I sometimes need them for my bakery business.  Or because I just haven't used them up completely.  Or haven't thought about throwing them away.  Or whatever.  It's fairly easy to tell which things are artificial flavors, since they usually SAY "imitation" or "artificial" or simply "flavor" (e.g. strawberry FLAVOR, almond FLAVOR, butter FLAVOR).  Not the real thing, just the FLAVOR of it. 

A good clue for vanilla?  If it's clear, it's not real vanilla...  At least, not that I'VE ever seen...

If you're looking for the real thing, look for "extract" or "natural" or "natural oil".  Watch out for things that are "made with" real vanilla, et al.  That means it's just part of the ingredients, not that it's totally natural.  "Double strength" varieties of vanilla are big offenders here, as they will sometimes make real vanilla, and then add the fake stuff to make it "double strength".  Ask me about discovering that AFTER using it in my food...  That'll teach me to read the labels...  *sigh*

So in visual summary of my cabinet:

Interesting note: Did you know that Wintergreen oil is sometimes manufactured in a lab, and then marketed as "natural" because it is molecularly the same?  Just something to think about...

Buying Candy

Being the first day of November, that means only ONE thing: CLEARANCE HALLOWEEN CANDY.  ;)

I may or may not take part in the dash to get to the good stuff first, but we would all do well to follow my Grandpa's advice: "Stock up before the hoarders get there!"   Gotta love that old-fashioned wisdom...  Heh.  :)

Most candies out there have so many food colorings it's almost INSANE:

I try to find things that at least have a minimal amount of color and preferably no artificial flavors.  As we've seen, even CHOCOLATE isn't immune to the flavoring phenomenon, but there are a few exceptions.  My favorite would be the Reese's peanut butter cup!  But only the large one, as the bite-size ones have artificial flavoring in them.  Same company, essentially the same product, DIFFERENT INGREDIENTS.  GAH!  So remember:

In non-chocolate candy, there's also the ubiquitous Necco Wafer:

Look at the soft coloring!  Kinda like Smarties coloring, but all-natural.  Excellent choice.

Now to my FAVORITE treat to get the kiddos, YUMMY EARTH LOLLIPOPS!

Look at the colors!  And the swirls!  And the all-natural organic-ness!  Well, I guess you can't really tell that last one by looking at it, which is kinda the point.  :)  I got a good deal last year on the hexagon container:

Yum.  These are so good.

I need a Reese's cup.  Now.