I never buy Hawaiian bread in the grocery store because of all the palm oil ingredients. It’s easy to make Hawaiian bread at home. This soft, sweet bread lives up to its name because when you take a bite, it tastes just a little like the islands. My preferred yeast is Red Star Yeast in the packets. It doesn’t contain any palm oil ingredients like many yeasts in jars do. Be sure to use … Read more

Baking with dates at home is easy, especially if you have a high-performance food processor. I use a Vitamix which makes it simple to blend dates to use in many recipes. A blender or immersion blender will work too. You may know my household avoids palm oil. I noticed many foods that contained dates didn’t contain palm oil. Dates are a binder in the same way palm oil helps bind foods. They are also sweet.  … Read more

Reasons to bake from scratch: My son reacts to palm oil. It’s always a challenge at school when kids bring in treats for their birthdays. One year, over 20 students in his class brought in doughnuts! Not only do doughnuts contain palm oil but who needs their kids to eat almost 2 dozen doughnuts in a school year?!  Wanting my son to be included in desserts is what prompted me to start baking from scratch. … Read more

While some broccoli cheddar soup recipes will have you use the broccoli florets only, I chop up the stalks small and use them as well. I also save broccoli stalks from when I’m only using the florets (in a salad, etc.) and freeze them to use when I make this soup. To make it palm oil free, be sure to use heavy whipping cream without added ingredients such as Mono- & Diglycerides and Polysorbate 80. … Read more

I love making homemade date bars because they are quick and easy, and I can use whatever nuts and dried fruit I have. They aren’t very sticky which makes them easy to pack for an on-the-go snack.  These date bars are packed with protein. I buy big bags of nuts from Costco for snacks and purposely save the bits and pieces from the bottom of the bags to use in this recipe. I buy containers … Read more