baking

5 Tools to Make Cooking from Scratch Easier

5 Tools to Make Cooking from Scratch Easier
There are many reasons you might want to cook more foods from scratch – saving money, controlling ingredients, not being able to source certain foods in your area.
Many people find it intimidating to start making foods at home. Sometimes, it's because of the equipment they see other people using. Many of us slowly build our arsenal of kitchen tools and gadgets as we get more involved in cooking from scratch, but you don't need much to start. In fact, I'm somewhat of a minimalist when if comes to kitchen items, even after years of scratch cooking.
Here are five items I highly recommend for a versatile cook-from-scratch kitchen.
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Decadent Chocolate and Peanut Butter Brownies (recipe at top)

Decadent Chocolate and Peanut Butter Brownies (recipe at top)
Would you like a decadent treat for Christmas? One that you don't have to feel entirely guilty about because you can control the quality of the ingredients? Would fudgy chocolate brownies topped with peanut butter frosting fit the bill?


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Endless Homemade Vanilla Extract

Endless Homemade Vanilla Extract
If you're thinking that $15 for vanilla beans plus the vodka isn't exactly cheap, you are correct. You're looking at more than the $1.50-2.00 an ounce of buying vanilla. However, your homemade vanilla is nearly endlessly replenishable.
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Meet Melissa Denelsbeck

 

For years, I was trapped in a fog, never feeling 100%, always tired but too stressed out to get a good night’s sleep, struggling through headaches 3-4 times each week. Almost every afternoon at work, I would hit that mid-afternoon slump and be unable to keep my eyes open. Often, my headaches would start around this same time and last through the rest of the day. All I wanted to do was go home and sleep, but when I went to bed, my thoughts would race, and I wouldn’t be able to fall asleep.

I felt like I was stuck in a never-ending cycle of fatigue – tired all day and wide awake at night, and the headaches just made it all more difficult to deal with. I pushed on as well as I could through the sleepiness and the pain, but I never felt like I was functioning at full capacity.

Then, I started making some changes in my life and becoming aware of what I was putting in and on my body. Over time, I realized that my headaches were becoming less frequent, and my sleep quality, energy, and mental clarity were improving.

Now, a couple years later, I feel my energy levels remain steady from the time I wake up until I go to bed. I am able to quiet my anxious thoughts and fall asleep quickly at night. And the headaches? They’re so infrequent that I can’t even say how often they come – maybe 3-5 a year?

It wasn’t even that difficult a change to make. I just swapped out products in my life that were contributing to my bad health, and I replaced them with versions that enhance my wellness instead.

It’s a step-by-step process that you can take at your own pace, and I am here to be your guide on the journey and empower you to take back your own health! Take a look around my blog or join my free Facebook group where we discuss tips for how to take back your health and live your life abundantly!

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