Favorite Holiday Cookies / Treats

[heirloomgal]

dried fruits often have sugar added on top of them already having plenty of sugar. i was surprised by how much sugar was added to dried cranberries and raisins (in raisin bran) when i looked them up.

for years we ate raisin bran cereal and i thought it was good because of the raisins and bran, but, um, nope, i switched to just plain bran flakes instead and so i can add more sugar if i want or if i want some other fruit added i can do that myself. it makes a big difference in calories if you're trying to keep track of them but it can also have some interesting effect upon your blood sugar too by switching.

of course cookies and other treats can be an acceptable form of sugary goodness, but i also like to make those calories really count... yet, no matter what anyone tells you if you break a cookie it does not leak any calories, if you are losing anything it's just in the crumbs that go flying or the energy you expended by breaking it. so, now i will put the breaks on my wordage here... *eeerrrrrRRRRRR*

We have a coffee/donut shop in Canada which is insanely popular, and for years the more health conscious people would get a bran muffin instead of the gloppy donut stuff with their coffee. And then someone circulated the franchise's calorie info pamphlets and people realized the bran muffins were one of the most highly sugared products they offered. Crazy! I'm very careful with dried fruits, and I try and avoid any raisins that are not from organic grapes. Pesticides are very high on grapes. Crans are the only dry fruit I use that is slightly sweetened.