Rocky Road

Don't get too excited. I am not about to give you some amazingly delicious ice bream recipe. I am about to vent about some failures. One of which was such a MAJOR blunder that it caused my husband to question and doubt the whole process! I obviously knew there would be a bit of a learning curve and expected some challenges along the way but its still hard to not get discouraged when things don't turn out as expected. A lesson I know far to well.

 Lesson #1 Whole Wheat flour and regular white all-purpose four are not always interchangeable. My Husband LOVES cornbread. He is so picky and strange about it though. About 5 years ago I discovered Trader Joe's boxed cornbread. It is good,  I am not going to lie. Sometimes they would be out of stock and I would have to go to the store to buy a different brand. This never ended well! Sometimes I wold try and make my own. "It is OK but it's not TJ's" is what I would usually be met with. So back to the box it would be. A few months ago a found a recipe that was pretty much a dead ringer for his favorite cornbread. I was soo happy. He still complained of course but I could tell that it was a keeper. Shortly after the 10 day real food challenge I decided to make chili and cornbread. The Chili was great but that is never in question. I have to admit, I kinda get nervous every time I make cornbread that is not TJ's. I took the copycat recipe that I had and replaced the white flour with my whole wheat and replaced the sugar with my honey. I knew before I put it in the oven that the appearance was going to be different. I thought if it tastes the same it would be OK. It was sooo dense you guys. The whole wheat completely over powered the cornmeal. I tried to pretend that I liked it in the name of health but it was gross. We had to throw it out gross. OH MAN was he mad!!!! How could I try and trick him.,He was looking forward to this all day, WHY CANT I HAVE MY BOXED TRADER JOE CORNBREAD. There was a look in his eyes that questioned my sanity. He truly thought I had lost my mind. There may or may not have even been pouting involved. I learned that you don't mess with my husbands cornbread. I also learned about WHITE WHOLE WHEAT flour. All of the same nutrition and fiber but with a lighter flavor, texture and obviously color. I may have a death wish but I am going to try it again...with a few adjustments and A LOT of prayers!!!!

Lesson #2 Just because somebody says their recipe is delicious doesn't mean it is true. I have a new found love of green smoothies (more on that later) and in the spirit of St. Patrick's day I decided to try one that claimed to taste like a mint chocolate chip shake.  only ingredients were frozen banana, spinach, milk and mint extract. Garnish with chocolate chips. I gloated that I had found this great recipe to several friends before I even tried it. BIG mistake!! After one sip it was straight to the trash. everything about it was wrong. Not because of the spinach like you might think but the mint just didn't taste right. too overpowering and I barely used any. Plus, there was No chocolate flavor. I do have an idea to make it more of an alternative to ice cream with some adjustments but I promise to keep my mouth closed about it until I actually try it.

Lesson #3 Don't announce to the world that you have a replacement (I seem to have a problem with this) to the beloved flavored coffee "creamer" and fail to deliver! People who drink this stuff, take it VERY seriously and are quite addicted. Much of my family and friends partake in the chemically and preservative laden white stuff every morning. I knew right away that it was a habit I wanted to help break them of. In my mind I was going to be some real food super hero flying in to swap out their white liquid science experiment with my morning liquid gold. Not only were they going to be impressed with this real and natural flavored creamer, they are never going to want to go back to the other stuff. I even went as far as to think that my morning liquid gold recipes would be like a gateway drug. It would turn them on to wanting to replace more of their bad habits with healthy real food options. Well...Just because a recipe "looks good" in no way means it tastes good. I tried several different recipes and they all had a different set of problems. some were not thick enough or creamy enough and not a single one was flavorful enough once it was poured into the coffee. I thought I could fix them by adding this and that, but I was wrong. I don't even use creamer and I knew it would never fly. Coffee creamer has been my rockiest road yet. Not because I have made several different trips to store and bought quite a bit of ingredients but because i was making it for others. This was my chance to convince my biggest critics and skeptics that they didn't have to give up anything, they could have it all. I was wrong and being wrong sucks.



Ps. If in a few weeks I end up dead, and there is left over chili in my fridge.....I think that it is safe to assume who did it....just saying.

PPs. Wholly long post!!! I am surprised you made it to the end with out falling asleep first! :)