Ever wondered whats in your chewing gum?

I love chewing gum.

Unfortunately regular chewing gum is packed with artificial - and potentially toxic - substances, including aspartame, BHT, and the same components of rubber tires, plastic bottles, and white glue.

Consumers are kept in the dark about what they are chewing because the FDA allows up to 80 synthetic ingredients to be hidden in the catch-all term “gum base.” Lets look at the ingredients in a simple pack of Wrigley's Extra gum:
SORBITOL, GUM BASE, HUMECTANT (422), MANNITOL, FLAVOUR, SWEETNERS (951, 950), EMULSIFIER (322, FROM SOY), ANTIOXIDANTS (321,320), COLOURS (133, 132, 160a).

Look bad? Now for the closer look:

SORBITOL = sugar

GUM BASE = synthetic rubbers

 HUMECTANT (422),

 MANNITOL,  = Sugar

FLAVOUR,  = Artifical flovor

SWEETNERS (951, 950), = more sugar

EMULSIFIER (322, FROM SOY), = to help it stay combined - also used for firefighting

ANTIOXIDANTS (321,320), = added antioxidants - who knows whats in them

 COLOURS (133, 132, 160a). - and finally artificial colors. Nice

So I set out for an alternative. Eventually I evened it down to three products:

Pepppersmith - Rapeseed lecithin? -  Hard to get in Australia

Chicza - Glucose and evaporated cane juice - Easy to get, comes in lots of flavors and it's organic

Simply Gum - Sunflower lecithin and evaporated cane juice - only comes in one flavour

We settled on Chicza. Mint.  I'll just have to brush my teeth afterwards.

I'll post a review soon-ish. It will arrive on Monday and I'm away camping then so I'll just have to wait.

Ice creams and toppings

Two recipes - one post!
Now that's unusual for me. I like to drag out my posts, writing them ahead of time and only posting when I absolutely have to. Not this time! Two easy ice cream recipes a sauce and sprinkles!
Enjoy.

Almond Ice cream:

Ingredients:

1 batch of white frosting (chilled)

about a cup of almond butter (toasted)

Method

Mix, mix, MIX.
pour into a container and freeze until almost hard. Serve with crushed nuts and berries of choice.

Fruity Tooty Ice cream:

Ingredients:

Frozen bananas, mango or berries.

Method

Squish through a Low RPM juicer ( like a champion) on the mincing cone.

Alteratively, you can blend this in a food processor or blender but I like the fun shapes a juicer makes. :P

Raspberry Sauce:

Ingredients:

1 cup raspberries

1/2 cup fresh orange juice

Method:

Blend until smooth. Pour over ice cream.

Chocolate Sprinkles:

Ingredients:

2 Tablespoons coconut sugar

1 Teaspoon cocoa powder

Method

Mix. Sprinkle over ice cream.

Coconut Agar Agar

Oh my.
It's the 3rd of November today. Unbelievable how fast October left. Bye Bye apples,oranges and bananas. Hello Mangoes, peaches and nectarines. YUM!
I made a heap of coconut cream yesterday planning to make ice cream. I ended up using this recipe instead, because I didn't exactly fancy the idea of taking it out of the freezer and whisking it every half an hour. It was amazing! my bananas weren't frozen enough so I had to refreze the whole thing and it didn't end up being ready until after dinner. But It was soo good!
Hem Hem. Back to the recipe. I didn't feel like composing a recipe today. I followed it exactly. Well kinda. I left out the rose water. And used coconut sugar. But you know me! sometimes I wonder wheater I've ever followed a recipe to the word before. Maybe once. Or twice. Anyways here is the link: http://www.girlcooksworld.com/wp-comments-post.php
and my Pic. :D I'm really proud of my photography.