Friday, July 19, 2013

Foodie Friday: Zucchini and Agave Nectar

First of all, you must all be in complete shock that I am doing a Foodie Friday post. I am in shock as well. I can’t believe I remembered.

As usual, let me fill you in with a smidge of back story before I launch in.

Yesterday morning I was at my new favorite grocery store: Aldi.

And I was by myself. Shock. Gasp. I left the PBA at home. By themselves. Completely unattended.

And they both survived. I think they understood my serious tone when I told them to behave otherwise this would be the last time they would stay home alone. Ever.

They sometimes fight (as sibling tend to do…or so I hear) and I have been overly-reluctant to leave both of them together. Alone. Completely unattended.

Can you tell this was a big moment for me? That thirty minutes I was gone seemed like forever and was a touch relieved when I got home and saw two faces (and the dog), greeting me at the door; I think they secretly missed me .  But the PBA they were like, “You’re back already?”

It’s nice to feel loved.

But this is not what I set out to tell you. I was telling you about Aldi. And the Agave Nectar they had on sale.
I didn’t know anything about Agave Nectar except that I have seen it listed in recipes for “healthy” versions of things I would like to eat.

So on an impulse I bought some. Living on the edge, if you will…that’s me.

After I got home and we (yes, the PBA helped…they were the ones who met me at the door, right?) 
brought in the groceries, I discovered some zucchini in my crisper which I had completely forgotten about.

Well, I saw it over the course of the week and fully-intended to make some healthy side dish with it.

Which obviously never happened.

And here I was, yesterday, with these three zucchini which needed to be used, and some plant-based, healthy sugar substitute…and what was a girl to do? Make zucchini bread, of course!

So I Googled it and found several recipes including both of those ingredients. Only one of those recipes called for additional ingredients I had on hand.  Sure, I’ll splurge on the Agave Nectar but I’m not going to go out and spend all sorts of dollars willy-nilly, just to make some zucchini bread.

Then I Googled ratios of sugar to Agave Nectar. I thought to myself, “If I can get a handle on this stuff and reduce the sugar in our food (well, at least some of it…I’m not anticipating making my own ice cream or anything)…and make my own recipes then I.AM.IN!”

So…I found out how to do the ratio and was set to make the bread this morning.

However, yesterday afternoon, I did one other thing. I texted a friend of mine who has her family on this C.R.A.Z.Y. diet…ok, it seems crazy but it’s not really THAT bad. It’s crazy expensive…that would be the worst part for me, I think.

Anyway, I couldn’t remember if she had mentioned using Agave Nectar or not…so I asked.

She said she uses raw honey for sweetener. So of course I asked why the honey vs the agave? (That journalism degree is coming in handy all over the place lately, isn’t it?)

And she sent this link to me.  (Note: You really should read it before you continue…lest you be confused about my reaction.)

Rats. (And from what I understood, it is not that it is saying that the Agave is any worse than the sugar...it's just not BETTER. And for the additional cost, it needs to be better for us...agreed?)

So of course I didn’t use the Agave…just used my plain ole granulated-bad-for-us white sugar.

And I will say that the bread is delicious. It never fails to disappoint. (Recipe available upon request.)

I know one article doesn’t make it the end-all, be-all…but still was enough to keep me from throwing caution to the wind.

And many other articles I found were singing the praises of this stuff. But I still couldn't bring myself to use it.

So…how many of you out there have used Agave Nectar and what are your thoughts? PLEASE weigh in!


Have a fabulous day!


3 comments:

  1. I've not bothered with the agave stuff, but I DID make Courgette cake last week and it was delish :)

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  2. I am all for just using plain old sugar.

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  3. I am interested in her honey usage. I must look into it! And I was at Sam's club where they tried to convince me to buy a VAT of Agave nectar but there was no way I was buying a 50 gallon jug {or some such size} of stuff I had never tried. So thank you for saving me $$. And I use "raw white sugar" which has not been bleached to be white. our grocery carries it.

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