When I first started eating healthier after I had gained 65lbs during my first pregnancy, I knew that I needed to find a way to fix my sweet tooth. I didn’t know how to cook and I was terrible at baking, even when I was following recipes. I knew that I had to learn to get creative in the kitchen, even if it meant a lot of bad experiments in the process. It was during this time that I really learned how to use spices for flavor instead of heavy creams and condiments. In the past I would use things like: cream of mushroom, ranch dressing, brown sugar, heavy cream, etc to make my dishes and desserts more flavorful. I have since learned that by adding spices and herbs such as: fresh rosemary, thai basil, oregano and fresh lemon juice you can add so much flavor to otherwise bland and boring dishes. I have been on the search for a long time for an all natural sweetener that I really liked. In the past I have used Truvia, but Truvia’s main ingredient is erythritol which has a tendency to make me feel bloated. I’ve never felt totally comfortable using Splenda (sucralose) and I’ve used pure stevia (Trader Joe’s brand or Kal brand) but those always have such a funky aftertaste I never really fell in love with any of them. Then I found Treleafia. I’ve used MRM brand protein powder for years, mostly because they used all natural sweeteners that actually tasted good and didn’t have a funky aftertaste. Treleafia is the blend of natural sweeteners that they have always used in all their protein powders, and just last month they have released it as a stand-alone product. They sent me a bag to try out earlier this year and I’ve become obsessed! It’s the only sweetener I use when I bake now. It doesn’t leave me bloated, it doesn’t have a funky aftertaste, and it is zero calories.
Treleafia has three ingredients: Trehalose, Stevia Leaf Extract, and Monk Fruit Extract.
Stevia Leaf is extracted using a vegan-friendly process that harnesses the sweetness of Stevia without the bitterness, resulting in a pure powder with 100-120 times the sweetness of refined sugar.
Monk Fruit Extract (Luo Han Guo) is calorie-free, full of antioxidants, and up to 350 times sweeter than sugar.
Trehalose is half as sweet as refined or simple sugars, is slowly digested, and won’t interfere with natural flavors, or produce a rapid spike in blood glucose. To find out more information about Trehalose you can read this article here.
I hope you will take my word for it that it is a really awesome sweetener. Earlier this year I made a bunch of awesome recipes using Treleafia, and MRM has combined all those recipes into a FREE cookbook for you guys! Along with my recipes, other contributors such as: Allison Mason, Kathy Kincaid, Lori Grannis, Chris White, Linda Scott, and Joseph Mannion have created a 39-page cookbook full of sweet and savory recipes using Treleafia. I hope you will get a chance to download the cookbook and try some of the recipes! Some of the ones I submitted are:
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I guess you could say I’ve been a little cookbook crazy lately, because I am also releasing a cookbook later this month with Ellen Whitney, so don’t get these two confused, but I am so excited to be able to share with you guys a sampling of my favorite recipes in this free Treleafia cookbook sponsored by MRM.
You can download a free copy of the cookbook HERE
You can order a bag of Treleafia here. A little goes a really long way (you will notice in my recipes I usually use less than 1 tbsp per recipe), so this bag will last you a long time. If you order today, MRM also has a deal where you can enter the code ilovemrm at checkout and get 50% off your order plus free shipping if your order is over $100.
I hope you will try some of these recipes! If you do, will you comment and let me know what you thought?
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