Something I Learned

Yesterday I made a recipe for Oatmeal Pumpkin Waffles, it was my first time making a recipe from scratch by myself.  I'll start off saying that they were delicious, too sweet, and too many calories for just one waffle.  So back to the drawing board I go, but that's the fun part, experimenting!

To figure out the calories for one waffle, I took each ingredient, looked it up on CalorieKing, and added up all the calories.  I was mainly concerned with the Calories and Carb count...as those are the two biggies for me.  I also glance at sodium because my mom has to be careful with added salt.

I figured that my recipe didn't have much salt in it cause 1.) I didn't add salt itself and 2.) Nothing I added in had salt (so I thought).  The canned pumpkin I used had 5mg for 1/2 cup and I didn't use near that much.  Well while I was looking at the calorie and carb, I happen to catch the sodium on Baking Soda.  To my shock it had 629mg in the 1/2teaspoon I used.  And this recipe only allowed for 2 waffles, so thats 314mg for one stinkin' waffle.  (Which isn't entirely true cause the waffle smelled divine, Pumpkin and Cinnamon, delicious!!!)

After realizing this I took out of Baking Soda and it says under the warning section "Ask a doctor before use if you have a sodium restricted diet."
This has opened my eyes quite a bit.  Through my moms change in her diet I have figured out that "cutting out salt" from your diet doesn't mean just not sprinkling that white stuff in that cute container on your food anymore, its alot more than that!  Many of your processed foods have added salt in them, soups, broths, and totally forget about microwave dinners.  Cottage cheese is another biggie.  And now through my discovery yesterday even homemade baked goods/meals you have to be careful about.  Even if your not adding the undisguised Salt itself.

This brings up a question, that I am still trying to research, if I can't use baking soda, (or baking powder for that matter) what can I use?  I have done a little bit of "googling" and for my waffle/pancake recipes it looks like I can use yeast, it will just take a bit more preparation or rather time planning, but in the end will be worth it!

Not sure if any of you will think this is helpful but I guess the bottom line is really look at what your eating and if it truly fits into your eating plan!