Surviving Holiday Stress and Staying Healthy!

Photo by Angela Tague

I'm not sure what it is about a fresh blanket of snow, warm cup of cocoa or twinkling Christmas tree lights that makes the holidays so darn stressful.

Wait. It's none of that.

It's the extra cleaning, shopping, planning, travel, communicating with unpleasant relatives, spending more than you can afford and having no energy to do any of it after a long day of work, right? Got it!

The past few months I've been writing several articles about surviving the holidays and stressful times in general and thought it might be fun to take today to share!

• 6 Tips for Staying Healthy During the Holidays
• 5 Ways to Reduce Feelings of Stress at Work
• Time Management Tips: How to Make Your To-Do List Disappear Daily
• 6 Reasons and Benefits of Waking Up 30 Minutes Earlier

So, what's your number one way to survive the chaos of the season? My top three are sneaking in a water aerobics class, baking something just for me in the kitchen or taking a mid-day nap with no regrets.

Until Next Time,
Choose Healthy!

Angela Tague
Whole Foods Living

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The Perfect Wheat Flour

I love to bake. With the holiday season around the corner, I'm itching to try a few new recipes. When the weather turned cool for a few brief days, I broke in my pie pans with homemade apple and pumpkin pies. Part of my excitement for the baking season is my new found love: Wheat Montana Flour. (And, no I'm not being paid to say that.)

Cookies can be made from wheat flour.
Photo by Snowbear, Morguefile.

I've searched for the past few months for a perfect baking flour. My criteria is strict: it can't be bleached or bromated, it must be grown in the United States and minimal processing is a bonus. I've tried organic rice flour, too many wheat flours to count and garbanzo bean flour (don't laugh).

Rice flour made my cookies too crumbly. One whole wheat flour made my rolls into hockey pucks. And flour made from beans, well, tasted like beans. I love beans, but not bean-flavored bread. It was just plain weird.

Over the past several months I've given the Wheat Montana Hard White Spring a good work out. Pie crusts. Oatmeal molasses cookies. Chocolate chip cookies. Chocolate birthday cake. Lemon bars. Honey wheat rolls.

I did mention I love to bake, right?

Every recipe made with this flour turned out great. Here are a few details straight from the company's website:

• Wheat Montana is family owned and operated.
• The flour is Certified Chemical Free and Certified Organic.
• The flour is milled at a low 94 degrees to maintain the nutrient value of the wheat.

Do you have a flour or baking ingredient that you can't live without? Tell me about it. I'm always up for trying a new product. It gives me an excuse to spend a little more time in the kitchen!

Until Next Time,
Choose Healthy,
Angela

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