Best of the Foodie Web: December

1. These guys are selling their bacon jam in mason jars for the Holidays, but you can make it yourself using the recipe here.

2. Ashley from Not Without Salt taught us how to make hot buttered rum which prompted me to want to invite 30 friends over immediately.

3. On to Baby featured a family photo shoot inspired by the farmers market. Too cute.

4. Sara Forte (who has a new book out) posted a brownie recipe on Sprouted Kitchen that will make any mouth water.

5. Also with the new cookbook out, the folks at Golubka posted a spiced hot chocolate recipe. Hipster food did too - with hazelnuts instead of spice.

6. Kinfolk promotes the age-old art of gathering over food. Volume six is available now. In the photo below my dear friend Adriana is enjoyed it over a mug of coffee.

7. Minimalist Baker suggested I make raw Mayan truffles. It took me 4 seconds to start pulling out ingredients.

Whole foods!

There are a million, bazillion ideas out there about how to eat right. How to eat to lose weight, how to eat to clear acne, how to eat to better the planet. Everyone has their opinion and who knows whether they practice what they preach.

But ultimately, isn't the best and simplest way to chose how you'll eat is to focus on whole foods? With no emphasis on calories, food groups, serving sizes or micronutrients - just a tendency to reach for things that have been minimally processed. It's so easy.

Whole, or natural foods, come from the Earth. They were put here for us to enjoy. Their nutrients are in perfect combination, not altered like processed foods. They often come perfectly packaged (a banana in a peel), at the perfect temperature (mother's breastmilk for an infant) and perfectly filling (you'll have trouble eating a full bowl of higher-calorie ground beef, but try eating a bowl of low-calorie watermelon and you won't have much trouble!)

Eating this way is cost effective because you can purchase most whole foods at a farmers' market. I also recommend purchasing large orders of meat from a farmer so that you can become familiar with all the different cuts (Head to Tail Eating).

Whole foods are also great for the environment. They don't use the plastic packaging, factory production, and long transportation that, let's say, a Twinkie would.

If you want a fresh new look on whole foods with interesting facts about their history and biology, and with delicious tips about how to enjoy them, check out my Whole Foods series on Pinterest. I've been "borrowing" gorgeous photos, like the one above, for each whole food. Please stop by and leave a comment, or click the Ask link to post your question to me.

http://amyjoyharrison.tumblr.com/tagged/whole-foods