Your mission, if you choose to accept…is pretty ambiguous.  I’m not sure what the deal is with canola oil, so I can only ask you to:

read the research, contemplate the issues, and decide what role canola will play in your kitchen.

I’ll tell you what I’ve done and how I feel, not because I’m right, but because it always helps me to understand others’ thought processes.

Impact Ratings: ???

Level of Commitment: Baby Steps

Now here’s a confession:  I’d rather eat brownies and ice cream and watch TV with my husband while I type up fun answers to readers’ questions than finish my canola oil research and write the Food for Thought.  I think it’s rather unprofessional to promise something and then not come through…but that’s why I’m not a pro-blogger yet!  I’m cutting myself a break tonight, and I’ll use tomorrow night (designated “Katie time” every week, where I get out of dishes and kids’ bedtime routine) to publish the much-anticipated canola oil post.  I want to do it right, because I think it’s an important topic and one that doesn’t have a lot of clear answers.

Just to give you something to chew on while you wait for me to be responsible, here’s what I know from my reading so far, without sourcing anything:

• “They” say that canola is a heart -healthy oil because it is a source of omega-3 fatty acids, which are good for you.
• Other research shows that the omega-3s turn into omega-6s or something. You don’t want too much omega-6.
• Canola is from the rapeseed plant, which is poisonous.
• Canola is usually genetically modified.
• It goes rancid quickly.

The knowledge I just shared with you caused me to seek alternatives for canola in my baking.  Most of the time, I can use melted butter or melted coconut oil, but if I was really baking right along and needed an easy, liquid-at-room-temperature oil, I might fall back on canola.   My bottle has less than an inch left in it, and I just checked the expiration date on it tonight:  it expires this month.  It already smells quite rancid to me, sniffing at the bottle.

I’m nervous about canola – I used it exclusively as the baking oil for so long because it was touted for good health.  Now I understand more about its newness, especially, and I fall into the skeptic’s role.

Here’s the research on Canola oil, if you dare. 

Be sure to catch up on the Fat Full Fall.

Part two of this Monday Mission:  something to DO while you learn.

I want you to find a healthy fat recipe to try out this week as well.  You’ll have a great opportunity this Thursday as the October Fest Carnival of Super Foods wraps up with a healthy fat theme.

What is a healthy fat recipe?

• Healthy fats include:  coconut oil, butter, ghee, lard, tallow, eggs, cream, whole milk/dairy, olive oil, avocado, peanut butter, flax
• Unhealthy fats include:  vegetable oil, Crisco/shortening, corn oil, margarine, soybean oil, any hydrogenated oil, any fat less than 100 years old
• A healthy fat recipe should spotlight the fat, i.e. a cream-based soup with whole milk or cream, a dessert with a cup of butter (and hopefully not toooo much sugar!).  A recipe that calls for a saute in 1 Tbs of butter isn’t exactly what we’re looking for.
• Desserts are welcome – don’t we know that’s one place we love our fats!  Just try to have as little sugar as possible, or some way to decrease the original recipe or use a more natural sugar than the basic white stuff.
• Note:  non-bloggers can share recipes, too, and you’ll be entered for an extra chance at some Tropical Traditions coconut oil.  Just use the comments section at the carnival post. 

A friend of mine has a goal to try one new recipe every week.  I think that’s a noble endeavor, and if you’ve got the mental energy to try something new, choose the recipe (even if you don’t get to the actual trying until next week or later!).

Enjoy!

I’d love to see more of you!  Sign up for an email subscription or grab my reader feed.

If you missed the last Monday Mission, click here.

Kitchen Stewardship is dedicated to balancing God’s gifts of time, health, earth and money.  If you feel called to such a mission, read more at Mission, Method, and Mary and Martha Moments.