Hey, Sara,

Here ya go: http://www.stevia.net/

I've used/use stevia and it is a good substitute to sugar or any other kind of sweetener....here's some info on it.

You can get it at a health food store, a bit pricey but....weigh the consequences.

'A Powerfully Sweet Native Tradition'

The Guarani Indians had known for centuries about the unique advantages of kaa he-he (a native term which translates as "sweet herb") -- long before the invaders from the Old World were lured by the treasures of the New.

These native people knew the leaves of the wild stevia shrub (a perennial indigenous to the Amambay Mountain region) to have a sweetening power unlike anything else;

they commonly used the leaves to enhance the taste of bitter mate (a tea-like beverage) and medicinal potions, or simply chewed them for their sweet taste.

The widespread native use of stevia was chronicled by the Spaniards in historical documents preserved in the Paraguayan National Archives in Asuncion.

Historians noted that indigenous peoples had been sweetening herbal teas with stevia leaves "since ancient times." In due course, it was introduced to settlers.

By the 1800s, daily stevia consumption had become well entrenched throughout the region -- not just in Paraguay, but also in neighboring Brazil and Argentina.

Like the discovery of America itself, however, credit for stevia's "discovery" goes to an Italian. In this case, the explorer was a botanist whose initial unfamiliarity with the region (along with his difficulty in locating the herb) caused him to believe that he had stumbled onto a "little-known" plant.

A New World "Discovery"

Dr. Moises Santiago Bertoni, director of the College of Agriculture in Asuncion, first learned of what he described as "this very strange plant" from Indian guides while exploring Paraguay's eastern forests in 1887.

This area was not the herb's native 'growing ground.' Consequently, Bertoni, by his own account, was initially "unable to find it."

It was 12 years before he was presented with tangible evidence -- a packet of stevia fragments and broken leaves received from a friend who had gotten them from the mate plantations in the northeast.

He subsequently announced his discovery of the "new species" in a botanical journal published in Asuncion.

Bertoni named the "new" variety of the Stevia genus in honor of a Paraguayan chemist named Rebaudi who subsequently became the first to extract the plant's sweet constituent.

"In placing in the mouth the smallest particle of any portion of the leaf or twig," Bertoni wrote, "one is surprised at the strange and extreme sweetness contained therein.

A fragment of the leaf only a few square millimeters in size suffices to keep the mouth sweet for an hour; a few small leaves are sufficient to sweeten a strong cup of coffee or tea."

Probably more info then you wanted to know, but that's the scoop

Help this helps,
-laserred-

Hope this helps,
robi

I have a Stevia cookbook somewhere...and the reason I can't find it is that I'm sure in a heated Lyme rage I hurled it across the room because...

Stevia is difficult to cook with!

Now I freely admit I will not be receiving any awards for my culinary skills - at least not in this lifetime - but STEVIA is challenging.

I do LOVE to put it in the coffee I'm not supposed to be drinking, though.

If someone comes up with a do-able receipe using stevia & anything chocolate...I will pay you big money to send it to me.

Of course I don't have big money now - so you have plenty of time to develop your masterpiece.

Hoping to win the lottery soon,

- Hot chocolate. Buy unsweetened soymilk, put in a pot with cocoa powder (this is unsweetened--not hot chocolate mix). Start with about 2or3T for 2 cups of soymilk. Do not worry that it does not seem to mix in, it will, as the soymilk heats up and you're still stirring. Now the tricky part is how much stevia. You can add this at the beginning or whenever. I don't remember how much I used. I make up a 'working mix', a dilution, of stevia I keep in an empty supplement jar. It's described on the Stevia web page, the white powder (I also use NOW) would be too easy to use too much, so you mix 1t with a 3T of water in the jar. Then you use this to sweeten your hot chocolate, to taste. Start with maybe 1/4t of this dilution. I love to make this warm hot chocolate drink, even if I cant remeber how much stevia to use.

- Chocolate mouuse. This is still in development. I've only tried it once so far. It is inspired by a vegan chocolate mouuse recipe. You need the mori-nu asceptic packages of tofu, and a blender. Normally, we would just melt chocolate chips, and then blend with this smooth tofu, and viola, a realy good desert. But, the choc. chips, even the grain sweetened, are not allowed for us now. So, my brownie recipe has a substitution for chocolate using cocoa powder, and I tried this: 6T of cocoa powder and 1/2C earth balance margarine melted together in a pan. This is what I use for a pan of brownies, but may have been too much for 1small pkg mori-nu tofu. I put this chocolate mixture and tofu in the blender with some of the stevia working mix and 1t vanilla. Blended tasted, added more stevia, etc... And it was more dark chocolaty, not too sweet. I liked it fine, 2 of my 3 children thought it was ok and ate it too, they like sugar and dont know why I insist on these experiments. Maybe next time I'll go easier on the chocolate and/or use just a little more stevia.

I'm not doing well with baked goods. Maybe because You just cant make a decent brownie with quinoa flour, no matter what. brown rice flour/quinoa flour combo made poor choc chip cookies too, too crumbly.

If you like the hot chocolate, remember that pudding is realy just the same thing thickened with corn starch or arrowroot powder. I'll probably make some tomorrow.

I'll start with 2T cornstarch, 1/3C cocoa powder with 2C soy milk and 1/8t salt in pan. Add stevia to taste, I can always add more later. stir over med heat until it boils, boil and stir 1 minute. add 2t vanillawhen you take it off heat. If you realy need the calories, do this right before the add vanill part: have 2 egg yolks slightly beaten in a bowl, add some of the pudding to blend, then mix this back into pudding in pot and cook 1 more minute. Then stirr in vanilla. pour into desert dishes and refrigerate.

Happy chocolate fix hunting

I dont like any of the stevia products. They are all processed and leave me with an after taste that I cant abide. I buy the bulk ground leaves. Nothing has been done to it except pick it and grind it into a fine powder.

My cocoa mix isnt for everyones taste but I love it. I like dark strong chocolate rather than ssweet milk chocolte.

This is just a very general thing and you can adjust it to your taste.

Its a great place to add ground milk thistle or anything else you take daily.

2 tbl organic cocoa
stevia to taste, I use about 1/2 tsp (not very sweet)
mix with water and anything else you want like soy, milk thistle etc
When mixed add 1 tbl melted coconut oil
Ground nuts or nut butter are great addition
Change any of the measurements to your taste

Also, when I bake I will use a combination of stevia and Inulin, so it is not so bitter. Or, I will use food grade vegetable glycerin and stevia. In both situations you can use less stevia because it is mixed with another acceptable sweetener.

You must READ the label of your stevia container to know what part of the plant you are using. This also makes a big difference in how much you substitute for sugar. I use the pure stevia leaf extract (very strong). 1/2 tsp. of that equals about a cup of sugar.

If you go to the wholeapproach.com site you can look up some great stevia recipes and download a table that explains the equal values to sugar by plant part & by form (liquid or powdered). There is a zucchini brownie recipe on there that is actually quite chocolatey and good. I know, zucchini??? Yep, and it's good.

Also, if you use carob powder in place of some of the chocolate you will get a nice sweet taste and you can use less stevia. Carob is naturally sweet.

Inulin, or Chicolin, is a naturally sweet plant in the chicory family. It is mildly sweet. It has FOS in it so, some people may not want to try it. I order my Inulin, Stevia and Veg. Glycerin online at very good prices fron iHerb.

All of these sweeteners are free of any of the bad stuff that sugar and sugar substitutes have. And, they can be used freely without causing Candida to flare.

Granola: 1/4 cup water; 1/4cup nut oil, 1/8 cup Veg. Glycerin; 1 cup unrefined rolled grains (oats, spelt, kamut, rye, barley); 1 -2 cups of chopped nuts and whole seeds (whatever you can tolerate; a scoop of either almond meal or bran or flax meal (as a binder), vanilla, cinnamon, 1/4 tsp stevia, 2 tsp. Inulin (you can play with the sweeteners); toss in some frozen cranberries or blueberries if you can tolerate any fruit. Bake this for about 60 minutes in a 275 deg. oven, turning every 15 milutes. Add this to your plain yogurt ar just much on it by the handful. Use less grains and more nuts if need be.

Enjoy