Some health food stores used to sell powdered stevia leaves. I still have some from years ago. You just use it to taste for something like tea. It is a little bitter if too much is used and it's best mixed with another sweetener, IMO. The powdered leaves will give whatever you use it in a green tint(so in tea it wouldn't matter). I still use it occasionally if I'm making something with artificial sweetener and I'll combine it with other sweeteners to taste. I wouldn't rub it between my hands, though, as the sweetness will 'cling' for a while. A mortar and pestle or coffee grinder(or rolling pin and ziplock bag)would work, but let the powder settle before opening a grinder if that is used. HTH

Poor planning, more so than purchasing healthy ingredients, will put a strain on your food budget. I don't think you have a clear plan to follow yet, and you are making so many drastic changes all at once. A plan, and perhaps making fewer drastic changes, will help you out in the budget department. Simply prepared meat, fruits and vegetables, and gluten-free grain choices really shouldn't cost you more than you normally spent. Eventually you can start adding homemade "goodies". We don't eat cookies, cake and ice cream on a daily, or even weekly basis, and snacks are nuts, dehydrated apple slices, cheese, and occasionally cookies or cake are made for the weekend if we are expecting guests. But all those snack choices are PART of our daily food plan. Are you also cooking "regular" food for your family? Buy raw nuts (in bulk if possible - or look for some after-Christmas sales), soak them overnight in lightly salted water (which helps them sprout) and dehydrate them to increase the nutrition and make them easier to digest, and make your own nut butters. How much nut butter are you using? We typically use an 18-oz. jar each month, whether it's homemade nut butter/s or commercial brands. I was able to purchase Simple Truth organic peanut butter for the BIG bargain price of $1.99 (regularly $4.29) for 18-oz. At that stock-up price, I'm not going to make it. To deal with the oil - once jarred, store them up-side-down in the refrigerator. Take them out 20-30 minutes before you need to use them so they warm and are easier to spread. (I actually store it up-side down one time, then right-side up the next). I also use the nuts and unsweetened coconut to make nut milk and coconut milk. The pulp from nut milk and coconut milk gets used to make gluten-free "cereal", crackers, and an assortment of g-f baked goods. Stevia works well for many things, but unfortunately, not everything, just because of the science "sugar" contributes to baking. I grew stevia last summer and am using it and commercial stevia. Honey is used in moderation on the GAPS diet (which is a diet you may want to seriously research). I also use low-glycemic coconut palm sugar. BTW, do you have diabetes, pre-diabetes, Syndrome X, or other glucose issues, or are you just trying to cut back on added sugar and total carbohydrate intake? Once again, it's about your total carb intake from ALL food sources for the day, not just which kind of sugar you use. Are you following any particular dietary plan to help you with your menu planning? I follow the old Basic-4, and have since the 80's. The Food Pyramid and the new My Plate include too many carbohydrates and too much total food for us. We'd have diabetes and be enormous if we followed those dietary plans. You just need to fill-in-the-blank for your daily food intake including all meals and snacks. Bread/Cereal - 4 servings (all wholegrain for us - + g-f) Fruits & Vegetables - 4 servings (occasionally more than 4) Meat OR Meat Alternative - 2 servings Milk/Dairy - 2 servings (We also have a serving of nuts each day.) If you follow this plan while making your dietary changes, that may help you with the food budget. Stick to whole foods so you don't have to watch those labels as closely when choosing packaged processed foods. -Grainlady

As with most things in life, it's not so much about what's "BETTER", but rather about the choices afforded us. We each have to weigh our options based on information or emotions and figure out what's "better". I've worked in three health food stores and managed one of them, and was a consultant in the start-up of another, as a point of reference only. Having done so, however, does NOT make me an "expert" at anything.... My experience comes from self-study and a decade of use of agave nectar that goes beyond a Google search. I've tried and tested a large number of sweeteners over the years, not just sold them. I did a serious 5-year study and test on a wide range of sweeteners. When I come across something new, I'll test it as well, and study as much information as I can find on it. I'm the only person I've known to work with dairy sweet whey as a sweetener, as an example. I've used Trutina Dulcem, a kiwi fruit glycoside, which had a bitter aftertaste similar to chemical sweeteners, and leaves baked goods dry and unappealing. As my husband and I work to prevent diabetes (which runs in his family), we have based our diet on foods on the lower half of the Glycemic Index of Foods, as well as whole foods, for many years now. Agave Nectar fits in this plan nicely because it is one of the lowest foods on the index (11) compared to white sugar (100) and it's a natural sweetener which works like sugar in cooking and baking - unlike stevia and chemical non-calorie sweeteners. The big test for most sweeteners are in baking. As an additional plus, none of my husband's diabetic family members have any blood sugar problems eating foods I make with agave nectar. Even when it's cake and ice cream! Because it tastes much sweeter, much less is needed to equal the same sweeteness of sugar. I normally use only half as much agave nectar as sugar called for in a recipe, that means for every teaspoon of sugar (16 calories) I use 1/2 a teaspoon of agave nectar (10 calories). As an example - I make a loaf of banana bread using 1/4 c. of agave nectar - less if the bananas are really ripe and sweet. Baked in a Danish Loaf Pan (which is long and narrow), I get 24 slices from one loaf, so that's not many calories per loaf from agave nectar.... Agave nectar is made from the carbohydrates present in the Agave plant through a totally natural thermic (heat) process with no chemicals used to make it. Virtually all varieties of agave nectar are organically grown, should that be of interest to anyone. The darker, unfiltered varieties contain more minerals - I've only had the thick, unfiltered, molasses-like, type once - a gallon from a brewery company - it's hard to find but is a good substitute for molasses. I do keep the filtered darker versions on hand, they add a little more flavor while the light varieties are nearly flavorless. Unlike honey, agave nectar is safe to use with young children and babies. I choose to avoid chemical sweeteners for a number of reasons, including my own negative experiences. I've known too many people who have had adverse reactions from consuming them. I try to avoid "chemcial concoctions" in our foods as much as possible. That's another choice I make. For all of you who enjoy and use chemical sweeteners, that's your choice. When used in yeast breads, agave nectar contributes to fermentation and helps keep breads moist due to it's high monosacchride content. Agave nectar has a high osmotic pressure and this characteristic helps to inhibit the growth of microorganisms. Agave nectar also has a high hygroscopicity - which increases the water retention properties of a food. This is helpful in breads and other baked goods. "...in bread making and baked goods helping these products to maintain their freshness and texture." As a secondary result of the hygroscopicity of agave nectar, I can often significantly reduce the fat in baked goods and still get great results. Agave nectar doesn't crystalize like honey, and has a long shelf-life. These are the kinds of things I've gathered from an assortment of reference materials to learn more about agave nectar, as well as years of use. To my knowledge, Stevia has never been approved as a sweetener, but as an herbal supplement. Many people have successfully used it and love it - it never passed the taste test at our home even through I did lots of testing using a variety of types. I would, however, heartly recommend the cookbook, "Stevia" (naturally sweet recipes for desserts, drinks and more!) by Rita DePuydt for anyone who is interested in using stevia. It gives information about the many forms of stevia and leans a little towards healthier ingredients and uses whole wheat flour in most of the recipes. I'm not sure if stevia plants are organically grown? I also know they add other ingredients to many of the stevia types/brands and it's a highly processed food that is far removed from the plant and the green herbal sweetener that you can make at home if you grow stevia. Some people are also combining stevia or Splenda WITH agave nectar to reduce the bitter aftertaste of the stevia and Splenda; and to get better baking results - such as browning you can't get with chemical sweeteners and stevia, and moisture in the crumb of baked goods (especially noticable the day after the foods are baked). Once again, it's about choices. As far as Sucanat is concerned, it's one of the sweeteners I keep on hand and use - especially when a liquid sweetener isn't the best choice, or it throws the baking science off too much. The "nutritional" aspect of Sucanat is mostly hype - it's still a high-glycemic sweetener and I use it very sparingly. I doubt that most people choose their sweetener for it's nutritional value, it's just a nice little plus you get with Sucanat. When it comes to candy making, I have a few original recipes that use agave nectar, but good old white sugar is the sweetener of choice when it comes to a batch of Mamie Eisenhower's Million Dollar Fudge at Christmas. -Grainlady

1. I grow my own stevia plants and harvest the leaves each fall and I convert some of it to a liquid extract and some to dried leaves to make extracts later. Remember, stevia is NOT sugar, just plant leaves which are sweet tasting. 2. Your dried leaves will have varying levels of sweetness depending on the growing season and variety of plants - somewhere between 10 to 30 times sweeter than sugar. Depending on the variety of plant that was grown, stevia has a bitter component and some varieties are less bitter than others. So you have no idea how much sweetness is equal to 1-cup of sugar - you'll just be guessing. 3. Pure stevioside extracts of stevia in the form of a white powder or clear liquid are 200 to 300 times sweeter than sugar. So commercial stevia products are entirely different, and usually much sweeter, that those made from the stevia leaves. 4. Stevia has it's own unique taste (a little like licorice). Therefore, if you are using it for baked goods, I'd suggest buying a commercial stevia product which has less bitterness and a more neutral flavor, and the sweetness is regulated so you know how much of the product equals sugar. 5. Sugar in baked goods has attributes that you can't duplicate with stevia. Sugar is a tenderizer and it's hygroscopic and attracts moisture. It also helps with browning. Stevia does none of those, so you have to include some ingredients that will aid those attributes, not just substitute stevia for sugar. 6. Since one cup of sugar could be replaced with as little as 1/4 t. of concentrated stevia powder, that will throw off your ratio of liquids to solids. Baking is also a science. 7. If you plan on having any kind of success making banana bread, find a recipe that is already designed for using stevia and use the kind (powder, liquid, sugar replacer packets, etc.) called for in the recipe. 8. Expect a somewhat different flavor, especially an aftertaste that takes time to get accustomed to as your taste buds switch from sugar to stevia. 9. Try to make small loaves. Baked goods made with stevia tend to get dry very quickly, so plan on using it quickly and refrigerate or freeze any leftovers so they don't dry out. Wrap it tightly in foil to help maintain the moisture. 10. By converting the leaves to a concentrate by carefully cooking stevia leaves in water, it will make a dark, syrupy liquid which is better used as a substitute for molasses or brown sugar in recipes. It is stable for months and the flavor "improves" with age. So how it will taste just after making it doesn't mean that's how it will taste 2-months from now. It would also be helpful to know what your food goals are by substituting stevia for sugar. Is the banana bread for a diabetic, for instance? If so, they are still consuming high-glycemic flour and I could suggest a better recipe that includes low-glycemic almond flour. For diabetics, it's the total amount of carbohydrates, whether it's from white flour or white sugar. Perhaps the recipe below will help you with your sugar to stevia conversion, but I don't have a recipe using homemade stevia concentrate from cooking the leaves in water. BANANA BREAD Source: "Stevia" by Rita DePuydt 2 very ripe, medium to large bananas 1/4 t. powdered stevia extract 1/2 t. stevia concentrate 1 T. lemon juice 2 c. whole wheat pastry flour 1/2 t. baking soda 1 t. baking powder 1/4 t. salt 1/3 c. oil 1 large egg 1/2 c. plain nonfat yogurt or buttermilk 1 t. vanilla extract 1/2 c. chopped walnuts (optional) Preheat oven to 350-degrees F. Oil a medium-sized loaf pan (7-1/2x8-1/2x2-1/2 inches). Mash the bananas in a small bowl. Mix the stevia extract, stevia concentrate, and lemon juice into the mashed bananas. Set aside Sift the flour, leavenings, and salt together in a bowl. Beat the oil and eggs together in a mixing bowl until creamy. Bean in the yogurt or buttermilk and the vanilla. Stir in the mashed bananas into the liquid mixture. Fold the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients, stirring as little as possible. Mix in the walnuts just before the flour is completely blended. Place into the loaf pan. Bake for 50 minutes to 1 hour until a toothpick or fork stuck in the middle comes out clean. Turn out the loaf and cool on a rack. Yield: 12 servings Per serving: Calories: 162, Total Fat: 7 g., Protein: 5 g., Carb.: 20 g., Fiber: 3 g., Sodium: 141 -Grainlady