Sweeteners 

In my pantry, there's no refined sugar.  Not even a small package. A few years ago, I switched from a bag of regular white sugar to only healthier natural sugars.  I gradually started to substitute refined sugar or brown sugar by other more "high in nutrients" sweeteners in my recipes and it worked well most of the time.  Actually, now that we got use to bake with those products, we find that they add more flavours to our foods.  

Agave nectar 

You can substitute most of my recipes using maple syrup or honey with this vegan alternative.  Works great in smoothies, pastries, raw cakes and poudings.  

Apple sauce 

Good alternative to eggs and fat in cakes and cookies.  I always keep organic unsweetened apple sauce in my pantry.  I add it also in special apple sauce pancakes and cookies for my baby.  

Bananas

Ripe bananas are great in cakes, cookies and to sweeten smoothies (especially those green ones!).  

Coconut sugar

This "toffee taste like" sugar is my favorite dry sweetener ! It has a low glycemic index rating (reduces the chances to cause sugar spikes).  

Dried apricots, dates, cranberries, raisins

I use them mostly in recipes containing nuts, like crusts, energy balls, vegan cakes or brownies, etc.... or just as-is!  

Honey

Unpasteurized honey contain antioxydants, vitamins and minerals and is antibacterial as well (for a cold, mix honey with hot water, ginger and lemon).  Great in yogurt, fruit salads, cookies, cakes, salad dressings and marinades.   

Maple syrup

As a French-Canadian (Quebec is the largest maple syrup producer), I was raised with maple syrup on every pancake or crepe I had.  It's my favorite liquid sweetener.  When we moved to California, I made sure I had boxes of maple syrup in the moving truck (just in case). Thankfully, I can find it here to ! I use it A LOT.  You'll see it in desserts (crusts, cookies, cakes), as well as my granola recipe, pancakes, overnight oats, salad dressings and marinades.  No other words to say than it's THE BEST sweetener and it's rich in minerals too !    

Molasses (Blackstrap) 

Molasses is very rich in iron.  Be sure to choose blackstrap over fancy, it's the unrefined one and is dense in nutrients.