I quit! Sugar?

So after the holidays (meaning after our intestinal systems were bombarded with sugar overload and we became processed food addicts for several weeks) John made an important household decision- We’re going off sugar again.

Last summer I sabotaged the month of June and told my husband we would be going off of sugar until the fourth of July. And the cake that I would bake for the fourth of July would be a celebratory feast of sugar! Little did I know that decision would alter our perception of sugar for good, and that a big sugary cake with multi-colored frosting would no longer be appealing to us. My husband dropped the weight (specifically how much? No idea, we don’t have a scale. But let’s just say it was enough weight for people to actually ask him about it) and all of sudden we had a boost of energy- that was AFTER the initial stage of headaches and grogginess.

I haven’t actually used white, refined sugar since then, but have instead chosen agave nectar, raw honey, and (in very small amounts) raw sugar over it. I’ve also made an attempt to sweeten naturally with fruits, steer away from large amounts of gluten in our diets, and weed out the processed foods. That being said, life got busy, and from November up through the first week of January, we ate poorly. Granted, we didn’t eat terribly… just… poorly. And we noticed a huge difference in the way we were feeling. So, I’m back at it! Three weeks ago, we eliminated sugar entirely, including fruits. Now, that comes with a side note: there’s really no way (that I’ve found) to completely eliminate sugar. Carrots even have sugar in them. And a lot of carbs we eat turn into sugars when our body processes them. So when I say we went entirely off of sugar, what I mean is- no desserts, no fruits, nothing processed, no foods with added sugar, etc. (Now is when I must admit a moment of weakness- I ate 3/4 of a doughnut, a doughnut a lovely coworker brought into work for me. I immediately regretted it, though. I promise.)

The week after that? Epic fail. February, along with all of its sweet goodness, hit us hard. Even though this time around we weren’t experiencing the headaches and stomachaches, it was so much harder! I got these crazy cravings, and neither of us really felt like it was necessary to hold off in giving in to them. Excuses poured in, no weight was being lost, and I- not John, but I, completely went off the deep end. Mmm, cheesecake! Fruity smoothies. Truffles. Fudge from Cripple Creek? A pound of it! Ah… what in the world has gotten into me?

John and I say all of the time: This is change in lifestyle. Sugar is a place to visit. We’re not doing any of this to win a competition, see how long we could possibly go with being “good,” make others feel bad when they have a giant slice of chocolate cake, be more controlling… Honestly, I’ve read enough on how sugar effects the body to know having it every day isn’t good. I know how much better I feel when I stay away from sugars and breads, and that’s why I want it to be more of a lifestyle change than anything else.

So… *drum-roll, please* We’re doing the Whole30! (Please ignore the poor design of the following banner)

We’re going to do the Whole30 program as our initial kick-off. Back to the basics, off of sugar, and on to the food God gave us! This is going to be extremely challenging for us, especially since we are a couple that runs off of dairy. Yum. But- I’m confident we can do it. I already have the entire month of March planned out, meal by meal. Hoping that this cleanse gets our bodies back on the right track! What can you expect to see? A quick weekly update (for accountability sake). What you won’t see: a play by play on the meals we’re consuming, or daily updates in regards to the Whole30 plan. I don’t intend to do this as a guide for others. Maybe I’ll consider it when I go on my fifth year of it, but for now- not so.

Phew- I thought going off of sugar alone was difficult. This should get interesting…

12 Days of Christmas [Posters]- Day 5

Inspired by Owl City’s song Peppermint Winter. Merely the idea of a “peppermint winter” is incredible to me. Refreshing.

Cider, Snow, and Spicy Lattes

Sunday was busy. Very busy. So I decided to do some baking mid-week. This week I’ll share directly from the source because I really didn’t make any changes to the recipes. That, and their photos are way more delicious looking than my photos; so I’ll let them do the talking for me.

Let’s start with Tuesday. Came home, warmed up some pretty-darn-good leftover homemade potato soup, set the husband (note: I will be referring to my husband as “the husband” in this post for sarcastic and slightly snarky* reasons) to task on cleaning out our pumpkin, and prepped to do some baking. Let me start with the pumpkin.

We decided to do a very Pinteresty pumpkin carving with cookie cutters. Fun and fall-like, right? Leaves, turkey, and pumpkin shapes. Classy- until the husband decides to arrange three of the shapes in such a way that it portrays a face. Classy Pinterest pumpkin is now scary, sad, and slightly creepy pumpkin. Thanks to- the husband.

Oh no! It’s snow! (*laughs with self*)

Culinary Concoctions by Peabody *click for recipe*

Then, I baked an Apple Cider Pound Cake with Caramel Glaze. An entire loaf was GONE within a few hours at the husband’s office and a half a loaf was gone within an hour at mine. Several people asked for the recipe and I added this to my list of favorites. If you truly love apple cider and baked goods, you shall truly love this treat.

Then last night it snowed! A whopping 3-4 inches of fantastic frigid powder. Made for some pretty morning mountains:

The husband and I truly love snow. Our philosophy is that if it’s going to be cold, something might as well come from it! You should have seen us last night (for my facebook friends, you saw the husband last night- PJ pants, t-shirt, SNOW). It could have been Christmas morning we were so excited for the fluffy white specks falling from the sky. It was also our first snow storm in our new home which made it all the more exciting and wonderful. Due to the snow and brisk 20 degree morning, I found it appropriate to whip us up some pumpkin spice lattes. Cue recipe #2:

Farmgirl Gourmet *click for recipe*

Word of caution on the lattes: don’t go pumpkin puree crazy. I thought to myself why not add twice as much pumpkin? Wouldn’t that be twice as delicious? I ended up almost chewing my pumpkin latte with very little coffee and spice. Oh, coffee and spice, how I long for your taste.
Welcome, cold fall, welcome.
*Concerning the word snarky: a new favorite of mine thanks to the co-worker I sit next to. Thanks, Kate!

Sweet Sunday

As of today, John and I are off of our no sugar diet! I know, we only did it for just over two weeks, cheated by baking with raw honey, and even had a few breakdowns where we consumed some poor processed sugary treats… but overall it was a good experience, and has trained me to substitute better sweet ingredients for processed, refined sugars. Withdrawing from large amounts of sugars has also made us more sensitive to things with sugar in it. For example, the other night I made a delicious quiche (and actually made it moist, not dry), but became lazy and purchased a frozen pre-made pie shell. I’ve used these pie shells before, and yet never noticed how SWEET they are! Both John and I kind of choked over the sugar in it. So, our eyes have been opened, we’ve changed our lifestyle and the way I bake, and now it’s time for an amazing recipe that I had to use white sugar in, because I kind of ran out of raw honey. It wasn’t too much though, and I figured it was almost like a celebratory notion.

Lemon Blueberry Cream Cheese Cookies
(yes, you read that right)

Source: HotPolkaDot.com from my Pinterest

1 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
1 cup granulated sugar (I used 1/4 cup of honey, and almost about 3/4 cup sugar)
3 tbsp lemon juice (I left out lemon zest because John isn’t a huge fan of lemon)
2 eggs

1/2 tsp vanilla (I added this because I love vanilla)

1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
3 cups flour
1 cup blueberries

1/2 pkg cream cheese, cut into 1 tsp cubes

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

In a large bowl with an electric mixer, cream together the butter and sugar until it’s light and fluffy. Blend in the lemon juice, eggs, and vanilla.

In a separate bowl whisk together the baking soda, baking powder, salt and flour then mix it into the wet ingredients. Gently fold in the blueberries so as not to burst any. Refrigerate the dough for about 15 – 20 minutes to make it stiff enough to roll.

Roll cookies into tablespoon size balls and fold cube of cream cheese into the center, covering the cream cheese completely. Place on cookie sheet, bake 12-14 minutes or until lightly browned. Let cool on rack.

John LOVES them. I LOVE them. And, I loved the cookie dough, the part BEFORE the flour goes into it. It’s like a twist of lemon and vanilla to the usual sugary, buttery goodness. Oy, yum.

Sweet Sunday

And I promise it’s sweet! Since we had friends over Friday night, and we had decided upon a dessert and game night, I figured it would be incredibly unfair for them to show up and have me announce that dessert was sugar-free. (Never have heard anyone get excited over sugar free before… well except maybe me over this past week.) My recipe comes from Lick the Bowl Good Blog- Carmelly. Appley. Delicious.

Apple Cake with Brown Sugar Glaze

Apple Cake:

• 1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
• 1 cup sugar (I substituted an equal amount of raw honey- worked perfectly)
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
• 2 eggs
• 1/2 cup canola oil (I substituted extra virgin olive oil as I don’t normally buy canola)
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1 1/2 cups finely chopped apples (I used golden delicious- and it was a perfect consistency)
• 1/2 cup pecans or walnuts, chopped (optional)

Brown Sugar Glaze: (I halved the glaze recipe due to avoiding the sugar)

• 1/2 cup packed light brown sugar 
• 3 Tablespoons butter
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
• 1 Tablespoon heavy cream (I used whole milk)

For the cake: Heat the oven to 350 degrees F. Grease an 8-inch pan (round or square) and set aside.

In a medium bowl, combine the flour, sugar, baking soda, salt and cinnamon.Stir with a whisk to mix everything together.

In a large bowl, mix the eggs with a hand mixer til light in color and foamy. Add the oil and vanilla and beat well.

Stir in the flour mixture with a spoon and continue stirring the batter til the flour disappears. Add the apples and nuts (if using) and stir to mix them into the batter.

Scrape batter into prepared pan and bake for 40-45 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

Place the hot cake on a wire cake. While it’s still hot, prepare the glaze.

For the glaze: Combine all the ingredients into a saucepan. Cook over medium heat, stirring often, until the mixture comes to a gentle boil. Cook for 3-5 minutes.

Spoon the hot glaze over the still hot-from-the-oven cake. Let the glazed cake cool completely before serving straight from the pan.

This turned out WONDERFULLY. I have a poor habit of trying new recipes when guests come over, so I’m always extremely nervous that after everyone takes the first bite, a dissatisfied grumble and spitting food out will follow. Thankfully, this one resulted in a few “mmmm’s”… I’ll take it!

Confessions of a Sugarholic

Oh, this past week has been an exciting one. I’ve almost concluded that being gluten and sugar free all at once is a poor, poor idea. And why I took this on during the busiest season of my life, I don’t know! And did I ever have to think I’d deal with a frantic husband, calling me to say he forgot his lunch and has no where to eat because every single fast food place has sugar in their meals?

Getting home late at 8 on Tuesday is really when it all hit me. I had attended Yoga right after work, and that kicked my butt. Then I went straight from yoga to a… place… that I cannot yet disclose. Didn’t leave there until 8! So here we are, grumpy and hungry, and we would like to eat dinner before 9 pm. Salad! Nope, didn’t make the dressing, and I really don’t feel like making it right now. Pasta! Okay, I have some gluten free pasta on hand- but no sauce because of sugar. Okay so I’ll throw some mushrooms and leftover chicken into a skillet and make a creamy mushroom sauce. Vegetable! Screw it. Bread! But I didn’t make any that’s gluten free. Screw that too.

*Finishing up dinner at 8:50 pm* John: “What’s for dessert?”

Me: “Applesauce.”

John: “…”

Me: “Oh, shut up!”

And here’s where I confess all the sweets I’ve had this past week: A little bit of honey in my oatmeal in the morning (pretend you don’t know that oatmeal isn’t gluten free), some honey in my carrot cake cupcakes (those are gluten free!), and a dollop on barbeque sauce with my turkey burger. Oh, and a chocolate cupcake and Starbucks frappuccino (listen, we had friends over, and it’s rude not to eat what they brought).

Not bad, right? Right?

Yep, it’s true- crackers and broth have sugar.

…replaced with:

Note: I dislike gluten free pasta very much. And sugar-free jelly. That jelly is now the dog’s.

And now my kitchen is officially equipped with a yogurt maker and 8 lbs of coconut flour! As far as the question of do I feel any different is concerned: I do feel more energetic, but I’m not sure if that’s just because I need to be with all that’s happening in my life right now as well as with all that’s happening at work, or it’s actually because my body is processing the food I eat into actual energy and not just busy converting the sugars I eat into fat. I also have had quite a few pretty extreme sugar cravings, but I had those before I was off of sugar too. So who the heck knows!

Random fact about me (that I just now realized): I have a tendency to stick my face in very hot places while cooking. For example, right when I open the oven, I’ll shove my face right into that burst of heat pouring out of it. Or when I go to check the doneness of my steamed vegetables, I’ll lift the lid and stick my face right into the cloud of scorching steam billowing from the pot. It’s a miracle I haven’t burned my eyebrows and eyelashes off.