Category Archives: Sugar Free

Making Changes

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“Mum, ever since you came back from Australia you have been feeding us weird food…. I’m not sure i like it.”

This was my sons’ comment to me the other day. The child who suffers from Coeliacs Disease. The one who will benefit most from our diet overhaul and the one who is resisting! For those that have not read any of my other posts i will recap….. A couple of months ago i visited a friend in Australia where a chanced upon a book called ‘i quit sugar’, written by her fiancés sister. The more i read, the more i realised that even though my family were adhering to a Gluten Free diet, where i cooked most meals from scratch, i had compensated for the things they were missing out on by providing them with sugary treats and encouraging them to snack on a lot of dried fruit. All ok in moderation…… but the sugar levels (esp fructose) were stacking up and the effect were showing! So why are these natural fruits sugars bad i hear you ask? Not sure… would have been my answer a few weeks ago but now i can tell you – Click to for an explanation – What is Fructose? About 6 weeks ago i removed sugar from my diet completely, which left me grumpy, tired and irritable. I think i have come out the other side. It has been hard going but definitely worth it. I no longer suffer stomach bloating, my skin is clearer and i do not get that mid afternoon energy crash and fogginess. I have taken a much more moderate approach with the kids. My cooking at home is Gluten and Sugar free but i am not strict when visiting other peoples houses or at parties etc. That would be far too much hard work for me and upsetting for the kids! I’m all for keeping things simple!

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So, picture my day. Saturday morning 6.30am. Already been woken by each of my children during the night. Sun just rising and the kids already bickering. Settle them in front of TV and sneak back to bed for an hour. Two cups of coffee down, an early morning yoga class and i’m ready to tackle the day. Grey and stormy outside and a house full of kids…. definitely a day for cooking and plenty of tiny taste testers on hand! Still focusing on breakfast recipes. High protein, low sugar, for a good start to the day. Also been thinking about breakfast options for ‘on the go’. If you are anything like us, morning is a rush and breakfast doesn’t always get the time it deserves. My daughter isn’t really ready to eat for a while after she gets up and often ends up snacking in the car on the way to preschool. I want to improve on the ‘fall back’ peanut butter sandwich! With the Granola a success, i have moved on to thinking about Granola Bars and now that the mornings are getting colder, something warm inside their tummies first thing really helps, so a – quick cooked breakfast – seems like a good idea. Cooking whilst surrounded by four wild kids and with a couple of ‘little helpers’ was not an easy task. It came with some success but was unfortunately matched by a level of failure! Lets start with the good – Ham n Eggs – Breakfast Muffin. Recipe in next post. Btw – managed to make a few meals and treats this weekend that my son approved of. Not sure if his tastes are changing and he is not craving the sugar as much of if my ‘Sugar Free’ cooking skills are improving?! Been meaning to mention photography and images – This is the element of my blog that is causing me some anguish. Have absolutely no understanding of my camera and how to take a ‘good shot’. The ideas are there but finding it hard to get results. Am trying to learn fast. Watching youtube videos and reading round the subject of product photography, so bear with me…. please. Images will improve. Promise. x

Granola – The Recipe

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Since becoming Gluten Free, I have tried a number of Granola recipes, as the bought varieties are often very sweet and expensive! It has taken a while, a bit of testing and advice from friends, relatives and most importantly the kids but we think this is the one! It is crunchy, not too sweet and contains a great mix of nutritious nuts and grains. Add dried fruit if you like or just use up some of your store cupboard ingredients. My new addition…. taken from the Granola recipe in the ‘I quit Sugar’ book is coconut shavings. For me, dried fruit is out but the coconut adds that extra texture and sweetness i was looking for. The kids love em. My three year old daughter can even make this Granola, she eats the leftover mixture from the bowl just like you would a cake!

 

 

We eat ours with a big dollop of Greek Yogurt on the top for breakfast. The kids snack on it as an alternative to biscuits or sprinkle it on a bowl of yogurt as an after dinner pudding treat. Try it and tell me how your family eat theirs!

 

I have given measurements in cups for the dry ingredients as this is how i have always made it but if you plan to use your scales. The general conversion is; for dry ingredients.

 1 cup = 150 – 200g.

 There is no need to be exact when making this Granola. I often just pour in Whatever i have in the cupboard, a handful here, a handful there! Just go with it, experiment to find your perfect mix!

 

Ingredients

Dry

  • 2 cups rolled oats. (we use the washed gluten free variety). If you are not able to eat these try using quinoa flakes)
  • 1/4 cup whole raw almonds & cashew nuts (or any nuts you like)
  • 3/4 cup raw buckwheat
  • 3/4 cup sunflower & pumpkin seeds
  • 1 cup coconut flakes

Wet

  • 80g Coconut oil
  • 3 tablespoon honey or Rice Malt Syrup (this is an alternative to honey that i  use as i am off the sugar, more about that later!)
  • 1/4 tsp salt
  • 1/2 tsp Cinnamon
  • 1 tsp Vanilla Essence

 

Method

  • Preheat oven to 120 c. Cooking time 40 mins.
  • Line baking tray with baking paper
  • Combine all dry ingredients in bowl, except coconut flakes
  • Melt Coconut oil (either in microwave for a few seconds or on hob).
  • Mix in rest of wet ingredients
  • Combine with dry ingredients
  • Spread evenly on baking tray
  • Cook for 20 mins
  • Mix and turn. Add coconut flakes.
  • Cook for further 20 mins.
  • I like mine crunchy so sometimes cook for a further 5 – 10 mins!
  • Leave to cool. The Granola should be nicely browned, crunchy and ready to eat!
  • Store in airtight container. I use a glass jar. Am guessing it would keep for a few weeks…. Can’t be sure as ours has NEVER lasted that long!

Enjoy x

 

 

Me, My Family & Food

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So, why start a blog when I already have a lot on my plate? Well, food has become a bigger focus in our house over the last year with my son being diagnosed with Coeliac Disease (more about that in my next post). Having managed to overhaul our diet and remove all gluten containing products I realized that I had substituted with many sugar-laden foods! My skin and my sons was not good, I felt sluggish and often irritable. We were all eating a lot of fruit, dried fruit, homemade cake and biscuits etc. Good right?! Well actually not. Even these high levels of ‘natural’ sugars were having an adverse effect on our bodies but I was not aware of this until I chanced upon a book – Whilst visiting one of my oldest and dearest friends in Australia I picked up a book, which was lying around their house. Written, in fact, by her fiancés sister. ‘I quit Sugar (by Sarah Wilson).  http://www.iquitsugar.com Two pages in and I was gripped.

 

“Our modern food system is set up around sugar, and seductively so. A muesli bar can contain more sugar than a block of chocolate; everyday bbq sauce more than chocolate topping. You try to do the right thing only to find low-fat yogurt contains more sugar than ice cream. You feed your kids ‘wholegrain’ cereal in the morning with some juice and pack their lunchbox with ‘healthy’ snacks, like raisins or fruit. By lunch they’ve eaten their way through a Mars-bar-and-cola-can worth of sugar” Sarah Wilson.

 

Note: It is not ‘sugar’ per se that is the problem. It is the fructose element (which our bodies store as fat), the glucose part is broken down and utilized as energy. Many fruits and dried fruits contact high levels of Fructose. This is where I was confused. I thought that all the sugars in fruit were ‘good sugars’. I was wrong and had been gorging on fruit ever since we became ‘gluten free’. It was a readily available snack! – more on the biology later!

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In the last 6 weeks I have eliminated sugar from my diet, learned more about hidden sugars in the food we eat and started to look at my children’s diet. I was shocked at the amount of sugar they actually consume and have been pulling together recipes, snacks and ideas to reduce their sugar consumption; Using my kids as guinea pigs!!! All the recipes are gluten free, and mostly completely sugar free – I have taken inspiration from a number of sources then simplified the recipes to cater for the tastes of little ones and in order to make them quick and easy to prepare. Will quote original sources and provide links where necessary.

 

Anyone who wants to follow my journey read on; I am interested in the ‘biology bit’, the tasty food bit and the way society and the food industry has developed in recent years so that we accept, all be it unwittingly, sugar laden foods to be sold to us!

 

I am not here to get fanatical, be virtuous or preach at you. My experience will, I hope, enable families coping with autoimmune diseases such as Coeliac’s find cooking and meals enjoyable again as well as those who want to reduce the amount of sugar (especially hidden sugars) in their diet and those of their kids do it more easily. BTW, I don’t spend hours in the kitchen. All my meals contain as few ingredients as possible, do not use expensive and difficult to find substitutes and are quick to prepare. I am busy right!

 

Lets get going……..