Month: May 2012

Sugar Free Challenge Day 2

So lots of feedback yesterday about how people did being sugar free and I have to confess: we had pancakes last night.  (Etienne asked me gleefully if I was going to confess and I said I would)

In our defense, it was a fundraiser for Daniel’s aftercare and we only had a little bit, so it was for a good cause.  And I could definitely see the impact as the kids were pretty mellow after the supper we took my folks, but after they had their pancake bedtime was a small nightmare as they were hopping all over the show.  Isabel was particularly bad.  So there.

Breakfast this morning was usual cornflakes for the kids and yoghurt/fruit for me.

Their snack boxes looked like this: I made rice cakes with cheese and ham and put some un-sulphured dried mango in for Daniel and raw peanuts for the girls.  I then added some goji berries that they actually eat, to my great surprise. If you haven’t tasted them before, they are lovely and you can stick them in almost anything.  I often chuck them in yoghurt with some seeds.

Tomorrow is sweetie day for all of them so I’ll pack some Lays Light Salted and a small packet of Florida’s Natural Nuggets.  They are a little pricey, but very yum.

For supper tonight my folks are coming over, so we are doing roast chicken, brown basmati, potatoes and veg.  I also found this Pasta with Cilantro-Peanut Pesto recipe in my reader this morning that looks amazing if you want to try something different.  And Sugar free.  And healthy.

I also found this link on twitter this morning and thought it was a great thing in light of this little challenge.  It’s a NY Times article on how the New York Mayor plans on banning large carbonated drinks.  I don’t know about you, but we hardly ever have Coke etc in the house and when someone leaves a bottle here it disappears very quickly.  I also often look at those big 2l bottles of cooldrink in the shops and think about all that sugar and plastic and then I think imagine people just stopped buying that stuff.  I’m weird, I know, but read the article, it’s well worth it.

I’ve been thinking about what I wanted to achieve with the challenge and for me it really ended up being about making people aware of sugar, the impact on our kids and checking food labels to see where it hides.  So, please think about those things and I’ll try to draw up a quick poll that makes sense.

And thank you.  From the bottom of my heart for all the feedback, I really appreciate it!

Day 1 – Sugarfree challenge

My folks moved house yesterday and when I got home late last night the last thing I felt like doing was bake those cookies I promised, but I decided to just get on with it and got Etienne to help.  Boy am I glad I did!

5 Ingredients, 10 minutes to put together, 15 minute rest time and 17 minutes in the oven.  I had to stop myself from scoffing down a whole pile of them!

I found the original recipe here.

Sugar-free banana cookies

Pre-heat oven to 180 degrees C

  • 3 bananas, mashed (we had little ones, overripe)
  • 250g dates (one of those blocks, chopped finely)
  • 1 and 3/4 cup oats
  • 1/3 c oil (I used avocado oil, but I’m sure you can use any oil)
  • 1tsp vanilla essence

Mix everything together and let it sit for 15 minutes to let the flavours mix.  Then you drop spoonfuls (I use the tablespoon measuring spoon for this) on a baking tray and make in the oven for 15-20 minutes.  Keep your eye on them until they are nice and brown and take them out.

Voila!

The kids’ snackboxes today

This morning I packed those cookies in for the kids along with a cheese wedge and some Crackerbread with some Black Cat Sugar and Salt free Peanut Butter.

Tomorrow I think it will be rice cakes with cheese and ham, I still need to figure out their snacks, but I’ll keep you posted!

For lunch today I’m having some rice cakes with fat free smooth cottage cheese with tomato and cucmber stacked on top with some cracked black pepper.  Quick and easy.

For supper we are taking my folks food as their new house has too little space and too much stuff, so we are probably going to make some ovenbaked risotto that we can start at home and rush over and stick in their oven and forget about until we are ready to eat.  I’m still deciding what to put in as Etienne has declared tonight a no-chicken night, but it will be along the lines of this recipe.  It is one of our favourite foods to make because it is so easy and you literally only need a sharp knife, a chopping board, a wooden spoon and a pot. (Except for the carbs, but I’ll just close my eyes tonight)

So, what did you plan to feed everyone today?

The Sugar-free Lunch Low-down

I’m going to try and cover most lunch options as our circumstances differ, so here goes.  We try to stay wheat free due to Daniel’s food issues, but there are loads of other options.

For the kids we pack of the following, along with the snacks from yesterday’s post, diluted fruit juice and/or a fruit.  Daniel also gets a healthy cooked lunch at school, we are very happy with the menu.

As toppings we mix it up between Peanutbutter, Cream Cheese, a little bit of St Dalfour Jam, Cheese, Ham and Bovril.  Even just grating cheese instead of slicing it makes a difference.

Sugar-free yoghurt is hard to find as once you find yoghurt with AB Live cultures AND rBST hormone free you are very limited.  We do compromise on sugar and rather have other good stuff, especially because Daniel is lactose intolerant.  Alternatively, buy Bulgarian yoghurt and keep frozen boiled, liquidized berries or some of that apple sauce I spoke about yesterday to liven it up.  I find that works quite well.  And it’s cheaper.

Etienne is very easy to please with a sandwich he makes himself (I know, he’s a keeper!) with some nuts as a snack and I try to have a salad and either tuna or smoked chicken.  Alternatively rice cakes with cream cheese topped with salad goodies.

I am however REALLY bad at lunch as I am notoriously disorganized in the morning, so most afternoons I shout “what’s for lunch!?” from my office and then toodle on down to the shop for some slap chips and a cheese griller.  Very very bad.

What I do find helps is making soups and freezing them, especially now in winter.  I take it out the freezer as I’m running out the door in the morning and by the time I’m ready for lunch it’s mostly defrosted.  I just have to make myself eat the soup and not run down to get that bloody cheese griller.

As a side-bar: for supper last night we fried some lightly spiced chicken breasts in coconut oil* and added a tin of creamed sweetcorn.  We then boiled some pasta and added that to the chicken/corn mix and the kids LOVED it with a little grated cheese on top.  How easy a meal is that for kids?  And quick!

*I am in love with coconut oil.  If I could marry coconut and have its babies I totally would.  I use it for absolutely everything and even Etienne is grudgingly getting used to it.  It seems expensive, but you use a lot less than you would normal oil and it is 100 times better for you.  Try getting the Dis-Chem brand, it’s well priced compared to the rest.  I dare you to try and fry some potatoes in the oven sprinkled with coarse salt.  You will never look back.

Tonight I’m going to try my hand at some sugar-free cookies as I found some really amazing websites here, here, and here.  Stay tuned for those results!

Lastly:  What ideas would you make for supper that is completely sugarfree.  I’m officially crowdsourcing supper.  So please leave me a comment to your blog or tweet me or let me know on FB and I will add it in tomorrow’s post

Sugarfree 48 Hours Challenge

By now I have had lots of questions and lots of interest about our little challenge this week ranging from “are you mad” to “I’m in!”, so I asked our favourite Nutritional Therapist, Frances van Reenen, for some advice.

First some ground rules:

  • No honey – It has a higher Glycemic load than sugar
  • No dried fruit sticks covered with sugar.
  • Give Xylitol a try, it’s a great sugar replacement we have used for a while now.  It is safe for children, prevents tooth decay and serves as a pre-biotic.  So not only will your hips, your blood-sugar levels and your teeth thank you, your gut will also be very happy as there will be no sugar to aid the growth of candida nasties.
  • Peanutbutter is fine as long as you buy a brand that specifies “no sugar added”.  (we use Black Cat)
  • Do not underestimate apples.  I often boil and liquidize apples to use instead of sugar, especially in home-made muesli or granola.  It’s easy to keep blocks in the freezer and you can pop them out and use them as you need.  Or you can just keep a small pot in the fridge and scoop over food instead of sugar.  Or you can simply grate apple over cereal in the morning.

By now I know you are wondering how on earth you are going to feed breakfast, pack lunches and organize snacks for those 2 days and we are going to make it as easy as possible, promise!

If you are standing in the shops and you aren’t sure what to look for, here’s what to look for on a food label.  I have used the back of Nairns biscuits for this exercise.

An easy guideline:  If something contains 5g of sugar it is equal to a teaspoon of sugar.  Also, make sure to check the serving sizes!

Breakfast:

  • Oats cooked with raisins, grated apple and cinnamon
  • Wholewheat or low GI toast  with sugar and salt free peanut butter
  • Scrambled/boiled egg with a slice of toast and marmite
  • Fruit salad, plain unsweetened yoghurt and sugar-free muesli
  • Baked beans on toast
  • Tastee wheat with sliced banana and/or raisins
  • Rice crispies with Xylitol

 Snacks:

  • Popcorn (easy on the salt or use Himalayan salt)
  • Biltong
  • Dried fruit and raw nuts
  • Nuts and raisins
  • Nacho’s/plain salted corn chips with avocado dip
  • Vegetable sticks (carrot, cucumber, celery) with hummus or avocado dip
  • Sugar-free fruit and nut bars
  • Pretzels
  • Hummus and grissini sticks
  • Sliced apple and peanut butter
  • Corn thins with cheese and/or good quality ham (no MSG)
  • Fruit smoothie
  • Boiled egg
  • A piece of fresh fruit and a handful of unsalted, raw nuts

Lunch will follow soon on Tanya’s blog!

The participants so far are:

Margot | Tanya | Jules | Andrea | Nicki | Camilla | Adele | Tertia | Candice | Molly | Lauren | Colour Giggles | Pamela | Cazpi | Sharon | Bronwyn | Cat

Please let me know if you are in and I will add you to the list!

PS: If you are looking for a nutritional therapist and you are in Cape Town, please contact Frances.  She is absolutely amazing and has a gift of not making you feel like a fat old hag. Ever.  You can reach her on nutritherapyworks at gmail dot com

48 Hours without Sugar Challenge

The completely amazing Margot and I were chatting over email today about kids and sugar and if there is a big impact on kids’ behavior when they have sugar. We agreed that there is, but we aren’t sure how much as everyone’s kids consume varying degrees of sugar.

Ask yourself this: how much sugar do we knowingly or unknowingly give our kids?

How much sugar hides in that chocolate, dried fruit, Milo, cookies, juice, cooldrink and cereal we give them? How hard would it be to not give them sugar, even if it was only for 48 hours?

We have therefore decided to not give our kids any sugar for 48 hours and see if it would make any difference to how they behave.

I then spoke to Tanya about it and she was keen to challenge parents as well.  (note how we don’t exclude the Dads..)

So here’s the challenge:

Starting on Wednesday morning up to and including Thursday evening not a crumb of sugar shall cross the lips of a (willing or unwilling or unaware) participant and we shall convene on the interwebs on Friday to see the results via a poll right here.

What we really want to know is how it made you feel to not have any sugar at the end of the 48 hours and if you could see or feel a difference in yourself and your kids when you woke up on Friday morning.

It’s only 2 days.  Who is in?

PS: The #tag on twitter is #sugarfree48

PPS: If you are curious about food labels go and have a look at the nifty guide Discovery put together on reading food labels, it is very cool

Crossing over to the dark side and a very quick poll

I have crossed over to the dark side.

That person that picks her battles carefully went for a long walk this morning to a very happy place and left Super Bitch Mom to deal with the Monday morning blues.  (Even Etienne lost his cool today.  Normally he is so calm I have to check him for a pulse.)

The SB Mom that says Fuck This.  You WILL wear a long-sleeved vest AND stockings because I SAID so and then proceeds to yank on those offending items of clothing whilst punctuating her words with every yank.

No harmony at Casa Roux this morning, except for poor Daniel that thought it was hilarious and was copying all the crying/whining/shouting in fine form.  When I leaned into the car to kiss the girls I literally got the cold shoulder, and I was so pissed off at the time I didn’t actually care.  I literally dumped him at the school gate with a hasty kiss and a “Love you madly” and stomped off in a huff, desperate to get to work.

Etienne got to drop off The Sisters Grim.  He isn’t answering his office phone so I’m not sure how that went.  For all I know he is still at the school trying to detach them from his legs. Once again: don’t really care.  I’m sitting in peace and quiet in my own office, thank you very much.

Edit to add: Etienne did in fact have quite a battle to detach them from his legs in the end. Oh well.

But, moving right along, I have a life-or-death question to ask that I’ve been meaning to ask for a while.  We were at a party on Saturday night (Hello and happy birthday K!  Sorry we stayed so late!) and between the obligatory existential conversations about To Wax or Not To Wax I asked Tertia:

Do you wear a dressing gown?

I seem to have accumulated 2 dressing gowns, a winter and a summer number and lately I have actually been wearing them, especially the big white fluffy number my sister bought me ages ago at La Senza that was gathering dust in my cupboard.  I must be getting old, but I really like them these days, they are strangely comforting first thing in the morning.  Fancy that.

Do you wear dressing gown/s? Do you expect your kids to wear them?

Here’s a quick poll to help:

The Chocolate Confession

I was going start off by apologizing for being a little odd and then I thought DUH, I AM odd. And proud of it.

So. I’m just going to come out and say it: I don’t particularly like chocolate.

I don’t dislike chocolate, I’m not THAT odd, I just won’t walk down the chocolate aisle and drool over the chocolates or get the sads because I really shouldn’t buy chocolate. I would however get stuck in the chips (crisps), nuts and chevra * aisle. This has thank goodness rolled down to our kids and they don’t particularly bug us whenever we hit the aisle of death at Woollies, waiting to pay.

But yesterday I was waiting to pay and I thought, sjoe, I could really do with one of those little Caramello Bears. Not too much chocolate, just right. So I bought one for R3.99.

I hustle on back to my desk, have my lunch and mid-afternoon I remember about the Caramello Bear and lean back in my chair in anticipation of that heavenly caramel/chocolate taste.

I tear open the wrapper.

I open it.

And it’s gone all white and yucky on the inside.

Very disappointed I first set it aside and then realize that I was quite looking forward to that little chocolate, so I decide to take a walk back to the shop to see if they will exchange it.

Yes, no problem, they will find me another one. Luckily I offer to open the next one at the counter and it’s the same story with that one and the several others they bring, the whole box must have been damaged.

No worries, can they bring me the slightly bigger caramel chocolate and off they go. Oops, sorry, no can do, none in the shop but look, they have the 100g caramel slab. I am horrified. What on earth am I going to do with an entire slab of chocolate? But hey, I thought, they went through all that effort to help the least I can do is pay in the odd R5.00 for more than double more chocolate, how’s that for a saving! Besides, I’ll just hand out the rest at the office.

I gave 4 blocks to someone and somehow the rest vanished.

I have absolutely no idea how it happened, but I’m sure the circumference of my waist will remind me of it soon…

* that chevra link is for the healthy version. The original version is decadent as sin, which makes it irresistable of course.

Opinion Fatigue

I have a serious illness and I have done a self-diagnosis.  I suffer from Opinion Fatigue.

It is mainly caused by the awesome people I follow on twitter and the media.

Just recently we had the Big Race Debacle of May 2012. I specify the month because I’m pretty sure we’ll have another one next month. And the month thereafter.  It will have different players, but it will center around the same theme.

Then this week we had The First Big March Debacle.  I call this the First March Debacle because I’m pretty sure there will be more, very soon.   As a sidebar: I am of the opinion (YES! I have an opinion!) that Helen Zille secretly rubbed her hands in glee over that disaster as it exposed the underlying sticks and stones (so to speak) mentality of our society.

Here’s how it plays out:

A bunch of Journos are on the scene of the “crime”, be it virtually or physically.

They tweet about it.

Everyone gathers at the virtual dinner table (twitter) to see what is happening.   There is much grumbling and mumbling and the racket is deafening.

The  journos are retweeted with opinions.

The opinions get retweeted with more opinions.

People get upset about other people’s opinions.

There is a twitter war with sides being taken very swiftly.

No one wins.

We inevitably revert back to another Big Race Debacle.

Everyone that dared to step away from twitter for 5 seconds wants to know what the hell happened.

Everything gets rehashed.

Rinse and repeat opinions.

Rinse and repeat arguments about opinions.

Another virtual scuffle breaks out.

No one wins again.

All this while? The journos stand back and enjoy the virtual shit storm, all the while also rubbing their hands in sheer glee.

Then those journos go away and think about the events and opinions of some people that weighed in.

Then everyone writes an opinion piece.

Or an opinion piece about someone else’s opinion piece.

And few people remember what actually happened.

But the best thing of all: people’s tweets are suddenly news.  It irks me that quoting people’s tweets has become news. Surely they are mostly opinions and not fact?  It makes me feel a little dirty.

I acknowledge that there is never a 100% true reflection of the facts, only a perceived reality, but aren’t we moving further and further away from reality and closer and closer to the perceptions and opinions of but a few people?

One of the things I love about twitter is that I get to see the thoughts of very bright and very knowledgeable people as events unfold, it just gets incredibly noisy.  Instead of wanting to weigh in I find myself backing away until all the noise dies down and everyone has gone away to write their opinion pieces or people are busy reading the opinion pieces.

Instead of being a place that is entertaining and supportive it has become a competition of who can shout the loudest and it is exhausting.  (And don’t for a second think I’m completely innocent, I also have my moments!)

Does this mean I’m going to abandon twitter altogether? Hell no, but it does mean that I should be looking at who I follow.  Which kills me, because I love everyone I follow and I like being able to stick my nose in and have a conversation with random people, there’s just too much other noise.

What do you think?  Too noisy or do you love it?

Shits and giggles at the dentist

This morning was D-morning for Isabel’s visit to the dentist and I was more than a little nervous, especially as I had to drag Mignon along.  She was almost more excited that Isabel.

Last night we had the whole conversation about how much fun the dentist is, the cool chair that goes up and down, the mirror in the mouth, the bright light so the dentist can see properly and open your mouth wide and so on and so forth.  We tried to keep it light and didn’t mention things like needles, numb mouths, root canals, pain etc.  You know, things that dentist are really about.

On recommendation of the lovely Liezel I pumped them full of Rescue Remedy and a little something for pain for Isabel just for incase before we went and everyone was in high spirits.

They sat quietly for 25 seconds on their chairs:

Then we did the obligatory trip to the toilet as we do whenever we leave the house.  I can tell you what the inside of most public toilets look like in the greater Cape Town area. And then some.

Then our big moment arrived and we were shown into the consultation room.  I was literally holding my breath, knowing my luck was going to run out at some stage.  They saw the chair and thought it was like a jungle gym.  Up, under, over, above, sliding down, but I drew the line when I saw them line up to start jumping.

We ended up putting Isabel on my lap and we tipped the chair back, the light went on and she opened her mouth like a trooper.  The dentist was friggin awesome.  She kept it light, she explained everything carefully, she showed the mirror before she used it, blew some of the air on Isabel’s arm before she did anything in her mouth and explained very nicely what was going to happen when she took a little X-ray.  She even sent Mignon out with her assistant to press the button, showed them the X-ray and printed out a copy to for Isabel to take to school.  With a sticker and some toothpaste.

And then.

She put the 2 of them on her chair and elevated it all the way so they could feel what it felt like, put a blankie over the 2 of them and made them pretend to sleep.  We were all laughing our asses off.  By far the most fun I’ve ever had at the dentist!

Bottom line: nothing wrong with Isabel’s tooth, so I was very very lucky today as there was no drilling and stuff, but at least now they know what it’s all about.

Next up: Daniel.  I think it’s Etienne’s turn..

If you want to contact the dentist, her name is Dr Kelly and she is available on (021) 919 5559. This is not a sponsored post 🙂

Ps:  We are a little worried about Mignon. As I drove past Teazers the other day, she points at the picture and pipes up: “Mom!  I want to be like that girl (daai dogtertjie) one day!”  I had to carefully explain that that was maybe not a career choice that would please Mommy and Daddy.  And then, on Saturday, Etienne is watching the rugby and she sees the Stormers’ girls and we hear “Mom!  Dad! I’m going to be one of those girls one day!”

The picture in question

Some people worry that their children are going to be serial killers one day, we worry that ours is going to be a stripper of sorts…

Pps: I made this Cinnamon Sugar Pull-Apart bread for dessert yesterday and it was to die for.  I only used about half of the sugar mixture, but it was yummy.  Easy as pie to make and just as decadent. I’m in love with that smell of yeast.

My own Cinnamon Sugar pull-apart bread, pardon the bad pic quality

All it takes is a lollipop

By the time I got home yesterday the kids were all squeaky clean and their outfits were chosen for today and they actually stuck to their outfits this morning, which was pretty awesome.  I did a little mental round of applause.  With the focus on mental.

But.

Then.

We were way ahead of schedule (cue anther mental little round of applause), everyone was dressed and ready to go and then:

They decide they each want to take something to school which is not allowed at all as it gets out of hand very quickly.  It’s like they spend their nights thinking up ways to torture us in the morning.

Enter negotiations on what is allowed and what not:

Yes to the broken crown Daniel wanted to take for his best friend.

Yes-ish to the handbag Mignon wanted to take as it had to stay in the car.  It has worked very well in the past as they somehow feel like they have won a little.  But clearly that also backfired this morning as Etienne had drama about the bag when he dropped the girls off.

Absolute no to Isabel scratching around in the playroom, bag on her back, looking for something, anything to take with whilst everyone is already sitting in cars.  I tried leaving her in the house and realized halfway out the door that, left unattended, she would probably pack in the TV, so I headed back in.  She wants to take something for the teacher she says.  By now I’d really had her in chunks, she’s consistently been our weakest link handicap most difficult most challenging the hardest to get mobilized this week.  So I herd her down the stairs and into Etienne’s car, sobbing.

At which point I had a moment.  I realized: all she really wants is to take something for her teacher.  Followed by Oh Faaaak, I have nothing to give the Teacher and why didn’t I anticipate this and it’s ALL my fault and I’m such a bad mother and all the other kids are going to go to school with awesome Mother’s Day gifts for the Teachers and my life is a mess and Oh Look!  Green Lollipops!

So, Isabel went to school, happy as a lark with a green lollipop for each teacher.  And she smiled at me through those tears and the gratitude on her face almost took my breath away.  How’s that for a complete emotional roller-coaster ride before you have even leave the house?

It really is the little things. I must keep remembering it really is the little things that make or break their day.

Ps: I feel like I’ve been writing about Isabel this whole week, I’m going to spend some extra time with her over the weekend.