Tag: #sugarfree48

Sugar Free Challenge Poll

So, I’m curious, how did everyone do with the Sugar Free challenge?

I must admit, by Tuesday night I was very nervous about it.  I felt like you do before you have a party:  I was scared no-one would come.  And what a surprise I had, so once again thanks very much for all your support!

Overall I think we did ok except for the pancakes on Wednesday night and some syrup over the glazed carrots last night and we could definitely see a difference.

Our (Margot and mine) aim wasn’t to suddenly change you into sugar-Nazis, but to create an awareness.

Did it make you wonder about what is in the food we buy and the food we think is healthy that we give our kids?

Did it make you turn an item around when you were at the shops this week and look at the food label to see what the sugar content is?

If you did stay sugar free for 48 hours, how did you feel when you woke up this morning?

Did you take a look at how your kids’ behavior changes when they had sugar when you were aware that they had sugar?

Please feel free to comment and leave any posts you might have done about your experience, I would love to hear about it!

ps: I recently saw a post on Betty Bake Blog about Forks over Knives so last night Etienne and I watched it.  I’m not a big fan of meat to start off with, so it was quite an eye-opener to see my gut feel be supported by so much research and facts about how bad animal-based protein is for us.  I could tell it hit home for Etienne as well as this morning he was worried about making supper after seeing the documentary.  Love it!

Does it mean we will instantly stop eating meat?  No.  But it will make us think about making better meal choices, not fighting with kids over having to eat their meat and slowly incorporating more plant-based proteins in our diet.

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