Sugar
Welcome to 21 Days of Detoxing with clean, whole, real food – boy do I have some good stuff in store for you! From now until May 13th you can find a new recipe here each day. And if you want to join our group and see what all the fuss is about, get the detox program manual, cookbook and access to our online forum by signing up here. It’s ok to start a few days late!
A little over a year ago I posted this rant about Pinkberry. Feels like Day 5 of our detox time is a good time to bring it back. We get to enjoy delicious frozen treats just as much as anyone else – the recipe is at the end.
I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but frozen yogurt shops are kind of a big deal. I see one every time I turn around. Like Pinkberry. Are you familiar? Because apparently they’re in 14 states and 6 countries outside the U.S. And they have a catchy little song with lyrics like these:
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April 27th, 2012 | quick and easy, recipe, Spring 2012 detox recipes, Sugar, vegan | 1 Comment »
When I was a kid my mom always made me a special birthday cake in the shape of different characters. I guess I always knew I’d bake Danny a cake for his special day too. But the thought of serving him sugary sweets made my heart feel sad. As I continuously say and believe: It doesn’t make sense to celebrate our lives with food that makes us weak and sick.
Off I set on a quest to find a birthday cake that I could feel good about. Maybe it would be a slightly adjusted layer cake recipe, maybe it would be a meatball with a candle stuck in it, I didn’t know. But I knew I was not going to make a normal white sugar/white flour cake.
(Hey, this is his first birthday we’re talking about. He doesn’t know the difference. I expect I have a year or two before I’ll have to sometimes give in to his requests for the white stuff.)
Anyway, I started searching for the perfect recipe. Let me tell ya. Not a lot out there. But I have an old cookbook from Annemarie Colbin (author of books like Food and Healing) that had just what I was looking for.
Whole wheat flour. No processed sugar. None. Not even honey or maple syrup. Just bananas and apple juice for sweetness.
And you can see in the photo, we’re talking a full-on layer cake with icing. Hello, dream come true!
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February 23rd, 2012 | baby, recipe, Sugar, try new things | 13 Comments »
Sweet tastes good. End of story. I’m reminded of this each day when Danny accepts his spinach or his beef but really lunges for his sweet potato. It’s a built-in craving.
Ok, so on that note I was in Target yesterday and decided we probably needed some cookies (oh geez, here we go Michelle). Since I wasn’t going to make it to Whole Foods, I figured I’d see what Target had. Like, a bag of good ol’ Fig Newtons must be fairly natural? Not too many weird ingredients, right?
Wrong! Fig Newtons are made with high fructose corn syrup, as are just about every other cookie on the shelf. Including the homemade-looking Archer brand I almost got fooled into buying. Only Kashi cookies were made with regular sugar.
(Which, of course, does not make them healthy by any stretch of the imagination. But I still bought them. I’m human.)
Anyway, the reason I’m talking about sugar and corn syrup is because we are all human, and we love our sweets. This is a recipe you will therefore love. All 3 of us did!
Cranberry Citrus Quinoa
For quinoa:
1 cup uncooked quinoa
1 cup orange juice
1 cup water
big pinch of salt
2 Tbl. olive oil
1/2 onion, minced
1 cup butternut squash, diced
1 pear, diced
5 oz. fresh cranberries, chopped (although I suppose you could use dried)
1 cup walnuts, chopped and toasted
1 handful fresh mint, chopped
1 handful fresh basil, chopped
1 lemon, juiced
Big pinch cayenne pepper
salt and pepper
First, rinse and drain quinoa. Then combine with OJ and water in a pot, bring to a boil and simmer until water is absorbed.
Meanwhile, heat oil in a big pan and add onion. Add a bit of salt and pepper. Cook until translucent. Add squash and pear. Mix and cover until they are soft (about 5 min). Mix in quinoa, then add herbs, lemon, and more salt and pepper.
*At this point, take out a portion for baby and set aside. At least, that’s what I did. Though in retrospect I think he’d have liked the cranberries if they were chopped smaller.*
For the adults, add cranberries, walnuts and cayenne. Mix well.
Serve over cooked or raw greens.
For the record, here are other things that Danny likes to try and eat:
Deodorant, christmas tree ornaments, my leg, the couch, his coat, my nose, the cat’s tail.
You’d think natural selection would have knocked out this dangerous need to eat everything by now! Or else natural selection is what gave mothers eyes in the back of our heads. Sometimes.
January 16th, 2012 | baby, recipe, Sugar, vegan, vegetarian, winter | 5 Comments »
Ok, I forgot something. In my last post about banishing sugar addiction, I outlined the major steps required to accomplish such a task. But there’s something I left out, a fairly interesting tidbit.
You know how cookies are sweet. Duh. You know how cake is sweet. Of course.
But think about this: vegetables are sometimes sweet too. Yup. Sweet potatoes. Butternut squash. Corn. Carrots. Right? No, they’re not over-the-top white sugary sweet. But they are subtle-y sweet. Caramelized onions, for instance. Mmmmm.
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September 16th, 2011 | recipe, Sugar, vegan, vegetarian | 7 Comments »
It’s my pat on the back. It’s my comforting hug. It’s my little treat. Oh, who am I kidding? It’s my crack cocaine.
That’s it. Joe Joe’s are now banned from the house!
For the past few months my husband has been buying these Trader Joe’s cookies as a little treat for us. Ahem. He may have eaten…a few. There’s something SO addicting to me about little sandwich cookies! I found myself eating a handful at a time. A row at a time. Going through a box a week. A box every few days. Auughhhhhh!
I think we all know what that something addictive is about cookies – hello, sugar. For some reason I can ignore ice cream and pie and what-have-you, but cookies pull me with brute force into their sugary arms every time.
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September 13th, 2011 | baking, recipe, Sugar | 13 Comments »
I been eatin’ a lot of Joe Joes. Know what those are? They’re the Trader Joe’s version of Oreos. Oh man.
My husband started buying them…I started eating them…it’s totally a way I’ve been self medicating between the baby crying and not sleeping, etc. Nice health coach, right? Yeah, way to set an example, Michelle.
I can see exactly what I’m doing though:
I am so stressed/I feel so crazed/I feel so confused…here this nice cookie makes me feel sweet!
Note: I am not recommending this approach. In fact by publicly admitting it I am hoping I will get a grip myself.
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June 22nd, 2011 | happiness, quick and easy, raw foods, recipe, stress relief, Sugar | 10 Comments »
Another post pre-written to hold us over while I’m in the early days of motherhood 
But I think it’s a good one! Can’t wait to be back blogging “live,” but in the meantime Danny has gained weight, had a great checkup with his pediatrician, and I’m eating like mad to keep up with a 9 lb. baby’s demand for food!
I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but frozen yogurt shops are kind of a big deal. I see one every time I turn around. Like Pinkberry. Are you familiar? Because apparently they’re in 14 states and 6 countries outside the U.S. And they have a catchy little song with lyrics like these:
“It doesn’t feel like I’m cheating when I’m eating it”
That’s funny, what would I be cheating on? Oh, that’s right, I’m supposed to be on a diet aren’t I? Obviously I have a weight problem or at least a body image issue. Because…I’m a woman. And I imagine the name “Pinkberry” is targeted at me. So it’s nice to imply guilt right off the bat, because women should feel guilty about how much they weigh and what they look like. Right. Thanks, Pinkberry! I almost forgot!
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February 26th, 2011 | calcium, dairy, fat, public health, quick and easy, recipe, Sugar | 11 Comments »
Cupcakes are mini cakes. But muffins? I don’t get the oversized, sugar-coated versions sold at the coffee shop. Is that supposed to be breakfast?
Give me a break.
The truth is, when you stop eating so much sugar you actually give your tastebuds a chance to recalibrate and appreciate more subtle flavors. This is a good thing. Because real food tastes good!
This whole idea of cutting out sugar and appreciating food for real is a huge part of my 21 Day Detox program. Just today I got a wonderful email from a woman who completed the detox back in the fall. She had just been diagnosed with pre-diabetes and wanted to revamp her diet, pronto. I recommended the detox because it’s an immersion in clean, whole food and that’s exactly what she needed. Well guess what? It’s about 3 months later, she’s 15 lbs. lighter and her A1c test is back in normal range. How amazingly fantastic is THAT??
Man, I love my job.
Anyway. When you make these muffins, be prepared for your husband to tell you they’re missing something on first bite. That’s because he’s expecting a sugary muffin, a little cake like the ones at Starbucks. So tell him it’s more like a bread or a biscuit. Then he’ll tell you they’re delicious.
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January 24th, 2011 | baking, client stories, recipe, Sugar, vegetarian, winter | 18 Comments »
Awareness. That’s it. If you want to summarize what healthy eating and healthy living is all about, it’s about taking responsibility for knowing what the heck is going on. All of my programs are based on this premise.
I figure, once you really know what you’re eating, where it comes from, and how it makes your body feel, you’re going to start making better choices for your body. Note that this is a lot different than eating whatever is advertised as healthy.
This means, you have to do your homework.
Well, I’ll be honest. I got a big fat F last week on my homework last week.
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January 14th, 2011 | beverage, groceries, pregnancy, Sugar, Washington D.C. | 15 Comments »
The trees are down, the baked goods are eaten, the necessary gifts have been exchanged…I’d say the holiday season is official over.
Except for one thing. One nagging little reminder.
If you’re like most people (including myself) the holidays included some sugary yumminess. And that’s ok. It’s cool. We enjoyed it. But the problem? It’s weeks later and the sugary urges are still there. The cravings. The continued permission to indulge coming through in whispered voices in our heads.
It’s that sugar-powered hamster wheel again, folks. And once you get on, man oh man it’s hard to get off! For the past couple of weeks I’ve noticed that around 3pm I can’t get my hand out of the chocolate chips. If I had any other sweets in the house, they’d be calling my name too.
So. What do you do? How do you break free? Well, certainly not with guilt. And definitely not with deprivation or punishment.
“I will not eat sugar. I will not eat sugar. Ok, if I eat sugar then I’m not allowed to eat anything else the rest of the day. Blah blah blah.”
Phooey on that.
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January 10th, 2011 | detoxify, quick and easy, Sugar, try new things, winter | 14 Comments »
