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Sucanant or Cane Sugar?
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Oh Misty, I thought of you today when I had my first piece of bread since January. I have been off bread completely and was a big sandwich eater before this. It has been hard but not awful. On a whim I bought a loaf of brown rice bread for myself (the rest of the fam still eats org. ww) and I have been enjoying it immensely. I would have thought that the primary thing I’ve missed is bacon double cheese burgers, but that bread was so good, that now I really think it was the bun, not the rest that I missed. Tell your family I feel their pain! 🙂
I updated my blog this week with a run-down of what I do eat:
Jenni inspired me to post some of what our family ACTUALLY eats in a given week. So here is my menu, for reals, for 10 days. This is actually what we follow, no deviations so far and don’t plan on deviating unless something really crazy happens.
Breakfasts (I choose 2-3 of the following options):
scrambled, fried, and/or boiled eggs, plain yogurt sweetened w/ plain stevia, Elana’s porridge, walnut apple crisp, peanut butter banana smoothies, grain-free muffins, 1/2 grapefruit or banana
Lunches (almost ALWAYS leftovers from the night before, but sometimes we change it up with these simple options):
Applegate Farms all-beef hot dogs, fruit, raw cheese, loaded baked potatoes, eggplant pizza, smoothies
Dinner (Dinner is the big meal I cook everyday. We never have leftovers for dinner because dh and I really don’t care for them. So, this is the 10-day dinner plan from April 15-25)
GAPS Salmon Patties, veggie bakeGrain-free crab cakes, sweet and spicy roasted carrots, sauteed zucchini and yellow squashDirty rice w/ chicken sausagePotato Cheddar SoupTex-Mex Meatballs, spicy rice noodles, sauteed veggiesPaleo BBQ Chicken Pizza and Cheese Pizza, saladBreakfast for dinner (every Sunday night)Bun-less burgers, sweet potato fries, grilled onionsChicken Tortilla-less SoupGrilled Steaks, baked potatoesTomato Basil Soup
Hope that gives you some ideas!
Misty, I buy Stevita from Vitacost. Here is the link to the page. It seems pricey at $14.29, but ours lasts quite a while – at least 3 weeks to a month if we’re trying out several recipes, but usually more like 2 + months. That is less than the cost for the amount of sugar we would buy in the same time period to add to homemade breads, baking, drinks, etc.
As far as breadless recipes, we often make wraps here using lettuce leaves as the wrap. We’ve also made a modified crepe or grainless tortilla as well. We use the large portebella mushroom caps as the crust for personal pizzas. How about making grainless biscuits for meals instead of bread. I have another recipe for making pizza crust from shredded yellow squash (or zukes), parmesean cheese, and eggs.
Other ways to remove grains might be to try some of these ideas to replace pasta. Zucchini can be sliced into long thin noodles to use for lasagna noodles or use a veggie pealer to make wide fettuccini noodles. We also have a special veggie slicer tool that will make angel hair-type veggie pasta or slightly wider noodles. These can be left raw or you can dip them in boiling water for a minute or two to give them a softer feel.
All of these recipes can be found on pinterest, except for perhaps the squash pizza crust recipe, though you can probably find a version of that on there, too.
Bluej, would you please give a link for the veggie spiral slicer you have? I have been looking for a good one for months, but all the ones I’ve found have mixed reviews. Seems people either love it or hate it. I would love to hear of a good one from someone I know who actually uses theirs regularly.
Lindsey, this is the slicer we have. It works, but it is not my favorite. The youngest still has trouble putting enough consistant downward pressure to make the noodles. We have it, so I’ll use it, but if the one we have breaks, this is the one with which I will likely replace it. A friend has this and likes it a lot. It’s a side spiral so the downward pressure is a mute point.
Because of my youngest Eczema we have been doing mostly wheat, dairy and sugar free.
This is a great site I found, I think I already shared it but I was so excited to find: http://www.anjasfood4thought.com/2012/01/carrot-coconut-breakfast-loaf.html
That cake, the granolat bars, the fruit and nuts square, the oatmeal bars all so good and healthy, sweetened w/fruits.
I also made my own bbq sauce replacing the sugar by dates, it works great!
Lindsey, can you post the grain-free muffins and eggplant pizza? Please 🙂 And are you saying that you do this “diet” every 10 days just mixed up?
Jenni, thanks for your blog post! Can’t wait to see what supplements you are taking!! Congrats on your hair!!
I am so impressed w/ all of you! We just got through our juice fast a few wks ago. We always do so well for a while..then we start wanting the bad stuff! We do great most of all day…but tend to cheat some at night!! We keep doing this over and over….great for wks at a time..then back to eating or craving bad things but still not an all day affair of eating bad! Sigh! I feel as though I will NEVER get to where you guys are. And we have been at this for several yrs!!
My dh loves loves loves his chocolate! And yes, we have substituted many times w/ other sugars..but he just cannot get away from reg sugared chocolate. Has been able to for months at a time, but always comes back to it!
You all are an inspiration…but I am so jealous too!
Re: cane sugar or sucanat: Sucanat is better than evap. cane sugar. However, I can’t afford sucanat, even using my co-op.
So, I buy evap. cane sugar, my husband uses sugar for his coffee, of which he consumes a lot and for my water kefir and kombucha; I’m a stevia girl for my coffee (trying to slowly switch him over to less sugar and more stevia by using the chocolate flavored).
I agree that we should reduce our sugar intake overall, but there are traditional sweeteners that are worthy of use, IMO; within moderation, like our anscetors did. Sugar was a luxury and was used sparingly; only beginning in the late 1800’s and esp. the 20th cen. did sugar become so cheap and so prevalent.
So, I use others sweeteners, too. Since I’m southern, Sorghum Syrup is our traditional sweetener and it’s a whole sweetener (a crushed, then extracted cane juice) .
Raw honey or stevia in tea, plus Molasses in other things. I buy Org. Maple syrup once a month and once that’s gone, we mix molasses and honey; sorghum and honey; or heated mashed fruit w/a touch of raw honey or sorghum.
I’ve been changing my muffin recipes to using more stevia than honey or sorghum; it just depends upon the grain/seed (except for the corn muffins – I’ll use sorghum/honey). My cornbread I use honey, molasses and or sorghum or a mixture of them. I WILL NOT use stevia in my cornbread!
I use Better Stevia, Sweetleaf, or Stevita. If you’re switching someone over, I’d suggest the Better Stevia or Sweetleaf, since it contains glycerin as a preservative, it’s a little sweeter than Stevita (which uses grapeseed ext. as a preservative). I have the Nunaturals brand, but I haven’t tried it yet to give you a comparison.
For powdered stevia, I stay away from those with dextrose, sucraose, erythritol, and maltodextrin. Sweetleaf has a couple of options: one with inulin, which is a fiber and the plain white one: http://www.steviasmart.com/wisherstevex1.html
My children are getting used to using stevia in their yogurt (they esp. like the Sweetleaf chocolate flavored!) and more often than before, their breakfast; though I’m not against using raw honey or sorghum, depending upon the grain/seed. Cooking oats with molasses in the cooking water makes a really nice result.
I made an incredible dessert with dates. If you subscribe to or go to the Tropical Traditions blog, they have awesome desserts using dates, coconut products and little sweetening + good breakfasts and other recipes; I’ve used several.
http://www.freecoconutrecipes.com/index.htm
This is the date dessert I made that my family went ga-ga over (my pecans were soaked and dehydrated ahead of time): http://www.freecoconutrecipes.com/index.cfm/2013/1/23/german-chocolate-style-bars
We don’t go completely grain-free. I’m working on a sprouted or soaked Spelt pita, pizza, and tortilla recipe and eventually-this summer-sourdough (the creme-de-la-creme or breadmaking, IMO) This past Passover, I made all of our spelt matzah, so that increased my confidence in making pita, flatbreads, tortillas and pizza breads instead of just sandwich bread.
Until I make spelt pasta, some wheat alternative pasta products that have been successful for me:
quinoa/corn pasta by Ancient Harvest
Brown rice pasta from Tinkyada Pasta Joy
For muffins and quick breads, I use:
sprouted or soaked spelt
quinoa
millet
oats
I’ve recently begun to incorporate buckwheat and kasha dishes into our diet.
For english muffins and bagels, I get the (non-soy) sprouted wheat ones.
I am always so impressed by all the things you make Rachel, I want to be you some day!!
I wish I had time to make my own pasta because I try to stay away from wheat, corn (unless labeled non GMO, which I do not think Ancient Harvest is btw) or rice.
I have been buying spelt, would love to find buckwheat pasta w/out wheat but that seems impossible. I also use some noodles made w/mung beans and some w/patatoes.
Thanks, petitemom. I do go on sabbaticals to get recharged, though; so then I have to buy more, which is stressful; so that doesn’t last long, since it becomes too expensive!
I check on Ancient Harvest and, Thank G-D, they are non-GMO: http://www.quinoa.net/145/index.html
Eden foods has an org. 100% Buckwheat Soba (though I don’t think it’s prepared in the way to reduce the phytates)
They also have a spelt/buckwheat soba noodles.
2flowerboys, haha, no, sorry I should have been clearer. The menu I posted is just for a 10-day period. We don’t rotate thru the same meals every 10 days. My dh would kill me! Our next 10 days will look totally different. I have probably 40 recipes that I rotate thru regularly. When I find something on Pinterest or a blog, I’ll add it in so we can try it. The Tex-Mex Meatballs we had tonight were a new thing for us, but they were awesome!! I am adding them to our list of regulars. Also, I’m too adventurous a cook to make the same things over and over again. I love to make up stuff! For breakfast and lunch, it is pretty much the same. Leftovers are our lunch fare about 80% of the time. We add in the other options when there aren’t leftovers or when we don’t want leftovers. Grain-free breakfast is pretty much the same few things anyway. No one has complained about being bored with our options yet! I’ll keep my fingers crossed.
I have several grain-free muffin recipes. Most are from blogs, although I am developing a lemon poppyseed recipe as I type this. I’m standing by the oven, waiting to take them out! If they’re good, they’ll end up in my cookbook. So what kinds of muffins do you like? If I don’t have an original recipe, I’ll find one that I’ve used and post a link.
thanks Rachel, good to know about Ancient time although I still think they should get the official non GMO label!!
I’ll see if I can find the Eden food ones.
I tried black bean noodles w/tomato sauce and it was absolutely discusting!!
I think we are ok w/spelt. It is hard to tell w/Eczema, not like an allergic reaction.
Oh my I had but 3 minutes this morning to check here and I obviously dont have time to read. But can’t wait. More later..
bluej – would love busciut recipe! I ordered the stevia before you even posted with my order yesterday!
Rachel – I use the Nunaturals Steve and really like it. It takes less than a shake to get more than enough sweet taste. It’s amazing and though when it comes it looks like you got ripped off with 1/2 a shaker it lasts a LONG time.
I wanted to add that after some prayer time and really thinking about all this I realized a few things. Dh and I were talking and when money was really tight we started going to a food program where you get free food. It’s a lot of food, fruits, veggies, salad every time, 2 plus options for meats and THEN breads and bakery items plus snacks. At first we were really good and only got the ‘good’ foods. though not as good as we were buying at least it was still just fruits/veggies/meat. Then it was well we’ll just get it this one time, then it was more the next time and now we just take what ever they were giving. Our kids have been out of wack, our sugar, bread and sweet consumption is over board and things are just not good. It did help and it was needed during the winter months, but it’s not winter and things have to go back.
So we did not go to the food program last night. We are going to eat up what we have around here and I am going to get back on the band wagon. My dh is crabby, my hairs been acting weird (always a sign of my diet), my kids are restless and such (partly weather and more snow in MN) but when my dh actually says enough is enough you know I have let us go WAY to far.
I have been following the Trim Healthy Momma (THM) book for months and felt better than I have in years and lost almost all but 3 lbs that I wanted to. Then 2 weeks ago it started with just a rice crispy bar (from the food program), then it was just a this and a that till I was totally off the band wagon. My family loves the THM way of living and it works for us. Balancing fruit/veggi/meat/sweets within themselves.
Anyway all that to just say I’M BACK! We will not waste what God has provided but I will start looking at recipes and going to back to my old ways. Thanks for reminding me what’s important and eating and what we eat are very important, in the sceme of lack of money I lost site of that. But work is picking up and we need to recharge. I know now that I can still go to the food pantry but I will only get the fresh fruit/veggies/meat and leave the bread and pastries there.
Thank you for all the great posts. For encouraging me (and others) to eat the best that we can in our given circumstances and our given time of life. You all are such a blessing to me and I thank the SCM Team for given us this site to bless, encourage and lift each other up in our schooling, and personal life. Thanks everyone! Off to work on that better grocery list.
One more thing – cause we are still talking food. What do you bring for park days, days you’ll be in the car for lunch/dinner, or the such cause this is where I get stuck a lot of the time and resort back to bread.
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