My Week with No Added Sugar

I am writing this for my own sake to look back on, but I also decided to make it public because I was searching for something similar to this a couple weeks ago when I tried to plan out my week without sugar. I decided to do a week without sugar for a couple of reasons: I have never done anything like this before and thought it would be a good challenge and because I ate way.too.many cookies in the month of December. I had never done an extended diet, cleanse or work out regimen and wanted to prove to myself that I could do something healthy for myself. I tried to research different meal ideas that I could eat for Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner, Snack and Drinks and pre grocery shop as much as possible.

My goal was simply to not consume anything that has sugar or some form of sugar (anything ending in -ose) or a sugar substitute in the ingredients panel of foods. If the food naturally contained sugar (like fruits) then it was ok. I also inadvertently gave up breads and pastas for the week too.

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Monday: This is my first day of no sugar and I had to work. I was craving sugar and felt a little crazy that I couldn't have it. Everywhere I looked I wanted to eat whatever it was. I thought I didn't eat that much sugar but Monday was a huge wake up call.  I also had small pep talks with myself about how it is ok to be hungry, and that I have plenty of back up fuel in my body to sustain myself.

Tuesday: I was also craving breads or candies but I also felt like I was crashing too. I worked and had to cut bread for a sample (!) and make cinnamon swirl pancakes and just casually wanted to stop myself form popping a bite in my mouth. I didn't realize how much 'trying something' was part of my reflexes.

Wednesday: Today was okay. I was hungry but sustained myself during the day and was pretty proud. I didn't have the crash feeling like Monday and Tuesday. I did have to go grocery shopping, and even though I normally love grocery shopping, that was one of the hardest things I had to do all week. I found myself almost reflexly adding things to my cart that a. I didn't need and b. sounded good (cinnamon rolls, flavored yogurts, chewy granola bars). Everything went back on the shelf except for the granola bars, those I bought for Scott... and for when I am done with this whole thing. I also bought some popcorn to help fill the void between snack and a meal.

Thursday: I didn't plan dinner and had to try and figure out something for Scott and I on the fly. We also had to make a last minute run to Lowes before they closed and that was the only hour we got to spend together.  So as Scott is ordering something from Sonic, I am trying frantically to search their nutritional information for anything without sugar (or a sugar substitute) and came up with a Jr. Breakfast wrap and French Fries. I ate about half of both and realized how stupid I was and that both of those really did have sugar without listing them... I should have been smarter. I instantly got a stomach ache and was so frustrated with myself but then decided to be nicer to myself and say 'this is your first week ever doing something like this, its ok'.

Friday: I had a big breakfast and was stumped for dinner again. This time I was alone for dinner and really really wanted something warm but was too lazy to make it. It is right around 20 degrees outside and I just wanted to eat something without looking at a label. A friend came over, and we brainstormed dinner ideas and when she left, I made a potato soup type of meal. I mashed up potatoes and mixed with a bit of vegetable broth, butter, garlic, steamed broccoli, rotisserie chicken and some cheese. It was actually good. I also ate a banana and some apple sauce. Today, I also started dreaming about what my first food with sugar was going to be... chocolate chip cookies? Bagel? Mmmm....

Saturday and Sunday: Scott was around for these days and they weren't nearly as bad.  I did go to the grocery store and buy ingredients to make cookies for Monday but I had some good dinners planned. On Saturday, we ate curry with left over rice from earlier in the week and Sunday I made Chicken Tortilla Soup. We also did go to a friends house to watch the football game on Sunday and I brought this sauce (which is so good by the way) and ate it with some tortilla ships, hummus and vegetables.

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Some meal ideas I had on hand were...
Breakfast ideas:
Oatmeal with fresh fruits (raspberries, bananas, blackberries) and/or applesauce and cinnamon (the photo above)
Greek yogurt with fresh fruits
Egg scramble with zucchini, sweet potato or white potato + Ezekial Bread

Lunch ideas:
Rotisserie chicken
Tuna
Salad (I just haven't been into salads lately-- I have to change that)
Really, I just ate breakfast late so I kind of just snacked for lunch

Snack ideas:
Carrots and hummus (I ate a lot of this!)
Banana
Apple
Popcorn

Drink ideas:
Chai tea with splash of milk
Peppermint tea
Green tea with or without lemon
La Croix

Dinner ideas:
Mexican Stir Fry (butternut squash or sweet potato, corn, black beans, rotisserie chicken) with lime-cilantro brown rice, some cheese and avocado over chopped spinach and some salsa. I served Scott's in a burrito
Potato 'Soup': mashed potato with garlic, salt and pepper, vegetable broth, steamed broccoli, rotisserie chicken and cheese
Meatball Sandwiches: I made a homemade red sauce and cooked some meatballs from Trader Joes in the sauce. Then I served Scott's on ciabatta bread with fresh mozzarella and served mine over zucchini noodles with mozzarella.
Chicken Tortilla Soup: I will have to post about this recipe soon because it is so good and easy to make.
Curry: with vegetables, and rice noodles.
*I realize that there are so many other things to eat then what I put, these are just foods I naturally gravitate toward and usually have on hand so I made a list of what I could find in my home

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All in all, I think I did pretty good. I had some slip ups like Sonic on Wednesday and some spices that I learned had sugar in them that I used once or twice. I realize this round wasn't perfect but it wasn't meant to be- it was meant to be a learning exercise in discipline and educating myself about what foods I bring in my home and I learned a lot.

I learned that it is so easy, almost too easy, to reach for something with added sugar rather than a whole food when eating.  I also learned that planning for success is key- which is a goal of mine for this year: I would like to do more meal planning. I did also learn that my body, in some way, has become dependent on sugar and that is a bit scary to me. I hope to complete one of these weeks every six months to try and restart and actually listen to my body a bit more. It is interesting what your body tells you when you don't give in right away to what it is asking.

My first thing with added sugar after... my chia tea lattes that I just love in the mornings. I use the 'Spiced Chai' tea bag from Trader Joes and brew that with hot water.  Then, I discard the tea bag and add a teaspoon of sugar and a splash of milk.  Seriously soo good.

Halloween 2013

I know I am a bit behind in posting but I wanted to post this really because of the recipe and food we ate Halloween. I am a huge fan of homemade costumes, this year Scott dressed up as Sherlock Holmes (he usually is a ninja) and it was pretty funny because one kid who came to our door told him he looked like a disco ball... ya. He was sad that the kids didn't understand his costume but the adults loved it!- once he told them what he was. I thought it was clever. I made a cat mask the afternoon of and we got Wesley a Frankenstein costume for cheap. Next year though I am going to make him a lion's mane and I think that will be his costume every year from now on- he just gets so sad in costumes, or really anything.

I bought my first halloween decoration- a spider that you put a pumpkin in. I thought it was cute, I have never seen it before. However, we have critters around here and everyday we would see a little more bites in our pumpkin. The day before Halloween they broke into the core of the pumpkin and threw the seeds everywhere. I was bummed because I wanted to roast those seeds the day after Halloween, Scott was happy because he thought it looked creepy enough that no more decorations were needed.

Halloween isn't really my favorite holiday but I do love cooking a good meal the evening of, it always seems like the best time to make some good chili. We made homemade chili and put them in homemade pretzel bowls. I have to say it was one of my most favorite recipes. It turned out great.

We made the chili with this recipe from Food Network, except we substituted homemade pinto beans for the pinto beans part and accidentally substituted my mom's homemade salsa for the tomatoes part (which what I am convinced made it so delicious).  I think this recipe is worth it to try and make without the substitutions, it really had the best flavors. We topped it with green onions, cheese and greek yogurt.

We then served the chili in these pretzel bowls from A Beautiful Mess. These are really so easy and I would absolutely make them again, they would be great with any soup. Since there were only a few of us I only made four bowls but they were a hit.

Our New Thing 03

I have not been able to get over sparking water! I have never had a taste for it until this summer and all of a sudden it is the only thing I am buying and looking for at stores. By the time Scott and I got to spend time with each other this summer I also got him hooked. When we got back home to Fargo

and did some shopping at Target, they spit out this coupons at check out with two discounts for sparkling water. I went back 3 times because they kept giving me coupons... ooo its so good!

I have a feeling it will start to be replaced with our favorite hard apple cider recipe... here is how we make our (my) favorite fall drink. Heat some apple cider up on the stove with a cinnamon stick, whole cloves and some peeling from an orange. Pour over a shot of pomegranate liquor and pear spiced vodka. You are welcome- Cheers!

Garden Box

I know it has been awhile since I wrote about anything in our lives, but I thought I would start with one of the best birthday presents I have ever gotten. If you don't know much about me, I love plants and I love building things. I had this genius idea of making a garden box for our vegetables since we have a lot of rabbits in our neighborhood. I basically drew up the plans for about a week, we went to the store to buy the supplies and we (Scott) spent all afternoon building it. It really is so nice to have a raised garden at waist height- it helps not having to bend over and with weed control. 

I couldn't resist at the garden center and bought way too many plants. Our garden box was full before the season even started! My plan was to plant a companion garden... basically where vegetables and herbs are strategically planted to influence a healthy and flavorful garden while also helping with pest control. I did chose too many plants for my planter box but included in there: bell peppers, jalapeños, tomatoes (2 varieties), lavender, carrots, mint, zucchini and squash, marigolds and basil and I think that is it. I'll have to eventually post a picture of how it looks at the end of the season all overgrown and how everything tastes! Homegrown veggies and herbs are my absolute favorite! 

Our New Thing 02

Tomatoes are just starting to come into season (I know we are light years behind the rest of the country in terms of fresh produce) but I will take what I can get. Right now I can't get enough of cream cheese (in general) but specifically these fresh snacks. 

Take an english muffin, toast it up. Add some cream cheese. Top with some fresh tomato and some really good balsamic vinegar. I recently started trying to buy seriously quality foods and buying a good aged balsamic vinegar will change your life. It has a taste to it so delicious that you could understand how people would put it on ice cream and how it could taste good. Anyways back to my current favorite use: top off your english muffin-cream cheese- tomato with some good balsamic vinegar and enjoy!

Salt Lake

I got to go visit my family! Yay! It was the first time since Christmas and man was that a long 5 months to wait to see them. It was a crazy filled weekend in Salt Lake with my siblings graduation, visiting with family, meeting with friends, a wedding and trying to relax amongst it all. 

We rode trax everywhere. It was so nice to stay downtown and be able to get to the mall, the graduation and even my Aunt's favorite restaurant spot without ever getting a car.

My brother and sister graduated form college!

 

This was my Aunt's favorite restaurant, The Red Iguana. It made Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives. They are famous for their mole but my favorite thing was the horchata.

Then of course we got to celebrate the beautiful Camille's wedding. Bobo was a bridesmaid so we got to see Camille at the temple and then help set up for her reception. Such a beautiful day, couple and bride! Congrats Camille and Justin!  

Our New Thing 01

Do you have a thing or go through phases of being really into something? Like last winter we couldn't get enough of dairy queen- we ate there every month to try their blizzard of the month and then chatted over it with friends. We have gone through mac-and cheese phases (eating three boxes a week! whoops bad wife) and buying up all the dry sodas at our local TJ Maxx.  Friends of ours went on a jello kick.

Well recently, we can not get enough of mexican coca-colas. I am not a soda person but man those cokes are so so tasty. We clear the shelves at our local grocery stores. They only have sugar (not high fructose corn syrup) and you can taste a difference... mmmm its our new thing.

2012 In Review

I know it is a bit late but I thought I would try and remember some awesome times in 2012

^^ We ate lots of blizzards of the month to help get through the winter/ We went to Duluth, MN on spring break to go skiing and hang out with friends/ We saw Elton John in concert

 ^^ I celebrated my golden birthday at Toasted Frog, one of our favorite restaurants in Grand Forks/ We also celebrated our one year anniversary. All of this was going on during studying for step one :/

^^We had lots of time at Starbucks, it was always a pleasure to sit outside/ We biked to Dairy Queen/ Our plants made it outside on our porch/ and we were outside as much as possible too

^^We biked everywhere we could/ Chris came to visit and to help us move/ and we moved into a new place in Fargo!

^^Celebrating Scott being done with Step one and our new move, we took off to Vegas to visit family for a few days. Katelyn came into town to say hi and we went and visited the Hoover Dam and the new bridge./ I also helped my dad change the lightbulbs (a regular thing at my house)/ and spied my cat hanging out on the waterfall.

^^One of our trips to Vegas Bobo couldn't be there, but the good news was that we had a layover in Salt Lake so we surprised her at her work and had lunch/ In Fargo, we heard good news and celebrated out with dessert at the Hodo.

^^We went to the street fair and ate lots of delicious fried foods. My favorite were the fried oreos/ We bought a new car/ Went on lots of walks/ and bought a puppy! We still went on lots of bike rides too.

^^With Wesley came lots of naps too.

^^We traveled a lot last summer. We went to Minot to visit friends/ Met family half way in Bismarck/ and made it to Minneapolis a few times (I have to always have the tomato soup whenever we go to Nordstrom)

^^My mom came to visit since we couldn't make it home for Thanksgiving. We went and got her favorite chips at JL Beers and went to Winnipeg for the first time/ Zach and Hannah came to celebrate Thanksgiving with us/ I had my first cup of coffee/ and we got our first Christmas tree!

We celebrated Christmas three times/ spent some time with Scott's family in North Carolina/ after spending time with my family in Las Vegas.

2012 was good and we are so excited to see what the rest of 2013 has to bring!

Sunday Living

After a long week, this Sunday is just what we needed. Don't you eat a pan of brownies by the spoonful too?? Our secret is to use box mix and add instant coffee and walnuts to the mix. Yum!

Scott's Birthday Week

 

 

We celebrated Scott's birthday all week last week! Unfortunately he was on call and in the hospital the weekend before his birthday so lucky him the celebration split into the following week and weekend. 

The night of his birthday we went out for some not great mexican food & it was so cold outside! We had fed Wesley and then stuck him back in the bathroom for our quick date and when we got back he had shredded/ate a whole roll of toilet paper. Happy Birthday Scott!

Then a couple days later we opened presents and celebrated with homemade strawberry shortcake!

Last weekend we hadn't tried the only doughnut place in town, Sandy's Doughnuts, and when we got there the line was at the door. Then when we got to the front the line was still out the door (and this was 10:30 in them morning!) We couldn't decided which one of the amazing doughnuts to try so we got a bakers dozen and ate 13 doughnuts ourselves. My favorite was the angel (marshmallow creme filled doughnut with powder sugar on the outside) and then maple nut bar. I really wanted to try the bear claw but the guy right in front of me got the last one... I guess it is just another reason to go back.

That night we tried a new restaurant Monte's and were thoroughly impressed. It was delicious. I have a recent obsession with quality balsamic vinegar and the two dishes on the menu that had it in it were delicious: the vegetable flatbread and the arugula salad with chocolate balsamic vinaigrette. 

Happy 27th Birthday Scotty! I love you so so much!

Homemade Turkey Stock

With being sick and having really cold weather lately all I have craved is one thing: homemade soup. Since we still had some turkey in the freezer from Thanksgiving I decided to make a homemade turkey noodle soup. I love homemade stocks and broths when possible and they are really so easy (this only has to take 30 minutes!)

I didn't have a bouillon cube for the soup (and didn't really want to use one either, I would rather get the flavors naturally from whole foods) so I made this yummy stock before I made the soup. To make a good stock, you need the meat to have the skin on and bone in. So we went to the grocery store and got about a 1.7 pound turkey thigh to make the stock with. You could use this recipe with chicken as well.

My Turkey Stock Recipe:

1.7 lb. turkey breast/thigh with skin on and bone in

1/2 onion roughly chopped

2 stalks of celery cleaned and chopped in half

2 carrots cleaned and cut in roughly half

1-1.5 Tbls. of butter *I used butter to bring out the favors since I didn't have a bouillion cube to use later in the soup recipe

8-10 cups of water

**Keep in mind how much water you use and veggies you include will be proportionate to how much meat you have or how much flavor you want

Melt the butter in your stock pot and get it hot but don't burn it. Add your turkey and brown the top and bottom. Throw in your veggies while you are browning your turkey and get them slightly browned also, no need to cook everything right now, just some browning from the butter is what you are looking for.  Add as much water that you will want to use in your soup. I originally added 8 cups of water but wish I would have added 10 cups (or more) of water. It is better to add more water now and get the flavors together then dilute it after (like I did). Boil covered for 30 minutes or simmer for approximately 2 hours; until your turkey is cooked.

Take your turkey out once it is cooked, let cool slightly, and shred/chop meat to use for soup. Throw away the skin and bone of the turkey along with the veggies in the stock and strain your stock with cheese cloth (save the liquid! this is the base for your soup). 

Now you can make your soup... I used this recipe and it was delicious. I added the thick homestyle egg noodles, like these, instead of the skinny noodles in her recipe and added extra turkey that we had shredded from Thanksgiving (in addition to the thigh we cooked for the stock). I have seen variations where you could add rice or potatoes in your soup as well that looked delicious. 

Keep it simple, it is yummy and broth-y and will make you feel better! Hope you have a healthy week!

Christmas 2012

--PART 1--

We celebrated Christmas as our small family. We chose the Saturday before we left to make German pancakes and open gifts. It was a wonderful day. That same day we posted our live tree on Craigslist and gave it away to someone who could use it for the last week and a half before Christmas, it felt better then dumping it.

--PART 2--

Having drinks with my dad at the top of the Stratosphere "Top of the World"/ Driving the race car on a dry lake bed

Bobo made a homemade fruit tart for dessert

Christmas morning/ Pom beanies I made for my sisters

Next we flew to Vegas and spent some wonderful time with my family cooking, gambling, shopping and Christmas-partying with family and friends. It was super busy and relaxing all at the same time. Our most delicious Christmas tradition is to get together with extended family and cook a huge pot of beef stroganoff to share over company. 

--PART 3--

Bike ride with brother/ Hunting for quail

Dinner as a family

Then I was lucky enough to get some extra time off work and fly to North Carolina and spend time with Scott's family. It was so wonderful for all of us to be together, visit with Jonah (our first stay with him that was longer than a day) and see the beautiful town they live in. It was the most beautiful weather and Scott and I tried to suck up some time outside.