Oh, hi!
We’re two weeks into Sugar Free January and let’s just say – we’re feeling energized and eating amazing food and loving it so far, right?
Most days, yes! There are some good moments and some wait-this-is-hard moments, but we’re doing it. Let’s carry on! Let’s march forward! Let’s keep up this feel-good biz!
This week I found myself struggling with snacks (LOVE SNACKS NEED SNACKS) and especially those late night snacks aka sugary, desserty things. So some big wins this week were finding naturally sweet, wholesome alternatives to my sugar cereal habit and the nightly Christmas cookie routine I was getting so good at in December.
Here’s a look at what I ate in a day this week!
Breakfast
Breakfast of champions! Peanut butter on sprouted wheat toast with sliced bananas, cinnamon, and a tiny drizzle of honey.
As a lover of cereal, donuts, pancakes, and French toast, I struggle with sugar free breakfasts.
I love eggs, but I don’t always have time to make a fresh hot brunch between answering emails and loading the dishwasher and tummy time with my daughter. And I don’t know, maybe someone can convince me in the comments with a good egg-based meal prep recipe, but reheated eggs just kind of weird me out.
This filling, wholesome, and naturally sweet PB/banana toast combo was what I ate pretty much every day during Sugar Free January last year, and it’s back again this year for round two.
Paired with:
A decaf coffee with cream.
A) I don’t do caffeine. I quit it as of a few years ago when I realized that it was making me so edgy and anxious (and I’m already a leans-towards-edgy-and-anxious person). I feel so good without it.
B) Normally I like a slightly sweetened coffee. Especially in December, when we buy all the froo-froo creamers and drink lots of peppermint mochas and keep homemade cinnamon syrup in the fridge. But I’ve found that I don’t miss sugar in my coffee as much if I can give it a little richness with a swirl of full fat cream. The cream even weirdly even starts to taste sweet to me as the month goes on. WHO AM I.
Lunch
OKAY THIS SALAD.
It’s basically black lentils, cucumbers, tomatoes, flaked tuna (!!), pepperoncini, and a dill yogurt sauce, and it is SO AMAZING.
Guys, I normally don’t love tuna. But this salad is both Bjork’s and my current lunch addiction.
I’ll have an official recipe for you very soon.
Snackage
Cookie Dough Energy Bites, obviously, and a Mother’s Milk tea because I’m breastfeeding and maybe that’s weird to show you my Mother’s Milk tea but this is What I Ate Wednesday, so honesty! Any Mother’s Milk tea lovers out there? It’s actually kind of sweet and yummy.
The Cookie Dough Energy Bites I made are –> these <– and I just used a little less honey than what the recipe called for, and more peanut butter to compensate for the change in texture. I also used a very bittersweet dark chocolate bar instead of regular chocolate chips.
Bjork eats one approximately every 30 minutes, so next time I need to remember to double the batch.
Dinner
Let’s just say IT WAS A DAY. I was so tired by the time dinnertime came (and by that I mean I was actually shushing, rocking, and loving on my poor teething baby during real dinnertime so dinnertime = 9pm) so I sent Bjork out to grab some takeout from J. Selby’s which is a vegan restaurant in St. Paul.
^ Yes, this is a vegan haul.
Buffalo cauliflower wings with ranch, and a Dirty Secret (basically a Big Mac) made with… I don’t even know what. Some kind of plant based burger patties. And fries.
After Solvi finally went to sleep, we sat down to eat, didn’t talk at all, and all of it was gone in five minutes flat. So good.
Dessert
Yum, doesn’t that look good? #foodphotography
So I’ve been playing around with mug cakes lately – like, the single serving ones you “bake” in the microwave? Really classy. But… actually I’ve been kind of enjoying them. It’s a nice evening fix when I’m looking for something cozy and celebratory in that we-made-it-to-the-end-of-the-day way.
I’ve made several variations on this recipe from Downshiftology, most importantly adding more coconut oil (fudgier) and adding some chopped, less sweet dark chocolate (even more fudgier).
It’s a mug cake, so it’s not going to be the best cake of your life, but it’s warm and chocolatey and it does the job just fine.
That’s it! That’s what I ate.
What are you guys eating this week? Links welcome – I may or may not stalk your food!
I still drink Mother’s Milk tea regularly…and I only breastfed for like 6 weeks and my son is over 1 year old. With a drizzle of mesquite honey from Trader Joe’s…so good before bed!
I have moved past sugary breakfasts. (Who am I?) My favorite breakfast right now is two fried egg whites on toast with a little cheese and hot sauce. I have always been an egg white girl and once upon a time, ate 3 – 6 a day! Blech. But eggs fry up super fast with the right pan. Our favorite right now is a Lodge seasoned steel fry pan.
to talk about a steel frying pan, I am kind of in the market for copper cookware and copper containers with screw off copper tops. I’m planning to start juicing vegetables and I don’t want to juice to sit in plastic containers. Would you happen to know which sites sell copper cookware and copper containers by chance? 🙂
I wish we had a vegan spot to order from close by. Cincinnati hasn’t caught up yet! Good week!
Two major winners this week–and one was from you! The Creole chicken and sausage in the IP was a serious hit in our house, and I made What’s Gaby Cooking’s smoky chipotle chicken chili. It was GOOD. I have one more serving left for lunch today, and I’m pumped about it!
Avocado toast with a hardboiled egg chopped up on top (plus sriracha, obviously) is a great way to have an egg that can be made ahead and NOT reheated!
OKAY these are about to be my favorite posts ever on your blog. And WOW at that iphone x camera quality!!!!!
Xx
http://www.theactivespirit.com/
Presuming that you know this and you’re just not specifying what the coffee is, maybe it’s some fancy coffee tasting flavourer. But regular decaf coffee isn’t caffeine free. It’s almost as much as a regular cup of tea (I’m scottish so noraml tea for me).
Just thought it was strange that you declared you were caffeine free.
Ummm, no. 8 oz of regular roasted decaf coffee contains 2-5mg of caffeine (compared to the 100-160mg of regular brewed coffee). An 8 oz cup of brewed black or green tea contains 25-48mg caffeine.
My favorite way to have breakfast on hand is to make a crustless quiche, throwing in whatever I have on hand, and eat it wedge by wedge. I don’t reheat quiche. I like it hot the first time, but am happy to have it cold as leftovers. Add a dollop of Greek yogurt, sour cream, creme fraiche and a sprinkle of herbs and it change every day until it’s gone.
Ok, so I too can’t deal with reheated eggs, so my solution has been scrambled tofu! I usually make a double batch and then mix it in with the usual scramble/omelet veg. It reheats so well, and doesn’t ick me out to eat for 2-3 days after cooking.
I make these and freeze them, and hubby reheats them and toasts an English muffin https://www.cdkitchen.com/recipes/recs/41/Oven-Scrambled-Egg-And-Cheese-111472.shtml
I eat a single egg each weekday morning, microwaved poached in a coffee mug: 50 seconds, and then 19 seconds. I have to break up the cooking time as explosions have occurred and nobody’s got time for that. It’s efficient and virtually no clean up.
I have never commented before… but I have to for this comment!
How do you microwave-poach the egg? Do you need to add water? Or just, egg – mug – microwave – done? This would be PERFECT for me during the week!!!
It’s super easy! Put some water in a small Pyrex dish, crack in an egg, then add enough water to cover. Microwave for 60-90 seconds, depending on your microwave (and water and egg temp)
This has been my breakfast lately. It’s very filling and yummy and vegan which is a bonus. I leave out the maple syrup, it’s sweet enough with the banana. https://www.tasteofhome.com/recipes/loaded-quinoa-breakfast-bowl/
I am planning on Tuscan Turkey Cutlets for dinner tonight!
https://www.eatturkey.org/recipes/10120/
I hear you on the breakfast dilemma!! I went from an egg-hating person to an egg-loving fanatic a few years ago when a doctor suggested I try “the two-week test” (I was always bloated, and apparently bananas are quite inflammatory ugh). No sugar, no grains, no beans — it felt like no nothing! Anyway, soft scrambled eggs a la serious eats where you whisk in a pinch of kosher salt per egg and let that sit for 15 mins. It looked a bit dodgy first time I did it but it makes the best scrambled eggs, almost cheesy! That’s literally it: just eggs & salt, and boom! Nowadays I’ll add a side of verrry lightly dressed arugula — sometimes I skip the evoo and add just a splash of really good white balsamic, and man! Delicious!!
Here is my breakfast instant pot hack! I make a small casserole dish of an egg bake – similiar recipe to Starbucks sous eggs. I use eggs, cream, cottage cheese, shred cheese, and bacon or ham or sausage and salt. I put ice in the bottom of my instant pot, put rack on top and place my casserole in and cover with foil. I set for pressure for 22 minutes….but I use my delay timer and have it set to go off one hour before I want to eat. I wake up to hot delicious egg bake with no prep in my morning. I also do oatmeal on a set delay so it is hot and ready when I wake.
I’m snacking on your cookie dough bites while reading this post! We’ve been eating brussels sprout tacos for a few nights, love, love. And I will do a frittata or quiche for make ahead breakfasts or lunches. Food 52 has a great crustless kale quinoa quiche that’s super adaptable and great topped with avocado and your 5 ingredient cilantro dressing or magic green sauce. Thank you for inspiring the sugar free January!
I would just like to point out that keywords “Tummy time with my daughter” in this post!
I usually have simple overnight oats sweetened with honey. I add blueberries, homemade vanilla extract, and cinnamon. The recipe is on my blog.
I just ate grilled steak with Hibachi sauce, meat cooked well done, and shrimp with raw Cabbage, Bok Choy, and sliced oranges. And some Spicy Chicken. And i was glad to get in my 20 minutes morning treadmill cardio. 🙂
Mothers milk tea was my life for two years straight (I breastfed two babies). I drank it constantly all day long and I loved it – every time I see it in the grocery store I get a little nostalgic lol. Enjoy!
So I’ve never done the sugar free January thing, but I am intrigued because even though we eat mostly healthy food, we could use less sugar in our lives. We have been really busy lately between traveling, my husband’s rotator cuff surgery and our boys’ activities…swim meets, archery meets, cub scouts etc that our dinners have been simpler. I made a big pot of slow cooker venison stew last weekend that was awesome because we got at least two dinners out of it (even with 4 boys). They love it so I just put the crock in the fridge when it cooled down enough with the leftovers and then put it back in the crockpot to heat up for the second meal. The house smelled great again and it felt like a new meal. https://www.homeecathome.com/the-home-economist/slow-cooker-venison-stew I needed to make some banana nut muffins for the swim meet for the concessions so I made my favorite banana nut bread as muffins and they were amazing. Less baking time (23 minutes) and even easier for the kids to grab and go. I am still working on posting the muffins, but the bread is https://www.homeecathome.com/the-home-economist/moist-and-delicious-one-bowl-banana-bread I use a mix of sugars and honey, but should play with just using honey in the recipe.
If you want a mug cake WITH VEGGIES, here’s one I wrote last year: https://dontwastethecrumbs.com/chocolate-zucchini-mug-cake/
2 Tbsp maple syrup/honey + chips of your choice. Like you said – for the post-dinner snackage. ♥ (if you like it, make single servings of the dry ingredients ahead of time. then after dinner, just dump in a mug + add wet + zap)
The only kind of eggs I like reheated are eggs baked in a quiche or some type of breakfast casserole with veggies. For some reason baked eggs taste better reheated than other types of eggs! Sally’s Bakjng Addiction blog had a recent egg and biscuit casserole posted that was so good and i reheated the leftovers and they were great!
Hello Sweeties, breakfast today was curry peas and carrots with an over easy egg on top. Filling, yummy. I really enjoy all of sharing bits and pieces of your lives… I learn so much.. thank you and hugs to all
Little egg frittatas and breakfast cookies(just oats, bananas, and whatever dried fruits, nuts, seeds I have – a little cinnamon and vanilla too)!
I have been eating leftovers of this Cajun hashbrown casserole: emilybites.com/2015/02/cheesy-cajun-beef-potato-bake.html
For something sweet, I’ve been noshing on your 5 Ingredient Banana Bread Muffins. They are making sugar-free January so much easier!