Food hacks that I’m loving

So I live in a permanent state of trying to improve my eating. I think this is a common goal shared by many women around the world.

One of the goals I’m aspiring to at the moment is to reduce my sugar intake. Yes mum, I ate some vegemite cadbury this week but it was an exception OK? While I want to reduce my sugar intake, I don’t want to miss out on amazing food opportunities (like limited edition cadbury).

Speak of the devil – I really liked it too.

So with this goal in mind I have been trying to do sort of failing doing a bit of Sarah Wilson’s I Quit Sugar. (IQS) I’ve bought her two books (the 8 week program and her book of recipes) and some rice malt syrup. Buying the books was the easy part.

Obviously quitting sugar has a range of health benefits (read more about what Sarah has to say here) in my view both physical and emotional.

So far I can honestly claim to have enjoyed the process. If I can manage to do it properly (holidays are basically impossible) I feel much more awake and have a flat stomach. I feel less bloated and my skin looks better. I am also less likely to mindlessly eat. I find when it comes to treats (or chocolate mainly) basically I should stay the hell away. Because as soon as I get a taste I turn into a crazy rabid animal and eat everything sweet in sight. Goodbye entire jar of nutella! Then I feel guilty and ashamed. It’s best if I just don’t start at all as once I have one bit I develop the ‘oh fudge it, might as well just keep on eating crap’ mentality. I want to break the sugar addiction so I can try and get this behaviour under control. This is extremely hard when you are a highly accomplished secret eater. and a chocoholic. I don’t think I’ll ever be able to give up sugar entirely as I don’t want to NEVER eat chocolate again. But I am happy to say that trying to quit sugar has really helped me with saying ‘no’ to treats and I don’t secret eat nearly as much.  I also haven’t bought Sainsbury’s cookies or eaten an entire block of chocolate for over 2 months which are both massive achievements for me. I’ll be honest though, the nutella has appeared.

I’m certainly not perfect but I’m trying. This week after returning from holidays I’ve been quite bad, although not as bad as in my ‘old sugar filled life’ I’ve certainly had some sugar and I am feeling it let me tell you.

One thing I do like about trying to quit sugar is that it gives you an excuse not to eat crap at work. So when someone buys cakes or brings in treats I can be all virtuous and like ‘oh no sorry, I’m quitting sugar’. I think that alone has helped me lose about 5 pounds.

So given I’m all healthy and shiz I wanted to share a few of my favourite ‘this is flipping amazing’ food recipes. Giving up sugar kind of means eating lots of fats. The upside of this (actually I don’t think there is a downside) is that I’m finding the fat & protein combo keeps me fuller for longer. I can load up on a nice fatty breakfast and feel full until lunch. Healthy fats of course! But that’s the general idea, protein + fat = full and happy. Basically I eat loads of meat, eggs, coconut everything (water, milk, cream, yoghurt, oil) salad, veggies, CHEESE, full fat dairy, avocado, olive oil and recipes from this blog. I have sourdough bread on weekends as well (with eggs and avocado… the best).

Before I begin you should know that I’m still making and eating my sweet potato brownies. But I’m substituting the honey/agave for a small amount of stevia. That recipe can be found in the recipe section of my blog and you probably should take a look.

I find breakfast and snacks the hardest so that is what I focus most of my energy on. And that’s what I’m writing about today!

IQS Bacon Egg Cupcakes

First and most importantly, I need to tell you about Sarah Wilson’s IQS bacon and egg cupcakes. THESE WILL CHANGE YOUR LIFE. I am actually calling them a food hack. Basically you get a muffin tin, grease that bad boy up, line each hole with bacon, cook it, then crack an egg in the hole, then cook it again. Presto you have 12 mini bacon egg cups. So easy and so very delicious. I actually make these for Sam every day for his breakfast. People at work corner me and ask me what I’m eating and I love it. I gladly preach spread the word about these life changing, simple and plain marvellous creations. You can add cheese as well but I usually just have plain ol’ egg and bacon. See the website for all the detailed instructions:

Or check out my amateur step by step picture guide…

Bacon first (top right) then add the egg (top left) and the bottom is your end result!

Photo courtesy of IQS website – not mine obviously HA

The Londoner’s Carb Free Bread

I love Rosie at the Londoner. She pretty much has the best blog in the world, and the best clothes, the best hair, the best life. She also has great recipes and this carb free bread is no exception. I LOVE it for breakfast (when I give Sam all the eggcups) with avocado or Sam has it as a snack with vegemite. It’s got a nice sort of savoury, nutty taste and it’s so much lighter than normal bread. Plus it’s full of omega 3s and fibre.

All you need is a small loaf tin and …

• 4 eggs
• 1 cup of flax meal
• 3tbsp water
• Half cup of ground almonds
• 1tsp baking powder
• Half tsp salt

I alter the recipe to add 1 tablespoon of apple cider vinegar and 2 tablespoons of chia seeds.

The full recipe and instructions is on the Londoner website but I can tell you it is dead easy and dead quick to make.

This is the Londoner’s photo not mine!

Mine looks more like this…

Loaded with home made nutella – a recipe I can confidently say I will never make again

IQS Coco-Nutty Granola

This is yet another breakfast fave. The recipe is one of IQS’s most popular. I have the granola with full fat, greek style, plain yogurt. You can use a little less coconut oil, and I have tried substituting 1 cup of nuts for 1 cup of oats and that works well too. Jump on the website for the full details – it’s another simple and easy recipe and unlike normal granola it has no added nasty devil nectar sugar. I buy my coconut chips in bulk on amazon (I may have bought a bag larger than a toddler, lucky I like it) but they sell them at whole foods too.

Photo cred IQS

Madeline Shaw’s Sweet Potato Bread

My friend at work Katia got me on to this. And I am so glad that she did. I have this as a delicious no-sugar snack and basically try not to devour the entire loaf. It’s that good. It’s Sam approved and extremely more-ish. It’s also IQS approved and published on their blog. For full instructions jump on over for a look.

I promise it is so easy though, all you need is:

• 400 g steamed and pureed sweet potato.
• 4 free range eggs.
• pinch of sea salt.
• 50 g coconut oil or butter.
• 1 teaspoon baking powder.
• 300 g almond meal.

I sub 150g of almond meal for 150g of spelt flour.

My delicious loaf

Check out Madeline’s website directly if you are interested in more great healthy ideas. http://madeleineshaw.com/recipes/paleo-sweet-potato-bread/

The pro photo: photo cred Madeline Shaw

IQS Pumpkin + Chia muffins

So I like to eat these muffins for breakfast or with a salad for lunch. I heat them up and have lashings of butter. Because I’m allowed butter now I don’t eat sugar. I make them without basil and use a sweet potato pumpkin combo (already pre cut from sainsburys – so lazy). Full recipe and instructions on IQS website

I also experimented by lining my tray with baking paper instead of greasing it with oil. It worked surprisingly well. A great life hack!

I’m ready for my close-up

Just pull em right out at the end – no stick and no mess.

Other winners 

A few other great recipes that I’ve tried and give the thumbs up to include:

• IQS Triple Coconut and Blueberry Muffins
• IQS  Anzac biscuits  – warning these are dangerously good
• Nourish Every Day courgette bread (I also added 1 cup of grated cheddar cheese to this recipe, it’s nice for breakfast or for lunch with a salad)
• IQS ‘meal in a biscuit’ crackers (these were superb with cream cheese, cucumber and ham)

Non winners

Of course where there are winners, there are losers and so I share with you these recipes which were recipes that I tried, but will not make again.

• IQS coconut and cheese biscuits. To be fair I didn’t mind these that much but Sam really despised them. I think there are better recipes out there for snacks so I won’t make them again – coconut cheese biscuits
• Nourish Every Day Grainfree sesame scones. These were just a bit bland for my liking, and sort of meh.  They also look much better on the website –grain free scones

And that is all for now. I’ll update this post as I go along and add any more of my must have absolute favourites.