Thursday, March 13, 2014

Getting to know Soocralena a little better.

I spoke in the first post about Soocralena, my refined sugar lover side.  She has been trying hard to get me to go back this week.  Last week it was dreams about donuts and gummy bears (I don't even like gummy bears), and this week it has been constant reminding of all the things I love.  

Last week she was quick to remind me of all the treats we like to have while we are camping, and saying things like "you can't seriously think you will never eat another s'more", or "What about pudgy pies?, everyone is going to think you are crazy if you don't indulge in one of those!".  It's the classic devil/angel on the shoulders routine.  Despite her case for the refined stuff, I have come up with a solution for the pudgy pie.  I cannot go into detail over what this camping delicacy is, but I will say that it has pie filling as an ingredient.  HELLO, I can make my OWN pie filling sweetened with either maple syrup, or dates, or cranberries, or…  That shut her up for a little while.

This week she hit me hard with chocolate cravings.  So I came up with this little recipe:
1/2 cup cashew milk
1 1/2 cups ice
1 tablespoon cocoa powder
8 pitted dates
Blend till consistency of ice cream.  
I even made an elaborate video to show you all how to make this…then I seen it elsewhere online.  I was a little sad that I had not originated the recipe, but really in actuality I had never heard of it before!  
Here is her recipe: Chocolate Shot

Well, that was not good enough, Soo needed some crunchy chocolate bar chocolate.  The funny thing is that I breezed through PMS without a single chocolate craving, hmmm, go figure.  I wanted to have something that was not sweetened with refined sugar, or any type of sweetener, so I got an idea!  I love ideas.

I decided to combine the cashew creamer I made (sweetened with dates) to a brick of 100% dark chocolate cacao.  That wasn't quite sweet enough so I added pure maple syrup.  There are so many other amazing ways to sweeten my treats that don't involve the white refined stuff.  I try to sweeten mostly with dates and fruit, but for the times I cannot, maple syrup is an excellent substitute!  

This bar of cacao looks identical to the many bars of chocolate I have eaten in my life.  It was so beautiful, had no added sugar and looked just like yummy dark chocolate.  I thought, how bad can it be?  It should be kind of sweet to me since I haven't eaten refined sugar.  Boy was I WRONG!  It tasted disgusting!  You know I did not take a small bite.  Oh it was so horrible!  Not only did I spit it out, I felt like my stomach was turing!  I may be exaggerating, but not by much!

So the first batch of candy I put in the freezer, then moved it to the refrigerator so it would stay hard.  I left a few out on the counter atop parchment paper, then was surprised this morning to find that they had hardened.  So I took the other candies out of the refrigerator and put them back on the parchment.  


Above are the first treats I made, then tonight I went to have one and smeared peanut butter (that I made sweetened with dates!) on the bottom of the piece of candy, oh man!!! 



So I decided it was time for a new batch of candy.  I don't know if the chocolate will harden because I added some almond milk along with the cashew creamer and syrup.  

In three days it will be my 21 day mark since I broke up with refined sugar.  It has really gone fast, I think because I have had so many ideas of how to sweeten my food, and also because I have been so preoccupied with wonderful vegan recipes.  I definitely think God is helping me with this because not only do I pray for Him to help me, He knows how damaging sugar is to our bodies and He wants us to take good care of our temple.  

I tried looking into articles to share with you the dangers of sugar, and most of them get off to a great start talking about the dangers of it, and how we are ending up with totally preventable diseases because of it, but then inevitably suggest sweeteners as replacements for refined sugar.  I refuse to post that to my blog when there are healthy alternatives that don't make your body crave more sugar.  

Did you know that most fruits get their weight from water, but dates get theirs from sugar?  Dates are not only rich in fiber, they are also full of nutrients, one of which being potassium.  Dates have a low flavor profile too, making them the perfect sweetener with calories aka energy that your body recognizes and becomes satisfied with!

Okay, the best news.  Remember how I said I was not doing this to lose weight?  Well, I have been watching what I eat not going overboard, just because that is what any sensible diet requires, but I have also indulged in some yummy stuff.  My pants have been feeling looser.  The scale only shows a 3 pound loss, but the measuring tape shows better AND my laser treatment lady noticed today!   So that is my plug for eating raw and eliminating refined sugar.   Until next time, thank you for reading!  

Great short article What Are Dates Good For?


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