Homemade Chocolate Pudding

My good friend gave me this recipe, and since I had a craving for it tonight, I figured I'd go ahead and share it. It's a super-easy recipe for chocolate pudding, and the best part is that because you're making it, you can sweeten it in whichever way you choose, and you don't have to worry about weird thickeners and additives. I made some up while I unloaded the dishwasher after supper tonight.

Chocolate Pudding:

2 cups milk
1/3 cup cocoa
1/2 cup sugar (or 1/4 cup honey or agave syrup or maple syrup, or 1/4 tsp stevia powder) *note: you can adjust these amounts a little bit to taste. Feel free to make it a little sweeter if you're in the mood.
3 tbsp cornstarch
2 tsp vanilla (optional)

You can either microwave this recipe or cook it on the stovetop. It's up to you. If you're going for health, then use the stovetop. :)

Whisk together the milk, cocoa, sweetener, and cornstarch in either a microwavable glass container or a saucepan. If microwaving, put it in for 1 to 1 1/2 minutes, stir, and repeat until it thickens to your satisfaction. If you're using the stovetop, stir it periodically, making sure it doesn't burn or stick, until it's nicely thickened. Stir in the vanilla once the mixture is thickened.

Pour it into little glass or ceramic bowls, and eat it either warm or cold. Refrigerate any leftovers. Yum!

Sugar-free, Delicious Christmas Baking -- Pure Fantasy?

Christmas baking is so hard now that I don't eat sugar! I'm still early on in my experimenting process, but so far the shortbread cookies made with whole wheat pastry flour and honey have NOT been exactly the same as their white-flour-and-white-sugar counterpart. Well, to be more specific, my taste buds were quite happy with their still-buttery goodness, but my mom was less than impressed by their new, healthier personality. Oh, and the lack of icing sugar made them spread out really, really thin, too. They were almost completely unrecognizable as good old Scottish shortbread.

Sigh.

But, I will press on! If there's one thing I've learned over the past week, even, it's that sugar and I do NOT mix well at all any more. If I want to have a "happy holiday," as they say, I'd do well to keep it out of my holiday baking.

Anyone who leaves any tips or recipes will be loved forever and ever...

Sugar Crisis: The Update

Okay, I have a confession to make: I suck at quitting sugar.

I thought it would be so easy, since I didn't really eat that much of it to begin with. But once I started thinking about it, I started craving it. Suddenly, I was craving donuts -- which I normally don't like -- and dreaming of ice cream. What was going on???

I still have no answer. And, I still haven't kicked the habit.

Now my internal debate centres around whether it's really a big deal, after all. What if I was just being a fanatic, and it's really not the end of the world if I eat a brownie now and then? (Especially if it's a really, really GOOD brownie...) Then I wonder if it's my addiction that's talking and telling me it's okay to have just one. Ack!

You see how this could get out of hand.

The solution I've worked out, for now, is that I'll just do what I did when I was losing weight: I'll keep eating healthy, with lots of veggies and water and fiber (and coffee -- so sue me), and when I do indulge in a treat, I'll make it small. I won't completely deny myself, but I won't go crazy, either. A nice, happy medium. Hey, it worked for losing forty pounds, so I figure it could keep me from sugar-induced illnesses, as well. Maybe.

Anyway, that's the update. I hope you're not too disappointed in me.

Quitting Cocaine Must Be Easier Than Quitting Sugar

Here are my tips for going off sugar:

Don't do it two days before your best friend moves across the country.
Don't buy Ben & Jerry's the week before, even if it IS on sale.
Don't forget that the sugar withdrawal could be the real reason behind your sudden loss of the will to live... or at least of your desire to get up in the morning.

Yeah, that's pretty much it right now. Oh, except for one thing: Expect your coffee addiction to get worse for a while.

I'll let you know how I feel when the fog lifts from my brain.

Goodbye, Sweet Sugar

After I wandered around in a tired, confused, hungry daze late this afternoon, my husband looked at me and said, "You had too much sugar today, didn't you? You're acting like you're having a sugar crash."

I guiltily admitted that I'd had a delicious caramel macchiato this afternoon. But really, who knew that all that syrup and caramel would be such a big deal?

So, as I drove to the grocery store after supper to restock our pathetic cupboards, I decided not to buy anything with sugar in it. After reading Sugar Blues last week and really learning how destructive sugar is to our bodies, I'd thought then that we should probably eliminate it from our diets as a family. Then, after my erratic and depressed behaviour this week induced by ice cream, oatmeal (those little sugary breakfast packets), and now caramel, I figured it was time to stop for real.

It's hard, though. I mean, obviously sugar is delicious. If it weren't, we wouldn't all be so addicted to it.

Anyway, I started reading labels at the grocery store tonight on things that I'd always just trustingly added to my cart: Cheerios, Special K, bread, tortillas, Miracle Whip, vinegar. They've all got sugar in them!

I had a bit of an inner struggle as I walked past the granola bars, but I decided I'd make my own from the fabulous recipe in The Sneaky Chef, so that gave me the strength to move on.

The most difficult part of going sugar free, I think, is finding healthy foods to snack on that my slightly particular four-year-old will eat. But since he's a die-hard cracker fan, I read the labels on a couple boxes and settled on the President's Choice Blue Menu crackers, of all things. I also picked up some organic puffed corn and kamut for the babies.

I did cheat a little bit on my favourite cereal (which does contain sugar, darn it!), but I figured that since it's so high in fibre, I might be okay. Besides, I've never had a sugar crash after eating it, and it's just so tasty! I used the same theory with the bread: more fibre = less damage from the sugar. I'm not entirely sure if that's true, but at least the fibre regulates the absorption of sugar during digestion (I read that in Alive magazine), so maybe we'll be okay.

I skipped buying apple juice, too. The boys will just have to drink milk or water. Here's hoping they don't beg for it all week!

I really really really hope that we won't go through major sugar withdrawal symptoms -- cravings, headaches, irritability, exhaustion -- but I guess if we do, we'll survive. We're cutting back, but we weren't consuming that much to begin with. Except, of course, for the Ben & Jerry's I got on sale last week. And all the parties I've been to lately that had delicious desserts. But aside from those... Oh, never mind.

I'll let you know how it goes.

Oh yeah, and if this post was a little disconnected, I'm blaming that on the sugar, too.