So, this month at work has been rough you guys. Exhausted, and even frustrated on some days, there are really only two ways to unwind: dessert or cocktails… or wine… or beer. Ok, I don’t discriminate on beverages. Continue reading “Margarita Cocktail Cookies Recipe”
Summer is over, they say. School is starting. Time for freshly sharpened pencils, sweater shopping, and the end of eating ice cream every day. Aw man. Continue reading “Peach Caprese Salad Stack Recipe”
When you go to an outrageous tea party or want to be incredibly fancy, petit fours are the perfect dessert. The dainty little bite sized bursts of sweetness taste just as good as they look. A light cake, filled with tart fruit filling and an incredibly sweet glaze can be popped into your mouth quickly so you don’t have to carry it around or fumble with any wrapping, making it quite an elegant little dessert. Continue reading “Casual Key Lime Petit Fours Recipe”
Not surprisingly, this Summer just keeps getting hotter. I’ve started to give up on tanning at the pool, or as it’s more commonly known as, Julia trying to read mystery novels while being as close to completely underwater as possible. Even my AC has been giving up, leaving the apartment at a cool 78 degrees on a normal basis. Yuck! Continue reading “Peaches n’ S’Cream Recipe”
I have a very sneaky secret to share with you guys. I love sweets. Ok, that’s not the secret, you already knew that. Continue reading “Guilt Free Chocolate Banana Almond Ice Cream Recipe”
Each week I head to the grocery store on Sunday and stock up for the week. On my sugar reducing kick, I ran to the produce section and stocked up on boxes upon boxes of fresh strawberries, they were on sale! By Wednesday I had eaten approximately half of them, and they started to look a little droopy. I could have frozen them for berry beet smoothies, but I already had a whole bag in there (notice my problem with over-buying produce). Looked like I was going to have to eat the entire box of strawberries in one night. Continue reading “3 Ingredient Strawberry Mint Pops Recipe”
Lately I’ve been thinking a lot about sugar. Growing up as a dessert lover, anything with a real kick of sweetness was good by me. I would stir a heaping 4 spoonfuls of sugar in to my tea after school, sneak sugar cubes out of the box from fancy parties, and lick the cake batter right out of the bowl. One of these things still stands true.
Over time, I obviously have cut down on my sugar intake, but I realized recently that I was still really going overboard without even trying! With the help of the My Fitness Pal app, I started tracking my food intake just on the weekdays to try to help myself from grabbing that third cookie or mindlessly eating chips in front of the TV after work. It’s been incredibly helpful with that, as well as helping me see the power of exercise (so many more snacks allowed on workout days!). What I didn’t anticipate was the insight it would bring to my intake on things like protein, vitamins, and mostly, sugar.
You all know I love sweets, and I’m totally fine with committing myself to a sweet indulgence, but I was hitting my sugar intake for the day by lunch time without even having one dessert! AHHHH! How was this even possible? Little did I realize, I’d been eating unnecessary sugar in so many of my foods. Though some of it was natural sugar from fruits and dairy, I realized how much I could cut down with a few simple changes in my diet. Check out my tips below to see where you can save sweetness for dessert and not keep it hidden where you don’t enjoy it:
1. Breakfast cereals are FULL of sugar! Go to your pantry and check out the labels. If you don’t strictly eat plain Cheerio’s, you’re going to find anywhere from 8-15 grams of sugar per serving. This includes “healthy” cereals like Special K (which I eat all the time), yikes! Also, if you throw in 2/3 cup of 1% milk you get another 9 grams of sugar. This was insane to me.
In order to increase protein intake and cut the sugar, I switched my breakfast to 2 soft boiled eggs and a half a cup of strawberries. I can make the hard boiled eggs the night before and eat them quickly in the morning. They have less than 1 gram of sugar a piece and 6 grams of protein! The strawberries have only 4 grams of sugar, even though they taste so sweet.
2. Fruity yogurts are sneakily sweet. I love grabbing Greek yogurt cups at the start of the week because of its great protein, calcium, and good bacteria properties. What I don’t love is that it costs me 17 grams of sugar to eat them.
By switching to a plain Greek yogurt and adding your own fruit, you can cut up to 10 grams of sugar and still get all the same benefits. What I do now is buy a large container of Chobani plain Greek yogurt (I’ve found it to be the lowest in sugar) and portion it out into Tupperware. Then I add fresh cut berries to the top and throw them in the fridge. Letting the fruit sit over the week sweetens up the yogurt and tastes just like the store bought fruity cups.
3. Some fruits are sweeter than others. Obviously fruit is still good for you, but you can pick some that are a little easier on the sweet tooth than others. Raspberries, strawberries, and blackberries are the least sweet fruits you can buy, while cherries, bananas, and mangoes will put you into a sugar coma. Just swapping fruit choices will help you out, sometimes by up to 10 grams of sugar a serving!
4. You can have your cake and save sugar too! Ok, cake is a bad example, but you can still feel indulgent while not picking the sweetest desserts. Having dark chocolate versus milk chocolate will cut the sugar in half. A mixed berry cobbler with reduced sugar will also come in lower than lemon squares… but honestly I’m OK with committing to a sweet dessert. It’s dessert after all!
5. Other places sugar is hiding include fruit juices, pasta sauces, and granola bars – all things we expect to be full of nutrients and health benefits are also full of sugar. Try to avoid these if possible.
Don’t feel the need to go overboard, but try a sugar saving trick here and there just to see how you feel. Reducing sugar intake can improve your skin, energy level, and overall health, so let’s work on it. Do you have any other good tricks to share?
Every birthday deserves cake. And if you’re like me, I think every birthday deserves flowers too. There’s something really luxurious about having a fresh bouquet on the dining table, livening up the whole room. Well, this Fri-DIY might not include a scent, but 52 Kitchen Adventures shows you how to make a cupcake bouquet that is perfect for a sweet birthday girl!
It’s such a simple idea, which makes it the best kind of DIY in my opinion. By using the Frosting Tips tutorial I put up last year to make the rose cupcakes, all you have to do is stick toothpicks into a foam mold and arrange your “flowers” into shape. If someone was to give me this as a birthday present, I think it would go down in the books as one of the cutest gifts ever received. It would also be personal because I love cupcakes and flowers… but really, who doesn’t? What a thoughtful gift for anyone!
If you have a birthday coming up, grab some supplies and get going!
Sew Bake Decorate 