Category Archives: Sugar-free

Recipes in this category may contain sugar in the form of naturally occuring sugars such as fruits, honey or non-caloric sweeteners such as erythritol or stevia. Please use your discretion.

Erik’s Reboot

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Here’s a quick update for those of you wondering about how Erik is doing on his weight loss program, which is working for him! He’s slimming down!

Reboot Juicing Breakfast: Blended Spinach with juice, Amazing Grass and some supplemental capsules

Breakfast: Amazing Grass, supplemental capsules, and Blended Spinach with juice.

Erik and I concur: When beginning a fast, days 2 and 3 are the hardest. Day 4 the cravings are dying down and it gets much easier after that.

The juice fast routines are basically:

  • A.M. blended spinach-juice, cod liver oil, Vit D, Amazing Grass (probiotic, antioxidant), Maca, Milk Thistle Seed. And, he enjoys his coffee.
  • Lunch: soup, trying for the lower calorie or vegetarian types. Or cauliflower with a dip like hummous. Sometimes a chai (see below) or Dandy Blend instant beverage.
  • Dinner: blended spinach-juice again if at home. Salad if at a restaurant?
  • Evening: homemade chai sweetened with stevia and erythritol, unsweetened almond milk OR a cocoa (see below)
  • Shot of magnesium with coconut water
  • Basically, relearning to eat small portions at all times. Over the past couple of years, I have really seen Erik eat far smaller portions. These first two “fasts” have really helped him get to know his own body better.
  • Ideally, I try to get a zinc supplement into him on an empty stomach and/or towards evening.

In order to get "over the hump" of the difficult first three days of a juice fast, I recommend drinking as much as you want of all of the "approved" drinks (like all those mentioned on Erik's Reboot program) and up to three servings of green food powder such as Amazing Grass.

Erik will be morphing his “diet” into an Intermittent Fasting model using the low-calorie “juice fast” routines I am detailing here along with some days when he eats a regular Primal Blueprint diet. This will allow for low-calorie fat burning days on his juice fast, but not for long enough for his metabolism to go into starvation/fat-storage mode. Primal Blueprint guidelines call for a moderate protein, higher fat, high vegetables and low carbs.

I have also been developing a supplements chart for our family-of-four, to help us stay on track with supplements. Mainly, we have moved to taking our fat soluble vitamins in the morning, giving us the calories from fat to use through the day. Another tip I’ve just started using is to mix our evening magnesium with some coconut water for a balance with potassium. A tasty way to do this is with Coco Cocoa!

Recipe: Super Nut Butter (on celery)

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I’m rediscovering nut butter on celery as a super fast snack! This blend works in several superfoods that my family would not normally eat as stand-alones.

In a clean jar with lid, stir up a batch using these ingredients:

  • In order to mix coconut oil in smoothly, bring all nut butters to room temp. Melt coconut oil. (Next time, I’ll try mixing the oil with the pumpkin seed flour first.)
  • Peanut butter for flavor, if necessary (avoid due to mycotoxins)
  • Almond butter or any other nut butter (freshness really affects flavor!)
  • Ground walnuts for crunch and an EFA brain boost
  • Tahini for a mineral boost (sesame seed butter. Brands vary in taste due to freshness and roasted or not. My friend prefers EastWind. I like it freshly ground at my co-op.)
  • Ground pumpkin seeds for zinc boost (highly recommended for older boys and men or those with low stomach acid)
  • KAL stevia extract powder for sweetness
  • Extra sea salt if needed (I use Redmond RealSalt)
  • Children might enjoy better with raw honey mixed in. (I’ll try this with my son who doesn’t like the stickiness of nut butters)
Spread on celery or whatever!
I haven’t worked out the proportions yet, for the coconut oil and ground pumpkin seeds to a consistency I like. Honestly, I’ll probably just stir it up without measuring and adjust later–I can always add more of any ingredient.

Recipes: Today’s Chocolate Fix (and one Vanilla)

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I cannot eat cocoa. It’s one of those things that give me the itchies (or hives, if I eat a lot of it). But, I want to provide readers with lots of great recipes to fuel Primal families!

Primal Chocolate Cream Pie

http://www.thespunkycoconut.com/2011/04/banana-chocolate-cream-pie-oh-my-dairy.html –>     Thanks to The Spunky Coconut!

Primal Chocolate Pudding

It’s quick and easy. I have made various versions of chocolate pudding based on avocado (or eggs), and my kids do like it.

http://www.doctoroz.com/videos/decadent-chocolate-fix–>

White Chocolate

My 7 year old prefers vanilla. I’ve made him a pudding similar to the chocolate pudding above, but made sure to make it sweet and vanilla. Despite the green color, he loved it. Be sure to get a perfectly ripe and mild avocado for this!

Healthy Indulgences: Options for Soda Replacement

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My Mom’s husband is also taking on a weight-loss diet similar to me and my hubby: a sort of Primal crossed with the Atkins Induction. Knowing he loves diet soda, I sent him some of these Pomegranate Cherry Fast Flavor Sticks from Trader Joe’s (TJ’s). He asked for more! (Yes, I sent them in the mail.)

Now, an Izze is natural carbonated juice. But, what if you want something that’s yeast-free, natural, and as little sugar as possible? You’ll need something sweetened with stevia and maybe erythritol (my two non-caloric sweeteners of choice). Enter these two great products.

Trader Joe's Fast Flavor Sticks Pomagranate Cherry. And, SweetLeaf Stevia Liquid Berry Flavor.

Two similar Berry-or-Cherry-flavored products for flavoring carbonated water like Perrier or with the SodaStream.

These TJ’s Pom-Cherry Fast Flavor Sticks make your drink red with natural colors. They’re gluten-free and party-friendly (unless you have white carpet).

Tip: Be careful with the Trader Joe’s Flavor Sticks going into carbonated water! I use a tall glass because this tends to foam up quite a lot.

The Flavor Sticks have only 13 calories. But, here’s another solution which is calorie-free!

The clear liquid stevia extracts from SweetLeaf are quite exciting to me, because they are even more natural with fewer ingredients. The Berry flavor is similar to the TJ’s Pom-Cherry sticks. I know a few kids who love this flavor. Now, some people might discern the difference and even prefer the TJ’s. But, the SweetLeaf option is available to those who want Zero calories and fewer ingredients. Or, no color–better if you spill your drink (what a great option with children!)

Now, if Trader Joe’s is too far out of your way, you could try eBay! But, for the SweetLeaf liquids, you could Google it. I would recommend these options:

Bonus: I happen to not own a SodaStream (yet), so I buy bottles of Perrier at Costco. No doubt I’ll be blogging about this later this year after some cost analysis.

Ideas: You do not have to use carbonated water; you could use these sweet flavors to add to regular water or to bump up some tea or juice, gelatin, chia seed pudding. Perhaps we’ll soon be adding our whole food Vitamin C powder to some of this Berry Water (more on that later).

My 5 year old and I both I like to have a treat with one of these drink options and Trader Joe’s Seaweed Snacks (only 99 cents) for a salty hit.

Share? Do you have a quick idea or recipe using a flavored stevia product? Could you share with all of Hearth and Gnome’s readers?

Recipes: Rachel’s Chia Seed Puddings

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This is one of my informal recipes. Making chia seed pudding is more of a simple art than it is a recipe. But, here are a few quick tips and the flavor variations I have come up with.

But, wait. Click Here and you’ll view all my info (including this post) on Chia Seeds on one page.

Here’s how: Continue reading →

Chia Seeds: Healthy, Low Carb and Primal!

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I am renewing my efforts to eat Primal Blueprint Weight Loss! Every time I do renew my efforts, I get one more step closer to sustainable, permanent changes. Our modern lifestyle sure does make it difficult. Plus, it is difficult to be a nuclear family without extra people here to prepare food.

Good news. Chia seeds are healthy, Primal and low carb!  2 Tbsp contains 12 g of carbs, but 11 g is fiber. (Net 1g carbs in the Atkins Induction Diet). It’s high in a couple of important minerals too, like calcium. Vegans may rejoice, because chia seeds contain all 9 essential Amino Acids. And high Omega-3 fatty acids should make us all happy.

2 Tbsp is a decent serving, because they absorb so much liquid that when you make chia seed pudding, you get a nice sized treat or snack, which is truly Primal Fast Food! I haven’t used them for much other than chia seed pudding, but don’t need to, because this one concept for this ingredient is totally satisfying, and I’m not bored yet!

What a perfect bedtime snack for children (and me)!

I checked measurement of chia seeds in fitday.com against the chia seed info on Livestrong and it came out close enough. Just record 1 oz. for 2 Tbsp. in your fitday.com food log.

Want more info?  I love comments to my blog! Please leave a comment below!

Recipes: Chia Seed Puddings

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What first inspired me to try chia seed pudding was a combination of my friend Emily telling me about how she makes chia seed pudding as well as an e-newsletter from Tera Warner, then rawmom.com. Here’s Tera Warner’s blog on chia seeds: http://www.terawarner.com/blog/2011/06/how-to-get-chia-seeds-on-your-menu/

But, after many times using measured ingredients, I finally had a feel for how to whip up a bowl of pudding and now I do so several small dishes at one time. It works in pretty well when I am multi-tasking in the kitchen.

Below are a couple of recipes, but, you may want to start at  –> Rachel’s Chia Seed Puddings.

Here are the original recipes from the RawMom.com Continue reading →