We declared No-Sugar January officially over on January 28th when we were out of everything (including grocery money) and had to make an emergency run to the store for the cheapest jar of peanut butter and jelly. That also happened to be the same day a box arrived with heart-shaped cookies and other sugary sweets. It's tradition for me to eat my whole cookie as soon as it arrives, and well, tradition is tradition.
I am glad we did this. I didn't notice any drastic improvements in our health, but we weren't completely sugar free either - I continued making our regular bread recipe which has some sugar and we had birthday cake with Uncle Bud and dessert when a family invited us over for dinner. Ideally, that's how it should be - desserts as a rare thing on special occasions and few sweets otherwise, but it's rather alarming how quickly we've fallen back into old habits. If nothing else, it was good for me to have to say no to Lauren every time she asked for cupcakes, chocolate, chocolate milk, muffins, etc. Going completely sugar free forever would be really hard - I don't plan on ever doing that but we really do need to be careful, so we will continue trying to practice moderation, probably failing, and then trying again. That's life, right?
Our goal for February is to track all of our expenses and account for every penny. We have done this on and off through the years, but really fell off the bandwagon last year - it was a rough year financially. But now that Preston has steady work and we are looking to eventually buy a home and pay off debt, it is more important than ever. We got a head start last month, so it should be easy!
Below is a recipe for a cookie-like treat that tasted really good when we were not eating sugar.
Banana Date Cookies
- 3 bananas
- 1 cup chopped dates
- 1/2 cup chopped walnuts
- 1/3 cup oil
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 2 cups rolled oats
Instructions
Mash bananas, leaving some pieces. Add chopped dates and oil. Beat with a fork. Add remaining ingredients, mix lightly. Let stand a few minutes for oatmeal to absorb moisture. Drop from spoon on ungreased cookie sheet. Heat oven to 400 degrees F. Bake 25 minutes or until nicely browned. Loosen with spatula and let cool on cookie sheet.
Read more at http://www.favehealthyrecipes.com/Cookies/Banana-Date-Oatmeal-Cookies#7iWcqq1Yq6hBLT5b.99
1 comment:
Cute picture.
Post a Comment