This recipe I had on my hit-list after speaking up in Cambridge a few weeks ago. Katie Bavester from Clean Eat Treats whipped up a batch of these savory courgette and sage muffins for us all. They were delicious.

I gave them a go at the weekend because this week, I have three mornings where I have to be out of the house by 6:05am (I know!). I was in need of a suitable on-the-go breakfast that appeals for when my stomach decides to wake up. I’ve also had a lot of breakfast casserole recently and needed a change.

The verdict

These came out super moist and are really really tasty. They are nicely filling and last well for a few days – they don’t seem to lose their moisture easily like other muffins. An excellent option for breakfast, a snack, or just to add to any meal if you’re still not quite full enough.

Technically, I did think to myself this morning, that by eating these I had crossed a new boundary of eating garlic for breakfast. Just wanted to point this out; first it was vegetables, then shallots/onions, and now… garlic. This low sugar diet certainly takes you to new heights. I would have screwed my nose up at all of those a few years ago, that’s for sure. It’s amazing how your palette can change.

Obscure ingredients

I know coconut flour and coconut oil are a) not cheap and b) not easy to come by for everyone, so I apologies for the ‘fatty-ness’ of this recipe. I do think these are worth it. You can usually pick these ingredients up in specialist food shops like Wholefoods or Planet Organic or online (e.g. Healthy Supplies). Just a warning, I am not sure about substituting in regular whole-meal flour in this exact recipe because it’s very different in terms of how much liquid it absorbs.

Nearly everything free

Yes these are gluten free, dairy free, and of course, sugar-free.

Courgette and sage coconut flour muffins

Recipe adapted from Anja’s Food for Thought & Clean Eat Treats

Makes 11-12 small muffins

Ingredients

• 1/4 cup ground almonds
• 10-12 fresh sage leaves
• 1 garlic clove
• 1/2 tablespoon olive oil
• 2 eggs
• 2 tablespoon coconut oil
• 2 tablespoons water
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 3 tablespoons coconut flour
• 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 a grated courgette

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 180C and grease a tin or line a muffin tin with parchment paper (I did half and half to test and both worked)
2. Mix the chopped garlic, ground almonds, sage and olive oil together in a small bowl
3. Combine the coconut flour and baking soda in another bowl
4. Melt the coconut oil and whisk together with the eggs, water and salt
5. Whisk the flour mixture together with the eggs and oil (you’ll notice the coconut flour in action here)

6. Add the sage and ground almond mixture from earlier and then add the courgette
7. Spoon into the tin and bake for 25-30 minutes, until perfectly golden
8. Take them out and be as satisfied as I was!

These were particularly nice when eaten warm. Next time I will double the recipe and possibly freeze a few.

Have you baked with coconut flour before? Do obscure ingredients put you off recipes? I know they do me sometimes but occasionally I like to try something a bit more unusual.

The milk I used in the video is Alpro Fresh Almond Drink Unsweetened.

First, what is ‘crowding out’?

Crowding out means adding more to your diet. This is quite simply to reduce the room available for bad stuff  like chocolate, refined carbohydrates and the rest of it. Think:  mountain of salad = less pizza. Simple. So how exactly do you go about pushing sugar off of the daily plate?

1. Crowd more protein into breakfast

Steady blood sugar reduces the chances of sugar cravings, and mid morning can be a killer for this if you’re not on top of breakfast. If you have cereal, crowd out with nuts, seeds, and yoghurt to reduce the cereal portion. You can do the same with porridge. Don’t be afraid to add extra ‘breakfast sides’ to crowd out further eg. a handful of cherry tomatoes, half an avocado and some nuts for extra protein.

2. Crowd in leafy greens…everywhere

Most people don’t eat enough leafy greens, it’s as simple as that. They are nutritionally supercharged wonders, so you should crowd with these wherever possible. Add spinach or courgettes to pasta sauces; whip up a parmesan and rocket salad to accompany a bowl of soup; and add watercress, broccoli or kale to smoothies. Done!

 3. Crowd tempting situations with healthy fat

This goes against the grain of conventional healthy eating advice but it works. If there’s an event or situation on the horizon where you know you might give in, fill yourself up with something fatty (& therefore tasty) to reduce any chance of feeling deprived. A creamy or buttery sauce will add a rich satisfying element to your meal that will help reduce your desire for sugary ‘treats’.

4. Crowd out your sweet activity

Coffee with the girls? Popcorn at the cinema? Ice cream night in? Take a look at your diary and start to crowd out pastimes that involve sweet with those that don’t. Suggest to your friend you catch up with a walk round the park and be proactive in organising activities where you know sweet isn’t such a big part of the picture.

5. Crowd out sugary thoughts

I know when you’re slightly sugar controlled, it can be on your mind…a lot. However, when you’ve a stressful situation at hand, it’s surprising how quickly something else can dominate your thoughts. Add new projects to your focus. Fill thinking space with interior ideas for your new lounge or some planning for your upcoming holiday. Create deadlines for yourself and you’ll have new goals to focus your thinking on.

6. Crowd out but balance

I used to make the mistake of crowding my plate with loads of vegetables or salad and not really much else because I was a bit scared of fat and calories. Going to a meal and eating a giant salad left me still a bit hungry and insanely tempted by the dessert menu. Yep, it wasn’t uncommon for me to eat an incredibly healthy salad and then stuff my face with apple crumble. In fact, it was standard. Avoid this scenario by crowding your meal with appropriate portions of protein, vegetables and fat.

Forget eating less. Forget depriving yourself. Fill yourself up and nourish your body with the healthy foods you love more freely and simply don’t leave enough room in your stomach for sugary stuff.

What foods do you like to crowd out with? Have you ever ordered a salad with good intentions only to cave with the dessert menu like me!?

Here’s a recipe below which uses ground almonds instead of refined breadcrumbs and still gives that nice, tasty breaded fish satisfaction (without the need for any breadcrumbs whatsoever). The ground almond coating also make it slightly sweet tasting and supplies that healthy fat element to a meal which will help keep you satisfied.

Almond coated basa fillets (serves 2)

Ingredients

• 2 basa fillets
• 3/4 cup of ground almonds
• 3 tbls parmesan cheese
• 1 tbls dried parsley
• 1/4 tsp black pepper
• 1/8 cayenne pepper
• 1 egg
• 1 tbls milk
• knob of butter for frying

Method

•  Beat egg with the milk in a wide flat soup bowl
• Combine ground almonds, parmesan cheese and other seasonings again in a wide flat bowl
• Coat the fish fillets in the egg mixture and then coat in the almond mixture, gently pressing the mixture all over the fish (this gets messy)
• Heat the butter on a medium heat and fry the fillets 3-5 minutes on each side until cooked through. Fish should flake easily and be opaque in colour.
• Try not to turn the fish too frequently as the crumb is quite delicate

The side: Roasted red onion & shallots

I mix and match my veggie sides depending on what I have lying around. I had steamed broccoli along with roasted red onion and shallots which serve as another source of deliciously natural tasting sweetness. I love the fact my taste buds can really recognise all these sweet-savoury flavours properly now. Certainly another incentive to keep an overload of sugary food out of your life.

Roasted red onion and shallots (serves 2)

• 3 red onions
• 4 shallots

Preheat the oven to 180C. Toss vegetables in a roasting tray with either olive oil or preferably a teaspoon of melted coconut oil (which is better to cook with at higher temperatures). Roast for 25-30mins and serve.

Links I mention in the video:

• What everyone needs to know about fructose
• Recipe: Sweet potato and walnut brownies
• Recipe: Sugar saintly pumpkin spiced granola
• What’s the deal with agave nectar?

Where to buy

Below are some places I found online with prices and delivery costs. This can make quite a difference, as my research shows. If you decide to order a few things, you obviously make a delivery charge more worthwhile. I have no affiliated links with these below, they are just some of the best I found after my own browsing. You might find some in your local health store which could work out more cost effective than online.

http://www.goodnessdirect.co.uk/cgi-local/frameset/detail/367098_Crazy_Jack_Brown_Rice_Syrup_330g.html £1.99 price, £5.50 delivery

The first recipe (non gluten-free) has more of a cake texture and the second (gluten-free) came out more of a fudge-brownie texture. I also added more cacao powder to the second batch to make them more chocolate-like. Both were nice, I still can’t decide which I prefer!

As you can see with these recipes, you can swap things around a little to make it work best for you. I sometimes think that’s half the fun but then I know others like to follow recipes to prescription. Granted if that’s you, you probably don’t make as many kitchen blunders as I do!

Note, when I say these recipes are sugar-free, I mean fructose-free (or very low fructose).

Happy baking!

Recipes adapted from Sarah Wilson’s I Quit Sugar Chocolate Cookbook

Sugar-free sweet potato and walnut brownie (non gluten-free)

Ingredients

• 1 large sweet potato
• 75g softened butter
• 5 tbls barley malt extract
• 1/2 tsp natural vanilla essence
• 1/2 cup wholemeal self raising flour
• 2 tbls raw cacao powder
• 1/4 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp cayenne pepper (optional)
• pinch of salt
• 3 eggs whisked
• 3/4 cup roughly broken walnuts
• 1/2 cup chopped dark chocolate or cacao nibs (optional)

 Method

• Preheat the oven to 180C
• Grease a tin, prick potato with a fork and cook in the microwave till soft all the way through (approx. 5-6mins depending on size)
• Let the potato cool, peel off skin and mash in a bowl
• Add the butter, barley malt extract, baking soda, cayenne pepper, salt and flour. Mix together.
• Add the eggs and mix again.
• Add the walnuts, cacao nibs/chocolate and mix again
• Pour into greased tin and bake for 30-40mins until skewer comes clean

Sweet potato and walnut chocolate brownie fudge (gluten-free)

Ingredients

• 1 large sweet potato
• 75g softened butter
• 6tbls brown rice syrup (or rice malt syrup)
• 1/2 tsp natural vanilla essence
• 1/2 cup ground almonds
• 6 tbls raw cacao powder
• 1/4 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp cayenne pepper (optional)
• pinch of salt
• 3 eggs whisked
• 3/4 cup roughly broken walnuts
• 1/2 cup chopped dark chocolate or cacao nibs (optional)

Method

• Preheat the oven to 180C
• Grease a tin, prick potato with a fork and cook in the microwave till soft all the way through (approx. 5-6mins depending on size)
• Let the potato cool, peel off skin and mash in a bowl
• Add the butter, brown rice syrup, baking soda, cayenne pepper, salt and ground almonds. Mix together.
• Add the eggs and mix again.
• Add the walnuts, cacao nibs/chocolate and mix again
• Pour into greased tin and bake for 30-40mins until skewer comes clean

What is agave nectar?

A light coloured syrup, a little more runny than honey and with a milder taste. Agave nectar, as the name suggests, comes from the sap extract of a cactus-like plant. However, by the time it reaches our shelves, it’s usually been heavily refined and processed. A negative before I even start!

Healthy or not?

Agave is marketed as healthy for two main reasons:

1. It has a lower GI than regular sugar
2. It is sweeter than sugar so you need less of it

Whilst both of these things are true to some extent, the outweighing problem is that agave can be up to 90% fructose. I’ve posted about fructose previously, but just to hammer it home, you need to limit your total consumption of fructose because…

• An excess of frustose can lead to elevated uric acid levels (which can lead to gout), and is also associated with diabetes and kidney stones.
• Too much fructose converts to fatty acids which are then stored as fat (belly fat if you really want to know)
• Fructose is the addictive ‘I want more’ part of sugar that causes the emotional attachment and physical craving

In a nutshell, if you’re trying to cut your sugar consumption (i.e your fructose consumption), agave nectar is a no go. If you spot it on a list of ingredients, beware. I’ve noticed quite a few ‘healthy’ products which have it. Your sugar savvy radar should now be primed with this one.

Fruit or raw honey (approx. 30-40% fructose) would be better. Brown rice syrup or rice malt syrup would be even better (only 2% fructose).

Have you tried agave nectar and heard any of the hype? Spotted it anywhere?

What is fructose?

Fructose is a simple sugar that’s found naturally in fruit and in small amounts in some vegetables. It’s the sugar that makes things taste sweet and it exists as follows:

• Refined sugar (white stuff on grannie’s shelf) is 50% fructose and 50% glucose
• Honey is about 30-40% fructose
• Agave nectar is a whopping 90% fructose
• Fruits vary in fructose content. For example, bananas are higher, berries are lower

Fructose is unlike other sugars because it’s processed only by the liver. An excessive amount of fructose going through the liver puts strain on this organ. Our bodies just weren’t designed for the amount of fructose that is so readily available today (think fizzy drinks, 1litre cartons of smoothies and slabs of chocolate!).

The three main problems with fructose

1. It converts to fat & increases unhealthy cholesterol

Excess fructose in the liver converts to fatty acids as energy to be stored, so yes, it can lead to fat storage. This excess also increases bad cholesterol and uric acid. Whether it’s from honey, fruit, refined sources like chocolate, cake & sweets or agave nectar, you need to be conscious of your total fructose consumption.

2. You don’t feel full on fructose

Fructose doesn’t suppress your hunger hormones like other foods so you don’t feel as full on it. It’s why you can gorge or binge on sugar quite easily (now that explains my biscuit dilemma). Whilst fruit contains fructose, it also has fibre which does fill you up. This explains why you can’t eat 3 whole apples and a banana in one go (comfortably at least), but you could quite easily drink them in a juice or smoothie without feeling like a massive bloater.

3. It’s addictive

It’s this sweet sugar fructose that’s addictive. It’s the taste that hits the sweet spot when you’re craving, it releases the feel-good chemical in your brain and it wets your tastebuds for more. You want more and you need more to get the same hit. I know that feeling!

Managing your fructose intake

In your quest for low sugar, be aware that you want to really keep an eye out for the amount of fructose you eat day to day. Our bodies can tolerate a little a day, but not much. Different individuals may have varying sensitivities to fructose. I don’t count fructose grams (way too much hassle), but I’m largely aware of where it is and this is what guides me to eat it in moderation. I generally get my fructose from a few portions of fruit a day, if that.

You can build up a tolerance and taste for fructose. This is where you move towards sugar dependence or the addiction end of the scale. Likewise you can decrease your tolerance gradually reducing or detoxing off fructose.

In a nutshell, it’s important to consider refined sugar and natural fruit together in your daily fructose count and be aware of what it is (which this post should have explained).

I hope this has helped. Hit me if you have any more questions on fructose in the comments below?

Sources

http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2011/02/28/new-study-confirms-fructose-affects-your-brain-very-differently-than-glucose.aspx

Dr Rober Lustig, Sugar: The Bitter Truth (You Tube) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dBnniua6-oM

The Skinny on Obesity (Ep.7 ): Drugs Cigarettes Alcohol…Sugar? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CWnbMnnLo5w&list=PL39F782316B425249&index=8

One day at university, in my final year, aged 23 and sat on my bed, I typed ‘how to stop eating biscuits’ into Google. Yet writing this blog, I am becoming evermore fearless of sharing all the embarrassing details associated to my former sugar addiction. So I’d thought I’d tell this story to enlighten and reassure you that if you’ve ever searched something similar into Google too, you’re far from alone.

The story

My exact memories are vague but I seem to remember eating rather a lot, perhaps a good  half of an entire packet of biscuits in one go. Most likely, I was hungover. The culprit was probably either Jaffa Cakes or ginger nuts, possibly Hobnobs. Anyway, biscuit variety aside, I felt sick and was disgusted at myself. I couldn’t understand why I still wanted just one more.

Procrastination from my essay desired, I turned to Google as we often do. I searched “How to stop eating biscuits”. I don’t think I found anything of much use. I would’ve loved to have stumbled on Happy Sugar Habits back then, but it didn’t exist. Anyway, bored and uninspired, I reverted to Facebook procrastination until I decided to resume my essay writing. The important point of the story is that in my desperation, I went beyond a mere thought to physically type such a phrase into Google. I even surprised myself with this at the time.

A month or so later I had some friends visiting. Rachel, one of my friends asked to borrow my laptop. The next thing I knew, she was beyond hysterical laughing, unable to tell us what was so funny through multiple snorts of laughter. Yep, you guessed it, clever Google had managed to reveal my previous search terms in all my glory. Gotta love technology, eh? It became the banterous highlight of the weekend, and I swear dear Rachel still chuckles contently about it now.

Sugar searching in Google

Telling you this story, I decided to do some research of ‘How to stop eating’ phrases into Google. Here are the results in order of those searched the most….

• How to stop eating chocolate 16,000
• How to stop eating sweets 1,300
• How to stop eating cake 1,300
• How to stop eating carbs 880
• How to stop eating ice cream 110
• How to stop eating biscuits 73
• How to stop eating donuts 16

There you have it. There are 73 other people in the world every month who are as desperate enough to spend time and effort searching for stop eating biscuit solutions like I was. I feel decidedly better now. If you’re searching for just chocolate then you’re almost verging on boring normal.

I hope this post has been somewhat entertaining. It highlights the fact that sugar really can drive you to feel desperate and alone at times. If you’ve enjoyed reading it then please like or share this post…or just mention it to your friend who likes to Google everything. Alternatively leave a comment if you’ve searched for anything embarrassing in Google that you’d be willing to share (no rude ones on my nice pretty blog please!).

The book in a nutshell

• A whopping 89 pages!
• 74 recipes, although some are variations taken from other Sarah Wilson I Quit Sugar books.
• Lots of extra and detailed information on things like the difference between cocoa and raw cacao.
• Pictures, prettiness and pure salivating material.

My favourite bits

• Substitution is easy (& encouraged). I don’t often have all of the random ingredients, and I like the fact that Sarah appreciates this and offers practical substitution options.
• Sarah emphasises that these are treats and because they still taste sweet, they’re not appropriate whilst you’re on a formal sugar detox. I am in complete agreement, so this is possibly a better buy later on in your sugar-free journey.
• Some combinations are brilliant. They’re creative and unusual, and I am thankful that they have been discovered!
• Apparently you can have some of these chocolatey things for breakfast. Coco Pops you’d better watch out!

Know this

• Recipes are generally made sweet tasting with rice malt syrup, stevia and coconut, so you’ll have to perhaps buy a few things. I will also add that fruit does not feature in any of the recipes.
• Lots of the recipes involve coconut oil or butter so you will certainly need to get over any fat fear (if it’s still lurking).
• Some recipes are what I would deem a bit ‘faffy’, but others are super easy and quick, so simple souls like me are well catered for.

All in all, I think it’s a good shout, especially if you’re at the point of being more or less safely off sugar, and you’re looking for a dessert alternative to natural yoghurt. You can buy and instantly download the Chocolate Cookbook for $16 which worked out just over £10. Some of these recipes are also great if you’re a serial baker or you want to impress some guests without a complete sugar blowout.

Here’s a picture of me with my adapted version of the Sweet Potato Fudge. I used walnuts and I didn’t add enough cocoa (whoops!). But they still turned out well and tasted mighty fine, hence the Happy Sugar Habits smile…

Note: If you decide you want to purchase and you click through one of my links, I am an affiliate for Sarah and I get a small thank you. I’ve given my honest opinion on the book and am purely reviewing it because I genuinely think it’s good stuff for those on a sugar-free journey. All proceeds go to support the continuation of this blog. 

Any other good sugar-free resources you know about? Feel free to comment and by doing so you’ll be sharing the love with all who read this post.