May 2013 – onesmallpot

Quitting Sugar: Seven weeks on

Posted on May 28, 2013April 8, 2014 by Deepa

So………….seven weeks, huh?

And they said I wouldn’t last……..

Today makes it SEVEN WEEKS since I told sugar to hit the road Jack.

Incredibly, I have made it through with my sanity (and that of those around me) intact.

Did I cheat? Yes, three times and all in the last two weeks. Once, I had a bite of dessert at a restaurant……amazingly just one bite and I was happy to stop.

Another time I had a small square of dark chocolate. But we’ll blame that on events beyond my control- the time of month, the changing of the tides, the upcoming lunar eclipse.

The remarkable thing was, none of those times was I the out of control sugar monster that I once was. I simply had a small bite and then like the self-controlled, poised being that I have always wanted to be, I stopped!

Am I good, or what??

So if this week is seven weeks, next week, somewhat unsurprisingly will be EIGHT weeks. Eight weeks is what some of the experts say is the time needed to break an addiction, so that signifies the end of the hard core detox.

This last week I started to introduce small amounts of sugar- a few berries here and there, a few snacks sweetened with rice malt syrup (a fructose free sweetener). Berries taste like little bundles of heaven now, which is a real surprise as I never was a berry person.

Where to after eight weeks? Well, what I hope to gain is control over my own sweet tooth. The ability to be able to occasionally have one chocolate from some exquisite chocolatier without feeling the need to plunge into the entire vat of melted chocolate and backstroke around it in circles. The gift of being able to enjoy dessert at a fancy restaurant without feeling guilty about all the other sugar I ate that day.

And you know what? I think I might be getting there.

Better Butter makes Bitter Batter Better: How to make Almond Butter at Home

Posted on May 20, 2013 by Deepa

During my days in London, we had upstairs neighbours who would play loud ‘Duff Duff’ music at any time of the day or night, subjecting us to what felt like a rhythmic earthquake on a fairly regular basis. We were no strangers to loud dance music, having made it our unofficial mission to investigate the pros and cons of every nightclub in London, however the same racket was not quite so welcome at 2 am when we were snugly in our beds on a school night.

In addition to this, above my room is what I strongly suspect was a communal athletics track for several highly dedicated athletes who trained by sprinting across my ceiling at all hours. We of course tried many methods of negotiation including the highly sophisticated broom-banging-on-ceiling technique which I believe is used by the military in times of war, to no avail. So the ‘Duff-Duff’ continued to be part of my life until I moved out in pursuit of postgraduate study and improved sleep patterns.

In another flat in another part of London, I had the pleasure of neighbouring a devout, god-fearing woman who had been suitably blessed with a booming set of lungs and equally devout friends. The paper-thin walls meant that on some mornings at around 4am, I would be jolted from sleep by voices chanting the Lord’s praises punctuated by thunderous declarations of ‘JESUS WILL SAAAVVVEEE YOU‘.

Whatever I needed to be saved from, I was fairly confident that it could wait till sunrise.

In order to pay it forward, I have now become the neighbour who places dry roasted almonds in a food processor resulting in what the neighbours probably assumed was a vicious, albeit brief attack on the building by a machine-gun squad of some sort. All this to make my own almond butter which I assure you was totally worth the racket. In my defence I did (completely by accident) choose a day when there was work being done in the building so the sound of almonds on metal was nicely drowned out by a much more obnoxious jackhammer.

So to make almond butter you need a fairly tough food processor and a bag of roasted almonds. Alternatively, roast the almonds on about 160 degrees Celsius in the oven for about 10-15 mins. Careful not to over-roast them as this will result in a bitter butter (that Betty Botter bought).

Unless of course you’re into that sort of thing.

Then you throw the almonds, skin and all into the food processor, plug your ears, and hit start. Keep pulsing on high speed, intermittently scraping down the sides of the bowl. The almonds will first become a dry powder, then form clumps, then become a slightly oily butter. Stop at the slightly oily, smooth but still slightly coarse stage and transfer the almond butter into clean jars or containers.

I used 3 cups of roasted almonds which made about 2 cups (2 small jars) of almond butter. I have frozen one jar for later and am currently devouring the contents of the other spread on toast in the mornings. You can use all nut butters the same way that you would use store bought peanut butter but the advantage of homemade nut butters is that there is none of the added sugar or salt that you find in the packaged versions. I suspect the same process would work well with macadamia nuts, peanuts and brazil nuts.

Do you have any crazy-neighbour stories? Please do share in the comments below…….

A Day for Mums

Posted on May 11, 2013April 8, 2014 by Deepa

Lessons from Mum: Five things that my mother taught me

(as if having to carry me around for 9 months wasn’t enough).

1. Heaven and hell are on Earth. If you choose to treat others badly, you damn well better believe that it’ll come back to bite you on the backside one day. And if not your backside, then the ones of those you love. Karma is a bottom-loving, rabid dog so you better treat others with respect.

2. If you do everything right and something still goes wrong, at least you know you did everything right.

3.You can’t always control what happens to you but you certainly can control how you handle it. Shit happens. Sometimes that shit is really stinky and full of worms. Grab that plastic bag, scoop it up, toss it in the bin, spray the odour neutraliser and keep going. Oh, and take a worming tablet.

4. Be generous with your time, money, food and favours but don’t allow yourself to be taken advantage of. And remember that like all good things in life, trust is earned and the trust of another should always be nurtured and cherished.

5. Wearing tops that slide up and show your waist is not cool. God gave you ample hips but God also gave you the ability to shop for longer tops.

They are the women who hold us, feed us and nurture us.

They manage to keep us sane as well as drive us insane.

They pick up the pieces when something has shattered us, and they hurt more than we do when someone has wronged us.

They pick on our clothes, our hair and our eating habits. But they are sometimes the only ones who are there to tell us we are beautiful.

To all the mums in my life- my mum, my Ajji (grandmother) and my aunts……

HAPPY MOTHER’S DAY!!

Weekly Photo Challenge: Patterns

Posted on May 11, 2013 by Deepa

Jeronimos Monastery, Lisbon, Portugal

I have an abnormal Rainman-like obsession with patterns in photography, so this challenge was practically made for me. In fact, I was a bit spoilt for choice but in the end I went with this series of shots I took of Jeronimos Monastery in Lisbon, Portugal.

To see other interpretations of this challenge, go to The Daily Post Weekly Photo Challenge: Patterns.

Bye Bye Sugar High

Posted on May 7, 2013April 8, 2014 by Deepa

I’ve been promising details of a change for a while now and I am nothing if not a keeper of promises. So here goes…..

Exactly four weeks ago I made the decision to quit a certain white substance.

Ummmm…..I’m talking about sugar, fructose to be exact.

Wait, what white substance were you thinking of?

And pray, what is the reason for this self-inflicted torture you ask? Well, the decision was driven by a few things. Firstly, I have always struggled with my weight and have had various levels of success in the past with different methods of weight loss. In my early twenties, I found that if I buckled down and ate well as well as engaged in a decent amount of exercise, the kilos would obediently melt away.

But sadly like many things such as skin collagen regeneration and the ability to do stupid things and not care, age puts a damper on the metabolism and a moderate level of discipline was simply not good enough in my late twenties and now, in my early thirties. The kilos that sneaked up on me over the last few years have obstinately clung on, refusing to listen to reason or be moved by weekly cycle classes.

I have long known that my main vice is sugar, my favourite food being a thing that starts with ‘ch-‘ and ends with ‘ocolate’. A previous flatmate had a fridge magnet that said ‘A balanced diet is a chocolate in each hand‘ and I thought that was perfectly reasonable.

Lollies, Indian sweets, desserts and supposedly healthy sweet snacks such as museli bars have also co-starred in my diet. Couple this with my work environment, a place where bags of lollies are always sunning themselves on benches and boxes of chocolates, cakes or pastries gifted by grateful clients make frequent appearances. Place a pile of sweets in front of me, especially on a stressful day, and I turn into a weapon of mass consumption. A weakness which I’m sure some of you can relate to (if not, please at least pretend to).

So I have been toying with the idea of cutting down on sugar for a while now. After about a year of trying to cut down, I came to the conclusion that ‘sugar’ and ‘moderation’ for me, do not seem to belong in the same sentence or even the same postcode.

As if by fate, just when I finally understood that weakness in myself (it only took about 30 years), I bumped into a friend who invited me along to a book signing by a lady called Sarah Wilson. Sarah is one of the pioneers in the sugar (fructose) free diet, and her research and work on the subject has allowed her to create a wealth of knowledge to help others who want to go down the same path. Sarah is an inspirational talker, yet I walked away after the talk clutching her book but still fairly sure that this way of eating would never be for me.

To cut a long (and probably boring) story short, it took a couple more months before I finally decided to give it a shot. It was a daunting decision, and anyone who knows me will attest to the fact that sugar was previously a huge part of my life. Currently, I am exactly at the halfway point of Sarah’s 8-step program to being fructose-free. Much of the research supporting a low fructose diet is on Sarah’s blog and she explains it much more comprehensively than I could.

It has been a tough road but nowhere near as painful as I expected. I have had some intense cravings which I have fought off with a cup of tea, a sugar-free snack or a distraction (online shopping, anyone?). I have been lucky not to experience the physical withdrawal symptoms that some people describe. I had visions of being curled up in a corner in the foetal position rocking back and forth in my first 2 weeks but instead I have experienced better energy levels and mental clarity than I remember having for many years. I have lost a little weight, which supposedly should not be the main motivation…..but who are we kidding, right?

In a couple of weeks time, I will start to re-introduce small amounts of fructose into my diet. My ultimate goal is to be able to enjoy a little piece of chocolate or a divine dessert on occasion minus the guilt trip and the self-bargaining that goes on internally.

So how will this affect this here little blogarooni of mine? Well, it probably won’t, much. There will be less sweets and the ones I do post will likely be low fructose. Otherwise, when it comes to savoury dishes, I don’t anticipate much change at all.

And the inane, mostly irrelevant babble? I vow to you that that’ll continue as pointlessly as always.

I would love to hear from any of you, but especially others who have been or are on the same journey in the comments box below. What led you to ultimately make the decision? What did you find most difficult? What are your tips and tricks for doing this successfully?

On a roll

Posted on May 3, 2013August 27, 2013 by Deepa

I am a bit of a novice on the bread side of things. I mean, I love the stuff, it is possibly even my favourite carb. I would indulge in crusty, soft centred white bread all day if both my gastrointestinal tract and my waistline were more accommodating. But when it comes to actually baking it? Well, let’s just say my bread resumé is a short one.

So knowing this, you would assume that I would keep it very simple, right? Like, find a good recipe, read and understand it and follow it to the last gram? Like, bake a few text-book loaves before I got too adventurous?

Well if you think I’m that sensible, you clearly don’t know me too well. We have to work on that. Coffee next week?

Find a good recipe I did……Joy of Joy the Baker, one of my favourite blogs, posted a recipe for Cream Cheese Cinnamon Rolls which I had mentally bookmarked some time ago. I finally had a chance to try it. But follow it to a tee?? I don’t think I’m actually capable of that.

I had to spice it up, make it savoury and of all things, healthy. Wholemeal flour……whaaaaat??

I had to fill it with a tangy coriander and dill pesto conjured up entirely in my own brain.

Then on a whim, I threw in some feta I found hiding unassumingly in the fridge.

Did I get away with it? You bet your savoury scrolls I did!

And the best thing is, you can too. The possibilities for variations are drool-worthy. Olive bread with an olive tapenade and rosemary filling? I am all over that like a rash! Pepita bread with spiced pumpkin puree filling? Why not!

Like all bread, this one takes a little time and elbow grease. It is left to rise while you vacuum the floors or go out for lunch or write your next blog post or whatever it is you do when you have to wait two hours for something. Then after you cut the scrolls, you ignore it again for two hours while it rises again.

But all the effort is well worth it. At the end of it all you will have eight perfect, filling scrolls for a picnic, breakfast or to pack for lunch. And you will be glad you kneaded, waited, kneaded again and waited again.

Wholemeal Coriander and Dill Scrolls

Dough recipe adapted from Saveur October 2008 via Joy the Baker

For the Filling:

Pesto:

1 cup (packed) fresh coriander, leaves and stalks
1 cup (packed) fresh dill, leaves and stalks
1 large or 2 small garlic cloves, peeled
3cm piece fresh ginger
1 tbsp lemon juice
2 tbsp olive oil
1/2 tsp salt
10 raw cashews
1 tbsp cumin seeds

Other ingredients:

Zest of 1 lemon
40g feta
1 tbsp cumin, toasted

For the Bread:

1 tbsp cumin seeds
1 (7g) package active dry yeast
pinch sugar
1/2 cup milk at room temperature
1 egg
1 egg yolk
2 3/4 cups plain wholemeal flour, sifted, plus more for kneading
3/4 teaspoon salt
100g butter, melted, plus more for the pan

Make:

Toast all the cumin (2 tbsp) in a small pan over medium heat until slightly browned and fragrant.

In a large bowl combine yeast, pinch sugar and 1/4 cup water heated to 45 degrees C (a bit warmer than body temp if you do not have a thermometer). Stir to combine and let sit until frothy and foamy, about 10 minutes.

Add egg, egg yolk and milk. Whisk until well combined. Add the flour, 1 tbsp toasted cumin and salt and mix with a wooden spoon until the dough just begins to come together. Knead the dough for 3-5 mins.

Add the melted butter and continue to knead for about 5-6 minutes. The dough will be a little wet and sticky. Remove the dough from the bowl and grease the bowl. Place the dough back into the bowl and cover the bowl with plastic wrap and a kitchen towel. Leave in a warm place to rise for 1 1/2 to 2 hours, or until doubled in size.

While the dough rises, make the pesto. Combine the pesto ingredients in the bowl of a food processor and whizz until it reaches coarse paste consistency.

When the dough has doubled in size, place it onto a heavily floured work surface. Gently knead the dough until it is no longer sticky, adding more flour as needed. Knead for a few minutes.

Using a floured rolling pin, roll the dough into an oval of about 7 millimetre thickness, about 20cm x 30cm.

Spread the pesto evenly over the dough. Grate the lemon zest finely over the top of the pesto. Sprinkle 1 tbsp cumin seeds and crumbled feta evenly over the top.

Grasp hold of one long edge and roll as tightly as possible until it is one long roll

Place dough roll seam side down on a cutting board. Using a sharp, thin knife, trim off the uneven edges.

Cut the roll into 8 equal slices. Place the slices, cut side up and evenly spaced in a greased high-edged metal baking pan. Cover pan with plastic wrap and set aside in a warm place to rise for 1 1/2 to 2 hours

Heat the oven to 190 degrees C. Uncover the rolls and bake for 30-35 mins, or until a clean knife inserted into the bread comes out clean.

Notes:

For the second rise, Joy suggests that you could also leave the scrolls in the baking tray in the fridge to rise overnight. The scrolls should be taken out of the fridge 15 min before baking.

Month: May 2013

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