Quinoa salad for sugerless days

The family in the fishbowl is doing a sugar-free challenge.

Too bad I didn’t come across this until AFTER I baked home-made chocolate chip cookies…

Really, the idea of reducing ones sugar intake, in its various forms (glucose, artificial sweeteners, corn syrup, etc) is never a bad idea. I know this for a fact, since I battled with Hypoglycemia for some time. Even white-flour goods, and wine, affected my blood sugar levels, since once consumed these ingredients turned to sugar quickly inside the body. A cookie, for example, would give me a burst of energy, and then my blood sugar would tumble down and I would experience a crash that required immediate napping.

This was impossible to deal with once the kids came along. Ever try to nap when babies or toddlers don’t want to?

Eating a whole food diet has changed me. I am no longer hypoglycemic, and I can enjoy the odd treat, and glass of wine. We love to cook, we cook with real food, we grow some of our food right here in our little urban backyard, and we do add sugar to certain items. Although honey, or maple syrup, can add incredible flavour boosts to ordinary recipes. Have you ever tried to add maple syrup to your spaghetti sauce? So yum.

In light of all this healthy eating, I thought I’d post a recipe we are enjoying this week. I had this Quinoa salad for lunch today.

 

Quinoa salad

Quinoa salad

Cook quinoa grains according to directions. Let cool.

In a bowl, toss together:

• chopped tomato and Swiss Chard leaves (young ones are less tough)
• touch of sea salt
• 1-2 Tbsp olive oil
• Tbsp lemon juice

Substitutions and Variations

Instead of Swiss Chard you can add spinach, or an herb such as flat leaf parsley, cilantro, mint or basil.

You can also add cucumber, finely chopped fennel, and onion.

Candy crap

Or crappy candy?

So Valentine’s Day has come and gone. And as usual, Benjamin got all kinds of candy. He got other things too, non-edible items, but there was plenty candy to go around.

I placed it all in a jar and allowed him to choose one candy after lunch. The others I’ll use as incentive to keep the pooping in the toilet momentum. Or until he loses interest in the candy. He doesn’t ask for candy much if he can’t see it, and since we keep little of it in the house, other than good quality, dark chocolate, it’s not a huge problem. And he knows he has to brush his teeth extra-well when he eats sticky candies.

But back to the crappy candy. Benjamin chose a  Twizzler today. This one says Strawberry in large letters, and underneath it it says flavoured candy in smaller letters.

Intrigued by the flavoured part, I turned the wrapper around.

Here’s the list of ingredients that make up this candy, in order:

Corn syrup
Liquid sugar
Wheat flour
Corn starch
Palm oil
Soybean oil
Modified palm oil
Salt
Artificial Flavour
Citric Acid
Mineral Oil
Colour
Potassium Sorbate
Soy lecithin

So let’s go google some of this stuff: