Year: 2015

Check out the recipes that you guys helped me with!

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It’s time to say thank you. My latest book, I Quit Sugar: Simplicious, was a mammoth project. When you create a book so big, you get folk to recipe test your creations along the way. I decided to invite the community to help me with this task and am very glad I did.

Screen Shot 2015-09-27 at 3.48.04 PM
Image via Pinterest.com
Foodies around the globe joined me on my mission, passionately testing and tasting. These people are strangers who chipped in and opined and guided me. I’m grateful to them all…

Miss Marzipan 

Stockholm-based mum of two Marisa is a long-time supporter. She’s an ambassador for the I Quit Sugar 8-Week-Program and has been featured as a #followfriday. One of the recipes Marisa tested was the Pull-Apart Caterpillar Birthday Cake you see in I Quit Sugar: Simplicious. She did her antennae so much better than me!

IQS_cupcake_recipe_test_notes (1)-1
Marisa’s test version of the Pull-Apart Caterpillar Birthday Cake

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Should I be eating gluten if I have hashimotos? I mean, really?

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Oh, it’s a hoary one. I’ve swung a bit on the subject over the years. Here’s where I’ve arrived, but I’d like to get your thoughts, too. Did you watch ABC TV’s Catalyst program last night on the topic? Do so. It fleshes out the issue simply. Catch it on iView.

Image via NourishedKitchen.com
Image via NourishedKitchen.com

My reasoning, however, goes like this.

* If you’re coeliac, you should never ever eat it. 

* There is a connection between coeliac and Hashimotos. In a recent study by Alessio Fasano, MD, a recognised celiac disease expert, one half of the people newly diagnosed with celiac disease also had thyroid disease.

* I did the coeliac test – I’m not coeliac. FYI it’s a tricky test. It entails going back onto gluten for several weeks before doing the test. I’m not coeliac and I don’t carry the gene.

So, where does this leave me given I have Hashimotos?

Is there anything further to be concerned about? Yes.

* Gluten is toxic. Humans didn’t “evolve” to digest gluten – we don’t have the “molecular scissors” to

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I’ve seen my future and (I hope) it looks like Leo

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Lately I’ve been reassessing what matters to me. Like really looking at things fully, and prepared to “put a bomb” under things. This happens for me every few years.

Jo sent me this video, randomly. And it arrived with impeccable timing.

[vimeo]https://vimeo.com/96642599[/vimeo]

I’ve no idea who Leo is but what about these synchronicities (here’s my theory on synchronicity).

Leo wears the one pair of green shorts. Me too. (Although he has seven pairs; I have one.)

Leo wears the same outfit every single day. I almost do. (I’m back to living out of one suitcase again). 

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Why I’ve produced my own gelatin powder

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Good morning friends. This post serves two purposes.

  1. To announce that, yes, I’ve produced an I Quit Sugar gelatin powder – my Gut Lovin’ Gelatin. And you can buy it now.
  1. To explain why I’ve done so, in the context of my vocal aversion to the practice of contributing to More Stuff on The Planet. (Flick straight to the orange highlighted bits below!)
I Quit Sugar Gut Lovin' Gelatin
I Quit Sugar Gut Lovin’ Gelatin

What is Gut Lovin’ Gelatin?

It’s a pure natural collagen powder made from beef bones and connective tissue that is the biggest, most nutritious boon in town for healing the gut. It’s used to make jelly, fruit gummy snacks, pannacotta and a stack of kid-friendly snacks.

Unlike other versions on the market, this one has been painstakingly crafted such that it’s:

  • 100 per cent natural
  • Produced from pasture-raised cows
  • Made in Australia
  • Made with ethically and sustainably raised beef
  • Lactose free
  • Housed in responsible packaging
My gelatin gummies, in I Quit Sugar: Simplicious. Photo by Rob Palmer.
My gelatin gummies, in I Quit Sugar: Simplicious. Photo by Rob Palmer.

What’s the deal with gelatin powder?

About a year ago I stumbled upon gelatin powder in my relentless quest to heal my gut. I tested it, I

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Just do it like a motherf*cker

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Before Cheryl Strayed became That Wild Girl, she was an agony aunt at Rumpus.net. She went by the moniker “Sugar”, it so happens. In light of my recent posts about writing like no one cares, the joy of lowering your expectations and faking it until you make it, I thought today I’d simply run a response Strayed wrote to a reader with creative block some time back. I’ve run the whole lot, question and answer, because it’s a great read. But I’ve ital’d the bits that hit nails for me. Enjoy and discuss below.

Image from meditationtemptation.tumblr.com
Image from meditationtemptation.tumblr.com

Dear Sugar,

I write like a girl. I write about my lady life experiences, and that usually comes out as unfiltered emotion, unrequited love, and eventual discussion of my vagina as metaphor.

And that’s when I can write, which doesn’t happen to be true anymore.

Right now, I am a pathetic and confused young woman of 26, a writer who can’t write. I am up late asking you a question, really questioning myself. I’ve sat here, at my desk, for hours, mentally immobile. I look up people I used to love and wonder why they never loved me. I lie facedown on my bed and feel scared. I get up, go to the computer, feel worse.

David Foster Wallace called himself a failed writer at 28. Several months ago, when depression hooked its teeth into me, I complained to my then-boyfriend about how I’ll never be as good as

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You asked for cheeseburger dim sims…here they are!

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You might recall (it was a while ago; I Quit Sugar: Simplicious was a two-year project) I asked you all what you’d like to see featured in the new book I was writing. I took your very long list to heart and tried to incorporate as many of your requests as possible. I shared one of the reader requests a few weeks back, my Simplicious homemade bacon.

Today, three more recipes from your wish list that found their way into the book: Cheeseburger Dim Sims, a take on the Aussie Golden Gaytime, and a Bacon ‘n’ Egg Porridge (yes, savoury porridge!).

Cheeseburger Dim Sims, photo by Rob Palmer
Cheeseburger Dim Sims, photo by Rob Palmer

Cheeseburger Dim Sims

So much potential wrongness, right? But, I tell you, this is close to my favourite recipe in the book.

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Food waste dilemma: packaged single-serve veggies v bulk buying?

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A study by AUSVEG’s Project Harvest last month flagged that Australian consumers are veering towards veggies that prevent wastage. DAMN GREAT STUFF!

Image via Simplicious, photography by Rob Palmer
Image via I Quit Sugar: Simplicious, photography by Rob Palmer

But how are we going about this?

The good news is that we’re opting for individual broccoli heads, rather than bulk packs of brocs (wrapped in plastic etc), and veggies like zucchinis that come as individual items.

“These findings really reflect the fact that some Australians are treating supermarkets like extensions of their own fridges,” said the study spokesperson who also pointed out shoppers are buying for two to three days’ worth of meals at a time. This is a good thing from a wastage POV.

But the report says we’re also buying up veggies pre-packaged in single-meal portions. AUSVEG suggest growers should be encouraged to do more of this kind of thing.

Um, noooooo!!!!!

Yep, making it easier for us all to eat more veggies is a great thing. Yep, shopping practices that see us purchase what we need as we need it,is an

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How to build the perfect abundance bowl

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These one-pan, two-minute mélanges are my standard lunch (or breakfast, or dinner) fare and I’ve included a big bunch of great combos in I Quit Sugar: Simplicious. I must admit I felt weird putting them into a recipe format because I mostly make them on a whim, using what I’ve got (and a few too many lax cooking techniques). But I’ve been asked so many times to formalise things. So….a simpliciously simple post on how I build my bowls. I’ve focused on the cooked ones here, but there are raw, summery ones in the book too.

A selection of my Abundance Bowls, recipes in I Quit Sugar: Simplicious
A selection of my Abundance Bowls, recipes in I Quit Sugar: Simplicious

Step 1: Start with 3 serves of veggies

1 serve = 1 cup leafy greens or ½ cup all other veg.
Sauté in oil or sweat in 2 frozen stock cubes or ferment in brine. At the office we all do this and share the one pan around, multi-using each others’ juices. At home I’ll work from the one pan all day, making best use of leftover flavours and fats in the pan.

Step 2: Add 1 serve of protein

It could be 2 eggs, a palm-sized portion of meat (mostly leftover or bulk-cooked, stored in freezer in 1/2 cup portions ready to tote to the office), or 1 cup properly-prepared legumes (I explain the best ways in the book and again I keep ziplock bags of the things in my freezer).

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A peacefulness follows any decision, even the wrong one

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Decisions are hard. I struggle with them. So these words from writer and feminist Rita Mae Brown are sweet salve…

Image via gildedcoast.tumblr.com
Image via gildedcoast.tumblr.com

“A peacefulness follows any decision, even the wrong one.”

God. What a relief just to hear that.

I think the peacefulness that comes from JUST MAKING THE DAMN DECISION says to the world that you’re open to surrender. You care a little less. You trust everything will work out and, perhaps, that there is no “right” decision. Ever. Which then invites the world to move with us in this flow-y, loose, open, spacious, receptive way. Like attracts like. And all that jazz.

This brings peace, don’t you reckon? Just knowing you’re working with the flow of life is pacifying.

(And, besides, if you don’t quite believe that wrong decisions as such bring peace, perhaps focus on how

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Make 10 Simplicious meals from a $3 supermarket haul

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Some seriously inspiring Simplicious flow for a Tuesday! Elise at Healthy Family 5 is one of the ambassadors over at the I Quit Sugar 8-Week Program. As you might have guessed, there’s five in her family, which is why her latest feat is so inspiring. Check this shit out!

Elise's "Simplicious" flow
Elise posted this on Instagram.

She cooked 10 meals for five people from a $3 supermarket haul.

Elise says:

My local supermarket occasionally sell their “ugly” fruit and veggies for $3 a bag and I just happened to be there when this happened recently. So I challenged myself to make as many meals as I could based on that $3 bag. 

So here’s the wrap up, 10 meals and vegetable stock from my $3 supermarket haul. Except for the purchase of chickpea flour for the socca, all meals were made modifying recipes to use items from my pantry and the $3 bag. 

From left going clockwise:

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