Welcome to day two for the Sugar Free Challenge! Here is today’s sample menu:
Breakfast: Mini Smacks! Aren’t they adorable? Follow the same directions as my Smacaroon recipe, but use a melon scooper instead of an ice cream scooper. It makes so many more smacks, and they are fun to pop in your mouth! I also drank a cup of iced coffee with unsweetened almond milk.
Lunch: Socca with a spinach salad topped with fresh bruschetta. Served with a hard-boiled egg.
Snack: Apple with Homemade Pistachio Butter.
Dinner: Mac-n-Cheez. This is my version of the original comfort food. Inspired by I<3Vegetables. Mix of brown rice, quinoa, green peas, and shredded chicken breast. Mix a couple Tablespoons of Nutritional Yeast in with a splash of water. Sprinkle with salt and lots of pepper!
Dessert: Chocolate Almond Cookie Dough Bites!
~These cookie dough bites have a option of being raw. Gluten-free, dairy-free, soy-free, grain-free, vegan, and, of course, sugar-free!
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 cups raw almonds
- 4 large dates
- 2 oz. unsweetened chocolate, chopped or raw cacao nibs
- 1/2 vanilla bean, seeds scraped
- 1/8 tsp salt
Instructions
- In a strong blender or food processor, blend the dates until smooth.
- Then add almonds, salt, and vanilla bean and blend.
- Stir in chocolate chunks.
- Add a small dash of water if the dough isn't sticky. Roll into balls. I made mine about the size of my thumbnail because I love teeny tiny bites that I can pop in my mouth!
- Almonds: Almonds are a major superfood, and they are full of monounsaturated, good-for-you fats. It contains many nutrients that benefit the brain, and regulate cholesterol. The monounsaturated fats and vitamin E reduce the risk of heart disease.
- Chocolate: Click HERE for a post I did about all the benefits of chocolate.
- Dates: A laxative food with a high-fiber content, so it can help those suffering from constipation. They are digested quite easily and are great for when you need quick energy. Also, regular consumption of dates has been found to help the growth of friendly bacteria in the intestines.
Thought-provoking, mind-prodding question of the day:
How was your second day of sugar-free?
Also, what is your favorite cookie flavor? I love “healthifying” foods, so I am curious to see what your favorites are. One of my favorites is Thin Mint Girl Scouts….but I already healthified those! However, these chocolate-almond bites come in close second. My whole family enjoyed them!
All of these recipes look great, but I think I might try your breakfast Mini Smacks someday soon!
I love your dough bites pictures! And that salad with brushetta looks amazing!
yay! Thank you! I have been working on taking better pictures lately! Expect the bruschetta salad pic-I took that on my phone because my camera was out of batteries!
That mac and cheese sounds delicious! Gotta make something like that! And the dough balls look great too! Such a good day of eats 🙂
dates are THE best sweetener, and highly addictive 🙂 i don’t eat much sugar and your sample menu looks great. i may just have to make dough bites soon 🙂
I’m looking forward to trying some of your recipes. At the moment I’m not eating fruit either (just for a week to kick start things) but when I start again, I’m looking forward to trying some healthy, chocolate flavoured, unsweetened treats. Just need to get me some good quality cocoa.
Of course! If you are a fan of bitter chocolate, you should try my bitter chocolate cake for one. Just a word of caution, though, it is not for the faint of heart! it is extremely bitter-but oh so chocolatey! And it has no added fruits! Well, it does have some pumpkin, but you can substitute any kind of nutbutter for the pumpkin if you don’t eat it.
Yumm I love that twist on the mac n cheese! Looks so good! Mine was tasty too 🙂 I definitely need to try it with quinoa! I’m absolutely going to need to make some of these cookie dough bites. I haven’t given in to sugar temptation yet, and I think these balls would help!
The mac ‘n cheese looks awesome! The cookie dough bites do, too. Date/nut based raw cookies are always so fun to play around with!
Why have a still not tried nutritional yeast??? Your dinner looks great. Note to self, put on store list!
ahh those dough balls look so good.. i am drrroooling
These cookie dough bites look SO GOOD! I actually made something like this 2 days ago and I am OBSESSED.
Wow those look amazing, the dates must give it a great sugary taste 😀
I LOVE THESE POSTS!!!!
Can I, like, bathe in pistachio butter? It sounds SO GOOD.
I’m doing great! I feel great! I’m so excited! Just taking it one day at a time and really being mindful. Last night at babysitting I had a craving for a slice of the pizza the kids were eating. Decided some chicken and an apple would be better 🙂
It’s amazing how many things sugar is in! I’m really hoping to eliminate it in my diet. But after these 10 days I may just have to have some stevia once in a while 😉
Thanks so much Alex for doing this!!
So good to hear, Shelby!
I love the recipes, hopefully i’ll finally get the time to go grocery shopping and make a dessert!
I used to stick to gum to eliminate sugar craving -very few calories , now it’s not an option and it’s diffucullt!
Alex, so we are excluding all the sugars and artificial sweeteners but we can still consume fructose?
Hi Lora!
We are excluding added sugars and artificial. Fructose coming directly from fruit is fine, but not when the fructose is manufactured and placed into goods.
Hi Alex. I love your recipes…especially the “smacks.” 🙂 I’ve got a question for you…I’ve been looking for a good brownie recipe made with black beans. I hear they are delicious. But all I can find is ones loaded with sugar, which sort of cancels out the goodness of the beans! Do you know of any good black bean brownie recipes?
Thanks a bunch for all of your wonderful posts and information!
Kim
Hey Kim!
I have yet to make a sugar-free black bean brownie, but you will be the first to know when I do!
gosh everything looks great!
also I made your breakfast oat cakes (is that the right name?)
I sweetened it with raisin milk which is a recipe i found on another blog and I LOVE IT. They are a perfect breakfast.
Happy Thursday
Raisin milk? Wow! Never heard of it….I’ll google it 🙂 Glad you liked them, though!
Yummy cookie dough bites! And those brekkie cookies look awesome 🙂
My second day went great except I took a bit of pizza before realizing that most pizza has sugar!
I find dried Figs (soaked) instead of dates and cacoa work really well together! In Australia we have Anzac cookies/biscuits. Would be great if you could re-create these into a sugar free version!
Wow, those cookie dough bites look SOOOOO good. sugar free to the rescueee!!
These look awesome! 😀
Is there something I could see instead of dates?
Hi Michelle! Sorry for the late response, I was out of town.
Yes. Raisins or prunes would be the best substitute. Adjust the amount to suit your taste and texture.
What kind of nutritional yeast do you use? I’m looking to make that mac & cheese recipe, but there are so many options for nutritional yeast! Also, are brewers and nutritional yeast the same?
Krystle,
Brewer’s and Nutritional yeast are a bit different. I’ve never tried brewer’s, so I cant really vouch for it. I buy “nutritional yeast,” or “nutritional yeast flakes.” They can be found in your health food section either in bulk or prepackaged in tubs or spice containers. Hope this helps!
The Chocolate Almond Cookie Dough Bites are DELICIOUS!
Oh I love the look of these! And only 5 dates will really bring that fructose content down too, I’ll be trying these very soon and sharing on my blog 🙂