Joseph, Gabriella, Julianna, James, and Elora

Joseph, Gabriella, Julianna, James, and Elora

Saturday, November 16, 2013

Longing for snow

Mid-November has arrived and I'm longing for snow!






Snow is beautiful and magical and mysterious and familiar. I cannot wait for that glorious white blanket to cover over all of November's brown naked drabness.

Here's hoping we get the first snow of the year on Thanksgiving! Only a little more than a week to go.

Tuesday, November 5, 2013

Sometimes I miss sugar

I know it's been a while since I posted, and technically this post should be Part IV of "The Cruise that Wasn't," but I really just wasn't in the mood to talk about it. Although I will try to get to it eventually. Anyway, I've been pretty busy and there has been a lot of stuff going on with me and my pregnancy (34 1/2 weeks now!) and having to suddenly switch midwives, but I won't go into all of that. The short version is that I am fine, and Baby is fine, and I am still planning a homebirth with the same midwife who was there for Elora's birth. (Actually, she wasn't there for the birth - but she got there right after! Frankly, I'm kind of hoping for a repeat, not because I don't want her to be there, but just because super fast births are wonderful!). However, because of a few issues that have arisen, I'm trying really hard not to eat refined sugar or processed food/carbs, and to combine my foods in ways that are low-glycemic and won't spike my blood sugar.

I admit it was pretty hard the first week or so. I have a pretty big sweet tooth, and saying goodbye to sugar was painful - especially because I have always thought of pregnancy as the time where, as long as I was eating a really healthy, high protein diet otherwise, I could get away with all kinds of treats without worrying about my waistline since it was non-existent anyway! Knowing myself, if I COMPLETELY cut out all forms of dessert, it would probably be setting myself up for failure, as in one day I would snap and consume an entire chocolate cake in one sitting and drop into a diabetic coma sort of thing! So I have been trying to find healthy alternatives that are very low sugar, use raw/natural sugars, and are low glycemic so they will be easy on my system. So I have embraced things like berries and homemade whipped cream, cheesecake with no crust sweetened with small amounts of raw honey, and dark chocolate. It's been good but...with all the leaves changing colors and falling off the trees and that crisp cold delicious smell of Fall in the air, I really really miss my pumpkin fix! Unfortunately, pumpkin spice lattes and pumpkin cream cheese muffins from Starbucks were definitely out.

My mom came to my rescue in the form of pumpkin cream cheese! She found some at Trader Joe's that was delicious, and then came up with a recipe for a homemade version that had even less sugar. It's delicious spread onto apples, celery, or whole grain sprouted toasted (or just eaten with a spoon, if you're desperate!) I ate up all she gave me and had to make myself another batch today.

Here is the recipe. (I didn't measure my ingredients, so I kind of guessed on a lot of them. I'd say just add/taste until you like it!)

1 package cream cheese, softened
About 1/2 of a 15 oz can of pumpkin (more or less, depending on how "pumpkiny" you want it...I did more)
3-4 T brown sugar or raw honey (again, start out with less and add until you think it's sweet enough)
1/2 t vanilla
3/4 - 1 t cinnamon (to taste)
1/2 t nutmeg
1/4 t ginger
1/4 t cloves
(OR just use a heaping teaspoon of pumpkin pie spice)

With an electric mixer, cream all ingredients together until smooth. Cover and refrigerate. Spread on just about anything for a mouthful of pumpkin-filled deliciousness.

I like this pumpkin spread on the cinnamon-raisin Ezekial 4:9 bread, which is delicious but sadly not cheap, or my homemade sprouted spelt flour bread, which sounds complicated but is SUPER easy to make. I'll try to post the recipe for it tomorrow.

Give this pumpkin spread a try and I promise, you will hardly miss sugar!