Sugar Sugar

I like sugar. A lot. I didn't realise how much it didn't like me though! You see, I (like much of the world) added a spoon of sugar to my tea and coffee without really thinking. I work from home most days and my mom and I probably have a minimum of 6 cups of tea or coffee a day... add a spoon of sugar to each cup and we're talking quite a lot of sugar every day - without thinking and without feeling like I was overloading in any way. After all, it's just one spoon of sugar in my tea, right?

A couple of months ago I stopped putting sugar in my hot drinks. I didn't really think about it and it turns out that I actually prefer the taste sans the sweet stuff! It wasn't for any specific reason - thank goodness it wasn't because I had early symptoms of diabetes, it was merely a flippant decision on the spot. 

The hard decision was to cut out super carbohydrate loaded drinks... I used to have a Grapetizer with meals out (we eat out a few times a week) until my dear man pointed out that there are enough carbs in 330ml to cover an entire meal's needs! Oh, dear... I will admit I miss Grapetizer terribly but given the facts, how could I possibly continue to drink them? This posed the problem of what can I have with a meal out? It will suffice to say that I have made friends with Rock Shandy's and sparkling water with lemon does the trick most of the time... I'm not a total kill-joy though. If I really feel like a sugary drink I'll have one but it's actually become easy to make the healthy choice :-)

The unintended consequences of cutting out sugar have been my waistline and energy levels... My friends know that I'm super sporty and I've never struggled with my weight in any way - I'm genetically predisposed to be skinny (this shouldn't be confused with healthy though!) but since skipping out on sugar I have noticed a MAJOR difference in my body shape: I have toned abs (without any extra training) and the cellulite I saw creeping into my bum has vanished (yes, it was there and it stressed me otu terribly but I'd made peace with it's existence) and all that for sacrificing a spoon of sugar in my tea and coffee! Best part was that i didn't even do it for that reason. Energy-wise I feel great: no mid afternoon slump and my mood is way more stable and I feel happier and less stressed. Again, this wasn't my reason for sutting out sugar - but it sure is a major benefit!

There are a few areas I feel I'm still sugar overloading: ready made foods, cakes and my weakness for sweets. In the beginning temptation isle (the queue area at Woolies) was pretty much impossible - all those yummy fruit gums and chocolates and nougat and jelly beans and yumminess... I was worse than a toddler (mainly because there was no mommy to say no and I was armed with my credit card!) and would start nibbling while I waited for my turn to pay. I'm pleased to say that the tempation is now limited to Lindt chocolates (chilli, pinch of sea salt and 60% dark) which I feel much better about adding to my basket because they get shared after dinner as a treat (I wouldn't dare to open one in the queue and thankfully I haven't felt the need!)

I managed to cut out the extra (high GI) carbs, so can you!

Perfect Fudge

So after many tests, I found the perfect fudge recipe. There are others with much simpler ingredient lists and instructions but the extra time and effort are well worth the effort here! I gave the simpler recipes a fair shot (tried them each twice) but the results were at best very average. Nigella Lawson’s recipe from “How to be a domestic goddess” didn’t work at all… Very simple recipe with very disappointing results. Here’s one that worked perfectly again and again:

900g Sugar

300ml Milk

30ml Golden syrup

100g Margarine

397g can Condensed Milk

5ml Vanilla Essence

1. Dissolve the sugar in the milk over low heat (the best results I got were from a batch where I put the milk and sugar in a pot over low heat and went to shower whilst it melted. It took about 20min for the sugar to fully dissolve. This is a little excessive but as I said, this happened to be the very best batch of very many batches!
2. Add syrup and margarine. Bring to the boil and boil for 2-3 minutes.
3. Add the condensed milk and bring to the boil again. I found that if I stopped stirring for too long the bottom got brown really fast. This fortunately stirred back into the mixture ok but is obviously something to watch! Boil until soft-ball stage which is 118^oC on the sugar thermometer.
4. Remove from heat and stir in the vanilla essence (I never ever stick to the recipe amount when it comes to vanilla – the vanilla essence we get at pick ‘n pay isn’t very good I’m afraid so I add more)
5. Beat this mixture until it begins to set. Pour into a greased baking tin. If you beat it for too long you have trouble getting it from the pot into the tin… try to move the fudge from the pot to the tin as fast as possible and don’t fiddle with it once it’s in the tin – it makes it look yucky and messy!
6. Cut the fudge before it sets too hard. Store in an airtight container – it will last as long as the boys in the house can’t find it!