Yes, I quit sugar (mostly)

For quite some time, I've known that sugar is a bit of an evil substance. It lures you when feeling in need, takes you to a fun buzzy place and then leaves you high and dry, feeling shaky and weird. I know not everyone has this relationship with it, but with a low tolerance to anything with a high GI, I'm so much better without it.

When I was living in Sydney, I started to read the lovely Sarah Wilson's blog (don't even get me started on my girl crush, she's awesome) and I've been following her journey as she quit sugar and ended up writing about it. A lot. She now has a few books, all beautifully shot and written, about how to make the right changes to cut out the white stuff for good. I'm trying. It's SO hard at first, but as a friend said to me the other day, it's all in the preparation.

I was so excited when Sarah's book, "I Quit Sugar For Life" landed on my doorstep and I've been reading, changing and preparing myself since. It's brilliant. Really imaginative and actually not that difficult to adapt to. It's really exciting to read how food can be the answer to so many ills and how thinking differently can transform your relationship with it. Breakfast is absolutely the hardest thing for me. Especially when you're gluten, lactose, most grains and oats intolerant. Grrrr. So, this Paleo inside out bread from Sarah's book looked like a perfect solution. Courgettes, eggs, ham, parsley and cooking with arrowroot and almond meal to make bread was a first for me. But I like firsts and this one tastes pretty good too. I'm actually looking forward to brekky this week.

*by the way, the cheese picture is Arla's lactose free cheese. It's a poor imitation of the real stuff but for someone that misses cheese like crazy (like me), it's good enough :)

Back to baking

It's taken me a little while to find spare time in amongst a whirlwind of new things, not to mention the daily fun with the bundle of energy, otherwise known as 6-month old Maisy. So, some of the things I love to do have taken a back seat for a bit, but as things gradually fall into place, I'm finding time and space for them again, which feels great. To celebrate this, getting back to basics and to remember my brother, Josh, on what would have been his 17th birthday, I baked a cake and throughly enjoyed it. The dusting of flour, messy egg cracking, sprinkling of coconut and sticky cherry chopping. Even Maisy wanted in!

What made this even more soul nourishing was that I had my camera along for the ride too, snapping as I went (which, with my messy baking habits, is harder than it sounds). It's reawakened my love of food photography, nothing flash, nothing pro, just me messing about with food, utensils and my camera. Like this - just baking, snapping and hoping I don't get vanilla essence too close to the Canon. More food adventures to come, I think.

*thanks to Ju for the lovely recent additions to my baking collection :)