A couple weeks ago I was contacted by Habit Foods to see if I wanted to try their new low calorie sweetener called Habitall. The premise is that their an all natural sweetener made from erythritol which is a naturally occurring sweetener found in some fruits, vegetables, and fermented foods. Polydextrose is a soluble fiber derived from starch in plants, and monk fruit is a vine fruit native to Chinca and Thailand.
You know what? I don’t really care what its made of. I don’t have the type of blog that will go in great detail about food ingredients since I have no idea what the hell any of them are. I’ve never even heard of monk fruit!
All I wanted to know – could Tony tell if something contained an “artificial” sweetener. I used to bake with Splenda, but he always could tell immediately that I didn’t use sugar. Rat farts.
While I had planned to make lemon poppy seed muffins using Habitall, I ran out of time over the weekend, but yesterday morning I had planned to make parfaits for me and my boss and I thought of making a strawberry sauce instead of using fresh strawberries. Um, turns out my strawberries got partially frozen in the back of my fridge, so this was a no brainer.
Strawberry Sauce
- 4 servings, 1/2 cup each: 27 calories, .23 fat, 1 mg sodium, 8.3 carbs, 1.5 fiber and.5 protein
Ingredients:
- 2 cups chopped strawberries
- 1/4 cup Habitall
- 1/4 cup water
Put everything in a pan and cook over medium heat for 10-15 minutes, or until the strawberries are soft. Using a potato masher, mash the strawberries into smaller pieces. Cool in the fridge. Serve with yogurt or over ice cream.
The verdict? This was delicious. Sweet with a touch of sour from the strawberries. I brought the rest of the sauce home and asked Tony to try it. He said that he couldn’t tell there wasn’t sugar in it!
The company is trying to launch a cost effective way to bring this product to market. You can check out their fundraising page here, that just kick started yesterday. Now I can’t wait to make the muffins to see what Tony thinks of those!
I know the calendar says its June, but yesterday morning when I woke up it felt like early spring!
Since I knew I was going to do Day 1 of Insanity last night, I ended up swimming for 30 minutes. I wish it were nicer that I could have swum outside – there weren’t even any kids out there – I think it was 72?
My blood sugar was 178 before the pool and dropped down to 104 after my workout – perfect!
Lunch was a roast beef flat out roll up with baby spinach, 1/2 ounce of cheese and tzatziki sauce. On the side were pretzels, carrots and cucumber with more tzatziki sauce for dipping. I found this two pack of Flatout at Sam’s for $4!
I drank all my Detox water yesterday too – 2 Liters before 4:00 p.m.!
For dinner I made grilled chicken thighs, using the Rudy’s bbq sauce. I ended up taking off the skin of mine before even grilling. I ended up eating only one of the pieces of chicken, had grilled zucchini tossed in 1 tablespoon of tzatziki (can you tell I love this stuff?!) and 1/2 cup macaroni salad and 1/2 cup of baked beans.
The only bad part about this time of year for grilling season is the damn cottonwood trees across the street. It actually looks like it’s snowing for about 4-5 days until we either get a good rain or all the cotton finally falls of the trees.
Before I knew it, it was 8:00 – Insanity Time! I have to say that I was able to complete about 80% of the workout. Some stuff like the squats to jump shot (think like a basketball shot) was easy, then some stuff like being in a plank, and then jumping both feet to each side for oblique plank crunches? Um, let’s just say that my “muffin top” got in the way of that. And for each set of three reps we did, I didn’t increase my speed – I was going for getting the right form vs. just going fast.
I was a sweaty mess after 40 minutes! And not kidding, while I was working out, I had a loaf of bread in the oven. Doesn’t everyone bake while working out?! 
About 30 minutes after I worked out I was starving! It wasn’t until this morning when I put in my food for yesterday that I realized after dinner I had only had 1050 calories for the day! I ended up eating 2 ounces of smoked almonds. That did the trick.
Stats for Monday:
- 1429 calories, 63 fat, 149 carbs, 33 fiber and 87 protein
- 41% calories from carbs, 40 from fat and 18 from protein
- 30 minute swim
- 40 minute Day 1 Insanity
- and guess what? No wine!
Question of the Day: How many of you cook with artificial sweeteners for either yourself or a family member? I am just curious!
Make it a great day!
I remember that plank/jump exercise because I didn’t do it, too hard. I know I’m a wimp 🙂
I only use Stevia in my yogurt. When I bake/cook I use real sugar. But I don’t cook much recipes that need sugar in it, the baking/desserts are left and I’m okay with that. I use real butter too when I bake. It just doesn’t taste good enough with ‘fake’ butter. I’d rather bake once a month with the real deal then every week with ‘fake’ ingredients. But that’s my weird way of cooking 🙂
I remember that plank/jump exercise because I didn’t do it, too hard. I know I’m a wimp 🙂
I only use Stevia in my yogurt. When I bake/cook I use real sugar. But I don’t cook much recipes that need sugar in it, the baking/desserts are left and I’m okay with that. I use real butter to when I bake. If I do it, I do it right otherwise I don’t bother.
Fran, my “muffin top” got in the way of me doing those plank obliques – oh well!
I was hoping you would post about your Insanity workout – great job!!! 80% is awesome – if you pay attention to some of the people on the DVD, they take lots of breaks!!! And, that oblique plank jump is brutal every time!!!
I did notice that last night Kim when I did Day 2 – I still was able to do about 85% of the workout though! 😀
Awesome!!! Keep it up!!