It finally snowed!! I loved playing in the snow when I was a kid. I still remember the delight of coming inside from the chill, and indulging in CUPS of hot coco heaped with marshmallows!!
Now that I'm a mom, I love playing with my kids in the snow. When we come in, I like to whip up some quick warm snacks. However, I save hot coco for very special occasions, because it's loaded with sugar. 1 envelope usually has around between 12-20 grams of added sugar.
For reference, the American Heart Association says kids should have no more than 25 grams of added sugar per day.
So, instead of drinking our entire sugar allotment for the day, I make mugs of warm vanilla milk (link takes you to the recipe on my website). It is just milk, warmed up in a mug in the microwave, with a splash of vanilla flavoring in it. I usually sprinkle cinnamon on top. My kids love it!
I also usually whip up a batch of peanut butter banana oatmeal cookies in my blender (link takes you to the recipe on my website). They only take 5 minutes to make, and you can eat the dough raw without getting sick (that's important if you are impatient like me). My kids love these cookies and will usually eat the entire batch.
I don't want you to think that we never eat sugar at my house. We do eat sugar, and we love it! I just try to cut back on things don't matter as much. I also cut back on the sugar in my holiday baking.
Whenever I make a recipe, I'll cut out at least 1/4 cup of sugar. My family rarely notices the difference. Take this pumpkin cake recipe that I just posted on the website. The original recipe had 1 2/3 cups of sugar. I used 1 1/3 cup of sugar instead and they were still plenty sweet.
For reference, 1/3 cup is 67 grams of sugar. We usually eat the entire batch of pumpkin cake, so between the 5 of us, that saves 13 grams a person. (remember, the limit should be 25 grams per day). It's not a huge amount, but little changes like that make a big difference over time!
Do you have any great low sugar recipes you would like to share? If so, send me an email at nicolebuhlerRD@gmail.com
thanks for reading and have a happy snow day!