Happy Birthday Afton

I thought I might have some big idea for “the one year,” but it was October, and then it was November, and then it was December, and now it’s here and I don’t have anything.

I mean, I guess I do have a few things, they’re just not what I thought they’d be. I have a somehow-still-beating heart that can feel him in the soft December snowflakes, and in a cozy snuggle with Sage. Or ears that can hear him in the rustle of fall leaves on trees, and in his dad’s crazy laugh. Or eyes that see him in every winter sunset, and in the tiny glow of a candle. I have under-eye circles that are darker and puffier, shoulders that feel heavier, and a soul that feels literally 100 years old. But that’s okay. I am a better person because of these scars. Moms carry the weight of love like that.

So no, I don’t really have a big special plan for today, his birthday. I only have a deep bank of love for him that won’t ever run out, and actually, that’s probably enough. That’s a big enough thing. That’s the only big thing there is.

Happy 1st Birthday to my baby in heaven.

Me and your dad and Sagey – we love you so much.

I’m just so proud to be your mama. I wouldn’t have wanted any other baby but you.

PS. I shared some of your cake with RoonToons. She’s into it.

To all of our beautiful blog readers, friends in real life, friends on the internet: Thank you for loving us through this brutal year. And thank you for loving our precious son, an irreplaceable person of unsurpassable worth, Afton Bjork Ostrom.

If you would like to help us celebrate Afton, we would love it if you would light a candle for our sweet boy on his birthday. ♡

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Sugar Free January Meal Planning Guide

Okay! Let’s real quick talk about meal planning for Sugar Free January.

We aren’t going to do major meal plans during Sugar Free January but we ARE giving you a free printable template to make your weekly/monthly planning super easy. And we are LOADING YOU UP ON RECIPES so you have lots of yummy things to choose from as you decide what you want to eat this month.

My approach to meal planning has always been pretty loose 🤪 and you’ll see that reflected in my plan below:

Click here to download the Sugar Free Meal Plan Template.

And here are the recipe links for what I’ll be making during that first week:

• Avocado Egg Toast
• Simple Green Smoothie
• Chicken and Rice Meal Prep (using quinoa)
• Mushroom Penne with Walnut Pesto
• Golden Soup
• Cashew Coffee
• I will also be making a weekly batch of Sunshine Sauce for Sugar Free January.
• and the Peanut Soup? recipe coming on January 1st! 🤩

And here’s what my grocery list looks like for that first week’s plan.

I take this list and then either add it into my grocery app (we use Grocery IQ) or place an order for grocery delivery service, which is the best thing to ever make its way into our modern lives (we use Instacart). Once you add your groceries into the app, they will be organized by category, which makes shopping really easy.

That’s it!

Here are a few other lil’ tipsters for meal planning during Sugar Free January.

• You don’t have to have something different every day. Batch your easy meals, like breakfast and lunch. In my example plan, I will just be eating avocado toast, and/or a smoothie, and chicken and rice meal prep for the majority of the week’s breakfasts and lunches. I don’t mind eating the same food a few days in a row as long as it’s really, really good. And I might change up some small things, like one day I might do a cheesy version of scrambled eggs on avocado toast, and one day I might just do avocado toast with a sprinkle of red pepper flakes, and one day just spicy scrambled eggs. But knowing I’ll have avocado egg toast (or some combo of that) helps me keep my shopping list short and my brain space available to think about other things.
• Leave space for leftovers and eating out. If I make one pasta recipe that serves 6-8 people, and there’s only 2 of us… we should be able to eat that 3-4 times. Leave space for your leftovers, and for your weekend social gatherings with friends. It’s hard to order out when eating sugar free which is why I’m only writing in 1-2 spaces for eating out on this meal plan, but it’s doable. And I think getting out of your house to share a meal at a restaurant with friends, even if you’re just ordering a simple grilled chicken and veg entree and a glass of red wine, is important for your social/emotional health.
• Limit to one fancy or new recipe per week. The only recipe on my list this week that requires more than one pan to make is the mushroom penne. I definitely don’t recommend choosing one all-new, full-on homemade recipe every night of the week. Make big batches of stuff! Eat your leftovers! At MOST, in our “real life,” I cook three recipes per week – maybe one on Monday, one on Wednesday, and one on the weekend to prepare for the week ahead. Keep it simple.

Okay, the last thing I’m going to leave you with is a nice long list of recipes that I think would be good to consider for your meal planning purposes – either breakfasts, lunches, or dinners. This should give the high-achieving super-planners in the group a highly prepared starting point for #POYsugarfreejanuary!

I am so excited to start sharing these recipes with you! THREE MORE DAYYYS.

Breakfast

• Soft-Scrambled Eggs – A MUST-MAKE!
• Pumpkin Granola
• Peanut Butter Granola
• Cashew Coffee – Also a creamy, dreamy favorite. One of the most popular recipes on POY!
• Autumn Glow Milkshake
• Caramelized Banana Oatmeal
• Berry Chia Overnight Oats
• Creamy Spinach Potato Breakfast Casserole
• Inner Goddess Raspberry Breakfast Bowls
• Six-Ingredient Sausage Potato Pie
• Detox Green Apple Smoothie
• Goat Cheese Scrambled Eggs with Pesto Veggies
• Simple Poached Egg and Avocado Toast – What I’ll be making for breakfast all week!
• Cinnamon Whole Grain Power Pancakes
• Caramelized Banana Oat Muffins
• Simple Green Smoothie – I make variations of this all the time. Currently I’m making it with frozen mango (instead of banana) and kale (instead of spinach). Yum!

Lunch

• Golden Soup – A personal favorite, and a crowd favorite!
• Detox Broccoli Cheese Soup
• Curry Chicken Salad
• Avocado Egg Salad
• Chipotle Corn Chowder
• Spicy Peanut Soba Noodle Salad – YES THIS IS AS GOOD AS IT SOUNDS.
• Detox Rainbow Roll-Ups
• Spicy Carrot Soup
• Detox Grilled Chopped Salad
• Chopped Greek Salad
• Spicy Chicken Sweet Potato Meal Prep – This concept works with just about any grain / protein! And it’s perfect for the Instant Pot.
• Plant Power Sushi Bowls
• Spring Roll Bowls
• Mediterranean Quinoa Bowls – So yummy for meal prep!
• Autumn Glow Salad
• Creamy Peanut Chicken Lettuce Wraps
• 5-Ingredient Sweet Potato Turkey Chili
• Green Goddess Quinoa Salad
• Spicy Southwestern Salad
• Rainbow Power Salad with Roasted Chickpeas
• Chopped Chicken Sesame Noodles Bowls
• Winter Rainbow Quinoa Salad
• Rainbow Veggie Bowls with Jalapeño Ranch
• Chopped Thai Salad with Sesame Garlic Dressing
• Creamy Potato Kale Soup – Super crazy green color but one of our absolute FAVORITES.
• Spicy Shrimp and Avocado Salad with Miso Dressing

Dinner

• 5-Ingredient Green Curry – A winter essential.
• Cauliflower Walnut Taco Meat – SUPER versatile and would be great for meal prep, too.
• Moroccan-Spiced Chickpea Bowl
• Sweet Potato Pizza Crust
• Chili Lime Fish Tacos
• Chicken Tikka Masala
• Baked Salmon with Lentils – Sounds really healthy because it is. Also: SO DELICIOUS.
• Healing Bowls – These have turmeric mashed sweet potatoes so YES. Get on it.
• Marinated Kale and Chicken Bowls
• Burst Tomato Zucchini Spaghetti
• Simple Mushroom Penne with Walnut Pesto
• Roasted Tomatoes with Goat Cheese Polenta
• Sweet Potato Noodle with Cashew Sauce
• Lemon Herb Salmon Burgers
• Easy Mexican Chicken Quinoa Casserole
• Creamy Garlic Herb Mushroom Spaghetti
• Spicy Shrimp Tacos with Garlic Cilantro Slaw – Do it for the slaw.
• Skillet Chicken Tortilla Pie
• Healthy Quinoa Chicken Curry Bowls
• One Pot Spanish Chicken with Potatoes
• Garlic Spaghetti Squash with Herbs
• Healthy Baked Pesto Rigatoni
• Honey Ginger Tofu and Veggie Stir Fry – NEEDED in your life.
• 20-Minute Lemon Pesto Penne

Snacks and Desserts

• Curry Hummus
• Vegan Caramel Sauce
• Salted Chocolate Snack Bars – refined sugar free!
• Matcha Green Tea Latte
• Homemade Peanut Butter
• Magic Green Sauce – 24/7/365.
• Chocolate Raspberry Almond Butter Bars
• Coconut Oil Apple Crisp
• Simple Oat and Pecan Blueberry Crisp
• No Bake Mini Fruit Pizzas
• Peanut Butter Banana Ice Cream

You can look through our sugar free category of recipes here, and you can click here to download the Sugar Free Meal Plan template! #POYsugarfreeJanuary — we’re comin for ya!

I’d love to hear from you all – how do you approach meal planning? Are you Team Write-It-All-Down or Team Go-With-The-Flow? (I’m Go-With-The-Flow + a *little* bit of stuff written down.)

See you guys in January!

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Sugar Free January Product Guide

So Here’s What I Did.

I went grocery shopping at three different grocery stores…

• Trader Joe’s
• Super Target
• Cub Foods

…and I put together a list of all the good, yummy, sugar-friendly products that I found at all three stores.

If you are doing Sugar Free January with us (a 30-day free challenge! read more here), I thought it might be helpful for you to have some ideas about what pantry essentials and snacks and drinks to pick up so you’d be ready to kick sugar ouuuut at the beginning of the month.

What Counts As Sugar-Free / Sugar-Friendly:

• No added sugar.

Easy.

I actually like the term Sugar-Friendly for this list, meaning these products are good choices for someone trying to cut out added refined sugars.

In a few rare cases, I allowed up to 2 grams of added sugar in order to keep the list from being totally miserable if not completely unattainable. This will be primarily in the snacks or prepared meals category. I also allowed for naturally occurring sugars (like those in natural unsweetened fruit juices).

I hope you’ll be able to use this list as a guide – but mostly, read labels and make your own decisions on a case-by-case basis.

How I Shop for Sugar-Friendly Products:

I read labels. Here is a visual of how I looked for sugar-free / sugar-friendly products, using yogurt as an example.

This first yogurt has 7 grams of sugar. However, yogurt (dairy) has naturally occurring sugar, so I needed to read the ingredient list to see if those 7 grams were NATURAL or ADDED.

There was no sugar in the ingredient list, so I knew this one was clean. The 7 grams of sugar that we see listed are naturally occurring sugars.

This second one had 14 grams of sugar. And when I looked at the ingredients….

Cane sugar, right there in the ingredient list! I would not consider this one “sugar free” because it has added sugar.

Some nutrition labels will have “sugar” and “added sugar” differentiated right on the package, which is awesome. But not all do, so it’s important to read ingredient lists to find out if there’s sugar in any given product.

Quick team meeting here before we start. Hopefully it goes without saying that THE MOST HEALTHFUL PRODUCTS ARE GOING TO BE WHOLE FOODS, like FRUITS, VEGGIES, MEATS, GRAINS, BEANS… not things that come in a bag or a package.

However, if all of a sudden you feel like you can never eat anything out of a package or bottle or box for an entire 30 days, you’re probably not going to last long. Do you have to simmer homemade pasta sauce for hours or bake your own crackers or mill your own wheat for homemade bread in order to go sugar free?!?! No, no, no.

You can make good choices with your pantry and packaged foods by choosing ones that are sugar-friendly.

Sugar Friendly Snacks:

Crunchy, sweet, salty… a little bit of everything here.

Sugar Friendly Crackers:

Most mainstream cracker brands contain at least 4-5 grams of added sugar. Meh. Thankfully there are a few brands out there that are 100% whole grain (or close to whole grain) AND contain no added sugar.

Sugar Friendly Buddies for your Crackers:

I was happy to find that there were many hummus and plant-based dip options with no added sugar. I even found this black bean layer dip at Cub that had no added sugar! Yay dips.

Sugar Friendly Ready-Made Meals:

Totally in favor of homemade meals. We have a bunch of them right here. But sometimes, life happens, and you need a can of soup. These were a few I found that I was kind of excited about – remember to look at those labels.

Whole Wheat Pasta:

Basic/easy. Should be available at almost any grocery store!

Sugar Friendly Pasta Sauce:

Pasta sauce is naturally sweet (thank you, tomatoes), but finding pasta sauce without added sugar is more challenging that you might think. Thumbs down for that. But with a little bit of careful label reading, you should be able to find an option with no added sugar. My favorite is DeLallo.

Sugar Friendly Yogurt / Dairy:

Here’s where we’re looking for the no-added-sugar varieties by reading labels, looking at ingredient lists, and basically just leaning towards “plain” or unflavored yogurt or milk / almond milk. Cheese should be good to go!

Sugar Friendly Drinks:

Remember, some of these drinks DO CONTAIN SUGAR. But they don’t have added sugar. If unsweetened fruit juice is on your “yes” list, I’d like to recommend you add a celebratory cocktail of sparkling water and a little natural fruit juice to your dinnertime routine! Light a candle, pour yourself a little mocktail, start your dinner on the stove… it’s great. I actually prefer to drink the juice straight, even just a half of a glass, in a wine glass to be fancy, and then drink my sparkling water on its own… but I’m weird like that.

Sugar Friendly Breakfast:

Okay, this is for sure the hardest meal for me personally. I have to basically give up on cereal because I just don’t like the taste of unsweetened cereal (although I’m intrigued by the Trader Joe’s purple corn cereal – I may have to try that). Savory breakfast (think egg + avocado toast) is a lifesaver. I also included my favorite no-sugar-added whole grain bread. That seedy, grainy bread, with a spread of peanut butter, and maybe a few slices of banana and a sprinkle of cinnamon? Yes and more yes.

Condiments / Other Sauces:

You know, the stuff you put on your grilled chicken, roasted vegetables, or eggs. This zhoug sauce has me intrigued.

Good Quality Sweets, If You Leave Yourself A Little Wiggle Room:

And I do leave myself a little wiggle room. This dark chocolate bar is EXCELLENT. It’s dark and rich and it still tastes good even with only 6 grams of sugar in half of the bar. WHAT!! This is my go-to for a square of dark chocolate after dinner on nights when I just need a little something to carry me through. (Obviously both of these are my exceptions as they have added sugar. You can read more about my approach to including a few limited, high quality sweets in this post.)

Okay though. This is Our Zone:

Friends, this is our zone. Fruits, vegetables, whole grains, beans, meats, that kinda thing. LOOK AT ALL THE PRETTY COLORS!

I’m so curious to know if label-reading (and looking for sugar) is something you’ve done before, or something that seems totally overwhelming? Do you have any favorite sugar-free or sugar-friendly products already? Tell me what you think!

P.S. GETTING SO EXCITED FOR JANUARYYYYYY!

Also, FYI because I know sometimes the digital world is confusing, this post is NOT sponsored by anyone.

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