I Quit Sugar Pumpkin Pie with Cream

I love pumpkin pie.  Always have as far as I can remember.  Even back when I was suck a picky eater.  I always saved plenty of room for pumpkin pie on Thanksgiving.

So imagine how elated I was to see a pumpkin pie recipe in Sarah Wilson's I Quit Sugar book.  I could quit sugar, get healthy and STILL enjoy pumpkin pie on Thanksgiving!  Perfect!

I decided I needed to test this recipe before Thanksgiving just in case...

....And boy was I glad that I did! 

My 2nd pie after cooling and refrigerating overnight.

 

While I devoured the first piece, I quickly realized that there was something "off" about the recipe.  Of course, this isn't your typical pumpkin pie.  Almond meal replaces a pie crust filled with white flour and Crisco.  And while I absolutely love this crust, I had used salted butter, and with the added teaspoon of salt, it was way too salty.  The spices were unbelievably potent; almost masking the creaminess of the pumpkin, which we can all agree is not okay.

So after requests more from others to try the pie, and my curious mind wanting to perfect this recipe, I decided to test the recipe one more time before our big Thanksgiving feast...

...Of course, I tasted the batter before baking the pie and it was really great!  I could taste the spices, but they were no longer overwhelming; the pumpkin taste came through so much more.  I will also admit that I licked the extra batter out of most of the mixing bowl.  The crust is still a bit too salty for me, but I just love the use of almond meal to create a delicious, crunchy crust!

A slice of pie with homemade whipped cream.

So here I'll provide you with a link to Sarah's Wilson Pumpkin Pie with Cream.  But please, take my word for it and make these simple swaps and I think that you'll be very happy:

1. Be sure to use UNSALTED butter for the crust.
2. You may want to omit the teaspoon of salt for the crust as well, especially if you're not a big salt lover.
3. Cut the amount of fresh grated ginger to 1 teaspoon.  I found the whole Tablespoon that they called for is way too spicy!

Let me know if you made this pie for Thanksgiving!  Did you make the same changes I did?  Was anyone surprised that it's sugar free?

Sugar Free Breakfast

Of course, cutting out sugar had a large impact on my diet, but the biggest changes were in my breakfast foods.  Think about it: Most breakfast food choices contain some sort of sugar.  Cereal, granola, yogurt, smoothies, pancakes, waffles, muffins... We have been almost programmed to start our day right off with the sweet stuff!  If you're interested in jumping on the sugar free train with me, then here's some new (better) breakfast foods to kick start your day!

Plenty of Time
Whether it's the weekend, summer, or I'm feeling a bit ambitious and wake up early, I love making these foods for breakfast:

• Scrambled eggs with either a couple slices of bacon or turkey sausage patties
• Protein pancakes
• Green eggs (This is such a fun take on scrambled eggs; you'll love starting your day off with something green and the parmesan cheese!)
• Cherry Almond Green Tea Smoothie Bowl (I use full fat yogurt instead of nonfat as suggested in the recipe)

On the Go
When I've just got to get out the door in the morning (which sadly is most weekdays during the school year), there's are my go to grabs:

• Coco-Nutty granola (I almost always have this prepared to put on yogurt or eat with almond milk)
• Ezekiel bread sprinkled with Stevia and cinnamon, and topped with full-fat organic cottage cheese
• Ezekiel toast or a rice cake topped with almond butter
• Green juice (When I make a big batch, I'll put a serving or two in a Mason jar to easily grab in the morning

Art Room Tour

I'm an art educator.  I teach elementary art.  And while there a days that I feel completely defeated by my job (who doesn't?!), I love it when I think about the fact that I get paid to cultivate a love of art with students and create beautiful things all day long!

I will try to periodically post lesson plans and resources for art education, but since it's summer, I will share some photos from my art room. 

Here's a little information about my school:

• This will be the 6th year that our building is open, and I have taught at this school since then.
• They actually remodeled our school last year, and I got a completely new art room.  We also have 2 art rooms in my school, but we do not yet have enough students to hire a 2nd art teacher (Boo!).
• My principal is awesome, and asked them to paint my room when it was added on last year.  I had to choose between 5 colors that were already in our school.

Decor in my previous room.

Close up of my window coverings. 

 I simply sewed together bandannas and attached them to the blinds with Velcro.

My husband got me all of these purple and orange pieces when he worked at Petsmart.

I created a secondary color scheme desert scene above the cabinets.

Of course, I had the primary colors represented with these crayon "piggy banks".

I used fake flowers and painted terra cotta pots to show complimentary colors.

I made this awesome rug cover with bandannas.  Unfortunately, I did not survive the year so well.

Before photo of my "new" art room from last year.

The back wall of my room.

The door is to my storage closet, plus sinks and cabinets.

The front wall of my room, including projector screen, whiteboard and a bulletin board.

And the after, thanks to a lot of help from my Dad and husband!

I made these tissue paper flowers for our wedding reception party and reused them around the doorway in my classroom.  They've held up really well, and the kid don't really mess with them.

I reused the complimentary flower pots from my previous room.

...And the window coverings!  I found these papel picado banners in San Antonio.

After all of the moving, unpacking and redecorating last summer, I don't plan on making too many changes in my room with year except for the bulletin boards and table arrangement.

I hope you enjoyed the tour of my art room(s)!  I will try to post some more close ups and techniques that I use in future posts.

Scrapbooking

I love scrapbooking!  I like preserving my photographs and memories in a beautiful way for myself and others to enjoy.  I think that I started scrapbooking in high school, but I always loved documenting my life even before I began scrapbooking.  I always bought those interactive books that you could fill in with information all about you. 

This is from a high school senior year album.

The Beginning
My first scrapbook was created out of a sketch journal that I had.  It was incredibly primitive form of scrapbooking.  I'd cut around the people in the photograph, attach it to colored cardstock and stick it in the book with a title and some journaling.  While it was not beautiful looking back, it was a start!

I created this layout the summer after my senior year.

I remember when I found a scrapbook store in a nearby town and loved shopping there.  I'd spend most of my high school summer job paychecks there.  I gradually started to use actual scrapbooks, designer papers and eyelets and brads (they were very popular at the time, and a pain to add to your pages!).  I also started collecting enough supplies that I needed organizers for it all.  I pretty much would create 1 new scrapbook, which documented a year's worth of photos.

By college, I got a lot fancier with my scrapbook layouts.

Mini Albums
Then I started creating (and still do!) mini albums of specific trips or themes.  I enjoy picking up lots of coordinating paper and supplies and putting a few photos in whatever beautiful little album that I can find.  I really love mini albums, because as opposed to my yearly scrapbooks - I generally finish these albums.  Sometimes my yearly albums sit around for months - or sadly, years - until they're finished (and my husband loves pointing this fact out!).

A mini album of a trip and December Daily.

The Problem
Then something happened when I got an iPhone... I was taking a lot more pictures of everyday things.  Having a camera at your fingertips is a pretty amazing thing, but it became increasingly more difficult to scrapbook.  I had too many single picture layout, and I was losing interest in scrapbooking these layouts.

Here's a layout that I created which had multiple "everyday" pictures.

The Solution
It's called Project Life.  It is an incredibly new and interesting challenged in scrapbooking that I'm taking on this year.  I really enjoy it, because it's a much easier way of scrapbooking.   For my project life album, I document a week at a time.  It really shows more of my daily life than my previous scrapbooks did; they generally only showed specific events. 

 I'm excited to continue, change and expand upon my Project Life albums.  Please comment with any questions that you may have about this scrapbook style, and I will try to do my best to answer them!

Craftaholic and DIYer

I love to make things.  I will paint, knit, cut and glue, and even use tools if necessary!  I don't have much fear to try making new things, and I love to dabble with new crafts and projects (which sometimes is a problem, as I don't always finish them...).

 

My love of arts and crafts definitely came from my Grandparents.  I have incredibly fond memories of making things or watching my Grandma make crafts at their home.  I definitely got my love for painting from her.  My Grandpa was the doer - always building things.  When he passed away, I asked to keep their trashcan holder that he made (I will post my "before" and "after" of this project at some point).  And while my Mom wasn't the most artistic, she definitely influenced me to have the confidence to do things myself. 

 

My Grandparents, Mom and I on a vacation when I was about 3.

 

 

Below is a preview to some of the types of things that I like to create.  Like I said: I'm pretty diverse in the projects that I try, and if it weren't for time and money, I'd make twice as much as I already do!  

 

Painted wood flip flops on our patio.

 

Our mantle - I made the ruler stars, chevron painting and American flag Ball jars.

 

Hand painted Texas Rangers Toms.

 

 

Please comment with any projects that you'd like to see me try on the blog!

 

Weight Loss

Childhood

I was an incredibly picky eater as a child.  As my Dad says (and will still say to this day), "I didn't fight with you about food.  You ate what you wanted, when you were hungry."  I love my Dad, and his logic makes sense, but I was definitely eating the "wrong" foods as a child, and never trying anything new.  My diet literally consisted of: Chicken nuggets, French fries, hot dogs, bologna (ugh!), salami, American cheese, bread, an occasional salad, carrots, celery and most fruits and desserts.  This is pretty much all I ate from the age 2 or 3 to 12.  And believe me - it didn't get much better at 12!  I only expanded my "acceptable" foods lists to add pizza, mozzarella sticks, grilled chicken (yay me!) and a few bites of turkey and mashed potatoes at Thanksgiving dinner. 

Fortunately, I was a very skinny and active kid!  It wasn't until around the 6th grade that I slowly started gaining weight and feeling self-conscious.  I compared my body type to many of my friends and other girls, wondering why they were so skinny and I was not. 

Me with my Mom, at age 7.

 

 

High School

 

As I got into high school, I continued to pack on the pounds.  I was fairly active, playing soccer in the fall and summer, but I did spend a lot of time watching TV and on AOL.  I had absolutely no concept of eating healthy - nor did I know what foods were "healthy" and what foods weren't.  I was still the pathetically picky eater too!  I got so nervous to have dinner at a friend's house or eating on a school trip, because I didn't know what I'd be able to eat.  During my sophomore year, I started working ticketing and concessions at our town pool.  I was surround by junk ALL THE TIME, and I certainly ate my fair share of it!  Going into my junior year, I was at my heaviest.  I'm not even sure what my weight was, because I avoided scales.  I remember purchasing a pair of jeans at American Eagle in a size 10, though.  That's when it kind of hit me.. I needed to move a bit more! 

 

Once my soccer season was over in the fall of my junior year, I started going to an aerobics class that my Aunt taught.  It was 1 hour, 2 days a week.  Easy commitment!  I would say that I went to class pretty consistently and enjoyed by 2 hour workout each week, and I started noticing results!  But it wasn't until my senior year that I really paired diet and exercise to shed most of my excess weight.  During my senior year, I began to bring salads and healthy snacks to school for lunch almost everyday.  The only day that I bought lunch was on Monday: baked potato day!  Along with my healthier eating, I joined a local gym and began running on the treadmill or using the bike about 2-3 times per week and continued to go to my Aunt's aerobics class.  I was ecstatic when my clothes kept getting looser and looser!  I remember having to get my dress for senior prom altered, because I had  lost so much weight after purchasing it.

 

College

 

I continued most of my healthy eating habits and exercising through college.  My big breakthrough was when I started working at a banquet facility, and began trying lots of new foods!  I fell in love with fish and many vegetables that I wouldn't dare to try before.  Working at the job opened my palette up to a host of new and healthier options for me to eat!  I would say that my college years were easy for the most part: I ate healthy and exercised.  If I gained 5 pounds, then I watched what I ate and moved a little bit more. 

 

25+

 

After I turned 25, something happened.  The weight didn't come off as easily as it used to, and I didn't understand why.  In my opinion, I was eating healthier than ever!  With my education career, finding the time and energy to workout always the easiest, but I definitely felt like I ate healthy!  Then one summer, I got back lab results from my yearly exam.  I had high cholesterol.  I was baffled.  "I don't eat that much fried food," I thought.  "I eat tons of fruit, veggies and low fat food!"  Completely confused, I researched to no end, found a few helpful tips and new recipes.  When the next year came around, the results were still the same.  Honestly, I felt ashamed.  I only told a few close people about my "problem", and they seemed as shocked as I was.  For the past two years, I have completed numerous "diets", juice fasts, exercise programs, and gone through testing for hypothyroidism, all with no help to my cholesterol.  In fact, all of these things only seemed make my numbers rise.... I got to a point where I had no idea what to do.

 

I Quit Sugar

 

Somewhere in all of my researching over cholesterol, I came across a woman named Sarah Wilson.  She was saying that by quitting sugar, I could potentially lower my cholesterol.  I read a few articles about how there was added sugar in low fat dairy products, and her thoughts intrigued me, but being the soda and ice cream lover that I was, I wasn't ready for this concept of "quitting sugar".  I think the final straw came this past spring when I was at a loss.  After months of trying to shed about 5 pounds to fit comfortably back into most of my clothes and trying all of my usual weights loss tricks, I decided that something had to give.  What could it hurt to try?  I bought her book. 

 

 

I Quit Sugar by Sarah Wilson

 

 

I stayed up very late reading the introduction.  I couldn't believe the research, and the ideas in this book.  Sugar was the enemy, not fat.  If I gave up sugar, then I potentially could feel better, lose weight and most importantly, lower my cholesterol.  I was finally sold, and ready to give this sugar free lifestyle a try!  I had planned on slowly accumulating the ingredients for the recipes and waiting at least another week to start the program, but I totally dove in head first!  ...And was met with major sugar withdraw, including nausea and the worst headache that I've ever had.  I know that this isn't helping me sell this lifestyle to you right now, but I will get to that shortly...

 

Once the initial ill feelings left, I immediately noticed an increase of energy, my moods improved, my skin and hair felt softer, and I even lost a couple pounds!  This definitely gave me enough motivation to keep going!  As the weeks progressed, I continued my new found sugar free lifestyle.  At first, it was a big challenged to read so many labels, and check sugar content on online restaurant menus, but that has become almost second nature to me now!  It seemed as through every week I continued this program, I noticed another change in my body... First I lost some of the puffiness in my face, then stomach flattened out, then I slowly began shedding all of the excess pounds from my hips and thighs that I've so desperately wanted to get rid of.  And when others started noticing my results, I became ecstatic!  Oh, and did I mention that my cholesterol went down?

 

Left: March 2014, around 135 pounds

Right: June 2014, after 8 weeks without sugar, 125 pounds

 

 

I'm so excited as I continue my journey through life without sugar.  I'm enjoying trying new foods, and watching my body continue to change.  I'm getting to a point where I don't need to lose more weight, but I just need to tone up some areas, so I'm trying to integrate more exercise into my daily life.  But eating is so much easier now! 

 

I'm excited to share more of my sugar free lifestyle with you, including research, recipes and my results.  





Hello World!

Hello, I'm Megan! I am a 28 year old art teacher, sugar free eater, craft and DIY enthusiast, and memory keeper writing to you from the great state of Texas.

What's with my blog name? Well, I got it from a yoga article. During my final semester of my undergrad, I had to take 1 more credit hour to be a full time student. So what did I take? Yoga! I was the type of student that got all of my requirement courses completed, and really didn't take any "frivolous" classes, so of course I waited until I was almost done with college to take yoga. Anyway, aside from this being the greatest 2 hours of my week for a couple months, our instructor gave us an article, which talked about how important it was in yoga to not worry about "doing it right?" My instructor also reiterated this to us during class. She would often tell us to close our eyes and focus on our own practice, rather than looking at other students. I find this question often crossing into my everyday life - whether I'm trying a new recipe, craft or teaching a new lesson! I'm constantly wondering, "Am I doing this right?"

My next few posts will cover some of the most important things in my life, and most of the topics that I'll be writing about on my blog, including: Food & Weight Loss, Home Décor & Crafts, Project Life, and Teaching.

I hope you will join me in my journey to try some DIY projects, eat sugar free and document memories!