How to Make a Cooked Pasta Sauce That Has No Refined Sugar

This week I share with you my usual recipe for making a simple pasta sauce. It can be vegan, vegetarian or include meat, the choice is yours. My version is vegetarian although I often add a rasher of free range bacon.

Spiral Vegetable Slicer

Reminder: One week until my Delectable Desserts and Sweet Treats class. The class is nearly full, so be quick if you want to come. 

Christine’s Pasta Sauce
1 tin plain chopped tomatoes
1 T tomato paste
½ t salt
2 – 3 ‘grinds’ of black pepper
½ t coconut sugar or ¼ t honey
1 medium onion
1 medium carrot, grated
1 T butter (or oil)
½ c water, or more depending on how thick or thin you like your sauce
½ t basil (dried) or 2 -3 sprigs fresh
1 clove garlic (optional)
1 T wine (optional)
Optional Extras: mushrooms, cheese, other herbs, other cooked veggies

Melt butter and gently cook onion and carrot (and garlic, if using). If using bacon, add and cook with these.
Add tomatoes, paste, basil, seasonings and water and wine if using.
Cook for about five minutes until piping hot and a little reduced to your liking.
Serve over pasta, raw vegetable ‘pasta’, rice or potatoes.

T = tablespoon, t = teaspoon

Hint: double it and freeze half.

Very easy, low in sugar, no additives and budget-friendly. What more could you want?

Christine
www.gomoreraw.com
email: christine@gomoreraw.com

____________________________________________________

The Anglo-Far East Company
The Original Private Gold and Silver Bullion Custodian
Your reference when you order: an-001
____________________________________________________

Sugar Free Muesli

This week I share with you a sugar free muesli recipe that you can make very easily. No soaking or dehydrating, just open packets, measure (or not), stir and store.

Before I do that I want to remind those of you who want to come to my Delectable Deserts and Sweet Treats class on 4 October that the Early Bird rate of $95 finishes next Wednesday 24 September. On Thursday 25 September it will be the normal price of $120.

Since I last blogged I have had more conversations about sugar with many folk. People are genuinely concerned and want to know what to do.

One of these chats included the surprise of how much sugar is in ‘natural’ mueslis.  Packets announce proudly in bold and colourful print that their product contains whole grains, natural ingredients, real fruit, etc. It sounds so very healthy. Some are and some aren’t. Marketing is a wonderful thing and a mystery to most shoppers. Much research and money has been spent to make you, Dear Reader, choose their product. You can be sure that the latest health concerns will be included in the marketing to reassure you.



Read the ingredient and nutritional panel. Where it says sugar, divide by four and that gives you the teaspoon amounts in your serving. It is likely to include both sucrose (refined sugar) and fructose (fruit) but also could have corn syrup. I have seen some labelling that listed them separately. Grouping them together makes it harder to figure how much refined sugar is in there.  It’s also possible it has artificial sweeteners in the mix.

In the end, it’s you who has to become the ingredient detective and take control of you and your family’s health. The government can’t do too much really, and the food companies sure won’t.

So if you want to reduce your sugar intake and keep more money in your purse, here is my standard ‘Smith House Muesli’.

Fill a large mixing bowl with rolled oats, (large or quick-cook, it doesn’t matter). Add raisins – an amount that would give you 8 – 10 in your cereal bowl. Add nuts and/or seeds; same kind of ratio as for raisins. Add cinnamon to the approximate amount of ¼ teaspoon per cereal bowl. Stir well and store in airtight container. That’s it. Top with your choice of milk or yoghurt, add fresh fruit if you like it. No sugar or honey is required, oats are naturally sweet, so are the raisins and the fresh fruit.

Rolled oats require heat to roll them so even though it’s uncooked muesli it’s not raw. Just in case you were wondering.

Artificial sweeteners got some bad publicity this week. See here.

Whilst in Perth we stopped at a café and chose to sit outside. We watched one of their parrot-type birds hovering around. It wasn’t our food he was after but sugar. That canny bird could tell the difference between the real sugar sachets and the artificial ones. They won’t take the false sugar. Smart birds.

Christine
www.gomoreraw.com
email: christine@gomoreraw.com

____________________________________________________

The Anglo-Far East Company
The Original Private Gold and Silver Bullion Custodian
Your reference when you order: an-001
____________________________________________________

Nigel Latta and Sugar

Nigel Latta sure stirred things up with his show last week on sugar. It really got the attention of the nation. As a topic it was possibly neck-to-neck with election conversation. I reckon if a Party came up with the policy of tackling the sugar problem in NZ they’d be a shoo-in but I’m not sure if there was a murmur from the politicians. Opportunity missed, perhaps.

With my raw food class Delectable Desserts and Sweet Treats coming up, it could look like it was planned to coincide with Nigel’s show. Providential is perhaps the appropriate word as I am not privy to TVNZ’s programming.

The timing couldn’t be more perfect. If you already have healthy alternatives to refined sugar sorted then please forward the details of this class to someone you know looking for a change of ingredients for themselves and their families.

"I don’t want to be 40 and have diabetes!” was the concerned comment to me this week. She received a flyer for my class as the answer for her action plan. Click here for the 4 October class details.

Those of you in Auckland may well have experienced the raw culinary delights of Little Bird. Their anticipated (un)cook book has been released and I am pleased to stock it. Click here for your copy. Books will be ready for delivery early October. I am very much looking forward to mine.


The Unbakery


Christine
www.gomoreraw.com
email: christine@gomoreraw.com

___________________________________________________

The Anglo-Far East Company
The Original Private Gold and Silver Bullion Custodian
Your reference when you order: an-001
____________________________________________________

Raw Food Class - Delectable Desserts and Sweet Treats

A two hour demonstration making delicious and nourishing raw cuisine.

From 2 pm till 4 pm, Saturday 4th October 2014, this class is for anyone who would like to develop their skills, knowledge and confidence in making delicious raw, plant based desserts and sweet treats.

This is for you if:

• You wish to add to your repertoire of simple, quick and healthy food
• You wish to encourage yourself, family and friends to eat healthier
• You want healthy food which is delicious, versatile and nourishing
• You have a sweet tooth but don't want to "go without"
• You are trying to replace foods with refined sugar for better sweetener options

To whet your appetite, how does dairy free Ice Cream with Chocolate Crackle sound? Cheesecake, Fudge and Cream? Banana Cake, Chia Pudding and Cream? As well as a Slice and chewy Biscuits.

You'll enjoy some of the above for afternoon tea and take home the other samples in a goodie box for later (you might have to hide them).

All the desserts and sweet treats are raw and plant-based, ie no dairy or eggs. They are also gluten free and refined sugar free. Most recipes are Paleo friendly, too.

If this appeals to your sweet tooth as it does to mine, then click here for all the information you need about this class.

Christine
www.gomoreraw.com
email: christine@gomoreraw.com

____________________________________________________

The Anglo-Far East Company
The Original Private Gold and Silver Bullion Custodian
Your reference when you order: an-001