Choc chip cookie that is low sugar and low GI but still tastes good??

 Looking for a low sugar, healthy cookie that doesn't taste healthy?

This is a yummy chocolate chip cookie recipe that I have found which I actually reduce the sugar down to 1/4 cup in total and the kids haven't really noticed. You can of course taste that there is less sugar but the choc chips make up for that loss in sweetness. 

In one version I also added a teaspoon on ginger and nutmeg, which I liked but I think it could have done with more ginger - but the kids preferred the non ginger versions.

 I am now going to go looking for a wholemeal low sugar Victoria sandwich cake and see if I can be successful!!

 http://www.twopeasandtheirpod.com/whole-wheat-chocolate-chip-oatmeal-cookies/

Whole Wheat Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Cookies

1 1/4 cup whole wheat flour

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

1/4 cup dark brown sugar

1/4 cup granulated sugar

1/2 cup butter, softened to room temperature

1 egg

1 1/2 tsp vanilla essence or you can use vanilla sugar

1 tablespoon milk

1 cup rolled oats

1 cup semisweet chocolate chips or chopped up bar of dark chocolate

- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees (170/180 celsius)

- Using a mixer, cream the sugars with the softened butter for about two minutes.

- Add in the egg, vanilla, and milk. Mix until smooth.

- Sift together the flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt in a medium bowl. Set aside.

- Slowly add the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients, with the mixer on low. Mix just until flour disappears. Don’t over mix.

- Stir in the oats and chocolate chips by hand.

- Form rounded cookie dough balls, using about 1 tablespoon of dough. Place dough balls on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper. I flatten the balls slightly too.

- Bake cookies for 11-12minutes or until lightly golden around the edges. Let cookies sit on the cookie sheet for a couple of minutes to set up. Then move to a cooking rack. Makes around 2 dozen cookies.

They keep for a few days in a tight tin. But they may not last that long, I usually end up making two or three batches each week, as cookie obsessed son prefers these ones to the full sugar versions from the supermarket!

 

4 weeks of low carbs and low sugar

I just wanted to update on life "without" carbohydrates or sugar.


I say without but I mean of curse, different carbs and hardly any sugar. I have switched to low G.I - slow releasing carbs or food with no or low carbs in them. After the the new diet and checking my blood count three times a day - my blood sugars are great and can now go back to the midwife, leaving the gynaecologist and hopefully await a straight forward birth.

I thought I ate relatively heathily but actually I was fooling myself. There are of course plenty of unhealthy veggies out there and I can see now how much of the UK and US is sleepwalking to diabetes.

Cornflakes for breakfast are not great or brown toast and cheese - without checking the package to see if it is real brown bread; hardly any lunch and then a whopping great bog portion of white pasta for dinner and half a large packet of crisps in the evening whilst sitting on the sofa - having done no more exercise than running around after the three kids.

What I have learnt from living with (allbeit temporary) diabetes:

Check your brown bread! It may not really be brown! I now check that it is 'volkoren bloem'- wholegrain flour: proper brown; if you don't check, you may end up with white bread which is made a brown colour by adding burnt sugar!! That's what we were eating. Now we are not and the kids haven't even noticed the difference.

Volkoren/wholeweat/grain pasta is tastier than the white stuff and better for controlling blood sugar as it releases sugar more slowly than the white counterpart.  I also need to eat less of it.

Eating more regularly throughout the day using wholegrain products fills me up so I am not a complete pig at dinner time!

Sugar is actually too sweet, and you really don't need it - or that much of it (duh!). I find a caffe latte now fine without sugar, and earl grey tea but I just can't get on with English strong milky tea and no sugar: so I have stopped drinking it. I suppose I could use an artificial sweetener but I happen to think a lump of sugar, even with diabetes is better than a chemical substitute; there is that plant derivative Stevia but long term trials have yet to be done and I don't know what effect it has on unborn children: so  shall just live without either.

I make oatmeal, wholeweat cookies with dark choc chip with my eldest daughter every week and my cookie obsessed son prefers the ones made at home - even though they have a quarter of the sugar stated in the recipe. Hurray!

Check even things like peanut butter: price makes a difference for me but they was such a huge difference between the levels of carbs in the cheapest versus the next cheapest that I left the cheapest on the shelf this time. The cheapest had of course only 51% peanuts and the rest was oil and other stuff. The more peanuts in the fewer carbs (but more fat of course). 

Mashing food that is a carbohydrate makes it release its sugars into your blood more quickly: so mashed potato is worse than boiled potatoes their skins on.

I can have a treat now and then. The longer I go without sugar laden foods or white carbs the less  need them. I had one bar of a twirl bar last night: I didn't need any more. It was too sweet. That was the first bar of chocolate in 4 weeks.

That is not to say that I don't look at the tompouse in the cake counter; or crave a nice big piece of home-made Victoria sandwich cake. But I have quite a strong will and I know I should steer clear of them: unless there is a special occasion.

I feel less tired, without a doubt. I have more energy!

I am now at a higher risk of diabetes later in life so ought to stick to this diet after baby is here;   I  have found it pretty easy to rationalise this diet with ensuring a better outcome for baby but I don't know if I can out my own health first and stick to this long term. I hope so..