Brain Age

At every age of my adult life so far, whenever I eat sugar, my brain slows way down and gets ‘foggy’; I can’t seem to focus on anything, and I easily become confused and forgetful. Of course, folks will say this is ‘normal’ as I get older. But then how can I be smarter now off-sugar than I was decades ago on-sugar? So here’s a few fun articles I stumbled on while looking up people who achieved their most successful accomplishments at 40, 50, 60, 70, 80, 90 years old: article # 1 and article # 2 and article # 3. The moral of the story is, my brain is as old as I think (literally) it is. And just-for-fun, here's a brain teaser; see how long it takes you to solve it. My husbie finished it in no-time-flat, of course. It took me a few hours. But 15 years ago I did a similar puzzle and it took me days to figure it out. So the “proof is in the pudding” as they say... I’m smarter now than I was when I was younger. Yay!!! Yay!  <TTFN>

Random Thoughts

The title to this blog is “random thoughts” and oddly enough it means what it sounds like it means.

4 years ago today, my husband and I arrived in a new state. After almost 4 days of driving, we were most excited about checking out the new restaurants, fast food and nice ones equally. And while we still love our new home and can’t imagine living anywhere else, our perspective on food has sure changed. Ditching most fast foods, especially the breaded ones, because they contain so much added wheat gluten, dropped us easily 5-10 pounds without even trying. Eliminating citric acid and partially-hydrogenated oils took care of the gut pain. Funny old world.

There comes a time in every person’s life when they learn that something they believed in isn’t true. My big revelation came well into adulthood. And no, I’m not talking about Santa Claus. I never believed in him beyond a fun, story-filled part of Christmas. I’m talking about ‘brownie points’. Waking up one day and realizing that they’re fictitious changed my life forever. For example, I thought doing things the hard way earned me brownie points somewhere up in the clouds. Instead I’ve learned that figuring out how to do things the easy way is just plain smart (though lacking in fictitious brownie point earning potential). That being said, it was a bummer to learn that working hard when it’s exhausting is not somehow noble, just stupid. But now I love working hard when it’s energizing and exhilarating. If you don’t know what the heck I’m talking about, time for a refresher course about not eating sugar.

I’ve met two kinds of interesting people. Those who are perfect and know it, and those who are not and don’t care a flying leap. And I’ve been both. The not-perfect/don’t-care version of me did a lot of whining and even confessing but didn’t think I could do anything about it. The perfect/know-it version of me was, well, perfect. But the trouble with being perfect, or near-perfect, was it left little room for growing and learning and maturing and getting wiser. And as either Oscar Wilde or J. M. Barrie said, “I’m not young enough to know everything”. So I had to learn that I do have the potential, and necessity, to get more wise (i.e., it’s okay to not be perfect so I can learn and grow) and that as imperfect as I am, I can actually do something about it. Plus, I’ve often hear that perfect can mean less about morality and more about being complete, useful, fulfilling a purpose, like a disposable ink pen that writes, rather than the gold-plated, silver-trimmed one that doesn’t write a jot.  <TTFN>

Homemade Bread

So they said it couldn’t be done. Who said? They! Everyone knows, one cannot make bread without sugar in it. It simply can’t be done. No one except me of course. Why? I’m ridiculously stubborn. That’s why. And no, I didn’t make flatbread or pitabread or something. I made regular ol’ sandwich bread.

So here’s the recipe... and the secret:

makes 1 loaf:

measure 1 teaspoon of baking powder

into 1.5 cups water^

microwave about 1-1.5 minutes until warm

stir until dissolved

add 1 packet (2.25 teaspoons) corn-free, sugar-free, dry Red Star yeast

stir gently on and off for about 5 minutes or until mostly dissolved

meanwhile:

break 2 eggs into the pan*^

mix in 1.5 teaspoons sugar-free salt

then:

pour in the water mixture

measure in 4 cups sugar-free, white Arrowhead Mills flour (Even though it’s not always listed on the ingredients list, this is the only brand I’ve found, and verified, that makes their flour without malted barley, aka sugar.)

*I use a breadmaker which may help the yeast because the machine and I are both gentle with the yeast. Sometimes being overly harsh with yeast can damage it. The other trick with yeast is freshness, so I refrigerate it (even if the date is a year out) but then let it come up to room temperature before using.

And yes, the yeast rises just fine without any sugar to ‘munch’ on. The baking powder does the trick. Being that I make it in a breadmaker, it tends to rise flat, to the level of the pan. But my earlier attempts, and all the breadmaker-bread photos I’ve seen on the internet, turned out concave, so I can easily live without convex. The only catch is that between the un-bleached flour and the whole eggs, it tends to be yellow instead of white in color. Looks cool though really.

I set my breadmaker on ‘french’ - medium crust, and it does its thing for 3 hours and 50 minutes. I slice and taste-test fresh and warm. If I think for some odd reason that some of it may be left in a day or two, I refrigerate it. Then the slices are easily toasted to get the moisture off and give it that warm, fresh taste again.

So of course this does have wheat gluten in it. But not sugar. And I promise you that once you’ve eaten this, you’ll never buy store-bought again. At least not to eat. Maybe to feed ducks.

^UPDATE: I’ve discovered that my body is much happier when I don’t eat eggs, so I wondered if I could make bread that way. I’d already eliminated any type of oil, but everyone says you need oil which is why I had replaced it with eggs. So guess what? I tried the unthinkable, unfathomable, redundantly uncomprehendable... I tried this recipe without any eggs. And of course it worked! I added 0.25 cups water (for a total of 1.75 cups). So really this bread is now made out of: flour, water, salt, yeast, and baking powder. Sounds like something a cave-woman could have made. And it’s oh-so-yummy!  <TTFN>