I am very lucky that I inherited my father's metabolism and love of all things active. If I am sitting still on my computer, I am also tapping my foot or moving my ankle, I can't just sit still. After having kids I realized that my eating habits might not transcend to my kids and I needed to try to provide high energy snacks that would help my kids grow up, not out. Sugar is the one area that my kids and I have the largest arguments over. I stopped serving juice approximately 6 months ago and switched over to water at meals. I was worried that my kids would rebel, but I was pleased that they quickly started asking for water and drink it happily now. Sugary snacks have been another story, they love them. I also have a tendency towards all things sweet, so I have been experimenting with using honey, applesauce, prunes, etc in my cooking to keep the taste, but lower the sugar. I ran across a recipe for Sweet and Spicy Cocktail Nuts using Truvia that cuts the sugar down to 1 gram per serving and the calories down to 160 and decided that it looked like the perfect recipe to try for my family.
This recipe has 8 ingredients. It takes approximately 1 hour and 20 minutes to prepare and cook and makes 18 servings. All the ingredients are very basic and I already had all of them in my cupboard. The recipe uses Truvia, but other brands of Stevia or store brands would work just as well. Make sure to toss the nuts every 10-15 minutes or they will stick together and not be evenly roasted. I followed the remainder of the recipe as written.
With a reduction of sugar from 10 grams per serving to 1 gram and calories from 200 to 160 this recipe would be great for people watching their sugar intake. I thought that the taste was just as sweet as traditional sugar and the nuts were crunchy and nicely roasted. Of course I still will always prefer real sugared nuts and sweets, but this recipe creates a nice alternative to added sugar, especially during the over indulgent holiday season.
For the recipe go to
Sweet and Spicy Cocktail Nuts.
Those look really good!! I am a sucker for all things sweet myself and know that its hard sometimes to just walk away from the sweets. I also can not eat honey, so using that is out of the question for us, which is also another unfortunate part of having food allergies. :-(
ReplyDeleteI am also proud of you for not serving juice. So many people think that just because something says "fruit" on the package that its good for you... so untrue!
I'm definitely going to try these--it's amazing what they put sugar in nowadays! I'd love if you did a remake of cereal bars that use corn syrup and pb and chocolate and butterscotch chips for frosting, like the scotcherroos--I have no idea what to replace the corn syrup with!
ReplyDelete@Samantha It is hard to say no to the sweets :) Not eating honey would be hard since it's a great substitute for sugar. I'm not a fruit juice fan, I would much rather my two kids had water or milk. Juice is very high in calories and sugar!
ReplyDelete@The Blonde Duck They do seem to put sugar into everything! Have you tried replacing the corn syrup with maple syrup? I don't know if it would effect the taste, but it's a great binding agent in baked goods. You could also increase the PB, I've done that in recipes with great results. I understand about wanting to find an alternative to the corn syrup, I try to use it only rarely.
Another delicious nut recipe!! I love sweet flavors and mixed with nuts, you can't go wrong!! Considering making this using raw sugar that I create a syrup out of since I have so much raw, unprocessed sugar in my pantry. You always give me such great ideas!!
ReplyDelete@Jean Thanks :) I like the raw sugar idea and making a syrup would make it easy to coat the nuts thoroughly!
ReplyDeletethose look great! thanks for following my blog :)
ReplyDeleteLaura
thematoscircus.blogspot.com
They really are yummy and very easy to make!
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