Welcome to day five of the Sugar Free Challenge! I can’t believe we are already halfway through!
Like I said yesterday, I was playing in a tournament, so I had to fuel up! Here is today’s sample menu:
Breakfast: Eggs fried in a dab of coconut oil and a peach. Vegan Option: Baked Banana Oatmeal.
Power Water: Water with electrolyte drops and chia.
Lunch (aka: Pre-Match Fuel): Frozen banana, mint extract, cocoa powder, almond milk blended until smoothie. I also popped a couple of mini-smacks in my mouth. I sipped on coconut water throughout match.
Snack (aka: Post-match fuel): Peanut butter chocolate cake (Recipe below). Heh, it is high in protein.
Dinner: I was actually at a friend’s house for dinner, but you can make some sugar-free BBQ with pulled chicken and sweet tater fries! Vegan Option: Try Kelsey’s use for my BBQ sauce!
Dessert: More Cake!
Grain-Free Chocolate Cake with Peanut Butter Cream Frosting
~This cake is too good to be true. My whole family enjoyed it. Gluten-free, dairy-free, soy-free, grain-free, and, of course, sugar-free! Inspired by my Grain-Free Fudge Brownie Recipe.
Cake Ingredients
- 1/2 cup coconut flour
- 1/2 cup cocoa powder
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 2 eggs
- 5 dates
- 1/2 tsp vanilla
- 1 cup milk-substitute (I used unsweetened almond milk) whisked with 1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar to create vegan buttermilk.
Preheat oven to 375*. First, blend the dates into a paste. In a separate bowl combine all dry ingredients. Then add wet. Stir until well combined. Add the date paste and mix very thoroughly to ensure there aren’t any date chunks. The dates are the natural sweetness in the recipe. Feel free to add more dates if needed to suite your sweet tooth 
Lightly grease a cake pan (I used coconut oil). Pour batter into dish. Bake for 15-20 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.
- 1/2 cup smooth peanut butter
- 1/3 cup dairy-free milk (I used unsweetened almond milk)
- Chocolate: Click HERE for a post I wrote earlier about the health benefits of chocolate.
- Coconut: Coconut is widely misunderstood because of it’s high fat content; however, coconut’s saturated fat is made up of medium-chain fatty acids. These medium-chains are easy to absorb and digest, and are converted quickly into energy. This means that the body has no opportunity to store the medium-chain as fat. Coconut is also a great source of dietary fiber with a whopping 5 grams per oz.!
- Dates: A laxative food with a high-fiber content, so it can help those suffering from constipation. They are digested quite easily and are great for when you need quick energy. Also, regular consumption of dates has been found to help the growth of friendly bacteria in the intestines.
- Peanuts: These legumes are full of protein with 7g per ounce. They also have a great monounsaturated fat content that helps your heart and brain. Peanut is a good source of Coenzyme Q10 which protects the heart during the period of lack of oxygen example high altitudes and clogged arteries. It also has a high antioxidant and high niacin content that helps in the recovery of cell damage and provides protection against Alzheimer’s disease and age-related cognitive problem.
Thought-provoking, mind-prodding question of the day:
Can you believe the sugar-free challenge is already halfway through? Has it been easy or tough so far? Anything surprise you?
Now, quick! Choose peanut butter or chocolate (but not both, even though I love it better together.) This is a tough question, I know.
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