Sweeteners

[lovmelovmycats.livejournal.com]

My posts will probably concern diet more than exercise, since I'm on weight watchers (again), and don't have a structured exercise plan. But who knows? Maybe that'll change.

Sweeteners!
I'm into 100% juice juices, which are nice, but still rather high in calories. Ryan drinks scary amounts of diet soda. I try to buy him equal amounts of aspartamine-sweetened and sucralose-sweetened ones, on the theory that it's better to mix his poisons to avoid overdose of one. But then, in the end, he's probably getting too much of both.
I drink more diet soda (and diet energy drinks! Gah!) than I ought to, as well.

Also, I like to bake. So far, I've just thrown diet-caution to the wind, and used copious amounts of sugar- on the theory that sweet treats are for sharing, so I won't be taking in that much just on my own. (And my biscotti recpie is easy, rather naturally low-fat, and delicious!)

I had lunch recently with a friend, who described a sugar-free cake she made for friends who had given up refined sugars (basically, the solid sugars: white, brown, maple). She used maple syrup and agave, I think she said. And it turned out awesome. So I was intruigued by that.

I don't like the taste of honey very much. I just sweetened my yogurt with it, and didn't like it until I added blueberries, which covered up the taste. I find unsweetened blueberries to be delightfully sweet and not too sour. I love sour tastes, except for rhubarb, and unsweetened yogurt.

So, fit geek friends: What are your sweetness experiences? Do you have any favorite resources, recipes, websites? Anybody here tried stevia?

Edit: Inspired by this post (and the fact that it's cold and rainy here), I made a batch of biscotti, but tried to make it more healthful, with egg-beaters, a little whole wheat flour, a little oat bran, a little less sugar, and a bit of honey- I left out an egg to account for the viscosity of the honey. It smells good... we shall see. If it's edible, it's going to the Obama campaign office.

Comments

[palecur.livejournal.com]

I like honey myself, but I could probably get along just fine on molasses and panela (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panela) in the absence of any other sweeteners. Panela alone would serve, in the absence of molasses. Do you have access to such out in Col Springs? It's pretty blanqui round them parts, I'm told.

[racerxmachina.livejournal.com]

I like trying different kinds of honey-- mesquite has a lovely tang, much better than your standard clover blossom, which is pretty much glorified grass. Best EVAH was lavender honey.

[lovmelovmycats.livejournal.com]

mmm! Sounds great.

[lovmelovmycats.livejournal.com]

Oh, that looks yummy. And it looks nice that it's solid, but has some fructose in it.
On Lizzie's Spanish & translated-to-English children's songs CD, panela is translated "cinnamon". Heh.