Sarah Wilson, Author at Sarah Wilson

11 sugar-free Easter tricks (plus free IQS shipping!!)

April 22, 2018March 26, 2013 by Sarah Wilson

A sugar-free Easter…I’ve done a few now. It is possible. You just have to come to regard pre-masticated, additive-addled chocolate confection as a vile non-food and a waste of your salivary glands. Which it is.

Raspberry Ripple Easter friends, modified from my recipe (below) by The Rogue Ginger and shared on Instagram.

The last few weeks I’ve been in chocolate mode, putting together my next ebook…yes…a sugar-free chocolate cookbook. I’m not giving away too much yet, so you’ll have to make do with these ideas below for now. Many are based on recipes in my I Quit Sugar book. Which, as an Eastery bonus, you can

buy here from today and get FREE shipping!

* Save $7 if you’re in Australia.

* If you’re purchasing internationally, it’ll cost you a flat $7 for shipping (again, save $7). To anywhere!

* The FREE SHIPPING offer runs from today until April 8.

But to the ideas….

1. My raspberry ripple, with a Lent-breaking twist.

This fun chocolate bunny (image above) is a great kid-friendly Easter idea. Simply set the ripple in a bunny/chick/egg mould instead of creating a bark, as set out in my cookbook.

Raspberry Ripple

1/3- 1/2 cup coconut oil
1/3 cup organic salted butter (be sure to use salted…the saltiness gives it a lovely kick)
2 tbls raw cacao, or cocoa
1 tbls rice malt syrup
1/3 cup coconut, shredded or flakes (for a chunkier version)
1/3 cup of frozen raspberries

Melt the butter and oil (in a pan or microwave…the oil takes longer to melt so add the butter a little after); stir in the cacao and syrup. Arrange the berries and coconut in the moulds.

a little more catching up

March 22, 2013 by Sarah Wilson

This week I did my third I Quit Sugar book signing – at Dymocks in George Street, where the book is currently sitting at #2. Damn Jodi and her highly digestible fiction!

I’ve shared a few of the I Quit Sugar media stories recently, but here’s some more. In case you were wondering what to read this weekend!

1. From Marie Claire, “Back to Basics”, an overview of the Paleo movement and where sugar fits into this. I outline my position, thus:

Author and media commentator Sarah Wilson calls her sugar-free approach to food as “Paleo-ish” – and it’s gaining huge popularity. “Most people intuitively feel we’re on the wrong track with sugar-based eating,” she says. “But we’re exhausted by competing food messages. People just want something that makes sense.”

For Wilson, nothing made better sense than cutting out processed foods and eating more like her grandparents rather than her Stone Age ancestors. It’s not strict and aside from addressing her debilitating autoimmune disease, it freed her from the “blood sugar roller-coaster”.

“I was constantly worried, trying to resist sugar. I used to be resigned to feeling like crap every afternoon. Now, I realise how toxic sugar can be,” she says.

You can read the full article here.

2. Sophie Miura at Madison magazine, wrote this great rundown. I was pleased to note the nutritionists she consulted were very balanced in their thinking.

what’s better for the planet: ebooks or print books?

March 25, 2013March 21, 2013 by Sarah Wilson

I try not to got holier than thou with environmental footprint prescriptives. I try. (Although, when it comes to bottled water, I’m rather unforgiving.) Mostly I prefer to advocate making better choices. And mostly there is a better choice. And small, everyday, mindful things we can all do.

Problem is, there is so much misinformation out there. How about we spend today clearing a few up? Below is a mix of my own tips and some “dilemmas: sorted” courtesy of one of my favourite magazines, Green Lifestyle Magazine.

What’s better: dishwashers v hand washing?

Based on Green Lifestyle Mag’s research, dishwashers work out better. But here’s some tips for both:

Dishwashers come out on top – they use less water and are usually better on the electrical energy – when stacked properly and you do a full load.
If washing by hand, use two sinks – one full of hot, sudsy water for washing, and another for rinsing.
Clean a dishwasher filter regularly for increased efficiency, and, if you can, bypass the drying phase – simply open the door to let out air while the dishes are hot – you’ll be surprised how quickly they dry.
If you’re in the market for a new dishwasher, shop by the stars.

Tip I want to share: boil only as much water as you need in your kettle.

Kettles and jugs are one of the BIGGEST suck holes of energy in your kitchen. So many people fill the jug unnecessarily to make one cup of tea. Don’t be one of them!

What’s better: print books versus ebooks?

The e-book appears to be greener (when you weigh up the eco-cost of paper v the energy and tech infrastructure used to make an eReader), according to Green Lifestyle Mag‘s research. Here’s a few notes to help you if you’re new to

how to slow cook lamb shanks

April 16, 2018March 19, 2013 by Sarah Wilson

There’s a chill in the air. I just put on a poncho (admittedly, over a floaty summer dress). And the light has softened in a dreamy Autumnal way. All of which is a flagrant invite to me to haul out my slow cooker and start stewing. I mentioned a few weeks ago that my food focus going forward is to share ways to consume food more consciously. It goes like this: food waste is the biggest environmental havoc-wrecker (it creates more greenhouse emissions than cars and cows) and we – the consumers – are the biggest food wasters. About half of all food produced is tossed out by us. It makes me weep…and get fired up.

If you want to get some great tips on how to conserve your meat better at home, check out the Target100 site. Although, a no-brainer solution is to slow cook your meat. How so? Four birds with the one stone:

* Slow cooking requires you use cheap cuts of meat.

You don’t use sirloin in a slow cooker. You use the tougher and bonier cuts – shanks, neck, shins, cheeks and so on. In other words – the bits most folk don’t buy. And, so, they’re cheaper. Which means you can then make more ethical meat buying decisions (ie pay more for organic and pasture fed).

* Slow cooking gets the most from your meat.

The slower cooking process extracts the juices, the cartilage, the marrow, the minerals – all of which are great for your health. But the bonus is that the entire meal cooks in this nutritional soup – nothing is wasted. Oh, and because it’s slow cooked, less enzymes are destroyed, in both the meat and vegetables. I’ve shared on why we need enzymes in our food before.

* Slow cooking means you can use less meat.

Well, it should. Because so much flavour and goodness is extracted in the process of slow cooking, you can afford to use less meat and bulk the meal with vegetables. I’ll be showing you some clever tricks for doing this over coming months…

* Slow cookers save time and energy and washing up.

Don’t be freaked out by the fact you leave a slow cooker on for up to 8 hours. A slow cooker uses about the same amount of electricity as a light bulb

Is your cooking oil making you sick?

March 26, 2013March 15, 2013 by Sarah Wilson

My mate David Gillespie has a new book out: Toxic Oil: Why Vegetable Oil Will Kill You and How to Save Yourself. David and I have chatted before (you can find that conversation here) about the central premise of this new book: that “vegetable oils” (or seed oils) are bad and saturated fats are what we should be eating. Which, of course, is the opposite of what we’ve been told by nutritionist and government bodies for the past 60 years or so. Which is, of course, the period in which “modern diseases” such as heart disease, obesity, diabetes, cancer and autoimmune disease have been on the rampant rise. Draw breath.

But in today’s chat we’re going to keep it to (mostly) practicalities: which oils to eat, which foods to avoid at the supermarket and some smart food swaps to make.

Listen in:

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For those wondering whether to invest the time in our ramble, here’s a taste of what we cover:

* What oils to use for deep frying, for pan frying and for roasting.

* The clever rule of thumb for making sure you’re not oxidising yourself: everything you eat should contain less

An eccentric and some e-loveliness

October 23, 2018March 14, 2013 by Sarah Wilson

I have days when I resent blogging. I’ve been blogging now for almost four years, 3-4 posts every week, largely unpaid for my toils, sometimes uprooted by trolls. I wonder why I do it. Some days. I mean, why would any sane person expose their controversial brain farts, their innermost reflections and their ugliest fears to hundreds of thousands of strangers each month who are then free to pull apart such thoughts and farts among their friends and in their own heads? My family ask me this often in their unaffected, un-social-media’d way. But, then, they know I have always been a slightly unhinged personality.

But just as I’m about to throw in the towel, I get reminded of why I blog and why I’m so bloody blessed.

I blog because it allows me to help people. I don’t have dibs on myself. I’m largely a selfish, tight, hard-to-live-with, neurotic human. But I get the biggest kick out of helping other raw, open humans who, too, struggle at times just to get out of bed each day and go through the human experience. Nothing else matters. This is my dharma. And, as I say, just when I doubt myself – working as I do in my isolated, tight, selfish way – I’ll be reminded of said dharma. Someone will come up to me in the supermarket and tell me their story. Or I’ll hear about how a post I wrote connected two strangers on opposite sides of the world, who then helped each other out…generously, openly, lovingly.

This happened a year or so ago when a reader – Gordon – followed my advice to get a VA in a second-world country. Gordon was so touched by the VAs work and life story, he and his wife went to visit him in Thailand and helped him start up his own company, which enabled him to get married. Gordon and his wife went to the wedding, too. He shared this story with Jo and I. It made me weep at the time.

It happened again this week. SMACK BANG as I needed it. Reader Soula contacted me and asked if I’d mind writing to a young family member who was in hospital suffering from depression. She thought a note from me might cheer her up. She likes my blog and book.

I wrote to the relative. I checked first to see if she’d mind my sharing what I shared with her:

“I thought I’d just do a shout out to you and say I’m thinking about you. …I get low. Real low. I

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cooling cucumber and yoghurt soup

August 10, 2018March 13, 2013 by Sarah Wilson

Here are a few food rules I subscribe to: eat stuff in season, when it’s cheap, and in contrast to what’s going on with the weather. The first two edicts are self-explanatory. The third might need some detail.

I eat in a “roughly Ayurvedic” way. I’ve written about how this works here. It’s mostly about eating to what your body needs, taking into consideration your “type” or “dosha”. I’m a vatta with a fair bit of pitta in me too. In summer, the pitta can play up. We get hot. Pitta types get hot and need to be cooled. Mine has been sweating it out a bit lately. And once one dosha is out, the rest get wobbly, too.

And, so, today, as we (here in Australia) sweat out the last of the summer heat, a simple cooling and hydrating recipe for the pitta in us all.

Cucumbers are the ultimate cooling food and are a very good source of vitamin C and caffeic acid, compounds that help the body prevent water retention, a problem that I am battling right now.

A few notes:

* Avoid peeling your cuces: the skin is full of fibre and is a good source of potassium and magnesium – all of which help with the hydrating process. Also, can I just say…what a horrific waste?? Further, skin maketh a chunkier soup.