Mary Ellen Zung

My Sugar Free Year - Day 48

August 31, 2021 Day 48 A theme developed yesterday and it was all about the Mediterranean. I had a hardboiled egg with fruit on the side in the morning. Then a niçoise salad with lettuce, green beans, red bliss potatoes in mustard dressing, Italian tuna, and olives for lunch, and shrimp puttanesca over spaghetti squash for dinner, all with no added sugar. Also, a friend texted me that she had a Mediterranean cookbook that I might like to look at and I picked it up from her porch. This all inspired me to share my Mediterranean Diet starter program with you. If you are interested, please check it out here. Here’s how I made the easy and delicious shrimp puttanesca. No wine, no sugar, and all delicious. Read More

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Mary Ellen Zung

My Sugar Free Year - Day 47

August 30, 2021 Day 47 Good friends and neighbors invited us for dinner last night. We gathered with moms and dads who had just taken their teens and young adults back to college. Gratefully, we had our graduate with us! To add to the already robust menu of smoked salmon and London broil, I marinated chicken in lemon, lime, olive oil, salt, pepper and thyme. I brought over casaba melon, Italian plums, ground cherries, and a napa cabbage salad. All were made with no sugar added. My husband picked up cupcakes from a local bakery, and a few were eaten, but everyone loved the plums, and ground cherries – something different. Read More

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Mary Ellen Zung

My Sugar Free Year - Day 46

August 29, 2021 Day 46 Yesterday I wanted pizza for dinner. Ordering pizza on the weekend is such a break from meal planning and cooking during the week, and with more meal planning and cooking on the weekend for the next week, we all need a break. Plus, everyone loves our local pizza restaurant. We’ve been going there for the past 20 years since we lived in town. Before my son was even born, a group of friends would gather there every Friday night, and talk about the week, and just have a lot of fun. Our children grew up there, and we all know the owners and they know us. Read More

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Mary Ellen Zung

My Sugar Free Year - Day 45

August 28, 2021 Day 45 There’s a hummingbird feeder right outside of the bay window in our kitchen, so we can see the beautiful little guys and gals when they come to feed. Yesterday while making dinner, I noticed the feeder was empty, and the poor little guy attracted by the red feeder tried for some sugar, and unsatisfied flitted away. So, it was time to make some more simple syrup for the hummingbirds. Read More

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Mary Ellen Zung

My Sugar Free Year - Day 44

August 27, 2021 Day 44 Steak and pepper stir fry with onions and fermented black beans, a dinner that my mother-in-law taught me how to cook, is a pretty simple meal to throw together on a weeknight. However, cooking a seemingly sugar free dinner, one that I’ve made many times before, now that I’m paying attention, turned out to be one with added sugar, not much, but still enough to alter the recipe. Here’s how it went last night. Read More

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Mary Ellen Zung

My Sugar Free Year - Day 43

August 26, 2021 Day 43 How could it be that a big homemade chocolate chip cookie has sat in our kitchen for the past two months and no one has eaten it up? Maybe at this point everyone thinks it’s too old so why bother? I just thought that was funny. I guess it’s time for that cookie to take a trip to the trash can. I’m really glad I included a bit of dried fruit (no sugar added) on this no sugar added adventure. Yesterday afternoon I wanted something sweet and indulged in a few walnuts and organic raisins. I’m eating more dates and raisins than I usually do, but I shouldn’t feel guilty about it. As long as it’s mindful and not just munching on an endless bowl of nuts. Read More

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Mary Ellen Zung

My Sugar Free Year - Day 42

August 25, 2021 Day 42 When I find a place like Planted Eats (Montville, NJ), it makes me happy. Yesterday I had lunch with a friend who shares my tastes in healthy food and also loves this cafe. I enjoyed the Beets Buddha Bowl with spinach, quinoa, grape tomatoes, black beans, walnuts, green olives, and cashew cream, and of course no added sugar anywhere. To drink, I had a homemade turmeric, ginger tonic. I love food. But there was a time I loved food that didn’t love me. You know the stuff we all grew up on – the Standard American Diet – or as I refer to it – SAD. Then there was a time that I just ate low calorie food, and was sad. Read More

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Mary Ellen Zung

My Sugar free Year - Day 41

August 24, 2021 Day 41 I had a really great day yesterday with lots of clarity around what is important in life. Relationships was at the top of the list both with friends, and family. Do you know what is not important? Buying Halloween candy now! Or at all. (I just heard boo’s). But really, it’s already in the stores and it’s August. I’m glad I am not tempted by junk Halloween candy, but this was not always so. As I’ve been weaning off sugar for years, the candy is just no good when you enjoy the taste of real food. Read More

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Mary Ellen Zung

My Sugar Free Year - Day 40

August 23, 2021 Day 40 How does grief play into our relationship with sugar? It’s been an emotional week for me and my friends who loved our friend Mary who left this physical world one year ago on August 23, 2020. It’s one of the first big milestones, a reminder of what was. Friends have been gathering or calling, and supporting one another. Read More

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Mary Ellen Zung

My Sugar Free Year - Day 39

August 22, 2021 Day 39 Last night I asked a friend to get together and he suggested bringing a bottle of red wine over to sit on the porch and visit. We hadn’t seen each other in a while so he didn’t know about My Sugar Free Year, and I didn’t tell him until he came over with the wine. So, he and my husband drank the wine, while I drank my life-giving, healing, hydrating water! Another sugar free day! Read More

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