So what can we do?

If you know the person you are having over is struggling with weight/health issues or sugar addiction:

Think about putting aside your desire for rich sweet food and accommodating their needs. Go for a low-fat or low-sugar dessert (for ideas see my series Dessert Ideas for the Sugar-Conscious) or skip dessert altogether. Show them that you care about their welfare (in a way that is sensitive to the situation – our aim is not to make them feel embarrassed, ashamed or self-conscious).

If you are struggling with weight/health issues or sugar addiction:

Don’t be ashamed to tell your host about your situation. It is always better to have the support of friends and family when struggling with anything. One strategy you may like to try if you have been invited to someone’s home for dinner is offering to bring the dessert. Your host will appreciate the gesture, and you will give yourself control over how much sugar you put into your body. Incorporating lots of fresh fruit is a great way to enjoy a bit of sweetness without all the processed sugars.

Do you know any other helpful strategies?

I wanted to cook something super easy (and super tasty) so I could spend as much time with our friends as possible. And it hit me suddenly – the slow cooker! Yes. Before the word had even jumped out of my mouth I was sitting on the floor of our study with a few cookbooks open, busily searching for a recipe to grab me. Soon enough I found it. Warm, hearty, flavour-full chilli con carne. All I had to do the morning of the dinner was chop some vegetables, brown the beef mince, stir in the liquids and spices, then leave it to bubble away for eight hours. With the smell wafting through the house all day, I was pretty excited to finally tuck in that evening.

I served the chilli con carne with steamed rice, and laid out bowls of coriander, sour cream and grated cheese on the table in ‘garnish your own’ fashion. The result – second helpings and spotlessly clean plates. But the best best thing about the night? Our table was full again.

Why I love the slow cooker:

• Minimal washing up afterwards – one frying pan (to brown the meat) and one bowl (from the slow cooker)
• A lot of food for little effort – 10 helpings from one batch of chilli con carne!
• Great if you don’t have much time in the evening – get it going in the morning and it’s ready when you get home from work
• Versatility – with one appliance you can cook curries, stews, roasts, casseroles, soups and even desserts

Now, after nearly two years of marriage, we’ve got a better idea of how we want our living room to be set out. We’ve realised that we want it to be set out in order to better welcome people into our home.

As our living space currently stands, we have 1 couch and an ottoman facing a TV and a dining table. So when people come over we generally sit in a line facing the TV with one person sitting on either a dining chair or an ottoman. Not the easiest way to carry a conversation.

Our reasoning behind this set up was mainly that the TV is on the same wall as the antenna plug, which saves a long and ugly cord.

However, we’ve come to decide that a long cord isn’t that big an inconvenience, and we would rather have an area where we can easily speak to friends and family that come over. So sometime in the near future we’re going to buy a second couch and set up our room to look more like this.

A lot of the dead space that was once in our living room will now be taken up and we’ll be able to have more people seated on comfy couches, which is always a good thing!

We believe that it’s important for our home to be welcoming to people when they come over, so that we can share with them and actually talk with them rather than just sit in front of a blank TV with them.

It’s taken us nearly 2 years to learn this important lesson about the set up of our living room, but we’re glad we’ve finally gotten there.

(NB: I used a free iPad app called Ballard Room Planner to make up these scale diagrams of our living room, definitely worth using if you’re looking to do something similar)

The use of dates in the base act as a low GI sugar substitute, leaving only a little brown sugar in the filling which makes this recipe just perfect to add to the growing collection of healthier desserts in this series (Skye omitted the chocolate in the base). Plus, pecans are packed full of goodness – vitamin E to protect the nervous system, naturally-occurring antioxidants to keep our heart healthy and prevent disease, assist in lowering LDL (bad) cholesterol, aid in weight loss and maintenance, contain very little saturated (unhealthy) fat and boast more than 19 vitamins and minerals.

Need more to tempt you to try this recipe? You don’t even have to turn on the oven or stove top! I’m won.

It is true that sorbet can contain a heck of a lot of sugar, however I have been doing some research and was thrilled to discover a natural alternative to the processed white stuff. Agave nectar (also known as agave syrup) is a natural plant-based liquid sweetener that can be found in health food shops. Agave nectar can be used in the place of honey, maple syrup, corn syrup, white sugar, and brown sugar to name a few. In the case of sorbet, all you need to do is replace the white sugar with agave nectar and skip making the sugar syrup. It’s that easy! Here is a simple strawberry sorbet recipe to tickle your tastebuds.

Strawberry Sorbet

4 cups whole strawberries, washed and hulled
6 tablespoons agave nectar
1/4 cup water
1 egg white

Blend the strawberries in a food processor or blender until smooth. Pass through a fine sieve to remove the seeds. In a mixing bowl, stir together the pureed strawberries, agave nectar and water. Refrigerate mixture overnight.

Transfer the strawberry sorbet mixture into the bowl of an ice cream maker and churn. When the sorbet has started thickening, add the egg white (the egg white results in a lovely creamy sorbet, helps stabilise it in the freezer, and makes it last even longer). When finished churning, transfer sorbet to an air tight container, cover and keep in the freezer.

If you don’t have an ice cream maker, transfer the sorbet to an air tight container and place in the freezer. Take the sorbet out every 30 minutes and stir, until you have reached the desired consistency.

I’m loving…

A Moroccan vegetable salad with roast pumpkin, carrot, red onion, couscous and lots of fresh herbs.

A warming broccoli pasta from my favourite new chef Alice Hart.

I’m planning…

Stewed apples and rhubarb to have cold with yoghurt for weekend breakfasts.

Baked eggplants mixed with tomatoes, capers, parsley, pine nuts and spices for a hearty relish from my mum in Florida.

Over the next few months I will share these recipes with you (in this series titled Dessert Ideas for the Sugar-Conscious), and I encourage you to try them! All are delicious, satisfying, and contain either no or low amounts of sugar. Many incorporate fresh fruit as this is an easy way to add sweetness (as well as many vitamins and antioxidants) without adding processed sugars.

So without further ado, let’s get straight into the desserts!

Berry Parfait (serves 4)

Berries and cream are a classic combination. This dessert is perfect for the warm summer months when berries are plentiful.

400g natural yoghurt
1/2 cup thickened cream, whipped
1 tsp finely grated orange rind
250g strawberries, hulled, quartered
125g raspberries
125g blueberries

Combine yoghurt, cream and orange rind in a bowl. Combine berries in a separate bowl. Put one quarter of the berries aside for later. Using a fork, lightly crush the larger quantity of berries until smooth. Layer yoghurt mixture and crushed berries in 4 glasses. Cover and refrigerate for minimum 30 minutes. Top with reserved berries and serve immediately.

I used to obsessively consume only ‘low-fat’ products. I was convinced that they were healthier than their full fat counterparts. I honestly couldn’t understand why other people didn’t jump on the bandwagon as well. Now, many years later (with age does come wisdom) I persistently and purposely avoid these products like the plague. Let me explain…

Foods with a low-fat label may contain less fat than their regular variety BUT THEY ARE PACKED WITH ADDED SUGAR. Why? Flavour is lost when reducing the fat contact and so to compensate, sugar is added. For example, a 200g tub of low-fat yoghurt (single serve) can contain 6-7 teaspoons of sugar. Did you know that?? Furthermore regular consumption of these foods means poorer absorption of calcium from dairy products and missing out on vital nutrients. Read: out bodies need healthy fats. My high school friend Kate over at Nutrition by Nature has written some great posts on this topic if you’re interested in reading more.

So if you’re thinking of buying low-fat cream or ice cream for that dessert you were planning on making next week for friends or family, don’t! It’s not healthy/ier! Go for the regular variety instead and remind yourself that you (and your guests) need it.

Having read the book and subsequently appropriately shocked into action i.e. diet overhaul, I couldn’t help pondering the role of sugar in hospitality. I always thought I was being polite by offering a box of chocolates as a thank you gift to my dinner host/s. I thought serving up dessert at the end of a meal was showing affection and appreciation for my friends and family. But surely caring for others would mean caring for their health and wellbeing. And surely this would not include poisoning them with excess processed sugar.

This is a topic I have been keen to explore for a while now, and one that I by no means have  drawn concrete conclusions about. What about ‘everything in moderation’, you may be thinking? What about ‘low-fat, low-sugar’ options? Yep, I hear you and I’ll be looking at these two questions in the coming weeks. For now I just wanted to get my thoughts out there, and see what you think about this issue. Let me know, I’d love to hear!

If you’re interested in learning more about the history of sugar check out Sidney Mintz’s chapter ‘Sweetness and Power: the Place of Sugar in Modern History’ in Consumption (Penguin, New York)

The group that we are in this year is a wonderful group of loving Christians. Besides being a group of loving Christians, it is also a group with something that neither Alice or myself have ever experienced in a Bible study before, a weekly meal.

Each week before we delve into studying the Bible, our leaders cook us a meal and the group shares it together. Sometimes other group members might bring a salad or desert, but it is our leaders’ loving hospitality which brings us this meal (as well as their home to meet in).

We’ve only had one meal together so far but we really enjoyed it. It was great to be able to meet together and talk about life while breaking bread, rather than meet together over some lollies just to get through a study.

I’m looking forward to our group benefiting from the generous hospitality of our leaders and growing together as a result.

Have you ever experienced generous hospitality from Bible study leaders? Share in the comments below.