Replacing White {Crack} Sugar with Coconut Sugar

Despite what this picture makes you think…I actually don’t use a lot of sugar in our house.

After my mother in law was diagnosed with Stage 4 breast cancer, I took a hard look at my families diet and nutrition. While we definitely had a fairly healthy lifestyle and most often ate homemade well balanced meals, we still consumed a tremendous amount of refined granulated sugar through cookies and desserts I made often.

Even though the mayo clinic states that cancer doesn’t feed on sugar; I still think it depletes our bodies of healthy vitamins and nutrients because our bodies were not created to process refined carbohydrates like sugar. So if your body uses essential vitamins to breakdown sugar then you eventually become deficient in the vital nutrients your body needs to remain healthy.

Plus, I just couldn’t get over the withdrawal symptoms a few friends experienced after they cut sugar completely out of their diet. Hence, why I call white granulated sugar “crack”.

So over the last year I’ve cut down immensely in how often we eat sweets. And now my go to sweeteners are coconut sugar, maple syrup, and honey.

But baking with coconut sugar can be tricky. Especially when you are also gluten free, vegan {just to avoid eggs}, and whatever other allergy I think I have on a given day!!

So here are two dessert recipes containing coconut sugar. Both these desserts are fantastic!
{And just so you know, I have a pretty high bar of what a fantastic dessert tastes like.}

Oh She Glows Toffee Oatmeal Cinnamon Bars
{I make these at least twice a month and have found that 15 minutes in the oven is plenty. If I bake for the full 18-20 minutes, mine burn. Or you could just skip the baking and eat the dough since there are no eggs. But you are forewarned….the dough is extremely addictive and I ate half a batch of dough in one sitting recently! These are also great if you substitute one of the tablespoons of coconut oil with one tablespoon peanut butter.}

Against All Grain Real Deal Chocolate Chips
{It hasn’t been that long since a friend told me about this recipe and I’ve already found numerous occasions to try it out! I cannot believe there is a chocolate chip cookie out there without granulated sugar that tastes just as good as the Nestle Tollhouse Cookie. These are that good! They are pretty soft but so delish!}

Enjoy!