Archives for May 2013

Oatmeal muesli cookies low in fructose

May 27, 2013 by Deniz 4 Comments

It took me a while to realize that Spring in Turkey doesn’t last as long as it does in Germany. The fresh, locally grown strawberries at the fresh food markets disappeared just as quickly as they had appeared a few weeks earlier, leaving me little to no time to come up with all the nice strawberry-containing recipes I wanted to try and share with you. Which makes me a bit sad, as strawberries are one of the few fruits I can handle pretty well. But the good thing is, they will be back next year and meanwhile I will be concentrating on other seasonal fruits low in fructose. Enter, Apricots. Naturally low in fructose, an essential part in Turkish (dessert) cuisine and the perfect cast for the grand finale of my oatmeal cookie trilogy. Today, sun kissed apricots, crunchy, salty pistachios and a full-bodied cereal mix will be turned into aromatic Oatmeal-Muesli-Cookies. You could almost call it a tribute to my German-Turkish roots. ;)…

Oatmeal coconut cookies low in fructose

May 17, 2013 by Deniz 6 Comments

As I’m sitting here writing this post there is a plate of freshly baked oatmeal coconut cookies resting next to my laptop, begging to be devoured. Today it felt hard motivating myself to write. Before I sat down I quickly threw together those seven ingredients listed below, turning them into yet another batch of oatmeal coconut cookies, just to eat one of the freshly baked cookies straight out of the oven. I can‘t think of a better way to get into cookie mode. Also, when I tested this recipe a week ago I myself was a little surprised how delicious these cookies actually turned out to be. Therefore I needed some kind of reassurance that these cookies weren‘t too good to be true or rather just a stroke of luck. ;)

I found this recipe on Crash Test Mummy. It was the only recipe I found for oatmeal cookies low in fructose that looked worth giving it a try. Crash Test Mummy calls them ANZAC Cookies. Most of you native English speaking readers have probably heard this term before, but for me ANZAC didn’t ring a bell. It was only after a short search via Wikipedia that I found out what the abbreviation stands for “Australian and New Zealand Army Corps” and that this type of cookies are usually baked around the end of April to celebrate ANZAC Day and remember the fallen troops during World War I. I made those cookies because the recipe sounded delicious. Only now, when re-reading the same Wikipedia article did I notice that the same troops fought in a city called Gallipoli, which is called Çanakkale today and lies, guess what, in Turkey. I love coincidences. …

Oatmeal spice cookies low in fructose

May 14, 2013 by Deniz 1 Comment

To be honest, I am not the only one reconsidering our initial, resistance-free plunge into the Turkish eating culture, after having arrived in the land of milk and honey (see also “Unlearning Snacking“). More recently my boyfriend has also been doubting his reacquired snacking habits. A long time ago he drastically cut down his own sugar consumption out of consideration for me suffering from fructose malabsorption and surely as a result of my never ending lectures on the negative aspects of fructose consumption. But our numerous sugar slips during the past weeks are finally coming into effect. As soon as we get close to a supermarket there is this faint voice to my left asking “Uhm, I wonder if they have those amazing Coco-Star chocolate bars. I didn’t have any sweet treat today. One surely couldn’t do much harm”. A classical case of back-on-the-addiction-sugar-cravings I’d say. Even his attempt to do better by going for the organic, soaked in honey, oatmeal cookie instead of the chocolate bar cannot negate my previously made diagnosis. The only positive outcome of this recent sugar-slip is, that somehow I wasn’t able to get those ‘forbidden’, crunchy and chewy oatmeal cookies out of my head. I was craving to have one of those cookies, but of course one being low in fructose. After browsing millions of oatmeal-cookie recipes on Pinterest I was left with no alternative. Because of that and well aware of my intent to strictly follow a fructose-free diet once again, without compromising on taste or variety, I resulted to not one, but three different recipes for oatmeal-cookies that are low in fructose. Call me nerd. …

Unlearning Snacking

May 10, 2013 by Deniz 10 Comments

The past weeks here in Istanbul saw a lot of visitors from home. Which of course is great because we got to share the beauty and stories of this wonderful city with our loved ones and made most of them fall in love with Istanbul just the way we have. On the other hand, a lot of visitors meant a lot time spent in restaurants, cafés and and pastry shops and snacking on street food. We were eating ourselves through a lot of amazing specialities the Turkish cuisine treasures, to show our visitors the amazing tastes we were already familiar with and to explore unknown ones together. What sounds like a dream come true, actually turned out to be a nightmare for my maltreated stomach. Getting lost in all the new, delicious and tongue tingling tastes I wasn’t paying enough attention to my stomach anymore. Naturally, it didn’t hesitate to strike back. I’m not feeling well, the tiniest amount of fructose turns into a rumbling concert in my stomach and I’m getting sick again more easily. After six weeks filled with a lot of “Oh, this looks amazing, I have to try this. I know it’s not good for me, but a tiny spoon full, maybe two, can’t hurt, can it?” -Spoons full of veggies, fruits and, yes, sweets it’s time to give my stomach a break, reflect on my personal eating habits and unlearn snacking, once again. Unlearning snacking? You may be asking yourselves, what is wrong with snacking, I probably just chose the wrong snacks, right? Nope, you heard me right. I mean unlearning snacking and not just learning to pick the right snacks. …