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The challenge: a week without added sugar – Italian Cuisine

The challenge: a week without added sugar


We got in the game and tell you how it went. Try us too with our advice and our recipes: you won't come back!

You can survive one week without sugar?
Certainly yes and indeed, we can assure you that you will feel so well that you will want to continue forever.
How do we know it? We have accepted the challenge!

With no added sugar

We did a test to understand how and if you can easily exceed a week without ever consuming any food containing added sugar.
We specify "added" because sugars are practically everywhere, but not in all foods are sugars that hurt.
To be clear, the fruit contains sugar, but eliminating it from the diet is not right. A packaged product like a snack, a soup ready, a ready sauce, biscuits, pizzas and much more, instead, they contain added sugars useless for our organism, excessive and harmful. Eliminating them is very difficult, but not impossible. Reducing them would be essential.
For 7 days we have also eliminated all the sweeteners such as granulated or cane sugar, fructose, honey, malt, agave and coconut sugar because, although natural, they are always sugars. Stevia can replace them, but not everyone likes its licorice aftertaste.

7 days without sugar

As we have already said, we must not eliminate any type of sugar, but only the unnecessary one.
So fruit yes, cookies no.
Yogurt yes, but only Greek.
No alcohol, no fruit juices, no jams and spreads if not homemade.
Pasta yes, but wholemeal and the same is true for bread.
Sugar of any kind no.

The expense to do

During the sugarfree week we advise you to have at home everything you need to prepare lunches, dinners and breakfasts to avoid going to the supermarket and let yourself be tempted by "forbidden" products.
Make a good supply of vegetables, vegetables and fruit, avoiding that which is too sugary or too ripe.
Buy also of the dried fruit perfect to take with you as a mid-day snack.
Determine what you will eat more or less day by day and adjust accordingly. Meat, fish and eggs they cannot be missing, but neither can they legumes and cereals.
To get an idea of ​​how to organize the week, read our recommendations for meal prep.

Watch out for seasonings

Simply use oil, lemon juice, spices and aromatic herbs.
You may not know that even in some famous sauces like soy sauce there may be added sugars, as well as in ketchup. Absolutely avoid the ready dressing, not so much because they contain added sugars – and contain them – but also because they are generally rich in fat.

Breakfast tips

It could always be more or less the same even if by choice we advise you to vary it a little and explain how.
A Whole grain bread slice is the base to which you can add a poached egg, hard or fried or smoked salmon or ricotta.
They must not be missing good fats like avocado or dried fruit and a fruit of your choice, not too ripe and not too sugary. A Orange juice in this period it is perfect.
If you don't like salty breakfast you can prepare a porridge with oat flakes and water and then enrich it with Greek yogurt, cinnamon, fresh and dried fruit.
If you are in a hurry, opt for one instead Greek yogurt with chopped dried fruit and 80% dark chocolate.

Lunch tips

If you can't do pasta by hand, choose the whole wheat pasta or legume flour pasta and season to taste, always with homemade sauces.
Try to give space also to Whole grains such as rice, spelled, barley, millet, oats and quinoa, although in this case it is a fake cereal, which, however, does not do badly!
Accompany both pasta and cereals ad a portion of vegetables and to one small protein part which can be based on cereals, fish or meat.
Some examples: spelled with steamed zucchini and smoked salmon, brown rice with cherry tomatoes and feta, salted porridge.

Dinner tips

If you gave more space to carbohydrates for lunch, eat more at dinner proteins always varying between meat, fish, eggs and legumes. A soup of legumes and barley could be an excellent idea as well as a cuddle, but prepare it at home because in those already prepared there are often added sugars. Always with legumes you can prepare velvety and cold creams like thechickpea humumus also perfect for filling a rye sandwich.
Chicken or turkey yes, but not sliced. Prepare a simple cut, season with spices and herbs and accompany with vegetables.
The eggs they are easy and quick to prepare and are very versatile: omelette, fried egg, small pie with vegetables. You can really indulge yourself.
As for the fish, avoid canned and frozen processed and seasoned. The fresh fish it is prepared in a short time and is good for you.

One week without added sugar

We have decided to offer you in gallery some ideas for breakfast to be alternated during the week, some snacks and 7 ideas for lunch and dinner.
These are very simple recipes that you can easily replicate at home, with light cooking and few seasonings.
Attention only to not use refined flours and not whole grains and pasta.
Obviously at the table only water or even tea, herbal teas and infusions, but not sweetened!
Play a lot with spices and herbs to give more taste to your dishes and if you fancy a dessert at the end of the meal, treat yourself to a extra-dark chocolate cube.

We challenge a star chef to make a gourmet dinner on a low budget – Italian Cuisine


When we think of a starred kitchen we think of luxury, precious and hard to find products. Caviar, Fois Gras, Champagne, intense flavors for a few very few.
But is it really so? What makes a dish truly unique? Above all: you can make one gourmet dinner with a budget of 30 euros?

We launched this challenge to a great chef of our country,Tommaso Arrigoni, restaurant owner Innocent Evasions in Milan, always in search of taste, environment and high quality service and holder of the coveted Michelin star. Under Tommaso's suggestion, we have made a varied expense with easily available goods that we can all find in supermarkets. Challenge accepted and successfully overcome! We have witnessed the metamorphosis of the poorest products.
We started with a soup of bread, buffalo and spring onion with egg yolk and summer truffle, with an intense but at the same time very delicate taste, to end with a very crunchy crumble of caramelized bread crust with strawberries and goat yogurt. An explosion of taste and consistency. In the chef's kitchen we were immediately enveloped by heady scents.
His mastery has made each movement a hypnotic dance and minimal and elegant settings thanks to the use of the brand's products Sambonet, have transformed simplicity into beauty and wonder for eyes and palate.

In fact, the chef says «cutlery is, like the dish, a fundamental element in the experience of a starry dinner. They must be beautiful, iconic but above all comfortable to use and functional. Personally I prefer the silver ones with a modern shape and I am very careful that the size is proportionate to the serving dish. In addition to this I pay much attention to detail, I think it is a fundamental element in a culinary experience where everything is taken care of in detail, from the dishes, to the setting, to the lights up to the engraving of the Michelin star on the cutlery .

But now just talk.
Didn't you get your mouth watering?

Content created by Condé Nast Social Academy with the support of Sambonet.

Text by: Francesca Ferraiola @francescaferraiola Production: Alessia Caliendo @alessiacaliendo Photo by: Gaetano Alfano @ gaetanoalfano80 Assistant: Lucia Radaelli

Thanks to star chef Tommaso Arrigoni di Innocenti Evasioni @arrigonitom @innocenti_evasioni

The challenge of the barbecue enthusiasts Griglie Roventi is in Pink Edition – Italian Cuisine

The challenge of the barbecue enthusiasts Griglie Roventi is in Pink Edition


This special Pink Edition, scheduled for Saturday 20 July, will donate part of the proceeds to Lilt. Registration is open: 100 pairs of grills will compete

Who will be the «king of the barbecue this year? 200 competitors are warming up the engines for the 14th edition of Hot Grills, Italy's biggest barbecue championship, scheduled, as always, in Jesolo, on July 20th. It will be a challenge to the best barbecue, but also a big party and an opportunity to help finance the activities of the Italian League for the Fight against Cancer, to which part of the proceeds will be donated.

The challenge

Also this year, 100 couples of barbecue enthusiasts, non-professionals, will compete on the same number of grids, in the competition arena set up in Piazza Torino. They will all have the same equipment: Weber gas barbecue, official uniform, Forst beer and Whitecode wine, water and, of course, meat. The kit offered by Maxì is composed of 1.5 kg of chicken legs, sausages and ribs, so that each pair of competitors can demonstrate their ability on different types of meat. Participants will be able to bring their own secret ingredients: vegetables, spices, special sauces to make your own recipe unique. In an hour, they will have to prepare the best barbecue, which will be evaluated by a jury guided this year by the food blogger Angela Maci and made up of chefs, journalists, opinion leaders and sector operators. To determine the winner, the cooking quality and taste of the dish will be evaluated, as well as the placing and the liking of the competitors.

Pink Edition

The arena of play is even the barbecues will be colored pink to support the Italian League for the Fight against Cancer, and all competitors who present themselves with a pink touch will receive a 10 point bonus. And since Hot Grills is always a party, there will be live music with DJs and animators Fred & Jody and the entertainment of Moreno Morello from Strip the News, accompanied by the former tronista and now "mother blogger" Angela Artosin.

Barbecue fans, it's your time: registrations are open and can be perfected through the EventBrite site: the cost is 90 euros, of which 10 will be donated to the Lilt. The public will instead be able to attend the race for free.

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