Nana, I love you!

Starting in the New Year I have tried to eliminate all processed sugar from my diet. I've been successful at this since Janary 3, 2010. I started with a fruit/veggie/nut cleanse for three days and then I began adding food groups back in slowly until I was eating most foods again. I've been discovering naturally sweetened indulgences along the way and I use them to pepper my weeks breaking the monotony of healthy eating. Fresh fruit smoothies, trail mix with dried fruit & dark chocolate, baked pears & apples, carrot-apple juice are a few of the treats that I've come to enjoy. My sweet-tooth, however tamed, still finds a way to be gratified.
I miss cakes, cookies, muffins, and donuts a lot. They show up in my environment frequently at the church office or even at home when Sheri, our border, brings home the stuff her Tim Horton's store was going to throw away. They still get my attention but I remind myself that having just one won't be enough and that the gravitational pull of them will only get stronger if I succumb even a little. Then I turn my back, avert my eyes and walk away.
Imagine my excitement when I remembered a bakery in Windsor that bakes healthy, no sugar added treats. Nana's Bakery. How could I have forgotten? Maybe because when I was initially introduced to Nana's goodies the first time, I was eating low-carb and even these naturally sweetened snacks were off-limits. I had to admit even then, that they tasted darned good. My first taste experience was at the Health & Beauty Expo around 5 years ago and then again later when Nana visited one of Goodlife's Anniversary celebration events.
I wondered if they were still open after all these years, but I needn't have worried. I took my spending money over to their shop which is still located at 2936 Dominion (where the old Schwab's meatshop used to be) and ordered my two favorite treats, Yuckies and Cherry Turnovers.
Now I could be wrong but I suspect that Nana is really the bearded, grey-haired baker that mans the shop and visits community gatherings to talk about his healthy creations. I give my order and ask for reassurance that nothing has changed about these products. Although he makes many wonderful treats sweetened with Splenda, he assures me that the items I have chosen are sweetened only with fruit--no sugar added. I'm suscpicious because they taste really good, but I'm willing to take the risk--they also taste healthy and I need a treat really bad.
Yuckies are dates, apples, raisins, and bran of some kind that form a thick, moist, and surprisingly pleasant cake-like cookie. I say surprisingly because it looks...well...yuckie and I don't typically eat things with dates & raisins in them.
The Cherry Turnovers (that's just one featured flavour) are like generous envelopes made of a bland oatmeal mixture that is cake/biscuit-like in texture with a no-sugar-added cherry pie filling centre. I used to buy these from Arnone's Bakery but Nana's has more healthy products displayed and are more forthcoming about ingredients and nutritional info.
I still have to be vigilant not to over-indulge in these baked goods and if I catch myself reaching for them too often, I may have to save these treats for "coffee" dates with friends. Still, it's more wholesome and satisfying than the empty-calorie alternatives out there and much easier than trying to bake something myself.
It's 9am Saturday morning and I'm starved. Haven't had breakfast yet. Trying to decide if I want to eat my scheduled omelet or just have some of Nana's fare instead. Oh no, this is not a good sign!