Low Fat Dessert
No meal is over unless there is a desert involved. If you are here in America, you know that most of the desserts out there are very rich - consequently, "bad" for you. They are loaded with salt, sugar and or fat. We have become a nation of junk food addicts. Instinctively, when we have the choice to eat anything we wish, we often choose to go along with the more fatty foods. I think this is because our bodies tend to store fat to keep us warm for the winter. We know that it will be cold so we want a layer of fat to keep us warm.
What to do? You want that little bit of joy at the end of the meal, but you don't want it to harm your waistline. Well, you can have your cake and eat it too. We will discuss some of the more healthy deserts that you can eat.
Firstly, don't be fooled by the plethora of low fat desserts on the store shelves. It isn't worth the expense. You often wind up eating twice as much of it to fill your cravings; there is a reason for this: The dessert is missing something, the fat that you're body is craving the most. In addition, manufacturers add ingredients to "replace" that fat that aren't always good for our bodies. In the end you aren't really doing yourself any favors. You are falling in the trap that since it is low fat, you can eat twice as much of it. You may not be doing this intentionally - or you may - whichever the case, don't beat yourself up because it's just human nature.
You're far better off making your own low-fat desserts from scratch. Don't panic! I can hear the two most common concerns - no time to bake or you don't know how to go about it. Well, for the time factor, read on as we'll address the ease of using fresh and/or frozen fruit for dessert next. As for the "how", surf through BellyBytes.com articles as we have tons of information on eating, cooking and baking with less fat and calories. In addition, we have oodles of recipes, including fat free cake recipes.
On to that fruit... Fresh fruit is always a good desert. You can prepare it easily and it tastes great. Nothing tastes better than fresh fruit that is in season, perfectly ripe and ready to eat. If it is ripe, it will be sweet and juicy.
You want to be sure your fruit is ripe because unripened fruit will be hard and not have all the flavor that it can yield. If fresh fruit isn't in season or is just not convenient, use frozen. Healthful Helper: Be sure to keep a good supply of your favorite fruits frozen and ready in your freezer!
You don't have to stick with just fruit salads, although they do make an excellent choice and can be made in any number of variations. See our Healthy Fruit Salad Recipes for ideas. You can choose a ton of different ways to eat fresh fruit. You can bake apples for example wrapped in tin foil with a little bit of brown sugar and cinnamon. This is wonderful, especially on those chilly fall days.
Another quick suggestion is bananas sliced in orange juice. The sweet tangy flavor of the orange juice is really different compared to the banana. It is also a great pick me up if you are feeling sluggish.
Perhaps you've seen those wand mixers advertised on television? Some people call these boat motors. It is a hand held mixer/blender that you can use for a lot of things. These can come in handy for speeding up the process of mixing/blending a fruit dishes - in addition to their many other uses. Here is a simple desert using your boat motor: Take ice-cold skim milk, and put it in a drinking glass. Use your boat motor to whip air into the milk. You will notice after awhile it resembles whipped cream. Add some bananas and strawberries and a little pinch of sugar to make it sweet. This is very low fat and it tastes great. You get that desire for fat taken care of that you have been craving so much from the whipped milk and the bonus of the tastes buds being fooled into thinking you're indulging in whipped cream.
Another idea for your mixer dessert would be low fat milkshakes. (See Healthy Milk Beverages.) You can add protein mix to these for a great nutrition boost with very little fat.
Another good dessert option is gelatin. Make sure that you get the unflavored kind. It will come in either envelopes or in sheets. There will be directions on the package to tell you how to make it. You can add fruit juice or you can add fresh fruit to your gelatin. If you have a boat motor, you can use it and add some of that whipped topping you make from the skim milk. Delicious! You can also indulge in those low fat cakes with some of that whipped milk atop. Just because it is cake, doesn't mean that it is bad for you. Just make sure that there isn't a whole lot of eggs or dairy involved. Also sometimes people sneak in mayo in their cake batters. As mentioned, it's best to make your own cakes as this way you can make sure you know the exact ingredients in the cake. Healthful Helper: Jam or jelly is great instead of frosting. You guessed it - we have Healthy Jelly and Jam Recipes, too!
I'm sure that you can come up with your own ideas as well. Just think of what you already like to eat and put a spin on it - and have fun with your creativity!
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