FitFeat

Posts Tagged healthy dessert

Natural Chef Culinary School Recap: Health Supportive Desserts

Nov 10

Posted by Shari B. in Natural Chef Culinary School | 10 Comments

Hi FitFeat friends!

It’s been a busy busy week again here.  I’ve been cooking up a storm and working on our most recent homework assignment for school.

How are your poached eggs going?  Anyone give a try to a new technique?

When I last wrote to recap school fun, I’d left off at Vegetable Proteins and Fish.  Since then we’ve been focused mostly on Health Supportive Desserts, Intro to Natural Desserts and Savory Baking.  All I can say is, “Mmmmmm!”

On Health Supportive Desserts day, I was assigned a pumpkin tart recipe.  The crust is made with finely ground almonds, sorghum flour, maple syrup, maple sugar and coconut oil.  It tastes just like a graham cracker crust!  I was so crazy about this crust that I’ve made it twice at home since, making it with different flours.  The pumpkin for the filling was freshly roasted and blended with cashews.  Here are my Twin Tarts:

A few of us got to work separately on the same recipe – I love when we do this because it’s so fun to see how each of us does something a little different.  Here are the other pumpkin tarts:

The other half of the class created Raw Fruit Cobblers with Raspberry Coulis and again it was fun to see everyone’s individuality with the same recipe:

In our homework assignment, one of the 5 recipes we were to create included a dessert using alternative ingredients.  I decided to try using the agar agar with some coconut milk to create a custard of sorts, as well as an almond wafer inspired by our tart shell from school.

Want the recipe?  OK, twist my arm.  ;)

Coconut Carob ‘Tapioca’ Custard with Almond Crisp Wafers

Coconut Carob Custard by Shari Becht
Almond Crisp Cookies adapted from Tart Shell by Bauman College Staff
Serves 4

The healthy fats in the coconut milk react with the agar agar to create tiny ‘tapioca-like’ grains, providing interesting texture to this dessert.  The almond wafers for dipping provide crunch as well as a bit of lightly salted flavor contrast.

Ingredients

For the Almond Crisp Wafers
¼ cup very finely ground almonds
2 tablespoons garbanzo bean flour
½ tablespoon Sucanat
pinch of sea salt
½ tablespoon honey
½ teaspoon vanilla extract
1 tablespoon coconut oil (unrefined), softened

For the Custard
2/3 cup water
2½ teaspoons agar agar
1 cup coconut milk + ¼ cup water
2 teaspoons carob powder
½ teaspoon vanilla extract
1/8 teaspoon sea salt
1/8 teaspoon cinnamon, ground
1½ tablespoon maple syrup

  1. Preheat oven to 325.  In a medium mixing bowl, mix almonds, garbanzo bean flour, Sucanat and sea salt.  Add honey, vanilla extract and coconut oil to same mixing bowl.  Mix until all ingredients are thoroughly blended to a paste-like consistency.
  2. Place almond wafer mixture onto a small baking sheet.  Cover with a piece of wax paper and roll out to ¼ inch thickness.  Press a round cookie cutter (about 2½“ diameter) into the mixture, forming 4 round wafers.  Bake until the edges turn golden brown (about 10-12 minutes) then immediately remove to a cooling rack.
  3. In a small saucepan over high heat, bring 2/3 cup water to a boil.  Add agar agar and stir continuously until it has dissolved, about 1 minute.  Continue boiling for 5 minutes until agar agar begins to gel.
  4. In a small bowl, combine coconut oil, ¼ cup water, carob, vanilla, sea salt, cinnamon and maple syrup.  After the agar agar begins to gel, add the coconut milk mixture to the saucepan.  Return to a boil, then remove from heat.  Divide evenly among 4 ramekins (about 1/3 cup each).  Refrigerate for 45 minutes, or until custard has set.
  5. Just prior to serving, press a cookie perpendicularly into each custard – it will stay upright in the dish for presentation.

My suggestion is to eat this the same day.  The agar agar can get pretty tough on the next day.

Joan, this might be a place for you to use up your carob chips (melt them in with the coconut milk, in lieu of carob powder).

Well friends, it’s time to get my workout done then head off to school.  Today is the start of our Ethnic Cuisine module (Day One:  Mediterranean!)  We’ll be working on Ethnic Cuisine until Thanksgiving, and then when we get back from that long holiday weekend, we have MIDTERMS!  Time is flying by!

Have a fabulous day, blog buds!  See you next time!

– Shari B. =)

Tags: , , , ,

Natural Chef Culinary School – Sea Veggies

Oct 26

Posted by Shari B. in Natural Chef Culinary School | 5 Comments

Hi friends!

You’ve heard me sing the praises of seaweed before on this blog, so you can imagine how excited I was for Sea Vegetables class!

I regularly use dulse in my kitchen, adding strips to my salads and flakes to numerous other dishes in place of sea salt.  I’ve used kombu when cooking beans.  And nori for miso soup and sushi rolls.  But my horizons have been broadened after this class!

One of the best uses I learned for seaweed that day was with one called agar agar (kanten).  You may know this one from science class, as it’s often used as the culture medium in petri dishes.  But because of its ability to gel, it is used in the culinary world as a thickener.  One of my classmates was assigned Apple-Pomegranate Kanten with Cashew Cream.  The agar agar was dissolved (and boiled) with unsweetened fresh apple juice, then apple pieces and pomegranate seeds were suspended while it was cooling.  The result was a dish similar to a Jell-O salad, but without all the sugar and artificial ingredients.

I was so excited to make a version of this at home for MSP.  He picked unsweetened grape juice and here is the result (recipe at the bottom of this post):

I garnished it with a little TruWhip and some ground flaxseed. (A shout out to my grandma for handing down her wine glasses to me, which also serve as beautiful dessert dishes!)

Agar agar is pretty cool, huh?  What a great way to make desserts for kids that are natural, high in minerals and fiber and FUN!  You would NEVER know you are eating seaweed – there is no flavor from the agar agar.

This is also a good substitute for gelatin in a vegan diet, since gelatin is an animal product.

The recipe I got to work on that day was Sea Vegetable Caviar.  We used wakame for this dish, but to make it look like little caviar ‘eggs’, arame is the suggested option.  You soak the seaweed to reconstitute it, sauté it in some sesame oil, add some water and tamari, bring to a boil then let all the liquid cook out.  Add in some sauteed minced garlic/shallots, a little ginger and lemon juice to taste, place on top of a flax cracker, and you have a fun appetizer sure to be a conversation starter at your next dinner party!

You can tell your guests all about how full of minerals sea veggies are, how well they detox the body and that they are a highly alkaline food, helping to cut down the acid in the blood.  And they are easy to make look pretty on the platter – this was probably my best plating presentation yet!

A couple of other dishes we ate that day included nori-wrapped whitefish:

And sesame sweet potatoes with wakame:

Do you use seaweed in any of your daily nutrition?  If not, are you convinced to give it a try? I was a seaweed lover before but am even more excited now to incorporate these amazing superfoods into my daily recipes, knowing how FANTASTIC it is for our bodies.  I’ve already picked up some arame at the store and made a seaweed salad for dinner Sunday night.

Have a FABULOUS day friends!  See you next time!

– Shari B. =)

***

If you weren’t online over the weekend, check out the previous recap post about Grains, Legumes, Nuts and Seeds.

***

Edited to add Agar Agar “Jell-O” recipe by popular demand ;)

Here’s what you need to know:

  • Choose your favorite juice (preferably fresh squeezed and unsweetened)
  • For 6 servings that are wine glass sized like I made, use 2 cups of juice and 1 to 1.5 tablespoons agar agar. (I used 1.5 and feel that it could have been dropped down to 1 tbsp. if your package has you using one tablespoon to one cup liquid, ignore it!  Mine did too!)
  • Mix them together in a medium saucepan and bring to a boil, then reduce heat to simmer and continue stirring to ensure the agar agar is fully dissolved.
  • Pour into 6 wine glasses or dessert dishes.  Let them sit for 10 minutes while you chop up your favorite fruit to ‘suspend’ in the dessert.  At school we used pomegranate seeds and apples.  Pick something that matches with your juice selection.  I only needed 1 apple (finely diced) and the seeds from half of one pomegranate.  More or less to your liking will work!  Add the fruit to the glasses and then refrigerate for at least one hour.
  • You can garnish with some TruWhip like we did or you can make a homemade vegan cashew cream whipped topping, like we did at school.

Let me know what your friends and family say when you serve this!  :)

Tags: , , , , , ,

Battle of the (Black Bean) Brownies

Sep 2

Posted by Shari B. in Cooking, vegan | 6 Comments

Doesn’t this look delicious?

How about this one?  mmmm… no drooling on your keyboard or iPhone now!

I promised in the Craving Sweets post that I would be back to share my experience with two different recipes for Black Bean Brownies.  I first tried a black bean brownie a few months back and I was instantly smitten with this healthier alternative to a regular brownie.  This past week, the summer intern at our office had his last day, and I wanted to bring something in to share, so I figured it would be the perfect opportunity for these intriguing brownies to be taste-tested!

The recipe used for the first brownie pictured above (with the nuts) comes from one of my favorite blogs, No Meat Athlete.  Matt’s sister Christine is a fabulous baker and I knew it would be her recipe I had to try for this round of Battle of the Brownies.  It is completely vegan and therefore dairy-free and egg-free.  It is not gluten-free, as it does contain whole wheat flour.

The recipe used for the second brownie pictured comes from a site called Happy Herbivore.  I’ve made this recipe a few times in the past with great success.  It too is vegan, with no dairy or eggs.  It also contains no flour and uses oats and bananas as its base.

The NMA brownie comes out truly like a brownie, with a great cakey texture (below, on the left).  The HH brownie is denser with a definite banana flavor, and a dense almost fudge-like consistency (below, right).

I tried to stay very true to each recipe to be fair to the chefs who created them, other than not having a couple of ingredients and making those adjustments.

Christine’s NMA brownie calls for hazelnuts, and I couldn’t find them ANYWHERE in the store, so I chose to use raw crushed cashews on the top.  Also I didn’t have the instant decaf coffee, so I brewed up some decaf and used it in place of the water in the recipe.

In the HH brownie, I used half carob powder and half cocoa powder, did NOT add the optional raw sugar and used ground old fashioned oats in lieu of instant.

Both are super alternatives for having a homemade dessert to snack on when the chocolate cravings strike!

So which one won?

From a taste perspective, Christine’s NMA brownie won.  Many in the office really liked the NMA brownie cake texture, while some preferred the HH banana bread flavor of the denser brownie.  Personally my vote on taste alone was the NMA brownie, hands down.  Actually to a fault!  Because I had to put the remaining NMA brownies in the freezer as I was having a hard time keeping my hands off!  MSP also voted for the NMA brownie, but said that next time I make them I can cut back on the sugar.

From a nutritional profile perspective (and if you are in a weight loss program) I’d be more inclined to recommend the HH ones.  The raw sugar is optional (which I didn’t use), and the amount of agave in the recipe is negligible.  The main ingredients are bananas, beans and oats, whereas the NMA brownies use a fair amount of raw sugar and whole wheat.

In my opinion, I think you should try them BOTH!  And definitely take them to your next social gathering – telling people that the main ingredient is BLACK BEANS is definitely a conversation starter!  You really won’t believe it till you try them – you don’t even know the beans are there!

Enjoy a little chocolate (and black bean) decadence this holiday weekend!

– Shari B. =)

Tags: , , ,

Crave Sweets After Meals? This Post Is For You

Aug 31

Posted by Shari B. in Keeping Fit | 5 Comments

Hi FeatPeeps!

In response to a recent post (Get Hungry), Cindy suggested in the comment section that a good topic to discuss here at FitFeat would be craving sweets after meals.  Excellent subject idea, Cindy.  Thank you!  Because this is definitely a hot button when it comes to people aiming to lose a little body fat.

I have since spent a bunch of time writing and editing my thoughts on this topic, then decided to pare it back down and keep it simple (and keep it from being the longest post on record!).  There are plenty of reasons one might experience cravings for sweets (dissatisfied with meal flavor, lack of carbs or fiber, neuropeptide Y, low blood sugar, etc.)  But really when you get right down to it, for the majority of us, more often than not it’s a matter of CONDITIONING.

Meaning, it’s something you do that gives you pleasure so you want to do it again and again.

Image Source

As a child, did you regularly have dessert after dinners?  Did you (or do you still) have ‘treats’ to mark special occasions or as a reward for good behavior?  Were you told that you had to ‘clean your plate first’ before you were allowed to have dessert?

All of these things can cause a conditioned response.  Hey, we’re human – we like pleasure rather than pain, and we like to be rewarded.

So What Can You Do About It?

Should you fight it?  Give in?  Well, that depends.

If you are in weight loss mode and trying to burn off body fat, you’ll have to pick your battles.  If a 100-200 calorie treat a few days a week will end up cutting too much into your caloric deficit, then you might want to abstain (and the only time I really see this being an issue is when someone in a cutting phase for a fitness/figure/bodybuilding show).

If you are someone who is triggered to overdo the sweets after just taking a bite, then you might want to make an alternate choice.  Being able to stop when the enjoyment of the food wears off (or before) is key.  I like to keep small squares of high quality dark chocolate in the house for this reason.  Sometimes after lunch or dinner, I just ‘need’ something to change the taste after the meal.  Some of my coaching clients have told me that to them, the sweet bite after a meal is their ‘signal’ that the meal is complete.  A 50 calorie bite of strong chocolate is not going to hurt the ‘bottom line’ so to speak, so it’s not a big deal.

If I’m having an especially rough day (PMS ladies?) and I know that one chocolate might lead to my eating the rest of the bag, I’ll pass on even the first bite.  In these cases, I find a cup of decaf coffee after dinner does the trick.

It becomes an issue when you are already full from dinner, and then eat a full-on dessert.  A few wonderful bites of enjoyment are fine, but sometimes foods taste SO good that it’s hard to stop.  This is where you need to revisit the Get Hungry post.  Because the hard truth is if you are eating when you aren’t TRULY hungry, getting (or keeping) the fit body you work so hard for will be much more difficult.

In my fit coaching work, I prefer that people NOT restrict all that much.   The things you tell yourself you “can’t” have are always the things that you’ll likely crave the most, and if you are too restrictive you could be setting yourself up to fall completely off the wagon and hopping onto the crazy train toward eating a whole sleeve of Oreos.

Having a “healthified” version of a dessert is a smart choice over something packaged you bring home from a store.  In Michael Pollan’s Food Rules: An Eater’s Manual, one of the rules discusses eating dessert IF it’s one you made yourself.  I love this idea because then you are in control of the quality of the ingredients your dessert is made with.

Moral of the Story

The point is this:  don’t beat yourself up for wanting a little dessert.  If you are still hungry, have a little and really savor it.  Remind yourself that life is a balance of choices and decide what it’s worth to you.

For me, every Oreo is the caloric equivalent of one more mile to run.  It’s a choice – sometimes I say yes to 2 or 3 miles worth, and sometimes not.  ;)

***

Coming Up:

Speaking of making your own desserts, be sure to join me for the next blog post topic where I’ll review and compare two different recipes for Black Bean Brownies!

An Article Worth Your Time to Read:

For some additional ‘dessert’ reading that may have you stepping away from your favorite ice cream (or at least reconsidering which brand to buy), check out this article about which big ice cream makers still use milk with rBGH (bovine growth hormone) and some brands that do not.

See you next time, blog buds!

– Shari B. =)

- – -

Shari Becht is a Fit Living Coach and an ACE Certified Personal Trainer offering coaching services to people across the U.S.  She is extremely passionate about teaching her clients how to start making small changes every day to their own lives, built around steps customized to fit their needs.

If you or someone you know could benefit from Shari’s coaching, please feel free to email her at shari [at] fitfeat  [dot] com.  For more information, click here.

»crosslinked«

Tags: , , , ,

Grilled Blackstrap Pineapple

Jun 9

Posted by Shari B. in Recipes | 10 Comments

Here is the last of the recipes from the Beat the Heat Mexi-Que menu, Grilled Blackstrap Caramelized Pineapple.

Blackstrap molasses is a gold mine of minerals.  High in iron, manganese, copper, calcium and more,  I try to use this as a sweetener whenever I can, provided the licorice flavor doesn’t overpower a dish.  It’s really great in oatmeal.

So when I needed something to caramelize my grilled pineapple, the first thing I turned to was my jar of blackstrap.

You will need:

  • one whole pineapple
  • a sharp knife
  • blackstrap molasses
  • raw agave nectar (honey will do too)
  • no more than a TBSP Earth Balance vegan butter, melted (or regular butter, or even a little coconut oil, also melted)
  • a small squeeze bottle or basting brush

This pineapple couldn’t be easier and doesn’t really even qualify as a recipe in my book. :)   (that’s the best kind of cooking, right?)

Preheat your grill to high.  Cut MOST of the top leaves off of the whole pineapple but leave a short stub for ‘decorative effect’.  Cut the pineapple into quarters from top to bottom (yes, the skin /rind is still on.)  Don’t you feel like you are in the tropics now?

Squeeze a tablespoon or two of the molasses into the squeeze bottle, then drizzle about half that in agave nectar and about the same amount of your butter/oil.  (Measuring is not important.  Basically you are just making a thick basting liquid that will give color and allow the pineapple to caramelize a bit on the grill.)  Cap the bottle and shake until mixed.

Coat your grill with nonstick spray or coconut oil.  Lay the quarters on the grill and squeeze along one side of the pineapple then place that side face down on the grill.  5 minutes on one side, then drizzle the next ‘bare’ side of the pineapple and now place that side facedown so it can caramelize.  Another 5-7 minutes on this side will do the trick.

Allow to cool for a few minutes before eating.  Serve with a knife and fork and cut pieces off the rind as you go.

If you want to be extra fancy, serve it a la mode with a small scoop of something cold:  Coconut Bliss dairy-free vanilla ice cream or maybe a lemon sorbet.  Perfect for a HOT summer evening!

Enjoy!

Tags: , , ,

Get Adobe Flash playerPlugin by wpburn.com wordpress themes