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10 Mouth-Watering Desserts You Can Enjoy Without Any Guilt

You’ve just completed a hearty meal in a fine restaurant and the waiter returns with the menu, inviting you to try their decadent-looking desserts. Dessert or no dessert? This is the question that many of us mothers struggle with on a daily or weekly basis; we want to provide treats to satisfy that innate desire for sweetness, but we also have to struggle against the all too common sugar addiction and its accompanying diseases.

Today’s Sugary Habits 

We don’t need to look very far to observe the dangers of feasting on ice cream and cake. There are kindergarteners on insulin for type 2 diabetes, obesity is becoming more prevalent among elementary school children and teenagers are being hospitalised for heart disease and stroke.

The times have certainly changed; our eating habits and our food choices have deteriorated, and now we’re paying  the price. School canteens, corner shops, and quick-service restaurants have become regular features in our daily lives, having replaced home-cooked meals and fresh foods. These businesses provide us with shelf-stable, readily-made and pre-packaged desserts loaded with genetically-modified ingredients, synthetic preservatives, artificial flavours and unnatural colours. These individually-wrapped novelties are mass-produced and high-fat, high-calorie and sugar-laden with little to no nutrients, even though they bear the same names as the lovingly-prepared, wholesome desserts we enjoyed as children. Additionally, these treats are sold very cheaply and marketed, not as once-in-a-while bites, but snack items to enjoy between meals. Ice cream sandwiches are munched during TV time, sticky donuts and hand-held pies are served for breakfast. The average child can consume a handful of chocolates and caramels in half an hour without anyone batting an eye.

Cooking Dessert the Old Fashioned Way

When I was a child in Jamaica, we had desserts for special occasions; Easter buns and Christmas cakes during the respective holidays, sugar buns and rock cakes at special events, and my grandmother’s homemade puddings and pone whenever we had good sweet potato and corn harvests. Whenever my mother had time on the weekend, she tolerated us tangling her feet in the kitchen while she ‘rubbed up’ batches of pineapple-upside-down cake, orange cake or baking sheets of warm, flaky plantain tarts. When things were hectic, a scoop of rum n’ raisin ice cream or a small bowl of strawberry Jell-O was our Sunday afternoon delight.

Since treats were not a regular part of our diet, if we wanted something sweet after dinner, we had to make do with freshly picked fruit or baked nuts. Or, instead of drinking plain water or limeade with the evening meal, we might get to guzzle down homemade fruit juice.

When I think back to my childhood desserts, I think of homemade goodies – not the stuff from the supermarket shelves or pastry shops. My mother and grandmothers always knew exactly what went into their baked goods and sourced high quality produce to create them. I can’t help but agree with medical professionals and nutritionists who’ve been saying that we, the new generation of Mommies, need to return to real, whole foods.

Planning for Dessert

The strategy of meal planning and pre-cooking can be applied to desserts – especially if you reserve dessert for a special/Sunday night dinner. Even if you decide to satisfy your sweet tooth on a daily basis, fruit-based desserts are an excellent way to get yummy tummies without the guilt or dietary ills. You’d be amazed at how fresh fruits can be transformed, quite quickly and easily, into freezer pops, ice creams, sorbets or slushies without giving you any extra work. By searching out some whole  food, plant-based recipes, you can discover dishes that are easy for children to make and allow for them to enjoy something sweet without the adverse effects of excess sugars, fat or refined carbohydrates.

Healthy Dessert Ideas 

The following list of whole food plant-based desserts are a great place to start. If they become regular features in your family’s meal plans, you will certainly be decreasing the amount of ‘products’ in your diet and increasing the amount of ‘produce’ you consume. Here’s to healthy and delicious desserts, for your family and mine:

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  1. Mint-Melon Sorbet Recipe here

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  1. Raspberry Lime Freezer Pops  Recipe here

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  1. Peanut Butter-Banana “Ice Cream” Recipe here

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  1. Vegan Chocolate Banana Mousse Recipe here

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  1. Dairy-Free Chocolate Bars Recipe here

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  1. Raw Strawberry Peppermint Cheesecake Recipe here

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  1. Coconut Cream Pie Recipe here

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  1. Vegan Strawberry-Banana Cupcakes Recipe here Picture1
  2. Vegan Cinnamon Rolls Recipe here lemongrass-dreadlocks-500x500
  3. Vegetarian Oatmeal Raisin Cookie Recipe here

 

Which of these will you make first?

 

 

 

This article originally appeared on BabyandBlog.com.

 

 

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Hurdles, Green Smoothies & Nursery Rhymes

The past few weeks have been filled with lots of hurdles, detours and many hectic moments. I’ve been working with a Nutritionist to get a professional review and endorsement for my book, Jamaican Green Smoothies: The Essential Guide To Transforming Your Life, One Cup At A Time, With The Leafy Greens & Fruits In Your Backyard and making some minor additions and formatting in preparation for the release of the paperback copy. Then to complicate things, I started having issues with the PC I use to work while away from home 🙁 But, the experience led me to try out a few Chinese eCommerce companies, and that was pretty enlightening and positive – more on that later. But, all in all, I’m happy, healthy and grateful for many blessings.

 

30Dy JGS Challenge

I’m happy to report that the first week of the 30-Day Jamaican Green Smoothie Challenge has been fun! It’s so exciting to see all the pics and updates in the JGS Facebook group. The theme this week was Basic Daily Green Smoothies: blends using Pure Water as the liquid. You know I like to keep things simple! But, for next week, we’re kicking it up a notch with an energy boost from Coconut Water and unsweetened Fruit Juices. I had a case of coconut water delivered to my apartment yesterday, so I’m really enthused to start blending up next week’s Premium Daily Green Smoothies. If you haven’t signed up as yet, it’s not too late. Here’s the link:  http://mad.ly/signups/112726/join

 

 

Source: The Felt Source
Now, in other news! LOL. I have to mention that I grew up on nursery rhymes! So, it kind of flowed naturally that I’d share many of them with the Small, Bright-eyed Human. But, soon after reciting a few, I began to notice something sinister and dark in a number of them. Do you read nursery rhymes to your little ones? Well, you definitely need to read this article I wrote for Baby & Blog: 8 Popular Nursery Rhymes With Dark Meanings
Let me know what your thoughts are on nursery rhymes and remember to sign up for the 30-Day JGS Challenge!
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3 Reasons I Cook Only Once a Week

I love to eat, but I don’t love being in the kitchen. Yes, I love trying out new recipes and experimenting with new ingredients, but that’s probably just the adventurer and weird scientist in me. I hate the long standing, the heat from the stove and oven, the constant washing of utensils, the essential prep of the ingredients, or the moments in which the Small, Bright-eyed Human runs in circles around my feet and screams until I pick her up. But, this post isn’t about my ‘laziness’ as much as it is about time management and prioritising.

 

Menu Planning & Batch Cooking

Having transitioned from Homemaker to Employee, I needed to find a way to be present with my daughter for the few hours we are together each day (since she goes to daycare while I teach). But, even more so, I needed to avoid exhaustion while feeding my family hearty and nutritious meals. I remembered how for my CXC practical exam in Food & Nutrition, I was able to make the birthday cake (baked and decorated with freshly made icing), drinks, different types of sandwiches, snacks and fruit table pieces all from scratch and decorate the table in a couple of hours. This is because I had learnt how to make a menu plan and a time plan to make it all work, and I decided to put this aspect of my high school education to use!

What I do is cook all the food my family will eat, once a week (on the weekend) and simply heat and serve throughout the week. It may sound like a lot of work, but I can get 3 or 4 entrees and the same amount of side dishes made in 2 or 3 hours. Which works out to about 3 hours of intense work to cover the whole week, instead of cooking an hour a day, every single day. So, let me give this disclaimer before going any further:

If you are one of those persons who claims, “I don’t eat over-night/hot-up food.” Then I suggest that you don’t read any further. I’ll also recommend that you don’t eat anything you haven’t cooked yourself, because all commercially prepared food involves batch cooking and réchauffé. So, if you eat food from restaurants, hotels, school cafeterias, office canteens, hospitals, or caterers, you have eaten réchauffé or reheated food. The main reason the food looks and tastes differently from what you’ve re-heated at home is because food service operators have been trained to observe industry standards in food safety (sanitation, storage, preservation, time and temperature). I’m grateful to have received the same training when I got my food handler’s permit, but even more so, for having worked in the food service industry to learn, first-hand, about things like ‘food danger zone’.

 

Ital Stew (Photo Credit: JCSKitchen.com)

 

That little issue addressed, these are my reasons – plain and simple – for cooking once a week:

1. Free To Relax
Since I’m away from my family all day, I want to know that I can enjoy the time reconnecting with them when I get home. We can sit together and play, or do any other fun thing together before we settle down for dinner. Plus I don’t need to rush with my daughter when I go to pick her up from the daycare. If she wants to just hug me for a little or wants me to join her with digging up dirt in the yard, I feel comfortable to do that without watching the time.

2. No Extra Work After Work
Since all my meals (lunches and dinners) are already cooked, I don’t need to go grocery shopping or spend time in the kitchen cooking dinner and the next day’s lunch. After work is finished, I can truly come home and de-chakarise.

3. Fancy Dishes Without the Hassle
Who wouldn’t like to eat a fancy, weekend-style meal during the week? Entree with two or three different sides? How about two entrees? I can do that because it’s all made in advance, I just need to heat and serve.

 

Japanese Vegetable Curry & Rice (Photo Credit: BakerBoom.blogspot.com)

 

This Week’s Menu
For this week, I made 3 entrees (Ackee & Mixed Veggies, Japanese Curry with Lentils & Pumpkin, and Ital Stew), and the main starches were Brown Rice, Mushroom Rice (used my rice cooker), Roti and Naan (bought them frozen and put them in the toaster oven before serving). I served these sides as well: Cucumber-Basil Pasta Salad, Garden Salad and another Mushroom Sauce Pasta Salad. It may sound like a lot, but I also bought a deli box (with simmered veggies and tofu skin) from the supermarket, and each day I have a mug of Miso Soup along with my lunch. My game plan for getting this done each week is basically: Plan. Shop. Cook. I give a detailed breakdown in this article that I wrote for Baby & Blog: HERE.

 

Do you plan your meals and do once a week cooking? If you don’t, would you try it?