Recipes for Desserts

~~RECIPES - FOR THE SWEET TOOTHED DIETER~~

I have wrote down a couple of recipes that helped me when I have dieted in the past, believe me, I was very successful at loosing weight on the occasions I put my mind to it, I lost 6 stone on both occasions with Weight Watchers and 4 stone on the one occasion I went with Slimming World, unfortunately I am one of natures yo-yo dieters and once I stop dieting the weight creeps back on. I am 44yrs old now and have done a few diets during my life. The one I am starting now has to be my last, so my doctor tells me, I have to loose the weight and keep it off to get well again.

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~~Mock Mousse~~

This is great for small snacks, a little tip make some up in little Tupper Wear containers for lunches, less calories than yoghurt.

Ingredients:

1 pkt of sugar free jelly (any flavour)
1 sml tub of natural yoghurt (125ml)

Optional extra some fruit - ie. Summer berries

Method:

Empty sugar free jelly granules into a measuring jug.

Add ½ pt of boiling water and stir until jelly has dissolved.

Add 125ml of natural yoghurt and stir in.

Top up with cold water bringing the mix to just under the pint level.

Pour into 4 serving bowls and place into freezer to set.

Optional extra - place a selection of fruit into the swerving bowls and then add mousse mix, place in fridge to set (not if using fruit add less cold water, take it to just over ¾ pt).

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~~Trifle~~

Trifle has always gone down well, to both dieters and non dieters, every time I have made this. This is a very low fat trifle and tastes delicious.

Ingredients

2 pkts of sugar free jelly
1 pkt trifle sponges (optional)
Fruit (I use summer fruits)
125ml Natural Yoghurt
250ml Fromage Frais
Canderel granulated sugar
Fresh Fruit for garnishing or (optional, grated chocolate for garnishing)

Method:

Place your fruit into the bottom of your trifle bowl, (add trifle sponges if you are using them).

Make up the first packet of sugar free jelly, using ½ pt of boiling water, topped up with cold water to just over ¾ pt. pour this over the fresh fruit in your trifle dish.

Leave this to set in your fridge, as you have added some cold water the setting time will be reduced.
After a few hours your trifle should be set, gently move your bowl to see if it is stiff to the touch and it does not slop about in the bowl.

Once it is set, make up the mock mousse as described in the recipe above, once this has rested for about 10 mins: pour it over the set jelly in your trifle bowl.

Once again place bowl back in fridge for the mousse to set.

Like the jelly this should take a couple of hours.

Once this has set get you Fromage Frais and sweeten to your own taste with Canderel.

Mix the sugar and Fromage Frais together until you are happy with the sweetness and then spread over the top of your trifle.

You can then garnish with fruit or grated chocolate.

Obviously, the points (Weight Watchers), sins (Slimming World), calories etc will vary depending what you decide you use, but it is a slimming dessert and will help with those sweet cravings. I have used this recipe when I have been on Slimming World and Weight Watchers; it is also fine for me on my Diabetic diet.

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~~A naughty but nice, chocoholic snack~~

Ingredients:

Chocolate (small bar now ladies and gents)
Cereal (Rice Crispies, Cornflakes, Special Kay)

Well you all should know this one it is really easy to make, but it does help with those chocolate craving, especially those ones we get at well, that time of the month.

Obviously look for your lowest options with calories, points and sins. But you can make 5 sins go a long way.

Method:

Break you allowance of chocolate up into a heat proof bowl and place the bowl over a boiling saucepan of water. (Make sure your bowl is big enough to take the cereal as well).

Once chocolate has melted to a creamy texture, remove from heat and add your cereal allowance ( cereal of your choice, I find Rice Crispies are best as they go further and look more). Make up into little balls and place on a tray to cool down and set. Once set they are ready to eat.

I may be stating the obvious, but keep them small little nibbles to help you with your choccy craving, remember to add your ingredients up, to the relevant points, sins etc and divide by the number you have made, so that you can add them to your daily allowance.

I found this was a good way of having a little of what you fancy and making it go a lot further. We eat with our eyes a lot, so by doing this it makes a small chocolate bar last a couple of days and not a couple of seconds. Plus it stops you going out and having a couple of chocolate bars.

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~~Grape and Apple Meringues~~

Now, this recipe is not one of mine, I found it on the Weight Watchers site whilst looking for the point values of the ingredients I have listed in my recipes. I thought that it looked nice and as it was available to the public, I thought I would share it with you. It serves 4 persons and is 1.5 points per portion.

Ingredients:

250 g apple(s), baking, peeled, cored and chopped
110 g grapes, seedless, halved
4 tablespoon Canderel (or equivalent)
2 large egg(s), separated

Method:

Preheat your oven to 200c/180c for fan assisted ovens/gas mark 6

Cook your apples in a little water until tender (approx 8 mins), then mash the apple until you get a smooth puree (you can you a small blender, or a potato masher to achieve this).

Add the grapes to your puree mix along with the Canderel; sweeten to your own liking. Once you have it at the sweetness you like, add the egg yolks and stir them in. Divide the mixture into 4 individual ovenproof dishes and place on a baking tray in the oven for 5 mins.

You now need to make your meringues - you do this by whisking the egg whites until they peak and whisk in the remaining sweetener. You then add the meringue mix (when it is stiff) to the top of your desserts and put back in the oven for a further 4-5mins until the meringues have browned.

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~~Fresh Fruit Salad and Cream~~

Finally we have an old favourite fruit and cream, but hey, hang on this is the slimming version, yep we may be slimming, but we can still enjoy our strawberries and cream with Wimbledon (ok, so it's not summer), but we can, all we need to do is substitute the cream with Fromage Frais sweetened to your taste with Canderel (or another brand of slimming sugar dust, oops sorry granulated suger).

To make your Fresh Fruit Salad, choice your fruits, for example, apples (they are crunchy and take longer to eat), pears, banana (limit these high in natural sugar), grapes (same as banana), pineapple, melon, orange, grapefruit etc. Prepare you fruit, peel the ones that need peeling and cut up, dice etc to your own design, mix them together into your fruit bowl and cover with Diet Lemonade to preserve. This should last a couple of days if kept in the fridge.

Serve with your sweetened Fromage Frais. This is great to take to work with you, for your lunch, or if you can eat at your desk, then great for picking at and to stop you reaching for those crisps.

The Fresh Fruit Salad itself is free food on both Weight Watchers and Slimming World. Now that can't be bad.
I hope some of these are of help to those of you that are on diets or just choosing the healthier options. If you try them out I hope you enjoy.

I do apologise to you all, I did try to get the details of the points, sins, etc off the internet to help you with the values, sadly I would have to sign up to both Weight Watchers and Slimming World sites to obtain those details. But the good news is that they are simple recipes and easy to work out from your books to those of you that, do attend both the above slimming clubs.

Good luck to all that are trying to loose weight like me.