Especially with a young child, dessert might be the hardest time to have LPLD. Making sure Monica feels included in a special treat at holidays, family gatherings, and weddings, is almost always a source of stress for me! So here is a list of our best ideas to make desserts feel special:
- Fresh fruit with sugar to dip in - by far the easiest for a restaurant or a wedding caterer to pull off, especially when it's a special rare fruit (strawberries!)
- Apple slices dusted with cinnamon and sugar and DELICIOUS
- Sherbet or sorbet - be careful, sherbet is sometimes fat free, sometimes not! Serve with chocolate syrup, sprinkles, cherries, and/or marshmallow fluff
- Marshmallows! Roasted over a campfire (s'mores can work with chocolate syrup instead of a bar of chocolate), or assembled with toothpicks into a 'snowman'
- Apple (or other fruit) 'pie' without the crust (or the crust removed)
- Fat free brownies (I'm still working on an imitation of Trader Joe's mix that's been discontinued)
- Angel food cake frosted with fat free whipped cream (or whipped topping), fresh fruit, or sweetened nonfat yogurt
- Fruit juice popsicles (buy them, make your own in dixie cups; maybe even with fat free yogurt, like a frozen smoothie)
- Merengue cookies are one guaranteed fat free cookie!
- Snow cones, either with a fancy snow cone maker or use a blender to crush ice, then cover it in sugary fruity syrup
- popcorn or kettle corn - easy to make on a stovetop, or airpop some popcorn, melt some honey with cinnamon, and toss the popcorn with the sticky delicious result. I made about 8 cups of the stuff last night thinking it would be a sweet snack for the week. Monica and Mary ate it all. in. one. night. !!
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| So sick of Frozen, but it makes everything more special these days |
What are your reliable dessert options when you need a sweet treat?
Divinity (or 7-minute frosting) is what my grandmother always made for me - to put on angel food cake.
ReplyDeleteIt's the BEST! I love it and would eat pots of it if it was a little less cumbersome to make!
But it makes me feel like I'm getting something special.
Store-bought angel food cake is not AS GOOD AS MY mamaw's or even my own made cake - and one of my daughters cooks me angel food cake for mothers day and as a special treat sometimes.
You have to use the store mix that has TWO PACKAGES of cake mix in it though. Part A, then Part B. And then it's perfect with frosting on top - and I still always put food coloring in mine. Because I can. :)
But you are right. Holidays and dessert are the hardest times.
Next is breakfast. I HATE HATE HATE going out to eat breakfast with people. Who wants to pay good money for almost nothing to eat?
While my family is eating pancakes, french toast, bacon, biscuits and gravy... I am eating 2 eggs over easy (wipe off the grease with extra napkins please) plus dry toast. Yum. lol
As a kid, my entire family ate all kinds of candy and things. I'm sure that my dad and mom refrained a lot, probably sneaking in their bedroom to eat!, but my sister just ate normally all the time. ALL the time. She is 17 months younger than me, so we were very close in age and did almost all the same activities.
ReplyDeleteHalloween... I used to get so mad going out trick or treating. My bag would get emptied and my mom would sort it out. Or I would sort it out with her. Some candies I didn't mind so much that she took from me. I never ate peanut butter, so I just "thought" that I didn't like it. So she could get all the Snickers and Reese's and stuff, no problem. But I love caramel. And I always wanted the Milky Way bars. :(
I despise the orange "peanut marshallow" candies. No fat of course. I ate so much candy corn in my life. And Sugar Daddies. And tootsie roll pops. And gum. Happy for gum at least. Hard candies and taffy were my treats. Salt water taffy. Sweetarts. Cotton Candy.
I think it's the lack of choices. You go into a convenience store when you're traveling and you just want something. And there's not much to choose from... and it's hard to be a kid around a bunch of other kids who might make fun of you, or worse - might guilt you or persuade you to try this, just a little, it won't hurt.
But being a kid is hard. If it's not one thing, it's another. At least with a low-fat diet, you are probably eating healthier than a lot of other people.
As an adult now, I'm very grateful for my mom's protection, and for her keeping me safe and depriving me. Honestly she said I was a very compliant child. And even in the hospital as a research patient, she said that I always ate everything that I was supposed to eat, and never asked for anything else. And they had me eating a very meticulously measured amount of food. Sometimes it was no fat, sometimes it was measured fat to see how I would react. But that was life. And we all have to deal with something.
I could've been abducted, abused, hungry, or homeless. I have had a very blessed life.
I've always heard of 'divinity' as a candy, and never tried it! But I've made seven minute frosting. And now, upon googling 'divinity,' I find it has no fat! I will have to try making it! Without pecans, of course.
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