Have Your Cake and Eat It Too

 I visited my child's kindergarten class along with several other parents and overheard a conversation between two thin ladies about weight loss.  One had recently lost a bunch of weight.  Although she looked great and felt better, she fussed about how boring eating healthfully was for her.  The other mom confessed she had gained ten pounds because motherhood makes her feel like she deserves snack cakes everyday and had no plans of going back to her former way of eating.  They laughed as they admitted how life tastes better with junk food.

I actually enjoyed their conversation, but it really made me think.  There is no reason why people cannot enjoy food and health at the same time.  There are plenty of examples of friends I know who eat heavenly, feel great, and look amazing.  Dieting is not about deprivation.  It can't be.   I have enjoyed exploring different foods and recipes to pack my meals with nutrition. Weight loss becomes effortless and permanent when it is enjoyable.   I'm excited to learn more, and try knew foods.  It's like a puzzle to see how I can fit tasty foods from each food groups in one day.  Health does not have to be boring.  Some of the best recipes I've had were packed full of nutrition.  With just a little ingenuity, taste and health can come together to make weight loss seem effortless.

I’ve been experimenting! 

Some time ago I posted a REAL chocolate gravy recipe and said, “Because every food should fit.” Every food CAN fit and I will always believe that. But some things only work themselves into the meal plan every once in a while. What is totally awesome is adding nutrition to tasty foods so they can fit more often. Sure the sugar-free alternative may taste a little differently, but this is a way you can have your cake and eat more of it more often.   

It started as a desire to create some recipes using a bulking fiber. I bought some glucomannon powder at the health-food store. ½ teaspoon has 2 grams of fiber, but this stuff GROWS! ½ teaspoon turned 1 cup of thin liquid into a saucy pudding consistency. Whoa!  Fiber promotes regularity, weight loss, increases blood sugar control, AND lowers cholesterol. Holla!   I had read about Glucomannon, but when I tried it in a suggested recipe, I felt like I was eating Vaseline. Who wants health to taste like torture? “Not I” said the dietitian. I decided to do a little experimenting. 
 

I made some chocolate gravy replacing ¼ cup flour with ½ teaspoon of glucommanon which now made the recipe gluten free. I replaced half the sugar with Stevia so the calories of the recipe were cut in more than half. In one version, I used coconut milk instead of regular skim milk just to see what it would do. I could taste the difference, but all in all it was a good. The version with coconut milk was rich and dense like it would be a wonderful replacement for chocolate sauce in a dessert. I haven’t tried it with 100% stevia instead of sugar, but I want to.  I've got to adjust the family taste buds gradually so they accept the new flavors. 
 

Altering The Recipe…

The regular recipe: 1 cup sugar. ¼ cups flour. 3 tablespoons cocoa. 2 cups milk. Bring to a boil, then remove from heat and serve. Six servings at 185 calories per serving.

Replacing the flour with ½ teaspoon of glucomannon and half of the sugar with Stevia. Six servings at 105 calories and 24 grams of carbohydrate.

Replacing the milk with coconut milk decreased the carbohydrates even more to 20 gram per servings.

Replacing the sugar and adding the fiber and fat from coconut milk will slow digestion helping to regulate blood sugar and preventing that quick rise and fall of glucose/insulin.