Dessert in a Glass

Desserts should be sweet and very flavorful: a rich chocolate brownie, a moist piece of carrot cake with cream cheese frosting, an intensely flavored lemon tart with a nut crust. Since there is a price to pay in added calories, without a lot of nutrition, you want to get the full taste satisfaction out of your sweet and flavorful. You want to know you are eating it and you want to enjoy every mouthful.

For the best health, the bulk of your foods need to be nutritious, fibrous, and flavorful. Foods that are sweet and flavorful have lost most of their nutrition and fiber; soft drinks and fruit juices fall into the realm of sweet and flavorful. Juices do provide vitamins, but so do the carrots in carrot cake. There is nothing wrong with drinking soft drinks and juices; a potential problem arises only because you reach for soft drinks and juices out of habit. You are thirsty so you grab a can of soda or a glass of juice. You just added calories of sweet and flavorful without realizing it; there was nothing to chew so you missed the whole dessert experience.

Enjoying a favorite dessert, or beverage, is part of a common sense approach to eating. It makes sense to eat the sweet and flavorful foods occasionally so you do not feel deprived and set yourself up for a binge later. Just be certain you realize when you are eating your sweet and flavorful, you want to get every bit of pleasure from it.

Cooking is easier than you think and you are worth the time and effort it takes.

Simple cooking idea: Meat browns better if it is dry. Use a paper towel to pick it up when you add it to the hot oil.