THM Tips and Treats

If you do healthy eating at all, you really should get the two cookbooks from Trim Healthy Mama! They are simply wonderful. I know there are a lot of people that struggle with things not tasting as right to them and struggle eating them. The best thing you can do in that situation is get completely off of sugar and the high carb foods (white flour, white rice, POTATOES, and yes, pasta) for a while. Eat simply cooked foods for a few weeks, grilled, sauteed, and baked meats with vegetables you do like. If you are not a fan of veggies, try roasting them, as it brings out the sweetness in them.

The other thing to do is to find an alternative natural sweetener. Xylitol is a good place to start. But you need to know two things, first that you can overdo it and it can cause you to have some intestinal discomfort and/or very loose bowel movements. So, you want to use it in moderation. And secondly, when you are looking for a xylitol to use, read the source of the xylitol. I choose not to use one that is derived from corn because it is hard to find a pure corn. (Oh! and if you have a dog be sure it doesn’t eat anything with xylitol in it because it can be deadly for them.)

The other natural sweetener you want to find a version you can acquire a taste for is stevia. My preferred stevia is stevia glycerite but I have learned to like Trim Healthy Mama’s Pure Stevia Extract Powder as well. We use a variety of sweeteners to avoid intestinal distress. But yet, it still sneaks in on us occasionally and we need to assess where we overdid it. It can be a bit of a puzzle some times (but worth it for all the delicious yumminess). ;)

Stick with more natural flavors when you first give up sugar. Try to find the natural sweetness in lower glycemic fruits. Stay away from chocolate desserts in the beginning because it is harder to get the sweetness right with them. After your tastes have adjusted to a lower glycemic diet and you have found the sweeteners you prefer, then you can begin to find low carb, sugar free version of your old favorite desserts. Know that it won’t taste exactly like the version you used to eat but that it can be just as pleasing in its own right.

For Valentine’s Day I made Michael, Sean, and Tiffany each a sweet treat. Sean’s was “rice krispy treats”. This is the one with which I was the least happy but Sean enjoyed it and so did Tiffany. I’m going to have to work with this recipe some more to make it crispier; currently it is not crispy. ;) I’m told it has good flavor though. (This one was in Trim Healthy Table.)

For Michael, I made some candies that are like a Payday candy. I made them in bars and they really turned out good this time. I was careful to measure the chopped peanuts so there was enough syrupy part to cover them completely. I’ve been generous with the peanuts in the past and it made the candies so that they didn’t stay together well. For those that have the Trim Healthy Mama Cookbook, the one I made is the payoff candies.

I made four batches of two-minute truffles (from Trim Healthy Table) for Tiffany. They are a chocolate peanut flour truffle. I made it with my kitchenaide mixer which made it much easier. We have found that they only stay fresh in the refrigerator for two days. Next time I make enough to last a few days, I will freeze the extra. (As usual, I was too busy to even think about snapping pictures . . . so sorry about that . . . I really am trying to improve on this. ;) )

And finally, I made the trimtastic mostess cupcakes which resemble Hostess cupcakes. Oh my gracious! They were delicious!!! Even though the ganache on top needed adjusting when I made it, it turned out great.

THM cupcake ~ Lifeofjoy.meI had a little bit of an issue with the cream filling though because I let the gelatin cool down too much and I ended up with some lumps in it. That isn’t necessarily a bad thing except that I was trying to pipe the swirl on the top and the clumps wouldn’t go through the tip very well. Sometimes I had to press very hard. One time, the cream shot way across the table. :D

Mostess Cupcake ~ Lifeofjoy.meWe had these for three days because it made twelve and there are only four of us. We refrained ourselves because I wanted to make them last. :)

Well, I’ve gotten a bit wordy today. Sorry it isn’t a recipe but more a list of some of the ones we have enjoyed recently.

Until next time, God bless,

Michele ºÜº

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