Need dessert ideas on very restrictive diet

elphie754 wrote: »

What about sugar free pudding or sugar free jello? You can make a jello mold with fresh fruit inside, or just plain hellos with some cool whip (if he eats that). Puffing can be great by itself, or in my family we throw blue berries and strawberries on top.

This is what i'd suggest. You could also do a sugar free chocolate pudding and top it with dark chocolate shavings.

You could pour and set them in individual cups so that it's extra fancy.

"Other than a nice fruit salad (which can be lovely if all else fails)"

If you go that route I'd make a watermelon cake. It's pretty much a fruit salad but they look so festive and delicious.

I use this dessert when I want something sweet. It doesn't look the fanciest but it tastes just like chocolate brownie mix so I don't care.

30 dates (soak if using dry dates)
3 tbsp cocoa powder
pinch of salt

Whizz them together in the blender, you make need to add water to a get a 'brownie mix' consistency if the dates were too dry. You have to try these to believe them!

If that doesn't float your boat, try Google 'Healthy Vegan Desserts'. They automatically cut out anything with cream, butter, eggs and (usually) use substitutes like dates and maple syrup for sweetness instead of processed white sugar. Be aware though that even though these dessert may be made with whole food and ingredients from your brother's 'permitted' list, some of them are still high in fat because of the amount of nuts or coconut cream used!

Best of luck to your brother in his recovery and kudos for being so thoughtful and supporting his new healthy choices!

You could do frozen yogurt "bark", basically you smooth out a thin amount of yogurt (usually vanilla) and then put stuff on top like chopped up fruit, maybe a couple of dark chocolate chips, etc. and then freeze for a few hours until solid. Then you break it up and eat it as if it were pieces of chocolate. There's a lot of good examples online if you search "frozen yogurt bark".

Fat free mascarpone or ricotta cheese (or a mix of the two) with fruit and a little vanilla (fresh fruit can be macerated with a liqueur or other alcoholic beverage if that's not restricted) sweetened with stevia or Splenda, a couple of spoonfuls of nuts and low-fat granola for crunch and texture. That makes a really good dessert (at least to my taste).

If you google "low sugar low fat cake recipes" there are a lot of recipes out there. Also check out Evelyn Tribole's "Healthy Homestyle Desserts" -- I haven't used this cookbook, but have her other two healthy homestyle cookbooks and they're quite good. You might find good recipes there.

Chocolate avocado mousse? Here's one you can make with cocoa powder (unsweetened), stevia rather than sugar, and no fat other than what's in avocado and whatever milk you choose to use (avocado is predominantly monounsaturated fat -- I don't think completely cutting out saturated fat is realistic, as pretty much everything that has fat has a mixture of saturated and unsaturated, but you can emphasize fat sources that are predominantly unsaturated).

http://chocolatecoveredkatie.com/2015/10/15/avocado-chocolate-mousse-vegan-healthy/

I would top with raspberries rather than strawberries, myself.

If you want to go fancier, you could make half the mousse without chocolate, add mint (extract, or steep mint leaves in the milk) to the non-chocolate portion (or both portions), and either layer or do a vertical half-and-half pour into a parfait glass. I saw this on Martin Yan's cooking show "Yan Can Cook" years ago -- I forget who the guest chef was who came up with this idea. I made it once, and it was very good. To be clear, the basic recipe wasn't the one I linked above, but to the best of my memory, it sounds similar (other than I'm sure on the cooking show they used real sugar).

It occurs to me, depending on what your family's favorite flavors are, you could do things other than mint for the second flavor, like coconut (extract), almond (extract), or peanut butter (you could try a defatted peanut powder like PB2, or one that doesn't have added sugar, or just use a sugar free peanut butter)

If you go with a fruit salad, a nice topping is to combine a little brown sugar with non-fat or low-fat sour cream or greek yogurt (a variation on Barbados cream)--or you could use an artificial sweetener like stevia if you think it's necessary. You could do individual parfait glasses if you feel that is fancier. Personally, I like a "family-style" presentation of the entire fruit salad in a cut-glass bowl, with the

How about ricotta cheesecake? It's not anything like a cream cheese based cheesecake, and isn't supposed to be. (It's more common in Europe). I've made a reduced fat/sugar/calorie version that's yummy with fruit and a drizzle of honey on top. Start with 15-16 oz container low fat ricotta, blend with 8oz Greek yogurt, 1/4 cup egg substitute, 1/4 cup white whole wheat flour, 1cup Splenda for baking, juice & zest of 1 lemon and one scraped vanilla bean. Pour into 6-8" greased spring form pan or individual ramekins. Bake @ 350 degrees in 1" water bath (Cover bottom outside of springform w foil first) for 45 min if using springform, 20-30 for ramekins; until outside is set and center slightly jiggles. Let cool at room temp 30 min then refrigerate.

What about meringues made with sweetener (is that allowed?) crushed up and layered with lightly sweetened fat free Greek yogurt & vanilla extract, and strawberries macerated in a touch more sweetener and a splash of balsamic vinegar. Like an Eton mess.

Yogurt parfait. Layers of yogurt, fresh fruit, nuts, shredded coconut, with a few dark chocolate mini morsels on top.

Any kind of fruits will work. You want it cut in small pieces.

Yogurt parfait. You can sprikle on things like ginger or nutmeg. Gelatin. Grilled peaches or pineapple or a baked apple maybe.