Sweet Treats

Mounjaro Journey – 4 weeks in, 5mg

flidfit Mounjaro, Sweet Treats, Uncategorized

This week is the end of four weeks of taking Mounjaro and time to move my dosage up to 5mg.  I am hopeful that I’ll transition to the new dose without side effects.

The past few days here in SE England have been very warm (29/30 degrees) and this is set to continue for another day or two.  Heat diminishes my appetite, but I have been eating smaller portions.  The Voy App encourages me to take pictures of my meals, and I’ve found this a useful method to reflect back on how my portion sizes are reducing.

Weight loss is now:

START WEIGHT:  71.4KG (11 stone 1lb)
TODAYS WEIGHT:  68.9KG (10 stone 9lb)
TOTAL LOSS:  2.5KG (approx 5½lb)

I’m happy with that.  Moving away from the “loading” dosage of 2.5mg should result in a further reduction in appetite – but I have read accounts from individuals who haven’t felt like eating at all and have had to push themselves to do so.  I do hope this isn’t my experience, as I am half-French!  Whilst of course I enjoy EATING food, what I love more is the preparation of food and the experience of sitting down at a table with my OH and enjoying the results.  A chance to chat, enjoy the garden…

Looking at the image of my meals during the week, you may spot cake!  The gooseberries were harvested this week – so I made a gooseberry and orange drizzle cake (without the drizzle), gooseberry fool and gooseberry no-churn ice cream.  I have enjoyed one piece of the cake (the remainder is now frozen), one of the gooseberry fools – and a small amount of the ice-cream (probably a table spoon).

Blackcurrant “no churn” ice cream – enjoy wearing protected with an apron would be my advice!

Next to be harvested have been the blackcurrants and I’ve made a batch of no-churn blackcurrant ice-cream which was popped into the freezer…  I had to slightly adapt the recipe as I didn’t have very much double cream, so I substituted with cream cheese!  This appears to have been a success.  Woe betide dropping any of this on a white shirt though – best enjoyed protecting clothing with an apron!!

Whilst the ice-cream recipes are full of cream and sugar, they’re definitely nutritionally better than the shop-bought ice-creams, which are full of all sorts of additives.

 

Black Bean Chocolate Truffles – 40 calories each

flidfit Healthy Swaps, Sweet Treats, Vegan / Plant based, Vegeterian ,

Let’s face it, most of us have a sweet tooth and those sweet “treats” that we so love are often some of the most highly processed, refined sugar dense calories that you can find!  Very rarely can one derive any benefit from the ingredients.

Determined to allow myself to indulge in sweet treats – I’ve been on the search for tasty treats that offer some nutritional benefit.

These are amazing!  Who’d know that they contain beans!

 

Black Bean Chocolate Truffles – 90 calories per bite

 

Preparation Time:                    5 mins

Cooking Time:                          N/A

Serves:                                       20

Calories per serving:               40 per truffle

 

Ingredients

Oat Flour                                                 30g

Dates, Soft, Pitted                                 125g

Peanut Butter Powder, PB Fit            25g

White Miso Paste                                  1 Tsp/5g

Vanilla Extract                                      1 Tsp/5ml

Cacao Powder                                        25g

Black Beans, Tinned, in Water          1 Can/240g

Method

Drain and rinse the black beans.

Place everything into a food processor and blitz until a nice doughy ball has formed. If your dates are too firm, microwave for 10-15 seconds until softened.

Roll into walnut sized truffles and optionally roll them in cacao powder for that tempting truffle look!

Nutrition Data Per Serving

Calories (kcal)                           39.9

Protein (g)                                    1.8

Carbohydrate (g)                        5.6

Fat (g)                                           0.4

Fibre (g)                                       3.2

Fruit & Veg                                 0.4

 

Flaxseed Carrot Cake Pancakes – 90 calories each

flidfit Healthy Swaps, Recipes, Sweet Treats, Vegeterian

 

Okay, okay…. I might just be a little addicted to this flaxseed pancake recipe – but it’s pretty healthy, contains plenty of fibre and you can add grated vegetables to make it lower in calories.

One of my favourite cake recipes is carrot cake.  So todays flaxseed variation turned the basic pancake recipe into “Flaxseed Carrot Cake Pancakes”.  Served with cream cheese, chopped walnuts and pecans and a tiny drizzle of maple syrup.  These really didn’t need much sweetening, thanks to the dates that were incorporated into the batter.

These are super filling.  The recipe makes 8 pancakes, but 3 per person is adequate.  I didn’t struggle to eat the fourth!

Flaxseed Carrot Cake Pancakes – 90 cals

Preparation Time          10 mins

Cooking Time:               10 mins

Makes:                             8 pancakes

Calories per serving:     90

 

Ingredients

Oat Flour                                                  45g

Spelt Flour                                                40g

Linseeds, Freshly Milled                        7g

Baking Powder                                         1 Tsp/2g

Bicarbonate of Soda                                 ½ Tsp/2.5g

Peanut Butter, Powder, PB Fit              2 Tbsp/12g

Cinnamon, Ground                                  1 Tsp/3g

Butter, Salted                                           15g

Milk, Whole                                              130ml

Eggs, Free Range, Medium                    1 Egg/50g

Dates, Deglet Nour                                  34g

Miso, Paste, White, Yutaka                    2g

Carrots, Peeled                                         125g

Method

Peel and coarsely grate the carrots. Chop the dates in half, removing stones if present. Liquidise the egg, dates, milk, miso and butter in a blender to form a frothy liquid.

Mix all the dry ingredients (apart from the grated carrot) in a large mixing bowl.  Add the milk mixture to the dry mix and thoroughly combine.

Add the grated carrot and stir through. Leave for 2-3 minutes.

Preheat a large frying pan over a medium heat. You want the surface to be hot but not too hot – the oil shouldn’t smoke when it makes contact with the surface.

Lightly oil your frying pan (I use coconut oil) and pour half ladle measurements of the batter onto the pan. There should be 8 pancakes (as recipe is written). Best to cook them in two batches of four.

Flip when bubbles appear in the middle and the edges turn slightly dry, being careful not to burn.

Cook for 1-2 minutes more on the other side and then top with whatever else you please.

Serve topped with full-fat soft cream cheese, chopped walnuts or pecans (or a combination of both) and a drizzle of maple syrup.

Will reheat well the next day in the microwave.

Nutrition Data Per Serving

Calories (kcal)          90.4

Protein (g)                  3.4

Carbohydrate (g)        8.9

Fat (g)                        3.5

Fibre (g)                     6.6

Fruit & Veg                 0.4

Flaxseed carrot cake pancake – topped with cream cheese, chopped walnuts and pecans and a drizzle of maple syrup

Blackberry & Apple Flapjack Crumble – 376 calories

flidfit Recipes, Sweet Treats

Choosing to eat healthily doesn’t necessarily mean that you need to cut out all sweet treats.  When it’s cold and dreary outside, there’s nothing better than a hot home made dessert and crumbles have to be up there in the top 5!

This one comes with a difference – the topping is based on a flapjack mixture using oats and golden syrup.  The end result is a lovely chewy topping.

High in calories, but I only need half a portion to hit the spot.

This uses tinned apples as they were in my cupboard, but fresh apples would work just as well.

________________________________

Apple & Blackberry Flapjack Topped Crumble – 376 calories

Preparation Time:       10

Cooking Time:            25 mins

Serves:                         4

Calories per serving:   376

Ingredients

Breakfast Cereal, Porridge Oats                                –   70g

Flour, Plain                                                                   –   50g

Butter, Salted                                                              –   55g

Syrup, Golden                                                             –   1½ Tbsps/30g

Cinnamon, Ground                                                     –   ½ Tsp/1.5g

Apples, Granny Smith, Canned, Slices                    –   1 Can/392g

Blackberries, Fresh, Raw                                           –   200g

Sugar, Brown, Soft, Light                                          –   100g

 

Method

STEP 1
Heat oven to 190C/fan 170C/gas 5. Place the tinned apple slices and blackberries on the base of a shallow oven proof dish and sprinkle over 30g of the light brown sugar (the remainder goes into the topping).

STEP 2
Mix the oats, flour and cinnamon in a large bowl. Add the butter in small chunks and rub in gently. Stir in the remaining 30g of sugar and rub in again.  If easier, you can melt the butter in the microwave and stir through the dry mixture.

Drizzle over the syrup, mixing with a knife so it forms small clumps.

Sprinkle evenly over the apples and bake for 25-30 mins until the juices from the apples start to bubble up.

Cool for 10 mins (this stage is essential to achieve a lovely chewy texture), then serve with custard, cream or ice cream.  Or as I have done, with creme fraiche.

 

Nutrition Data Per Serving

Calories (kcal)          376

Protein (g)                4.9

Carbohydrate (g)     59.0

Fat (g)                      12.5

Fibre (g)                   5.9

Fruit & Veg               2.0

Manchester Tart – good old fashioned “school puddings” 212 calories

flidfit Sweet Treats, Uncategorized

IMG_5006

Manchester tart – a dessert that was served for school dinners when I was younger.  Or “pudding” as it was always know.  Not actually too calorific or too difficult to make.

This is the second time during the Covid-19 lockdown that I’ve made pastry and it’s actually really simple (using a food processor) and much nicer.

It was bloomin’ lovely and only 212 calories for a portion. I would like to share the recipe. The custard came out rather too runny, so I’d adjust it by either using less milk or adding more custard powder:

Manchester Tart – 212 calories per portion

Cooking Time: 30 mins

Serves: 6

Calories per serving: 212

Ingredients

Plain Flour – 55g

Unsalted Butter – 33g

Salt – 1 Pinch/0.1g

Water – 3 Tbsps/45ml

Milk, Semi Skimmed – 575ml

Custard Powder, Original – 20g

Sugar, Caster – 3 Tbsps/45g

Jam, Raspberry – 3 Tbsps/45g

Desiccated Coconut – 30g

Method

Heat oven to 200C/180C fan/gas 6. Butter a 22cm round loose-bottomed tart tin.

Make the pastry – Place the plain flour into a large bowl, add the (chilled) diced butter and rub in with your fingertips until the mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs.

Stir in a pinch of salt, then add 2 – 3 tbsp water and mix to a firm dough.

Knead the dough briefly and gently on a floured surface.

Use the sheet of pastry to line the tin. Prick the base with a fork, then lay a sheet of baking parchment on top and fill with baking beans. Bake for 20 mins. Remove the beans and baking parchment and cook for a further 5 mins. Remove from the oven and leave to cool.

To make the custard, mix the custard powder and sugar with a small amount from the measured milk in a measuring jug. Place the remaining milk in a pan and heat over a medium heat. Once the milk is fairly warm, add the custard powder mixture and continue to cook, stirring constantly until smooth and thick, around 5-10 mins. Leave to cool and cover with cling film to stop a skin from forming.

Once the base and custard have cooled, spread the jam over the pastry and sprinkle with half the coconut. Pour in the custard, then sprinkle with the remaining coconut and chill.

Nutrition Data Per Serving

Calories (kcal) 211.9

Protein (g) 4.6

Carbohydrate (g) 26.6

Fat (g) 9.5

Fruit & Veg 0.0

Fibre (g) 1.1