As I work catering for a Halloween themed party, I realize I love playing with food. The texture, the color, and the way the flavors blend fascinate me. I'm working on a pasta salad recipe. The size you slice the red onions or the bell peppers effects not just how to dish tastes but also the texture of it in your mouth. How each ingredient is prepared and cooked or not affects the final product. This is very important, if you are catering. To get just the right flavor.
It’s even more of a challenge when you add a nutritional component. You may just want to make sure that carbohydrates sweet flavor is blended with a protein balance to slow down processing the food into glucose in your blood sugar faster. This is an even tougher challenge with sweets. They automatically have more sugar in the recipe to increase the amount of glucose released in the blood stream. I used to think it was impossible to make sweets that are safe for diabetics to eat.
I remember when I discovered I was wrong. I was in Louisville, Kentucky at a local church doing a family portrait photo shoot to raise funds for a local afterschool program for kids. The people were great; and the kids were a blast. What really stuck with me was the cooking...
This group had it going on. They didn’t just have the photo shoot fundraiser but also had a cookout fundraiser going on at the same time. Of course, I decided to support the group and enjoy some of this excellent food. I got a meat and three vegetables. I thought I would have to skip the desert. It was a beautiful dark chocolate cake. The cook told me he was diabetic; and he assured me it was safe for me to eat. It was his own personal recipe and never caused his blood sugar to spike.
He was right. His recipe was fantastic. My blood sugar didn't go crazy. He gave me the confidence to start doing this blog. Now I’m adding another degree of difficulty, a gross Halloween dessert theme.
There’s a $50 prize for first place in a local gruesome dessert competition. I’ve always seen these recipes for kitty litter cake. I’m sure I could’ve adopted it as a cake, but the cake recipe is going in my cook book. Instead I’m doing a new rendition: kitty litter bars….But you will only get half of the recipe this week. I do want to win the competition. I'll share the peanut butter graham cracker bar recipe next week. For this week, I'll give you a trick to be able to use this recipe for a Halloween treat.
Ingredients:
2 oz. Bakers premium baking bar unsweetened chocolate 100% cocoa
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon nutmeg
1/4 cup heavy whipping cream
1/2 ounce sunflower oil
30+ drops of 50/50 Stevia/vanilla extract mix
3/4 cup of almond slivers
1 cup maple almond granola
1/8 cup of ground flaxseed
Directions:
1.) Measure and prepare all your ingredients and parchment lined cookie sheet in advance.
2.) Turn your stove eye on to medium heat. Allow the water in your double boiler to come to a slow rolling boil.
3.) Add your chocolate; but keep stirring it. Chocolate can get scorched.
4.) Toss in the cinnamon & nutmeg when the chocolate starts to melt. Continue stirring.
5.) Stir in the sunflower oil, Stevia drops, and heavy whipping cream. Ensure everything as well blended.
6.) Remove the pot from the stove eye; and allow it to cool for a minute or two.
7.) Gently stir in the almond slivers. If there’s any moisture on the blueberries, the chocolate will seize and have to be thrown out. Mix with a spoon until the blueberries are thoroughly coated in chocolate.
8.) Spoon drops of the mixture onto a parchment lined cookie sheet. Place in the refrigerator overnight.
9.) Mix the maple almond granola and flaxseed and spread out in an 8x8 baking pan. Top with the dark chocolate almond kitty treats and garnish with a kitty scooper.
Flaxseed is full of omega-3 fatty acids and fiber. The fiber helps slow the digestive process for diabetics. It also aids digestion by relieving constipation. It must be ground first because our bodies can't process whole seeds. I just use my coffee grinder for fresh flaxseed meal because it doesn't keep well once ground. Just remember to enjoy with water and not with medications.
Source: "Does Ground Flaxseed Have More Health Benefits Than Whole Flaxseed"
Healthy Lifestyle Nutrition and Healthy Eating Mayo Clinic 02/02/2021
Now it's time for me to go decorate for another outdoor Halloween gathering before the weather turns cold. If this recipe makes it's way into your house, please comment, like, share, and come back next week for more recipes, ideas, and tips. Subscribe to the website, if you would like weekly email reminders to add more recipes to your recipe book.
Disclaimer: This is not medical advice, but a compilation of research from medical sites. Make sure to see your doctor and have up to date lab work.
Comments