Simple, Healthy Sweets

I think I was a chef in a past life. At the age 13, I began making our family’s thanksgiving dinner. It started innocently enough. My parents had split up, and my mom didn’t know how to make a turkey. I told her, “Don’t worry, I saw my dad do it once,” and I took over making the meal. It turned out pretty good, and by my second thanksgiving, I was winning family judged gravy making contests.

In college, I won a chili cook-off, the first time I’d ever made chili. Well, to be fair, an excellent cook taught me how to make chili the night before, but when it came time for me to actually make it, I’d lost the recipe. I had to use what I’d remembered, and improvised the rest. My recipe beat maybe thirteen others, including my boss’s prized recipe, which I’m not so sure was a bright career move. But nonetheless, inventing what most of the time ends up being fabulous meals is both easy and entertaining for me.

Today, my focus is on making meals that are both delicious and healthy. It’s in the balance and not compromising either one for the other. Of course, because I tend to use what’s already in the kitchen and many of the ingredients are interchangeable, what I prepare is always pretty simple, and most of the time, just takes a few minutes to make.

One of my favorite meals these days is so simple, it’s ridiculous. It’s fruit and stevia. If you’re not using stevia, you should really pick some up, but before you do, you should know that there are many brands of stevia and they all taste different. The best tasting brand I’ve found is the powdered variety from a company called Kal. But, I’m gathering that before you pick any up, you’ll want to know what it is.

Stevia is an herbal sweetener. It has zero calories, no effect on blood sugar, and if you pick a good brand, it’s absolutely fabulous. I, personally, don’t use any sugar and use stevia where sugar would otherwise be called for, and most of the time it works beautifully. Actually, because the dangers of aspartame and other chemical sweeteners are so apparent these days, Coke recently announced that they are going to begin using stevia to sweeten their sodas. Yes, it really is that sweet… In fact, you just use a tiny bit because it’s a hundred times sweeter than sugar.

So, I use it regularly to dress up and sweeten fruit. In which case, a simple fruit becomes a fabulous dessert, great snack, wonderful breakfast, or in quantity, an irresistible meal. My favorites are papaya, pineapple, watermelon, and nectarines, but it’ll work with most fruit. Just sprinkle some on to enjoy a whole new level of flavor, and as an easy way to consume more raw, natural foods and the wonderful nutrients that they provide.