How to Add Flavor to Your Desserts Using Herbs?

 

Click HERE to Get These Super Healthy Sweet Treats & Dessert Recipes

Herbs that Play Well with Desserts

When using herbs, don’t limit yourself to savory dishes. Their delicate aromas and distinctive flavors add other dimensions to many dessert and baked dishes as well.

Additionally, since herbs are nutrient dense plants, they offer a boost to the immune system. A literal “sweet bonus” when used in desserts and sweet treats.

Herbs are perfect for balancing dessert ingredients in any dish. With an endless variety of flowery to spicy notes, they add brightness and earthy flavors to any season and elevate all desserts to a more sophisticated level.

It’s time to “think outside the box.”

Here’s a list of favorite herbs that are commonly used to enhance sweet dishes. Use the information to explore and discover new ideas for yourself.

Mint: Nothing is more refreshing than mint, a worldwide culinary favorite there are a quite a few good ones to choose from. Some of the more widely used and favorites are peppermint and spearmint, but orange, pineapple and apple are other good choices. Good with nearly any fruit (raspberries marry perfectly with this herb).

Mint adds refreshing taste, aroma and color to sorbets, pies, jellies, and is delicious in fruit salads. It also does well when baked with fruits such as pears or apples and the perfect choice to pair with chocolate.

Lemon balm, lemon verbena: Lemon flavored, highly aromatic herbs add both sweet and citrus flavors to desserts. Successfully used in pies, cakes, custards, jams, and jellies, you can also simply sprinkle freshly chopped in fruit salads and sorbets and other berry dishes. Verbena is denser with citrus oil than balm, so be sure to adjust your recipe accordingly.

Rose: Who doesn’t love the intoxicating aroma of roses? These scents also lend an endless variety of exotic touches to desserts. Rose petals, rosewater, and rosehips are all successfully used to create a variety of syrups, jellies, candies, and frostings.

Treat them like you would any new flavor, taste-test first to see if it leans to the sour or bitter side since no two roses are alike. Citrus fruits or other mild flavored fruits when used in tandem, accentuate the delicate scent of rose.

Lavender: Lavender pairs beautifully with the slightly nutty, sweet flavor of peaches.

Rosemary: Often used in pastries and breads, this aromatic herb is perfect for desserts too.

Angelica: Offering a woody and slightly bitter flavor, it is both a medicinal and culinary herb.

Fun and easy to use, these edible, aromatic plants add flavor and nutrients to whatever dish they are included in, including sweet desserts. They are calorie free, adding extra flavor without adding extra pounds.

You can purchase dried or fresh herbs locally but its best to go organic to be sure they have not been sprayed or irradiated with chemicals. For the most part, fresh herbs are more subtle, but fresher in flavor and require more than dried herbs which generally offer more concentrated flavor and can sometimes be a bit more bitter than the fresh variety.

Don’t be afraid to experiment growing your own herbs inside or outdoors. It can be quite rewarding to flavor and enhance your desserts with herbs from your own garden, knowing you are giving your immune system a boost at the same time.

Be adventurous and begin playing and experimenting with different herb variations in your favorite recipes and explore the possibilities and taste differences they produce.

You’ll soon become a master of “herb flavors,” enhancing all your dessert and sweet treat recipes with exotic flavors and scents while empowering them with antiviral, antibacterial and antioxidant properties of different herbs.

Remember, it is never about the amount of calories going in but about the amount of nutrients consumed. Make every bite count.

Most veggies and many herbs can be used with great success in desserts and treats and can be key to getting the required daily requirements of nutrients that your body needs.

Watch this video – How to Add Flavor to Your Desserts Using Herbs

If you are ready to expand beyond your traditional recipes and upgrade them to a more nutritional level you will love my newest creation…“Blended Bites.

Author Bio:

Carolyn Hansen is the author of The Blended Bites Healthy Snack and Dessert Recipe Collection. This is a one-stop resource for delicious, healthy, guilt-free snacks that you can eat every day. And even better, EVERY ONE of these recipes are RAW healthy snack foods that taste as good as their fattening counterparts.

You can NOW satisfy your snack urge without any negative impact on your weight loss and fitness goals, and without sweating over a hot stove. These easy-to-prepare snacks contain no sugar, no flour or butter and are paleo friendly.

So, if you want to get your hands on recipes for desserts and snacks that you will not need to feel guilty about eating the next time you have a craving for something delicious, be sure to check out Carolyn Hansen’s books at Blended Bites, where she will show you how to take control of your blender and churn out mouth-watering desserts and snacks that will have the kids in your neighborhood lined up around the block for a sample.

How to Prepare Protein Rich Veggie Desserts for Muscle Building and Weight Loss?

 

Click HERE to Get These Super Healthy Sweet Treats & Dessert Recipes

Protein Plays an Important Role…Even in Dessert

If you are dieting. you want to lose fat and as little lean body mass as possible and the macro-nutrient protein is the key player to help us do just that.

Yet, if we take a look at the macro-nutrient composition of the average diet it consists of 50% carbohydrates, 34% fat and just 16% protein. This means that people are only receiving about 16% of their daily energy requirements from protein when protein provides so many bonus benefits.

Let’s take a look at some of the awesome benefits that protein provides:

Keeps you feeling full: Sometimes when we are dieting, our caloric intake can sometimes leave us feeling unsatisfied or even hungry. Studies prove that a higher ratio of protein in your diet is beneficial for many reasons including keeping you feeling full for longer stretches of time…a true dieter’s helper.

Protein slows down digestion and helps to keep you from going back for seconds. Bottom line is protein not only satisfies but it saves calories.

Protein for lean body mass: In order to lose body fat, it is vital that you create a caloric deficit…meaning you are burning more calories that you consume.

Unfortunately, most people do not just lose weight when dieting but they also lose precious muscle (especially if they are dieting but not performing any muscle building or maintaining exercises). The result that most people experience when on a high caloric deficit is that they lose muscle along with fat.

Protein preserves lean body mass…protein is not the macro-nutrient you want to be cutting. What you need to be cutting down on if you wish to lose fat and not muscle is nutrient-poor foods that are nothing but empty refined carbohydrates and unhealthy fats…filling you up with useless calories.

Give yourself a metabolism boost with a healthy portion of protein. It’s an easy way to eat a healthy balanced diet so that you can achieve your health and fitness goals.

Pairing protein with Carbs: You can actually slow down the absorption of sugar from your stomach to your bloodstream by pairing protein with carbohydrate rich foods. This in turn help keep your blood sugar from skyrocketing and keeps those incessant cravings at bay.

Rebuilds and Repairs: Protein is what you need…especially after you’ve just worked out intensely. However, protein cannot do the job alone so pair it up with its macro-nutrient cousins, healthy carbs and healthy fats.

With all this talk about needing protein how does that translate into Veggie Desserts? There are many plant based protein vegetables that offer a good amount of protein and are perfect for Veggie Desserts of all kinds.

Spinach offers 3 grams of protein per ½ cup and can be used in desserts, smoothies and Smoothie Bowls.

Broccoli is another veggies that offers protein…approximately 2 grams per serving…and don’t forget the fiber it also offers.

Kale is another great choice to use in your veggie desserts and smoothies…it offers about .7 grams of protein per cup.

There are other veggie choices that offer a hefty amount of protein such as Swiss chard so don’t limit yourself to this short list. In order to reach your daily recommended requirement for protein you need to eat an assortment of veggies and there is no better way to do that than to enjoy then in a dessert, smoothie or Smoothie Bowl along with your traditional meals.

For more ideas on how to prepare protein rich veggie desserts, watch this video – HEALTHY VEGAN NO BAKE DESSERTS ‣‣ easy to make!

If you are ready to expand beyond your traditional perception of how veggies should be used you will love my newest creation…“Blended Bites.”

Truth is, most veggies can be used with great success in desserts and treats and can be key to getting the required daily requirements.

Author Bio:

Carolyn Hansen is the author of The Blended Bites Healthy Snack and Dessert Recipe Collection. This is a one-stop resource for delicious, healthy, guilt-free snacks that you can eat every day. And even better, EVERY ONE of these recipes are RAW healthy snack foods that taste as good as their fattening counterparts.

You can NOW satisfy your snack urge without any negative impact on your weight loss and fitness goals, and without sweating over a hot stove. These easy-to-prepare snacks contain no sugar, no flour or butter and are paleo friendly.

So, if you want to get your hands on recipes for desserts and snacks that you will not need to feel guilty about eating the next time you have a craving for something delicious, be sure to check out Carolyn Hansen’s books at Blended Bites, where she will show you how to take control of your blender and churn out mouth-watering desserts and snacks that will have the kids in your neighborhood lined up around the block for a sample.