Mary’s 5 favorite dessert recipes | Smart Eating Show

When I have friends for dinner, dessert is generally a simple platter of dark chocolate or nuts and dried apricots or dates or if I come across an appealing fresh fruit in season, I may end the meal with a platter of grapes or peaches or berries. But when I want something more, here are a few of my go-to desserts: My current favorite dessert is affogato- the Italians have been doing it for years and it’s just catching on here – freshly brewed espresso with a scoop of good vanilla ice cream. The sweet, creamy ice cream paired with the bitter coffee (decaf in my case) gives the perfect sense of an ending. Did you know ice cream has a low glycemic index, that means it’s not likely to raises blood sugar as much as anything with flour in it? That’s good news if you have issues with blood sugar. Of course, portion size is the main issue. No problem, a small amount of affogato is totally satisfying! Second, I love to mix something rich and decadent with something healthy or healthy-ish. When my friend Cynthia has me for dinner at her home in New York, her dessert is often a blending of ice cream with plain Greek yogurt (she uses 2%) and then stirs in mixed berries or mango. It’s fabulous. And for pumpkin season, why not go beyond pumpkin pie, with a chia pudding recipe from Lisa at Snack Girl.com, recipe below. The idea here is to recreate pumpkin pie in your blender without cream or eggs. The trick is to pulverize the chia seeds in your blender, so no one can tell they are there. Can you do it? Yes, will it taste just like pumpkin pie? No. But a tablespoon of chia seeds has more calcium than a glass of milk, more omega 3 than salmon, and more antioxidants than a cup of blueberries. If you want the REAL THING, try my Firefly flourless chocolate cake recipe with only 5 ingredients, including 2 sticks of butter and 5 eggs, which I make for New Year’s Eve dinner at my house. Hey, it’s ok to splurge on dessert now and then, but it’s also cool to look for alternatives that taste good and are good for you. That’s Smart Eating!
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