Healthy Cooking Treats

It is hard to find healthy treats that satisfy our cravings sometimes. The media is filled with things not to eat. Chief among those things not to eat tend to be anything that carries calories or carbohydrates in measure. It was particularly hard to approach this discussion when this blog has a focus on such goodies as cupcakes and wedding cakes.

Still, it is possible to have these goodies in one’s diet even when the focus is on healthy cooking treats. The secret to a healthy diet lies in maintaining moderation in one’s consumption of food and establishing good eating habits by eating healthy ingredients. Moderation means smaller portion sizes. Healthy ingredients can be attained by item substitution for some recipes that taste good but contain heavy amounts of ingredients that an eater might not want or have.

For example, in the creation of baked goods an essential component consists of starches like flour. Baked goods such as cake items also have sugar and other sweet ingredients included in their mixes. Oils are also used as well as other elements that can be high in fat.
For creating healthy cooking treats in baked goods, ingredient substitution is helpful. A cook or a baker can use:

• Low-fat or fat-free yogurt to replace shortening, or soy yogurt
• Extra virgin olive oil to replace butter, stick margarine, or shortening, i.e. trans fats
• Pureed fruits to replace some oils to lower fat content and sometimes add fiber
• A sugar substitute with egg yolks while folding whites into other ingredients to keep taste and lift in a cake mix
• A sugar substitute in general, which many bakers already do when planning treats for diabetic people

 

However, baked goods do rely on fat and sugar for texture and taste so when ingredient substitution does not work for the recipe, that’s when the exercise in smaller portions, a.k.a. eating in moderation, comes in handy. This is true for cupcakes and particularly wedding cakes, which are often presented in highly memorable social occasions which are important to creator and customer. The added benefit is also that smaller portions means a recipe’s yield can be spread further to feed guests.

Creating healthy treats is an exercise in judgment on the part of the cook or baker. If the composition of the baked treat cannot be changed without sacrificing what makes the treat yummy and lovely, then use moderation to control portion size for healthy eating. When taste and presentation can be retained with item substitution, then go for the healthy item substitution.

Cooking healthy treats doesn’t have to mean deprivation of fulfilling flavors or textures. In fact, good eating habits work better when the person doing the eating enjoys what they are ingesting. Cake items are yummy for many reasons such as an appealing presentation, yummy flavor, and enjoyable texture.

The goal of healthy eating is not to sacrifice the joy in eating but to extend the time we can enjoy eating by practicing wisdom in how we eat.