DARK CHOCOLATE FONDUE
Serves 8–10
Sounds decadent, doesn’t it? But wait, dark chocolate is actually good for us. It’s an anti-inflammatory that promotes cardiovascular health and helps keep the immune system strong. So, come on, eat dark chocolate. It’s your duty!
Here’s a fantastic way to perform your duty properly. Get a nice hot pot of melted dark chocolate going, and then use it for dipping nutritious fruits and even vegetables. Wait, is this even dessert anymore? It’s more like health food!
Almost any fruit will work, either in chunk form or threaded onto kebab sticks. Banana chunks, strawberries, pineapple, orange segments, apple slices, long-stemmed cherries, kiwi chunks, melon and mango, peach and pear . . . the list goes on. Good veggie choices include sweet bell pepper slices, whole radishes, snow peas, cucumber slices, chunks of jicama . . . again, the list is long. Get going!
1 cup shredded coconut (sweetened or unsweetened)
¾ cup soy milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
12 ounces dairy-free dark chocolate chips (or baking bar broken into chips)
1. Toast the coconut either in a dry pan over medium heat, stirring often until the coconut is mostly golden brown, or on a baking sheet in a 350-degree oven for about 10 minutes, until the coconut is mostly golden brown. In either case, remove from the heat immediately and transfer to a shallow dish to cool. Sweetened coconut will toast more quickly than unsweetened coconut.
2. In a small pan, combine the soy milk, vanilla, and dark chocolate and stir over low heat until the chocolate just starts to melt. Remove from the heat and continue to stir until the chocolate is completely melted and the mixture is well blended and smooth.
3. Pour the chocolate mixture into a flame-heated fondue pot or a microwave-safe serving bowl that can be reheated in the microwave as necessary. Serve the toasted coconut flakes in individual finger bowls for use as a topping.
Food groups: protein (soy milk), carbohydrate (dark chocolate), fruit (fruits for dipping, coconut), vegetable (veggies for dipping)
TIP: Serve with fruit, veggies, and/or graham crackers for dipping.
PEACH AND RHUBARB COBBLER
Serves 6
Don’t let peach season slip by without making this delicious dessert a time or two (or three or four!). And here’s good news for the rest of the year: When fresh peaches are hard to find, you can prepare this dish with frozen peaches and rhubarb. Just rinse briefly under cold water to soften.
2 cups cut-up fresh peaches
2 cups cut-up fresh rhubarb
½ cup packed light brown sugar, divided
1 cup raw old-fashioned (rolled) oats
½ cup raw pecan pieces
¼ cup vegetable oil
1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Coat an 8 × 8-inch baking dish with cooking spray.
2. Place the peaches and rhubarb in the prepared baking dish and toss with ¼ cup of the light brown sugar.
3. In a mixing bowl, combine the oats, pecans, vegetable oil, and remaining ¼ cup brown sugar and mix well. Spread in an even layer on top of the peach and rhubarb mixture.
4. Bake for about 45 minutes, or until the fruit is bubbling and the topping is golden brown.
5. Remove from the oven and allow to cool for 20 minutes before serving.
Food groups: protein (pecans), carbohydrate (oats), fruit (peaches), vegetable (rhubarb)
BEAUTIFUL BLUEBERRY SORBET
Serves 6
This is a perfect summer treat—icy cold, refreshing, and delicious. Actually, it tastes so good, you could whip up a batch in the dead of winter and nobody would blame you.
4 cups fresh or frozen blueberries
1 (6-ounce) can frozen apple juice concentrate
⅓ cup crushed pistachios
¼ cup fresh mint, minced
1. Using a blender or food processor, blend the blueberries and apple juice concentrate until liquefied.
2. Pour into 7 × 11-inch baking pan or glass casserole dish.
3. Cover and freeze until firm around the edges, about 2 hours.
4. Break the frozen mixture into pieces. Using a blender or food processor, blend the frozen pieces until smooth but not liquefied.
5. Spoon into a 5 × 9-inch loaf pan. Cover and freeze until firm.
6. Spoon into serving dishes and garnish with the crushed pistachios and fresh mint.
Food groups: protein (pistachios), carbohydrate (apple juice), fruit (blueberry, apple juice), vegetable (mint)
ELLEN G. WHITE’S FAVORITE DESSERT: BREAD PUDDING WITH RAISINS
Serves 6–8
As I said before, my great-great-grandmother didn’t follow a traditional regimen of breakfast, lunch, and dinner. She ate breakfast, then an afternoon meal that she called dinner, and then nothing in the evening except a light snack—usually fruit, or nuts, or a small dessert. According to my Auntie Grace, she was very fond of bread pudding with raisins. It’s an old-fashioned classic and the traditional recipe calls for lots of dairy, including milk and butter, and eggs, but it’s quite easy to make a dairy-free version that tastes every bit as good.
2 cups soy milk
¼ cup dairy-free butter spread
½ cup applesauce
½ cup sugar
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
Pinch of salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
6 slices soft bread, cut into cubes
½ cup raisins
1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
2. In a 2-quart saucepan, heat the soy milk and dairy-free butter spread over medium heat until the butter spread is melted.
3. In a large bowl, combine the applesauce, sugar, cinnamon, salt, and baking powder. Add the bread cubes and raisins, and stir to mix. Add the soy milk mixture and stir to combine.
4. Pour into an ungreased 9-inch round baking pan.
5. Bake uncovered for 40–45 minutes, or until a knife inserted 1 inch from the edge comes out clean. Serve warm.
Food groups: protein (soy milk), carbohydrate (bread), fruit (applesauce, raisins)
CHERRY CHA-CHA
Serves 6
An upside-down graham cracker crust adds crunch to this yummy variation on cherry pie. Graham crackers go way back in the Seventh-day Adventist history books. Though the simple, wholesome crackers were invented by a Presbyterian minister, Sylvester Graham, in the 1830s, they were popularized a few decades later by the Adventist doctor John Harvey Kellogg, pioneering director of the church’s world-famous Battle Creek Sanitarium in Michigan. Graham crackers were a staple on the Battle Creek menu, along with a product invented by Kellogg and his brother Will—Kellogg’s Corn Flakes.
FOR THE GRAHAM CRACKER CRUST:
¼ cup dairy-free butter spread
1 cup crushed graham crackers
3 tablespoons confectioners’ sugar
FOR THE CHERRY FILLING:
½ cup granulated sugar
2 tablespoons cornstarch
¼ cup cold water
¼ cup orange juice
1 pound frozen pitted Bing cherries, thawed
½ teaspoon orange zest
1. Melt the dairy-free butter spread in a microwave-safe bowl. Add the crushed graham crackers and confectioners’ sugar and stir to combine.
2. Press the mixture into the bottom of an 8-inch square baking dish.
3. Heat for 2 minutes in the microwave or 8 minutes in a 350-degree oven. Allow to cool.
TO MAKE THE CHERRY FILLING:
1. In a saucepan, whisk together the granulated sugar and cornstarch.
2. Stir in the cold water and orange juice and bring to a boil over medium-high heat, whisking until thickened.
3. Stir in the cherries and orange zest, return to a boil, reduce the heat to low, and simmer for 10 minutes. Allow to cool.
TO ASSEMBLE:
1. Pour the cherries over the graham cracker crust and spread to cover. Place in the refrigerator and allow to chill for 3–4 hours or overnight.
Food groups: carbohydrate (crackers), fruit (cherries, orange)
Serves 4
This is an awesome dish in autumn when apples are fresh off the tree. On the other hand, it’s pretty awesome any time of the year. Best apples for baking: Granny Smith, Fuji, and Rome Beauty.
¼ cup chopped raw pecans
4 large apples
½ yellow onion, finely chopped
¼ cup dairy-free butter spread
½ cup sugar
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.
2. Toast the chopped pecans by stirring constantly in a dry pan over medium heat until they just start to brown. Remove the pan immediately from the heat, and continue to stir constantly for 1 minute. Then pour into a shallow dish to cool.
3. Core the apples from top to near bottom, leaving enough flesh at the bottom to contain the filling.
4. Combine the pecans, dairy-free butter spread, sugar, and cinnamon in a small bowl and mix. Use this mixture to tightly fill the cavity of each apple.
5. Place apples upright in a baking dish that contains a little water, enough to cover the bottom.
6. Bake for 1 hour, or until the apples are soft and the filling is browned.
Food groups: protein (pecans), carbohydrate (sugar), fruit (apples), vegetable (onion)
STICKY RICE WITH MANGO
Serves 6
When I started loving Thai cuisine, many years ago, this was one of the reasons. What a dessert! Pairing voluptuous mango fruit with sweetened rice is pure genius. Many of the recipes for sticky rice with mango are quite complicated, but this one is easy, and the results are spectacular.
1 cup uncooked white jasmine rice
2 (13-ounce) cans coconut milk, divided
1 cup sugar, divided
2 tablespoons toasted sesame seeds
2 fresh mangoes, peeled, pitted, and chunked or sliced
1. Cook the rice according to package directions but using 1 can of the coconut milk instead of water and adding ½ cup of the sugar. The rice should be cooked until the liquid is absorbed.
2. In a separate pan, combine the remaining 1 can coconut milk and remaining ½ cup sugar, bring to a boil, and cook for about 2 minutes, stirring often, until it forms a thick, syrupy sauce.
3. Divide the rice among individual serving bowls, drizzle with the sauce, sprinkle with the toasted sesame seeds, and then arrange the mango pieces on top or to the side of each dish.
Food groups: carbohydrate (rice, sugar), fruit (coconut milk, mango)