Oh, Oh having sugar twitches....Help

Sweet Tooth Satisfaction

I told you last that I created a new recipe to satisfy my sweet tooth. So here it is:
Note. I didn't remember to jot down, or measure the ingredients this time out, so as to give you an exact recipe, but I promise I will, and post it, in the near future.
So for now, here is the outline of what I did and the rationale behind it. You poor souls.  You get to see the inside workings of my creative mind.  Oh well, here goes.

I wanted to create something that was slightly sweet, that I could use as a breakfast bar to send to work with Gary and to help me if I was hungry.  I also wanted something that I knew what was in it.

So my first stop was to my pantry where I found a nearly empty box of All Bran cereal, another of Kashi Puffed Grain cereal, and on the baking shelf, a partial bag of ground almonds.
What can I do with this?  Hmm, what about making it like a graham wafer crust, but without all the fat.  Ok, let's try. Do I add sweet?  Yeah, I guess so, but not just sugar, then what?  Hey, how about some honey with a small amount of brown sugar?

So that is what I did for the base:
It turned out a little more crisp than I wanted, its flavour is good, a tad sweeter than I'd like, but that can be adjusted.  Has great texture, with the nuts and the puffed cereal.

Crispy cookie-like base

Now what?  Do I eat it just like this?  No.  I think I want a little decadence, so I've got the plums I've been canning and a few are getting a little soft.  What can I do?  Hey, I saw a recipe for roast plums at this site, what did they do?  I followed her recipe pretty well to the letter, but with a few additions of my own.  Of course!!

1. Instead of using just the thyme, I added some Epicure Fines Herbes[sic], because I didn't happen to have enough fresh thyme on hand. (my plant seems to be dying).
2. I didn't add regular sugar, but instead gave it a dusting with Epicure Maple Sugar.
3. Next when it was cooked I gave it another dusting of the Maple Sugar and here is the real surprise.  I gave it a quick shake of Epicures Maple Bacon Sea Salt.  Total amount of sugar is less than a quarter of a teaspoon.  Total amount of flavour, awesome!

Roasted plums

But being me I still wanted to add a little more, so what about a creamy texture?  Hey, I've got Greek yogurt.

So that is what I did:

On each serving, I placed 1 1/2 tablespoons of Greek plain yogurt, topped with 2 plums.  It tasted great and to top it off, I was very pleased with myself. :)  I have no name for this recipe yet, but I'm working on it.

The left over plums will keep in the fridge for at least 3 days in an air tight container, to be used in other recipes.  They'd taste great with pork or chicken or oatmeal.  I added the extra juice I saved to some balsamic vinegar and made a reduction to be used on salads or meat dishes, that I'm keeping in my fridge for future use.

I tend to be a sauce junkie, so in a future post I plan on creating a page with easy, calorie-safe, sodium-reduced sauces and dressings. Also so I can rid my fridge of all those half bottles, etc.

Part of my adventure is to become more aware of what is going into my body in all those little things we don't think about, like the sodium intake in dressings, soy products, the hidden fat and other unnecessary things in our food.  Basically, I'm trying to clean up my act so I can live long enough to see nieces and nephews grow up, their children grow up and someday, even grand-children to be born and to celebrate life with, in a healthy, active body, because I plan on being here until I'm at least 100.

written by Linda Gauthier Photos by Linda Gauthier