Dairy-free Lemon Pudding

This dairy-free, low-fat lemon pudding is a thing of dreams! It's bold in flavor and richness but not in calories and is made with just 6 simple ingredients, including one you would never imagine...

Cauliflower! Crazy? I know!

Please welcome today's guest poster and holistic nutritionist, Leanne Vogul of Healthful Pursuit.

Hi Everyone, I'm pretty excited to be sharing this recipe with you today but first, let's chat about dairy! Many of us are allergic to it, sensitive to it, or have developed a love hate relationship with it. We eat, we enjoy, our stomachs hurt, our complexion suffers, but we just can't imagine a life without the good stuff. Taking the dairy-free lifestyle for a test drive or committing to it because of sensitivities can be a challenge... but it doesn't have to be this way! After a decade of being dairy-free and learning what it takes to thrive on the diet, I created the Done with Dairy Toolkit a (free) guide to living dairy-free with loads of dairy-free recipes and health tips from yours truly. When I'm in a crunch and need some dairy-free inspiration, I turn to the toolkit and my problem is solved!

One of my favorite tricks to making a healthy, dairy-free, Skinnytaste approved dessert is to use cauliflower in place of thick creams and added starches. I know what you're thinking, 'cauliflower in dessert?' YES! If you flavor it just right; with things like vanilla extract, lemon or orange zest, chocolate or citrus juice, you do not taste the cauliflower one little bit. All you have is smooth, creamy, sweet goodness. Skeptical? I have just the recipe that will prove that dairy-free doesn't mean that you have to be gnawing on cardboard, or giving up your favorite low-fat treats. This pudding is impressively low in fat, rich in flavor, highly creamy, and under 130 calories per serving. Crazy, right? Let's get right down to business!  

Important Notes from Leanne – 

Make sure you weigh your cauliflower or, if you don't have a scale, only roughly chop the florets, measure and then cook.

If you do not have a powerful blender like a Blendtec or Vitamix, opt to finely grind your cauliflower before cooking so that it is easier to puree.

Leanne Vogel is a holistic nutritionist and the girl behind the healthy living blog, Healthful Pursuit. Whether you're sensitive to dairy, gluten, soy, eggs, grains, or sugar, or are just interested in eating healthy, Leanne's fun and simple healthy recipes; of which she has more than 550 on her blog, are a great resource for everyone.
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Shrimp Pad Thai on the Lighter Side

I've been a huge fan of Rasa Malaysia for many years and recently Bee and I have become friends. Bee spent a few months traveling Thailand and when she returned I asked if she could guest post making a Skinnier version of a Thai Classic. Pad Thai is probably my most requested makeover, so who better than to have Bee give us her authentic version with a lighter touch! Vegetarians, leave out the shrimp and add more tofu or add more veggies!

Hi there, I’m Bee from Rasa Malaysia, a website about easy Asian cooking. I’m also the cookbook author of Easy Chinese Recipes (Tuttle, September 2011) — one of the best-selling Chinese cookery books on Amazon. First of all, I wanted to thank Gina for giving me the opportunity to guest post on Skinnytaste and share my Pad Thai recipe with you. I’m very honored—and thrilled—to grace this space, and I hope you like what I have to share with you here.

I love Thai food so there is no surprise that I’m a big fan of Pad Thai, or Thai stir-fried rice noodles. If you have dined at Thai restaurants, I’m sure you have had Pad Thai. Pad Thai is quite possibly the most famous dish outside of Thailand.

Thai cuisine is prized for its perfect balance of the four main tastes: hot, sour, salty, and sweet. Pad Thai is no exception. The spiciness of this noodle dish comes from the use of chili powder while the tartness comes from tamarind. The saltiness of most Thai food comes from fish sauce, or nam pla, while palm sugar lends the sweetness to the overall dish. For this recipe, I opted to use vinegar in lieu of tamarind juice, as it’s commonly used by the street vendors in Thailand. Palm sugar is not a common ingredient for many people, so I substituted it with sugar. The recipe is very versatile as you can make it healthier by adding more bean sprouts and reduce the rice noodles. Other than shrimp, you can also use chicken breast. The fried firm tofu is a key ingredient in authentic Pad Thai but you can’t find it at your local stores, feel free to opt it out.

I love eating my Pad Thai with a generous squirt (or two) of lime juice. It’s a delightful dish to make at home and a complete meal on its own. I hope you enjoy the recipe. If you have any questions, do leave me a comment! Again, thanks Gina for having me.

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How To Make Your Favorite Meals Freezer Ready

Hi everyone, I'm going on a trip to California this week for the DOLE Salad’tude Summit! Please welcome my guest, Once A Month Mom! 

Once A Month Mom is a website that helps you fill your freezer by creating monthly menus using seasonal recipes. And what greater help to someone trying to stay on track in the health and weight department than to have homemade, ready-made meals awaiting them in their freezer? It is the next best thing to fresh! Once a Month mom will show you how to take a few popular Skinnytaste classics and get them freezer ready!

One walk down your grocer’s freezer case and you will find a multitude of items awaiting you. Low-calorie options are available, but even those can be full of preservatives and ingredients that can be unhealthy and add unnecessary calories. Making the food yourself, especially tasty food like you find here on Skinnytaste, ensures that you know the ingredients going into your food and control those ingredients.

And don't worry! Just because you freeze it, doesn't mean you zap all the flavor out of it. Freezing your food also doesn't mean that you have to stick to just casseroles and pastas. There are a world of things that you can prepare easily and freeze just fine. And the food keeps for 1-3 months, so if life gets busy, you don't waste your efforts.
 
Day in and day out I hear from my readers that one of the most challenging aspects of staying on track with a healthy diet is having healthy meals at the ready when the hunger pangs hit. Isn't this the greatest moment of weakness? When you pull open the drawer, the refrigerator or your purse and find that there is nothing healthy that is going to satisfy your hunger. What happens next? Usually it’s a trip to the vending machine, the "snack cupboard," the drive-thru or your favorite local restaurant. This solves the immediate problem but does nothing for your waistline.

Let’s take a few recipes for example...


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Brownie Batter Pancakes

I am very happy to have Katie of Chocolate-Covered Katie as my first guest post here on Skinnytaste. Her recipes are a great fit for Skinnytaste as they are all healthy and low fat, but she also brings something else to he table... all her recipes are vegan! Whether you are a vegan or not, I guarantee you will spend hours drooling at the photos on her blog! Please welcome Chocolate-Covered Katie to Skinnytaste.

Hi chocolate chips!

I’m Katie, of the blog: Chocolate-Covered Katie, and I’m so honored to be a guest on Gina’s blog. I love Gina because she shows that healthier food can taste incredible when it’s prepared the right way. On my own blog, I try to show this, too.

One exception: my blog is only desserts.

Just like Gina, I believe you shouldn’t have to sacrifice good taste in order to be healthy. And today, Gina asked me to share one of my “does not taste healthy” recipes that can be a breakfast or dessert: brownie batter pancakes. This recipe is also vegan AND can easily be made gluten free with Bob's Red Mill Gluten Free flour mix!

Hope you enjoy!!

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