Sugar Free Italian Menu

Don’t you just love Italian cuisine?  It’s so comforting, yet amazingly healthy.  The sugar-free Italian recipes featured below will become your go-to’s when you’re in the mood for basil, tomatoes and pasta.

For delicious, simple and easy, this Minestrone Soup (from Connie J. of NH, posted at Veggie Crock) can’t be beat.  Chickpeas and barley add body to the aromatic tomatoes, garlic and onions.  Thyme and oregano develop the flavors of kale, zucchini and carrots.  Great for everyday or getting well.  Keep a batch in the icebox.

Blend some basil and garlic into this creamy Italian Salad Dressing (from Splenda®, posted at Cooks Recipes).  Don’t tell your family it’s homemade or sugar free.  Let them go on believing you bought a celebrity chef brand. 

Pass around some Flaxseed and Rye Breadsticks (posted at Diabetic Living Online) with your sugar free Italian meal.  With fiber from flaxseeds and Vitamin E from olive oil and honey, they’re simultaneously super healthy and melt-in-your-mouth marvelous.

Garlic and fresh cracked black pepper make this Fettuccine Alfredo (from Mary Creel/Alison Ashton, Cooking Light JANUARY 2007, posted at My Recipes) sing.  It takes the basics of fettuccine, milk and cream cheese to a new level, using lighter choices.

Have your cheese and eat it, too, with Veggie Cheese Ravioli (from Gertrudis Miller of Evansville, IN, posted at Taste of Home).  These ravioli could actually get your kids to eat their vegetables.  Zucchini, tomatoes and olives are an irresistible trio of tastes.

Time for coffee and dessert!  This Biscotti (from Sean Paajanen, former About.com Guide) should be called Now and Later.  Have some now with your espresso or latte, and later take a batch to your holiday cookie exchange.  Loaded with orange zest, walnuts, coconut and dates, you’d do well to keep this twice-baked treat on hand year-round, for breaks, meals and all occasion gifts.

Heavenly Tiramisu, “a website dedicated to the most heavenly dessert on God’s Earth,” offers this Tiramisu from William Bohannon.  Bohannon does his diabetic aunt proud by offering users the options of Marsala wine or raisin extract.  This masterpiece of patisserie features recipes for both the espresso-dipped Ladyfingers and the Mascarpone Mousse.  Look no further.

Visit our Recipe Index for more sumptuous Sugar Free Italian recipes!  Bon appetit.



Lactose Free Just Desserts

Dairy and lactose are all over the foods we take for granted.  At first you might think, “I’ll just switch to soy milk and be done with it.”  Folks with allergies, asthma, autism, Crohn's disease, cystic fibrosis, irritable bowel syndrome, and those trying to go vegan are all discovering that milk isn’t even the tip of the iceberg, where dairy and lactose are concerned. 

When patients can’t swallow a pill, nurses typically crush it, then stir it into a cup of creamy pudding, which contains dairy.  This wouldn’t seem to be a problem, unless that pill is Pancrease®.  The purpose of Pancrease® is to help patients absorb nutrition from their food.  Its benefits are negated by dairy and lactose.  So what happens, you ask?  You can end up with a visibly skinny, malnourished patient on an enteral feeding tube.  Shouldn’t nurses know about Pancrease® and pudding?  Not all of them do, so please share this post with any nurses you know, as well as any patients taking this medication.  They can look into Boost lactose-free pudding or just use applesauce instead.

After eliminating milk, pudding, cheese, cheesecake, coffee creamer, whipped cream, and other obvious things, you take a deep longing sigh, and think once again your job is done.  Nope.  Check your chocolate, is it milk chocolate?  That’s right, going dairy and lactose free means taking aim at fudge; brownies; s’mores; chocolate kisses, hugs and eggs; candy bars; chocolate frosting; Yoohoo; even chocolate Easter bunnies, dagnabbit.  And you’re still not done.  There’s cookies, cakes, cupcakes, pies and ice cream, yet to go.  When you’re done screaming “Noooooo!” as you stare blankly into your echoing kitchen, there is some good news.

Below are three luscious Lactose Free Desserts to ease your pain.  There is life after lactose, and it can be sweet.

Birthday cakes are a necessity not to be tampered with.  Here’s a Delicious Dairy Free Birthday Cake that baker Beth at 990square adapted for her niece’s first birthday.  Yes, there’s plenty of frosting, as you can tell by the pics of the adorable cake and birthday girl.

Cheesecake and chocolate lovers can rejoice over Brownie Bottom Cheesecake from Alisa, whose cookbook and blog share the title Go Dairy Free.  When the first ingredient in a recipe is Double Chocolate Brownie Cookies, and cocoa powder shows up twice, you know it’s gonna be good!  Now, just try looking at the picture of that perfectly marbled cheesecake and not licking the screen, I double-chocolate-dare ya.

And now, the recipe I’ve been waiting for: Southern-Style Banana Meringue Pudding from Teri Gruss, a gluten-free guide at About.com.  Although I’m not lactose or dairy free at this time, if I were, this would save me from the pits of despair.  It is over-the-top awesome!  While she labels this mile-high delight as gluten free, it’s dairy free, too.  If you made it through my challenge in the previous paragraph, you won’t survive this one.  One look and you’ll dive right in. 

Please vote for us by clicking on the Picket Fence Blogs button atop the right column. 

Our lactose free aisles are up and running in the Café Belinda Grocery Store.  Shop our selection of alternative milks, baby formula, coffee creamer and more today. 

Soup du Jour: South of the Border Tortilla Soup (Gluten Free)

Cookbook of the Day: The Ultimate Uncheese Cookbook (Dairy/Lactose Free)

Bon appétit!

What’s for Dessert?

Need something sweet for a snack or to finish a great meal?  How about pudding, pie or cake?  Make that Healthy Rice Pudding, Caramelized Fig Pie, Lemon Poppy Seed Cupcakes, Tea Time Rock Cakes and Tiramisu, to be exact.

If you have some leftover brown rice and a few raisins left in the box, try Noble Pig’s  Healthy Rice Pudding.  Its nearly zero prep time is the exact opposite of its nutritional value.  For a great between meal snack, you can’t go wrong.  Adapt as needed for serving to groups.

Got 20 fresh figs?  Indulge yourself in a slice of Caramelized Fig Pie, adapted by Sweet Salty Spicy from the cookbook La Cuisine des Filles.  As soon as it’s gone, you’ll immediately crave more.  To feed your new addiction, barter with family, friends or neighbors for their fresh or canned figs.

Here’s a classic flavor for those on special diets to share at parties, events and dinners.  Savoring Today offers lactose-free and gluten-free recipes for Lemon Poppy Seed Cupcakes.  This is a delicious and easy first foray into the world of lactose-free and gluten-free recipes.

Love scones?  Then you’ll adore Tea Time Rock Cakes by Lavender and Lovage.  No, rock cakes does not mean hard pastries.  They’re actually somewhere along the spectrum of scones at one end and cake at the other - cousins, you might say.  They’re also a tasty way to use your dried fruits.

Last but certainly not least, Italian restaurants do not have to be your sole source for a Tiramisu fix.  If you  moan every time you watch the movie No Reservations, Spiceopolis has the recipe for you.  Originally from Cook’s Illustrated magazine, this recipe will help you turn out a professional result worthy of sharing at the holidays or any occasion. 

Everyone can find a favorite among these delectable desserts.  Allow for second batches of these sumptuous sweets for your own home, so you’re sure to taste the fruits of your labors.