Types of Vegan Desserts

A lot of people are worried, when they are contemplating changing to a vegan diet, or when they are just beginning, that they will miss out on eating some of their favorite foods. While that is true, you'd be surprised at how much vegans can actually eat--and it tastes great, too! What about desserts? Here are several types of vegan desserts you can have.

The reality is, almost everything you can have as an omnivore, dessert wise, you can have as a vegan, with a few exceptions. Ice cream has to be made with something other than cream, marshmallows need something besides gelatin in them, and I've yet to see a decent rendition of anything made with egg whites as a base, such as macaroons or lemon meringue pie.

But as far as other desserts are concerned, you can still have your vegan cake, and eat it, too!

Cakes

The main substitutions in these are to replace the eggs with something else that will produce a light end product. Often the biggest factor is a dense cake when the eggs are removed. But egg substitutes can work quite well here.

For a Halloween party, I made vegan chocolate spider cakes with a mixed berry "blood" filling. Scrumptious!

Cookies

Butter must be replaced with oil or a dairy-free butter substitute. For cookies like gingersnaps or peanut butter cookies, oil is fine, because the other ingredients give a robust flavor. But plain cookies, like sugar cookies, really need the buttery flavor that a substitute adds to the equation.

Puddings

Tapioca pudding is a fabulous vegan dessert, because it can be made with coconut milk, as can versions of Asian sticky rice pudding. Chocolate and coconut puddings also are fine, but I haven't yet found a decent vanilla pudding recipe. Too often it tastes like a starchy, sticky version of the soymilk or ricemilk it was made of.

Pies

Fruit pies are easy to veganize. The butter or lard in the crust needs to be replaced with vegetable shortening or oil. Alternately, you could use a raw pie crust made from ground nuts, dates, and other similar ingredients.

Some firmer pies, such as baked pumpkin or chilled "cream" pies use tofu to get them to set to a firm consistency. I've also had success using starch in cooked pies to get the same result.

Frozen desserts

Nope, you can't have ice cream, but you can have soy, rice, nut, grain, or coconut milk-based variations. I've made delicious mango and chocolate frozen yogurts from soy yogurt. And the flavor combinations are just as varied as with normal ice cream, with the possible exception of maple-bacon ice cream. (Although, to be fair, I haven't yet tried to make a vegan version. Hmm... add it to my to-do list?)

You can see that vegans aren't terribly limited when it comes to desserts, so you don't have to worry too much about it. Vegan desserts are here to stay, and if you have never tried one, fear not. Take a bite and see what you don't need to be missing

Want some recipes?
Find omnivore-approved, delicious vegan recipes and mouth-watering pictures at http://almostveganinparadise.wordpress.com

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How to Make Simple Desserts With Layered Fruit Salads

Layered fruit salads are an easy and delicious way to create simple desserts in minutes. They also make a quick, light meal on a warm summer day or whenever you want a simple and refreshing meal.

Layered fruit salads are quick to make, look beautiful and create great taste with little effort. Anyone can create these simple salads and have a great dessert ready in minutes for yourself, family, and friends whenever you want.

Desserts Food

You can serve these simple desserts on dessert plates, in parfait glasses, wine glasses, martini glasses or whatever you may have that will allow you to layer the ingredients. Be creative and let your imagination guide you.

Here are some great combinations and servings ideas to create layered fruit salads. These salads should be made as close to serving time as possible to prevent browning of fruit and provide the freshest taste.

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Fruit combination: bananas, peaches, apples

Fruit preparation: slice the bananas, pit and thinly slice the peaches, core and dice the apples

Layer ingredients: plain Greek style yogurt, cinnamon squares cereal

Serving Idea:
Layer ingredients in this order:
- sliced peaches
- plain Greek yogurt
- sliced bananas
- cinnamon squares
- diced apples
- yogurt

Repeat with as many layers as desired. End with a dollop of yogurt and a sprinkle of cinnamon over the top.

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Fruit combination: plums, nectarines

Fruit preparation: pit and thinly slice both the plums and nectarines (reserve a couple of slices of both fruits and cut into cubes for garnish)

Layer ingredients: sour cream, nutmeg, honey, sliced almonds

Serving Idea:
Layer ingredients in this order:
- sliced nectarines
- sour cream topped with a dusting of nutmeg and a drizzle of honey
- sliced plums
- sliced almonds
- sour cream with nutmeg and drizzle of honey

Top sour cream with some of the reserved cubes of fruit.

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Fruit combination: *mandarin oranges, pink or red grapefruit, avocado
(*note: canned (in juice) and drained mandarin orange segments may be used)

Fruit preparation: peel and section both the mandarin oranges and grapefruit, pit, peel and slice avocado

Layer ingredients: crumbled goat cheese, walnut pieces, grated ginger

Serving Idea:
Layer ingredients in this order:
- orange segments
- crumbled goat cheese
- walnut pieces
- grapefruit segments
- avocado slices
- grated ginger
- goat cheese
- walnut pieces

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Fruit combination: strawberries, blueberries, cantaloupe

Fruit preparation: hull and slice strawberries, halve the cantaloupe, remove seeds, cut melon into small cubes

Layer ingredients: crumbled cinnamon graham crackers, semi-sweet mini chocolate chips, fresh mint leaves (minced), ricotta cheese flavored with cinnamon and honey

Serving Idea:
Layer ingredients in this order:
- crumbled graham crackers
- sliced strawberries
- blueberries
- chocolate chips
- a sprinkling of mint
- flavored ricotta
- sliced strawberries
- cantaloupe cubes
- a sprinkling of mint
- graham crackers
- flavored ricotta

Top this last layer of ricotta with a few blueberries and a sprinkling of mint and chocolate chips. You could also serve whole graham crackers on the side too.

How to Make Simple Desserts With Layered Fruit Salads

Laura Cockerell is a food and health enthusiast who has enjoyed cooking from an early age. Her website at http://www.quick-salad-recipes.com, which includes more layered fruit salads, offers easy solutions to healthy meal preparation by providing a large selection of simple, quick, and budget friendly recipes that include salads along with a wide variety of healthy and flavorful meal recipes that require a minimum of ingredients, time, effort, and clean-up for the time-pressed world we live in.

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Eat Dessert First!

I believe you should eat desert first.

It may cause you to eat fewer "luxury calories."

A luxury calorie is a calorie eaten for pleasure and not just because we need the nutrients. In essence luxury calories are the source for most of the extra calories we eat that turn into extra fat. If we never ate any luxury calories we would never have to worry about gaining weight.

The issue with desert is that it's eaten at the end of a meal. So we sit down to a meal, we eat until we are either satisfied or full, and at that point anything beyond that satiety point is a luxury calorie. The sweet and savory taste of desert motivates us to keep eating, thus causing us to over eat.

Of course I could say to skip desert, but come on! Where is the fun in that? Now I'm not saying you can eat a pint of ice cream and then chow down on your usual dinner, but I am saying that if dessert is an inevitability that some of it should be eaten before to satisfy the desire for such foods.

So I propose you have a bit of desert first, while making dinner. Now those calories are not luxury calories because they are not being added on to a full meal. Then when you eat your real dinner you still stop at a satiety point which will be earlier in the meal since you already ate a bit before hand. Contrary to what your parents always told you, it's good to spoil your dinner a little bit.

In essence you are making an exchange for some of your dinner for some desert. The goal is to still enjoy some desert while keeping your caloric intake within a reasonable level thus limiting the chance for weight gain.

Also always remember that luxury calories can come from any source so don't feel the need to clean your plate.

Be fit and live free,

Matt Schifferle

Exercise isn't supposed to make you lose weight!

Learn why and receive the FREE 20 page report: The Exercise and Weight Loss Myth at http://www.TheFitRebel.com

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