Holly Hildreth
  • Welcome
  • Blog
  • Savor the Sweetness
  • Be of Service
  • Know Thyself
  • Follow Your Bliss
  • Play
  • Be Content
  • Trust God
  • Faster Emotional Freedom Technique-V

Savor the Sweetness

​The first door opening onto the light of your Soul is Savor the Sweetness. Open this door and you will encounter gratitude and appreciation for your daily life. You’ll find the attitudinal change that makes whatever you are doing today a good thing to be invested with love. You’ll learn that happiness is a conscious decision and that you can surround yourself with what supports you. Open the door and come right in, it’s delicious in here!

Savory 'n Sweet - Cheesecake

3/25/2020

0 Comments

 
Picture
. “Life tastes better after a slice of cheesecake!”
-Jason Shaw

In October of 2019 I stepped off the bathroom scale and acknowledged that I had gained back all the weight I lost the year before. It was a depressing realization. What was the point of going to the considerable effort of losing weight if I was just going to gain it back?

I thought about how good I felt in my clothes the year that I lost weight, compared with how dowdy I felt after the weight gain, and vowed to do it differently. I would find a way to lose the weight and not gain it back.

Enter the Weight Watcher’s app for my smartphone.

It is now six months and sixteen pounds later and I have reached my goal weight. What’s more Peter has lost almost forty pounds. The Weight Watcher’s combination of tracking food eaten by assigning point values to foods, along with lots of free zero-point foods, really works for us.

Still, it wasn’t easy getting my inner child on board.

This is how the conversation went between me and my inner child.

Me, “We’re going on a diet. We’re going to lose weight and keep it off.”

Inner Child, looking a little pudgy, pushes out her lower lip, plants her hands on her hips and stomps her foot. “We are not! No way! I’m not going to starve again.” She pulls a protest sign out from behind her back and holds it up. It shows the word DIET written in large, childish block letters, with a bright red X scrawled over it. She marches around the room chanting, “No more deprivation! No more deprivation!”

Me, admiring her vocabulary and wheedling, “You can have dessert.”

Inner Child, stops marching and looks back at me over her shoulder, “I can?”

Me – “Yup, you can even have cheesecake.”

Inner Child – “Can I have cheesecake for breakfast?”

You see what I have to deal with here.

Eventually, with Inner Child on board and the Weight Watchers app on my phone and firmly in hand, we did it. We even got Peter signed up. The rest is history.

Now, on to the cheesecake. Ok, it’s not technically cheese – cake. It is made with yogurt, fat free Greek yogurt, to be precise. The taste is lighter than traditional cheese cake made with cream cheese because there isn’t the usual fat. But the texture is spot on, and it is delicious.

Fat free Greek yogurt has become one of my go to foods. It is free on Weight Watcher’s, meaning it doesn’t cost me any points. Eggs, another main ingredient in this recipe, are also free.

Then there is Lakanto Monk Fruit/Erythritol sugar substitute, also zero points. It is by far the best-tasting of the sugar substitutes out there, with little to no aftertaste. What’s more it is the only one (and I’ve tried most of them over the years) that doesn’t give me intestinal discomfort or heart burn.

(BTW, I’m not affiliated with Lakanto, they just make an excellent product. I’m not affiliated with Weight Watcher’s either, but I really like their system and the app.)

There is a lot of controversy about sugar substitutes, and for good reason.

Sugar free pudding mixes are not what I would call a healthy food and I wouldn’t recommend regular consumption. I wish they would come out with one that is made with erythritol as the sweetener. **

Studies have shown that erythritol is not detrimental to long-term health. What’s more, some studies have shown that it acts as an antioxidant in the body and may even improve blood vessel function.

Back to cheesecake.

The combination of fat-free Greek yogurt, eggs, pudding mix, sweetener and flavoring, with the addition of heat from the oven, bakes up into a wonderfully light tasting, smooth and creamy rendition of cheesecake. Top it with a small amount of light whipped cream and some berries and you have a delicious dessert that your Inner Child will love.

You might even allow her to have it for a special breakfast. There are eggs in there after all.
​
*For more information on the Weight Watcher’s app go to https://www.weightwatchers.com/us/how-it-works/ww-app
​

**I usually make my own instant pudding mix. I substitute  Lakanto Monkfruit/Erythritol sugar 1:1 for the sugar in the recipe.  You'll find the recipe at https://www.foodiewithfamily.com/homemade-no-cook-instant-pudding-mix-make-ahead-mondays/

Photo by Payton Tuttle on Unsplash

Light  Creamy Cheesecake

Ingredients:
3 large eggs, or ¾ cup liquid egg substitute
3 cups (765 g) nonfat plain Greek yogurt
1 (1 oz) small box instant sugar free/fat free cheesecake or vanilla pudding mix  or 3/4 cup of homemade instant pudding mix.
1 teaspoon lemon extract
​1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3 tablespoons Lakanto Monkfruit/Erythritol sugar - **If using homemade instant pudding mix, increase to 1/2 cup.

Instructions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Whisk together all the ingredients except pudding mix. Then stir in dry pudding mix  until thoroughly combined.

Pour into eight, lightly greased small ramekins or a 9” pie dish or springform pan.

Bake ramekins for 15 minutes, pan for 30 minutes. (It may look a bit wobbly on top. That wobbliness turns into creaminess once chilled.)

Let cool completely before covering and chilling in  the refrigerator. Best eaten when completely chilled.

Cheese cake recipe adapted from Lindsay Kel’s marvelous website, The Pound Dropper.

**You'll find the recipe for homemade instant pudding mix at https://www.foodiewithfamily.com/homemade-no-cook-instant-pudding-mix-make-ahead-mondays/
0 Comments

Savory 'n Sweet - Fudge Cake

10/25/2019

0 Comments

 
Picture
"Let's face it, a nice, creamy chocolate cake does a lot for a lot of people; it does for me!"
-Audrey Hepburn


Last week there were six birthdays of various family members and friends, one of them my own. In celebration I want to share with you the recipe for my all-time favorite birthday cake.
 
I originally had this moist and delicious chocolate experience at my husband’s parent’s home, baked by Louise, my much loved and lamented mother-in law.
 
The derivation of the name of this cake comes from a wonderful story related to me by Charlie, my father-in-law.
 
Years ago, Charlie and Louise went to their favorite seafood restaurant to celebrate Louise’s 71st birthday. This restaurant offered $10 off the dinner of anyone celebrating their birthday, on the date, with proof of date of birth.
 
That same day another couple were celebrating a birthday. The husband was 92 years old that day.
 
Charlie and Louise, always friendly, struck up a conversation with the couple and wished the elderly gentlemen a very happy birthday.
 
Going to their own table, they enjoyed their meal. When it was time to pay the bill, Louise looked in her purse for her license to prove that it actually was the day of her birthday and receive their $10 off. No license. She had switched purses and left her license in her other purse.
 
Louise, with her usual aplomb, met the situation with self-deprecating humor. They paid the full bill and stopped to tell the elderly couple all about it on their way out.
 
The 89 year-old wife looked at Charlie and said, “Isn’t she worth the $10?”
 
Without hesitation Charlie answered, “I wouldn’t give you a dollar for another one, but I wouldn’t take a million for her!”

​What a guy!
 
This recipe is a ringer for that original chocolate masterpiece. It is adapted from the website Sweetapolita.
Photo by Toa Heftiba on Unsplash

Louise's Million Dollar Fudge Cake

Ingredients:
1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour*
2 cups sugar
3/4 cup cocoa powder
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
2 eggs
1 cup strong black coffee
1 cup buttermilk, room temperature
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1 Tbsp vanilla
 
 Instructions:
1. Preheat oven to 350 F.
2. Prepare (3) 8″ or (2) 9” cake pans with baking spray and parchment paper. 
3. In bowl of electric mixer, sift all dry ingredients.
4. Add all remaining ingredients to bowl with the dry ingredients and with paddle attachment on.
5. Pour into prepared pans. Batter will be liquidy.
6. Bake for 20 minutes and rotate pans in oven. Cakes are done when toothpick or skewer comes out clean, approximately 30-35 minutes. Try not to overbake. Cool on wire racks for 20 minutes then gently invert onto racks until completely cool.
 
*This recipe is not gluten-free, however it does adapt well to using an all-purpose gluten-free flour, though the cake has a slightly gummier texture. 
 
I particularly like to frost this cake with this wonderfully creamy and chocolatey fudge frosting. After all, you can never have too much chocolate ;)
 
Fudge Icing Recipe
Enough icing for  9” two layer cake.
 .
Ingredients:
2 cups granulated sugar*
3 heaping tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
⅔ cup whole milk
½ cup (1 stick) salted butter, cut into cubes
1½ teaspoons vanilla
 
Instructions:
1. Mix sugar, cocoa powder, and milk together in a large saucepan.
2. Cook over medium-high heat until large bubbles form. Boil one minute. Remove from heat and add butter and vanilla.
3. Return to medium-high heat and boil until it thickens. Remove from heat and beat with a wooden spoon until thick and smooth.
 
**Because I am, well, me, I intend to  try coconut sugar in this recipe. I haven’t done so yet. It might be delicious and be gentler on one's body than white sugar.  
0 Comments

Savory 'n Sweet

6/11/2019

0 Comments

 
Picture
“Good bread is the most fundamentally satisfying of all foods; and good bread with fresh butter, the greatest of feasts.” 
 - James Beard


Here’s the recipe I told you about in our first Savory ‘n Sweet blog posting. This is the ABSOLUTE BEST gluten-free multi-grain bread recipe I’ve tried, and believe me when I say I’ve tried a lot.

When I decided to give up wheat, I was able to find delicious alternatives for most of my favorite baked goods. Either I was able to buy something ready-made or more usually I was able to find recipes that I could bake myself.

The black hole in my culinary world was a gluten-free alternative to fragrant, dense and delicious home-made whole grain bread. I tried the breads available in whole foods markets. Without exception they tasted more like starchy cardboard than bread.

I felt like Julia Child when she said, “How can a nation be great if their bread tastes like kleenex?” 

I then tried countless recipes I found on-line. Some were passable, but tended to be more like white bread than whole grain. I was looking for a bread that had some nutritive value to it as well as wonderful heft and flavor.

After many discouraging attempts I happened upon treasure - a recipe for whole grain teff bread. I tried the recipe purely out of curiosity about teff flour (which by the way, is delicious) and was astounded. Here was the fragrant, deeply flavorful, moist, multi-grain bread I’d been searching for.  

OK now we were cooking!

Sadly, I’ve been unable to find that original recipe on-line so that I may give the author the thanks they are due. So, I’ll send my thanks on a prayer off into the ethers, with a blessing added in for many delightful baking experiences to come. Thank you whoever you are!

Now I had found my master recipe. Through additional experimentation I discovered that I could substitute any combination of whole grain, gluten-free flours that appealed to me and it still came out deliciously moist, fragrant and satisfying.

Here is the recipe I settled on as my favorite. This is the bread I bake every week. It is fragrant, flavorful, full of holes and heft. I use it for toast, for sandwiches, for croutons, for bread crumbs and for anything else I can think up. What's more, a warm, fragrant loaf of this bread is always a hit at pot-lucks.

Although this is a yeast-raised bread (with the attendant delicious fragrance and flavor) it is a snap to mix up. The dough is scooped directly into the bread pan for rising. No kneading necessary.

Not so long ago a wonderful friend gave me a bread pan worth its weight in gold. It is specifically intended for baking gluten free bread. It has ridged sides that support the sponge as it rises, and makes for a perfect rise without the concave center that so often happens in gluten-free baking. If you love to bake as I do, and love home-baked bread it would be a worthwhile purchase for you.

Here is a link to where you can purchase it.
​
A tip - as soon as you remove the bread from the oven, immediately flip it upside down onto a cooling rack, and cool for 30 minutes upside down. This will allow the bread to firm up before you remove it from the pan and prevent the top from caving in slightly. As you can see from the picture above I forgot to do this and the top is slightly concave!

Without further ado, here’s the recipe, along with several yummy variations. Wait till you see how flexible this recipe is! 

Best Gluten Free Multi-Grain Bread

Ingredients:
1 ½ c warm water
1 package dry active yeast (2 ¼ t)
4 T canola oil or olive oil
4 T honey, maple syrup or agave syrup
2 T ground flax seeds

Flour Mix:
2 c whole grain teff flour OR
1 c sorghum flour plus ½ c oat or buckwheat or corn flour plus ½ c millet flour
​
Starch Mix:
½ c potato starch or arrowroot starch
½ c tapioca flour

1 ½ t xanthan gum
1 ¼ t sea salt

Directions:
  1. Oil a 9x4” loaf pan on the bottom only.
  2. Place warm water, yeast, honey or agave syrup, oil and ground flax seeds in a small bowl and whisk until it thickens slightly.
  3. In a large bowl, add flour mix, starch mix, xanthan gum and sea salt. Combine the flours with a wire whisk. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry and beat with an electric mixer, scraping the sides of the bowl. Continue to beat for another minute or so or until the dough thickens and becomes smooth.
  4. Transfer the dough to bread pan. Cover pan loosely with plastic wrap and place in a warm spot to rise. Let rise for about one hour or until doubled in size.
  5. While the bread is rising, preheat oven to 350 degrees.
  6. After the bread has risen, place pan into the oven and bake for 50-55 minutes. Remove from oven and immediately flip pan upside down on a cooling rack. Allow to cool for about 30 minutes in the pan. Then run a knife around the edges to release bread from sides of pan. Remove bread and place onto a wire rack to finish cooling. If you allow the bread to cool completely before slicing the texture will be better.
Yummy Variations:
Hi Protein Seed Bread: Add to flour mix - ¼ c chia seeds, ¼ c hulled pumpkin seeds, ¼ c sunflower seeds. Increase water to 2 c. Bake for 60-70 minutes (This is my favorite breakfast bread!)

“Rye” Orange Caraway Bread: Make flour mix using 1 c sorghum flour, ½ c buckwheat flour, ½ c teff flour. Add in 1 ½ T caraway seed. Use 1 T molasses and 3 T honey for sweetener. Add in ¼-1/2 t orange essence.
​
Anadama Bread: Make flour mix using 1 c sorghum flour, ½ c corn meal, ½ c millet flour. Use 1 T molasses and 3 T honey for sweetener.
0 Comments

    “Indulge...
    ​Life is sweet."

    - Author Unknown

    Archives

    March 2020
    January 2020
    November 2019
    October 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018

    Categories

    All
    Abraham Hicks
    Abraham-Hicks
    Adventure
    Albert Einstein
    Alignment
    Allow
    Almond Flour
    Anger
    Annoyance
    Appreciate
    Appreciation
    Attention
    Audrey Hepburn
    Baking
    Balanced Life
    Be Present
    Birthday
    Bread
    Breathe
    Busyness
    Cake
    Centered
    Cheesecake
    Children's Story
    Chocolat
    Chocolate
    Choice
    Choose
    Christmas
    Chris VanAllsburg
    Comfort
    Complaints
    Connection
    Cooking
    Creativity
    Dance
    Day Off
    Decorating
    Diet
    Discomfort
    Emotional Set-Point
    Energy
    Enjoyment
    Erythritol
    Esther Hicks
    Excitement
    Exploration
    Fear
    Feel
    Feel Good
    Feeling
    Feeling Good
    Flavor
    Flow
    Focus
    Freedom
    Fudge Cake
    Full Life
    Gay Hendricks
    Gem
    Gluten-Free
    God
    Grace
    Grandchildren
    Grateful
    Gratitude
    Greek Yogurt
    Guilt
    Happiness
    Hard Work
    Have To
    Healing
    Higher Self
    High Protein
    High-Protein
    Holidays
    Humor
    Inner Child
    Inspiration
    Intention
    Interest
    Invest
    Irritation
    Jason Shaw
    Julia Cameron
    Julia Child
    Kitchen
    Lakanto
    Learning
    Listen
    List Of Positive Aspects
    Love
    Magic
    Moments
    Monkfruit
    Muffins
    Multi-Grain
    Negative Thoughts
    Negativity
    Now
    Oat Flour
    Old
    Osho
    Paul Coelho
    Pleasure
    Positivity
    Present Moment
    Priorities
    Pumpkin
    Pumpkin Spice Muffins
    Purpose
    Questions
    Recipe
    Red Feather
    Refined Sugar Free
    Relaxation
    Safety
    Savor
    Savory And Sweet
    Savory 'n Sweet
    Savory N' Sweet
    See
    Senses
    Shopping
    Should
    Smell
    Source
    Spice
    Spirit
    Spiritual Support Team
    Spiritual Tool
    Spiritual Toolbox
    Spiritual Tools
    Story
    Struggle
    Subconscious
    Superconscious
    Surrender
    Sweetapolita
    Sweetness
    Taste
    Train
    Universe
    Upper Limit
    Variety
    Vegan
    Vegetables
    Weight
    Weight Watcher's
    Weight Watcher's App
    William Cowper
    Worry
    Yogurt

    RSS Feed

    Join My Mailing List

     And never miss a blog post! Your personal information will not be shared. 
Submit


​All materials provided on www.hollyhildreth.com are provided for informational, educational and entertainment purposes only and are not intended to be, or serve as a substitute for, professional medical/psychological advice, examination, diagnosis or treatment. Always seek the advice of your physician or other qualified health provider with any questions you may have regarding a medical or psychological condition.
​

© Holly Hildreth
  • Welcome
  • Blog
  • Savor the Sweetness
  • Be of Service
  • Know Thyself
  • Follow Your Bliss
  • Play
  • Be Content
  • Trust God
  • Faster Emotional Freedom Technique-V