Cookie Dough Ice Cream and Weekend Eating

Testimony of the Day

Weekend Eating

Do you wake up Monday morning with a "food hangover" and dreading the scale? In the past, I was what you would call a "week-day" dieter. I would be so good during the weekdays (probably because I was so busy) but on those relaxing weekends, I would let anything pass my lips. Yes, I said anything. All of the junk food I blog about staying away from, I was guilty of eating in my past life (several years ago). I would love Friday afternoons because it meant I no longer followed my rules of eating. I do not judge anyone for their diets because I was there once myself too. It was a long process to get where I am today. A while back, Craig and I were at a Chinese/Sushi restaurant and I asked my husband "When was it, where I would see Crab Rangoon on a menu and not be tempted to order it?"... This wasn't an over night process for me and I don't expect it to be for you. One main thing that helped for me was to take note of how I felt in the morning after eating junk food.  Just how awful I felt the next day helped me make better choices.

The average woman eats 400 more calories (most of them in the form of carbohydrates) on a Saturday or Sunday than she does on a weekday, which can lead to a 9 pound gain over the course of a year. This yoyo weight gain also causes a tired liver. Instead of hating yourself on Monday morning, keep some of my "healthified" treats on hand. I actually do recommend a higher calorie day once or twice a week to help stimulate the thyroid and T3 production, but this doesn't mean a "cheat day" of Pizza Hut and Dairy Queen. It means maybe a huge piece of "healthified" dessert that day or an extra serving of "healthified" pizza. I usually have my cheesecake or my ice cream recipe on those days (I'm not dairy sensitive). Where Craig prefers an extra hamburger (he doesn't have a sweet tooth). To read more on Over-Feeding Days, check out my book Secrets to a Healthy Metabolism. 

My dessert tonight!

Someone mentioned on my Facebook Fanpage that they didn't want to be a "stick in the mud" mom for not taking their kids to the new Frozen Yogurt shops that are popping up on every street corner!  When I was a teenager, I mistakenly ate fat free frozen yogurt for a dessert thinking it was a safe "diet" food. NOPE, it isn't. One of the most famous frozen yogurt chains ingredients for vanilla yogurt powder is: Pure Crystalline Fructose, Dextrose, Maltodextrin, Non-fat Milk, Yogurt Powder, Micro-encapsulated Probiotic (Lactobacillus Sporogenes) Not good! The first 3 ingredients = sugar, followed by processed cow's milk. Maltodextrin, in particular, has a glycemic index of 110 (sugar is only 57).  Not only is it made from GMO corn, it also increases blood sugar. The scary thing is, since it technically isn't a sugar (in the chemical world), it doesn't have to be listed as a sugar. SO things like Ensure or Pedia-Sure will claim 0 grams of sugar...sure, but the maltodexterin will increase blood sugar even higher than sugar would. To read more on this, check out the chapter on Alternative Sweeteners in Secrets to a Healthy Metabolism.  Also, have you seen the prices at those places!? I often get questions about the cost of the ingredients I recommend. I calculated the price for my ice cream recipe with all the top notch ingredients like organic coconut oil, Swerve (or Just Like Sugar) and farm raised grass fed eggs. The results: My recipe = $3.13 per pint. Ben and Jerry's = about $4.00 per pint. Cold Stone Creamery = $7.50 a pint and it has 2 GRAMS of trans-fat! You can also buy most of the ingredients I use in bulk and store in a chest freezer to lower the cost even more! Eating healthy costs you a lot less in the long run due to medical bills but it can cost less now versus buying pre-packaged at the grocery store. It just takes a little more of your time, which I would also ague against since the time it take to load everyone up and drive to Dairy Queen and back is about how long it take to make fresh ice cream at home!  And it tastes so much better when you make it fresh at home! I get my ingredients for great prices HERE and on the right column on this blog where it says "stock your pantry". Making low sugar ice cream is tricky. If you use erythritol for a sweetener, it hardens to a ROCK! BUT if you use Swerve or Just Like Sugar, it stays nice and creamy! Another trick is to always add a pinch of salt to the mixture. VANILLA ICE CREAM: 5 egg yolks 1 cup Swerve (or Just Like Sugar) *JLS keeps ice cream soft 1 tsp stevia glycerite 1 cup heavy whipping cream 1 cup unsweetnened almond milk 1 tsp Celtic sea salt In a medium saucepan place the egg yolks and sweeteners in to mix on high with a hand mixer. Whip yolks until light in color and double in size. Stir in the whipping cream. Place the saucepan onto medium heat on the stove and cook, stirring constantly (I used my hand mixer, see photo). Stir until thickened into a custard. Remove from heat and stir in the almond milk and salt. Let cool completely (I cooled overnight...it was hard to wait!). Place into your ice cream machine (click HERE to find the one I love AND it is 1/2 off the original price!!!) and watch the magic happen within 45 minutes or according to your ice cream maker's directions. Freeze until set for vanilla ice cream or stir in chunks of cookie dough. "HEALTHIFIED" CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIE DOUGH 3/4 cup blanched almond flour 1/4 cup coconut flour 1/2 cup butter or coconut oil 3/4 cup Swerve (or erythritol) 1 tsp stevia glycerite 1 tsp Celtic sea salt 1 ChocoPerfection Bar (chopped) In a medium bowl, cream the butter and natural sweeteners. Cream for a few minutes until very fluffy. In a separate bowl mix together the almond flour, coconut flour and salt. Slowly add in the dry ingredients to the wet and mix until smooth. Add in chocolate. With your hands, roll into little balls and freeze. Once frozen add into the vanilla ice cream. Makes 5 servings. OPTION: Add an egg to the cookie dough and bake some dough at 325 degrees F for 15-20 minutes to make a few ice cream sandwiches! NUTRITIONAL COMPARISON (per cookie) Traditional Cookie Sandwich = 180 calories 25 effective carbs "Healthified" Cookie Sandwich = 125 calories, 1.5 effective carbs NUTRITIONAL COMPARISON (per serving, 7 serving per batch) Ben and Jerry's Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Ice Cream = 270 calories, 15g fat, 4g protein, 32g carbs, 0g fiber, 32g effective carbs "Healthified" Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Ice Cream = 341 calories, 31g fat, 6g protein, 8g carbs, 5g fiber, 3g effective carbs VARIATION: Smoosh in between my "healthified" Chocolate Chip Cookie!

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