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Cranberry Yogurt Cake with Maple Glaze: A Simple Dessert for the Holiday Season

November 21, 2016 By Jessica Braider Leave a Comment

Cranberry Yogurt Cake with Maple Glaze: A Simple Dessert for the Holiday Season

In my foodie family there are many holiday dishes that are considered sacred: Eggs Benedict on Christmas morning, my mom’s buttery fresh spinach, my brother’s carefully timed and rotated stuffed turkey, my mom’s poached pears with chestnut puree, and my mashed potatoes. Most of these dishes are not only a little bit richer than I would usually make, but they are also very labor intensive, and that’s how we like it. We love spending hours in the kitchen together, usually with bouncing fun music playing, creating these rich and delicious meals.

Other than my mom’s poached pears, however, there are few dessert recipes that are considered essential (and even that one isn’t made every year). So when The Recipe Redux announced the challenge for this month: “The holiday baking season is upon us. Time to pull out all the stops. Show us the healthy holiday dessert you will be sharing with family and friends this season.” I was excited to see what I could come up with. I wanted to create a recipe that would not only have some redeemable nutritional aspects to it, but that would also be a simple one that anyone could do. My goal of simplicity was a bit selfish because I hoped that in making one that was easy, perhaps I could entice the boys to start making it with me and that over time it could become their special recipe to contribute to future holiday meals….

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Filed Under: Baked Goods, Dessert Tagged With: cake, cranberry, holidays, recipe redux, yogurt

Whole Wheat Oatmeal Cookies

August 4, 2016 By Jessica Braider 1 Comment

Whole Wheat Oatmeal Cookies

There are few things I love more than a warm cookie right out of the oven. Even in the middle of summer. There is something so comforting about the warmth, the chewiness, and, of course, the sweetness. When I was a kid the first thing I learned to make on my own was cookies. There were all kinds of stumbling blocks along the way as I experimented with baking. Some of them were fiascoes, like the time I used a tablespoon of baking soda instead of a teaspoon. But some of them turned into specialties, like the time I let the chocolate chips get too chopped up in the food processor and the result were sugar cookies with chocolate swirls running through them. My dad called them “spider cookies” and they were his favorite for years.

And yet for years I experienced a combination of craving and guilt when it came to baked goods. I was constantly trying to control myself, which often left me wanting more and thinking about the leftovers incessantly. I would negotiate with myself, finding ways to get another cookie or rationalizing why I should have “just one more.” It was exhausting and stressful and, honestly, took a lot of joy out of eating the treats. So finding a balance in my life where I could eat what I enjoyed and not feel deprived was essential. One of the ways to find that balance was to find ways to make some of my favorite baked goods healthier, but still deliciously satisfying. The interesting thing is that once I found the right balance and was comfortable with the foods I was eating, the intense cravings started to dissipate. The enjoyment was there and the forbidden-ness was gone. It was a revelation!

oatmeal cookie

…

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Filed Under: Baked Goods, Dessert, Healthy Eating Tagged With: cranberry, Easy, healthy, oatmeal, walnuts, whole wheat

Jessica Braider

Hi! I'm Jessica. I love delicious food that is simple and easy. As a busy mom, I am always on the lookout for ways to make life easier and tastier! Read More…

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