Feast in the MIddle East

Hello Friends,

This week I have a sort of cuinary hodgepodge for you, a couple of short videos that capture a summer vibe. First up…summer corn! My favorite memory as a child visiting the middle east during the summers, was getting fresh corn dripping in butter wrapped in newspaper. Don’t ask me why they wrapped these yellow cylinders in paper lined with Arabic ink. Now that I think about it, didn’t that ink leak onto the corn? Well if it did, I didn’t care. I couldn’t wait to sink my teeth into that sweet, salty, buttery, and crunchy goodness.

Fast forward decades later, and corn on the cob is one of favorite summer pleasures. However, sourcing the real deal is somewhat trickier now, as over 95% of corn in the United States is GMO, or genetically modified. GMO corn has the pesticide built into the seed, so even the insects don’t want it anymore. The corn is almost plastic like, and takes a lot longer to cook to break down the fiber. The taste is almost saccharin sweet, rather cloying without that savory counterbalance. Organic corn tastes like the balanced sweet and savory corn of my youth, takes little time to cook, and doesn’t look nearly as perfect.

In fact, you don’t want your summer corn to be perfect. There is one easy trick to determine if your corn is pesticide free, and you can check find the answer in my 1 minute video below:

Now before I go into part two of this blog, I want to apologize to Italians in advance, as I know some of you are reading this. One of my favorite desserts of all time is Tiramisu, and if I had it my way, I would eat it several times a week. However, if I want to maintain my fitness goals this is not practical, so I love reinventing my favorite desserts so I can eat them everyday when I get that serious craving.

I thought, how can I eat tiramisu regularly with no weight gain? The answer my friends, is Greek yogurt. Traditionally, mascarpone is used as the creamy layer on top of lady fingers. Greek yogurt is loaded with protein and much lower in fat, so it is far more satiating without sacrificing much flavor. I use a low sugar vanilla Greek yogurt, so no extra sugar is required. Lady fingers are pretty low calorie, and all I need is 2 of them cut in half, then toasted and dipped into coffee for the base.

Sifted cocoa powder adds chocolatey flavor on top with zero sugar, and finally, I add some almond butter to add extra rich flavor. While you can use any nut butter you wish, I am in love with Caramel Crunch Cappuccino from the American Dream Nut Butter line. This flavor is rich with mocha flavor, salted caramel chips, and gluten free chocolate cookies ground into creamy almond butter for a little crunch. You can always get 10% off any flavor by going to this link: https://glnk.io/p8kx/blanche It will calculate the discount at checkout.

So, my dear Italian friends, I LOVE the true and original tiramisu. But this is my healthy hack which I enjoy regularly. This version has only 230 calories and 20 grams of filling protein and only 8 grams of sugar. Check out how easy it is to assemble below. Have an awesome weekend everyone!

High Protein and Low Sugar Tiramisu for One

• 2 Lady Fingers, cut in half and toasted until browned

• 1 rounded tsp instant coffee (caf or decaf) with 1/4 cup water

• 2/3 cup vanilla low sugar Greek Yogurt (I like Oikos or Two Good)

• 1 tsp cocoa powder

• 1 tbsp almond butter ( I suggest Caramel Crunch Cappuccino from the American Dream Nut Butter)

Mix the coffee into the water, and dip the toasted lady fingers in it. Line the lady fingers in a parfait glass. Scoop the Greek yogurt on top of the lady finger, then sift cocoa powder on top of the yogurt. Drizzle the whole thing with nut butter of choice. Chill for 1 hour, or eat right away if you can’t wait any longer!