So the last time I posted anything was in June.... 

Sorry! 

Work kind of got on top of me and I spent more time in the kitchen than posting things online. Also people at work now know about this blog and it's all a little embarrassing... Hello everyone from physio department!

I made this cake a few weeks ago for a colleague's farewell lunch and then again last Sunday for father's day. Since the cake was well received and I've had a few requests for the recipe I thought I'll post it up here.




Lemon Yoghurt Almond Cake  
Preparation Time: 20mins  
Cooking Time: 20mins
Adapted from: Everyday Cook

Ingredients

• 100g butter
• 100g caster sugar
• 3 eggs
• 160g vanilla yoghurt
•  Zest of 1 lemon
• 1 1/2 cups almond meal
• 100g wholemeal flour  or gluten free flour
• Syrup: 2tbs lemon juice, 50g caster sugar

 Method

1. Preheat oven to 180°C. Line a 20cm tin with baking paper.
2. Beat butter and sugar together until pale and creamy.
3. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. 
4. Add yoghurt and lemon zest and beat until combined.
5. Fold in the almond meal and flour until combined. 
6. Spoon the mixture into the prepared tin and smooth the surface. Sprinkle almonds on top
7. Bake in the oven for 20-25 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean. 
8. While the cake is baking make the syrup. Heat lemon juice with caster sugar in a small saucepan until sugar dissolves and mixture thickens into a syrup (2-3mins on medium heat)
9. Pour the hot lemon syrup over warm cake and then cool the cake in the pan.

The original recipe actually used pistachio meal but after shelling hundreds of pistachios until my fingers hurt, I felt almond would do just fine....
 
I've also tried this recipe using hazelnut meal with great success as seen below. If you are expecting a fluffy light cake, this is not it. This is a dense, rich, sticky cake where only a sliver is needed to satisfy that cake craving.  

Ah weekends. Weekends are the only times when I have time to make a proper breakfast. These days it's been along the lines of oats, congee, cheesy melts and crepes. Oh crepes.

I had a big craving for these thin pancake like creations last weekend but it just wasn't meant to be. The first crepe place I went to had closed down and the second had run out of crepes. How can you run out of crepes!?

By Monday night my dreams of soft crepes filled with chocolate and banana had turned to searches on the Internet. When I saw this recipe I felt myself gasp at the simplicity of the recipe. I got to work right away.

Funny how my best dishes happen in the middle of the night?

When I first had this I immediately exclaimed "THIS IS THE BEST THING I HAVE EVER MADE!" Yes in the middle of the night. Now that I have calmed down a bit it is definitely still one of the best.

These crepes are soft and delicate and have an unmistakable coconut aroma when cooking. The edges are slightly crispy and I don't know if it's the fat from the coconut in these, but they are so easy to unstick to the pan and flip! I have officially perfected the flip now! I have tried replacing the coconut milk with plain low fat milk and they stuck a little tighter to the non stick pan and were very difficult to flip.



Now lemon curd is one of my favourite things ever. There was a period last year where I was a little obsessed with lemon tarts. Okay maybe a lot obsessed; I made it my mission to find the perfect balance of sweet and tart curd. I trialled a few recipes myself but was never completely satisfied. This lemon curd however is the best yet and it doesn't even need butter!

My brother proclaims it the best thing I have ever made and has been begging me for three days to make a new batch. He licked the bowl of the last batch clean. That's how good it is. And it's so easy! Just put all the ingredients in the pot and mix over a flame.

You may find that the lemon curd may overpower the coconut taste a little and it's fine to have the coconut crepes simply with a bit of sugar and banana or with Nutella cream and strawberries. They also go great with some cream cheese and strawberries. Delicious any way!

Okay enough praise of this recipe! Here it is with a few minor alterations.

Coconut Crepes with Lemon Curd, Banana and Whipped Cream
Adapted from: Taste your Life 

Cooking and Prep Time: 20-30mins
Serves: Makes 12 crepes

• 1 cup cake flour (if you don't have cake flour use all purpose flour)
• ½ cup skim milk
• 350 ml coconut milk
• 2 large eggs 
   

• 2 whole eggs
• 2 egg yolks
• 1/2 cup caster sugar
• Juice and rind from 1 large lemon and 1 small lime

1. Mix the lemon curd ingredients in a saucepan until well combined. 
2. Place the saucepan on low- medium heat and stir constantly for 5-8minutes. Mix quickly until the mixture starts to thicken and resemble lemon curd.  When it is done, pour into a covered bowl or jar and place in the fridge to cool
3. Mix together all of the ingredients for crepes until well combined.
4. Heat a non stick pan (I used a small 15cm diameter pan). Spray lightly with cooking oil. 
5. When the pan is hot place a tablespoon of the crepe mixture into the pan and swirl around to cover the base of the pan. There should be just enough mixture to make a thin layer of crepe. 
6. When the edges start to brown, run a spatula along the edge of the crepe to loosen it from the pan. If you're brave enough, slide the crepe to one side of the pan, fling pan upwards and flip! Cook until golden brown on both sides. 
7. Don't be discouraged if the first few crepes don't work out! This always happens! Some strange cooking phenomenon where the first crepes and pancakes turn out horribly.  
8. Cover crepes with foil if you're making a few to keep them warm. If you're not using all the batter cover and place in the fridge. Stir the mixture a few times if removing from the fridge. 
9. Whip up a little bit of thickened cream and slice a banana into thin discs. 
10. Place a spoonful of curd, followed by some whipped cream and bananas onto a crepe. Roll it up. 
11. Feel yourself sigh with content at the amazing crepes you've just made.   

Per coconut crepe: Energy: 408kJ, Protein: 3.1g, Fat total: 5.5g, Sat Fat: 4.4g, Carbohydrates: 8.7g, Sodium 23mg  
Per tablespoon curd: Energy: 393kJ, Protein: 3.0g, Fat total: 3.0g, Sat Fat: 1.0g, Carbohydrates: 13.3g, Sodium 26mg  


These are coconut crepes with nutella cream and strawberry filling. To make nutella cream simply whip nutella into thickened cream. So simple, so delicious!

I was going to post a recipe tonight but seeing as it's Wednesday, the most unmotivating day of the week (to me), I think we need to look at cake pictures.

In my family, we celebrate a birthday each month from August onwards and I use it as an excuse to make something more decadent. I take off my dietitian hat and choose a cake based on how pretty it looks. I know... so superficial... but we eat with our eyes as well as our mouth!

This year for my sister's birthday I made her a big white cake. You might remember last year I made her a Strawberry and Cream Cake.



This cake has a lot of frosting.... You can see a few flecks of crumbs from the cake because I just refused to put on any more extra icing! I must say I cheat a bit and used store bought frosting as I was exhausted after doing the layers! The best part of the cake though was inside....




It's a Rainbow Cake! 

I used the Martha Stewart recipe (minus the ridiculous amount of frosting) and this cake took me HOURS! I only had one lone cake tin so had to bake each individual layer separately.

It was worth it though. Seeing the faces of my family in amazement at the colours! This is by no means the best rainbow cake ever, in fact if you google rainbow cake you'll find a trove of amazingly decorated rainbow cake and this 28 layer one.... but I was so proud of it!

To be honest the cake tasted like an average sponge cake so tastewise it wasn't anything spectacular however the colours made everyone feel like they were eating a rainbow!

The second big birthday cake I made was for a dear friend who loved pink and wanted both vanilla and chocolate flvoured cake! I was really into trying to make an ombre cake and only semi succeeded. I was in a mad panic the night before after having to rebake a layer then wrecking the home made frosting! I had a small tub of store bought frosting left and quickly made a crumb coat before refrigerating. By the morning I was in a mad dash to buy more frosting, get to my friend's house and frost the whole cake as well! This is the end result:

Pink Ombre Chocolate and Vanilla Layer Cake



Oh yeh I forgot my icing pens so just used the piping bag... As you can see it's not quite the perfect ombre effect but I didn't want to add more frosting to the cake and my time was running out! Luckily the birthday girl loved the cake (or so she tells me)!

The inside:

Recipe here.

The third (and fourth) cake I made this year was a

Chiffon Cake



This is an orange chiffon cake I made but for my mum, dad and aunty I made the pandan version. I LOVE chiffon cake! They are super light, fluffy, soft and did I mention fluffy? The problem though is because they feel so light I can probably eat the whole cake by myself without a problem... If I squished the cake down it'll probably fit into the palm of my hands!

The has to be my standout cake. My dad told me I should just make 2 every time because we went through this so quickly! Best. Cake. Ever.

And I think we should end with the best cake ever. 

The frozen yoghurt craze has really swept across Sydney with stores popping up everywhere. In fact I can think of half a dozen stores off the top of my head! Some are self serve while others are priced according to size but all are marketed as a healthy dessert. But is it really?

Low fat?
Yes, as most frozen yoghurt places advertise, frozen yoghurt is low in fat. This is because the product is made with yoghurt (often with low fat milk) rather than cream so naturally it becomes lower in fat. However the two things that add taste and texture to food is fat and sugar. If the fat component is gone something else has to be added in to replace it; usually sugar. This means that most frozen yoghurt has about as much sugar or more as ice cream and this is before any toppings are added. To mimic the creamy texture that fat would give, emulsifiers, binders and thickeners are often added.


How about the probiotics?   
Probiotics are the beneficial bacteria found in probiotic drinks, pills, yoghurt and newly in fruit juice. More and more research is going into probiotics now as its effects seem to reach beyond gut health. Gut microbiota (or the colony of bacteria in your gut) is thought to have a role in immune function. 

Something that will probably stay with me forever was a lecture I had at university on gut microbiota. The lecturer showed us a video of a faecal transplant... A patient had a faecal transplant done (faecal matter fed through a tube down their nose after it was filtered with coffee filters) to save their life from a life threatening bacterial infection. It worked a charm in resetting their immune function! Yep amazing stuff! It wasn't the easiest thing to digest in the morning but it was very intriguing.

Sorry to talk about human waste in the middle of a post about yoghurt......

When I started researching what types of probiotic strains are used for frozen yoghurt I came up empty. Most places had no information on the type or amount of beneficial bacteria in their product. This is important to know as you want strains that have good evidence backing up its health benefits and you want enoughbacteria that some reach your gut where it's needed. Also important is how the yoghurt is made. If excessive heat is used in the processing of the product much of that good bacteria is destroyed before freezing.

How many calories?

Yogurberry and Twisted both have nutrition information on their website. 100g of frozen yoghurt have around 400-500kJ (95-120Cal). This can be higher in the flavoured varieties and I have noticed that some places put a little disclaimer to the low calorie or fat claim that states only the original yoghurt are low in calories or fat. 400-500kJ is actually a good size for a snack however the problem is that often the serving sizes can be huge! You wouldn't see a bowl that big at ice cream places! Frozen yoghurt places that are self serve often don't even give you the option of a smaller bowl and even I find myself paying for 300g at the checkout.

Research by a leader in consumer behaviour, Brian Wansink, has shown that bigger serving plates lead to mindless over eating. This paper shows that even nutrition experts, given a bigger bowl, will serve themselves 31% more ice cream than those with a smaller bowl. Of course the other problem with self serve places is that I end up wanting a little bit of everything which ends up being a lot of everything...

The toppings can also add in a fair few calories. I always get overwhelmed with the choices available as they can range from fruits to lollies, cereals and biscuits. While a few pieces of strawberry won't make much of a difference, if you add just 1 Oreo biscuit you are adding 200kJ and about 5 pieces of mochi can be 150kJ. Just half a tablespoon of shredded coconut can add 350kJ! It's easy to see how the energy content of the frozen yoghurt can climb up quickly and drift away from a healthy snack.

Top tips when having frozen yoghurt
1. Pick the smallest size bowl. It's big enough, really.
2. If it's self serve, survey the flavours available and pick 1-2 yoghurt flavours only.
3.Make sure the toppings are mostly fruit based.




I'm a big ice cream and frozen yoghurt fan but I find I often over-indulge with frozen yoghurt because of the healthier halo it carries and the amount of choices I'm presented with (yes even I'm not immune sometimes!). Sometimes a scoop of ice cream can actually be the healthier option. Remember frozen yoghurt is only as healthy as how much you have and what you put into it!   

Update: I've just read an interesting study that may suggest eating foods that appear "guilt free" actually doesn't give our body the same satisfaction as foods perceived to be indulgent. What this means is that if you have that froyo thinking it's good for you, your body won't register the same sense of fullness as, if you had an indulgent snack that you think is bad for you. Therefore it may just be better to have that indulgent snack and feel satisfied!  

I used to hate blueberries. Something about the smell, the colour, the price! But then I don't know how or when, I started to fall in love with them! I'm still not a fan of fresh blueberries but I love them frozen and I make sure to have a packet in my freezer at all times. At only 184kJ/100g they are a great frozen sweet treat any time of day.

Two nights ago I picked up my box of frozen blueberries for a snack and discovered a recipe for blueberries and white chocolate muffins. It was VERY late in the evening but I had all the ingredients handy and decided to do some late night baking.

I made a few modifications with the recipe so here's a comparison of the original with my modified recipe.

Blueberries and White Chocolate Cupcakes

Original Recipe Serves: 6	Modified Recipe Serves: 14
1 cup blueberries 2 cups self raising flour ¾ cup firmly packed brown sugar ½ cup white chocolate bits 1 egg, lightly beaten ¾ cup butter milk ½ cup vegetable oil	¾ cup blueberries 1 ½ cup wholemeal flour ½ cup self raising flour ¼ teaspoon baking powder ½ cup low GI sugar ¼ cup white chocolate bits 1 egg, lightly beaten ¾ cup low fat milk ½ cup canola oil ¼ cup low fat yoghurt

    
Method:

1. Preheat oven to 180 degrees celcius
2. Sift dry ingredients into a large bowl
3. Stir in egg, milk, yoghurt and oil 
4. Scoop batter into lined cupcake tray evenly
5. Push in a few blueberries and white chocolate into each cupcake 
6. Bake for 20-25mins  

Before they go into the oven!

 

 

These were beyond delicious. The only thing I would've done differently is to put MORE blueberries in! These are more dense than your ordinary cupcakes but they were very moist and soft and filling. So perfect.

Nutritionally Speaking....

Original Recipe (Per serve)	Modified Recipe (Per serve)
Energy 2320 kJ Protein 9.2 g Fat (total) 23.6 g Saturated fat 4.7 g Carbohydrate 74.8 g Sugars 36.7 g Sodium 410 mg	Energy 864 kJ Protein 4.2 g Fat (total) 9.2 g Saturated fat 1.4 g Carbohydrate 25.4 g Sugars 10.4 g Sodium 68 mg

As you can see I have significantly reduced the kilojoules! 864kJ is still a bit high for a snack but it's a big improvement on 2320kJ. An average person's kilojoule intake for the day is 8700kJ so just having one muffin from the original recipe would be 25% of your daily intake. Not such an innocent muffin now right? 


Some easy modifications to try when baking:

• Change the serving size. I prefer cupcakes over muffins because they're cuter and I only have cupcake tins at home ;). This way I ended up with over twice as many cupcakes than I would have! Good food should be shared so I passed some on to my neighbours, family and friends who dropped by. It's also quite impressive if they love it (and they will!) and you tell them you made them!
• Substitute white flour with wholemeal flour. This is really easy to do if you're baking a fruit cake or nut cake since there's already different textures in the batter. If you're not sure how much to substitute try 1/4 or 1/2 of the amount in the recipe and just experiment. 
• Choose Low GI Cane sugar, Natvia or Splenda instead of white sugar. These have lower GI or less kiljoules than white sugar. However read the packet for conversions of quantity. Usually sweeteners are several times sweeter than sugar so less may be needed.  With sugar it also helps to experiment with how much is really needed. As this cupcake already has blueberries and white chocolate I felt it would be quite sweet already so I cut 1/4 cup of sugar off and it was still quite sweet.
• Choose low fat ingredients. This includes using low fat milk, cream, yoghurt etc. Choose maragrine instead of butter. This can reduce the kilojoule content as well as the total and saturated fat.
• I've been exprimenting with adding yoghurt to my cakes and so far so good! Adding 1/4- 1 cup of yoghurt can make cakes more moist, dense and increase the protein content. Definitely will be experimenting more with yoghurt!     
  

 Let me know about any recipe modifications you've made and how it turned out!

I was having a sweet tooth (do I always have a sweet tooth?) and really wanted to perfect a quinoa recipe I had tried to make twice before.

I have previously mentioned the great benefits of quinoa in a blog post but if you need a refresher click here!

Just a reminder, quinoa is gluten and wheat free and can be used in sweet and savoury dishes. I had previously used it to make quinoa with roasted cauliflower and pumpkin but the versatility of quinoa set me out to search for a sweet dish. This is what I found:

Recipe adapted from vegan-food


Makes:14
Cost: $0.41 per cupcake

Preparation time: 20 minutes + 10minutes in fridge

Baking Time: 20 minutes

Ingredients

• 3/4 Cup cooked quinoa
• 1/3 Cup vegetable oil (I used olive oil)
• 2/3 Cup white sugar (Or low GI sugar)
• 1 Teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1 Teaspoon baking soda
• 3/4 Teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 Cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1 Cup wholemeal flour
• 1/2 Cup white flour
• 4 Tablespoons water
• 6.5 Tablespoons low fat/skim milk
• 1 Large egg

Method

1. Preheat oven to 180-200 degrees celcius
2. Rinse 1/3 cup of dried quinoa (This will make about 3/4-1cup of cooked quinoa)
3. Place rinsed quinoa in a covered pot with about 2 cups of water. 
4. Bring the quinoa to a boil, and simmer for approximately 20 minutes and add water if necessary. 
5. After 25minutes take the quinoa off the stove, drain if necessary and allow to cool (in fridge is quicker). The quinoa should be fluffy and opaque looking and the liquid should mostly be all absorbed.
6. Line cupcake tin with paper liners.
7. In a large bowl, mix all the ingredients well with a wooden spoon. It should look like this: 

1. Bake at 180 degrees celcius for about twenty minutes, or when a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

Per cupcake: Energy: 693kJ (165.5Cal) Fat: 5.3g Sat Fat: 1.0g Carbohydrates: 24.4g Protein: 4.1g Sodium: 127.4mg Fibre: 2g  

Here they come out of the oven....



Notice how it looks bumpy on the top? I think the quinoa hardens with the exposure to heat and it offers a grittiness and crunch on the outside but the inside is super soft.



A look on the inside....
The flecks of yellow are the quinoa casing.

 
These are ones I had made previously when I was still perfecting the recipe. I added some ready made frosting as they looked a bit bare. I would have tried making my own frosting but I was in a rush and the shops had closed!

I have made these cupcakes 3 times now and each time I have added more milk and water (notice how wet it looks in the mixing picture?). This made sure they were nice and moist. Timing in the oven is also very crucial as they can dry out easily if left for too long in the oven. The original recipe called for very little liquid and the flour did not have enough liquid to go with it. I added in an egg to make it more cohesive as the original batch crumbled away. I always feel wholemeal cupcakes need a bit more milk or water as they can turn out dry so experiment!

The cupcakes were absolutely delicious the 3rd time round. The first batch fell apart and were dry. The second batch were a lot more moist but still a bit hard. Three's the charm as they were soft and mosit and so deliciously chocolatey! I brought the 2nd batch into work previously and everyone said they loved it and it didn't taste any different to normal cupcakes. I think they may have lied a bit =P. I can't say you can not taste the grittiness from the wholemeal flower or quinoa at all but it's very acceptable (especially if you had my 3rd batch!).  It looked like a normal chocolate cupcake and tasted 90% like a normal cupcake!

Nutritionally Speaking....
These cupcakes fare nutritionally better than many of the commercial cupcakes being low in saturated fat and higher in protein and fibre. They are a great snack on the go and was able to satisfy my sweet tooth and will be more filling than other commercial cupcakes. However notice the nutrition information is only for 1 cupcake and it may be hard to stop at one with these.... also the nutrition information does not have frosting and the addition of frosting will add to calories. If you are having more than 1 of these cupcakes the energy/calories do add up and no amount of good protein and fibre will discount that!

So what should I make next with quinoa?

Today is my dear sister's 12th Birthday and on the weekend I made this strawberry and cream cake at her request!

I said she could request any cake she liked as long as we had the equipment to make it and she picked a strawberry and cream cake!

Recipe from: Seasalt with Food





As it was a special occasion I didn't do any healthy variations to it as it wasn't something we would be eating all the time. See dietitians can have cream and cake too! My siblings both loved the cake but they said my chia seed cupcakes were better (recipe coming soon).

(However I couldn't resist using low GI sugar and spreading less cream on it!)

After finishing a slice of cake my 9yo brother proclaimed "I don't like junk food. Everytime I eat something super fatty or oily or sweet my tummy doesn't like it!"

It wasn't too long before he rejected the rest of his cake slice and went to the bathroom!

Oops I really didn't want to end on a bathroom note so here's another pretty cake picture!

When I saw these on Jenius.com.au I knew I wanted to make them! I happened to have some delicious pears on hand, bought some pastry and I was all ready!

The recipe is from Jenius and hers was adapted from BBC Good Food.

I didn't have any 5 spice or almonds or cooking chocolate.....

Serves: Makes two pear dumplings (to be halved to serve four)
Preparation time: 10-20mins depending on how skilled you are with shaping pastry
Cooking time: 30mins
Cost: $1.92 (dependent on whether it's pear season or not)

Ingredients

• 2 sheets of store-bought shortcrust pastry
• 2 ripe pears
• 50g Lindt 70% cocoa chocolate with almonds
• milk to glaze

Method

1. Pre-heat oven to 200°C.
2. Melt the chocolate
3. Pull the stalk out of each pear and keep them aside.
4. Core the pears using an apple corer or sharp knife - make sure you scoop out all the seeds.
5. Cut both sheets of pastry into a circle about 20cm in diameter. Reserve some to make the pastry leaves.
6. Fill the pears with the chocolate mixture.
7. Brush the edges of the pastry with water and fold the pastry up around the pear, keeping the shape of the pear. Press to seal and trim off any excess. Brush with milk (or egg whites) and sprinkle with caster sugar.
8. Make some pastry leaves to stick them to the tops of the pears. Stick a reserved stalk back in each and bake on a baking sheet for 30 minutes until the pastry is golden.

Per pear: Energy:2482kJ/592.8kcal, Protein: 9.35g, Fat: 25.3g, Saturated fat: 13.5g, carbohydrate: 70.7g, Sodium: 315g, Fibre: 6g
 






I dusted some cocoa powder on some blueberries with a bit of yoghurt and left over almonds from the chocolate. It looks so pretty and yummy doesn't it!

I made 2, one for my sister and one for me and it looked so pretty we were super eager to eat it. And then it was taste test time and....

We HATED it!!!!!!!!

I had never eaten baked pears before so maybe I just don't like the taste of it.... I will probably never make this ever again! I was able to consume half of it before I gave up and threw it away but my sister took a few bites and threw away the rest.

Here are the problems I identified with this dish:

• For extra fibre, I did not peel the pear so the pear wasn't easily sliced and it didn't stick well with the pastry. I could lift the pastry right off!
• When I was melting the chocolate I added a bit of milk to make it more liquid... when it was baked the watery part separated from the chocolate! 
• The pastry was a lot harder to shape around the pear than I imagined! I had to do a lot of patching up with spare pastry bits! 
• Well some cooking experiments can just fail, even really simple looking ones

Nutritionally speaking
Despite the star of the dessert being a fruit, this dessert is actually hiding a lot of energy/calories. Most of the calories come from the pastry which is also the biggest source of saturated and total fat in this dish. In fact it is the pastry that is hiding away all the good stuff inside it!

The only plus side is the dish is quite low in sodium.

I would personally not have this dessert again because my own one came out tasting horrible! But for those that do like cooking with pears, stick to ones that are poached and treat the pastry type dishes as a sometimes dish. The amount of energy/calories in this dish is equivalent to a meal on its own, no matter how much you try to healthify it with more berries or yoghurt! 

Remember pears are still great fruits to have that are especially high in fibre so have them as is with the skin intact!

I am a sucker for sweet treats. When I eat out I always flick to the back of the menu first to look at dessert to plan my whole meal around it. I often remark I have a separate stomach for dessert no matter how stuffed I feel. This might have spawned from being deprived of desserts all my life as my family does not have them due to it not being a big part of our culture. The closest I got was fruit. So when I discovered the land of pretty desserts, pastries and chocolate, it became very hard to control myself!

It was actually my 11yr old sister that told me about parfaits. She told me that in French class she learnt parfait is french for the word perfect. When I google imaged the word parfait I came across a myriad of pretty pretty food! I couldn't help myself, had to make it!!

Most American parfaits called for a lot of cream, gelatin and ice cream so I looked more favourably on the ones with fruits and yoghurt.

Parfait Ingredients

• Yoghurt
• Muesli/Weetbix/nuts
• Lots of fruit!!

It's VERY simple to make it doesn't even need a recipe. Just experiment with what looks the most tasty to you and voila! A restaurant quality dessert!

I had a lot of fun making this with my sister and she loved it!







My cup is a plastic one I got at the Wicked show and it lights up! I kept it and now it's come in handy!



This is the one my sister made all by herself!





Use your best crystal or fancy glasses and it really looks like a $15+ dessert at a restaurant!

For my treat I added a bit of low fat whipped cream to the top in an attempt to make a peak at the top and failed! I also put a dusting of cocoa powder. Other things you can add include dried fruit, honey, wafer biscuits,chocolate shavings, frozen berries, chia seeds, crushed nuts etc!! Endless possibilities.

One of my dietitian friends recommended adding Weetbix to yoghurt and I've never looked back! The weetbix adds a little extra nutrition kick and gives the yoghurt some texture. As an added bonus the weetbix won't go soggy in yoghurt. 

Importance of Calcium
One of the other things I've been doing lately is trying to get my sister's calcium intake up. As she is in her growing stage I want her to be tall! Hopefully taller than me and I'm sure everyone knows of calcium's importance in nurturing bone growth. She has slowly incorporated milk but another fun way to do it is through yoghurt! And this dessert is a fun way to do it. Each of our desserts used 1 tub of yoghurt (we used the single serve ones of 175g). 

I usually choose Yoplait Forme as they have sticky date, cheese cake and apple pie flavours! Don't be fooled by the names, they actually only have 0.2g fat, <1% added sugar, use halal gelatine and have 315mg calcium.

For a comparison, a normal adult (19-50yr old) requires 1000mg calcium so this 175g tub of yoghurt can provide over 30% of the requirements for the day.

A 250ml glass of milk provides about 300mg of calcium so milk is also a great source of calcium. Soy milk in Australia is also fortified with calcium but some organic ones do not so make sure to check the label. 

Yoplait forme compared to other low fat yoghurts (based on single serves)

• Yoplait Forme: 315mg/175g serve
• Vaalia: ~230-369mg (depending on flavour and size of serve (150g/170g))
• Ski D'Lite: ~ 318mg/200g serve
• Nestle Diet: ~164mg/150g serve

As you can see calcium content can vary greatly between different yoghurt products and even between different flavours of the same brand so check the calcium content when buying!

Please note I am not sponsored by any of the above brands and my choice of yoghurt is a balance between flavour preference and nutrition between all the yoghurt consumers at home. The comparisons I made were solely based on calcium content alone and did not take into account any other claims by the different yoghurts companies.

Oh and almost forgot to mention: 

• Fruit: Fruit in the parfait adds to your vitamin C intake, soluble and insoluble fibre, potassium (depending on fruit) and lots of antioxidants!  
• Muesli/nuts: Contributes towards your fibre and good fats and depending on the type of nuts used can also be good sources of B vitamins, Vitamin E, selenium, magnesium, manganese and other trace vitamins and minerals   

Isn't it great to end a day with a pretty and tasty dessert and knowing it will be good for you?