Description

If your new year's resolution is to maintain a healthier diet, guess what, you can still have your cake and eat it too. Celebrity chef, Marisa Churchill, is here to help us celebrate the new year by satisfying our sweet tooth the healthy way.

Transcript

Audra Lowe: If your New Year’s resolution like a lot of people is to maintain a healthier diet our next guest says that you can still have a cake and eat it too and we like that. Celebrity Chef Marisa Churchill is here to help us celebrate the New Year the healthy way. Welcome to the show Marisa, good to have you here. Marisa Churchill: Hi! It’s great to be here. Audra Lowe: Yeah, I like the fact that you’re able to help us satisfy our cravings. It’s still healthy for you. Is it really easy to do that? Marisa Churchill: It is you know it really is. I mean people don’t believe it all the time. They don’t believe it but I understandably so but you really can and I’ll tell you there are a couple of really easy tricks to cut down on the fat and your sweets but still satisfy those cravings. Audra Lowe: Because that’s so main thing though people say I cut back on the sweets, the fat but it still doesn’t taste the same, right? Marisa Churchill: Exactly! Exactly! Audra Lowe: So you got a great desert that you’re going to make for us? What’s this one? Marisa Churchill: Yes, this is the pear and sour cherry crisp. So first of all, we’re starting out with some fresh fruit which of course it’s wonderful for us. Audra Lowe: Right! Marisa Churchill: We’re putting a little bit of flour in here just to thicken the juices, a little bit of spice and also Truvia natural sweetener in place of sugar which is wonderful not only if you want a cutback on the sugar but also if you’re diabetic. You can have sugar that’s a great way to do it. Audra Lowe: Right! Right! Marisa Churchill: We just toss that together, put it into the oven, bake it for about 30 to 45 minutes until the pears are fork tender. Audra Lowe: Oh, and this is what you get here, right? Marisa Churchill: Exactly! Exactly and filling. I mean the topping also extremely easy. You’ve got your pecans, you’ve got your Truvia and the great thing about that is as well is it’s easy to find at all the local stores so you don’t have to go searching for it. Audra Lowe: Okay! Marisa Churchill: So anybody wants to have to do that. Audra Lowe: Exactly! Now you’re putting butter and is that regular butter? Marisa Churchill: It’s regular butter but we cut the butter down in the topping by half. Audra Lowe: Okay! Marisa Churchill: We’ve replaced some of that with a low fat cream cheese. You got a similar texture. You can get similar results with it, great way to cut down on the fat there and you can just work this together with the fork until you get little crumbled pieces and once you get those little pieces and basically what we’re looking for just some tiny little crumbly bits like that. Audra Lowe: Do you have to need that with your hand after a while or something? Marisa Churchill: No, and really with the fork it works pretty well on this. You’ve got room temperature butter and cream cheese. Audra Lowe: And this is the end products? Marisa Churchill: Exactly! You put into the oven, mixed it up just like that. Audra Lowe: Okay! So I’m going to scoop some of this into the-- Marisa Churchill: Perfect! Yes! Let’s put it into the bowls. Audra Lowe: Okay and you serve this-- Marisa Churchill: You serve it nice and warm. Audra Lowe: Okay! And what do you put on? Marisa Churchill: And you just put a nice handful of this on top. So again you get the tart from the cherries, you get the juiciness of pears and nice, little crunch from the toppings. Audra Lowe: Okay! Marisa Churchill: You would not know that this is sugar free and low fat. Audra Lowe: Right! Marisa Churchill: It’s really wonderful. Then you can always do a little bit of reduce that ice cream or whip topping. Audra Lowe: Marisa I like you. Look at that that was fantastic. That looks really good, some of the restaurants to see all the time too. Marisa Churchill: Yeah. Audra Lowe: Okay, now we’re going to over to the drink. This here is a low fat cocktail. It’s called strawberry— Marisa Churchill: The strawberry rouge, yes. It has a little bit of pineapple juice, balsamic vinegar, fresh lime juice, basil, strawberries and you’ve got great color. It’s perfect for our cocktail party or New Year’s Eve party. Audra Lowe: And I see you’ve got your ingredients over here. How many servings would this make? Marisa Churchill: This one would make two servings. Audra Lowe: Two servings? Marisa Churchill: Yes. Audra Lowe: Okay and how many calories would you cut back on making it this way versus or approximately how many calories? Marisa Churchill: No, you’re cutting it back as it definitely came up because sugar has a lot of calories and this has no sugar in it, only the Truvia which is your calorie sweetener and it’s natural. Audra Lowe: So let me ask this Marisa, a lot of people want to make dishes like this at home. I got to sweet to them then I going to lie and but you don’t have always the creativity. Is there a way that you can find out how to substitute X for Y? Is it easy? Marisa Churchill: Yeah, it’s not a simple as X for Y. I mean I definitely recommend you follow a recipe if you’re not an expert of baking. Audra Lowe: Okay. Marisa Churchill: They can go to the Truvia website to get these recipes. Audra Lowe: Okay. Marisa Churchill: I also have cookbook coming out called Sweet and Skinny, so they can look for more. Audra Lowe: They’re always going to make, yeah! Marisa Churchill: Yeah, more low fat and sugar free recipes in there. Audra Lowe: You mentioned too you can always do this to taste. If you like sweetener— Marisa Churchill: Exactly! You know some people I have more of sweet tooth of my mother for example so I would be putting more of the Truvia into the crisp topping than my mom for example. Audra Lowe: I see. Marisa Churchill: But you can do that. You can also add things and based on your taste. This one has pecans but maybe you prefer walnuts. You can also add in a little coconut. These are also great ways to add a little bit of extra flavor and moisture using natural fats rather than butter. Audra Lowe: Right! Most fantastic! I love, love everything. Thank you.