MyPlate For The Heart

Do you want to serve a creative birthday cake made from sorbet and berries? This one doesn’t need batter, baking time, frosting or hours of preparation. It is colorful – made “a la minute” (at the last minute) right at the table. We used chocolate and strawberry sorbet, fresh berries, fresh whipped fat-free cream and vanilla frozen yogurt. The whimsical candles made a nice topping.

Start with some fresh berries that are rinsed and cut in quarters – one quart to be exact.

Scoop a variety of frozen yogurt and fruit and chocolate sorbet into a frozen shallow bowl or cake dish. Decorate with whipped cream and candles. We like to scoop the sorbet so it is arranged by color.

Watch it disappear fast!

Dinner was courtesy of my mom, who is celebrating her 74th birthday. After reading all of my newsletters and nutrition information over the years, she has taken the messages to heart and cooks healthy – no more high blood pressure medicine, no more cholesterol medicine – she keeps these numbers looking good with diet and exercise and we are all blessed with another healthy and happy birthday.

As you can see, dinner was simple but healthful – salad, 3 kinds of veggies, and her famous pasta. Her sauce is so delicious I asked her to share – I think the secret is the thickness from the salt-free crushed tomatoes and the lively flavor of the fennel seeds that make you think she put sausage in it!

Here is her recipe:

1/4 cup olive oil

2 onions, diced

1 gallon of crushed tomatoes – no salt added

2 tablespoons of Badia ground garlic & parsley,

3 tablespoons sugar,

1 tablespoon chopped fennel seeds,

1 tablespoon of dried basil,

1/4 cup dried onion flakes,

ground pepper

Saute onions in olive oil until tender, about 3 minutes, Add the tomatoes and the rest of the ingredients and cook on a low simmer for about a half of an hour. Refrigerate until ready to serve – freeze extra if needed. This makes a little more than a gallon of sauce which would equal about 5 jars of sauce.

You can use whole tomatoes that are salt-free too – just crush them with a hand blender.

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