I'm BACK!! Berries & Lemon Whipped Cream

Well I am so sorry for extended silence. My life got pretty crazy there for a few months. As I said in my last blog, I have recently moved to Texas to start a new job. I am really enjoying my job but it has definitely changed my former routine. As a person who lives her life based on routine, it's really easy to get off course when life happens and interrupts our daily patterns. I have really had to pull myself back to living a healthy lifestyle. It's real easy to get out of cooking healthy foods because we had a long day and Chickfila is so much easier and a salad is healthy, right? Well those stops add up and prevents a healthy variety of good foods. I realized that I was getting sick of being on this "diet" and wanted real food. STOP, there was my problem. I was having so many salads that it felt like I was on a diet. The key to living a healthy lifestyle is to not eat so many salads, yes they are good and the dressing in moderation is okay, but we will find ourselves bored of the plain salad day after day. We NEED that variety of veggies, lean meats, and fruits. It's what makes this easy. So here I am going back to the basics with myself. It happens folks, we are not all perfect. The key is to see it, stop it, and fix it. That being said, I have started to experiment in the kitchen again and I am excited about it. This weekend I will really be setting time aside to focus on this and make it a priority in my life again. That being said, I have this great recipe idea floating around in my head that I am dying to try out!!!

Until then I will leave you with this one.

Berries and Lemon Whipped Cream

So I first had this dessert dish when I was in Italy a few years back and it was full of sugar and all that goodness, but with today's sugar substitutes it's so easy to transform this dish to a healthy yummy dessert for the whole family. It's one of my go to recipes. With 4th of July right around the corner, this dish will most certainly impress your guest! It has beautiful colors and very patriotic!

Berries:
5lbs of washed, hulled, slices Strawberries
2 pints of washed Blueberries
1 Pint Raspberries
(Add 1 pint of blackberries if you like them.)
1/4 Cup Xylitol or Erythitol
Lemon
*Orange, optional

Mix all of theses together in a large bowl with the juice of 1 small lemon along with 1TBSP of the lemons zest. Some times I like to throw in a little fresh squeezed orange juice. Mix all of this together with about 1/4 cup of Xylitol or Erythitol. I prefer the Erythitol because it doesn't bother my stomach as much but I understand that it's kind of hard to find. Let all of this sit and soak up those juices for about an hour in the frig. While that is all going on, time to make the Lemon Whipped Cream.

Lemon Whipped Cream
I have to confess, this I could, (and have), eat this all by it's self. IT IS SO GOOD!!!

2 1/2 cups of Heavy Whipping Cream
1/4 cup of Xylitol or Erythitol
1tsp Vanilla Extract (make sure it's sugar free)
Zest of a Lemon
The juice of 1/2 a lemon (if you like it tart, add the whole thing)

Begin by making a simple whipped cream. Grab your mixer and go to town on the Cream, Sugar Sub, and Vanilla. Once you are just about to get stiff peaks toss in your lemon juice and zest. Mix until you get stiff peaks. refrigerate for about 30 mins.

DISPLAY
This dish screams for a beautiful clear bowl!!! I have a cool cake stand that you can flip the lid over and it fits perfectly into the base and makes a beautiful parfait bowl.
This a great layered dish. You can add a layer of mixed berries and spread some of the lemon whipped cream, then repeat, oh man my mouth is salivating for this already :)
 Prefect for your 4th of July party!
Or if you are having a dinner party these are beautiful to serve in martini glasses with a dollop of the cream on top.


*Now I know some of you want an even easier way to do this dish. I do have one quick shortcut. If you find Sugar-Free ready made whipped cream, you can just stir in the zest and juice and it works just as good.

Well I hope you and your family enjoys this dish like I do! Next time I am hoping to have my secret dish ready to share, I am really pumped about it!