good eatin', if not good lookin'

We don't eat a ton of dessert around here,

and I certainly don't go around experimenting very often.

With food food, I'm fairly sure of myself,

and rarely use recipes.

(although I have a few that I actually follow)

Sometimes, I'll see a recipe that sounds pretty good,

make it,

and discover that I already make something similar that we like more

that I don't need a recipe for.

Desserts are my nemesis.

For starters, they aren't necessary

and as it is,

it takes a lot of money

(and work)

to keep this family well-fed.

I don't have a lot of counter space, and desserts always seem to need lots of counter space to make

and I just make a lot of mess when I make desserts

(excepting the super easy mug cakes, which I don't need a recipe for...)

Add to that - healthy desserts 

(which seems like is an oxymoron, but isn't :-)

are far more expensive than their non-healthy counter parts,

so experimenting with costly ingredients

is a turn-of for me.

That said,

I have experimented with desserts three times in the last week and a half.

What is wrong with me?!

First, it was the cookies.

Oh my.

These cookies sounded sooo scrumptious, with their coconut and browned butter.

Now.

I wish I could make (and eat!) the cookies exactly as written.

But I just can't.

(of course, if someone were to lovingly make/purchase such deliciousness for me, I would gratefully eat it and enjoy it immensely ;-)

I thought about those cookies for days after I happened upon the recipe.

And after a friend, who recently started a low carb diet, told me she really missed cookies,

I thought it was only right

that I should make the browned butter coconut delicacies in a blood sugar friendly manner.

For Nancy, you understand. So I could ease her burden....

So I made the cookies, substituting xylitol for sugar and my baking mix for flour.

They smelled heavenly.

And as Tyler (or maybe Brandon?) put it,

they were an amazing dessert 

but they were not 

cookies.

They didn't crisp up, and they didn't hold together.

I think somebody may have suggested making them as cereal...

Sorry, Nanc'.

Then, it was Strawberry Shortcake.

Now, I've made low carb/low glycemic shortcake before

and it was good.

Problem is,

I have no clue how I made it...

(It just now occurs to me that maybe I used my biscuit recipe?)

Anyways,

having a basic understanding of how cakes work,

I just sorta winged it,

and the resulting strawberry shortcake was quite tasty

but it was....

v e e r r r y

short.

And then yesterday.

Yesterday, I checked out Life in Grace, a blog I rarely visit, as I really can't relate much to the author,

but I'd recently followed a link to a podcast which led me there,

and I'd enjoyed listening to the podcasts while I basted diamonds for EPP,

so I thought I'd see if she had another podcast up yet.

I don't know if she did or not,

because I saw 'Best Ever Blueberry Coffee Cake {with lemon glaze}'

and I had to make it (sans sugar and white flour...) immediately.

(Who is this person?!)

Again, the resulting dessert

tasted amazing.

But it didn't look so great.

And now I'm sort of mulling over what I should do differently....