Still Feeling Peckish

I’ve been mulling…when I first switched to a low carb lifestyle 5 years ago I did spend an inordinate amount of time mourning over the loss of my favourite dishes. For the longest time I would console myself saying that perhaps 1 week before dying I would eat Hokkien Mee or char kuay teow or potato chips! Something like the prisoner’s last meal. But interestingly 5 years on, I realise that my palate has actually changed so that I don’t really crave these carby foods, surprisingly when I do sneak a taste sometimes I find it rather blander and less satisfying that I seem to remember.

One of the terrible things I used to eat a lot of was Instant noodles. Yes…kind of embarrassing but Myojo curry noodles was really my thing…although the kind people around me commented that all my hair would drop out over time with all the instant noodles I ate! I also realized recently that currently, my breakfast or lunch noodles taste amazing with fresh ingredients and rich soup stocks and I would not go back to the instant noodle lifestyle…even if tempted when watching K dramas (why do the actors and actresses all bury their faces in Instant Korean Ramyun???). I’m happy to say I dropped that strange food preference completely.

I think I’ve never really had a very sweet tooth – savory food is really my thing, but in the early days of low carb I did have cravings for sweet stuff. Hence the frenetic baking of low carb treats and desserts. But over time I’ve become less in need of having sweets and some Lily’s chocolate or a bit of yogurt and berries seems to do just fine when I need something sweet for the palate. And I realise of late with busyness and a really crazy schedule that I’ve been baking a lot less than I used to. But kid#2 who just recently went low carb (and lost about 6 kg and is still maintaining the loss) gets desperate cravings, which is why I decided to make some quick low carb sweets to sustain her.

Friend M recently brought on a new line of low carb products into Singapore. The soft launch of the Ben Banter products has been stirring lots of interest and because he had kindly given me a box of chocolate mousse mix, I decided to play around with it. The mousse mix is actually a very simple mixture of cocoa powder and sweetener and one has to add cream and cook the mousse. I had some friends who thought this was a ready made product and were horrified that they had to cook the contents, but I kind of appreciated the product as it was as it would be something I would pack in the bag for overseas trips as it could make a nice hot chocolate drink or make a little warm dessert (did I mention that I do travel with a mini electric cooker?!). I could see endless possibilities with this box of mousse mix.

This recipe started off with what I thought was a simple 4 ingredient mix…then I got excited and more stuff got thrown in!

The weather has also been stinking hot in Singapore lately, which is why I decided to make a frozen dessert. I’ve been so hot and bothered I almost wish I could sit in front of the refrigerator with the freezer door open. In the end, this recipe is a very simple no bake dessert. It uses cream cheese as a base and the chocolate mousse mix as a flavouring. I decided to add yogurt to give an added dimension of tartness to cut through the heaviness of the cheese. After making my little mix and checking the ingredients with a nutrition calculator, I realized I had made a bunch of frozen fat bombs! But not a bad recipe as each bite is less than 1 carb; and hopefully the fat content keeps you satisfied and not eating all the little bombs at a go!