Dessert Tips for the Holidays

Have it all and keep off the weight

by Rose Reisman

We often think of the holidays as the time to indulge and we most often indulge in food and drink. That’s one of the reasons it is so easy to gain 3lbs to 5lbs during this time that is going to be very hard to lose once the holidays are over. Have a look at some of my tips for making your traditional desserts lighter for the holidays.

Cheesecakes:

• Ricotta cheese contains much less fat than regular cream cheese. Light cream cheese should always replace full fat cream cheese.

• For crusts use cookie crumbs and use no more than 2 tbsp oil, not butter and water to hold together.

• Use lower fat sour cream or yogurt.

Coffee cakes:

• Use oil rather than butter.

• Cut back the fat in your traditional recipes by as much as 50% by substituting ingredients, such as banana or date puree, light sour cream or yogurt, crushed pineapple or applesauce

• For chocolate cakes substitute cocoa for the melted chocolate and increase the sugar. Sprinkle in some chocolate chips for flavor

• Icings can be made with a mixture of beaten light cream cheese instead of butter, icing sugar and a little water until creamy. Instead of icing entire cake just drizzle over top

• A mixture of icing sugar and water also makes for a no fat icing. Add flavorings such as cocoa, lemon juice or mint flavoring

Fruit Crisps

• Instead of holding the crisp topping together with butter, substitute vegetable oil and water. Use equal amounts.

Pies, flans and tarts

• Instead of butter or lard crusts, substitute cookie crumbs and hold together with water and oil, using a 2:1 ratio

• Use a combination of ricotta and light cream cheese instead of full fat cream cheese

• Use low fat condensed milk instead of full fat or whipping cream

Crème caramels and Brulees

• Use lower fat milk or evaporated milk instead of whipped cream or full fat milk

• If more than 2 eggs are in recipe substitute 2 egg whites for each additional egg

Brownies

• Use cocoa instead of melted chocolate. Increase sugar

• Use oil not butter and use no more than 1/3 cup for a 9” x 9” pan. Substitute light sour cream or yogurt for excess oil or butter

Muffins and Loaves

• Use no more than 1/3 cup vegetable oil for 12 muffins or 1 loaf cake. Substitute lower fat yogourt or sour cream for the oil.

Biscotti

• Better choice than cookies since they require less fat

• Use oil rather than butter

• Cut the nuts and chocolate chips in half or substitute dried chopped fruit

Insuring child & spousal support

Continued support payments after passing on

by Judy Byle-Jones

During separation and divorce negotiations, spouses are often required to maintain life insurance to guarantee the continuation of support payments after death. Insurance is the most effective solution for offering lasting peace of mind, and honoring long-term commitments.

Insurance is often setup poorly as a result of agreements that overlook the importance of this step. In the case of Sally H, the spouse who passed away named his dependant spouse as the beneficiary of his group life insurance. This solution has many limitations.

• The insured person may be terminated from their employer at anytime and will consequently lose their insurance. That person may have had a change of health and subsequently be uninsurable, and therefore unable to replace the coverage.

• The group insurance plan can be terminated by the employer at any time and individuals have little or no control over the amount or the insurance

• The insured can change the beneficiary at any time. This may breach the terms of a separation agreement, but the ex-spouse may be none the wiser because the carrier is under no obligation to report such a change to a third party. In this event, the recipient spouse would be left with little hope of recovering the monies owed to him or her unless the make a claim to the estate – which may, of course, have nothing to claim against.

Personal insurance policies

Both spouses owning policies personally achieve a possible solution to this difficulty. If an ex-spouse is named as irrevocable beneficiary on a new or existing policy, that designation cannot be changed without his or her knowledge and written permission. However, if the policy lapses the insurance company is obligated only to inform the policy owner and his or her agent.

The best solution is for each ex-spouse to own a policy, or policies on the other. In that, way only he or she has the legal status to status to alter a policy.  As lawyers often do not have the same take on insurance issues as  Certified Divorce Financial Analysts do, we suggest consulting a CDFA to help you gain peace of mind.

Thorns and Roses President, Judy Byle-Jones CDFA, CFP, CLU, CH.F.C, is a Certified Divorce Financial Analyst and Certified Financial Planner