If you want to make a special dessert in a hurry, grab some tart shells and—if you don’t want to make pudding from scratch—a box of JELL-O Cook & Serve Pudding & Pie Filling.

Use the regular, not instant, pudding mix: It has better flavor and texture. However, if you want a sugar-free pudding, Instant is the only option.

Our favorite tart shells are from Clearbrook Farms and Daphne Tarts, both NIBBLE Top Picks Of The Week.

Tart shells are available at supermarkets, specialty food stores, and baking supplies stores. If you can’t find them, create a “bottom crust” in individual serving dishes, using cookie crumbs (chocolate, graham cracker, etc.) or a piece of loaf cake (banana cake, chocolate cake, pound cake, etc.).

For panache, create the dessert in a wine glass.
 
 
MIX & MATCH

You can mix and match the “crust” with the different flavors of JELL-O Pudding & Pie Filling: Banana Cream, Butterscotch, Chocolate, Chocolate Fudge, Coconut, Lemon, and Vanilla. The sugar-free variety comes in Cheesecake, Pistachio, and White Chocolate, as well (but not Coconut).

Take a look at this list of garnishes for your tarts.

And consider this a family project: Let the kids or a non-cooking spouse/partner try their hands at making dessert (under your supervision, of course).
 
 

Would you believe that the creamy, sweet comfort food started out as a very different dish: a bland, white stew made with chicken or fish, plus sugar?

As far back as the 12th century, it was enjoyed by the wealthy at regular meals, and fed to them when they were under the weather.

In the 17th century, the original dish—which most likely would have few takers today—evolved into the dessert pudding we know and love.

Check out the history of vanilla pudding, along with a vanilla pudding recipe and a bunch of suggested garnishes.

The recipe can be varied to make butterscotch pudding and chocolate pudding, too.

For a special treat, fill tart shells with the pudding; garnish and enjoy a special dessert.

Happy National Vanilla Pudding Day!

After years of blogging on the topic as a food allergy advocate, Sloane has turned her challenges into a helpful book: Allergic Girl: Adventures in Living Well with Food Allergies.

As an LMSW (Licensed Master Social Worker), Sloane advises others on how to move beyond the fear of food allergies and live a full and enjoyable life while dining out, dating, attending work functions and traveling.

Anyone who has food allergies—or a loved one with food allergies—will find this book very valuable.

Have a gluten allergy? Check out our reviews of delicious gluten-free foods.

Switch a green salad for a bean salad, beet salad or hundreds of other options. (photo © Sarsmis | iStock Photo).

Leafy greens make up only one of seven categories in Chef Joyce Goldstein’s book, Mediterranean Fresh: A Compendium of One-Plate Salad Meals and Mix-and-Match Dressings.

In the Mediterranean, “salad” includes everything from tabbouleh to white beans and prawns in a lemon dressing, to small plates of mezze, antipasti, and tapas.

Other salad categories are based on beans, fruits, grains, and proteins, such as meat, poultry, seafood (and although not part of Mediterranean cuisine or this book, tofu).

Vegetables need not be green: Think of these two recipes in the book:

 
Alternative dressings change the nature of the dish. Substitute walnut vinaigrette with the beet salad and it goes from Greek to French. Substitute tahini dressing and it becomes Middle Eastern.

Here’s Chef Goldstein’s recipe for a mint vinaigrette. Toss it with matchstick-sliced zucchini and carrots; use it with asparagus, bean salad, beet salad, carrot salad, citrus salad, grain salad (bulghur or quinoa, for example), seafood salad, and spinach salad.

Ingredients

 
Preparation

1. COMBINE lemon juice and chopped mint in a small saucepan. Bring up to a boil and remove from heat. Let steep for about 10 minutes. Strain into a mixing bowl. You will have about 1/4 cup.

2. ADD the remaining ingredients and whisk them together. Toss with salad ingredients and serve.

More about Chef Joyce Goldstein.
 
 

There are two types of fat.

 
> Check out the different types of cooking fats.
 
 
UNSATURATED FATS: GOOD

Essential Fat

Essential fats such as Omega 3 are found in nuts and seeds. The body does not produce these fats, but they are essential to health. They can be found in good quantity in dark-fleshed fish, nuts (walnuts have the most alpha-linolenic acid, an important Omega 3) and seeds (in order of most nutrition: pumpkin seeds, hemp seeds, chia seeds, sesame seeds, flaxseeds, sunflower seeds [source]).

Monounsaturated Fat

The healthiest type of fat, monounsaturated fat is actually beneficial fat. It promotes heart health and might help prevent cancer and a slew of other ailments.

It’s best known for lowering “bad” LDL cholesterol levels without negatively affecting the “good,” artery-clearing HDL cholesterol. Avocado oil, canola oil, olive oil and peanut oil are rich in monounsaturated fat.

Whatever fats you’re using now (other oils, butter, lard): switch over as much as you can to monounsaturated fat.

Polyunsaturated Fat

A moderately healthy fat, polyunsaturated fat lowers LDL cholesterol but also reduces levels of HDL cholesterol. Polyunsaturated fat is the predominant type of fat in corn oil, safflower oil and soybean oil, among other vegetable oils. If you use these oils, trade up to a monounsaturated fat.
 
 
SATURATED FATS: BAD

Saturated Fat

Saturated fat is unhealthy fat and should be consumed in moderation. The body converts it into artery-clogging cholesterol, which greases the path to heart disease.

Saturated fat is mostly found in animal products and is solid at room temperature. It is the white fat you see along the edge or marbled throughout a piece of meat and is the fat in the skin of poultry. So when you look at that beautiful marbled steak, recall that beauty is more than just skin deep—in this case, it can go deep enough to kill you.

Saturated fat is also found in “healthy” animal products like milk (except for 0% fat milk) and foods made from milk (cheese, ice cream, yogurt), as well as in tropical oils such as coconut oil.

One should limit one’s intake of saturated fat from animal sources. Unfortunately, the American diet is full of it. The saturated fat from plant sources, such as coconut, are more benign.

Trans Fat

Is there anyone who hasn’t heard that trans fat is the worst type of fat? A problem created by Big Manufacturing (and now being corrected by food manufacturers, in response to consumer demand and local government mandate), most trans fat is produced by forcing hydrogen into liquid polyunsaturated fat (the process is called hydrogenation).

Margarine has traditionally been made this way. The process gives the fats a longer shelf life and helps stabilize their flavors.

When hydrogenated, the benign polyunsaturated fat is turned into trans fat, which is recognized by the body as a saturated fat. The body then converts the trans fat to cholesterol, which raises LDL levels and lowers HDL levels.

What’s worse, researchers have discovered that unlike regular saturated fat, trans fat disrupts cell membranes, upsetting the flow of nutrients and waste products into and out of the cell, and may be linked to reduced immune function and possibly cancer.

Trans fats do occur naturally in small amount in meat and dairy, but the primary source to worry about is in highly processed/artificial foods.

 
 
IT’S YOUR CHOICE

Your health goal should be to make dietary fat choices from the monounsaturated fat group (avocado oil, canola oil, olive oil and/or peanut oil).

Just be aware that fat calories add up quicker. Fat is very energy dense when compared to carbohydrate and protein. It contains more than twice the calories per gram (fat has 9 calories/gram, carbs and protein 4 calories/gram). Thus, if you consume the same amount (in weight) of fat as protein or carbs, your calorie intake will be more than doubled.

Here are guidelines from the Harvard School Of Public Health:

[2] Not so good: All milk products—cheese, ice cream, milk, yogurt, etc.—contain not-so-healthful saturated fat, except for those that are labeled 0% fat (photo © FAGE).

[3] Not so good: Ice cream is full of saturated fat, but you can buy lowfat and fat-free versions (photo © Dearborn Market).

[4] Good: Dark-fleshed fish, nuts, and seeds are full of essential fats (photo © Sea Delight).

[5] Good: nuts and seeds. Walnuts are the healthiest nut. Here are the top seven best nuts to eat (photo © Good Eggs).

 
Of the 30% of your daily calories that come from fat, no more than 10% should come from saturated fats. Thus, on the 2,000-calorie diet, consume no more than :

 
It’s pretty easy math; and it puts you on the road to enjoying healthy, good-for-you fats.