What is life without a sweet treat at the end of a dinner gathering? I, for one would not relish the idea of living life confined to savory dishes. It would be unnatural, too, since we live in a world where we are encouraged by the plant to eat the sweets she provides, if only to carry the seeds within to new locations thus spreading the species.

The good news is that even if you are cutting artificial sweeteners and processed starches and sugars out of your life, there is no reason to cross the treat at the end of the day off of your menu. Plus, unless you tell them, your guests will never guess that what they are eating is ‘less than’ a dessert they would purchase that is fully loaded with sugars at their favorite dinner time eatery down the street. We smart eaters can easily find things that both reward us by being delectable and that reward us by being good for us and just plain good.

Last night here at the Cafe De Carmack we had just such a treat. Frozen fresh fruit, natural ingredients, and power tools combined to bring us this no-cook bit of heavenly flavor. “Chunky Monkey Ice Cream” contains no monkey, and no cream, but for the ability to make one think that they are having ice cream with enormous icebergs of nutty chocolate there is nothing else quite like it.

The site, Raw Guru, that it came from is worth bookmarking as well. We have mined this treasure trove of great ‘paleo’ recipes for things like this many times. It is especially good at finding and publishing no sugar desserts. We have had some terrific fruit based, easy to prepare foods that will go a long way to satisfy your cravings for sugar. I, like you, am not on a quest to live a monk-like sequestration from the joys of food. I am on a quest to recreate life before refined sugar became the end of thinking when one considered how to make a food sweet. It turns out to not be hard to do, but we have to BREAK THE HABIT of grabbing for the syrup or sugar bowls when we are thinking about sweetening our lives up. We have to create new habits, and a new source of inspiration, if we want to reach our goal of living life differently, healthily, without fear of increased risk of disease and debilitation.

It has been incredibly fun to share our journey these past weeks. I seriously enjoy the comments that I have gotten, because writing is a craft that usually gets no feedback to let you know that you are meeting the intellectual needs of the anonymous and diverse readership that is out there. If you want to leave comments, there is a comment box at the bottom of every post. I can’t tell you right where it is, due to not having access to just your brand of computer or browser to see, but I assure you it is there. If you think of it, leave links to sites you have found that share recipes and advice for the newly health-conscious diners like we are. Do drop me a note, close the feedback loop and it will be appreciated by all of our readers, it may even inspire the next blog post!