Oh boy, Judy, good luck. First, I'm going to tell you that I use the websites of Cooking Light, Eating Well and Diabetic Living. Yes, I knowk we're not talking about diabetes, but they have a lot of low fat/low carb dessert ideas.

Side dishes? Well, vegetables are the easiest and healthiest, without a bunch of added fat, of course. I like roasted vegetables so I'll do a big sheet pan of whatever I have. That ould be potatoes, sweet potatoes, winter squashes, green beans, cauliflower, tomatoes, carrots, celeery, onions, nearly anything. Drizzle with just a little olive oil and some salt and pepper. Mixed herbs if you like, I like fresh ones but have been known to use an Italian blend or Fines Herbs, etc.

Quinoa is good and low in fat, as is brown ricePIckled things are good too, like three bean salad. Baked beans, scalloped potatoes made with skim milk, make mashed potatoes with skim milk or with some chicken broth. You can make a passable gravy with broth too, although I avoid soup bases because of the sodium.

If you stay away from the creamy/cheese/mayo based salads and vegetables, you'll be good to go on that.

For dessert? Grandma's Blueberry Crisp, so darned healthy you need ice cream. Low fat ice cream, of coure. Baked apples, fruit filled crepes, the less crust the better. Phyllo/filo dough can be good for desserts, if you stay away from the butter layer.

Chocolate pudding made with skim milk and dark chocolate is a possibility too.

So, here's the dessert recipe to get this started. Heck, I found this posted in 2003, was it THAT long ago? Wow....

Blueberry Crisp
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annie1992 (My Page) on Sun, May 25, 03 at 1:50

Cindy Mac, this is the only blueberry crisp recipe I've ever used, the one my grandmother used. It's not very sweet, which I like because I like the flavor of the berries better than the flavor of the sugar, LOL. It's really good warm with vanilla ice cream, but it's also good cold for breakfast (it's a FRUIT, Mom).

Blueberry Crisp

3 cups blueberries, fresh or frozen, unsweetened
2 tbls lemon juice
2/3 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup flour
1/2 cup quick oats
1/3 cup butter, softened
3/4 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp salt

Heat oven to 375. Arrange berries in ungreased square baking dish (8 inch) and sprinkle with lemon juice. Combine remaining ingredients until crumbly. (I use a pastry blender, grandma used two knives). Crumble topping over
berries and bake until topping is lightly browned and berries are hot, about 30 minutes. Makes 4-6 servings.

I double this and it still comes out good. Plus blueberries are low in calories, have lots of fiber and no fat, contain antioxidants C, E and beta carotene and have been found to be as helpful in urinary tract health as cranberries. That's why I need ice cream with them, they are just too darned healthy!

Meringue type cookies and biscotti are pretty low fat too.

Annie

There have been studies on the benefits of consuming small quantities of pecans, walnuts and pastichios for reducing cholesterol, as well as pomegranate juice.

Other beneficial foods on that list according to "The New Whole Food Encyclopedia - by Rebecca Wood:
-alfalfa (sprouts - make them at home for pennies - your little garden-in-a-jar)
-beans/legumes
-fermented foods (sauerkraut, kefir, yogurt, etc.)
-oats
-seaweed (try using it ground as a substitute for salt, add kombu when you cook beans, use agar for thickining, add nori to soup, sprinkle kelp on vegetable dishes)

From the Mayo Clinic - list of top 5 foods to help lower cholesterol:
-oats
-fish and omega-3 fatty acids
-1.5-ounces per day - nuts (almonds, hazelnuts, peanuts, pecans, some pine nuts, pistachio nuts and walnuts,)
-olive oil
-foods with added plant sterols or stanols (Minute Maid HeartWise orange juice and Benecol, Promise, Smart Balance, and Take Control margarines) Foods that have been fortified with plant stanols and sterols help to block the absorption of cholesterol.

Look in cookbooks that include nutrition data and you'll find lots in the low-cholesterol category. The American Heart Association Cookbook has been out for at least 25 years and will give you a good start, in fact they have up-dated it for the 25th anniversary, which is 7th edition.

Personally, we stick to fruit for dessert. Try topping it with yogurt and a sprinkle of granola for some crunch.

If you don't like oatmeal, there are all kinds of breakfast breads you can make with it instead of eating it in a bowl. We're having Oat Farls this morning, which is an oat scone - the oatmeal is soaked overnight in buttermilk and you can find recipes on-line for them. At Food.com you'll find a recipe for Cooked Oatmeal Scones. You make this recipe with oatmeal that has been cooked first. A great recipe for leftover cooked oatmeal. Homemade granola can include a number of the good-for-you foods on the cholesterol-lowering food list.

The link below is to allrecipes.com - the low-cholesterol recipes section. A Google search for low-cholesterol recipes will give you a never-ending supply, and a trip to your local library and you'll find a number of low-cholesterol cookbooks as well. That should keep you busy.

-Grainlady

Here is a link that might be useful: Low-Cholesterol Recipes

I agree, Grainlady, fruit is better than dessert in terms of health. The problem is, I don't like fruit very much. I buy it with good intentions, and it sits in the refrigerator or on the counter and spoils unless I make something with it, I just don't eat it. Elery won't touch it. We both like berries and sweet cherries, but that's about it, and we both like nearly any vegetable, but the fruit not so much.

Although I try to avoid too much fat/sugar/salt and I try to eat a relatively healthy diet, I don't see any purpose to eating something I don't really care for, I just skip it. I can get the necessary nutrients from vegetables which I do like and save the fruit for something that's not horribly bad for me, like blueberry crisp or pavlova or fresh strawberries over angelfood cake.

So, if the original poster and her husband "must have a sweet treat", I'm thinking an apple isn't going to do it. That's why I check the diabetic recipes, which tend to be a bit heavier on dessert options for some reason.

Annie

I was going to post "OATS" until I saw grainlady's quote from the Mayo Clinic. So I'll just tag on and say that OATS helped me a lot. About a year ago, my good cholesterol was on the very low side and the bad cholesterol was just over the "normal" range. I made a point of eating some form of oats every day: Cheerios, oatmeal, or a Fiber One bar "Oats and Chocolate". About two weeks ago I was in for a blood draw, and my doctor told me the following week that my cholesterol ranges were right "spot on"!

Oatmeal can be mixed with applesauce to give more fruit in the diet, too. I use either plain unsweetened or one of the fruity unsweetened varieties. I'll make a bowl of "quick oats" in the microwave, then add one of those little containers of flavored or plain applesauce, and a packet of Equal. At work I'm known in the mornings as the oatmeal lady, as I will eat there before I start my day. It makes our workroom smell very homey!

Donna