We didn't seem to have one of these threads so I'm starting one for the resource.

Here's a fancy looking one from Martha Stewart. Very pretty and elegant if you arrange the slices back into pear shape.

Granola-Almond Pear Crunch

Ingredients

Serves 1

* 1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
* 1 ripe Bartlett pear (red or regular), cored and sliced lengthwise into 8 wedges
* 2 tablespoons almond butter (or melted dark chocolate)
* 1/4 cup granola (or better yet, make your own mixture of nuts or oatmeal and spices.)

Directions

1. Spread one side of each wide bottom of pear wedge with almond butter. Place granola in a bowl and nestle pears, almond-butter-side down, in the granola.

I notice they neglected to tell you what to do with the lemon juice, but it's usually sprinkled on fruit to prevent the fruit from turning brown due to the anti-oxidant activity of the vitamin C.

Picture

This is an interesting alternative to instant Jell-o. It's mostly fruit and doesn't seem to be any more difficult to do. It's using agar agar for the gelatin and has apple juice and honey, but I wonder if you'd want the gelatin to be that sweet when you use such sweet fruit. Maybe it should be lemony.

http://www.wholeliving.com/recipe/watermel...ntaloupe-kanten

This isn't really a recipe, but sauteeing apples in some ghee or coconut oil and sprinkling with cinnamon is soo good. Its like apple pie without the pie if that makes any sense.

Yeah, I do that all the time. It's funny you say that. My mother always bakes sliced apples and calls it 'Apple pie without the pie.' She thinks that's clever.

It used to be a family habit of ours to have baked apples for breakfast with pancakes and/or sausage, but I saute so I can cook them as little as possible and because I never use the oven unless it's cold outside. It's faster. And I'm trying to be more energy efficient.

You can saute or simmer other fruit, or bake and just sprinkle on chopped nuts and/or toasted oatmeal.

Also, broiling fruit, especially nectarines. I've discovered chinese five spice powder is really good sprinkled on them. Or sprinkled on some yogurt used as a topping.

And there's plantains, which need to be really, really brown before they are ready to be cooked this way.

A lot of these things are posted in the other what to eat and recipe threads. There's some fruit ice and 'ice cream' recipes there, I just have to find them.

my favorite healthy desserts:

Coconut Oil Fudge

Mix virgin coconut oil with cocoa powder, almond butter, nuts such as cashews or almonds and a sweetener like stevia. Put in freezer till firm. More decadant than chocolate. seriously, i effing love this stuff.

Coconut Milk Ice Cream

Get a can of high quality coconut milk, preferable organic and place it in fridge for several hours until cream separates. drain liquid and then mix cream with vanilla, stevia, nut butter and melted 100 percent chocolate mixed with stevia. put in freezer and stir occasionally for a rich, decadant yummy treat.

Creamy Banana Nut Smoothie

In blender mix one banana, a big tablespoon of nut butter, flaxseed, cinnamon, fresh ginger and a little almond milk.

If you tolerate cream, then mixing chopped fruit/berries with homemade whipped cream and cinnamon is delicious and very simple.

That sounds gorgeous

Dark Chocolate and dried fruit bark with no added sugar, making them low sugar, not no sugar.
http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/240687

You could always make them with unsweetened baking chocolate and stevia. Or if you want to go for the low sugar chocolate chips, to make it an easier, one dish thing, spread the chips out on parchment on a baking sheet, then melt in low oven, then spread around if needed and sprinkle on the fruit and nuts.

These are awesome ideas, thanks for posting!

You can make a really good, sweet, tangy "dressing" for fruit by mixing honey, ACV, and cinnamon. I love this on sliced bananas, apples, berries, and kiwis.

I wonder if it HAS to be with pears. I don't like pears. Maybe another fruit would work? And I'd definitely use oats over granola. I have an addiction to oats!

Sounds good. I like yogurt and honey on fruit. Or cream cheese and honey thinned with some fruit juice, but the yogurt is easier. Obviously not good if you don't eat dairy at all.

Also, I've found that Chinese 5 spice powder is really good on fruit. Especially on things like broiled nectarines or plums. I tried it in my baked oatmeal with apples recipe but was disapointed. Baked apples go with cinnamon. Period.

i LOVE cream cheese but dairy does seem to break me out -- perhaps I could try this in moderation eventually since it's thinned anyway. I think I'll stay strict for a while though since I'm just starting out with this. I have always loved cream cheese based fruit dips!!

Where do you find the Chinese 5 spice powder?

I bought it in a humongous Asian supermarket. It was like an Asian Super Wallmart. With an incredible volume of people coming and going. You would have thought a Rock concert was starting. And the produce is fabulous. I've been wanting to go back for so long because they had these boxes of powdered coconut milk very inexpensive. I bought one box and ended up using it all in my cocoa.

Anyway, I think you can get the 5-spice powder in any supermarket with the Asian foods. It's a blend of ginger, cinnamon and some other baking type spices plus black pepper.

You should also look in the Hispanic products for a chili pepper seasoning meant for fruit. Not really a desert thing, but it's good for you. If you know people who like to put salt on melon, get them to try this.




Have you tried d'anjou pears. As far as I know they are the only pear I like. For eating raw anyway. Some of the harder ones can be better for cooking.