Chocolate melts hearts during this time of the year and it can be enjoyed by everyone — including people with diabetes.
There was a time when people with diabetes were told to avoid sugar and carbohydrates. But there are now many options.
“We’re going to continue to fold the Cool Whip really well. Just don’t beat it cause you’re gonna lose the fluffiness that the Cool Whip sort of adds to the pudding,” said Bucko.
Chef Jennifer Bucko is the associate dean of Roger Morris College’s culinary program
“I’ll take the filling and add it to the cooled pie crust,” said Bucko.
Bucko likes to make a chocolate mousse pie that she and her best friend Lara Rondinelli, coordinator of the Diabetes Center at Chicago’s Rush University’s Medical Center, created for their cookbook called “Healthy Calendar Diabetic Cooking.”
“What we do is we do five dinner entree’s a week, then along with those we do a couple side dishes and we also include — which I think is really important — the grocery list,” said Rondinelli.
They were able to come up with 340 recipes.
“With the sugar substitutes things like Equal, Splenda, Sweet-N-Low that really opened up a whole new world as well as there’s new products out that you can bake with for doing deserts,” said Rondinelli.
“When you’re a chef and you’re cooking and nothing thinking about health, you’re using butter and cream and oil and salt and not even thinking twice about it. But when you’re cooking for people with diabetes, you have to take everything into consideration,” said Bucko.
The chocolate mousse pie recipe only has four ingredients.
“We start out with a pre-made piecrust you can buy these in the store in a box,” said Bucko. “Two packages of sugar-free, fat-free instant chocolate pudding.”
Then you add fat-free milk and Cool Whip.
“Normally when you’re making a regular mousse pie you’re using heavy cream and melted chocolate and gelatin and this is really quick and easy way to get the same effect using the instant product,” said Bucko.
Bucko and Rondinelli’s fat-free and low-sugar chocolate mousse pie is perfect for Valentine’s Day.
