How often does your family have dessert?

[Melissa in CA]

I've been reading a book series and the family enjoys dessert after each and every evening dinner. It got me thinking...how many wives/mothers actually DO that?? :blink:

 

My family would, of course, LOVE it, but I wasn't raised that way. Dessert was for special occasions, not an every day thing. I also can't help but wonder how healthy it is. Yet, would it cut down on late night snacking, or sugar cravings during the day...knowing that you'll be having dessert after dinner? Or would it just add more sugar into your day?

 

Just my random thoughts. What say you? How does your family tackle dessert? :confused::001_smile:

[sheryl]

Hey Melissa,

 

Growing up we had dessert often, but not everyday.

 

I try to serve homemade desserts when I can. It's time consuming, but worth it. Fall is such a great season for desserts anyway. However, I am trying to lose weight which further compounds the issue. It's hard to bake and not eat! :lol:

 

Truly I probably don't serve dessert enough. I feel convicted that my dh and dd should not suffer b/c I need to lose weight. So, the pendulum has swung back to serving dessert and practicing (trying) self-control! :D I do enjoy dessert on occassion in moderation....YUM!

[Tutor]

I grew up having a couple cookies after every lunch and a small dessert after every supper. (My kids REALLY like to visit my parents. :) )Our own family has a dessert on Sundays, which one of my daughters makes, and on holidays and birthdays.

[jld]

That's so funny that you posted about this, because I've been thinking about this the last couple hours. We usually eat sweets whenever we feel like it, but I've been thinking it wouldn't hurt us to cut down. I also think it would be nice to have them for a special occasion, instead of just on demand.

 

I love sweets as much as the next person, but I don't know if I really need them everyday. Honestly, I think I like them more than the kids do . . .:blush:

[2cents]

When the girls and I were going through cake decorating classes we had lots of dessert everyday. Now we're over that and back to normal. Dessert is for special occasions ONLY now....and we're on diets. :lol:

[NanceXToo]

We have dessert every night. (Growing up I did, and now my kids do. They eat healthier snacks during the day, after dinner they get to have something sweet/a treat before bed. I like to be able to do that, too, to this day).

[Melissa in CA]

That's so funny that you posted about this, because I've been thinking about this the last couple hours. We usually eat sweets whenever we feel like it, but I've been thinking it wouldn't hurt us to cut down. I also think it would be nice to have them for a special occasion, instead of just on demand.

 

I love sweets as much as the next person, but I don't know if I really need them everyday. Honestly, I think I like them more than the kids do . . .:blush:

 

This is us as well. Which makes me wonder if it would behoove me to offer a dessert every night after dinner...and skip the junk during the day. I could stand to lose some weight, as could some of my family, and like I mentioned we rarely ever have an actual dessert. Would dessert make us MORE fat, or help with the cravings by limiting one sweet a day. I suppose I could try it for a couple weeks and see?? :confused:

[nono]

Never.

 

It goes to waste. No one in our home has a sweet-tooth.

[Melissa in CA]

Never.

 

It goes to waste. No one in our home has a sweet-tooth.

 

:lol::lol::lol: Ok, that was NOT helpful! :D

[Tabrett]

We only have deserts on Holidays, eat at a buffet or are eating at a place where desert is included (church functions, family get togethers, ect...).

 

I would love to cook deserts, but am afraid that it would cause even more weight gain than regular eating. Normally if I cooked a desert, it would have more serving that what we would eat in one sitting and that would cause us to do late night snacking.:glare:

[Ellie]

Hardly ever. I make it now when I have actual dinner parties (empty-nester here :D ) but dessert wasn't part of my childhood and I didn't feel the need to do things differently.

[Liz CA]

If I actually made dessert every day, we'd all be looking like beached whales.

As it is, the guys snack through the evening anyway. I'd rather they

eat apples and popcorn than sweet stuff, except for berries in the summer.

I make desserts on holidays and when company is coming.

[Daisy]

No way would I serve dessert every single day. I'd be huge.

 

We have dessert once a week (usually Friday night) and on special occasions. That is about it.

 

Most of our snacks don't fall into the category of dessert. I never keep candy, cookies, ice cream, cakes, pies, etc. in the house. Seriously, I'd have no self-control. I'd eat chocolate for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. :lol:

[Tammy]

and sometimes twice a day, LOL!

 

.

[jplain]

We have dessert after dinner on Thanksgiving and Christmas. We do let the kids have cake on their own birthdays, but we usually blow out candles at lunchtime rather than after dinner. DH doesn't do cake for his birthday, and if I make a dessert for my own birthday, it has so little added sweetener that my kids won't eat it anyway. Heh heh heh, more dark chocolate torte for me! :D

 

So really, 2 days out of the year, and those are holiday meals shared with extended family. Otherwise, no dessert after dinner.

[Melissa in CA]

and sometimes twice a day, LOL!

 

.

 

LOL! And I suppose you are all super skinny, too! I have a girlfriend like that. Her family loves sugar and eat dessert all the time. They are all super skinny. It's disgusting. :D

[Parrothead]

I've got a desert listed on the menu for every night. Unfortunately we've been busy with other things and the deserts haven't been made.

 

For us it goes in spurts. Sometimes every evening, sometimes nothing for a few weeks in a row.

[Melissa in CA]

Oh, and by the way...

 

I'm talking about homemade dessert from scratch. I am not at all talking about prepackaged desserts, cakes, cookies, etc. We don't eat those as they contain waaaaay too much garbage and can't possibly be good for you.

 

I'm thinking whole-food, old-fashioned type desserts like grandma used to make. ;)

[mysticamethyst]

Yeppers, every night. I make it or the kids make it but we have something sweet and tasty every night at 830.:001_smile: DESSERT=YUMMY

 

I have even been know to serve it for breakfast depending on the dessert. Pumpkin pie, apple crisp or pie are a few off the top of my head that are great for breakfast too. My youngest love apple crisp over her oatmeal.:001_smile:

[goldberry]

We have a candy jar (with small candies, not full size). DD gets to pick what goes in each week. After lunch and dinner, she gets to pick 2 items out of the jar.

 

On occasion we will have an extra one for no apparent reason, but not often.

[prairie rose]

We rarely do. Desserts were special occasions, holidays and once in a great while just because when I was growing up and I've followed suit.

 

We have lived in cultures and countries though where desserts are a daily thing but they are rarely like American desserts. Desserts might be a piece of plain fruit, a small confection (think one marshmallow type thing or gummy candy or one petit four), about 1/4 cup of ice cream, sorbet or jello, one small cookie or something not sweet at all but is a treat nonetheless. An American type dessert, like an ice cream sundae or a whole slice of cake or pie or cobbler would be an extra special treat for very special occasions.

[DawnM]

We have some form of dessert daily.....sigh.

 

It isn't always big, it could just be a a 4oz ice cream, but it is usually a good extra 200 calories. I personally don't eat it everyday, but I serve it.

 

Right now we are battling Halloween candy. I plan to get rid of it this week.

 

We would like to move to fruit only for dessert.

 

Dawn

[MamaSheep]

When I feel like it, or when someone else makes it.

 

(Helpful hint: If people pitch in extra with the housekeeping work, Mom is much more likely to feel like making dessert. If you're REALLY helpful, she might even take requests. Hee hee hee....)

[jld]

We're not in America anymore, but while we were there, dd got into the habit of making blueberry waffles with whipped cream on them, everything from scratch. I can't believe I ever used to buy cream already whipped, when it was so easy to do it in the mixer!

 

We checked a beautiful cake book out of the library, and she made a pumpkin cake and a lemon cake. You know, I miss little things like that here in India. My oven is broken and we are waiting for the part to come from France. Mostly we just eat Indian sweets here, which are good, too, I guess. But there is nothing like being able to really bake in your own kitchen. :)

 

So go ahead and enjoy your desserts already!:D

[Jann in TX]

I rarely make anything formal. This Friday my 8yo will make us a pumpkin pie--she makes the BEST ones! this will be a treat for sure.

 

Most nights it is fruit, jello, or DH's favorite--a dish of ice cream (NOT a sundae). I prefer fruit or if it is a day where I NEED chocolate--then I get a chocolate fudge bar--100 calories and a controlled serving. (we do not do artificial sweeteners due to health issues caused by them). If I fix something it is usually a smoothie--frozen banana, berries a bit of milk = a YUMMY milk-shake!

 

We usually have cake on birthdays--but most of it ends up getting tossed... the only pie my family will eat is pumpkin (well half of us eat pecan and I like them ALL!!!) We get 2-3 pies each year.

[Sukale]

We have something every night. I made cup cakes last night, when the are gone I am thinking of pumpkin bread apple pie. I don't make something everyday because we don't eat it that fast, but as soon as I see it is almost gone a make something else.

Growing up we never really had "store bought" junk, it was always homemade. So that's the way I do it now too.

[Amy in NH]

We have dessert every night. (Growing up I did, and now my kids do. They eat healthier snacks during the day, after dinner they get to have something sweet/a treat before bed. I like to be able to do that, too, to this day).

 

:iagree:

[Gwenhwyfar]

whenever anyone wants a dessert, they have one. it's not always "sweet" - tonight for "dessert" dd13 had a slice of watermelon and ds12 had a cornmeal muffin & half a banana. on the other hand, dessert after lunch was chocolate. it can go either way. :laugh:

[elise1mds]

We have dessert a couple times a week. The kids will sit down for dinner and ask, "Mom, is it dessert night??" before even starting to eat. A long time ago I used to get upset about that, thinking that they were *expecting* a dessert, but I've wised up and realized that they need to know so they can leave room in their tummies! Tonight we had apple pie. I promised them pumpkin pie later this week. I seriously love pie. So we'll have dessert a few times this week, but there are other weeks when dessert is fruit or there just isn't anythiing at all. Just depends on the schedule!

[Gratia271]

Several times each week.

[lovinmyboys]

We do almost every night our whole family is home together. I have great memories of eating apple pie and fresh chocolate chip cookies and milk from my childhood, so I like to do it with my family. I think that since we know that several times a week we will get a good dessert, we are less likely to fill up on junk throughout the day. I rarely buy storebought treats, but I couldn't give up homeade desserts. The house just smells too good! I also think since we know it will be a regular thing, we do pretty well on the portion control...no need to binge.

[BMW]

Not even once a week. Sometimes we go a few weeks without.

 

Mostly because it takes time and is sweet. I would rather that they fill up on dinner.

 

Sometimes they need a snack, if dinner is earlier in the evening.

 

I always wish I liked being in the kitchen more and would make more desserts... I just don't...

 

Maybe I'll make it a goal for next year... dessert once a week, all year... that would be a start...

[RoughCollie]

I make dessert a couple of times a week. I hide part of it in the fridge to serve another night, otherwise it will all be gobbled up at once.

 

Ideally, dinner is at 6, and I serve dessert around 8. The boys are hungry again by then, and DH never passes up having a dessert or two or three. When he brings milk and bread home after work, he usually tries to sneak in a couple dozen doughnuts or a big package of popsicles or several cartons of ice-cream, just in case I've neglected the most important food group.

Edited November 9, 2010 by RoughCollie

[Tonia]

I usually make something on the weekend. During the week we might have a piece of dark chocolate or some fruit or a small bowl of ice cream after dinner, but that's usually about it. (Trying to lose some weight here - if I kept sweets in the house then I'd be eating them all the time.)

[nono]

:lol::lol::lol: Ok, that was NOT helpful! :D

 

 

Sorry. :D From your original post, I couldn't tell which way you wanted the results to go. :tongue_smilie: I thought mentioning that no one here has a sweet-tooth would give you plenty of reason to throw out my answer if you wanted to go a different way. ;)

 

Let me define no sweet-tooth in this house... Last night, both kids complained about their Halloween candy. One lamented, "Is it ever going to be gone????"

[Ester Maria]

Well, when you have a husband who is pretty much convinced that (refined) sugar is to be blamed for about a third of the world's evil and who refers to it as "the enemy", desserts are quite shunned. :lol:

 

Bi-weekly, I suppose. One of our daughters reacts quite badly to sugar (mood, concentration, etc. - we tested it and it's directly related), perhaps we'd ever be having desserts a bit more often if it weren't the case. Anyhow, we keep it to a minimum. Nutella crepes now and then, plus some variety on special occasions. :D

 

We do eat fruit instead, however, separately from meals. If you eat fruit as a direct dessert after meals, you get little to no positive nutritional effects, as they start fermenting or rotting. Ideally, fruit is eaten in the morning on an empty stomach or a snack a few hours after a meal.

[Hunter's Moon]

Around here, dessert is ice cream, chips, popcorn, fluff, or anything chocolate we happen to buy.

 

My father makes dessert on occasion- cheese cake, granola bars, caramel, brownies. But usually only for special occasions or on long weekends or something.

 

My mother making something other than pre-packaged corn muffins would scare me. I cook for her and me.

 

My father was a chef, so only naturally would he be the cook in our house.

[Laura Corin]

I rarely make dessert, however the boys usually have a couple of biscuits (cookies) after supper.

 

Laura

[justamouse]

I NEED a little sumthin after dinner to go with my tea, so we always have some cookies or fruit, panettone, a slice of pie, cobbler. Whatever I have.

 

None of us are overweight and I attribute it to not denying ourselves what we want, just learning moderation and small portions.

[Melissa in CA]

Thanks for the replies everyone!

 

With all this talk of dessert I made a homemade apple pie last night...the family gobbled it up! Of course I live with all males here, three boys, my husband, and my 50 yo brother who is currently living with us. There is one small peice left. They loved it.

 

Because I knew there was pie for dessert, it actually helped me to not overeat at dinner. :001_smile: I don't think I can make a dessert every night as I get pretty busy with church stuff and am gone two nights a week...but I think I'd like to try to offer it more and see how that goes. See if we start putting on weight! Ha!

 

So...now I need some dessert recipes! I think I will start another thread...;)