Quick and healthy summer desserts your family will love

When we envision that end-of-meal treat, the dessert, a sweet, sinfully delicious and typically high-calorie dish comes to mind. During the cold months, a piece of cheesecake or chocolate cake makes a lovely, albeit filling, ending to the meal. As the warm days of spring and summer come, we're not quite so hungry for such heavy desserts. A lighter dish is what we want. Are there any healthy summer desserts out there? You bet.

Here, we've got the scoop on easily and quickly prepared, healthy summer desserts your family will surely enjoy.

In French and Italian households, fruit and cheese are customarily served for dessert, a healthy and delicious alternative to the usual sugar-laden confections commonly seen at the American table. The fruit provides the perfect touch of sweetness, while a wedge of cheese treats the palate to a creamy bite of goodness that's satisfying and doesn't require that you loosen your belt to enjoy.

First, we'll go over the basic 'rules' for the storage and preparation of your fruit. Then, we'll get into suggestions for combinations that produce tasty and healthy summer desserts. You don't even need a recipe!

With the exception of firm-skinned fruits, such as oranges, bananas and apples, fruits should be stored in the frig, to protect against the loss of vitamins, particularly vitamins A, B2 and C. Left at room temperature, fruits are rapidly depleted of their vitamin content. For example, a ripe kiwi fruit, sitting at room temperature for just a day, may lose up to 80% of its nutritional value!

The vitamin content of fruit continues to increase until the fruit is ripe. If your fruit is not yet ripe, storing it at room temperature in a dark area allows it to ripen. Plan your desserts to use fruits at perfect ripeness. This is easily accomplished with a mix-and-match strategy to combining fruits.

Don't wash any fruit until you're preparing it to serve. When you do wash fruit, do so as quickly as possible and use cold water.

There are several ways to combine and present these healthy summer desserts. A fruit cup of mixed fruits may be garnished with a non-dairy whipped topping for a simple and colorful dessert. Wedges of kiwi fruit, strawberries, and sliced bananas are a delicious combination, especially when mixed in a dressing of your favorite flavor of yogurt. A simple presentation of wedges of apples or cantaloupe, along with 2 or 3 slices of a sharp cheddar makes a nice contrast for the palate. Other cheeses that go well with fruit dessert plates include Brie, Swiss, Gouda, and Roquefort.

Your repertoire of healthy summer desserts can be expanded with cooked fruits, such as baked apples, pears, peaches and apricots. When cooking fruit, it's best to steam it first (to retain the maximum nutritional content), then briefly baking just until tender. Garnishing cooked fruit with a spoonful of whipped cream and a dash of cinnamon makes a terrific dessert.

So, there you have a mini-cookbook of healthy summer desserts the recipes are in your imagination!