About

healthy-indulgences-portrait

My name is Lauren, and I am a student, a foodie, and the author of The Healthy Indulgences Cookbook: A Guide To Baking All-Natural, Sugar-Free Desserts. I create sugar-free and gluten-free dessert recipes featuring all natural ingredients. During my time as an undergraduate at Duke University, I created these recipes to help me lose 30 lbs and cut back on the amount of processed foods I was eating.

The goal of my kitchen experiments is to come up with recipes for lower carbohydrate desserts that are every bit as good as their sugar-laden counterparts. The delicious successes end up on this blog! My crack team of willing food testers includes family, friends, roommates, and hungry looking acquaintances. They help me to ensure that you too, have sweet success in the sugar-free kitchen!

Since 2008, I have divided my time between blogging and managing life as a college student. It has been an incredible journey! The more I learn about nutrition science and weight loss, the more I realize how much I don’t know. 

You can contact me here.

Review Disclosure Policy

Healthy Indulgences Blog receives many offers from brands and retailers to review their product samples. Some of these samples are sent to me free of charge, for consideration. When a product is sent to me “for consideration,” I test it out to see whether it is high quality enough to share with the readers of this blog. I do not accept financial compensation for reviews, but I do accept offers for sponsored giveaways, which are identified by a disclaimer in the giveaway post.

Many of my posts feature affiliate links to iherb.com that give me a commission when you purchase the products. This does not cost anything to you, the consumer. I provide these links to generate revenue, and show you the most reasonably priced source for ingredients that I have come across.

 

38 Comments on About

  1. Ashleynyc
    September 6, 2012 at 2:47 pm (11 years ago)

    I’m so glad to find your blog! I love your first blog and used some of the recipes – however I couldn’t find your old blog and thought you were gone forever – then I found this blog and saw your picture and knew it was you! Yay! You’re amazing! Thanks so much for all you do! xoxo

    Reply
    • Lauren B.
      December 23, 2012 at 1:46 am (10 years ago)

      Thanks for the nice comment, Ashley! Happy you were able to find the blog again.

      Reply
  2. desiree
    September 27, 2012 at 2:41 am (11 years ago)

    what do you think would happen if i made the vanilla cupcakes (with the beans) and substituted the beans for fresh pumpkin? of course i woud have to add spices but how do you think the consistancy would be?

    Reply
    • Lauren B
      October 2, 2012 at 11:19 am (10 years ago)

      Hi, Desiree! I think the consistency would be a bit mushy. It’s tough to incorporate pumpkin in flourless baked goods! Thanks for the inspiration, though – a good pumpkin muffin recipe sure would be good for fall! 😀 Hmm…

      Reply
      • njones
        October 12, 2013 at 10:34 pm (9 years ago)

        Flax meal works with pumpkin!

        Reply
        • Lauren B.
          October 13, 2013 at 2:23 am (9 years ago)

          Thank you for the suggestion! Do you have a link to a good recipe? 🙂

          Reply
  3. Adam C
    October 18, 2012 at 2:12 pm (10 years ago)

    Hi Lauren,

    I absolutely love your recipes! I have to say that they have kept me feeling like a human being despite my dietary restrictions. Anyway, I am having a small dinner party on friday and was thinking of making the black bean chocolate cake or the blender yellow cake, and was just wondering how you think it might work if I were to use egg replacer? I personally am fine with eggs but I have two guests coming over that are vegan.
    Thank you 🙂

    Adam

    Reply
    • Lauren B.
      July 15, 2013 at 5:17 am (10 years ago)

      Hi, Adam! Missed your comment the first time around. The cake would not work with an egg replacer.

      Hope you were able to find a good cake recipe more suitable to your dietary needs. Thank you for the nice feedback about the recipes. 🙂

      Reply
  4. Leah .funk
    November 12, 2012 at 6:06 pm (10 years ago)

    Hi I really am enjoying your recipes … Hope to try some soon. I also saw you lived florida . My family and I live in Lakeland. Florida . Thanks again for the good recipes.

    Reply
    • Lauren B.
      December 23, 2012 at 1:06 am (10 years ago)

      Hi, Leah! You’re a bit farther north from where I am on the gulf coast. Welcome to the blog!

      Reply
  5. Ellymay
    November 28, 2012 at 9:19 am (10 years ago)

    Hi from down under. Just discovered your website and pleased to discover a healthy gluten free muesli bar without oats 🙂 Thank you! Reading your quote above reminds me of a chef here in New Zealand who has the same mission – here is a link to his tv show in which he does healthy makeovers of junk food classics, in case you are interested: http://tvnz.co.nz/the-food-truck/index-group-4174185

    Reply
    • Lauren B.
      December 22, 2012 at 4:34 am (10 years ago)

      Looks like he does some great work. Wish I could join him on the show, haha!

      I do have a muesli recipe to share on the blog. It’ll be posted during the new year. 🙂 Thanks for reminding me of it!

      Reply
  6. Olivia McAllister
    December 14, 2012 at 6:34 am (10 years ago)

    Hi Lauren, I’ve just purchased your book but for whatever reason I’m having trouble downloading it. Can you help please?

    Reply
    • Lauren B.
      December 22, 2012 at 4:11 am (10 years ago)

      Emailed you, Olivia! 🙂

      Reply
  7. Albert Pinkowski
    January 3, 2013 at 8:27 pm (10 years ago)

    Hi Lauren,

    I was just wondering if you ever thought about adding professionally made videos to your website to help compliment your existing content? I can help you do this for free. Feel free to e-mail me if you wanted to learn more.

    Thanks,
    Albert

    Reply
  8. Margot
    January 15, 2013 at 5:47 pm (10 years ago)

    If I want to use sugar instead of honey or xylitol can you tell me what quantities to use for the chocolate cake and the frosting?

    Thanks!
    Margot

    Reply
    • Lauren B.
      June 13, 2013 at 8:28 pm (10 years ago)

      Hi, Margot! The recipes posted have not been specifically tested with sugar and honey, but you are welcome to try your hand at experimenting with those sweeteners in the recipes! You can always taste the batter before putting in the oven to check for the proper level of sweetness.

      Reply
  9. Judy
    February 11, 2013 at 3:48 am (10 years ago)

    I’m back on the low carb track and am dying to try your premium chocolate ice cream. Do you have the nutritional info available, and the number of servings? I can’t seem to find it in the recipe. Thanks, Judy

    Reply
    • Lauren B.
      February 15, 2013 at 9:12 pm (10 years ago)

      Hi, Judy! Posted the nutrition facts over at the Chocolate Ice Cream post. 🙂

      Reply
  10. Paula
    June 10, 2013 at 8:46 pm (10 years ago)

    I just found out where to buy erythritol and pure stevia extract. Now, my question is does Whole Foods also carry the powdered version of each one? If not, where can I get that? Thanks.

    Reply
    • Lauren Benning
      November 18, 2013 at 1:50 am (9 years ago)

      Paula, I missed your question about powdered forms of erythritol and xylitol. They do not carry the powdered forms, but you can do the grinding yourself with a Magic Bullet blender or coffee grinder. Hope that helps!

      Reply
    • AZBlondie
      May 24, 2014 at 8:32 pm (9 years ago)

      I’ve been buying the powdered erythritol from netrition.com. I bought the Sensato brand and it’s worked great in everything. It’s $8.99 for 1 lb – a bit pricey, but so worth it to be able to make fantastic indulgences. 🙂

      Reply
  11. Lauren B.
    June 13, 2013 at 8:16 pm (10 years ago)

    Hi, Paula! I don’t think Whole Foods carries the large sizes, but they do carry the 1 lb bag of erythritol by NOW Foods. You might want to check and see if they still do carry that product by giving them a call. I haven’t lived near Whole Foods since 2011. They did carry NuNaturals stevia as well the last time I checked.

    You can get free shipping with my coupon code for Iherb and order stevia and erythritol at discounted prices there. Just click on the green Iherb banner on my sidebar, to the right. 🙂 Hope that helps, Paula!

    Reply
  12. Cheryl
    October 22, 2013 at 3:24 pm (9 years ago)

    Hi Lauren!! So glad to find you and your great recipes…I have a quick question. Unfortunately, my youngest daughter has an severe allergy to erythritol, so she can not eat anything with that ingredient….what do you suggest I replace that with in your recipes? xylitol? Just like Sugar?
    Thanks for any info you can give!

    Reply
    • Lauren B.
      October 29, 2013 at 7:58 pm (9 years ago)

      Hi, Cheryl! Does she tolerate xylitol well? I cannot recommend xylitol in large quantities based on my experiences with it. Perhaps she can digest it without the gastric distress I experience after consuming it. Just Like Sugar contains chicory root which also tends to cause unpleasant side effects for me. You might want to check out my paleo recipes, or those from other bloggers, if your daughter can eat honey, bananas, dates, and coconut palm sugar. She might enjoy my recipes for Honey Nut Cookies, Gingerbread Cookies, and Quick Chocolate Mousse. Good luck finding the sweetener that is right for her, Cheryl!

      Reply
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  20. name
    May 10, 2017 at 8:45 pm (6 years ago)

    Hello,

    I am anna from shanyuan sanyuan biotechnology co.,ltd , the biggest erythritol manufacture of china .

    Erythritol price : USD$2.30 / KG ( FOB Qingdao Port )
    Erithritol + Stevia : USD3.1 /KG
    Erythritol + Monk Fruit : USD3.65 /KG
    Packing : 25kg/bag

    From your website , i found your company has the erythritol , so we want to check if have any chance to cooperate ?

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    Best Regards,

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    Reply
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