My take on the strawberry pretzel salad May 18, 2009

 

Looks yummy, huh?  Couldn’t tell you how it came out though because it’s still chilling.  I have faith that it’s wonderful.  What you won’t get with this is that wonderful salty flavor of the pretzels.  So I’m thinking it’ll be more cheesecake-ish.  Here’s how I did it:

Ingredients:

2 cups fiber one twig cereal

1/3 cup of butter melted

4 packets of splenda

1/2 cup of chopped walnuts

2 packages of reduced fat cream cheese

2 scoops of EAS vanilla protein powder (or whatever kind you use)

1/4 cup of sugar free torani syrup – vanilla flavor

8oz container of sugar free cool whip

one small box of sugar free strawberry jello mix

1 cup of frozen blueberries (this is what I had, I would have used sliced strawberries if I had them)

 

Process the fiber one cereal until it’s mostly crumbs.  Mix in a bowl with the melted butter, splenda, and walnuts.  Press that into the bottom of a 9×9 baking dish.  Bake in a preheated 350 degree oven for about 20 minutes.  Using a mixer or electric beaters mix the cream cheese with the protein powder and vanilla syrup.  Fold in the cool whip.  Spread it on the crust after it has cooled.  Mix the jello mix with one cup of boiling water and set in fridge to cool.  Chill the crust and cream cheese dish and the jello for about a half hour.  Remove from the fridge and pour the jello mix on top of the cream cheese mix.  Drop the frozen blueberries on top.  Return to fridge to set up.

This is not a low cal dessert. But hey, it has fiber and protein, right??  With my ingredients these are the stats:

Nutrition Facts
12 Servings
Amount Per Serving
Calories		251.4
Total Fat		18.1 g
	Saturated Fat	8.1 g
	Polyunsaturated Fat	3.0 g
	Monounsaturated Fat	3.8 g
Cholesterol		41.7 mg
Sodium		207.6 mg
Potassium		170.8 mg
Total Carbohydrate		20.9 g
	Dietary Fiber	5.4 g
	Sugars	1.8 g
Protein		8.2 g

Vitamin A	8.7 %
Vitamin B-12	12.5 %
Vitamin B-6	11.5 %
Vitamin C	4.0 %
Vitamin D	0.9 %
Vitamin E	2.4 %
Calcium	9.8 %
Copper	7.3 %
Folate	11.6 %
Iron	13.5 %
Magnesium	8.0 %
Manganese	37.3 %
Niacin	9.5 %
Pantothenic Acid	1.6 %
Phosphorus	13.9 %
Riboflavin	15.8 %
Selenium	4.0 %
Thiamin	10.3 %
Zinc	11.5 %

*Percent Daily Values are based on a 2,000 calorie diet. Your daily values may be higher or lower depending on your calorie needs.

Mini Mint Chocolate cakes February 7, 2009

 

I bought this very cute mini fluted tube pan and wanted to make a weight loss surgery friendly dessert with it. I tweaked the 5 minute sugar free chocolate peppermint cake recipe from http://www.theworldaccordingtoeggface.com to come up with this.

INGREDIENTS

• Cooking Time: 12-15
• Servings: 12
• Preparation Time: 5
• 2 eggs, beaten
• 6 tablespoons of milk
• 4 tablespoons of sugar free torani syrup (peppermint)
• 4 tablespoons of no sugar added applesauce
• 6 tablespoons of arrowhead mills multi grain pancake mix
• 4 tablespoons sugar free fat free chocolate fudge pudding mix
• 2 scoops chocolate protein powder
• pinch of salt
• 4 tablespoons hersey’s sugar free chocolate chips
• 4 sugar free peppermint candies, crushed

DIRECTIONS

1. Mix the eggs, milk, syrup, and applesauce.
2. Mix all the dry ingredients together in a separate bowl.
3. Add the dry ingredients to the egg mixture and mix until smooth and blended.
4. Spray each of the mini molds with nonstick spray.
5. Divide the batter evenly between the 12 mini cake molds.
6. Bake in a preheated 350 degree oven for 12-15 minutes.
7. Take the cakes out and cool on a rack.
8. Melt the chocolate chips in a ziplock bag in the microwave at 20 second intervals, squishing the bag in between until melted.
9. Cut a tiny tip off the bag and drizzle the chocolate over the cakes.
10. Sprinkle with the crushed candies.

TVP granola February 3, 2009

Tara’s TVP granola

1 cup of TVP (textured vegetable protein)

1 packet of weight control maple and brown sugar oatmeal

1/4 cup unsweetened coconut (I found mine in the bulk bins section)

1/2 cup fiber one cereal (the twigs)

1/2 cup of chopped raw almonds

1/2 cup of chopped raw pecans

1/4 cup of ground flax meal

2 tablespoons of coconut oil

1/4 cup of cinnamon bliss syrup

Mix everything together in a big metal bowl. Spread the mixture out on a baking sheet with sides and bake in a preheated 275 degree oven. Every 20 minutes stir the mixture and spread it out again. Do this for 80 minutes.

My mixture made 9 half cup servings.

Here are the stats (for my ingredients -it will be different if you use different stuff) – calories – 218 fat – 14 carbs – 18 protein – 9.4

Ok, here’s the deal – It came out nice and toasted. I tried a bit of it and it’s not very sweet. So if you like sweet then you could probably add granular splenda. Also, I’m sure this recipe is very forgiving and you could sub or take out items as you want. I’m sure you may not have, nor want to put in some of my things. The coconut oil is something I just started using. I’m doing some research on the benefits of coconut oil. I’m sure you could use 2 tblspns of melted butter or canola oil – or if you want try it without the oil. The cinnamon bliss is a sugar free carmel cinnamon sauce. SO good if you can find it. If not then I would recommend sugar free syrup. I’m sure there are other good options. If you don’t mind adding the extra calories I’m sure this would be great with peanut butter too.

As far as the stats – not a low calorie food. BUT, it’s full of good for you things, so I won’t feel guilty spending some daily calories on it. Plus, you could cut down the amount to 1/4 cup, cut the calories in half. I’m going to try this on greek yogurt later. I would add a photo here of it, but seems I don’t know how to post a picture in the threads. darn. Let me know if ya try it!

Pizza! January 26, 2009

Yum. Had a pizza craving and this totally hit the spot.

1 fajita sized mission low carb whole wheat tortilla
about a tablespoon pizza sauce
slice of provolone cheese
7 slices of turkey pepperoni
1 oz of shredded mozz cheese

Toast the tortilla in the toaster oven till a bit crispy. Take out and top with sauce, sliced cheese, pepperoni, and mozzarella cheese. Return to toaster till melty.

For the whole shebang:

Calories: 255
Carbs: 4 gms
Fat: 15 gms
Protein: 18 gms

This is for MY ingredients – if you use different, then check your stats.

Gingerbread men December 8, 2008

Every year I make big gingerbread men and women to give as gifts. I write people’s names on them with icing and wrap in cello bags. Totally cute. So I started that today. As I was mixing up the dough I thought – hey! maybe I could alter this to make it somewhat ‘pouch worthy’! So here’s what I came up with. Yes, it has carbs and fat. But if your gonna eat a cookie, these are pretty dang good and you don’t have to feel AS guilty for it.

Spicy Gingerbread Men

1/4 cup butter (half a stick)
1/4 cup splenda granular
1 tbsp molasses
1 egg
1/2 cup almond flour (or grind your own in a food processor)
1 scoop vanilla protein powder
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
2 tbsp flax seed meal
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/2 tsp ginger
1/2 tsp ground cloves

In a mixer, beat together the butter and splenda till mixed. Add in the molasses and egg and scrape sides, beat till mixed. Combine the dry ingredients and them mix into the wet mix. Chill for a half hour. Pre heat oven to 350. Use a little whole wheat flour to flour counter surface and rolling pin. Take a fourth of the dough and roll it out to 1/4 inch thickness. Cut out cookies using a gingerbread man about 2.5 inches tall. Bake on a cookie sheet or parchment paper for 6 minutes. Cool on a rack. Makes 32 men.

Here are the stats for MY recipe (doesn’t include the splenda or spices)

32 Servings
Amount Per Serving

Calories 36.8

Total Fat 2.6
Total Carbohydrate 2.4 g
Sugars 0.5 g
Protein 1.7 g
I might tweak some more to get more protein in there, maybe another scoop. If you don’t like to use real butter or real eggs I’m sure you could get it down further. But, these are SUPER tasty and soft chewy yumminess!!

Photographic evidence December 2, 2008

If you want to feel like you’ve died and gone to Peanut Butter heaven… November 14, 2008

Go make this now.

Peanut Butter Pie