Non-Fat Gingersnaps

I really like these.  They're sweet, gingery, soft and dense.  I'm not a chocolate lover, in fact I usually pick out the chocolate chips my daughter puts in her low fat oatmeal cookies.  I usually make stuff without chocolate and these are one of my favorites.  All my dessert recipes have a lot of sugar in them but you can always substitute splenda for the sugar, it trades straight across.  Also, I usually sneak in a little bit of whole wheat flour along with the white, not enough for anyone to notice.

In a mixing bowl combine:

1 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup applesauce
1/3 cup molasses
2 egg whites (I usually use 1 whole egg and deal with the minor amount of fat it adds)

in another bowl combine:

2 1/4 cup flour
1 tsp. soda
2 1/2 tsp. cinnamon
1 1/2 tsp. ginger
1/4 tsp cloves (optional)
1/4 tsp. salt

Mix both bowls separately, then add the dry to the wet and mix until combined.  Roll into balls and coat with sugar before baking at 350 degrees for about 10 minutes.  You might need to add just a little more flour if the dough is too sticky to handle.

  

Magelby's BBQ Sauce

We have a restaurant here called Magelby's that has a BBQ chicken salad to die for!  The best part is the BBQ sauce, it is perfect, not too molasses-y, or too sweet, it's got chunks of good stuff and a little kick to it...it's not your grandma's BBQ sauce.  I could eat it on just about anything, or just drink it straight. (I've never actually  done that but I've thought about it late at night!)  I can guarantee you will love this, unless you are a grandma who likes the weak, molasses-y flavored stuff in a bottle.  It's great on chicken, beef , veggies, fish and salad!  It makes a lot so I usually half the recipe.

1 cup ketchup
1 3/4 cup chili sauce (right next to the ketchup at the store, not Asian chili sauce, more like ketchup-y salsa)
1 1/2 tsp. garlic powder
1 1/2 tsp. ground mustard
1 T Worcestershire sauce
1 1/2 T vinegar
1/2 cup brown sugar
6 T molasses
1 1/2 tsp. onion powder
1 T liquid smoke (hickory)
2 1/4 tsp fresh lime juice
1/2 tsp. cayenne pepper
1 T dried chopped onion

Combine and simmer for 15 minutes.

Mike's Favorite Granola

We love anything with oats at our house.  When my kids were little they would ask for a bowl of dry oats and sugar!  They also loved horses so maybe they were just trying to act the part.  I have one child that acted like a horse for about a year of her life.  She would wake up and whinny, then gallop on all fours around the house and yard all day.  She actually got really good at galloping.  She would even sound like a galloping horse!  Anyway, I know that's a little strange and yes, I was worried about her but now she's a healthy, normal ten-year-old who never whinnies or neighs at all.  So the bowl of dry oats and sugar has evolved into Mike's Favorite Granola, since my husband has always loved it.  I've replaced the oil that most granolas have with applesauce and added some rice crispies to make it a little less dense and heavy.  This granola is light, crunchy and sweet.  Just add any dried fruits or nuts your family likes and enjoy as cereal or with granola or frozen yogurt.

In a large bowl combine:

7 cups oats (quick or old-fashioned, I use some of both)
1 cup wheat bran (not wheat germ, it has too much fat)
1 cup oat bran
1/2 tsp. salt

In another small bowl combine:

1 cup brown sugar (or brown splenda)
1/2 cup applesauce
3/4 cup honey or maple syrup
1/2 cup apple juice or water
1/2 T vanilla extract
2 tsp. cinnamon

Mix the wet ingredients together then add to the bowl of oats.  Mix until combined, then add 4 cups of rice crispy cereal.  Mix until everything is wet.  Bake on a greased cookie sheet at 350 degrees for 25 minutes, then, turn it all over with a spatula to mix it around and bake for about another12-15 minutes.  Turn off the oven and let it sit in there for another 5-7 minutes.  You want it to be slightly crunchy when you take it out of the oven but not too crunchy because it will harden more as it cools.  Add all the good stuff and enjoy!

Apple Crisp

About 4-5 apples, peeled, cored and sliced, spread on the bottom of a greased 8 or 9-inch square baking dish.  In a small bowl, mix ½ cup sugar, 1 tsp. cinnamon and 2 Tablespoons flour together.  Sprinkle this mixture over the apples and toss them around to coat the apples.  Then sprinkle ½ cup water over this apple mixture.  If you want to skip this part and just used ready-made, canned fruit filling, that’s great too!

                    

Mix the topping in a mixing bowl:

¼ cup flour

1/3 cup oats (I like old-fashioned)

1/3 cup brown sugar

3 tsp. cinnamon

 ¼ tsp. nutmeg

2 Tablespoons butter or margarine

4 tablespoons apple juice

Cut the butter into the flour and oat mixture, add the juice a little at a time, keep it crumbly, not mixed into a paste.  Crumble the topping over the apple slices and bake at 350 degrees for about 35 minutes.  The topping should be baked and the apples cooked.

Pumpkin Apple Bread

(makes one loaf)

In a mixing bowl combine:

2 cups all-purpose flour

1 tsp. baking powder

½ tsp. baking soda

½ tsp. salt

1 ½ tsp. pumpkin pie spice

In another mixing bowl combine:

1 egg

1 cup low fat buttermilk (or I cup milk and 1 T vinegar)

1 large apple, peeled, cored and grated

½ cup pumpkin puree

Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients, stir until combined and the lumps are gone.  Bake in a greased loaf pan at 350 degrees for about 45 minutes.  Use a toothpick to test if the center is done.

Chocolate Hot Lava Cake

My children are kind of picky about candy and treats.  I mean, when I was a kid I ate anything that even looked like candy.  My girls don’t like a lot of kinds of candy, which, by the way is very okay with me!  The kinds like nerds, sweetarts, smarties, dum-dums, lemonheads, pixie stix etc… are usually rejected.  They usually get sorted out and trashed on Halloween night.  Last year, after Halloween, my younger girls made “sand art” with the pixie stix dust and glued lemonheads and nerds all over paper, in a very artistic way, of course.  The “good” stuff gets sorted, counted, organized, traded, saved, fought over, and eventually savored.  The “good” stuff usually amounts to a pile of chocolate.  My girls seem to love chocolate, which is strange because I really don’t.  I try to make desserts with fruits and other flavors like caramel and molasses but chocolate always seems to win in the end.  So, my challenge was to make something semi-healthy using chocolate.  This dessert is a cross between brownies and hot fudge.  It makes a chocolate brownie crust on the top while hiding a lava pool of dark chocolate underneath.  Let  me warn you, it’s very rich!  Even my chocolate-loving eight-year old maxed out after just half a serving.  Serve it warm with some low-fat ice cream or whipped cream, but just beware of a chocolate-induced coma!

Blend together in a mixing bowl, beat until smooth:

¾  cups white sugar

1 cup all-purpose flour

3 Tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder

2 tsp. baking powder

¼ tsp. salt

½ cup milk

2 Tablespoons butter or margarine

1 ½  tsp. vanilla extract

Pour this batter into an ungreased 8 or 9-inch square baking dish

In a separate, small bowl combine:

½ cup white sugar

½ cup brown sugar

4 Tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder

 Sprinkle this mixture evenly over the batter in the dish.  Then, pour 1 ¼ cup hot water over the top.  Do not stir, just bake at 350 degrees for 35 to 40 minutes or until the center is almost set.  Remove the cake from the oven and let it stand for about 15 minutes. (if you can wait that long!)  Spoon into dessert dishes and add some ice cream or whipped cream, you’re not going to believe this is low-fat!

Oatmeal Raisin Cookies

My oldest daughter loves baking and cooking.  She also loves to help me find low-fat recipes for some of our favorite treats.  She discovered this recipe from the Sun-Maid raisin website.  It is amazing!  We usually make half the batch with raisins and chocolate chips and the other half just chocolate chips since I’ve got a few non-raisin eaters.  These cookies are so good, everyone in my family just wolfs them down (well, they would if I let them) and with just about 1 gram of fat per cookie, that’s okay with me!

                   

In a medium mixing bowl combine:

1 cup all-purpose flour

1 tsp. baking powder

1 tsp. cinnamon

½ tsp. baking soda

½ tsp. salt

1 1/3 cups oats (quick or old-fashioned)

In a large mixing bowl combine:

1 cup brown sugar

¼ cup fat-free vanilla or plain yogurt

2 Tablespoons vegetable oil

1 egg

1 tsp. vanilla extract

Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and mix together.  Add about 1 cup of raisins or ½ cup chocolate chips or even a little of both.  Bake at 350 degrees on a greased cookie sheet for about 10-12 minutes.  Thank you Sun-Maid!

Stir Fry Sauce

This sauce is really unique with the addition of peanut butter.  It's such a small amount that nobody can really tell what's in there but it just adds another facet of flavor that gives this sauce some personality.

1 T. cornstarch

¼ cup water (or pineapple juice)

½ c. brown sugar

½ c. soy sauce

¼ c. apple cider vinegar

¼ tsp. garlic powder

¼ tsp. fresh grated ginger or dry ginger

 2 T. creamy peanut butter

In a small saucepan, combine all ingredients.  Cook over medium-high heat stirring with  whisk until the mixture thickens.

Caramelized Onions

Okay, so this is definitely adult food, not a kid-pleaser by any means.  I have one daughter who like these onions but the others cringe at the sight of them.  The funny thing is that whenever I'm cooking these fabulous onions, several of my children will come into the kitchen asking what I'm cooking that smells so good.  These onions are great on burritos, salads, baked potatoes or as a side dish to just about anything!

2 cups sliced sweet onions (about 2 small onions)

2 tsp. olive oil

½ chicken broth

2 Tablespoons brown sugar

2 Tablespoons balsamic vinegar

In a frying pan over medium-high heat cook onions and oil for 5-7 minutes until light brown.  Add broth, sugar and vinegar, cook for 10-15 minutes until the liquid evaporates. 

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies

In a mixing bowl cream together:

1 cup white sugar

1 Tablespoon butter or margarine

1 egg

1 tsp. vanilla

1 cup pumpkin puree

In a separate bowl combine:

2 cup all-purpose flour

1 tsp. baking soda

½ tsp. salt

1 tsp. cinnamon

               

Add wet ingredients to dry ingredients and mix until combined.  Add chocolate chips (I use about ½ cup).  Drop by spoon fulls onto a greased cookie sheet.  Bake at 350 degrees for about 10-12 minutes.  

Good Morning Oatmeal Muffins

In a mixing bowl combine:

1 cup oats (any kind)

½ cup all-purpose flour

½ cup wheat flour

1 tsp. salt

½ tsp. baking soda

1 tsp. baking powder

1 tsp. cinnamon

In another mixing bowl combine:

1 cup plain nonfat yogurt or ¾ cup buttermilk (3/4 cup milk and 1 Tablespoon vinegar)

½ cup applesauce (preferably no sugar added)

1 egg

¾ cup brown sugar

Mix each bowl separately, then add wet ingredients to the dry ingredients, mix until combines.  Bake at 350 degrees for about 15 minutes for muffins.  Topping ideas: sprinkle brown sugar and cinnamon on top before baking.

Mud Soup

This is the last official day of summer!  I love this day, not because I don’t love summer but because I love autumn.  It’s now officially okay to make soup.  In our family, soup is strictly a fall/winter food.   I especially love tortilla soup.  The problem with tortilla soup is that it really needs tomatoes and I only have one child who will eat tomatoes.  I don’t cater to picky eaters very often but I’ve given up this battle and I now make foods without tomatoes or “add-your-own tomatoes”.  I came up with this soup we like to call “Mud Soup” where each person can add whatever ingredients they like to a basic black bean soup.

2 cups dry black beans

1 envelope taco seasoning

5-6 cups chicken broth or bullion

salt, pepper and cayenne to taste

Soak the black beans overnite.  The next day, drain off the water and put the beans in a crock pot.  Add the other seasonings and 5 cups of the chicken broth.  Cook on high for about 6-7 hours or until the beans are soft.  With a potato masher, mash the beans until most of them are mashed.  Add more chicken broth until you get whatever soupy consistency you like, then taste it and make sure the salt and seasonings are right.  Turn the crock pot down to “low” and cook for 2 more hours.  Now here comes the fun part, you start with the basic black bean soup and add toppings like: salsa, sour cream, grilled chicken, avocados, cilantro, tomatoes, chips, cheese, grilled corn etc…  It’s nice because everyone can customize their own bowl.  A definite win-win situation!

Roasted Veggie Salsa

I love my garden!  It’s pretty small and I kind of cram stuff in there but this year it really came through for me.  I planted a lot of tomatoes even though I only have one child who will willingly eat them and Mike isn’t crazy about them either.  There’s just nothing as good as a tomato grown right out of the dirt of your own backyard!  I love having a lot of tomatoes and this salsa is one of the reasons why.  It goes great with my lowfat Doritos, Black Bean (Mud) Soup or any other Mexican food.

6 tomatoes halved and seeded

½ clove garlic (add more if you like)

1 onion cut into slices

1 jalapeño, cut in half lengthwise, seeds and stem removed (optional)

2-3 anaheim chili peppers cut lengthwise, seeds and stem removed

1 tsp. cumin

¼ tsp. salt

 Juice from ½ fresh lime

¼ c. chopped cilantro

Place all the vegetables on a greased baking sheet.  Broil for about 5-10 minutes until the skins are charred.  Turn the vegetables over to char both sides.  Let them cool for a few minutes and then blend in a blender.  Don’t liquefy this, you still want it chunky.  Add your seasonings, lime juice and fresh cilantro.  Adjust the salt and garlic to your taste.  This salsa has a warm, smoky flavor, a nice change from fresh salsa.

Low Fat Doritos

Okay, I admit I’m really excited about this one.  It’s kind of an epiphany I had today.  I was just driving home with my two youngest daughters in the car.  My two-year old had just spilled a take-out container of tomato soup onto a stack of library books.  The soup ran down onto the seat and into the crevice where the seat belts originate.  (Yeah, I know you are wondering why the two-year-old had the soup to begin with, so am I)  Anyway, this thought just came to me:  “why can’t I make lowfat Doritos?”  Now, I’m really not a chip kind of person but I live with seven other people who are.  My girls can clean out a bag of chips in a matter of seconds.  In fact, I potty-trained my third daughter in one day using a bag of Cheetos as incentive.  So when I got home, and after I cleaned tomato-basil soup out of every crack and crevice of the back seat, and cleaned up the stack of library books,   I went to work on this Dorito idea.  I think they turned out great!  In fact, six out of six of my children begged me to make a lot more.  I told them I would teach them how to do it and they could make their own! 

These pictures are of the original nacho-cheese flavor but I’ve included the recipe for Cool Ranch as well.  I used nonstick cooking spray, (aka PAM) to be honest, I use a lot of this stuff and I’m not really sure what it is.  I brushed a few test chips with olive oil to see if it would make a difference.  I couldn’t tell any difference between the nonfat cooking spray and the oil-brushed chips!  I hope your family enjoys these as much as mine did.  I actually felt good about giving my girls chips for an after-school snack!

Nacho-cheese seasoning:

4 T cheese powder (I have a huge can of this stuff, it’s the same cheese powder you get in boxes of mac-n-cheese)

2 T taco seasoning

¼ tsp onion powder

¼ tsp garlic powder

about 10 corn tortillas (I used white corn) cut into sixths

Spray BOTH sides of the triangles with cooking spray then dip into the seasoning so that  both sides are covered.

Bake on a greased cookie sheet at 400 degrees for about 8-10 minutes (don’t let them burn).  Cool for a few minutes and dig into some salsa.  Enjoy!

Cool Ranch Seasoning:

1 envelope dry ranch dressing mix

1 T. Season-All

½ tsp. garlic powder

½ tsp. paprika   

As far as fat content goes, one corn tortilla has one gram of fat, the cheese powder has a very minimal amount.  I calculate that it takes about 6 chips to get one gram of fat!
My girls however, were disappointed that their fingers weren’t covered with that glow-in-the-dark, neon orange powder, but I personally think that’s a good thing!

Pizza Crust

Pizza night is a big deal in my house, probably the only meal where everyone wants to help make dinner.  All of my girls like to design their own pizza, which is funny because five out of six of them only like pepperoni.  My pizza is the best, chock full of spinach zucchini, peppers, onions, mushrooms, tomato and a little feta cheese.  This recipe has been used for years.  I love it because it makes a chewy crust that doesn’t go soggy the next day.  I also use this for breadsticks and soft pretzels.  We make a lot of this to put in school lunch the next day.  This is a great recipe without the oil that most pizza crust has, just watch the cheese!  (PS: Here’s a hint for de-fatting pepperoni; just wrap the pepperoni up in a few sheets of paper towels and microwave for about 7 – 10 seconds.  This melts off all that neon orange grease and it end up all over the paper towels instead of the inside of your arteries!)

In a mixing bowl combine:

2 tsp. yeast

2 T brown sugar

1 ¼ tsp. salt

1 ½ cups warm tap water

Mix this together and let it rest, covered to keep the heat in for about five minutes until it gets bubbly.  Then add about 3 cups of all-purpose flour, a little at a time until it makes smooth, elastic dough that is easy to handle without getting your hands all sticky.  Knead the dough for about 5 minutes.  After that you can go ahead and press it into the pizza pans and add your toppings (seriously, just try spinach and zucchini!)  Bake at 400 degrees until the crust is light golden brown underneath.  Oh yeah, try sprinkling a little garlic salt, parmesan cheese and some red pepper flakes on your pizza, it’s the bomb!

Choose - a -Fruit Pancakes or Waffles

Saturday mornings mean only one thing in our house, and that is pancakes!  We also rotate between waffles and French toast but for the kids, it’s always some kind of bread product drenched in maple syrup.  I’ve got children who wake up early (like 7:00) just to help me make pancakes.  My eight-year-old is the best flipper in the family!  I love this recipe because it can be used for pancakes or waffles.  I usually use mostly whole wheat flour and a little white but you can make the call on that.  I left out the oil in these pancakes and nobody even missed it, just add any fruit you like.  Our favorite is mashed bananas, but sliced are good too, so is applesauce, blueberries, peaches, raspberries and strawberries.  This recipe has been in staple in my house for years and I hope you enjoy it as well!  Oh, by the way I usually double this for leftovers on Sunday.

Choose a Fruit Pancakes or Waffles

 2 cups flour

1 T. baking powder

½ tsp. salt

2 T. sugar

2 eggs

2 cups milk

1 T. vanilla

Add any fruit you like, about ½ cup for mashed bananas or applesauce.  Cook on a nonstick griddle.

Low Fat Family Cinnamon Rolls

Low Fat Family Cinnamon Rolls

I usually try to avoid making food that I really crave and love and might eat the whole batch of.  Cinnamon rolls are one of those foods.  About once or twice a year I allow myself this indulgence. I searched and experimented for a cinnamon roll recipe that wasn’t full of butter and eggs and finally came up with this one.  It makes wonderful cinnamon rolls that are still great the next day, if there happen to be any leftovers.  This recipe is also a great basic white roll recipe that freezes well. 

In a Bosch or mixing bowl combine:

4 Tablespoons nonfat dry milk powder

½ cup white sugar

2 ½ tsp. salt

½ cup margarine or butter melted

4 tsp. yeast

1 Tablespoon dough enhancer

2 cups hot tap water

Then, while mixing on low speed add approximately 6 cups all-purpose flour a cup at a time until dough is elastic but still slightly sticky and the sides of the bowl are clean.  Knead on medium speed for about 5 minutes.  Turn the dough out on a floured surface and roll into a rectangle.  Spread with a few tablespoons of melted butter (go easy now) and about ½ cup of brown sugar, 2 teaspoons of cinnamon and raisins of you like.  Roll the dough up and cut into slices (dental floss or thread works the best).  Let rise about 30 minutes.  Place in a cold oven and turn the heat on to 350 degrees.  Bake for about 15 to 20 minutes until tops are golden brown.  Let the rolls cool for about 10 minutes and frost with low fat icing:  3 cups powdered sugar and about, 3 tablespoon milk add a little at a time to whatever consistency you prefer. 

The Very Best Cole Slaw

The Very Best Coleslaw (Asian-style)

I love this stuff.  In fact I really think I could eat it every day for a very long time and not get tired of it.  My children are tired of me raving about it at dinner.  It’s more of an adult food anyway.  You can jazz it up with some crumbled ramen noodles and toasted almonds, just watch the fat.  Cabbage is supposedly a negative-calorie food.  Meaning that it takes more calories to digest it than are contained in the cabbage.  So you can loose fat while you eat!  Well, I’m not sure about that but this is really good.

Mix the sauce:

3 T. rice vinegar

2 t. sugar

1 tsp water (to dissolve the sugar)

salt and pepper to taste

Chop the Veggies:

½ head cabbage cut into shreds

1 large grated carrot

1-2 green onions (your choice, just be sure to use the green part too)

Combine everything and let it sit in the fridge for a few hours.

Perfect Corn Bread

This is my creation for very low fat corn bread that doesn’t taste like you’re eating a brick!  It goes great with beans and rice or jambalaya. 

1¼ cup all-purpose flour

¾ cup cornmeal

¼ c. sugar

2 tsp. baking powder

¼ tsp. baking soda

½ tsp. salt

1 c. buttermilk (or 1 cup milk with one tablespoon vinegar added to it)

 ¼ cup fat-free sour cream

Mix dry ingredients and wet ingredients in separate bowls, they add wet to dry and stir until combined.  Bake at 375 degrees for 23-27 minutes, until its light golden brown on top.

Luscious Lemon Bars

Luscious Lemon Bars

You will think you have died and gone to heaven!  These are much lighter than regular lemon bars but you will never miss the fat, they taste almost identical to the original.

Crust:

1 cup all-purpose flour

¼ cup powdered sugar

½ cup quick oats

3 T. butter or margarine

Mix the dry ingredients and cut the butter in to make a crumbly mixture. It’s going to be more crumbly than the original.  Press into a greased 8 X 8 pan.  Bake at 350 degrees until light golden brown.

Filling:

2 eggs

2 egg whites

1 ¼ cup sugar

3 T. flour

¼ tsp. baking powder

pinch of salt

juice and grated zest of 2 large lemons (grated on the small side of the grater)

Pour filling onto crust, bake for 20-25 minutes until light golden brown on top.  Let it cool and sprinkle with powdered sugar.

100% Whole Wheat Bread

Homemade bread

In the world of Mormon food, it’s all about the BREAD!  We take a lot of pride in making the same recipe that our female progenitors brought with them as they crossed the plains.  Most Mormon bread recipes are full of oil or butter, and then the dough is dipped in butter, baked, brushed with butter and then slathered with butter at the table.  Well, I’ve made a few changes to the basic Mormon whole wheat bread recipe and here it is!  This bread is fabulous!  I lowered the oil amount and added some oats for extra moisture.  It comes out chewy and dense, not crumbly and dry as you would expect from low-fat bread.  It stays together and works great for sandwiches.  Check your local health food store for white wheat flour or use regular red wheat flour.  Either way, you’ll be amazed that this is 100% whole wheat.  Also, look under Healthy Links for some information about white wheat.  Your family is going to love this!

100% Whole Wheat Bread (Lightened up a little)

In your mixer (preferably a Bosch) combine:

2 T. dough enhancer

1/3 c. oil

2/3 c. honey

2 T. salt

2 T yeast

5 1/3 cups of hot tap water

Mix this for a few seconds until combined then add ½ cup quick oats and ABOUT 13 cups of whole wheat flour. Don’t just dump 13 cups in there, add it a little at a time until the dough is elastic and pulls away from the sides of the bowl.  I use a combination of about ½ white wheat and ½ red wheat but it doesn’t really matter, use all while or all red if you like.  By the way, white wheat flour is not all-purpose white flour, its whole grain flour from ground white wheat.  Anyway, mix on medium speed for about 9 minutes.  You might need to add more flour so it’s not too sticky and the sides of the bowl are clean.  Turn the dough out on a floured surface and divide into five loaves.  I use the smaller loaf pans so if you have larger pans divide into fourths.  Shape into loaves and let them rise for about 30 minutes.  Place in a cold oven and turn the oven on the 350 degrees.  Bake for about 27-35 minutes until the loaves are light golden brown and sound hollow when tapped.  This also makes great cinnamon swirl bread.  Just roll out the loaf

And sprinkle cinnamon sugar all over it.  Roll up into a loaf shape and bake as directed.