Month: August 2011

Like many other New Yorkers, I was trapped in my apartment this weekend with whatever happened to be in my refrigerator. I wasn’t too convinced that Irene was going to live up to all the hype so I only haphazardly prepared myself. Lots of candles, a flash light and a few liters of seltzer (because water was sold out by the time I got to the store) but on the food front, I just got some berries, almonds, grapes, raw string beans and hummus. Oh and Twizzlers! My hurricane candy treat! Thank god, it wasn’t the storm everyone was expecting or who knows how I would have actually fared.
Anyways fast forward to Saturday night, a bit past midnight and I am not only stir crazy but craving something sweet. The Twizzlers just aren’t doing it for me, I want dessert! So I whipped up this little low-fat pseudo Banana Cream Pie recipe and I want to share it with you because it ended up being delicious!

Come On Irene Banana Cream Pie

2 low fat graham cracker rectangles (big ones)
1 stage 2 banana baby food
1 ripe banana
1 60 cal Vanilla Jello Pudding
optional ..fat free whip cream

Break your graham crackers into crumbles and place them along the bottom of your bowl. Separately, mix your banana baby food with your vanilla pudding and layer it on top of your grahams. Lastly, slice your banana and toss them on top, adding whip cream if you choose. (I personally didn’t use whip cream this weekend but if I had it, I think it might be a nice topper!)

Enjoy 🙂

 

These cupcakes are so adorable they truly make me feel like I’m back at a middle school Valentines Day dance..only that Martha Stewart is the caterer. Here’s a snazzy way to take a potentially bland cake like angel food and make it live up to it’s lofty name.

Oh So Heavenly Heart Cupcakes

1 box of your favorite angel food cake mix
1 tsp of almond extract
1 package or Tofutti vegan cream cheese or regular low fat cream cheese, depending on your preference

Icing..
1 cup of frozen fat free whipped topping
1/2 cup of confectioners sugar
2/3 cup of strawberry jam warmed

And 12 strawberries cut in half

Heat the oven to 350 degrees F. Make the angel food cake mix according to package directions, adding your almond extract. Pour batter evenly amongst your two tray of 12 individually lined cupcake molds and bake for 20 mins or until done. Let them cool COMPLETELY.

Now, if you have a cupcake plunger you fill your cupcakes with strawberry jam by plunging into the center ofnthe cupcake, scooping the jam in and then replacing the removed cupcake top. Then, mix on low speed with an electric mixer, combine the Tofutti or cream cheese, your whipped topping and confectioners sugar. Pipe the mixture into a heart shape on top of every cupcake and then fill the center with strawberry jam. Voila!

And now you can really tell them to ‘eat their heart out’ 🙂

Last night on Manhattan’s Upper West Side, my friends and I had quite a feast. Perfectly grilled salmon, steamed spinach, bean salad and couscous, oh my! Naturally, I felt it was only right to contribute by whipping up some kind of low fat vegan dessert! We were all in a chocolate kind of mood and it had been a while since I had made brownies, so off to whole foods I went in the rain to gather up some healthy yet tasty ingredients! Here’s what I came up with and (if I do say so myself) they tasted amazing and you could hardly tell they were good for you!

 

Ooey Gooey Low Fat Vegan Brownies

1  1/3 cup of whole wheat flour

2 tsps of flax seed meal whisked with 6 tsps of water

1 cup of amber agave

1 individual cup of unsweetened applesauce

3/4 cup of unsweetened cocoa powder

1 tsp of vanilla extract

1/2 tsp of Baking Soda

1 jar of stage 1 prune baby food

1 cup of vegan chocolate chips

* fresh strawberries, optional

 

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F. Spray your pan with a non-fat cooking spray. Combine baking soda, cocoa powder and applesauce. Add agave, prune baby food and vanilla extract. Prepare flaxseed meal and water separately and only combine to batter after it’s been whisked together. Stir in whole wheat flour and let the mixture thicken as you mix it in. Gently fold in the vegan chocolate chips and spread evenly in your baking pan. I, personally, enjoy putting fresh fruit in anything chocolatey so I thinly sliced strawberries and covered the top of the brownies with them. Bake for 20- 30 minutes, checking periodically depending on the size of your pan.

 

Enjoy! These brownies are delicious and guilt free, just try to not eat them all in one sitting! ;)

It’s no easy task being mother to a health fanatic like myself, but my mom tried her best to make sure she always had something in accordance to my diet du jour when I used to come home from college. This little gem of a muffin recipe is just one of a few great concoctions she whipped up for me. As always, I encourage creativity, feel free to substitute the dried cranberries for fresh cranberries, blueberries, raspberries etc! Mom was just getting creative with what she had around the house. Have fun and enjoy!


Mama’s Sweet Cranberry Muffins

2 cups whole wheat pastry flour
2 egg whites ( whisk seperately)
1/4 tsp almond flavoring
2 100 calorie packs of Craisins
1/2 tsp of lemon rind or less if your not a huge lemon fan
2 tsp of organic stage one sweet potato baby food
1 large tbsp of applesauce
1/2 cup of water

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Put Craisins in boiling water for a few minute to get them nice and soft and juicy. Combine all ingredients together, gently folding in the dried cranberries. Bake for approx 20 minutes and enjoy!

First, let me tell you about my love affair with the quiche… Not only is it delicious and protein packed it can be great for living alone because you can literally make a delicious breakfast that will last all week on Sunday night. Trust me, when you live by yourself and have early mornings, this is a miraculous feat! I also want to add that there is unlimited creativity with quiches, you can use your favorite cheese, vegetables and meat (if you so choose), just be careful cause you can easily make it fattening again if you go too crazy!haha Alright the following is my personal favorite rendition of Quick and Skinny Quiche!

Quick and Skinny Quiche

3 large eggs
2 large egg whites
12 ounces of fat free half and half
1/4 teaspoon salt
Pinch of pepper ( at your discretion)
2/3 cup of low fat cheddar cheese
Bag of baby spinach ( added at your discretion)
4 chopped scallions
1 frozen whole wheat pie shell.. Or a cupcake pan to make a lower carb version and individual servings! Just be sure to spray the pan.

Preheat your oven to 375 degrees F. Whisk your eggs and whites, fat free half and half and any salt or pepper in a large bowl. Then stir in all the cheese and veggies you’d like to add and pour it all into your pie crust or cupcake pan! Easy enough?

Bake it in your oven for 45 to 50 minutes. You can check if it’s done by sticking a knife in the center and making sure it comes out clean. Let it cool for 10 minutes and then cut it into 8 slices! Be sure to wrap it up if your going to refrigerate it and keep it for later!

Enjoy! And let me know what other fun combinations you come up with at gosweetandskinny@gmail.com

These are for those times when you just need a little chocolate something..

Mix one box of your favorite dry chocolate cake mix with one can of pumpkin puree.

Yes, it’s really that easy! And I promise it doesn’t taste like pumpkin at all!

To spice things up, feel free to get creative, I often add raspberries or strawberries, you can also add some applesauce in with the pumpkin for a sweeter cupcake. The possibilities are endless and all very satisfying! Bake these little puppies as you would if you had actually made chocolate cupcakes with the mix and voila! you have a little ‘Chocolate Something’ that will run you only 60-100 cals a pop. I bake these at least once a month, and all my girlfriends absolutely love them. Sweet and guilt free! Enjoy!

As much as I’d hate to admit it, I am only human and tonight has been one of those nights. The ones where you spend hours diligently resisting a cookie craving, make tea, eat yogurt, call a friend, you know all those ‘get your mind off the craving’ activities you find in your favorite healthy living magazine. And yet, they all offer no help. There I was at 10pm and I surrendered. I went out to the supermarket and I bought some sugar cookies. I don’t even like store-bought cookies! I was desperate and certainly not proud of what I was doing.

Funny enough, four cookies deep and cutting myself off from the rest, amidst the shame of my indulgence, something miraculous happened : I regained my focus. All of a sudden, the writing and work I had been trying to do for the past few hours were at the forefront of my mind. I had killed all those sabotaging cookie fantasies simply by giving in.

While I’m not saying that this is an excuse to put yourself in full on sugar coma everytime you get an inkling for a brownie, I think there is a lesson to be learned. If I had gone out and got a cookie perhaps after an hour of thinking about it, maybe I would have had only one and maybe my focus wouldn’t have been quite so effected. I guess this one comes down to ‘know thyself’, sometimes it’s okay to indulge a little, just not all the time and always remember to get back on track and on with your life!

Some great treats to get you through ‘those nights’ are Skinny Cow Ice Cream, No Pudge Brownies and my recipe for ‘Chocolate Somethings’ which I’ll post right away.

My (only slightly altered) take on the Dukan Diet’s Oat Bran Galette

1 egg (or egg white)

2 tablespoons of toasted oat bran

2 tablespoons of non fat greek yogurt (fat free yogurt like Activa Vanilla can be used and provides a slightly different flavor)

a swirl of Agave nectar (or Dukan recommends Splenda)

Mix the yogurt and oat bran together and then in a separate bowl beat the egg or egg white till fluffy. Combine the two and add any additional seasoning. My personal favorite is adding a little Pumpkin Pie Spice ( sooo yummy!) but you can also add cinnamon or a little vanilla or almond extract to switch it up. For a savory pancake, you can leave out the agave and chop up some garlic or onions in there. When your doing the all protein thing, feel free to add some turkey bacon or shrimp in the mix but my personal tastes lie on the sweeter side! Also, if your not watching your carbs, try adding some berries or bananas in for a delicious pancake-alternative.

Hope you guys enjoy! As someone who absolutely loves breakfast and all its naughty carb-loaded treats this little recipe makes me want to personally send Dr. Dukan a little thank you note. Now I can actually have my cake and eat it too!

Have you heard about the Dukan Diet? Ever since rumor got around that it was Kate Middleton’s pre-wedding weight loss diet of choice, I knew I had to purchase the book. Don’t hate me, I can be a sucker for the flavor of the week diet. Now, to give you the spark notes version of what it entails, it’s a primarily protein based menu. For the first 3-7 days all you can eat is protein and then following that you alternate protein only days with vegetable/protein days. After reading this, I debated whether or not this was even possible for some one who “only eats fish occasionally” to do and let me tell it was no walk in the park!

The first two days were pure torture for me, ah, who I am I kidding, the whole thing was pretty hard. First, it’s not easy to pack anything to take with you for the day when the things you can eat consist of eggs, meat or fish. Sometimes it’s not even easy to grab something that fits into your ‘allowed’ foods on the go. (And I live in NYC where food options are seemingly endless) However, Dukan does give you a recipe for a “Dukan Galette” which is pretty much a protein pancake that he allows you to have once a day and this turned out to be a god-sent! In a later post, I’ll give you the recipe along with some fun variations I’ve created, of course!

Okay, okay, I’ll get to the good stuff, I did lose a few pounds and if you had more to lose, I’m sure you’d lose more. However, what really surprised me was the effect it had on my skin! After two days of no carbs at all and eating purely protein my skin looked FABULOUS! Most of my acne cleared up and my face looked great. This could have also been helped by the large amount of water you MUST drink while doing the beginning stages of this diet but I think I have mostly the lack of carbohydrates to thank for this.

So overall, I lost a little weight and I gained a few enlightening tools. I will continue to watch my carbohydrate intake (especially white carbs) because I love how my skin is looking and somehow that is even more gratifying than the numbers going down on the scale to me. I also, am completely in love with my protein pancake creation and think that it will become a regular on my menu! Thank you Mr. Dukan!