Strawberry Delight

I saw this on The Biggest Loser on Netflix streaming and decided that it looked good enough to make right away. I've been making it for a while and realized I hadn't shared it yet! Oh no! This has got to be the easiest and best tasting dessert I've ever made. Absolutely love it! Fresh fruit is best, but you can also defrost some frozen fruit and use that.

Strawberry Delight

1 container fresh strawberries
sweetener, to taste (for the fruit-optional)
1 large box sugar free strawberry jello
8 ounces Lite Cool Whip

Wash and slice the strawberries and place in a medium-sized bowl. Make the jello (using ice to replace the cold water). Whisk in the Cool Whip. Pour over the strawberries, cover, and place in the refrigerator to chill and set. Serve with a dollop of Cool Whip.

There are lots of other combinations you can use too! Try pineapple with lime jello, cherries with cherry jello, etc. Blueberries would be good too. Hmmm...what jello would you use with blueberries? I think I'm gonna try lemon!

Note: Having a fancy luncheon or dinner party? Make individual servings in wine glasses!

Banana Pudding

Bob and I have yogurt for desert every night and I like to make different flavors so here's my yogurt version of banana pudding! It's so delicious!!!

Banana Pudding

32 ounce container Dannon Plain, Fat Free Yogurt
2 small packages sugar free, fat free Banana Cream pudding mix
Splenda, to taste
1 ripe banana
graham cracker crumbs, optional

Empty yogurt into a large bowl. Add pudding mix and Splenda. Whisk until smooth. Spoon some into a bowl, thinly slice a piece of banana to partially cover the pudding. Keep layering this way, ending with the pudding. Sprinkle some graham cracker crumbs on top and refrigerate. Serve with a dollop of Cool Whip Lite on top, if desired.

Cottage Cheese

Okay, I know. But just read on okay?  I grew up watching my mother eat cottage cheese with pineapple and just about gagged every time I saw her put that stuff into her mouth. But now I've had wls and my tastes have changed. It happens to all of us! Not long after my surgery I started craving cottage cheese. Believe me...I fought that craving! But I finally caved in and tried some with pineapple and sweetener. Oh my goodness...I was in heaven! Cottage cheese is really good for you and is a wonderful, refreshing summer breakfast or snack.

Cottage Cheese

2 ounces cottage cheese (I use Breakstone's 2% small curd)
1 ounce crushed pineapple in juice
sweetener, to taste

Mix it all up together in a small bowl and enjoy!

Caramel Apple Crisp

I wanted something for dessert tonight so I grabbed a can of no sugar added apple pie filling while I was at the grocery store this afternoon. It's Fall! You have to make something with apples in the Fall! I had apple crisp on my mind and knew I had some oatmeal at home so I thought I could either find a good recipe or figure it out for myself. Well, I found a great recipe on this blog. Linda Farnsworth is a great cook and is so generous to share so many of her recipes.

So now you've got the apple crisp recipe, what about ice cream? C'mon! You can't have apple crisp without vanilla ice cream on top!  Well...here you are! Wonderful, tasty, and nutritous protein ice cream.

Vanilla Ice Cream

1 Good Old Vanilla Protein Shake (make sure you blend until thick and very frothy)

Ice cream maker (I use this one)

Start your ice cream maker and slowly pour your vanilla shake into the ice cream maker. I like to cover the hole in the top with aluminum foil to help keep in the cold. Set your timer for 20 minutes. When it's done you can eat it right away (as soft serve) or pack it into a container and freeze for about an hour. We usually eat ours as soft serve, but when I'm going to put it on top of a dessert I like to freeze it for a little while so it doesn't melt all over my lovely sweet dessert.

Segmenting an Orange

I have tried eating oranges since my gastric bypass, but the membranes just wouldn't digest. And it was painful too. So I tried sectioning the orange and pulling off the membranes. Whew! Way too much trouble. So I resigned myself to not eating oranges...just too much trouble to make them edible. Then I saw this technique on my favorite channel, Food Network. Kind of messy but it's really easy and only takes a couple of minutes. And oh! I learned a fancy food word. The little segments are called 'supremes'. Ha! Fancy that!
Enjoy the video!

Lemon Blueberry Shake

Two of my favorite things...lemons and blueberries! Together! In a milkshake! Need I say more?

Lemon Blueberry Shake

1-2 cups ice
1 scoop vanilla protein mix
2 drops lemon extract

1/8 piece lemon (juice only), optional

2 tablespoons sugar free lemon pudding mix

1 ounce fresh or frozen blueberries

4-6 ounces soy or almond milk

Place ice in blender. Add the rest of the ingredients, ending with the milk. Set blender to crush ice, then blend on lowest speed and building up to highest speed until shake is thick and frothy.

Avocado

Avocados are in season and that makes me happy. Happy...Happy...Happy! I didn't care for them before gastric bypass, but now I love them. They're great with a nice piece of pan-fried fish or chicken for lunch. Yes, they're high fat, but heart healthy fat. They are very good for you. Eat them! Enjoy them!

Avocado

1 ripe avocado (they are ripe when darker in color and give slightly when fingered)
salt and pepper, to taste
fresh lemon juice (can use bottled if that's all you have)

Here's a video on how to cut an avocado. Cut avocado from top to bottom and back around. Twist each side in opposing directions (like you used to twist an oreo cookie to get to the filling!) to open. Take your knife and carefully whack it into the seed. Twist slightly and pull seed out. Now you're ready to dice the avocado. Run the tip of your knife through the flesh to make diagonal cuts in both directions without cutting through the peel. Now you can take a tablespoon and just spoon out the chunks of avocado! Do the same thing on the other half. Yay! You have just diced your first avocado. Sprinkle a little salt, pepper, and lemon juice. Stir and taste!

You're gonna want to dice your avocado just a few minutes before serving. They will turn brown, even with the lemon juice. It doesn't hurt the flavor though so eat on!

Caramel Apples

Who doesn't think about caramel apples when the weather turns cool? Our state fair opened today and it made me think about caramel apples. Deep fried corn dogs too...but that's another story! I found some beautiful honey crisp apples today at the supermarket and decided that I deserved a treat so I bought one. After I washed it I cut it up into slices and dipped the slices into some sugar free caramel topping. I could only eat two slices of apple, but they were wonderful!

Cherry Vanilla Shake

Cherry Vanilla ice cream was always one of my favorite ice creams. So of course I had to translate that into a protein shake. Which, by the way, also makes an awesome ice cream. Just chop up some defrosted cherries and mix into the ice cream when it comes out of the ice cream maker.

Cherry Vanilla Shake

1-2 cups ice

1 tablespoon sugar free vanilla pudding mix

1 scoop vanilla protein powder

1 tablespoon regular flavor coffee creamer
sweetener to taste (optional)
2 drops cherry extract
5 frozen cherries
4-6 ounces milk (I use soy or almond milk)

Place ice in blender. Add the rest of the ingredients, ending with the milk. Set blender to crush ice, then blend on lowest speed and building up to highest speed until shake is thick and frothy.

Chocolate Covered Cherry Shake

Who does not like chocolate covered cherries? Raise your hand. All of you that raised you hand...you're lying! LOL! Everybody likes chocolate covered cherries! This is one of my favorite shakes and one of the first ones I invented.

 

Chocolate Covered Cherry Shake

1-2 cups ice

1 tablespoon sf chocolate fudge pudding mix

1 tablespoon Smucker's sf fudge topping

1 tablespoon Hershey's sf chocolate syrup

1 tablespoon chocolate coffee creamer

1 heaping teaspoon Hershey's Special Dark cocoa

1 tablespoon sf Nesquik

2 tablespoons Splenda Granulated
1 pinch instant coffee

2 drops vanilla extract

1 drop cherry extract

1 scoop chocolate protein mix

4 frozen cherries

1 dash salt

4-6 ounces Almond Breeze original almond milk

Put ice in blender. Add all other ingredients (adding the milk last). Use the ice crushing button on your blender to crush the ice. Blend shake, starting at lowest speed and working up to fastest speed. Pour into tall glass and enjoy!

Strawberry Shake

Mmmmm...a good strawberry shake takes me back to when I was a kid. Long summers going to the beach, riding my bike everywhere, and stopping for a strawberry shake on the way home. I know that these protein shakes are good for my health, but that doesn't mean they can't taste yummy too! Huh, I've just made myself crave a strawberry shake. Maybe I'll have one as my bedtime shake. LOL! 

Strawberry Shake

1 1/2 to 2 cups ice

1 tablespoon sugar free vanilla pudding mix

several drops strawberry extract

1 ounce (about 2-3) frozen strawberries (add more if fruit sugar is okay for you)
1 tablespoon Hershey's sf strawberry syrup (optional, I don't anymore)

2 teaspoons Smucker's sf strawberry topping
1 scoop vanilla protein mix

8 ounces almond milk (or whatever milk you like)

sweetener to taste (optional)

Pour liquids in blender and set to stir. Add dry ingredients and keep stirring. Add strawberries and ice.Set blender to crush the ice, then keep raising speeds
until it's blending at it's highest speed. Blend until thick and frothy. Pour into a big glass and enjoy!

This shake also makes a great ice cream!

Waldorf Salad With a Twist

My daughter, Janet went to Pennsylvania for a few days this week. When I picked her up at the airport we decided we were hungry so we stopped at Ruby Tuesdays right outside of Charlotte. We both had soup and salad (my white bean chicken chili is better than their's and mine comes from a packet!). But what I really wanted to talk about was their Waldorf Salad. Wow! It was really good! I've had problems eating apples since my gastric bypass, but didn't have any trouble with this dish. Maybe a combination of the apples being chopped and also in a sauce so they were moist. I've never made a Waldorf Salad, so I looked on the Betty Crocker website. I mean, really, you know Betty Crocker knows how to make it! I had to change it...you already knew that! LOL! Here's the link to Betty's original recipe.

Waldorf Salad With a Twist

1/4 cup Kraft Light Miracle Whip
1/4 cup Dannon Plain Low Fat Yogurt (or non fat)
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1 tablespoon Almond Breeze almond milk
1 Granny Smith apple, coarsely chopped
1 Gala apple, coarsely chopped

2 medium celery stalks, chopped

2 tablespoons chopped walnuts

1 small box Sun-Maid dried cranberries

Mix mayonnaise, yogurt, lemon juice and milk in a medium bowl. Stir in the apples, celery, nuts and cranberries. Serve over salad greens if you like. Cover and refrigerate any leftovers.

Note: This recipe does not make a lot of sauce. If you like more sauce than "barely covered" just double the mayo, yogurt, milk and lemon juice.

These are the dried cranberries I use.