Fran: Lighten Up!

Well, it's that time of year again; everyone is on a diet! Just because everyone is trying to lose the five (or more) pounds they gained over the holidays doesn't mean our desire for something sweet has been tamed though. So I thought I would post a couple of recipes for desserts. These can be done with regular ingredients or with low cal/low fat/ sugar free ingredients to lighten things up a bit.

Black Forest Parfaits
1 (8oz) package cream cheese, softened
2 cups cold 2% milk
1 (3.4 oz) package instant chocolate pudding
1 (21 oz) can cherry pie filling
1 TBS cherry syrup (DaVinci's coffee syrups work well)
1/2 cup chocolate wafer crumbs

BEAT: Cream cheese with 1/2 cup of the milk at low speed until smooth. Add pudding mix and remaining milk; beat until smooth (1 - 2 minutes).

MIX: Cherry pie filling and syrup. Spoon 1/2 of the pudding mixture evenly into individual dessert dishes; sprinkle with wafer crumbs. Cover crumbs with pie filling and top with remaining pudding mixture. Chill until ready to serve. Garnish with additional wafer crumbs and cherries if desired.

Makes 6 servings

Nutrition:
Calories 398, fat 16.5, sat. fat 9.94, sodium 277 mg, carb. 56.3, fiber 2, protein 7

Lightened up:
Calories 231, fat 9, sat. fat 5, sodium 420, carb 30, fiber 2, protein 7
(Lightened up version uses low fat cream cheese, sugar free instant pudding, 1% milk and lite cherry pie filling)

~

Strawberry Trifle
1 (3.5 oz) package instant vanilla pudding
1 1/2 cups 2% milk
6 (2.6 oz) slices angel food cake (1/8 of a typical homemade cake)
1 cup cool whip
(10 oz) package frozen unsweetened strawberries, thawed

Mix milk and instant pudding together and let stand for 5 minutes to thicken. Cut cake pieces into cubes. In a large trifle bowl (or 6 individual trifle cups) layer cake, strawberries, pudding and cool whip.

Nutrition:
Calories 354, fat 5, sat. fat 4, sodium 383, carb. 73, fiber 1, protein 7

Lightened up:
Calories 272, fat 4, sat. fat 3, sodium 367, carb. 48, fiber 1.5, protein 9.5
(Lightened up version uses sugar free instant pudding, 1% milk and light angel food cake (recipe to follow)

~

Light Angel Food Cake
3/8 cup sugar
4 1/2 teaspoons sugar twin sugar substitute or Splenda
9 egg whites
3/4 cup all purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons cream of tartar
6 tablespoons pure vanilla
3/4 teaspoon baking powder

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. In a medium bowl mix together flour and baking powder. In a large bowl beat egg whites until they become frothy. Add cream of tartar to egg whites and beat until stiff peaks form. Next sprinkle sugar and Splenda/or twin carefully over the eggs and gently stir until blended. Add vanilla to the egg white mixture. With hand mixer on med/low speed, slowly sprinkle flour mixture into eggs, about 1 tbsp at a time, mixing as each is added. Pour into a medium cake pan or into individual cupcake papers and bake until top springs up when poked; approximately 25 minutes. Storing them overnight in a plastic ziplock bag makes them moister. I've also read that you can use only Splenda and omit the sugar though I haven't tried it.

Bon Appetite!