Laurie: Mini Cheesecakes

24 cupcake liners
24 vanilla wafers
2-8oz. cream cheese (softened)
3/4 c. sugar
2 eggs
1 T. vanilla
1 can cherry pie filling

Line cupcake pans with liners and place a wafer in each.
In a bowl, beat cream cheese and sugar till smoothe. Add
in eggs and vanilla, continue to beat till light and
fluffy. Fill liners 2/3 full.
Bake 375° 15 to 20 minutes. Top with pie filling
and chill.

Fran: Oatmeal Carmelitas

Many of you have demanded, er, asked very politely ;) for this recipe so I thought I'd go ahead and post it. I'm not even going to pretend these are diet! In fact, I'm not going to give you the nutritional info at all. Just know that if you eat more than one you'd better go for a nice long jog!

Oatmeal Carmelitas
CRUST
2 cups flour
2 cups oatmeal
1 1/2 cups packed brown sugar
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 1/4 cups butter, softened

FILLING
1 (12.5 ounce) jar caramel ice cream topping
3 TBS flour
1 cup milk chocolate chips
*1/2 cup walnuts

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Combine all crust ingredients and mix until crumbly; press half of the mixture into the bottom of a greased 9 x 13 baking pan. Bake for 10 minutes. Sprinkle chocolate chips and *nuts over the hot crust. In a small bowl combine caramel topping and 3 TBS flour; drizzle over chocolate and nuts. Sprinkle remaining crumb mixture over the top of the caramel.

Bake for 18-22 minutes. Allow to cool before cutting into 30 pieces. Store in an airtight container at room temperature.

*I never add the nuts but if you do toasting them first adds a great flavor to the bar.

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)

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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)

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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!