No Sugar Added Peanut Butter Coconut Bonbons

The holidays sparked a new recipe in the Hunt/Young/Milam households. It all started with my comment that it just wasn't fair for my mother's family (the Milam clan) to expect the diabetics of the family (the Young family unit) to make the peanut butter bonbons every years for Christmas. Maybe I'm wrong, but there's just something about a recipe that measures its sugar content in pounds... anyway, I decided to try to do something about that, and here's what I came up with:


No Sugar Added Peanut Butter Coconut Bonbons

2 cups creamy peanut butter
2 cups Splenda granulated
1/2 cup butter
1 pound almond flour
1 8-oz. package of unsweetened, finely shredded coconut
4 bags Hershey's Special Dark chocolate chips
1/4 lb. Parafin wax


If you have a stand mixer, it's a great tool to use for this. If not, well, wash your hands and just dig in when things get too stiff for your mixer.

In a large bowl, mix together peanut butter & butter. Add in Splenda slowly, mixing well. Add in almond flour and coconut slowly also, making sure that everything gets mixed in well.

Roll filling into small balls (about 1 teaspoon in size), then chill in refrigerator while preparing chocolate.

Melt chocolate and approximately 1/4 pound parafin wax in a double boiler. Spread out wax paper on the counter where you will be setting the bonbons. Spear a bonbon with a toothpick or skewer and dip into chocolate, rolling slightly to make sure it is all covered. Gently set bonbon on wax paper and twist the toothpick/skewer to remove it. Lay the tip on top of the bonbon and gently roll the chocolate over the hole left by the toothpick. Repeat for the rest of the bonbons. Let sit overnight, then store in sealed containers. They store very well in the fridge.

Makes about 125 bonbons at 1 teaspoon size. I cannot guarantee that all of them will make it to the wax paper, or from there to the tins. There always seem to be a few, um, casualties along the way... At this size, each bon bon has about 80 calories and less than 4 carbs, less than 2 grams of sugar. If I'd used no sugar added peanut butter, that would go down some, too. I would not suggest using light butter - it simply does not work well, and we never let my mother forget it.

Holiday baking

And here's what I've been up to the day before Thanksgiving... along with 40 deviled eggs, stuffing, and spilling turkey broth formerly destined to become gravy tomorrow all over the bottom of my fridge. Grrr.... Oh well, at least the cats got a treat... >^..^<


Lemon Inside-Outside Cake

This is based on a pistachio inside-outside cake I first had at a friend's birthday gathering in WV several years ago. I de-sugared it to the best of my ability.

Cake Ingredients:
Pillsbury Reduced Sugar Yellow Cake Mix
1 box Jell-O sugar free lemon flavored pudding and pie filling
1 cup oil
1 cup club soda
3 eggs
1 cup chopped walnuts

Frosting Ingredients:
1 tub Sugar Free Cool-Whip
1 box Jell-O sugar free lemon flavored pudding & pie filling
1 cup 2% milk

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Prepare a bundt pan. Mix together all ingredients for the cake except the nuts. Beat at medium speed for two minutes. The batterw ill be quite thick. Add the nuts and mix well. Pour into bundt pan and spread out evenly. Bake at 350 degrees for 50 minutes.

Cool in pan on wire rack for 1 minutes, then remove from pan and finish cooling on the rack. When cake is completely cool, split into three layers.

To make frosting, mix together all frosting ingredients and blend at medium high speed until thick. Spread 1 cup or so between each of the cake layers, then spoon the remaining frosting into the center. Garnish with chopped walnuts.





No Sugar Added Apple-Pecan Streusel Pie

We saw an apple-pecan strueeel pie in the menu when we went out to eat awhile back. It looked really, really good, and really, really bad for us. Sooo, I scoured the internet and found a likely looking recipe on recipezaar.com. Then it was just a matter of substituting sugar-free stuff wherever possible.

Ingredients:
1 package Pillsbury ready made pie crusts
2 cans no-sugar added apple pie filling
1 1/4 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp ginger
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1 cup chopped pecans
3 tbsp butter, softened (I used Smart Balance Butter Blend)
1 1/2 tbsp Splenda Brown Sugar Blend
1 large egg

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

Gently mix together apple pie filling, 1 teaspoon cinnamon, all ginger, & nutmeg. In a separate bowl, mix together remaining 1/2 tsp cinnamon, brown sugar blend, and pecans.

Lay one pie crust in a 9" deep dish pie pan. Spoon half of the apple pie filling into the pie crust. Spread all of the pecan mixture on top of the apple filling, then spoon the rest of the apple pie filling on top of it.

Unroll the other pie crust and cut into 1" strips. Vertically arrange every other strip over filling, then weave remaining strips horizontally. Adhere to bottom crust with some water, trim, and crimp. I trimed tails of the strips a little past the bottom crust, then tucked them under the edge of the bottom crust and gave them a pinch.

Beat egg with 1 tbsp water. Brush over lattice.

Bake the pie for 30 minutes, checking after 15 minutes to make sure the edges of the crust are not getting too brown. If they are, cover them with aluminum foil. Bake until pie reaches a nice, golden brown color.

Transfer pie to a wire rack and let cool for at least 1-1/2 hours before serving. Serve warm or at room temperature.




Enjoy!

Yummy new breakfast recipe to try

Cottage Cheese Pancakes

Ingredients:
2 cups low-fat cottage cheese
4 eggs
1/2 cup flour
1/2 cup Splenda, or substitute an appropriate amount of any other sweetener
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
spices to taste - cinnamon, pumpkin pie spice, apple pie spice, none at all... whatever floats your boat


Directions:
In a blender or food processor, combine all ingredients until smooth. Chill overnight or at least 1 hour. Prepare like regular pancakes



Now, don't let the ingredients scare you off - these things are amazing! I made them last week for Sunday morning breakfast, but I made sure I had some regular pancake mix on hand just in case. I didn't need it. You can't tell they have cottage cheese in them. The pancakes themselves have very few carbs in them if you use a sugar substitute, so I was able to eat them without spiking my sugar. Woohoo!!!! And the added calcium is always good, right? Especially if you're like me and don't drink milk to save your life.

Anyway, the pancakes were good enought that when I started mixing them up tonight for breakfast tomorrow, Jack said "Oh boy!". :o) I think he likes them...

I found the recipe on a really cool website called http://www.sparkpeople.com/. It is a free community for people trying to lose weight, maintain weight, gain weight, whatever they need to do, though diet, exercise, and support groups. The site offers registered users a nutritonal tracker and customizable meal planner, an activity tracker, a fitness planner that you can customize, billions of support groups for just about every kind of need and weight goal you can think of (well, maybe not billions, but there's a lot), and loads of articles, videos of suggested exercises, and recipes out the wazoo.

Check out the site, and if you sign up and get asked for who sent you, tell them TNLori did.

Low-Carb Praline Pumpkin Pie

We're having a fellowship at church tomorrow evening. In light of my recent attempts to eat more sensibly, I thought I'd make a dessert that I can eat. I'm also making a pasta salad using the Dreamfield's rotini noodles, and I've already put half a pig through the smoker, so I know for sure that there will be at least 3 things there that I can eat, enjoy, and not feel too terribly guilty about. There's usually an abundance of veggie trays, too, so I'll be good to go providing I can stay out of the potatoes. Darn those potatoes, anyway. Why do they have to taste so good? Rhetorical question, folks. They taste so good because I'm not supposed to eat very much of them. Simple, really.

This is the recipe for the dessert - a pumpkin pie in a pecan praline crust. Not a scrap of flour to be found in the rascal. I found the recipe I based it on at http://www.cdkitchen.com/. Of course, I can't leave any recipe alone, I've got to tweak it. That's just what I do. Sometimes I even remember to write the tweaks down, but usually not. The pie is in the oven right now, and my house smells so wonderful, it's hard to think of this as a low-carb thing. I would guess that if you're not really watching your carbs, you could use regular sugar. This is not a low-fat recipe, but hey, if you cut out everything that's bad for you all of the time, you end up with sawdust, and who wants that?

Here's the recipe as post at cdkitchen. My changes are in blue.

Low-Carb Praline Pumpkin Pie
Serves 12
Prep: About 10 minutes
Bake: About 1-1/2 hours total

Ingredients:
***Praline Crust***
2 tablespoons hot melted butter
1/2 cup finely chopped pecans
1/2 cup sugar substitute (recommended: Splenda) - I used Splenda Granulated
1/8 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon ground cinnamon
I doubled the crust recipe and quadrupled the cinnamon (1/2 tsp total). When I make this again, I'll also use one more Tbsp of butter as the crust turned out a little on the dry side, which made patting it into shape a challenge.

***Pie Filling***
1 can (15-ounce size) no sugar added pumpkin filling
I couldn't find no sugar added pumpkin filling, so I just used 100% pumpkin
3/4 cup sugar substitute (recommended: Splenda) - I used Splenda Granulated
1 tablespoon pumpkin pie spice, plus 1 dash
1 1/4 cup heavy cream - I used heavy whipping cream
4 eggs
The filling wasn't quite sweet enough, probably because I used plain pumpkin, so I added 1/4 cup Splenda brown sugar. Mmmmm.... tasty!

***Low Carb Whipped Cream***
1 cup heavy cream
1/3 cup sugar substitute (recommended: Splenda)
1 teaspoon no sugar added vanilla extract -yeah, watch your vanilla for corn syrup or sugar! I didn't know it was in there until I read labels at the grocery tonight. Scary how much stuff has corn syrup in it.

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Make the crust: Mix all crust ingredients together in a small bowl. While mixture is still warm from the butter, press it evenly into the bottom of a deep-dish pie pan. Bake for about 5 minutes, or until browned. Remove piecrust from oven. I took the extra crust and patted it up the sides of the pie pan, too.

Preheat oven to 425 degrees F.

Make the filling: Place all filling ingredients in a medium bowl and mix well with a wire whisk. Pour filling into prebaked piecrust. I took pecan pieces and spread them around the edge of the pie. This served two purposes: A, it alerts people to the fact that there are nuts in the pie, which is important if somebody has an allergy, and B, it just looks pretty. Bake for 15 minutes and then reduce the oven temperature to 350 degrees F.

Continue to bake for an additional 50 to 55 minutes. To test for doneness, stick a toothpick in the center; if it comes out clean, the pie is done.

Cool and then chill before serving. To serve, top each slice with a dollop of low carb whipped cream.

Low Carb Fresh Whipped Cream: With an electric mixer on high, whip the heavy cream just until frothy. Then add in the sugar substitute and vanilla extract and continue to whip on high until peaks form. Be careful not to over-whip, or cream will break. Transfer to a pastry bag or just spoon onto pie.

Nutrition Information Nutritional Analysis per Serving Calories 241 Total Fat 24 grams Saturated Fat 12 grams Carbohydrates 7 grams Net Carbohydrates 6 grams Fiber 1 gram These numbers will change since I modified the crust recipe.

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I just pulled it out of the oven. It looks and smells divine. It puffed up quite a bit during baking, but it's falling back down as it cools. I just took the picture that is at the top of the post. I submitted it to the website, too, since they don't have a picture of the pie. I don't know if I'll mess with the low-carb whipped cream or not. Probably will since I have all of the stuff to make it, and nothing else to do with it.

Another find at the grocery tonight was unsweetened coconut. I know, what's so exciting about that? Just try to find some when you've got a really cool coconut recipe to try out. It barely exists here locally, and I'm usually in a hurry to try the recipe and don't want to take the time to order some in. Of course, now that I've found some, can I remember the recipes? Um, no. Must be early-onset senility or something similar. :o)

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Edit added Monday, September 3, 2007 -

Oh.... My..... Gosh......

This is simply the best pumpkin pie I've ever made, with or without sugar. It's moist and flavorful. I made the mistake of putting a little flag on it at the church social that identified it as sugar-free. Hardly anybody touched it. Silly people. They just don't know what they're missing... but, on the plus side, that leaves plenty for me and Jack... :o) I know, I'm selfish. What can I say?

This pie doesn't need whipped cream, or anything else on it for that matter. It tastes wonderful just the way it sits. I've had some pies that you had to have the whipped cream on them in order to choke them down, but not this one. Very tasty just the way it is.

Yay for Dreamfields pasta!!

Yayyyy!!!!! A pasta that I can eat without spiking my sugar up!!!! :o)

Dreamfields has managed to make spaghetti, lasagna noodles, rotini, and penne pastas that have a lower glycemic index value than regular pasta. The box claims that it's glycemic index is 65% lower than regular pasta, it has twice the fiber, and only 5 grams of digestable carbs per serving, and their servings aren't all that small. You can find their products at Kroger's, but not WalMart. I have no clue about Meijers since I don't live anywhere near one anymore.

I don't know how they do it. I don't want to know. If anybody know of anything bad about this stuff, please don't tell me just yet. I can eat this pasta and my sugar does not spike at all, unless I pour a lot of tomato sauce on it.

I've been fixing the rotini noodles with fresh zuccini, squash, cauliflower, and broccoli lightly grilled or sauted in extra virgin olive oil, then sprinkle it all with some parmasan cheese and another great find - McCormick's Salt Free Garlic & Herb seasoning.... mmmmmm

Heaven.... I'm in heaven..... :oD