Easy Fruit Salad

The amount of Calories/servings all depend on what you put into the fruit salad. This is one of those "throw together" foods thats different every time I make it. The only consistent ingredient is the cool whip. haha! For sake of example, this is what I made today and what the calories turned out to be.


Serving - 1 CUP or 150 grams
Calories: 130.........Carbs: 30.........Fiber: 3.........Fat: 0
.........Protein: 1.........Sugar: 15.........Sodium: 20

Weight Watcher Points: 3

Ingredients - Makes 7 servings
2 large bananas
4 small kiwi
8 medium strawberries
2 medium oranges
1 8 oz tub fat free cool whip (15 calories/serving)- Leave in fridge so that its soft, does not work with frozen cool whip!

Directions
1) Slice up all fruit into bite sizes pieces. (I personally like throwing oranges in as wedges, one because its easier, two because it holds in all the juice)

2) Fold in cool whip. Try to not over mix or your cool whip will get watery.

3) Enjoy! Keeps in the fridge in a container for about 1 week.



Other ideas - its all about experimentation
Any fruit, pineapple, apples, grapes, melons, cherries, blueberries (blueberries will turn it purple, and I don't recommend watermelon because its so juicy it doesn't mix as nicely)
Mix in 1 cup marshmallows
Mix in coconut
Mix in some chopped nuts
Swirl in some sugar free chocolate syrup or caramel

Apple Pie Stuffed Apples

Another yummy recipe found on MFP, posted here. The original recipe uses graham crackers, and is enough for 1 apple (might be good if making it only for you). It looked yummy, so I gave it a try, just changed it around a bit.


Serving - 1 Apple
Calories: 158.........Carbs: 35.........Fiber: 7.........Fat: 3
.........Protein: 4.........Sugar: 23.........Sodium: 42

Weight Watchers Points: 4


Ingredients: (Makes 6 Apples)
6 apples (mine were about 160 grams each)

Mix:
1/2 cup of Kashi GoLean Original crushed up
1 Tbsp cinnamon
1/2 Tbsp Nutmeg
6 tsp brown sugar
1 TBSP splenda

Topping:
1 cup of Kashi GoLean Original crushed up
1/2 Tbsp cinnamon
1 tsp nutmeg
2 TBSP whipped butter (or margarine etc)
1/2 TBSP Honey
I can't believe its not butter spray

*Try to get apples roughly the same size that way they cook evenly*
**Crush Cereal by placing in a bag and smashing with hand, or rolling pin etc...or use a food processor. You will get a finer crust if you use a food processor**

Directions:
Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Spray a baking pan with nonstick spray.

Slice off the top of the apple, about 1/2 inch. Carefully hollow out most of the inside flesh with a spoon (keep this), leaving about 1/4 inch of flesh on the skin. Discard seeds and core.


Chop the scooped-out flesh and place in a bowl, including parts of the tops that were cut off. Add brown sugar, Splenda, cinnamon, nutmeg and Kashi Cereal and stir to coat. Place mixture in the hollow apple, and pack down lightly with the back of a spoon. (Do not press to hard or you will rip your apple)



Place apples in the baking pan. Cover pan with foil and bake for 30 minutes.

Meanwhile, in a small bowl, combine all topping ingredients. Stir/mash until well mixed and crumbly. The butter spray is to help the crust stick together more if you need a little "extra" help.

Remove foil. Press topping onto apples until each apple is evenly coated.

Bake, uncovered, until topping has lightly browned, about 5 minutes.

Let cool for 10-15 minutes and Enjoy!

Chocolate Brownies!

Serving Size - 1 Brownie
Calories: 66.........Carbs: 11.........Fiber: 2.........Fat: 2
.........Protein: 3.........Sugar: 5.........Sodium: 79

Weight Watchers Points: 2

Ingredients - Makes 9 Brownies

1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3/4 cup liquid egg whites (or 3 egg whites)
1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup sugar substitute (splenda, stevia etc)
1/2 teaspoon baking powder

4 blocks of Hershey's Special Dark Chocolate--Giant Bar

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Preheat the oven to 350º F. Spray an 8x8 inch pan with non stick.

In a medium mixing bowl, using a whisk or spatula, mix the applesauce, vanilla, and egg whites until combined.

Add the cocoa powder, flour, baking powder, and sugar to a small bowl and stir to mix. Pour dry mixture into bowl with liquid mixture. Stir until it is just combined and no lumps remain. Pour it into the prepared pan. Bake for 20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out mostly clean.

Remove from oven and put on a cooling rack.

Melt Hersheys chocolate, and spread on brownies.

Cut in 9 servings (tic-tac-toe). Eat warm (though Hershey's will be messy) or let cool completely at room temperature (if storing over night, just keep saran wrap over the top of the pan)

These were chocolaty enough that I could get away with eating one or two...though the fact that I could eat the whole pan for under 600 calories was a bonus too. (though I don't recommend eating the whole pan ).

Not a bad size either...

Mint Meringues

I varied a bit from this recipe at Joythebaker.com If you like mint and chocolate, then this is for you. :)


Serving 1 cookie
Calories: 16.........Carbs: 3.........Fiber: 0.........Fat: 0
.........Protein: 0.........Sugar: 3.........Sodium:3

Weight Watcher Points: 1

Ingredients - Makes 60 Meringue cookies
3 large egg whites
3/4 cup sugar (the finer the better, but not powdered)
1/2 tsp peppermint extract
6 blocks Hershey Special Dark Chocolate (Giant Bar)
-And piping back and large star tip

Pre-heat Oven to 175 Cover 2 cookie sheets with parchment paper

1) With whisk attachment, use electric mixer to beat eggs until foamy. Add in a few drops of green food coloring at this part.
2) While mixing on medium speed, SLOWLY add sugar. The egg white should thicken, and then make a stiff peak.

3)Fold in peppermint extract with spatula (about 6 times, don't over mix or it will go flat)
4) Fill up piping bag, and pipe onto cookie sheet, should be between a quarter size and 50 cent piece.


Bake for 2 hours or until they are firm and not sticky. When finished let cool completely.

Melt the chocolate, and drizzle over cookies.

Lemon Meringue Cookies

I varied a bit from this recipe at Joythebaker.com These were so good, the problem would be trying not to eat all of them!


The original recipe called for making little sandwiches, which I thought were adorable...but personally hard to eat. So we preferred to leave them like this.

Serving 1 cookie w/ curd topping
Calories: 16.........Carbs: 2.........Fiber: 0.........Fat: 1
.........Protein: 0.........Sugar: 2.........Sodium: 3

Weight Watcher Points: 1

Ingredients - Makes 60 Meringue cookies
3 large egg whites - (Save 2 or your yolks for the curd)
3/4 cup sugar (the finer the better, but not powdered)
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1 tbsp Lemon Zest
-And piping back and large star tip

Pre-heat Oven to 175 Cover 2 cookie sheets with parchment paper

1) With whisk attachment, use electric mixer to beat eggs until foamy.
2) While mixing on medium speed, SLOWLY add sugar. The egg white should thicken, and then make a stiff peak.

3)Zest some lemon, and fold in with vanilla extract with spatula (about 6 times, don't over mix or it will go flat)

4) Fill up piping bag, and pipe onto cookie sheet, should be between a quarter size and 50 cent piece.


Bake for 2 hours or until they are firm and not sticky. When finished let cool completely.

For the Lemon Curd: - Makes 120 - 4 gram servings
1/2 cup fresh lemon juice
1/2 cup granulated sugar
2 large eggs
2 large egg yolks
6 tablespoons unsalted butter

1) Place a fine mesh strainer over a medium bowl and set aside.

2) a medium pot, whisk together lemon juice, granulated sugar, eggs, yolks, and pinch of salt. Place the pot over a medium-low flame and add butter. Stir mixture with a whisk, and spatula. The spatula will help you get into the corners of the pan, ensuring that none of the curd over-cooks too much. Cook the curd until the butter is melted, and the mixture is the thickness of warm hot fudge. The whisk will begin to leave a trail of whisk marks and the mixture will have the distinct smell of lemon curd. You don’t really need to boil lemon curd… it’s probably done it if gets to the boiling stage.

3) Remove from the flame and immediately pour into the fine mesh strainer over the medium bowl. Press through the strainer, leaving any cooked egg bits in the strainer, and not in your beautiful curd.



4) Place curd in a jar, with a piece of plastic wrap placed directly over the curd. Place in the fridge until completely cold.

Curd should be stored in an airtight container in the refrigerator. Curd lasts for about a week. Meringues should be kept in an airtight container, in a dry area, at room temperature. Meringues last for about 5 day.

Our first batch, the eggs didn't stiffen very well, so they didn't have the pretty lines from the piping tip...they looked more like blobs...but just as tasty.

Meringue cookie pops!

I have been on a Meringue kick. I had never had them before, and was delighted to find out how low calorie they were, and yet so yummy!

**Note** I live where its almost always dry, but from what I've read these can be a sticky mess in humidity. Just want to throw the warning out there.


Serving 1 pop
Calories: 34.........Carbs: 6.........Fiber: 0.........Fat: 1
.........Protein: 0.........Sugar: 6.........Sodium: 6

Weight Watcher Points: 1

Ingredients - Makes 60 Meringue cookies
3 large egg whites
3/4 cup sugar (the finer the better, but not powdered)
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
280 grams white chocolate chips
-And piping back and large star tip

Pre-heat Oven to 175 Cover 2 cookie sheets with parchment paper

1) With whisk attachment, use electric mixer to beat eggs until foamy.
2) While mixing on medium speed, SLOWLY add sugar. The egg white should thicken, and then make a stiff peak.

3)Fold in vanilla extract with spatula (about 6 times, don't over mix or it will go flat)
4) Fill up piping bag, and pipe onto cookie sheet, should be between a quarter size and 50 cent piece.

5) Add either a toothpick, Popsicle stick (or we used cut wood skewers)


Bake for 2 hours or until they are firm and not sticky. When finished let cool completely.

Now this is the tricky part. You can either melt the chocolate chips and then dip them. I melted the chocolate chips, cut a small piece off the corner of a sandwich bag (so it looks like a piping bag with a tiny hole), and used that to cover each one. You may or may not use all the chocolate, someone more talented could probably use much less. :)

White Chocolate Chip Pumpkin Muffins

This was kind of a run off of hungry girls chocolate pumpkin brownie muffins.



Makes 12 Full sized muffins.
Per serving (1 muffin)
Calories: 187.........Carbs: 39.........Fiber: 2.........Fat: 2
.........Protein: 3.........Sugar: 29.........Sodium: 317

Weight Watchers Points: 5

Ingredients
1 Box Angel Food Cake Mix
1 15 oz can Pumpkin (purred pumpkin not pumpkin pie filling)
1 tsp nut meg
1 tsp cinnamon
6 tbsp white chocolate chips

Pre-heat oven to 375

1) Combine Cake mix, spices and pumpkin a bowl. Mix with electric mixer until smooth. (mix will start to puff up if you just leave it out, so don't let it sit to long).

2) Add chocolate chips, mix in with a spoon or spatula.

3) Spray Muffin/Cupcake tin with non-stick spray, and evenly destitute batter.

4) Bake for 20 minutes, or until you can poke a tooth pick in the middle and it comes out clean.

Pumpkin Pie Milk Shake

Serving = 8 oz/ 1 cup
(nutrition is using Great Value cool whip light ... and is already included)

Calories: 153..........Carbs: 24..........Fiber: 6..........Fat: 4
..........Protein: 4..........Sugar: 12..........Sodium: 57

Weight Watchers Points: 4

Ingredients (makes 4 servings)
15 oz Can Libby's 100% Pure Pumpkin (NOT pie filling)
2 cups skim Milk
2 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp nutmeg
1/2 cup Splenda
32 tbsp cool whip light

*** PREP ***
I like my milk shakes THICK...almost like ice cream. So I froze the pure pumpkin the night before. I recommend doing this if you like thick shakes, otherwise it will be somewhat thin and runny. HOWEVER! I suggest freezing it in a ice cube tray, and not in a baggy like me. Otherwise you'll end up stabbing at it with a butcher knife trying to get the damn thing in smaller chunks so it doesn't kill the blender.

Alright...so after you have ice cube sized frozen pumpkin... we can move on... lol
Directions
1) Throw everything into blender (except cool whip!) , and mix until shake consistency. (If your blender is ghetto like mine, slowly add the frozen pumpkin so that it can process it).

2) Pour into cup, and top with 8 Tbsp's of cool whip light. (as you can see in the picture this doesn't actually look like very much, I think its because its so heavy. But dang it, I like a lot of cool whip on my pie! )
Enjoy!

Note - You could probably save quite a few calories by buying the canned whipped cream. It is not as heavy and thick as cool whip, so you seem like your getting a lot more. Also, the splenda is optional. I just felt like it need to be sweeter.

1 cup may seem small, but it tastes JUST like pumpkin pie, and is actually very filling. I can't really imagine being able to drink more than 1 cup without getting
pumpkined out.

Caramel Apple Crisp

Nutritional Facts for everything in picture above
(includes 1 serving apple crisp, 1 servings ice cream & caramel topping)

Calories: 335...............Carbs: 71...............Fiber: 9...............Fat: 5
...............Protein: 8...............Sugar: 33...............Sodium: 202

Weight Watchers Points: 9

** Ice cream used - Dryers Slow Churned Rich and Creamy No Sugar Added - Vanilla Ice Cream 1/2 the Fat
***Caramel Used - Smuckers Sugar Free

Caramel Apple Crisp
(makes 4 servings, 122 grams per serving)

Ingredients
6 medium apples (540 grams after peeled and sliced)
I can't believe its not butter spray
10 tsp ( 40 grams) brown sugar
2 graham crackers (whole crackers)
1 cup Kashi GoLean cereal
38 grams Smuckers Sugar Free Caramel
Cinnamon


Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees

1) Peel, core and slice apples.

2) Spray a 9 x 13 baking dish with non-stick. Then spread apple slices in dish (should lay almost flat without much overlapping)

3) In a bowl mix brown sugar and a tsp of cinnamon. Spray top of apples with butter spray (enough so that the sugar mix has something to stick to)...and sprinkle all of the sugar/cinnamon mix over apples.

4) Bake apples 45 minutes - 1 hour, or until slightly soft.

5) Crumble Kashi Cereal and graham crackers together, add 1 tsp of cinnamon, mix.

6) When apples are done baking transfer them to a smaller pan (8x8 or I used a a glass pie dish). Cover graham cracker/cereal mix. Spray top with butter spray until evenly coated (doesn't have to be soaked).

7) Bake for an additional 20 minutes until crust is crispy and baking together.

8) Drizzle with a little caramel (I only used 1 serving total for crust & over the ice cream later) and Serve



Nutritional facts of apple crisp ONLY (no ice cream) - Makes 4 servings

Calories: 235...............Carbs: 56...............Fiber: 7...............Fat: 2

...............Protein: 5...............Sugar: 30...............Sodium: 172

I compared mine to Dennys Apple Crisp...(in a guesstimation sort of way).

Mine came out to 335 calories for about 8 oz (including ice cream & caramel)

Dennys came out to 440 est. for 8 oz (including ice cream & caramel) -- (BUT their actual serving is 13oz and 770 calories, just throwing that out there so no one eats a whole one thinking its 440 calories!)

So really...in the end I only saved about 100 calories. What a bummer.

Was kind of disappointed. But overall I think it was worth the 335 calories, it was pretty filling on its own, and it wasn't lacking in the crust department (which is what I dislike about most "light" versions of deserts)

Skinny Cow!

Ice cream is not something I can have hiding in my freezer...or I'll eat the whole half gallon. Some of the "diet" ice creams out there are pretty gross, or if you really compare labels, aren't any better than the real thing.

I've come to really like Skinny Cow ice cream though. The truffle bars (all flavors) are really good, they feel like a good serving, especially for the calories. The chocolate one is good when you have a craving.


Current flavors of Truffle Bars are: Chocolate, Caramel, French Vanilla, White Mint and NOW Cookies and Cream!

Skinny cow also makes some other ice cream bars, and candy. They all taste good, but I feel the truffle bars really give you the best bang for your buck when it comes to calories.

Though, this is a pretty neat idea for a cake using the skinny cow ice cream sandwiches. A good way to watch your calories, but have something neat when your throwing the party.