Cornbread is a favorite in our house, so I have been on a quest to find the best low-fat cornbread. After some experimentation, I have it!

I got the original recipe from a search on DinnerBeat. The cornbread was excellent, but a stick of butter was more than I wanted.

First, I tried just leaving out some of the butter altogether. Using half the butter resulted in a bread indistinguishable from the original. That cut the total fat in the bread from 100g to 56g. A huge improvement! However, it was still too high for me.

Reducing the butter even more without countering with any new additions yielded a dry bread, significantly inferior to the original.

Next I tried cutting the butter to 2T and replacing the balance of the butter with 1/4 cup applesauce. This was too sticky and heavy.

The final result? Cutting out all the butter (excluding a small amount to grease the pan) and using 1/4 cup of applesauce in place of all the butter created a whole pan of cornbread with a total fat count of 12g! A very reasonable 1.5g of fat per slice.

You can find the perfected recipe here.

Labels: Variations

A few times a year I'll have the pleasure of a visit from a dear friend of many years. Whenever she comes, we love to bake together. Last time she came during apple- and pumpkin-picking season, and we had a blast trying out different apple and pumpkin recipes.

This time, it was chocolate, fudge, and candy weekend.

The first picture shows the "cupcakes" - half of them made in cupcake tins and the other half in a popover pan. I only have one cupcake pan, and it was too late at night to do two batches in one pan.

The Chocolate Mint Cupcakes were absolutely delicious. Unfortunately, the icing did not follow suit.

We should have used our powers of deduction to realize that unsweetened chocolate + butter + mint extract DOES NOT = sweet icing. However, we were blindly following the recipe.

Thankfully, we decided to test it out before icing all of our precious cakes. Yuck, bitter as anything!

First, we tried to add some powdered sugar. When that didn't work, we tried cream cheese. By this time it was very late at night so we gave up and left them until the next day. Just before we threw it out, we tried dipping in a few strawberries. Success!

If you find yourself with bitter frosting, try it on some strawberries. It just might save you from wasting a pan of chocolate.

We were out of butter, and didn't feel like making a trip to the store. So the next day we found this fantastic list of icing recipes.

We chose one, split it up in to several dishes, and colored each dish with a dot of food coloring. We had a blast decorating each cupcake with a design, and it made it much more fun than simple chocolate icing!

Labels: Desserts, Tips, Variations

So a lot of my favorite foods I cannot eat right now due to my pregnancy. I thought I could handle the 9 months of 'favorites fasting' until someone told me that it continues through nursing! That's when I knew I needed to find a way to get the favorites and still keep me and my child healthy!

Here's my latest discovery: YOGURT

Apparently, plain yogurt can be a great substitution for mayonnaise. In case you were wondering, mayonnaise is often made with raw egg and is also high in fat and calories. Both of which aren't good for the pregnant lady -- especially the raw egg feature. Plus, many people don't like the taste of mayo; something about the grease, texture, taste, fat content...

But how do you then make those wonderful pasta salads, potato salads, creamy dips, etc?! Enter the yogurt substitution...

Now, I'm generally scared of the plain yogurt. It has NO flavor. I believe in adding things that will enhance flavor and not just the look and consistency of food. But I've found that lemon or vanilla yogurt can work well in some food substitutions as well since most yogurts are subtle with their lemon and vanilla flavors. The lemon gives it a nice hint of citrus and vanilla is soothing mellow contribution to the dish -- both are nice "surprises" in a traditional dish. I'm still use plain yogurt in some recipes because well, lemon or vanilla can't be used in EVERYTHING.

My recent discovery has led to the return of the SPINACH DIP! Once loaded in chemicals (if bought on the shelf) or made with mayo (if bought 'fresh'), now contains fresh/frozen ingredients that are yummy and becoming a new favorite. Check it out... (fyi -- I used plain yogurt and herb packet once and will be using lemon yogurt and dill seasoning packet next; both yum!)

So next time a recipe calls for mayo, give yogurt a try. A pregnant lady or fussy-eater just might thank you! Your waist-line definitely will.

Labels: Variations

My daughter was begging for ice cream today, so I thought I'd give this healthy alternative a try. My 2-1/2-year-old ate two servings, and my 1-year-old loved it too! It's a Frozen Berry Smoothie. You can use any sort of frozen berries that you have on hand. I had a large bag of blueberries, blackberries and raspberries that I got from Costco. I've also tried it with just strawberries, and that was delicious as well.

Labels: Variations

Today I was in need of some cookies. Because we are overdue for a grocery run, I needed recipe that doesn't use eggs. I came across this one in the cookbook Swedish Cakes and Cookies that my grandmother gave me for Christmas.

Quick Oatmeal Cookies are not for the faint of heart (in a very literal way), but these 3-ingredient cookies were absolutely the fastest I had every made, and delicious as well.

As a random experiment, I tried to lighten them by substituting applesauce for the butter. It is completely a different cookie, as I should have expected, and needs to be cooked at a lower temperature for much longer (like a couple hours.) After that, they are best eaten warm. I will not be making that version again.

Do you have good ideas on how to lighten these cookies, while still retaining their quick and easy reputation?

Labels: Variations

I was completely distracted by my baby while making lasagna today. I forgot entirely about the meat for the first 1 1/2 layers. In order to get all 1 lb. of meat into the pan I was using I had to be a little creative. The result, as I told my family, was Inside-Out Lasagna. The only difference between this and regular lasagna is there there is meat right under the top cheese layer. My 2 1/2 year old wouldn't touch it without serious coercion, but then again she won't eat most of what I set out. My husband and I enjoyed it.

Has anything like that ever happened to you? How have your recipes morphed as a result of distraction?

Labels: Variations