Chai Banana Muffins

You'll love the delightful spices of Chai tea in this moist, made from scratch banana muffin!

Easy Apricot Cheesecake Pie

With the holiday weekend fast approaching, you might be on the lookout for a quick and easy no bake dessert that is diet friendly...

If you are, this cheesecake pie is your answer! 

Super easy because it's made with just a few ingredients and a store-bought premade reduced fat graham cracker crust. Quick because you just whip all the ingredients together and chill.  The fruit flavor comes from a 10oz. jar of all fruit spread, so you can customize it however you like!  I used apricot spread here because that is what I picked up at the store, but any flavor would work. Make sure you use an ALL fruit spread so the nutritional information below is correct. 

This cheesecake pie is on the soft side, even after it sets up, so you will want to keep it refrigerated until it's time to slice and eat it. 

Easy Apricot Cheesecake Pie

adapted from allrecipes

Printable Recipe

Servings - 10   Serving size - 1/10th of pie   Points Plus per serving - 5 Points+

Calories - 203.8,   Total Fat - 8.1g,   Carb. - 30.4g,   Protein - 3.1g,   Fiber - 4.7g

1-9" reduced fat graham cracker crust

8 oz. reduced fat cream cheese, room temperature

1-10 oz. jar of ALL fruit spread, any flavor

1/2 tsp. vanilla extract (optional)

4 oz. Cool Whip Free (plus additional to garnish, if you wish)

In large bowl, combine the cream cheese and the entire jar of fruit spread with electric mixer until smooth.  Fold in Cool Whip Free.  Chill in refrigerator for several hours to set.  Garnish as desired.  Keep chilled until ready to serve. 

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Quick, easy and yummy.  I will definitely be experimenting with other flavors, maybe even combine some flavors next time and add some fresh fruit.  

My thoughts and prayers go out to all who have been touched by yesterday's tragedy in Oklahoma.  So sad.  Seems like these days, we are constantly reminded of how short life really is.  Take the time to tell those you love how you feel and live each day to its fullest.  

Grilled Chinese Pork Tenderloin

Grilling season is finally here!  Is it me, or did it seem to take forever to arrive??  With Memorial day just around the corner, this is an excellent main course dish to make on your grill.  Pork Tenderloin keeps it lean and the marinade gives it tons of flavor.  I served it with some Asian flavored sesame rice and some grilled zucchini.  Yum.

I only marinaded the meat for about 2 hours before I cooked it off...but I can only imagine the flavor being more intense if you marinade it longer. (which would be a good thing)  I intend to plan a little bit better and leave it to marinade longer next time I make this.

If you have never used it before, the black bean sauce is a very pungent ingredient. It can be easily found in most Asian sections of  the grocery store.  It mellows beautifully with the additional ingredients.  The sugar in the marinade gives the meat a nice char when you grill it.  I didn't alter the original recipe one bit, except instead of cooking it in the oven, I grilled it. And because I was lazy, I used ground ginger and garlic powder in place of the fresh ingredients.  You can find the recipe I used HERE. 

Pork tenderloin is a great meat because it is so lean.  For this recipe, a very generous 8oz. serving is only 222 calories and 5.5g of fat or 5 Points+. 

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This was an incredibly easy and very delicious pork tenderloin dish.  My youngest said he felt like he was eating in a 5star restaurant when I served it.  lol  I don't know about that, but it really was restaurant quality food.  One word of caution, don't overcook your pork tenderloin.  Leaving just a tad of pink in the middle will keep the meat moist and tender.  If pink pork freaks you out, use an instant read meat thermometer and cook the meat to around 140 degrees F.  Remove the meat from it's heat source, cover loosely in foil for about 10 minutes before you slice it.  This will allow the internal temperature to rise to 145 ish and allow the juices to settle.   In fact, in recent years the United States Department of Agriculture lowered the safe temperature of pork from 160 degrees F to 145 degrees F. 

I managed to pick up some herbs yesterday!  yay!  Now I just need to find some time to plant them in the ground and pot them.  Looks like it's going to be a nice day today, so that is on the agenda.  Another thing I need to take care of this week is getting my driver's license renewed.  Boo to that.  Here in Ohio, that has to be done every 4 years.  When I compare photos, I realize just how old I am getting...lol  I read somewhere that New York state residents only need to renew every 10 years!  Is that true?  How long do you go in your state before your license needs to be renewed?  

 

Chocolate Peanut Butter Banana Smoothie

Chocolate Peanut Butter Banana Smoothie is a great way to start your day! Tasty and nutritious, it's a smoothie you'll want to make again and again!

Carrot Cake Oatmeal

A delicious not-too-sweet breakfast treat with all the flavors of carrot cake!  Packed with whole grain oats, carrots, pineapple, spices, FF yogurt and pecans to make this a nutritious start to your day. When I stumbled across this recipe, I just knew I needed to make it.  The original recipe used steel cut oats and cooked it all stove top, but I made some changes to be able to make it in the microwave, so it takes no time to put together!  With 6.5g fiber and 9.2g of protein, it will keep you full for a long time too!

One final note, make sure you shred the carrot finely, as it will do all it's cooking in the microwave.

Carrot Cake Oatmeal

adapted from Allrecipes

Printable Recipe

Servings - one   Serving size - entire recipe   Points Plus per Serving - 9 Points+

Calories - 347.9,   Total Fat - 8.2g,   Carb. - 64.8g,   Protein - 9.2g,   Fiber - 6.5g

1/2 cup old fashioned oats

1 cup water

1 tsp brown sugar

1/4 cup finely shredded carrot

1/4 cup crushed pineapple in juice (drained)

1 TBS golden raisins

1/4 tsp ground cinnamon

dash of nutmeg

dash of ground ginger

pinch of salt

1/4 cup Non fat vanilla yogurt

5 pecan halves, roughly chopped

1.  Combine oats, water, brown sugar, carrot, pineapple, raisins, cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger and salt in microwave safe bowl with high sides.  Microwave on HIGH for 2 min - 2 min 30 sec, or until oatmeal is done and most of liquid has been absorbed.  (time may vary with microwaves) 

2.  Top with non fat vanilla yogurt and sprinkle with pecans.  Serve warm.  

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Super easy nutritious powerhouse to start your day!  

The original recipe called for apple instead of pineapple.  I've made it both ways and I like the pineapple better...much more like carrot cake to me!  

Lightened Up Hashbrown Casserole

I made this scrumptious potato casserole last week to go along with some BBQ ribs for dinner one night.  I changed up the recipe quite a bit but didn't sacrifice ANY of the flavor. We had my inlaws over for dinner and my MIL had seconds.

Ya, it's that good! 

This type of hashbrown casserole dish has been around for some time. If you haven't made it, you have probably eaten it at some time.   It's basically frozen potatoes, a can of condensed cream soup, cheese, sour cream, butter and cornflakes.  The original recipe called for 1/2 cup of butter mixed with crushed cornflakes for the topping, which I omitted completely.  I used 5 crushed up Ritz® crackers for the topping instead.  They were perfect and greatly reduced the fat and calorie count in this dish.  I used reduced fat sour cream and, because I didn't have any cream of mushroom soup, (as originally called for in the recipe) I used a can of cream of cheddar.  I totally replaced the processed cheese called for in the original recipe with a greatly reduced amount of reduced fat cheddar cheese and added some dried onion into the casserole for flavor (because when I have made this type of recipe in the past, that is what the recipes have always called for an I like the onion flavor with the potatoes).

The result was a winning potato casserole dish that comes in at 4 PP per 1/2 cup serving!

This is an excellent pot luck type dish that no one will know is reduced anything...and no one will miss that 1/2 cup of butter or all that extra cheese!!

Lightened Up Hashbrown Casserole 

adapted from Allrecipes

Printable Recipe

Servings - approx 16   Serving Size - approx 1/2 cup   Points Plus per serving - 4 Points Plus

Calories - 150,   Total Fat - 7.7g,   Carb. - 13.7g,   Protein - 6g,   Fiber - 1.4g

1-32 oz. package of frozen Southern-Style hashbrown potatoes

1 -10.75 oz. condensed cream of cheddar soup (NOT reduced fat)

16 oz. reduced fat sour cream

8 oz. reduced fat cheddar cheese, divided

1 TBS. dried onion

salt and pepper, as you like

5 Ritz® crackers, crushed (or other similar buttery type crackers)

1.  Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.  Spray a 13"x 9" casserole dish with cooking spray.  

2.  In large bowl, mix the soup, sour cream and the dried onion.  Measure out about a 1/4 cup of cheese and set aside.  Add the potatoes and the rest of the cheese to the soup/sour cream mixture and stir to combine.  Season with salt and pepper, as desired.  

3.  Pour potato mixture into prepared baking dish.  Top with the reserved 1/4 cup cheese and then the crushed crackers.  Bake in oven for about and hour or until the casserole is hot and bubbly all the way through.  (I did cover mine loosely with foil for about 45 minutes, then took the foil off for the last 15 to crisp up the cracker topping.) 

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Yum.  This turned out delicious and for so many less calories than the original.  I did make the serving size 1/2 cup, which I feel is perfect for a side dish, instead of the 1 cup serving size in the original recipe.  And yes, if you follow the link to the original recipe you will find my picture there, as this was another "faceless" AR recipe I gave a face to.  

Blogger is still having issues with photo uploads through my preferred browser, but I hear they are aware of the problem and working on it.  I did find a work around.  It just is a bit more work to download pictures.  

Also, Cinco de Mayo is this weekend!  Will you be celebrating with some Mexican dishes?  Here are a few of my picks to help make your celebration festive and diet friendly!!