Recipe: Pumpkin Pie Bread **Not low fat**

Ingredients:


3 1/2 cups of flour
3 cups of sugar
1 cup of vegetable oil (canola oil may be a good substitute?)
4 eggs (egg beaters can be used instead)
2 teaspoons of baking soda
1 teaspoon of baking powder
1 teaspoon of salt
1/2 cup of water
1 can (15oz) of pumpkin puree 


1 1/2 teaspoons of ground clove 
3 teaspoons of ground cinnamon        
     OR you can use instead of these two spices:
3 teaspoons of pumpkin pie spice




Directions:


1. In a large bowl, mix all the dry ingredients together well. 


2. In a medium bowl, mix the oil, water, eggs, and pumpkin puree.


3. Add the puree mixture to the dry mix and stir well.


4. Oil and flour 2 9x5 bread pans, and dispense the batter between the two evenly. 


Bake at 350 degrees for 60 to 80 minutes, or until you can insert a toothpick or knife in the center of each and have it come out clean.












Like the title states, this is not a low fat recipe and if you don't swap out the eggs and oil, I probably wouldn't eat it. I know that Canola spray oil has 0 fat, but I'm still a little weird about using oils at all with the gallstones. Not to mention I'm not sure how it would work out, using a spray oil instead of regular oils. So just be careful. But I cannot say just how delicious this bread is! So yummy!

Pies

Today I was going through some of my stuff in the cupboards, and I keep cans of Pumpkin puree for pies, bread, and muffins. Pumpkin is super awesome and low in fat. I noticed next to my puree that I still had a few cans of Sweetened Condensed Milk from last years Thanksgiving. They're still good obviously, those sorts of things have a long shelf life, but looking at the nutritional facts, they just aren't low fat. So I bagged them and gave them to my mother.

While shopping tonight I thought I'd look to see if they had any Sweetened Condensed Milk that was low fat in the baking isle. Sure enough, the only kind that I saw was Eagle Brand, and was Fat Free! So if you love your Pumpkin Pie, there you go!

I also noticed that among the graham cracker pie crusts, there was one made by Keebler called "Ready Crust Graham Cracker Crust" and the total percent fat is 5%. As far as pies with Graham cracker crusts go, they're great for making pudding pies, and doing up canned berry pies.


I wanted to say though that I will be posting a recipe that I HIGHLY recommend. It's called "Pumpkin Pie Bread" and it's incredible. It's bread that tastes just like Pumpkin Pie. When you serve it, I suggest serving it warmed a little. I personally love it plain, but I know a number of people that like heating it and putting a little butter on it. Either way, it's magnificent. Just talking about it makes me want to make some.

Expect that recipe within the coming week!! :D

I haven't forgotten!

I've been super busy lately with things, (Trips, Planning a Baptism, ect..) I just wanted to say that I have not forgotten this blog! In fact, I was thinking this week that I should come up with a few recipes to post! I'm thinking quick foods to make, stuff that you can do if you have time, dinners, desserts... I can tell you one thing that I tried recently.

Pulled Pork. It's summer! The perfect time for it! But... pork has a good amount of fat in it... So... I replaced it with chicken! Chicken (usually) is around 99% fat free... At least from what I see at the stores, the packages usually say 99%. So to make it healthier for you, boil the chicken until it's done, rinse it good to get the foamy stuff off it afterwards, and let it cool for a bit. When you can touch it and not get burned, use a fork and pull it apart so it's stringy. Then throw it in a bowl and dump your favorite BBQ sauce on it (usually BBQ sauce is fat free!). Mix it well, and either serve it, or you can reheat it later to serve! :) Yummy!

But I'll be posting some recipes soon. I've just got a lot on my plate at the moment. Maybe I can set a goal, and perhaps you can expect one at least once a week?

I'm willing to try lol.

Fat Free Cottage Cheese, Sloppy Joes, and Egg Beaters.

All of these items were found at Walmart:

I only just found this stuff a few weeks ago while looking for a cottage cheese that I could eat. It's alright, almost the same as regular cottage cheese. :)

This is Great Value Sloppy Joe Sandwich Sauce. It's wonderful, I had completely forgotten about Sloppy Joes since when I was a kid. You can use ground turkey instead of ground beef, and it tastes just the same! So great!!

These are the eggs that I mentioned getting while on vacation from restaurants. They're great, and way better than the egg whites I posted in one of the earlier posts. They tend to be a little more expensive however, around $3 for this small containter, the larger ones are about $4-5.

Vacation and Dining Out

I was on vacation from May 26th to the 1st, and I was worried about eating out at restaurants and having a Gallstone attack. I realized that when you're out at a restaurant it's okay to ask the waitress questions. I found that by explaining my situation to her, she was very understanding and willing to help in any way possible. Even the cooks were happy to help.

For breakfast we mainly went to IHOP and Friendly's since those were practically everywhere we were. They both had egg substitute, which is actually Egg Beaters, a 0 fat alternative. Since I basically can't eat any of the meat or potatoes there I had a veggie omelet, with a piece of toast and side of fruit.
   At Friendly's they have a giant selection of ice creams and sundaes to choose from. I wanted a Banana split, so I chose the Fat free vanilla frozen yogurt, with gummy bears, marshmallows, and strawberry topping (which are also fat free). It came out great!

For dinner most nights I had steamed veggies and rice from Chinese restaurants. I love rice and soy sauce, so I'm quite content with that anytime. I did have sushi one night.

Oh and those bags of hard pretzels that you can get at truck stops and grocery stores for like $3.29 make GREAT snacks on the road! :)

But thats basically all I can share with you as far as suggestions when you're on trips or vacation.. Hope it helps!!

Turkey Bacon, Salad Dressing, Scallops and Cream Cheese

When I was looking for a low fat Cream Cheese I couldn't find anything at Walmart. I actually googled low fat Cream Cheese and this was the only thing I found, and it was available at my local Tops Markets. Just as it says, it's fat free.

My husband and I were doing our grocery shopping at Walmart when I came across these Scallops. I've been wanting to try something new, and these are great low fat food to throw in stir fry or a chowder.

Turkey Bacon is a good low fat alternative to regular bacon. 

My family eats this every week, and it's just as good as the real stuff :)

This salad dressing tastes just like French dressing. It's absolutely fat free and tastes great! My mother turned me onto it a couple weeks ago when I last visited with her. I looked at our last shopping trip for it and found it at Walmart :)

Honey Barbecue Meatloaf

I was experimenting a little bit in my kitchen the other day, really wanting some barbecue but not wanting to go outside and grill or anything... I wasn't sure what to do, and it was getting close to dinner time. I only had 1lb of ground beef... So using some stuff that I had laying around I whipped up meatloaf and mashed potatoes & a steamables veggie bag.

All these ingredients can be found at Walmart or probably you're local grocery store.

1lb ground beef (4% fat is what I used)
1/2 cup Sweet Baby Rays Honey Barbecue Sauce (if you can't find that, I'm sure any alternative BBQ sauce would work just as good)
1/2 cup of plain bread crumbs
2 egg whites
1 package of Onion Soup Mix (I used Great Value, but there's a Beefy Onion one that's sooo good too!)

mix it all together and form a loaf, throw about another half a cup of BBQ sauce on top and pop it in the oven till it's done (mine was about an hour)

It smells so good! It wasn't bad either. This recipe minus the BBQ sauce is what I use to make meatballs as well. The meatballs are perfect for Meatball Sandwiches, or Meatballs and Gravy.

Enjoy!