Reduced Guilt Brownies

I know I should be thinking skinny and bathing suits, but I have had the worst sweet tooth lately. Cooking Light offers some great lite desserts that are some of my favorite desserts of all time.

Recently, there was a contest to see what was the best fat substitute in brownies to reduce the guilt. The three alternatives were: canned pumpkin, apple sauce and refried black beans. And believe it or not the black beans were the winner. This tasteless substitute keeps the richness of the dark chocolate without adding any funky after taste like pumpkin. I replaced half the fat in a regular brownie recipe with refried black beans and added a little flavor.

Reduced Guilt Brownies

1 box dark chocolate brownie mix

2 eggs

1/4 filtered water

1/4 vegetable oil

1/4 refried black beans (unseasoned)

1/3 cup no sugar added preserves, such as cherry or raspberry

1/3 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

I have made brownies from scratch and I will be honest, they taste the same as from the box. Luckily you can still doctor up what comes from the box. There are a lot of brownie options out there and a lot of different opinions about what is best. My only suggestion is look at the ingredients. Make sure you can pronounce at least the first three ingredients. Do not look at nutritional information since there are dozens of ways to avoid certain factors being included on that list. Ingredients will be your best indicator of a good box.

Unseasoned refried beans are a pill to find. I have found some at Trader Joes, but if you are one of the poor blokes without a Trader Joes, then you can make your own. It is easier to find unseasoned black beans. Boil the beans in a skillet until soft. Use the back of a spatula to mash the bean. If you want the beans finer, use a chopper or blender. You only need a quarter cup so save the rest for a bean dip or tasty Mexican meal.

I recommend using a hand blender for this dish. It takes seconds to mix all ingredients and fill a 9x9 pan. Bake according to package instructions. These brownies are rich and flaky and fudgy. Even for reduced-fat, you only need one to satisfy a chocolate craving. Enjoy!

Easter Strawberry Shortcake

This is an easy, festive dessert that will compliment your spring-inspired Easter dinner this weekend.

Shortcake comes in a lot of varieties, including the most calorie punch with shortbread. I have also seen a nice variety with biscuits. I find lady fingers to be the most convenient because (1) they are pre-made and (2) the individual size helps keep my serving size in check.

I do void all cream from this recipe, instead choosing to use a reduced-fat cheesecake pudding recipe. You can make the "pie version" which calls for less milk and creates a creamier texture.

Strawberry Shortcake

1 pint fresh strawberries, sliced

1 package lady fingers (12 total)

1 package instant pudding, cheesecake flavor (or white chocolate)

1 3/4 cup low-fat milk (1%)

1-2 tbsp cocoa powder

Make your pudding according to package instructions except substitute 1 3/4 cup milk. Do not use soy milk! The fattier the milk, the creamier the pudding but I find that 1% milk is great. I wouldn't recommend fat free unless you are really trying to cut back on fat.

Spread a generous portion of pudding on each side of the lady finger. Top with 2-3 strawberry slices and "sandwich". Using a sifter, lightly dust cocoa powder on top of strawberries. Garnish with a whole strawberry and serve in threes.

Best enjoyed on the deck while watching the birds and celebrating Easter with family and friends. Have a great holiday!

Banana Bread Pudding

This is a wonderful "leftovers" recipe for your stale bread or ripe bananas. This is not quite a holiday recipe, but it is absolutely delicious.

Another Martha Stewart creation. I used more bananas and not-quite whole milk to cut back on calories. This dessert is served great with whip cream, ice cream or with coffee. It also makes a beautiful table dish for company. This dish rivals the bread pudding at Harry Bissett's in Athens (all my UGA readers know what I'm talking about) but with the convenience of eating at home.

Banana Bread Pudding

8-12 oz. bread loaf, depending on the size of your casserole dish

4 bananas, cut into 1 inch slices

1/2 cup raisins (optional)

2.5 cups reduced fat 2% milk

1/2 cup raw sugar plus more for coating

1 tsp vanilla extract

2 eggs

Preheat oven 350 degrees. Whisk together milk, 1/2 cup sugar, vanilla extract and eggs.

Cut up bread into 1.5 inch cubes. I use a 2 quart lasagna dish for this recipe and I can only hold about 8 oz. of bread. I buy the French loaves at the grocery store for "day old" discounts. When slicing your bananas, try to cut at an angle for a longer surface cut. Toss together bread, bananas and raisins. The first time I made this I did not use raisins and it was just as good. I use raisins when I have them though.

Pour milk mixture over bread mixture and turn. Let sit for a few minutes until milk is absorbed. If you are using more bread, add more milk. Turn bread pudding into a greased, 2 quart shallow dish. Sprinkle raw sugar on top and bake for 50 minutes. Let cool 10 minutes.

Chocolate Mexican Soycream

I just discovered a delicious and reduced-guilt ice cream treat. Trader Joes sells Soy Dream (ice cream made from soy milk) in a variety of flavors. I love the cherry with chocolate chips but the fat content was still too high (7g fat per serving). But when I looked at the chocolate soycream I was floored by the reduced fat - just 3g for a 1/2 cup serving!

Ice cream is very difficult to exude discipline because the serving size is so small. One half cup is equivalent to about two golf balls. I serve all my ice cream in small ramekins to keep myself in check. And with only 3g fat per serving I can allow myself more yummy toppings.

Another fabulous TJ's product that allows me reduced guilt sundaes is Organic Midnight Moo Chocolate Syrup. I am not a big fan of fat free chocolate because it normally tastes like kaka, but some how TJ's has come up with a fat-free recipe that is actually appetizing. I use the syrup for homemade mochas, milk shakes and ice cream topping.

Another thing I love about Trader Joe's is the massive bags of nuts you can get for relatively cheap. At regular grocery stores I have to buy 1/2 cup or 2 cup, which are normally used in one setting. However, TJ's offers pounds of nuts in a variety of options e.g. roasted, dry, salted, reduced salt, etc. I use them for my granola, desserts, meal toppings and even as snacks. And per pound you are getting a much better deal with TJ's than other grocery stores. Although nuts are naturally rich in protein they do carry a lot of unsaturated fat so be sparing.

Chocolate Mexican Soycream Dessert

1/2 cup chocolate Soy Dream

Organic Midnight Moo Chocolate Syrup

1 tbsp dry hazelnuts, slightly crushed

1 tbsp sweetened coconut

1/2 tsp cinnamon

Other Mexican ice cream combinations include coffee or dulce de leche ice cream and peanuts or nut brittle.

Patriotic (and low-fat) Cheesecake

Happy 4th of July! Holidays are a great time for families and showing off your culinary skills. I am a huge meal planner around holidays, and it also gives me an extra "cheat day" on my farm food diet.

Cheesecake is one of the most dreaded desserts to avoid when trying to cut weight. Regular cheesecake can pack as much as 18g of fat and 40% of your daily saturated fat. BUT IT'S SO GOOD! I was able to find and combine two cheesecake recipes that use ricotta cheese and low-fat cream cheese to cut a lot of the cheese fat out of this irresistible dessert. So you can double your guilty day for a holiday dessert that is low-fat, festive and very tasty.

I combined Martha Stewart's Red, White and Blueberry Cheesecake with Cooking Light's Ricotta Cheesecake. Either recipe is excellent on it's own, but my version tries to keep more of the texture of cheesecake without including all the cream cheese calories.

I first made this dessert for my husband for being sweet and going out of his way to help me. I am not a huge cheesecake fan, but this combination is excellent. It was one of the few times we finished a dessert before throwing it out. There is a little bit of room to play with the proportions, so be sure and check the links to the recipes if you want more or less firmness, fat or ricotta.

Patriotic Cheesecake:

Crust:

6-8 graham crackers (one pack)
1/3 cup raw almonds (optional)

1/4 cup sugar (optional)
4 tbsp butter, melted

Filling:

1/2 cup organic sugar

12 oz (1.5 bars) reduced-fat cream cheese
1/2 pint (8 oz) low-fat ricotta cheese
2 eggs
1 tsp. vanilla extract
salt, pinch
1 tsp fresh lemon zest

Topping:

1/2 cup organic sugar

1 tbsp fresh lemon juice

4 plums, pitted and cubed

1 pint blueberries

Do not use store-bought graham crust - the cheesecake will fall apart. Graham cracker crust is incredibly simple to make if you have a food processor. If you have heart-healthy raw almonds, only use 6 grahams and crush together in processor. If you don't have almonds, use the whole pack of grahams. All graham crust calls for 1/4 cup sugar. I have always forgotten to add it and the crust is still divine. So don't add the sugar unless you think it needs it. I know 4 tbsp butter is a bit much for a low-fat recipe, but you really need the moisture to hold the crust together. Pour the butter into the processor while it is crushing the grahams. Pack the buttery crumbs into a 9 inch pie dish. Use a greased spatula to spread the crumbs evenly. Bake the crust for 8 minutes in a 350 degree oven.

A few tips here: This is obviously a lower-fat dessert and not exactly screaming healthy, but I try where I can to make this less bad-for-me. I have become hung up on organic sugar lately. I do like Sugar in the Raw, but it doesn't always do best in baking. It is GREAT in cookies, but not other baked goods, so stick with fine, organic sugar. The price is not much different esp since it takes me a while to go through a 5lb bag of sugar. Also, when zesting your lemon, be sure to save a tablespoon of the juice for the topping. It's best to roll the lemon on the counter and press your palm into the lemon to break up the juices before cutting it.

Be sure to clean and dry your food processor completely before moving onto the filling. Make sure your cream cheese and ricotta are at room temperature, which will help with blending. Blend together cheeses and sugar. Add eggs, one at a time. Add vanilla, zest and salt. You might have a fancy food processor, but I do not (got it from Visa reward points), so be sure and scrape the bottom of the bowl with a spatula to make sure all the cream cheese isn't caked on the bottom. Once mixture is well blended, pour the batter into the cooled pie dish. Place pie on a cookie sheet and bake for 30-35 minutes. Cool completely.

As cake cools, combine plums, 1/2 cup sugar and lemon juice in a saucepan. Heat on medium until at a rapid simmer. Reduce heat to simmer and stir until fruit starts to turn to jam. Remove from heat and stir in blueberries. Once cake is cool, spread fruit mixture over cake and refrigerate at least two hours.

Light Carrot Cake

Because of a grocery store mishap I found myself with a ton of carrots and no planned meals for them. Carrots are a rock star on the vegetable list, although I don't care for them much, so I needed to find a way to use them. Racheal Ray has a reader recipe section and recently came out with a great carrot cake recipe.

Carrot cake is not the worst cake for you, but it does have a lot of sugar and oil. This recipe substitutes the texture and juice with pineapple for a lot of the oil. The sour cream also helps to enrich this cake without having to depend on fats as much. I was able to substitute Greek yogurt for sour cream inside the cake, but the icing definitely requires real sour cream. Daisy makes a good lite sour cream.

Light Carrot Cake

2 big carrots, cleaned and shredded

1/2 cup pineapple (4oz can, drained)

1/2 cup walnuts (toasted are better but you can use raw)

1/4 cup vegetable oil

1 egg

1 tsp vanilla extract

1/2 cup sour cream ( or 1/4 cup yogurt and 1/4 cup sour cream)

1 cup brown sugar

1 cup flour

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

ground cloves

ground cinnamon

ground ginger

3 tbsp butter, room temperature

1 cup powdered sugar

If you are toasting your nuts, preheat oven at 400 degrees and toast nuts for 7-10 minutes. As soon as you smell them, take them out of the oven or they will burn. I skin my carrots before shredding them to get as much of the moist carrot as I can plus you get the cleaner carrot. Mix nuts with pineapple and carrot.

Mix flour, baking ingredients and spices. Recipes always underwhelm me with spices, so I don't use measurements for spices in my recipe. Average about 1/2 tsp, but I sprinkle until I get a good color in the flour mix. I don't believe you can over-spice carrot cake, but my sister has a great story about confusing 1/4 tsp of cloves for 1/4 cup of ground cloves. Those were some black cookies.

In a large mixing bowl cream sugar with 1/4 c sour cream, oil, vanilla and egg. Stir in carrot mix and then flour mixture. I made this cake in my new bunt pan for a prettier presentation, but you can also use a regular cake pan. Bake on 350 for 55 minutes. Be sure the cake is cooled before trying to get it out of the pan.

When mixing the icing, be sure that the butter is soft. The butter and sour cream (1/4 c.) will dissolve the sugar so be patient when trying to get a cream consistency. Let cake cool before pouring the icing on the cake. I kept the icing in a separate container to use later. The cake will stay moist for most of a week.