Low-Fat and Low-Calorie Desserts From Thinking Skinny

!±8± Low-Fat and Low-Calorie Desserts From Thinking Skinny

Strawberry Chiffon Dessert:

1 envelope low-calorie strawberry gelatin (4 serving box)

1 c. boiling water

1 pint fresh strawberries, hulled and crushed

1 T. lemon juice 1 c. low-calorie whipped topping

Dissolve gelatin in boiling water. Stir in strawberries and lemon juice. Chill until slightly thickened and fold in whipped topping. Spoon into decorative dessert glasses and chill until set. Makes 6 servings, 45 calories each. Garnish with a fresh strawberry. Add 20 calories if you top it with an extra (2 T.) dollop of low-calorie whipped topping.

Strawberries Balsamico

1 pint fresh strawberries

2 tsp. balsamic vinegar

2-3 T. Splenda sweetener

Clean, trim and halve strawberries and place in a large bowl. Drizzle with balsamic vinegar, sprinkle with sweetener to taste and stir. Let stand at room temperature 15 minutes (to allow natural juices to release), then serve immediately or chill and serve later. Also good topped with "Four-Calorie Whipped Topping" (recipe next page). Makes 4 servings, 46 calories per serving.

FOUR-CALORIE WHIPPED TOPPING

Special equipment: a good blender.

1 tsp. unflavored gelatin

1 T. warm water

1/2 c. instant nonfat dry milk

1 (2-inch) piece lemon peel

1/4 lemon, peeled

1 tsp. vanilla

1 tsp. liquid sugar substitute

1/2 c. ice water

Sprinkle gelatin over warm water and stir until dissolved. Using "liquefy" setting, liquefy milk, gelatin, lemon peel and lemon, vanilla and liquid sugar substitute for 60 seconds. Chill until cool. Add ice water and using Whip setting, whip 3 minutes or until consistency of whipped cream. Stop motor at 30 second intervals and push ingredients to center of container with rubber spatula. Makes about 2 cups, approximately 4 calories per each 2 tablespoon serving.

Key Lime Parfait

This low-calorie summer dessert tastes even better than it looks. It's easy to make and you can sit back and savor the burst of flavor in each bite-and there are a lot of "bites" in a tall, cool parfait. You can whip it up in about 5 minutes and refrigerate until you're ready to sit on your deck or patio and pretend to feel guilty.

1 (3 oz.) box of sugar-free vanilla instant pudding

1 (3 oz.) box of sugar-free lime gelatin dessert

1 (8 oz.) tub Cool Whip Lite

Prepare the vanilla pudding according to the instructions on the back of the box. Add the lime Jell-O dry powder to the vanilla pudding and mix well. Stir in ½ of the Cool Whip tub and spoon into 4 parfait glasses.

Optional: Top with remaining Cool Whip Lite and garnish with sprinkles, mint leaf or a wafer cookie. Only 100 calories per serving (160 if you top it with extra Cool Whip).

Rich Chocolate Cake

I've long relied on the trick of adding applesauce to cake mix recipes to replace fat and eggs, but more recently, I found a version using white, yellow, orange or spice cake mix with canned pumpkin as the substitute. Since I love chocolate cake, I decided to try a chocolate version. I used a box of dark chocolate cake mix, and added a 15 oz. can of pumpkin and a teaspoon of finely grated lemon zest. That's it-no oil, eggs, or added water, just a can of pumpkin (lemon zest is optional, but it adds a freshness to the batter that I like). At first, the batter seemed way too thick and dense. I was tempted to add some water, but I mixed at high speed until it was well blended, light, and fluffy.

Spoon into a 9"x13" cake pan, coaxing it to spread as evenly as possible to cover the bottom (batter is thick). Bake as directed. This cake is great without frosting. You can sprinkle it with a light dusting of confectioner's sugar immediately before serving if desired. Want frosting? Recipe follows.

You can also turn this versatile cake into an ice cream sandwich: Frost the individual pieces with either the Chocolate Mousse Frosting (follows) or the Cheesecake Frosting (at the end of the Carrot Spice Cake recipe) and slice the cake crosswise, separating the bottom half so you have a two pieces. Place the separated bottom piece on top of the frosted half, forming a sandwich, and wrap tightly in plastic wrap. Freeze, and serve frozen. If you want to keep it simple, serve plain frozen slices with a dollop of fat-free whipped topping. 18 servings, 145 calories per serving.

LOW-FAT CHOCOLATE MOUSSE FROSTING

(I have also served this as a simple chocolate mousse in a stemmed glass with rave reviews)

1 (3.4 oz.) box of chocolate sugar-free instant pudding mix

1 c. 1% milk

6 oz. fat-free whipped topping (half of a 12 oz. tub)

Using a whisk, mix the pudding mix into milk. Then fold in fat-free whipped topping. Frost cake and chill completely for best results. Frosts one, 9"x13" cake. 12 servings, 32 calories per serving.

Low-Fat Carrot Spice Cake with Cheesecake Frosting

Replacing oil and eggs in this recipe, along with using a substitute for cream cheese frosting, shaves 188 calories off every serving of this dessert and still maintains its creaminess, texture, density and flavor!

To make the cake:

1 box spice cake mix (any brand)

1 (14.5 oz.) can carrots, sliced or diced

Empty carrots including liquid into a large mixing bowl. Using a large fork, mash the carrots in their juice until they are the consistency of lumpy mashed potatoes. Add cake mix to mashed carrots and mix on high speed until light and fluffy (about 1-2 minutes). Spread into a 9"×13" cake pan and bake at 350º F for 25-30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean. Cool completely before frosting with Cheesecake Frosting (recipe follows).

Nuts can be added to this cake, and toasted coconut to the frosting, but be sure to count those calories! If you were to make this cake with oil and eggs, and then frost with cream cheese frosting, your calorie intake would be 395 calories per piece. For ease in cutting, dip a knife in warm water before slicing. Keep cake refrigerated after frosting. Makes 12 servings, 207 calories per serving.

To make the cheesecake frosting: 1 (3.4 oz.) box of sugar-free instant pudding mix (cheesecake flavor) 1 c. 1% milk 6 oz. fat-free whipped topping (half of a 12 oz. tub)

Using a whisk, mix the pudding mix into the milk. Then fold in fat-free whipped topping. Frost cake and chill completely for best results (freezes well).

Lemon Cookies

These easy-to-make, fresh-tasting, low-fat cookies are ready to serve in 30 minutes, start to finish: 5 minutes to prep, 10 minutes to prepare, 10 minutes to bake and 5 minutes for clean up. What could be better? Bake and take in half an hour. That's less time than it would take to make a quick stop at a grocery store to pick up something on the way to your next social occasion! Still not easy enough for you? They can be made ahead and frozen until you need them. The best part is, they're new, they're different, they're delicious and no one else will have anything like them.

1 box lemon cake mix

1/2 c. applesauce

1 egg

1 cup corn flakes or any similar cereal

1 T. lemon juice

Preheat oven to 350º F and line two cookie sheets with parchment paper. Spray with non-stick cooking spray. Combine all ingredients in a bowl and mix well with a spoon. Batter will be medium stiff. Drop by teaspoonfuls onto prepared cookie sheets. Bake 10 minutes. Makes 48 cookies, 48 calories each.