South Beach Chocolate Pie

So - I happen to be married to a man with a SWEET tooth. When the ice cream truck sings through the neighborhood we loses his mind and its everything he can do to keep from drooling and chasing after the singing truck of sweet cream. Of course, being that his mother and grandmother have diabetes I am staunch in trying to prevent as much sugar to pass his lips as possible. So here is a quick and easy recipe that he LOVES and minimizes the calories and sugar. Best of all it is south beach. :)

• 1 box sugarfree instant pudding mix
• 2.5C skim milk
• 2T low sugar peanut butter (creamy)
• 2C crispy rice cereal

1. Heat peanut butter in frying pan under low heat (make sure its low or you will burn it - low is enough to melt it really fast anyhow)
2. Fill a pie pan bottom with cereal
3. Once peanut butter has melted a good bit, drizzle it over the cereal mashing it into the pie pan and up the sides to build your crust
4. Put the pie crust in the freezer for 1 hour (or until it hardens)
5. Pour pudding mix in a bowl and mix it with milk and wisk it as directions call for
6. Once your pudding is well mixed pour it into your pie pan and stick it in the fridge to harden

Thats all - so so good :)

*We like to use that new whipped creamy peanut butter - so good

*Bryan likes to throw a chunk of peanut butter on top of his

*As you can see above we are having trouble making it a solid pie piece, but trust me - well keep trying ;)

Linda's Greek Pasta

This is a family favorite. My mom's friend Linda Larsen visited us on our sailboat for a week and made this for us. I am not sure if she knows my family often has what we can Linda's Pasta or that we even call it that. Anyhow its yummy, quick to make, great hot or cold, tastes even better after a day or two, and is a staple food in all our houses now.

Ingredients

• pasta (we go with any pasta that has a hole in it to get yummies stuck in - and always whole wheat)
• two packages of frozen spinach
• plum tomatoes
• pine nuts (can be left out if you like but bring a nice crunch)
• 2 packages of feta cheese
• garlic
• evoo

Steps

1. We start by microwaving the spinach to defrost it, and then straining the water out of it by putting it into a cloth and compressing.
2. Then we go about boiling the pasta in water, draining, and returning to the pot with some evoo
3. In a pan saute garlic, pine nuts, spinach, salt, pepper and spices to your liking, then tomatoes in that order.
4. Then we put the spinach mixture into pot with pasta, mixing well.
5. Slowly crumble feta into pasta mixture and serve.
6. Enjoy!

Tofu Tibs Recipe

• tofu
• bell peppers (red, yellow, green)
• onion
• tomato
• bebere
• evoo

1. heat pan with evoo
2. cut tofu into strips
3. sprinkly a couple spoonfuls of berbere (if you have a girly tongue maybe 1 or 1/2 spoon)
4. cut peppers and onions into strips
5. cut tomato and rip out center
6. throw garlic and onions into pan and heat until onion is translucent
7. throw in tofu and give it some time to cook with onions and garlic
8. throw peppers in the pan and let them brown slightly
9. tomatoes in after a few minutes
10. Spice if you like with paprika, ground black pepper, salt, more berbere ;)
11. Serve on injera

My inspiration was what I had at Queen of Sheba in Atlanta pictured here:

Panang Foo Curry Tofu

I had been making my standard curry so often that Bryan and I were getting sick of it for sure. So I haven't mad it now in a pretty long time. Last night I wanted to get creative in the kitchen so I grabbed one of the Panang Curry packets that Anna had sent me down from Atlanta and started pulling ingredients out of cabinets for my creation. And here I will share it with you...

Ingredients:

• panang curry packet (or any curry paste)
• 1/2 sweet yellow onion
• 1 pkg firm tofu
• 2 T evoo
• 1 can artichokes
• 1 package ramen noodles (throw out spice pack)
• veggie broth
• 1 t peanut butter
• chopped peanuts
• red pepper spice

Steps

1. Chop onions and saute in evoo
2. Chop tofu into bite sized pieces and saute with onions 
3. Once the tofu starts to brown on the outside add in the artichokes
4. Coat with curry paste mixing around well 
5. add a teaspoon of peanut butter and some scoops of raw peanuts
6. Continue to sautee under all pieces are browning/cooked to your liking
7. Add 1 can of veggie broth and spice with splenda, pepper and anything within reach
8. Add broken up package of noodles and let the sauce come to a short boil 
9. Lower heat but continue stirring and heating
10. Once noodles are soft you are done
11. Serve

*Note: given my mouth of steel I like things hot - so if you have a more tender tongue you may want to lessen your spicing and paste

Tikil Tofu

I made this this week after cooking up some habesha dishes and desiring something with tofu. It definitely added some color and made the dish more filling as well.

Ingredients

• a spoonful tikil gomen
• cubed tofu
• 1T evoo
• 1T berbere

Steps

1. Rub the tofu in berbere and then cube it
2. Throw the cubed tofu in a pan with evoo
3. After a few moments of sizzling throw in a spoonful of tikil gomen and spread it around
4. Once the tofu has a crispier exterior (or cooked to your content) remove from heat
5. Serve and enjoy

Lentil Veggie-Burgers

Recently the smell of lentils reminded me of the veggie burgers I used to buy back in the day, before Publix carried such things as boca and garden burgers. I decided I wanted to try to recreate them so I did this weekend. I made a batch, froze the ones I didn't make right away, and have been enjoying the heck out of them all week. I have decided to make these regularly and vary between them and boca to both save money and try something different.

• 1 Cup lentils
• 2.5 Cups water
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 2 celery sticks chopped
• 1/2 red onion chopped
• 3 cloves garlic
• 1/2 cup breadcrumbs
• 1/2 cup cornmeal
• 1 egg white
• handful of shredded low fat cheese
• ketchup
• hot sauce

1. Boil lentils until soft in salted water
2. Sautee garlic, onion, and celery
3. Once cooled enough to work with but still warm mix all ingredients together
4. Once evenly distributed, work into balls and flatten into patties
5. At this point you can freeze them individually or cook them
6. I grilled them at this point on my george foreman but you can also sautee in a frying pan or in the oven
7. Enjoy either standalone or on a bun with veggies and cheese, be sure to add your favorite condiments (my favorite is lite mayo and no salt hunts ketchup mixed together)

Sweet Ginger Couscous

This past Saturday I was scrounging up a meal for my husband and mother in law when I came across my couscous in the pantry. Normally I would throw some Parmesan in and be done with it but I wanted to try something a little different.

• 1 cup dry couscous
• 2.5 cups water (can substitute chicken/veggie broth for more flavor)
• ginger paste
• splenda (or sweetener of your choice)
• 1/2 tsp salt

1. Bring water and salt to a boil in a small saucepan
2. When boil is reached pour in couscous
3. Remove from heat
4. Add in a small squeeze of ginger paste and some splenda to taste and mix well to distribute evenly
5. Cover and let it sit about 10-20 minutes until all liquid is absorbed into couscous. Should be a fluffy not sticky consistency.
6. Serve and enjoy :)