Good Eats

Credit: Alton Brown for the title.

Since my last blogger was a serious rant of how fat I am and how I'm trying to take it off, I'll share some of my latest good eats that I am attempting to convert into food for fatties:

First: My all time favourite dessert TIRAMISU!! done as fat free and calorie free as possible and still yummie:

Tiramisu Parfait

Preparation Time: 30 min.
Chill Time: 3 hours or overnight
Makes 8 servings

1 Sugar-Free Angel Food Cake (it's better to use lady fingers and I have yet to find a sugar free angel food cake.) You'll need about 35 lady fingers.
3 1/2 tsp. Decaffeinated Instant Coffee (much better to use 4 or 5 shots of espresso that you can either make or go to Starbucks to pick up.
1 1/2 cups Hot Water (won't need the water if you use the espresso).
1/2 cup Mascarpone Cheese
8 oz. Fat-Free Cream Cheese
2 Tbsp. Dark Brown Sugar
1 cup SPLENDA® No Calorie Sweetener, Granular
3/4 tsp. Vanilla (or you can use sweet marsala, here - it's more authentic.)
2 tsp. Cocoa Powder


1. Cut sugar-free angel food cake into one-inch cubes. Set aside.
2. Dissolve instant coffee in hot water. Chill in refrigerator.
3. Combine mascarpone cheese and cream cheese in a medium mixing bowl. Beat until smooth. Add 2 Tbsp. chilled coffee, brown sugar, SPLENDA® Granular, and vanilla. Mix well and set aside.
4. Pour remaining chilled coffee into a 9x13 inch pan.
5. Assemble Tiramisu. Quickly dip half of the angel food pieces into the coffee. Remove immediately and place in a medium glass serving bowl. Spread half of the cream cheese mixture on top of the angel food cake pieces. Sprinkle with 1 tsp. cocoa powder. Repeat process with remaining angel food cake, cheese mixture and cocoa.
6. Cover and chill for three hours or overnight before serving.

Nutrition Information per serving - Some of these numbers change if you take my suggestions above:

Serving Size 1/8th tiramisu
Total Calories 120
Calories from Fat 60
Total Fat 7 g
Saturated Fat 4 g
Cholesterol 20 mg
Sodium 170 mg
Total Carbohydrate 8 g
Dietary Fiber 0 g
Sugars 3 g
Protein 5 g

Another killer dessert that I snagged off the Food Channel - Bread Pudding w/ Bourbon Sauce that will make you cry. I didn't make the bourbon sauce 'cause we didn't have any in the house, but I ate this with the low sugar vanilla ice cream. - YUMMY

3 cups stale French bread, cut in 3/4-inch cubes
2 cups milk (use 1 c. evaporated skim milk and 1 c. reg skim milk to negate most of the fat).
2 eggs
1 cup sugar (I used 3/4 c. Splenda and 1/4 cup sugar)
1 tablespoon vanilla extract (be sure to use 1 TABLESPOON here)
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
4 tablespoons butter, melted and slightly cooled
1/2 cup sultana raisins

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Place stale bread in a bowl with milk and squeeze the bread with your hand until well saturated with milk. I didn't squeeze any bread, just put it in the bowl and stirred it around a few times until the milk was sucked up (about an 1/2 hour or so).

With an electric mixer on high speed in a separate bowl, beat eggs with sugar until thick and pale. Stir in the vanilla, cinnamon, nutmeg, butter and raisins to the egg mixture. Add the soaked bread crumbs to the egg mixture and stir well. Let stand for 10 minutes. It is important to allow enough time for the bread to absorb the egg mixture or the bread crumbs will float to the top during baking, leaving a layer of custard on the bottom of the dish.

Transfer the mixture to a greased baking dish. Bake until firm, or until a knife inserted in the middle comes out clean, about 45 to 50 minutes. Let it slightly cool in the dish.

Bourbon Sauce:
2 egg yolks
1 stick butter, not margarine
1 cup sugar
1/3 cup bourbon whiskey, to taste

Meanwhile, near the end of the baking time, make the sauce. With an electric mixer, beat egg yolks until thick and pale. In a saucepan, melt the butter and sugar. Pour the butter and sugar mixture over the egg yolks, beating constantly with the mixer, until well thickened. Stir in bourbon by hand. Serve the pudding warm with vanilla ice cream if desired. Pass the hot bourbon sauce separately.

DELIGHTFUL!!! The sauce looks great, but the ice cream works just as well.


AND NOW - Drumroll, please... something absolutely NOT on the dieter's list and something I would never, ever mess with.... Real English Fish and Chips:

The trick to making this is #1 the rice flour and #2 you MUST have a thermometer or a some way of monitoring the temperature of the oil. Also, use a good quality veggie oil like canola or something equally light. There's a new oil on the market called ?Enola? or something that is supposed to be great for the health, but it sounds a lot like Olestra which will give you the runs for days if you eat too much of it. Stick with canola with 7 grams of saturated fat, safflower with 9 grams of sat. fat and sunflower with 11 grams of sat fat.

Vegetable oil, for deep frying
4 large russet potatoes
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt, plus more for seasoning
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper, plus more for seasoning
1 large egg, lightly beaten
1 (12-ounce) can soda water
1/2 cup rice flour, for dredging
2 (8-ounce) cod or haddock fillets, cut in 1/2 on an angle
Malt vinegar, for serving
Tartar Sauce, recipe follows

Heat 3-inches of the oil in a deep fryer to 325 degrees F. Alternately, heat 3-inches of oil in a deep pot.

Peel the potatoes and cut them into chips, about the size of your index finger. Put the potatoes in the oil. Fry the chips for 2 to 3 minutes; they should not be crisp or fully cooked at this point. Remove the chips with a spider strainer or slotted spoon, to a paper towel-lined platter to drain.

Crank the oil temperature up to 375 degrees F.

In a large mixing bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, salt, pepper, and egg. Pour in the soda water and whisk to a smooth batter. Spread the rice flour on a plate. Dredge the fish pieces in the rice flour and then dip them into the batter, letting the excess drip off.

Put the chips in the bottom of the fryer basket and carefully submerge in the hot oil. Carefully wave the battered fish into the bubbling oil before dropping them in on top of the chips. Fry the fish and chips for 4 to 5 minutes until crispy and brown. Remove the basket and drain the fish and chips on paper towels; season lightly with salt. Serve wrapped in a newspaper cone with malt vinegar and/or tartar sauce.

Tartar Sauce:
1 cup mayonnaise
1 tablespoon chopped capers
1 tablespoon chopped cornichons
2 tablespoons finely chopped flat-leaf parsley leaves
1/2 lemon, juiced
Dash hot sauce

In a small mixing bowl, combine all ingredients. Chill before serving to let the flavors marry.

Bon Apetite!!!! I'll post more yummies after I test drive them first.