Recipes from 2008

Tried and True

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Tried and True
Spicy Apple's and Pumpkin Pudding

"You know," the holidays are here again, and that diet you planned so well for way back in January fell right through. Where has time gone?

As you look in the mirror again and back down at the scales, you know something has got to change.
Well no time like the present. So let's get are thinking caps on what would be a good low-fat recipe that would go well with your Thanksgiving dinner. Already you know you are going to be facing a challenge because everyone you know is planning to eat very well this "Thanksgiving" and everyone is expecting the best.

  So we need to think what can we do for a dessert at least one, that will not cause you to be in this same place next year looking at the scales and seeing no lasting change. Okay, this will just not do.

So what we are going to do is think...so have you been thinking? "Low-fat Thanksgiving desserts or at least one low-fat Thanksgiving dessert that everyone will like or at least those who are on special diets will like.

That does not require a whole lot of time spent in the kitchen. Or contain ingredients that are going to be very hard to find. Also it would be nice if you could make this dessert look appetizing. So what would be something that would not be too hard and would also fit our taste buds?

Well you could do the spiced baked apples. These are very good. Sort of like apple pie without the crust.

To make "Spiced Baked Apples", what you will need are some small to medium size "granny smith apples". These are not too sweet and not to tart.

After you have your apples wash them well, then using an apple core remover or a good knife carve out the seeds and core. Leaving a hollow space, this will be where you put your spices.

Now go to your cabinet and get out your ground ginger, ground cinnamon, and ground cloves. Put about ¼ cup of ground ginger in a mixing bowl, add to that ¼ cup of ground cinnamon, to that add about a tablespoon of ground cloves.

Now using a fork or spoon mix all the spices together.

And back to the apples I nearly forgot, sorry 'bout that. You will need at least a nine by thirteen pan depending on how many apples you're planning to bake. (Normally I have to make a min. of fifteen servings to make sure everyone has one plus I have enough for an unexpected guest).

So get your pan, set it on the table. Then go get your apples that you have already removed the core and seeds from. Rinse these and shake off the water in the sink.

Next place the apples in your pan with the empty holes facing up.

Okay now go back to your spice mixture, to make this as low fat as possible we'll leave out the nuts, and raisins, and part of the sugar.

To you spice mixture add about three or four tablespoons of brown sugar. Mix all this well in the bowl.

Now get out a stick of butter, what you are to do now is to use a knife to cut off small pieces of the butter, about a teaspoon, or one line on the marked packages of butter, place one of these little pieces of butter in each apple. After you have done that, take your spice mixture and sprinkle lightly into each of these apples.

When all of the apples have been sprinkled cover with tinfoil, and place into the oven at 325 for at least thirty min, or until tender when poked with a fork or knife.

While these are baking go ahead and clean up any mess made, and put your left over spice mixture into a Ziploc baggy to use again for something else. Then get out one of your serving dishes so you are ready for when the apples are done.

Then after you remove the apples from the oven and they have cooked down enough use a spatula or large spoon to place each apple on the serving platter. Once you have all the apples arrange neatly on the serving dish, place mint sprigs all the way around platter.

Spiced apples is something we have made many times, sometimes using more sugar or butter than at other times, we have even made spiced apples without sugar or butter. So this can be made without sugar and butter, but a tiny bit I don't believe will break your diet.

Apples go well with a Thanksgivings Day dinner I think. You can also make pumpkin pudding. But it is much more time consuming, but can be made ahead of time.

 "Thanksgivings Day Pumpkin pudding Recipe"

You will need one small pie pumpkin.

Cut open your pumpkin; remove seeds, and stringy stuff that's on the inside of pumpkin. Then place pumpkin in the oven to bake at 350 degrees for at least 45 minutes, (its done when you poke it with a fork and you can get the fork to start going into the skin a little.)

After you have cooked the pumpkin and removed it from the oven to cool, get out a large spoon so that you can scrap the cooked pumpkin from the shell, once you have the soft pumpkin removed from the shell and into a mixing bowl, take the left over spices from your apples and pour that into the bowl, add a little ginger, maybe a tablespoon or so.

Now take your mixer and beat the spices all together. Add a little whole milk (about ¼ to ½ cup). Beat well so that your pudding is creamy and smooth.

When you are ready to serve your pumpkin pudding place in small pudding bowls, set on a tray next to the apples or across from the apples, garnish as desired.