Reduced Sugar Fruit Cookie Pizza

Preheat oven to 375.

Spray 12 inch foil pizza pan with nonstick cooking spray.

Combine 1 pkg Pillsbury Reduced Sugar Cookie Mix with 1/3 cup veg oil, 2 Tbsp water, 1 egg, and 1/2 tsp lemon or almond extract. Drop spoonfuls onto pan, and press with fingers until even. Bake at 375 for 9-11 minutes, or until lightly browned. Set aside to cool completely.
Mix 1/4 cup each Reduced Sugar Cream Cheese frosting and Smuckers Sugar Free Apricot Preserves. Spread evenly onto cooled cookie, leaving a small border on the outside to resemble the crust of a pizza.
Slice your choice of fruits - I used strawberries, kiwi, peaches, and blueberries. Mix each fruit in a small bowl with a Tbsp of sugar free preserves, and arrange decoratively on pizza.

The cookie crust has 19 grams of carbs, of which 6 grams is sugar 4 grams is sugar alcohol. It also has 135 mg of sodium, 2 g of total fat. This is listed as the counts for 1/18 of the total mix for cookies. Definitely not something to have every day, but as a special treat it's really something.

Chocolate Berry Cheesecake Trifle

1 pkg Reduced Sugar Pillsbury Devils' Food Cake ( 1 1/4 cups water, 3 eggs, 1/2 cup oil)
1 can Pillsbury Reduced Sugar Chocolate Fudge Frosting
2 pkgs Jello sugar free Cheesecake pudding (3 cups skim milk)
3/4 pint fresh strawberries, half of them thinly sliced
1/2 cup Splenda, 1 tsp raspberry extract, 2 tsp water mixed together
Sugar Free Cool Whip

Make, bake and cool chocolate cake. Frost with about 1/2 can of frosting. (For ease of cutting I did it in a 13 x 9 pan)
Make the "syrup" of splenda and extract.
Whisk the milk with the 2 packages of pudding and set aside.

In a clear glass bowl, scatter the bottom with about a cup of cake cubes. Drizzle with 2 tsp of the syrup. Top with about half of the pudding mix. Top that with sliced strawberries on the outside of the bowl, and chunked strawberries in the middle. Repeat layers. End with cake, and top that final layer with sugar free cool whip, and a few sliced berries. I also put a couple of cubes of cake, all crumbled up.
You will use about half the chocolate cake, all the pudding, and about 3/4 cup of Cool Whip.

Truly decadent!

Meeting with the Nutritionist

So today Rob had his appointment with the nutritionist - a really wonderful guy named Rhys Wyman out of Andover. He gave us tons of great information, and lots of great advice. We learned a great deal! For example, Rob should be eating about 40 grams of net carbs per meal, and snack should be about 15 net carbs. Rob was thrilled to learn that he can have fruit - we've been avoiding it as we weren't sure about the rold of natural sugars in diabetes management.
So far Rob has lost 20 pounds, and I've lost 28. We are both really thrilled.
Next up on the agenda - a Labor Day party at my aunt and uncles... and I found that Pillsbury has a reduced sugar line of mixes - so I'm going to do a dessert pizza with fresh fruit... and a Chocolate Cheesecake Trifle with Strawberries, both low sugar. Will post pics.

Latest Update

So I weighed myself yesterday... and I've lost 25 pounds! I am thrilled and amazed... considering that I had pasta salad and a hot dog in a roll at a BBQ last weekend. I've been living a low glycemic/low carb life for over a month now and really don't miss much... the big difference here is that I don't have diabetes, but Rob does... however, I knew that I wanted to eat healthier for my sake, and for his. He's lost 15 pounds and is feeling alot better. His sugars have been hovering around 140, so he may have to go on Glucophage. We will find out later today.

I am so gratified that there are lots more options out there that are low sugar/no sugar/low carb. I also love that this challenge has intensified my creative cooking impulse.

Rob jokingly asked me to take on the KFC challenge. I may be good, but I don't know if I can do that....lol....

Low Carb French Toast

I found this really great bread by Pepperidge Farm called "Carb Style". It has 5 net carbs per slice...as a point of comparison, a single slice of whole wheat bread has 17 grams of carbs per slice.

Whisk together 1/2 cup Egg Beaters, 1 packet Splenda, and a couple of dashes of cinnamon in a shallow bowl.

Melt 1/2 Tbsp of butter in a medium saute pan, Dip both sides of bread into egg mixture and fry over medium heat about 1-2 minutes, or until golden brown. Cook other side.

I served 3 slices with Carey's sugar free syrup. 2 Tbsp has 12 grams of carbs.

I certainly wouldn't eat this everyday - but it is a special treat. I will say that the tecture is a bit different, but it looks, smells, and tastes like regular French Toast.

Cheesecake

6 graham crackers, crushed

1 cup almond meal

2 packets Splenda

dash of cinnamon

1/2 stick each unsalted and salted butter, melted
Combine all above and press with fork into bottom and slightly upsides of springform pan sprayed with nonstick cooking spray. Set aside.

3 pkgs cream cheese

1/2 cup Egg Beaters

1 tsp vanilla extract

zest and juice of 1 lemon

1/2 cup each Splenda and Brown Sugar Splenda
Bring cream cheese to room temperature. Preheat oven to 350. With paddle attachment of stand mixer, add cream cheese and sugars. Beat well at medium speed. Zest the lemon, then juice it, and add both to the cream cheese. Add the vanilla. Add the Egg Beaters. Scrape down sides, and mix until smooth. Pour into springform pan, and smooth top. Bake on top rack of oven for about an hour. Check at 45 minutes. Top should be lightly browned, and still have a tiny bit of jiggle. It will continue to cook in pan. Cool on wire rack until completely cooled. Refrigerate to firm up. Some cracking on top is natural.

Blueberry Topping
Mix 1/2 cup frozen blueberries with 2 Tbsp of no sugar added blueberry jam and 1 Tbsp of agave nectar over medium heat. Combine 1 Tbsp cornstarch with 3 Tbsp water, mix well, and add to hot blueberry mixture. Stir well to avoid lumps. Add a dash of lemon or vanilla extract to the berries, if you like. Use a fork to mash some of the berries. Add another 1/2 cup fresh or frozen blueberries. Remove from heat, and allow to cool. Spoon over cooled cheesecake. If you prefer, substitute raspberries, or strawberries.

Makes 12 generous servings.

I swear you wont miss the sugar!

As I haven't cut into it yet, I will re-post a picture of the completed product when I do.

Breakfast on the Low carb

Cereal, while tasty gets really boring after a while. Plus it's really hard to find a cereal that doesn't use up alot of your daily carb intake. Thinking back to when I was on South Beach, I remembered there was a crustless mini quiche dish. Using that for inspiration, I came up with a great alternative that is tasty, and great on the go.

2 six cup muffin tins

Non stick cooking spray

1 and 1/2 pint containers of Egg Beaters

1/2 pkg/jar of real bacon pieces (I use Hormel...don't use imitation bacon bits)

Your favorite finely diced veggies (I used mushrooms, red pepper, and scallions)

Freshly ground pepper

Parsley flakes

1/2 package shredded Cheddar Jack cheese

Finely dice veggies and mix together with bacon pieces. Set aside. Spray sides and bottoms of each muffin tin very well. Fill each tin 3/4 full with veggie bacon mixture. Top each with about 1 1/2 Tbsp of shredded cheese. then por Egg Beaters slowly over each, filling to top of each cup. Sprinkle with parsley and freshly ground black pepper. Bake at 350 for about 10 minutes, or until cheese is melted and tops are lightly browned. Cool on wire rack. When cooled, place two in each sandwich bag and refrigerate. Great to make ahead for the week!