Monday, March 30, 2009

Low Fat Pumpkin Cake with Cinnamon Glaze


This is a delicious pumpkin cake that I have made many times. I wanted to cut the fat a bit so I substituted some applesauce for 1/2 of the butter and cut out some of the egg yolk. It tasted great and was really moist. I will make it like this from now on!

3 cups cake flour
2 Tbs. pumpkin pie spice
2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1 stick butter, softened
1/2 cup applesauce
1 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup granulated sugar
2 eggs
3 egg whites
1 can (15oz) pumpkin
1 tsp vanilla

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Grease 12-cup bundt pan. 
2. Combine flour, pumpkin pie spice, baking soda and salt in a medium bowl.
3. In a large mixer bowl, beat together butter, brown sugar and granulated sugar until light and fluffy. Add eggs individually and beat well. Add vanilla and applesauce and mix well. 
4. Gradually add flour mixture to wet ingredients. 
5. Spoon the batter into the prepared pan. 

Bake for about 60 minutes. After removing from the oven, cool for 10 minutes and remove from the pan. Let cool completely and then pour the cinnamon glaze over cake. 

Cinnamon Glaze
2 cups powdered sugar
1 tsp cinnamon
2 Tbs. milk

Mix milk and cinnamon in a bowl. Add powdered sugar. If it is too stiff, add milk until you reach the desired consistency.

Wednesday, March 25, 2009

Turkey & Veggie Lasagna





This was a pretty tasty lasagna that I made the other night. I had some ground turkey that I wanted to use so I added it to my usual vegetarian lasagna. It was delicious, but I think next time I will try shredded chicken instead of the turkey. 


2 Tbs. olive oil

1 large onion

3 cloves of garlic, minced

1 lb ground turkey

 

2 bell peppers, diced

1 ½ lb zucchini, sliced (green and yellow)

3 cups fresh spinach, chopped

 

1.5  tsp salt and pepper

1 tsp Italian seasoning

15oz low fat ricotta

1 egg and 1 egg white, beaten

3 fresh tomatoes, sliced

½ cup grated parmesan

2 jars marinara sauce

1.5 cup part skim mozzarella, grated

16 oz no-boil lasagna noodles


Prepare:

  1. Sauté the peppers with a little olive oil and salt/pepper until just tender.  Set aside in a bowl.
  2. Sauté the zucchini with a little olive oil and salt/pepper until just tender.  Set aside in a bowl.
  3. In a large skillet, sauté onion and garlic in olive oil until onions are soft; add ground turkey and brown. Add the marinara sauce and stir well.  
  4. In a bowl, mix the ricotta with eggs, spices, and salt and pepper. Mix in the chopped spinach.

 

Assemble:

Coat the bottom of a 13x9” and a pan with spaghetti sauce

  1. Put a layer of lasagna noodles in pan..In turns layer the meat sauce, noodles, veggies, noodles, ricotta, noodles and so on until you use up all the ingredients., ending with lasagna noodles on top.
  2. Top with a layer of marinara sauce, then mozzarella cheese and parmesan cheese.
  3. Garnish with sliced tomatoes.
  4. Cover with aluminum foil and bake at 350 degrees for 45 minutes. Uncover, and then bake 10 more minutes. Let it cool and set up for about 10 minutes before serving.