Categories
Dessert

Put this ‘four’midable cake on your list for this week

This cake is made with only four ingredients—yogurt, eggs, vanilla extract and cornstarch. It’s a lightly sweet dessert that pairs well with fruit, honey or maple syrup and has a consistency a bit like a custard.

I was recently given the opportunity to speak to the Newton Kiwanis about the many projects I have been working on at the newspaper.

We enjoyed a great lunch and good conversation before I spent a bit talking about my job, including my over 10-year expedition into writing this column.

I noted to them that sometimes the recipes I try these days get a little weird, because I often feel like I’m running out of ideas for something new each week.

This week was definitely one of those weeks, but it was also one of those recipes that once I saw it online, I had to try it. It’s a cake that is billed as having only three ingredients. It actually has four, though, if you don’t count the toppings, so I decided to change the name. (See? There is accuracy in journalism.) Regardless, the combination sounded super strange, and I couldn’t resist.

This recipe comes from the blog “The Modern Nonna.” You can find the original post at https://themodernnonna.com/3-ingredient-yogurt-cake/. I doubled the vanilla in my version below.

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Four-Ingredient Yogurt Cake

This cake is made with only four ingredients—yogurt, eggs, vanilla extract and cornstarch. It’s a lightly sweet dessert that pairs well with fruit, honey or maple syrup and has a consistency a bit like a custard.
Course Dessert
Keyword cornstarch, easy dessert, eggs, low-calorie, low-fat, vanilla, yogurt

Ingredients

  • 1 1/2 cups vanilla yogurt
  • 4 eggs
  • 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
  • 5 tablespoons cornstarch
  • Optional toppings: fruit honey, maple syrup, powdered sugar

Instructions

  • Line a nine-by-five-inch loaf pan with parchment paper, letting the excess hang over the edges a bit so you can remove the cake easily when it’s done.
  • Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
  • In a mixing bowl, whisk the yogurt and eggs until they are smooth.
  • Whisk in the vanilla and cornstarch, and continue stirring until everything is well combined.
  • Pour the mixture into the prepared loaf pan and bake for 50 to 55 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
  • Let the cake cool, gently remove it from the pan using the parchment paper, and transfer to a serving plate. Top with fruit, honey or maple syrup and sprinkle with powdered sugar, if desired. Slice and serve.
  • Refrigerate any leftovers in an airtight container.

This. Was. Weird. It had a bit of a custard consistency, but it was firm enough to slice easily, too. I opted for honey and powdered sugar on mine, and it was very lightly sweet. Joey and I agreed it would have been even better with some fresh berries on top. The flavor profile reminded me a little bit of tapioca pudding.

Also, be ready for this to puff up a whole lot and then fall to being about two inches tall.

The recipe’s author also noted that you can use any other flavor of yogurt that sounds good, too, so if you’re in the mood to experiment even further, you have tons of options.

I really enjoyed my time with the Kiwanis, although no one seemed particularly excited by my explanation of this week’s weird recipe.

To each their own, I suppose.

This piece first appeared in print on March 14, 2024.

Spice Up Your Life is a weekly newspaper column written by Lindsey Young in south central Kansas. If you are interested in sponsoring this column, please contact us through the “Contact Lindsey” link at the top of the page.

Categories
Dessert

There is no point(s) to this easy ‘cheesecake’

Zero-point cheesecake is a low-sugar, low-calorie dessert that can satisfy your sweet tooth even if you’re trying to stick to a healthy diet.

Although I have never joined an official weight loss program—tracking points, writing down my calorie counts and eating only pre-portioned foods delivered to my door—I have always been fascinated how they work for so many people to slim down.

For me, when working on trying to eat healthier, I normally just follow the rules of “eat more veggies” and “eat less sugar.”

But I am definitely addicted to sweets, and it’s a struggle some days to keep myself from indulging—especially since I know how to bake, and my pantry is well-stocked with supplies.

This week, though, I took a page out of the weight loss program handbook and tried a “zero-point” dessert, which for those unfamiliar, means that a person on Weight Watchers could eat it with no penalties on their diet for the day. It’s low fat, low sugar and low calorie.

The recipe I tried comes from the blog, “Our Wabi Sabi Life.” You can find the original post at https://ourwabisabilife.com/0-point-weight-watchers-cheesecake/. I chose to add some fruit to our cheesecake, doubled the vanilla, and I substituted the cheesecake-flavored pudding mix for a vanilla one, because my local grocery store didn’t have it.

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Zero-point Cheesecake

Zero-point cheesecake is a low-sugar, low-calorie dessert that can satisfy your sweet tooth even if you’re trying to stick to a healthy diet.
Course Dessert
Keyword cheesecake, diet dessert, eggs, instant pudding, low-calorie, low-fat, low-sugar, non-fat Greek yogurt, Splenda, sugar substitute, vanilla, Weight Watchers

Ingredients

  • 3 eggs
  • 3 tablespoons sugar substitute
  • 2 teaspoons vanilla
  • 3 cups plain fat-free Greek yogurt
  • 3.4 to 3.9 ounce box instant sugar-free pudding (cheesecake flavor or just your favorite)

Instructions

  • Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Prepare a glass pie dish by lightly greasing it with butter or margarine.
  • In a large bowl, beat the eggs, sugar substitute and vanilla extract until everything is combined well.
  • Beat in the yogurt and pudding mix, and once the mixture is smooth, pour it into your prepared dish.
  • Bake for 30 minutes. Once the cheesecake cools enough to handle it, place it in the refrigerator for at least two hours or overnight.
  • Serve with fresh fruit. Store leftovers in the refrigerator in an air-tight container.

This was decently good. I would not say that it was a perfect substitute for full-fat cheesecake, although it might have been a bit closer in flavor if I would have had access to cheesecake-flavored pudding.

That being said, it was a bit like a custard texture, and especially with some fresh cherries I had in my freezer from this summer, it was a nice, guilt-free option. It would also be a nice option for people who are low-sugar.

I wondered if it would be good with a lemon or chocolate pudding mix, too, or even with a fat-free Greek yogurt with some flavoring to it. The possibilities are vast.

I still don’t think I want to jump into a structured diet plan, but it’s nice to have some recipes in my repertoire for those times when depending on my own willpower isn’t hacking it.

And, yeah, I know there’s irony in the fact that I’ll probably share something high-calorie, high-fat and delicious with you in this space again very soon. Sometimes you just have to live a little.

This piece first appeared in print on Oct. 5, 2023.

Spice Up Your Life is a weekly newspaper column written by Lindsey Young in south central Kansas. If you are interested in sponsoring this column, please contact us through the “Contact Lindsey” link at the top of the page.

Categories
Main Dish

Lighten up and try a new lasagna recipe this week

This lightened up version of homemade lasagna still packs in tons of great flavor, despite using lower-fat ingredients.

I know that most of the recipes I share with you in this space are “sometimes” foods.

From pasta-laden, full-fat casseroles swimming in cheese to decadent desserts with more sugar than a bag of Pixy Stix, I know the temptation is real.

But we all need some recipes that look and sound a bit sinful but actually aren’t as bad as they seem. That’s where this week’s dish comes in. As soon as I saw a lightened version of lasagna, I knew I needed to try it and hoped it would be as good as it looked.

Good news: it was.

This comes from the blog “You Brew My Tea” by Katie Hale. You can find the original post at https://www.youbrewmytea.com/lightened-homemade-lasagna-dish. I added way more herbs/spices and changed the amounts of some of the other ingredients in my version.

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Lightened Homemade Lasagna

This lightened up version of homemade lasagna still packs in tons of great flavor, despite using lower-fat ingredients.
Course Main Course
Cuisine Italian
Keyword basil, cottage cheese, garlic, green bell pepper, ground turkey, lasagna, light recipe, low-fat, mozzarella, onion powder, oregano, oven-ready lasagna, red bell pepper, red pepper flakes, ricotta cheese, tomato paste, tomato sauce, turkey sausage

Ingredients

  • 1 pound lean ground turkey breast
  • 1 pound Italian turkey sausage
  • 1 red bell pepper diced
  • 1 green bell pepper diced
  • 1 medium yellow onion diced
  • 8 cloves garlic minced
  • 3, 15- ounce cans tomato sauce
  • 6 ounces tomato paste
  • 2 teaspoons dried basil
  • 2 teaspoons dried oregano
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 2 teaspoons onion powder
  • 1 teaspoon black pepper
  • 1/4-1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes
  • 1 cup fat-free cottage cheese
  • 1 cup fat-free ricotta cheese
  • 2 cups part-skim mozzarella cheese shredded, divided
  • 12 oven-ready lasagna noodles

Instructions

  • Heat a stock pot or Dutch oven with a lid over medium heat. Add the turkey and sausage and saute until it is fully cooked, crumbling the meat as you go.
  • When the meat is almost totally cooked, add in the bell peppers and onions and saute for another five minutes or so.
  • Add the garlic, tomato sauce, tomato paste, basil, oregano, salt, onion powder, black pepper and red pepper flakes. Stir well.
  • Leave the burner on medium and place the lid on the pot. Let the sauce simmer for 20 minutes, stirring occasionally.
  • While the sauce simmers, combine the cottage cheese, ricotta and one cup of the mozzarella into a bowl. Stir to combine.
  • Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
  • Spray a deep nine-by-13-inch pan with cooking spray.
  • Remove the sauce from the heat, give it another good stir, and start assembling your lasagna.
  • Place four noodles on the bottom of the casserole dish. (I had to break one of mine to get fill coverage. It doesn’t have to be perfect.) Spread one-third of the sauce over the noodles, and then dollop one-third of the cheese mixture on top of the sauce.
  • Repeat twice more.
  • After the final layer, add the final cup of shredded mozzarella.
  • Bake for 45 minutes. Serve hot with some crusty bread.

We really, really enjoyed this. It wasn’t as decadent as making a full-fat lasagna (especially because I love making Paula Deen’s version), but it was still really good, and just like with regular lasagna, we thought it was even better when we reheated the leftovers the next day. I loved the bell pepper flavor in the sauce.

We also put several pieces in the freezer for quick meals down the road, and those have defrosted and reheated well, too.

I’m still going to keep normal lasagna directions in my recipe box for special occasions, but this one is going to go on a card right next to it. I can never give up my “sometimes” foods, but recipes like this certainly help in between.

This piece first appeared in print on Aug. 3, 2023.

Spice Up Your Life is a weekly newspaper column written by Lindsey Young in south central Kansas. If you are interested in sponsoring this column, please contact us through the “Contact Lindsey” link at the top of the page.

Categories
Main Dish

Homemade pizza helps you go with the ‘dough’

This pizza dough comes together with only two ingredients and is fairly low fat, not that it makes much difference when you want to have pizza for dinner.

When we were kids, one of our favorite suppers was when my mom would make a Chef Boyardee pizza kit.

It came with a mix for making the dough, along with pizza sauce and some grated parmesan. Mom would add meat and some veggies and cheese, and we’d have pizza night.

I think Mom might be a little appalled that I claim this to be on my favorites list, especially since she made so many from-scratch, amazing meals for us over the years, but a kid wants what a kid wants.

Recently, we decided to have a pizza night of our own at home, after a friend of ours recommended a crust recipe she’s been using regularly. Not only is it easy and only two ingredients, but it is also lower fat and doesn’t take any rising time, unlike a lot of other from-scratch doughs.

The recipe she shared with me came from the blog “Crazy for Crust” by Dorothy Kern. You can find the original post at https://www.crazyforcrust.com/weight-watchers-pizza-dough/. I didn’t really spice this one up, since it’s only two ingredients. Also, if you don’t have self-rising flour, visit Dorothy’s website for how to substitute it out.

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Two-ingredient Pizza Dough

This pizza dough comes together with only two ingredients and is fairly low fat, not that it makes much difference when you want to have pizza for dinner.
Course Main Course
Cuisine Italian
Keyword dough, low-fat, pizza, self-rising flour, yogurt

Ingredients

  • 1 cup non-fat, plain Greek yogurt
  • 1 cup self-rising flour

Instructions

  • Preheat oven to 400 degrees
  • Add the yogurt and flour to a mixing bowl and mix until combined, turn it out onto a floured surface and knead until the dough is smooth and everything is well incorporated (I kept running into little pockets of yogurt, so be prepared to keep flouring your surface until it finally all combines.)
  • Roll out your dough to your desired thickness. (For ours, which ended up in the hand-tossed thickness category, I rolled it out to about half an inch. If you want thin crust, I’d suggest going for more of a quarter inch, if not thinner.)
  • Place the dough onto some parchment paper on a pizza or baking pan. Top with your favorite toppings.
  • Bake for 20 to 30 minutes or until the crust is browned slightly and cooked through.

For our pizza toppings, we started by brushing the entire crust with extra virgin olive oil. We then tried two variations. For one, we spread on pizza sauce and then sprinkled on some oregano, basil and fresh minced garlic, along with some spicy, precooked sausage and turkey pepperoni, and of course, we sprinkled on plenty of cheese.

Our second pizza used alfredo sauce, along with oregano, basil, fresh minced garlic, spicy sausage, and cheese, along with some fresh spinach leaves.

They were both really tasty, and since I made a double batch of dough, we had tons of leftovers.

Also, I didn’t bother with rolling my dough out into a circle. I just made a square and put it on a rimmed baking sheet. I figured I didn’t really care about the shape as much as the taste.

According to the website this comes from, this is Weight Watchers friendly, so if that’s something you’re working on right now, you might visit the post for more information.

This might be a fun recipe to try with kiddos, too, especially if you separate the dough out for everyone to top their own mini pie.

And despite the fact that our pizza was probably closer to “traditional” than the good, old Chef Boyardee variety, I still have some nostalgic cravings for my childhood pizza nights. Nowadays, I think Mom and Dad would much rather have us take them out for pizza, but while we’re all still stuck at home, maybe I should think about adding a kit to my next shopping list.

This piece first appeared in print on April 9, 2020.

Spice Up Your Life is a weekly newspaper column written by Lindsey Young in south central Kansas. If you are interested in sponsoring this column, please contact us through the “Contact Lindsey” link at the top of the page.

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