Tag: non-fat Greek yogurt

Categories
Dessert

In July, heat-proof desserts are a ‘pine’ of the times

These pineapples bars feature a buttery, crispy crust on the bottom, topped with a sweet filling, perfect for a hot summer afternoon.
These pineapples bars feature a buttery, crispy crust on the bottom, topped with a sweet filling, perfect for a hot summer afternoon.

I find that the toughest time of year to make desserts is summer.

If it’s a particularly good recipe, I’m willing to heat up my kitchen by using my oven, but my problem is how the dessert will travel with the heat. And if the event I’m taking my dessert to happens to be outdoors, I struggle with finding something that will stay stable in 90-degree weather.

That rules out anything cold.

Or anything that melts.

But with an invitation to a July 4 outdoor gathering, I decided it was time to get busy and find something that looked delicious.

And that’s how I landed on something that, yes, did heat up my kitchen but was absolutely worth it for the pay off of a great summertime treat.

This recipe comes from the blog “Averie Cooks,” authored by Averie Sunshine. You can find her original post at https://www.averiecooks.com/tropical-escape-soft-pineapple-crumble-bars. I added extra vanilla to my version.

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Pineapple Bars

These pineapples bars feature a buttery, crispy crust on the bottom, topped with a sweet filling, perfect for a hot summer afternoon.
Course Dessert
Keyword bars, butter, non-fat Greek yogurt, pineapple, pineapple chunks, summer dessert, tropical dessert, vanilla

Ingredients

Crust Ingredients

  • 1/2 cup butter softened
  • 1 cup flour
  • 1/2 cup sugar
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt

Filling Ingredients

  • 1 egg
  • 1/2 cup sugar
  • 5.3 ounce cup plain nonfat Greek yogurt
  • 2 teaspoons vanilla
  • 1/4 cup flour
  • 20 ounces pineapple chunks in juice drained, but save the juice and use it for something fun

Instructions

  • Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
  • Prepare an eight-by-eight-inch pan by lining it with foil and then spraying it lightly with cooking spray.
  • For the crust, add all of the ingredients to a mixing bowl, and cut it together with a pastry cutter or a couple of forks until everything is well combined and is a bit crumbly.
  • Set aside 3/4 cup of the crust mixture, and press the rest evenly into the bottom of your prepared pan. Bake it for 10 minutes.
  • While the crust bakes, add the egg, sugar, yogurt, vanilla and flour to the same mixing bowl, and beat until it is smooth and creamy. Set it aside.
  • When the crust is done, pull it out of the oven and carefully line the entire bottom with pineapple chunks. Leave just a smidgeon of room between each chunk for the filling to get into.
  • Pour the filling evenly over the top of the pineapple, and then evenly sprinkle the reserved crust mixture over the top.
  • Bake for another 35 minutes or until the edges are set and the top is just starting to brown.
  • Let the bars cool before slicing them and serving them. Store the bars in an airtight container.

These were fabulous.

Actually, I shouldn’t say “these,” since I only actually got to eat one of them myself. The rest were reduced to crumbs in my container before the night was over.

That’s not a complaint. I would rather spread the calories out over many friends than have them all end up with me.

Regardless, the crust on the bottom was buttery and crisp, and the pineapples were sweet and perfect for a summer afternoon.

And these bars did great out in the heat. The only thing I didn’t plan for? A sudden deluge of rain just after we put everything on the dessert table. It was a good thing I had a lid at the ready.

I guess you can’t prepare for everything when it comes to dessert and a Kansas summer.

This piece first appeared in print July 10, 2025.

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.
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
Air Fryer Bread Breakfast

This easy air fryer recipe will totally ‘bagel’ your mind

Baking in an air fryer is much easier than it sounds, especially with a simple bagel recipe that uses only a couple ingredients to create soft, yummy bread in only 10 minutes.
Baking in an air fryer is much easier than it sounds, especially with a simple bagel recipe that uses only a couple ingredients to create soft, yummy bread in only 10 minutes.

Three years ago, I shared a recipe in this space for an easy homemade pizza dough.

If you remember that recipe, this week’s experiment is going to look very, very familiar, as it starts with the exact same basic ingredients. That’s why I knew it would turn out well, and I definitely wanted to try it.

I also wanted to try it, because it gave me an excuse to use my air fryer in a little different way. I have really been wanting to experiment more with baking in it, and this let me give it a try.

Plus, I have a strange addiction to bagels, and the promise of being able to bake a small batch in only 10 minutes was enough to get my attention.

This comes from the blog “Adventures of a Nurse.” You can find the original post at https://www.adventuresofanurse.com/air-fryer-2-ingredient-weight-watcher-bagels/. I didn’t add any ingredients outside of topping my bagels with everything bagel seasoning.

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Air Fryer Bagels

Baking in an air fryer is much easier than it sounds, especially with a simple bagel recipe that uses only a couple ingredients to create soft, yummy bread in only 10 minutes.
Course Bread, Breakfast
Keyword air fryer, bagel, easy baking, easy bread, non-fat Greek yogurt, self-rising flour, Weight Watchers

Ingredients

  • 1 cup self-rising flour plus more for your work surface
  • 1 cup fat-free Greek yogurt
  • 1 egg
  • Your favorite bagel seasoning

Instructions

  • In a mixing bowl, combine the flour and yogurt. Mix with a spoon until the dough forms into a rough ball.
  • Coat your work surface with a generous amount of flour, and turn the dough out onto the surface, kneading a few times to bring it together. Add more flour if it’s too sticky to work with.
  • Separate the dough into four balls and then roll each ball into a rope about one inch in diameter. Join the ends together to create a bagel shape, and place them into the basket of your air fryer.
  • In a small bowl, beat the egg well, and then brush the tops of the bagels liberally with the egg. Sprinkle on your desired seasoning, turn your air fryer to 350 degrees, and bake for 10 minutes or until the bagels are browned to your liking.
  • Eat immediately or store in an airtight container.

These were delicious. They were definitely not traditional bagels as far as texture goes, but they had fabulous flavor and were a lot less work than bagels normally are.

I do think you could mix in some other ingredients, too, like dried fruit or nuts or something along those lines. You could easily make them sweet or savory, depending on your mood.

I also liked that the recipe only made four. That cut down on the amount of time it took to make them, and I didn’t have to worry about having a dozen or more bagels for just Joey and I to try to eat by ourselves.

I still regularly use my flour/yogurt pizza dough to make all kinds of great pizzas at home, but I have to say this is my new favorite use for this ingredient combination. It’s made me wonder what else this easy miracle dough could accomplish.

This piece first appeared in print on Sept. 7, 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.

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