Diet Talk | Reader Recipe: Sort-Of Apple Pie

I have been super excited to try Julie’s recipe for Sort-Of Apple Pie since she emailed it to me a couple of weeks ago. I finally organized my scattered brain enough to get most of the (3!) ingredients. The Mister is at the store right now getting the cottage cheese. What I like most about this recipe is the lean protein-fruit combo. I’m looking forward to a sweet treat that is actually filling! And while I am normally not a fan of plain cottage cheese, I am willing to give this one a try because I do like it occasionally with fruit. I calculated the recipe for point value, and it’s between 3-4 points, depending on whether you use a medium or large apple.

Oh, and another reason why I am trying this recipe? Julie’s kids love it. If that isn’t a indication of how tasty this sweet treat is, well then I don’t know what is.

Julie’s Sort-Of Apple Pie

1 Apple
1/2 cup Cottage Cheese [I use low fat for 2 points--ed.]
cinnamon and sweetener, to taste

• Peel, core & chop one apple
• In a small microwave-safe bowl, mix the apple with one packet of sweetener and a sprinkle of cinnamon (more cinnamon if you like it). [I am not a fan of artificial sweeteners, so I am going to try the recipe several times using various natural sweeteners, like Stevia. --ed.]
• Microwave for about 1-1 1/2 mins until the apples are cooked (not mushy though). Remove from microwave (this sucker is gonna be HOT – use oven mitts) and immediately stir in 1/2 cup of cottage cheese. Yup – cottage cheese.
• Mix it all together & eat – it tastes like apple pie. Seriously. If you can’t stomach the cottage cheese, try FF vanilla yogurt. You get a fruit & protein & dessert all in one.

Enjoy!
Julie

Please email me at jules [at] pancakesandfrenchfries [dot] com if you have a great diet/exercise tip, recipe, or product you want to share! If someone hasn’t already suggested it, I will post it on the blog, give you the credit, and link back to your site or blog.

Things I Hope to Never Forget | The First Cheeseburger

The relevance of this moment lies not in the burger, but that he is old enough to eat by himself.  We always order him grilled cheese sandwiches because they stay together even after you cut them into little bite-size pieces.  The diner made a mistake in our order, so when I gave him his half of the cheeseburger I expected him to make a mess or choke on bites too large for his small mouth.

Instead, he held the ‘burger with confidence and peeked over the bun with pride as he took normal, thoughtful bites.  The Mister and I smiled and shared a high-five at the prospect of sitting down to lunch without having to cut food into tiny, little pieces…

Until we realized what we were leaving behind in all those tiny, little pieces.

A Call to Arms

I have the seen the future of the human race on the back of a Betty Crocker Oatmeal Cookie baking mix.  It doesn’t look good.

I normally don’t bake from a mix.  My compulsive, rule loving nature happily follows even the most complicated baking recipes to the letter and, for the most part, everything turns out as it should.  But several weeks ago there was a coupon, a sale, and an impulse buy that lead to a packet of cookie mix next to the tea and rice in the pantry.  With the New Year here, I can’t justify eating cookies much longer, if at all, so I decided tonight to make the cookies and be done with them.

The end of humanity as we know it won’t come from using a mix, per se.  No, the end of humanity will come because, apparently, those who use a mix don’t have two brain cells to rub between their two quickly devolving fingers.  You heat the oven to 375 degrees.  You  mix the dough.  And then?  Then the “recipe” tells you to drop the dough by rounded teaspoons onto the cookie sheets.  Fine.  But wait!  Then.  THEN!  Then you find tucked between parentheses a golden kernal of baking wisdom that only the people at Betty Crocker would know.

(For larger cookies, drop dough by rounded tablespoonfuls.)

Let me repeat that in case the concept is too difficult to grasp after only one read.

(For larger cookies, drop dough by rounded tablespoonfuls.)

Blink.

Blink.

Blink.

To whom are these instructions directed?  I am having trouble imagining a person standing in their kitchen, having made Betty Crocker Oatmeal cookies from the mix, and looking disappointedly at their petite size thinking, “I just…I just…I just wish I could figure out how to make these cookies bigger.”

Is the collective population so devoid of common sense, so lacking in deductive reasoning, that they need someone at Betty Crocker to tell them to use more dough?  Are we all such lemmings that without the “go ahead” to drop dough by the tablespoons we would instead eat gumdrop-sized cookies and suffer silently?

No.  I think not.

I say we do away with these patronizing instructions in hopes of saving the human race.  I don’t want whoever it is who needs this sort of cookie direction to stick one big toe in my gene pool.  I say we eliminate such obvious instruction from the package and let them starve while they search in vain for bigger cookies.  Let them sip coffee that it too hot.  Let them eat food still frozen in the middle.  Let them burn their fingers opening bags of popcorn filled with skin blistering steam.  Let them wrangle with the law of natural selection head on.

This is not so much a call to arms as it is a plea for brains.  Now, who’s with me?

Nicholas Scott on Ettiquete

There are certain rules of etiquette one must follow when breaking bread with members of dignified society. For example, you never salt your meal prior to tasting. One must always assume the chef is capable of seasoning properly. If, in fact, the meal is not seasoned to your liking, discreetly season to taste without fanfare.

In regards to salt and pepper, please do pass both, even when your dining companion asks for only one. Having the salt and pepper splayed across opposite ends of the dinner table is just unseemly.

Always butter your bread one bite at a time. Additionally, take your serving of butter from the dish and delicately place it on your bread plate. You may butter your bread from this serving only.

And, of course, I would be remiss if I didn’t mention the importance of always complimenting the chef. In particular, when feasting on roasted chicken, you should toast the chef by placing at least three uneaten pieces directly atop your head.

Continue to eat slowly and in a delicate fashion. You are not gorging at a trough, for Heaven’s sake.

Mouth closed, please. The world has no interest in seeing your masticated food.

Repeat the same procedure with the rice. If you maintain proper posture, as well you should, there should be no concern for food dropping.

Indeed, you should positively shower the chef in praise.

Finally, always offer a winning smile for dessert. It’s rather cheeky, but the ladies love it. Of course, I don’t have to share any of this to a fellow member of proper society, do I? I daresay I am preaching to the choir.

Popcorn

Have you ever wandered down the aisles of the supermarket, happened upon a yummy snack you haven’t had in years, and then gone home and become obsessed with eating said snack night and day? Internet, meet Popcorn. Popcorn, meet Internet.