Well, Yom Kippur has come and gone and while I was feeling quite hungry most of the day, I figured it could help with my weight loss efforts. You see, I’m down more than 5 pounds with 10 more to go and I’m determined this time around to lose weight for good! I even made another low calorie “break the fast” recipe. One of my favorite dishes that my mom makes every year is the noodle pudding that’s been passed down to my family from generation to generation.
So even though noodle pudding (aka Kugel) should be pretty high in calories, I managed to figure out a way to keep it low cal with my handy dandy splenda sugar substitute. So how did I make my fantabulous dish? Well, take a look and then start cooking!
Grandma Dora’s Low Calorie Noodle Pudding:
Ingredients:
1 Package egg noodles
2 eggs (or egg beaters)
1/2 cup of splenda
1 cup of raisins
Directions:
Boil egg noodles
Drain and return to pot.
Add eggs, splenda and raisins to egg noodles
Spray pam in a frying pan (or use vegetable oil)
Pour noodle mixture into frying pan
Make sure the pan is the size of a dinner plate (not bigger)
Keep on medium flame and watch the bottom of the pan – once the noodles become crispy, put a dinner plate on top of the pan and flip it over. Then place the uncooked noodles on the bottom of the pan.
Cook 10 minutes or until golden brown on the other side.
Voila, you have Grandma Dora’s famous noodle pudding (with Splenda)
Now if you’re me, you have to improvise because otherwise, you won’t be able to flip the noodles. Instead, I started out by putting the mixture in a pan and then put it in a casserole dish, pre-heated the oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit and baked for 25 minutes. The dish still came out crispy and I received the ultimate compliment from my mother-in-law…”It’s just as good as your moms’ noodle pudding.”
Woo hoo. So I did it. And it’s low in calories! More tasty dishes to come. In the meantime, I’m bringing my kugel with me to lunch tomorrow. Nothing like a little noodle pudding to put a little spring in your step.
Memorial Day Recipes
It’s been a while since we’ve shared some stellar recipes with our readers and since it’s the holiday, I figured I’d share some of our favorite dishes that are Weight Watcher friendly. So before you bite into that 4 million calorie burger, here are some good tips for eating what you love and not bursting any buttons.
Tuna Sliders Anyone?
The first time I ever tasted a tuna slider was at a party thrown by CBS that kicked off the launch of the Rachel Ray Show. So I have to admit, this is not an original recipe, it’s actually Rachel Ray’s recipe for Asian Tuna Sliders. So stay away from those Bubba Burgers and fire up the tuna steak!
Lenore’s Famous Ambrosia
This one’s a classic that my mom has been whipping up since I was a kid spending my summers in the poconos. The ingredients for this one are simple. Throw in all your favorite summer fruit along with bananas, mini marshmallows, coconut shavings and a dollop of cool whip on top. You can also replace the cool whip with vanilla yogurt, but personally, I’m a Cool Whip fan all the way.
Lenore’s Patriotic Strawberry Shortcake Extravaganza
Here’s another simple recipe. You can either purchase an angel food cake mix and a 20 ounce can of crushed pineapple in its own juice.
Mix the two ingredients together, take a fork and make sure the cake batter is moist and mixed thoroughly.
In an ungreased pan, 10.5x 8.5 bake at 375 degrees for 20 minutes. When ready to serve take cool whip, cover the top and make the flag. For stripes on the flag use strawberries. For stars use blueberries.
Happy Memorial Day! Here’s to great food, conversation and a relaxing holiday!
Family Fun for Father’s Day
Family Fun for Father’s Day
By Frances Nankin
Executive Producer and Editorial Director, Cyberchase
This Father’s Day, weave math into your family fun with these quick and easy, skill-building activities from Cyberchase, the animated hit series that airs daily on PBS KIDS GO!. And don’t miss the all-new Cyberchase special episode, Father’s Day, premiering June 19 on PBS KIDS GO! (check local listings).
Make Banana Pancakes! (Math skills: Measurement, Fractions)
In Father’s Day, Creech’s dad Max gets the Cyber Dad of the Year award, in part because of his fabulous banana pancakes. Does your Dad of the Year like pancakes? Together, you and your child can prepare Max’s recipe for that special Father’s Day breakfast. Need more pancakes? Work with your child to double, or even triple the recipe!
Max’s Banana Pancakes
(Makes 8-10 pancakes)
1 egg
1/2 C. sour cream
2/3 C. whole wheat flour
2 TBL sugar
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp Salt
1/3 C. orange juice
1 C. mashed banana
In a medium-size bowl, mix together the egg and sour cream. Set aside. Sift together the flour, sugar, soda and salt. Stir flour mix into egg mix with the orange juice until moistened. Stir in the mashed banana.
Heat griddle with 2 TBL oil until oil is hot. Ladle mix onto griddle to make pancakes. Cook on one side until bubbly, then flip to cook other side.
Serve with butter and your favorite syrup, or eat as is!
Play Frisbee Golf (Math skills: Measurement, Using Numbers)
Here’s a fun way for the whole family to play golf on Father’s Day – Frisbee Golf! Dust off your favorite Frisbee, grab some paper and pens to keep score, and work together to set a “course” of landing targets for the Frisbee (a table, a picnic blanket, a hula hoop, etc.). Invite your child to help you measure the distance between the targets so they are at least 10 feet apart. Choose spots so the targets are not all in a straight line. The object of the game is to toss the Frisbee from one end of the course to the other using the least number of tosses, hitting each target as you go.
To play, take turns tossing the Frisbee toward a target – where it lands becomes the spot from which you take your next shot until you hit your target. Keep track of your score from target to target. (If you take three throws to hit a target, your score is three.) When all players have completed the course, lowest score wins – just like in golf!
Eating Out? (Math skills: Mental Math, Estimation)
Eating out for Father’s Day? Estimation is a powerful tool in mathematics. Before calculating a sum or a product, for example, using number sense to estimate the answer can help you know if your final calculation is reasonable. Here’s one way to give your child some quick and easy practice using estimation. At the restaurant, work together to estimate the total bill. To do this, decide on a way to make the prices of the menu items easy to work with (round up to the nearest dollar, for example). Then, use mental math to estimate the total.
Fight Boredom with the Dr. Marbles Gotcha Game! (Math skills: Logic, Problem Solving)
No one likes to be kept waiting at a restaurant, especially when you’re hungry. But you can make the time pass quickly when you play this fun math game. To set up, you need 15 sugar packets, 1 of them a different color. Arrange 14 of the packets in a circle. Put the 15th different-color packet in the center. The object of the game is to force your opponent to take the packet in the center Take turns removing one, two, or three sugar packets from the circle. T
Side Dish of the Week…Baked Polenta Fries
Last night we went out to dinner at Zoe Restaurant in SoHo with our close friends and after catching up over mojitos and crispy calamari, I was salivating over one of our side dishes and decided that this morning, I’d search the web for the best recipe for polenta fries.
This one wins my vote for best side of the week. They taste like fries – crispy on the outside, soft on the inside and beyond delicious. And if you bake them, they’re pretty healthy too! Don’t believe me? Then try out this Polenta Fries recipe and let us know how it turned out!
Mango Salsa Swordfish for Dummies
Last week I took a valiant attempt at making swordfish and failed miserably. But I have to say, I think the reason my creation tasted way too fishy had nothing to do with my culinary abilities – I blame it on Stop & Shop and their lack of fresh fish at the end of the weekend. But yesterday, we went to Stew Leonard’s and Bam! just like Emeril Lagasse (or perhaps a very distant relative), I was back in rare form. I picked up two huge pieces of swordfish, a few mangos, some limes and was ready to start grilling.
So without further ado, here’s my recipe for Mango Salsa Swordfish for Dummies:
Ingredients:
2 pieces of Swordfish
Slice one mango into small pieces
Ready made bruschetta or tomato and onion salsa (not saucy)
2 tablespoons olive oil
1/2 glass of white wine
1 tablespoon “I Can’t Believe it’s Not Butter”
1 Lime
Directions:
Pre-heat oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit
Spread olive oil on swordfish
Add butter
Sprinkle mango salsa and bruschetta mix on swordfish
Squeeze lime over swordfish
Pour wine over swordfish
Heat the fish for at least 30 minutes or until the fish is cooked thoroughly.
So there you have it! Hope you enjoy it! Incidentally, for those of you keeping score of my weight loss, I’m down a 1.5 pounds! Woo hoo! And according to a news report I saw this morning, if I cut out 100 calories per day for the next year, I could shed 11 pounds. If you have any great weight loss tips or recipes, then what are you waiting for? Share your comments now!
