Apple Pie

Ok, a fair warning here. This falls into more of the "Apple Crisp" category here, rather then "Apple Pie". I tweaked the recipe a little and included a crust, so mine is closer to a pie then a crisp. It's the oatmeal top that makes it more "Crisp". I think a pie should definitely have a pie top and bottom. Anyway...

This is low calorie because it has no sugar. The only two sweeteners are Truvia and Splenda. And, on a whole, I think this tastes pretty good. One of the elements to the crust is crushed pecans, which give it a rich flavor. 130 calories a server is great, too.

Ok, so that's all for this week. I have a busy day tomorrow, so I wanted to get all of these recipes down before the week was done.

Turkey Tacos

One of my favorite foods is tacos. I have a recipe my mom gave me with is out of this world. Honestly though, it came from Betty Crocker, so it's not authentic at all.

Rocco's recipe doesn't stray too far from my own in it's basic ingredients. It just doesn't have the "spice pack" that mine has. I'd say Rocco's tastes a lot "fresher" then mine, because all the ingredients are fresh, of course!

One of the key ingredients is fresh salsa. He doesn't make you make your own, although that would be good. Instead, he recommends using fresh salsa from the produce section of any grocery store. Market Basket sells an awesome brand and it tastes incredible. I can't remember the name off the top of my head, but it's the only brand they carry. It really pushes this taco to another level of goodness.

The other things that he has that I don't put in mine: tomatillo salsa, greek yogurt, and black beans. The tomatillo salsa I found that was great was from Trader Joes. The greek yogurt replaces sour cream, and it works really great as a replacement. Fat free sour cream is so bland. And the black beans add a nice flavor to it, so it almost because burrito like.

I'm not sure this is really lower in calorie then the tacos I make. I did notice that we had a lot left over and we ended up eating this three nights straight. A definite keeper in my book.

AWESOME Low Calorie Onion Rings

Another bad photo with a horrible camera flash. My flash will be returned to me hopefully soon and I will be able to get back to taking somewhat decent photos.

This has been one of my favorite recipes. It's crunchy, yummy, and has a zippy sauce to die for. All it takes are some vidalia onions, skim milk, egg whites, wheat flour, and panko whole wheat breadcrumbs. The secret is soaking the onions in the skim milk for 20 minutes. Then, toss them in wheat flour, a toss in egg whites, a toss in panko bread crumbs and you've got an awesome dish.

The sauce is real simple. Low fat Hellmans, liquid smoke, and a dash of tabasco. Now, I didn't have liquid smoke and didn't feel like spending hours looking for it. I did have worcestershire sauce, and it has no calories, so I substituted that. It tastes fantastic.

At some point, I'll come up with the best recipes of the month. This will be one of them.

Rocco's How Low Can You Go Marinara Sauce

Another day without my flash. These pictures
make me annoyed because the food doesn't look
as good.

So, you're thinking, what's up with pasta sauce, isn't it low cal anyway? Well Rocco is shaving off 30 calories with this recipe for a total of around 50 calories. And it's wonderful. It has such rich flavor. This is what makes the deep dish pizza so heavenly.

I made three batches this week. One went to a pizza my wife and I had for lunches. The other two are in the freezer, and I can pull them out at a moments notice. This is the best sauce I've ever eaten.

Chicken Marsala

First of all, my external camera flash died. So, my pictures are really lame right now.

I had never had chicken marsala before. The thing that scared me were the number of mushrooms in this recipe. It was a huge amount. I think this is how Rocco gets around not having other things, by overloading on mushrooms. I don't like mushrooms.

Normal chicken marsala comes in at around 750 calories. This one comes in at around 250 calories. It's pretty easy and tastes great.

Lobsta Bisque

I don't usually eat much sea food. On top of it all, the kind of lobster I like is the kind that comes in hot dog rolls slathered in mayo. This is a healthy way of eating lobster. And, we had a dinner party coming up, so I thought it would be cool to make this.

First of all, hats off to my wife for braving it out and buying the lobster. She was really nervous and I wasn't going to be able to get them. She survived though.

I also need to thank Melanie because she is a lobster aficionado and without her, I wasn't going to be able to complete this recipe. She allowed me to use her kitchen and cooking stuff, which was very helpful. Also, while I prepared the base for the bisque, Melanie took the lobster apart, per Rocco's instructions. It was rather complicated. This recipe goes for two pages and I wouldn't recommend it if you are short on time or patience. Rocco does say at the beginning of this recipe to do it when you have a leisurely weekend. Another words, lots of time. But, it does explain why lobster bisque is so expensive in restaurants.

Anyway, it came out great and everyone loved it. This recipe comes in at 120 calories a serving. The servings are huge. One of the things that made this great was that there was so many different flavors in each spoonful. It was a big hit.

Unfortunately, I probably won't make it again, because it's so complicated. But, it's one more recipe that I've done.

I Feel Awful About Falafels

I have a great falafel recipe. Unfortunately, it involves frying the mashed chickpea ball in lots of hot oil. It is so good, yet so bad.

I was really excited to try this Rocco recipe. So, I followed all the directions very carefully. It smelled great. The dressing looked like it was going to be awesome. Then, when it came to the taste, it was terrible. It was dry and way to garlicky. This was baked in the oven instead of deep fried. I also remembered that the recipe I liked uses fresh parsely, which this recipe does not.

Well, come to find out, I missed something in the directions. I accidentally substituted coriander for cumin. My recipe does call for coriander, so I think that was what threw me off. Still, it was a little dry for my taste. Rocco does have a recipe for flash fried chicken. I think I will try my recipe for falafel, but flash fry it instead. Perhaps this will give me a healthier option then the full fried version.