Quickie replacement for Peanut Butter Pie!!!

Hey everyone. I'm sorry I haven't posted to this blog more regularly. I haven't been creative in the kitchen lately. These days, my creativity has been devoted to my Photoshop and CSS 2.1 studies. Here's a quick update:

• I'm down to 317 lbs now but need to push harder towards that goal.
• My wife, Melissa, has reached her goal weight. Read about it here: Melosophy By Melissa.
• I've been deep into working on websites for clients (3 projects with a 4th on the drawing board).
  

So, last night, Melissa and I were sitting down for a little TV. I had been wanting something sweet but didn't want to fail miserably in watching my calories. A few nights ago, we had our friends, Andrew & April, over for dinner and dessert. I made Hungry Girl's version of Tiramisu pudding. If you don't know Hungry Girl, she's an inspiration for low calorie substitutions. Her recipes are tested and they taste amazing. She has a book called 200 Under 200. The name says it all. 200 recipes all under 200 calories. They're awesome. You can check her website by clicking on "Hungry Girl" above. Click on "200 Under 200" to find where you can buy the book.

So here's my idea. I wanted something sweet and peanut buttery. I wanted peanut butter pie. So I took Hungry Girl's Tiramisu pudding and modified it. The original recipe contains:

• 60-calorie sugar free vanilla pudding
• Ricotta
• Fat-free cool whip
• Vanilla Extract
• Splenda
• Cocoa powder

You'll have to get the book to see exact measurments. I'm not going to plagiarize. Her recipes are well worth the price of the book.


I modified the recipe as follows. Just three simple ingredients. That's all. Here's how you make a "Crustless Peanut Butter Pie Pudding" You need:

• 1 60-calorie sugar-free vanilla pudding (snack size)
• 1/4 cup of fat-free cool whip (shoot for the store brand. Much cheaper)
• 1 Tbsp Peanut Butter (go with the reduced calorie/reduced fat versions)

You can dump all of these into the bowl you plan to eat it from. That's the best part. No additional cleanup of kitchen equipment. Mix everything well until it takes on a light tan color. Whip it rapidly to give it a light, fluffy texture.

That's it, you're done. Just eat. It's a great substitution for peanut butter pie. There are so many ideas that come to mind. When having a dinner party, I'm sure this can be poured into individual pie crusts and frozen for a mini frozen PB pie that your guests will thank you for. They won't even know that the calories have been cut.

Another idea: find the low fat, low cal graham crackers at your local grocery store. They come in long sheets so split the sheet in the middle to make two smaller squares. Spread some of this pb pudding between the two squares of graham cracker for Peanut Butter Pie Ice Cream Sandwiches. I'm planning to make that one this weekend.

Good luck everyone. If you try this, I'd love to hear your comments below. While eating this pudding last night, I had a revelation...we also love fondue. Knowing how much fat and calories are involved, we just Fon-don't these days.

I'm going to the kitchen this week (tonight, I think) to test my idea for a single-serving beer cheese fondue that should come in under 200 calories. Maybe even under 150. If all goes well, you'll see it posted here on my blog soon.

and now...my haiku:


Oh Peanut Butter
Stay near my heart forever
Sorry for Heather