Kelly's Sugar-free Blueberry and Apple Compotes



I ask and ask and ask for your recipes. And I get SO excited when you guys send them! I actually have a few reader submissions laying in waiting now. I'll post one a week. Yay!

This one is from Kelly S. who was inspired to play with her food and came up with recipes for TWO delicious compotes that she uses to top things like Greek yogurt and oatmeal!

If you have any questions for Kelly about her recipe, leave them in the comments below. If YOU have a recipe you'd like to share with the Foodie Nation, hit me up at bariatricfoodie@yahoo.com. (Recipes with pictures, please!)

Kelly's Sugar-free Blueberry Compote


Ingredients:

• 2 pkgs of fresh blueberries (rinsed and picked of stems, Kelly says, "lots of times I forget to do this!")
• 1/3-1/2 cup of sugarfree blueberry or grape jam (Smuckers make this, I find it at Walmart, but whichever flavor you can find)
• 1/2 lemon (Kelly uses both the zest and the juice)
• 1-2 tbsp no-calorie sweetener (Kelly uses Splenda), to taste

Kelly's Directions:
Firstly, taste your blueberries. Are they sweet enough? If not, you might consider adding a wee bit of sweetener to them while cooking.

In a shallow saucepan over medium-low heat, dump in the sugarfree jam (start with the smaller amount first).



Add the zest of the half lemon as well as all the juice from it. I use a juicer that I put the lemon half in and squeeze like crazy (working on my muscles, too!). So, I get quite a bit of juice. You may need to use both halves if you don't have this fancy tool. Please note that I have also used (horrors), the fake lemon juice. In fact, when I made this last month, I didn't have anything BUT the fake lime juice and I used it, tasted just the same.

Stir this and let it simmer and bubble away just until the berries start bursting and giving forth their juices. Turn off the heat and let cool; store in a container (I use glass so that it doesn't stain). If you like your compote thicker, use more jam and/or pull the berries as soon as they start bubbling.

Kelly's Sugar-free Apple Compote



Ingredients

• 3 c. of diced apples
• 2 tbsp no-calorie sweetener (Kelly used Splenda)
• 2 tsp cornstarch
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1/4 tsp of vanilla (or more to taste)
• 1/8 tsp salt
• 1/2 c. cold water

Kelly's Directions:

In a medium, nonstick pan, combine all the ingredients (except the apples) and stir until all the ingredients are dissolved. [Note: I usually dump everything in at the same time, including apples, stir and then proceed; works fine.]



Bring to medium-high heat, stirring often, for 7-10 minutes or until apples are soft (or to your desired doneness).

Then reduce heat to low, stirring frequently, until the mixture becomes thick and gooey. Transfer to a container, let cool, refrigerate and use as topping to anything your heat desires (cottage cheese, greek yogurt, oatmeal, etc.).

And here are Kelly's finished masterpieces:

I could TRULY swim in that...it'd probably be good or my skin too, ya think??? But lookit, it gets even BETTER:

In the immortal words of Randy Jackson from American Idol..."you know what's wrong with that [recipe]? ABSOLUTELY NOTHING!!!"

Thanks, Kelly, for taking the time to share your recipes and for playing with your food!



Riley's Mozzarella Sticks

PWYF??? Play with your food! Learn that acronym...then we can speak in secret languages and giggle as others look confused!

Moving on...seriously. This acronym is going to become increasingly important on Bariatric Foodie in the coming months...so I want you to know what I mean while I describe a "PWYF Moment." An e-mail I got from a reader, Melissa, perfectly describes this phenomenon.

Her son, Riley, (who is absolutely ADORABLE btw) decided to engage in a little PWYF action...

It all started with the mozzarella stick recipe...

Here is young Riley, extracting the string cheeses from their packaging...

Melissa assured me that he was CLOSELY monitored as he cut the cheese sticks.



As you can see, he has his dipping station all set up...

...And into the oven they go!

...And here is Riley's magnum opus...yummy mozzarella sticks. Don't worry Riley...mine have burst WAY too many times to count. But based on what we've seen here today...you are in for culinary greatness.

(Now quit doing my job so well or people will think they don't need me!!!)



Liz's Cuban Chicken Chili

~~by Jen



A big bowl of deliciousness



Here’s a fun fact! I am one of those weird people (yes, thank you for noticing) who has more than one person I consider my “BFF.” In fact, I have four, and two of them even have the same name!

One of my two friends named Liz is a non-op, but we were friends long before I considered WLS. She’s known by my other BFF’s as “The Cuban”, the very same one who inspired my “Havana Heaven” recipe.

Liz has been very supportive of me throughout this journey and she always makes sure to have healthier food options for me at her house when I come over. The best part is she’s considerate of what I need without being the food police, if that makes sense. Plus she thinks she is my Mom, even though I am 5 years older, so she takes it upon herself to text me notes like "Did you have enough protein today?" Ever helpful!

She and I work together for a utility company, and we were both working Christmas Eve day before I spent the holiday with her family. Liz very considerately texted me and told me not to bring lunch to work, she had made something for us and was bringing it in.

After the first bite of this, I KNEW I had to get the recipe. She laughed when I asked her for it, and pretty soon I understood why! This is one of those completely easy, super delicious meals you will make over and over again for yourself and your family. It's loaded with protein and fiber, and the perfect warm up on a cold winter's day.

Here’s how it’s done:

Liz’s Cuban Chicken Chili

Ingredients:

4 boneless skinless chicken breasts

1 can dark red kidney beans, rinsed and drained

1 can black beans, rinsed and drained

1 can whole kernel corn, drained

1 jar mild salsa

Shredded Mexican blend cheese and Greek yogurt, optional for garnish

Directions:

Add all ingredients to your 4 or 5 quart crockpot. Cook on low for 7 or 8 hours. I shredded the chicken in mine once it was done, but you could leave it in chunks if you prefer.

Top with shredded cheese, and some Greek Yogurt if you like the “sour cream” effect. Dig in!

If chicken isn’t your friend, this would be delicious with ground turkey or beef, or with steak tips or stew beef like I use in my “Practically Famous Chili.” If you want to go meatless, just increase the beans (maybe double them) and add some TVP like Nik does in her Turkey & TVP Chili.

The possibilities are endless!

This is really scrumptious as nachos topping too!

Leftovers Week: Nik's Chunkin' Pumpkin Protein Ice Cream



Leftovers Week!!! Woo-HOO!

What…you’re not excited? I understand. Normally, leftovers don’t excite me either, but wait until you see everything Jen and I have in store. So far, Jen has shared her delicious “Gobble it Down” Thanksgiving pizza. Have you tried it yet? If not, give it a whirl!

My first offering from leftover week comes with a shout-out. Most of us know the wonderful, gorgeous Eggface (a.k.a. Shelly) over at The World According to Eggface. I started my bariatric culinary journey with her and this offering was very much inspired by her.

It was also an intentional choice. You see, by the Monday post-Thanksgiving, my girls have gone through what leftovers they’ll go through and most of what’s left is not that bad. Some collard greens, some sauerkraut, a little turkey and…that one last slice of pumpkin pie.

I think they don’t eat that slice because of that age old unwritten rule, “she who made the pie from scratch, gets the last slice. Woe to him who eats her last slice!” So there it sat in my fridge, waiting for something to happen.

And don’t get me wrong, I love me some pumpkin pie and I even made it with whole wheat crust. But by Cyber-Monday…I’ve expended my carb limit for…um…life…and I am badly in need of a way to infuse protein into EVERYTHING I eat from this point forward.

So I got to thinking about what I could make with this piece of pumpkin pie that would make the carb hit a little less severe. Later that day I was in the grocery store and it all came together! I saw a tub of Edy’s Ice Cream with pie chunks in it and I said to myself, “self? We’re gonna make pumpkin pie protein ice cream!”

First, here are (most of) the ingredients. I used skim milk, which is not pictured here.

If you all read Eggface, you are familiar with the methodology of making protein ice cream. You basically make what I call a “double shot shake” (2 cups milk, 2 scoops protein, double the flavorings). I decided to go all the way with the pumpkin theme and make pumpkin pie ice cream as a base.

Pumpkin Pie Protein Ice Cream (a la Nik)

Ingredients

2 c. skim milk
2 scoops vanilla protein powder
3 tbsp canned pumpkin (not pumpkin pie filling)
5 pumps Davinci sugar-free pumpkin pie syrup
No-calorie sweetener to taste

I threw everything in my Magic Bullet and whizzed it up then threw that all in my hand crank ice cream maker. Jen loaned me her Hamilton Beach frozen yogurt and ice cream maker, but I forgot to freeze the barrel. D'oh! Nothing like cranking ice cream at 5 a.m. (that's how much I care about you all peeps...I forgot to make this last night and, not wanting to do a no-show, I got up at 5 to make ice cream...I'm either very loyal or the world's biggest idiot...).
 
In order to incorporate my lonely piece of pie, I first froze it, then cut it into bite sized chunks, like so:
 

Once the ice cream was almost set (and that lil' handcrank machine works FAST. I had slushie ice cream in about 5 minutes and it was about ready to go in the freezer at 10 minutes), I threw the pie chunks into the mix.

From there, everything went into the freezer for about an hour to firm up. The divas awakened to me trying to get my "money shot" (the finished product) and grumbling. I'm not the world's best food photographer anyway, but working at daybreak is especially challenging for me. I hope I did a good job! I think the ice cream half melted by the time I got the shot.

So anyway, this ice cream was so good, I wanted to figure out how to make it in the absence of a slice of pumpkin pie. I thought about it and here's what I came up with. The ice cream recipe stays the same.

At the very end of the process, instead of throwing in pie chunks you can throw in sugar-free shortbread cookies. Since I am head-to-toe in Girl Scout cookies at the moment (I'm the cookie mom this year), I might use a few Trefoils. They are about the same calories as a serving of the sugar-free version and have less than 2g of sugar per cookie. I'd probably use just one serving (5 cookies = 7g sugar).

Thus begins Leftover Week peeps. Check back everyday as we're posting two great recipes for each of the most commonly left over Thanksgiving foods! And if you have any questions or comments, hit us up! We love to hear from you!



Cook Along Contest: Courtney's Beefy Cabbage & Quinoa Soup

~~posted by Jen

Courtney's Beefy Cabbage & Quinoa Soup.

Our friend Courtney was inspired by Nik's Cabbage Sausage Stew during Soup Week, and she made a couple of interestingly delicious changes in her own version. This is why we always say, "Play with your food, people!" You never know what kind of delectable creation will come of it!

Instead of sausage, Courtney used ground beef. She also had some leftover quinoa, so she added that in as well to bump the protein up even more. I definitely have to try this version, it looks too good to resist!

Thanks for cooking along with us, Courtney! Great job playing with your food! Make sure to check your email for a note from us.

We have one more entrant from the Cook Along contest that will be shared later this week. Keep trying new things, y'all! If it works out great, send it our way with a pic so we can share it with all our Poucher Pals!

Cook Along Contest: Audra's Chili

~~posted by Jen


Our friend Audra combined ideas from both Jen's Practically Famous Chili and Nik's Turkey and TVP Chili to come up with her own delectable version! Here's how she made it, in her own words:

"Hi Ladies:

Thanks for your "cooking along" week for soups.  I didn't cook each day, but I was VERY inspired by your chili (it's my favorite cool weather food).  Here's what I made:



I had never made chili with pieces of steak before either, and it sounded so good!  I didn't have any leftover coffee (since I don't drink it), but I always used light beer to help tenderize the meat, so that's what I did.  And when I saw the TVP chili with the cocoa powder in in, I added some of that too.  So it's a bit of a hodge-podge, but it turned out really good!  Here's what I used:

.75 lb grass-fed ground beef
.5 lb steak/stew meat, cut into small pieces
about a can of light beer
store-bought chili seasoning (with onions, garlic, chili, etc.)
about 1T or 2 of natural (not dutched) cocoa powder
1 can mixed beans
1 can black beans
about 4 hours simmering, covered, and 2 hours simmering, uncovered
Man did it turn out good!  Thank you for the great ideas!  Next time, I'll buy some coffee so I can try that trick too."

She sent a pic too, and it looks just delicious!

Audra's Beefy TVP Chili

Thanks for cooking along, Audra! Check your email for a note from us. Way to play with your food!

Recipe Remix: Jane's Pot Roast with Mushroom Cream Sauce over Spaghetti Squash

~by Nikki

We've gotten great reviews of our decision to start doing recipe remixes. And we've even got a reader submission--from our friend Jane!

Now Jane totally saved my butt his week. I was scheduled to do a restaurant remix this week, but unfortunately life got in the way. You may not know this, but during the day I work for an disaster relief and development organization. If you've been watching the news you know that yet another disaster is headed for Haiti. It is in times like this that a) I become very, very grateful for everything I have b) my heart hurts for people who have had hardship upon hardship heaped upon them and c) my blog recipes go out the window.

In essence, food is great. My desire to help my fellow human is a bit stronger though. So please do your girl, Nik, a big favor and keep the people of Haiti in your thoughts and prayers. For today, however, the restaurant remix will have to wait.

But no worries. Jane to the rescue with a yummy recipe! So leftover pot roast. We've all had to contend with this at some point in our existence (unless you are a vegetarian in which case...maybe not...but then if you are I doubt you'd like this blog very much either...). There's about a million and one things you can do with chicken, but how can you remix beef?

Here's what she had to say about this dish came to be: 

I had a leftover pot roast and leftover spaghetti squash and no idea what to do with either one.  Staples in my kitchen are mushrooms and onions because they go with just about everything.  I put it all on the counter and the following was created.  I have no idea what to call it besides delicious.

Jane's Pot Roast with Mushroom Cream Sauce & Spaghetti Squash

Ingredients

1 pound precooked pot roast
½ onion, sliced

½ package mushrooms, sliced
1 c wine
½ c Greek yogurt
1 pat butter
2 cloves garlic
Yield from one spaghetti squash

Directions


Coat pan with butter. Add mushroom slices and onions and sauté. Add 2 cloves crushed garlic and cook additional minute. Add wine and using a spatula, deglaze pan. Add shredded pot roast meat. Simmer until liquid reduced by half. Add Greek yogurt and stir allowing the yogurt to warm. Serve over warm spaghetti squash.

Ah...I miss beef. It and I are no longer friends except once in a VERY blue moon.

Thank you Jane! Both for saving my butt and for sharing your WONDERFUL recipe with us. If you have any questions about the recipe, hit us up and we'll forward them along to Jane.

Recipe Remix: Dee's Thai Shrimp

~~posted by Jen

Dee's Thai Shrimp

Welcome to our very first "Recipe Remix" post. A recipe remix is exactly what it sounds like, we take an ingredient (in the case of this recipe it's a sauce) or dish from a previous recipe and remix it into a whole different dish!

This will help many of you who are faced with tons of leftovers and no idea what to do with them. Nik and I both abhor wasting food, there are just too many hungry people in the world. That's why we've both become so adept at "re-purposing" leftovers.

My Momma, Lord rest her soul, was always very good at stretching a food dollar. Thankfully, I inherited that trait from her. She would come home from work and be amazed that I had created a meal out of the few things we had on hand in the fridge and pantry.

In the early years of my first marriage, this skill served me well. Even though Brian and I both worked full time, once we paid our bills every week we had $14 left to feed us for a whole week. I am not kidding. But if you asked him today, over 10 years since our divorce, he would tell you we ate well on $14 a week.

S'anyway, we always encourage y'all to "Play With Your Food, People!" and tell us what creative things you come up with when you revamp one of our recipes. With that in mind, we're proud to announce that our very first Recipe Remix comes from our good friend Dee (Deedles on OH) out in Texas.

Dee used the leftover sauce from Nik's Thai Waldorf Chicken Salad and made this scrumptious Thai Shrimp!

In her words, here's how she did it:


"Remember the left over peanut sauce I had from the Thai chicken salad? Tonight I used it on some pan grilled shrimp. It was delicious!

I started with.... 
3oz of diced shrimp that had been sauteed in a pan with Ancho seasoning and a drizzle of honey.
1 Tb pine nuts
1/4 of an avocado, part diced small in the salad, the rest sliced on the side
2 Tb Craisins
3-4 Tb Peanut Thai sauce (leftover from Waldorf Salad).
1 tsp sesame seeds

Mix shrimp, pine nuts, craisins and 1/4 of the avocado together and slowly add peanut sauce, final amount used is personal preference.
Serve on a bed of Butter Lettuce and Baby Spinach, sprinkle sesame seeds on top. Remaining avocado and Nut Thins crackers on the side."


If we can ever convince her to move East, I swear Dee is going to be our official food photographer! She makes our food look SO much yummier than we do sometimes! Thanks for sharing, Dee!

Now you, yes you, sitting there staring at the screen and drooling? Get up, go to the kitchen, and Play With Your Food! When you're done, send us a pic!

Dee's Version of Nik's Chicken Thai Waldorf Salad

Bariatric Foodie is getting all "souped up"

~by Nikki and Jen

Jen stole this pic from Google images

Well, Pouchers, fall has arrived and here on the East Coast we've had some downright COLD days! The leaves are changing, the days are getting shorter and we ALL know what that means...

SOUP TIME!!!! Yeah baby!

We're dubbing October 24 through 31as Bariatric Foodie's first annual soup week. We've got some great recipes for hearty soups with plenty of protein to get you all warm and fuzzy for the winter. Starting next Sunday, October 24, we'll be posting a delicious soup recipe every day of the week!

In celebration of BF Soup Week, we're inviting all our awesome readers to "cook along" with us! Next Saturday we'll post a downloadable shopping list of the ingredients needed to make every single recipe, so you'll have time to get ready to get your soup on! Every reader who cooks along and sends us a pic of the recipe(s) they made gets entered in our first ever Play With Your Food Contest!

But we don't want to hog all the soup recipe writing limelight, so we're also inviting YOU to send us your favorite soup recipes. For every recipe submitted with along with a pic, we'll post them here on Bariatric Foodie and let the readers vote on their favorite recipe. The author of the winning recipe will also win a prize from the Play With Your Food Contest!

Prizes for the contest will be announced at the beginning of Soup Week, so stay tuned! In the meantime, we'll be sharing some ideas during this week to get you all warmed up for Soup Week! Come join us as we get all "souped up" for the winter!

Jane's Spicy Jalapeno Dip

~by Nikki

I think (suspect?)…I’m not sure but…this little blog might be coming into its own.

My evidence for such a statement?

Well…first a few of our friends stepped in to help me when I couldn’t take pictures of my banana bon-bons. And lately, we’ve been hearing from you guys. A lot.

AND WE LOVE IT!!!

So last week, Jen did a BF Basics on Greek yogurt. Shortly thereafter we got a message from our friend and Poucher, Jane, who had the following to say:

“I have a couple of recipes to share with y'all. Wasn't sure how to send them through the blog, so thought I'd send them here.


The first is a spicy dip based on a dip from a local restaurant. Chuy's creamy jalapeno dip is famous and I've created a high protein version that my kids adore!”

Yeah…so we’re ALL about dip here at BF. Dips are a great way to get your protein in while sneaking in a few veggies or a bit of fruit. And dip also helps kids to eat their fruits and veggies too. But Jane’s message intrigued me especially because, although I’ve never heard of Chuy’s, I love me some spicy food! So I asked her to snap a picture of her creation and send it along.

And she did! And so I am pleased to share it with you:

Jane’s Creamy/Spicy Jalapeno Dip

And look...she even takes "purdier" pictures than me!

Ingredients:



1 package buttermilk Ranch dressing mix
16 oz. Greek yogurt
1/2 tbsp lemon juice
1/2 tbsp lime juice
1/2 cup chopped pickled jalapenos
1/3 cup chopped cilantro
2 cloves of garlic chopped
1/4 cup or so of buttermilk

First, finely chop the jalapenos, cilantro and garlic. (I chop it in my mini-chopper with the juices)

Then, mix in the rest of the ingredients.

Use buttermilk to thin it out enough to get it to where you like it.

I tried this recipe out for myself last weekend. I must say I’d never encountered pickled jalapenos before, but they were quite good. I also wasn’t quite sure what to do with the rest of the buttermilk I had…so I started tinkering around with a Carbquik buttermilk biscuit recipe. Stay tuned.

Thanks to Jane for being such a dedicated Poucher and, more importantly, for sharing her creation with us!

Jackie's "Smiling Belly" Salad

Hey friends. Sorry for the lag time between posts. Pouch Party(TM) seems to have been DISCOVERED (hence the fact that I have been ordered...erm, instructed to use the damn trademark symbol whenever referencing it). I'll post a rundown of booked parties next week so that folks don't miss out on the fun and, as always, if you want Pouch Party(TM) (<---gah, that's gonna take some getting used to!!!) to come to you, hit us up!

Moving right along...

Here at BF, we love to hear what our fellow pouchers are up to in the kitchen. It is our sincere hope that this blog serves as inspiration for each of you to go out and create your own culinary masterpieces. Some folks even feel inspired to share those masterpieces with us.

One such person is our good friend Jackie. She's in the early stages of her journey and wrote to us yesterday to share a great recipe she came up. The name alone makes it a rock star recipe but check out how many ways she's got protein going in here. It moved my heart. I dunno if we inspired her to do this at all, but people? Get your protein!!!

Anyhoo...without further adieu...here's Jackie's message:
 
Hey Nik:

Like you I LOVE to cook! Now that I am a post op RNY too, I will be experimenting. Here is a gift for you, something I made the other day and it has sat with my pouch really well! Feel free to use it, change it up, whatever. Peace and have a great week !

Smiling Belly Salmon Salad

1 small can salmon (red or pink) do NOT drain liquid or bones.
2-3 TBS of NO-Fat Mayo
1-2 TBS of cottage cheeze
Salt/pepper/ to taste (I also like to use CURRY powder! YUM!)


Directions
Mix salmon and mush it good with a fork. Just mixing vigorously with a fork will make it the right consistency. Add your Mayo and Cottage cheese, mix some more. Add spices mix some more.

For NEWLY post Ops (In stage 2-3) you can just eat it as is. Contains a good 31 grams of Protein and no carbs! For those who can eat regular food you can add this mixture to some salad greens or maybe a low carb bread or cracker or tortilla.

Curry or spicy Salsa or Thai/Korean spice can give this quite a kick if you don't like "bland" fishy flavor.

(Notes: This is Bariatric Friendly for stage 2+, basically as long as you can have pureed foods.) Below is the nutrition facts for a 3 oz serving.

Protein: 31 grams!
Carbs: 0
Sugars: 7g (This is from the nofat cottage cheese)
Calories: 165

Warmly,

Jackie

Tony H.'s Peanut Butter Crepes

Hey kids! This is the first in a series of guest posts we're doing over here at BF. Cuz we're not the only ones with good ideas or inspiration to share! This one comes from Tony H. our Zumba-loving, Click-drinking friend from OH. Tony wrote to me about this recipe and at first I was lukewarm. He has since convinced me of its nominousness. He was MUCH more modest in the titling on his blog, simply calling the post "Peanut Butter Crepes with Cinnamon Cream Cheese." But doesn't Peanut Butter Love Haze sound positively purple (purple to me = Zen).

S'anyway out at his blog "The Shrinking Titan" and if you make this recipe, holla! I am still on PB restriction so I'd LOVE to know how it tastes. So without further adieu..heeeeeere's TONY!

Excuse me while I type this… I’m suffering from after glow right now…

I just made the most nomalicious dish. I’m stuffed, I’m satisfied, and if I didn’t make it myself I’d feel guilty.

Before you say “OMG I can’t make crepes… wtf are you thinking child!” Trust me… you CAN do it. You WANT to do it… Your carb deprived stomach is singing a chorus of Natural Blues begging you to make some of this. (AND THIS IS PRETTY MUCH A NO CARB CREPE!)

First of all… you MUST use a non stick pan (the ones with the nice black teflon coating.. not the shiny silver ones) You need to get it hot first (medium heat) and you need to spray it down with cooking spray every time you make a new crepe.

My friend sent me this recipe (his skinny ass keeps on a low carb diet)

I vamped it a tad bit for my liking

Crepes:
1 Egg
6 egg whites (I used 1 cup of egg whites from a carton)1/2 tsp vanilla (um… I used 2 tsps)
1 1/4 TBL Splenda
2 TBL all-natural peanut butter, creamy (I used 2 TBL of kroger crunchy peanut butter)

Mix up your eggs with a blender or a strong wrist held whisk until they are all emulsified and foamy

Mix in the vanilla, splenda, and peanut butter (not sure how, but the peanut butter does dissolve nicely… if you’re paranoid about the nuts and you used crunchy, you might want to run this mixture through a strainer)

Again, Hot non-stick pan sprayed down..

Less is more with crepes… gently coat the pan with a thin layer of crepe mix. (If you screw up, so what, it’s part of the learning process… you can still eat it, it just won’t be pretty… your tummy won’t care)

Let the crepe cook for about a minute… If you did it perfectly you probably won’t have to flip it because it will have cooked through.. if not, go ahead and flip it and let it cook for about 30 seconds more.

Now… about that flipping thing… If you sprayed the pan down well enough you might luck out and be able to flip it in the pan with a flip of the wrist… (like in the cartoons!) Otherwise I suggest using a pair of tongs and a flipper to flip it (again… practice young padawan)

Now that you have your first warm and delicious peanut butter crepe goodness… you’re ready to top it!

Cinnamon Cream Cheese Filling

4 oz fat freecream cheese (1/2 block)
1 1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 vanilla extract
1 1/2 TBL splenda

Mix that goodness up nice and smooth and slap it on your warm crepe.

It’s enough to make you wanna slap yo mama

I was only able to eat one of these (GOD I LOVE FOODS THAT FILL ME UP!!!!)

I put the rest in a baggy and plan to make another later. This time I’m going to blend up some blackberries that I have in the fridge, boil them down with some splenda, and top my crepe.

(fruit is always being boiled down with splenda in my house… you can turn anything into dessert ith a little fruit sauce!)

I don’t think I’ve ever shared a recipe on here.. but this one was just so surprisingly good that I had to share!

Shown above with a dab of whipped cream, mint, and cinnamon/splenda powder.