E Versus S

If you don't own the Trim Healthy Mama books, you will not know what S and E mean after the recipes I post. To give you the simplest explanation: S means Satisfying. It refers to meals that are higher in fat and low in carbohydrates. All meals (S and E) are rich in protein to help satisfy your hunger. E means Energizing. These meals are low fat and higher in carbohydrates, good carbohydrates, however, not carbohydrates from starchy foods or sugar. S and E meals are not meant to be eaten at the same time. If you have an S dinner, then you should also eat an S dessert if you have dessert. If you eat an E dinner, then you should stick to an E dessert. If you can remember this, and space out your meals 3 hours apart, then you're on the right path to becoming a Trim Healthy Mama (or Dada or Single Lady or Single Gent or whatever...).

Pumpkin Cake (E)

This is the Pumpkin Cake recipe I referred to in the Apple Cake recipe below. It tastes especially good after sitting in the refrigerator for a day. Make sure to refrigerate it. It lasts much longer! I tried making a pumpkin cake using S ingredients, but I don't particularly like the way it turned out. There's something about the flavor of the THM baking blend and butter that I don't like. I'll just stick with this one.

Pumpkin Cake (E)

Cooking spray

1 15 oz. can of pumpkin 

2 cups old-fashioned oats, ground into flour in a blender

1/2 cup old-fashioned oats (left whole)

1/4 teaspoon salt

2 teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice

3/4 cup Gentle Sweet*

1 cup nonfat plain Greek yogurt

1 cup egg whites (carton or fresh), lightly beaten

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Lightly coat a 13 x 9 inch baking dish with cooking spray.

2. Add all the ingredients together in a bowl and blend well. Pour the batter into the prepared pan and bake for 40-45 minutes or until golden brown on top. Leave the cake in the pan to cool.

*Don't tell Serene and Pearl, but I have been known to use Splenda in my recipes if I am out of Gentle Sweet. 

Carmelized Butternut Squash (S)

Here's a twist on Ina Garten's Carmelized Butternut Squash. This is delicious buttery goodness, but remember Pearl and Serene recommend limiting butternut squash portions to half a cup when in S mode (I may have eaten more than half a cup with my Thanksgiving meal ;)).

Carmelized Butternut Squash (S)

1 butternut squash
4 tablespoon butter, melted
1 1/2 tablespoons Super Sweet Blend
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon black pepper

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Cut off the ends of the squash and peel. Cut lengthwise. Remove seeds and cut into 1 1/4 inch cubes. Toss the squash with the butter, Super Sweet, salt, and pepper.

2. Roast the squash on a pan for 45 minutes or until tender. Turn the squash a few times to ensure even cooking.

Apple Cake (E)

Here's an apple take on the Bust-a-myth Banana Cake in the THM Cook Book (page 298). I have also tried making this substituting the banana with a can of pumpkin and adding pumpkin pie spice. If you try pumpkin, make sure you add more sweetener, otherwise it is more like pumpkin bread. Apples and bananas are sweet to begin with, so they don't need as much sweetener. I love this dolloped with a bit of Greek yogurt for breakfast!

Apple Cake (E)

Coconut oil cooking spray
3 cups chopped, peeled apples
2 cups old-fashioned rolled oats, ground into flour in a blender
1/2 cup old-fashioned oats (left whole)
1/4 teaspoon mineral salt
2 teaspoons aluminum-free baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground allspice
1/2 cup Gentle Sweet
1 cup nonfat plain Greek yogurt
1 cup egg whites (carton or fresh), lightly beaten
1 tablespoon vanilla

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Lightly coat a 13 x 9 inch baking dish with coconut oil cooking spray.

2. Combine all ingredients in a large bowl. Pour the batter into the prepared pan and bake for 35 to 40 minutes, or until golden brown on top. Leave the cake in the pan to cool.

The Very Best Pumpkin Pie (S)

The original recipe for this pie is my brother-in-law's recipe and even my husband who hates pumpkin pie loves this one. I wanted to enjoy some of this pumpkin pie without the guilt which is why I decided to tweak it. My taste buds can't tell the difference!

The Very Best Pumpkin Pie (S)

4 ounces cream cheese (Softened to room temperature)
1/4 cup butter (1/2 stick) (Softened to room temperature)
7.5 ounces canned pumpkin (1/2 can)
2 eggs
1/2 cup Gentle Sweet (more or less depending on your desired sweetness)
1 teaspoon Super Sweet
Pumpkin pie spice and vanilla extract (to taste)
THM Traditional Pie Crust (page 325 of THM Cook Book)*

Preheat oven to 300 degrees. Have a pot of hot water on the stove ready to go, bring to a boil, then reduce to a slow simmer.

Cream the butter until it is soft and smooth with a paddle attachment in the mixer on low setting. Add soft cream cheese, mixing on low until smooth. Add Gentle Sweet and Super Sweet slowly. Combine thoroughly. Add the pumpkin. Continue mixing slowly at a low speed. Scrape and combine fully. Add eggs and combine. (At this point if the mixture looks grainy, take the bowl off the mixer and put it on the pot of hot water. Scrape from the bottom and along the sides to prevent the mixture from cooking. What you are doing is softening the fat so that it will all congeal together). Once the mixture is smooth and not at all grainy, add the vanilla extract and pumpkin pie spice to taste. Add a little at a time, tasting to determine how much spice you prefer.

Pour mix into pre-baked pie shell. Bake slow at 300 degrees until the edge of the pie is set and the middle is very slightly still undercooked (the center will be about the size of a quarter). Set timer for 45 minutes and continue to check every 5 minutes or so. It is easy to overbake. Let cool. Refrigerate. Serve with whipped cream.

*I found that it was easier to press the dough for the THM pie crust into the pie pan itself rather than trying to roll it out due to the sticky nature of the dough.

Welcome to My Blog...

Let me start off by saying I love to bake. I didn't always love cooking, but now that I can cook meals and lose weight, I find much more joy in it (though not in washing the pots and pans afterwards). Being overweight is something that I've struggled with for the past 25 years, since adolescence. My solution in my youth was to basically starve myself--eating too few calories. That worked as a 17 year old even though it was unhealthy. Now at 35, that doesn't work. I need food to keep up with my four active children and to keep my sanity! When I got pregnant with my oldest child ten years ago, I gained quite a bit of weight naively thinking that I could easily lose the weight once the baby came. I gained over 60 pounds and only lost about forty of them. Fast forward to today, and I am still about 20 pounds from where I'd like to be, but I am getting there, and I'm a lot closer to that goal than I have been in ten years! Friends introduced me to Trim Healthy Mama (www.trimhealthymama.com). I didn't really want to do it at first because it felt like just another fad and something that would be too hard to do, giving up sugar and breads and chips and crackers. I didn't realize that those things were the very things keeping me 50 pounds overweight. A snack here and there surely couldn't hurt. Here's where I had trouble though--those things were becoming my meals. I was eating empty carbohydrates all day long and seriously lacking protein and nutrients. If I did eat protein, it was usually in the form of dairy mixed with sugar of some sort (cottage cheese and jam or sugary yogurts). I was uninformed about how to eat healthy and tasty meals. I figured healthy meant tasteless, and I did not want tasteless meals that did not satisfy. Reading the Trim Healthy Mama (THM) cookbook and plan book changed everything. At first what they were saying did not click. The concept made sense to me, but I couldn't figure out how to apply it without going crazy and having to have my whole life planned out. Part of the fun of eating is making stuff that you're craving, not that you planned out three days before. I finally feel like I have that freedom to decide last minute what's for dinner, lunch, breakfast, snack (though that can be a little crazy if you don't have the ingredients at home--some foresight is good). I know how to choose foods that nourish the body and satisfy the taste buds. I know how to order when I'm eating out with friends and family. I know how to eat when I'm at someone else's house. I'm not saying that I do it correctly 100% of the time. I do allow myself to try things I know are not on plan, but I don't make that the pattern. My lifestyle has changed and for that I am grateful. If at this point, you have no idea what I'm talking about, read the books.

This brings me to the reason I decided to start this blog. I already said I love to bake, so a lot of the recipes on here will be desserts. Mostly they are recipes that already existed (either in the THM cookbook or in one of my other cookbooks) that I have tweaked to my tastes. I'm picky when it comes to flavors in desserts. It needs to taste good and not have a funny aftertaste or texture. Sugar is a major NO-NO. I don't need to tell you how good sugar tastes though ;). Nothing compares to the goodness of sugar and butter, but I am doing my best to do the next best thing for those of us trying to eat better and lose weight. I hope you enjoy the recipes I share here.

Have a happy Thanksgiving! May you be thankful for the life and the body God so carefully designed and gave to you.