Revenge of the Chronic Diet

I am so happy to present my very first guest blogger. Please meet Phyllis Salmons. As many of us have, she has been through the difficult struggle of losing weight. She has lost an amazing 90 pounds two years ago and looks fabulous!

Phyllis before

Phyllis 90 pounds lighter

Way to go Phyllis!!

Revenge of the Chronic Dieter

By Phyllis Salmons

Alas, my body is one of those kinds that even if I get it whipped into shape, it is true that I will

always have to be very careful about what I eat. This realization has created a great depression

when considering that I will never again truly enjoy delights such as Mama’s Apple Pie or her

Sliced Sweet Potato Pie.

A few months ago, it occurred to me that a good number of the calories in pie are in the

homemade crust. Now Mama’s was great, but I have not been one to make my own crust

because of having cats in the house – there is a fear of finding a cat hair in the crust. So I always

used store-bought crusts – not as good, but I felt an appropriate substitute under the

circumstances.

Now I love the crust as much as anyone, but it occurred to me that I could attempt a “low-cal,

low-fat” version of the filling and just omit the crust. Being that portion control is also my

downfall, it was important to attempt small amounts so as not to overeat. LOL did you ever

know of anyone who bought the Snackwell’s band of low calorie cookies and then proceeded to

have them all instead of the stated serving size of two cookies?

I started with the sliced sweet potato pie, making the filling just like Mama did only substituting

Splenda Brown Sugar for the Granulated Sugar – 1 cup of Granulated = ½ cup of Splenda

Brown Sugar = 385 calories.

And

Smart Balance Light Buttery Spread for the butter – where 1 Tbsp Butter is 102 calories

and 1 Tbsp of Smart Balance = 45 calories

Upon tasting of my tasting my Crustless Sweet Potato Pie, truly I was doing a happy dance!

The first photo shows the Crustless Sweet Potato Pie before baking – picturing about three

servings.

The the second photo shows one serving ready to eat!

The Next Experiment

A few weeks later, I wondered if I might do the same with Mama’s apple pie. On my first

attempt, I made the same to substitutions (Splenda and Smart Balance) in a single serve ramekin

so as not to overeat. I used a Granny Smith Apple, peeled, cored and sliced into thin wedges.

I sprinkled with cinnamon and a little pumpkin pie spice, used the Splenda Brown Sugar and the

Smart Balance. I didn’t know what to do about liquid, so I must have added about a quarter to a

third cup of water. I baked at 400 degrees for one hour.

The smell permeating the house was heavenly! How long had it been since I had smelled that

wonderful delight – if it tasted anywhere near as good as it smelled, then wow wee!

The taste was right on the money, but the apples were literally swimming in hot apple pie juice. I

ate the apples and drank the juice, making a mental note that next time the juice needs to turn

into what would better be called syrup.

Today I tried it again. With the apples sliced into the ramekin, I sprinkled on cinnamon, pumpkin
pie spice (I didn’t have any apple pie spice), with the Splenda Brown Sugar and Smart Balance
on it. To make the syrup, just guessing, I added one heaping teaspoon of flour and 2 Tbsp of cold
water.

This is what it looked like prior to baking for one hour in a 400
degree oven.

About half way through, I stirred it so that the top apples

would get down into the juice that had developed. Ah, this was
much better, not just a runny liquid!

After baking, I spooned the whole thing out onto a serving dish. If I weren’t going to photograph
it, I would have just eaten it straight from the ramekin.

Here it is just out of the oven and ready to eat:

 
OMG! Perfection!

I never have tried to figure the precise calorie count of the sweet potato pie, but clearly it is a
savings over the original version with crust and ample amounts I used to eat. For the apple pie, I
looked online and found a source stating that one-eighth of a 9-in. pie has 410 calories. Now I
figure that my ramekin of  Crustless Apple Pie has enough filling to equal three or four slices of
that apple pie (ok, without the crust), but I figure the whole concoction is about 200 calories!!!
So that’s my tale of the Revenge of the Chronic Dieter! Bwahaaaahaaaa….