dianaschnuth

After picking up a recipe for Key Lime Pie at my Weight Watchers meeting last week, I decided to think of variations to the basic recipe to make it a coconut pie for my upcoming luau. After a little searching online, though, I found a recipe for Light Coconut Pie that promised to be just what I was looking for.

I assembled the no-bake pie this afternoon, ramping up the “light” part even more than the recipe said: lowfat graham cracker crust, Splenda instead of sugar, and Cool Whip Free (which just tastes like Cool Whip to me). After the pie was assembled and cooling/setting in the fridge, I did the math to see how many points one piece of pie would be.

Damn you, sweetened coconut flakes. Damn you to hell.

We were even at Claudia’s Natural Food Market this weekend, and saw unsweetened organic coconut, and didn’t buy it, thinking that it was a little over-the-top… and not realizing that Meijer only sold sweetened coconut. Turns out that the sweetened coconut flakes added the most calories to the pie overall.

One piece of “light” coconut pie? EIGHT points. That’s one-eighth of a normal-sized pie. Not exactly “light” in my book, but certainly lighter than a normal dessert, I suppose.

Guess I’ll have to do a little more experimenting, and try the unsweetened coconut next time. I’m sure I’ll have a passably light coconut pie by luau time.

On my to-do list for this evening was posting more about the Japan Trip of 2007, since I’m running out of time to finish up with that before the next vacation. However, the other things on the to-do list took precedence.

I’ve rediscovered the joy of cooking, and spent a good part of this evening preparing food for the upcoming week. I cooked two cups of rice and portioned it out into six servings of one-third cup each. I made the Pureed Broccoli Soup recipe I read in this month’s Women’s Health magazine. Add to that the two single-cup servings of Three Amigos Chili I have stashed in the fridge from this weekend, and I’m loaded for bear.

Also on the agenda: a cardio workout with PUSH (quickly aborted ten minutes in, when the yoga-cardio chick started doing a V-step and some sort of jazz hands) and processing / uploading audio files from my Zen teacher‘s most recent retreat with his Zen teacher.

In the foreseeable future: Tomorrow is my second-ever Weight Watchers weigh-in and meeting. I have four more days of work before I get two weeks off. And I have only nine days to wait until I can see the sunny shores of Oahu!

I’ll try to post some more substantive entries within the coming week. We’ll see…

I made this recipe on Sunday, and both Aaron and I declare it a success. Granted, I forgot one ingredient in the crumb topping — 2 Tbsp. cold water — but it still turned out pretty good.

It’s not exactly low carb — OK, it’s not low-carb at all — but it is lower in sugar than normal desserts, thanks to the inclusion of Splenda products. Plus, I feel better about my food in general when I know what’s in it. No high fructose corn syrup for me, thanks, and make mine wheat flour.

I don’t remember where I got it in my head that I wanted to try to make my own mayonnaise. Might have been Alton Brown. Might have been my Cooking Club magazine. At any rate, it seemed pretty simple.

Tonight was the night I decided to go for it.

Attempt #1 began with two egg yolks, a cup and a half of olive oil, hot water, lemon juice, and seasonings. These items were poorly combined in my food processor, with oil poured in entirely too quickly, and the mayo never set up for a myriad variety of reasons. I even tried pouring it into the blender instead, to no avail. Batch #1 was a miserable failure, and went straight down the kitchen sink.

Attempt #2 began with a different recipe, from the book my Memaw bought me about a year before she died. Every time I have a stupid, basic cooking question, I crack open my copy of How to Cook Everything by Mark Bittman, and I say aloud, “OK, Memaw, how do you make _____?” as I flip through the index. This time, Memaw and Mr. Bittman taught me how to make a basic mayonnaise — including the proper technique.

One whole egg, ¼ cup of peanut oil (as a basic neutral oil), 2 Tbsp of lemon juice, and identical seasonings went into the blender. Then I slowly, s – l – o – w – l – y added another 3/4 cup of oil as the blender blended.

And, holy shit, I had mayonnaise.

It’s a little excessively lemony, and a little runny, so I think I know which ingredient to back off next time. That’s OK, because I’d intended this batch mainly as a base for tartar sauce; but I do want to perfect the method and the recipe before I move on to something a little different. After I get the basic thick mayo downpat, my next version will use diluted vinegar instead of lemon juice, and will include some Splenda, for a more Miracle-Whippy type of mayo.

My homemade mayo will never be like Hellmann’s, but it’s fun to make — and maybe I can stretch out our “real” mayo just a little and spice things up by having something a little different in the fridge.