Family Cookbook

Around Christmas of last year my sister and I decided that we were going to take on the task of making a family cookbook. We talked to everyone about it, the idea was a hit so we created a template page that people could print and write in or type into and sent it out to everyone. We also set a deadline for the fall of this year in hopes that people would write down recipes throughout the year since we all know that what you cook changes throughout the year. We've already been getting good feedback and questions (such as asking friends or co-workers to add a certain recipe but note on the page how they are connected to us) and we're excited about getting the actual recipes.

Have you ever done a family recipe collection? Any tips to share or lessons learned?

My fingers are crossed that everyone doesn't wait until the end and a couple reminders have already went out in hope that people do, at least, make notes of what they want to include even if they aren't writing them out yet!

Bring on the Sweet Treats

What's your weakness when watching what you eat? Sweet? Salty? Alcohol? Fried Food? Mine is definitely sweets. Sure going without crackers and pretzels wasn't easy at first but it was just a matter of choosing new snacks. But when I get a craving for sweets, a handful of peanuts or a small cup of cottage cheese isn't going to help.

With a little time and effort I've found a couple low calorie options that are much better than what I would have reached for awhile ago.

A quick fix is a Sugar Free Fudgesicle or Creamsicle. They have 30-45 calories depending on what brand you get and will often satisfy a sweet tooth. If you can wait about an hour, stick that Fudgesicle in the microwave for about 10 second to soften it, scrape it off the stick and into a small bowl, add 2 tbsp of crunchy peanut butter (or smooth if you prefer) a small scoop of light whipped topping like Cool Whip and mix it all up. Put it back in the freezer for about an hour (if you can wait that long) and than you have a lower cal, "blizzard type" treat!

If cookies are more your taste than you can take 1 cup of peanut better (smooth or crunchy), 1 cup of Splenda, and 1 egg. Mix it all together and drop onto a cookie sheet. Bake for 10 minutes at 350 deg. I get 12-15 cookies when I make them. They will satisfy a craving and you aren't going to sit and eat all of them at once, one or two and you're craving is probably gone without crashing your day.

If you've never used ricotta cheese as part of sweet treat, try that too. A little part skim ricotta with a packet of Splenda and a couple teaspoons of vanilla, mix it up, stick that in the freezer to chill for about 30 min and you have something that's really close to vanilla ice cream!

If you like these ideas then you may want to take a look at recipezaar for more ideas, I just looked up South Beach diet and found these and a lot more, most of which are phase specific to make it even easier.