Which explains how I ended up with 2 large jars of applesauce, and absolutely no idea what to do with them.

This recipe, which was from 500 Cupcakes book boasted that it’s ‘simple to make and low in fat, this recipe is based on the classic streusel cake.’ Right on! You got me at ‘simple’ and ‘low fat’.

Here we go!

Ingredients:

(For the cupcakes)
1/2 cup margarine, softened
3/4 cup packed light brown sugar
1 lightly beaten egg
3/4 cup unsweetened applesauce
2 cups self raising flour
1 tbsp baking powder
1 tsp cinnamon powder

(For the topping)
2 tbsp margarine, softened
1/2 cup icing sugar, sifted
3 tbsp chopped walnuts ( i used almonds)
2 tbsp rolled oats
2 tbsp all purpose flour
1/2 tsp cinnamon

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 170 C.
2. In a medium bowl, beat the margarine and sugar with an electric mixer until pale and creamy. Slowly add the egg, and then the applesauce, beating well after each addition. Add the flour, baking powder, and spices, mixing until just combined.
3. To make the topping, combine all the ingredients in a small bowl. Mix with a fork until the topping resembles coarse breadcrumbs. Set aside.
4. Spoon the batter into baking cups. Sprinkle some topping on each cupcake and bake for 20 to 25 mins.

Best eaten freshly baked, as toppings lose crunchiness after 1 day. Just reheat the cupcakes in the toaster before eating and you’re good to go!

I personally think that the brownie is fudgier than most recipes i’ve tried but still not fudgy enough.. maybe if i added some choc chips it would be fudgier but i guess then it won’t be called a skinny brownie anymore right.

dayah said it’s more like a really moist cakes which works for me too! coz then i have a recipe for a skinny cake. but i have to admit this recipe is a keeper. it’s really quite yummy and addictive.

but anyway, skinny brownie.. recipe is behind the cut..

Ingredients:

• 2 tbsp margarine
• 1/3 cup sugar
• 1/4 cup cold water
• 1/2 tsp vanilla
• 1/2 cup flour
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 2 tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder
• 2 tbsp chopped walnut

1. Preheat oven to 180 c
2. Mix flour, cocoa powder and baking powder
3. Melt margarine in a small saucepan, remove from heat
4. Stir in sugar, vanilla and water
5. Stir in flour, cocoa powder and baking powder
6. Stir in walnuts
7. Pour batter into a 8 x 4 x 2 inch loaf pan
8. Bake at 180 c for 20 min
9. Try and resist temptation of tasting the brownie
10. Fail and pop 1 in your mouth. YUM!

We’ve Gone Italian with Fritatta, so now let’s go Mexican. Or Spanish. Whatever.

For some reason, I have this insane urge to wear a sombrero, and eat nachos chips with salsa, when I hear people speaking Spanish. Ah, no importanta, pero, me gusta escuchar la lingua Espanol. Es muy muy bonita.

Hahaha. My Spanish teacher would be so disappointed in me!

Okay lets just get on with it. I got the recipe here, but basically you can play around with whatever fillings you want. I forgot to buy salmon, so I used boneless chicken, boiled and shredded. And popcorn chicken. Well, whatever’s available. With wholemeal tortilla. I mean, since we are talking healthy here.

Well, that was what the writer claimed for her recipe of cheese panna cotta in orange soup. If you have ever eaten panna cotta, you know how creamy and rich and awesomely delish it is. Basically in this case, it is a soft white jelly, made with cottage cheese, which gives it a creamier flavour, without the fat. It is served in a soup made from oranges.

Half cup of low fat cottage cheese has only 80 calories as compared to ricotta made with skim milk, which has 170 calories. Of course, there is also another choice, fromage frais, which is also a creamy fresh cheese with lower calories and fat. However, it is harder to get hold of, except at gourmet grocers, which is probably Market Place in town, so nope. I go for convenience.

Ingredients:

4 cups low fat milk or soya milk

1 cup cottage cheese

1/3 cup white sugar or to taste

6 tsp gelatine powder

Soup

2 cans of mandarins in syrup or 6 mandarins peeled and soaked in 1 cup of syrup

cold water to taste

Directions:

1. Place milk in a pot together with cheese and sugar. Heat till sugar dissolves, then whisk in gelatine powder.

2. Pour milk mixture into ramekin cups. Leave to cool, then place in refrigerato to set. It will take a couple of hours.

3. If you are using fresh oranges, place 1 cup of sugar in a small pot and add 1 cup of water. Heat gently till sugar dissolves. Leave to cool. Add peeled mandarin segments to marinate segments to marinate for a while. Place oranges in a blender together with its syrup. Process tell it turns into a thick soup. Place blender bowl in the refrigerator till needed.

4. To serve, have a basin of warm water ready. Place the jelly ramekins in it for a minute. Using a knife to loosen the edges, unmould the jelly into a shallow dessert bowl.

5. Pour the orange soup to form a pool round the jelly. Garnish with a whole raspberry/blackberry/strawberry and a mint leaf and serve at once.

There you go. We can only eat the stems, people, and NEVER EVER, eat rhubarb leaves because they are poisonous!

And just a little bit of tidbits about this little vegetable:

Rhubarb has been found to have anti-oxidant, anti-inflammatory and anti-allergy properties. Fresh rhubarb stalk is a very good source of dietary fiber and is beneficial for those suffering from indigestion. It is usualy made into pies (typically with strawberries), which is why it is also called the ‘pie plant’.

There you go!

Fresh rhubarb is tangy, fibrous and a bit sourish. Sort of like eating a green mango. I’m not such a big fan of the stewed one, because I found it too mushy. Maybe I’ll try again, and not stew it for too long. The black stuff are vanilla beans and to be honest, they make the pudding look slightly unappetizing (though they add great fragrance!!), so I’ll cut down on the vanilla next time.

Recipe here.

Best eaten warm and freshly made.

Therefore when I found this corn chowder recipe, I didn’t want to screw it up, and triple checked the cooking directions with my mom. The rainy weather these days is just perfect for this recipe!

So here’s our version since my mom doesn’t believe in buying chicken soup stock:

Ingredients:

1 teaspoon sunflower or canola oil

4 cloves garlic

2 cloves shallots

1 inch ginger

1 large white onion, chopped finely

100g boneless chicken, diced

1 stick celery, finely sliced

1 medium potato, scrubbed and chopped into small dice

2 1/2 cups water

400g can light evaporated milk

1 tablespoon flour

400g can creamed corn

salt and pepper to taste

Instructions:

1. Process shallots, ginger and garlic until finely blended. Heat oil in a non-stick saucepan; ad blended mixture until fragrant. Add onion and celery and cook for a few minutes over medium heat. Add potato, chicken and water, cover and simmer for 8-10 minutes or until vegetables are cooked.

2. Whisk evaporated milk and flour together and stir into soup mixture. Simmer for a few minutes until slightly thickened, then add corn and heat through. Season to taste and serve hot.

Personally, I think they are best eaten the next day, when the chicken and vegetables have absorbed the flavour overnight.

“This beetroot chocolate fudge cake will hit you between the eyes and knock you out. The beauty of this recipe is that it is incredibly rich and deep in flavour, yet hardly uses any flour and fat.”

Yeah. Whatever the description said.

Recipe here and below is my slightly tweaked version:

Ever since my sister came back from India, all she could talk about was the extremely delicious veggie burger she ate there. And absolutely nothing could be compared to the Indian McDonalds’ Veggie Burger (IMVB).

Well, firstly , I have no idea what the IMVB tastes like , or even looks, but I figured, it should look like a regular burger patty.

I found the recipe here, but I didn’t have all the ingredients, so here’s my version:

Ingredients:

1 can of hummus

1 egg

1/2 cup breadcrumbs

2 cloves garlic

cayenne pepper

chilli sauce

corn kernels

Directions:

1. Chop garlic finely. Add to hummus, stir well.

2. Add egg, breadcrumb, pepper, chilli sauce, and corn, and mix well until it forms a firm paste.

3. Heat a non stick frying pan. Add 1 tsp olive oil.

4. Scoop 1 tablespoon of paste onto pan and fry each side for about 10 mins ( I like mine crispy and firm!)

5. Serve with wholemeal bread, and vegetables!

Serves 6. (depends on the size of the patties)

Taste test: The patties were reddish orange because of the chilli sauce, so each time I bit into the patties, I expected them to taste like fish or prawn burger. But nope. They tasted like spicy hummus (DUH!), on a patty, with corn. Wish there were more corn!! I liked it, my sister didn’t.

I’ve rambled enough. I heard that it’s better to eat sugar, than to eat a cookie (because of butter = FAT!), so here goes. Fat free dessert.

Custard filling

Ingredients:

60g custard powder

500ml skim milk

70g castor sugar

Directions:

1. Pour milk into a saucepan.

2. Dissolve custard powder until no lumps are formed. Add sugar and stir custard continuously over slow fier until it starts to form lumps. Let cool and chill in fridge (cover with cling wrap so that skin is not formed)

Meringue basket

Ingredients

2 egg white

1/2 cup castor sugar

1/4 tsp vanilla essence

Directions

1. Beat egg white until soft peaks are formed.

2. Add castor sugar and beat until stiff, and glossy.

3. Beat in vanilla essence.

4. Transfer to a piping bag. Using a star tip nozzle, pipe 3 inch discs, and then pipe outside disc to make basket.

5. Bake at 100 C for 45mins to 1 hour.

To assemble:

1. Let meringue baskets cool. Spoon chilled custard into basket, and top off with fresh fruits.

Serves 6.

Taste test: YUMMY!

But this time, I prevail, in the spirit of Project ChilliChoc. I left it on the kitchen counter in the afternoon and went on to do whatever I do on Sundays, and before long, it was TIME.

I found the recipe somewhere in the world wide web, and tweaked it. So here it goes:

Ingredients:

8 sheets filo pastry

1 tablespoon melted margarine

1 can tuna

Directions:

1. Thaw filo pastry package for at least 3 hours before use. Once it has softened and ready for use, unwrap and work quickly. Filo pastry dries and harden quickly (which makes it very brittle and hard to work with), so prepare a damp dishcloth to cover unused sheets.

2. Gently remove 2 sheets, and brush a little bit of margarine between each layer.

3. Cut sheet into half, fill the middle portion with tuna and roll it to resemble spring roll. Use water to seal the edges, and brush with a bit of melted margarine. Repeat with other half.

4. Repeat process until tuna is finished, and all 8 sheets are used. Brush pastry with leftover margarine, and bake at 130 C for about 20 to 30 mins until golden brown. Serve warm.

Taste test: Needs improvement. The filo sheets tasted a bit floury and uncooked, so maybe they needed a little more time in the oven and a little bit more margarine.

Anyway filo sheets are usually used in place of puff pastries because of their zero fat content. How awesome is that? AND! They are so versatile, they can be used even as tart shells. I’m definitely going to try it someday!