cooking helps me loose weight..cooking challange anyone?

[Heidi3]

I swear the more I cook the thinner I get..and I KNOW for a fact I have some serious compatition on this board......I love a challenge and am always trying to make something "legal" on my own and constantly check this thread for new ideas...it is getting dull around here on the cooking thread..you guys ...seriously it moves slowly and we are not coming up with as much as we should for the holidays!!!.....so I thought being the type A competitive woman I am ......it was time to make a formal challenge?....if anyone else is as competitive fool or if you just like to torture competitive people...this is it...simple rules

1. someone... anyone... toss out the name of a dish you loved preAtkins but have not made..or made successfully since you have started this program...
2. then you just say if you are "in" on the challenge and start cooking...
3. post your recipe when you think you have it down and love what you made
4. then anyone who wants to tries to make it..
5. let the feedback fly ...no thin skins...if it is good it is good ...if it sucks it sucks!!!

Oh I almost forgot...to help everyone one make sure you post the level of Atkins your recipe version falls into!....I think this could be a great teaching tool?....anyone up for it?

[NulloModo]

oh, I am totally in, sounds like a great idea.

OK, to get this started, and for the Holidays, here is the first dish:

Candied Yams (and not just pumpkin puree as a sub, something with suitable texture, crunch (from the topping), and if possible some delicious faux marshmallow topping).

[not2late]

oh, I am totally in, sounds like a great idea.

OK, to get this started, and for the Holidays, here is the first dish:

Candied Yams (and not just pumpkin puree as a sub, something with suitable texture, crunch (from the topping), and if possible some delicious faux marshmallow topping).

I can't substitute the texture, unless you cook your own pumpkin. But I modified a recipe I saw in Parade magazine today.

Here's the original recipe:

http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/recipe_collections/simply_delicious/recipe_arch/04_11_21_R#r_5

Here's what I did:

Substituted pumpkin for the sweet potatoes. Substituted Davinci pancake syrup for the maple syrup. Substituted orange extract for the orange juice (I'm not on that rung of OWL yet).

I use canned pumpkin which is kind of wet, so I always toss it into the oven to remove the excess moisture.

For the crunch tonight, I used chopped pecans on top. BUT a few weeks ago my boss brought sugar-free vanilla meringue cookies (the Ms.Meringue brand) to the office. They're sweetened with sugar alcohol and a tiny bit of Splenda. Anyhow, one serving is 6 or 8 meringues. They had a marshmallowy airy texture and sweetness. When they got exposed to moisture they became chewier. I figure if I crush the meringues and toss those on top of the casserole, I'll get the taste and the look of the traditional candied yams with marshmallows side dish.

[Heidi3]

wow this may be hard for me with out the sweetener but I am going to try I have to go get some pumpkin and lets see....Ok I am going to try it....but Not2late you are way ahead of me that is for sure...an Atkins friendly sweet potato bake..hummmm.....I have to stop at the produce stand tomorrow and see what I can do about this....it will be fun!

[Naja]

Japanese kabocha squash would make a good lower carb sweet potato substitute. I personally *hate* nasty sweet stuff on my yams and always have, so I wouldn't want any kind of sweet topping. My favorite yam enhancement is ginger juice.

If I was baking a low carb version of the traditional holiday dish for others, my sweet crunch would be DiabetiSweet (a diabetic's sugar substitute product that glazes like real sugar) plus brown malitol crystals, mixed with ground pecans or walnuts. The idea of marshmallow topping on sweet potatoes makes me want to gag, but if my guests insisted I'd go find some low carb marshmallows.

The meringue cookie idea is a good one, and a freshly whipped meringue might work even better.

[not2late]

I tried using whipped egg whites last year on a test batch. The taste wasn't bad, but the texture was all wrong---unless you like crustless pumpkin meringue pie. Melted/toasted marshmallows have a sticky gooey quality.

[Naja]

I wonder if the meringue could be thickened with something like WPI or xanthan gum?

[Heidi3]

well I am sorry if it was not for the marshmallows I would have this one...but the sweetener is the issue with me and putting egg whites on top of a stewed Kobocha squash....argh.... that is nothing like a sweet potato!!! I can not come up with another faux sweet potato and just wanted to mash one in with the pumpkin to make it tasted sweeter... ...well here the first challenge and I am bombing ..and this was my idea!...why did we have to start with something sooooo hhhhaaaaarrrrdddd Nullo???? (that is a whine)....maybe if I like the dish more? or maybe if there were such a thing as sugar free marshmallows?....but then it is like being a vegetarian and eating fake meat to me to eat fake sugar!!!....I will try one more time then I am going to cave...so far I have made two dishes and both were not at all edible!....

[NulloModo]

Hehe, I'm sorry Nurselady, I didn't mean to throw a knockout with the first punch. I have been playing around with this one a lot myself. It appears lots of people despise the candied yams with marshmallows on top, but for me, it is the ultimate Thanksgiving comfort food. I ate it every single year from the earlier Thanksgiving dinner I can remember up until last year (well, last year was actually the first year I didn't).

[not2late]

well I am sorry if it was not for the marshmallows I would have this one...but the sweetener is the issue with me and putting egg whites on top of a stewed Kobocha squash....argh.... that is nothing like a sweet potato!!! I can not come up with another faux sweet potato and just wanted to mash one in with the pumpkin to make it tasted sweeter... ...well here the first challenge and I am bombing ..and this was my idea!...why did we have to start with something sooooo hhhhaaaaarrrrdddd Nullo???? (that is a whine)....maybe if I like the dish more? or maybe if there were such a thing as sugar free marshmallows?....but then it is like being a vegetarian and eating fake meat to me to eat fake sugar!!!....I will try one more time then I am going to cave...so far I have made two dishes and both were not at all edible!....

Use stevia or the sweetener of your choice (or none if you do't wish to use sweetener). Substitute maple extract for the sugar free pancake syrup.

The Sheila Lukins recipe lists marshmallows as optional anyway. So top the dish with some pecans.

Personally, I like mashed sweet potatoes with butter, maybe a little cream depending on how wet the potatoes are and some fresh grated nutmeg or ginger. So pumpkin puree seasoned the same way is fine for me.

At the big family Thanksgivings, we used to have 2 sweet potato dishes when I was growing up---the plain mashed version and the marshmallow version. (Sometimes we had sweet potato pie instead of pumpkin---I'm from the south).

[MotherOfGizmo]

I don't like the marshmello stuff either! eww

But, I had a sweet potato casserole one time at a friends mom's house, it had pecans on the top, that stuff was so yummy, I never did manage to get the recipe, anyone have one for something like that?

[not2late]

MoG, what was the texture like with that casserole, was it smooth or chunky?

[MotherOfGizmo]

MoG, what was the texture like with that casserole, was it smooth or chunky?

It has been a long time ago, but I think it was smooth.

[not2late]

Check out my first post in this thread. It has a link to a sweet potato casserole....

[NulloModo]

I'm thinking I might get the texture of candied yams if I cube up some raw pumpkin and then bake that, then add the result of that to the casserole dish with the other ingredients. That way the pumpkin should be soft, but in chunks, and with a little bit of resistance to the teeth.

I am going to have to study up on low-carb marshmallow recipes. What is really essential (in my mind) is that they brown/melt like real marshmallows, that is what really makes the marshmallow topping on candied yams work: that burnt smorsey goodness. Raw marshmallows? ick.

(on a side note, before atkins, I also loves cheese pizza (regular old crust, sauce, and cheese) with a bag of marshmallows thrown on top and the whole thing tossed back into the pizza oven till they melted and browned on top).