I wanted some chocolate and cherries.  I love Black Forest cake, and my husband even went out and looked for one for me, but instead he came home with a cherry pie.  I ate some, but it wasn’t the same as chocolate and cherries the way you get them in a Black Forest cake!  So, I started thinking about how I could get the taste without all the calories in a homemade cake.  Here’s what I came up with, and it was delicious and hit that chocolate-cherry itch that I had been having.

1 ready made Oreo pie crust

1 can of Sugarfree cherry pie filling

1 large container of Lite Coolwhip (half the fat)

Mix the cherry pie filling with the Coolwhip.  Pile the mixture into the Oreo crust.  Refrigerate until you are ready to serve it. 

It’s just that simple.  It’s pretty.  And it’s the taste of Black Forest cake with only a fraction of the calories!

This recipe is easy and delicious. It’s sure to be a hit at your cook out.

Ingredients:

Wooden kabob skewers (soaked in water to prevent burning while on the grill)

Chicken tenders (You know how many you have people you have to cook for. Estimate 2-3 per person.)

Italian Salad dressing for marinade

Directions:

It’s best to marinate the chicken tenders over night, but if you are just getting around to figuring out what you want to grill today, then marinading for 2 or 3 hours should do also.

Thread the chicken tenders onto the water soaked wooden skewers. Place the chicken on the grill,and baste with the left over marinade as you turn the chicken over. Grill until done. You will know when it’s ready.

Enjoy!

I recently went to Olive Garden and had this delightful soup.  The name means pasta with beans, and it was a peasant dish in Italy, made from leftover pasta and marinara sauce.  I decided it couldn’t be that hard to make, and so delicious, so I looked at a bunch of recipes online until I found one from www.cdkitchen.com, which claimed to be a copycat of the Olive Garden recipe.  Their recipe makes 9 quarts of soup, and I didn’t want to make that much; plus, I found another recipe that used diced ham (the Olive Garden soup had ground beef) and I thought I’d like that even better.  So, here’s my version of the Olive Garden copycat version!

2 tsp. extra virgin olive oil

1 Tbsp. minced garlic

1 cup chopped sweet onion

1 cup sliced baby carrots

1 cup diced celery

24 oz. (more or less) of diced, canned tomatoes

1 cup canned red kidney beans, rinsed and drained

1 cup canned Great Northern Beans, rinsed and drained

 1 1/2 quarts chicken stock

1 1/2 tsp. oregano

3/4 tsp. pepper

1 Tbsp. parsley flakes

3/4 tsp. Tabasco sauce

24-26 oz. jar of spaghetti sauce, any kind you like, but marinara probably works best, or at least something without meat or big chunks of other vegetables

4 oz. of dry pasta (I used elbow macaroni, Barilla Plus)

16 oz. ham, diced into small cubes

grated parmesan cheese (to serve sprinkled on top when served)

Saute the garlic, onions, carrots, and celery in oil until onions are transluscent.  Add the canned tomatoes, spaghetti sauce, chicken stock, and spices and herbs.  Rinse and drain the beans before adding.  Add the Tabasco sauce.  Add the dry pasta.  Cover and simmer about 20 minutes.  Add the diced ham and simmer for another 20-25 minutes. 

Serve with grated parmesan cheese on top.  A salad and some toasted garlic bread make this a complete meal!

Note:  If you’ve heard of a dish called pasta “fazul,” as in the song “It’s Amore,” this is the same dish.  The word “fazul” was the result of first generation immigrants mispronouncing “fagioli,” pronounced:  fah- Jool’ - ee.

I love cooked cabbage, and it’s so healthy for me and so easy to cook.  I like mine spicy, but if you don’t like the heat in your dishes, you can eliminate the red pepper flakes.  And if you prefer healthier olive oil instead of the bacon grease, you can certainly substitute that as well.  I substitute olive oil for the bacon fat most of the time myself.

One medium head of cabbage

the fat rendered from 2 slices of fried bacon

salt, pepper, and red pepper flakes to taste.

Wash the cabbage and trim away any tough ribs in the very outer leaves or any yellow spots.  Keep as much of the outer dark green leaves as you can because they add incredible flavor to the dish.  Slice and then dice the cabbage leaves into bite size pieces.  Fry the two slices of bacon in a pan large enough to hold all the cut up cabbage.  Remove the bacon and save for another use.  Leave the rendered fat in the bottom of the pan and add the cabbage to the pan.  Add salt and pepper and red pepper flakes to taste (I like about a teaspoon of red pepper flakes to give it some heat, but not set me on fire!).  Set the heat under the pan to a medium to medium-low setting.  DO NOT ADD ANY WATER!  Water ruins the flavor, and if you cook the cabbage at a moderate temperature, it will make it’s own liquid to keep it from sticking.  Keep checking the cabbage and stirring it every 5-7 minutes until the cabbage is all crisp-tender.  Don’t overcook it, or it will also ruin the flavor.  When it’s done, usually perfectly in about 15-20 minutes, remove it from the heat.  You can let it sit covered in the pan until you’re ready to serve it.  But the longer it sits, the more it will cook.

 Enjoy!

Rich-a-licious Sour Cream Pound Cake

• Prep Time: 15 min.
• Cook Time: 1 hr. 20 min.
• Serves: 18

 If you have any great sugar free desserts, I hope you will share them in the comments section.