Hungry Girl Version of a Blooming Onion

Has a little bit more sugars than we would normally have, but I have been craving a blooming onion for quite some time now.  So I thought I would share with the rest of the class. This is the text version of Hungry Girl. To see the accompanying visuals and links, go to: http://www.hungry-girl.com/tuesdaypreview.php?newsletterid=1469 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Hungry Girl Today: 6.24.08 CHEW THE RIGHT THING BITE IT! HG's Bloomin' Blossom Flower Power This swap for those notorious fried onion appetizers is slightly more complicated than our other recipes -- but it is SO, SO, SOOOO worth it! And if you share this giant thing with 3 pals (instead of 1), each serving'll have just 96 calories, <1g fat and a POINTS® value of 1*. Rock on, Bloomin' Blossom! (Pssst... click here for an easy-to-follow printable version of this recipe.) Ingredients: For Onion: 1 jumbo sweet onion, not peeled 1 cup Fiber One bran cereal (original), ground to a breadcrumb-like consistency in a blender or food processor 1/2 cup fat-free liquid egg substitute (like Original Egg Beaters) 1/4 tsp. seasoned salt (like the one by Lawry's) 1/4 tsp. garlic powder 1/8 tsp. black pepper For Sauce: 3 tbsp. fat-free mayonnaise 2 tsp. ketchup 1/8 tsp. seasoned salt dash chili powder Directions: Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Combine ground cereal with the seasoned salt, garlic powder, and pepper. Mix well and set aside. Cut the top half-inch of the onion off (from the pointy side, not the flat one). Leaving the root (bottom) intact, carefully peel the outside layer off. Next, starting from the top, carefully cut the onion down and across the middle, stopping about a half-inch from the root. Repeat to make a criss- cross, cutting the onion down the middle again and stopping a half-inch from the bottom. You should now have 4 sections still attached at the bottom. Cut each of those sections down the middle (from the top), again stopping before you get to the root. Place the onion, cut side up, in a large bowl, and cover completely with ice water. Allow to sit for 5 - 10 minutes, or until "petals" open up. (You can use your hands to gently help pry them open once they've been soaking for several minutes.) Remove the onion, and dry both the onion and the bowl. Once both are dry, place the onion back in the bowl, with the petals up. Pour the egg substitute evenly over it, making sure to get in between all the petals (use your hands to separate them). Swirl egg substitute around so the bottom and sides of the onion get coated. Then flip the onion over to drain excess egg substitute. The entire surface of the onion should be covered lightly with egg substitute. Transfer onion to a separate, dry bowl. (You'll likely have about half the egg substitute left in the first bowl.) Slowly sprinkle ground cereal mixture evenly over the onion, making sure to thoroughly coat each petal -- again, use your hands to separate them -- flipping the onion upside-down once you're almost done coating, so that the entire surface gets coated in crumbs. (If needed, spread a little more egg substitute on any dry spots to get the crumbs to stick.) Spray a baking dish with nonstick spray, and place the onion in it with the petals facing up. Place dish in the oven and bake for about 40 minutes ****il outside is crispy and inside is soft). Meanwhile, combine sauce ingredients. When onion is done, allow it to cool slightly. If you like, carefully cut out the center of the onion (so petals are easy to remove). Serve with sauce and enjoy! MAKES 2 SERVINGS Serving Size: half of recipe (including half of the sauce) Calories: 192 Fat: 1.75g Sodium: 700mg Carbs: 54g Fiber: 17g Sugars: 13g Protein: 7g POINTS® value 3* FIGHT IT! Chili's Awesome Blossom Flaw-some Blossom If you're alive and breathing (and we assume you are if you're reading your email), you probably have the desire (every so often) to order one of those ginormous deep-fried onion thingees served at chain restaurants. The 2,710- calorie appetizer is freakishly tempting -- it's lurking at your local Chili's and goes by the name Awesome Blossom. (And though Outback Steakhouse doesn't make their nutritional stats public, we're guessing the Bloomin' Onion there is at least as bad.) But what did you expect? It's an onion that's been hacked wide open (exposing WAY too much surface area) and then battered and fried. Every nook and cranny of that ginormous thing is covered in oily batter! And there's always one nutty person at the table who insists on ordering it. But be careful, because even nibbling on 1/6th of that thing (which isn't very much at all) would set you back more than 450 calories and over 33 grams of fat (POINTS® value 11*). Ahhhhhhh!!! The good news is that you can now whip up your very own diet-friendly version at home -- sauce and all. Yeee-haaaaaaa! Serving Size: half an order (including half of the sauce) Calories: 1,355 Fat: 101.5g Sodium: 3,180mg Carbs: 97g Fiber: 7.5g Sugars: n.a. Protein: 12g POINTS® value 35*

Thanks so much! Pam

Sounds Yummy :) Thanks......Stefanie

if you use a sf ketcup and low fat mayo the sugar levels will come down... ff mayo has added sugar in it... at least from all the brands I have seen...

Very true... I also wanted to look up the sugar info in the fiber one cereal.  My guess, without doing any research, that the sugars are probably mostly natural from the onion and then whatever is in the fiber one - but not sure how much sugar is in the cereal. Pam