What are your favorite WLS Friendly Holiday Recipes?

I found this on a blog, so I can't claim credit for it, but since changing my diet to eliminate refined sugar and flour this recipe is one of the best things ever! I know it sounds weird but everyone who has tried them thinks they're amazing. These also freeze extremely well and are almost like an icecream bar when eaten frozen.

Chocolate Walnut Sugar Free Flourless Brownies:
makes 24 brownies

4 oz unsweetened chocolate (Sharffenberger if you can find it)
1/2 cup unsalted butter
3 tsp instant coffee
1/4 tsp kosher salt
2 cups black beans, drained and rinsed well (i use canned)
1 frozen banana thawed
1 tsp vanilla extract
4 extra lg eggs
1/3 cup  raw agave syrup
2 cups walnuts chopped and divided

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Line the bottom of a 13x9 in pan with parchment paper. Spray paper with oil.

Put the chocolate and butter in a large microwave safe bowl and microwave for 1 /12 to 2 minutes, then stir completely. Stir in instant coffee and salt. Mix well, set aside.

Make sure that your black beans have been well rinsed and drained. Fit a food processor with a steel blade, add beans, banana, vanilla extract and 1 egg. Process until completely smooth about 2-3 minutes, scraping down bowl as needed. Add chocolate mixture and process again until smooth.

In a separate bowl, place remaining 3 eggs and beat with an electric mixer until light and fluffy, 1-2 minutes. Add agave and mix for another 1-2 minutes until light. Put bean mixture into bowl with eggs and mix on medium until thoroughly incorporated. Mix in 1 cup of chopped walnuts. Pour batter into prepared pan. Top with remaining walnuts.

Bake for 25-35 minutes until a toothpick clears the center. Let the brownies cool before cutting them. Store in the fridge. Enjoy!

Is making sugarfree jello considered cooking? 

LOL..joylynne

Easy Appetizer
My family loves to make these at the holidays and during football season.

Torpedo's
Pitted black olives
Sliced turkey pepperoni

Roll pepperoni and place in the pit hole of the black olive.  Great low-carb snack!  They fly off the plate!

Just wanted to say thanks for the recipe! I made these for my three year old today for a healthier snack after preschool. She usually gets fruities and I am trying to break that habit. She loved loved loved these and asked for more. I told her she could start having them for a snack instead! She was very pleased, and me being a week post op would have sawed off my right leg to try one! Thanks a bunch!

Thanks for this!  They are cute and eazy and delicous! 

For 1 thing of pepperoni, I used 3 cans of olives. I had only gotten 2 and ran back to the store to get another can, and thought at the last minute about a cheesy stuffing, and just grabbed squeeze cheese, but with a cream cheese and green chili middle would be good too!



Thank you again!  I am sure tomorrow I will bring you more praise!

Amaretto Cheesecake

INGREDIANTS:
4 (8oz) pkgs cream cheese
1 1/2c sugar or sugar/splenda blend or splenda (see conversion list on side of splenda)
2 tablespoons cornstarch
6 eggs or eggbeaters
1 (16oz) sour cream or greek yogurt
1/2c melted butter (you could omit this?)
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1 tablespoon orange extract
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
1 tablespoon almond extract
2 fluid oz. amaretto liqueur (omit, if you wish and it is still delicious)
crust: 2 1/2 cups of crushed macaroon cookies (you could use a sugar-free cookie or non crust)
2/3 cup melted butter

DIRECTIONS:
1. Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Wrap the outside of a 10inch springform pan with foil.

2. In a large bowl, beat together cream cheese, sugar and corn starch until smooth. Beat in eggs, one at a time. Beat in sour cream and 1/2c. melted butter. Stil in vanilla and orange extracts, lemon juice, almond extract and amaretto liqueur.

3. To make crust: Combine crushed macroons and 2/3c melted butter. Blend throughly. Place most of the cruat mixture in the bottom of the springform pan. Pour cheese mixture over crust, and sprinkle some crust mixture on top of batter.

4. Place springform pan in a roasting pan, and set it in oven. Fill roasting pan with water (about 1/2 way up the springform pan). Bake in preheated oven for 1 hour. Remove from oven and let set for 2 hours. Invert cheesecake so that the bottom becomes the top.

My Notes: I made this crustless and sprayed the pan generously with PAM. I did not invert it. It was delicious. Lots of protein, very rich and my guests loved it and all wanted the recipe.

approx 12 - 14g protein per serving (this makes 12 large pieces)

Cinnamon almonds

Ok so today I am going to a club xmas party that includes a gift exchange and a cookie exchange. Now I used to be the queen of Christmas cookies (about the only thing I liked about Christmas) and had a collection of excellent receipes. But I am obviously not going to do that this year or in the future but wanted to take something to share. So I found a receipe on line for cinnamon toasted almonds which I modified to get rid of the sugar. Take about 3 cups raw almonds, coat in a tsp of cooking oil (might be able to use pam spray) and then stir in 2 or 3 tablespoons brown sugar splenda and about 2 tsp cinnamon. stir well. spray pam on a cookie sheet and roast the almonds in a single layer at 300 degrees for perhaps 15 or 20 minutes, stirring once or twice. smells and tastes great. the origional receipe called for a coating of egg white with sugar and vanilla and cinnamon and that could be done too while substituting the sugar with splenda. I kind of over toasted my batch so the cook time above is less than I did. diane