Recipe Swap - Pumpkin Cream Puffs

One of my talents is lightening up recipes. I have such a hard time using whole eggs when a white will do, using full fat butter when there are alternatives (like applesauce, yogurt, and margarine), and filling recipes with unnecessary sugar, salt, and fat. It is automatic now and my close friends know this of me. My best friend, Kelly - shout out to Kelly - gave me a challenge by jokingly sending me a recipe for Pumpkin Mousse Filled Cream Puffs with Maple-Caramel Sauce. Now, I am not a baker and have never made cream puffs before so I don't have a clue as to how the magic and chemistry work but I wanted to give it a shot. I followed the recipe techniques and worked my own magic. After I was done, I ran the numbers by looking up the nutrition information of all of the ingredients, determined how much of each ingredient was in the recipe and then how much was in a serving size. Here are the numbers:

Theirs: 414 Calories, 28 g. Fat

Mine: 103 Calories, 3 g. Fat

Here is the recipe:

Pumpkin Filled Cream Puffs with Maple-Caramel Sauce

Serves 10
Prep: 50 Min
Bake: 30 Min
Cool: 10 Min

Ingredients:
¾ C Water
2 T Butter
3 T Plain Non-Fat Yogurt
1 Packet Splenda (equivalent to 2 t sugar)
1/8 t Salt
¾ C All-Purpose Flour
¾ C Egg Substitute (Egg Beaters)

1 Recipe Pumpkin Mousse:
1 Envelope Dream Whip
½ C Skim Milk
5 Packets Splenda (equivalent to 10 t sugar)
1 t Pumpkin Pie Spice
1 C Canned Pumpkin

1 Recipe Maple-Caramel Sauce:
¼ C Light Brown Sugar
1 T Corn Starch
1/3 C Skim Milk
¼ C Water
1 T Pure Maple Syrup
1 t Butter
½ t Vanilla Extract

Directions:
Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper; set aside. Chill medium sized mixing bowl, beaters, and can of pumpkin for Mousse. In a medium saucepan, combine water, butter, yogurt, Splenda, and salt. Bring to boiling over medium heat. Add flour all at once, stirring vigorously with a wooden spoon. Cook and stir until mixture forms a ball and pulls away from the side of the pan. Remove from heat; cool for 10 minutes. Add egg substitute, ¼ cup at a time, beating well with a wooden spoon after each addition. The mixture should be smooth before adding the next portion.

Drop 10 heaping tablespoons of dough about 2 inches apart onto prepared baking sheet. Smooth out any peaks as these will burn during cooking. Bake for 30 to 35 minutes or until golden brown and firm. Transfer cream puffs to a wire rack and let cool.

Using serrated knife, cut each puff in half horizontally; remove soft dough from inside. Fill cream puffs with Pumpkin Mousse. Replace tops. Drizzle with Maple-Caramel Sauce and serve immediately.

Make ahead – make the puffs, mousse, and sauce ahead of time. Store puffs in an air-tight container, fill with mousse when ready to serve and heat up the sauce to top.

Pumpkin Mousse: In a chilled large mixing bowl, combine 1 envelope Dream Whip, ½ C Skim Milk, 5 Packets Splenda, and 1 t Pumpkin Pie Spice. Mix with chilled beaters until soft peaks form. Fold in 1 C Canned Pumpkin. Cover and chill for up to 4 hours.

Maple-Caramel Sauce: In a small bowl, mix together 1 T Cornstarch, 1/3 C Skim Milk, ¼ C water until there are no lumps. Pour cornstarch mixture into a small heavy saucepan and add ¼ Light Brown Sugar and 1 T Maple Syrup. Cook and stir over medium heat until slightly thickened and bubbling. Cook and stir for about 2 minutes. Remove from heat and add ½ t Vanilla. Serve warm.

Being Good

In my last post, I mentioned that rewards for good behavior are often ingestible. I use the broad term because I doubt that sugary novelties can be categorized as food. We reward the consumption of veggies with the promise of a small ice cream sandwich for the boys but we usually restrict empty calories and try to keep processed food at a minimum - though convenience is such a positive concept; too bad that when it comes to food it is such a bad thing!

Dolling out treats for being good seems so natural but as an adult, being good usually means that I spent the day avoiding treats and snacks. Chris and I are both trying to cool it with the extra calories and we often spend the first part of the evening justifying the extra helping of supper with the usual: "I was good today, I didn't snack" conversation. When did being good change from a behavior that warranted a treat to the act of avoiding a treat?

Maybe I should be good and spend more time in the gym too!

Reinforcement and Reward

When I was a little girl, being good meant that I listened to what I was told, did what I was told to do, and excelled in the things that were expected of me (like school). My father always said that you either work or you go to school as long as you lived under his roof...no laying around without purpose in his house! I feel the same way. I want my children to do as they are told, listen to their parents and excel at their commitments...be it school or sports or work. It isn't too much to ask for.

Rewards for being good when I was a kid haven't changed too much. Food is a universal reward, though I do try to avoid it as much as possible as an adult and parent. We have a special bin of toys that the kids have never seen. They are little cars and trains that my dear friend, Deb -shout out to Deb - gave us when her son grew tired of them. I call it the super secret special bin and it only reveals itself to me when the boys have been good. I emerge from my room with a special new toy or one is left on the table to be discovered at breakfast.

The fairies control the bin and my hands are tied (translation: no amount of begging, pleading, or promising to be good will make it appear). So far, it has been an okay tool for rewarding good behavior and keeping Cole on track. Sometimes, however, he just insists on flaunting his little 3 year old free will and standing his shaky ground. Last night, he planted his feet firmly on the floor and refused to walk himself to his room. Needless to say, no treats of any sort will be revealed to him today! He has been somewhat saintly today so far and I may lift a restriction after nap - but only if he has been good.

New Carpet and a day out of school

When we bought this house, we knew that we needed to do some things to brighten its spirit. The home was the fourth victim in a family of domestic violence and showed all of the signs of mistreatment and neglect. Each interior door has a dent or nick where fists and feet battered them, there were holes in some walls, broken door locks, a broken window, and the list goes on and on. There were burn marks in the carpet in Cole's room, rust stains in Rhys' room, and a prominent patch of ground in gum in our room. The carpet in our rooms was probably original to the house and it was worn, beaten down, and grimy. I kept it as clean as I could but just knew that the wear and tear that it had been through with three large dogs and a family of smokers, there was only so much I could do.

Chris and I set aside some money for the replacement of carpet earlier in the year and I kept putting it off. I recently got another client and decided that the time had come. On Tuesday night we got an in-home estimate and Wednesday morning they were installing by 9am. I spent the morning clearing off all of the surfaces so the furniture could all be moved and cleaning out the closet floors. It was an exercise that was long overdue. I have 4 diaper bags that need to be cleaned out and tossed or donated along with shoes that I will never wear again. Everything was absolutely covered in dust...I felt so dirty for having so much dirt in my house.

The carpet is beautiful, hypoallergenic, stain resistant, and eliminates odor. If only it cleaned bathrooms...

I have been pretty unproductive this week with work, though and that pays the bills so I will get back into gear in the next couple of days. Cole has a cold and stayed home from school today. I felt bad for him because he wanted to go so badly. I felt like I was punishing him for being sick by keeping him home! His being home also set me back with my plans to get the house back in order...there is always tomorrow.

This is dedicated to the one I love...

Today is the 6th anniversary of our wedding. "It isn't hard" those are the words that we shared over dinner last night at Roy's Hawaiian Fusion Restaurant. We had a lovely time and since they knew we were celebrating our anniversary, the table was decorated with ribbons and a framed note congratulating us. Everyone wished us a happy anniversary and when our dessert came, a message was piped on the plate and a candle was burning on the opposite side. The waiter took our picture and then brought us a print to be framed in the provided Roy's frame. I felt special and it made me remember our Hawaiian Honeymoon where we had 2 weeks of that treatment and I could live that way every day. Actually, I do live that way every day. Even when I am swimming in the murkiest waters, I know that there are white sands, tropical drinks, and warm sun in my life. I love my husband and he is the reason that everything else in my life is not only manageable but lovely and wonderful. Happy Anniversary!

Then

Now