Patti Labelle's Lite Cuisine Page 13
Per Serving: 45 calories, 2 g protein, 6 g carbohydrate, 2 g fat, 0 g saturated fat, 0 mg cholesterol, 2 g dietary fiber, 80 mg sodium
Diet Exchanges: 1 vegetable or ½ carbohydrate choice
Checking out what the veggies are cooked in before digging in.
Down-Home Cabbage
The secret to melt-in-your-mouth cabbage is slow cooking; it makes it tender as a Grammy-winning love song.
Makes 8 servings
¼ cup fat-free reduced-sodium chicken broth or water
1 teaspoon ham-flavored seasoning, such as Goya
½ teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon ground white or black pepper
1 medium head green cabbage, about 2 pounds, cored and sliced
Mix the broth or water, ham-flavored seasoning, salt, and pepper in a large deep skillet or saucepan over low heat. Add the cabbage, cover, and cook, stirring occasionally, until the cabbage is tender, 45 to 55 minutes.
Patti’s Pointers: To easily core and slice cabbage, peel off and discard any tough outer leaves. Using a large knife, cut the cabbage in half through the core. Cut out and discard the core from each half. Slice the cabbage crosswise into thin strips.
Per Serving: 40 calories, 2 g protein, 8 g carbohydrate, 0 g fat, 0 g saturated fat, 0 mg cholesterol, 3 g dietary fiber, 340 mg sodium
Diet Exchanges: 1 vegetable or ½ carbohydrate choice
Marvelous Minted Snap Peas
I like to make this recipe in midsummer, when snap peas are at their sweetest and snappiest. It couldn’t be simpler and the flavor is sublime.
Makes 6 servings
3 tablespoons reduced-calorie margarine
1 pound sugar snap peas, strings removed
3 scallions, chopped
2 tablespoons chopped fresh mint
½ teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon ground black pepper
Melt the margarine in a skillet over medium heat. Stir in the peas and scallions. Cover and cook until the peas are bright green and crisp-tender, 1 to 2 minutes. Stir in the mint, salt, and pepper. Serve warm.
Option: I sometimes flavor these peas a bit more by adding the grated zest of one small lemon along with the mint.
Patti’s Pointers: To remove the strings from sugar snap peas, snap off the stem end sideways, then pull it down the length of the pod to remove the strings on both sides (there may be just one string on each side).
Per Serving: 100 calories, 2 g protein, 9 g carbohydrate, 6 g fat, 1 g saturated fat, 0 mg cholesterol, 3 g dietary fiber, 350 mg sodium
Diet Exchanges: 1 starch, 1 fat, or ½ carbohydrate choice
Creamed Spinach
This dish is beaucoup times better than the boil-in-a-bag versions. And, if you use bags of prewashed baby spinach, almost as easy to prepare.
Makes 6 servings
4 scallions, chopped (about 1 cup)
Three 10-ounce packages fresh baby spinach
2 tablespoons cornstarch
½ cup fat-free half-and-half
3 ounces reduced-fat cream cheese
¼ cup reduced-fat sour cream
½ cup chopped fresh chives
½ teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon white or black pepper
⅛ teaspoon red pepper flakes
Coat a medium saucepan with fat-free cooking spray and heat over medium heat. Add the scallions and cook until tender, about 5 minutes.
Add the spinach and cook, stirring occasionally, until spinach is just wilted, about 5 minutes.
Whisk together the cornstarch and half-and-half until the cornstarch is dissolved. Move the spinach to the sides of the pan and pour the cornstarch mixture in the center. Cook and stir until thickened, about 2 to 3 minutes. Reduce the heat to low and stir in the cream cheese, sour cream, chives, salt, white or black pepper, and red pepper flakes. Cook until creamy and heated through, about 1 minute.
Patti’s Pointers: Always dissolve cornstarch in cold liquid before adding it to a hot pan; otherwise you’ll get lumps.
Per Serving: 100 calories, 7 g protein, 11 g carbohydrate, 4 g fat, 2.5 g saturated fat, 10 mg cholesterol, 4 g dietary fiber, 370 mg sodium
Diet Exchanges: 1 vegetable, 1 fat, or 1 carbohydrate choice
Classic Corn Pudding
Kids can’t get enough of this creamy corn dish. Truth be told, neither can I.
Makes 6 servings
1 tablespoon margarine
½ cup finely chopped onion
1½ cups fat-free half-and-half
1 tablespoon cornstarch (See Patti’s Pointer’s on creamed spinach recipe,
page 164)
2 cups fresh or frozen corn kernels
1 large egg, lightly beaten
1 teaspoon sugar substitute, such as DiabetiSweet or Splenda
½ teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon ground white or black pepper
⅛ teaspoon paprika
Preheat the oven to 325°F. Coat a 1-quart baking dish with fat-free cooking spray.
Melt the margarine in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Add the onion and cook until tender, about 5 minutes.
Whisk together the half-and-half and cornstarch until the cornstarch dissolves. Pour into the pan and cook, whisking constantly, until the mixture thickens, 2 to 3 minutes. Remove from the heat and stir in the corn, egg, sugar substitute, salt, and pepper. Pour into the prepared baking dish and sprinkle with the paprika.
Bake until bubbly and set on the surface, 55 to 60 minutes.
Per Serving: 110 calories, 5 g protein, 16 g carbohydrate, 3.5 g fat, 0.5 g saturated fat, 35 mg cholesterol, 2 g dietary fiber, 260 mg sodium
Diet Exchanges: 1 starch or 1 carbohydrate choice
Good-as-It-Gets Green Bean Casserole
Makes 8 servings
1 teaspoon margarine
1 cup chopped white onion
2 garlic cloves, minced
3 cups fat-free half-and-half
¼ cup cornstarch
1 pound fresh green beans, trimmed, or one 16-ounce bag frozen green beans,
thawed and drained
2 tablespoons chopped fresh basil
¾ teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon ground black pepper
½ cup plain dry bread crumbs
Preheat the oven to 400°F. Coat a 3-quart baking dish with fat-free cooking spray.
Melt the margarine in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Add the onion and garlic and cook, stirring occasionally, until tender, about 5 minutes.
Whisk together the half-and-half and cornstarch until the cornstarch dissolves. Pour into the pan and whisk until thickened, 3 to 5 minutes.
Remove from the heat and stir in the green beans, basil, salt, and pepper. Spoon into the prepared baking dish and sprinkle with the bread crumbs. Bake until bubbly, 20 to 25 minutes. Turn on the broiler and broil until the crumbs are lightly browned, about 1 minute.
Patti’s Pointers: To quickly trim fresh green beans, line up some of the green beans on a cutting board and cut across the stem ends with a large knife in a single cut. Repeat with the remaining green beans.
Per Serving: 100 calories, 5 g protein, 18 g carbohydrate, 1 g fat, 0 g saturated fat, 0 mg cholesterol, 2 g dietary fiber, 340 mg sodium
Diet Exchanges: 1 vegetable, 1 starch, or 1 carbohydrate choice
Delectable Vegetable Medley
Want the kids in your house to eat their vegetables? This recipe will have them asking for seconds.
Makes 6 servings
1 cup fresh broccoli florets
1 cup fresh asparagus, trimmed and cut into 2-inch lengths
1 packed cup fresh baby spinach
1 cup sliced yellow squash
⅓ cup finely chopped onions
One 10¾-ounce can reduced-fat condensed cream of mushroom soup
½ cup water
1 tablespoon chopped fresh oregano and/or basil
¼ teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon ground black pepper
Preheat the oven to 350°F. Coat
a 2-quart baking dish with fat-free cooking spray.
Layer the broccoli, asparagus, spinach, squash, and onions in the prepared baking dish.
In a small bowl, mix together the soup, water, oregano and/or basil, salt, and pepper. Pour over the vegetables. Cover with foil and bake until the broccoli is crisp-tender, 30 to 35 minutes. Uncover and serve immediately.
Patti’s Pointers: Asparagus doesn’t keep long so plan to use it as soon as you can. To keep it fresh in the fridge, store it stem ends down in a glass filled with a few inches of water, and cover loosely with a plastic bag. If you forget to store it this way, you can help revive limp asparagus by slicing off a bit of the stem ends, then refrigerating the asparagus stem ends down as described (but using ice water) for about 2 hours.
Per Serving: 50 calories, 3 g protein, 8 g carbohydrate, 1 g fat, 0 g saturated fat, 0 mg cholesterol, 2 g dietary fiber, 300 mg sodium
Diet Exchanges: 1 vegetable or ½ carbohydrate choice
Dreamy Desserts
I was a daddy’s girl. A serious one. I wish you could have known him; he was as cool as a cucumber. And fine as wine. When I was little, he spoiled me rotten. Like Chubby, he could get down in the kitchen and he knew how much I loved his cooking. Anything I wanted he’d make for me—breakfast, lunch, dinner, snacks. If I wanted it, all I had to do was ask for it. Everything Daddy cooked was fly-you-to-the-moon good, but his desserts, well, they were over the rainbow. I don’t know which I craved more—Daddy’s food or his love. All I know is that I ate both of them up.
Before Chubby and Daddy separated, when my sisters and I were little, every morning before school he would fix our braids and our breakfast. He made these cinnamon rolls that would make you hurt yourself. Those rolls were so good that just smelling them would make you start speaking in tongues. My sisters always complained that whenever Daddy cooked our breakfast, he always gave me the biggest helpings. Of course, Daddy would always deny it.
“You know better than that,” he would say, giving us all a big hug. “I treat all my girls the same.”
I don’t know about the size of the helpings of his food, but I do know about the size of the helpings of Daddy’s love. They were massive. Mammoth. Major. In the summer, after we’d eaten dinner, Daddy and I would sit on the front porch together and sing duets. He had a voice almost as smooth as his rap and, let me tell you, that is saying something. As the ladies who knew him will attest, Daddy’s rap was serious. Sublime. So, so cool. Family legend has it that once, when he was at the Club Harlem in Atlantic City, he had half the women in the place hanging on his every word. Daddy loved to flirt. Whenever Chubby gave him the blues about it he would tell her the same thing: “Just because I’m not ordering anything doesn’t mean I can’t look at the menu.”
But let me get back to that night at the Club Harlem. All the attention Daddy was getting made the buddy he had ridden up with so jealous that he told Daddy it was time to head back to Philly. Well, Daddy wasn’t trying to hear that. Not when he had his mojo working. Not when he had it dialed up to ten. So Daddy told his buddy that he wasn’t ready and he wasn’t leaving. But he understood if his buddy wasn’t staying.
“You go on back without me,” he told him in his real-cool way. “I’ll walk home if I have to.”
And that’s just what Daddy did. All the way from Atlantic City to Philly. No one knows exactly why but he ended up at the home of our neighbors, the ones who had gotten him his first job in Philly—Oliver and Florine Llockman. After he took a nap and drank a glass of water, he came on home. That story gives you a pretty good idea of the kind of man Daddy was. He lived life on his own terms. He made his own rules. And he always made a way out of no way.
My super cool Dad, Henry Holte (wearing the shades, of course), Oliver and Florine Llockman and me back in the old neighborhood—back in the day.
He was also one of the first people in my life who made me believe that maybe, just maybe, I could really sing. Not in a pleasant-but-not-all-that-special kind of way. In a turn-the-show-out-blow-the-doors-off-the-place kind of way.
“Baby girl,” he would say on those nights when we were singing our duets on the front porch. “You got the pipes. Star pipes. And when you become one, I’m going to be your biggest fan.”
And he was. Long before I was so much as a blip on the music industry’s radar screen, Daddy came to all kinds of holes-in-the-wall to hear me sing. The way he would clap and cheer you would have thought I was playing Carnegie Hall instead of some tiny little town hall.
That’s why I’m dedicating the dessert chapter to him. Not just one recipe. The whole chapter. Like the desserts in it, Daddy was unusually dreamy and uncommonly sweet.
Wonderful White Chocolate Pie
Makes 10 servings
CRUST
20 squares reduced-fat cinnamon graham cracker squares, crushed into crumbs
¼ cup sugar substitute, such as DiabetiSweet or Splenda
⅓ cup margarine, melted
FILLING
One 1-ounce package fat-free, sugar-free instant white chocolate pie filling
2 cups fat-free half-and-half
½ teaspoon almond extract (optional)
7 sugar-free creme-filled chocolate sandwich cookies, coarsely chopped
To make the crust: Preheat the oven to 375°F.
In a medium bowl, mix together the graham cracker crumbs, sugar substitute, and margarine. Press the mixture into the bottom and up the sides of a 9-inch pie pan.
Bake for 10 minutes. Cool on a rack.
To make the filling: In a medium bowl, using an electric mixer on medium speed, beat the pie filling mix, half-and-half, and almond extract (if using), until smooth, about 2 minutes. Stir in the chopped cookies.
Pour the filling into the crust, cover with foil, and refrigerate until set, about 3 hours.
Patti’s Pointers: If you have a food processor, make the crust in it to save time. Process the graham crackers into crumbs, then add the sugar substitute. Instead of melting the margarine, cut it into pieces, add to the food processor bowl, and pulse until well mixed. For a nice touch, garnish with a sprinkle of unsweetened cocoa powder before serving.
Per Serving: 180 calories, 3 g protein, 23 g carbohydrate, 9 g fat, 1.5 g saturated fat, 0 mg cholesterol, 0 g dietary fiber, 340 mg sodium
Diet Exchanges: 1½ starches, 2 fats, or 1½ carbohydrate choices
Very Berry Trifle
When you have a crowd coming for dinner and you need a glamorous-as-it-is-delicious dessert, you can’t do better than this one. It is gorgeous. But don’t take my word for it; flip to the cover and see for yourself.
Makes 12 servings
1 recipe Four-Flavor Sour Cream Pound Cake (page 179)
One 1-ounce package fat-free, sugar-free instant vanilla pudding mix
2 cups fat-free milk
1½ cups frozen light whipped topping, such as Cool Whip, thawed
2 cups hulled and halved fresh strawberries
2 cups fresh blueberries
2 cups fresh blackberries
2 tablespoons sugar substitute, such as DiabetiSweet or Splenda
Prepare the pound cake according to the recipe directions. Let cool completely, then cut half of the cake into 1½-inch cubes. Save the remaining cake for another use.
In a medium bowl, whisk the pudding mix into the milk until it begins to thicken, about 2 minutes. Fold in the whipped topping. Cover and refrigerate for 1 hour.
Meanwhile, in a large bowl, toss together the strawberries, blueberries, blackberries, and sugar substitute. Layer half of the cake cubes in the bottom of a clear trifle bowl. Top with a third of the berries, then half of the pudding. Repeat the layers of cake, berries, and pudding, topping with a final layer of berries.
Per Serving: 150 calories, 4 g protein, 21 g carbohydrate, 6 g fat, 1.5 g saturated fat, 20 mg cholesterol, 3 g dietary fiber, 120 mg sodium
Diet Exchanges: 1½ starches, 1 fat, or 1½ carbohydrate choices
Patti
’s Pumpkin Pie
Both the pie lovers and the pie bakers in my family are crazy about this pie, but not for the same reason. It’s a favorite to the pie lovers for its taste (decadently delicious), while the pie bakers love it for its recipe (easy as, well, pie). When I was growing up, pumpkin pie was always made with granulated sugar and half-and-half by the great Southern cooks in my family. This healthier version uses sugar substitute and fat-free evaporated milk to keep the flavor without all of the calories.
Makes 8 servings
2 eggs
One 15-ounce can pumpkin
½ cup sugar substitute, such as DiabetiSweet