Quick and delicious! Basil Shrimp with Feta and Orzo by Cooking Light magazine…

Image: MyRecipes.com

I’m sharing with you a great recipe from Cooking Light magazine… This is a relatively quick and easy meal. Each recipe makes 2 servings and believe me, the servings are generous. I pretty much followed the recipe, except I like to use grape tomatoes instead of regular tomatoes… If you have dinner for four make two packets then slide it into a pretty dish. Gorgeous, tasty and without the guilt… then you can indulge in dessert! I hope you enjoy this as much as we do! Catch you back here tomorrow!

Basil Shrimp with Feta and Orzo

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Ingredients

• 1 regular-size foil oven bag
• Cooking spray
• 1/2 cup uncooked orzo (rice-shaped pasta)
• 2 teaspoons olive oil, divided 
• 1 cup diced tomato  (I used grape tomatoes)
• 3/4 cup sliced green onions
• 1/2 cup (2 ounces) crumbled feta cheese
• 1/2 teaspoon grated lemon rind
• 1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon black pepper
• 3/4 pound large shrimp, peeled and deveined
• 1/4 cup chopped fresh basil

Preparation

1. Preheat oven to 450°.
2. Coat inside of oven bag with cooking spray. Place the bag on a large shallow baking pan.
3. Cook the pasta in boiling water 5 minutes, omitting salt and fat; drain. Place the pasta in a large bowl. Stir in 1 teaspoon oil and next 7 ingredients (1 teaspoon oil through pepper). Place the orzo mixture in prepared oven bag. Combine shrimp and basil. Arrange shrimp mixture on orzo mixture. Fold edge of bag over to seal. Bake at 450° for 25 minutes or until the shrimp are done. Cut open bag with a sharp knife, and peel back the foil. Drizzle with 1 teaspoon oil.

Cooking Light
MARCH 2000

A five star fall dessert… Cinnamon Apple Cake – from Cooking Light Magazine!

Image: MyRecipes.com

Fall is in the air… or at least in Charleston, SC it will be soon! What do you think of when you think of fall? I think of apple cider, I think of Yate’s Cider Mill in Rochester, MI. One of my all time favorite places to grab some great crisp, sweet apples, a cup of apple cider, aaaaahhhhhh, and one of those sinful cider mill doughnuts rolled in granulated sugar and cinnamon. Ah, wish they were right around the corner, but its probably a good thing they are far away… VERY far away. If you want a dessert that isn’t too bad for you and has the bonus of making your house smell FAN-TAS-TIC! This is the recipe for you! It’s from Cooking Light magazine and you can click HERE to go to MyRecipes.com where you can quickly print the recipe, otherwise, see below! This recipe was featured in 1997, it was the reason I asked for a springform pan for Christmas that year. The recipe was updated in 2000, it’s fabulous and you know what’s good for you I think yout’ll absolutely love it! The only change I made was that I used low fat cream cheese, not fat free… fat free is chalky in my opinion. But I haven’t tried it in this recipe. I need to… I also used butter instead of margarine. ok, here goes…

Cinnamon-Apple Cake

Yield: 12 servings

Ingredients

• 1 3/4 cups sugar, divided
• 3/4 cup (6 ounces) block-style fat-free cream cheese, softened
• 1/2 cup butter or stick margarine, softened
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 large eggs
• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 3 cups chopped peeled Rome apple (about 2 large)
• Cooking spray

Preparation

• Preheat oven to 350°.
• Beat 1 1/2 cups sugar, cream cheese, butter, and vanilla at medium speed of a mixer until well-blended (about 4 minutes). Add eggs, 1 at a time, beating well after each addition; set aside.
• Lightly spoon flour into dry measuring cups; level with a knife. Combine the flour, baking powder, and salt. Add flour mixture to creamed mixture, and beat at low speed until blended. Combine 1/4 cup sugar and cinnamon. Combine 2 tablespoons of the cinnamon mixture and apple in a bowl; stir apple mixture into batter. Pour batter into an 8-inch springform pan coated with cooking spray, and sprinkle with remaining cinnamon mixture.
• Bake at 350° for 1 hour and 15 minutes or until cake pulls away from the sides of pan. Cool cake completely on a wire rack, and cut using a serrated knife.
• Note: You can also make this cake in a 9-inch square cake pan or a 9-inch springform pan; just reduce the baking time by 5 minutes.

Cooking Light 
JANUARY 2000

Owie, I can smell it baking already! Catch you back here tomorrow!

Meatless Monday recipe… Penne with Spinach, Feta and Olives!

Image: MyRecipes.com

Here is a recipe that will make you flip. It’s so easy. It’s healthy. It’s QUICK and DELICIOUS. This is another good one from Cooking Light Magazine! If you need a meatless Monday meal, here it is! It’s great paired with a small salad… enjoy, it’s one of my favorites! Click HERE to go directly to the MyRecipes.com website so it’s quick and easy to print, or see below!

Penne with Spinach, Feta, and Olives

Ingredients

• 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
• 1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
• 3 garlic cloves, crushed
• 6 cups hot cooked penne (about 12 ounces uncooked tube-shaped pasta)
• 2 cups chopped spinach
• 1/4 cup chopped pitted kalamata olives
• 2 tablespoons capers
• 3/4 cup (3 ounces) crumbled feta cheese

Preparation

• Combine first 3 ingredients in a large bowl. Add pasta, spinach, olives, capers, and cheese; toss well.

Cooking Light
MAY 1998

I said it was easy, didn’t I? Can’t get any easier than that! Catch you back here tomorrow!

Pecan Chocolate Chip Cookies – THESE are seriously fabulous!

Image: MyRecipes.com

Whenever I make these cookies and take them somewhere, people go nuts! Seriously… These are too good, and when I give out the recipe, NO ONE can believe they’re “light”. This recipe is from Cooking Light magazine. Make no mistake, part of what makes them so light is the serving size (one). With 81 calories, 3 grams of fat, 1.4 gm saturated fat, and 0.5gm fiber you have to be careful to not eat more than one (or two), but if you exercise a lot and can burn off what you eat… by all means, have at it! I love the cookie dough (I’m aware of the safety issues… to me, the dough is worth risking my life for taking a wee bit of a risk… I’m happy to report that in my little world there is no calorie content in the dough UNTIL IT IS BAKED… (and if you believe that I have swamp land, I mean a deep water lot for sale, hee hee).

I do make a few modifications, ALTHOUGH they’re perfectly fine as the recipe indicates. Here are some of the changes I’ve made throughout the years.

Leave out the brown sugar. OOPS… it happened once and I thought they turned out BETTER. But the difference between it being there and NOT being there is barely negligable (therefore why waste the extra calories?).

I use regular chocolate chips instead of mini. I didn’t care for the mini chips, they were, ahhhh, TOO MINI… I like a hefty bite of chocolate not a tiny smear where you THINK you may have just gotten chocolate (or maybe not)…

I usually use walnuts and I don’t always toast them. One reason, I’m almost always in a hurry. Another reason, I forget about them until I smell them burning. Soooo, since nuts are good for you I use a generous amount, usually a few handfuls. Same with chocolate chips… I put a few handfuls… I buy good chocolate chips, free of allergy causing soy and other miscellaneous ingredients that takes away from the flavor of the chocolate.

I usually (not always) make the cookies SMALLER. I like them bite size. No crumbs that way, boy do I have things figured out or what? You just have to watch them closely because they won’t always take as long to bake.

Lastly, I use a Silpat cookie sheet liner instead of parchment, but either way it’ll work just fine!

 

Give these a whirl, I do believe they’ll quickly become your favorite! Click HERE for the recipe from MyRecipes.com where you can easily print (as well as see the full info on nutritional info) or see below…

 

 Oatmeal, Chocolate Chip, and Pecan Cookies

These easy drop cookies are crisp on the outside and slightly chewy on the inside. Chocolate minichips disperse better in the batter, but you can use regular chips.

YIELD: 3 dozen (serving size: 1 cookie)

 Ingredients

• 1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour (about 5 1/2 ounces)
• 1 cup regular oats
• 3/4 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 3/4 cup granulated sugar
• 1/2 cup packed brown sugar
• 1/3 cup butter, softened
• 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1 large egg
• 1/4 cup chopped pecans, toasted
• 1/4 cup semisweet chocolate minichips

 Preparation

Preheat oven to 350°.

Lightly spoon flour into dry measuring cups; level with a knife. Combine flour and next 4 ingredients (through salt), stirring with a whisk; set aside.

Place sugars and butter in a large bowl; beat with a mixer at medium speed until well blended. Add vanilla and egg; beat until blended. Gradually add flour mixture, beating at low speed just until combined. Stir in pecans and minichips. Drop dough by tablespoonfuls 2 inches apart onto baking sheets lined with parchment paper. Bake at 350° for 12 minutes or until edges of cookies are lightly browned. Cool on pans 2 minutes. Remove cookies from pans; cool on wire racks.

Julianna Grimes and Ann Taylor Pittman, Cooking Light
DECEMBER 2007

Catch you back here tomorrow! If you get a chance, check out my photo blog at http://almostdailypic.wordpress.com !

Shrimp and Broccoli Stir Fry… Dinner this eve??

Image: MyRecipes.com

A quick and healthy recipe with emphasis on flavor is the SHRIMP AND BROCCOLI STIR FRY from Cooking Light magazine. I made this the other night and it was FABULOUS!

 

I made a few changes, one reason was that I was cooking for two and didn’t want leftovers… the other, I didn’t have any sesame oil… I made this a few times before I feel it was perfected. The first time I halved everything, BUT I kept the amounts for the sauce the same. There wasn’t enough. It was a tad dry… I didn’t measure the broccoli, so perhaps I had too much AND I had more shrimp… For two, I made these changes: 3/4# shrimp, and however much broccoli you want, it’s awesome so we ate quite a bit, probably close to 4cups… I used 1/3 cup of low sodium chicken broth, 2 1/2 Tablespoons rice wine vinegar and 2 1/2 Tablespoons soy sauce and 2 1/2 teaspoons of cornstarch.

 

If this sounds tasty to you, view the recipe below, or click HERE to go to their website for easy printing… NOTE: start your rice long before you start the stir fry because it goes quickly. I start the rice, and then start getting the other ingredients ready. Once the rice is almost done (or is done) THAT is when I start tossing ingredients into the wok!

Enjoy! 

Shrimp and Broccoli Stir-Fry

Stir-fry a zesty shrimp dish for a quick weeknight dinner. Spoon over basmati or jasmine rice. Try the recipe with chicken or steak, too.

• YIELD: 4 servings (serving size: 1 cup)
• COURSE: Main Dishes

Ingredients

• 1/4 cup fat-free, less-sodium chicken broth
• 2 tablespoons rice vinegar
• 2 tablespoons low-sodium soy sauce
• 2 teaspoons cornstarch
• 1/2 teaspoon dark sesame oil
• 1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper
• 1 tablespoon canola oil, divided
• 1 tablespoon minced peeled fresh ginger
• 1 tablespoon bottled minced garlic
• 1 pound peeled and deveined large shrimp
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 4 cups small broccoli florets
• 1 cup vertically sliced onion

 Preparation

Combine first 6 ingredients in a small bowl, stirring with a whisk.

Heat 2 teaspoons canola oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Add ginger and garlic to pan; stir-fry 30 seconds. Sprinkle shrimp with salt. Add shrimp to pan, and stir-fry 3 minutes or until done. Remove shrimp mixture from the pan.

Add remaining 1 teaspoon canola oil to pan. Add broccoli and onion to pan; stir-fry 4 minutes or until broccoli is crisp-tender. Add shrimp mixture and broth mixture to pan; cook 1 minute or until thickened, stirring constantly.

Jackie Mills, MS, RD, Cooking Light
JANUARY 2008

Catch you back here tomorrow! If you get a chance, check out my photo blog at http://almostdailypic.wordpress.com !

One of the dips that doesn’t just sit on your hips!

Image: MyRecipes.com

This is a fantastic dip! It was in the September 2008 issue of Cooking Light magazine, and it’s a keeper! They serve it with toasted baguette slices, I used Hint of Salt Triscuits and it was divine! Just like the full fat version, this is tasty as can be, and make no mistake, this isn’t super light, just a bit lighter!

You can click HERE to be taken directly to this recipe, so that it’s quick to print, it’s on the MyRecipes.com website where they have all the Cooking Light recipes or you can check it out from here:

Hot Artichoke-Cheese Dip

Cooking Light – September 2008

Yield: 12 servings (serving size: 2 1/2 tablespoons dip and 2 baguette slices)

Ingredients

2 garlic cloves (I didn’t use garlic)

1 green onion, cut into pieces

1/3 cup (1 1/2 ounces) grated Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese, divided (I used regular Parmesan)

1/3 cup reduced-fat mayonnaise (I used Canola Mayo)

1/4 cup (2 ounces) 1/3-less-fat cream cheese

1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice

1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper

12 ounces frozen artichoke hearts, thawed and drained (the package I bought was 10oz and it was fine)

Preparation

1. Preheat oven to 400°.

2. Place garlic and onion in a food processor; process until finely chopped. Add 1/4 cup Parmigiano-Reggiano and next 4 ingredients (through pepper); process until almost smooth. Add artichoke hearts; pulse until artichoke hearts are coarsely chopped. Spoon mixture into a 3-cup gratin dish coated with cooking spray; sprinkle evenly with remaining Parmigiano-Reggiano. Bake at 400° for 15 minutes or until thoroughly heated and bubbly. Serve hot with baguette. Instead of baguette, I served my with “hint of salt Triscuits”

Nutritional Information

Calories: 126, Fat: 3.4g, Protein: 5.1g, Carbohydrate: 20.8g, Fiber: 2.3g, Cholesterol: 7mg, Iron: 1.1mg, Sodium: 334mg, Calcium: 59mg

Have a great day… catch you back here tomorrow!

Check out my photo blog at http://almostdailypic.wordpress.com

Happy St. Patty’s to ya… Hot Corned Beef-Potato Hash…

Image: http://en.wikipedia.org

This is a recipe I found in Cooking Light magazine years ago… it’s a keeper! Quick and easy too… if you get a chance, give it a try! It’s a nice alternative the otherwise heavy St. Patrick’s Day meal.

May the luck of the Irish be with ya!

Catch you back here tomorrow!

Here’s the recipe, (0r y0u can click on THIS LINK to take you to My Recipes where it’s quick and easy to print).

Hot Corned Beef-Potato Hash

 

 

Yield: 4 servings (serving size: 2 cups)

Ingredients

8  ounces  thinly sliced lean deli corned beef

1  pound  small red potatoes (about 8 potatoes), thinly sliced

1  cup  thinly sliced leek (about 1 medium)

1  (10-ounce) bag angel hair slaw

1  tablespoon  vegetable oil

6  tablespoons  red wine vinegar

2  teaspoons  spicy brown mustard

1  teaspoon  sugar

1/2  teaspoon  salt

1/2  teaspoon  garlic powder

1/2  teaspoon  pepper

Preparation

Cut corned beef slices crosswise into thin strips; set aside.

Place potatoes in a large saucepan. Cover with water; bring to a boil. Cook 5 minutes. Add leek; cook an additional 2 minutes. Drain well. Combine potato mixture and slaw in a bowl; toss well. Set aside.

Heat oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium heat. Add corned beef; sauté 2 minutes. Add vinegar and next 5 ingredients (vinegar through pepper); cook 1 minute, stirring frequently. Pour vinaigrette over potato mixture; toss until well-blended and wilted. Serve immediately.

Nutritional Information

Calories: 218 (24% from fat), Fat: 5.9g (sat 1.7g,mono 1g,poly 1.8g), Protein: 5.9g, Carbohydrate: 28.7g, Fiber: 4.2g, Cholesterol: 40mg, Iron: 2.6mg, Sodium: 913mg, Calcium: 68mg

You can make Beef Bourguignonne even if your name isn’t Julia!

Image via MyRecipes.com

While the air still has a tad of a chill left to it, this is one HOT recipe to make… great when you have a group, or great to eat for a few nights. This is a Cooking Light recipe, therefore it’s not as fatty as the original recipe. I would never have known that it was lighter. My favorite part… the mushrooms! WOW!

Beef Bourguignonne (click HERE if you want to know how to pronounce it! Click on the little symbol that looks like a speaker and you will hear someone say it) is basically beef cooked in red wine with bacon, onions and mushrooms. It’s better if it sits a day… Click HERE if you want to be taken to MyRecipes.com to the actual recipe where it’s quick and easy to print, or here it is… You may want to rent Julie and Julia for more details… This was a dish made famous (in my eyes) by Julia Childs.

Yield: 9 servings (serving size: about 1 cup beef mixture, 3/4 cup noodles, and 1 teaspoon parsley)

Beef Bourguignonne with Egg Noodles

Yield: 9 servings (serving size: about 1 cup beef mixture, 3/4 cup noodles, and 1 teaspoon parsley)

Ingredients

• 1/3  cup  all-purpose flour
• 2  teaspoons  salt, divided
• 3/4  teaspoon  freshly ground black pepper, divided
• 2 1/4  pounds  beef stew meat
• 3  bacon slices, chopped and divided
• 1  cup  chopped onion
• 1  cup  sliced carrot
• 4  garlic cloves, minced
• 1 1/2  cups  dry red wine
• 1  (14-ounce) can less-sodium beef broth
• 8  cups  halved mushrooms (about 1 1/2 pounds)
• 2  tablespoons  tomato paste
• 2  teaspoons  chopped fresh thyme
• 2  bay leaves
• 1  (16-ounce) package frozen pearl onions
• 7  cups  hot cooked medium egg noodles (about 6 cups uncooked noodles)
• 3  tablespoons  chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley

Preparation

Combine flour, 1 teaspoon salt, and 1/4 teaspoon pepper in a large zip-top plastic bag. Add beef; seal and shake to coat.

Cook half of bacon in a large Dutch oven over medium-high heat until crisp. Remove bacon from pan with a slotted spoon; set aside. Add half of beef mixture to drippings in pan; cook 5 minutes, browning on all sides. Remove beef from pan; cover and keep warm. Repeat procedure with remaining bacon and beef mixture. Remove beef from pan; cover and keep warm.

Add chopped onion, sliced carrot, and minced garlic to pan; sauté 5 minutes. Stir in red wine and broth, scraping pan to loosen browned bits. Add bacon, beef, remaining 1 teaspoon salt, remaining 1/2 teaspoon pepper, mushrooms, tomato paste, chopped thyme, bay leaves, and pearl onions; bring to a boil. Cover, reduce heat, and simmer 45 minutes. Uncover and cook 1 hour or until beef is tender. Discard bay leaves. Serve beef mixture over noodles; sprinkle with parsley.

Nutritional Information

Calories: 447, Fat: 14.6g (sat 5.1g,mono 6.1g,poly 1.5g), Protein: 32.7g, Carbohydrate: 45.7g, Fiber: 3.9g, Cholesterol: 117mg, Iron: 6mg, Sodium: 677mg, Calcium: 47mg

Recipe and Image:  via MyRecipes.com (Becky Luigart-Stayner; Melanie J. Clarke and Celine Chenoweth)

Baked Potato Soup with all the trimmings!

Image: www.MyRecipes.com

Sometimes when you’re chilly there is nothing like a nice hot bowl of soup to get your innards warmed up. Other than vacuuming, there really isn’t anything that is going to warm you up from the inside out!

This tasty soup is from Cooking Light, and although it uses lower fat ingredients, if no one told you there were lower fat ingredients, I promise you, you would never know. NEVER. KNOW. That’s part of what makes this such a good recipe. It’s a fairly quick soup to make after the potatoes are baked. Mmmm, this is looking too good right now!!

So, if you were sitting there thinking… Ugh, I’m in a rut and need to try something new but want it to be pretty healthy, hey, this is for you!

I use Cracker Barrel 2% Extra Sharp cheese, it’s great, and it’s my “go to” cheese for recipes. It’s in every grocery store in Charleston, but I know other areas don’t carry it (Algonac, MI, darnit!). Serving size is 1 1/2 cups and let me tell ya… you will be full! Especially after a little plop of reduced fat sour cream, some shredded 2% extra sharp cheese, some green onions and some crispy bacon… oh la la…

 

BAKED POTATO SOUP  

 (Click on the recipe title for the link to MyRecipes.com, where all the Cooking Light recipes are as well as Southern Living, Real Simple and a host of other magazines, its easiest way to print!)

Yield: 8 servings (serving size: about 1 1/2 cups soup, 1 1/2 teaspoons cheese, 1 1/2 teaspoons onions, and about 1 tablespoon bacon)

Ingredients

• 4  baking potatoes (about 2 1/2 pounds)
• 2/3  cup  all-purpose flour (about 3 ounces)
• 6  cups  2% reduced-fat milk
• 1  cup  (4 ounces) reduced-fat shredded extrasharp cheddar cheese, divided
• 1  teaspoon  salt
• 1/2  teaspoon  freshly ground black pepper
• 1  cup  reduced-fat sour cream
• 3/4  cup  chopped green onions, divided
• 6  bacon slices, cooked and crumbled
• Cracked black pepper (optional)

PreparationPreheat oven to 400°.

Pierce potatoes with a fork; bake at 400° for 1 hour or until tender. Cool. Peel potatoes; coarsely mash.

Lightly spoon flour into dry measuring cups; level with a knife. Place flour in a large Dutch oven; gradually add milk, stirring with a whisk until blended. Cook over medium heat until thick and bubbly (about 8 minutes). Add mashed potatoes, 3/4 cup cheese, salt, and 1/2 teaspoon pepper, stirring until cheese melts. Remove from heat.

Stir in sour cream and 1/2 cup onions. Cook over low heat 10 minutes or until thoroughly heated (do not boil). Ladle 1 1/2 cups soup into each of 8 bowls. Sprinkle each serving with 1 1/2 teaspoons cheese, 1 1/2 teaspoons onions, and about 1 tablespoon bacon. Garnish with cracked pepper, if desired.

Nutritional Information

Calories:

329 (30% from fat)

Fat:

10.8g (sat 5.9g,mono 3.5g,poly 0.7g)

Protein:

13.6g

Carbohydrate:

44.5g

Fiber:

2.8g

Cholesterol:

38mg

Iron:

1.1mg

Sodium:

587mg

Calcium:

407mg

Black Bottom Banana Cream Pie… oh my!

This is a Cooking Light recipe, and it’s TO. DIE. FOR. I’m not kidding you! My husband says “It’s so good it’ll make your tongue beat your brains out!” or something like that. I have to admit, I haven’t heard that saying before, the images that flash before my eyes give me the willies, BUT, it’s a GOOD thing… means it’s soooo gooood!

Oh yeah, the BLACK BOTTOM BANANA CREAM PIE (click on that for direct link to My Recipes where it’s easily printed) is delish! It’s not difficult, bake a pie crust, melt some chocolate, make the banana cream custard filling, slap the sliced bananas on top of the chocolate, smear on the custard, then they top with “whipped topping” EEEEK, which just doesn’t happen to be in my vocabulary. Instead mine isn’t pretty until served, I make whipped cream or if in a time pinch use the canned REAL whipped cream, then using a microplane shred a little chocolate on top and whoooaaaa! Have you got yourself a masterpiece! But don’t take my word for it. Really. Ohhhh, please tell me I didn’t toss those overripe bananas!

Black Bottom Banana Cream Pie

Yield: 8 servings (serving size: 1 wedge)

Ingredients:

• 1  (9-inch) Pastry Crust
• 3  tablespoons  cornstarch, divided
• 2  tablespoons  sugar
• 2  tablespoons  unsweetened cocoa
• Dash of salt
• 1 1/3  cups  1% low-fat milk, divided
• 1  ounce  semisweet chocolate, chopped
• 1/2  cup  sugar
• 1/4  teaspoon  salt
• 2  large eggs
• 1  tablespoon  stick margarine or butter
• 2  teaspoons  vanilla extract
• 2  ounces  block-style fat-free cream cheese, softened
• 2  cups  sliced ripe banana (about 2 large bananas)
• 1 1/2  cups  frozen fat-free whipped topping, thawed
• Chocolate curls (optional)

Preparation

Prepare and bake Pastry Crust in a 9-inch pie plate. Cool completely on a wire rack.

Combine 1 tablespoon cornstarch, 2 tablespoons sugar, cocoa, and dash of salt in a small, heavy saucepan; gradually add 1/3 cup milk, stirring with a whisk. Cook 2 minutes over medium-low heat. Stir in chocolate; bring to a boil over medium heat. Reduce heat to low; cook 1 minute, stirring constantly. Spread chocolate mixture into bottom of prepared crust.

Combine 2 tablespoons cornstarch, 1/2 cup sugar, 1/4 teaspoon salt, eggs, 1 cup milk, and margarine in a heavy saucepan over medium heat, stirring constantly with a whisk. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat to low, and cook 30 seconds or until thick. Remove from heat. Add vanilla. Beat cream cheese until light (about 30 seconds). Add 1/4 cup hot custard to cream cheese, and beat just until blended. Stir in remaining custard.

Arrange banana slices on top of chocolate layer; spoon custard over bananas. Press plastic wrap onto surface of custard; chill 4 hours. Remove plastic wrap. Spread whipped topping evenly over custard. Garnish with chocolate curls, if desired. Chill until ready to serve.

Nutritional Information

Calories:

315 (29% from fat)

Fat:

10.1g (sat 4.8g,mono 3.4g,poly 2.4g)

Protein:

6.9g

Carbohydrate:

49.6g

Fiber:

1.6g

Cholesterol:

58mg

Iron:

1.4mg

Sodium:

253mg

Calcium:

94mg

Greg Patent, Cooking Light, NOVEMBER 1998

Visit my photo blog at http://almostdailypic.wordpress.com !

Image via www.myrecipes.com – Becky Luigart-Stayner