Skinny Southern Sweet Potato Casserole

A traditional southern sweet potato casserole- kept all the yum and remove the excess fat and calories to remove the guilt! 

I got some skills.... Fat cutting, flavor keeping skills!  I'm not a self tooting horn usually, but in this case I shall toot toot away! 

This skinny sweet potato casserole kicks some serious taste buds! I do it for me, but I mostly do it for you guys out there! 

Ye asked and ye shall receive!

You guys told me via social media you were really looking forward to sweet potato casserole. You said you wanted some slimmed up classics.

So I got your back! 

This recipe usually is a calorie killer- also loaded with carbs and fat. So I employed a couple of my own tricks to keep this recipe as true to the original but cut out the guilt!

It's got HALF THE FAT, LESS CARBS and 172 calories less per serving!! 

Time to do a happy dance!

I totally added this gif in honor of Fork and Good's Emma!

Trick 1- this is not just sweet potatoes, I added half pumpkin purée. So right there I cut a whole lotta carbs. I sleiged them! Dead! Ps- you cannot tell at all! It tastes just like the original! Seriously, scouts honor!

Trick 2- cut out the extra butter and sugar. The original recipe called for a cup of butter and a cup of sugar for the filling alone. Yowsa! Seriously this was bad ya'll! I refuse to ever use that much butter unless it's a cookie. So I went with 2 tablespoons of butter, it was buttery enough, went with the third cup of sugar- totally sweet enough! Besides- it's got candied pecan topping! I also cut out extra butter and sugar from the topping too!

Okay so you're all like- why did you do this?! I love my casserole as is.

Well I love it too and I totally assure you this is jut as good. All that extra fat and sugar is fun, but there is a threshold where you cannot taste it anymore and it just doesn't need to be there.

It's like frosting a cake and then adding chocolate ganache on top-

Like a third nipple- who needs one of those?  Pointless! (Having flash backs of Chandler's third nipple on Friends)

So quit your whinning and try this recipe! Then you can crawl on back and tell me how it rocked your world!

Drooling yet??

Recipe skinnified and adapted from this recipe here.

What you need:

Sweet Potato Filling

4 small sweet potatoes, mashed
1 can pumpkin puree
2 eggs, beaten
1/3 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup lowfat milk
2 tablespoons butter, melted
1/4 teaspoon pumpkin spice
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Candied Pecan topping

1 cup pecans
1/3 cup brown sugar
1/3 cup flour
3 tablespoons melted butter

How to make it

1- Preheat oven to 350º
2- Combine all ingredients for sweet potato filling in a bowl, place in a medium casserole dish, I used a 8" circular dish.
3- Combine all ingredients for topping, sprinkle over the top of filling.
4- Bake 30-40 minutes until topping has browned.

Nutritional Information

Before

After

Fall Craft Beer Picks and a Giveaway

It's fall and with the crisp cooler weather I wave adeiu to IPA's and welcome back my favorite Pumpkin Spiced Ales. You gotta have a reason to look forward to every season and I always look forward to wrapping my lips around some pumpkin beer!

This year I decided to wrap up my favorites and collaborate with fellow beer blogger Joel from Fermented Reality. I met him a while ago on twitter. He sure knows his beer, but what really got my attention is some of his t-shirts. Especially his Hip Hop t-shirt. I begged for him to make them as ladies fitted tees and he did!! YAY!

Available for both men and women, I asked him about doing a giveaway on my blog and he gladly obliged, so now YOU have a chance to win one of these awesome t-shirts! I got one and LOOOOVE it! Sometimes you get a t-shirt and don't expect much, but the quality on this t-shirt is great and I love the design!

If you cannot wait for your chance to win... you can buy a shirt here.

---------> See the bottom of the post to enter to win a shirt!

Pumpkin Pie Parfait Breakfast Jars

So as you know pumpkin season is in full swing. I know all you Pumpkin and Pumpkin Spice-philes are just itching for your next fix of pumpkin.You are looking furiously for pumpkin recipes. Well rest assured I got ya covered today!

So you may already have your pumpkin spice coffee to go in the morning, but what's a girl to eat for breakfast that satisfies that pumpkin lust without packing on the pounds? How about a Pumpkin Pie Parfait Jar- lowfat, quick, easy and portable. DONE!

Pumpkin Spice Sugar Rim & Pumpkin Beer

Not sure if you guys have noticed but since Pumpkin has become marketable and means dollar bills to many food and beverage companies there fall is totally creeping into summer... (can we instead extend it into winter since around March or April I want to move since I am so tired of winter?!) But back to fall.  Why do people start selling pumpkin spice lattes and pumpkin beer in the end of July.. yes even pumpkin beer in JULY?! I just cannot understand this. As much as I love Fall, I love summer maybe more since Fall inevitably means that Winter is not too far behind. Winter means snow and shoveling... notw that I own a home it also means ridiculous heating bills. So suck it to all those companies giving me Fall in the middle of Summer

**end rant**

Now that it is officially Fall- Let the pumpkin games begin! I can enter back into that mode of comfort, warmth and all things pumpkin. This is the most wonderful time of fall, sunny, still warm, but the need for a sweater every now and again. My favorite of all the pumpkin things is craft beer- ZOMG it's totally pumpkin beer season guys! Officially- but I couldn't hold out and started last week, alright.... confession I slipping and had a Dogfish Head Punkin' Labor Day weekend! Oooooohhh the humanity. Pumpkin beer is my weakness. Especially with the right balance of spices.

Pumpkin Creme Brûlée Shots

Why is this a Foodgasm?

Pumpkin Palooza is happening NOW! Us ladies we love some pumpkin and we like some spice for the fall. You know I gotcha covered with some amazing treats and I lowered the fat. Make sure you head over to my Facebook page today (10/23), I am hosting a pumpkin party, so make sure you check out my recipes as well as all my food blogger friends pumpkin recipes!  Stop bye and share your recipes with me!

So how does Pumpkin Creme Brûlée sound? AMAZE-balls! Not only did I but the fat, but I made it MUCH easier to make at home. Best part, you get to play with FIRE! Ohhhh yeah! So I wanna give a nice shout out to my girl Jenni from Pastry Chef Online for this recipe. When I saw it, I just knew it was happening at NY Foodgasm HQ! This is actually more of a pudding, but it is so creamy and delish with that same charred sugar crust, you won't miss the original. I made a couple adjustments from the original recipe to cut a little fat, but overall I kept true to her recipe. I mean it is a GREAT recipe with Maple syrup and spices, YUM! When I saw the lemon, I was thinking "NO way!" but it TOTALLY works! She is a pro and I trusted her.

As soon as I saw this I knew I was gonna make it Pumpkin Creme Brûlée. I was actually invited to a holiday food exchange party and I made these for it in individual shot glasses and even got cute little spoons. We were judged, like on Iron Chef on Presentation, Taste, so on. I won presentation, YAY! I am so anal I made sure I bought 16 matching shot glasses and cute little spoons. **obsessed**

So enough of my rambling, here is the recipe and the food porn!

Spiked Foodgasm: Pumpkin Spice Ale Muffins with a Spiced Glaze

Why is this a Foodgasm? 

It's fall and you all know how I am super stoked about pumpkin.... well now you can take that up 10 notches because I found a way to combine my love of pumpkin ale with my pumpkin baking!! I knew I had to create a recipe for pumpkin muffins, but then I remembered my Bluepoint Blueberry Muffins and I knew this needed some local craft pumpkin spice ale. But this time I added a little fat just to make them softer. I really like how the flavors are balanced well- I even used some lemon zest to brighten up the flavors so the spice didn't get lost, thanks to a tip from my friend Jenni at Pastry Chef Online. As if the muffins were not amazing enough already, I knew I wanted to just add another touch, so I created a simple glaze to drizzle over the top! Don't you just wanna lick your screen right now?

Here is how I lightened this- I used only an eighth cup of canola oil, nonfat Greek yogurt and pumpkin purée in place if some of the missing fat. The Greek yogurt and pumpkin keep these muffins nice and moist! With all the flavor and the texture you will NEVER know this was low fat!

For this recipe I used Southampton Pumpkin Ale.This craft beer, local to long island, has a nice balance of pumpkin and spice flavor while still retaining a nice hoppi-ness!

 

Autumn Shepherds Pie

Why is this a Foodgasm?

One of the greatest parts of Autumn is all the awesomely comforting food. Shepherd's Pie is a comfort classic of meat and potatoes that just makes you feel all warm and fuzzy. However, the calories and fat packs on the sweater-weather pounds. Yeah, I don't like that part either, but that is why I am here to not only take this up a few notches with flavor, but also greatly reducing the fat! Is it magic? No it's a foodgasm!

So what did I do to achieve this? Let's take it layer by layer...
The meat layer- I took my trick from my magic portobello beef tacos and added lots of finely chopped mushrooms to the mix as well as some garlic, onion and bell pepper. To add bulk to our meat layer, lots of veggies for vitamins and fiber and for FLAVOR! I also used 93% lean ground beef, which can be rather dry, but with all the veggies it makes it much better!!
The potato layer- I used sweet potatoes since they have more nutritional value with lots of vitamins, **but this is the genius** I used some pumpkin puree mixed into it. Not only adding fiber and bulk but also giving it - FLAVOR. I also used light butter and reduced fat milk. You will not miss any of that fat, I assure you!
The cheesey crust- Reduced fat cheese is the answer, fat free is a no-go, not melty enough and lacks flavor!
 

Pumpkin Coconut Tres Leches Cake

Why is this a Foodgasm?

It is officially Autumn guys, you know what that means? PUMPKIN EVERYTHING! Let the Pumpkin obsession begin now! This month you will be treated to my many pumpkin recipes, or annoyed. My husband is SICK of pumpkin by the end of October. I do it to death every year, but, I GOTTA!

Have you ever had Tres Leches Cake? This was my first time ever making it and trying it. It means 3 milks and boy are they bad for you, full of fat and yumminess. I saw Pumpkin Tres Leches Cake originally on My Love for Cooking and I was blown away! I knew I needed this in my life!! So I made my own version of this lightened up, using only 2 eggs an egg white, other than the cake is fat free and it kinda needs to be. The Tres Leches mixture is fat-tastic but we all need some fat in our lives from time to time. I lightened it up for you guys though, while also adding the awesomely yummy flavor of coconut milk in place of cream! Removing fat and adding flavor is the best of both worlds and that is what I try and do for every dish here at NY Foodgasm!

Pan Fried Gnocchi with a Coconut Pumpkin Sauce

Why is this a Foodgasm?

This is straight up lick the bowl amazing! Like get your nose to the bowl to lick it! This is sweet, salty, creamy and comforting. You think Pumpkin and coconut combo sounds weird...you are very mistaken. Then you take some coconut and pumpkin then add some brown sugar and you just went over the edge of foodgasm ecstasy!

I recently saw pan fried gnocchi on pinterest and I knew I had to try it....with brown butter! I have also seen pumpkin coconut soups so I thought, why not develop a sauce the same way with just a little brown sugar to bring out the sweetness and the butteriness of the pan fried gnocchi. Then to take it to the next level I topped with toasted pistachios, coconut and chickpeas. So I made it and my husband ate it and almost cried out in foodgasm!

A Slow Cooking Foodgasm: Autumn Stew with Mini Ravioli

Why is this a Foodgasm? The leaves are falling and you have a rosy flush in your cheeks because of the cold, you want dinner and you crave something with the spices and the season that is hot, soft and creamy in texture....okay guys this is foodgasm not a porno, you may want that but this may be a close second to satisfy a different desire! It is spicy, fragrant of the season, creamy, comforting and oh so flavorful! So satisfying *sigh*

Thinking outside the pie: Pumpkin Bolognese

Why is this a Foodgasm? This is really a sneaky foodgasm, I mean Pumpkin Bolognase? Really? I came upon the idea after I made the Pumpkin Chili, I thought hmmm why not make a meat sauce, like a Bolognese with pumpkin instead of tomato. I like to challenge the idea that pumpkins are just for baking! Let's think outside the pie on this one. Well I made this up completely outta my head after studying some classic Bolognese recipes. When I tell you I just about fell off my chair from just how good this was- well I was just so amazed! The spicy sausage, the sweetness of the carrots and the pumpkin combined with the sweet acidity of the Sauvignon Blanc just made my taste buds explode in rapture! Yes it was almost a religious experience! AMEN!

This is a 6 point foodgasm (recipe yields 8 servings)