Peach Buckle

Cobbler is a southern staple. My grandma used to make it a lot and my mom. Peach, Cherry, and Blackberry Cobbler were the most popular in my family. Honestly, I was never a huge fan. I ate it, but it was never a particular favorite of mine. Their cobblers consisted of the biscuit top and my grandma always included dumplings inside hers (which I always picked around). So, since I never really loved cobblers, I never considered making one.

And then, I saw a "cobbler" on Pioneer Woman site and I examined the pictures very closely... it didnt look like the cobblers I had seen. No, it looked like it had crispy, buttery edges (which, incidentally, I'm a HUGE fan of). I decided that this is a cobbler I could fall in love with. Hers was a blackberry cobbler, but not liking the seeds (and I couldnt find fresh ones at the store) I opted to try a peach one and boy, is this recipe simple and delicious. But, folks... it's not technically a cobbler... it's a buckle. You should definitely try this. Hot out of the oven, it's divine. It gets pretty soggy on day two, but the flavor is still excellent.

Incidentally, I only made a half batch of pioneer woman's recipe and I used all splenda, so I calculated the whole buckle as having about 700 calories. Not bad when you can get 4 good sized servings out of it (or if you just sit down with an oven mitt in your lap and consume the whole thing straight of the oven, hey, it's only 700 calories...).

Peach Buckle
1/2 stick butter
1/2 cup self rising flour
1/2 milk
1 cup splenda (if using real sugar, only use 1/2 cup)
2 fresh peaches peeled and sliced
extra splenda for the top

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Cut your butter up and pit in the pan you are going to be using to bake the buckle. Melt the butter in the oven while it's preheating (dont burn it!)

Meanwhile, mix your sugar, flour, and milk together with a whisk. Pour mixture into the melted butter and place your peaches on top.

Bake till golden brown. Now, I put extra splenda on the top right before I took it out of the oven and thats why mine has that white-ish tint to it. If you used real sugar it would melt better and look prettier.

DELICIOUS.

Tangy Pineapple Cream Pie

I'm still looking for tasty low calorie desserts. And, I think I may have hit the jackpot this time! I saw a recipe awhile back on Cookie Madness for something called Millionaire Pie. I had never heard of this pie, even though Anna on cookie madness says that its a southern classic. Recipes that have pineapple in it, can't be southern classics, can they? I mean, unless you live in Southern Hawaii or something. Who had pineapple in the south?

I digress... I read over the ingredients for this millionaire pie and I started thinking... I might could make this low calorie!!! At first, I was a little hesitant... my last low calorie idea didn't turn out so well... but this one had promise.

I went to the grocery store yesterday afternoon seeking out the ingredients... crushed pineapple in it's own juice (no extra sugar added) check fat free sour cream check low calorie, fat free cool whip check... so far so good... and then we get to the sweetened condensed milk. Now, I knew that there was a fat free sweetened condensed milk... I checked the label and the sucker has 1100 calories for one can!!!!!! Yikes!!!! So, I paced up and down the baking aisle for a few minutes, pondering what to do... should I just scratch the whole pie? Nahhh.. I dont want to walk back to the refrigerated section and put the cool whip and sour cream away. I tried to think of what has the sweetness and consistency of sweetened condensed milk... not much, but I finally decided to buy a box of instant fat free, sugar free vanilla pudding...

And that's how this recipe was born... I've made a bunch of changes to the pie, so I changed the name and I'm calling it my own....

Tangy Pineapple Cream Pie

Graham Cracker Crust: (you could use a pre-made one if you like, but if you do, I'd halve the rest of the recipe).
3/4 cup of Graham Cracker Crumbs
1 tbsp Sugar
1 tbsp Butter melted

Filling:
1 box of jello instant pudding, vanilla fat free, sugar free
(you'll actually only use 14 oz of prepared pudding)
3 cups of cold milk (for the pudding)
4 tbsps sour cream
4 tbsps of key lime juice
2 8 oz cans of crushed pineapple in its own juice, drained
3 cups of cool whip

First, prepare your pudding according to box instructions, set aside to set.

Preheat the oven to 350 and mix the melted butter, sugar, and graham cracker crumbs together and pat into the bottom of a 9.5 inch glass pie pan. If you like more crust and want it to go up the sides, then double the recipe. I just wanted a little base crust. Put into the oven to bake for about 3-4 minutes. Just enough to firm up a little. It will still be pretty loose on top, but its okay, the filling is thick.

Prepare filling. Measure out 14 ozs of the prepared pudding (almost 2 cups) and place in a large mixing bowl. Then add sour cream, key lime juice, drained pineapple, and the cool whip and Stir well, incorporating all ingredients.

Pour filling into cooled pie dish and freeze for 1 hour then pull out of freezer and put into fridge for at least 4 hours. It fills the pie pan COMPLETELY.

What you get when you are finished is a deliciously tangy and sweet, creamy, refreshing pudding type of pie. It is yummy! I might also just skip the crust all together and pour into individual ramekins for little pudding desserts sometime, also.