Easy Cheesy Tomatoey Pasta

You may find a new trend. Less pictures but easy recipes. With a new baby my recipes are changing ever so slightly :)

This one is so yummy we keep re-inventing it by substituting different pastas and veggies, and sometimes I add shredded chicken or cut up chicken sausage.

Melt in sauce pan:
1 cup salsa (1/2 jar) Newmans pineapple salsa
2 T low-fat cream cheese

Mix in cooked pasta and blanched veggies (I threw in frozen veggies I had steamed in the microwave with a special bowl I picked up at Fry's... I knew the electronic store Marc loves is good for something).

Viola! Amazing 1 pot meal. Healthy, easy, inexpensive and no fuss cleanup. Doesn't get better than this.

Monkey Bread

aka Applesauce Banana Bread

Delicious very moist bread, even better the day after making. You can mix-and-match different bonus ingredients. The first time I used dried cranberries and dark chocolate pieces. The next time dried apricot pieces and walnuts. YUMMO!

Next time I'm thinking of adding shredded carrot and raisins, or zucchini and walnuts, served toasted with low-fat cream cheese and you have a delic carrot or zucchini cake version. And great for my soon to be 2 year old nieces.

4 bananas, ripe
3/4 cup Splenda
1/2 cup+ applesauce (I make it from scratch using a large apple, recipe below)
2 eggs, beaten
1 tsp baking soda
1 T baking powder
1 tsp salt
2 cup flour (1 c all-purpose & 1 c whole-wheat)
bonus: 1/2 cup to 1 cup crasins, walnuts, chocolate pieces, dried fruit

1. Preheat oven to 350 F and spray 2 9x5 loaf pans.
2. Mash bananas in large bowl and stir in Splenda. Let stand 15 minutes.
3. Mix in applesauce and eggs.
4. In separate bowl, combine dry ingredients
5. Slowly add dry mix to banana mixture and mix well. Add bonus ingredients.
6. Pour into pans and bake for 45 minutes or until wooden toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.
7. Remove from oven and let stand 10 minutes before removing from pan, cool on wire rack.


*Homemade Applesauce*
1. Peel and dice a large apple.
2. Microwave 3 min in a small bowl.
3. Blend apple (I use my Magic Bullet).

Viola! Homemade applesauce.

Banana Cranberry Bread

This week's leftover ingredient is bananas. This was so easy to make and so yummy that Marc may start buying extra bananas on purpose. This bread comes out super moist.

Ingredients

2 eggs
2/3 cup Splenda
2 very ripe bananas
1/4 cup applesauce
1/3 cup skim milk

2 eggs
1 tablespoon canola oil
1 tablespoon cinnamon
2 tablespoons poppy seeds
2 cup all purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup cranberries

Directions
1. Preheat oven to 350. Spray bread pan and lightly dust with flour.
2. Mix eggs and Splenda.
3. Mash bananas until there's only small pieces and add to mix.
4. Add applesauce, milk, eggs, oil, cinnamon and poppy seeds.
5. In separate bowl mix flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt.
6. Slowly add dry ingredients to wet, mixing them together as you go.
7. Add cranberries being careful not to over mix.
8. Bake for about 40 minutes until top is golden brown and toothpick comes out clean.

9. Cool on wire rack.

White Chocolate Cranberry Bites

These cookies are like mini-scones but not dry and crumbly. The white chocolate and cranberries give it a sweet taste. Ingredients
1/4 cup butter spread (Smart Balance)

1/2 cup canola oil

3 cups Splenda

4 large eggs (or egg whites)

1-1/2 teaspoon vanilla
5-1/2 cups all purpose flour
2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup white chocolate chips

1-1/2 cups dried cranberries

Directions
1. Preheat oven to 350F. Cover cookie sheets with wax paper sprayed with cooking spray.
2. Mix flour, baking soda and salt.

3. In seperate bowl mix butter, oil and Splenda. Gradually add eggs and vanilla.

4. Add flour mixture slowly to well combined. Add chocolate chips and cranberries.

5. Roll into 2" cookies and place onto sheet.

6. Bake for 12-15 minutes. Cool on wire rack.

Apple Bread Pudding

Easy & healthy. And perfect for using up stale bread.

Ingredients
cooking spray
1 apple, cut into thin slices
Bread like french loaf, tear off into small 1" pieces
4 eggs
2-1/2 cups non-fat milk
3/4 cup Splenda
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
non-fat vanilla yogurt

Steps
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Spray pan and saute apple about 5 minutes for apples to get soft.
3. Spray small glass dish.
4. Place bread in bottom of dish and top with apples.
5. Mix together eggs, milk, Splenda, cinnamon and nutmeg.
6. Pour mix on top of bread and apples.
7. Bake about 50 - 60 minutes. The bread pudding is ready when you can stick a fork or toothpick in and it comes out clean.
8. Let cool for 5 minutes and then serve with cold non-fat vanilla yogurt.

Chicken Fajita Enchiladas

I'd been hankering enchiladas for awhile and having some left over bell peppers in the house from a fabulous stir fry Marc made the other night I decided to try make Chicken Fajita Enchiladas. If you haven't noticed "left overs" is how my dishes get created. Have I mentioned yet how Marc will say "Wow, this one is fantastic... only we'll never have it again will we?"

What I love about enchiladas, which ponders the question why I haven't made them, is that they're simple and a change from what we're usually have. Growing up, Mom made these - although ours were cheese enchiladas since we were picky-eaters. I ran across a great story on the Internet that brought back memories of her making them with me standing by her helping (or getting in the way depending on who you ask). Although we're Jewish she took the time to pre-cook the tortillas just like the Mother below.

Enchiladas were a family staple growing up, though thankfully this cheese enchilada recipe has much less fat in it these days. Mom tells the story about how in the Sixties my Aunt Josephine went out to eat at a new supposedly Mexican food restaurant in Boston, only to be fed enchiladas where the corn tortillas had been taken out of a package and had not been fried before being cooked with cheese and sauce. (You have to pre-cook the tortillas to soften them up and give them more flavor.) She then went into the restaurant's kitchen and taught the chef how to properly make an enchilada. My aunt and my mother, both fifth generation Hispanic Arizonians, learned this recipe from my grandmother.

Ingredients
Cooking spray
12 whole wheat tortillas
1/2 medium onion, chopped
1 clove of garlic, minced
2 cup of salsa
1 6-oz can tomato paste
1 14.5-oz can crushed tomatoes
1/4 cup water
cooked shredded chicken
bell peppers (red, yellow and green), diced
small eggplant, bite size pieces
1 lb of fat-fat cheddar cheese, grated
1/2 cup fat-free mozzarella cheese
fat-fat sour cream

Steps
1. Preheat oven 350 degrees F.
2. Spray a large pan and at high heat add a tortilla. Cook 2-3 seconds, lift up the tortilla with a fork and add another tortilla underneath. Cook 2-3 seconds, lift again both tortillas and add another tortilla underneath. Repeat the process with all the tortillas, adding a little more oil as needed. As the tortillas brown a little, remove from the pan one by one. This allows the tortillas to brown and soften, developing the flavor of the tortillas without adding fat.
3. Sauté the chopped onion and garlic in a medium size pot. Lower heat to medium and add salsa, tomato paste, crushed tomatoes and water.
4. In the pan used for pre-heating the tortillas, sauté the peppers and eggplant until tender. Add chicken and cook another7 minutes.
5. Spray the bottom of a large casserole pan. Take a tortilla, lightly cover with chicken mix then cheddar cheese. Roll up tortilla and place in casserole pan, seem side down. Continue until all the tortillas are filled and rolled. Add sauce to the top of the tortillas in the the casserole pan, making sure all are covered. Cover enchilada with the mozzarella cheese.
6. Put the casserole in the oven for 10 minutes or until the cheese melts.
7. Garnish with sour cream.

Preparation time: 30 minutes. Serves 4.

Orange Poppy Bread

This month's word is oranges. My parents have a couple of orange trees in their backyard that provide a bounty of oranges starting this time of year. We saw them last weekend and they brought over the first bag filled with oranges. Feeling inspired to bake something easy that I can give out to others I thought of making a bread. Which are great for breakfast, desert and snacking.


Ingredients:
4 cups All-purpose flour
2 1/4 cups Splenda
2 teaspoons baking powder
3/4 teaspoon salt
3 large eggs
1-1/2 cups orange juice
3 tablespoon grated orange zest
1 cup oil
1 tablespoon poppy seeds
1 tablespoon cinnamon
1 cup dried cranberries

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 350F. Spray and flour 2 9x5 loaf pans.
2. Mix flour, sugar, baking powder and salt.
3. In separate bowl mix eggs, juice, zest and oil. Add poppy seeds, cinnamon and cranberries.
4. Slowly add flour mix until just combined.
5. Divide batter among pans and bake for 40 to 45 minutes, or until a tester comes out clean.
6. Cool on wire rack.

Wrap in plastic wrap or foil. The breads keep well chilled for 1 week or frozen for 1 month. Makes 2 loaves.

Smoked Salmon Lasagna

Sometimes it's not just left overs that inspire a dish. Since we had a Cost Plus credit we decided to use the money toward some of their food items - Alaskan cracked pepper smoked salmon and Gia Russa oven ready Italian whole wheat lasagna. We still have a bit of cottage cheese and mozzarella cheese we're trying to use up so this sounded good.

Ingredients
whole wheat lasagna noodles*
can crushed tomatoes
can tomato paste
seasonings to taste - basil, oregeno, crushed red pepper, garlic, salt, pepper
2 eggs
2 cups low-fat cottage cheese
2 cups low-fat mozzarella cheese
1 Tablespoon parsley
smoked salmon

Steps
1. Preheat oven 400 and spray 9x13 glass baking dish.
2. Mix tomatoes, paste and seasonings.
3. In another bowl mix eggs, cottage cheese, mozzarella cheese, parsley and salmon.
4. Spread thin layer of sauce to cover baking dish.
5. Add lasagna noodles followed by a layer of cheese mix.
6. Repeat layering, ending with cheese mix and a dribble of remaining sauce.
7. Cover with foil and cook 45 - 50 minutes. Let cool about 10 minutes before serving.

Since I had left over lasagna noodles I made an extra with mushroom instead of smoked salmon for my sister and brother-in-law. Since they're caring for newborn twins this is a great dish for reheating for future meals.

*whole wheat cancels the fact that you're eating pasta... at least that's what I tell myself.

Turkey Cranberry Pizza

You may have spotted in my last post one our favorite cooking techniques for using up left overs. That is pizza!

Our pantry, or freezer as in this one, typically contains something for whipping up a pizza. Last week used left over bagels with our 'Sweet & Sour Chicken' for a delicious meal in minutes. Today we were low on bread so we went for our "in case of emergency" Boboli pizza shell to use with our left over turkey and cranberry from yesterday's Christmas Eve feast - which my parents picked up from Ralphs ready-to-go boxed meals to make cooking a breeze. Not to digress to much but this has been a long standing Christmas tradition in Mammoth because it afforded us a gourmet meal that was easy to cook after skiing all day and easily fed a group of hungry skiers for an incredible deal, about $40 bucks.

So to make the very yummy Turkey Cranberry pizza we preheated our oven to 425 and took our thin crust wheat Boboli pizza shell out of the freezer and scraped off the ice. I'm not sure how long they can be kept in the freezer but ours has probably been there about 3 months and still tasted ok.

After de-icing the pizza I spread low-fat cream cheese for the base then shredded turkey followed by the mashed cranberry sauce. A few extra small pieces of turkey and a sprinkle of low-fat mozzarella cheese for the topping. Baked about 15 minutes, the pizza was superb! The cream cheese melted nicely and the mix of turkey, cranberry and cheese was wonderful. The cream cheese and cranberry sauce also gave the pizza a perfect sauce so that it wouldn't be dry. I'm thinking this might make a good combination for a bread pudding. So keep an eye out for Turkey Cranberry Bread Pudding next.

Here's to creative cooking with left overs. By the way the cream cheese and mozzarella cheese had also been left over of course. The only problem as Marc likes to say is you never know when we'll have this set of ingredients again to try to repeat this. But you can always count on the pizza.

Apple Cake

For Chanukah, I made a traditional apple cake with lots of apples. A little less traditional I added cranberries and because I didn't have any honey in our pantry I used maple syrup for the sticky sweet glaze on top.

Ingredients
2 cups all-purpose flour
3 tsp. baking powder
pinch of salt
1 cup Splenda
3 extra large eggs
1/2 cup apple butter
1/2 cup oil
1 tsp. vanilla
2 very large apples (I believe I used janigold)
1/2 cup Splenda
3 tsp. cinnamon
1 tsp. nutmeg
1 cup cranberries (optional)

Maple Glaze:
1/2 cup maple syrup
2 tablespoons Splenda
2 teaspoons cinnamon

Steps
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 9-inch springform pan with cooking spray.
2. Mix flour, baking powder and salt.
3. Mix together 1 cup Splenda, beaten eggs, apple butter, oil and vanilla.
4. Peel and slice apples into chunks.
5. Sprinkle apples with 1/2 cup Splenda and cinnamon.
6. Stir dry mixture into wet mixture and apples. Add cranberries.
7. Pour into pan.
8. Bake about 60 minutes. Lightly cover pan with foil after 30 minutes.
9. Cool in pan. When it's cool place cake on wire rack.

For glaze: microwave 1/2 cup maple syrup, 2 tablespoons Splenda and 2 teaspoons cinammon.

Sweet & Sour Chicken

Using a Crockpot slow cooks the ingredients, making it very tender. A Crockpot also makes a big pot for serving a lot of people, or leftovers another day. And speaking of leftovers, we made some tasty 'Sweet & Sour Chicken' bagel pizzas with the ingredients accompanied with the sauce which made an excellent tomato-like soup.

Ingredients
2/3 chicken breast, 1/3 chicken thigh - browned
carrots, onions and celery
can vegetable broth
can stewed tomatoes
4 T soy sauce
2 T all spice
2 T pepper
chopped ginger
pineapple
red pepper

Steps
1. Place chicken on bottom of crockpot and top with carrots, onions and celery.
2. Top with broth, tomatoes, soy sauce, all spice, pepper and ginger.
3. Cook on low 8 hours, high 4 hours.
4. When ready, add cut up pineapple and red peppers and cook another 15 minutes.
5. Server over rice.

Egg Bake

This is a great brunch dish for serving lots of people.

Mix together:
8 eggs
1/2 cup non-fat milk
1 cup low-fat cottage cheese
1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese
1 cup tomatoes
1/2 cup chopped onions
1/2 cup shredded smoked salmon
1 cup blanched spinach
basil and pepper to taste

Grease baking dish and bake 425 for 40 min.

Spinach Artichoke Dip

For anyone who knows me this one is my "signature" recipe. And for anyone who does not know me, trust me when I say this one is the best! It is perfect for any group gathering served right in the bread bowl with the sourdough pieces & veggies. It is also absolutely fabluous warmed on the next day on toast. Our favorite day-after-holiday breakfast is eggs benedict with a poached egg on top of the toast & dip. And because I use low fat ingredients you don't have to feel guilty for indulging.

Ingredients
· 2 lbs fresh spinach leaves, washed and chopped
· 2 Tablespoons butter (Smart Balance buttery spread)
· 16 oz. low fat cream cheese
· garlic and pepper to taste
· large can artichoke hearts, chopped
· 8 oz. carton low fat sour cream
· 8 oz. shredded low fat mozzarella cheese
· 1 large round sourdough loaf
· assorted veggies for dipping (Cancels other calories)

Preparation
· Place spinach in microwave safe bowl and heat about 2 to 3 minutes until just wilted.
· Melt butter in a skillet.
· Add spinach.
· Stir in cream cheese, garlic & pepper. Stir until cream cheese melts.
· Fold in artichoke hearts, sour cream and 3/4 mozzarella cheese. Allow cheeses to melt.
· Cut top of loaf & pull out inside into cubes for dipping.
· Pour mixture into bread loaf on a cookie sheet. Top with remaining mozzarella cheese.
(This can refrigerated at this point if desired.)
· When ready to serve, place in a preheated 350 degree oven. Bake 25 min until hot & bubbly.

Pumpkin Pie Cookies

An unusual twist on a traditional holiday treat. And, a healthy option for desert.

Ingredients
1 1/2 Cup Butter (Smart Balance buttery spread)
1 Cup Splenda
3 Eggs
1 Can (15oz) Pumpkin
1 Tablespoon Ground Cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon Ground Nutmeg
1 1/2 Teaspoon Vanilla Extract
3 Cups All-Purpose Flour
1 1/2 Teaspoon Baking Powder
Craisins & toasted pecan pieces

Steps
1 Grease cookie sheets and preheat oven to 350.
2 Mix butter and sugar with mixer until well mixed (will be light and fluffy).
3 Add eggs, pumpkin, spices & vanilla; mix well.
4 Sift dry ingredients together & gradually add to pumpkin mixture, mixing by hand.
5 Mix in Craisins & pecans
6 Drop onto cookie sheets & bake 10 to 15 minutes - or until slightly browned.

* Note: Dough will be sticky and wet.

(Makes 3 to several dozen cookies, depending on size and shape.)

Mac & Cheese

This was one of my favorite foods growing up that my mom made straight out of the Kraft box... just like everybody's mom did. I got the idea for this recipe from an article in the L.A. Times Food section reminiscing about this comfort food and how restaurants today have strayed from its original form. I too appreciate the traditional mac & cheese without any dressing. Keeping with a healthy take, my version watches those extra calories and fat.

Ingredients
8 oz cooked elbow macaroni
1 can (10-3/4 oz) cream of mushroom soup (any cream of ... soup works)
8 oz fat-fat shredded cheddar cheese (1/2 horseradish cheddar, 1/2 mozzarella is wonderful)
4 oz whole-wheat crackers mashed into crumbs

Steps
1. Preheat oven to 400ºF. Spray 9 X 9 baking dish.
2. Mix macaroni, soup, and cheese in baking dish.
3. Top with cracker crumbs.
4. Bake until top is golden, about 25 minutes.

To kick it up a notch, we added some leftover chicken-apple sausage to the mac & cheese.

French's fried onions are also wonderful insted of crackers. Add a layer to the top about 5 minutes before you take it out.

Carot Cake

For Marc's birthday I wanted something that said elegant but still healthy. I found this recipe in a copy of Weight Watcher's September/October 2006 magazine and for a Fran-first didn't change the recipe... well okay, I added cranberries and pecans and used Splenda instead of sugar but that's it and the cake looked absolutely professional. Of course the cake box Whole Foods gave me also helped with the store-bought look. But nothing beats homemade and knowing every delicious bite is low calorie and healthy.

Ingredients
2 cups all-purpose flour
1-1/2 cups Splenda
2 tsp cinnamon
2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1 package diced dried apricots
3 tbsp hot water
2 eggs
2 egg whites
2-1/2 cups shredded carrots
1/2 cup apple butter (next to jams)
1/2 cup canola oil
1/2 cup cranberries
12 oz fat-free cream cheese
7 oz jar marshmallow cream
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 cup chopped pecans

Steps
1. Preheat oven to 350. Spray 2 9-inch round cake pans with nonstick spray, line the bottoms with wax paper and spray the paper with nonstick spray.
2. Combine flour, sugar, cinnamon, baking soda and salt in a medium bowl.
3. Put apricots and hot water in a food processor (or Magic Bullet) until blended but a little chunky. (It's nice when you bite into a piece of apricot in the cake.)
4. Beat eggs and egg whites. Add carrots, apple butter, oil and apricots until blended. Add flour mixture until blended. Add cranberries.
5. Spread batter evenly in the pans. Bake until the cakes are browned and center of each bounces back when lightly pressed with a fingertip, 30 - 32 minutes. Let cool in pans on racks, 15 minutes. Remove cakes from the pans, peel off the paper and cool completely on the racks.
6. For frosting: mix cream cheese, marshmallow cream and vanilla until smooth. Frost top of cake then place other cake and frost top and sides. Sprinkle top with hopped pecans.

Pizza Bread Pudding

I tried this recipe once before and FAILED. When I say failed I mean Marc, my husband who had eaten every one of my creations up to this recipe, even made a face when I put this one in front of him. Granted, I made the mistake of adding roasted garlics to the already garlicy-rolls. But I swore to him if there hadn't been so much garlic it would have tasted wonderful.

Well as luck would have it, we had Stinking Rose (the garlic restaurant) for lunch at work today, and as such an opportunity presented itself. And there's always Plan B for dinner tonight if this ones fail (leftover pizza).

Here's the recipe:

8 Garlic Rolls
3 eggs
1-1/2 cups non-fat milk
2 diced tomatoes
low-fat mozerella cheese

Preheat oven to 350. Tear rolls into smaller pieces. Combine eggs, milk and tomatoes. Add bread and soak for a couple of minutes. Pour into a small greased baking dish and sprinkle top with mozerella cheese. Should be done after 60 minutes.

Ok, I'm now writing this after we have gone back for seconds and can vouch this recipe is a saver!

Healthy & Sweet Breads

This makes an amazingly healthy bread that tastes sinnfully sweet and moist because of the pumpkin. It may seem a bit heavy but I love that it uses no oil. You just need to be careful to cook the bread long enough without overcooking it. I cut a small piece to be certain. This recipe is the same for making Zucchini-Walnut and Carrot-Raisin.

Zucchini-Walnut Bread &
Carrot-Raisin/Cranberry
Makes 2 loaves

2 cups shredded zucchini
or 2 cups shredded carrots
3-1/2 cups unbleached flour
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tbsp baking soda & baking powder
2 tsp cinnamon
3 eggs
1 cup applesauce
1 cup Splenda
1 cup canned pumpkin

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour 2 loaf pans.

Clean the zucchini or carrot, cut off the ends, and shred using a grater.

Sift together flour, salt, baking soda, baking powder and cinnamon. Set aside.

With a mixer (or the amazing Magic Bullet) beat the eggs until frothy. Add the applesauce a little at a time. Gradually add the sugar and pumpkin.

Add the dry ingredients. Then add add zucchini or carrots. Slowly mix in the nuts and/or raisins and cranberries. I'm a little partial to zucchini with nutty walnuts and carrots with the sweet raisins and cranberries but this is just good with any combination!

Pour into prepared pans. Bake at 350 for at least an hour. Insert a toothpick in the center to check it comes out clean. Place on a rack to cool for 10 minutes, then remove from the pans and cool completely. Then slice a piece and say to yourself you got your daily vitamins.

WARNING: this is moist in the middle because of the pumpkin.

Comfort Corn Pudding

This past Friday Marc (my dear husband) stocked up our fridge, inlcuding fresh corn on the cob. On Sunday I took a spill while biking. Okay more like crash landed on my face chipping a tooth, biting my tongue and getting stitches to my upper lip. With said mentioned injury, biting down on bbq'd corn wasn't an option. So as the resourceful cook that I am, and having now reached Friday and becoming BORED with my bed rest, I came up with a corn alternative.

Ingredients:
3 beaten eggs
3 tbsp Splenda
2 cups non-fat milk
pinch of salt
ground black pepper to taste
2 cups fresh corn (exactly 2 cobs of corn)
slightly old, cubed bread*

Steps:
1. preheat oven to 350 and grease a 9 x 13 baking dish
2. mix eggs, sugar, milk, salt and pepper
3. add corn
4. place cubed bread in baking dish and pour over mixture
5. bake about an hour; done when center is set and top is golden brown

*Challah was supplied by my sister who also bombarded our fridge with food.

Plum Good Loaf

This month's word is PLUMS which are in season and in abundance from our plum tree (well, actually our neighbor's tree but they don't mind). With so many plums I decided to make a plum good & healthy cake that I could share with others. I'm waiting to hear what my parents and my sister & her husband think, but my husband said give me seconds which I take as a good sign. And you could not tell I used healthier substitutes.

(Makes 1 loaf)

Ingredients:
1 cup butter (I used Smart Balance "light" butter spread)
1 cup Splenda
3 eggs (I used an egg substitute)
2 cups all-purpose flout
1/2 tsp each baking soda and powder
sprinkle cinnamon
about 1/2 cup plum puree (I used our "Magic Bullet")
plum slices
Glaze (steps at the end)

Steps:
1. Preheat oven 300 degrees and grease & flour loaf pan.
2. Mix softened butter & sugar.
3. Add beaten eggs.
4. In new bowl, mix flour, baking soda & powder and cinnamon.
5. Slowly combine the dry mix to the creamed mix. (I recommend using a wooden spoon.)
6. When nicely mixed, add in the plum puree.
7. Spread 1/2 the batter in pan, single layer plum slices skin side down, then rest of batter.
8. Bake 70 min (or until toothpick comes away clean).
9. Transfer to cooling rack for about 15'ish minutes.
10. Use a knife to loosen loaf from pan and glaze the finished loaf.

For Glaze: Heat on the stove over med-high heat 1-2 sliced plums, 2 tbsp water & 1/4 Splenda. Take off stove when glaze has only a few small plum pieces and let cool for a few minutes. Drizzle on top while loaf is still warm.

Here I am pouring the remaining batter into the loaf pans.

The finished plum cakes.