Lighter Side

Hey y'all, I'm Paula Deen, and today I'm cooking on the lighter side, but my two boys, Jamie and Bobby, are going to help me out

And the first thing I'm going to be making is poppy seed pinwheels with a light cream cheese center

They're almost too cute to eat. And then I'm going to be fixing up a vegetable crudite with a nice light dip

After that, the boys are going to be bringing me home a freshly caught fish from I can't miss Red Snapper

A dish that's so simple and so delicious you won't believe it

And then for dessert, Jamie and Bobby are going to be helping me prepare an almost fat-free lemon cheesecake

It's so rich and creamy you'll never know it's not the real thing

So get ready, y'all, because today we're taking a walk on the lighter side

Hey, Mom

Hey, guys. What's happening? Uh, just starting to cook. What y'all doing

We're fixing to go fishing. Any requests? Right, yes. Bring me back a fish because today I'm cooking lighter

So y'all bring it back to me. Okay, snapper, I think, are running right now. Okay, Mom, see you later

Bye, Mama. Bye. Y'all be careful and don't tarry. Let's go get some fish

This looks like a good spot. I'm going to start right here. That's it, man. Right there

Keep me here now. That's it. Don't mess this up now. Mama's expecting fish for dinner

Come on, get it. You got it. You got it. Aw, man

Mama's going to be mad. A rope. This is where you caught fish last time

I think it's the wrong guy doing the fishing to tell you the truth

While they're fishing, let's get started. get started. Today I'm going to start off by making poppy seed pinwheels. I've got a

light softened cream cheese here. I'm going to add some dry parsley and some dried chives

and a half a teaspoon of garlic salt. And we're just going to mix that together. Crescent

rolls are a fabulous thing. There's so many good hors d'oeuvres that you can make using these

wonderful, delicate crescent rolls. All right, so we're just going to open these up, and I hope it

doesn't pop and scare me. They get me every time. There we go. All right. Now, all I'm going to do

is open them up and kind of roll them out. Press that into a nice rectangle

So we're just going to take this light cream cheese center and we're going to put it onto our pastry

I'm just going to do it part of the way because when I roll it, I don't want it to squeeze all out

All right, we're just going to roll that up. You want to put a little flour on your board

to help me be able to roll it. See how quick and easy that was

Now we're going to spray our pan with Pam. All right, here we go

Lightly, because we're cooking lighter. I'm just going to move that to our pan

All right, now we're going to take our egg beaters, and I'm going to brush a light coating over the top of our pastry

Now we're just going to dust the top of it with some poppy seed

All right, so all we have to do now is score our pinwheels

And I'm going to just put a little flour here, so I'll have to run my knife through

And we're going to cut not all the way through the pinwheel, but just through the pastry

When I'm cutting soft things, I always like to use a serrated edge

All right, now we're going to put this in a 375-degree preheated oven

And in the meantime, we're going to move down here and make our dip. And we're gonna bake it for about 10 minutes

All right, now we're gonna make a light dip for our fresh vegetable crudités

and I'm gonna take light cream cheese. I'm using a light mayonnaise

And I'm using a light sour cream. Now I'm just gonna blend these together

Now at this point I going to add one tablespoon of vinegar and one tablespoon of fresh lemon juice in there Okay here we go

All right, that's mixed up pretty good. I think it needs a little salt

And I think I'm even going to put a little pepper in it to give it a little kick

because sometimes when you use light products, they fall short on flavor

Now at this point, I'm gonna be adding a half a cup of Roquefort cheese

All right, now I think out of all the strong cheeses that Roquefort's my favorite, I just love it

And I like the clumps in it. So like I said, when I dip my vegetables in there

I'll get a chunk of Roquefort. All right, that takes care of our dip

our vegetable crudités. But right now, I'm smelling these pinwheels, and I think we need to check on them

Ooh. Oh, gosh, they look delicious. Mmm

That looks really, really good, And nobody will ever guess that I put a light center in it

Mmm. That looks so good. But, you know, I think that next one maybe has more filling in it

So I'll leave that for the boys. And I'll come in here and get me a centerpiece

Yeah, now we talking. That's the piece I want. Looks delicious. Mmm-mm-mm

Gosh, those are good. When we come back, I'm hoping that we're gonna cook some red snapper if those boys come back

Hope the fish are biting. I'll see y'all soon. Yeah. All right

Oh, you got it. You got it. Oh. We've been out here an hour

We've caught a tree limb, a rope. We've been out here an hour

We've caught a tree limb, a rope, and a sunburn. Let's go to the market

Beautiful day to do it. You can't even fish. Let's go to the market

Nice job brother. If mama finds out that you didn't catch on nothing..

You'll never find out. You know how happy she'll be when we get there with the fish cleaned already

Easiest fishing we've ever done. Yeah. Hey Jason, what's happening man? We need a snapper on the fly

Mom's waiting on us. We didn't catch anything today. Good. Let's see

Yeah that one right there looks good. Perfect. Thank you, Jason. Is this okay to you guys

We're going straight to Mom's. Do you mind filleting it for us? Sure, no problem. Be right back

Thanks. And just like that, we're back in good standing. All right, fellas, you're good to go. Awesome

Thanks, Jason. You all like that. Let's put it on our business account for us. Yes, sir. Thanks, brother

We'll see you next time. Hopefully the boys have had some good luck fishing

I hope, because if they don't come in soon, I don't know what I'm going to do about the fish

But anyway, while we're waiting on them, we'll move on to our vegetable crudités

All we have to do is add our dip. It's had a chance for the flavors to blend

and the lemon juice in it. gives it a wonderful little bite

Hey, Mom. Oh, there's my fisherman. Yep. I was about to think I was gonna have to go to the store

Hey, son. That's our best day of fishing ever. No, you don't have to go to the store. Really? Yeah, what you cooking

Well, I've just got a vegetable crudité for us. So, what did y'all catch

A beautiful snapper. The most beautiful snapper. You did? Wonderful. Well, I was about to get worried about y'all

Looks almost like a fish shop did it, doesn't it, Mom? They already filleted

I did it on the way over. Nice, huh? Isn't it beautiful? You are the sweetest boy

You're always thinking about your mama. I love you. I want you to have to do it. Perfect

Listen, you guys go wash up, but y'all don't go too far

because I'm fixing to make a cheesecake, and I'm going to need y'all's help, OK? Cheesecake

I'm not going far. Well, I'm not so sure about this fish

Well, it does smell like it's good and fresh, so maybe they really did go fishing

All right. I'm gonna take a little salt and a little pepper

and I gonna do very little to this fish This is the recipe of an ex and I think she calls it can miss fish

So you can use any kind of fish, but I'm using red snappers

I'm just going to put a little pepper on each side of it

Then I'm going to come over here, and I want to salt both sides

I'm going to give it a rub. All right. Now in our dish, I'm going to layer bell peppers and onions

And this is almost going to act like a rack for our fish. That looks great

Now we're just going to lay our fish on top like that

And I'm going to dot it with a little butter. And if you want to use a light butter on this, you can

But I have to tell you, I love buttering fish. Okay, this is ready to go in the oven

All I'm gonna do now is sprinkle it before I put it in with just a little Worcestershire sauce

All right, so we're gonna run this in for about 12 minutes into that preheated 350 degree oven

We're gonna let that cook until it's almost done, and then we're gonna sprinkle it with

Parmesan cheese and run it under the broiler until that's melted. All right, the timer just went off, so let's take a look at our fish

Oh, my goodness, it smells so good. I can smell the peppers and the onions

And I'm going to just switch this oven to broil, turn up that heat

I'm just going to sprinkle it with the Parmesan cheese, and I think I'm going to sprinkle it with a little red bell pepper

All right, so we're going to run this back in the oven, and we'll want to keep a close eye on it

So... Into the broiler that goes for a couple of minutes. But this fish is smelling delicious

All right, let's check this fish, because it should be ready. Oh, and it is

Look how bubbly. Found my spatula again. Smells so flavorful. Ooh

Looks delicious. I'm gonna... I'm gonna pull me off a little bite

See what it tastes like. That's really, really good

We're going to come back and complete our light meal by making Joanne's almost fat-free lemon cheesecake

So y'all stick around. I really think you're going to like it. Anytime you need help with the TV show, Mom, just let us know

Well, how about right now? Come on. Come on. Y'all get your butts up

Work for your supper. Come on. What you got? I got lemons and flowers

Been to the lemon tree? Yes. What are we going to do? We're going to make Joanne's almost fat-free lemon cheesecake

Bobby, why don't you do the crust, son? All right. And Jamie can do the filling

Now, you're going to start out, you're going to need right at two cups of fat-free vanilla wafer crumbs

Got them ready to go. So when you get them mashed up, then do the butter

All right. All right, Jamie, for you. Okay, Mom. Cheesecake is so simple

You've got three 8-ounce packages of cream. I'm going to blend all this together? Blend it all together

Time to go? This is the first cheesecake I've ever made. Time to go. Now you're using a fat-free cream cheese

and it's going to work nicely. So just beat that until it's fluffy. All right, toss in your sour cream

That's fat-free sour cream. Great. All right, now throw in your Splenda

And that's about two cups of Splenda you got. Splenda is one of those sugar substitutes

that you can actually bake with. All right, now add your eggs slowly, and your egg beaters don't have any fat or cholesterol in them

Okay, now you can add your second egg. All right, that looks great, son

Now you're going to need just a tablespoon of lemon juice. All right, now you'll need about a teaspoon of zest

and you're done. That was easy. I know it. Cheesecakes are easy, easy, easy to make

That looks perfect. Now I'll show you something about your mixer, son

Okay, leave it on low, and now you tilt it out, and that cleans your beakers off

I've seen him do that on TV. Yeah. I have. All right, there you go

Okay son you got your I pounded the vanilla wafers into submission Okay And I adding about a quarter cup of butter to them and getting ready to put them in the pan here as our base

Just pour that into your... Mm-hmm. Just dump it all in. All right

Press that down very firmly. You want to move it over here to a steadier surface

And let it come up about an inch and a half. So when we take our cheesecake out

you can see some of that pretty crust. You get this in the oven real quick like, okay

350 for about 8 to 10 minutes? Actually, 325. And we're going to let that bake for about 8 to 10 minutes

And then we're going to pull it out, and we're going to pour in this delicious cheesecake batter

that Jamie's mixed up. All right, Bobby, I've got another crust that's already cooled over there

So if you'll bring that in, because I'm really making two of these today

All right, son, you just pour that in on your crust. Just straight in, okay. Just straight in

See what a pretty batter you've got. Okay, Mom. All right, doll baby, put that in the oven

We're going to let it bake at 325 for 60, 75 minutes, something like that

So just gently put that in your oven. And Bobby, if you'd be getting out the one that I've already got cool

As usual, I'm a step ahead of you. Thank you. Okay, there you go, son

Isn't that a nice surprise? Yeah, it looks good. All right, now all I'm going to do is I'm just going to dust our plate

just because that kind of makes it pretty with a little powdered sugar. Okay, now all you have to do is pour your lemon curd into the center

and just bring it to the edge. Okay. If it drips down a little, don't worry

Yeah, I made this curd earlier so it could be nice and chilled, but you can buy lemon curd in a jar at some of your better stores

and you may can even find it in the grocery store, but that looks delicious

All right, and, Bobby, look over there on that counter and see if you don't see something that looks like a..

That's it. Now, how do y'all like this little trick? That's the pie cheater

Yes. All you have to do. Mark it or cut with it? You mark it

That's it. Just press it down and mark with it. And that shows you just the perfect cheesecake size

Ingenious. Yes. You want to cut the cake, Mom? You cheated it, but you didn't cut it

Oh, no, I'm fixing to cut us a piece. But I do want some garnish. Looks delicious

It fits as good as it looks. All right, you've got us three forks ready

I got them. I hear Bobby swallowing hard. It looks good. Pass me a fork

Give me a fork. Would y'all like some? I do want some

That's a fine cheesecake. It doesn't taste light at all. This is out of this world, y'all

It's going to be wonderful with the fish. Well, we really have to thank Joanne Poff

Your recipe is over the top, girl. Thank you, Joanne. It's delicious

Y'all stick around because I'm going to show you how to lighten up the oils and butters in your life

so y'all don't go anywhere. We're going to talk about butters and fats and olive oils

Let's start over here with the butter. This one is a whipped butter. You'd never want to use this for bacon

You would want to stick to one of your stick butters. We've got an unsalted butter here, which the professional chefs really prefer this

In the center, I've got a salted butter, which I'm from the south, so I use this even for my bacon

they prefer not to because they don't want any added salts. Now this one is a substitute

You wouldn't want to do any bacon with a substitute unless the recipe called for it because it could mess you up

And over here we have our different oils. The lighter your oil is, the better it is for frying

And you all know probably that I do fry my chicken in peanut oil

And if you really want to jazz up your oils, it's so easy to do that using fresh herbs

Now, I've taken oil and I've just put fresh rosemary in there

and this is wonderful for your breads. It's delicious. I can't believe that our time's up already today

It was fun. Yeah, it was fun, wasn't it? You won't see me cooking light very, very often

but I hope that you've enjoyed today's show, and I really want to thank you boys

for catching that fish for your mama today. It was a hard fight, too

Well, they tried to act like they weren't going to bite, but we got them. And you look lighter already

You do. I do look lighter. Well, until next time, America, best dishes from my life meal to yours

Let's go get us some fried chicken. Y'all want to do this? Let's go