Marianne Caradine

Marianne Caradine of Vardaman almost always enters the annual Sweet Potato Cooking Contest. She keeps her eyes open year around for recipes in which she can substitute sweet potatoes.
Her Underground Surprise Pie is a sweet potato pie made with chocolate and peanut butter that she entered in 1990. It was “unusual and different, and it was good,” she said.

Husband, Jimmy, came up with the idea, and it was the first blue ribbon winner for Marianne. Besides the pie, she mentioned a layered dessert, similar to lemon delight, in which she used a Graham Cracker crust, cream cheese, sweet potatoes and Cool Whip. The December 2000 issue of Hometown Cooking did a feature on sweet potatoes, and her recipe for Cranberry-Sweet Potato Bread was chosen to be included. She also makes sweet potato casserole and logs as Christmas gifts.

Marianne likes just about anything, but she cooks differently than she used to, and looks for easy recipes. With a family history of diabetes and heart trouble, she now makes an effort to cook more healthy, and enjoys Taste of Home’s “Healthy Cooking” magazine. She watches Hungry Girl and Drop 5 lbs. With Good Housekeeping on the Cooking Channel.

She uses her “Cooking With Ellen” cookbook often, which she says has a lot of healthy and delicious recipes. She also enters the low fat category of the Sweet Potato Cooking contest, which was added about six years ago.

Even though all her family likes sweets, she now ignores recipes with a lot of butter or sugar.?The Pineapple-Orange Cake is low sugar and is really good.

The Caradines grow blueberries and have a small garden, and she uses a lot of the blueberries to make a crumb cake and walnut bars, both of which are low sugar.
She has worked in the Vardaman School cafeteria 15 years and says there are a lot of good cooks there. They talk about what they’ve cooked, and do a lot of recipe swapping, and “not all are centered on health!”

Skinny Minny  Tortilla Soup
4 chicken breasts, cooked and chopped (can be omitted)
1-16 oz. can fat-free refried beans
1-14.5 oz. can low-fat or fat-free chicken broth
1-15.5 oz. can black beans, rinsed and drained
1-11 oz. can whole kernel corn, drained
3/4 cup chunky salsa
1 can Ro-Tel diced tomatoes
2 cups shredded sharp Cheddar cheese, or less
Corn chips
Combine all ingredients except cheese and chips in a pot and bring to a boil, stirring until refried beans are completed mixed with other ingredients. Turn down heat and simmer 10 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add one cup cheese and stir until melted. Crumble corn chips in bottom of bowl and ladle soup over chips. Sprinkle with remaining cheese.

Pineapple Orange Cake
1 package sugar-free yellow cake mix
1-11 oz. can mandarin oranges, undrained
4 egg whites
1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce
Topping:
1-20 oz. can crushed pineapple, undrained
1-1 oz. pkg. sugar-free vanilla pudding mix
1-8 oz. reduced-fat whipped topping
In large bowl, beat cake mix, oranges, egg whites and applesauce on low speed for two minutes. Pour into 13×9 baking dish coated with cooking spray. Bake at 350° for 25-30 minutes or until toothpick inserted near center comes out clean. Cool on wire rack. In a bowl, combine pineapple and pudding mix. Fold in whipped topping just until blended. Spread over cake. Refrigerate at least one hour before serving.

Slow Cooker Salsa Chicken
4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts (frozen is fine)
1 cup salsa
1 can condensed cream of chicken soup
1 packet taco seasoning
1/2 cup sour cream
6 tortillas
Place chicken in bottom of slow cooker. Sprinkle taco seasoning on chicken. In bowl, combine soup and salsa. Pour over chicken. Cook on high four hours. Shred chicken with two forks and stir in sour cream. Serve on tortillas or as desired.

Blueberry Crumb Cake
1-18.25 oz. yellow cake mix or sugar-free yellow cake mix
4 egg whites
1-21 oz. can blueberry pie filling.
Preheat oven to 350°. Spray two 8” round cake pans with nonfat cooking spray. Set aside 1/2 cup of  dry mix to use later. With mixer, beat egg whites on low speed 30 seconds. Add blueberry pie filling and cake mix, except for the reserved 1/2 cup, to the egg whites and beat on medium speed two minutes. Spread batter into prepared pans. Sprinkle remaining dry cake mix evenly on top of batter on both cake pans. Bake 28 minutes or until knife inserted in center of cake comes out clean. The cake is terrific for breakfast and light enough for dessert after a heavy meal. As a dessert, put a dab of blueberry pie filling on top of each serving.

Banana Bundt Cake
1 box butter cake mix
1 small box vanilla instant pudding
1/2 cup vegetable oil
3/4 cup water
4 eggs
1 cup mashed bananas (about three)
Sugar mixture:
1/2 cup sugar
3 Tbsp. butter
2 Tbsp. water
Combine cake mix, pudding mix, oil, water, eggs and bananas. Pour batter into greased and floured Bundt pan. Bake at 325° for an hour. Meanwhile, for sugar mixture, bring sugar, butter and water to boil. When cake is done, pour sugar mixture over it while cake is still in pan. Let it stand 20 minutes before inverting cake onto serving plate.

Underground Surprise Pie
1/2 cup peanut butter
3/4 cup cooked, mashed sweet potatoes
1 cup milk
1 (3.4 oz.) box of instant vanilla pudding
1/2 bag of 11.5 oz. bag of milk chocolate Chips
1 prepared  graham cracker pie crust
Mix peanut butter, sweet potatoes, milk, and instant pudding together. Blend until well mixed.   Pour into graham cracker pie crust. Cool in refrigerator for one hour. Then melt chocolate chips in double boiler. Spread chocolate evenly over pie.
Hint:  Slice pie after putting on chocolate before refrigerating.  The chocolate is best when served at room temperature.

Banana-Walnut Bread
5 Tbsp. butter
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup packed light brown sugar
1 egg
2 egg whites
1 tsp. vanilla
1 1/2 cups mashed, ripe bananas
1 3/4 cups plain flour
1 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
1/4 cup baking powder
1/2 cup unsweetened apple juice or orange juice
1/3 cup chopped walnuts
Preheat oven to 350°. Beat butter, then add sugars. Beat in eggs and vanilla. Mix in bananas, beating at high speed 30 seconds. Add flour alternately with apple juice ending with flour mixture. Stir in walnuts. Bake for one hour and 15 minutes or until browned and toothpick comes out clean.

Cranberry-Sweet Potato Bread
3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 2/3 cups sugar
2 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. pumpkin pie spice
3/4 tsp. salt
2 cups mashed, cook sweet potatoes (about 1 1/2 lbs.)
1-16 oz. can whole cranberry sauce
4 slightly beaten eggs
2/3 cup cooking oil
3/4 cup chopped pecans
Orange glaze (recipe below)
Grease bottom and 1/2” up sides of two 9x5x3” loaf pans or four 7 1/2×3 1/2×2” loaf pans; set aside. In extra-large bowl, combine flour, sugar, baking soda, baking powder, pumpkin pie spice, and salt; set aside. In large bowl, combine sweet potatoes, cranberry sauce, eggs and cooking oil. Add egg mixture all at once to flour mixture; stir just until moistened. Fold in pecans. Spoon into prepared pans. Bake bread in a 350° oven about one hour for the 9×5 loaf pans or 40-45 minutes for the 7 1/2” pans or until toothpick inserted near center comes out clean. Cool in pans on wire racks 10 minutes. Remove from pans. Cool completely on wire racks. Wrap in plastic wrap; store overnight before sliving. Just before serving, drizzle with orange glaze.
Glaze:?In small bowl, stir together 1 cup sifted powdered sugar and 1/4 cup frozen orange juice concentrate, thawed.

Blueberry Walnut Bars
2/3 cup ground walnuts
1/2 cup graham cracker crumbs
2 Tbsp. plus 1/3 cup sugar, divided
1/3 cup old-fashioned oats
3 Tbsp. reduced-fat butter, melted
1-8 oz. pkg. reduced fat cream cheese
1 Tbsp. orange juice
1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
1/2 cup reduced fat whipped topping
2 Tbsp. blueberry preserves
1 1/2 cups fresh blueberries
Combine walnuts, cracker crumbs, 2 Tbsp. sugar, oats and butter. Press onto bottom of 8” square baking dish coated with cooking spray. Bake at 350° for 9-11 minutes or until set and edges are lightly browned. Cool on wire rack. In large bowl, beat cream cheese and remaining sugar until smooth. Beat in orange juice and vanilla. Fold in whipped topping. Spread over crust. In microwave-safe bowl, heat preserves on high for 15-20 seconds or until warmed; gently stir in blueberries. Spoon over filling. Refrigerate until serving.