Week 7 & 8 Recipes - Banana Bread & PB Choc Chip Oatmeal Cookies

Yes, the last post I had was for week 6. Yes, this is technically week 9, but I am a bit behind due to travel for work & vacation. I will make two extra recipes this week and next week to make up for the missed weeks.

Banana Bread

Having just come off a vacation with very delicious (and very caloric) food, I wanted to make something on the lighter side. Pinterest to the rescue! A popular recipe being pinned by several friends is Banana Bread made with honey and applesauce instead of sugar. Sounds good to me!

Recipe adapted from http://www.8weekstoabetteryourecipes.blogspot.com/ for Banana Bread, 8 Weeks Friendly!

Ingredients

• 2 cups whole wheat flour
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/2 cup applesauce (I used no sugar added)
• 3/4 cup honey
• 2 eggs, beaten (I used egg beaters)
• 3 mashed overripe bananas

Directions
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Lightly grease a 9x5 loaf pan.
3. In a large bowl combine flour, baking soda and salt. Set aside.
4. In a separate bowl mix together applesauce and honey.Stir in eggs and mashed bananas until well blended.
5. Stir banana mixture into flour mixture. Stir just to moisten.
6. Pour mixture into greased 9x5 loaf pan.
7. Bake in preheated oven for 60 to 65 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into center of the loaf comes out clean.
8. Let bread cool in pan for 10 minutes, then turn out onto a wire rack.

Results
It's good! You can tell that it is not the full fat/sugar/etc. version, but it does taste good. I would definitely make this again!

Nutrition via My Fitness Pal recipe calculator
Per serving = 200 calories*48 carbs*1 g fat*5 g protein
Recipe makes about 10 servings

PB Choc Chip Oatmeal Cookies

This is one of those weeks where my hubby and I aren't going to see each other because on the day he flys home, I fly out before he lands and on the day I fly home, he flys out before I land. So, I have decided to leave PB Choc Chip Oatmeal Cookies (hubby's favorite) waiting for him. :)

Recipe from http://www.browneyedbaker.com/ for Peanut Butter-Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies

Ingredients

• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 stick unsalted butter at room temperature
• 1/2 cup creamy peanut butter
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 1/3 cup light brown sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 egg (I used 1/4 cup egg beaters)
• 1/2 cup rolled oats
• 1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

Directions
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Whisk together flour, baking soda and salt. Set aside.
3. On medium speed, cream together butter, peanut butter, sugar, brown sugar and vanilla extract. (About 3 minutes)
4. Add the egg and beat to combine.
5. On low speed, gradually add the flour until just combined.
6. Stir in the oats and the chocolate chips.
7. Drop dough onto cookie sheets about two inches apart.
8. Bake for 10 minutes or until cookies are lightly golden.
9. Cool completely on baking sheet and then store in airtight container.

Results
So, confession time, I only used half a stick of butter instead of the whole stick. Not sure where I got confused, but I just noticed my mistake while writing this entry. That explains why the mixture was a little bit dry. The good news is...they still taste good! Bonus=they are slightly healthier with less butter. haha :)

Enjoy!

Week 6 Recipe - ***Super Bowl Edition***

In the spirit of cooking more this year instead of ordering out, we are having a homemade Super Bowl spread! We are mixing a few old recipes with a few new or revamped ones.

The Spread

Jr. Pub Burgers

Healthier 7-Layer Dip with Baked Scoops

Pepperoni Pizza Roll-Ups New

Pita Chips/Pretzel Chips with Hummus Dip

Carrots, Celery & Cherry Tomatoes with Salad Dressing Dips

Cake Batter Rice Krispie Treats

Yes, I know the Bears aren't in the Super Bowl this year, but I am still using my plates today!

Jr. Pub Burgers

A few months ago my husband and I found these great pre-cut pub burgers at our local Jewel. We season them with a little bit of Tony Chachere's Creole Seasoning and Omaha Steaks Seasoning. I cook them in a pan until they reach the safe internal temperature of 160 degrees (as recommended by the USDA). If you are in the mood for a great hamburger, these are wonderful!

They were so good we ate them so fast I didn't even get a finished product picture!

Healthier 7-Layer Dip with Baked Scoops

I LOVE 7-layer dip. I made a few adjustments to my regular recipe to make it a little bit healthier and accomodate my husband's preferences.

I used an 8x8 glass pan for this recipe. You can use whatever container you would like and adjust the recipe to fit the container and accommodate your taste preferences. Personally, I am not a huge fan of beans, but I LOVE the sour cream portion and I would add guacamole between the bean and sour cream layer (but my husband hates guacamole, so it is left out this time).

Ingredients

3/4 can fat free refried beans

3/4 container of 8oz light sour cream

3/4 package 40% less sodium Old El Paso taco seasoning

2 cups salsa

2% sharp cheddar cheese

sliced black olives

Directions

Spread a thin layer of refried beans on the bottom of the pan. Next, combine the sour cream & the taco seasoning. Then spread the sour cream mixture over the refried bean mixture. I like to put this in the fridge a this point to let the bottom layers gel together. When I am ready to serve the dip, I spread the salsa on top, then the cheese and finally the olives. Serve with Baked Scoops or any other tortilla chip or cracker you prefer. Enjoy!

Pepperoni Pizza Roll-Ups

If you have read my blog at all, you can guess where I found this recipe...Pinterest! :)This recipe appears several times on the site but I tried the one on www.plainchicken.com.

Ingredients

1 can refrigerated crescent rolls (I use the reduced fat version)

40 slices of pepperoni (You can use the turkey pepperoni, but I don't like it)

4 pieces of mozzarella string cheese cut in half (Huge fan of 2% Sargento)

garlic powder

pizza sauce

Directions

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Unroll crescent rolls and separate into 8 triangles. Place 5 slices of turkey pepperoni on each crescent roll. Top pepperoni with string cheese half and roll up. Sprinkle crescent rolls with garlic powder. Place rolls on baking sheet and bake for 12-15 minutes, or until golden brown. Serve with a side of warm pizza sauce (or cool Ranch!).

Pita Chips/Pretzel Chips with Hummus Dip

Store bought hummus dip, pita chips (for the hubs) & pretzel chips (for me). Simple as that!

Carrots, Celery & Cherry Tomatoes with Salad Dressing Dips

I have spent all the $$$ in the past to buy the pre-made veggie trays from the grocery store. Typically, we only like 1-2 veggies in mix and the dip is high fat so I made my own this year! Carrots, celery & cherry tomatoes with fat free basalmic vinagrette or light ranch. Yum!!!

Cake Batter Rice Krispie Treats

Leftover from my Week 5 Recipe - Cake Batter Rice Krispie Treats. SOOOOOOOOO GOOOOOOD!

Week 5 Recipe - Cake Batter Rice Krispie Treats

This week I have a sweet tooth. My husband and I are trying to eat a little bit healthier so I wanted something that wouldn't totally derail our good eating this week. Rice Krispie Treats are the perfect solution! Not just regular ones though....CAKE BATTER Rice Krispie Treats. :)

Cake Batter Rice Krispie Treats from www.gimmesomeoven.com

Ingredients:

• 3 Tbsp. butter
• 1 (10 oz.) bag of mini-marshmallows
• 1/4 cup yellow cake mix (the dry cake mix, not prepared into a batter!)
• 6 cups crispy rice cereal
• 1 (1.75 oz.) container of sprinkles

Method:
Melt butter in a large saucepan over low heat and add marshmallows. Stir until they begin to melt, adding in (dry) cake mix one spoonful at a time so its combined. Stir in cereal so it is completely coated with marshmallow mixture. Sprinkle in half of the sprinkles and mix. Press into a baking dish (any size will do) and top with remaining sprinkles. Let sit for about 30 minutes before cutting. I find spraying a knife with nonstick spray helps to cut them.

Ali from www.gimmesomeoven.com Tips:
I actually increased the cake batter to 1/3 cup for my recipe to give it a little extra cake batter kick (the 1/4 cup seemed just a little too subtle to me), but add as much in as you like!

***Note: Many readers have asked what to do with the remaining cake mix. If you would like to use it to whip up a batch of cake mix cookies, just measure out 6 oz. of the remaining cake mix, and combine it with 1/4 cup vegetable or canola oil, and 1 egg. Stir until mixed. Then form into cookie dough balls, and bake in a 350 degree oven for 10-12 minutes.***

THE RESULTS
These were absolutely AMAZING! I would make them again in a heartbeat. So delicious and about 140 calories a serving (if you cut them into 20 squares). Yummm!!!

Week 4 Recipe - Buffalo Chicken Roll Ups

I liked a little bit of three different recipes so I decided to combine them with a DELICIOUS outcome!

My recipe was created by combining the following recipes:

Crock Pot Buffalo Chicken from www.mykitchenapron.blogspot.com

Buffalo Chicken Ring from http://jayesel.net

Chicken Roll Ups from www.jennasjourneyblog.blogspot.com

First, I made the Crock Pot Buffalo Chicken with a few changes.

Ingredients

3lb bag of frozen chicken breasts

3/4 cup Franks Original Red Hot Sauce

1/4 cup Low Sodium Chicken Broth

1 packet Ranch dip mix

The original recipe calls for the whole bottle of Franks sauce. She mentioned in her blog that the recipe was a little bit dry. Given that information and the fact that the last time I had a crockpot buffalo chicken recipe I thought it was a bit hot, I reduced the amount of hot sauce and added some chicken broth. I also omitted the butter. It worked out great!

Directions

1. Put all the ingredients in the crockpot.

2. Cook on low for 6-7 hours (or until chicken easily pulls apart).

3. Shred chicken with two forks then return to the crockpot.

4. Let the chicken cook for 1 additional hour to soak up the buffalo sauce.

I made the buffalo chicken on Friday and put in the fridge until I was ready for the rest of the recipe on Sunday.

Next step, I made the roll up filling using the mixture recipe from the buffalo chicken ring as a guideline.

Ingredients

2/3 of the mixture from the crock pot buffalo chicken

1 8 oz package of 1/3 less fat cream cheese

1/2 Ranch dip package

Directions

Finally, I put the mixture I made on top of 2 packages of reduced fat crescent rolls and baked them at 375 degrees for 11-13 minutes per the instructions on the crescent roll package (similar to the directions from the chicken roll up recipe).

The Results

• This recipe is delicious! My husband and I enjoyed it for lunch on Sunday with a side of lite blue cheese dressing. I would absolutely make this recipe again!
• I ended up with WAY too much filling for the crescents that I had. I would either need to add another package of crescents or reduce the amount of filling that I made. Bonus: I have leftover crockpot buffalo chicken for sandwiches later this week and I have leftover filling to use a dip! My freezer is getting full with all of these leftovers!
• I tried wrapping the mixture with the crescent rolls two different ways: one loosely with lots of filling and the filling exposed and one with less filling and all wrapped up with little to no filling showing. Both ways were great! For the ones with extra filling, the crescent browned quicker. The opposite was true for the ones with less filling, I had to cook them 2 minutes extra. It just depends on whether you want to taste more crescent roll or more filling.

Left side: Less filling. Right side: More filling.

Another great week! Looking forward to another delicious recipe next week!

Week 3 Recipe - Spinach, Onion & Garlic Turkey Burgers

My best friend was telling me this past weekend how she was adding spinach to her morning smoothies to get additional vegetable servings in her diet. I had heard that "hiding" veggies in foods you love is a good trick, but I wasn't sure if I would like a fruit smoothie that was green in color.

A popular spinach recipe I keep coming across is spinach burgers. While at the store this weekend I didn't have a specific recipe in mind so I kind of made one up as I went along. (I am getting brave!)

This week's recipe was pretty uneventful. I mixed everything up, cooked it, and it was delicious!

Ingredients
1 lb Jennie-O 93/7 Groud Turkey
5 oz baby Spinach leaves, finely chopped
1 small onion, finely chopped
1 garlic clove
1 raw egg, slightly beaten

Trust me - they taste better than they look!

Directions
Mix all ingredients in a large bowl with your hands. Form 6 burger patties. Cook them on med to med-high heat until well done, about 6 minutes on each side. Enjoy! (I ate mine bunless with a small amount of dijon mustard, yum!)

Final Thoughts

• I knew this would not be a recipe that my husband would eat (he's not big on spinach, onion nor garlic) so I figured this would be a good recipe to try while he is out of town. :) I only ate 1 of the 6 burgers. I put the uncooked leftovers in the freezer in plastic baggies. My thought is I can heat them up in the future as burgers or add them to marinara sauce for a nice twist on traditional spaghetti.

• This recipe was a success! I would definitely make it again (maybe adding a pinch of salt).

For week 4 I have a request from my husband - Buffalo Chicken Bites that we can eat while we watch the football games on Sunday!

Week 2 Recipe - Mimosa Jello Shots

I love Mimosas. I love Jello Shots. What could be better than a...

Mimosa Jello Shot?!?!

Picture from www.jelly-shot-test-kitchen.blogspot.com

I know I can pick whatever I want as my recipe for the week, but I feel the need to justify jello shots on my 2nd week. :)

I was going to do buffalo chicken bites, but I realized my husband will be gone Monday-Friday, and I am gone Friday-Sunday. Since the recipe makes too much for one person, I decided I needed to try a different recipe.

So...Jello Shots! They nearly ended me one Halloween a few years ago, but they were my best friend at my bachelorette party and wedding (thanks to a certain bridesmaid -- you know who you are!) Honestly I don't think I have ever made any kind of recipe with gelatin so I figured this one would be good for me to try.

I found this recipe on Pinterest (yup still addicted) from jelly-shot-test-kitchen.blogspot.com.

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 cups orange juice (fresh squeezed, if possible) [I used Tropicana No Pulp]
• 1 tbsp sugar
• 3 envelopes plain gelatin
• 1 1/2 cups champagne, prosecco or other sparkling wine [I used Verdi Spumante - what they served at our wedding reception!]
• 1 drop orange flower water (if desired) [I did not add this]

With the leftover OJ & champagne my hubby and I enjoyed a mid-morning mimosa!

 Directions

1. Pour juice and sugar into a small saucepan and sprinkle with the gelatin. Allow the gelatin to soak for a minute or two.
2. Heat over very low heat  (medium - see note below) until gelatin is dissolved, stirring constantly, about 5 minutes. Remove from heat.
3. Stir in the champagne. (Mixture will be foamy - don't worry, this will dissipate as the mixture sets.)
4. Add the drop of orange flower water if desired.
5. Pour mixture into a 9" x 9" glass or non-reactive metal cake pan. [I used 7x11 glass pan]  Refrigerate until fully set (3 to 4 hours).
6. To serve, cut into desired shapes with a knife or small cookie cutter. Garnish with edible flower petals, if desired.
   

 Makes 24 to 32 jelly shots.

The Results

Sunday Morning - Attempt # 1 = FAIL

I followed the recipe EXACTLY. 3-4 hours later...I had Jello soup. I thought "maybe if I move it to the top shelf in the fridge where it is colder, it will gel." The next morning...I had FROZEN...jello...soup. Ugh! I guess it is good I tried a recipe with gelatin to figure out the right way to make it! I Googled "why my gelatin won't gel" and surprisingly enough there were several articles, blogs, comments and posts that spoke about the subject. Variables for not gelling seem to include but are not limited too...

• temp of liquids too hot OR too cold
• too much sugar OR too little sugar
• too much gelatin OR not enough gelatin
• etc....

Basically, I could have screwed it up 100 different ways and there was no way to tell how or why it didn't work.

Tuesday Night - Attempt # 2= SUCCESS!
I followed the recipe again and it looked exactly the same as the first time. I decided if I was going to go down, I was going down swinging so I thought back to the Googled articles. Most of the recipes called for Hot and Cold liquids. This recipe said to heat over very low heat. I decided to crank up the heat to medium high and that seemed to help! The liquid became more clear (signaling to me that maybe the gelatin dissolved this time).

3 hours later...I had solid Mimosa Jello Shots!! THANK GOODNESS!!

Final Thoughts

• After waiting through two attempts, I was really looking forward to trying these. When I got home from work, I cut a small square and tried one. Unfortunately, I thought it taste like old champagne. :( I would probably not make these again but I would try a different gelatin recipe now that I know how to make it.
• While the original recipe said the foam would go away after the liquid set, mine didn't. I ended up with gelled foam. Oh well...

Hopefully Week 3's Recipe goes better!

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Week 1 Recipe - Tortilla Soup

The recipe I chose for this week is...Option #1 Crockpot Chicken Tortilla Soup from Miller Musings jonandjenmiller.blogspot.com!

After a false start on Thursday (I forgot the onion at the store), I tried my first recipe yesterday! It's a GREAT recipe! It took me 10 minutes to throw everything in the crockpot. 6 hours later I pulled the chicken out to shred it. I could NOT believe how tender the chicken was! An hour later my husband walked in the door from work and TA DA! Dinner was served. :)

Two personal cooking issues I had to deal with for this recipe:

1. Chopping onions - I feel like if I even look at an onion my eyes start watering instantly. To try to avoid this, I pulled out our new food processor that we received for our wedding to chop the onions. It worked like a charm! So excited to never have to chop onions again!!
2. Using the crockpot - I am terrified to leave the crockpot on while I leave the house. Anyone else feel the same way? I did not overcome this fear while making this recipe. I worked from home yesterday to take care of my recently nuetered puppy. I threw everything in at lunch and by dinner it was ready. Maybe I will try to leave the house for the next crockpot recipe I try.

The Recipe from jonandjenmiller.blogspot.com
2 chicken boneless skinless chicken breasts
2 cans Ro-Tel [I used the cilantro & lime flavor just like Jen]
1 can black beans, rinsed and drained
1 can kidney beans, rinsed and drained
1 can corn
1 onion, chopped
2 cans low-sodium chicken broth
1-2 cups of water [I used 1 cup of water. I would probably use 2 next time. The soup had a bit of a kick and it would have been just fine had it had more liquid.]
1 Tbsp garlic powder*
1 Tbsp chile powder*
1 Tbsp ground cumin*
1 Tbsp dried cilantro*

tortilla chips [We used Fritos instead.]
sour cream [No sour cream for us. I forgot it at the store...twice! Ugh]
shredded cheddar or Mexican blend cheese [2% Kraft 4 cheese mexican blend worked great!]

*Instead of these spices, you could include a packet of Taco seasoning if you prefer.* [The soup was delicious, but I might try taco seasoning packet next time just to see which one we like better.]

Put chopped onion, cans of beans, rotel, corn, chicken broth, water, and spices in CrockPot and stir to mix. Put chicken breasts on top of mixture and make sure they're at least partly submerged in liquid. Cook on high 6-7 hours or low 8-9 hours. Before serving remove the chicken breasts from soup and shred, if needed, (sometimes they'll just fall apart on their own, but sometimes they need some help). Return chicken to CrockPot, stir to combine.

To serve put a few tortilla chips in the bottom of a bowl, ladle soup over tortilla chips, top with shredded cheddar cheese and a dollop of sour cream, serve with more chips if you like. Enjoy!

Final Thoughts

• Two thumbs up for this soup! I would absolutely make it again!
• I fell more in love with the crockpot. It was SO easy! My husband was flying in last night. I realized had his flight been late/early it was good we had crockpot dinner because it was ready about an hour before he was home but still warm and delicious when we were ready to eat.
• This was a healthy meal! I plugged it into a calorie calculator and it is about 266 calories for a 1 cup serving. (Soup only -- chips, sour cream & cheese = extra calories)

Week 1 Recipe = huge success! Now on to find a new recipe for week #2!