Skinny Food that feels Guilty!

Just realized...

2009-09-16T10:39:00.000-07:00

Almost a year ago, I moved my blog over to Wordpress. In looking at my Google Reader, I just realized that there are still 130 of you following this blog.

Now, if you want more foodie goodness, go ahead and subscribe to this blog instead!

http://skinnyfoodbyamy.wordpress.com/

Thanks for following my food blog, and I hope you enjoy the new one, if you haven't already! :)

New Home!!

2008-10-26T16:48:00.000-07:00

I'm super excited to announce the move over to Wordpress!!

Reason for the move?
1. To keep my wedding, weight loss and food blog on one account.
2. Wordpress has a much easier to work with format, with more options.
3. I like the themes on there moreso than blogger.

Check my new blog out over at:

http://skinnyfoodbyamy.wordpress.com/

Hope you like the new blog!! :)

Packing my boxes....

2008-10-18T21:21:00.000-07:00

There's a big move coming this blog's way :). I've been flirting a bit with Wordpress (My wedding blog is on there and I love it!)and I can't wait to show the new look to y'all! :) Stay tuned...the move is coming!

My apology...

2008-10-13T17:53:00.001-07:00

I haven't been the best food blogger around. I've been baking from pre-made mixes, cooking (and failing miserably) and just all around feeling very lousy.

The stress of the wedding savings, getting a new job and moving is just a lot to take on. On top of that, I found out that I need two crowns and a root canal. So, I'm in pain and stressed. I promise I will be blogging more often, especially once I move, since I won't have my family to rely on for cooking.

Just bear with me....I appreciate it! There will be SKINNY FOOD too..I promise! I'm back on Weight Watchers and need to lose 50 lbs before May 23! :)

Oreo Truffles

2008-10-13T17:38:00.000-07:00

I'll admit it...I rushed myself into making oreo truffles, so they aren't the prettiest. However, the taste makes up for it BIG TIME!

I found this idea originally in Beantown Baker's blog, and I love that this is non-perishable!

I can't wait to make these around the holidays with my new candy dipper set too...

All you need are:

1 package oreos
14 oz. condensed milk
1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
Almond bark or melting chocolate

First, crush the oreos in a ziploc bag or a food processor.

Then, add the condensed milk and mix together.

Form into small balls and place in the freezer to set for about half an hour. In the meantime, prepare your melting chocolates according to the package instructions in the microwave or double boiler. Then, dip the balls in chocolate (I used toothpicks to hold the balls in the chocolate) and allow to cool on parchment or mini candy cups. :)

If Wilton gave you $30....

2008-10-13T17:30:00.000-07:00

...what goodies would you get?

I've taken 3 Wilton classes so far, and somewhere in there I got randomly selected to take a survey for a gift certificate for Wilton goodies! Originally, it was $20, which was generous! However, when I got my form in, they gave me $30 to cover shipping/taxes!! SCORE!!

So, I wanted some fun goodies and useful things as well. If I could, I'd get all sprinkles because those are just fun! However, I wanted some useful items I could use in my decorating too. I ended up getting a hybrid of both...check out the stash!

* Bake Even Strips
* Flower Lifter
* Candy Dipping Set
* White Sparkling Sugars
* White Nonpareils

I'm so excited about using the Bake Even Strips, especially, because I'm making my future nephew in law (I guess you can say)...a TIERED birthday cake full of elephants and jungle fun. So, I think these little strips will come in handy, and even though I haven't taken tiered cakes yet, I have a feeling I can handle stacking two cakes. I have the instructions after all...how hard can it be?

E is for Excellent!

2008-09-30T08:49:00.000-07:00

Although I've been pretty neglecting of my food blog, I still got an award from my friend Sarah, who has Taste of Home Cooking blog, which is fabulous!

E is for Excellent...I need to be more excellent. I promise some baking is coming your way with the Fall here, and some cooking, since I'll be making a move to independence once again for a new job! Got to cook on my own again :)

So, I need to tag some people...I'm sure there will be MANY repeats here!

Bake at 350
She makes the most PERFECT cookies and has great instructions on how to do this.
Good Things Catered
Katie's cooking ideas and recipes are amazing! Definitely check her out!
Made by Mel
Melissa's cake decorating is awe inspiring. We took Wilton classes around the same time, and she really helped me out!
Baking Blonde
Peanut Butter Cheesecake Brownies...nuff said!
Bakerella
I gotta try to make the cupcake pops on her blog. Maybe for Christmas!
Annie's Eats
Annie's blog has so many great recipes in there, and she makes cooking/baking look so easy! She takes great photos in her blog too!
Cara's Cravings
I love her blog because she has great dishes for the health conscious! Oh yeah, and she made cupcake pops even easier to make!
Joelen's Culinary Adventures
Joelen has awesome cooking meet-ups in Chicago, and also holds blogger food challenges every month. I love looking at the meet-ups she has. It's really cool!
My Baking Heart
Jessica is an awesome baker. I love her photography, and I've bookmarked so many of the things she has baked. She makes it all look good!
Culinary Concoctions by Peabody
Peabody's blog has great photography and baking ideas as well. I love the food combinations she brings to her blog too!

These are some of my favorite blogs, but I have more.

Now it's your turn to spread the love. Please find at least 10 more blogs of any kind which you deem to be excellent (but if you only know of a few, that's OK too). Post about the blogs you picked, linking back to me and to them. Once you’ve posted, return here to let me know your post is up, and of course let your 10 award winners know too.

Wanna win a new apron??

2008-09-10T06:40:00.000-07:00

Pennies on a Platter, one of the food blogs I read frequently thanks to Google Reader, is hosting a giveaway for a super cute apron! If you wanna enter, clicky here!!

I mean how can you NOT want an apron this CUTE??

If you can't wait for the giveaway, she has a 15% discount code for you to use on Everyday Chic. :) Just click the link above!!

Local Exchange!!

2008-08-26T03:24:00.000-07:00

My WC sister (and dear friend!), Sarah, and I decided to do a foodie gift exchange filled with food local to our area. I'm from New Orleans area, and this is what I sent her.

I have to say I am SO excited about the gifts that she sent me...check out the spread here!!

Shoofly Pie Mix, Peanut Caramel Popcorn, Cider mix, apple butter...

Whole Wheat Pretzel mix, Maple candies, Honey filled lemon candies..

Woo!! What an awesome bunch of gifts, Sarah!! I can't wait to make the shoofly pie. I have honestly never heard of this but the google images made me drool a little yesterday. I will definitely keep y'all updated on how everything goes!!

Sarah and I agreed we should totally do this again. This was so much fun!!!

Smothered Chicken

2008-08-23T22:44:00.001-07:00

I've been challenging myself to cook more often when I'm at my fiance's house. Lately, the cooking has been so-so until now. This recipe has been the BEST recipe I've made, and it's Weight Watchers friendly!!! I made this using the non-crockpot method, because we didn't want the meat too tender. My fiance requested rice with this dish, instead of pasta as well, which was a WONDERFUL combination :).

I was given this recipe from a knottie on my club board. It was a pdf form of Weight Watchers recipes, so I don't really know the original source, however, I will say this isn't mine. I did adapt it, though, for more flavor.

Smothered Chicken
adapted from Weight Watchers Crockpot recipe pdf (from a knottie)

4 whole boneless skinless chicken breasts
12 ounces Mushrooms -- fresh
1 can 98% fat-free Cream of mushroom soup
1 can 98% fat-free Cream of chicken soup
1 can French Onion Soup
1/2 onion (added)
1 clove garlic (added)

Cut chicken breasts into stew size chunks, and sauté while washing and cutting mushrooms in half. Then simply add all other ingredients to chicken and simmer about 1 hour (I did this for half an hour covered and half an hour uncovered). You can also do this in a crock pot and simmer all day 'til dinner. Serve over rice, noodles or potatoes.

This makes 6 servings.

Check out our new funky plates. They match our kitchen perfectly!

Here's a zoom-in of the yumminess!

Points* (without rice): 7

Since I had 1 cup of brown rice with mine, this dinner was 11 points. Yep, a little on the high side, but this was some SERIOUS comfort food. :) I will be making this again when the fall comes!!

Sugar Cookies: The search continues...

2008-08-23T22:15:00.000-07:00

I've been searching for the PERFECT sugar cookie. While I like the sugar cookies I've made, I've been searching for a cookie that my fiance LOVES (and I can roll out into cute shapes). I bought my fiance a cookie bouquet for our anniversary, and he seemed to really like those. So, I searched for a cookie bouquet copycat recipe, and thisis what I found. (you will need to scroll down for the recipe)

Anyways, I decided to bite the bullet, and make them today. I shudder at the thought of crisco in baking, but I didn't want to substitute anything. So, I made them as is (with a SMALL substitution). See, I made vanilla sugar two weeks ago, and I wanted to actually use it in a recipe. This stuff is amazing and the cute little black specks make me forget about the crisco in the recipe (ok, maybe not)...

Turns out, this makes a REALLY soft cookie that doesn't spread very much. I didn't brown these cookies..they came out at JUST the right time. I did make these in two pans, one on parchment on the middle shelf (cookies on the right) and one with baking spray on the top shelf (cookies to the left).

I think these work best on the middle shelf, especially if you want to decorate the cookies. There is little to no cracks when you do it this way :). However, these are a little TOO sticky to roll out into shapes, and aren't as dense as the cookie bouquet cookies. Don't get me wrong...these tasted GREAT and the vanilla sugar gave the cookies a wonderful flavor!! Check them out!!

Anyways, enough talk already...here is the recipe!

Cookies by Design Sugar Short Bread Cookies
Source: Cooking Light forum (link above)

3 eggs
1 cup shortening
1 cup granulated sugar
2 teaspoons cream of tartar
2 teaspoons baking soda
3 cups flour
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Whip sugar and shortening in a large bowl, add eggs and beat well. Add remaining ingredients and mix. Knead dough into ball, roll out and cut. Place on cookie sheet in oven and bake at 350 degrees F for 10 to 12 minutes.

This makes a ton of dough...I made 24 cookies (about 2-3 inches in diameter when done) and I think that was a little over half of the dough, so I will say this makes 40 cookies.

Do I DARE give you the POINTS on these per serving? It's actually not that bad..especially considering Weight Watchers' sugar cookie recipe is the same amount of points per cookie!!

Points*: 3 (this was calculated using eTools so it only gives me points values but 1 point is about 50-60 calories to give you an idea)

Stay tuned...the search continues... :D. I think the next recipe I will try comes from my cookie decorating cookbook that I purchased shortly after the holiday season last year.

Fondant & Gumpaste Flowers

2008-08-18T18:23:00.000-07:00

I recently took Wilton's Fondant & Gumpaste class, and we were shown how to make flowers with gumpaste. I love gumpaste...it can be molded so thin and it's flexible. It also dries super fast! Here are some pictures of my carnations and fantasy flowers...enjoy!!

Carnation with pearl dust in pink brushed on.

This is the fantasy flower with the same pearl dust brushed on.

Vanilla MADNESS!

2008-08-18T18:16:00.000-07:00

Check out my vanilla extract after a little over 2 months later...I made two batches...one for my family's house and one for my fiance's house..it looks great and I can't wait to bake with it!! See the extract before a good 2 month soak here. I'm gonna keep the beans soaking in there for longer, but that rich amber color shows me that it's already ready!!

My newest project with these fine beans is making some vanilla sugar for gifts around the holidays. Target was charging $1.99 for maybe 3 oz. of vanilla infused sugar, and with so many uses for it, I'm sure it will be a great gift for the coworkers...I love giving homemade items. Last year was truffles and pretzels (which I'll probably continue anyway)...but I want to add vanilla sugar to the mix with some fun recipe ideas! I followed Culinary Concoctions proportions for the vanilla sugar in her post here.

Bubble Tea = Love

2008-08-18T18:07:00.000-07:00

This isn't a blog entry about me cooking. It's more about my mild obsession...that I miss SO much! When I was a resident assistant in the apartments on campus, one of the girls SWORE by this smoothie that she drank. She said it was so sweet, and it had these gummy surprise beads in it. I told her that I had to try it...I love smoothies! The place we went to had about 30 flavors of smoothies, and you could COMBINE flavors. They were mostly fruit...so needless to say, I was in heaven. I tried a strawberry coconut with the tapioca beads. I thought it was SO cool when they took the smoothie and vacuum sealed a lid on it. I felt like a giddy kid punching my extra large straw through (it allows for the beads to come out with the smoothie). Anyways, after many trips there, I was in bliss. Then, I graduated college...and I didn't have bubble tea for a year or so, until NOW!

There I was, getting my hair highlighted, and my hairdresser told me that his boyfriend's family was opening a bubble tea place. OMG OMG WHAT? It was a town away, and let me tell you, the week it opened, I went. I ordered a kiwi bubble tea. They did the same thing there...vacuum sealed top, tapioca beads, the big mega straw for the blend of beads and smoothie sippage. I thought for a moment there, well, this is bliss!

Anyways, here are some pictures of bubble tea....seriously consider trying this stuff. You can get HOOKED. If you are interested in making it at home, here is a website of supplies and kits. :)

The tapioca beads are the black balls at the bottom. I had a kiwi bubble tea here, and it maybe lasted me 5 minutes. I miss bubble tea!

A New Blog...

2008-08-18T10:12:00.000-07:00

If you are interested in reading about my weight loss journey...non food wise....I made a new blog (gosh, I'm gonna have too many blogs!).

Check out Take It From a Fat Girl!

It's more of a blog talking about Weight Watchers diets, mini goals, how things are going, etc. :) First blog post will be tonight after my Week 2 Weight Watchers meeting :)

Thanks for reading!

Turkey Enchilada Pie

2008-08-16T19:34:00.000-07:00

I officially rejoined Weight Watchers last Monday. I've been really good on my diet this week. Totally within points, and I've worked out 5 days in a row using Jillian Michaels' 30 Day Shred DVD (which I highly recommend!!).

Anyways, being a member of Weight Watchers means I have an eTools membership. So, points values* will be determined using that tool instead of SparkRecipes. Along with that, eTools gives me GREAT W/W friendly recipes that I can adapt (and it will count points as I adapt). So, here is my first recipe that I made for Joey and I last night.

To me, it was spicy and I wish I would have used green chiles instead of jalapenos. I also cut this into 8 wedges instead of 6. (didn't read directions well so I ate less points than I thought for supper)

Before I show the results of this dish, I want to give a shout-out to Rachael Ray (yes, I *heart* her!). This Furi tool pictured below, rocks my world in chopping vegetables. I usually cut myself a lot with using knives, and with this tool, my hands are safely on the grip! :) I found it (with cutting board) for $15 at Tuesday Morning!!

Look at how fine that chop is...I'm wowed by myself!!

Turkey Enchilada Pie
Source: Weight Watchers

Ingredients:
* 1 sprays cooking spray
* 3/4 pound lean ground turkey (used 1 lb.)
* 1 medium onion(s), chopped
* 1 tsp chili powder
* 3 Tbsp all-purpose flour
* 1 cup fat-free skim milk (used lowfat at FI's request)
* 4 oz canned jalapeno peppers, drained and chopped
* 1/2 tsp ground cumin
* 3 large burrito-size wheat flour tortilla(s)
* 3 cup tomato(es), chopped (omitted because I'm a creole tomato snob and they are
out of season for the year :( )
* 10 Tbsp low-fat shredded cheddar cheese (used 2% mexican blend cheese)

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350°F. Coat a large skillet with cooking spray. Heat skillet over medium heat. Place turkey, onion and chili powder in skillet and cook until turkey is browned, stirring occasionally to break up meat, about 8 minutes. Remove turkey mixture from skillet and set aside.

Place skillet over medium-high heat and add flour. Gradually add milk, stirring with a whisk until blended. Bring to a boil and then reduce heat to medium; simmer until thickened, about 2 minutes.

Remove skillet from heat; stir in turkey mixture, jalapenos and cumin.

Wrap tortillas in damp paper towels and microwave on HIGH until softened, about 15 seconds. Place 1 tortilla in bottom of a 9-inch pie plate. Spread 1/3 of turkey mixture over tortilla. Spoon 1 cup of tomato on top and sprinkle with 4 tablespoons (1/4 cup) of cheese. Repeat layers with remaining ingredients ending up with 2 tablespoons of cheese.

Cover pie plate with aluminum foil and cook until cheese melts and filling is warmed through, about 15 minutes. Let stand, covered, 2 minutes before cutting into 6 wedges.

Here is the pie out the oven :)

Check out how gooey those layers look...YUMMY!

Points*: 6

The site provided says it's 4 points but eTools' recipe link (which I can't give because W/W has recipes in flash so bleh...) says 6...so I would calculate 6 to be safe here!

Slow Cooker Zesty BBQ Chicken

2008-08-16T19:22:00.000-07:00

Last weekend, I was off and I wanted to blow Joey's socks off with some killer food. We had chicken breasts in the freezer and a slow cooker for me to use while I was running errands...I found this recipe on All Recipes and was NOT disappointed...this chicken literally fell apart and shred beautifully into some TASTY bbq chicken sandwiches...mmm...

Not at all attractive looking...kinda looks like dog food actually but I promise it's good!!

Check out how well it shreds...we used a fork with little effort!! mmmm...

Zesty Slow Cooker Chicken BBQ
source AllRecipes

4 frozen skinless, boneless chicken breast halves
2/3 (12 ounce) bottle barbeque sauce (We used Jack Daniels original sauce)
1/3 cup Italian salad dressing (I used Fat Free Dressing to lighten it up a bit)
2 tablespoons and 2 teaspoons brown sugar
1 tablespoon and 1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce

Place chicken in a slow cooker. In a bowl, mix the barbeque sauce, Italian salad dressing, brown sugar, and Worcestershire sauce. Pour over the chicken. Cover, and cook 3 to 4 hours on High or 6 to 8 hours on Low.

Serves 8...these breasts can easily split into two servings!!

Nutritional Information:
Calories 206.3
Fat 1.6g
Fiber 0.1g

POINTS*: 4

**add standard whole wheat hamburger bun for 2-3 points and easily have an entree for 6-7 points**

Summer Exchange!!

2008-08-13T18:05:00.000-07:00

As an engaged girl, I found the website, theknot.com. For the newlyweds who used the Knot, you then have the choice to move over to thenest.com. This site helps couples with everything they encounter in their married lives :). The resources there are absolutely wonderful!!

I stumbled across the Nest forums by chance. Around Christmas, I was looking for a sugar cookie recipe, and there is a "What's Cooking?" board on the Nest. So, I lurked on there for ideas, and it seemed like SUCH a nice board. So, I stayed and started posting :). I've been there since.

Every season, one of the nesties, Joelen , hosts a gift exchange for the board. It's a great way to just have a nice foodie surprise in the mailbox, and today, I got mine!!

Thanks to I&R.4.23.06!!! She sent me silicone spatulas, a cookie scoop, a silicone basting/pastry brush, and a pack of cake tips. These are gadgets I needed, and cake tips, you can never have enough of those. AND, what I'm also excited about, Penzey's spices!! I got Northwoods seasonings, Cake Spice and Hot Chocolate mix :). She also gave me some lotion and body spray in peony (such a beautiful flower!)

Check out the spread!! Thanks so much, Intisar!!

Blueberry Pound Cake

2008-08-13T17:42:00.001-07:00

So, a few weeks back, I was in the grocery store...looking for cake mix for my first fondant cake, and these blueberries at $2/pint caught my eye. I had to buy them...just had to bake something with them. However, I had NO idea what to make. So, being on my diet, I looked at Cooking Light and searched blueberries...lo and behold, this recipe for a blueberry pound cake came up. It was on my "to make" list...

I finally had the opportunity to make this cake Monday, and with a few healthy substitutions for an already healthy recipe, it came out great. However, moreso like a sweet bread than a pound cake. Regardless, my stomach was happy and so was my diet!

I will admit, though, the cake looks purple because after I put all the ingredients in the pan, I forgot to put in an extra egg (that was called for)...so I mixed it in stupidly and realized OH NO! THE BLUEBERRIES!!!....thus my cake is purple....

The loaf :) I made this in a loaf pan instead of a tube pan because I didn't have a tube pan..it worked out well!!

Blueberry Pound Cake (gone bread)
adapted from Cooking Light

2 cups granulated sugar (used 1 cup splenda, 1 cup sugar)
1/2 cup light butter
1/2 (8-ounce) block 1/3-less-fat cream cheese, softened
3 large eggs
1 large egg white
3 cups all-purpose flour, divided ( 1 cup WW flour, 2 cups AP flour)
2 cups fresh or frozen blueberries
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 (8-ounce) carton lemon low-fat yogurt (I hate lemon in desserts, so I used blueberry yogurt instead)
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
Cooking spray
1/2 cup powdered sugar (omitted...I don't want a glaze on it)
4 teaspoons lemon juice (omitted...same reason)

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350°.
Beat first 3 ingredients at medium speed of a mixer until well-blended (about 5 minutes). Add eggs and egg white, 1 at a time, beating well after each addition. Lightly spoon flour into dry measuring cups; level with a knife. Combine 2 tablespoons flour and blueberries in a small bowl, and toss well. Combine remaining flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Add flour mixture to sugar mixture alternately with yogurt, beginning and ending with flour mixture. Fold in blueberry mixture and vanilla; pour cake batter into a 10-inch tube pan coated with cooking spray. Bake at 350° for 1 hour and 10 minutes or until a wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean.

Cool cake in pan 10 minutes; remove from pan. Combine powdered sugar and lemon juice in a small bowl; drizzle over warm cake. Cut with a serrated knife.

My end slice :)

Look at that crumbly goodness!

Makes 16 servings.

Nutritional Information:
Calories 278.9
Fat 8.5g
Fiber 1.8g

POINTS*: 6

**I'm not sure how accurate Cooking Light is here...because their dessert had less fat, 10 more calories and 0.3 less g fiber/serving (weird!)**

Last Class of Gumpaste and Fondant...

2008-07-30T18:38:00.000-07:00

I will show the flowers I made for the Wilton class in a later post...I left my microSD card at FI's...so be ready this weekend!!

For now, I borrowed my gracious sister's camera to take a quick pick of my final class's cake. For this, I used marshmallow fondant from Wilton's forums (thanks to user bunnywoman). The great thing about this recipe, is you can mix the food coloring in right after the marshmallows are melted, which is way easier than kneading it in!!

I do have to thank Melissa at Made by Mel for inspiring me that this fondant won't be quite so hard to make. Check out her cakes...she is amazing at cake decorating!!

I also added Amaretto candy oil to the fondant to give it more flavor...the fondant tasted like italian cookies to me! Without the oil, it reminded me of circus peanuts! Regardless, MUCH better than the boxed stuff and WAY cheaper ($20/box vs. same amount for $6)!!

Here is the recipe for marshmallow fondant. Don't be intimidated by the stuff...it's easy...but remember line EVERYTHING in crisco (don't be scared of crisco..it's your BFF with fondant) to avoid the stickies!!

Marshmallow fondant (to cover a cake, you need about two batches)
1 cup mini marshmallows (appx. 10-11 large marshmallows...I learned this b/c the grocery store didn't have mini's...I know...WTH???)
1 tbsp water (if you want to use candy oil, subtract 1/8 tsp of water and add 1/8 tsp of candy oil)
1 1/2- 1 3/4 cup powdered sugar

Place marshmallows in a standard 1 cup measuring cup and push down and pack them in. Place in a microwave safe bowl and add the water. Put in the microwave for about 20 seconds. Just long enough for them to soften and puff up. Take out and stir with a spoon until it is combined well. At this point it looks kind of soupy. Then add the sugar and mix and fold until all is incorporated and it is no longer sticky. I take it out of the bowl when it gets to the point where most of the sugar is incorporated and I knead it in my hands. This takes roughly about 5-7 minutes. Take a fondant roller or a regular rolling pin and roll out just as you would Wilton's fondant. You can get this fondant almost paper thin and it also repairs well. It's cheap, easy to work with, and tastes great too.

Without further adieu, here are some pictures of the cake. My sister was the photog and she did a great job! :)

My first fondant cake!

2008-07-20T17:19:00.001-07:00

I decided to take fondant and gumpaste and skip Course 3. I do not like the idea of making a tiered cake for the reason of WAY too much cake, but I plan on teaching myself the fundamentals of course 3 through the books, which are sold at Hobby Lobby. Here is my first cake, which I made for the second class. It's LSU colors hehehe :) I'm definitely ready for football season. I'm gonna challenge myself to make a gumpaste tiger come football season. Geaux Tigers!

I've been TAGGED!

2008-07-14T06:24:00.000-07:00

Melissa over at Made by Melissa has tagged me for a fun poll! You should totally check out Melissa's blog...she is a cake decorating pro and seriously droolworthy food on her blog :).

Here are the rules: Each player answers the questions about themselves. At the end of the post, the player then tags 5 people and posts their names, then goes to their blogs and leaves them a comment, letting them know they’ve been tagged and asking them to read your blog. Let the person who tagged you know when you’ve posted your answer.

What was I doing ten years ago?

I was 14 years old...between my freshman and sophomore year. I was probably at band camp in the hot, humid summer of Louisiana. I remember passing out one morning at band camp...lord it was HOT!

What are five (non-work) things on my to-do list for today?

1. Food color fondant and make buttercream for cake for class on Wednesday.
2. Laundry!
3. Meet with the priest about the FOCUS exercise results for FI and I.
4. Jillian's Circuits...week 2!
5. Work on Joint Alumni Association newsletter

Five snacks I enjoy:

1. Lowfat Yogurt
2. Granola Bars
3. Fresh Pineapple
4. Ice Cream (lowfat of course)
5. Bananas

Things I would do if I were a billionaire:

1. Pay off my car and buy each person in family a car (except youngest sis...too young!)
2. Pay off FI's mortgage and rent house out...build DREAM house.
3. Donate money to restoring the wetlands in Louisiana.
4. Attend graduate school full time, until PhD!
5. Not worry about wedding expenses and REALLY throw the dream wedding we want!

Places I’ve lived:

1. St. Rose, LA
2. Destrehan, LA
3. Baton Rouge, LA (LSU)

Jobs I’ve had:

1. Cashier at Winn-Dixie
2. Style Assistant at Lane Bryant
3. Resident Assistant at LSU
4. GIS Intern at City Parish Planning Commission
5. GIS Intern at Dept. of Env'tal Quality
6. Weather Intern at WBRZ news station
7. GIS Analyst :) (where I'm at now!)

I am tagging…

Sarah of A Taste of Home Cooking
Jessica of My Baking Heart
Elizabeth of Elizabeth's Edible Experience
Katie of Good Things Catered
Megan of Megan's Cooking

Dorie's All American Apple Pie!

2008-07-03T19:40:00.000-07:00

Who couldn't start the 4th of July weekend without an All American recipe, such as this one. :) If you have the book, consider making it for this weekend! You won't be disappointed hehe!

When the ever so popular book "Baking: From My Home to Yours" went on bargain listings for Amazon (sorry, it's not on bargain anymore :( ), I knew I couldn't pass it up. So many people rave about this book. In fact, there is a group online solely dedicated to making a recipe from this book every Tuesday, but I can't join that because of my diet, and I really lack the time right now. Plus with a dead camera at home, I can only make desserts on weekends (since my fiance graciously allows me to use his camera), and those will be VERY few and far between!!

My new shiny baking book!!

I chose this recipe as my first recipe out of the book, because my fiance bought a bag of apples a week ago, and so we had to use them all..so this was perfect for that!

This was my first pie that I've made from scratch, and PRAISE GOD for a food processor. This crust was light and flaky, and just mmm. I will say the tapioca in the recipe made me a little confused, and I wanted to omit it so bad. The only time I eat tapioca is in my bubble (boba) tea, and in really large pearls. So, imagining this in apple pie was like hmm...

However, I'm glad I didn't omit it. I really think this made the texture of the filling amazing. I've always been known to sub things in baking and cooking, and if I'm lucky, it comes out right...so I went strictly by the recipe! Oh wait, I did forget the graham cracker crumbs...only 2 tbs. so I think I'm ok...**sinks in desk chair** but still, fabulous apple pie!

Peeling, coring and slicing 4 lbs. of apples is HARD WORK!! We used pink lady and granny smith apples (he had 3 lbs of pink lady and I picked up a couple granny smiths)

The dough halved, getting ready to roll down :)

The pie assembled and ready to chill before going in the oven.

The finished pie..sigghh...sorry, had to have a slice!

The gooey goodness in the middle!

Mexican Night: The Salsa

2008-07-03T19:33:00.001-07:00

OMG...this stuff was the BEST part of tonight...I love salsa :). Once again, I chose a highly rated recipe from All Recipes and this wasn't a disappointment at all and SUPER easy!

Ingredients
* 2 (14.5 ounce) cans stewed tomatoes
* 1/2 onion, finely diced
* 1 teaspoon minced garlic
* 1/2 lime, juiced
* 1 teaspoon salt
* 1/4 cup canned sliced green chiles, or to taste
* 3 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro
* 1/2 tsp chili powder (an addition that I added for more flavor)

Place the tomatoes, onion, garlic, lime juice, salt, green chiles, and cilantro in a blender or food processor. Blend on low to desired consistency.

Mmm...hand over a bag of tostitos!

Mexican Night: Mexican Rice

2008-07-03T19:27:00.000-07:00

This dish was a side we had for the mexican night themed dinner tonight. This recipe is from All Recipes and came highly rated, so I went for this one. It came out perfect, but wasn't the mexican rice I'm used to at restaurants but this was still great!

INGREDIENTS

* 1 cup long grain white rice
* 1 tablespoon vegetable oil (we used canola oil)
* 1 1/2 cups chicken broth
* 1/2 onion, finely chopped
* 1/2 green bell pepper, finely chopped
* 1 fresh jalapeno pepper, chopped
* 1 tomato, seeded and chopped
* 1 cube chicken bouillon
* salt and pepper to taste
* 1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
* 1/2 cup chopped fresh cilantro
* 1 clove garlic, halved

In a medium sauce pan, cook rice in oil over medium heat for about 3 minutes. Pour in chicken broth, and bring to a boil. Stir in onion, green pepper, jalapeno, and diced tomato. Season with bouillon cube, salt and pepper, cumin, cilantro, and garlic. Bring to a boil, cover, and reduce heat to low. Cook for 20 minutes.

Mexican Night: Shrimp and Corn Fajitas

2008-07-03T19:14:00.000-07:00

Tonight's Menu was time consuming but it was a good dinner. However, by the time I was done cooking, I really wasn't that hungry...figures right?

Oh! And by the way, you get pictures tonight :) I used my fiance's camera hehehe :)

We had: Shrimp and Corn Fajitas, Mexican Rice, Refried Beans, and Chips and Salsa.

The shrimp and corn fajitas were from the What's Cooking recipe exchange for June/July. The original submitted recipe was from I&R4_23_06 of the Nest, and the source is unknown.

Shrimp & Corn Tacos:
2 T vegetable oil (we used canola)
1/2 medium onion, finely chopped
1 jalapeño, seeded & ribbed, minced
2 garlic cloves, minced
coarse salt & ground pepper
2 plum tomatoes, chopped (omitted)
1 10 oz. package frozen corn, unthawed (canned b/c FI rathers canned veggies)
1/2 pound shrimp, cut into 1/2" pieces (We had 1 lb. of shrimp, 19-25 ct. and left whole)
12 6" corn tortillas, warmed
Taco accouterments- salsa, cheese, sour cream, cilantro, lime wedges

Heat oil in a large skillet over medium-high. Add onion, jalapeño, and garlic; season with salt and pepper. Cook, stirring occasionally, until onions are softened, 4 to 5 minutes.

Add tomatoes and corn; cook, stirring occasionally, until corn is heated through and tomatoes are soft, 4 to 5 minutes.

Add shrimp and cook, stirring occasionally, until opaque throughout, 2 to 3 minutes. Serve immediately with tortillas (which we heated in the oven for a couple minutes)

RIP Canon SD200...

2008-07-01T03:23:00.000-07:00

It's been a LONG time since I've updated my blog. Reason being? My Canon SD200 likes to work only when it wants to, so it's not dependable when I need it for my food blog. I've been busy in the kitchen, but there's really no point to post without droolworthy pictures...

I will update my blog as much as I can when I cook at FI's house since his camera works! I'll endure the funny looks for the blog hehe! However, just wanted to let whoever reads this know why my blog has been bare..I'm not lazy, just have a broken camera.

I will get a new camera when I reach 214 lbs. as a reward to myself. So, here's to the Skinny Food!! I hope to be back regularly soon!!

Weight Loss at it's finest...

2008-06-09T06:54:00.000-07:00

I've been reading the blog Half of Me by author Jennette Fulda. Reading about her lifestyle transformation has really been inspiring to me, and I would love to read her new book, which has received raving reviews! Jennette is graciously hosting a giveaway of so much cool stuff, so I just had to let everyone know!

View this video here and check out her blog entry concerning the giveaway, if you would like to participate too!!

Vanilla Extract (attempt)

2008-05-21T15:46:00.000-07:00

I have been putting this off for quite some time. Thanks to ebay seller, Arizona Vanilla Company for selling me these gorgeous dozen of beans for a little over $1 each (including shipping)

See, I'm not a vodka drinker, never have been (more of a rum girl). So, I only wanted to buy what I was going to use for my attempt at making vanilla extract. So, I wanted to make a small amount, using a half pint or pint of vodka. After going to retailers, pints and smaller don't exist there. I'm too lazy to stop by the convenience store, so two weeks later (yep, I've had the beans for that long, maybe longer), I find myself in the middle of CVs buying uber cheap paper towels (since I stacked a coupon on top of a sale YAY) and saw SMALL SMALL SMALL bottles of liquor. I had 4 choices of vodka, so I bought a middle of the line Smirnoff half pint. :)

These vanilla beans are so long, and amazingly easy to get the seeds out of. Look at how gorgeous these are.

It seemed like the average was 5 beans/pint of vodka (tons of recipes on the internet), so since this is a half pint, I used 3 beans.

To extract the seeds from a vanilla bean, all you have to do is slice the bean all the way down, then take the blunt part of the knife and run it on the inside, scraping the seeds off the bean. Easy right?

Place the seeds and scraped bean leftovers in the vodka bottle. After it's all sliced and scraped, close the vodka and give it a good shake.

Store the bottle in a dark, cool place, shaking it every 2 days or so. Keep this going for about 2 months. Then, voila! Fresh extract for your baking! (well you want to pour the contents out into a strainer first to make sure it's nothing but liquid too)

Then, I read, use the leftover beans (dried out of course) to make vanilla sugar afterward! Talk about nifty!! Great gift idea for the coffee drinkers :)

Ina's (Amano) Brownies!

2008-05-20T05:27:00.000-07:00

I have been trying to figure out what to do with my Amano chocolate that I graciously received from Blake Makes.

Yesterday, I found on Annie's Eats blog a recipe from Ina Garten of Food Network. Her post was great, because she compared two brownie recipes (Ina's and Cook Illustrated), and gave a synopsis. Ina's brownies won in her book, and I can totally see why. These brownies were so rich and chocolatey and gooey (I underbake my brownies a little, so what?)...just amazing brownies and I'm sure the Amano chocolate really tipped it over the edge. It was a really smooth, rich flavor...I could only eat 1/2 a brownie, but my mom, dad and sister went to town. This morning, there were only 6 brownies left!! (So much for sharing with coworkers lol!)

I ended up halving the recipe, since I had 6 oz of Amano chocolate and used that instead of the semisweet chocolate chips. Since there is over 70% cacao in this chocolate, I knew this would be more of a dark chocolate brownie. I also, in halving everything, forgot to half the 3 oz. of unsweetened chocolate, but really no big deal in the end. Very very good stuff here folks!

Ina’s Outrageous Brownies

Ingredients:
2 sticks unsalted butter
1 ½ cups semisweet chocolate chips (I used Amano chocolate here)
3 oz. unsweetened chocolate (I used a substitute of 3 tbs cocoa powder + 1 tbs butter for every oz.)3 extra-large eggs
1 ½ tbsp. instant coffee powder
1 tbsp. real vanilla extract
1 cup and 2 tbsp. sugar
½ cup and 2 tbsp. flour, divided – ½ cup for batter and 2 tbsp. .in the chips
1 ½ teaspoons baking powder
½ teaspoon salt
1 ½ cups morsels (milk chocolate, dark chocolate, white chocolate or butterscotch)
(for this recipe, I mixed Ghiradelli and Andes mint chocolate baking chips AND I didn't half this haha!)
Directions:
Preheat oven to 350°. Grease and flour a 9×13” metal pan. (I used 8x8 for the halved recipe)
Melt together the butter, 1 ½ cups chocolate chips, and unsweetened chocolate on top of a double boiler. (I don't have a double boiler, so I placed the Amano in the microwave in 30 second intervals until smooth. Then I combined all the butter and cocoa powder to make a sauce and folded the two together.) Cool slightly. Stir together the eggs, instant coffee, vanilla and sugar. Stir in the warm chocolate mixture and cool to room temperature.

Stir together ½ cup of the flour, baking powder and salt. Add to cooled chocolate mixture. Toss the chocolate chips with 2 tbsp. flour (I only needed 1 tbs of flour here) to coat. Then add to the chocolate batter. Pour into prepared pan.

Bake for about 30 minutes, (mine took 20 minutes but I like mine a little underbaked) or until tester just comes out clean. Halfway through the baking, rap the pan against the oven shelf to allow air to escape from between the pan and the brownie dough. (Oops! Forgot to do this...no big deal here) Do not overbake! Cool thoroughly, refrigerate well (didn't refrigerate...just dug in!) and cut into squares.

Dare I get the nutritional facts on this??

For 16 servings (with half the recipe), here are the facts...

Calories 275.8
Fat 14.8 g
Fiber 1.3 g

Points* 7

Blogging with a Purpose Award!!

2008-05-15T07:56:00.000-07:00

Wow! I got a blog award! (I didn't know people really read my blog..I feel special!)

Thanks so much, Carmella!

It took me quite a few days to notice this comment on my blog from Carmella, of The Food Duo. But thanks so much for nominating me for this award!

I'm such a foodie and I read so many people's blogs...her recipes are so tasty looking and I love looking at a TWDer...I'm not bold enough to do that (yet)!

Now, it's my turn to choose 5 of my favorite blogs who are "Blogging with a Purpose!"

Baking Blonde - Her blog is full of so many ideas for baking, and I love her PB Cheesecake Brownies..amazing!! I try to sub for healthier ingredients so I can get away with the baking...always comes out great! Thanks so much!

Good Things Catered - Katie's blog is chock full of great recipes..many of which I have used. She has so many healthy, easy options on there, and some when I just want to splurge. I love reading about her cake decorating endeavors as well. She does a wonderful job!

Blake Makes - Blake, and his wife, Bridget are fellow NOLA-ians, who have a great passion for food. I love reading about their cooking adventures, and watching their blog expand. The giveaways aren't too shabby either. :)

Pioneer Woman Cooks - While her food isn't the healthiest sometimes, it's so great to actually watch her cook from start to finish. She takes great pictures and has a great sense of humor that shines through her blog. She also has some killer giveaways!!

And last but not least,

Joelen's Culinary Adventures - This blog is one of the first food blogs I started reading. I love reading about her classes, and parties. She is a great cook and has wonderful ideas. It's a great blog!

To my dear award winners, now it's your turn to nominate your favorite blogs to receive a "Blogging with a Purpose" award. Here's what you do:

1. nominate 5 blogs which haven't had this award before
2. each of the blogs must have a purpose
3. the nominated blogs must make a link back to this page
4. the logo from the award must be put on their blog and it must link back to this blog!

Faux Tiramisu Trifle..as sugar free as I could

2008-05-12T08:53:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was mother's day, and I got a call from mom to go to the grocery store to pick up a sugar free dessert for my grandma's dinner that she was making. (Grandma is diabetic). I figured, I could make a great dessert for the family in a pinch that would go with the spaghetti dinner. It's a faux tiramisu trifle! :)

16 oz. sugar free cool whip (ideally but the store only had fat free)
8 oz. 1/3 less fat cream cheese (it actually has 1 g less sugar than fat free!)
Sugar Free instant chocolate pudding mix (large box)
2 tbsp instant coffee
2 cups 1% milk
Sugar Free Angel Food cake
Grated chocolate (didn't use for grandma's sake but thought this would be great to add)

Thaw cool whip and soften cream cheese. Fold 1/2 of cool whip into cream cheese and put aside. Prepare chocolate pudding by mixing 2 cups of milk with coffee, whisk, then add pudding mix and whisk for 2 minutes (this has less milk that required to keep it firmer). Cube angel food cake or cut into 3 rings. Layer trifle as such...cake, cream cheese cool whip, pudding...then when the last layer of cake is laid, add remaining cool whip on top. Add grated chocolate on top, and refridgerate until serving.

(Sorry, I'm not a writer, but this took 10 minutes to make and was WONDERFUL!)

I can't calculate the recipe b/c Spark Recipes doesn't have Sugar Free Angel Food Cake in it's database :(.

Guinness Braised Beef Brisket

2008-05-12T08:47:00.000-07:00

This is a recipe I found off Cooking Light. It was our first experience with a slow cooker, and I learned the lesson of never, ever open the cover of the slow cooker...after 8 hours, we seared the brisket in the Le Creuset and put it in the oven at 350 for 1 additional hour. The meat was still super tender (the meat literally fell apart) and was delicious!

Ingredients
2 cups water
1 cup chopped onion
1 cup chopped carrot
1 cup chopped celery
1 cup Guinness stout
2/3 cup packed brown sugar
1/4 cup tomato paste
1/4 cup chopped fresh or 1 tablespoon dried dill
1 (14 1/2-ounce) can low-salt beef broth
6 black peppercorns
2 whole cloves
1 (3-pound) cured corned beef brisket, trimmed

Preparation
Combine first 11 ingredients in a large electric slow cooker, stirring until well blended; top with beef. Cover and cook on HIGH 8 hours or until beef is tender. Remove beef; cut diagonally across grain into 1/4-inch slices. Discard broth mixture.

Yield
6 servings (serving size: 3 ounces)

Nutritional Information
CALORIES 226(39% from fat); FAT 9.7g (sat 3.2g,mono 4.7g,poly 0.4g); PROTEIN 17.9g; CHOLESTEROL 87mg; CALCIUM 28mg; SODIUM 1105mg; FIBER 0.9g; IRON 2.2mg; CARBOHYDRATE 15.2g

Points: 5*

Almond Pound Cake...mmm

2008-05-11T17:00:00.000-07:00

I coordinated this round of the What's Cooking? Board's recipe exchange. Advantage of this is not only do I have a nice compilation of recipes, I get to choose the one for me to make. All the recipes looked delicious, but I wanted to surprise my fiance with a nice dessert one weekend I was over there.

I would have made a bundt cake, but I purchased a stoneware mini bundt cake pan on clearance off Pampered Chef for about $13, so I couldn't resist. Next time I make these cakes, I will have to half the recipe. This batter made 12 mini cakes, which is more than enough and they are in the freezer for another night :).

These were a light cake with a subtle almond flavoring...great to add berries on top, for a spring cake.

Enough talking, here is the recipe from Delia of Kreeper's Cooking.

Almond Pound Cake – from my mother in law, Billie Love

1 cup unsalted butter
½ cup shortening
3 cups sugar
5 eggs
2 t almond extract
1 t vanilla
3 cups flour
1 t salt
1 t baking powder
1 cup milk

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees. Grease and flour a bundt cake pan. Cream butter and shortening. Add sugar ¼ cup at a time, alternating with the eggs until all of the sugar and eggs are added. Mix in the almond and vanilla extracts. Sift dry ingredients and add ¾ cup at a time, alternating with the milk a little at a time. Continue to mix until both the milk and dry ingredients are added. Pour into the pan and bake for 1 hour. Reduce the heat to 300 degrees and bake for an additional 15 minutes. Remove the pan from the oven and let it stand for 10-15 minutes before flipping.

This is not at all Weight Watchers friendly, but the mini cakes are large, so if you eat half a cake, this could be reasonable for dessert.

Nutritional Info: (1 serving out of 12)

Calories 564.2
Total Fat 27.3 g
Dietary Fiber 0.8 g
Points: 14* (ouch)

Waist Friendly Chicken Marsala

2008-05-07T09:46:00.001-07:00

I had been craving some serious chicken marsala for a while, and so I asked my What's Cooking sister, Sarah, if she had a recipe, and SCORE! (she did!!) So, thank you so much for this recipe, which is from Everyday Food by Martha Stewart (my changes noted to make it weight watcher friendly)

Serves 4 (When the chicken was pounded out, it served 6)

2 tablespoons all-purpose flour (omitted)
Coarse salt and ground pepper
4 boneless, skinless chicken breast halves (6 to 8 ounces each)
1 tablespoon olive oil
10 ounces cremini mushrooms, trimmed and thinly sliced (used Portobella's)
1 shallot, minced
1 tablespoon finely chopped fresh sage, plus more for garnish (didn't have this, used oregano)
1/2 cup sweet Marsala wine
1/4 cup heavy cream
1 tablespoon butter
added oregano
added 2 cloves of minced garlic
added 1 tbsp balsamic vinegar

Directions
Place flour in a shallow bowl; season generously with salt and pepper. Dredge each piece of chicken in flour, shaking off excess.
In a large skillet, heat oil over medium. Add chicken, and cook until golden on the outside and opaque throughout, 8 to 10 minutes per side. Transfer to a plate, and cover with aluminum foil to keep warm (reserve skillet).

Instead of this, I pounded the chicken to equal thickness, put the olive oil in a hot skillet and grilled/seared the chicken until cooked. I added salt/pepper, some oregano and basted with the balsamic vinegar for more flavor while cooking.

Add mushrooms, shallot, garlic, sage (not for me), and 1/4 cup water to skillet; season with salt and pepper. Cook, tossing frequently, until mushrooms are tender, 3 to 5 minutes. Add wine and cream; simmer over medium-high until slightly thickened, 3 to 5 minutes. Remove from heat, and stir in butter; season with salt and pepper.
Top chicken with mushroom sauce, and garnish with sage. (didn't have sage)

The results? Total yumminess! Here are the stats:

6 Servings

Amount Per Serving

Calories 191.4

Total Fat 8.2 g

Total Carbohydrate 21.9 g

Dietary Fiber 0.8 g

Weight Watchers Points: 4.5 *

Wilton Course 2...

2008-04-24T19:11:00.000-07:00

This was a great course. It took me a while to catch up and learn these flowers but my favorite is highlighted in my final cake.

The filling is fresh blackberries (adapted from Katie's recipe), the cake is Pillsbury mix (get over it LOL) and the frosting is white chocolate buttercream (oh yeh, yum!)

The coworkers are in for a treat Friday ;)

Mixing filling...looks like something out of Dr. Seuss

Cake from the top...I lovers the LSU colored pansies!

Cake from the side...check out that weave peeps!

A zoom in of those LSU colored pansies..nature has pansies colored right. Geaux Tigers (I need football season again..)

Camo Cake!

2008-04-09T19:05:00.000-07:00

This is just a cake I was requested to make...it's a simple camo cake made with thin consistency icing smeared all over :) I highly recommend to cake decorators to invest (not really invest but buy) the 8 in x 3 in pan. It's one big cake that you just cut in half when it's done. It cooks evenly and just (in my opinion) makes things simpler (less cleanup with one pan too!). I bought mine for 50% off last week, so for less than $4....not too shabby right?

Final Cake! :)

2008-03-31T19:13:00.000-07:00

I'm finished with my Wilton Course I! Yay!! I may not be taking a course this coming month to help FI move in, since classes are offered on Saturdays (probably the same in Baton Rouge for me) and that would take away from some part of the weekend that we spend together (we only see each other on weekends)...

Anyways, pardon the crumbles...my icing was too stiff for the flimsy diet soda cake I made. I combined spice cake mix with Diet Dr. Pepper :)

TGIF!!

2008-03-31T14:40:00.000-07:00

Well, my coworkers are extremely pleased by my cake decorating hobby. So much that I was asked when I was making my next practice cake...so I obliged them with a TGIF cake after a rather hectic work week.

The admin for the Colonel asked me to make him a bday cake....this is HUGE! :)

Strawberry Bread

2008-03-25T16:37:00.000-07:00

Hard to believe, but I reduced the calories by 100 calories per serving on this bread, and am sure that I didn't impact the taste much at all!

My dad bought a flat of Louisiana strawberries late last week, and so I have been trying to figure out ways to get rid of the strawberries since their lives are at their end..lol. This helped me rid of a pint and in an awesome way!

This bread is delicious, especially with a dollop of cool whip. I want another piece but I know I snacked enough earlier when I got home lol. Here is the original recipe with my substitutions from AllRecipes.

INGREDIENTS

* 2 cups fresh strawberries
* 3 1/8 cups all-purpose flour (1 cup whole wheat flour and 2 1/8 cups AP flour)
* 2 cups white sugar (1 cup splenda, 1 cup white sugar)
* 1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
* 1 teaspoon salt
* 1 teaspoon baking soda
* 1 1/4 cups vegetable oil (12 oz. no sugar added applesauce)
* 4 eggs, beaten
* 1 1/4 cups chopped pecans (omitted because I hate pecans)

DIRECTIONS

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Butter and flour two 9 x 5 inch loaf pans.
2. Slice strawberries, and place in medium-sized bowl. Sprinkle lightly with sugar, and set aside while preparing bread mixture.
3. Combine flour, sugar, cinnamon, salt and baking soda in large bowl: mix well. Blend oil and eggs into strawberries. Add strawberry mixture to flour mixture, blending until dry ingredients are just moistened. Stir in pecans. Divide batter into pans.
4. Bake for 45 to 50 minutes, or until tester inserted comes out clean. Let cool in pans on wire rack for 10 minutes. Turn loaves out, and cool completely.

I did end up just baking this in a 8x8 pan since I couldn't find the loaf pans :(. Worked out just fine!

All in all this was delicious and I'm looking forward to this for breakfast tomorrow morning!

Original nutritional facts:
Fib
16 servings

Calories: 285
Total Fat: 17g
Fiber: 1.5g
Points: 7*

With my substitutions and omissions (especially note the fat changes):

16 servings

Calories: 165.5
Total Fat: 1.6g
Fiber: 2.1g
Points: 3*

That's a 4 point difference per serving! I'm sure that was just the applesauce vs. oil difference but that's amazing!

TCHO Chocolate

2008-03-25T16:34:00.000-07:00

Thanks to Blake Makes and TCHO for the sample of the decadent dark chocolate. It tasted wonderful, very rich and chocolatey! My family especially loved it. :)

You should definitely give TCHO a taste if you are a fan of really dark chocolate!

I'm engaged!!! ...and some blog changes!

2008-03-25T13:10:00.000-07:00

I recently got engaged, and my wedding is in May 2009. YAY! Because of this, my original blog intent will be more emphasized...I will still cake decorate as a hobby, with the coworkers as guinea pigs. However, I am withdrawing from Daring Bakers, which I just joined, because making such desserts once a month, which can't be altered for a diet, is something I can't do right now. I did end up making the recipe but I will post that on the 30th...

Back to Skinny Food by Amy! :)

A free iPod touch from a fellow FOODIE? No wayyy!!

2008-03-19T18:34:00.000-07:00

Yes way! I discovered this blog through my google reader, and it's pretty darn good to read! It's called Cooking by the Seat of my Pants, and this guy, Jerry, is giving away an iPod Touch! Now, me, being the Mac lover that I am, I'm entering! (and you should too!)

Good luck!

My first Cake!

2008-03-18T19:12:00.001-07:00

Just wanted to post a pic of my first Wilton class cake. It's not really a template, but I felt a need to make an Easter cake using skills learned this week in the class. :) It was a little lopsided but it's ok..I'm sure the coworkers will enjoy this!

A Fun Idea for Kids!

2008-03-18T18:45:00.001-07:00

I am a volunteer teacher for Junior Achievement, which I do one day a week during my lunch hour at a local elementary school. It's a great program, and it's nationwide, so if you think this is something you would be interested in, seriously contact your local office! It's so fun and rewarding :)

Anyways, I always like to get the kids something for their last class as a congrats, besides the certificates that are given out by Jr. Achievement. I decided to make them large lollipops!

I don't even remember how I found this idea, but I came across it on This Mama Cooks!

Apparently, these little foil pans are hard to find, but I found them at the local Dollar Tree. So, 24 of these for a $1?? SCORE! I bought the lollipop sticks at Wal-Mart in the crafts section and I used two bags of 14 oz. Jolly Ranchers for the candy, as recommended on the website.

Here are the directions for these fun lollipops!

* 8 Reynolds® FunShapes™ Stars or Hearts Baking Cups
* 8 (6-inch) Lollipop sticks
* 40 Jolly Ranchers

PREHEAT oven to 300°F. Place Reynolds FunShapes Stars and/or Hearts Baking Cups on a cookie sheet with sides.

MAKE a hole in one side of each of the baking cups near the bottom of the cups with a toothpick. Insert the lollipop sticks from the inside of the cup through the hole made with the toothpick and push it to the outside leaving at least 1 inch inside the cup.**

ARRANGE 5 candies in each baking cup, placing one candy over the lollipop stick. (It does not need to lay flat, it will melt around the stick.)

BAKE 5 to 6 minutes (it took my oven 9 minutes) or until candy is melted. Carefully remove baking cups from cookie sheet onto a tray to cool; immediately twirl stick to completely coat with candy. Prop sticks with handle of a wooden spoon if necessary to keep the sticks straight in baking cup while lollipop cools.

REMOVE lollipops from baking cups by tearing foil and peeling away from lollipops.

I then wrapped them in little cellophane bags and tied them for cute presentation. The kids LOVED it and the teacher kept asking how did I do that with Jolly Ranchers? LOL!

This was super easy and I recommend giving this little project a try! You can make cute bouquets with these for kid's gifts or parties too!

You Make My Day!

2008-03-13T07:16:00.001-07:00

Wow...I didn't know that people actually read my blog, so when Melissa tagged me for this award, I was shocked! I'm glad I made your day :D

I'm sure these ladies I'm tagging have been picked already but here goes!!

Melissa (return the favor), Katie, BakingBlonde, My Baking Heart, and Kandice !

There are many more...but I can't post all of them :)

WC Recipe Exchange: Rum Buns

2008-03-12T18:23:00.000-07:00

On the What's Cooking? board, there is a recipe exchange held every couple months or so. This is my first exchange, and the challenge was to send a recipe that reigns from your region...that basically says, hey this is my town's specialty!

EDIT: Found out through comments that the person who submitted this recipe is Sweetie Cakes. Thanks so much for sharing this recipe!!!

My first try, I forgot to add the yeast...ugh...so I had to start over at the very end...but it was worth it. This is a great bread with a tinge of sweetness from the icing.

Here is her recipe:

Washington, DC doesn't have a lot of famous foods but the oldtime seafood restaurants served rum buns instead of regular bread. So when you go to the traditional DC seafood spots, you look forward to the rum buns. This recipe is from the Flagship Restaurant (now Phillips Flagship).

1/2 stick (1/4) c. butter
1/4 c. sugar
1 1/2 tsp. salt
1 c. scalded milk
1 envelope dry yeast
1 egg, beaten
2 1/2 tbsp. rum extract
3 1/2 c. flour, sifted

For brushing the loaves:
2 tbsp. raisins, chopped
2 tbsp. sugar
1 tbsp butter (melted)

For the icing:
1 cup confectioners sugar
1 tsp of rum extract
2 tbsp hot water

Combine butter, sugar, and salt. Add scalded milk and let mixture cool to lukewarm. Sprinkle yeast over the mixture and beat it until it is smooth. Add the egg and 1 1/2 teaspoons rum extract. Beat in 1 3/4 cups flour until smooth. Add 1 3/4 cups more flour and beat until mixture is smooth. Let the dough rise in a warm place, covered with linen tea towel, for 2 hours or until double in bulk.

Grow little bacteria grow!(yes, I realized after this, I needed to remove the saran and put the towel on instead lol)

Punch down the dough and divide it in half. Roll out each piece of dough into a rectangle 12 inches long, 4 inches wide and 1/2 inch thick.

Ready to ROLL! (after the raisins of course!)

Brush each strip with 1 tablespoon melted butter then sprinkle over each strip 2 tablespoons each of sugar and chopped raisins. Roll the dough up jelly roll fashion, stretching it so that it is 15 inches long. Cut each roll into 18 pieces, each 3/4 inch thick, and put them, cut side down in the bottom of well buttered 3 inch muffin tins.

Let buns rise in a warm place, covered with a linen towel, for 1 hour or until double in bulk. Bake in hot 400 degree oven for 15 minutes or until golden.

In a bowl combine 1 cup confectioners' sugar, 2 tablespoons hot water, and 1 teaspoon rum extract; spread the buns with the icing as soon as they come out of the oven. Cool buns on wire rack.

*DROOL*

They were delicious!

Now, my issue was, I ended up not being able to cut thin rolls to 36, so I made 18. Here are the nutritional facts..

18 Servings

Amount Per Serving
Calories 169.3
Total Fat 3.4 g
Dietary Fiber 0.8 g

Points: appx. 3.5

Banana Bread with Streusel Topping!

2008-03-05T17:55:00.001-08:00

After a mishap with the muffins I made last time, I thought maybe there is a better way. I am a regular lurker on Hungry Girl and last week, she posted on her Chew The Right Thing thread about banana muffins. Chew The Right Thing is a blog that happens once a week concerning making high fat foods diet friendly. She showcases food from Starbucks to Taco Bell to homemade comfort food...it rocks!

So last week, she featured banana bread, which can have up to 400 calories a slice! I've yet to find a dense cakey banana bread that's diet friendly, and tonight, I'm still searching unfortunately! I did play a little bit with the bread, but it wasn't to where it would affect the texture. To see the original recipe, click here.

Here is my take on the recipe:

** denotes changes

Ingredients:
1 1/4 cups whole-wheat flour
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
3/4 cup Splenda No Calorie Sweetener (granulated)
1 tbs Splenda brown sugar **
1 1/2 cups mashed ripe bananas (about 3 bananas)
2 eggs **
1/2 cup no-sugar-added applesauce
2 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. maple extract **
1/2 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 tsp. salt
Optional Toppings: no-calorie spray butter, Cool Whip Free

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a large bowl, combine both types of flour, Splenda, Splenda brown sugar blend, baking powder, salt, and cinnamon (in other words, all dry ingredients). In a separate bowl, mix together the mashed bananas, eggs, applesauce, and vanilla extract (all the wet ingredients). Add this mixture to the bowl with the dry ingredients, and stir until just blended. Spoon batter into a cupcake tin sprayed with nonstick spray or lined with paper cups. Bake for about 20 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean.

Makes 12.

Calories: 138
Fat: 1.5 g
Fiber: 3.75 g

Points: 2

This comes out more like a dry bread with a lack of flavor. I'd prefer more moisture and density with spices. I'll have to take that into account for next time...

Mom's birthday gift..

2008-03-04T19:24:00.003-08:00

I know this isn't cooking related but I wanted to post what I have been working on for the past month...it's cross stitch :) I got the kit at Michael's for 5 bucks...frame at Dollar Tree and the ribbon was on sale at Michael's and used that as matting since the size of the pattern was odd, and I didn't want to pay for custom framing :)

Shrimp Fettucine Alfredo

2008-03-04T18:52:00.000-08:00

In cleaning out the freezer on Sunday, there was a bag of frozen shrimp in there, and I thought, well I need to do something with this before it's forgotten in the back of the freezer (you know how that goes). Thanks to Danielle of Joseph's Wife for reminding me of the Laughing Cow Alfredo recipe that is talked about frequently on the Weight Watchers forums. I used to make this as a quick fix in college when I did Weight Watchers, but I forgot about it...it's a wonderful recipe but I make it a slightly different way than mentioned in the posts. I prefer a thinner sauce, because this turns out extremely rich.

Ingredients:
16 oz. shrimp (deveined and peeled)
1 bunch of green onions
1/2 small yellow onion
1 clove garlic
7 wedges of Laughing Cow cheese (I used Light Garlic and Herb)
1 cup lowfat milk
1 tbsp margarine (I used Smart Balance)
1 tbsp parmesan cheese
1 tsp garlic powder
Pam spray
4 cups cooked whole wheat pasta
Pepper to taste

Dice green and yellow onions, along with the garlic clove. Place in a Pam sprayed skillet and cook for a minute. Add shrimp and cook for a couple minutes, until the shrimp is done.

In a small pot, place LC cheese, milk, margarine, parmesan cheese and powder together. Keep on low until it melts, mixing ever so often. You may want to start the sauce first because it takes the longest.

In a larger pot, boil spaghetti.

After the spaghetti and alfredo are done, add to the shrimp and combine together (either in the skillet or the pasta pot...wherever it all fits). Add pepper to taste! ENJOY!

Serves 6.

Nutritional Info: (includes pasta, shrimp and sauce)

Calories 276.7
Total Fat 5.2 g
Dietary Fiber 4.7 g

Points Value: 5 points and a VERY hefty serving at that!! Enjoy :)

Some fun things...

2008-03-04T14:21:00.001-08:00

Why I need to take a Wilton class...

Here is a picture of my mom's bday cake. I'm not posting the recipe for it, since the actual cake taste is questionable...I messed up on baking. However, it's white with strawberry filling! Well, I tried...at least I put lots of love into it!

Also, thanks to jessesgrl from the What's Cooking forums. I'd link to your blog, but I couldn't find it on the forums. Anyways, this girl loaded me up with tons of goodies...see below!!

Savory Chicken and Potatoes..

2008-03-03T18:55:00.001-08:00

This diet thing isn't so bad right? I love my George Foreman grill. It's one of the best purchases towards kitchen stuff I have ever made. I got it at a Black Friday sale, so the price was right! This thing didn't disappoint me tonight. I wanted chicken badly tonight but I wanted a healthy recipe. I remember a month or so back when Katie from Good Things Catered made grilled chicken and since grilled chicken is as diet friendly s it comes, I decided to give this recipe a go. I ended up doubling the recipe and making some substitutions for a couple things. This chicken, let me tell you, was sooo moist, tender and savory (and easy to boot!!). Thanks Katie for a great recipe!!

Ingredients:
1 pack chicken breasts
2 Tbsp olive oil
3 Tbsp balsamic vinegar
1 tbsp garlic salt
1/2 tsp coarsely ground pepper
Montreal Chicken seasoning

Preheat the Foreman grill. Mix olive oil, vinegar, garlic salt and pepper together in a bowl. Pound chicken down to about 1/2 - 3/4 in. thick to tenderize and make the chicken faster to grill. Dip chicken in mixture on both sides, and place chicken on the grill (for me, one piece fit at a time. Then, sprinkle the Montreal seasoning on top of the chicken and put the grill top down. Grill for 5 minutes, or until done. Repeat for the rest of the chicken.

The spread..

Yum! Time for my closeup!

And just one more stab to make sure it's still indeed dead!

Serves 6 (cut breasts in half for a correct portion size)

Nutritional Info:
Calories 176.3
Fat 6.0 g
Fiber 0
Points: 4

Now, onto another easy dish, which is a favorite of mine. This is off the Lipton Onion Soup mix box. I made oven roasted potatoes. Here is the recipe...never fails and once again, easy and good!

1 pack Onion Soup mix
1/3 cup olive oil
5-6 medium Yukon Gold potatoes (use whatever potatoes you want...these are just my favs)

Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Cut the potatoes into 4-6 pieces (depending on potato size) and place in a 9x13 baking dish. Drizzle olive oil and soup mix on top and mix together (best done with hands I find!). Place in oven for about 30 minutes or until done. YUM!

Zoom in of that starchy goodness!

I could just sit with a fork and eat it all!! Can't wait for lunch tomorrow now :)

Serves 9-10 ppl

Nutritional Info:
Calories 183.2
Fat 8.0 g
Fiber 3.1 g
Points: 4

Do you like Spring stuff? I sure do!!

2008-03-03T16:00:00.000-08:00

I absolutely love my Google reader! I've been inspired by so many people who share a passion in the kitchen like I do, and it's great to brag on a few people :). I added Megan from Megan's Cookin' to my subscriptions today since Abby from Abby Sweets gave her a shout out, and her blog just looks great!

Megan is giving away free spring kitchen/baking stuff! Who can hate free? All you have to do is reply to her blog to gain an entry, subscribe to gain another entry, and then if you post in your blog about this giveaway you get 5 more entries! 7 chances to win cutesy spring stuff? Heck yeah!!

Here is a pic of the prize :) Have fun!!

Green Bean Casserole (with a twist)

2008-02-28T17:55:00.001-08:00

I love Green Bean Casserole! When I was making diet coke chicken, I realized I needed a side item. I found 2 cans green beans and the onions, however, no mushroom soup! So, I improvised. I figured broccoli cheese, being a creamy soup, would take its place, and boy did it! I found it to be better!! I usually use the recipe off the French's bag.

Here it is!

Ingredients:
1 (10 3/4) oz. can CAMPBELL'S® Cream of Mushroom Soup (I used broccoli cheese soup)
3/4 cup milk
1 1/3 cups FRENCH'S® French Fried Onions
4 cups cooked whole green beans (I used 2 regular cans)

Directions:
1. MIX soup, milk, 2/3 cup French Fried Onions, and beans in 1 1/2-qt. baking dish.
2. BAKE at 350°F for 30 min. or until hot. Stir.
3. TOP with remaining onions. Bake 5 min.

Take a whole spoonful!

Diet Coke Chicken Revisited!

2008-02-28T17:44:00.000-08:00

I've made this before on my blog, and it's a favorite. However, last time there were no pics so here they are!

Diet Coke Chicken

Source: Aimee's Adventures

1 cup ketchup (I do half ketchup, half bbq sauce)
1 can diet coke
1 pack of boneless, skinless chicken breasts

Put chicken in a non-stick skillet with some olive oil. Brown chicken on both sides for a couple minutes. Then, pour ketchup (and bbq sauce) and diet cola over the chicken. Turn heat to medium high and cook chicken for 45 minutes, stirring occasionally. Cover, reduce heat to simmer and cook another 15-20 minutes. Remove lid, and cook until sauce thickens and sticks to chicken. Sauce will taste like BBQ and the chicken is very tender.

Simmering away!

Zoom in on that BBQ yumminess!

Finished product..

Blake Makes! PBDDL!

2008-02-28T17:17:00.000-08:00

The wonderfulness that is peanut butter dulce de leche (otherwise known as PBDDL) came in earlier this week, and let me tell you how excited I was! How do you get it? Go to Blake's website and sign up to be in Soopz! He is a foodie like many of the bloggers that are Soopz members, and he has a new product, which is PBDDL. In order to get the word out, he has giveaways of his products, and now I'm pretty sure many people are all anxiously awaiting it's selling debut! (mmm)

Another bonus? He is a fellow NOLA-ian. Represent f'real!

With my PBDDL, I made cupcakes! Weight Watchers friendly cupcakes! Now these were flimsy, but there was nothing bad to say about the richness and taste of it...just take a spoon and go crazy! Mmm...

Recipe

10 oz. diet coke
1 box Chocolate cake mix
1 egg white

Bake according to the box recipe. However, halfway in the middle of the baking time, I placed mini Reese's cups inside, and then let it bake the rest of the time.

The real fun is here...thanks to Allrecipes!

I 1/4ed the recipe though since I only had 1/4 cup of peanut butter to work with :). Delicious though!!

INGREDIENTS

* 1/8 cup butter, softened
* 1/4 cup creamy peanut butter (used PBDDL)
* 3/4 tablespoons milk, or as needed
* 1/2 cups confectioners' sugar

DIRECTIONS

1. Place the butter and peanut butter into a medium bowl, and beat with an electric mixer. Gradually mix in the sugar, and when it starts to get thick, incorporate milk one tablespoon at a time until all of the sugar is mixed in and the frosting is thick and spreadable. Beat for at least 3 minutes for it to get good and fluffy.

Happiness = New Apron!

2008-02-28T17:12:00.001-08:00

I went to Etsy and bought this, because I'm all about supporting fellow crafters! It's more cute than I thought it would, so this girl rocks!

Thanks again to indulgeaprons

Packaging is SO cute!

The happy chef!

Steak Sandwich Delight!

2008-02-28T16:49:00.000-08:00

I had been craving beef for quite some time and let me tell you, it was well worth the wait!My dad brought home tons of hamburger buns, leftover from a concession stand at the rec park he coaches at, so this used them quite nicely. This recipe was yum! I would recommend tenderizing the meat more than the marinade does though. It was a slight bit tough!

Enjoy this with some grated cheese...I had pepperjack..yum!

Ingredients

Steak:
3/4 cup cola (used diet cola)
2 tablespoons red wine vinegar (used balsamic)
1 teaspoon coarsely ground black pepper
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground chipotle chile pepper
4 garlic cloves, crushed
1 bay leaf, crushed (didn't have this)
1 (1 1/2-pound) flank steak, trimmed

Remaining ingredients:
Cooking spray
6 (1/2-inch-thick) slices Vidalia onion
6 (2-ounce) Kaiser rolls (I used hamburger buns)
12 (1/4-inch-thick) slices tomato

Preparation
To prepare steak, combine first 7 ingredients in a large zip-top plastic bag. Add steak; seal and marinate in refrigerator for 2 hours, turning bag occasionally. Remove steak from bag, reserving marinade. Pour marinade into a microwave-safe bowl; microwave at high 2 minutes or until mixture comes to a boil. Set aside.
(forgot to do this step...may have played a huge factor in tenderizing the meat!)
Prepare grill.

Place steak on a grill rack coated with cooking spray; grill 8 minutes on each side or until steak is medium-rare or desired degree of doneness. Remove steak from grill; cover and let stand 5 minutes. Place onion slices on grill rack; grill 4 minutes on each side, basting occasionally with reserved marinade. Place rolls on grill rack, cut sides down; grill 2 minutes or until lightly browned.

My trusty Foreman!

Basting...

*Drool*

Cut steak diagonally across grain into thin slices. Spread 2 tablespoons dressing on bottom half of each roll. Divide steak, tomato, and onion evenly among bottom halves of rolls. Top with top halves of rolls.

Yield: 6 servings (serving size: 1 sandwich)
Nutritional Information

CALORIES 417(24% from fat); FAT 11g (sat 3.3g,mono 3.8g,poly 2.2g); PROTEIN 30.5g; CHOLESTEROL 38mg; CALCIUM 104mg; SODIUM 747mg; FIBER 3.2g; IRON 3.9mg; CARBOHYDRATE 49.1g

Chewy Thin Mints

2008-02-28T16:38:00.000-08:00

These came out really rich but good. Remind me SO much of the taste of girl scout cookies but really chewy. I left about 8 at home with the fam and brought the rest to work. They were gone in minutes!

Source: Cooking Light

Ingredients

1 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup granulated sugar
3 tablespoons butter, softened
3 tablespoons applesauce
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon peppermint extract
1 large egg white, lightly beaten
Cooking spray

Preparation
Lightly spoon flour into a dry measuring cup; level with a knife. Combine flour, cocoa, and baking soda in a small bowl, stirring well with a whisk.

Combine the brown sugar and next 5 ingredients (brown sugar through peppermint extract) in a medium bowl; beat with a mixer at high speed for 2 minutes. Beat in the egg white. Add flour mixture; beat at low speed until well-blended.

Coat your hands lightly with cooking spray. Shape the dough into a 6-inch log. Wrap log in plastic wrap; freeze 1 hour or until firm. ** For me, firm was after 24 hours, and it wasn't really firm but it was enough to manage with! **

Preheat oven to 350°.

Cut the log into 24 (1/4-inch) slices, and place 1 inch apart on baking sheets lightly coated with cooking spray. Bake at 350° for 10 minutes. Remove from pans; cool on wire racks.

** I then melted white chocolate and drizzled that on top of the cookies with sprinkles. Added food coloring for a fun look :) **

Would you like a bite?

Makes 2 dozen cookies (serving size: 1 cookie)

Nutritional Information

CALORIES 76(22% from fat); FAT 1.8g (sat 1.1g,mono 0.5g,poly 0.1g); PROTEIN 1.2g; CHOLESTEROL 4mg; CALCIUM 8mg; SODIUM 33mg; FIBER 0.2g; IRON 0.7mg; CARBOHYDRATE 13.7g

I'm officially a WC Nestie and a FOODIE!!!

2008-02-21T16:52:00.000-08:00

That has a nice little ring to it, doesn't it?

You may notice a couple of blogrolls to the right of my blog now. The first one is the WC (What's Cooking?) blogroll. This little tool has a drop down to all the blogs that the other WC Nesties have! Another one, is the Foodie blogroll. This is a group of many people who share an infatuation with food (cooking and baking too!) with me. Feel free to click away but watch your time or you may lose a few hours reading and drooling over the pictures!!

If you have a food blog, and want to join the Foodie Blogroll, here are the requirements: (written from the Leftover Queen herself)

1) You must display the blogroll some place on your blog where I can find it. Once a month I will try to go through the blogroll and delete the blogs from the blogroll that aren’t displaying it. The reason for this requirement is that to meet our goal of promoting food related blogs on the Internet we need to link to each other. It drives up your Google rank (your blog could potentially be on the first or second page of Google’s search results when someone is searching for information that is contained on your blog) and your Technorati rank.

2) You must have a food related blog (at least 80 % of posts are food related)

3) The blog must be at least 1 month old with at least 5 posts.

For the WC Blogroll, you have to be involved with the forums which is linked here.

Upcoming....

2008-02-19T18:31:00.001-08:00

I'm really excited!! I decided to join the Daring Bakers. The group has a monthly baking challenge with one recipe where all the members make your mouth water through their blogs!! I will get to start in March :) Stay tuned!!

I'm on my mom's laptop (my laptop charger broke..it's in the mail though) so I won't have any blog updates for a while but you can look forward to some yummy Philly Cheesesteak and Chocolate Mint cookies (a girl scout cookie imitation)..so be on the look out!! :)

My first recipe (written in 7th grade)

2008-02-18T16:26:00.000-08:00

Obviously, I didn't know much about cooking but I thought this was funny since I was decluttering and threw away my old school portfolios but kept a couple of things that were funny. This was one of them!

Recipe for a good year

3 cups of fun
1 cup of happiness
5 tsp of neatness
2 cups of organization
3 tbsp of quality work
2 tbsp of cooperation

Directions
Mis the fun, happiness and organization in a bowl. This should form into a thick dough. Next, slowly pour in the organization and quality work while mixing. Then bake in a 3x5 round pan (LOL!! small pan...and interesting dimensions for a round pan right?) at 375 degrees F for 5-10 minutes until golden brown. Finally, sprinkle in your cooperation. Now, you got the greatest school year in the WORLD!!!!

A Dog's Therapy...

2008-02-12T15:51:00.000-08:00

My poor dog today...we have had severe weather all day and there was a funnel cloud sighted in my town :(.

After doing some research online, I found the perfect dog treat recipe...simple and nutritious! Thanks ThriftyFun!

This made a bunch of little heart treats and she gobbled up a couple :D I would half this for next time though!

PB Dog Treats

1 cup Natural Peanut Butter
2 cups Whole Wheat flour
1 cup 2% milk
1 tablespoon baking powder

Mix wet ingredients in one bowl (pb and milk). Mix dry ingredients in a different bowl (flour and baking powder). Mix wet ingredients slowly into dry ingredients. Bake at 350 degrees for 20 minutes or until starting to brown.

This made a ridiculous amount..

Dixie enjoying the treats :D

Please!! Can I have sah-more??

I believe the Reese's factory exploded in my 8x8 pan

2008-02-11T16:33:00.001-08:00

This is another recipe from bakingblonde's blog. It's sooo amazing! The kitchen smells heavenly and these are my first brownies I've ever made from scratch. They came out super moist too!! These are not for the dieters...oh well! I'm bringing half to work tomorrow so there isn't that much to tempt me!

Double Peanut Butter Cheesecake Swirled Brownies
3/4 cup butter, very soft (not melted but softer than room temp)
1 cup sugar (I used 1/2 c of splenda and 1/2 c of sugar)
1 TBS vanilla extract
2 large eggs
1 oz. unsweetened baking chocolate, melted (I used another oz of semi sweet instead because I love sweeter chocolate)
1 oz. semi-sweet baking chocolate, melted
1/2 cup all purpose flour (I used whole wheat flour)
1/2 cup cocoa powder
1/4 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt

Peanut Butter Cheesecake Swirl
4 oz cream cheese, softened (I used 1/3 less fat)
1/2 cups creamy PB
1/3 cup sugar (I used splenda here)
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla

5-6 Reese's peanut butter cups (regular size) cut into 6-8 pieces each
IMPORTANT: Do NOT omit the Reese's Peanut Butter cups. They take these brownies over the top and add the "Double" Peanut Butter taste the title tepts tastebuds with

Preheat oven to 350. Line an 8x8" square pan with foil and lightly coat with PAM cooking spray.

In a microwave safe bowl melt the two baking chocolate squares in 30 second intervals stirring after each interval until smooth and melted after stirring. Do not scortch! Remove from microwave and allow to come to room temperature.

In a large mixing bowl, Beat together butter and sugar until combined. Beat in eggs one at a time until blended. Add vanilla and melted chocolate. Mix to combine. Combine dry ingredients in medium bowl and wisk together. Gradually stir dry ingredients into butter mixture. Do not overmix.

In separate mixing bowl, beat together cream cheese, peanut butter sugar and vanilla until smooth. Add egg and beat until just combined.

Spread about 2/3 of chocolate brownie batter into prepared pan. Evenly drop 1/2 of cheesecake batter in dollups over brownie batter. Run a knife through both mixtures to slightly swirl.

Dollop remaining brownie batter and cheesecake batter over swirled mixture. Run knife through the brownie and cheesecake dollops (not all the way through the already swirled layer) to create a swirled pattern.
Bake for 35- 40 minutes**, or until center is set and a toothpick inserted in the center has a few crumbs stuck to it. Do not over bake or they will harden, if under baked they will be too gooey. Every oven is different so watch and check these after about 30 minutes of baking to ensure they are done.

**After about 30 minutes of baking (with about 5-7 minutes of baking time left, you just need to eyeball it) gently place cut up Reese's cups over top of almost fully baked brownies. Finish baking until a toothpick inserted in the center has a few crumbs stuck to it. The Reese's PB cups will melt but hold their shape slightly. Cool completely on wire rack before cutting and serving.

Here is the batter..

The finished product...

Want a bite? mmm...

Nutritional Info: (if I dare)

If you go by the regular recipe, it's about 400 cals/brownie for 12 brownies. However, I cut them into 16 and my substitutions make them:

Calories 244.1
Total Fat 17.8 g
Total Carbohydrate 19.4 g
Dietary Fiber 2.2 g
Sugars 11.4 g
Protein 5.7 g

Weight Watchers Points: 6 (a splurge well worth it!!)

Valentine's Day Cookies!

2008-02-10T18:32:00.000-08:00

This was a spur of the moment thing, but when the WC ladies were talking cookies, all I wanted to do was bake some. After my Christmas snafu with the cookies that were too sticky, I saw bakingblonde's blog entry for her cookies and tried making them myself!

I did make them sugar free to give myself an excuse that they were diet friendly, so here goes the recipe.

Famous Sugar Cookies
1 cup butter (VERY soft)
1 cup sugar (I used 1 cup splenda)
1 large egg
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 3/4 cups flour
2 tsp baking powder

Preheat oven to 375.

In a small bowl stir together the flour and baking powder. Set aside.
In mixing bowl beat butter until soft and smooth. Add in sugar and beat to combine. Add egg and vanilla and beat until just combined. Add flour mixture. Beat until just combined and dough is smooth.
Turn out to floured work surface and roll to 1/3" thickness. Use cookie cutter to cut desired shapes.
Place cookies on baking sheets and bake for 6-9 minutes until beginning to brown on bottom and around edges. Don't overbake or they will be crisp. Tasty, but crisp.
Cool on counter.

Nutritional Information:

Servings Per Recipe: 24
Amount Per Serving
Calories: 126.7
Total Fat: 8.0 g
Cholesterol: 29.3 mg
Sodium: 44.2 mg
Total Carbs: 12.2 g
Dietary Fiber: 0.4 g
Protein: 1.8 g

Weight Watchers Points: 3

For the frosting, I didn't have cream cheese so I found this one on allrecipes and used it. It was really really sweet. Beware, I halved the recipe and I really should have quartered it because I didn't need that much at all :) Here is the original recipe.

Sugar Cookie Frosting:
INGREDIENTS

* 4 cups confectioners' sugar
* 1/2 cup shortening (I used butter)
* 5 tablespoons milk
* 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
* food coloring (optional)

DIRECTIONS

1. In a large bowl, cream together the confectioners' sugar and shortening until smooth. Gradually mix in the milk and vanilla with an electric mixer until smooth and stiff, about 5 minutes. Color with food coloring if desired.

Here is my dog begging for a taste...I gave her a treat instead though!!

Whole Wheat Blueberry Streusel Muffins

2008-02-06T18:00:00.000-08:00

I'm back to blogging!! Last week, I made cinnamon streusel muffins from a mix, and it came out delicious. I bought a LOT of blueberries (Winn Dixie had them at $1/pack), so I wanted to use up some this week. I found this recipe off of Betty Crocker's website, so here is my attempt.

Cinnamon Streusel Topping
1/4 cup Gold Medal® all-purpose or whole wheat flour (I used whole wheat)
2 tablespoons packed brown sugar (I used 1 tablespoon of Splenda Brown Sugar, since it measures 1/2 cup to 1 cup regular brown sugar)
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
2 tablespoons firm butter or margarine
Muffins
1 cup milk
1/4 cup vegetable oil (I used 1/4 cup of applesauce)
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1 egg
2 cups Gold Medal® all-purpose or whole wheat flour (I used whole wheat flour)
1/3 cup granulated sugar (I used 1/3 cup Splenda)
3 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup fresh or canned (drained) blueberries (I used fresh)

1. Heat oven to 400°F. Grease bottoms only of 12 regular-size muffin cups or line with paper baking cups. In medium bowl, mix 1/4 cup flour, the brown sugar and cinnamon. Cut in butter, using pastry blender (or pulling 2 table knives through ingredients in opposite directions), until crumbly.
2. In large bowl, beat milk, oil, vanilla and egg until well blended. Stir in 2 cups flour, the granulated sugar, baking powder and salt all at once just until flour is moistened (batter will be lumpy). Gently stir in blueberries. Divide batter evenly among muffin cups. Sprinkle each with about 2 teaspoons streusel topping.
3. Bake 20 to 25 minutes or until golden brown. Immediately remove from pan to cooling rack. Serve warm or cool.

All in all, this recipe is not very sweet at all. I think it would taste loads better with some brown sugar in the batter. I think I would also put another egg white to make the muffins more moist, since these were a bit on the dry side. Overall I would give these muffins a 6/10 since the blueberries and streusel topping helped enhance the muffin for the lack of sweetness it had.

Last Week's Adventures

2008-01-14T08:44:00.000-08:00

Turkey Meatballs
Courtesy of Aimee's Adventures

1 lb. Ground Turkey Breast
1/2 Cup Seasoned Dried Breadcrumbs
1/3 Cup Chopped Parsley
1 Egg
2 Tablespoons Grated Onion
1 Garlic Clove, minced
1/2 teaspoon Salt
1/8 teaspoon Ground Pepper
1 Cup Spaghetti Sauce

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. In a large bowl, mix all ingredients except spaghetti sauce. Roll into 20-22 meatballs. Place a meatball into each well of a mini muffin tin sprayed with cooking spray. Fill un-used wells with water. Bake until lightly browned, about 15-18 minutes. Transfer to a large bowl; add the spaghetti sauce and toss meatballs.

Meatballs are 1 point each!!!!

I ended up making 22 pretty decent sized meatballs with this recipe. I made them on a cookie sheet and they actually ended up taking 25 minutes for my oven. I added some Whole Wheat Farfalle and a mix of red sauces to the meatballs. Great national championship game food (GEAUX TIGERS!!)

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Diet Coke Chicken
Courtesy of Weight Watcher's Leader

5 boneless skinless chicken breasts
1 cup ketchup
1 can diet coke

Brown chicken in skillet on both sides. Add can of coke and cup of ketchup. Put heat on medium low to simmer for 45 minutes, stirring occassionally. YUM!! Turns into a BBQ chicken :)

4 points/breast!
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Chicken Cheese Biscuits
Courtesy of Aimee's Adventures

5 oz. diced chicken breast
1 can Healthy Request Cream of Chicken soup
3/4 cup FF shredded cheddar cheese
Pinch of Salt/Pepper
1 tbsp Parsley
Pack of Pillsbury Biscuits (type in a four pack at grocery store)

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Take a cupcake pan and spread each biscuit to where it forms a cup in each cupcake opening. Mix soup, chicken, cheese and spices in a bowl. Scoop mixture into biscuit cup. Bake for about 15 minutes, until golden (timing was right here).

Makes 10 biscuits @ 2 points each!!

I found these to be VERY salty, so I wouldn't add salt to these for the next recipe!
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Non-WW Recipe of the Week

I made these a lot for Christmas gifts and my mom requested these to be made. I make these with Splenda instead of sugar though and they come out great!!

Cranberry-Pistachio (White Chocolate) Biscotti
Courtesy of All Recipes

INGREDIENTS
1/4 cup light olive oil
3/4 cup white sugar Substituted splenda in here
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon almond extract
2 eggs
1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 cup dried cranberries
1 1/2 cups pistachio nuts
Added 1/2 cup Ghiradelli white chocolate chunks

Preheat the oven to 300 degrees F (150 degrees C).
In a large bowl, mix together oil and sugar until well blended. Mix in the vanilla and almond extracts, then beat in the eggs. Combine flour, salt, and baking powder; gradually stir into egg mixture. Mix in cranberries and nuts by hand.
Divide dough in half. Form two logs (12x2 inches) on a cookie sheet that has been lined with parchment paper. Dough may be sticky; wet hands with cool water to handle dough more easily.
Bake for 35 minutes in the preheated oven, or until logs are light brown. Remove from oven, and set aside to cool for 10 minutes. Reduce oven heat to 275 degrees F (135 degrees C).
Cut logs on diagonal into 3/4 inch thick slices. Lay on sides on parchment covered cookie sheet. Bake approximately 8 to 10 minutes, or until dry; cool.

Welcome to my Blog!!

2008-01-07T15:45:00.000-08:00

Welcome to my blog!! I'm Amy and this is my blog. Most of the recipes on here will be Weight Watcher friendly, and as often as I can, I will include points!! I'll also be posting my weight loss ticker on here weekly as well! Thanks for viewing and please comment so I can feel some love :)

I'm down 1.6 pounds this week from 268.6 (I had a disappointing weight gain)