Monthly Archives: April 2011

Breakfast Sandwich Frittata

Posted on by

0

Share

A frittata is basically like a huge omelet. You can throw whatever you want in there. A quiche is almost like a frittata but it has a pie crust. I wonder if this frittata would almost be considered a quiche since there was pitas in it? That almost acts like a pie crust.

I was trying to picture a sandwich when I was making this.  The pita left almost an inch of space for the egg mixture. This is what it looked like before I flipped it over. See what I mean?

And this is what it looked like when it was done cooking. More like a frittata.

Please use fresh herbs when making this recipe. If you think they’re too expensive then grow some in pots. Much cheaper. I think that fresh herbs make all the difference.  Enjoy. :)

——————————————————-
Calories 189 | Total Fat 7.82g | Total Carbs 9.7g | Fiber 0.3g |  Protein 19.72g
Points Plus: 5

Ingredients adapted from Every Day Food

3 large eggs
2 egg whites
1/2 cup of 2% milk
1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper
3 tablespoons of mixed herbs (I used chives, dill, and parsley)
2/3 cup of low fat cheddar
2 slices of bacon cut into 1/4 in pieces
1 pita, split horitzontally into 2 rounds

1. preheat oven to 425. In a medium bowl whisk together eggs, milk, crushed red
pepper, herbs, and cheese. Season with salt and pepper if you desire

2. In a small bowl oenproof nonstick or cast inro skillet, cook bacon over medium, stirring occasionall until crisp. 7 minutes. Transfer bacon to egg mixture and pour all but 1 teaspoon of fat into a small bowl.  Add 1 pit round to skillet and cookuntil toasted and golden. 3 minutes, flipping half-way through; transfer to a plate. Repeat with more reserved fat and remaining pita half. Leave pita in skillet, cut side up. mixture with other pita half. Cut side down. Leave in pan.

3. Add egg mixture and cook over medium, gently stirring. 30 seconds.Top egg
mixture with other pita half, cut side down;. Transfer to the oven and bake
for 8 minutes. Sprinkle evenly with remaining cheese, then bake until frittata is pulled puffled and golden. Let sit 3 minutes, then cut into wedges. Serves 4

Strawberry Pistachio Pops

Posted on by

1

Share

I bought these lovely Tovolo groovy ice pop molds from amazon.com a long with a really nice camera bag for my Nikon D60 camera. I have 4 lenses now and the bag can hold up to about 10 different sized lenses. It even holds a 14 in notebook computer and tripod. It will be nice for going on trips. I don’t know what I like more, my camera bag or these popsicle molds. They’re a lot better than the previous popsicle molds that I had gotten. Those were too tiny and the caps didn’t fit well.

These popsicle molds just have 4 ingredients:  1 box of instant pisachio pudding mix, milk, pistachios, and strawberries. Another perfect flavor match. It’s almost like a 5 ingredient fix recipe, but only 4. You can experiment with so many different flavors when making your own ice pops. I can’t wait to try a coconut/pineapple pop later on or watermelon. As Claire always says on her show “BYOC.” Which means Be Your Own Chef.

Nutrition: Calories 128 | Total Fat 3.52g | Total Carbohydrate 21.8g | Dietary Fiber 1.3g | Protein 4.06g

Points Plus: 4

Ingredients

1 box of instant pistachio pudding

2 cups of milk

1/4 cup of chopped pistachios

1 cup of pureed strawberries.

Directions

1. Puree strawberries in food processor until smooth. Mix jello and milk together until thickened and add in chopped pistachios to the pudding mix. Layer the ice pops first with the pistachio pudding, then the strawberries, and the pistachio pudding again. Cool in freezer over night and they’re ready to serve the next day.

Pistachio-Chai Muffins

Posted on by

0

Share

Here is something that you might find odd. I’ve never really been able to make tea before. It either comes out too strong or not right. I’ve never tried Chai before either. Chai is a very interesting combination of flavors. It’s a spice blend of Cardamom, cloves, and cinnamon. When these muffins were baking in the oven, I could definitely smell the cinnamon. The house smelled really good.

These muffins are only 5 points plus a piece and the best part about these muffins are, that they still have butter! There is also a recipe for Tuscan Lemon muffins, Bacon Cheddar Corn muffins, and Chocolate muffins that I want to try as well. I’ll be having a muffin party at our house. :) Can’t forget the the mimosas. :)

———————————————————————-

Calories: 192 | Fat: 6.2g | Carbohydrate: 30.5g | Fiber: 0.9g | Protein: 3.9g
Points Plus: 5
Servings: 12

Ingredients from Cooking Light
|
7 9/10 ounces all-purpose flour (about 1 3/4 cups)
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 chai blend tea bags, opened
1 cup low-fat buttermilk
1/4 cup butter, melted
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract, divided
1 large egg, lightly beaten
Cooking spray
1/3 cup shelled dry-roasted pistachios, chopped
1/2 cup powdered sugar
1 tablespoon water

Preparation

1. Preheat oven to 375°.

2. Weigh or lightly spoon flour into dry measuring cups; level with a knife. Combine flour and next 4 ingredients (through salt) in a large bowl, stirring with a whisk. Cut open tea bags; add tea to flour mixture, stirring well. Make a well in center of mixture. Combine buttermilk, butter, 1 teaspoon vanilla, and egg in a bowl, stirring well with a whisk. Add buttermilk mixture to flour mixture, stirring just until moist.

3. Place 12 muffin-cup liners in muffin cups; coat liners with cooking spray. Divide batter evenly among prepared muffin cups. Sprinkle nuts evenly over batter. Bake at 375° for 15 minutes or until a wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool for 5 minutes in pan on a wire rack.

4. Combine remaining 1/2 teaspoon vanilla, powdered sugar, and 1 tablespoon water, stirring until smooth. Drizzle evenly over muffins.

Weight Watchers Recipes, Weight Watchers Recipes, Weight Watchers Recipes, Weight Watchers Recipes, Weight Watchers Recipes, Weight Watchers Recipes, Weight Watchers Recipes, Weight Watchers Recipes, Weight Watchers Recipes, Weight Watchers Recipes, Weight Watchers Recipes, Weight Watchers Recipes, Weight Watchers Recipes, Weight Watchers Recipes, Weight Watchers Recipes, Weight Watchers Recipes, Weight Watchers Recipes,

Tie Dyed Easter Eggs

Posted on by

2

Share

I found this website that teaches you how to make your own tie dyed eggs. We went shopping for silk ties at the thrift store and found some. They were cheap and under $4.00 a tie. It was kind of hard to tell if it was a silk tie cause some of those polyester ties can feel like silk sometimes. They will say if it’s silk or not, but most of the ties there didn’t.

How do you make these ty dyed eggs? You wrap the tie around the egg. Use some old cloth. I used left over bed sheets that we had used to paint with one time. Wrap the cloth around the tie really tight and use some twisty ties so the eggs and cloth stay secure. Bring some water to a boil. I didn’t use any vinegar when I made these, which was probably why my eggs didn’t turn out as bright as hers. Add in about 2 tablespoons of vinegar and let the eggs boil for 20 minutes. Unwrap the eggs to find some really cool tie dyed Easter eggs. My Grandpa and Grandma were really impressed with these and didn’t know that you could dye eggs like this. My grandpa called me clever and all I said was that I had found this method on the Internet. They don’t use computers at all.

I made egg salad with the eggs and it turned out pretty tasty. I wish my chives were in the garden right now, cause I would have thrown some in the egg salad.  Here is the recipe. Enjoy!

————————————————————————
Calories 131 | Total Fat 9.32g | Total Carbohydrate 2.36g | Dietary Fiber 0.1g | Protein 9.18g

Points Plus: 3

Eggy Salad

Ingredients

6 servings large eggs
2 tsps dijon mustard
2 tbsps light mayo
1 dash pepper
dash salt

Directions

1. 1. Cook eggs until hard boiled. Or you can use this method to boil eggs on this post.
Once eggs are cool enough remove shell and mash with a potato masher.

2. 2. Add in last 4 ingredients to taste.

Strawberry-Avocado Salsa with Cinnamon Tortilla Chips

Posted on by

0

Share

I picked up a container of the most delicious strawberries at Sam’s Club this weekend. I also ended up picking up some more Choboni yogurt and those Jimmy Dean Turkey Sausage Delight sandwiches. Those sandwiches are so filling! I had one at about 8:30 this morning and I wasn’t hungry until about 12. One of those sandwiches is only 7 points and I think that’s pretty decent for breakfast with some fruit.

For lunch, I had this salsa. Probably not the best thing to have. It goes really good with the cinnamon chips, that go a long with this recipe. If you’ve never had strawberries with avocados you should try it now. It’s so good.

————————————————————————-

Nutrition Info: Calories: 138 | Fat: 6.7g | Carbohydrate: 17.3g | Protein: 2.8g | Fiber: 3.6g
Points Plus: 4
Servings: 12 (6 chips and 3 tablespoons of salsa)

Ingredients from Cooking Light

2 teaspoons canola oil
6 (6-inch) whole-wheat flour tortillas
2 teaspoons sugar
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 1/2 cups finely chopped peeled ripe avocado (about 2)
1 cup finely chopped strawberries
2 tablespoons minced fresh cilantro
1 teaspoon minced seeded jalapeño pepper
2 teaspoons fresh lime juice
3/8 teaspoon salt

Preparation

1. Preheat oven to 350°.
2. To prepare chips, brush oil evenly over one side of each tortilla. Combine sugar and cinnamon; sprinkle evenly over oil-coated sides of tortillas. Cut each tortilla into 12 wedges; arrange wedges in a single layer on two baking sheets. Bake at 350° for 10 minutes or until crisp.
3. Combine avocado and remaining ingredients; stir gently to combine. Serve with chips.

Beet-elicious Cupcakes

Posted on by

0

Share

I keep on taking a bite of these cupcakes and trying to see if I can taste the beets. I can definitely smell the beets. With the cream cheese frosting that I made for these it kind of balances the beet flavor  out.

I think I screwed up with this recipe and didn’t use the beet juice that came with the can too. The batter was really thick with out it. Since the batter was so thick, I ended up adding an egg and 1/8 cup of oil to help the batter out a bit. To make these red velvet, you can add in a tablespoon of cocoa powder. Be warned, beets are really messy to work with.

Fun Beety facts

  • Beets are used to make table sugar.
  • Sugar beet plants stink, really they do…..
  • Beets contain lutein and zeaxanthin
  • Beets can cause your urine to turn red

———————————————————————–

Nutrition Info: (without frosting)  Calories 154, Fat 2g, Carbs 31g, Protein 2g, Fiber 0g

Servings: 15

Points Plus: 4

Beet-elicious Cupcakes from

http://GreenLiteBites.com

1/2 cup of applesauce (120g)
1 8oz can of beets
Box of Store Bought White Cake Mix (I used Duncan Hines Moist Deluxe Classic White Cake Mix)
Sprinkles (optional)

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Line 15-18 muffin tins with liners and spray with a bit of non-stick to be safe. Note: I made 18 but if you’d like them a little bigger cut back to 15.

Put the beets and applesauce in the food processor. Puree. Dump the cake mix and beet puree in a large bowl. Beat with an electric beater for 2 minutes on medium until the batter is combined. Separate the batter into the cupcake liners. Add sprinkles if you like. This is my way of making them festive without icing. In my opinion, the cupcake has enough sugar already. No need to add tons more on top. Sprinkles are just as fun!
Bake for about 20 minutes, then enjoy and admire your festive PINK cupcakes!

Easter Nests

Posted on by

2

Share

I can’t believe it’s already Easter on Sunday. I’ve been looking at a lot of Easter recipes online and have seen many different things. Like for instance Peeps S’mores and cake baked inside of eggs. I’m also excited for Ham and cheesy hash brown potatoes. That’s usually my families Easter tradition. My job is to make the Strawberry pretzel Salad that I had posted about sometime last month.

I also plan on bringing these. It’s basically chow mein noodles and peanuts covered in chocolate. For eggs, I used Cadburry mini chocolate eggs. Or… you can use whatever else you desire like jelly beans. They’re probably not for somebody on a diet but hey, it’s Easter right? I like to splurge every now and then.

—————————————————————————

Nutrition Info: Calories 296 | Total Fat 20.09g | Total Carbohydrate 28.97g | Dietary Fiber 3.4g | Dietary Fiber 3.4g
Points Plus: 9

From (EzraPoundCake.com)

Makes about 12 nests

2 cups (10 ounces) semisweet chocolate chips (Or, use 1 cup each chocolate chips and butterscotch chips; 1 cup each chocolate chips and peanut butter chips; or 1 cup each butterscotch chips and peanut butter chips.)
2 tablespoons unsalted butter (use only with 2 cups chocolate chips)
2 cups (4 ounces) Chinese chow-mein noodles (You could also use crumbled shredded wheat or broken pretzel sticks)
1 1/4 cups (5 ounces) dry-roasted peanuts, sliced almonds or toasted chopped pecans

For the Eggs: your choice of candy-coated mini chocolate eggs, jelly beans, Jordan almonds, etc.

White Chocolate Variation: Substitute white chocolate for semisweet, 1/2 cup toasted coconut flakes, and use the toasted pecans.

1. Line a baking sheet or work table with wax paper.

2. Using a double-boiler (or a metal bowl set over a a pan of simmering water), melt the chocolate chips and butter together, stirring until the mixture is smooth. OR, place the chocolate and butter in a microwave-safe bowl, and microwave them at medium heat for about 2 minutes, stirring halfway through.

3. Gently stir in the noodles and nuts.

4. Drop mixture by spoonfuls onto wax paper. Use a spoon to gently make an indentation on the top of each cluster for your candy eggs.

5. Place the candy eggs in the nest. Let the clusters stand until set, about 1 hour.

Frozen Peanut Butter cups

Posted on by

4

Share

This an old WW dessert that I found about a year ago, and just remembered it about a couple of days ago. I like re-discovering old recipes like this and you forget how good they tasted.

I kind of cheated on this recipe. I used a large muffin tin instead of the small one. That makes it for a pretty decent sized serving. But… if you use the small muffin tin, these are only 1 point per serving. Not too bad, I’d probably end up eating more than one of these or possibly the whole tin at once. Peanut butter and cool whip are sooooo good together.

To make it pretty, I put some oreo cookie crumbs on the bottom layer.  On the top, I used some light dessert topping and drizzled some Hershey’s chocolate syrup over them and some sprinkles. Don’t they look cute? They taste like Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup without all the fat.

————————————————————————

Calories: 32 | Fat: 2.0 g  | Carbs: 2.8 g  | Protein: 1.0 g | Fiber: 0.3 g
Points Plus: 1 (Probably 2 or 3 if you doctored it up like I did)

Ingredients:

Servings: 24

8 ounces Cool Whip Free
6 tablespoons peanut butter
4 tablespoons Hersheys Chocolate Syrup

Directions:

1. Combine Cool Whip and peanut butter.
2.Line mini muffin pan with 24 mini cupcake liners and spoon in mixture.
3. Top with a drizzle of syrup and freeze

Chipotle Cheesy Gravy Fries

Posted on by

0

Share

I tried melting some Laughing Cow cheese in the microwave to make these fries. Let’s just say, I probably won’t be melting that kind of cheese again. The cheese didn’t stay melted long and you have to pour them over the fries pretty quickly.

I think the cheese sauce would have been better if I had  made the laughing cow alfredo recipe for this. If you haven’t tried that recipe it’s pretty darn good. The fries were still very tasty. It’s fun to experiment with food and different recipes and try to come up with some of your own.I could have probably eaten this whole plate of fries which would have not been bad calorie wise either.

Nutrition Info: Calories 228 | Total Fat 5.28g | Total Carbohydrate 37.17g | Dietary Fiber 2.3g | Protein 8.48g

Points Plus: 6

Serves: 2

Ingredients

1 serving cooking spray
2 servings laughing cow cheese
1/2 tbsp butter
1 tbsp flour
1 cup low sodium beef broth
1 dash pepper
1 dash salt
2 small russet potatoes

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Using a mandoline slice potatoes into fry wedges. Spray with Cooking spray and season with salt and pepper.
2. While there’s 10 minutes left melt butter in a non stick pan over medium high heat. Add flour and whisk for about a minute. Add in beef broth and cook until thickened. Season with Salt and pepper. I used about a teaspoon of Worstechire Sauce.
3. While the gravy is cooking, heat up two wedges of Chipotle laughing cow cheese in the microwave until you can pour it over the fries. It cools up really fast so you got to be fast pouring it over the fries.

Shrimp Pad Thai

Posted on by

0

Share

Two things went wrong with this recipe. 1. The noodles got over cooked. The package said to cook them for 8 to 10 minutes. They were really soggy. 2. I forgot to add the bean sprouts in. Oops! Now, I have a whole package of bean sprouts that I don’t know what to do with. Any suggestions?

I like Asian cuisine. My lower shelf in the fridge is dedicated to all things Asian like Soy Sauce,  Fish Sauce, Chili paste,  Plum sauce, etc.. I’d like to go to one of the restaurants here called Thai Orchid and see if their pad thai recipe is any better than the one I just made.

The peanuts gave this dish texture and a nice crunch. The marinade was really good and to cut back on fat, I only used 1 tablespoon of oil instead of 3. Since you’re only cooking garlic and the green onions, you could probably get away with pan spray and ditch the oil all together. The shrimp cooks in the marinade.

———————————————————————————

Nutrition Info: Calories: 462 | Fat: 16.1g | Protein: 15.8g | Carbohydrate: 64.3g | Fiber: 2.6g

Points Plus: 12  (probably 11 points plus if you leave out the canola oil)

Serves: 4

Ingredients: from Cooking Light

8 ounces uncooked flat rice noodles (pad Thai noodles)
2 tablespoons dark brown sugar
2 tablespoons lower-sodium soy sauce
1 1/2 tablespoons fish sauce
1 1/2 tablespoons fresh lime juice
1 tablespoon Sriracha or chili garlic sauce
3 tablespoons canola oil
1 cup (2-inch) green onion pieces
8 ounces peeled and deveined large shrimp
5 garlic cloves, minced
1 cup fresh bean sprouts
1/4 cup chopped unsalted dry-roasted peanuts
3 tablespoons thinly sliced fresh basil

Preparation

1. Cook noodles according to package directions; drain.

2. While water comes to a boil, combine sugar and next 4 ingredients (through Sriracha) in a small bowl.

3. Heat a large skillet or wok over medium-high heat. Add oil to pan; swirl to coat. Add onion pieces, shrimp, and garlic; stir-fry 2 minutes or until shrimp is almost done. Add cooked noodles; toss to combine. Stir in sauce; cook 1 minute, stirring constantly to combine. Arrange about 1 cup noodle mixture on each of 4 plates; top each serving with 1/4 cup bean sprouts, 1 tablespoon peanuts, and 2 teaspoons basil.

Strawbery Frozen Yogurt Recipe

Posted on by

0

Share

I have fallen in love with frozen yogurt, ever since I went to Tutti Frutti. It’s a new frozen yogurt store here in town and they have all sorts of different flavors. Mango, Lychee, Taro Bly (my favorite), coconut, acai, etc… So good.

In honor of our new kitchen, I decided to make us frozen yogurt for a treat. Strawberry that is. I tried making frozen yogurt in my food processor, and I think my blade didn’t like it, because it ended up breaking. This tastes much better made in an ice cream maker. If you don’t have an ice cream maker, I’d suggest getting one now, and make this!  Instead of  just plain vanilla, I added in some pureed fresh strawberries.

Here is our new kitchen. It’s still in the progress of being worked on, but at least I can finally work in it, thanks to Ben’s brother. We still have to pick a paint color and back splash. I’m also thinking about adding in rack above the stove to hold some pots and pans. :) Don’t mind the yellow and blue paint on the walls too.

—————————————————————————-

Nutrition Info: Calories: 240 | Total Fat: 2.75 | Total Carbs: 41.66 | Fiber: .8 | Protein: 13
Points Plus: 6
Servings: 4

Ingredients from Allrecipes.com

  • 3 cups Greek yogurt (I used NonFat Plain)
  • 3/4 cup white sugar
  • 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions

  1. Mix together the yogurt, sugar, and vanilla. Refrigerate the yogurt mixture for 45 minutes.
  2. Pour the yogurt mixture into the bowl of an ice cream maker and freeze according to the manufacturer’s directions

Southwest Egg White Sandwich

Posted on by

1

Share

Nutrition Info: Calories: 249 | Total Fat: 3.25g | Total Carbs: 32.32g | Dietary Fiber: 5.6g | Protein: 25.6g
Points Plus: 6
Servings: 1

I was thinking about making a list of food that you can make, if you’re remodeling your kitchen like we are.  All we’ve got is a microwave and toaster. We’ve been fine dining on a lot of tv dinners lately and going out to eat at places like Subway and Little Ceasar’s. I’m getting really tired of it too, and have many other recipes that I want to try making myself. Like Baked Alaska.

This is one really simple recipe that you can make if you don’t have any of the things I mentioned above. I cut the peppers and onions on a paper plate with knife, and  mixed up the ranch and chipotle mixture in a dixie cup. The egg whites and ham I warmed up in the microwave, and well you can probably figure out what I did with the English muffin.

I really like Subway’s Southwest Egg white and Cheese Sandwich with Ham. It’s good with some red onions, bell pepper and chipotle sauce. This is my own version of it, and it sure beats waiting in line and having the employees there ask you if you want the “works” on your sandwich or if you want it toasted. Much better tasting too. :)

————————————————–

Ingredients (Recipe Diaries Original)

1 English Muffin (I used Thomas whole wheat, with 9 grams of fiber)
2 egg whites
1 tablespoon of cheddar cheese
thinly sliced onions
thinly sliced peppers
1 slice of lean ham
1 teaspoon of chipotle en adobe sauce
2 tablespoons of light ranch dressing

1. Toast English muffin in toaster.
2. White English Muffin is toasting cook egg whites in ramekin covered by a plate. (Beware it explodes) for a minute. Cover with ham and cheese.
3. Thinly slice onions and Bell peppers.
4. Mix together chipotle and ranch dressing. Esemble sandwich however you like and serve.