Category Archives: 4 points +

Slow Cooker Buffalo Chicken Sandwiches

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I made these for treat day and the sandwiches were a big hit. The buffalo wing sauce makes the chicken really runny, and everyone thought that it could have been a little bit thicker. Next time, I’m going to try adding some flour or cornstarch to thicken the sauce up a bit. They were calling them buffalo sloppy joes.  Ha ha.

The recipe makes a lot. I ended up doubling the recipe and used 6 pounds of boneless chicken, and now I have a lot of buffalo chicken to use up. That’s ok though, because I am a buffalo chicken lover freak and I look forward to using up the leftovers. Too bad the husband doesn’t like buffalo chicken, he’s missing out.

Servings: 8

Points Plus: 4 (just chicken, sauce, and seasoning)

Slow Cooker Buffalo Chicken Sandwiches

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Ingredients

  • 3 pounds boneless skinless chicken breasts (defrosted)
  • 1 package ranch seasoning mix
  • 1 bottle Frank's Hot Sauce or Wing Sauce
  • hamburger buns
  • swiss cheese slices
  • Ranch dressing

Directions

Step 1
Place 1st 3 ingredients into a slow cooker and cook on low for 6 hours. Use to make sandwiches, quesadillas, nachos, whatever you like.
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Buffalo Chicken Dip

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I think I could have buffalo chicken with just about anything. It’s so good. This dip is like crack too and very addicting. Someone made a similar dip in the crock pot for treat day. It didn’t look pretty but that didn’t matter cause it was so good. To make this dip healthier purchase all lighter versions of cream cheese, cheese, and ranch dressing. This is the full fat version from Taste of Home. The only thing lighter I had on hand when I made this at the time was the cream cheese.  Be aware, you might turn into buffalo chicken dip.

156 calories, 13 g fat, 2 g carbohydrate,fiber 0g , 7 g protein.

Points Plus: 4

Servings: 16

Buffalo Chicken Dip

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Ingredients

  • 1 package cream cheese 8oz
  • 1 can chunk white chicken
  • 1/2 cup buffalo sauce
  • 1/2 cup ranch dressing
  • 2 cups colby and monterey jack cheese
  • Tortilla chips

Directions

Step 1
Spread cream cheese into an ungreased shallow 1-qt. baking dish. Layer with chicken, buffalo wing sauce and ranch dressing. Sprinkle with cheese.
Step 2
Bake, uncovered, at 350° for 20-25 minutes or until cheese is melted. Serve warm with tortilla chips. Yield: about 2 cups
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Weight Watchers – Better than Sex Cake

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I’ve decided to start making some of my recipes I’ve previously had on my blog that were full of fat, lighter. Yay! Better than Sex cake was really easy to make lighter. The only thing I had trouble with was the toffee candy on top. There’s no way to make that lighter, but is there? Ever heard of Skinny Cow candy? It is heavenly. They have different flavored candy bars and chocolate covered caramel, I believe their called turtles for only 110 calories. They’re so good too. They had this one candy bar that almost reminded me of a Nutter butter. I was walking down the candy aisle trying to find something to put on top of the cake, and saw these. It’s been awhile since I’ve had them and I thought they would make a great topping for the cake and they did. Thank goodness.

The one thing I didn’t like about the full fat better than sex cake, was that it was really sweet. This version cuts back on the sweetness. Is it better than sex? That is up for you to decide. :) I tried making the cool whip frosting orange for Halloween. It turned out more like a peach color.

Servings: 15

Points Plus: 4

Calories 131; Fat 4.87g; Carbohydrate 20.05g;  Fiber 0.9g; Protein 2.28g

Better than Sex Cake

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Ingredients

  • 10 oz Devil's Food Cake Mix
  • 1 can diet soda (any kind)
  • 1 package sugar free instant cheese cake pudding
  • 1 container cool whip light
  • 2 cups milk (1% or fat free)
  • 4 bars Skinny Cow (Heavenly Crisp Bars)

Directions

Step 1
Make cake according to directions on the back of the box. Use the diet soda in replace of the other ingredients.
Step 2
While cake is cooling, make the cheese cake pudding.
Step 3
After the cake has cooled, poke holes in the cake, with the back of a wooden spoon.
Step 4
Pour the pudding over the cake so the pudding gets into the holes.
Step 5
Spread the whole container of cool whip over the cake.
Step 6
Cut the candy bars into bite size pieces and sprinkle them over the cake. Serve cold.

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Bacon Pancake Donuts

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In a quest to make maple bacon donuts I didn’t really succeed. The maple flavor just wasn’t really strong enough. These donuts tasted more like a pancake to me and that’s why I decided to call them Bacon Pancake Donuts. The donut texture is a lot like pancakes and what do pancakes get on top of them? Syrup. Really good pure maple syrup. Only one donut is 4 points and that even includes the bacon on top. I love it how you can still have bacon and be on a diet at the same time. Isn’t that awesome?

Servings: 10
Points Plus: 4

Calories 144, Fat 2.15g, Carbohydrate 26.94g, Fiber 0.5g Protein 4.16g

Ingredients

1 1/2 cups of flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons of brown sugar
4 tablespoons of maple syrup
1/2 cup of buttermilk
1 egg

Frosting:
1/2 cup of powdered sugar
1 tablespoon of powdered sugar
1 tablespoon of 1% milk

Topping:
4 slices of bacon

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350

In a medium, combine flour, baking sodar, salt, and brown sugar. Stir together. Form a whole in the
middle of the flour mixture and add the maaple syrup, buttermilk, and egg.

Spoon two tablespoons of the donut mixture into the donut pan (hole). Makes about 10 donuts.
Bake at 350 for 12 minutes.

While the donuts are baking cook the bacon over the stove top until crispy. I cut mine into
chunks. Make the frosting: in a small bowl combine the powdered sugar, maple syrup, and milk.

Let the donuts cool once they are done baking in the oven. Dip the donut in the frosting mixture
and sprinkle the bacon on top. Enjoy

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Red, White and Blue Rice Krispie Treats

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So, these didn’t turn out the red that I had hoped for. Should have added more food coloring. It doesn’t really matter though, cause it matches the flag in the background. We have an American flag that got really faded one year and we need to buy a new one.

Servings: 12

Calories 116.5, Fat 2.3 g, Carbohydrate 23.4 g, Fiber 0.1 g, Protein 1.0 g

Points Plus: 4

Ingredients:

6 cups Rice Krispies Cereal

1 package marshmallows

3 Tablespoons of butter

Food coloring (red and blue)

Here’s how you make the rice krispie treats. Divide the puffed rice cereal into 3 equal portions. The recipe on the back of the box calls for 6 cups of cereal. I know, you have to do math, how sad! (I hate math too) Next, divide the bag of marshmallows into three equal portions. Melt the marshmallows for about a minute in the microwave (the ones that you divided into 3 equal portions) and stir food coloring until you like the color. I started with the blue on the bottom first, then the white, and then the red. Repeat the steps for 2 other times starting at melting the marshmallows in the microwave.

Usually, I will add about a stick of butter to the marshmallows cause they turn out the softest then, but since I am on Weight Watchers again…. I opted for only 3 tablespoons of butter. You could use light butter, but it doesn’t really make a difference. Happy 4th of July everyone!

Each rice krispie if cut into 12 equal portions is 4 points.

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Vampire Steak

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Vampire steak. It’s blood red from the smoked paprika and garlicy to keep the vampires away. I saw this recipe in the July issue of Cooking Light’s magazine and decided to give it a try. Just because I like vampires. I’m a big fan of the show Vampire Diaries on the CW. That’s how I came up with the title of my blog. I just combined recipes and the word diaries together and there you have it. I do like that show a lot better than  Twighlight. In the Vampire Diaries the description of the vampire is better and there’s a lot more drama and hotter men. :) I’m really disappointed at the CW for taking away my witch show still. Hope it comes back.

Ben had the idea to put a black rose in the picture. We’ve had those black roses sitting in our bathroom since Halloween.

Flank steak is a really lean protein, and only 3 oz of this is 4 points. That’s a pretty good deal. I made some garlic mashed potatoes to go a long with it.

Calories: 166, Fat: 2.4, carbohydrates: 1.4g, Fiber: 0.4g, Protein: 24.7g

Points Plus: 4

Ingredients: from cooking light

4 teaspoons minced garlic
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
2 teaspoons Spanish smoked paprika
2 teaspoons chopped fresh tarragon
1 (1 1/2-pound) flank steak, trimmed
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
Cooking spray

Preparation

1. Combine first 4 ingredients. Score a diamond pattern on both sides of steak; rub juice mixture evenly over both sides. Cover; refrigerate 1 hour.
2. Preheat grill to high heat.
3. Sprinkle both sides of steak evenly with salt and pepper. Place steak on grill rack coated with cooking spray; grill 6 minutes on each side or until desired degree of doneness. Remove steak from grill; let stand 5 minutes. Cut steak across grain into slices.

 

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Rhubarb Muffins

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I have a bountiful of rhubarb in my garden right now. It’s almost kind of hard to keep up with it. The Mom’s like to come over and take some so it gets used up. I didn’t really do much with my rhubarb plant last year, so a couple weeks ago I went looking for some rhubarb recipes. This is a keeper. The muffins are nice and sweet and it’s nice to bite into something tart.

I kind of messed up the batter for this recipe when making it. I was wondering why it was so thick in the end and didn’t end up using all the flour it called for. Only half of it. It turned out to be a pretty good mistake, the muffins were still nice and moist. I forgot to add in the milk/yogurt. It’s your choice, use whatever you want. :) I hate it when I make mistakes in the kitchen.

To make these muffins lighter, replace the oil with applesauce and add 1/8 cup of canola oil.  That is what I used to figure out the Nutrition Info. I did not use any nuts either.

Servings: 16

Points Plus: 4 (1 muffin)

Recipe from Carpe Season

Ingredients

1 1/2 c. whole wheat flour
1 c. flour (you can use all wheat flour if desired)
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
1 c. buttermilk or plain yogurt
3/4 c. brown sugar, packed
1/2 c. oil
1 egg, beaten
2 tsp. vanilla
1 1/2 c. fresh or thawed rhubarb, diced
1/2 c. nuts, chopped (I used pecans. Toasted nuts would be even better.)

–

Crumble Topping:

1/2 c. sugar
2 tbsp. butter, melted
2 tsp. cinnamon
2 tsp. flour

Instructions

Preheat oven to 375*.

Combine dry ingredients in a medium bowl: flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt.

In a large bowl, mix the wet ingredients (yogurt, brown sugar, oil, egg, and vanilla) together until thoroughly combined.

Stir the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients until just moistened. Then stir in the rhubarb and nuts.

Thoroughly grease your muffin tins, and then fill each muffin cup to about 2/3 full with the batter.

Combine crumble topping ingredients, and use your fingers to sprinkle a good pinch of it over each muffin.

Bake for about 20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the muffins comes out clean. Remove from pan and let cool on a wire rack.

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Triple Berry Fro Yo

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I love frozen yogurt.  On Fridays, my husband and I like to go to Tutti Frutti’s. It’s this awesome frozen yogurt place that has done a really good business here in Fargo. We now have 3 of them in the area. They change the flavors everyday and it gets really hard to decide which one to go to. I love topping my yogurt with fresh fruit. For some reason though, we have yet to figure out why they have a tip jar when it’s a self serve place.

I think I finally figured out a good base recipe for frozen yogurt. I used 2 cups of greek yogurt, Choboni by the way. Plain yogurt just doesn’t cut it and, it isn’t thick enough to be the way I like it. I boiled about a cup and 1/2 of fruit with 1/4 cup of sugar and put the fruit and sugar in the food processor with the yogurt to make it smooth. Watch out Tutti Frutti’s there’s going to be a new frozen yogurt place in town. I want to try different flavors. We just had frozen berries on hand.

 

Servings: 4

Points Plus: 4

Ingredients

1 1/2 cups of frozen mixed berries (thawed)
2 cups of greek yogurt (I used Chobani)
2 tsp fresh lime juice
1/4 cup sugar

Directions:

In a small sauce pan, bring the sugar and fruit to a boil for 5 minutes. Cool Completely.

Combine greek yogurt and fruit in a food processor until blended and let chill over night. A long with your ice cream
maker attachment.

The next day, poor the yogurt into a mixture and let the ice cream maker do it’s majic. You’ll
have thick creamy yogurt in no time.

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