Tag Archives: baking

New cookie recipe: I consider these “Superfoods”

8 Mar

I have a new chocolate cookbook that I received from Caroline for Christmas this year. IMG_0115

It’s fantastic.

I already went through it and tabbed a bunch of recipes, and we’ve already made two of them so far, both were delicious. One of them I am going to share with you today. Elizabeth and I made it together last weekend as a surprise for the rest of the family when they were out.

Overall, many of the recipes in this cookbook are already “healthified,” made with some healthier options. Today’s recipe is one of those healthier option recipes.

In fact, it’s so healthy, I might consider these cookies a “Superfood!”

You laugh (I can hear you) but just look at the ingredients in this recipe, read my post about super foods from last week and read the following blurb that I just read *today* in the March 13 issue of Better Homes and Gardens magazine, that supports my superfood cookie claim:

“When you think ‘superfood,’ you probably picture kale or blueberries. But potent plant goodness comes in liquid form, too. Coffee is the nation’s number one source of antioxidants, accounting for 40% of our overall intake, according to research from the University of Scranton.”

Elizabeth was so excited to be the kid in the kitchen this time around!

Elizabeth was so excited to be the kid in the kitchen this time around!

First, let me just say that reading this thrilled me. I think I probably get more like 50% of my antioxident intake from coffee!

And second, although I’m being humorous, this recipe actually has coffee in it, which is why I drew your attention to that fact.

The cookies were a hard, crunchy cookie, which is the kind I prefer. Everyone here loved them, all thumbs up, and I didn’t think twice about offering them dessert, knowing that I was really providing them with daily doses of antioxidants!!

Below is the recipe. Now keep your eye open for all the healthier choices and you’ll see why these cookies were a superfood in my house!

My new superfood cookies

My new superfood cookies

CHOCOLATE & COFFEE WHOLE WHEAT COOKIES
INGREDIENTS

3/4 cup unsalted butter or margarine (we used I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter.)

1 cup brown sugar

1 egg (we used egg substitute)

1/2 cup all-purpose flour

1 tsp. baking soda

pinch of salt

scant 1/2 cup whole wheat flour

1 tablespoon bran (We took bran flakes and crushed them up in a ziploc bag and took 1 tablespoon from there.)

1 1/3 cups semisweet chocolate chips

2 cups rolled oats

1 tablespoon strong coffee (I used decaf!)

2/3 cup hazelnuts toasted and coarsely chopped (I skipped this ingredient.)

Using the larger of my two Pampered Chef scoops makes our cookies more uniform.

Using the larger of my two Pampered Chef scoops makes our cookies more uniform.

DIRECTIONS

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.

Grease two large cookie sheets (I don’t grease, mine are fine.)

Cream the butter and sugar together in a bowl. Add the egg and beat well.

In a separate bowl, sift together the all-purpose flour, baking soda, and salt. Then add in the whole wheat flour and bran.

Mix in the egg mixture, then stir in the chocolate chips, oats, coffee, and hazelnuts.

Mix well.

Put 24 rounded tablespoonfuls of the mixture onto the prepared cookie sheets.

Bake 16-18 minutes or until golden brown. (Ours took less, around 15 minutes.)

Remove from oven, then transfer to a cooling rack and let cool before serving.

Enjoy!!

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Muffins for your Monday Morning

4 Mar
These muffins were a great healthy start to our day, baked by Don last weekend!

These muffins were a great healthy start to our day, baked by Don last weekend!

If there’s one thing I can say about Don, it’s that he’s a team player for sure. He’ll pitch in and do whatever is needed, whenever he can. Last weekend we had a particularly busy morning and I wanted to make muffins for breakfast–we were both craving homemade muffins–but with all the other things I needed to do, I wasn’t going to be able to get it done, so Don said he’d do it.

Don loves to cook, hates to bake. He likes being able to wing it with his cooking, throwing in this or that, and baking is an exact science. You throw the wrong thing in and that’s the end of your recipe.

So the fact that he volunteered to bake muffins for us, was really great. I gave him a basic muffin recipe from my Better Homes and Gardens cookbook (pg. 60 if you have their New Cook Book) and showed him all the variations he could choose from as long as we had the necessary ingredients.

The option he chose to go with was an oatmeal muffin and he threw in raisins. He’s always loved Oatmeal Raisin cookies, so this option did not surprise me. I love baking with raisins, they’re so sweet  and I devoured these muffins too. Everyone did, some with jelly once they realized the raisins were not chocolate chips, and some without jelly.

This means Don can no longer claim he can’t bake. The secret is out. Next time I’m in a bind, he’s on.

Here’s his recipe, taken from the Better Homes and Gardens New Cook Book. I’ll give you the basic muffin recipe first, with our modifications, and the oatmeal variation at the end, just the way the cookbook does.

Muffins
Ingredients

1 3/4 cups all purpose flour  (whatever the recipe, we do half wheat, half white flour)

1/3 cup sugar

2 tsp. baking powder

1 beaten egg

3/4 cup milk (we use skim)

1/4 cup cooking oil (we use nonfat yogurt instead of oil)

Directions

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.

In a mixing bowl combine flour, sugar, baking powder, and 1/4 tsp. salt. (Salt is not listed in the ingredients though; I don’t know why.)

Make a well in the center.

Combine egg, milk and oil; add all at once to the flour mixture.

Stir just til moistened (batter should be lumpy).

Lightly grease muffin cups or line with paper bake cups; fill 2/3 full.

Bake in a 400 degree oven for about 20 minutes or til golden. Remove from pans, serve warm.

Makes 10-12 (we got 12).

Oatmeal variation:

Prepare as above except reduce flour to 1 1/3 cups and add 3/4 cups rolled oats to the flour mixture.

Other variations included: Blueberry, Cranberry, Jelly, Date Nut, Cheese, Banana, Pumpkin, and Corn muffins.

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New friends, new recipe!

25 Feb
An exciting Kids' State Dinner reunion took place on Sunday afternoon at our house!

An exciting Kids’ State Dinner reunion took place on Sunday afternoon at our house!

Yesterday was a very exciting day!

Our new friend Debra, one of the moms from the Kids’ State Dinner, visited us at our house! She was traveling from her home in Virginia to see family in nearby Massachusetts so we were able to reconnect for a couple of hours.

Debra stopped by in time for lunch, so Don cooked up some of his yummy pizzas and a meatball calzone, and I made a new dessert.

I know that in general you shouldn’t try out a new recipe on new guests, but I thought that Debra would be okay with it, being someone herself who cooks and experiments with recipes.

Until about an hour before she arrived and I realized I was going to have to make a change to the recipe, and then at that point I got a little nervous.

But, luckily it all worked out great. We had a wonderful visit, which flew by, and before we knew it, it was time for dessert.

Debra brought us this pretty trivet, which makes a pretty backdrop for our Fudge Meltaways!

Debra brought us this pretty trivet, which makes a pretty backdrop for our pretty Fudge Meltaways!

That too, was wonderful as well.

It all ended much too soon, but luckily Debra has family here, and we have family in Virginia, so we know we’ll get to reconnect again and again.

In the meantime, here is the new dessert recipe for you. I got it from one of my cookbooks and as I write it for you I’ll explain what happened partway through and how I solved it.

Lately, I often go to the internet when I’m looking for something new to cook, but this time I grabbed a cookbook off my rack, opened up to any random page and moved a page or so beyond it, and found one to try. It ended up being a no bake recipe too, which was a bonus.

There were three layers to the recipe, so I’ll write it out and explain it layer by layer for you.

FUDGE MELTAWAYS (from the Betty Crocker Cooky Book)
INGREDIENTS

First layer.....

First layer…..

First layer:

1/2 cup butter (We used I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter)

1 sq. unsweetened chocolate (one ounce)

1/4 cup granulated sugar

1 tsp. vanilla

1 beaten egg

2 cups graham cracker crumbs

(We did not use the next two ingredients: 1 cup coconut, 1/2 cup chopped nuts)

Second layer....

Second layer….

Second layer:

1/4 cup butter (We used I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter)

1 tablespoon milk or cream (We used skim milk)

2 cups sifted confectioner’s sugar

1 tsp. vanilla

Third (top) layer....

Third (top) layer….

Third Layer:

This was our issue. The third layer was supposed to be 1 and  1/2 squares of unsweetened chocolate, melted and spread over the top of the second layer. However, the unsweetened chocolate tastes terrible by itself and we couldn’t guarantee it’d taste any better on top of the dessert. At Caroline’s suggestion, I made a half-batch of Chocolate Butter Cream Frosting from my Better Homes and Gardens cookbook instead, and spread that across the top. It was delicious. Essentially it was almost the same as the second layer, but chocolate, but it worked.

So here is the recipe for the top layer, , so for a full recipe, double this one:

2 1/4 cups confectioners sugar

1/8 cup milk (add more as needed)

1/4 cup cocoa powder

3/4 tsp vanilla

DIRECTIONS FOR FUDGE MELTAWAYS

1) Melt 1/2 cup butter and 1 sq. chocolate in saucepan.

2) Blend in granulated sugar, 1 tsp. vanilla, eggs, crumbs (and coconut and nuts if you choose to use them).

3) Mix well and press into 11×7 or 9×9 dish.

4) Refrigerate.

5) Mix 1/4 cup butter, milk, confectioners sugar, and 1 tsp. vanilla. Spread over crumb mixture.

6) Chill.

(I left this overnight before completing the top layer. )

7) Using the Better Homes and Gardens frosting recipe above, combine and spread across second layer.

8) Refrigerate and later serve.

Enjoy, but tell me, what would you have done with that third layer? Would you have served it as is? Or, would you have changed it too?

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Happy Birthday Bella!

15 Feb
Happy Birthday Bella!

Happy Birthday Bella!

Today is Bella’s third birthday!

If you’ve been a reader since waaayyyyy back when, you may remember my first post about Bella. When I started my blog, we had just recently gotten her.

Bella was 18 months old when we got her, and today she is three.

Last year for her birthday we got her some new toys. However, being the punky kind of dog she is, she’s often rough on her toys, pulling off the eyes, ripping out the stuffing.

This year, rather than spending money on toys that end up in the trash soon after, we decided to give her a different kind of gift.

We decided to bake her some homemade dog biscuits.

My friend from my Stampin’ Up! days, Lucia Kaiser, has a blog called Lucia in the Kitchen, and I often see her posts on Facebook. Recently she posted a recipe for homemade dog biscuits. I sent it to myself for future reference. I knew one day it’d come in handy.

Today is that day. Valentine’s Day and the day before Bella’s birthday.

Lucia’s recipe was quick and easy, just like I like my people food recipes to be. I had everything for it and it was easy to set each of the girls up with their own pile of dough and let them go to town with cookie cutters, making Bella her very own cookies.

Here is Lucia’s recipe from her blog. If you have a dog and you’d like to make him or her some special treats, I recommend this recipe!

All healthy ingredients for Bella's birthday gifts!

All healthy ingredients for Bella’s birthday gifts!

Homemade Dog Biscuits
Ingredients

2 cups whole wheat flour
1 cup toasted wheat germ
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
3/4 cup water
1/4 cup creamy peanut butter
1 egg
2 tablespoons canola oil
One scoop of dough for each daughter to make her own biscuits for Bella.

One scoop of dough for each daughter to make her own biscuits for Bella.

Directions

In a large bowl, combine the flour, wheat germ and cinnamon. Stir in the water, peanut butter, egg and oil. On a floured surface, roll dough to 1/4-in. thickness. Cut with a 3-in. bone-shaped cookie cutter.

Place 2-in. apart on ungreased baking sheets. Bake at 350° for 30-35 minutes or until bottoms are lightly browned (tops may crack). Cool on a wire rack. Store in an airtight container.

Yield: 31 dog biscuits.

Editor’s Note: Reduced-fat peanut butter is not recommended for this recipe.
Nutritional Facts 1 dog biscuit equals 61 calories, 3 g fat (trace saturated fat), 7 mg cholesterol, 12 mg sodium, 8 g carbohydrate, 1 g fiber, 3 g protein.
Lots of different cookie cutters to choose from.

Lots of different cookie cutters to choose from.

We filled at least three or four trays with dog biscuits!

We filled at least three or four trays with dog biscuits!

Happy Birthday Bella!

Happy Birthday Bella!

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A Chocolaty Chinese New Year Dessert

8 Feb
Gramma's Haystacks

My mom’s dessert was chocolaty and delicious!

I cannot take credit for today’s dessert.

My mom brought these for dessert to our house last weekend after bringing another tray of them to a Chinese New Year party the week before, and she has shared the recipe with me.

In fact, it was her idea to use the Chinese New Year theme on my blog this week, and I took it and ran with it. Alex’s salad yesterday was a perfect addition to my main dish and Mom’s dessert.

My Grandma Rose makes something very similar to these with the chocolate and the noodles and sometimes she puts chocolate and walnuts. These are a little bit different, using the chocolate, but adding butterscotch and cashews along with the noodles.

Really depending on your own personal preferences, you can use just about anything you want in them: peanuts, marshmallows, dried cranberries, raisins.

And really, isn’t anything covered in chocolate just perfect?

I’ll warn you though: it’s hard to eat just one of these. There’s something about the combination of the salty and the sweet that makes you want to eat several of them. It’s a slippery slope, taking that first bite!

Thanks to Mom for bringing dessert and sharing the recipe with me, and thanks to Grandma Rose for sharing these with me over the years!

CHOCOLATY CHINESE NOODLES
INGREDIENTS

1 1/2 cups chocolate chips
1 1/2 cups butterscotch chips (or choose your own ingredient)
One 10 oz. bag of Chinese noodles
1 1/2 cups cashews (or walnuts or peanuts)

DIRECTIONS

Melt chocolate and butterscotch chips in glass bowl in microwave or in sauce pan on top of the stove.

Add Chinese noodles and nuts, as well as any other optional ingredients, mixing well.

Drop by spoonfuls onto waxed paper.

Cool until completely hardened.

Enjoy!

 

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Quinoa Muffins

25 Jan
These muffins are hearty, healthy and taste great!

These muffins are hearty, healthy and taste great!

I’ve mentioned previously that I really love getting ideas from Pinterest. I first had quinoa at the White House when I had lunch there for the first Kids’ State Dinner. After that I was hooked on quinoa and I searched for lots of different ways of cooking it.

Today’s recipe was originally a Pinterest recipe for Martha Stewart Quinoa Muffins.

We had to healthify it a little bit. I’ve put the link to the original recipe above, and I’ll make notes to tell you how we changed the recipe to suit our needs.

Everyone in our house likes these muffins. I’ve made them twice now, once following the original recipe back in the fall, and once a few weeks ago with our modifications. If you haven’t cooked with quinoa, I encourage you to try it. I like having another ingredient option for my cooking and baking. The last time I used it, I cooked up a big batch and used some for the muffins, some for a side dish with dinner another night, and some I ate like oatmeal in the mornings for my breakfast. It’s quite the versatile ingredient.

QUINOA MUFFINS
INGREDIENTS

  • 1 cup quinoa, rinsed
  • 1/4 cup vegetable oil, such as safflower, plus more for pan (We used 1/4 cup plain, nonfat yogurt.)
  • 2 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for pan (We used 1 cup wheat flour, 1 cup white flour.)
  • 3/4 cup packed dark-brown sugar
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 1/2 cup raisins (We used craisins for half the batch and chocolate chips for the other half the batch.)
  • 3/4 cup whole milk (We used skim milk.)
  • 1 large egg (We used egg substitute.)
  • 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
Splitting the batch in half allowed for using both craisins and chocolate chips as filling options.

Splitting the batch in half allowed for using both craisins and chocolate chips as filling options.

DIRECTIONS

  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a medium saucepan, bring quinoa and 1 cup water to a boil. Reduce to a simmer; cover, and cook until water has been absorbed and quinoa is tender, 11 to 13 minutes.
  2. Meanwhile, brush a standard 12-cup muffin pan with oil; (we used fat free nonstick spray) dust with flour, tapping out excess. In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, raisins, and 2 cups cooked quinoa; reserve any leftover quinoa for another use.
  3. In a small bowl, whisk together oil, milk, egg, and vanilla. Add milk mixture to flour mixture, and stir just until combined; divide batter among prepared muffin cups.
  4. Bake until toothpick inserted into the center of a muffin comes out clean, 25 to 30 minutes. Cool muffins in pan, 5 minutes; transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

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Liz’s Chocolate Chip Cookies

18 Jan

One of the things I love about recipes is the fact that they often remind me of people, places, of times in my life. Today’s recipe reminds me of all of those things.

When we eat our cookies, I'll be thinking of Liz!

When we eat our cookies, I’ll be thinking of Liz!

A while back we lived out of state for a few years and conveniently enough, we were in the neighboring state to where my brother and his roommates were living at the time. We were less than an hour away from them, which was fun.  Liz was one of the roommates, a friend of his from college, and a wonderful person. In fact, all of his roommates and friends were wonderful, but today’s recipe is from Liz, so today we focus on her.

Technology being what it is, we’ve been able to stay in touch with Liz and share the events of our lives with each other, which is so great. She is still living nearby, just a few hours from here, and now she has two children of her own.  She’s a fan of The Whole Bag of Chips, and recently she sent me today’s recipe. She knows how much I love cookies and she also knows that I love cookie batter. She specifically sent me this recipe because there were no eggs in the batter, so it makes it safe to taste.

I love that this recipe replaces some of the sugar with honey. It also lent itself well to being a low-fat recipe between the lack of eggs (great for people with egg allergies) and the fact that I could replace the butter with my new go-to, I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter. It may just be my new favorite chocolate chip cookie recipe for all of those reasons. This time around, I even replaced half of the white flour with wheat flour, just to healthify it even more. Every little bit helps!

Each Friday we spend a chunk of our afternoon with my Grandma Rose, the girls’ great-grandmother. I’ve begun bringing along a low-fat or non-fat snack for our dessert, to make things easier for her and for us. At 91 years old, she puts out quite a spread, and I’m glad I can help out a little bit. Today we’ll be bringing along a batch of Liz’s chocolate chip cookies for everyone to enjoy.

These make a great long-weekend baking project too, so give them a try this Martin Luther King Weekend!

LIZ’S CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIES
INGREDIENTS

1 1/4 cups flour (I did 3/4  cup white flour and 1/2 cup wheat flour)

1 tsp. baking soda

1/8 tsp. salt

1/2 cup butter (I used I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter)

1/4 cup sugar

1/2 cup honey

1 cup chocolate chips

1 teaspoon vanilla
IMG_9153DIRECTIONS

Combine all ingredients and mix well.

I used my small Pampered Chef scoop to put them onto my ungreased trays.

Bake at 300 degrees for 18-20 minutes (18 was perfect for my oven.)

ENJOY!

Grandma Rose

We enjoy being able to spend some time with Great Grandma Rose! This photo was taken a year or so ago, at her house on her 90th birthday.

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Whole Wheat Snickerdoodles

11 Jan
I love making and eating Snickerdoodles and I was glad we didn't need to give them up this Christmas!

I love making and eating Snickerdoodles and I was glad we didn’t need to give them up this Christmas!

You all I know how much I love a good cookie.

A few years back I discovered a recipe for Snickerdoodles and ever since, I have used them on my trays for Christmas.

This year, before Christmas even came, way back in October, I found a recipe on one of my favorite blogs, Budget Gourmet Mom, for Whole Wheat Snickerdoodles.

I knew even back then, that I’d be trying out this recipe for my cookie trays this year.

Little did I know then, that I’d be overhauling our entire cookie tray plan as well. Thankfully, these cookies were easy to adapt to the lowfat diet we needed to incorporate.

Here is the recipe from the Budget Gourmet Blog, along with any notes or changes I might’ve made along the way to fit our needs. Snickerdoodles are great any time of year, and they’re a great recipe for involving your kids in the kitchen, so give this new recipe a try!

At Christmas time I need as much help as I can get so it's all hands on deck for cookie baking!

At Christmas time I need as much help as I can get so it’s all hands on deck for cookie baking!

BUDGET GOURMET MOM
WHOLE WHEAT SNICKERDOODLES
INGREDIENTS

  • 1/2 cup butter, softened (I used I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter sticks for my baking this year.)
  • 3/4 cup packed brown sugar
  • 1 large egg
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla
  • 1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
  • 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1/2 teaspoon cream of tartar
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt
  • 2 tablespoons granulated sugar
  • 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

DIRECTIONS

Preheat oven to 375°.

In a medium bowl cream the butter and brown sugar.

Add the egg and vanilla and mix until combined.

In a separate bowl sift together the flour, baking soda, cream of tarter and salt.

Add to the creamed mixture and stir until it forms a dough. It helps to work it with a rubber spatula until it comes together.

In a small bowl mix the additional sugar and cinnamon.

Form tablespoon sized balls, roll in the cinnamon and sugar,  and place on a baking sheet 2″ apart.

Press slightly with the bottom of a cup (we used our fingers) and bake 8-10 minutes.

Rolled cookies are particularly great for kids who want to help out.

Rolled cookies are particularly great for kids who want to help out.

Not just rolling, but tasting is another favorite job for my little helpers.

After rolling and placing on the trays, pat them down slightly.

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A new dessert recipe for you, and it’s healthy, to boot!

4 Jan
These yummy mini cheesecakes used fat free fillo dough, fat free, sugar free pudding and fat free whipped cream on top!

These yummy mini cheesecakes used fat free fillo dough, fat free, sugar free pudding and fat free whipped cream on top!

Oftentimes when you have an allergy or a dietary issue, eating out or eating some place that is not the comfort of your own home is tough. We’ve always had those issues, but never knew exactly what was causing them.

Now that our family knows that staying away from fats is the key to avoiding a severe stomachache for one of our family members, we worked very hard during the holidays to provide options for eating as close to fat free whenever we could, including when we went to someone else’s house. We also worked hard not to have completely separate choices for our family, but rather to make things everyone could enjoy.

This New Year’s Eve in preparing to go to our friends’ house for the festivities, Caroline and I came up with a great dessert recipe that was extremely healthy, meeting our fat free requirements, and delicious. It was an instant hit that night and I’d definitely make these again.

I had seen the little fillo dough tart shells on different websites, always filled with something cute, and one day they were on sale, 3 boxes for $5 at the store, so I grabbed them and put them in my freezer, knowing I could somehow make use of them.

Earlier this fall, on one of my favorite blogs, Budget  Gourmet Mom, I’d seen a recipe for a low fat pumpkin cheesecake parfait that I’d never gotten the chance to make, but the recipe had alerted me to the fact that Jello makes a fat free, sugar free cheesecake pudding mix. At the time I didn’t need to know that, but now, that information has come in pretty handy.

I picked up a few of these for my pantry, and they've come in handy this past month!

I picked up a few of these for my pantry, and they’ve come in handy this past month!

On one of my trips to the store, I was intent on finding various fat free dessert and snack options and I saw the pudding there, so I grabbed a few boxes to have on hand.

The side of the box has traditional pudding directions and then directions for making a cheesecake with the pudding, using a graham cracker crust.

So here is what I decided to do to create my delicious New Years Eve desserts:

I made one box of the Jello Cheesecake pudding mix using 1 3/4 cups of 1% milk. That is the amount of milk needed for a cheesecake, NOT for the regular pudding. I let that set a few minutes (it sets fast, in less then ten minutes) and then I used my Pampered Chef small scoop to scoop a little bit into the little fillo shells. One box of pudding filled 15 fillo tarts. I did not want to bring more than that so I used the leftover pudding, putting it into cups for future snacks in the days that followed. I was able to get two small cups of extra pudding in addition to the shells.

I left those in the fridge until we were ready to leave that night.

Getting the hang of shaving the chocolate and having it land on top was tricky but eventually we got it!

Getting the hang of shaving the chocolate and having it land on top was tricky but eventually we got it!

I took with me an Extra Dark Chocolate bar by Lindt that had very conveniently showed up in my stocking for Christmas, a grater like I’d use for cheese, and a can of Reddi Whip fat free whipped cream. We were also bringing a fruit tray (with a great dip which I’ll share the recipe for on another day) that had strawberries on the tray.

When it was time for dessert, people had the option to add whatever they wanted to their little tarts of cheesecake. Some added the berry and cream with the chocolate shavings (I was one of those people) and some did not.

Shaving the chocolate over the individual shells was tricky, as you had to figure out where the shavings were going to land. Initially they were landing everywhere til I got the hang of it. Had I shaved it all over the entire set of shells first, making them all exactly the same, that would have worked out perfectly, but I wanted to give everyone their options so I did them individually.

The great things about this recipe were:

It was inexpensive, fast and easy.

It was delicious.

It was versatile so people could take or leave whatever part of it they wanted to or leave it in tact.

It was healthy.

Even without the shells, you could do something similar with it in the future; a parfait or just a bowl of pudding with berries, with or without cream and chocolate.

And, it looked festive for the holidays.

This recipe gets huge thumbs up and I’d definitely make it again! I am especially proud because in general I am not an experimenter. I am a recipe follower to the T. So the fact that I sort of created a dessert is thrilling to me. The fact that everyone liked it…even more thrilling.

Give it a try for your next gathering and see what you think!

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A new year, a new direction for The Whole Bag of Chips

31 Dec
Happy New Year!

Happy New Year!

It’s New Year’s Eve!

It is the very last day of 2012!

You know what that means? It means that it’s New Year’s Resolution time for many. I know that last year I talked a little bit about the fact that because our entire family runs on a school year schedule, I’m kind of programmed to set my own personal goals and resolutions for the “year” in September, rather than January.

And that’s still true, but this new year is going to be a bit different, and you’ll be seeing it with some changes to The Whole Bag of Chips as well.

This blog is designed so that it often follows the twists and turns of our family’s life. As with any family, there are always lots of twists! We like to keep things exciting at our house.

Some of you may know that for years we have had a variety of stomach issues here. I know I’ve mentioned it in some of my posts. It’s one reason we don’t eat out often (besides the financial reason), it’s the reason I do my “sweets” after school rather than at night before bedtime, and it’s the reason why we work so hard to make our meals from scratch, and try to eat as healthy as we can.

That said, we still love our homemade desserts.

A lot.

However, in an interesting twist, it was recently suggested to us that eating a strict low fat/healthy fat/healthy carb diet might  be beneficial in helping us to fight the chronic belly aches here at our house. It was suggested that one of us may have something similar to an allergy to fats.

The first reaction I had was similar to the day I was told that one of my kids was allergic to dust.

She’s doomed.

But, in keeping with my overachiever, Type A personality, my next reaction was to take a deep breath and find out all that I could about cooking a low fat/healthy fat/healthy carb menu for my family.

Immediately.

We needed to see if this suggestion held any water.

And it did.

It was recommended that if we wanted to truly try this out and we were looking for recipes, that The South Beach Diet might be a good one to try for guidelines and new menu ideas. I checked one cookbook out of the library the very next day and read the entire thing cover to cover in about two days’ time, the first weekend of December.

December.

Christmas month.

Cookies, desserts, parties.

Not the easiest time to make such a switch, but I was going to give it 100%.

And so, here it is, December 31, almost a full month into our experiment, and although the chronic stomach pain has not completely disappeared, we have seen an improvement, enough that we want to keep up with this new way of eating. Our family is not on the diet, per se, not following the strict Phase I, II and III plan, but rather using the facts in the beginning of the book about fats and carbs and sugars, along with the recipes throughout the book, to overhaul our menu.

Therefore, in keeping with many people’s top New Year’s Resolutions: losing weight, and staying fit and healthy, The Whole Bag of Chips recipes will be featuring the recipes that we have been using in our meals as of late. We have switched our entire family over to this “diet” so that we are all eating the same thing and all eating as healthy as possible, together.

I tried to keep my healthy versions as close to my regular versions as possible.

I tried to keep my healthy versions as close to my regular versions as possible.

When it came time for Christmas Cookie baking, I made two sets: a regular set of our favorites for our trays and a healthy set of our same favorites, using modified ingredients, for our family. We did not want to give up the things we loved but yet we needed to try to keep to as low fat a diet as possible, even at Christmas.

So today, in preparation for your New Year’s Day breakfast, I will post for you a breakfast recipe that you can use tomorrow morning if you would like to start your 2013 eating healthier too.  The recipe is a modified version of our homemade pancake recipe along with a delicious hot peach compote recipe to go on top. Neither is far off from what we normally would make (in fact this pancake recipe hardly differs from our own), but they both are in keeping with the low fat/healthy fat/healthy carb guidelines. One is a South Beach cookbook recipe and one is from the Farm Girl Gourmet blog that I found online.

Happy 2013 and enjoy!

PANCAKES (from the South Beach Diet Cookbook)

My entire family loved this compote and it was so easy! I'd double the recipe next time.

My entire family loved this compote and it was so easy! I’d double the recipe next time.

INGREDIENTS

2 cups whole wheat or whole grain pastry flour (We have always had whole wheat flour at our house all the time and will often do half wheat, half white flour in our recipes.)

1 tsp. baking soda

1/2 tsp. baking powder

1/2 tsp. salt

1 egg

1 egg white (we just did two eggs instead of one egg and one egg white)

2 cups buttermilk (to make buttermilk use 1 T. white vinegar to 1 cup milk, so two and two here)

1 tablespoon vanilla extract

2 teaspoons canola oil (I used plain nonfat yogurt instead of oil, which is a tip we learned a few months back. We love how fluffy it makes our pancakes and waffles.)

DIRECTIONS

In a large bowl, whisk together the egg and egg white until very foamy. Whisk in the buttermilk, vanilla extract, and oil.

Stir into the flour mixture just until the batter is combined and pourable.

Heat a large, nonstick skillet coated with cooking spray over medium heat.

Pour 1/3 cup batter into the skillet to form a 4″ pancake. Cook for 2-3 minutes, or until the bottom is browned.

Turn and cook for 1-2 minutes or until golden brown.

I had everything I needed for this recipe at home already.

I had everything I needed for this recipe at home already.

FRESH PEACH COMPOTE (from the Farm Girl Gourmet blog)

INGREDIENTS

1 pound fresh peaches, skinned, pitted and sliced (or frozen)  *I used a bag of Aldi’s frozen peaches.
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup water
1 teaspoon cinnamon

DIRECTIONS

In a medium saucepan, add the peaches, brown sugar, water and cinnamon, bring to a boil.

Turn heat down to medium low and simmer for 15 minutes, stirring occasionally until mixture is thick and liquid is syrupy.

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