Tuesday, February 12, 2013

Hungry Girl's Triple-Chocolate Softies


Hungry Girl's Triple-Chocolate Softies



Big soft cookies are awesome. Guilt-free, cocoa-infused ones with TWO types of chocolate chips are exceptionally awesome! Preheat the oven, grab a baking sheet, and prepare yourself for the BEST SOFTIES EVER!

Ingredients:
1/4 cup brown sugar (not packed)
2 tbsp. sugar,
2 tbsp. light whipped butter or light buttery spread(like Brummel & Brown), room temperature
2 tbsp. no-sugar-added applesauce
2 tbsp. fat-free liquid egg substitute (like Egg Beaters Original)
1/4 tsp. vanilla extract
1/3 cup whole-wheat flour
2 packets hot cocoa mix with 20 - 25 calories each (like Swiss Miss Diet or NestlĂ© Fat Free)
1/4 tsp. baking powder
1/8 tsp. salt
1/2 cup old-fashioned oats
2 tbsp. mini semi-sweet chocolate chips
2 tbsp. white chocolate chips, chopped

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray a baking sheet with nonstick spray.

In a medium bowl, thoroughly whisk brown sugar, Splenda, butter, applesauce, egg substitute, and vanilla extract.

Add flour, cocoa mix, baking powder, and salt, and stir until smooth. Fold in oats, chocolate chips, and chopped white chocolate chips.

Spoon batter onto the sheet in 6 evenly spaced mounds. Use the back of a spoon to spread and flatten into 3-inch circles.

Bake until a toothpick inserted into the center of a softie comes out mostly clean, about 10 minutes. Eat up!

MAKES 6 SERVINGS

Serving Size: 1 softie (1/6th of recipe)
Calories: 164
Fat: 5g
Sodium: 164mg
Carbs: 27.5g
Fiber: 2g
Sugars: 17g
Protein: 3g

PointsPlus® value 4*

Thursday, January 31, 2013

Healthier Banana Bread

While I LOVE my Mom's banana bread, it's not exactly healthy. And since I'm trying to drop some poundage, I need to find a healthier, but still tasty, version of one of my favorite foods!

Mom came across this one and it's pretty yummy! One eighth of the recipe is 6 PointsPlus for Weight Watchers.



Very dense and moist, this bread is fragrant and scrumptious. For an even lighter treat, you can cut the sugar in half or use some Splenda sugar substitute.

Weight Watchers Healthy Banana Bread recipe

Ingredients
1 cup whole wheat flour
1 cup all-purpose white flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon allspice
1 teaspoon cinnamon
2/3 cup chopped walnuts (optional)
1/3 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips (optional)
2 eggs
3/4 cup granulated sugar
4-5 very ripe bananas, mashed
3/4 cup sugar free spiced unsweetened applesauce
2 eggs

Preparation
1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
2. Spray a bundt pan with cooking spray, set aside.
3. In a medium bowl, mix the dry ingredients, whisking to combine. Add the chocolate chips and nuts if using.
4. Beat the eggs with the sugar together at medium-high speed until creamy.
5. Beat in the applesauce and bananas.
6. Fold in the dry ingredients.
7. Pour into the prepared pan and place it in the oven. Once the oven door is closed, reduce the heat so it’s between 325-350 degrees F.
8. Bake for about 35-40 minutes (the cake is done as soon as a tester comes out clean).
9. Cool on a wire rack for about 5 minutes.
10. Invert on the rack, remove the pan, cool and store in an airtight container.

Nutritional information for 1/16 of the recipe (not including chips or nuts):
Calories: 121
Calories from fat: 8
Total fat: 0.9g
Cholesterol: 26mg
Total carbs: 26.6g
Dietary fiber: 1.9g
Protein: 2.9g

Saturday, January 12, 2013

Slow Cooker Chicken Pineapple Teriyaki

    Ingredients
    Chicken Breast, no skin, 2.5 breasts
    Pineapple, fresh, 2 cup, diced 
    Pineapple Juice, .5 cup 
    Soy sauce , low sodium, .5 cup
    Pepper, black, 1 tbsp 
    Brown Sugar, .3 cup, unpacked 

Directions
Combine pineapple juice, soy sauce, black pepper, and brown sugar in a mixing bowl. Stir until combined. 

Place chicken in bottom of slow cooker, cover with pineapples and top with sauce.

Cook on low 6-8 hours. My chicken was frozen so I cooked for 8 hours. 

To thicken sauce, remove lid from slow cooker in the last hour of cooking. this will allow steam out and the sauce will thicken and condense slightly. If you prefer a thicker sauce, transfer sauce to pan and boil with flour or cornstarch until reduced to desired thickness.

Serve with stir fried veggies like bell pepper and sugar snap peas or over rice.

Number of Servings: 5

Wednesday, January 2, 2013

Peanut Butter Fudge

This fudge is famous around these parts. It's made for the annual fair that's held in town every fall. It never lasts long on the bake table!


1 jar peanut butter
2 lbs confectioners sugar
3.5 sticks of margarine (or butter)

Melt peanut butter and margarine in double boiler. Pour sugar into large mixing bowl. Pour peanut butter mixture over sugar. Mix until blended. Put in a 13x9 pan. Freeze for as long as needed. Thaw and then cut into pieces.
Makes 4 lbs of fudge.

Monday, December 17, 2012

Slow-Cooker Sticky Wings

Found this on Pinterest and it looked super easy and the blogger said they're crazy good.


Ingredients
1 3" piece fresh ginger, peeled and chopped
4 garlic cloves, peeled
3/4 cup packed dark brown sugar
1/4 cup soy sauce
1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
4 lbs chicken wings, halved at joint and tips removed
1/4 cup water
1/4 cup tomato paste

Directions: 
Make Rub
Pulse ginger, garlic, 1/4 cup brown sugar, 1 Tbsp soy sauce and 1/4 tsp cayenne pepper in food processor until finely ground. Add mixture to slow-cooker insert. Add chicken and toss to coat.

Cook and Cool
Cover and cook on low until fat is rendered and chicken is tender, about 3-4 hours. Using slotted spoon, remove wings from slow-cooker and transfer to clean large bowl (discard liquid in slow-cooker). Let wings cool about 20 min (or cool briefly and refrigerate up to 24 hours).

Sauce and Broil
Adjust oven rack to lower-middle position and heat broiler. Set wire rack inside rimmed backing sheet and spray rack with non-stick cooking spray. Whisk water, tomato paste, remaining sugar, remaining oy sauce, and remaining cayenne pepper in a bowl. Add half the sauce to a bowl with cooled wings and toss gently to coat. Arrange wings, skin side up, on prepared rack. Broil until wings are lightly charred and crisp around the edges, about 10-15 minutes. Flip wings, brush with remaining sauce, and continue to broil until well caramelized, about 3 minutes. Serve.

Note: In step 3, rack should be 10" to 12" from heating element. Don't wander off while the wings are in the oven.

Serves 12.

Tuesday, December 11, 2012

Roasted Cauliflower


One head cauliflower, cut into florets; 1/2 tsp. each salt, pepper, cumin, chili powder. (I threw all the ingredients into a Tupperware container and just shook it up.) Roast at 400F for 10 minutes, stirring 1/2 way through.

Had this at a party and it was good - on the must try list!