Meet my pride and joy...

I love her. She's 2 years old, but I just thought I should introduce her :)

Peanut Butter Cookies

My husband loves all things peanut butter. So I decided to make a treat for him. But since we're trying to eat healthier, I decided to halve the recipe and make a small batch. But here's the recipe for the full batch.

1 cup sugar

1 stick butter, at room temperature

1 egg

1 cup smooth peanut butter

1 tsp vanilla

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp baking soda

1 1/2 cups flour

1. Preheat oven to 375.

2. Line baking sheet with parchment paper.

3. Cream together the sugar and the butter.

4. Beat in egg.

5. Mix in peanut butter and vanilla until smooth and creamy.

6. Stir in dry ingredients until well combined.

7. Drop balls onto cookie sheet and flatten with fork (I dipped the fork in flour before each press).

8. Bake 12-15 minutes.

Chicken Noodle Soup

There's not much to say about homemade chicken noodle soup, except that it's comforting and delicious. And there's no way you can mess it up. So here's my version:

2 large cans of reduced sodium low-fat chicken broth

1/2 bag baby carrots

5-6 stalks of celery

small onion

2 trimmed, boneless, skinless chicken breasts

bag of yolk-free egg noodles

Salt & Pepper to taste

1. Pour broth into soup pot. Set over medium-low heat.

2. Cut up the baby carrots and celery stalks into desired size. Dice up the onion. Add to the pot.

3. Drop in the chicken breasts.

4. Cover and simmer for a few hours.

5. Remove chicken breasts and cut up into small pieces.

6. Season soup with salt and pepper.

7. Cook egg noodles according to package directions. When done, drain and rinse under cold water.

8. Add noodles and chicken to soup pot. Stir.

So easy, so simple, so good.

Oh my deliciousness...

I used to enjoy a great white chicken chili at Good Dog, a bar/restaurant on 15th Street in the city. Since I haven't worked in the city for over a year, my wicked craving for it pressed me to find a recipe to try. Thankfully, FutureMrsWagner on the WC message board had a recipe in her blog which was delicious, loved by both me and the picky husband! I served mini-corn bread loaves with the chili - a la the cheap little box of Jiffy (1 box made with skim milk yields 4 mini loaves - 5 points per loaf)

WHITE CHICKEN CHILI

Source: Buon Appetito!: White Chicken Chili

3 cooked and shredded chicken breasts (I used 1 pound of ground chicken)
2 cans chicken broth (I used low-sodium)
2 cans White Northern Beans
1 4 oz. can chopped green chilis (next time I would use 2 cans)

1 packet Country Gravy Mix
2 tsp cumin
1 Tbsp Vegetable Oil (I used canola oil)
1 onion, chopped

1. Cook the ground chicken until no longer pink. Drain and move to a clean bowl.

2. Add and heat the oil. Add chopped onion to oil, stirring until translucent. To further cook the onions until tender, I added a bit of the chicken broth and simmered for a few minutes.

3. Add chicken broth and stir in the cumin, gravy mix and chili peppers.

4. Add beans and return ground chicken to pan.

5. Simmer 15-20 minutes, stirring occasionally. Serve with a dollop of sour cream.

Yield: 6-1 cup servings, or 4-1.5 cup servings

Weight Watchers Points Value: 5 points/1 cup or 8 points/1.5 cups

points values do not include sour cream

Guiltless Mac & Cheese

And so some Nesties were talking about mac & cheese one day - so I searched for a guilt-free mac & cheese recipe - here's what I found:

MACARONI AND CHEESE
Source: http://find.myrecipes.com/recipes/recipefinder.dyn?action=displayRecipe&recipe_id=332681

Here is MY rendition:

4 cups cooked elbow macaroni (about 2 cups uncooked)
2 cups (8 ounces) shredded reduced-fat sharp cheddar cheese (I used a bag of shredded cheese - next time I will grate my own cheese)
1 cup 1% low-fat cottage cheese
3/4 cup nonfat sour cream
1/2 cup skim milk
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
1 egg, lightly beaten
Vegetable cooking spray
Paprika

Combine first 8 ingredients and spoon into a greased 2-quart casserole dish coated with the cooking spray. Sprinkle lightly with paprike. Cover and bake in preheated 350 oven for 30 minutes. Uncover and bake an additional 5 - 15 minutes.

Yield: 6 servings
Serving size: 1 cup
Calories: 356
Fat: 11.2 g
Protein: 24.9 g
Fiber: 1.2 g

Picky Husband Rating: "We'll definitely eat this again."

I had a hamslice I intended to cube up and mix in, but I forgot! I'll definitely remember to do that next time!

Chocolate cures all....

Sometimes I just get a chocolate craving like none other. The only way to make it go away is to EAT some CHOCOLATE!

I came across this recipe in Cara's blog [http://carascravings.blogspot.com/2007/05/choco-gasm.html]

I'm pretty sure this recipe originated from another WC Nestie/Blogger, so if it's you, let me know and I'll credit you! Anyway, I knew immediately I had to try it.

I was home alone, my husband was working nights, and went to the grocery store specifically for the ingredients - the fabulous thing is that now that I have them, there's plenty to go around for at least another impromptu batch!

And so here is this most fabulous recipe!!

2 1/4 cups confectioner's sugar

1/4 tsp salt

1 tsp espresso powder

1 cup cocoa powder (I used regular ol' Hershey's)

3 large egg whites

2 tsp vanilla extract

1. Whisk together the sugar, salt, espresso powder and cocoa.

2. In a medium sized mixing bowl, stir together the egg whites and the vanilla (I used my KA mixer on STIR).

3. Add the dry ingredients to the egg whites and mix at low speed for 2 minutes (I stopped halfway thru to scrape the sides of the bowl). The batter will seem dry at first, but will become shiny and smooth as it mixes. The dough is not your typical cookie dough, but actually resembles store-bought cake frosting.

4. Cover and refrigerate the batter for 3 hours. This process can be sped up by placing in the freezer for 1 hour, and then in the fridge for 1 hour.

5. Preheat oven to 350. Grease or line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper. Drop dough in ping-pong sized balls onto baking sheet a few inches apart. I used my mechanical cookie scoop thingee - if you don't have one, make sure you grease whatever spoon you use.

6. Bake for 12 minutes, reversing pans halfway thru.

7. Remove from oven and let cool on baking sheet for 5 minutes before transferring to wire rack to cool completely.

8. Enjoy the rich, decadent goodness.

About 100 calories and 2 g fat each

Yield: varies - I got about 12 cookies out of the batter.

bacon, Bacon, BACON!

Who doesn't love a BLT? Well, honestly, I never craved them until not too long ago. And, well, I'm not a fan of tomatoes. But I've learned to like them on my sandwiches. And the perfect time for a BLT is when is Jersey Tomato season! Oh, yeah, and I've been craving bacon all week. So I made extra last night with my jellyroll pancakes so that I could have my BLT tonight!

Today is a good day!

I have achieved foodie status! I am officially a member of the Foodie Blog Roll!

Eating alone...

So my husband works shift work. 2 weeks out of the month I'm eating dinner alone. And he doesn't eat leftovers so I can't make an actual meal and save some for him. So, I take this opportunity to make dinners that I normally wouldn't make with him around.

The other day I caught a craving for a cheap meal from my childhood... Jellyroll Pancakes! And since I can never fight my cravings, I decided to make it, along with some bacon. It's pretty simple and very filling.

JELLYROLL PANCAKES

1 cup all-purpose flour

1 cup milk

1 egg (edit - Grandmom says it's 2 eggs for 1 cup of flour)

Jelly

(edit- Grandmom also says you need to add a splash of vanilla extract or orange juice - my mom must've forgot to tell me this part when I asked how to make them, but I think they're great without it, so don't sweat it if you forget or dont have it to use)

1. Heat a non-stick skillet (I used my square skillet with no sides for ease) over low-med heat.

2. Mix first 3 ingredients together.

3. When the pan is hot, ladle some batter onto the pan and spread into a thin pancake. These cook pretty quickly are not not to be browned. Flip after about 30-60 seconds (you'll notice steam begin to rise). Continue to cook other side.

4. Transfer to a plate.

5. Spread a small amount of jelly over the pancake and roll up. Serve :)

Makes about 6 pancakes

Serves 2-3

Don't be alarmed if your first one gets screwed up. Serve with plenty of breakfast meat!

CHICKEN PAPRIKASH

I swear I didn't make up the name! I found this recipe in my most recent Woman's Day magazine. As soon as I saw it I knew I had to try it as my husband and I really do like paprika. Before I post the recipe, I will warn you that even though we are paprika fans, we felt the recipe called for too much paprika, for our tastes anyway. So, here it is!

CHICKEN PAPRIKASH

Source: Woman's Day Magazine

4 each skinless chicken drumsticks and thighs

1 can low-sodium cream of mushroom soup

2 Tbsp paprika (I would definitely use only 1 Tbsp)

1/2 nonfat sour cream

1. Place chicken in bottom of crockpot. Stir soup and paprika in small bowl until blended. Spoon soup mixture over chicken to cover.

2. Cover and cook on low 8-10 hours. Remove chicken with slotted spoon. Whisk sour cream into the cooking liquid. Serve sauce over chicken.

Makes 4 servings

297 calories

35 g protein

12 g carbs

2 g fiber

12 g fat

(does not include noodles)

We served this over whole wheat egg noodles. It was good, but we definitely would have enjoyed it more with less paprika. Also, I'm a breast kind of gal - I will definitely be using regular boneless, skinless chicken breasts next time.