Crash Hot Potatoes

This is one of those recipes that I starred in my Google Reader a while ago, and until recently, just revisited. I was planning on roasting chicken breasts for the hubs and I, so I thought these potatoes from The Pioneer Woman’s website would be the perfect side to go with it. These were so easy and an absolute hit in the house. The hubs requested them immediately afterwards for the next evening’s dinner, and that never happens with a dish I make! I guess my skills in the kitchen are improving!

Crash Hot Potatoes
Source: The Pioneer Woman

Ingredients:

• 12 whole New Potatoes (or Other Small Round Potatoes)
• 3 Tablespoons Olive Oil
• Kosher Salt To Taste
• Black Pepper To Taste
• Rosemary (or Other Herbs Of Choice) To Taste

Directions:

1. Bring a pot of salted water to a boil. Add in the potatoes and cook them until they are fork-tender.
2. On a sheet pan, generously drizzle olive oil. (For me, I used a pastry brush to paint on 1 tbsp. of olive oil.) Place tender potatoes on the cookie sheet leaving plenty of room between each potato.
3. With a potato masher, gently press down each potato until it slightly mashes, rotate the potato masher 90 degrees and mash again. Brush the tops of each crushed potato generously with more olive oil.
4. Sprinkle potatoes with kosher salt, fresh ground black pepper and fresh chopped rosemary (or chives or thyme or whatever herb you have available.)
5. Bake in a 450 degree oven for 20-25 minutes until golden brown.

 

Pumpkin Spice Vanilla Bean Caramels

I’ve never played with caramelized sugar before, but I’ve been curious about it for a while now. I finally just got the guts, and told myself I needed to try. Worst thing that can happen is burnt caramel, but I’m usually careful to avoid burning.

I was actually a little too careful. I took it out a little early and that resulting in a very soft caramel. Nothing jaw breaking about it at all, which is something that can happen if you leave it simmering for too long. So, I learned a little lesson about candy making, and let me tell you, if these were left a little longer, this would be an amazing candy to give as gifts!! Don’t let my mistake deter you away from this buttery goodness…I promise this caramel is just lovely. I plan on using the soft stuff in another recipe that will be pumpkin-licious!

So, you ask why pumpkin spice? Well, I’m a weird Starbucks customer. I get my Pumpkin Spice drinks with caramel drizzle, and believe me when I tell you that the combination is divine! Oh, and vanilla makes everything taste so much better, so do not skip out on the vanilla bean in this recipe!

I received these complimentary vanilla beans from Marx Foods for a vanilla bean photography contest. While my photography isn’t the best out there, I found this to be a fun challenge, and of course, I’m still hopeful for a win!

Pumpkin Spice Vanilla Bean Caramels
Source: adapted from Confections of a Foodie Bride

Ingredients:

• 1 cup heavy cream
• 5 tbsp. unsalted butter, cut into pieces
• 1/2 tsp. Tahitian vanilla
• 1 Tahitian vanilla bean pod, split and scraped
• 1 1/4 tsp. Fleur de sel
• 1/2 tsp. cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp. nutmeg
• 1/4 tsp. ginger
• pinch of ground cloves
• 1 1/2 cups sugar
• 1/4 cup Lyle’s Golden Syrup or corn syrup
• 1/4 cup water

Directions:

• Line an 8-inch square baking pan with parchment paper or foil, then lightly butter the pan.
• Place cream, butter, vanilla, vanilla bean, spices and fleur de sel in a small saucepan, bring to a boil,  then remove from heat and set aside.
• Boil sugar, corn syrup, and water in a 3- to 4-quart heavy saucepan, stirring until sugar is dissolved. Boil, without stirring but gently swirling pan, until mixture is a light golden caramel.

This is just about the color you want to attain.

• Remove vanilla bean and carefully stir cream mixture into the caramel (The mixture will bubble up here.) and simmer, stirring frequently, until caramel registers about 250°F on thermometer.
• Pour into baking pan and allow to cool for about 30 minutes. Then, sprinkle another pinch or two of fleur de sel over the top of the caramel for a nice salty crunch and let it cool until it’s no longer warm to the touch. Cut into 1-inch pieces (I used a pizza cutter with butter.), and then wrap each piece in a 4-inch square of wax paper, twisting 2 ends to close.

Skinny Holiday Baking: Pumpkin Scones

I do enjoy baking from scratch, but sometimes, I’m up for trying shortcuts. I found this recipe by perusing the Weight Watchers boards, because I wanted to try something a little different than pumpkin bread for breakfast.

This was a pretty good scone, but I think the recipe needs a little work. I think next time, I’m going to try brown sugar, more white sugar and more spices. I also didn’t have Splenda, which was recommended for the recipe, so I subbed sugar.

This was also a fairly wet batter, so I couldn’t really shape these like traditional scones. I ended up using a large cookie scoop to scoop individual scones out, and it worked out fine.

Pumpkin Scones
Source: adapted from a Weight Watchers forum

Ingredients:

• 2 cups Bisquick Heart smart mix
• 1/3 cup mini choc chips (omitted to save calories)
• 6 packets of Splenda (used 4 tbsp. sugar)
• 1/2 tsp. ground ginger
• 1/2 tsp. nutmeg
• 1/2 tsp. cinnamon
• 1/4 tsp. ground cloves
• 1/2 cup pumpkin
• 1 egg
• 3 tbsp. skim milk

Directions:

1. Preheat your oven to 425 degrees.
2. Mix all dry ingredients in a bowl with a whisk.
3. Mix pumpkin, egg and milk in a separate bowl and add to dry ingredients. Mix until just combined.
4. Using a large cookie scoop, place scones about 2″ apart on a parchment paper lined cookie sheet. Bake for 10 minutes or until the scones start to brown on top.

The Skinny: per serving, serves 8

Calories: 124.4
Fat: 2.6 g
Fiber: 1.5 g

Kung Fu Chicken

Kung Fu Chicken…. sounds like an extreme dish to me. Well, when rapper Coolio writes a cookbook, you should expect it to be extreme. That’s right children of the 90s, Coolio wrote a cookbook. I didn’t see it coming, but apparently he’s been a foodie for quite sometime now.

When I saw that a fellow foodie received an email for food bloggers to review this cookbook, I’ll admit, at first I wasn’t very interested. I’d like to remember Coolio as a “Gangsta’s Paradise” type of guy. However, when I mentioned it to my husband, he seemed anxious to get his hand on this book and try a recipe. So, I emailed the publisher and requested to review the book.

Upon receiving it, my husband and I skimmed through the book, laughing at how he wrote the book. It’s almost like he’s talking to you, without censors, and spices are measured in “dime bags” and “nickel bags” vs. teaspoons and tablespoons. There are recipes like Backyard Grass Salad, Bro-ghetti, Pimp my Shrimp and Jarez Make-It-Rain Peanut Butter Cookies.

So, how did we choose Kung Fu Chicken? Easy…we were looking for a simple, weeknight meal that was healthy and well, this fit the bill.

Upon tasting it, it really wasn’t anything Asian as we expected. This dish, however, had a striking similarity to a Louisiana dish called Sauce Piquant. We had no problem with that though, since this dish was rather tasty!

Kung Fu Chicken
Source: Cookin’ with Coolio

Ingredients:

• 1 lb. boneless, skinless chicken breasts
• 1/2 medium white onion
• 1 tsp. minced garlic
• 2-3 tbsp. olive oil
• 1 “dime bag” (or tbsp.) salt
• 1 “dime bag” (or tbsp.) pepper
• 15 oz. can tomato sauce
• 14 oz. crushed tomatoes
• 1 tbsp. asian sweet chili sauce
• 3-4 tbsp. soy sauce

Directions (straight from the book, to get an idea of how he wrote it):

1. Take your chicken and chop suey it up into quarter-size pieces.
2. Kung Fu grip your knife and chop up your half of a white onion.
3. Get out your garlic. If you already got it minced, you’re ready to go.
4. Warm up a large skillet over medium heat and toss in your olive oil, onion and garlic. Sneak it into that pan like a ninja with a plan. Saute that up for 4-5 minutes.
5. Throw in your chopped chicken, along with salt and pepper to taste, and let that cook for 8-10 more minutes.
6. Crack your cans of tomato sauce and crushed tomatoes and pour them into your large skillet, covering up all that chickeny-garlicky onion-ness.
7. Add in the red chili sauce and the soy sauce, and stir occasionally with a wooden spoon. Cover the skillet between stirs.
8. Let all that cook up and coagulate together for 10-15 minutes, until the chicken is cooked. Add salt and pepper to taste.
9. Take it all out and serve it up with some brown or white rice.
10. What it do? Kung Fu!

The Skinny - per serving, serves 4 (not including rice)

Calories: 212.5
Fat: 11.0 g
Fiber: 5.0 g

Grandma’s All Occasion Sugar Cookies

This was the final cookie that I placed in my Operation  Baking Gals box. I figured that this would serve as a good excuse to try another sugar cookie recipe. I’ve seen quite a few food bloggers use this for rolled (shaped) cookies and rave about it, but the problem I have with this recipe is that they did spread a little. Spreading wouldn’t allow a cookie to keep it’s original cutter shape, so I’m going to stick with my go-to recipe for rolled cookies.

My husband did really like these, and I will admit that they have a great flavor.  This recipe is also from Dorie Greenspan’s Baking From my Home to Yours.

Grandma’s All Occasion Sugar Cookies
Source: Dorie Greenspan’s Baking From My Home to Yours

Ingredients:

• 2 cups AP flour
• 1/2 tsp. baking powder
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 10 tbsp. unsalted butter, softened
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 large egg
• 1 large egg yolk
• 1 tsp. vanilla extract
• sugar and/or cinnamon for dusting

Directions:

1. Using a mixer, beat the butter until it’s fluffy. Add in the sugar and mix for 2 minutes until the mixture is pale. Add the egg and yolk and beat for another minute or two; beat in the vanilla. Whisk the flour, salt and baking powder together in a separate bowl. Then, with the mixer on low, slowly add the flour mixture until it’s just incorporated. From then, finish mixing with a spatula until it’s mixed well.
2. Place the dough on the counter and divide it in half. If you want to make roll-out cookies, shape each half into a disk and wrap in plastic. If you want to make slice-and-bake cookies, shape each half into a chubby sausage (the diameter is up to you-I usually like cookies that are about 2 inches in diameter) and wrap in plastic or wax paper. Whether you’re going to roll or slice the dough, it must be chilled for at least 2 hours. (Well wrapped, the dough can be refrigerated for up to 3 days or frozen for up to 2 months.)
3. Preheat the oven to  350 °F. Line two baking sheets with parchment or silicone mats.
4. If you are making roll-out cookies, working with one packet of dough at a time, roll out the dough between sheets of plastic wrap or wax paper to a thickness of 0.5 cm/1/4 inch, lifting the plastic or paper and turning the dough over often so that it rolls evenly. Lift off the top sheet of plastic or paper and cut out the cookies. Pull away the excess dough, saving the scraps for rerolling, and carefully lift the dough onto the baking sheets with a spatula, leaving about 4 cm = 1 1/2 inches between the cookies. (This is a soft dough and you might have trouble peeling away the excess or lifting the cutouts; if so, cover the dough, chill it for about 15 minutes and try again.)
5. After you’ve rolled and cut the second packet of dough, you can form the scraps into a disk, then chill, roll, cut and bake.
6. If you are making slice-and-bake cookies, use a sharp thin knife to slice the dough into 0.5 cm = 1/4-inch-thick rounds, and place the rounds on the baking sheets, leaving about 4 cm = 1 1/2 inches of space between the cookies.
7. Bake the cookies one sheet at a time for 9 to 11 minutes, rotating the sheet at the midpoint. The cookies should feel firm, but they should not color much, if at all.
8. Remove the pan from the oven and dust the cookies with sugar or cinnamon sugar, if you’d like. Let them rest for 1 minute before carefully lifting them onto a rack to cool to room temperature. Repeat with the remaining dough, cooling the baking sheets between batches.

World Peace Cookies

In addition to the snickerdoodle biscotti, I decided to make a couple of recipes from Dorie Greenspan’s Baking From My Home to Yours for my Operation Baking Gals package this month. I looked for recipes that seemed like they would keep a couple of days, and I found this one: World Peace Cookies.

I know Tuesdays with Dorie did this a while back, and the cookies looked delicious, so I decided to give this a try. I mean, what soldier wouldn’t like chocolate??

I was also glad to use this recipe as an excuse to dig into my box of salty goodness that I received from Marx Foods a while ago. They sent me a sampler of specialty sea salts for free, so I figured this recipe would be perfect to add a little coffee flavor to. Instead of the salt suggested in the recipe, I used this gorgeous espresso salt!

Thanks again, Marx Foods! I can’t wait to play with the other salts too!

I did try a couple of cookies, and I have to say that this is a fantastic recipe! I’m sure the soldiers I sent these to will truly enjoy them!

World Peace Cookies
Source: Dorie Greenspan’s Baking From My Home to Yours

Ingredients:
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 stick plus 3 tablespoons (11 tablespoons) unsalted butter, at room temperature
2/3 cup (packed) light brown sugar
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon fleur de sel or 1/4 teaspoon fine sea salt (used 1/4 tsp. espresso salt)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
5 ounces bittersweet chocolate, chopped into chips, or a generous 3/4 cup store-bought mini chocolate chips

Directions:

1. Using a mixer, beat the butter on medium speed until soft and creamy. Add both sugars, the salt and vanilla extract and beat for 2 minutes more. Sift the flour, cocoa and baking soda together in another bowl.
2. Turn off the mixer. Pour in the flour, drape a kitchen towel over the mixer to avoid flying flour and pulse the mixer at low speed about 5 times, a second or two each time. If there is still a lot of flour on the surface of the dough, pulse a couple of times more; if not, remove the towel. Continuing at low speed, mix for about 30 seconds more, just until the flour disappears into the dough — for the best texture, work the dough as little as possible once the flour is added, and don’t be concerned if the dough looks a little crumbly. Toss in the chocolate pieces and mix using a spatula only until it’s incorporated.
3. Turn the dough out onto a work surface, gather it together and divide it in half. Working with one half at a time, shape the dough into logs that are 1 1/2 inches in diameter. Wrap the logs in plastic wrap and refrigerate them for at least 3 hours. (The dough can be refrigerated for up to 3 days or frozen for up to 2 months. If you’ve frozen the dough, you needn’t defrost it before baking — just slice the logs into cookies and bake the cookies 1 minute longer.)
4. Center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 325 degrees F. Line a baking sheet with parchment or silicone mats.
5. Working with a sharp thin knife, slice the logs into rounds that are 1/2 inch thick. (The rounds are likely to crack as you’re cutting them — don’t be concerned, just squeeze the bits back onto each cookie.) Arrange the rounds on the baking sheets, leaving about 1 inch between them.
6. Bake the cookies one sheet at a time for 12 minutes — they won’t look done, nor will they be firm, but that’s just the way they should be. Transfer the baking sheet to a cooling rack and let the cookies rest until they are only just warm, at which point you can serve them or let them reach room temperature.

Skinny Holiday Baking: Snickerdoodle Biscotti

Since it’s unbelievably less than 8 weeks until Christmas, I’m finding myself more and more in the mood to bake. Be sure to check this blog every Monday leading up to Christmas for some baked goods that are also SKINNY!!

I spent this weekend making another package for Operation Baking Gals, and happened to find this recipe trying to find a spiced biscotti. I was glad to find that I wouldn’t feel too guilty tasting this recipe to make sure it came out fine since this is a recipe from Cooking Light.

That being said, this was a pretty difficult dough to work with. It’s extremely crumbly, and you really have to work it well to get it to form into logs. In the end, though, this was a pretty good biscotti, and it’s definitely worth a try!

Snickerdoodle Biscotti
Source: Cooking Light (found on Recipezaar)

Ingredients:

• 2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 cup sugar
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
• 1 teaspoon good vanilla extract
• 3 large eggs
• cooking spray
• 2 tablespoons sugar
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1 large egg white

Directions:

1. Preheat Oven to 350.
2. Measure flour into a large bowl and add 1 C. Sugar, Baking powder, and salt.
3. Mix oil, vanilla and the eggs in a small bowl and add to the large bowl, your dough will be dry and very crumbly.
4. Turn dough out onto a floured surface and knead 7 or 8 times. It may take a while, but the dough will eventually come together.
5. Divide in half. Shape each portion into a roll about 8 inches long, and place them a six or so inches apart on a cookie sheet lined with parchment. Flatten each roll to 1 inch thick.
6. Combine the 2 Tbsp. Sugar and cinnamon, then gently brush the tops of the rolls with the egg white and sprinkle with cinnamon sugar.
7. Bake at 350 for 30 minutes.
8. Remove from the sheet and cool for 15 minutes.
9. Cut diagonally into 1/2 inch slices and lay them cut sides down on the cookie sheet again.
10. Reduce oven temp to 325 and then bake 10 more minutes, turn over and bake 10 more. They’ll be soft in the middle but will harden as they cool. Cool completely on a wire rack.

The Skinny: per serving, makes 30

Calories: 83
Fat: 1.1 g
Fiber: 0.4 g

Cheddar Chicken Chowder

I hope everyone had an awesome Halloween! I can’t believe we are already less than a month away from Thanksgiving. Since the weather’s changing, I asked my husband if he was up for a soup. I already had a recipe in mind, after seeing it on Dinner Delish. It sounded like a new way to use up chicken, besides grilling or baking it, and it was, most importantly, SKINNY!

This soup definitely did not taste skinny, and my husband and I gobbled it up! It was delicious and not too hard to put together either!

Cheddar Chicken Chowder
Source: Cooking Light (originally found on Dinner Delish)

Ingredients:

• 2  bacon slices
• Cooking spray
• 1  pound  skinned, boned chicken breast, cut into bite-size pieces
• 1  cup  chopped onion
• 1  cup  diced red bell pepper
• 2  garlic cloves, minced
• 4 1/2  cups  fat-free chicken broth
• 1 3/4  cups  diced peeled red potatoes
• 2 1/4  cups  frozen whole-kernel corn
• 1/2  cup  all-purpose flour
• 2  cups  2% low-fat milk
• 3/4  cup  (3 ounces) shredded cheddar cheese
• 1/2  teaspoon  salt
• 1/4  teaspoon  pepper

Directions:

1. Cook bacon in a Dutch oven coated with cooking spray over medium-high heat until crisp. Remove bacon from pan. Crumble; set aside.
2. Add chicken, onion, bell pepper, and garlic to bacon fat in pan; sauté 5 minutes. Add broth and potatoes; bring to boil. Cover, reduce heat, and simmer 20 minutes or until potatoes are tender. Add corn; stir well.
3. Place flour in a bowl. Gradually add milk, stirring with a whisk until blended; add to soup. Cook over medium heat 15 minutes or until thick, stirring frequently.
4. Stir in cheese, salt, and pepper. Top with crumbled bacon.

The Skinny – serves 6, Serving Size is 1.5 cups

Calories: 306
Fat: 7.5 g
Fiber: 2.9 g

 

Pot Roast, Again!

The temperatures dipped into the 40s out here. It’s absolutely nuts that the week before, we were experiencing nasty, summer weather. However, this new weather was a welcomed change. I told my husband I had to make pot roast for us. It just screams cold weather food!

So, I made pot roast using the same recipe as last time. Diet friendly pot roast, in fact.  I highly recommend this simple, delicious recipe to anyone looking to make their first pot roast!

Birthday Cake-Palooza

Last weekend, my husband’s family celebrated his Dad’s birthday! I was honored that my MIL asked me to make the cake for his birthday. Little did she know that I’d be bringing two cakes!

One being carrot cake, which my husband told me is his favorite. Apparently, he loved it so much that he was sad when it got stale, and he had to throw it away! That’s a big baking compliment right there!

I halved the original recipe to make a personal 6 inch cake, since everyone else in the family usually goes for the standard birthday cake.

I also made a different cream cheese frosting than the recipe indicates, which was inspired by this recipe which I used last year.

Carrot Cake with Spiced Cream Cheese Frosting
Source: Epicurious (Gourmet)

Ingredients:

• 2 cups all purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 2 cups sugar
• 1 1/4 cups canola oil
• 4 large eggs
• 3 cups grated peeled carrots
• 1 1/4 cups coarsely chopped walnuts (omitted)
• 2 tablespoons minced peeled ginger

Directions:

• Preheat oven to 350°F. Butter two 9-inch-diameter cake pans. Line bottom of pans with waxed paper. Butter and flour paper; tap out excess flour.
• Whisk flour, baking soda, salt and cinnamon in medium bowl to blend. Whisk sugar and oil in large bowl until well blended. Whisk in eggs 1 at a time. Add flour mixture and stir until blended. Stir in carrots, walnuts and ginger. Divide batter between prepared pans.
• Bake cakes until tester inserted into center comes out clean, about 40 minutes. Cool cakes in pans 15 minutes. Turn out onto racks. Peel off waxed paper; cool cakes completely. For my cakes, it took about 20-25 minutes in the oven, since they were 6 inch.

For the standard birthday cake, I used Duncan Hines French Vanilla mix with 2 tsp. almond extract added. Shocker, I know, but I was also preparing for a garage sale that weekend. I was pretty swamped! This is covered in Wilton Buttercream using ALL butter!