Friday, June 24, 2011

Fruit Pizza

(This isn't the picture of mine, I forgot to take one, but I loved the idea behind this one, especially with the 4th of July coming up soon)


I love pizza!!  So what could possibly make pizza better?  Sweeten it up and add some fruit, and cut out a lot of the greasiness!  Okay, so then it's not really pizza, but we can pretend anyway.
With summer heating up, there's bound to be lots of bbq's, picnics, reunions, get togethers, potluck, etc.  So here's fun dish to bring that is a healthy dessert (I know, that's an oxymoron , right?)  What I love is how you can jazz this up and tweak it whatever fruits you prefer.  Don't like bananas?  Leave 'em off.  Allergic to strawberries?  Use raspberries.  Don't like pineapple?  Use oranges.  You get my drift.

Fruit Pizza
Crust:
Use your favorite sugar cookies recipe, store bought dough, or try my tried and true recipe
3/4 c sugar
1/2 c. butter (I use Gold n soft Light margarine to cut back on the calories)
4 oz fat free cream cheese (you may use regular it doesn't affect the flavor)
1/2 egg or 1 egg white
1/2 tsp vanilla
1/4 tsp almond extract (you may omit if you don't have it, but it's one of my favorites)
2 cups flour
1/2 tsp baking powder

Cream sugar, butter, cream cheese.  Add egg and vanilla and almond.  Stir in the dry ingredients, you may need a dash more flour, depending on the day (it varies every time I make it).  Refrigerate until easy to work with, usually 30 min- 1 hour. 
Spread dough on a pie pan or cookie sheet, spray with cooking spray.  Don't make it too thin or it will be crispy, and too thick it won't cook.  Bake at 375 degrees for 15 minutes or until edges get light brown, but don't over cook it. Let cool completely before putting sauce on it.

Sauce
8 oz. fat free cream cheese
1/2 c. sugar, granulated, not powder
1 tsp. vanilla

mix together and spread over cooled sugar cookie crust.

Toppings
Spread whatever fruit your little heart desires!!!  I used canned fruit because I didn't have time to go to the store and it turned out great.....I think I ate half my pizza myself......
Here are some pictures I found of what some people did. Mine didn't look so cute.....I just threw the fruit on willy nilly =)

So for the point value for this.....not exactly on the lower point side.  The total, using light butter and fat free cream cheese is 51.  When I cut my pizza I had about 25ish squares, so that would be 2 points per square.  You can cut out some of the sugar in the cream cheese sauce or use sugar substitutes to cut the calories more.  But 51 sounds better to me than 96, which is what it would be using real butter and regular cream cheese.  I've made this recipe using regular and fat free/low fat stuff and there isn't a huge difference in taste, you can just taste the butter more when you use the butter but I prefer how it tastes with margarine.


Wednesday, June 22, 2011

Sweet Salsa chicken

I saw this recipe on one of my favorite blogs, 365 Days of Slow Cooking and had to try it out!  I made a few changes to it.  You can check out the original on the blog.

2 lbs boneless skinless chicken breasts
1 jar salsa
2 Tbsp brown sugar
2 Tbsp Dijon mustard
4 Tbsp quick cooking tapioca
3 Tbsp Worcestershire sauce
2 Tbsp tomato paste
1 1/4 cup diced onion
10 garlic cloves, minced
2 Tbsp water

1. Combine tomato paste, diced onion, garlic and water in small microwave safe bowl. Cook in microwave for 4-5 minutes, stirring every minute. Onions should be soft. Transfer to the slow cooker.
2. Place chicken, salsa, brown sugar, Dijon mustard, tapioca and Worcestershire in slow cooker. Stir gently to combine.
3. Cover and cook on LOW for 3-4 hours. Break up chicken with a fork into large pieces.
4. Cover and cook for an additional hour to really coat the individual pieces in the sauce.

Serve over rice or wrap in tortillas.

What I love about this one is that is is so healthy!  just about the only calories come from the chicken, and then the rice or tortillas if you want those.  I estimate the total point value for this meal is around 15, without the ride or tortillas.  This will easily serve 5 or 6 people.  Add a fresh salad as a side and some cornbread and you've got a pretty good meal.




Monday, June 20, 2011

Banana foster Ebelskivers

Ebelskiver:

2 cups all-purpose flour
¾ tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
4 tbsp granulated sugar
½ tsp salt
3 eggs, separated
1 ¾ cups buttermilk (I used 1% milk and added 4 tbsp vinegar)
2 tsp vanilla extract
butter

Filling:
3 ripe bananas
2 tbsp butter
½ cup brown sugar



Directions:

In a bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, baking powder, granulated sugar, and salt. In a small bowl, lightly whisk the egg yolks, then whisk in the buttermilk. Whisk the yolk mixture into the flour mixture until well combined; the batter will be lumpy. Stir the vanilla extract into the mixture. In an electric mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, beat the egg whites on high speed until stiff peaks form, 2 to 3 minutes. Using a rubber spatula, gently fold the egg whites into the batter in 2 additions.

To make the filling, chop the bananas into small cubes. Melt the butter over medium heat and add the bananas. Once bananas have begun to soften, add the brown sugar and stir to coat in the melted sugar. Remove from heat and set aside.

Drop ½ tsp. of butter into each well of an ebelskiver pan set over medium heat. Once the butter begins to bubble, spoon a tbsp. of batter into each well. Then top the batter with a tsp. of the banana mixture.


Finally, top the bananas with another tbsp. of batter. Using skewers to flip them, cook the pancakes until both sides are golden brown. Transfer to a plate and repeat the steps with the remaining batter.


Top with whip cream and sprinkle some cinnamon on top and enjoy!!!

This recipe makes about 40 servings.  Each ebelskiver is about 1.5- 2 pts, without any toppings.  You can cut bakc the calories by using a light margarine instead of butter in each well.  For my buttermilk, I made my own using 1% milk and vinegar but skim milk would work just as well.



Thursday, June 16, 2011

A new blog I'm contributing on =)

PhotobucketA group of my neighbors and friends have decided to start a new blog.  We are going to list recipes, crafts, tips, treats, you name it, we'll tyr it.  There are about 8 of us contributing and we each have different things that we're love to do.  I'm so excited for this new blog so for awhiloe, I may be doing some double posting =)  Feel free to follow us!  There are some amazingly talented ladies and I can't wait to see all that they come up with.

Friday, June 10, 2011

Goulash

Have you ever had those days where you don't want to cook anything fancy and you don't seem to have much in your cupboards?  Well, I have those all the time it seems like.  Then, a blog I follow, One Crazy Cookie posted a recipe that reminded me of one my mom made growing up.  There's nothing better than a meal that brings back good childhood memories.  My mom didn't cook too many things from scratch since she worked full time and had a long commute to and from work.  But this was one of my favorites.  Want to know the best part?  It's super easy!!!!!!  You can add different things to your family's tastes.
(sorry for the oh-so-fantastic pictures, my digital camera's battery is dead so I have to use my cell phone and I am by far not a pro picture taker, and then this was taken when we did the leftovers)

1 lb hamburger
2 cans tomato sauce
1 can diced tomatoes (with green chilies to add some flavor)
1 1/2 cup elbow macaroni
1 can corn
1 sm. can mushrooms
1 packet ranch seasonings
minced onions. 

Cook macaroni.  Combine ranch packet, onions, and hamburger, brown it. Drain hamburger and add tomato sauce, diced tomatoes, and corn.
Add drained macaroni and stir. Heat until it warmed through.

You can omit the corn and mushrooms, and even the ranch and onions but they add awesome flavor.  If you don't want the tomato taste to be too sharp, add some sugar (about 3-4 Tbsp) to neutralize the acidity of the tomato sauce.  Also, if you want to spice it up, try some rotel tomatoes, or you can used Italian diced tomatoes and add other seasonings.  Play around with the recipe until you find what you like.  I love that it can be so simple and versatile.  Pretty much anything goes.  Also, some shredded cheese on top would be scrumptious.  Adding some zucchini or other veggies would be wonderful so when your garden is overflowing with zucchini plants, add them in (and send a few of those zucchinis my way because I love them, but have no gardening talent whatsoever) My kids wolfed this down and willingly ate it for leftovers the next two days.  I had planned on freezing the rest but they loved it so much I didn't have any left to freeze.