Currently Browsing: recipe make over
May 9, 2011
Posted by Jennifer on May 9, 2011 in breakfast, Muffin of the Week, recipe make over | 6 comments
This recipe is my version of a recipe I saw on my friend Celine’s site Have Cake will Travel Banana Chocolate Muffins. I changed a few things. I didn’t have chocolate chips, so I subbed Ovaltine.
I actually made these for the first time at the beginning of my blog way back in April of 2008 and I think I’ve only made them once since. I don’t know why because they are awesome!
2 ripe bananas
1 tsp. vanilla extract
2/3 cup brown sugar
1 small container of applesauce (like the single serve kind)
1/4 cup Canola or safflower oil (I used Canola oil)
1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
1/2 cup white flour
1 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
4 tablespoons of Ovaltine!
The original recipe asked for chocolate chips, of which I had none, so I looked in my cupboard and saw Ovaltine!
To my surprise it has only 70 calorie for 4 tablespoons, so I decided to throw that in to make it chocolaty. The other thing is the recipe said it made 8 muffins, but since I like huge muffins like you get in the bakery, I decided to make 6 in my Jumbo Muffin Pan.
Each muffin tallies in at 312 calories, 6 fat and 5 fiber.
I really liked them because it was really moist on the inside, it reminded me of cake!
Mix all the ingredients and bake at 350 degrees for 15 -18 minutes. Insert toothpick to make sure it comes out clean before removing from the oven.
How was everyone’s weekend? I hope all the Mom’s out there had a great day. It was great weather in Chicago – sunny skies and beautiful out 
We stopped by my Mom’s for dinner, here is a picture my sister BIZ took of our kids. Mark, Paul, Hannah and Claire.
And, check out my friend Jacky’s site - she hosted BSI this week and made awesome cherry scones with saffron – fancy Jacky!!
May 4, 2011
Posted by Jennifer on May 4, 2011 in breakfast, eggs, recipe make over, salad | 6 comments
I have a new favorite breakfast that I’ve made the last few mornings that I could eat pretty much every day and not get tired of it. What is it?
It’s 3 small potatoes, with the skin on, 1 leftover Chicken sausage from Trader Joe’s, sliced, sliced yellow pepper, a handful of edamame and 1 fried egg. Oh Ma Ga, it’s a huge portion and it keeps me full all morning and it tastes so good. The thing that I think makes it taste so good, is I sprinkle some of my Penzey Spices Sausage seasoning over everything!
I know it sounds weird to put the edamame in there, but I was cutting up veggies for salad club at my office and threw some in last minute.
I sliced the potatoes really thin, and placed them in a small skillet. Add about 2 tablespoons of water and cover for about 7 minutes, or until the potatoes start to get tender. Then I added the chicken sausauge, the pepper and edamame and sprayed it with Pam Cooking spray so it wouldn’t stick. After that was cooked (about another 5 minutes), then remove all that from the pan. Wipe the pan clean, cook the egg and chop up to add to the hash. I’ve had time to make this before work AND get 3 kids to school, so it’s something quick enough even when you have a lot going on.
Which brings me to my favorite day of the week at work – SALAD CLUB! It’s every Tuesday and the choices get better and better each week!
I had spinach, carrots, cucumber, edamame, apples, grapes, black beans, corn, a few croutons, a little bit of bacon bits, and something I haven’t had in a long time, but was great – Lite Catalina Dressing. I remember eating that as a kid and I haven’t had that kind of dressing in years, but it was great.
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Spoiler alert! Make-over week on Biggest Loser!!! I was kind of dissapointed that they didn’t show them more getting ready and trying on clothes. There was a little glimpse of them here and there at the salon, but other than that, they just showed up all done up.
Hannah was the first to arrive. I was not a huge fan of the color of her hair and the dress kind of looked like it was a mermaid. BUT, her body looks great, she’s lost 100 pounds in 17 weeks, so that is fantastic. Her sister Olivia looked amazing. They cut her hair short, which was so cute and her dress was fantastic. She got to see her husband and he was also super chunky when she left for the ranch and he’s lost a ton of weight at home and looked great too. Irene. I love Irene, I kind of hope she wins the whole thing. They put her in a really pretty pink dress with sparkly silver shoes. She got to see her Mom. I had forgotten that her Mom was her partner in the show since she left so long ago, but she’s been able to lose weight at home. In fact, I thought they looked more like sisters than mother and daughter! Then men got to wear fancy tuxes and they both looked great too.
The bonus was that at the end of the show, NO ONE got sent home, so everyone gets to stay for another week, which of course everyone was excited about.
So, we are getting down to the wire…who do you want to win?
Have a wonderful day everyone!
May 2, 2011
Posted by Jennifer on May 2, 2011 in a day in the life of me!, crock pot recipes, general ideas, kid friendly, recipe make over, sauces | 8 comments
Busy weekend as usual! I actually hardly spent any time in the kitchen 
. We had 2 softball games for my daughter Claire, picture day for softball, dropping kids off places, grocery store and I squeezed in a little time at the Gluten Free Expo that was held this past weekend. It was cool to see all the different products and things you can make. I met a fellow blogger Brittany from Real Sustenance. She had a short cooking demo making Chicago Style Pizza that was gluten and dairy free! Here is a link to that recipe..
If you are wondering why I went to the Expo, no, I am not gluten intolerant or have any food allergies, but I am working on a project with someone who is (which I will talk about soon). So I got a VIP pass to the event. I met some great people and saw great cooking demos!
Bob’s red mill had dozens of different gluten free products like mixes and flours.
There were several local bakeries represented that offered all sorts of desserts that were gluten free.
It’s amazing how many people are affected by Gluten and how much better they feel when they adjust their diet. I saw many families with kids who were happy to let their little ones sample foods that were safe for them to eat.
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Now on to today’s recipe. It’s for meatballs, but you could use it to make a healthier metball sandwich (not to get off on a tanget, but I was glad “saucy balls” did NOT make it on Americas next restaurant!). Or you can make this ahead of time for pasta, just cook the pasta when you get home and your sauce and meatballs are all ready. If you get a meatball sandwich at a traditional Italian restaurant, it’s got tons of bread, cheese, meat, sauce on buttered garlic bread. My version is @ 450 calories, and you can make it yourself.
1 egg
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. Italian seasoning
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/4 cup chopped onion, (Biz, my sister, if you are reading this, you can omit the onions!)
1 pound ground sirloin
1 pound ground turkey (I have also used ground chicken too)
1/2 cup bread crumbs
1/3 cup Parmesan cheese
1 28 oz. can crushed tomatoes (with Italian spices is even better!)
6-8 hoagie style rolls
In a large bowl, beat the egg with salt, Italian seasoning, red pepper flakes and garlic. Add the chopped onion, beef, turkey bread crumbs and Parmesan cheese and mix well. Shape mixture into 1 inch balls. I have a melon baller that size that works perfect for shaping them. Brown the meatballs in a skillet, drain any fat and put the meatballs in the bottom of the crock pot. Add the crushed tomatoes and extra Italian seasoning on top and cook all day on low. Take 3-4 meatballs and add it to the hoagie roll, add some sauce and you have an awesome meal that won’t make you fat!!
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And here is my daughter Claire – playing catcher for Softball! She did great!
How was your weekend?
Feb 27, 2011
Posted by Jennifer on Feb 27, 2011 in bread, breakfast, recipe make over | 10 comments
I’ve made several types of breads before, but never the artisan bread from Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day. It was on the cover of this Month’s Cooking Club of America. Once I saw it, I knew it was time to see if I could do it.
The one thing I wasn’t anticipating is the dough is super moist and sticky – don’t be afraid of that – it’s all good!
This recipe makes 4 1 pound loaves. I made the whole batch and actually baked all the loaves yesterday! One recipe was this base recipe, the other recipe was for a nutella ring bread (which also turned out great!).
Master Artisan Bread Recipe
3 1/2 cups lukewarm water
4 teaspoons yeast
4 teaspoons course salt (I used sea salt)
7 1/4 cups all purpose flour
I just used the biggest bowl I had. You don’t even need a mixer for this recipe, a spoon is just fine. The best part is you can actually store the leftover dough if you don’t bake it all and it lasts up to two weeks in the fridge!
Directions:
1. Combine water, yeast and salt in a large bowl. With a spoon, stir in the flour. The dough will be wet.
This is what the dough looks like after its all combined which will only take about a minute or so.
2. At this point you can store it in the fridge for later. Otherwise, let it rise on the counter for 2 hours. When I came back to check on it, I couldn’t believe how high it had risen!
The above bread I made is their Crusty Broule from the Artisan Bread recipe:
3. Grab about a grapefruit size piece of dough and quickly shape it into a ball. You can put a little flour on your hands because the dough is sticky!
4. Preheat the oven at 450 degrees and place a broiler pan in the lowest shelf in the oven. I don’t have a pizza stone (which the recipe suggested), but used my pizza pan – place that into the oven to get hot while the oven is getting hot. The directions suggested placing the dough on parchment paper so you can just transfer that to the baking stone or baking sheet. Using a serrated knife, make a few cuts on top of the dough about 1/4 inch deep.
5. Heat one cup of water in the microwave for about a minute. Place the dough on the heated baking stone, or cookie sheet and add the hot water to the broiler pan below that (it will create steam) and shut the door as fast as you can. Don’t open the oven door during baking, thats what keeps the crust nice and crunchy.
6. Bake for 30 minutes, or until nicely browned. You can also test it by tapping on the bottom of the bread. If it sounds hallow, its done. Cool on a wire rack.
Can I just tell you how excited I was when I opened my oven to this gorgeous loaf of bread! The first loaf was a little smaller than this and within half an hour, every member in my family would cut off a slice and it was gone! So luckily you can make 4 loaves of bread with this recipe.
I made the other recipe for the Master Artisan Bread Recipe which was a Nutella Ring. I will post that recipe later this week.
So, have you attempted to make the Artisan Bread Recipe?? If so, how were your results?
Feb 26, 2011
Posted by Jennifer on Feb 26, 2011 in bread, breakfast, recipe make over, Successes!! | 4 comments
I normally don’t make pancakes during the week, but I didn’t have a ton of stuff by the end of the week to make something deluxe. I had a package of pancake mix, and according to the box 1/4 cup of the pancake mix was only 180 calories. I was wondering what I could add to it to make it a little healthier.
One thing I thought of was pearl barley, but instead of making the pearl barley, I wondered if I could grind it up in my blender to make it into flour and add it into the pancake batter. 1/4 cup of pearl barley is 100 calories, but has a good amount of protein and 6 grams of fiber. I put the pearl barley in my blender and whirred away. I guess I didn’t really realize how hard those grains are! I was running out of time, so I just added the “flour” to the batter, added a little skim milk to make it the consistencey of pancake batter (a little over 1/4 of a cup). I also added a teaspoon of Nutella!
This made 3 HUGE pancakes for around 300 calories!
The result? I did like them, but all of the pearl barley didn’t quite get chopped up, so it had a little crunchy consistency, but to be honest, that didn’t turn me off at all, I actually liked the texture of it! I think next time I’ll blend it longer to make sure it all gets ground up.
My next experiment with pearl barley is to grind it up and add it to muffins for half the flour and see how that turns out.
Right now I am attempting to make “Artisan Bread in 5 minutes”. I belong to the Cooking Club of America and the latest magazine had the recipe in it. It makes 4 loaves, so right now its rising – we’ll see how it turns out.
The other day I clicked on an ad for The Chicago French Pastry School artisan bread making course. I thougth how awesome would that be? Ummm.. turns out the “Artisan Bread Making Course” is an 8 week, 5 day a week class and costs $10,500! I think for now, I’ll try it on my own!! Unless I win the lottery any time soon!!
And a few new blogs I found that I like:
Skinny Taste
Laylita
Circle-B-Kitchen
Have a good weekend! Check back to see if I mastered the Artisan Bread making!!!
