Merry Christmas!

Christmas Eve Appetizer and Christmas Dinner Recipes

When I was growing up {and before I moved to Florida}  we would goto my aunt's house every year for Christmas Eve.  There was always a big spread of munchies on the table.  Christmas Eve dinner has now become a spread of appetizers that everyone can choose between.  You can find all the recipes HERE. I'm adding crab rangoons to the table, per Kaylee's request.  And I'm not doing a crust on the spinach pie.  

Crab Rangoons
Note:  This would also possibly make a good filling for jalapenos!

Ingredients
1 package wonton wrappers
16 oz crabmeat {real not imitation.  But imitation would work too}
16 oz fat free cream cheese
4 - 5 green onions, minced


Directions

1. Preheat oven to 425
2. Combine crab, cream cheese and green onions
3. Place about 1 T mixture into wonton wrapper, fold wonton wrapper over filling and pinch closed
4. Bake for 12-15 minutes until golden brown.

We always plan our Christmas dinner after my parents get to my house.  It's always a production.  We go back and forth debating on what we should have.  Every year it gets easier though.  They got here Friday nite and it only took us only an hour to get the menu put together.  Here it is:

Family's Main

Roast Chicken

My Main Dish:

Stuffed Pumpkin or Squash
I'm going to use this recipe as my base. How to make Suffed and roasted squash. {the Kitchn}  The vegetables are going to be onions, carrots, celery, and mushrooms.  I'm going to skip the proteins and grains and add more vegetables.  

Sides

Green Bean Casserole
Alton Brown's Best Ever Green Bean Casserole


Corn on the cob
Mashed Potatoes
Mashed Sweet Potatoes
Gravy
Cranberry Sauce
Rolls

Dessert

Christmas Cake
Christmas Cake {The Fat Free Queen}

Christmas Cookies

Until last year I never did Christmas presents for the girls' teachers.  I don't know why but, I just didn't.  {Does that make me a horrible parent?}  But, last year I decided to do cookies for them. I figure that I would want edible gifts if I was a teacher.  {I mean seriously, how many "World's Greatest" or "#1 Teacher" mugs and knick-knacks does a teacher need?!??}

Last year I made "traditional" cookies, loaded with butter and sugar.  After the fact I decided that I wasn't being true to me by making them like that.  A vegan wouldn't buy eggs to make cookies with.  Someone who follows the Paleo diet probably wouldn't make non-Paleo cookies.  Why am I going to make cookies that I wouldn't even feed my kids??  I decided to alter all the cookies, except 1, to be low fat.  People love the flourless peanut butter cookies so I make them every time I need to bring cookies somewhere.  

Peanut Butter
From Martha Stewart
makes 16

Ingredients
1 cup peanut butter
.75 cup sugar
1 egg
.5 t baking soda

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350.  
2. Mix together all ingredients
3. Roll 1 Tablespoon of dough into balls and place on cookie sheet
4. Bake for 12-14 minutes.  Rotate halfway thru.
5. Cool on pan for 5 minutes before transferring to cookie sheet. 

Chocolate Chip
From: Happy Herbivore Light & Lean
Makes 16

Ingredients
.33 cup plain applesauce
.5 cup brown sugar
1 t vanilla
.25 cup nonfat milk
1 cup flour
1 t baking powder
1 T cornstarch
.5 cup chocolate chips

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350.  Grease cookie sheet
2. Combine all the wet ingredients in one bowl and the dry ingredients (except chocolate chips) in another.
3. Mix the dry ingredients into the wet
4. Fold in chocolate chips
5. Drop on cookie sheet and bake 7-10 minutes.  Rotate halfway through.  

Oatmeal Raisin
Quaker Oatmeal "Raisin" Cookies
This recipe originally calls for chocolate chips but, I substituted raisins and dried cranberries for the chocolate chips
makes 5 dozen

Ingredients
2 cups pureed zucchini
1 cup brown sugar, packed
.5 cup sugar
2 eggs
2 T milk
2 t vanilla
1.75 cup flour
1 t baking soda
2.5 cup oatmeal
4 cups dried fruit (I used raisins and cranberries)

Directions

1. Heat oven  to 375
2. Mix zucchini puree and sugars together
3. Add eggs, milk and vanilla
4. Mix in flour, baking soda, and oatmeal.
5. Fold in fruit
6. Drop by the tablespoon on a greased cookie sheet.  Bake for 9-11 minutes.

Banana Bread

Adapted From:  Cook This, Not That 350 Calorie Meals

Ingredients

4 ripe bananas (about 2 cups)

.75 cup Greek yogurt 

2 eggs

1 tsp vanilla

2 cups flour

.75 cup sugar (I start with .25 cups and figure out how sweet it needs to be)

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp cinnamon

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350.  Grease a 9x5 loaf pan.  (I used a 4 loaf mini pan)
2. Puree bananas, yogurt, eggs and vanilla in a blender or food processor
3. In a separate bowl mix together the remaining ingredients
4. Fold banana mixture into flour mixture
5. Pour into pan and bake for 50 minutes until toothpick comes out clean.  The mini loaf pans take about 35-40 minutes  (if the top starts to brown before the inside is. done then put tin foil over the top) 

Do you have any good healthy cookie recipes?  Do you alter normal recipes to make them healthier?

I Love Sandwiches!

I've been trying to view this month as a "glass half full" type of month.  Am I going to be broke this month?  Yes but, my family is going to have an awesome Christmas.  Glass half full!

Did I get to the gym today?  No but, I went on an hour long, 2 mile walk with my husband and had some great quality time mixed with cardio.  Glass half full!

After putting together this post did I figure out that my stomach issues may be due to a gluten intolerance?  Yes but, this gives me the opportunity to find out more about gluten-free cooking.  Glass half full!

Is the family going to be stuck eating at 6:30 2 nites a week and forced to eat sandwiches on Fridays?  Yes but, I get to try out some new sandwich recipes and quick (shove down your throat) meals.  Glass half full!

I've put together a few sandwich recipes from my blog and from other bloggers for you to take a look at.  

Some of my past sandwich recipes:

Fish Sandwiches

Black Bean and Mushroom Wraps

Tuna Salad

Grouper Sandwiches

Some good ones from around the web

Jalepeno Popper Grilled Cheese -- {Closet Cooking}

Vietnamese Caramel Shrimp Bahn Mi -- {Closet Cooking}

Ultimate Roasted Veggie Sandwich -- {Vegan Richa}

What's your favorite sandwich?  

Winter Squash Cakes. A Thanksgiving Post a Bit Late....Or Super Early

Okay, I know that this post comes quite a bit after Thanksgiving.  It got lost under some other posts.  But, this recipe is great any time of year in my opinion.  

The Saturday before Thanksgiving I found out about Ken's Thanksgiving potluck at work.  I decided that the most logical thing for me to bring would be the turkey cupcakes.  Can you imagine me trying to make a turkey after not cooking meat for over a year??!!??

I love it when flavor ideas automatically come to me.  2 seconds after I decided to do cupcakes my brain had already decided on flavors.  While I was writing the recipe for the post I decided to change my cupcakes into sheet cakes.  Fat free cupcakes do not like liners.  I really want these desserts to be special and pretty and......perfect.  As an added bonus sheet cakes are quicker and easier to frost.  Which is nice if you have alot of other dishes to do.  I'm doing 2 different Thanksgiving flavored {yes, now Thanksgiving is a flavor} cakes.  The first is a pumpkin cake with a pumpkin frosting.  I call it Pumpkin Palooza.  The second one is a sweet potato cake with a meringue frosting.  The recipe for both cakes are the same except you are using sweet potato in one and pumpkin in the other.

The cakes before I frosted them.  Pumpkin on top, sweet potato on the bottom

Sweet Potato Cupcakes 

2.5 cups + 2 T flour

.25 cups + 2 T cornstarch

2 cups sugar

2.5 t baking powder

1 cup milk

1 cup pumpkin/sweet potato

2 t vanilla

.75 cup egg substitute (equivalent to 4 eggs)

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 and spray a 9x13 pan
2. Whisk together your dry ingredients 
3. In a blender or food processor blend your wet ingredients until smooth
4. Mix wet ingredients into dry
5. Pour into prepared pan and bake for 30-35 minutes until a toothpick comes out clean 

Helpful hint:  I read that if you stick a metal decorating nail in the center of your cake it will bake evenly.

Pumpkin Cake Frosting

Ingredients

2 envelopes Dream Whip

2 (4 serving) packages of Pumpkin Pie Jello pudding mix

2.75 cup skim milk
.5 t vanilla

Directions

1. Mix Dream Whip with 1 cup of milk and vanilla in bowl of mixer
2. Beat on high speed for 2 minutes until light peaks form
3. Add milk and pudding mix
4. Mix on medium, then beat on high for 2 minutes
5. Let set for about 1 hour then frost cake

Sweet potato cake frosting

adapted from Martha Stewart

Ingredients

1.5 cup sugar

2 T corn syrup

.25 cup water

6 egg whites

Directions

1. In a double boiler stir together everything until they reach 160 degrees on a thermometer
2. Beat using a stand (or electric hand) mixer on high until there are soft peaks.  {this should take 5-10 minutes depending on your mixer} add in 1 t vanilla near the end

Want to see what else the girls had for their Thanksgiving lunch?

Turkey, cornbread stuffing, green bean casserole, mashed potatoes, mac & cheese
a chocolate chip cookie and a brownie

And just in case I never showed you our Thanksgiving dinner:

Dunkin Donuts Blogger Event

I was invited to attend Dunkin Donuts menu tasting.  I was really excited because I had been invited to previous Dunkin events and I couldn't make them.  I brought along my taste testers because I wanted to be able to know what everything tasted like and let y'all know what's good.  

Dunkin Donuts recently brought out the Spicy Smoked Sausage breakfast sandwich.  All 3 of the girls and Ken enjoyed it.  This was actually surprising because Kaylee isn't a huge fan of things that are spicy.

Yey coffee!  The one thing I could try!  And try I did.  They have 4 flavors for the holiday season.  There's Red Velvet, White Chocolate, Peppermint Mocha and Eggnog.  The eggnog is ONLY available in select markets, such as Jacksonville - Palm Coast.  Lucky me!  Ken really enjoyed the Eggnog latte.  I was a fan of all of them.  I honestly don't think I've found a Dunkin flavor I HAVEN'T liked!

Next up, the donuts.  There are 3 holiday donuts.  The Red Velvet Drizzle {that Sunny is showing you} is a red velvet cake donut drizzled with cream cheese frosting.  The red  one {I forgot the name, oops!} is a yeast ring donut frosted with a cherry glaze.  And lastly the Holiday Star {that Kaylee is holding up} is a yeast star shaped donut frosted with green icing and filled with a Bavarian Kreme.

They were loved by all of my taste testers.  Ken liked the fact that the "red one" had a nice light cherry flavor.  It wasn't too overpowering.

It kind of upset me that I couldn't try any of the donuts.  I love donuts.  But, in typical Fat Free Queen style I came home and started baking.  I really wanted to give y'all a filled yeast donut but, I tried 4 different recipes and used 99% of my flour and nothing would work.  I guess yeast donuts are not meant to be fat free.  So instead, I bring you an AH-MAZING chocolate buttermilk cake donut hole.  I used my cake pop pan to make them but, you can also use a donut maker, a donut pan or a mini muffin pan.   I'm giving you the whole recipe but honestly, I only made a half batch.  At 25 calories each I wish I had made a full batch!

Chocolate Buttermilk Donut Holes
Adapted from Ina Garten's Beatty's Chocolate Cake Recipe

Servings: 108
Calories: 25.6
Fat:  0.1 g

Carbs: 6 g
Sugar: 3.9 g
Protein: 0.6 g

Ingredients
1.75 cup flour
1 T cornstarch
2 cups sugar
.75 cup cocoa powder
2 t baking soda
1 t baking powder
1 cup skim milk mixed with 2 tsp white vinegar
.5 cup fat free sour cream (you can also use Greek yogurt)
egg substitute to 2 eggs (or 2 egg whites
1 t vanilla extract
1 cup coffee

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 and spray your pan
2. Whisk together flour, cornstarch, sugar, cocoa, baking soda, and baking powder
3. In a separate bowl mix together milk, sour cream, egg substitute, vanilla and coffee
4. Mix wet ingredients into dry
5. Put 1 T into your cake pop pan and bake for 15 minutes until they are done.

Do you like coffee?  Do you enjoy seasonal flavors?  What's your favorite seasonal flavor?

Update 12/18/2013:  I found the notes I took at the event.  

• Did you know there is no non-dairy option at Dunkin Donuts?  
• The Red Velvet and Eggnog, Pumpkin Mocha and Red Velvet flavors will only be around until the end of December.  They will be bringing out a completely new flavor in January {I'm so excited!}
• The glazed donuts have less fat then the raised ones.  The cake soaks up less fat than the yeast.

Kitchen Sink Stew

Normally my family isn't very helpful when it comes to dinner.  When I ask what they would like they normally respond, "it doesn't matter", "whatever you want", "I don't know", or "I don't care."  So, when I actually get requests I love it.  The other night I recieved a request for stew.  Coincidentally enough I was already planning on doing stew the following nite.  We ended up getting into a conversation of what should be in the stew and the following recipe is what we came up with.  I actually added vegetarian sausage into it.  I didn't calculate it into the nutritional information but, I added a whole roll of it.  It shouldn't add very many extra calories but, it does up the protein and sodium some too.

To go with it I made some cornbread (one of Kaylee's favorite things.)  The recipe came from Happy Herbivore's new book Light & Lean.  It is really good.  I normally don't like cornbread and I found that I could tolerate this one.  Yet again, I didn't get a photo.  

These recipes were so go we all went back for seconds {and thirds and fourths...}   

Kitchen Sink Stew
Serves about 10
Calories: 153.7
Fat: 0.6 grams
Sodium: 325 grams
Protein: 6.4 grams
2 lbs Mushrooms, quatered
2 onions. diced
2 ribs celery, diced
2 cloves of garlic, minced
3 medium carrots, chopped
3 radishes, sliced
2 large sweet potatoes, cubed
1 package Lipton onion soup mix mixed with 4 cups water
4 cups vegetable broth
1 cup frozen peas
2 T cornstarch mixed with 2 T water

Directions

1. In a large pot saute onions, radishes, celery and carrots until onions are translucent.
2. Add mushrooms and saute until they are soft. 
3. Add sweet potatoes, onion soup and broth.
4. Bring to a boil then reduce and simmer for 20 minutes
5. Add peas, bring back to a boil and simmer for another 10 minutes
6. Whisk in cornstarch mixture and boil until thickened (about 2 minutes)

Cornbread Muffins
Adapted from: Happy Herbivore Light & Lean

Ingredients
1 cup cornmeal
1 cup flour
1 T baking powder
1 cup skim milk
.25 cup sugar free maple syrup

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350.
2. Spray muffin tin (do NOT use cupcake liners or they will stick)
3. Mix the dry ingredients together
4. Add in wet ingredients
5. Bake 15 minutes

Is your family helpful when it comes to making decisions about what's for dinner?

Happy Herbivore Book Review

I'm really excited about this month.  It's only the second day but it already seems to be going well.  The girls and I sat and watched Christmas shows and movies yesterday and I got a bit of Christmas shopping done today.

I'm having issues figuring out what to get Kaylee and Mo.  I want to get them everything and I can't make up my mind.

Are you having issues finding the perfect gift for the foodie in your life?  Well I have a suggestion.  The new book from Lindsay Nixon, The Happy Herbivore.  The Happy Herbivore is a blog that I follow religiously.  I received her book, Happy Herbivore Light & Lean a few weeks ago to review.   

This book is great.  There are over 150 recipes.  The first half is recipes and the second half has some exercises and workouts.  Perfect healthy living book.  I would say that if you are new to the healthy living scene, this book is definitely something you should pick up.  

All of her recipes contain no added fat or oil and are plant-based.  This is the description from the blog.
  
"I don't cook with oils or other added fats. All my recipes are fat-free or low fat and I focus on using whole, unprocessed plant foods -- but nothing obscure or bizarre! I use normal "everyday" ingredients we all have on hand and most of my recipes come together in 20 minutes or less, too!

I keep it healthy, affordable, easy, no fuss and most importantly: delicious!"

Her recipes are perfect for my dietary restrictions.  

As soon as I opened the book I was in love.  Every single recipe looked delicious and called for me to try it.  Since I received the book 2 weeks ago I have already made 3 recipes and have 6 more on the menu for December.  

The recipe I'm sharing with you today is one of my favorites.  When the girls and I have smoothie and muffin nite I like to try a new recipe.  Luckily, smoothie nite was planned for a few days after the book arrived in the mail.  

 

Blueberry Yogurt Muffins

Makes 12

Soy-free, Fat-free, Quick

If I had to pick a favorite kind of muffin, I think blueberry muffins would be it for me. With their hint of lemon, these muffins make me think of sunny, relaxed mornings. I also love that they’re made with vegan yogurt (a boost of protein!) and very little sugar.

2 c white whole-wheat flour

1 tsp baking powder

½ tsp baking soda

pinch salt

¼ c raw sugar

1 ripe (spotted) banana

½ c vanilla nondairy milk, divided

6 oz vegan yogurt (plain, vanilla, or blueberry)

¼ c unsweetened applesauce

1 c blueberries (thawed, if using frozen)

3–4 tbsp lemon zest

Preheat oven to 350˚F. Line muffin tin with paper or silicone cups or use a nonstick pan, and set aside. In

a mixing bowl, whisk flour with baking powder, baking soda, salt, and sugar. In a small food processor or

blender, whiz banana with 1⁄4 cup nondairy milk until silky smooth. Stir into flour mixture, then add yogurt, applesauce, and remaining nondairy milk. Stir a few times, add blueberries and lemon zest, and stir gently, folding in blueberries, until just combined. Spoon into muffin cups and bake 15–20 minutes

or until muffins are golden, firm to the touch, and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

Per Muffin Calories . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 116 Fat. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.8g Carbs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  25.6g Fiber. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  2.9g Sugars. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8.8g Protein. . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  3.5g WW Points. . . . . . . . . . . . . .  3

 

Do you have any favorite bloggers?  How excited are you for this holiday season?

New Month, New Me

Happy December 1st everybody!  I'm so happy November is over!  It was really not a good month for me.  I mentioned most of the things that went wrong during the month in my last post but, here's a quick recap.

• Sick for the first 2 weeks of the month
• Stressed-induced ulcer
• Depression
• My body refused fish of any kind.  The only animal protein I could tolerate was eggs, yogurt and cheese
• I only made it to the gym a handful of times
• The family's diet was seriously horrible due to everything that was going wrong with me

I'm happy  to say that I'm physically and mentally better, and I have reduced my stress by half.  My body is now allowing me occasional fish, I'm changing the family's diet back to normal as of today, and I'm headed back to the gym on Tuesday {I would be going back tomorrow but, Christmas doesn't shop for itself}

I don't know if this is happening everywhere in the world but, where I live, many of the fat free foods are being taken out of the local supermarkets.  My local Publix no longer carries light soy milk.  I could understand if they only carried the Greenwise Market {Publix's brand} brand light soy milk and no longer carry Silk or any other company's light soy milk but, they have taken every brand off the shelves.   I also have difficulty finding fat free coffee creamer {I buy it when I want to treat myself and don't want to pay coffee shop prices.}  I think it's interesting that while everything you read is talking about how unhealthy Americans are and how much we need to reduce our fat and calorie intakes, Publix is taking the healthier options OFF the shelves.  Does this make sense to you??!!??

So, in short, I now shop at Wal-Mart for my light soy milk and I make my own coffee creamer.  After Publix upset me by not carrying any flavor other than French Vanilla in the fat free creamers I started searching the internet for how to make my own.  Every website had the same basic recipe.  This would probably be a great gift for the coffee aficionado in your life.  

Ingredients
1 14 oz can fat free sweetened condensed milk
2 cups skim milk

Directions

1. Whisk together

You can add flavorings to it.  Here are a few links that have a bunch of flavoring ideas.  

Mrs. Happy Homemaker: 20 Different Flavors
Deliciously Organic: Homemade Coffee Creamer
She Knows: Fall Flavored Coffee Creamer 

Another great thing about this recipe?  The calorie count!  1 tablespoon {without any flavoring added} has 21.3 calories and 4.6 grams of sugar.  It makes 3.75 cups/ 60 tablespoons.  

For my first rial I made a pumpkin chocolate creamer since I am currently obsessed with Dunkin Donut's Pumpkin Mocha iced coffee.  Add .25 - .5 cup pumpkin puree and 1-2 T sugar free chocolate syrup to the base recipe.  You can also use cocoa powder but make sure to heat a bit of milk and mix the cocoa powder into the heated milk before mixing everything together.