I'm BACK!

My crazy weeks are done and I can focus again on y'all!  Honestly, nothing exciting has happened over the past few weeks.  This post might be a bit long due to the fact that I have a ton of recipes to share. 

Let's start with the Superbowl.  I never have enough friends to have a party but I love the idea of Superbowl party food.  So, I did a themed dinner that night.  It was delicious.  I did Spinach artichoke dip, homemade tortilla chips, cauliflower buffalo bites, and portabello pizzas.  The recipes for the dip and the buffalo bites are located below the picture. 

SkinnyTaste: Buffalo Cauliflower
SkinnyTaste: Spinach and Artichoke Dip

Oh and I did some angel food cake cupcakes with team colored sugar on top.

Next up, the Korean New Year, Seollal.  I made Bibimbap and chamchi-jeon (Korean tuna cakes)  except I did them with crab because I was in a crabby mood.  I didn't get a picture of any of it.  It was actually gone too quick. 

ZenKimchi Chamchi-Jeon

Oh and I just have to show you this!  My father and mother in law sent this to Sunny last week. 

 
Her own hanbok!  Isn't she simply adorable???  

Fast forward a few days to Valentine's Day.  To Ken and I this day has become just a day for the kids.  And it's honestly all about the candy.  We exchange cards and he will buy my flowers but, it's nothing major.  This year I gave him a bag of Snickers with a reason why I love him for every piece in it.  He gave me a bag of Valentine's Day 3 Musketeers.  I think I've talked about 3 Musketeers before.  Each piece has under 1 gram of fat so, I can still have chocolate without causing myself pain. This year he bought me a bag of Strawberry Dark Chocolate ones.  They are amazing.  I have dubbed them the "poor man's Russel Stover" because they taste so close to the high end strawberry cream chocolates.   I eat one a night.  I would highly recommend them.  7 pieces has 6 grams of fat and 180 calories.  That means 1 has 0.86 grams of fat and 25.8 calories.  Not too bad right?  Healthiest candy I've found so far.

Florida kills me sometimes.  The other morning I woke up and it was 34 degrees outside.  34!!  I decided it was the type of day that called for chili.  Well, by 2 pm it was around 65 degrees.  Definitely not typical chili weather.  But, despite that, I still made it.  I was amazed at how it turned out.  It was really good awesome!  I took a few big risks with some of the ingredients.  Kaylee and Mantha aren't normally fond of sweet potatoes (that's why there's only 1/2 of one in the recipe).  If I had been making it for me I would have added a whole one.  The soy crumbles aren't normally liked by non-vegetarians.  But, even Ken raved about it.  Note about the Crumbles.  If you are seriously on a no-fat diet then you need to buy the BOCA soy crumbles.  They are the only ones that have 0g of fat.  I picked up a different brand and didn't pay attention so that is why there is extra fat in the recipe 

Veggie Overload Chili
Serves 10 calories 136 fat 1.09 grams fiber 6 grams protein 12.2 grams

Ingredients
1 large onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 tsp ground cumin
1/2 tsp dried oregano
1/4 cup chili powder
1/8 tsp ground cinnamon
2 bay leaves
12 oz Ground Crumbles Meatless (1 bag)
2 Tbsp tomato paste
1 Tbsp cocoa powder
12 oz dark beer
.25 sweet potato, cubed
1 cup corn (fresh, frozen or canned)
16 oz mushrooms, quartered
42 oz Diced Tomatoes 
16 oz tomato sauce 

Directions

1. Saute onions, sweet potato and garlic until golden.
2. Add in the spices and cook for another 2 minutes
3. Stir in tomato paste and meatless crumbles
4. Next put in chocolate, beer,tomato sauce and tomatoes bring to a boil then reduced and simmer for 30 minutes
5. After 30 minutes add the corn, and mushrooms.
6.  Bring back to a boil and simmer for another 15 minutes

 I have a post in the works about regaining motivation.  I kist my motivation a few weeks ago while I wasn't blogging (hmmmm, I wonder if there's a connection?  I hadn't thought of it before now)  I bought myself a new pair of pants for the gym in order to get myself pumped.  

I bought them at Target for $20.  They are made by Champion and they are AH-MA-ZING.  When I worked out in my other capris I kept having to adjust them every 10 minutes.  The only time I had to adjust these was when I got out of the car and when I accidentally pushed them up.  I have one problem with them though.  They are made of 84% polyester and 16% spandex.  I'm very paranoid about them getting snagged.  

That's my February in a very big nutshell.  How has your month been?

Christmas Recipes

Okay, here's a little known fact about my family.  Christmas dinner takes FOREVER to decide on in this house.  I have no clue why but it takes us about a week to figure out our menu.  Christmas Eve is a no-brainer.  We do a "munching spread".  But, Christmas dinner, we have serious sit downs to decide on what we're going to have.  We normally start talking a few days after my parents get here and finalize the menu a day or 2 before Christmas Eve. 

But, here it is.  My Christmas Eve and Christmas dinner menus

Christmas Eve

Jalapeno Poppers 

Fat free and my fave!!

(adapted from Cook This!  Not That!)

1 cup mushrooms, diced
1/2 onion, minced
1/2 cup of fat free shredded cheddar cheese
1/2 cup fat free cream cheese
12 jalapenos

1. Spray a skillet with pan spray.  Sautee onions and mushrooms until soft.
2. Heat oven to 400 degrees
3. In a separate bowl, combine the onions, mushrooms, cream cheese and cheese
4. Slice the jalapenos in half lengthwise and scoop out the seeds (leave them in if you want it super spicy)
5. Fill each half of jalapeno with the cheese mixture. 
6. Place them on a baking sheet and bake for about 15-20 minutes until the peppers are soft and the cheese is brown and bubbly. 

Spinach Pie

(Adapted from SkinnyTaste)

(You can find the crust recipe HERE) 

Ingredients
10 oz frozen spinach, thawed and drained
1/2 cup green onions, chopped
1 T dried dill
1 T parsley
1 cup fat free feta
2 T minced garlic
1/2 cup flour
1 tsp baking powder
2/3 cup fat free milk
1/2 cup egg substitute (equal to 2 eggs)
 1/4 - 1/2 pizza dough recipe

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees
2.  Spray a pie pan with cooking spray
3. Roll out pizza dough to about 1/8" thick.  Cut it out so it's a bit bigger than your pie pan, lay it inside and crimp the edges
4. Mix together the spinach, green onions, dill, parsley and feta
5. In a seperate bowl mix together all the other ingredient.
6. Mix both mixtures together.
7. Spread in the crust
8. Bake for 28-33 minutes until a knife inserted in the center comes out clean.
9. Let it rest for atleast 5 minutes before cutting it.

(If you use 1/4 of the pizza dough recipe it will add about 51 calories to each slice of pie)

Sliced Fruit
Strawberries
Grapes
Pineapple
Cantaloupe
Apples
Bananas

Sliced Veggies
Mushrooms
Carrots
Cauliflower
Broccoli
Celery
Radishes
Cucumber
Grape Tomatoes

For the fruits I use a yogurt dip:  

Ingredients
2 cups fat free vanilla yogurt
1/2 cup honey (more or less to taste)
1 tsp cinnamon (to taste) 

1. Mix it all together
2. Chill until ready to use

For the veggies I use a simple  

Ranch Dip 

(I found it on the back of the ranch powder container):

Ingredients
3 T ranch dressing powder
16 oz sour cream

1. Stir it all together, cover and refridgerate

Per Mo's request we are having  

PIGS IN A BLANKET

Ingredients
1 package Hillshire Farms Lit'l Smokies
1/2 batch of pizza dough

1. Roll out pizza dough and slice into long strips about 1" wide
2. Preheat oven to 375 degrees
3. Drain the liquid from the packages of sausages and dry them off
4. Wrap dough around sausages  
5.  Place on a baking sheet and bake for 12-15 minutes until golden brown

ON TO CHRISTMAS DINNER!!

Gramma's Christmas Cake
This cake has been a Christmas tradition for many, many, many years.  I can't imagine Christmas without this cake.  When I got sick I had to doctor the recipe to make sure I could eat it.  This cake is my mom's Christmas version of a Jello Poke Cake.

White cake  

(taken from CalorieCount.About)

2 c all purpose flour
1 1/3 c sugar
2/3 c cornstarch
4 tsp baking powder
4 egg whites
1 1/3 c skim milk
2/3 c Karo syrup
2 tsp vanilla

1. Grease 2 9inch cake pans
2. Preheat oven to 350
3. Mix together dry ingredients
4. In a separate bowl whisk the liquid ingredients together
5. Add wet ingredients into the dry and mix well
6. Pour into greased pans
7. Bake for 20-25 minutes
8. Remove from pan and cool (Keep the pans though, you'll need them for the next step)

Ingredients to put the cake together
1 box cherry gelatin
1 box lime geletin
2 C boiling water
8 oz whipped topping (Cool Whip, Dream Whip or fresh whipped cream)
  

1. Place the cooled cakes back in the pans.  Poke holes into each cake using a chopstick, skewer or knife.
2. Dissolve cherry gelatin in 1 cup of boiling water, do the same with the lime.
3. Slowly pour the cherry over one layer of cake and the lime over the other cake.
4. Place the pans in the refrigerator for at least 3 hours to set.
5. Take the cakes out of the pans and  use the whipped topping to frost the cakes.
6. Dig in!

Honestly the rest of my Christmas menu is quite simple

Salmon

Ham

Potatoes, Green Beans and Onions

Ingredients

Petite Red Potatoes (or creamer potatoes)

Frozen or Fresh Green Beans

FROZEN Pearl Onions (Mr. Amazing made the mistake of getting me fresh pearl onions for Thanksgiving, they are a pain in the neck to peel!  But, if you can't find frozen, fresh will do)

Directions

1. Clean your potatoes and green beans 
2. If you're using fresh green beans then trim the ends
3. Put potatoes in a pot and fill with water.  
4. Bring the potatoes to a boil and let boil for 15 minutes
5. Add the green beans and onions, bring back to a boil, and boil for approximately 5 minutes.  
6. When everything is done, drain
7.  Serve

 

Rolls

You can either make your own or, if you're lazy like me, you can purchase them.  The only company that makes fat free rolls is Alexia.  Their French Rolls are fat free and very delicious.  

  

Corn 

We're just going to do frozen corn on the cob.  Nice and simple.

Squash with Wilted Spinach 
(The same one from Thanksgiving, ditch the dressing, I'm using butternut and acorn squash and sweet potatoes, and roast some garlic with the potatoes, after you put it on the plate, throw some feta on top)       

Well, there it is, my Christmas dinner and Christmas Eve spread.  Hopefully I've given you some ideas.  If you try any of my recipes please leave me a comment and tell me what you think!