Biscuit Cups

I've seen a lot of variations of this recipe all over the internet and I really want to say to people "You are making this way more complicated than it needs to be!" 

I think I got inspired from a photo I saw somewhere.  All I know for sure is I was walking through the grocery store thinking of what to make for Christmas breakfast and came up with this.

Biscuit Cups with Eggs, Cheese & Bacon! 

What I did was VERY easy.  After making them I looked this up online as I was thinking I had maybe seen this on Pinterest which is where I found all the overly complicated recipes. 

What I bought:

• 1 roll of premade biscuits
• Eggs
• Shredded Cheese
• BACON (you can sub what ever mean or lack of meat you like)

What I did:

• Precook the bacon so it is a little under done.
• Place the biscuits on a greased baking sheet several inches apart (I used aluminum foil in the photo above as this makes clean up SO much easier).
• Press down the middle of the biscuits so they are flattened out with a thick ridge around the outside- essentially so they are little bowls. 
• Drop a little shredded cheese into each biscuit bowl.
• Crack an egg into each biscuit bowl.
• Salt and Pepper to taste.
• Top with bacon (or other meats).
• Bake at 375 deg. for 18 minutes.

My father wanted even more cheese so I added a little to the top of his.  For this I took the biscuits out at the 15 minute point, added the cheese, then cooked for an additional 3 minutes.  Just long enough to melt the cheese and not burn it.

I made these Christmas morning for my family and then used the leftovers to make these two today.  The one shown above was the only one where the egg spilled out of the biscuit.  So unless that bothers you that one out of ten might over flow- no need to go through all the trouble I've seen online of pressing dough into cookie tins or mixing up egg concoctions to pour in.  Unless of course you want to. 

Also- these are something you can make to take on the run.  The egg yoke looks possibly runny, but it cooked through.  So although my family did the fancy fork and knife thing, you can just grab one and go. 

Pasta with Pizazz

So this isn't about the pasta, I didn't make that from scratch.  Just a suggestion on how to add some pizazz to it.  Sure, it's easy enough to put store bought pasta in boiling water, pour on some store bought sauce, sprinkle a cheese and call it good.  But what if you want something a little more filling?  Or if you're watching your calories/carbs and want to figure a way to work in some pasta but keep the carbs down?  Well, that is what this is about.

So really adding any vegetables at all will help.  I've used:

• Mushrooms
• Onions
• Asparagus 
• Spinach
• Bell Peppers
• Broccoli
• Sweet Potatoes (Ok, technically this is a starch)
• Butter Nut Squash

But it's your dinner, what are you craving? 

Cooking:

The ravioli I used were mushroom from Costco.  4 ravioli per serving.  But I've also used butternut squash and chicken ravioli.   Just cook according to the packages instructions.

If you're using sweet potato or butternut squash, I recommend cooking that in the oven cut into small pieces and adding it to the pasta in the last stages. 

For the veggies, start with the onion and anything thick like the asparagus.  Saute them with a little olive oil at a medium/medium-low setting until tender.  At that point add anything not so thick like mushrooms, spinach, garlic, etc.  Continue cooking until onions are caramelized. 


Olive Oil calories got you wincing?  Here is my trick: I use an olive oil sprayer.  There are several varieties out there.  Misto makes a good one that is available quite a few places.  But this allows me to spray just enough to cover what I am cooking rather then sit it in a puddle of oil.  So I only used about 2 tablespoons for the whole recipe instead of 8.


Sauce Suggestions: 

• Olive Oil, Basil and Garlic (Spritz a little oil on the finished pasta. Make sure to add quite a bit of garlic to your veggies and add some chopped fresh basil just before the veggies finish cooking.)
• Pesto - I used my simple home made pesto, post to come on that.
• Butter and sage- melt a little butter and throw in some chopped sage.  Cook only enough to slightly crisp the edges of the sage. 

Don't forget the cheese! I love Romano and parmigiana.  I wait until it's on the plate and then sprinkle each serving, otherwise it gets lost in the bowl.  Also makes for a better plating experience. 

There you go, a beautiful plate of many colors to mix up your drab pasta dinner. 

Home Made Pop Tarts!

Ok, so maybe they aren't EXACTLY like a pop tart, but they are WAY more healthier.  My niece spent the day with me so I made these for breakfast.  She really seemed to enjoy them...

 

Nom Nom Nom

So this isn't so much of a recipie as it is a tutorial becase really all these are is toasted BP & J sandwiches... with a fancy tiwst.  I heard that the chef at the White House did something similar for the the Easter brunch they do each year, and this was inspired from that.  

 

Indredients:

• Bread - sans the crust
• Peanut Butter
• Berries (I used Raspberries and sliced Strawberries)
• Butter/Butter Spray

 

Directsion:

 

Preheat your oven to 300 degrees. 

 

Spread Peanut butter around the middle of a crustless slice of bread, leaving about a half inch margine on all sides around this.  Place a couple berries in the middle.  Cover with a 2nd slice of crustless bread and use a fork to press the sides down so they stick together.  Repeat for as many tarts as you are wanting to make. 

 

Place these on a pan and spray each side with the butter spray (I can't beleive it's not butter) or melt some butter and use a pastry brush to spread butter on each side.  Place the pan in the over and cook each side about 10 minutes, or until browned.  Total of around 20 minutes.  You can do this faster at a higher temperature, however the lower temperature/longer time is better for really cooking the berries and getting them nicely warm and soft. 

 

Notes: 

• Peanut Butter- I suggest using an organic dark roast peanut butter, with only peanuts and salt listed in the ingredients.  Not only is it healthier, but you'll get a lot more flavor out of a small amount vs. using Jiff or Skippy, etc etc... My personal favorite is Santa Cruz brand creamy dark roast. 
• Berries vs Jelly- You can use jelly instead for a PB&J if you don't have berries.  I prefer the berries as there is less sugar and more berry flavor.  When the berries cook they melt into the PB so it comes out really nice in my opinion. 
• Frozen vs. Fresh- If you have frozen berries, defrost them first!  Get out all the excess water that happens in the defrosting period prior to using them so that you don't wind up with soggy tarts. 

 

 

Nutrition: This will really depend on the bread you use and if you use real butter vs the spray substitue.  If you do as I suggested with the Sarah Lee Delightful, 2 tsp of peanut butter per tart, real fruit, and the spray, each one will have a value of 4 WW 2012 PointsPlus.

Lemon Garlic Chicken Salad

Unfortunately it's harder than I expected to find time to write a post, so I've gotten behind.  But let's play a little catch up with a simple recipe I created.  I was inspired by a salad sold at Trader Joe's that while very yummy was much higher in calories and fat than necessary.  So I decided to make my own version and like it even more than the original.  This is super simple and won't take long at all.

 

 

 

Ingredients:

•  1 can Chicken Breast Chunks, canned in water, not oil (about a cup)
• 4 Tbsp Light Sour Cream
• 3 Tbsp Light Mayonnaise
• 1/2 a Lemon Juiced
• 1-2 stalks celery, chopped
• 2-3 scallions thinly sliced
• 2-3 tsp Garlic Salt (To taste really, I just estimated. It depends on how much you like garlic!)
• Pepper

 

Optional:

• 1 Cup Cherry Tomatoes, quartered
• 1 Cup Red Grapes, quartered

 

Directions:

In a bowl flake the chicken chunks into stringy pieces.  Add the Sour Cream, Mayo and Lemon juice.  Stir until mixed.  Add the celery, scallions, garlic salt and pepper.  Mix and taste to ensure the right garlic salt and pepper ratio.  Let it sit a few minutes for the Lemon juice to really set into the ingredients.  And voila! 

 

Serving Suggestions:

• Simple: with crackers- I prefer the Special K multi grain ones. 
• As a Salad: Over mixed greens, serve with cherry tomatoes, grapes, red onion, a few pecans... what ever sounds good.  Use a light vinaigrette for dressing- I prefer Trader Joe's Pear & Gorgonzola Champagne Vinaigrette.  (2 WW Points) 

 

Notes:

• It's really important this is fresh Lemon Juice. If you use the concentrate stuff bought in the plastic Lemon, you won't get the Lemon taste this really needs
• You might gage at the thought of canned chicken, but for simplicity sake and because it flakes really nicely I use canned.  You can use freshly cooked chicken breast if you like.  I'm sure it will taste better!
• Non-fat verses Light Sour Cream and Mayo- You loose the potency of the flavor if you switch to non-fat and this turns out a little like Greek yogurt.  If you wish to use non-fat, go ahead.  But for best flavor use the light.  It's a difference of 1 WW Point per serving. 

 Nutrition: I have this set at 3 servings.  According to Weight Watchers Points Plus 2012, this is 3 Points per serving. 

 

Salted Carmel & Coconut Chocolate Chip Cream Pie

Just from the name I'm sure you are thinking "that sounds decadent"! Well, it kind of is. But it's also leaves you with a light feeling from the coconut so not overly so. I made this last Thanksgiving to bring for dessert along with a traditional pumpkin pie. My sister doesn't like the pumpkin, and my mother usually tries to pass on dessert (but then gets caught in the kitchen later with a fork eating out the inside of the pie). However she loves chocolate covered salted caramels. So I decided to try and make a pie version to tempt both of them. I researched a lot of different recipes to get a feel for where to even begin and came out with the following. I added the coconut and only a light dusting of chocolate to lighten it up.  It was so good my mother went back for seconds!

Ingredients:

1Graham Cracker Pie Crust Ready Made (Light variety)

1 14 oz cans Low Fat Sweetened Condensed Milk

1 Tbsp. Fleur de sel (or sea salt)

1 small tub Cool Whip Light Topping

1/2 cup Sweetened Coconut Flakes

1/2 tsp. Coconut Extract

2 Tbsp. Dark Chocolate Chips finely chopped

Directions:

• Preheat the oven to 425 degrees (F). 

• Empty the Sweetened Condensed Milk into a 9x13 glass pan and sprinkle with 1/2 tsp. of the fleur de sel.  Cover with aluminum foil and place in a high sided larger pan.  Add water until it reaches 1/3 of the way up the glass dish.  Bake until the mixture thickens and turns a light golden brown, stirring occasionally.  If too much water evaporates, add more as needed.  This should take about 2 hours. 

• Once golden, scrape the Carmel into the pie crust and let it cool.  Cover with plastic and set in the refrigerator over night.  (Tip- spray your plastic wrap with cooking stray so it doesn't stick) 

• Just before serving- In a bowl mix the Cool Whip topping with 1/2 tsp. coconut extract, 1/2 cup Coconut flakes, and Tbsp. dark chocolate chip flakes.  (I put my chips in a food processor- I just wanted a light chocolate hint, but if you like chocolate you can add more or larger pieces.)

• Remove pie base from refrigerator and top with whip cream mixture.  Sprinkle with remaining fleur de sel. 

• Tip- if you need to travel with and can't do the last step on the spot,  freeze the completed pie and move it to the fridge about an hour before serving.

Serving tip- run your knife under hot water before cutting to avoid the Carmel sticking.

Serves 12.

Nutrition: Based on Weight Watchers 2012 Flex Point- 1 Slice = 9 points.

Yellow Cake : Strawberry Frosting

I found this recipe at Bakerella.com. Normally I am not a cake person, but in my mind when I saw the pink frosting I immediately filled in the flavor as strawberry. I LOVE strawberry. The rest of the day I was craving what my mind imagined this cake would taste like. So I did something totally out of character and went ahead and made this that very night.

Since I didn't change the recipe I won't rewrite it. But here are my notes for those who want to try and attempt this.

Flour: I couldn't find White Lily brand flour and ended up buying Softasilk brand which I thought was self rising. I was wrong. I was frustrated as I couldn't find anything that said "self rising" so I thought this was my best bet as it says on the box "cake flour". It turns out I was looking in the wrong area. I thought this would be in with the special, expensive flours, but it was in a 5 lbs. bag next to the generic cheap flour. So that was my first mistake.

Sifting the flour: This was my second mistake. The Softasilk says it's pre-sifted, but in hind sight it had settled down too much in the box. Make sure you really sift the flour otherwise the texture will not be right.

Cake Texture: The cake actually came out like a pound cake. I believe this is due to mistakes #1 and 2 above rather than the actual intention of the recipe. It still tasted good, but it was not the light and fluffy cake I was expecting.

Adding Moisture: I didn't do the spray bottle trick suggested, however I did wrap the cakes in plastic warp while they were still quite warm.  This seemed to do the trick as the cake was nice and moist even a couple days later.

Icing flavoring: I couldn't find strawberry extract so I bought frozen strawberries that came in a sugary juice. The liquid from the defrosted strawberries worked perfect for adding flavoring. I also used a food processor and added some tiny strawberry bits to the frosting which turned out great!

Icing consistency: This is a butter cream frosting. Not sure what I was expecting because I KNEW it was butter cream, but it was a bit too buttery for my taste. Also, taking from other recipes I've seen since then, I would definitely sift the powdered sugar should I ever decide to make this again. This was very thick and not fluffy.

Overall I did really enjoy the cake when it was finished. So much so I did something yet again completely out of character for me and ate a piece at breakfast the next morning! Yikes. There went being good that day. I tried to give the cake away to people, but they all said it was so rich they would only take one or two pieces. They all raved about the taste- and I don't think they were doing that to appease me. They were all people who haven't had problems telling me I made a cooking blunder in the past. Plus people could tell there was a LOT of butter so everyone was weary of what it would do to their waste line. To that ends I did end up throwing about a third of the cake out. I had to stop myself from eating any more. I would try this again if I had the right occasion, but definitely not unless I had a large enough crowd to help polish it off.