Best LOW FAT Chocolate Chip Cookies

So, I've been baking and cooking a lot lately~ just not blogging about it. Here is a great recipe link. I like to save them here so I know where to find them again:)

http://www.skinnytaste.com/2011/08/best-low-fat-chocolate-chip-cookies.html

mageleby's bread stick copycat recipe

1 1/2 C Water
1T Honey
1T malted milk powder
1 tsp salt
3 to 3 1/2 C Flour
2 1/4 tsp yeast
1/2 C butter
Parmesan Cheese (the kind you shake out)
Garlic Powder
Dried parsley flakes

Place warm water, honey, milk powder, salt and flour in a bowl. Make an indentation in the flour, add the yeast and mix it up. (or put it in your bread maker and put it through the dough cycle) Dump it into a greased bowl and let it double in size. Preheat the oven to 400. Roll it out into a rectangle and cut it into strips about 2 x 3 inches. Place on a parchment lined jelly roll pan. Brush with half the melted butter. Sprinkle with Parmesan cheese, garlic powder, and parsley flakes to taste and bake at 400 for 15 minutes. Immediately after you remove the baked breadsticks, brush with the rest of the butter. Then eat them and make yourself a promise you'll run on the treadmill tonight. Or tomorrow.

Homemade Tortillas

Haven't tried this yet. Just putting it here so I know where to find it when I do! Thought it would be a great recipe using my food storage.

Tortillas

Ingredients

• 2 cups flour
• 1/2 teas baking powder
• 1/2 teas salt
• 2 Tablespoons of butter (softened)
• 1/2 cup of warm water

Combine flour, baking powder, salt and butter in a medium bowl.

Gradually add water and mix until a smooth dough is formed. If the dough is too sticky, add a little more flour.

Roll dough into one and one-half inch balls. Set on a plate and cover. Let rest for ten minutes.

Flatten one ball at a time between two small plates and then roll into a six inch circle.

The flatter you roll the dough the more it will resemble soft tacos, thicker dough is more like a gordita.

Place the tortillas on a griddle and cook over a medium heat until the tortillas turn white, then flip and repeat.

Ready to eat.

You can even make these for dessert. Just follow the recipe above and when the tortillas are right off the griddle, butter them and sprinkle with cinnamon and sugar. Delish!

SHUTTERFLY!

Above are a few of my favorite Holiday cards from Shutterfly this year! I have ordered Holiday cards from Shutterfly and have also gotten birth announcements from them. I was not disappointed. I loved them! The patterns are darling... in fact, I always have a hard time choosing which to use because they have so many wonderful options! They are great quality and look beautiful fresh out an envelope or in our scrapbooks.

I have also used Shutterfly for their photo books. I have yet to print them but have my little Vance's first year recorded. I loved that I can save my photos this way, but also that I can journal as much as I wanted in the book, too! These make great gifts. They also are perfect scrapbooks for those of who hate the scissors, stickers, glitter, and pens that are needed to make your own scrapbook.

Here are some ideas for last minute gifts this year...

Photo Gifts

(I want to do a puzzle for my boys. They would love putting together a picture of our family at Disneyland!)

Calendars

(Perfect for Dad's office!)

Address Labels

(Great to speed up the Christmas card sending process or they also make a great gift. My mom dig's things like this!)

I know we all love Shutterfly!!!! What are your fave's?

Look for our Holiday card in a mailbox near you!

*I am receiving 50 free cards for doing this blog, which is great. But the opinions here are mine~ I have always loved Shutterfly!

39 Favorite Fall Desserts

Pumpkin Squares with Cider Caramel Sauce

Pumpkin Pie-sicles

Check it out: 39 Favorite Fall Desserts!

The Perfect Chocolate Chip Cookie

Prepared by Chef Tom

www.cookwithtom.com

Ingredients:

2 sticks butter

2 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 cup granulated sugar

1 1/4 cups packed brown sugar
1 egg
1 egg yolk
2 tablespoons milk

1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
12 oz bag milk chocolate chips

Heat oven to 350 degrees F.

Melt the butter in a medium saucepan over low heat. Sift together the flour, salt, and baking soda and set aside.

Pour the melted butter in the mixer's work bowl. Add the sugar and brown sugar. Cream the butter and sugars on medium speed. Add the egg, yolk, 2 tablespoons milk and vanilla extract and mix until well combined. Slowly incorporate the flour mixture until thoroughly combined. (tip from Caren: you will need extra flour, if not, flat cookies. So I add about 1/2 cup or until the dough thickens up quite a bit and so it is not so sticky/runny like.) Stir in the chocolate chips.

Chill the dough (abt and hour or two- if not, flat cookies), then scoop onto parchment-lined baking sheets, 6 cookies per sheet. (tip from Caren: make'em big! abt golf ball size and then shape them into hockey pucks- that is what the creater suggested. makes a big thick cookie:) ) Bake for 11 minutes or until golden brown, checking the cookies after 5 minutes. Rotate the baking sheet for even browning. Cool completely and store in an airtight container.

For an added zing, top each cookie with a few crystals of either fleur de sel, or coarse sea salt.

Golden Sweet Cornbread

I found this recipe online but made a few changes for taste and texture. I made it with Vance's preschool class this week and served them warm with honey butter. They loved it!!!! Super fast and super easy.

1 c all purpose flour
1 c yellow corn meal
1/2 to 2/3 c sugar (depending on how sweet you like it!)
1 tsp salt
2 t baking powder
1 egg
1 c milk
1/3 c vegetable oil
1 Tbls melted butter
Optional: 2/3 c corn or creamed corn and/or 1/2 tsp vanilla

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Spray or lightly grease a 9 inch round cake pan or line muffin pan with 12 muffin papers.
2. In a large bowl, combine flour, cornmeal, sugar, salt and baking powder. Stir in egg, milk, vegetable oil and butter until well combined. Pour batter into prepared pan.
3. Bake in preheated oven for 20 to 25 minutes for 9 inch round cake pan, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the loaf comes out clean. Bake abt 16 minutes for muffins.

Pomegranate, Apple and Banana Salad

Serves 4
Each serving equals 1 cup of fruit or vegetables

2 pomegranates, chilled
4-6 apples of your choice, sliced and cubed
1 cup vanilla yogurt
2 bananas sliced
2 limes (or 1/4 c freshly squeezed lime juice)

Mix together the juice of the lime and the apples. Score and seed both pomegranates, freeing the seeds. Mix all ingredients together to evenly coat with yogurt. Chill until served.

***Kitchen Tip: How to Remove the Seeds from a Pomegranate: Cut off the pomegranate’s crown, then divide into sections. Place the sections in a bowl of water. Gently roll out the arils with your fingers. Discard everything else. Drain the water, and the seeds are ready to use. (from the Kraft website)

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies

You know those pumpkin choco-chip cookies you make from a spice cake mix? Well, I hate those things. I was so glad to get a good home-made recipe. These cookies are amazing!

1 c vegetable oil
2 cups granulated sugar
3 large eggs
2 tsp vanilla
1 tsp mapleine
1 tsp salt
1 large can (29 oz) pureed pumpkin
2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/2 tsp ginger
1/4 tsp cloves
1/4 tsp allspice
5 c flour
2 tsp baking soda
2 tsp baking powder
1 pkg MINI chocolate chips

Preheat oven 375 degrees.
Cream oil, sugar, vanilla, mapleine, and salt.
Add eggs and pumpkin.
Beat well until mixture is fluffy.
Mix in spices.
Add flour, baking soda, baking powder.
Blend until incorporated.
Add chocolate chips.
Dough will be a cake like consistency.
Spoon onto a lightly sprayed cookie sheet.

Bake on 375 for 13-15 minutes.
Remove from cookie sheet to cool.

This recipe make approx. 100 cookies. (I halved it and had plenty!) They freeze well.

Options: Add currents, raisins, craisins, chopped nuts, or white chocolate chips in place of chocolate chips. Try icing with a butter cream frosting and topping with chopped nuts.
(Recipe from Suzanne Price)

The end result????????

Harvest Pumpkin Bars

Bars
2 c all-purpose flour
2 c sugar
1 Tbps pumpkin pie spice
2 tsp ground cinnamon
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 (15 oz) can solid pack pumpkin
3/4 c vegetable oil
4 eggs, beaten
Frosting
3 oz cream cheese, softened
6 Tbps butter, softened
1 tsp milk
1 tsp vanilla
2 c confectioners' sugar

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Mix flour, sugar, pumpkin pie spice, cinnamon, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in large bowl.
Stir in pumpkin, oil and eggs.
Spread in a greased 10x15 inch baking pan.
Bake for 20-25 minutes until edges pull away from the sides of the pan.
Cool in the pan on a wire rack.

Frosting- Combine cream cheese, butter, milk, vanilla, and confectioners sugar in a medium mixing bowl.
Beat on medium high speed until smooth, scraping the bowl constantly until of spreading consistency.
Spread over the baked layer.
Chill, covered, until serving time.
Cut into 48 bars.

A Pampered Chef recipe.

Food Storage Analyzer

Emergency Essentials has a great tool to help us see how much food storage we have accumulated! (or not accumulated in my case~) It's free and pretty darn useful! You just punch in how many people you need to feed and how much of each item listed you have in storage and... wah-lah! I have enough food to feed my family for almost 59 days!!! Okay, it's not much but I'm working on it.

At first I was thinking this analyzer was just geared toward EE items but I was glad to find they had a place to analyze canned foods and also a spot where you can add your own items.

Another neat feature is they have a recipe link right next to some of the items so you can see how you can use it. This also helped me see what else I needed to purchase in order to actually make something with what I have in the first place.

Overall~ Super easy to use!

Negatives... well, I still think EE is too pricey for most of their items so the ordering feature means nothing to me. Wonder if they have coupons.... Kim, let me know:)

Sweet... now I can a $10 gift card for reviewing the analyzer!!!!

Crispy Panko Mustard Chicken

I have wanting to try cooking with Panko bread crumbs for awhile now and yesterday I finally did it. This recipe was so yummy! The panko gives an incredible texture. Plus, this is so easy! This would go great with potatoes but since we were out we ate ours with corn and veggies.

FYI: "Do you know panko? It's a Japanese style of bread crumbs used to coat fried food. The crumbs are large and very flaky. It's made from yeast-raised bread dough that is baked in a special oven so it does not form a crust. The crumbs start out very pale colored but cook up golden brown. You can find it in the Asian section of just about any supermarket."
I purchased mine for about $2 at Macey's.

Crispy Panko Mustard Chicken
serves 2

1 Tablespoon unsalted butter
1 Tablespoon Creole Mustard (You can use any type of mustard- I used honey mustard-so good!)
1/4 cup panko
2 skinless, boneless chicken breasts

Preheat oven to 475 degrees. Melt the butter in a small dish in a microwave oven then combine the butter with the panko crumbs in a small mixing bowl.

Coat chicken breasts with mustard then place on a greased, foil-lined baking sheet, top with crumbs ("The trick to this technique is to mix the panko crumbs with just a little bit of melted butter then put it on top of the mustard coated chicken by hand instead of dipping the chicken in the crumbs.") and bake approximately 15 minutes or until cooked through and golden brown.

Recipe and photo found and all quotes taken from Cooking with Amy food blog: read it and eat it.

Cranberry Chicken

We love this recipe! It's so good and extremely EASY to prepare. Also, you can change it up by using different types of dressing or cranberries. I will display the original recipe below and then show how I make it.

1 Lg. bottle of French or Catalina dressing
2 cans whole cranberries in sauce
2 pkgs Dry onion soup mix
5-6 chicken breasts or 10-12 breast tenderloins

Mix first 3 ingredients to make sauce. Arrange chicken in 9X13 pan (or you can cut chicken breast into bite size pieces and add to sauce). Pour sauce over chicken. Bake at 350 degrees for 1 1/2 hours or cook in a crock pot.

* My version- I half the recipe since there are only 3 of us. But this does make great leftovers!

1/2 bottle Honey French or Creamy French dressing.
1 can of jellied cranberry sauce (so good and adds a sweetness to the sauce)
1 pkg Dry onion soup mix
3-4 chicken breasts

I cook this in a crock pot so my oven doesn't need to be on for and hour and a half- I don't need any more heat-up in this top floor condo! I cook it for about 3-4 hours and the chicken is wonderfully tender. WE SERVE OURS OVER RICE~ DIVINE!!!!!!

Recipe from Trina Morrison

Banana, Zuccinni, or Pumpkin Bread

3 eggs
1 c butter
2 c sugar
1 tsp vanilla
1 tsp cinnamon
2 c mashed bananas or shredded zucchini or pumpkin
*if making zucchini or pumpkin bread add 1 tsp Pumpkin Pie spice
3 c flour (I used 2 c regular flour and 1 c whole wheat)
1 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
Optional: Chocolate chips!

Preheat oven to 325. Beat eggs, butter and sugar. Add vanilla and bananas (or whatever you are using). Add rest of ingredients. Bake in greased (and floured if desired) bread pans until golden brown and thoroughly cooked (mine took about 45-50 minutes).

Makes 2 loaves.

bread/pizza

I love this recipe it never fails and tastes great! Soy lecithin is the "secret" ingredient...it stores indefinitely and would be great for your food storage item. When I make it I half it (my mixer only can hold 6 Cups of flour...bummer) but for dinner I'll make pizza with half the dough and the other half I'll make cinnamon rolls. The recipe is as follows:

10 1/2 c bread flour (I use wheat sometimes)
1/2 c sugar
1 T salt
3 T SAF instant yeast (it is important to use saf so you don't have to let it cure, you just throw it in with the other ingredients)
3 T liquid lecithin (do not measure it's too sticky eyeball 4 quarter size globs)
4 c water

Mix dry ingredients and yeast add lecithin and water. Mix for 1 min. and check consistency. If dough is too dry add more water. Dough should be very sticky. Mix for 5 min. on high. Do NOT add anymore flour after! Spray counter and pan with Pam. Shape loves and cover with a dish towel. Let raise for 25 min.
bake at 350 degrees for 25 min. for bread loaves but 12-15 min for rolls or cinnamon rolls.
pizza bake @ 400 degrees for 12 min. do not let raise.

Crepes

I've been making this recipe since I was 15 and have always loved it! Very easy!

1 1/2 c flour
1 T sugar
1/2 tsp baking pwdr
1/2/ tsp salt
2 c milk
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
2 T butter (melted)

Combine flour, sugar, bkg pwdr, and salt. Stir in the rest of ingredients and beat.

Heat skillet and spray. Pour a small amount of batter and then tilt pan to help spread it around. Flip over when top side thickens.

After removing the crepes from the skillet I fold them in quarters and serve them that way. I love them with a little butter, homemade strawberry jam, and a dusting of powdered sugar for breakfast. Also works as a dessert with ice cream and hot fudge!

Blueberry Crumb Muffins

These have got to be some of the yummiest muffins I've had in a long time. Since blueberries have been on sale lately, I've made them 3 times in the past 2 weeks... and so far, no one has complained. I always have intentions of freezing a few for a rainy day as well, but they never seem to last. I got the recipe from my new favorite recipe blog (aside from our own, of course) called My Kitchen Cafe (http://mykitchencafe.blogspot.com). You have seriously got to check it out! In the mean time, whip up a batch of these muffins and you're sure to please everyone.

Muffins:
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
½ teaspoon salt
½ cup unsalted butter
1 cup granulated sugar
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
½ cup milk
2 ½ cups fresh or frozen blueberries (I only use about 1 1/2 cups).

Crumb topping:
6 tablespoons unsalted butter
¼ cup granulated sugar
¼ cup packed dark brown sugar
¾ teaspoon ground cinnamon
Pinch of salt
3/4 cups all-purpose flour

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Spray 12-cup muffin tin with flavorless oil spray or line with paper liners (I actually got about 15 muffins out of the recipe). In a mixing bowl, mix together the flour, baking powder, and salt and whisk well. In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment and set on medium-high speed, beat the butter and granulated sugar for 4 to 5 minutes, or until light and fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time, beating after each addition until the egg is incorporated before adding the next one, and then beat in the vanilla.

Add the milk, alternating it with the dry ingredients, in 2 or 3 additions. Do not overmix. Fold in the berries using a spatula. To make the crumb topping, combine the butter, sugars, cinnamon, salt and flour and mix with a fork or pastry blender until crumbly.

Spoon the batter into the prepared muffin tin. Top each with a generous tablespoon of the crumb topping. Bake for about 30 minutes or until golden brown and a toothpick inserted in the center of one comes out clean. Let the muffins cool slightly in the muffin tin set on wire racks before removing.

Kraft Fettuccine Alfredo with Chicken

This is a Kraft recipe that is so easy, but still really yummy! I personally prefer to boil and shred the chicken instead of frying it... or if I'm in a real hurry, I'll just put some chicken nuggets in the oven, cut them into strips, and place on top of the pasta.

1/2 lb. fettuccine, uncooked
1 lb. boneless skinless chicken breasts, cut into strips
1-1/4 cups fat-free reduced-sodium chicken broth
4 tsp. flour
4 oz. (1/2 of 8-oz.) PHILADELPHIA Neufchatel Cheese, cubed
3 Tbsp. KRAFT Grated Parmesan Cheese, divided
1/4 tsp. garlic powder (I like to double this)
1/4 tsp. pepper

COOK pasta as directed on package.

MEANWHILE, heat large nonstick skillet sprayed with cooking spray on medium-high heat. Add chicken; cook 5 to 7 min. or until chicken is done, stirring occasionally. Remove from skillet. Mix broth and flour in same skillet. Stir in Neufchatel cheese, 2 Tbsp. Parmesan, garlic powder and pepper; cook 2 min. or until mixture boils and thickens, stirring constantly with whisk. Stir in chicken.

DRAIN pasta; place in large bowl. Add chicken mixture; toss to coat. Sprinkle with remaining Parmesan.

Chocolate Fillers

This if for you Kim!

3/4 c butter or margarine
1 c packed brown sugar
1/2 t salt
1 1/2 c flour
1 c quick cooking oats
14 oz can sweetened condensed milk
1 c chocolate chips

Cream butter with brown sugar and salt. Blend in flour and oats until particles are fine. Press abt 2/3 of mixture into bottom of 13x9inch pan (recipe says to grease the pan but I didn't and was fine- I think there's enough butter in the mixture to grease it up). Heat condensed milk in saucepan. Stir in chips until melted. Spread over mixture in pan. Sprinkle with remaining crumbs; press down lightly. Bake at 350 for 30-35 minutes or until light golden brown.

Cranberry Chutney

Cranberry Chutney

1 1/2 package Cranberries (clean, sort, and strain)
2 c sugar
2 Granny Smith apples (peeled, cored, and chopped)
1 c frozen orange juice concentrate
1/4 c raisins
1 t cinnamon
1 t allspice
1 t ginger
1 1/2 t orange zest. Combine all but orange zest in saucepan. Cook until cranberries pop (around 15 minutes). Stir in zest. Cook for one more minute. Can be served warm or cold.