Minty Fudgy Goodness

It's a rarity that I actually get around to making any of the baked goodies from my cooking light issues. But when I got my March issue and the cover had what looked like chocolate, mint and brownies all in one I found the page instantly, added the items to the grocery list for the next day and that was it.

I made these yesterday, took a few in to work to some friends, then took about 20 next door to the neighbors as a Thank You and still managed to keep 2 small rows for me.

HOLY CRAP THESE KICKED ASS!!

A little time consuming but very good

Here's the recipe for Chocolate Mint Bars

Ingredients
Bottom layer:
1 cup all-purpose flour (about 4 1/2 ounces)
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup egg substitute
1/4 cup butter, melted
2 tablespoons water
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 large eggs, beaten
1 (16-ounce) can chocolate syrup
Cooking spray

Mint layer:
2 cups powdered sugar
1/4 cup butter, melted
2 tablespoons fat-free milk
1/2 teaspoon peppermint extract
2 drops green food coloring

Glaze:
3/4 cup semisweet chocolate chips
3 tablespoons butter

Preparation.

Preheat oven to 350°.

To prepare bottom layer, lightly spoon flour into a dry measuring cup; level with a knife. Combine flour and salt; stir with a whisk. Combine granulated sugar, egg substitute, 1/4 cup melted butter, 2 tablespoons water, vanilla, eggs, and chocolate syrup in a medium bowl; stir until smooth. Add flour mixture to chocolate mixture, stirring until blended. Pour batter into a 13 x 9–inch baking pan coated with cooking spray. Bake at 350° for 23 minutes or until a wooden pick inserted in center comes out almost clean. Cool completely in pan on a wire rack.

To prepare mint layer, combine powdered sugar, 1/4 cup melted butter, and next 3 ingredients (through food coloring) in a medium bowl; beat with a mixer until smooth. Spread mint mixture over cooled cake.

To prepare the glaze, combine the chocolate chips and 3 tablespoons butter in a medium microwave-safe bowl. Microwave at HIGH 1 minute or until melted, stirring after 30 seconds. Let stand 2 minutes. Spread chocolate mixture evenly over top. Cover and refrigerate until ready to serve. Cut into 20 pieces.

Yield
20 servings (serving size: 1 piece) note this is 6 points per 1/20th of a serving. However, I cut mine small and got about 33 squares from the pan.
Nutritional Information

CALORIES 264(30% from fat); FAT 8.7g (sat 5.2g,mono 2.5g,poly 0.4g); PROTEIN 2.8g; CHOLESTEROL 38mg; CALCIUM 12mg; SODIUM 139mg; FIBER 0.5g; IRON 0.9mg; CARBOHYDRATE 45g


Some changes I may make for next time and suggestions - and there will be a next time!
1. My cake took about 10 minutes longer to bake in the oven, so just be sure to test it before you take it out and turn your oven off.
2. I had to add a little more water to the mint layer to avoid it pulling up the brownie when you frost it.
3. Next time I may try raspberry extract and red food coloring. Heck maybe even orange and orange.
4. Melt the chocolate chips over a double boiler instead of the microwave, they never got truly smooth and went on very chunky and wouldn't spread, but it looked pretty with the green coming through the top fo the chocolate.

I'm a bean counter!

Tonight I made a fabulous stoop for dinner. Recipe taken from the package of lentils from TJs.

Super easy to make and ridiculously tasty!

Ingredients
Italian Sausage - either ground or removed from casings
1 3/4 cups black lentils, rinsed
1 box frozen corn
5 1/2 cups water
4 stalks celery diced
1 onion diced
salt and pepper to taste

In a large dutch oven brown the sausage. Once that is done add the vegetables and cook until just tender. Then add the lentils and water salt and epper. Return to a boil and then reduce to simmer and cover and cook for an hour and a half - stir throughout.

After an hour and a half, remove the lid and let simmer for 30 more minutes without the lid.

Serve

I did make some changes - Instead of corn I used about 3 carrots chopped up with the celery and onions and you know what I'm so glad I did it made a great contrast to the dark color of the soup with the black lentils and it also added some sweetness.

This was so filling and tasty!

Dinner becomes Lunch

Last night I made another recipe from the McCormicks & Schmidts Seafood Cookbook and it was very easy and very tasty. The recipe does call for you to make your own pesto, but I just used store bought for time savings.

Pesto Roasted Salmon with Spinach Orzo

Spray a baking pan and preheat oven to 400.
Take 4 slices of salmon and coat with pesto sauce (either store bought or home made)

Meanwhile, boil a pot of water and cook 3/4 cup orzo with 5 (or more) oz. frozen spinach. When that is done drain that and season with nutmeg and 1/2 a cup of fresh mozarella cheese (I just used some fresh grated parmesan instead.)

Roast the salmon for 8-10 minutes depending on desired doneness.

Serve.

Now today, I used the two leftover pieces of salmon. I boiled a box of bowtie pasta, added a bunch of cut asparagus near the end of the cooking and drained. Then i flaked the salmon and added that to the pasta mixture with another 2 T of pesto sauce and added some pepper.

This was fabulous - we thought it was such a great way to re-use and repurpose the meal that was leftover.

Highly recommend the salmon. It was a little oil so one small piece is more than enough - but really overall it was light and flavorful.

Quesa-what?

Last night for dinner I made Quesadillas. But I did a little bit of a twist. Instead of going the typical Mexican food route, I opted for something a little more out there.

They were so tasty and delicious! Even Adam said they were pretty damed good.

Chicken, Apple and Goat Cheese Quesadillas

6 tortillas - I used rosemary tortillas that were low cal and low fat and HUGE!
about 1 cup of small diced chicken- I just used the leftover roasted chicken from Sunday
about 1/2 to 3/4 cups thiny sliced and diced green apple
4 green onions sliced
1 small log of goat cheese
1 cup shredded monterey jack cheese

Crumble some of the goat cheese on one tortilla. Top with chicken, apple, onion and monterey jack cheese. Place top tortilla on and either bake in the oven on 400 - flipping half way through, or use a skillet on the stove top. We opted for the oven using an airbake pizza pan for maximum crispiness.

I served with mashed cauliflower. I boiled the cauliflower and then roughly pureed with the immersion blender once it was drained. I mixed in about half a cup of cream cheese, salt, pepper, garlic powder and some Penzy's Galena Street Seasoning. It was OK. I think I just really don't like cooked cauliflower in any form. Adam wasn't too hip on it either.

4 pounds of dough??

For my birthday in January, my best friend sent me this fabulous cook book - Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day: The Discovery That Revolutionizes Home Baking . I finally got around to making a recipe from there this weekend for the basic boule recipe. Oh my gosh it was so easy and fantastic and i can imagine it would be even better with some added herbs and seasonings.

Well I started the recipe and when i checked on it during the doubling process I had that "oh crap" moment when I saw how much dough it made. So I went back and re-read the recipe and realized it basically made enough for four loaves of bread! Now it does keep for 2 weeks in the fridge but I just baked it all at once and froze some as well.

If you're a new bread baker, I do recommend this it was so easy - and the yeast wasn't intimidating for newbies.

You can form this into loaves, rounds, baguettes, and season as you'd like.

Boule Bread Recipe

1 1/2 T yeast (it turns out to be 2 packets of yeast)

3 cups warm water - about 100 degrees

In the large bowl of a mixer or food processor dissolve yeast in water with 1 tsp. of salt.

Once dissolved, add 6 cups of flour. No need to knead once you mix it all together.

Tranfer dough to an oiled bowl and let rise in a warm place for an hour or longer until doubled in size.

Separate dough into four servings and place each one on a floured surface and knead over it and form into a boule/ball - don't do any longer than a minute. Do this with each loaf and let rest for 40 minutes.

At the 20 minute mark go heat your oven to 425

In the bottom rack put the bottom part of your broiler pan or a baking pan with water and place your bread stone or cookie sheet on the higher rack and preheat.

When the 20 minutes is up, dust the top of each boule with flour and place cuts in each loaf in patterns, like tic tac to, a cross, lines, whatever.

Transfer each boule gently to baking sheet in the oven - if you have a pizza paddle, this is good to have here for the tranfer - but if you dont' - no worries it works by hand.

Let bake until golden brown - about 25 to 30 minutes - i ended up letting mine go for 35 minutes but i also cooked all 3 loaves at once - it worked fine by the way.

SO GOOD with some tasty butter or some herbed olive oil!!!

Savory Mushroom Goodness

Is that not the perfect winter nights meal or what??

Sunday night I planned to make Anthony Bourdains' Mushroom soup for dinner and oh my gosh what an easy and incredible recipe - and my homemade artisan bread to accompany it was a great thing.

If you like mushrooms I highly recommend you walk, no run, to your favorite seller of fungus and get ready for your tastebuds to be delighted.

And your wallet and watch will thank you too!

Bourdain’s Mushroom Soup
- makes 4 servings -

Ingredients

6 tablespoons butter (I used 3)

1 onion, thinly sliced

12 ounces button mushrooms, halved

4 cups chicken stock (I used fat free low sodium)

1 sprig parsley

2 ounces sherry

salt and pepper

Procedure
1. Over medium heat, melt two tablespoons of the butter in a saucepan. Toss in the onion and cook until soft but not browned.

2. Toss in the remaining butter and then add the mushrooms. Cook for 8 minutes.

Mmmm Fungus and Onions!

3. Pour in the chicken stock, add the parsley, and bring to a boil. When bubbling, reduce to a simmer and cook for an hour.

4. Pour soup into a blender (you might need to do this in stages), and process until smooth. If you have an immersion blender use it here.... your kitchen will thank you and you won't loose the mushroom goodness.

Return to the saucepan and bring to a simmer. Pour in the sherry, and season with salt and pepper.


Now Note: I reduced the butter by half and that was MORE than fine!!! And when you reduce the butter and put the recipe as in the WW recipe builder, it's only 3 points a serving, not bad for something so regal tasting and looking.

Cranberry Orange Bread

I decided to use some of my frozen cranberries this weekend to make some bread.

Now I adore cranberries, and I knew my problem with making this would be that Adam wouldn't eat any - leaving me a whole loaf. Which I thought would be wonderful - until I put the recipe in my WW recipe builder and IKES it's 5 points a slice. Needless to say after my two slices the rest of the loaf is going into the office kitchen tomorrow.

The bread itself was delicious. A little tart, a little tangy, a little sweet and very dense and filling.

Do add the nuts to the recipe, it really makes the recipe - I added whole walnuts, it was so good.

This is the recipe from the back of the cranberry bag.

2 Cups flour

1 Cup sugar

1 1/2 tsp. baking powder

1 tsp. salt

1/2 tsp. baking soda

3/4 cup OJ

2 T shortening

1 T grated orange peel

1 egg well beaten

1 1/2 cups fresh or frozen chopped cranberries

1/2 cup chopped nuts

Preheat oven to 350. Grease loaf pan. Mix together dry ingredients. Stir in orange juice, shortening, oragne peel and egg. mix until blended. Stir in cranberries and nuts. Spread in loaf pan and bake for minutes or until toothpick comes out clean. Cool on rack.

NOTE: Mine had to cook for over an hour to be done in the center.

But oooo was it worth it and it is such a pretty shade of pinky red.

It's a Philly Cheese Steak Kinda Night

Last night we made cheese steak sandwhiches for dinner, with artichokes and fries. Very easy and very tasty.

I had two thin cut slices of steak that I had bought, I seasoned with salt, pepper, garlic and put in a very hot oven on my grill pan. Grilled those up while I sauteed onions and mushrooms. Those stacked up with steak, provolone on a nice soft roll were a great, satisfying and filling dinner.

LOVED IT - and so easy!

Beef, Beer, and the Amish

Tonight I made a recipe I saw on the Organizing Junkie's website for her menu list. It comes from the Taste of Home site.

Adam and I enjoy a nice beef stew, and I was drawn to this recipe because it was beef, bacon, onion and good noodles. Oh and beer! What can be better than that??

We followed the recipe to the T and it was delicious and tasty. I paired it with a bag of dried home made Amish Country noodles. They were a tasty accompaniment with the beef.

Beer Braised Beef

Ingredients:
3 bacon strips, diced
2 pounds beef stew meat, cut into 1-inch cubes
1/2 teaspoon pepper
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vegetable oil
1 medium onion, cut into wedges
1 teaspoon minced garlic
1 bay leaf
1 can (12 ounces) beer or nonalcoholic beer
1 tablespoon soy sauce
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
1 teaspoon dried thyme
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1/4 cup water
Hot cooked noodles

Directions

In a large skillet, cook bacon over medium heat until crisp.

Remove to paper towels; drain, discarding drippings.

Sprinkle beef with pepper and salt.

In the same skillet, brown beef in oil. Transfer to a 5-qt. slow cooker.

Add the bacon, onion, garlic and bay leaf.

In a small bowl, combine the beer, soy sauce, Worcestershire sauce and thyme. Pour over beef mixture.

Cover and cook on low for 5-1/2 to 6 hours or until meat is tender.

In a small bowl, combine flour and water until smooth. Gradually stir into slow cooker. Cover and cook on high for 30 minutes or until thickened. Discard bay leaf. Serve beef over noodles. Yield: 8 servings.

Elvis has left the building

And gone straight to my hips!

One of my inspirations for doing that 1950s themed food night was the recipe I found on Cookie Baker Lynn's blog for Elvis Fluffernutter Cake.

Now I live in Rhode Island, and the fluffernutter is our state sandwhich - yeah I know go figure. So that coupled with my friends coming, I knew this was the dessert to set the tone for the whole evening.

This was by far one of the most delicious cakes and sweetest I've had in a while. And for those of you that get daunted by scratch cake making, don't - this was so easy.

Then only change from the recipe I made was that instead of doing two rounds and frosting a whole stacked cake, I did one sheet cake - simply because I had to work all day saturday and needed things to be easier. To compensate for that, where the recipe tells you to divide the frosting in thirds and add the fluff to part of that for the middle layer, I just added the fluff to the whole batch of frosting.

Elvis Fluffernutter Cake
2 cups all-purpose flour

1-1/2 cups white sugar

1/2 cup butter

1 cup milk

3-1/2 tsp baking powder

1 tsp salt

1 tsp vanilla extract

3 eggs

2 mashed bananas, about 1 cup

2/3 cup mini chocolate chips, plus more for sprinkling on the cake

1- Preheat the oven to 350 deg. F. Grease the bottom of two 9-inch round cake pans. Fit the bottoms with rounds of parchment paper. Grease and flour the whole pan.

2- In a small bowl whisk together the flour, baking powder and salt and set aside.

3- In a large bowl, cream together the sugar and butter until light and fluffy. Add eggs one at a time, beating thoroughly after each addition. Add flour mixture alternately with milk, beating just to combine. Stir in vanilla and mashed bananas.

4- Pour batter evenly between the two cake pans. Sprinkle the mini chips over the top of the batter (I didn't do this, Adam doesn't love chocolate so I went with as little chocolate as possible for the cake). Bake for 35 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the cake comes out clean.

5- Let pans cool for 10 minutes on a rack. Carefully invert layers onto a plate, peel off the parchment paper, then carefully put back on the rack to finish cooling. If the cake cracks at all, don't fret as there will be plenty of gooey frosting to fill in the gaps.

Frosting
2 sticks of butter at room

cup of smooth peanut butter

4 cups of powdered sugar

2 Tbsp milk

1 cup marshmallow fluff (I used about a cup and a half)

With an electric mixer cream together the butter and peanut butter until it's smooth. Add the powdered sugar a cup at a time. Add as much of the milk as you need to achieve the consistency you want. Place 1/3 of the frosting into a separate bowl and fold in the marshmallow fluff till completely incorporated. Frost the top of the first layer with the marshmallow frosting. Top with the second layer. Frost with the rest of the frosting and sprinkle mini chips over the top, pressing them into the frosting slightly.

Now the banana cake with this is out of this world. And we decided next time we'll make the banana cake recipe and maybe try with just a cream cheese frosting.

Mini Foods Circa. 1950s

Saturday night we had some of my work friends over for a Wii party. I wanted to do something fun and different and settled on a 1950s themed mini foods party. It was a hit. The 6 of us truly enjoyed the offerings and everything was SO easy to put together.

I didn't take any pictures, because it was a little embarassing to do it in front of them, but I'll share what I made.

Fry Basket with wasabi mayo and paprika, garlic ketchup.

Mini hamburgers

Mini chicken pot pies
For this, I bought the mini puff pastry cups in the freezer section and baked. Then I diced up some chicken and mixed with a can of cream of celery soup and about a cup of frozen mixed vegetables. I seasoned with pepper and garlic powder. Then I took the immersion blender to that mix to puree it a bit - since the cups are SO tiny there was no way even a whole pea would fit in there. I then heated the puree and placed in the mini cups that were baked. They were so tasty and easy and a hit!

Veggie Tray with Dill Dip

Homemade Chex Party Mix

Cherry Soads
Orange Sodas
Root Beer Sodas

Eating with Jeremy B

My friend Laura finally convinced her husband, Jeremy, to start a food blog. He is a wonderful chef, and really makes top notch, praise worthy foods.

Check out J's blog!

http://www.eatagainwithbennington.blogspot.com/

It's a NYC Diner Dinner Kinda Night

Last nights dinner was sort of thrown together while I was at the market. And boy did it ever turn out tasty - certainly a do again.

I had two slices left in the fridge of beef brisket that we made Sunday for supper. Last year we made this fantastic WW soup using leftover brisket - it was a Potato, Corn and Corned Beef Chowda.

So what to put with that but a nice corned beef sandwhich on marble rye topped with home made cole slaw. It was a fabulous and easy dinner and it truly felt like we were eating at Carnegie Deli or something in NYC.

Corned Beef and Corn Chowder

2 cans cream of potato soup plus 2 cans of milk.
Dice leftover corned beef
1 box frozen corn kernels
Season with pepper.

Mix everything and heat and serve.

Corned beef and slaw sandwhiches - 2

3/4 pound sliced corned beef from deli counter
Marble Rye Bread
Brown Mustard
1 pacakage Dole Cole Slaw Mix
1/2-3/4 cup light Mayo
1/4-1/2 cup fat free sour cream
1 T white wine vinegar
Pepper to taste.

Put mustard on each side of the bread and top one side with corned beef. Make slaw and let sit out for about 10 minutes for flavors to blend. Place about 1/4-1/2 cup of slaw on top of each sandwhich, cut, eat, enjoy!

There's Pink all over my plate!

A few weeks ago, Adam's best friend was in town for the weekend before going on to NYC for business.

When Karl comes in town I always try to serve something with lobster for our favorite midwest/Coloradian boy.

I had two packages of fresh lobster ravioli from Venda in the freezer that we never ate at the holidays. I made those (delicious as always) and found a recipe for a pink sauce to make.
I then sauteed shrimp in garlic and sage and cut them up and served on top of the sauce and pasta.

The pink sauce was easy to make. 1 conatiner tomato paste, 1 cup water and 2 cups whipping cream. I used light cream. I seasoned with garlic, salt, pepper and some sage.

The meal was delicious - even with the berst garlic bread I've ever made following Ina's recommendation of melting the butter, garlic and herbs in a pan and dipping the bread in it and then baking it.

It was a hit all around.

Nutty, Fruity, Fishy Goodness

For Christmas, my brother and his wife sent us the McCormick & Schmick's Seafood Restaurant Cookbook. I have to say there are some of the recipes in that book are incredible and out of this world sounding. And the pictures, if you're like me and need pictures to see what you'll be eating - damn' this book is mouthwatering.

And this book does not just contain seafood recicpes, although of course the number of seafood outweighs the turf meals.

Tonight we tried the Northwest Roasted Halibut - simply because I had all of the things on hand in the house.

Incredible! This is certainly a dish you could serve to company it just presents so beautifully.

Yields 4 (I halved)

4 halibut fillets - I used tilapia
2 T melted but not hot margarine or butter - I omitted this and used a mix of lemon juice, water and a tsp of Olive Oil
1 cup finely chopped hazelnuts
Vegetable spray
2 cups frozen or mixed berries.

Preheat oven to 400

Coat the fish with the melted margarine and roll in the crushed hazelnuts, coating well. Coat a baking dish with spray and place the fish in the pan. Roast for 8-10 minutes or until the fish is flaky. NOTE: with the nuts on it you can't get to the fish to flake it without destrying the nuts, so I just used the finger firmness method to test, mine went about 12 minutes.

While the fish is roasting, puree the berries in a blender or food processor. Pass the puree through a strainer and remove the seeds. (I wasn't going to do this but once it was done it was really thick - so I did this and WOW it makes a huge difference. Don't skip this step!!! I saved the leftover berries and such that were in the strainer in the fridge for Jam).

The sauce may or may not be heated. The recipe recommends not heating it, but I warmed it up and it was great warmed.

Serve sauce under or over fish.

The combination of fruit and nuts together is incredible. This would be a great summer dish with a nice mixed melon and procuitto salad.

I served with rice and broccoli.

Chicken-licious

Tonight's dinner was tasty, easy, and really satisfying.

From Southern Living Easy Weeknight Favorites


Chicken Fricassee

(I halved this recipe but I'm posting the full thing here)

1/4 cup butter divided - I only used about 2 T total
6 boneless skinless chicken breasts
1/4 cup flour - I seasoned with salt and pepper
2 Cups fresh sliced mushrooms
3 carrots sliced
1 1 oz. packet of herb soup mix - I used Knorr
1 cup half and half - I used fat free
1/2 cup sherry, white wine or water
2 tsp. chicken bouillon granules - we omitted this

Melt 2 T of butter in a large skillet over medium heat. Dredge chicken in flour and brown in butter. Remove from skillet and set aside.

Melt 2 T of butter in skillet and add mushrooms and carrots. Cook stirring over medium heat about 4 minutes.

Combine soup mix and remaining 3 igredients; pour over mushroom mixture and bring to boil, stirring constantly. Place chicken breasts in skillet and simmer 10 minutes or until chicken is done.

We served with coucous and roasted butternut squash. I served the sauce over the couscous.

Super-bowl-full O Chili!

Adam had requested chili for Super Bowl Sunday - even though as we speak at 8 pm we are just sitting down to watch the game - or in our world - the commercials. Thank heavens for DVR.

Adam's one request with the chili was for it to NOT be Cincinnatti Chili. Since that's the only type I know how to make, this put me on the search for a nice recipe. He wanted something that was like he grew up making, most ingredients from the can.

I thought I had found a recipe from allrecipes.com I'd like to try, but then the next day I found the recipe on the WW site for a nice beef and bean chili. It sounded like something he'd enjoy and very easy to make.

The recipe was great, it was the perfect combination of seasoning and spice, it had lots of meatiness to it, and if you like a thinner chili you can add some more beef broth. And don't knock the 2 celery sticks, we weren't too sure about them but WOW they added nice taste and color to the chili.

Beef and Bean Chili


2 tsp olive oil - I omitted
1 medium onion(s), chopped
2 medium stalk celery, chopped
2 medium garlic clove(s), minced
1 small jalapeno pepper(s), seeded and minced**
1 pound lean ground sirloin
2 Tbsp chili powder
2 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp dried oregano
2 piece bay leaf
1/2 tsp table salt
1/2 tsp red pepper flakes, or more to taste
28 oz canned crushed tomatoes
1 cup canned beef broth, reduced-sodium
8 oz canned tomato sauce
30 oz canned kidney beans, rinsed and drained
1/2 cup shallot(s), chopped - I omitted

Heat oil in a large stockpot over medium-high heat. Add onion, celery, garlic and jalapeño; sauté until tender, about 4 minutes. Add beef and sauté until browned and cooked through, breaking up meat as it cooks, about 5 minutes; drain mixture through a colander to remove excess fat.
Return beef mixture to pan (set over medium-high heat) and add chili powder, cumin, oregano, bay leaves, salt and red pepper flakes; stir to coat vegetables and beef with spices. Add tomatoes, broth, tomato sauce and beans, and bring to a boil; reduce heat and simmer, partially covered, for 30 minutes.
To serve, discard bay leaves, ladle chili into bowls and top with chopped shallots. Yields about 1 heaping cup per serving.

6 points per serving

Happy Canned Food Month!

February is Canned Food Month.

What are some of your favorite foods in a can?

We're personally big fans of canned sauces, fruits and veggies in our house. Some soups aren't TOO Bad but we prefer bagged soups to canned.

Mmmm I may have to celebrate the month with as many recipes as I can using canned items!