Banana Bread

I got this recipe from the Desserts cookbook from Weight Watchers, but I modified it heavily. I am posting my version here:

Banana Bread

2 and 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

3/4 cup sugar

3 egg whites

1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce

2 tablespoons canola oil

4 very ripe medium bananas, mashed (2 cups)

Combine ingredients and cook at 375 degrees for 55 minutes. I baked this in my pampered chef mini-loaf stone, and had 4 perfectly sized loaves of banana bread. It is so rich and moist and wonderful - I highly recommend.

WW: 1/6 of a mini loaf is 2 points

Cheesy Chicken Cups

This recipe is from SparkRecipes, it is Sooooo good and soooo easy I can't even begin to tell you.

Cheesy Chicken Cups

1 can Buttermilk Biscuits (10 biscuits)
1 cooked chicken breast, cut into small pieces
1 can Healthy Request Cream of Chicken Soup
2/3 cup FF Shredded Cheddar Cheese
1 TBS dried parsley flakes
1/2 tsp black pepper

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Place each biscuit into a muffin pan. Press the biscuits into the holes (and up the sides) to form cups. In a bowl, combine chicken, soup, cheese, parsley and pepper. Mix well. Spoon evenly into cups.

Bake for 12-15 minutes or until golden brown.

WW Points: 2 cups is 5 points or 3 cups is 7 points

Spiderweb Sweet Potato Flan

My husband is a major flan fan. I mean HUGE fan. So when I found this recipe I decided to make it for my hubby for Halloween. The recipe is VERY long, so rather than me type it... here is the link: http://www.foodnetwork.com/food/recipes/recipe/0,,FOOD_9936_17014,00.html

I don't like flan so I didn't try it... but my husband said it was WONDERFUL.

White Cake with Lemon Filling

My grandparents were going to be in for the weekend, and Monday is my grandfathers birthday so my mom asked me to make a cake. I searched high and low before I found this recipe on AllRecipes.

White Cake with Lemon Filling

2 cups all purpose flour
1 1/2 cups white sugar
1/2 cup shortening
1 teaspoon salt
2/3 cup milk
3 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 cup milk
4 egg whites
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3/4 cup white sugar
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
2 tablespoons grated orange zest
1/2 cup fresh orange juice
1/2 lemon, juiced
1 egg
1 cup whipped cream

Preheat oven to 375 and grease two 9 inch rounc cake layer pans. Place 2 cups of the flour, 1 1/2 cups sugar, the shortening, salt, and 2/3 cup of the milk in a mixing bowl and beat for 2 minutes with an electric mixer at medium speed. Stir in the baking powder. Add the egg whites, remaining milk and 1 teaspoon of the vanilla and beat for 2 more minutes. Pour batter into the prepared pans. Bake at 375 degrees for 25 to 30 minutes. Let cakes cool then spread Lemon Filling between the layers and frost with any icing.
Lemon Filling: In a saucepan over medium heat combine 3/4 cups of the sugar, 2 tablespoons of the flour, the orange and lemon juice and the remaining egg. Cook until mixture has thickened. Remove from heat and let cook completely before folding in the whipped cream. Spread between cooled cake layers.
*Note, be careful how fast you heat up the filling. On my first try - I ended up with lemony scrambled eggs!

Everyone loved this cake, it was nice and light. As you can see, I added a Michigan logo because my grandfather is a HUGE fan of Michigan!

Dorito Chicken

I got this recipe from http://realisticeats.blogspot.com/ - wonderful dish.

Dorito Chicken

1 Egg + 1 T water
2 boneless skinless chicken breasts
3/4 cup crushed baked doritos
spray a baking pan with pan
Preheat oven to 350
Dip chicken in Egg wash and coat in Doritos
Bake for 25 minutes or until cooked through

This is great, tastes like a cheesy chicken. I highly recommend.

Peanut Butter Cookies

This recipe is one my mom used to make for me and my brother a lot when we were kids. They are ADDICTING! So yummy. Recipe from Skippy.

WW: 3 points per cookie

Peanut Butter Cookies

2 1/2 cups flour (I needed an extra cup to make it come out right)

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

1 cup margarine (I used 1/2 cup margarine, 1/2 cup butter)

1 cup peanut butter

1 cup sugar

1 cup brown sugar

2 eggs

1 tsp vanilla

Mix everything, bake at 350 for 8-10 minutes.

WW Meatballs

I got this recipe from Brenna's Bistro blogspot, and she got it from the January 1997 edition of the Cooking Light magazine.

These are just so good, my first ever attempt at meatballs!

Ingredients:

1.5 pounds ground round

1/4 cup finely shredded fresh parmesan cheese

1/2 cup dry breadcrumbs

1/3 cup chopped fresh parsley

1/4 cup tomato sauce

1 tsp dry mustard (I omitted this)

3/4 tsp. dried Italian seasoning

1/4 tsp salt

1/4 tsp crushed red pepper (I omitted this)

2 garlic cloves, crushed (I used garlic salt)

cooking spray

Preheat oven to 400F.

Combine all ingredients except cooking spray in a bowl and stir well. Shape mixture into 1.5 inch meatballs. Place on a broiler pan coated with cooking soray. Bake at 400 degress for 15 minutes of until done.

I halved this recipe and it made about 15 meatballs. We put them on honey wheat sub rolls, covered them in tomato paste/italian seasoning and sprinkled with shredded mozzerela cheese. SO GOOD! I highly recommend.

Each meatball has 1 WW point!

WW Chicken Cordon Bleu

This recipe is from the Weight Watchers Website. One of the first meals I ever made my husband from scratch was a very high-calorie version of Chicken Cordon Bleu, and ever since it has been a favorite of ours. Well, when I decided to join WW I knew I had to find a lower point value version. Here it is -- small on points, large on taste!

Chicken Cordon Bleu

4 sprays cooking spray, or enough to coat chicken
1 pound uncooked boneless, skinless chicken breast, four 4-oz pieces
3 oz ham, four 3/4 oz slices
3 oz low-fat swiss cheese, four 3/4 oz slices
1/4 cup all purpose flour
1/4 cup honey mustard (I used egg beaters)
1/2 cup seasoned bread crumbs

Place chicken breasts between two pieces of plastic wrap and pound to 1/4-inch thickness; remove plastic wrap. Arrange 1 slice of ham and 1 slice of cheese on each chicken breast. Starting from shorter end of hcicken, roll up breast into a tight pinwheel. Tuck in ends. Secure with toothpicks. Place flour, honey mustard and bread crumbs in 3 separate shallow bowls. Add chicken to flour; turn to coat. Transfer chicken to honey mustard; turn to coat. Place chicken in bread crumbs; turn to coat. Transfer chicken to prepared baking sheet and coat with cooking spray. Bake until chicken is golden brown and cooked through, about 40 minutes. Remove toothpicks and serve.

WW: 7 points

YUM!!

Hot Spiced Apples with Dulce de Leche Ice Cream

Well, this recipe is compliments of Rachel Ray, but I modified it greatly. My changes are in red.

Hot Spiced Apples with Dulce de Leche Ice Cream

2 Golden Delicious Apples, cored and chopped (I used Honeycrisp apples, since thats what I had)

1/2 lemon, juiced

1/4 cup light brown sugar

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Pinch freshly grated nutmeg (I omitted, because I couldn't find it!)

Pinch salt

3 tablespoons unsalted butter

2 to 3 tablespoons dark rum (I omitted)

1 pint dulce de leche ice cream (I used light cool whip to decrease ww points!)

In a medium bowl, toss the apples with the lemon juice, brown sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg and salt. Melt the butter in a meduim skillet over medium-high heat. Add the apple mixture and cook until apples are saucy and softened, about 5 minutes. Carefully add the rum and cook another minute.

Divide ice cream among 4 bowls and top with hot apples.

My way, WW: 5 points

Garlic & Lime Marinated Chicken

I forgot to take a picture...

I got this recipe from the GoodThingsCatered Blog (http://goodthingscatered.blogspot.com/2007/09/blog-post.html)
This was SUCH a hit. I LOVED hit. I marinated it overnight and during the day while I was at work. Next time I will just marinate it while I'm working as it was a bit strong this time. I served this along side rice and snow peas.

Garlic & Lime Marinated Chicken

1/4 cup fresh lime juice (I used the juice of 2 limes)
1/4 cup olive oil
2 Tbsp freshly minced garlic
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper
4 large bonless skinless chicken breasts

Basically, just marinate and cook. I grilled them, the recipe suggests baking them at 350 for about 45 minutes. I'm sure that would be good -- but they were GREAT on the grill!

WW: 6 points per breast

Homemade Pretzels

Okay, I took these from someones blog before I started tracking where things are coming from. If I got them from you, please tell me so I can give you credit.

Homemade Pretzels

1 teaspoon dry yeast
2 tablespoons and 2 teaspoons brown sugar
2 cups flour
kosher salt
baking soda
shortening or butter

In a large mixing bowl mix 1 tablespoon HOT water and 1 teaspoon yeast. Mix until yeast dissolves completely. Stir in 2/3 cup WARM water. Stir in 2 tablespoons and 2 teaspoons brown sugar. Slowly add 2 cups flour, stirring constantly. Continue stirring until the mixture is smooth and does not stick to the sides of the bowl. Lightly flour the counter and dip your hands into extra flour. Knead the dough until it is stretchy and smooth. Grease the cookie sheet well with butter/shortening and sprinkle it with kosher salt. Preheat oven to 475 degrees. Using liquid measuring cup fill a large saucepan at least 1/2 full of water. For each 1 cup of water, add 1 tablespoon baking soda. Divide the dough into 16 equal pieces. Shape the dough pieces into a pretzel shape. Bring the water in the saucepan to a gentle boil. Use a pancake turner to lower each pretzel into the pan. Count slowly to 30 then life the pretzel onto the greased and salted cookie sheet. Repeat until all the pretzels are done. Sprinkle some kosher salt on top of the pretzels and put them in the preheated oven for 8 minutes or until golden brown.

These were great, just like the ones from the mall. The only thing that was missing was the hot cheese! Yummm, I give these an A!

WW: 3 points (since this recipe only made me 7 pretzels!)

Diet Cherry Vanilla Dr Pepper Chicken

Well, I stumbled across this recipe in another blog, and decided it sounded pretty good.

Diet Cherry Vanilla Dr. Pepper

1 can of Diet Cherry Vanilla Dr. Pepper
chicken breasts

Marinate the chicken in the soda over night, throw them on the grill. Quick and easy!

These were just ok... kinda dry and bland. I'm not sure if I would make them again or not..

WW: 5 points per breast

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies

Moist and delicious cookies -- rave reviews from everyone. It's originally from the Food Network, but I tweeked it just a bit and this is what I got:

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies:

1/2 cup unsalted butter (1 stick)
1/2 cup of margarine
1 cup of white sugar
1 cup light brown sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 can pumpkin
3 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
2 cups (12 ounce bag) semi sweet chocolate chips
Nonstick spray

Heat the over to 350 degrees F and spray cookies sheets with nonstick spray. Using a mixer, beat the butter and margarine until smooth. Beat in the white and brown sugars, a little at time, until the mixture is light and fluffy. Beat in the eggs 1 at a time, the mix int he vanilla and pumpkin. In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, ginger, and nutmeg. Slowly beat the flour mixture into the batter, then stir in the chips. Scoop the cookie dough by heaping tablespoons onto the prepared cookie sheets and bake for 20 minutes, or until the bookies are lightly brown around the edges. Remove the cookie sheets from the oven and let them rest for 2 minutes. Take the cookies off with a spatula and cook them on wire racks.

This recipe made me about 60-65 cookies.
WW: 2 points per cookie.

I'll post a picture soon!

Funfetti Cookies

From the encouragement of the wonderful ladies on the WC board on The Nest, I've joined the band wagon and made a food blog. I'm so excited to start cooking more and sharing my journey! My first recipe is a huge rave on WC:


Funfetti Cookies (recipe from the box!)

• Box of funfetti cake mix
• 1/3 cup of oil
• 2 eggs
• funfetti frosting

Heat oven to 375. In large bowl, combine cake mix, oil and eggs. Stir with spoon until throughly mositened. Stir in candy bits from cake mix. Shape dough into 1-inch balls. Place 2-inche apart on ungreased cookie sheets. Flatten to 1/4-inch thickness with bottom of glass dipped in flour.
Bake at 375 for 6 to 8 minutes or until edges are light golden brown. Cool 1 minutes; remove from cookie sheets.
Spread frosting over warm cookies. Immediately sprinkle each with candy bits from frosting (or you can mix the candy bits in with the frosting). Let frosting set before storing. Store in tightly covered container.

This made about 20 cookies

WW: 7 points per cookie

I made this over a weekend when I had family here -- they were a huge hit with everyone!