Thursday, February 16, 2012

BALTS Sandwich


Now this is a sandwich. 
I see your BLT and raise you a BALTS - Bacon Avocado Lettuce Tomato and Sprouts sandwich.
Ingredients:
2 Slices bacon (cooked)
Sprouts
Lettuce
Tomato
Avocado slices
2 slices whole grain bread
Put everything on one piece of bread. Spread a little lite mayo on the other slice of bread. Put it on top. Consume.
Yum.

Healthy Cheesecake

My post titles suck. Let's just get that out of the way now. I was trying to come up with something cute and clever to call this cheesecake, but let's face it - it's a healthy cheesecake and that's what I'm calling it. 



Healthy Cheesecake
Adapted from Chocolate & Carrots
1.5 C low-fat honey graham cracker crumbs (about 11 sheets)
6 T unsalted butter, melted
2 C Stevia in the Raw (separated)
4 (8 ounce) packages 1/3 fat cream cheese
3 T unbleached all purpose flour
4 eggs
1 C non-fat plain Greek yogurt
1 t vanilla extract


Preheat the oven to 325°F. Prepare a springform pan by covering the outsides and bottom with aluminum foil. This is to prevent water getting into the cheesecake later. As you can see from my pictures, I did this wrong. It wasn't until the cake was cooling that I realized the outside of the pan needs the foil. So I'm clarifying this for all my lovely readers.


Combine the graham cracker crumbs and butter in a bowl. Push crust mixture into the bottom of the springform pan and just slightly up the sides.
Bake for 10 minutes.
Place the baked crust into a large baking dish. Bring a pot of water to a bowl. Set aside.
Bring the oven to 450°F.
Meanwhile, beat the cream cheese until loose (just a few seconds). Mix in the sugar and flour, just until blended. Mix in the eggs, one egg at a time, beating well in between. Beat in the Greek yogurt and vanilla extract. Pour into the crust (it’s okay if it is still warm).

Pour the water in the large baking dish surrounding the springform pan. Bake for 10 minutes.

Reduce heat to 250°F and bake for another 1 hour and 30 minutes. Remove from the oven, take off the aluminum foil (easier if it's on the outside, fyi.) Using a knife, loosen the cake from the rim of the pan.

Allow the cheesecake to cool for about 5-10 minutes until cool enough to handle. Remove the sides of the springform pan.
Chill in the refrigerator.

Serve when cool either plain or with toppings of your choice.

Hubs and I each had a piece when it was still warm last night. It was surprisingly yummy and fluffy. Today, after chilling all day,  it was denser and more cheesecake-like. 


Yummy close up.
The taste is really good. It does taste of Greek yogurt, so I may have to experiment with stuffs to help cut that. And it tastes slightly of sweetener, but it's not overwhelming like a chemical sweetener would be. Next time I make it I'm for defs going to double the graham crackers. I need more crust. 


But the best part? I ate a whole piece today and didn't feel like crap afterwards. It's definitely lighter and not calorie-laden like regular cheesecake is, but you still get the creaminess. 


So, yes. Make this and eat it all. It's cool.

Wednesday, February 15, 2012

Honey Chicken

I can almost always eat Chinese food. I love it. All the time. But there's usually loads of sugar in the sauces and we can't have that now, can we?


So I gots ta do it myself.


Honey Chicken
(From A Full Measure of Happiness)


1 & 1/2 lbs chicken breast (boneless, skinless)
3 T honey
2 T low sodium soy sauce
1 egg
1/4 C cornstarch
1-2 T veg oil
2 C broccoli (thawed from frozen or fresh)


Cut the chicken into bite size pieces and set aside. Mix the egg and cornstarch. Pour over the chicken to coat. Combine the honey and soy sauce and set aside. 
Warm the oil over medium heat in a large skillet. Cook the chicken (about 7-10 minutes). Add sauce and broccoli and cook until the sauce thickens, just a few minutes.
Ta da. Super simple. Serve over rice. 
I would make this honey chicken a lot more often, but I ran out of cornstarch and keep forgetting to buy it. 

Thursday, February 9, 2012

Kale & Salmon Pizza

So, I'm still battling a cold. I know, I know, and yet, here I am. Posting the pizza I made (like a champ) when most human-shaped humans would be one with the couch and snuggly blanket. ...I might be there now, but whatever. Like a champ, remember?

Pizza

So, confession time. These pictures are of the first time I made this pizza. It was good. But I knew I could do better. So I made it again. And it was goooooooooood. So, pretend that these pictures are of a much better pizza that looks similar to this one.

Kale & Salmon Pizza

1 can Pillsbury Thin Crust Pizza Dough
2 tomatoes, sliced then halved
handful of shredded mozzarella cheese
1/2 a bunch of kale, torn into small pieces
olive oil
1 can of salmon, boneless & skinless

Preheat oven to 400. Unroll pizza crust onto a greased pizza pan/cookie sheet. Coat with olive oil. Bake for 8 minutes. Sprinkle cheese onto pizza crust. *Only use a small amount, 1/4-1/3 cup, not even enough to cover the whole crust.* Cover pizza with kale. There should be enough small pieces so that you can't see the crust through the kale. Place tomatoes and salmon on top. Sprinkle olive oil all over. Bake for 6 minutes. Enjoy.
See the kale in this picture? The pieces were NOT small enough. Make them small. Trust me. And use a lot more kale than I did. It's worth it.
Also, there will be more tomato. 
See how scrawny this one came out after making it? You can see whole patches of crust. The second one was better. I'm sad I didn't take pictures of that one. But come on, I have a cold people!

Tuesday, February 7, 2012

(Healthier) Hash Browns

So, I've got a wicked backlog of food I need to post. But the excuse du jour is that I have a cold. So, instead I'm posting the comfort food I've been making the last 3 days. (Seriously, for lunch today, I just had a plate of these.) 
Slice 
Slice again
Cube and oil
Once done
Perfection
Healthier Hash Browns
Serves 2 (or 1 if it's a sick day)


1 baking potato, scrubbed
Approx 2 Tbs of Olive oil


Preheat oven to 425. Slice potato into coins. Slice coins into sticks. Slice sticks into cubes (ish). Put potato cubes on baking sheet and coat in olive oil. Cook for 20 min, tossing halfway. They may stick to the pan (see picture 4). It's fine, just unstick them and continue. Let cool, serve with ketchup.  

Friday, February 3, 2012

Red Velvet Mini Sandwiches

I made these cookies for a Christmas present, but I'm posting them now because they'd be perfect for Valentine's day. I used this recipe from Babble's The Family Kitchen and just mini-sized it. 

One thing I learned from making these is that if you use a round teaspoon (or tablespoon for larger cookies) to scoop out your dough, it is incredibly tedious, but the process makes amazingly perfectly round cookies that look like they came from a bakery. 
The only one out of the billion I scooped 
that I took a picture of. 
Perfection. 
You won't need as much frosting/filling that you think you will. It's yummy, and rich, and kind of dense. I actually had a bunch of frosting left over after I got done making them.
This part is going to be difficult, but trust me - it's worth it. Once you get the cookie sandwiches made. Put them away and don't eat them the same day. I know, crazy, right! But hear me out. Hubs and I each ate (at least) one the same night I made them. Honestly, they were alright. But that was it. Just alright. I was kind of disappointed. The next day I had another one, and it was AMAZING. These cookies had magically transformed into soft, moist, wonderful little red velvet parties. The cookies apparently absorbed some of the moisture from the frosting and softened up over night so that the texture and taste was more like a tiny whoopie pie. So. Much. Better. Who knew delayed gratification was actually worth something?