I did IT!!!

I finally made sourdough bread!!  I won't say it's perfection, but it's round, it smells heavenly and it tastes wonderful!!  wow...I tell you, this has been a LONG time coming!  I've been trying to make starter now for over a year.  I've tried three different kinds before finally coming up with a starter that lives and continues to grow.  I was beginning to think it would never happen.  It was kind of my challenge in life, I WILL make a sourdough starter...lol
I found it on this site.  It was so simple after trying everything to get it to work!!
Here's a photo of my loaves and after slicing.  I couldn't wait for it to cool, I had to try it right away.  Ohhhh, it was almost like sitting in San Francisco and eating at the warf!  ;)

They are dark for two reasons...I think I might have over cooked them a bit, and they have whole wheat in them.  I did follow the recipe EXACTLY - I know, don't faint, it does happen sometimes.  And it called for 1 cup whole wheat.  I used more in rolling and kneading, so it might have close to 2 cups whole wheat.

So it's a little darker than regular sourdough, but it still rose well and tastes great.  I'm in such heaven!! Now if I can keep from eating the rest of the loaf, I'll be doing good!!
wow.  A day in history... lol

Maple Jubilee Jumbles

Okay...these cookies are simply addictive.  I know I've said chocolate is the bomb, but these are better than chocolate...really.  My sister makes them all the time and I begged her for the recipe.  She finally found it and gave it to me, and as is my moto, adjusted them to fit my lifestyle.  I lightened the sugar, used egg whites and pureed beans instead of butter.  They turned out really good!!  So, give it a try...you'll be wanting to eat the whole batch...

Maple Jubilee Jumbles
(adapted from Cooky Primer)

Pureed Great Northern Beans, .75 cup  Brown Sugar, .75 cup, packed  Applesauce, unsweetened, 1 cup  Egg white, 3 servings Kroger Fat Free Sour Cream, 4 Tb Kroger plain greek yogurt, 1 serving  (I didn't have any more fat free sour cream - you could probably eliminate one or the other as long as you had a full cup) *mapleine, 6 tsp  *Flour, white, 2.5 cup  Baking Soda, .5 tsp  Walnuts, .25 cup, chopped

Mix the beans, sugar, applesauce and eggs in a mixing bowl thoroughly. Add the sour cream, yogurt and mapeline. Combine the flour with the soda and blend in. Add the nuts. The original recipe says to chill dough if soft...this stuff is way soft, chilling won't make any difference.
Drop teaspoonfuls onto a sprayed cookie sheet and bake about 8 to 10 minutes. Do not let them brown! Will be slightly golden on the bottom. top with frosting of choice, enjoy!

makes almost 8 dozen cookies...

I used Spif y Whip to make the frosting for these, adding 1/4 C powdered sugar and 1 tsp mapleine.  It's divine.  You could also make a glaze and drizzle the cookies with a maple flavored glaze.  The calories do not include the frosting...  ;)  

• 
  
• Servings Per Recipe: 70
• Amount Per Serving
• Calories: 34.8

• Total Fat: 0.3 g
• Cholesterol: 0.1 mg
• Sodium: 19.7 mg
• Total Carbs: 7.7 g
• Dietary Fiber: 0.3 g
• Protein: 1.2 g

Okay - She was Right - Sort of

I think I mentioned how bored I was at work Friday.  I was so bored that I was surfing recipes.  Well, I guess that doesn't take much boredom, it's one of my favorite pass times..lol  Anyway, that continued into Saturday, and I discovered a recipe that is really just different, but VERY good - at least initially.  I don't think it's the best frosting to ever cross the tongue, but it's pretty darn close.  Especially with the different ingredient.
Flour.

That's right, it has flour in it!!
I discovered it on the Pioneer Woman site, (which is amazing, if you like food).  She was making Devil Dogs (which to you and me are probably more like Susie Q pies), and mentioned this frosting that she'd found on another site (which goes to show how much we surf each other's sites! lol).  I thought, sure - the best frosting I've ever had?  I've had some pretty amazing frostings.  The last one that really stands out in my mind is what was on my nieces wedding cupcakes - oh man, that was bliss!  (I'm still trying to find out where she got them)  So, I decided to try the recipe and see how it made up.
It's really simple!  I made up a low fat chocolate cake (okay - I just can't make a normal cake anymore) and used sour cream because I had some fat free stuff that had gotten frozen in the back of my fridge and went lumpy, and topped it with semi-sweet chocolate chips.  Wa, lah, the cake.
Then I made the frosting.  She has step by step photos on her web site (she's really good at that) so I won't bother here.  Just click on the link and go wild.
Anyway, I slathered it over the cake, and it's pretty too.  I really can't believe how light and fluffy the frosting texture is.  My son said it tasted like whipped topping.  How does flour, milk, sugar and butter taste like whipped  cream?  Kind of interesting.  Anyway, it is good, but after sitting on the cake I wasn't as impressed.  It's still light, I just thought it had a strange taste.  You try it and see what you think.  I'm thinking I want to experiment with it and see what I can come up with.  The cake turned out awesome, at least, so the frosting was just - lol - icing on the cake...

Low Fat Chocolate Cake:
1 Devils food cake mix
3/4 C egg substitute
1 container fat free sour cream
1 pkg fat free sugar free chocolate pudding mix (8 serving size)
1 1/4 C water
prehead oven to 350.
Mix and pour into sprayed cake pan.  Could make a layer cake or do a 9x13 like I did.  Bake for 35 minutes, or until tester comes out clean.  Cool.

Frosting (The best frosting you've ever had):
1 C skim milk
5 Tb flour
1 tsp Vanilla
1 C sugar
1 C butter

It's kind of ironic to put this on a low fat cake, but oh well.  In a small sauce pan, whisk flour into the milk and heat up, stirring until thickened.  It will be like a thick cake batter.  Cool.  You want it to be completely cooled  off before adding it to the other stuff.  Stir in the vanilla.
Then, in a mixing bowl combine the butter and sugar until light and fluffy.  Try to get rid of all the grainy feel of the sugar.  When flour mixture is totally cool, add to the butter stuff and whip on high forever - until it's really light and fluffy and not separated.
Her site says it makes 12 servings.  Those are mightly thick and heavy servings...I spread it over my 9x13 cake and used all of it, but could have done two cakes or 24 cupcakes, I'm sure.

chicken Sausage and Red poatoes

Yum!  If you're looking for something a little different, try this combination.  I was at Sam's Club the other day and discovered they had chicken sausages that are kind of like those you find in the grocery stores with apples and stuff??  anyway, they had two kinds that were interesting to me.  Chicken, Spinach and Asiago cheese, and chicken with Mozzarella and basil.  I was intrigued because they actually were low in fat, (only 5 grams per sausage) high in protein (like 17 grams) and low calorie, (120) all the things I look for in a good protein.
We tried the chicken and mozzarella ones first, with the Ronzoni Garden Delights fettuccini, mushrooms, sweet onion and parmesan.  They were okay, but nothing to write home about.  So then yesterday for lunch I made up some sweet potatoes, red potoates, carrots and sweet onions roasted and added one of the chicken spinach sausages.  It was sooo good!  The chicken spinach is definitely one you'll want to try.  So, here's kind of the recipe for you:

Chicken Spinach Sausage with Roasted Veggies (serves 1 or 2 small portions)

2 small red potatoes, scrubbed and cut into large bite size
1 small sweet potato, peeled and cut into bite sizes
1/4 of large sweet onion, chopped into large pieces
1 medium carrot, peeled and cut on diagonal into medium slices
1 Chicken sausage

Preheat oven to 400.  Spray a small 8 x 8 cake pan or roasting dish.  put all the veggies in it and spray them, then sprinkle with favorite seasoning or Italian seasoning.  I use Mrs. Dash Tomato Basil.  Put them in the oven for about 10 minutes, take it out and turn them all over, spray again, and put back for another 10 minutes.  Test to make sure they are cooked through.

While they are roasting, in a small fry pan, put a small layer of water and the sausage.  Cover and simmer 5 minutes, turn over and simmer another 5.  Removed from heat and slice into thick diagonal slices.  When veggies are finished, add sausage to veggies and toss.  Serve warm!

total calories is less than 400, fat about 6 and carbs less than 60.

Valentines Cake

I forgot to post this when my daughter made her cake, but I came across the photo today, so I decided to post it anyway - better late than never, right?  lol

Anyway - since Valentines was on a Monday, she decided she wanted to make the desert.  I have a recipe for ice cream cake, using a cake mix but making it low fat and then putting sliced ice cream between the layers.  She wanted to make it heart shaped, so we used my heart shape pans.  It turned out pretty good, which is why I wanted to post the photo.  It wasn't chocolate (because it gives my hubby a headache, so we avoid it when he's going to eat), but it was still yummy.  You could probably do the same with any flavor cake - I've made it with chocolate.
Anyway, enjoy!

Cake

1 Betty Crocker Lemon Cake mix  

1 container Kroger plain FF greek yogurt  4 Egg whites 
1 1/2 Cups Water

no sugar added low fat ice cream vanilla , 8 serving  

Frosting

4 C Powdered Sugar 
2 T Light Butter
1/4 - 1/2 C skim milk
mix all dry ingredients, then add eggs and yogurt. Mix, adding water as needed till thicker than usual cake mix. Pour into two round pans, one bundt pan or 9x13 pan, sprayed with pan spray. Bake at 350 for 25 min if the two pans, alter according to size of pan.   remove from oven and let cool. Slice in half length wise, and then slice ice cream in 1/4" slices and lay in middle. Put other half of cake back on top. We actually cut both halves of a heart shaped cake in half and had four layers. Freeze.
Make frosting with the powdered sugar, butter and milk. add powdered sugar to the butter and milk a little at a time so that you don't have to much frosting. This one I used the True Lemon stuff to give it a real lemon flavor. Some yellow food coloring, and we were set. 
makes about 24 servings.

Something different...

Okay - if you like Cream of Wheat, you're a friend of mine.  Honestly.  I love Cream of Wheat or Farina, or whatever it is you call it.  And the thing is...the more lumps in it, the better.  My hubby thinks I'm crazy.  He tells me how his mother perfected the art of pouring it in while stirring so as to make no lumps at all.  What fun is that??  Not that I like great big gobs of lumps, I just like a couple here and there.  Gives me more to chomp on.

Anyway...lol  I tried making some the other day with milk to add protein.  I had some fat free half and half left that I needed to use up, so I used it in place of some of the milk.  Wow....you would never believe the difference!!  It was soooo creamy.  YUM.  and, I'm ashamed to admit to my dieting world friends...but it's good with butter in it too.  That's from my mission days and a companion that introduced me to that little bit of yum.  I put just a bit in, probably half a teaspoon, but you can still taste it. So, then, I added cinnamon.  It was getting better and better all the time.  Add a little of splenda blend brown sugar blend (and I do mean a LITTLE) and it's heavenly.

I made it again this morning for breakfast, and had just a little left over in the pan when I came home from work.  Hmmm...so I warmed it up in the microwave, added the smallest tich of butter and about a tablespoon of semi sweet chocolate chips.  Oh man!  Who would have thought a chocolaty treat was a breakfast food???  So, if your craving something chocolate and have some Cream of Wheat or a generic stand in around, give it a whirl.  You'll love it...  ;)

And they call it mock potato soup why???

Okay...so I thought I'd try this recipe that claims to taste just like potato soup, but it's made with cauliflower.  I'm sure you've heard of it - it was a first for me.  I figured we had two huge heads of cauliflower, it was a good time to try the recipe.

Well...as my hubby claims, I couldn't just make the recipe, I had to alter a few things.  But honestly, it shouldn't have made a difference!  I added some celery, didn't use all the oil and used FF canned milk instead of the 1%.  Wouldn't that just make it better?? I wanted soooo badly to add garlic to it, but I refrained.  sigh.  It was kind of bland, and tasted like cauliflower to me.  I mean, it was good, everyone liked it -- but it was no potato soup.

What do you think?

2 large heads of cauliflower
2 pkg bacon
5 cans ff low sodium chicken broth
1 large sweet onion, chopped
1/2 C chopped celery hearts (the leafy part)
Mrs. Dash tomato basil
1 can ff evaporated milk
1/2 C FF half n half

You steam the cauliflower until tender, then you broil it till it's golden.  (You spray it and sprinkle spices on it first)  You cook up the bacon and drain it, then crumble it.  You chop the onion and saute it in a large soup pot with the celery and a can of the broth.  When the cauliflower is golden, you add it to the pot with the rest of the broth.  After it's simmered for about 10 minutes, scoop out half of it into a blender and blend till smooth.  Dump it back into the pot and add the milk and cream and bacon.  Serve with sharp cheddar cheese.  The recipe suggested putting the cheese in the soup, but I like to control how much cheese is used, so we sprinkled it on top.  We also used parmesan cheese.  It makes about 14 servings.

Chocolate Cake Cookies

Last Sunday I decided to use up the rest of some frosting I'd made with spiff e Whip.  Have you ever heard of Spiff E Whip??  It's the most amazing stuff, and I'm afraid I love it.  Even thought it's really bad for you, filled with all those types of preservatives and artificial sweeteners that you shouldn't eat...sigh.  But it's really handy when you want something quick to whip up and don't have any whip topping. and it has zero fat.  Which is always a plus...  lol

Anyway, be sure to use cold water when you make it, it takes like 1 minute that way.  I've been trying to find a picture of the can so you can recognize it when you look on the shelves for it.  You need to look in the food preparedness aisle, it won't be in the regular baking stuff.

Anyway - the cookies.

1 Betty Crocker, Super Moist Triple Chocolate Fudge cake mix 1 can western family black beans low sodium, pureed western family egg substitute, 0.75 cup

mix all ingredients together in a mixing bowl, blend for 2 minutes. Preheat oven to 350. Spray cookie sheet with pan spray. With small ice cream scoop, place cookies on cookie sheet. Bake for 10 minutes.

Number of Servings: 92

• Calories: 26.3

• Total Fat: 0.4 g
• Cholesterol: 0.0 mg
• Sodium: 69.0 mg
• Total Carbs: 6.0 g
• Dietary Fiber: 0.4 g
• Protein: 0.7 g

Okay - back to spiff e whip ...  There is a frosting recipe on the can that I made for my son's bday cupcakes.  I had loads of frosting left over, so I used it to make sort of a moon pie with these cookies.  It was really yummy!  so try it out...you'll love it!