Sunday, May 4, 2008

Chocolate Cupcakes, Banana Bars, Steak and Corn

Great and busy weekend! I taught Friday and Saturday and spent most of the rest of weekend running around getting housework and errands done! Josh went to a bachelor party up in PA on Saturday. He returned today ready for a nap and Frank was excited about it....


After I got all my errands and housework done, I experimented with a few new recipes. Hungry Girl always puts up some recipes that look crazy to me, so I finally decided to try one. I made these chocolate cupcakes. They turned out pretty well for 108 calories (I used the low sugar devils food mix).

HG's Death by Chocolate Cup Cakes

Ingredients
2 cups moist-style chocolate cake mix (half of an 18.25-oz. box)
Two 25-calorie packets diet hot cocoa mix
1/2 cup fat-free liquid egg substitute (like Egg Beaters Original)
2 tbsp. semi-sweet mini chocolate chips
1 tsp. Splenda No Calorie Sweetener (granulated)
1/8 tsp. salt


Directions
Place chocolate chips and the contents of both cocoa packets in a tall glass. Add 12 ounces of boiling water, and stir until chips and cocoa mix have dissolved. Place glass in the freezer to chill for 25 minutes. Preheat over to 350 degrees. Once cocoa has chilled, give it a stir and mix with all other ingredients in a mixing bowl. Whip batter with a whisk or fork for 2 minutes. Line 12 muffin pan with baking cups. Evenly spoon batter (which will be thin, but don't worry!) into pan. Place pan in the oven and bake for 15 minutes. Makes 12 servings.




I also made banana chocolate chip bars. I used this recipe: http://www.cdkitchen.com/recipes/recs/182/Banana_Bars12197.shtml, but instead of shortening, I used applesauce. They are delicious.

Banana Chocolate Chip Bars

Ingredients
1 1/2 cup flour
1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup applesauce
1 cup packed light brown sugar
3 bananas -- mashed
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
Desired amount of chocolate chips.

Directions
Oven to 350 degrees. Spray a 13 x 9" with Pam. Combine flour, baking soda, and salt. In a large bowl cream brown sugar and applesauce. Beat in bananas and vanilla. Gradually blend in dry ingredients and chocolate chips. Bake for 30-35 minutes.


For dinner I made steak and corn on cob. I brushed the steak with a little bit of olive oil combined with garlic powder. This is a picture of Josh's plate.

Thursday, May 1, 2008

Cream of Caulifower Soup


Yayyy my taping is over! I think it went pretty well. Once I got home from Body Step I made some delicious cream of cauliflower soup. I made it with mostly 1% milk and some cream. I made it based on this recipe: http://www.cooks.com/rec/doc/0,1748,157177-249201,00.html

Cream of Cauliflower

1 (16 oz.) bag cauliflower
1/2 c. chopped celery
1/2 c. onion
1 (16 oz.) can chicken broth
4 tbsp. margarine or butter substitute
4 tbsp. flour
2 1/2 c. milk (skim or 1%)
1/2 c. dairy cream
1/2 tsp. basil
1/2 tsp. ground red pepper (or desired amount)
1/2 c. ground Parmesan cheese

Combine vegetables and chicken broth. Heat to boiling, lower heat and simmer 10 minutes. In a medium saucepan, melt margarine. Add flour, mix, then add milk and cream to make a white sauce. Stir sauce into vegetable mixture and add basil and ground red pepper. Heat until soup thickens, 20 minutes. Stir every once in a while. In last five minutes, add ground cheese.

I served my soup with low fat bread sticks.