chicken salad

I love chicken salad!  You know, the kind with the grapes and pecans?  So yummy!  I don’t love chicken salad that has celery or is loaded with mayonnaise, though.   Let me share with you my lighter, celery-free version of chicken salad.  Instead of using all mayonnaise, I mix mayo and Greek yogurt – the yogurt has less calories and much more protein, and it kind of “stretches” the mayo so that there is still that taste (since I used a little) but you don’t have to use as much as you normally would.

what you need: chicken, grapes, mayo, Greek yogurt, and pecans

cook and shred your chicken

add mayo

and then add Greek yogurt

halve grapes and add them

and finally, add the pecan pieces

Recipe

Ingredients

• 2 chicken breasts, cooked and shredded (or cubed if you prefer)
• 1/4 cup mayonnaise (I use Hellmann’s with canola oil)
• 1/2 cup Greek yogurt
• 1 cup grapes, halved
• 1/2 cup pecan pieces
• salt and pepper, to taste

Instructions

Cook chicken and shred or cube.  Let cool.  Add mayo, yogurt, grapes, pecan pieces, salt, and pepper and mix well.  Keep refrigerated.

Makes 6 servings of 1/2 cup each; 200 calories per serving.  This is South Beach Phase 2.

I love taking chicken salad for my lunch.  You can eat it on crackers, on a bed of lettuce, or with bread/pita to make a sandwich, but I just eat mine with a fork.  This is also a great dish to take to a potluck or baby/wedding shower.

That Works For Me {book review + giveaway}

*******This giveaway is now closed************

The winner is Stephanie Ann – congratulations!

You know how I post a Works for Me Wednesday tip every Wednesday?  Well, I’m not the only one – hundreds of helpful tips covering all kinds of topics are linked up each week.  And now, Kristen (who hosts WFMW each week) has compiled many of those tips into a organized book.

And guess what else?  Yours truly is featured in this book!  Yep, three of my Works for Me Wednesday tips were included in the book (but I’m not going to tell you which ones…you’ll have to buy it to find out…).

I am so excited about That Works for Me! (and not just because I’m in it…)  There are tons and tons of helpful tips that have been used and confirmed by real people!  The book is divided into categories like babies, beauty/fashion, blogging, cleaning, organizing, crafts, gardening, frugality, decor, gifts, homeschooling, parties/holidays, laundry, hospitality, recipes, parenting, marriage, time management, technology, and traveling.  Whew!  There’s something for everyone!  Each entry includes a summary of the tip and provides a link to the original blog post for that tip so you can check it out in more detail.

If you want to find out more about That Works for Me!, go here.  Here‘s an example of what a page from the e-book looks like.

There is also a related contest going through the end of April: submit a tip that works for you (you don’t have to have a blog to participate) and you might win a $150 to use to get your house professionally cleaned!!  Wowza!  You can submit as many tips as you want, too.  Go here to find out more about the contest and/or submit your helpful tips.

But that’s not all!  I’m also giving away one copy of That Works for Me!.  Here’s how you can win:

• entry #1: leave a comment on this post telling us about a tip that works for you (it can be a tip about anything!)
• entry #2: become a follower of my blog (sign up is on the right side of the blog) and then leave a comment telling me you’re a follower (if you’re already a follower you can just leave a comment telling me so)
• entry #3: Like That Works for Me! on Facebook (go here) and then leave a commenting telling me that you did.

The giveaway will end Sunday, April 22.

Can’t wait until then?  You can go ahead and buy it now: Click here to visit wearethatfamily. - use the coupon code SAVE1 to get $1 off your purchase.

tortilla soup

If you’ve looked at my recipes, you know I love pretty much all Mexican food (except cilantro!), and this soup is no exception.  Several weeks ago Mom made this tortilla soup (she got the recipe here) and we loved it when we tried it so I got the recipe from her and I fixed some earlier this week.  It is delicious!

you need: crushed tomatoes, corn, hominy, black beans, green chiles, chicken broth, oil, onion, garlic, chili powder, oregano, and chicken (not pictured – it was in the crockpot you see in the background)

cook the onion and garlic in oil until soft

add chili powder and oregano

then tomatoes, chicken broth, and water

next comes corn,

hominy,

black beans,

chiles,

and finally, chicken

let it cook and you’re ready to go!

Recipe (adapted from here)

Ingredients

• 1 cup onion, chopped (the recipe says one whole onion but Michael doesn’t really like onion so I reduced it to just 1 cup)
• 3 cloves garlic, chopped (or just use garlic powder if you don’t want to use cloves)
• 1 TBSP oil (I used canola)
• 2 tsp chili powder
• 1 tsp oregano
• 1 28oz can crushed tomatoes (I had never used crushed tomatoes before – they are almost like tomato sauce)
• 1 can chicken broth
• 1 1/4 cup water
• 1 can whole corn kernels
• 1 can white hominy
• 1 4oz can chopped green chiles
• 1 can black beans, rinsed
• 2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cooked and chopped/shredded
• tortilla chips, cheese, avocado, sour cream, etc. for topping

Instructions

In a medium pot, heat oil over medium heat.  Saute onion and garlic in oil until soft.  Stir in chili powder, oregano, tomatoes, chicken broth, and water.  Bring to a boil and simmer for 10 minutes.  Then stir in corn, hominy, black beans, and chicken.  Simmer for 10 more minutes.  Top with desired toppings.

(note: the recipe also calls for cilantro but as I said above, I hate the stuff so I didn’t use any)

(another note: this looks very similar to the crock pot chicken taco chili, and they do have some of the same ingredients, but the taste is quite different because of the different spices so make sure to try both!)

This made 10 1-cup servings; each cup is 175 calories.

This recipe is probably South Beach Phase 2 (I’m not 100% sure about the corn/hominy – I don’t think you can have corn on Phase 1, but correct me if I’m wrong)

healthy(ier) cupcakes

I am having so much fun practicing my new cake decorating skills!  Last night I made some cupcakes to bring my practicum today to share with my lunch crew.  Remember how I shared with you the tip to having a more moist cake by adding more eggs and oil?  Well, it definitely makes the cake more moist, but it makes it more greasy/oily too.  Michael and I both agreed that my cake and cupcakes from the past few weeks were a little too greasy for us.  I remembered seeing some stuff on Pinterest about substitutions you could use in cakes, so I decided to go the whole opposite direction and try no eggs and no oil.

I found this information from Hungry Girl that tells you what substitutions to use (yogurt, diet coke, applesauce, pumpkin), which substitutions work best with which cake flavors, and how to bake the cakes.  You should definitely check it out!  There are some great ideas.  They even give a summary of the cake’s taste and texture.

I decided to go with a devil’s food chocolate cake made with greek yogurt.

All you need is a devil’s food cake mix, water, and Greek yogurt (you actually need two containers…the recipe calls for one cup and I thought this would be enough but it wasn’t…my sweet sweet husband ran back to the grocery for me so I could make my recipe)

I mixed the cake mix, yogurt, and water together

the batter was much, much thicker than regular cake/cupcake batter – it was more like a cookie dough consistency

I scooped the batter into my cupcake liners using a cookie dough scoop

then I baked them (even though I didn’t use the extra egg/oil trick, I still reduced my heat from 350 to 325 and added 5 extra minutes onto the baking time on the box)

the tops were pretty bumpy but I didn’t care since I was going to ice them anyway

I mixed up a batch of this cream cheese icing (and added a little meringue powder)

and used it to ice the cupcakes (come back tomorrow to find out my life-changing icing trick!)

So, thoughts…

I thought the cake part was pretty good!  I was a little chewier than a traditional cupcake, more like a cross between a brownie and a cupcake.  I didn’t eat a plain one, so I don’t know how it would taste on its own, but with the icing I thought it tasted fine.  The cupcakes also got the thumbs up from Michael and everyone at work today (including those who were a little freaked out about the yogurt).

What I did notice was that the cupcake stuck to the liner pretty bad yesterday, however today they didn’t stick as badly – I think that’s because they were still a little warm yesterday and something about them being in the fridge (because of the cream cheese icing) helped with the sticking.  That being said, as I experiment with this method/recipe some more, I may try using foil liners or just making them straight in the muffin tip with no liner at all and see how that goes.

Overall, these were great.  I’ll definitely use this recipe again, and I’m excited to try out some of the other substitutions that were given.  I think you could definitely bring these “healthier” cupcakes to a party and no one would be the wiser if you didn’t tell them.

Cupcake Recipe (from here)

Ingredients

• 1 box moist devil’s food cake mix
• 1 cup Greek yogurt
• 1 cup water

Instructions

Mix cake mix, yogurt, and water.  Divide into 24 muffin tins/cupcake liners.  Bake according to directions on box (I reduced my heat to 325 and baked 5 minutes longer than the directions on the box).

Cream Cheese Icing Recipe (adapted from here)

Ingredients

• 10 oz cream cheese
• 6 and 1/2 TBSP butter, softened
• 3 and 1/4 cups powdered sugar, sifted
• 4 tsp clear vanilla extract (you don’t have to use clear, it just keeps it from turning the off white color that you get if you use the brown)
• 2 tsp meringue powder (the original recipe didn’t call for this, but I added it since I knew I wanted to decorate with the icing, not just spread it with a knife)

Instructions

Combine the cream cheese and butter in the bowl of an electric mixer.  Beat on medium-high speed until light and fluffy.  Add in the powdered sugar and meringue powder and mix on low speed just until incorporated.  Increase the speed to medium-high and beat 2-3 minutes more.  Blend in the vanilla.

Some notes about the icing: 1) You really do need to sift the sugar.  I didn’t because I’m lazy (and the Wilton buttercream icing doesn’t need sifted powered sugar so I assumed this would be fine, too) and I ended up with lumps in my icing, so make sure to sift.  2) If you are planning to decorate with the icing (i.e. piping it on rather than spreading with a knife), it’s a good idea to refrigerate the icing before decorating.  I didn’t and mine were a little droopy, the icing wasn’t stiff enough.

Each cupcake by itself (no frosting) is only 87 calories each!  Each frosted cupcake is 220 calories – not too bad for a cupcake in my opinion.

By the way, I’m still loving my cake/cupcake carrier.  It makes transporting cupcakes so incredibly easy!  I can’t remember if I told you this the other day, but the little white trays are flat on one side and have the cupcake grooves on the other, so you can flip them over and carry a sheet cake (or two) if you need that option.  Also they have handles that stick up and are easy to lift out.  Plus you can detach the two layers, if you only have 12 cupcakes or one sheet cake, or if you bake a lot you could even buy two of these and hook them together to make a big 4 layer container.  (P.S. I’m not getting compensated to rave about this carrier, I just think it’s really handy and want to pass that along).

Make sure to come back tomorrow – I’m going to share with you an icing tip (pun not intended…lol) that is amazing!!  I’m so thrilled!

cake decorating class – week 3

This week in my Wilton cake decorating class we learned how fill and ice cupcakes and how to make several types of flowers.  Our “homework” was to make cupcakes, filling, and icing.  We only had to bring six but a box of cake mix makes 24, so I had a bunch to practice on!  I just used a box of Pillsbury chocolate devil’s food cake mix and altered it like I told you last week (one extra egg, 1/2 cup extra oil, etc.) and made a batch of the basic Wilton icing.  The filling was what I was most excited about.  You know how I have a massive blog crush on Amanda from Kevin & Amanda…well, I’ve been drooling over these Snickers cupcakes she made and so I decided to use her chocolate mousse filling for my cupcakes.

Shut. The. Front. Door.

The filling was incredible.  It exceeded anything I could have ever imagined.  I wanted to stick my head in the bowl and eat it all.  If you learn nothing else from my blog, you must make this mousse!  And the best part, it’s super super easy.

All you do is take 2 cups of heavy whipping cream, pour it in your mixer (I’m sure you could do this with a hand mixer or even by hand, but I used my KitchenAid and it was a breeze), use the whisk/beater attachment and turn it on.  Let it do its thing until the the whipping cream turns into whipped cream and starts forming stiff peaks.  I didn’t time this, sorry.  Meanwhile, melt two cups chocolate chips in the microwave.  When the whipping cream turns into whipped cream, pour in the melted chocolate and mix gently.

Then try not to eat the whole bowl.

It was amazing.  So amazing that I almost just left it the way it was, but I had already planned a different idea so I went ahead and tried it out.  After I made the mousse I divided it into three containers: in one I added a little instant coffee to make a mocha filling, in one I added a little peanut butter to make a peanut butter chocolate filling, and in one I added some orange extract to make an orange chocolate filling.  They were fantastic, too!  So many choices…The mocha was my favorite of the three flavors that I added.  Michael loved the orange, you couldn’t really taste the peanut butter – I think if I really wanted a peanut butter filling it would be better to go with making a peanut butter mousse using whipping cream and peanut butter chips rather than adding it in later to the chocolate.  Just my opinion though.

But the plain chocolate and the mocha…yes, please.  I have found a new love!

Just a note, though.  If you are going to use this mousse to fill cupcakes (which we learned this week where you put the long tip down in the cupcake and push the filling in), fill the cupcakes right after you make the mousse.  I made my mousse the night before and refrigerated it (since it contained cream) and the next day, even though I let it sit out for an hour before I tried to fill the cupcakes, it was too hard and wasn’t as fluffy.  It was so hard to pipe the filling through the bag into the cupcakes – it was an absolute mess and some of them didn’t get hardly any filling because I was squeezing so hard but couldn’t get the filling to come out.  Later, I microwaved some of it for just a few seconds and that made filling them so much easier, but I’d recommend just waiting to make the mousse until you need it.

Ok, enough about filling…on to the point of this post – decorating! (but seriously, go make this mousse – you will thank me later)

Here’s part of my work station before class started (there’s a lot more behind me on the counter): paper towels (you use lots!), wet washcloths (icing is sticky!), the three fillings, icing tinted six colors, icing bags, tips, practice board, cupcakes (that carrier is fantastic – it has slots to nest each cupcake in so they don’t tip over, or you can flip the white trays over and use it for two sheet cakes or cookies…here it is if you want one)

Two bad things about this class (that are still worth it to put up with) is 1) how much stuff you have to haul from your house to the class (my largest 31 bag is full each time plus I have a cake or cupcake carrier in addition to that)  and 2) the cleanup afterward.  Oh my stars, the cleanup….Michael and I spent forever last night washing all the containers, icing bags, and tips, and we didn’t even finish – we ran out of hot water!  But it’s still worth it because I’ve learned so much in just three weeks.

We moved fast this week in order to get everything in, so I didn’t have time to take pictures during class (nor did I want to get sticking icing all over my camera) – here are my finished cupcakes:

We learned how to do drop flowers (the pink flowers with the orange center on the top left cupcake), a basic icing technique for cupcakes (the plain purple and pink cupcakes), leaves (they’re in green on some of the cupcakes), shaggy mums (the orange hairy looking ones, rosettes (the light blue cupcake on the bottom row is covered in rosettes), and pom pom flowers (I don’t have one here so point out).  Some of these (like the crazy green one at the bottom right) weren’t done using a technique we had learned, I was just experimenting with the different tips and colors.  The orange one in the top right corner was decorating in the stars that we learned our first week.

We learned how to do shells tonight but I didn’t put them on my cupcakes because that would look weird and because they were pretty hard for me to do and I didn’t think they looked very good.

I also made little flags to indicate which cupcakes had which fillings since I had three.

Here’s part of my second tray (I waited until I got home to fill and ice the last 8).  The top left corner (the light and dark blue one) is the pom pom flower that we learned.

As soon as I got home we had to eat one, of course.  This was Michael’s.

and this was mine (I like a lot of icing!)

This was one of my favorites – love those little flowers!

close ups

Even with all that clean up we had to do, I would still go right now and make a whole ‘nother round of these!  I have so much fun making them and I think it will be even more fun when I’m at home in my own kitchen and not rushed.  If you know me in real life, expect to see some of these at any event that I can justify bringing cupcakes to…

Stay tuned for next week: we’ll learn how to make roses and write on cakes

healthy whole wheat lasagna

I think that many people consider Italian food to be pretty unhealthy when it comes to make choices of what to eat.  And I agree that it’s pretty hard to find pasta in a restaurant that is fairly healthy or low calorie.  However, it’s pretty easy to make pasta at home that won’t blow your plans to eat healthy.  I’ve already shared my spaghetti sauce, baked ziti, homemade whole wheat pizza dough, pizza bites, and pizza grilled cheese - all healthy, low calorie, Italian food options.  Today I’m going to share with you my lasagna recipe.  It’s my Mom’s that I’ve tweaked a little to suit me and it’s delicious!

What you need: lasagna noodles, ground something (we used turkey, the recipe says ground beef, whatever you want), ricotta cheese, onion, tomato sauce, tomato juice, pepper, garlic, mozzarella cheese, and oregano (not pictured)

cook noodles (hint: don’t cook them the full time that the box says because they will cook more when you bake the lasagna and you don’t want them to be mushy!)

chop the onion, brown the meat with the onion

once “browned” (turkey turns white rather than brown), start adding the rest of the ingredients

tomato sauce and tomato juice

oregano

garlic powder

black pepper

let the sauce simmer; once it’s done start assembling the lasagna

start with a layer of meat sauce – I just put enough on the bottom to keep the noodles from sticking

then noodles

followed by ricotta cheese

then mozzarella

and meat sauce (I had already started the next layer of noodles before I remembered to take a picture – whoops!)

continue layering, top the final layer of noodles with mozzarella

bake the lasagna

Recipe

Ingredients

• 1 pound ground meat (turkey, chicken, beef, etc.)
• 9 whole wheat lasagna noodles
• 1/2 to 1 cup onion, chopped (more or less to suit your tastes – Michael doesn’t like onion so I don’t use much)
• 1 can tomato sauce
• 12 oz tomato juice (2 little cans)
• 15 oz low fat ricotta cheese (Mom always used cottage cheese but I like the smoothness of the ricotta – either will work fine)
• 2 bags mozzarella cheese (I use the low fat or part skim – I can’t remember what the bag says exactly)
• 1 tsp oregano
• 1/2 tsp black pepper
• 1/4 tsp garlic powder

Instructions

Prepare noodles according to directions on the package, but cook a minute or two less than instructed since they will cook again when you bake the lasagna.  While noodles are cooking, brown the meat with the onions.  Once meat is browned and onions are cooked, add the tomato sauce, tomato juice, and spices.  Simmer for 20 minutes.  The begin layering your ingredients – I do sauce, noodles, ricotta, mozzarella, sauce, noodles, ricotta, mozzarella, sauce, noodles, and a final layer of mozzarella.  It’s no big deal if you layer yours a little differently, it will still taste the same.  Bake at 350 for 30 minutes.

Makes 12 servings at 273 calories per serving.  This recipe is South Beach Phase 2.

This is also a great make ahead meal.  You can cook the noodles and sauce, and layer all the ingredients, then store it in the fridge until you’re ready to cook – then just pop it in the oven (it might take a little longer than 30 minutes since it had been in the fridge) to heat it up.  Easy and yummy!

poppy seed chicken casserole

I love chicken casserole and Michael really loves chicken casserole, so for a little “welcome home” surprise yesterday I made some for supper.  I’ve only made it once before and it didn’t turn out so good, so usually we just eat it when someone else makes it.  But I was feeling brave and decided to give it another try – and it turned out great!  Plus it’s super-de-duper easy.

you need: chicken, cream of chicken soup, sour cream, Ritz crackers, poppy seeds, and butter

cook the chicken and cube it or shred it

add the cream of chicken soup

the sour cream

and the poppyseeds

mix well

spread in the bottom of a 9×13 baking dish

melt the butter (I forgot to show that part), crumble up the crackers, and mix well

spread the cracker mixture over the top of the chicken and bake

yum!

Recipe

Ingredients

• 5 cups chicken, cooked and shredded/chopped (I used 4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts and that gave me 5 cups)
• 2 cans cream of chicken soup
• 1 cup sour cream (I used fat free)
• 1 TBSP poppy seeds
• 1 and 1/2 sleeves Ritz crackers (about 40 crackers), crumbled
• 1/4 – 1/2 cup butter, melted (I only used 1/4 cup to cut down on calories and I think it turned out fine)

Instructions

Cook chicken (I cook mine in a crockpot on high for about 4-5 hours) and chop or shred (I put mine in my KitchenAid mixer to shred it).  Mix the chicken with the cream of chicken soup, sour cream, and poppy seeds.  Spread in the bottom of a 9×13 baking dish.  Melt butter and mix with crumbled crackers.  Spread cracker mixture on top of the chicken.  Bake at 350 for 30 minutes.

This is a great make-ahead dish.  You can put the chicken mixture together and in the bottom of the pan, then just keep it in the fridge. Then just prepare the crackers and butter and bake the casserole.

This recipe is South Beach Phase 3 (because of the Ritz crackers).

I originally divided this into 8 servings (and they were some really big servings!), which made them 350 calories each (since I only used 1/4 cup butter – if I had used 1/2 cup butter then this would have been 8 servings at 400 calories each).  The servings were all little too big for me, though, so next time I will divide the dish into 12 smaller servings at 235 calories each (265 per serving if you use the full 1/2 cup of butter).

(p.s. I always try to give credit where credit is due, but I have this same or very similar recipe in several church cookbooks, plus I saw it on Pinterest, so I can’t really say where I got this recipe.  If you’re looking for some fun variations, though, this blogger uses the same recipe as me but has some suggestions for additional add-ins)

Enjoy!

bacon ranch chicken pasta

I’ve got a new recipe for you…found on Pinterest of course, the original recipe is from here.  (you should check out her website – so far this is the only recipe of her’s I’ve made but she has a lot of other recipes that look super yummy and healthy)  I have to say, Michael didn’t care for it but I wasn’t surprised because it has sour cream and ranch in the recipe and he doesn’t like either of those things. It’s not one of my all time favorite dishes but I definitely thought it was good.  It’s also easy!

you need: chicken, bacon, sour cream, cream of chicken soup, garlic powder, dry ranch mix, and pasta

mix the cream of chicken soup,

sour cream,

garlic powder,

and ranch mix together

 mix in the bacon

put the chicken in the crockpot and pour the mixture over it

once it’s cooked, shred the chicken and mix it all up

cook the pasta

serve the bacon ranch chicken over pasta

Recipe (from here)

Ingredients

• 2 chicken breasts
• 1 can cream of chicken soup
• 1 cup sour cream (I used fat free)
• 1 tsp garlic powder
• 1/2 packet ranch dry mix
• 4 pieces bacon, cooked and crumbled (I used turkey bacon)
• pasta (I used the swirly kind just because we already had it buy you can use whatever)

Instructions

Mix the cream of chicken soup, sour cream, ranch mix, garlic powder, and bacon together.  Place the chicken breasts in a crock pot and cover with the mixture.  Cook on low for 6 hours.  When cooked, shred the chicken and mix it in with the sauce.  Cook pasta according to directions on the box; serve the bacon ranch chicken over the pasta.

This recipe is South Beach Phase 2.

We originally divided the bacon ranch chicken into 4 portions, at 270 calories each (not counting pasta) but I thought that was too much and later switched it to 6 portions at 180 calories each.  I used 1/2 cup of pasta (115 calories) + 1 serving of the chicken mixture (180 calories), which made the whole thing 295 calories.

cheesy chicken and rice casserole

This casserole is incredibly quick and easy to whip up, plus it’s healthy!

what you need: chicken, rice, cream of chicken soup, cheese, broccoli, black pepper, onion powder, water (not pictured)

start with the cream of chicken soup

add the water and the rice, stir

add the onion powder (I know it looks gross right now…I promise it gets better!)

and the pepper, mix

pour the broccoli florets into the liquid mixture

then put the chicken on top

cover with foil and bake

this is what it will look like when it comes out of the oven

add the cheese (I take the chicken pieces off and set them aside, then pour in the cheese and mix with the broccoli rice mixture – you could just pour the cheese on top of the chicken, too)

the cheesy broccoli and rice

put the chicken back in and serve

yum!

Recipe

Ingredients

• 4 chicken breasts (I cut mine into halves to make 8 portions, you can leave them whole if you like)
• 3/4 cup rice (I use brown rice)
• 1 can condensed cream of chicken soup
• 1 bag cheddar cheese (I use 2%)
• 2 cups frozen broccoli florets
• 1 and 1/3 cup water
• 1/2 tsp onion powder
• 1/4 tsp black pepper

Instructions

Mix the cream of chicken soup, rice, water, black pepper, and onion powder together.  Spread in the bottom of a baking dish (11×13?).  Mix in the broccoli florets (it’s fine for them to still be frozen).  Top with chicken.  Cover with foil and bake at 375 for 50 minutes (our chicken breasts were still a little frozen so it took about an hour for ours to cook).  Remove from oven and mix in the cheese until melted, then serve.

Makes 8 servings (1/2 chicken breast each) at 240 calories per serving or 4 servings (1 whole chicken breast each) for 480 calories per serving.

This recipe is South Beach Phase 2 (if you use brown rice, not white)

Notes

• Like I said this meal is super easy to make, plus you can assemble the ingredients (which takes about 5 minutes) ahead of time and refrigerate, then stick it in the oven when you are ready to cook.
• I’ve said this before, but I am really not a big fan of chicken breast just cooked plain, but I do like it shredded.  Michael and I both thought that this would be better if we had shredded the chicken and mixed it in rather than having big hunks of chicken on top.  Next time I’m going to try that (and I’ll let you know how it goes).
• I also think that this might be something that could be done in the crock pot (especially since we want to have our chicken shredded and I’ve found that cooking chicken in the crock pot is the best way to get it to shred easily).  I’m not sure how the rice and broccoli would do in the crockpot (any ideas?) but I’m going to look in to it.  Looks like this recipe may get a total revamping…I’ll let you know!

Dashing Dish’s triple chocolate chunk muffins

Chocolate cake for breakfast?  Yes please!  And why not when it’s in the form of chocolate muffins that are only 120 calories each and taste just as decadent as the best chocolate cake you’ve ever had.

I’ve professed my love for my newest blog crush, Dashing Dish, here, shown you my version of the Dashing Dish protein shake here, and told you about making her triple chocolate chunk muffins for Valentine’s here.  I have not been able to get enough of those muffins!  I’ve been eating them for a snack every day until that batch was gone, then I decided that was what I wanted to have for my birthday breakfast (tradition in my family is to have breakfast in bed on your birthday, the plan was for me to make the muffins the night before and then Michael would bring them to me for breakfast that morning but sadly he had to go in to work super early and I didn’t want to wake up that early so I just had to warm them up myself, but he did bring me breakfast in bed yesterday morning).  So this time when I made the batch, I took some pictures so you could see the process.

They are seriously so amazing.

You need a lot of ingredients but don’t let that scare you, because the actually mixing and baking process is super easy.

you need: oats, sweetener, applesauce, baking powder, baking soda, vinegar, Greek yogurt, egg whites, cocoa powder, and chocolate chips (not pictured: vanilla, salt, and hot water)

oh, and a blender

Line a muffin tin with 12 foil liners (not paper!)

Start putting all your ingredients in the blender (it really doesn’t matter what order)

oats

cocoa

applesauce

baking powder

baking soda

vinegar (if you do this after the baking soda then it makes fun bubbles)

vanilla

salt

yogurt

Splenda

egg whites

and water

blend

nice and smooth

pour into liners

add half of the chocolate chips (they will sink)

bake

add the other half of the chocolate chips, bake some more

ooey, gooey, yummy deliciousness!

Recipe (from Dashing Dish here)

Ingredients

• 1 and 3/4 cups oats (I use old fashioned oats)
• 3 egg whites (or 6 TBSP egg whites if you buy the EggBeater type things in the cartons)
• 3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa
• 1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1/2 cup plain Greek yogurt (I just used one container of Dannon Oikos)
• 2 tsp vinegar
• 1 and 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1 and 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1 cup hot water
• 1 cup sugar substitute (I use the store brand of Splenda)
• 1/2 cup chocolate chips

Instructions

Pour everything except the chocolate chips into a blender (it doesn’t matter what order you put it in).  Blend until oats are ground – it will be very soupy.  Pour into  a 12-muffin tin, lined with foil liners.  Put a few chocolate chips in each muffin (use half of the chocolate chips).  Bake at 350 for 10 minutes.  Sprinkle the other half of the chocolate chips on the tops of the muffins.  Put back into the oven and bake for another 5ish minutes.

Each muffin has 120 calories and is South Beach phase 2.

I wasn’t sure if I could leave these out or if they needed to be refrigerated so I refrigerate them just in case.  When I want one I just peel off the foil liner and microwave for about 25 seconds.  Delish!