Long live the “potty cookie!”

• 2tbsp butter, softened
• 1/3 cup packed brown sugar
• 3tbsp flax seed
  
• 1 egg
• 1/4 cup oats
• 1/3 cup apple butter
• 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 tablespoon milk
• 1/4 cup raisins

Pre-heat your oven at 350 degrees. Mix your wet ingredients together in one bowl, except for the milk. Mix your dry ingredients together in another bowl. Slowly pour your dry ingredients into your wet ones, and then pour the milk over the top. Mix together, and stir until you get a good thick mixture. Form your inch high cookie balls, and line them up on your non-stick pan (if you don’t have non-stick, that’s ok – you’ll just have to use a little extra oil to keep your cookies from sticking. Just use the oil to grease the pan a bit.)

Bake for approx 15mins, or until you gauge that the cookies aren’t raw on the insides. Before you know it, pow – yummy cookies that have plenty of fiber in them and good stuff for your tummy!

No, you may not eat the entire batch!

I live for Italian food. I don’t even care. Herbs, sauces, wines…. I just think I could go for all of it.

At the same time.

Yes.

Alas, no sane person does that. They just treat themselves with a very well made dish and enjoy each bite every now and again, right?

I know a lot of people will put different meats or red peppers or cheese on their bruschetta or rub the bread with oil and garlic… but for what I’m trying to accomplish here, that’s far too much for not only my palate but my tummy. Besides, I’m a total tomato lover.. bruschetta just gives me the green light to overdo ‘em.

Having said that, here’s my quick and easy bruschetta!

1 28oz can of diced tomatoes (if you want to use fresh tomatoes, go with about 7 roma tomatoes)

1/2 cup of diced onion

2 teaspoons of minced garlic

1 teaspoon of chopped basil

2 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil

2 tablespoons of balsamic vinegar

pinches of salt to taste

a whole wheat baguette

First, drain your tomatoes. You don’t want that tomato “juice” in your bruschetta.

Pour your balsamic vinegar and olive oil in a separate bowl together. Mix in your basil and garlic.

Pour your tomatoes in a large bowl, followed by your onions. Spread your tomatoes around the bowl, then pouring your vinegar and oil mixture over the top. Stir them up thoroughly, then using an extremely light dusting of salt until it tastes just right.

Take your baguette, and instead of slicing it straight across, cut it diagonally. Lay ‘em flat on your plate. Be decorative! I just so happen to like starbursts, so that’ s usually my go-to. Grab a spoon and pour your tomato mix all over on top, and ta-da!

So… I’m not completely against an occasional treat. I limit myself because, well, I have very little sense when no one’s looking.

I mean, I’m sayin’. I’m workin’ on it, but who regularly sticks their head in the lion’s mouth without expecting to be bitten every now and again?

For Mothers’ Day 2010, I rushed out and bought a vase, some red stones, lots of red ribbon and red and pink food coloring. My daughter picked out a bunch of silk flowers (my mother, who loves plants, hates floral arrangements because “They die. I’own need dyin’ stuff around me.”) and together, we made an awesome little floral arrangement.

Hidden inside, were three “cake pops,” made of red velvet cupcake and homemade cream cheese frosting.

Do they take a while? Yep. But when I tell you they were worth every single bite, were filling, and made everyone happy? Believe me.

So… my Mothers’ Day gift to you… is my red velvet cake pop recipe. Enjoy!

1 cup organic flour
1 cup sugar
1tbsp cocoa powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 egg
1/2 cup oil
1/2 cup buttermilk
1 & 1/2tsp vinegar
1/2 tsp vanilla
1oz red food coloring

For the cream cheese frosting:

1 8oz pkg of cream cheese
1/3 cup of butter
2 cups confectioner’s sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract

Note: If you’re making the cake pops, you’ll need to visit a hobby store and pick up these. If you’re going to do it the way I did, you’ll also need these, this and these.

Pre-heat your oven on 350 degrees. Pull out all of your cream cheese frosting ingredients, and let them sit and warm up a bit. (I put them in a bowl on top of the oven to help melt a little more.)

Spray your cupcake pan with a little non-stick spray or oil.

Blend all of your wet ingredients in one bowl, except for your food coloring.

In a separate bowl, blend your dry ingredients.

Combine both bowls and your food coloring, blending out any lumps or air bubbles.

Pour in your cupcake mix, filling each one only about half way.

Shove it in the oven. Give it about 20 minutes before you check on ‘em – you should be able to stick a toothpick in the center of your cupcake and have no cupcake stick to it when you pull it out.

If you’re only making cupcakes, then you’re done. Those of you out there who are cake ballin’, we’ve got a long way to go.

Pull your cupcakes out of the oven, drop them out of the pan, and let them sit until they’re cool to the touch. You might even put them in the fridge for a while. You’ll be reusing this cupcake pan, so be sure to clean it out.

Take 6 of your cupcakes, and break them into crumbs. (The horror!)

At this time, mix up your cream cheese frosting. Take about a third of your frosting, and dump it into about half of your crumbs. Blend them up together until you have a really thick, but still somewhat smooth mix. Slowly add more crumbs to the mix. You want it to be malleable enough to stick together, but you don’t want it to be all cream cheese, either.

Take your lollipop sticks and your cupcake pan, and get them ready next to your crumb and cream cheese bowl.

Start ballin’! Grab yourself a handful of the mixture, and roll it into a doughy ball with your hands. Stick ‘em on top of your lollipop stick. Hopefully, yours will look a little better than this:

Sit it, stick-side-up, in the cupcake pan.

(This is a lot of work, ain’t it? Sheesh…)

After you make the ones you want, go ahead and sit them in the freezer.

Grab the rest of your cream cheese frosting, and drop a little food coloring in there. Mix in about two tablespoons of gum paste in your frosting, and give it about 10 minutes to sit. The paste will thicken the frosting to the point where it won’t be as runny.

Get your pops out of the freezer, and one by one, start coating ‘em up.

I used a spoon to help coat the very tops of my pops. Once fully coated, put it back in the cupcake pan.

Repeat until your stuff looks like this:

Once coated, stick ‘em back in the freezer, and let ‘em hang out for a few hours. Above, you’ll see my pops post-freezing.

Then, you can get creative with ‘em and use your wrapping, your ribbon, your whatever-you-want.

So… after all that work, you get a very rich, very yummy recipe that will possibly fill your belly and remind you why you shouldn’t eat sweets so often. All that sugar? I mean, of course you’re not going to eat the entire batch (or are you? Ha!) but baking is something you do out of love… not boredom. Love wouldn’t compel me to bake with this much effort that often! Ha! And aside from the fact that there IS a lot of sugar in the entire recipe, there’s a lot of real food – not chemicals – in it, as well. You will be full after one pop. Don’t be compelled to overindulge… or you will feel it later. I promise.

I love baking, but there are maybe four times a year when I do major baking – Homecoming, Mothers’ Day, my daughter’s birthday and the winter holiday season. My mother, who I’ve been putting through the nutritional ringer as of late, has deserved every hour of hard work I put into these and enjoyed every bite. I hope you enjoy, as well.

Many thanks to The Kitchn for the tip! And their pictures are WAY better than mine!

I can’t remember the brand, but the chicken is sliced thinly – no more than half an inch thick – and it is amazing. If you can’t find it, you can either slice the chicken thinly yourself or pound it thin using the side of a plastic cup, rolling pin or anything with a hard flat side that you can control.

4 slices of chicken breast

1 tbsp olive oil

1 tbsp basil

1 tbsp oregano

1 tbsp parsley

1 tbsp tarragon

1 tsp garlic powder

1 tsp coriander

half a pinch of salt (and I mean half a pinch)

two plates

Mix your seasonings up in a separate bowl. Lay your pieces of chicken flat on a plate. Rub one side of your chicken with the olive oil first – only use half of it. Use your oily fingers, stick them in the seasoning, and rub the side of your chicken. Take the second plate, put it on top of the chicken, and flip both plates over so that the bare side of the chicken is now facing up. Rub the chicken with the olive oil, then seasonings just like before. Try to use all of your seasonings. Let it sit for an hour.

Take a skillet, spray it with olive oil, and start cooking your chicken.

In the picture, you’ll see wheat pasta with parmesan and literally a teaspoon of cream, fresh tomato slices and french bread baked and rubbed with the exact same seasoning combination as on the chicken.

It’s Italian night! Enjoy!

Clearly, since I can get a bag of broccoli frozen for $2, I’m a big broccoli eater. No shame in my game!

1 tablespoon butter, melted

1/2 medium onion, chopped

1/4 cup melted butter

1/4 cup flour

2 cups heavy cream

2 cups chicken stock or bouillon

1/2 pound fresh broccoli

1 cup matchstick carrots

salt and pepper to taste

1/4 teaspoon nutmeg

1 cup grated sharp cheddar

Drop your butter in the skillet with the onions, and set the onions aside once golden. Whisk your butter and flour together over medium heat for about 5 minutes. Stir in the cream and chicken stock, and let it sit for about 20 minutes over low-medium heat (on a scale of 1-10, on 5.)

Toss in your carrots, onions and broccoli. Cook until the carrots are tender, and add the salt and pepper. Add the cheese and nutmeg, and ta da! Soup!

If you said my soup didn’t taste equal to or better than Panera’s, you’d be a hot blooded lie!

One switch that I was glad that I made was going from jelly to making my own. While jelly within itself is still a minimal amount of calories, there’s no nutritional value to it because of the high fructose corn syrup and, well… the fact that there’s no actual fruit in it. Seriously, I buy grape jelly all the time and it always dawns on me that it doesn’t taste anything like any grape I’ve ever bit into.

Having said that, I set out to buy my own berries and make my own jam. Is it pricier? It depends on your options. I was already buying jelly AND fresh blueberries (my daughter likes them in her cheerios) so for me, I saved money. Make the jam with my blueberries, and give her a small dollop of it in the center of her cereal. Not only that, but because my jam is made of actual food, my body doesn’t hunger for as much of it as I can slather onto the bread like it would with some commercial jams. Win on both counts.

Oh, and to the question of can you use frozen blueberries? This should answer that:

Not only do I use frozen, but I use generic. They were $3 on sale. Total win.

What will you need? Lemon juice, berries of choice, and sugar (). I’ve made blueberry, strawberry, raspberry, blackberry, cherry, apples… you name it, you can probably jam it. If you’re like me, you keep lemon juice in the house anyhow as a base for cooking (hint, hint). A $2 bottle goes a long way. As far as the sugar goes, the more organic, the better – not “sugar-in-the-raw”-organic, but organic as in organic cane sugar. I’m not going to even do this like most recipes, because it’s that simple.

Get yourself a nice saucepan. Not too much larger than your berries – you can see how much/how many I had in my pan. Pour about 1/4th of a cup of lemon juice into your skillet, and let it simmer on moderate heat. Dump your berries – assuming you have about 3-4 cups of berries – into your pot, and let it cook for about a half an hour. Keep checking on it to make sure you’re not frying your berries. Trust me, it’ll taste foul if you do.

You should see the berries juicing themselves – lots of gooey goodness oozing out and creating their own little sauce. Give it a good stir to make sure you’re not burning anything, and start mashing. You can use the back of a wooden spoon, a potato masher, the bottom of a glass, whatever – just start mashing.

You won’t get an even consistency like you might with a jar of jelly bought from the grocery because – remember – there’s no actual fruit in there. It’ll be lumpy. It might even taste tart at first because of the lemon juice, but that’s ok. You still have to add the sugar. Once your berries are good and mashed to your liking, grab your sugar and get to work.

Add the sugar 1/4th of a cup at a time, stirring and tasting after every addition. I don’t like mine too sweet, because it reminds me of “grape” jelly and makes me nauseous, so I never need more than a third of a cup of sugar. Not only that, but knowing what I’m putting in my jelly, I don’t want to have to eat those calories and then be responsible for burning those calories. (This is why picking nice flavorful berries is important. Enjoy the flavor of the fruit – don’t overdo it on the sugar.)

If you’re feeling jazzy, there are a few finishing touches you can add. I dropped a scoop of flaxseed in my raspberry jelly. I took my blackberry jam and made a nice vinaigrette with it. With my apple jam, I added cloves and nutmeg to it. Get yourself a nice jar, and pour your finished jam into it. Give it some time to cool down, then refridgerate it.. and you’re done!

I was never a big rice eater, but in paring down what I keep in the house, I did decide to venture out into trying different kinds of rice. I do have a recipe for “barbecue rice” that I’ll be posting later this week… but in my quest to post a recipe a day from now on, I’ll start with the Basmati Stir Fry.

• 1/3 cup basmati rice, uncooked
• 1/2 cup broccoli, chopped
• 2 tbsp onions
• 2 tbsp mushrooms, diced
• 4 brussel sprouts (haha yes, just four), chopped
• 2tbsp sesame oil
• 1/3 cup bean sprouts
• 2tbsp yellow peppers, chopped
• 1/2tsp ginger
• 1/4 tsp garlic powder
• 1/4tsp black pepper
• pinch of sea salt

In one pot, get the rice going as according to the package. In a skillet, pour 1tbsp of your sesame oil in, let it heat up a bit, then start tossing in your veggies one by one. Hopefully by the time all of your veggies are in the skillet and heated up (you don’t want the veggies to lose their color or crunch, but you want them to be heated well), your rice is done. Once it’s finished, go ahead and toss it in the skillet. Shake your seasonings over the skillet, and pour in the last of your sesame oil. Stir it very well a few times, and you’re good!

I’m not even going to tell you how few calories this skillet is. Just know that it’s a great dinner for those who are learning to indulge less. Because not only do I promise you won’t be able to eat as much as you usually do, but it’s maybe a third of the amount of calories that you’re used to eating.

When I’m faced with having to cook when I least expected it, I usually do something random like… unraveling croissants and making pizza out of ‘em. They look a little mangled, but the entire process takes like 15 minutes. And they taste awfully good.

1 roll of croissants

Mozzarella Cheese (Looking for vegan mozzarella?)

Tomato Sauce

Any other toppings your heart desires – green onions, garlic, olives, whatever you like!

Take your pan and make sure it’s greased/oiled properly. Open your croissants and unravel them one by one, so that they look something like pizza slices. Lay them flat on your pan. Dress your pizza slices accordingly – sauce, then cheese and toppings. Sprinkle a little basil and oregano over the top if you’re feeling jazzy. Bake on 350 degrees for about 10 minutes, and ta da! Lazy girl’s pizza and only about 200 calories a slice!!

Alright, I know I’m setting SOMEBODY up by posting this recipe, but we need to understand something, here.

I don’t eat wheat grass and cattails all day, darn it. I like my edible hedonism to come in the form of nice gooey cheesy things. Like Cheddar Bay Biscuits.

I’ll talk about my philosophy on “treating” yourself or “cheating your diet” another day… ’cause all you want is the recipe, anyway!

• 1 cup flour
• 1 & 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 3/4th cup heavy cream
• 1/2 tsp garlic
• your choice: either 1/4-13rd cup of parmesan, or 1/3rd cup of sharp cheddar

Directions:

1. Preheat your oven to 400 degrees.

2. Combine everything except the cheese in a medium bowl using a pastry cutter or a large fork. You don’t want to mix too thoroughly.  Add cheese, milk, and garlic. Mix by hand until combined, but don’t over mix. I take parsley and shake it over the top of the dough, and mix it in a little more. Just makes it more attractive to the eye, to me.

3. Drop approximately ¼-cup portions of the dough onto an ungreased cookie sheet using an ice cream scoop.

4. Bake for 15 to 17 minutes or until the tops of the biscuits begin to turn light brown.

5. When you take the biscuits out of the oven, you can also mmix a little olive oil with garlic powder and some dried parsley flakes. Use a brush to spread this garlic spread over the tops of all the biscuits.

I will tell you, the parmesan version is MUCH lighter on the calories, and thanks to the combination of flavors, you can get away with using less of it and still getting great flavor. I make these literally maybe every two months. I’m not one for “treating myself” with food anymore. I treat with shoes. Mmm… shoes.

Upon visiting the grocery store, I learned that the sweet potatoes were only $0.29 per pound. Twenty-nine cents per pound. Ahhhhhhh, I’m in heaven! So not only did I buy up their entire selection, I got them home and started conspiring on how to make use of ‘em all. Enter… my sweet potato butter.

While I was working toward making my mashed sweet potatoes (one of MANY dishes I was about to enjoy from my phenomenal amount of sweet potatoes I got), I opted to cut my recipe short and veer off into another direction – sweet potato spread! If I can do it with apples and blueberries, why not sweet potatoes? It’s uncommon, but on the right crackers and breads (or pancakes… or waffles… or even ice cream…), it’s a wonderful little addition. My daughter adores this, so I figured you might find a use for it.

First, let me laugh a little – I’m not a photographer at all. I have an awesome camera, but I have no idea how to work it.. so I snap these shots with my cell phone. Stop laughing.

• 2 sweet potatoes
• 1/8th teaspoon nutmeg
• 1/8th teaspoon cloves
• 1/8th teaspoon allspice
• 1/4th cup brown sugar

Chop up your sweet potatoes into nice big chunks. Don’t worry about skinning it. Also, don’t use a bread knife. Knife almost took some of my fingers.

Toss your chunks into a nice sized pot full of water. Just enough water to cover your potato chunks.

After about 20 minutes, start checking your potatoes. Some people microwave ‘em instead of boiling. I can’t vouch for that method because I avoid my microwave, but I’m not against it.

Drain your pot, let the sweet potatoes cool, then take your chunks one by one to pinch off the skin. A simple pinching motion should do well to get rid of it.

All of your skinned chunks should be soft and in a bowl together, now. Take a potato masher, and get to work!

After enough work, drop in your spices – feel free to add a little cinnamon if you choose – and stir it up with a good wooden spoon. Then, grab your brown sugar and slowly start pouring it in. After about a quarter of your brown sugar, taste it a little.. gauge what you’re going for, here. At this point, you can go where you want with it. Make it taste more like sweet potato pie, add more cloves, whatever you desire. I made mine a little tangy by adding some molasses to it (just a tablespoon), and my little one adores it.

I keep extra jars in the house, so I just tossed this in a jar and ta-da!

Spread it on some water crackers for a nice snack! I don’t like it spread on wheat bread too well (at least with the kind I buy.. tastes like true-to-life cardboard to me) so the water crackers is my favorite bet. Enjoy!

I won’t lie – I’m actually pretty annoyed by how easy this recipe is. It also is pretty much a billion calories less than anything that a pizza joint could give me, with much less calories.This is for a personal pan-sized pizza. Double it if you want it for a larger size.

• 1 and 1/2 teaspoons of yeast
• 3/4 cup of flour
• 1/2 teaspoon of sea salt
• 2 teaspoons of brown sugar
• 1/2 cup of warm water
• 1 and 1/2 teaspoons of olive oil
• for kneading, another 1/4th of flour

I put the ingredients into the bowl – in that order, but mixing up the dry ingredients up before pouring in the water and oil. Let this sit for about an hour.

At this point, I pre-heat my oven for 250 degrees. On whatever surface I’m letting my pizza bake, I use about a half teaspoon (no more than a whole teaspoon, though) of extra virgin olive oil, and smear it all over the pan/aluminum foil. Just to make sure my pizza doesn’t stick. I then sit the pan inside of the oven, so that the heat can help the oil spread more.

I then spread a little big of the extra flour on the counter area where I’ll be kneading the dough, making sure the surface is covered pretty well. Some parts of the dough might be sticky, and the flour just helps to prevent that. I dump the dough out on top of all that, and basically knead it around the same way you see on TV. I use my hands, though. I’m old school.

After I knead it into a long roll, I ball it up into a ball and work the dough over one last time, with the final result being one big ball. I grab the oiled pan, and lift the temperature to 350. I take my pizza dough, drop it in the center of the pan and while working from the center, I start to spread it out into pizza formation. (Sorry, I’ve got girly manicured nails – no way I could successfully toss dough!)

Grab your sauce, your toppings, and voilà! Throw it in the oven, give it about a half an hour or so. I’m impatient, I check on mine like every ten minutes like I’ve never had pizza or cooked before. How crunchy or soft the crust is depends upon you. You’ll have to play with your options.

That’s my two slices of green pepper and onion pizza that my daughter left me, because she definitely debo’d me for the first half. I couldn’t even get a picture of the pizza before she stuck me for my slices. Hopefully, you won’t have a greedy toddler robbing your for yours.

Best of luck, and bon appetit!

You know how some people are about their shoes? That’s how I am about my spice collection.

Since my game plan was to begin cooking everything myself, I decided to start stocking up on the spices. I couldn’t tell you how many are there, only that there are quite a few and I’ve used them all. They all look like one brand – many of them are Badia spices that I’ve collected from various trips to the grocery store. That’s a local Miami brand, so I try to support.

Buying them all happened over time – I opted to get 3 during one visit to the grocery, another 3 the next time. I always set aside at least $5 for some new spices. If I had the same 3 ingredients, I could probably make 6 different dishes with my spice rack on hand.

Since I’ve been harassed enough about adding recipes to the site, I figured it’d be appropriate to alert you to what spices I have in my kitchen. I’ll probably also be doing a “What’s in my fridge?” post as well, just so that people can see that eating healthier isn’t about eating carrots and seaweed (although, under the right circumstances, both can be pretty yummy.)

• Basil
• Oregano
• Cayenne Pepper
• Garlic Powder
• Garlie Salt
• Rosemary
• Thyme
• Turmeric
• Old Bay
• Paprika
• Cumin
• Sea Salt (in the ziploc bag above… it usually comes in a box, but I didn’t like that idea too much.)
• Coriander
• Tarragon
• Ginger
• Clove (ground)
• Clove
• Marjoram
• Cilantro
• Black Pepper
• White Pepper
• Lemon Pepper
• Crushed Red Pepper
• Cinnamon
• Nutmeg
• Curry Seasoning
• Orange Peels
• Parsley
• Ground Bay Leaves
• Bay Leaves
• Sesame Seeds
• Almonds
• Chili Powder
• Allspice
• Dill Weed
• Sage

That’s what’s in my cabinet. What’s in yours?