Our Best Bites' Sweet Chili Chicken with Pineapple Salsa

Here is a fun recipe that is easy to put together, and great for the summertime, especially if you like sweet with meat, like my Aaron does.  This really hit the spot with him, he loved it, and gave it a 9, while Owen and Noah gave it an 8, and I gave it a 6, because I don't like the sweet meat thing :).  Anyway, this comes together quickly, especially when I have Aaron around to cut up the pineapple for me :).  Each serving was 236 calorie for the five of us, and here's what I did:

1 lime, juiced
1 1/2 t curry powder
2 t vegetable oil
1 lb chicken tenders
salt and pepper

Salsa
1 1/2 c diced pineapple
1/4 red onion, thinly sliced
1 avocado, diced
1 T fresh lime juice
3 T cilantro
salt

Sauce
3 T sweet chili sauce
1 T honey
1 1/2 t soy sauce
1 T warm water

Marinate the chicken with the lime, curry, vegetable oil and salt and pepper for about 4 hours.  Broil the chicken, about 4 minutes per side, checking internal temperature to ensure doneness.

Mix together the salsa ingredients and serve with the chicken.

Mix together the sauce ingredients and serve with the chicken.

Our Best Bites' Chunky Monkey Pancakes

So this was a great breakfast treat.  Here is the recipe for these banana chocolate chip pancakes with peanut butter syrup, and they received a perfect 10 here in our house.  These are so good, and the only change I made was to use regular chocolate chips, about a hanful, and not toss them with the 2 t flour first.  I make chocolate chip pancakes all the time, and adding another step and more flour for calories doesn't help these pancakes any.  So, since the syrup is high in calories as are the pancakes, we made 18 pancakes with syrup and each one was 246 calories.  I found this recipe in Our Best Bites' second cookbook, but follow the link it is the same!  Yummy pancakes :).

Our Best Bites Beef Enchilada with Red Sauce

Our Best Bites Beef Enchiladas with Red Sauce

So I made these easy enchiladas the other night, but I didn't count how many tortillas I had, so we had enchilada casserole rather than regular enchiladas.  This was tasty, and not super high in calories, only 309 calories for 1/12 of the pan.  The boys liked these better than Aaron and I did, we gave it a 7, and Owen gave it an 8, and Noah a 9.  This was filling and not too much work, so it was a great meal over all.  Here's what I did.

1 lb ground beef
1 medium onion, minced
3 garlic cloves, minced
1 4 oz can diced green chilies
1 T chili powder
1/2 t cumin
1/2 t coriander
1/2 t oregano
salt to taste
1/2 c sour cream
1 lime, juiced
4 c pepper jack cheese, grated
2 T chopped fresh cilantro
1 8 oz can tomato sauce
6 corn tortillas
14 oz red enchilada sauce (more or less to taste)

Tear up tortillas and dip them in the enchilada sauce.  Layer some on the bottom of a greased 9x13 pan.  Preheat the oven to 350.  Brown beef, then add the onion and spices and salt to taste.  Cook until onion is softened and meat is brown.  Remove the pan from the heat, mix in the lime juice, sour cream, cilantro, tomato sauce, and 1 c of the pepper jack cheese.  Place that over the tortilla layer, then add some more tortillas to the top.  Pour the remaining enchilada sauce over the top of the tortillas, then put the cheese over the top and bake for about 25 minutes.  Serve.

Our Best Bite's Cheesy Tortellini Spinach Bake

This recipe from Our Best Bites is simple and hearty, but not one of Aaron's favorites.  It has 365 calories for 1 serving, and Aaron gave it a 4, Owen, Noah and I all gave it an 8.  This is simple, and I added a little more tortellini than the recipe called for, but otherwise I followed the recipe exactly.  I probably won't make this again, although it is easy and tastes good, just Aaron hated it :(.  Anyway, this is not too spinachy if you use fresh spinach, and my kids like it as do I.

20 oz cheese tortellini
3 strips thick sliced bacon, chopped with 2 T grease reserved
3 cloves garlic, minced
2 T flour
2 c almond milk (I used this because I have leftovers and it is way less calories)
salt
1 1/2 t basil
1/4 t red pepper flakes
1 medium lemon zested and juiced
2 c baby spinach leaves
3/4 c mozzarella cheese
3/4 c parmesan cheese

Preheat the oven to 350.
Boil the tortellini until done, drain, and set aside.
Cook the bacon and reserve the grease.  Cook the garlic in the grease, then add the flour and make a roux.  Add the almond milk to make a white sauce, then add the zest, basil, red pepper flakes, and juice.  Cook until thickened.  Add the 1/2 c of both cheeses, spinach, and sauce to the tortellini, then place into a greased 8x8 pan and top with the remaining cheese.  Cover with aluminum foil, bake for 20 minutes, then remove the foil and cook for an additional 10 minutes.  Let sit 10 more minutes before serving.

Our Best Bites Mini Oven Pancakes

These mini puffed oven pancakes from Our Best Bites were a hit with my family, and I appreciated how easy they were.  I followed the recipe with the decrease in flour she suggests, because I found the recipe in their cookbook and that is how the recipe was printed.  Since I followed the recipe exactly, I will let you go to the link to see the recipe.  The calories for one puffy pancake was 35 calories since I only got 20 out of the recipe rather than 24.  The calories are 29 per pancake if you make 24.  We all gave this a 9, these are fun to dip and taste great!

Mediterranean Egg Scramble

This easy recipe from Our Best Bites wasn't a hit at our house, only I really liked it.  Mediterranean Egg Scramble is really good!

 

Owen and Noah gave this a 7, Aaron gave it a 5, and I gave it an 8.  This is so easy, I loved it.

For 1/4 of the total, the calories are 204.  Here's what you do.

 

6 eggs

1/4 c sour cream

1/2 t basil

1/4 t oregano

1/4 t garlic salt

pinch of salt

2 green onions, chopped

3/4 c feta

1/2 red pepper, chopped

cooking spray

 

Spray a large fry pan.  Add in red pepper.  Mix together sour cream, eggs, and spices.  Then add in the feta and pour into the pan with the red pepper.  Last add the green onions and serve. 

 

The original recipe says to wrap them in crepes or tortillas, that was more work than I wanted to go to, so we just had scrambled eggs.

Our Best Bites Strawberry Cheesecake Bars

Noah picked these out as treats, Strawberry Cheesecake Bars from Our Best Bites first cookbook, he wanted to share with his friends at school, so I made them and took them in for his birthday celebration at school.  He and I are the only ones who tried them, I gave them a 7, because of the crust, and Noah gave them a 9.  He and his classmates really liked them, so that's good :).  We cut them into squares, and we had 28 squares made.  The calories for one bar were 206 calories, but because the recipe called for Pecan Sandies Cookies, and almond extract, and we can't bring nuts into Noah's school, I had to change the recipe and use only vanilla extract and graham crackers, and the same weight in graham crackers did not yield very good results.  The crust on these was dry and flavorless, and there wasn't nearly enough butter to make them taste better.  Next time I will try to follow the recipe better.  I used my strawberry cherry jam again, so it was just a little different, and then I covered them in some strawberry sauce from Our Best Bites that I will hopefully feature at another time.  Here's the recipe the way I made it:
16 oz graham crackers, divided then crushed
2 T butter, melted
11 oz cream cheese, softened
2 eggs
2/3 c sugar
pinch salt
2 t vanilla
2 c sour cream
1 1/4 c strawberry cherry jam

Strawberry Sauce to garnish

Preheat oven to 375.  Spray a 9x13 pan.  In a food processor, process 3/4 of the graham crackers.  Mix with the melted butter and press into the pan.  Set aside.
Beat together the cream cheese, eggs, sugar, salt, vanilla, and sour cream.  Spread half of the batter into the set aside crust. 
Pour 1/2 of the sauce over the batter, spreading evenly.  Top with the remainder of the cheesecake batter, then spread with the remainder of the jam, then top with the reserved graham cracker crumbs. 
Bake for 25-35 minutes, then cool and chill for at least 8 hours.  Serve with some strawberry sauce if desired.

Chocolate Peanut Butter Cup Cupcakes

Last week we made some yummylicious cupcakes.  I really liked this recipe because it's easy and kid friendly.  Whenever I use cake mixes, I feel like I'm cheating, not really cooking, but when it comes to kids helping out, cake mixes are the way to go.  The boys helped me make these, and they had fun.  I found the peanut butter frosting to be too thick, it was hard to pipe, but the chocolate frosting recipe worked out really well.  I got the recipe from Our Best Bites second cookbook, but here is a link to it on their website.  I will put a picture up soon, I promise :)  The only critique I would have of this recipe is that you have to use the liners, otherwise the cupcakes get hard quickly and they are too crispy without the liners.  Other than that, this is a great recipe.  Noah and I gave them a 9, and Owen and Aaron gave them an 8.  Coming up soon, a chicken recipe, and a lamb recipe, and a potato recipe. 

Sweet and Savory Coconut Rice

Again, we don't have any pictures, but don't worry, the link with the recipe does!  We really liked this rice, Aaron especially.  I found it just a little sweet, so I added more salt to it, but Aaron and the boys liked it just how it was.  The coconut rice is found here, and it was fast and easy to make.  Aaron said it reminded him of Dominican rice he ate there, and he's wanted since.  He actually requested that I make this frequently, which I think scores a perfect 10 from him.  I gave it an 8, and the boys gave it a 9.  We had it with some green beans and this flank steak, which we also enjoyed, just not as much.  I can't serve meat medium rare because I'm preggers, so I had to serve it well done, and steak well done is just not delicious.  Oh well.  It was a great meal and we enjoyed it.  I will hopefully get back on the pictures next week, but I'll have a cookie recipe coming up soon that was pretty good.

Bananas Foster Bread Pudding

We had bananas foster bread pudding today.  This was a yummy, easy recipe, and Owen and Aaron gave it a 7, and Noah and I gave it an 8.  The changes I made were
1. I cut the recipe in half
2. I didn't add the rum flavoring, since I don't have any, and added more vanilla
3. I used cinnamon rolls as my bread choice
This made the bananas less prominent, which I didn't like, but Aaron and Owen both liked it without as much banana, so I guess it's accroding to preference.  I like that it was seriously quick to make, and tasted great, not too sweet.  The calories for 1/8 of the total, which is a pretty big piece, are 351/slice.
Tomorrow we're having a corn salad.

Coffee Cake and Shrimp and Potatoes

Happy Saturday! We love Saturdays around here, not only for the fact that we can eat lots of yummy food, but also because we have no school!!! Saturdays let us eat fun breakfast food we don't have time for during the week. Take this coffee cake for instance. It's called Raspberry Cream Cheese Coffee Cake, but I used strawberry lime jam instead, since that is our homemade jam we had.  This was a typical coffee cake, not fabulous, but a nice sweet brunch food.  We gave it 7 stars, and the calories for 24 slices were 196/slice.  I kept everything else the same inside the recipe besides substituting out the jam.

Now on to dinner. We had some delicious dinner food tonight, shrimp and potatoes are some of our favorite things anyway, but then trying them in different ways makes things even better (at least most of the time :)). Paul's Barbequed Shrimp is the name of the shrimp recipe, and they really are fabulous.

Aaron said these are his new all-time favorite shrimp, so obviously he gives them a perfect 10. I gave them a 9, and Owen and Noah gave them an 8, because they have a spicy kick to them. I love the ease of shrimp, being able to get them on the table in under 15 minutes is such a treat for a mom, and having my family be such huge fans of it also helps. Anyway, the calories on these, since I cut back on the butter is 250 calories for 4 oz of shrimp, or 1/4 of the recipe.  Instead of using rosemary, thyme, and oregano, I just substituted in 3/4 t poultry seasoning, and I cut down quite a bit on the cayenne because of my little guys.  These were great how we made them.
The potatoes might just be my perfect dinner.  If they weren't so fattening and full of bad things, I could eat these every day and be happy.  We used the mashed potatoes recipe from Our Best bites found here, and in their cookbook they have a loaded variation that we used.  Follow the basic mashed potatoes recipe and add in
1/2 c sour cream
1/2 c grated sharp cheddar cheese
6 oz chopped bacon
2 green onions, chopped
1/2 t kosher salt
1/4 t pepper
1/4 t garlic powder

Whip the potatoes with the sour cream, salt and spices, then mix in the extras by hand. 

These are so good.  Owen and I gave them a perfect 10, Noah gave them a 9, and Aaron gave them a 7 since they were too "chunky--especially the bacon".  Go figure :)  The calories for the potatoes the way we made them were 313 calories for 1/6 of the total.  Anyway, we all really enjoyed our dinner, and thanks to my dad for the awesome corn on the cob we've been eating straight from his garden.  Yum!

Tomorrow we're having lamb tagine and couscous and a devil's food cheesecake that the boys requested.  I'm going to have to work out more than usual this week I think :)

Pork, Potatoes, Rolls and Cookies

Tonight we had some delicious food! We had a recipe from Our Best Bites cookbook for pork, and this was so great. Here's the recipe:
Roasted Pork Tenderloin

4-5 cloves garlic, minced
Rosemary
Salt
Pepper
1 lb Pork Loin Roast
1 1/2 t balsamic vinegar
2 t olive oil

Mix first four ingredients together and smoosh it all over the pork.  Place the pork in a sealable bag.  Mix together the vinegar and oil.  Pour over the pork.  Marinate for 4-10 hours.  Bake at 400 for 20-25 minutes (according to the recipe, mine took a LOT longer) or until the pork reaches at least 135 degrees.  Let rest a few minutes, then serve. 

For six servings, the calorie count is 125/serving. Great, easy, and super moist and delicious. The boys gave this a perfect 10, Aaron and I gave it a 9.  Noah even asked for seconds.
Next we had Perfect Potatoes au Gratin from the Pioneer Woman.  This was also easy and delicious, and we will be having this again.  Aaron said it is his favorite potato recipe he's had in a long time.  The calories are 231 for 1/12 of the 9x13 pan.  Aaron and I gave this a 9, the boys gave it a perfect 10 again.

These rolls are fool proof and amazing.   They are Buttered Rosemary Rolls from the Pioneer Woman, and they are not even a recipe, just a really great idea for using Rhodes dinner rolls.  We loved these.  They are 135/roll (the calories depend on how many rolls you make, we made 9) and everyone gave these a perfect 10.  So good.

Last but not least come the cookies. We got this recipe from Baking From My Home To Yours from Dorie Greenspan. These are incredibly chocolatey and delicious. Here's the recipe:
Chocolate Chunkers
1/3 c flour
1/4 c unsweetened cocoa powder
1/2 t salt
1/4 t baking powder
3 T butter, chopped into 3 pieces
6 oz bittersweet chocolate, coarsely chopped
1 oz unsweetened chocolate, coarsely chopped
2 eggs, at room temperature
2/3 c sugar
1 t vanilla
6 oz semi-sweet chocolate chips
6 oz white chips (or milk chocolate chips)
1 c cherry Craisins (Dori calls for raisins or apricots)
(Dori also calls for 1 1/2 c coarsely chopped nuts.  Because I can't send any nuts to school, we went nut free)

Preheat oven to 350 and line baking sheet with parchment.
Sift together the flour, cocoa, salt and baking powder.  (I just whisked them together, I missed the whole sifting thing :))
Melt butter and chocolate together til smooth and shiny.  Set it on the counter to cool.
Beat together the eggs and the sugar until pale and foamy, about 2 minutes with a stand mixer.  Beat in the vanilla and scrape down the bowl.  Reduce the mixer speed to low and add in the chocolate butter mixture.  Mix until just incorporated.  Scrape down the bowl again and add the dry ingredients.  Mix until the dry ingredients disappear into the dough, which will be thick, smooth and shiny.  Mix in the chunks.  Drop by spoonfuls onto the cookie sheet.  Bake 10-12 minutes (I only needed 10), then remove from sheet to cool. 

My recipe made 24 cookies, and each cookie was 189 calories.  Aaron gave these an 8, saying he wasn't too sure about the fruit but thought they were great.  Owen and I gave them a 9, and Noah gave them a perfect 10.  It's nice he likes all my food so much :)  Don't those cookies look great!  I wish I could eat more of them, too bad they aren't calorie free.

Tomorrow we're having some crockpot chicken and crockpot veggies.

Pioneer Woman's Ranch Style Chicken an Our Best Bites Roasted Broccoli

We had this tonight, which is one of the recipes from PW's newest cookbooks.  It was good, but I think leaving out the extra oil was a bad move on my part.  The chicken was just too dry.  We gave it between a 7 and an 8, because of the dryness, and Aaron thought there wasn't enough honey mustard flavor, which wasn't a problem for me, but definitely was a problem for Aaron.  The calories were 220/chicken tender.  The broccoli we got from Our Best Bites cook book, and we roasted it in the oven with a little olive oil, salt and pepper, and then after roasting topping it with a little parmesan cheese.  We gave that an 8, it was super delicious, and very crunchy.  Noah said it was a little like eating chips :)  The calories are 113/4 oz of broccoli.  Tomorrow we're having grilled steak with sesame noodles from PW and squash and peas from our garden.

Red Beans and Rice and Our Best Bites Rolls

I kind of made my own recipe tonight using a red beans and rice recipe from Emeril Lagasse off of foodnetwork.com and basically changing everything. I took some sausage, a ham bone, 4 cups of chicken broth, celery, green pepper, onions, thyme, bay leaves, garlic, and 3 15 oz cans of beans with their juice, and cooked it all in the crockpot on low for 7 hours. An hour before serving, I put in two cups of rice and turned the crock pot to high and then put in some cayenne pepper and served it. I love the crockpot, especially when I don't have to do any work, and only get one pot dirty. The food was yummy, we gave it an 8, and the calories came to 276 for 1/12 of the total.

I also made the dinner rolls from the cookbook Our Best Bites. We gave them between a 9 and a 10, and I love how well they turned out with not very much effort on my part, thanks to my Kitchenaid :). They were delicious, and were 220 calories/roll.  I had to sample one before we ate :)

Tomorrow we're having raisin bran muffins.

Our Best Bites Chocolate Zucchini Bread and Apple muffins

Our breakfast was found here, and we liked them.  I especially like that the recipe only made 4 muffins, and wasn't too high in calories.  We gave them on average an 8.  Only 190 calories/muffin.

We also had chocolate zucchini bread from Our Best Bites cookbook.  This might be on their blog as well, I'm not sure.  I like that this uses so much zucchini, 3 cups shredded for this bread, and I love the flavor, but I didn't like how many calories each slice was, 190 calories for a very thin slice and that was with my substituting yogurt for sour cream, and my bread was very difficult to get out of the pans without falling apart.  We gave it a 7, and again, when zucchini is coming out our ears this summer, this is a good way to use it up.  Tomorrow we're having a chicken recipe for dinner, we'll see if we like it!