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!

Crockpot Zuppa Toscana

This Zuppa Toscana is a great soup.  It's fast and easy, and I love how it tastes.  Noah, Aaron and I gave it a 9, and Owen gave it an 8 because he said it was a little spicy.  This is full of flavor, and super simple.  We divided this into 8 servings, and each serving was 335 calories.  Make this on a cold night, it is warm and satisfying.  Here's what I did.

3/4 lb mild Italian sausage\
12 baby potatoes, cut in half
2 cans chicken broth
salt and pepper and Italian seasoning to taste
1 small onion, diced
1 t minced garlic
1 c cream
1 bag spinach
2-4 slices bacon, cooked and chopped

Brown sausage, onion and garlic, salt, pepper and Italian seasoning together then add to crockpot with potatoes, and chicken broth.  Cook on low for 5-8 hours, then add cream, spinach, and bacon and serve. 

Super great!!!

Crockpot Pesto Ranch Chicken

You can find the recipe for Crockpot Pesto Ranch Chicken from Picky Palate at this link, and you should try this soon.  It's such an easy, yummy, recipe.  Noah gave it a perfect 10, Aaron and I gave it a 9, and Owen gave it an 8.  For one thigh with lots of sauce, which we didn't use, the calories are 344, but like I said, we didn't use hardly any of the sauce so the calories are fewer.  This tasted great, it came together super quickly, and I will definitely make it again.  Here's what to do:

5 boneless skinless chicken thighs
4-5 oz pesto
1/2 packet ranch dressing mix
salt
1 can chicken broth

Mix all ingredients together in a crockpot, and cook on low for 5-6 hours.  Serve.

Asian Chicken Barbeque

This Asian Chicken Barbecue from 365 Days of Slow Cooking was a hit.  The recipe in her cookbook was a little different from the one on her website, she didn't use tapioca in her cookbook, so I didn't either, but I think it would've been even better with the tapioca.  Owen, Aaron and I gave it a 9, and Noah gave it a perfect 10.  The calories for 1 serving were 285.  Here's what I did

5 chicken thighs, cut into fourths
1/2 c soy sauce
1/3 c brown sugar, packed
1 1/2 T sesame oil
1/2 T sesame chili oil
1 T minced garlic

Lay the chicken in the slow cooker, mix the sauce ingredients together, then place the sauce ingredients on top of the chicken.  Cook on low for 2 hours on one side, flip the chicken pieces over, and cook for another hour. 

We served ours over ramen noodles, but I think it would've been better over rice.  Sometimes I just get tired of rice :).

Crockpot Italian Meatballs

This was such a great meal!  We made meatballs in the crockpot, and I found the recipe in the crockpot 365 cookbook.  I altered it just a little, and it came out so well!  Each meatball with sauce was 162 calories, and Owen, Noah and I all gave them a 9, while Aaron gave it an 8 because he said he would've liked more flavor.  Anyway, here's the super easy recipe.

3/4 lb lean Italian sausage
3/4 lb lean ground beef
1/4 c Italian cheese blend
1/4 c bread crumbs
1 egg
seasonings to taste

Mix ingredients together, then place in the crockpot and cook for 5 hours on low, covered in sauce of your choice.  Skim grease off before serving.

This was so good and easy, I love it!

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.

The Recipe Girl's Cheesecake Hot Chocolate

This is a fun recipe for cheesecake whipped cream.  I love to try this, as we drink lots of cocoa around here.  It's cold this winter!  Lori Lange's cookbook The Recipe Girl Cookbook was given to me by Noah for my birthday, and I am super excited to try so many of her recipes.  I didn't make the whole hot chocolate recipe, just the whipped cream, because I was almost out of milk :), but the whipped cream was yummy!  Owen, Noah and I gave it an 8, and Aaron gave it a 7.  Each helping of whipped cream was 267 calories.  Here's what I did:

3 oz cream cheese, softened
3/4 c whipping cream
3 T sugar

Whip the cream cheese in a mixing bowl until fluffy.  Scrape the bowl down well (I didn't do this and we had little cream cheese chunks in our whipped cream, the reason for Aaron's lower score :)), then add in the sugar and whipping cream and beat until firm peaks are formed.  Serve on your hot chocolate of choice. 

Check out her blog for some great recipes, or her cookbook!!