Eclair Cake

Every Friday night a group of neighbors in my building go up to one of the penthouse apartments to have cocktails and a light dinner or heavy hors d'ouerves. My contribution to the night is dessert. I love that I can try out new recipes and not have to worry about having too much dessert in the house to tempt me. I'm pretty lucky that my neighbors and friends are good sports about my using them as guinea pigs.

Last Friday I could not decide which recipe to make. I procrastinated to the point of not having enough time to bake the cake that I really wanted to try. So I took a poll to see what everyone would want. This cake won out. I was skeptical about how good it would be since it used all pre-packaged ingredients. But, it was quick, easy, and required no baking or cooling time. I could just whip it together and stick it in the fridge at my neighbors place until we were ready for dessert.

I had to improvise a little in making this since I ran out of several of the correct ingredients, but it still turned out fabulous. I didn't have any leftovers to take home and take pictures of, so you guys will just have to wait until I make it again.

The original recipe calls for vanilla pudding and graham crackers. I used white chocolate pudding and graham cracker crumbs. I would recommend sticking with the graham crackers instead of the crumbs for this but substituting different flavor puddings seems to work well. The best part of this cake is that it is so low in points. Only 4 points per serving! Granted, these are pretty small serving sizes but the cake is very rich and filling.

Eclair Cake

Adapted from Allrecipes.com

Ingredients
2 Boxes Sugar Free-Fat Free Cheesecake Flavor Pudding
1 - 8 oz Tub Sugar Free-Fat Free Cool Whip
3 Cups Low-Fat (2%) Milk
24 Low-Fat Graham Crackers
1 - 16 oz Can Chocolate Frosting

Directions

1. In a bowl, mix the pudding, milk, and cool whip until smooth.
2. Set aside for a few minutes to firm up.
3. Line the bottom of a 13x9 casserole dish with 8 graham crackers.
4. Top with 1/2 of the pudding mixture.
5. Cover with 8 graham crackers.
6. Spread the remaining pudding mixture on top of the crackers.
7. Top with the remaining 8 graham crackers.
8. Place in the fridge for 15-20 minutes to firm up.
9. Microwave the frosting for a few seconds to make it easy to spread.
10. Spread the frosting on the top of the cake.
11. Chill in the fridge for 3-4 hours before serving. The longer it chills, the softer the graham crackers get, making it more cake-like.

Yields: 24 servings

Maple Panko Salmon

I am always trying to find new ways to add fish to our weekly menu plans. Salmon is a favorite in our house. It is light and easy to cook but makes a very filling meal. I have several salmon recipes in my rotation and have posted a couple of them here. This recipe has easily become one of my favorites.

The maple syrup gives the fish a sweet glaze while the soy sauce and Panko leave a slight Asian feel to the meal. The flavors are light enough that it does not overpower the salmon. The sprinkling of Panko gives just the right amount of crunch to feel like you are eating a breaded/fried piece of fish.

I went simple with this and paired it with steamed green beans and brown rice but the possibilities are really endless.

Maple Panko Salmon

From A Seasoned Greeting

Ingredients
4 - 4 oz Salmon Filets
1/4 Cup Maple Syrup
2 Tablespoons Low Sodium Soy Sauce
1/2 teaspoon Garlic Powder
1/8 teaspoon Ground Black Pepper
2 Tablespoons Panko Bread Crumbs

Directions

1. In a large ziplock bag, combine the syrup, soy sauce, garlic powder, and pepper.
2. Add the salmon to the bag, zip the top and gently mix to coat the fish.
3. Marinate in the fridge for 20 minutes.
4. Preheat the oven to 400F.
5. Line a baking pan with foil and spray with olive oil cooking spray.
6. Fold up the edges of the foil to create a pouch for the fish.
7. Place the salmon in the foil pouch and pour the sauce over the top.
8. Sprinkle the top of the fish with the Panko bread crumbs.
9. Bake for 15 minutes, until the fish is fully cooked and flakes easily with a fork.

Yields: 4 servings

The Best Chocolate Cupcakes on the Planet!

My mother-in-law gave me a new bundt pan for Christmas this year. I have never owned a bundt pan and was anxious to try it out. I looked up tons of recipes that would be perfect for it (and I'll get around to posting those soon) and this one came in at the top of my list to try.

I love me some chocolate and this cake has more than enough for even the biggest chocoholic. The original recipe is for a bundt pan and makes about 16 servings. Let me tell you, it is the best chocolate cake I have ever tasted. And that's saying something. However, at 16 servings (and it's really easy to cut yourself a bigger piece of cake than necessary) this cake was coming in at 18 points per serving!! That's half your daily points on a piece of cake! There's just no way I could justify that, even if it was chocolate cake that I would be willing to do unmentionable things for. So, in an effort to save myself from myself I made this into cupcakes. I don't think they would freeze well, but they really didn't last that long anyway. At least as cupcakes, they are in individual servings and I was able to get a lot more servings out of the recipe, bringing the points value way down.

So without further ado, the best chocolate cupcakes on the planet. Go make them right now!!

The Best Chocolate Cupcakes on the Planet

Adapted from Lick the Bowl Good

Ingredients
Cake
1 Cup Cocoa Powder
12 oz Bag Semi-Sweet Chocolate Chips
1 Cup Boiling Water
2 1/4 Cups All Purpose Flour
1 1/2 teaspoons Baking Soda
1 1/4 teaspoons Salt
2 1/2 Sticks Unsalted Butter
2 1/2 Cups Brown Sugar, packed
5 Large Eggs
4 teaspoons Vanilla
1 1/2 Cups Sour Cream

Ganache Frosting
6 oz Semi Sweet Chocolate Chips
2 Tablespoons Unsalted Butter
1/2 Cup Heavy Cream

Directions

1. Have all ingredients at room temperature.
2. Preheat oven to 325F.
3. Line muffin cups with paper liners or liberally grease with cooking spray.
4. In a heat proof bowl, combine cocoa powder with half the bag of chocolate chips (about 6 oz).
5. Pour the boiling water over the top of the chocolate and whisk until the mixture is smooth and blended.
6. Set the chocolate mixture aside.
7. In a large mixing bowl, beat the butter until smooth and creamy.
8. Add the sugar and beat until well blended.
9. Increase the speed of the mixer and continue to cream the butter and sugar until it is light and fluffy.
10. Add the eggs, one at a time.
11. Add the vanilla.
12. Reduce the speed to low and add in the dry ingredients.
13. Mix until no lumps remain.
14. Add the sour cream.
15. Slowly pour in the chocolate mixture.
16. Beat until no white streaks are visible, stopping to scrape down the sides occasionally.
17. Stop the mixer and with a spatula, gently fold in the remaining chocolate chips.
18. Pour the batter into the muffin cups.
19. Bake for 30-35 minutes, until a toothpick comes out clean.
20. Let the cupcakes cool completely on a wire rack.
21. While the cupcakes are cooling, make the ganache.
22. In a microwave safe bowl, combine the ganache ingredients.
23. Microwave in 30 second increments, stirring in between, until the mixture is smooth.
24. Top the cooled cupcakes with ganache and then let them set. This takes about 15 minutes.

Yields: 36 Cupcakes

Granola Bites

I have a mild obsession with bento boxes. I love how cute they make food look. I've been following a couple of bento blogs for awhile now and it finally hit me that bentos are perfect for Weight Watchers. Everything is pre-portioned out in small serving sizes and it makes boring lunches a little more fun.

So, I started making my own bento-like lunches. I don't have all of the cute egg shapers, sandwich cutters, and garnishes that typical bentos use. I don't even have a real bento box, I just use Rubbermaid Snap & Store containers. Once Max starts school in a few years, I'm sure I'll get all of the cutesy stuff to make his lunches with but until then, I'm ok with my plain food stuck in containers.

It has been a tremendous help in keeping my lunches within points limits, healthy, and fun. I forces me to think about what I'm going to have to eat and how much I'm going to eat. I have to prepare my lunches the night before, so it also helps me pre-plan my points for the following day.

I found that I was having trouble finding a good dessert/sweet snack for my lunch that was fairly low in points buy still filling. So, I did what I usually do and went searching on my favorite blogs. I found an awesome granola recipe that can be made in mini muffin cups to make them bite-size! The points are pretty low and could be even lower if you wanted to use liquid Splenda instead of honey and/or omit the chocolate chips. I think they are good the way they are.

Granola Bites

From Another Lunch

Ingredients
2 1/2 Cups Quick Oats
1/2 Cup Crispy Rice Cereal
1/2 Cup Brown Sugar, packed
1/2 teaspoon Salt
1/2 Cup Canola Oil
1/4 Cup Honey
1/2 teaspoon Vanilla
1/2 Cup Mini Chocolate Chips

Optional (not in points calculation):
3 Tablespoons Ground Flax Seed
3 Tablespoons Wheat Germ

Directions

1. Liberally grease mini muffin cups with cooking spray.
2. Preheat oven to 350F.
3. In a large bowl, mix all ingredients except for the chocolate chips.
4. Take your time mixing so the dry ingredients can really soak up the wet ingredients. If it seems too dry, add in a teaspoon more oil.
5. Continue to mix until the ingredients begin to form small clumps or balls.
6. Add in the chocolate chips.
7. Fill each muffin cup with granola and pack down firmly.
8. Bake for 12-15 minutes, until golden brown.
9. Remove from oven to cooling rack.
10. IMPORTANT: Do not remove the bites from the pan until they are completely cooled! This will take several hours. Removal prior to cooling will result in crumbly granola.
11. Once completely cool, remove from the pan and store in an airtight container.

Yields: 30 bites

Sesame Chicken

I have a weakness for Chinese take-out. Specifically for sesame chicken. At least once a week I'm trying to convince Vince to order Chinese for delivery. Our favorite take-out place recently got a new chef, and we are not fans. We've since tried several other places in the area. They have each been ok but nothing to write home about.

In an effort to a) keep my daily points from going out the window; b) keep a tighter reign on our dining out budget; and c) satisfy my sesame chicken craving; I went looking for an easy recipe to make at home.

This recipe is both easy and delicious. It came in at less than half the points of restaurant sesame chicken, so I think this one is a keeper.

Sesame Chicken

Adapted from Gourmet: Day to Day

Ingredients
1/4 Cup All Purpose Flour
1/4 teaspoon Salt
1/8 teaspoon Ground Black Pepper
4 Boneless Skinless Chicken Breast Halves (~1 lb), cut into bite size pieces
1/4 Cup Reduced Sodium Soy Sauce
1/4 Cup Sugar
1/2 teaspoon Sesame Oil
2 Tablespoon Sesame Seeds

Directions

1. Put the flour, salt, and pepper into a gallon sized ziplock bag.
2. Add the chicken to the bag, zip the top and shake well.
3. Coat a large non-stick skillet with olive oil cooking spray and heat.
4. Add the chicken to the skillet and cook, stirring, for 3-4 minutes or until no longer pink.
5. Transfer the cooked chicken to a plate.
6. Reduce the heat on the skillet.
7. Add the soy sauce and sugar to the skillet.
8. Stir and cook for about 2 minutes, until the sugar is completely dissolved.
9. Remove from heat immediately to not burn the sugar.
10. stir in the sesame oil and sesame seeds.
11. Add the chicken and toss thoroughly to coat.

Yields: 4 servings

Baked Honey Dijon Pecan Salmon

So, this recipe has been making the rounds in the blogosphere. I've had it bookmarked forever (along with a million other recipes I need to post) and finally decided to try it out. It was delicious! I can see why so many people are writing about it.

I've been trying to add more fish in to our diet. I'm actually not a big fish eater but I love salmon. I have several salmon recipes to post and will be trying out some others for trout, snapper, and orange roughy in the future. I'm also going to try going meatless once a week. We'll see how that goes...we really like our meat around here!

This recipe offers a very generous portion size and is very filling. I changed the measurements of the ingredients to get the points value down and it still came out really good and full of flavor. This one is a keeper for sure.

I served it with a broccoli/cauliflower mix and rice.

Baked Honey Dijon Pecan Salmon

Adapted from Sweet Beginnings

Ingredients
4 - 4 oz Salmon Fillet(s)
1/8 Cup Margarine, melted
1 1/2 Tbsp Dijon Mustard
3/4 Tbsp Honey
1/4 Cup Panko Breadcrumbs
1/4 Cup Chopped Pecans


Directions

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
2. In a small bowl, mix together margarine, mustard, and honey.
3. In a separate bowl, mix breadcrumbs and pecans together.
4. Place the salmon in a baking dish.
5. Brush each fillet with the honey mustard mixture and then sprinkle the tops with the nut mixture.
6. Bake for 12-15 minutes.

Yields: 4 servings

Joey's Bison Meatloaf

I'm a meatloaf fan. I always have been. Not only do I think it tastes good, but it is an easy meal to make during the week. I can also make it as individual "muffins" or mini loaves so they are nicely portioned out. Vince on the other hand has no love for it. I've tried countless recipes trying to get him to eat (and like) meatloaf. He would grudgingly eat it but kindly ask that I not make it again. So I finally asked my mom what she does for meatloaf. I figured that a woman with 5 kids and 7 grandkids must have a secret of some kind for meatloaf. Boy, was I right.

Mom said that she finally asked Joey, my oldest nephew, to help her come up with a meatloaf recipe that all of the kids would eat. I knew that if a 12 year old boy would readily eat it that Vince would eat it too. So, mom gave me Joey's meatloaf recipe. I tweaked it a little to use what I had in the house and it was a hit. This is seriously the best meatloaf I have ever eaten in my life. It was so good that we ate it all before I had time to take any pictures of it, so you'll have to wait until the next time for that. The loaf itself came out so moist that it was very hard to slice into servings so I might make it as mini loaves or muffins next time to save myself from trying to portion it out. Other than that, I won't change a thing.

This recipe is NOT diet friendly in any way shape or form. I knew that going in so I made sure to save enough WW Points during the day to have this for dinner and not destroy my day. You could also use some of you weekly Points for it if you wanted to. However, if you are watching other things like fat, salt, or sugar, you may want to change some ingredients to suit your needs.

Here is the ingredient list for Joey's Original Meatloaf Recipe:
1 1/2 lbs ground beef
1/2 cup bread crumbs
1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese
1 cup Special K cereal
3 large eggs
2 Tbsp plus about 1/2 cup ketchup
1/2 cup hot water

My tweaked "grown-up" version is below.

Joey's Bison Meatloaf

Ingredients

1 Pound Ground Bison
1/2 Cup Seasoned Bread Crumbs
1/2 Cup Grated Parmesan Cheese
2 Large eggs
1 Cup Golden Grahams cereal
1 16oz package of low-sodium bacon
2 Tbsp plus 1/3 Cup ketchup
1/2 cup hot water

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. In a large skillet, cook half of the package of bacon until crisp.
3. Crumble the cooked bacon and set aside.
4. In a bowl, mix the bison with the bread crumbs, Parmesan cheese, cereal, eggs, cooked/crumbled bacon, 2 tablespoons of ketchup, and water.
5. Form the meat mixture into a loaf and place either into a loaf pan or onto a baking pan.
6. Cover the top of the meatloaf with 1/3 cup of ketchup.
7. Top the entire meatloaf with the raw bacon strips. Making sure to tuck the ends of the bacon under the loaf to prevent them from curling up during baking.
8. Place in the oven and bake for 45-50 minutes.
9. Remove from oven and let rest for 15 minutes. Then slice and serve.

Yields 8 servings (slices)