A Lazy, TV-Watching Sunday (Waiting for the Big Storm)

I think I’m stuck to my recliner. Except for visits to the kitchen and bathroom, I’ve spent all day right here in my chair. (That’s the joy of having a laptop!) We started with the NFL: Tampa Bay vs. New Orleans , then moved on to Washington vs. Philadelphia, and are now watching Dallas vs. St. Louis, and some NBA: the Lakers vs. the Jazz and the Clippers vs. the Trail Blazers. This whole time I’ve been working on the computer, doing some planning for the 2006 assembly, senate and congressional interviews, as well as searching the net for how to make drop-down menus. I give up. I’ve asked Sweetnicks to help, since she volunteered. If anyone else wants to give advice, all I want to do is make drop-down menus that will have my recipes on them. See http://sweetnicks.blogspot.com for what I’m talking about. What I'll do for now is put my recipes over with the other links. THAT I know how to do.

Happy New Year! Another one bites the dust. With the new one, I’ve done just a little bit of thinking about resolutions, or intentions, as I’d rather call them. The first one comes to me from Cooking Light magazine.

1. Approach love and cooking with reckless abandon.
2. Be kind.
3. Take more photographs; preserve more memories.
4. Exercise more. Quit making excuses!

I think that’s enough. They sure encompass a lot of areas of my life.

GREAT FIND: Dannon’s Carb Control Yogurt. I looked at all the other yogurts and saw that none of them are low sugar. The low-fat and nonfat yogurts still have lots of sugar in them. The carb control yogurt has only 3 carbs, and it tastes just as good as the yogurts with sugar. Dannon’s Light and Fit, while it’s only 80 calories, still has 15 carbs, and Yoplait’s Light yogurts have 19 carbs.

What’s for dinner? I’m cooking a dish that I first had at my sister Marilyn’s house in Cary, North Carolina. She calls it “Unforgettable Casserole.” I was there for a visit in June, and offered to help prep. When she asked me to chop two cups of celery, I told her I didn’t care too much for celery, and asked if we needed the whole two cups. She nicely let me know that yes, we did, and I wouldn’t taste them. I loved this casserole! I had seconds! And now I fix it almost every month. When I work out the nutritional information, 1/8 of the casserole has 430 calories, 14.6 grams of carbs, 33.6 grams of fat, 1.3 grams of fiber, and 17.4 grams of protein. I’ll subsitute fat-free cheddar for half of the cheese, and fat-free cream of chicken soup–that should cut the fat even more. But all in all it’s a pretty low-carb healthy dinner.

Marilyn’s Unforgettable Chicken Casserole

3 c chopped cooked chicken (3-4 breasts)
2 c finely chopped celery
1 c grated cheddar cheese
1/2 c slivered almonds
1/2 c light mayonnaise
1/2 c light sour cream
1 can cream of chicken soup
1 4-oz can water chestnuts, drained and chopped
1 large can French’s fried onion rings

Mix first 8 ingredients. Spoon into lightly greased 11 x 7” baking dish. Bake 40 min. at 350˚. Sprinkle onions evenly over top. Bake 5 more minutes or until bubbly around the edges. Let stand 10 minutes before serving.

To go with it, we’ll have chopped salad again. Vons had cherry tomatoes on sale today, and I need to use the other half of cucumber I have from Friday. Plus, DH says he likes this salad. Good. I do, too. Vons was out of cranberries, though, and I needed another bag to make some more Whole Wheat Double Cranberry Bread. We’re negotiating with the District Thursday, and I bake bread for everyone. Sue always brings candy, and we need healthy stuff. Now I’ll be searching for a new/different recipe for Thursday. In November I took Garden Bounty Muffins and Zucchini Gingerbread, and then in December I took Whole Wheat Pumpkin Bread.

Garden Bounty Muffins

1/4 c sugar
3/4 c Splenda
1 c shredded carrots
1 c shredded zucchini
1/2 c raisins
1/2 c applesauce
1 egg
1/2 c Eggbeaters
2 T canola oil
1 t vanilla extract
1/4 c ground flaxseed
2 c whole wheat flour
1/4 c oat or wheat bran
2 t baking soda
1 t salt
1 t orange zest
1 t ground nutmeg
1/2 t baking powder

Preheat oven to 375˚. Spray 18 muffin cups with nonstick cooking spray. In a large bowl, combine sugar, Splenda, carrots, zucchini, raisins, applesauce, egg, Eggbeaters, oil, extract, and flaxseed until well blended. In a medium bowl, combine flour, bran, soda, salt, zest, nutmeg, and baking powder. Stir flour mixture into vegetable mixture until moistened. Fill muffin cups 2/3 full. Bake 20-25 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Remove from pan. Cool 10 minutes. Makes 18

Big Zucchini Gingerbread

2 c whole wheat flour
1 1/3 c all-purpose flour
1/2 c wheat or oat bran
1 t baking soda
1 t baking powder
1/2 t kosher salt
1 t cinnamon
1/2 t ginger
1/2 t nutmeg
3 c grated zucchini
3 eggs
1/2 c applesauce
1/2 c oil
3/4 c brown sugar
3/4 c molasses
Preheat oven to 350°. Prepare two loaf pans by spraying with non-stick spray. Combine dry ingredients in a large bowl. Combine wet ingredients including zucchini iingredientser bowl. Add the wet ingrients to the dry and stir until just combined. Pour mixture into loaf pans. Bake for 45-50 minutes.

Whole Wheat Pumpkin Bread

2/3 c oil
1 c molasses
1/3 c Splenda granular
1 15-oz can pureed, cooked pumpkin
4 eggs, beaten
1 t cinnamon
1 t ground nutmeg
1/2 t ground allspice
1/2 t cloves
1/2 t salt
2 t fresh ginger, grated
4 T soy flour
1/2 c milk powder
1/2 c 9-grain cereal (can substitute wheat or oat bran)
3 1/2 c whole wheat flour
2 T baking powder

Preheat oven to 325˚. Blend the oil, molasses, pumpkin, eggs, and all of the spices in a large bowl. Stir remaining ingredients togther and add to the first mixture. Bake in two well-oiled 5x9" loaf pans for about 1 hour. If the loaf gets too brown before the end of the baking time, lower the heat to 300?.

CYNDI'S TIPS: If you need buttermilk for baking, but don’t have any, make soured milk. Add 1 tablespoon vinegar or lemon juice to a cup of milk, stir and let stand for about 5 minutes. When your recipe calls for buttermilk, it’s because it needs the acidity of the buttermilk to interact with the baking powder to make the bread or cake rise. The vinegar or lemon juice will serve that purpose.

food , cooking , recipes , healthy cooking , low carb recipes