You've Just Gotta Try This

This is what I've been making for the past two weeks. Everytime a pan is gone, I make another one. It's from Devin Alexander on the Discovery Health Channel. I've linked you to her original recipe, so if you'd rather make hers you can. This is essentially the same recipe but doubled, and you use a 9x13" pan rather than an 8X8. You also use a lot more coffee and chocolate chips.

DOUBLE CHOCOLATE BROWNIES

1/2 cup applesauce*

1 Tbsp. vanilla extract

8 egg whites

2 cups sugar

1/2 cup flour

2-3 coffee scoops of your favourite coffee, ground

1 tsp. baking powder

1 tsp salt

chocolate chips

butter-flavoured cooking spray (or just regular spray)

Preheat the oven to 350. Spray a 9x13" pan with spray.

Mix up the applesauce, vanilla, egg whites, and sugar until well combined with a whisk or in a mixer.

Add the dry ingredients and stir or mix until just combined and no lumps remain.

Pour into the prepared pan.

Sprinkle handfuls of chocolate chips over the top. Use as many as you like.

Bake about 40 minutes, or until a knife inserted comes out clean.

Try not to eat the entire pan.

Some notes from me:

1. Devin says to use unsweetened applesauce. Since I get those little cups of applesauce at Aldi for school lunches and snacks, I just use two of those. They're about 1/4 cup each. They also have cinnamon.
2. I always, ALWAYS use real vanilla extract. That cheap stuff just isn't worth it.
3. Devin says to use just 1/2 teaspoon instant espresso powder. I just use the coffee I drink everyday. I use beans that I grind myself, and they are hazelnut flavoured. But any ground coffee will work.
4. Devin says to use 1/4 cup mini chocolate chips. Probably a better idea if you want to keep the calories down.
5. Devin's brownies are 88 calories each. Mine are more like 100-120 each, depending on how many chocolate chips you add.

Enjoy! This ain't no diet food!

Veggie Tales

Over at Ponytail Challenge, Camille is double-daring us to try some new vegetables.

To this, I simply reply "Deceptively Delicious." It's Jessica Seinfeld's cookbook about how to puree the nasty things and sneak them into your regular food.

I am completely not kidding. I sneaked some squash into chicken enchiladas, and Hunk O Man remarked that they were better than usual.

It works like this: you make baby food puree from the steamed veggies, freeze, and then thaw when needed and put into the sauce of whatever you're making.

I think the real trick is to make sure that whatever you use is relatively the same color as whatever you add. For example, beet puree would work nicely in spagetti or pizza sauce. Yellow squash or pumpkin puree would work in macaroni and cheese.

I love a juice I found in California (and is available everywhere) called Naked Juice Green Machine. We affectionately refer to it as pond scum or toad guts. But it's a great-tasting pineapple-based juice with spirulina and spinach and all sorts of green goodness in it. And it's thick, like a milkshake.

So if you can abandon your aviary tendency to judge a food by it's looks, hold your nose, and get the stuff down -- you'll be pleasantly surprised.

I am all in with this double dare. We have church tonight, but everyone will be hungry afterward. I think I may put some peas into some green thing I might have tonight. Hmmm. . .

And the Giveaway Winner is . . .

Fuschia, of Living in the Land of Pink! Congrats!

Here's her recipe for Dark Chocolate Cranberry Oatmeal Cookies:

"Everything Cookies"

1/2 cup slightly softened, unsalted butter

1/2 cup packed light brown sugar
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1 egg + 1 egg yolk
1-1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1-1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/3 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup old fashioned oats
6 ounces dried cherries (or cranberries, or raisins)
6 ounces dark chocolate chips (or any other type chocolate you prefer)
1/2 cups chopped nuts of your choice

Cream butter and sugars. Combine dry ingredients. Mix well. Add cranberries, chocolate chips, nuts, and oatmeal. Drop by rounded spoonfuls on baking sheet. bake for 9-11 minutes at 350 degrees.

I don't know about you, but I'm thinking today I'm trying these, especially since today I can eat.

Thanks, Fuschia! Happy baking, everyone!

PR Dish

STELLA! STELLA! STELLA!

Leatha Stella is OUT! Whatever the leatha shall we do? My leatha heart is just breaking!

She said to Heidi as she left, "Well, my ego was a little too big for this place." In the words of our Bunny, "true dat."




She made a nice outfit with a leather cape, which made the whole thing just look silly:



for the legendary Diane Von Furstenberg's new collection, based on a "spy" look:







(is it me, or is this woman's speaking voice just AMAZING? I could listen to her talk all day long. She could easily replace Edward Hermann's voice putting me to sleep every night)



LeAnne won with this -- I like LeAnne, and I hope she gets into the top 3 --





Although I had a hard time deciding whether or not Korto got robbed of a win with this:




because it looks very DVF from her runway collection. But I'm not wild about Korto as a person, so there you go.

Suede, the one with the blue mohawk, made this:

to which I replied with this:

I think Stella's outfit was better. But I do like Mr. 'Speaks of Himself in the Third Person' Suede, so I'm glad he's not out.

I really think that being out has more to do with whether or not your outfit was good enough and whether the leftover people constitute "good tv."

Talk about subjective.

On a whole 'nother subject, thanks everyone for the giveaway comments! I'll choose one via Random Integer Generator tomorrow around 3PM, and I'll have a recipe for you!

And I am loving the Alternate Day Diet! 6 lbs. so far! Wa-hooey!

WFMW: 5 Ingredients or Less

Ok, ok. I know it's Thursday, but I was gone all day yesterday. I was at the North American Christian Convention hanging with my homies. I saw people I hadn't seen in years! It was tons of fun.

But Shannon at Rocks in My Dryer asked for recipes this Wednesday of 5 ingredients or less. I am all about 5 ingredients or less. So here you go:

CHICKEN SALAD

3-4 Chicken breasts, cooked and pulled apart into shreds

1 cup pecans

some grapes, cut into half, about 2 cups

an apple, diced

mayonnaise or Miracle Whip

Mix it all up and use as much Miracle Whip as you need to make it creamy. Serve it with an ice cream scoop onto a bun.

Yummy.

OAMC

I will be starting my Once A Month Cooking again. Today. Just as soon as I get off this computer.

Once A Month Cooking is a great thing for people like me. Basically, you find a bunch of recipes and cook them all in one day. For me, having a chest freezer is a Godsend. You put them all in the freezer and just take out what you need for dinner that evening.

And it's not all cassaroles, as some might think. Often I will stir-fry the meat and sauce for my famous Cashew Chicken and then just do the veggies the night I fix it. I do a lot of meat cooked in sauce, and meatloaf, and frozen burgers made up with seasonings. I always do a pot roast and some sort of bbq/sloppy joe mix. This time, I'm trying all new recipes, which include fish and even something with lentils.

If you're interested in this, here are few websites you can have a look at --

Frugal Mom

Frozen Assets

Chef Mom

Real Food 4 Real People

And even a book you can read --

On a snacking note, I discovered the most wonderful food in the world last night:

Two words:

HOO BABY

WFMW: Easy Cookies

I don't remember where I read this, but it's an excellent way to always have great cookies available.

You will need some frozen juice containers for this, preferably large ones, which have been thoroughly rinsed and still have the metal tops.

Make up a batch of your favourite dough. Place it into a used juice container, put the lid on, and freeze.

When you want cookies, simply slice off as many as you want to bake, and then refreeze the rest. If the dough "discs" are too large, then cut them into fourths.

Note: this won't work for peanut butter cookies if you want that crisscrossed fork thing going on. But it will if you are patient and let the dough warm before baking.

Enjoy --

P.S. It occurs to me that you are in dire need of my fabulous chocolate chip cookie recipe, which follows:

CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIES

1 1/2 cups butter blend**

2 1/2 cups brown sugar

1/4 cup milk

2 Tablespoons vanilla extract

2 eggs

2 teaspoons salt

1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda

3 1/4 cups flour

1 1/2 cups chocolate chips (or more)

Mix these ingredients up in a bowl in the order listed -- drop onto ungreased cookie sheets and bake 13 minutes at 375 degrees.

**Butter blend: I make my own butter blend by whipping up equal amounts of regular butter and olive oil in my mixer. Just put in 1 lb. of butter to 1 cup olive oil, and whip until light. If your butter is cold or frozen, cut into small pieces and whip that first before adding the oil.

If you like, you can substitute butter-flavoured shortening for this in the recipe.

0 calories and serves about 3 before you run out and have to make more. :)

La Vie c'est triste sans Marie.

Wow. That was one fast two weeks. It seems like all of life stopped except for anything having to do with a french exchange student. My brain is weary of thinking in two languages, and yet I loved speaking and practicing and improving my french!

We LOVED Marie!

She was such a delight. My french really did greatly improve, despite all the teenagers saying "Mom, stop trying to speak french." (as if that were embarassing or something, jeesh!). We took trips -- shopping at the Gap Outlet (at the Smithfield Outlet Mall) -- Marie is the blonde with her back to us, that's Marguerite on the left:

to Beaufort, NC, where Rose and I had kind of a mother-daughter day -- long awaited and much needed --

where they have the NC Aquarium --

and where Rose fell in love with this little guy -- (I lahve you I lahve you!)

And she got a new top, and there was a cool maze made from a hedge --

And Rose loves rocks -- we call her "The Squirrel" -- and she found this wall --

She also loves shells, and we went to Ft. Macon and Atlantic Beach --

And it was all we could do not to run up and swoosh all these seagulls up in a flurry --

And spend a peaceful moment with Starbucks at a gazebo on the water's edge --

We had an evening of Karaoke at Java Junction downtown,

choosing songs --

and then performing -- that's Marie's head behind Cecilie, Olivia on the left, and Marguerite on the right --

and we spent many a night watching movies with subtitles and playing cards.

We introduced Marie to Skyline Chili, my pizza, chicken enchiladas --

Chicken Enchiladas
From: Campbell's Kitchen
Prep: 20 minutesCook: 25 minutes
Serves: 4
Ingredients:
1 can (10 3/4 oz.) Campbell's® Condensed Cream of Chicken Soup (Regular or 98% Fat Free)1/2 cup sour cream 1 tbsp. butter or margarine1 medium onion, chopped1 tsp. chili powder 2 cups chopped cooked chicken or turkey1 can (about 4 oz.) chopped green chiles 8 flour tortillas (8-inch), warmed1 cup shredded Cheddar cheese OR Monterey Jack cheese
Directions:
MIX soup and sour cream.
HEAT butter in saucepan. Add onion and chili powder and cook until tender. Add chicken, chilies and 2 tbsp. soup mixture.
SPREAD 1/2 cup soup mixture in 2-qt. shallow baking dish. Spoon about 1/4 cup chicken mixture down center of each tortilla. Roll up and place seam-side down in dish.
SPOON remaining soup mixture on top. Sprinkle with cheese. Bake at 350°F. for 25 min. or until hot.

. . . and all the hilarity our home offers. One evening Hunk O Man, Rose, Marie and I were all nearly dead away with laughter when Bunny called and spoke so fast on the phone that we honestly couldn't understand her. We put her on speaker and said, "Huh? Could you repeat that?" You really had to be there -- but man was it ever funny! So Bunny! She sounded like one of those announcers at the end of some special deal stating all the terms and conditions. She should do that for a living; she'd probably make a fortune.

Marie's 17th birthday happened whilst here, so we went all out and had cake and presents and the whole Wesner birthday affair. Lots of the kids came over and we all sang. I made chocolate mayonnaise cake -- my Grandma's recipe -- but two layers weren't quite enough even though I increased the recipe by half. So I made two more! I put cream cheese icing between the layers, and chocolate over the top. We always use every candle we can find, so Marie was 415 years old, plus 17 individual candles around the edges, complete with Tigger holding the whole thing up. Regardez! Je suis Martha Stewart indeed!

We all cried when the french students left; they cried as well. It was really a great experience both for us and them. I think they all wanted to stay just a little bit longer. We certainly would adopt Marie in an instant.

I'm back to working in the sewing room in earnest. I finished "Tropical Punch" the apron last evening, and got to work on another one. I have two more cut out and ready to do. The time goes quickly in the construction -- it's just the embellishment that takes all my time because I decide that as I go. I need to have a plan for each one, so that I can just do it and not spend time having to undo something because I don't like the way it looks after all.

My Etsy shop is now featuring jewelry by Bug. In spite of her continual comments about needing a job, I think I'd much rather she concentrate on school. It suffers greatly because of her migraines and the way they keep her at home. Making the jewelry enables her to make money without really having to leave the house and be somewhere and accountable to an employer. That would be great training for her creative, free spirit -- but the timing on it is rather bad. I think it can wait until she passes chemistry, at least.

Baby is in full swing now with The Wizard of Oz having opened. She plays an Emerald City person, as well as a Poppy. I haven't seen the production yet, but she is happy as a clam completely in her element. Even though she insists she wants to be an actress, I think librarian is WAY more up her alley. We are finally caught up to the current week with homeschooling, and it took a mega lot of reading for this kid. She was up to the task, however, and now it's up to me to make up vocab worksheets and talk with her about the history she's read.

I had a little fall-apart last week. I only mention this because to one who has suffered from depression her whole life, it is such a blessing to now know what it is when it happens. It's no longer the end of the world or cause for suicidal thoughts. It is simply a crying out to God of all the stress and angst and despair, and a knowledge that with sleep will come tomorrow, and tomorrow will be infinitely better than today. That black pit now has a nice little trampoline at the bottom, so my infrequent descents just bounce me right back into the regular world of non-depressed people. Thank God for Cymbalta! What a gift! No more black abyss that lasts for days and weeks!

Rose needs a prom dress, and I wonder if I am up to the task. Hmmmm. Do I really want to sew it or just find it for her on Ebay? Decisions, decisions. She found this one while shopping in Charlotte about 6 weeks ago. Do I really want to attempt this?

Homeschooling is kind of a mess --

Petite Chien needs a haircut; he's very cute lately but holy cow his hair is long! We've cut it out of his face, and at least he can see.

He truly is my constant companion. I went in to change my clothes yesterday after church, and he sat at the doorway of my bedroom and whined.

Good grief. Did I say that even my dog whines? Definitely time for a vacation! To the beach! To the beach! Allons!

Friday, and that's it, I'm setting fire to the Washer.

For 3 days now, I've been without my washer. This is my fancy-schmancy Whirlpool Duet front-loading washer that I got in December 2004. This will be the third visit in two days for Mr. Lee, my favourite appliance-repair guy here in town, and person that I seem to have to call and pay entirely too often. I like Mr. Lee just fine; I just don't want him coming to my house all the time! Something is caught in the pump, apparently, and is blocking the drain. When he was here yesterday, he pulled out a mostly-shredded footie sock, the inside of a pen, the pen cap, a ring with no stone, an earring, and a lot of lint. God only knows what's in there blocking it now. Suffice the rest to say this: I swear if another one of the girls walks down the hall and says "does the washer work?" I'm going to set fire to the thing.

I need baking mix, and I have a great recipe for it. As far as I'm concerned, it takes just about as much time to whip up a bucket of your own biscuit mix as it does to run to the grocery and purchase a box of Jiffy Mix or Bisquick. Plus, this makes about twice as much as comes in a box. I used it recently in a fundraiser we did to help the French Exchange, which was mixes in a jar. This one was used for the pecan pancake jar. Here's the recipe:

Best Biscuit Mix
9 cups flour
1 cup dry milk
1/2 cup
1/4 cup baking powder
1 tbsp. salt
2 tsp. baking soda
1 lb. butter-flavored shortening

Mix this all together in your mixer with the wire whisk attachment until crumbly. You can also do it by hand by cutting in the shortening, but it takes forever. Yet another way that Kitchen-Aid of mine pays for itself yet another time over.

This recipe works with all those little Bisquick recipe books fabulously. And with a little milk, an egg, a small amount of vanilla, and a dash of nutmeg, it makes wonderful pancakes. Add some pecans and you have unbelievably delicious!

I will make my homemade pizza again tonight, because it is Friday, and Friday night is pizza night. Sometimes I can fudge and just get Little Caesar's, but not usually. Everyone around here has had mine for so long that it's just not worth all the whining to get the store-bought stuff. It's really easy, too. Here's the recipe for that:

PIZZA CRUST
1 1/2 cups warm water
1/4 cup olive oil
1 tablespoon yeast

Put the warm water and oil into a measuring cup, and sprinkle the yeast on top. While that's getting nice and bubbly, put the following in your electric mixer bowl:

3 1/2 cups flour
A tablespoon or two of sugar
a sprinkle of minced onion
a dash of dried minced garlic
a sprinkle of italian seasoning

Now take the dough hook from your mixer, and with your hand, take it to sort of mix up the dry stuff.

Then take your dry ingredients in the bowl and attach to the mixer along with the dough hook, start your mixer going on the slowest speed, and slowly drizzle in the wet mixture. Use a rubber spatula to get all the yeast out of the measuring cup.

Let the mixer go and pull this into a nice dough for you. When it's kneaded and made a soft dough, cover the bowl and let it rise for about half an hour. Kneading takes only as long as it takes for the mixer to pull the dough together, usually about 5 minutes.

After the dough has risen, go turn on your oven to 425 degrees. Take the dough and turn it out onto a floured surface and cut it in half. Roll one half out with a rolling pin to a large circle, larger than your pizza pan (I use the huge ones with the holes in them). When your crust is about 2" larger than the pan, drizzle some olive oil over the surface and spread it out with either your hands or a paintbrush. Then lay your pizza pan on top of the dough, center it, and carefully flip the whole thing over. Now take pieces of string cheese and lay them end-to-end around the perimeter of the crust. Then fold the excess dough over the cheese (thus making your stuffed crust). I use Ragu sauce that I get either in the industrial sized cans or in the jugs (family-sized). Then top with pepperoni and shredded cheese, and your choice of toppings. Bake at 425 degrees for 20 minutes. Repeat with the other half of the dough. My pizza pans are HUGE, so this will make 2 huge pizzas or 3 medium-sized ones.

I will be investigating the applications of weather-stripping later this evening. First a swim meet, though, and Mr. Lee has appeared yet again and I hear him tinkering in the laundry room. Hopefully we won't lose him through the crumbling subfloor in there. More on that later!