Whole Wheat Pretzels

I can't decide if this is more "nailed it" or "failed it".  Yes, I made delicious whole wheat pretzels that I will happily make again.  However, I'm not entirely sure that they came out the way they were supposed to.

Here's the recipe, with FAR better pictures than what I have (sorry about that).  My dough didn't rise but a centimeter, if that.  It was a dry dough, even though I added some extra water throughout the process.

I didn't mind the dry dough so much, except for when trying to roll out the pretzels.

It was a bit crumbly, and hard to make on a consistently even roll, but it worked out.

But, like I said, I baked them for about 9 minutes, took them out, and they won my heart over.  I was only supposed to get about 6 or 7 pretzels from the batch, and I got 6, so I wasn't that far off.

The pretzels were on the small side.

I rolled each one out to 15", but the finished product is only about palm sized.

That was a lot of time to spend on only six pretzels.

Thank goodness they were good!  The original recipe suggested a dip for them, but I loved them as is.

Crock Pot's Finest

 Okay, Crock Pots hate me.

True story.

I'm the only person in this world that could mess up a crock pot recipe, unless it's for an apple butter or chutney.

However, I found this recipe for Cilantro Lime Chicken, and it looked so good I could resist.

 I also couldn't resist tweaking it a bit.

First off, instead of plain salsa, I used a generic brand of Peach Pineapple Chipotle Salsa, still 24 oz.

And instead of 2 jalapenos, I used 1 and 1 bell pepper.

And then it looked super chunky - like the picture to the right, so I added a can of Rotel Tomato and Chili sauce.

 Once the mixture looked more liquidy, I added the chicken.

Oh, but I used 8 chicken thigh tenders instead of 4-6 breast halves.  I just like dark meat more, okay?!

And then I put it on high, because I wanted it done in two hours.

HAHA!  Didn't happen.

 Our Crock Pot, well this one, rather (we have 4 or five of various sizes) has a timer function where it cooks for the time you set it for.

I set it on high for 4 hours, and by the time I had prepped everything and added it to the pot, it was at 3:47 remaining.  That's an easy prep, yes?

Ended up with that as the cooking time, too.

However I had eaten by then, so it made 6 hearty lunch/dinner portions when added to my cilantro brown rice.

Sorry, no pretty shots, just Tupperware.

But when I did eventually try it, it was completely worth the wait!  I can't wait to have this again, and maybe serve it with tortillas next time, too.  So juicy and tender, you should try this one ASAP!!

Taste of Sweetness Saturday: Chocolate Dipped Strawberries

 Melt white chocolate.  Dip strawberries in it to create the shirt layer.

Melt dark/milk chocolate. Dip shoulders to create the jacket.

Get a black/chocolate icing or gel tip (pre-made) to create the buttons and bow ties.  For the ties I made an X in the size that I wanted for the tie, then filled in the opposite sides to create the bow.  People think they're adorable, and they're so delicious, too!

as always, my apologies for the blurry iPhone photos!

Holla for Challah!!

I'm still on a bread machine kick, but I'm trying to space out the recipes while Thomas travels so that I'm not eating an entire loaf of bread for me every week.

One recipe that Thomas has wanted me to try, though, is for some Challah.  I found this recipe (via Pinterest, of course), and thought I'd give it a go.

Now, I know this is a cheater post, but I wanted to make sure that all of you bread machine junkies, like myself, had a chance to find this recipe.

I ran my machine on a 2lb, light crust, sweet loaf cycle and the bread was perfect.

Seriously.  My crock pot meal was taking too long, so it was a mostly Challah-tastic dinner.

Holy socks, it's wonderful!  Holla!!

Two-fer Tuesday!

In order to celebrate my benevolence today (Thomas is coming home, how could I not feel in great spirits?!), I'll doling out two recipes for the price of none!  Yay!!

The first is an easy and relatively healthy Thai Lime Chicken.  I love a good peanut flavored dish, so this was a no brainer for me.  Plus, it only has five ingredients, of which I just needed to buy the lime, so that was a HUGE bonus.

 Of course, I also had the added bonus of being able to use my Pampered Chef Citrus Press...  It always makes my life so much more simple!

You juice the lime over the chicken (top and bottom), and then coat the chicken with your peanut/ginger/garlic mixture.

How easy is that?!  Plus, it doesn't take terribly long to cook, so it's an easy dish all around.

Bake it at 375 for about 25 minutes.

Oh, but that other dish?  The side dish for this one?

Yeah, I might have made it with Brown Rice, so in this case, the side took longer than the main.

Ah well.

For my side, I threw some peppers on a skillet to cook them through.  Didn't add oil, salt or anything, just cooked them to an al dente.

But the long rice dish I made, that was a skinny knock off of Chipotle's Cilantro Lime Rice.  I used barely any oil, and only salted the water.  We're trying to be more heart healthy, so this was an experimental dish.

 I used barely any oil, and only salted the water.  We're trying to be more heart healthy around the house, so this was an experimental dish.  However, it was still tasty, and the brown Jasmine rice held up well again.

Definitely impressed.

So that was my two-fer.  Thomas gave them all a thumbs up, and the flavors complimented each other nicely.  Plus I made a double batch of the rice to sue as a side dish for weeks to come!

Bacon Pineapple Shrimp

If you're looking for an easy, EASY appetizer to make, I think I've found it.

{Full disclosure: I hate shrimp.}

It's Bacon Pineapple Shrimp!  It's originally from Rachel Ray, so you know it has to be easy.

 I tried the recipe two different ways.  The first was like my Bacon Wrapped Smokies.  That was easy enough, just dump some brown sugar on it and bake it.

However, that ended up looking like the shrimp on the RR Recipe.

Blah.

So then I took them and threw them into a frying pan, as originally suggested.

I chose pre-cooked shrimp, so I was just cooking it to cook the bacon.  I waited until they were nice and dark, and then served them up.  They looked almost burnt to me, but everyone loved them.

It was the first appetizer of the night I ran out of.  Since I had to serve them as soon as they were done, I didn't get a chance for a final photo, but I know you understand.  You all have amazing imaginations if you've been following me thus far!!

Whole Wheat Peanut Butter Banana Muffins

Obviously, I'm make a very concentrated effort to make breakfast now (this is the second week in a row!).  I'm not a breakfast person.  I blame my schooling and teaching experiences - nothing like having lunch at 10:30am to throw off your breakfast game!  However, I am supposed to be a grown up now, and breakfast is the most important blah blah blah.  Regardless, I loved the "granola" bars, and wanted to try something else that was as easy and wonderful in the morning that I could wake up, grab, and go.  I don't leave myself more than a half hour to get up and ready, get the dogs going, and hop out the door in the morning, so the more bake-ahead items that I can make, the better!

Over at Skinny Taste, of course, I found this recipe for Low Fat Peanut Butter Banana Muffins.  The problem is that I wanted to use a whole wheat flour, which threw the rest of my measurements for a loop.  In addition to that, reduced fat Jiffy was my PB mode of choice because it was already in the house.  I would have used the low sodium version, but my husband has that with him on his business trip!

Here's my process...

Ingredients:
1 1/4 C flour (*use no more than half whole wheat -ww- flour)
1 1/4 tsp baking soda (*use only 3/4 tsp if you're not using ww flour)
1/8 tsp salt
2 tbsp stick margarine, softened
1/3 cup light brown sugar
5 ripe bananas - mine were small and on clearance. Use 3 if they're larger.
1/2 cup unsweetened apple sauce (*use only 1/3 cup if not using ww flour)
2 large egg whites
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
8 tbsp peanut butter - you choose your own poison


I wanted mini-muffins, so I greased my mini muffin pans. No liners needed if you spray, but it's always your option.






Pre-heat the oven to 325.






In a small bowl, combine your flours, baking soda, and salt.






In a large bowl, mix together your margarine and brown sugar. Then, add your egg whites, bananas, apple sauce, vanilla, and peanut butter. Mix it all up until it's nice and creamy. Since I used whole wheat flour, I had to add more apple sauce to maintain a "moist" consistency throughout the baking process. Also, I didn't mash the bananas before mixing them. I have no problem with chunks of banana in my muffin, and the electric mixer did well to break up the very ripe bananas in any case.

Finally, add your dry mixture in, and mix until just combined.  Add your batter to your prepared muffin cups 1/2-2/3 full.  My mini muffins took about 10 minutes, but the large took about 20 in my oven.  Just cook until a toothpick comes out clean.

Super simple, and very tasty.  I had some (immediately!) with a little dollop of the leftover unsweetened applesauce, but when I eat them for breakfast, I just grab three minis as is. Also, most of these ingredients I had on hand.  The only thing I needed to buy was the bananas, and it was only 11 cents for the bunch of five on clearance.  Not too shabby!  Keep them in an airtight container, and (according to Thomas) make sure you refrigerate them if you plan on them lasting all week. 

Curious how I made the conversions to incorporate Whole Wheat Flour?  Check out the Cook's Thesaurus.  They claim... "Replace no more than half of the all-purpose flour with this and add half again as much baking powder plus a bit more liquid to the recipe. Compared to all-purpose flour, whole wheat flour makes baked goods denser and coarser in texture. It provides more fiber but about the same nutrients as enriched all-purpose flour."

So moist...  does that word annoy any one else??  I couldn't get around it this time.  Sorry!