Thursday, May 27, 2010

Triple Chocolate Chip Cookies or I FINALLY whipped some eggs whites

Yay for me! I finally whipped eggs properly. This has taken me many tries to master. And when I mean whipping eggs, I mean the chemical process in which the whites turn from clear liquid to a white, fluffy meringue. That's one of the secrets to this recipe and how the recipe goes from a small amount to an amount that makes 20 cookies.

The other secret is the dough is mostly cannellini beans. It sounds weird but it actually works pretty good.

The consistency isn't quite a cookie. It's something else, almost a wafer. It's really light. It's also INCREDIBLY chocolatey! Like dark chocolate chocolatey.

With that being said, this cookie only comes in at around 50 calories, while a normal cookie comes in at 200 colories. You could eat 4 of these to equal 1 normal cookie.

Sloppy Joe

We made these sloppy joes for lunch, so that's why I don't really have a finished product photo here. Honestly, the recipe was ok. It wasn't the best I've had. I like sloppy joes, so I was expecting a bit more. I think I like the sweetnes of normal sloppy joes. This recipe doesn't have it. Perhaps if I added some Splenda next time. But, that might get a little weird. It wasn't bad, it just wasn't great either.

Normal sloppy joes are 640 calories, this sloppy joe is 300 calories.

Pepper and Basil Frittata

What's the difference between a frittata and a quiche? A frittata cooks on the stove, then goes in the oven, and it has no crust. A quiche just goes in the oven and has a crust. This Frittata is delicious. I don't think I've ever had one before. I've had something similar and it had potatoes. This definitely doesn't have potatoes. That would add calories. So, a normal frittata has 340 calories and 20 grams of fat. This one has 130ish calories and only 6 grams of fat. The basil and pepper made this taste so good. And the cauliflower and zucchini were a nice touch, too.

Wednesday, May 12, 2010

Cheesy Turkey Enchiladas

Enchiladas are classic comfort food. Who doesn't love them? This Rocco recipe comes in at around 300 calories, while normal enchiladas are around 1000 calories. That's why it's comfort food. :)

The recipe calls for pre-made black bean dip. I looked both at Whole Foods and Market Basket and I couldn't find anything. So, I looked up a black bean dip recipe, and made my own. I simply used one can of black beans, garlic powder, cumin, coriander, onion powder, and some fresh lemon juice. I also threw in some low fat sour cream. All of this was food processed.

So, after the bean dip was done, I grilled up the turkey meat. Once that was done, I poured the dip in to the turkey and cooked that for a bit. I then build the enchiladas, put them in the oven, and in 12 minutes, they were done.

One tweak that I made besides the bean dip was that I used fresh salsa that I bought in the produce section, instead of the jarred salsa Rocco called for. I'm not sure I can ever buy jarred salsa, now that I know stores sell fresh salsa.

Anyway, my wife's reaction was "Wow!". Enough said, this recipe is a keeper.

Monday, May 10, 2010

Hollandaise Sauce via Eggs Florentine

Yummy! I've never eaten Hollandaise Sauce before and my wife says it's supposed to be fantastic. I thought I'd try it for Mother's Day.

Eggs Benedict calls for some sort of meat, like ham, and I thought I'd do a non ham version, and use spinach instead, thus making Eggs Florentine. It came out awesome. We have so much left over, we are going to be eating this for one more day.

So, here's what I did. Through testing, I've become an expert at poaching eggs in the microwave. I'm way better at that then doing it in a pot of hot water. I tried the pot of hot water once, and it came out horrible. So, I'll tell you about poaching an egg in a microwave. First, I put a small amount of water in a teacup. Then, I  put a whole egg yolk in there. I cover the teacup with saranwrap, then microwave this for 35 seconds (my microwave is powerful, so it's only 35 seconds to cook but keep the yolk runny. It might be longer in your microwave). Meanwhile, I have a pan heated and I'm wilting some spinach. In addition, I take a whole wheat english muffin, toast it, and lightly butter it. By now, the microwave has beeped. I'm doing all this while keeping the hollandaise sauce warm.

Finally, I take the toasted english muffin, put down a layer of wilted spinach first, then the poached egg (which I got out of the teacup with a slotted spoon), then the hollandaise sauce.

It's the perfect Mothers Day meal. And the sauce is only 50 calories. Not sure how healthy that whole poaced egg is though. :)

Saturday, May 8, 2010

Individual Thin Crust Pizza

I know I've already done the deep dish pizza. But sometimes you just want a crispy thin crust. Rocco has the answer with this recipe.

The two tools you will need for this one are a rolling pin and a pizza peel. I don't have either and didn't feel like spending the money. So, for the rolling pin, I used an aluminum water bottle I had sitting around. This bottle is the kind that you get as a giveaway at trade shows, with a company logo on it. Mine was 8", so it worked perfect, as long as I covered it with flour before I started rolling.

For the pizza peel, I covered the back of a baking pan with cornmeal and slid it onto the hot pizza stone. My first attempt did not work at all and it was a complete disaster. To the point that I had to scrape it off the pizza stone and reroll it, which wasn't the best idea. I saved this individual crust for myself, since it had mutated to some weird shape that didn't look too appetizing.

The second and third attempts worked better, however, it was still problematic. My cooking sheet is not a flat one, so the pizza dough would kind of fold onto the pizza stone. So, it looks like I'll be buying a pizza peel.

I've noticed two kinds of pizza peels, ones that are raised and pretty cheap, and ones that are almost completely flat but expensive. Based on my experiences with the baking sheet with a lip, I'm definitely going to look for a flat pizza peel. I'm going to check out Christmas Tree Shop today to see if they have any flat ones. For those who don't know, Christmas Tree Shop is a kind of discount bargain store, where you can find all kinds of miscellaneous stuff really cheap. It has stuff like factory close outs and what not. It's the kind of place a grandma would adore.

By the way, this pizza comes in at around 200 calories a serving. And it's very yummy. And the pizzas that I did right looked like they came for some foofy fancy restaurant.

Wednesday, May 5, 2010

Buffalo Wings and Ranch Dressing

Two for one post today. I made the Buffalo Wings and Ranch Dressing.

You don't want to know how many calories normal Buffalo Wings have. Ok, you do, and deep fried wings come in around 1200 calories. These Rocco wings are 300 calories a serving. And they are totally awesome. I could eat these every day. Of course, I made these too spicy and my wife didn't like them for their spiciness.

The Rocco Ranch Dressing is fantastic. It is smooth, creamy, cool and just plain wonderful. The calories per serving is around 30.

Chicken and Dumplings

Yeah, a healthy chicken and dumplings. Normally, this dish comes in at 800 calories. This Rocco recipe is around 270.

I cut up the stuff before I left for work and my wife finished off the recipe. She did a great job. In fact, it's hard not to go for seconds on this recipe, it's so good.

I think we are getting faster at these recipes. Hopefully I'll be able to keep this pace up.