Whole Wheat Speghetti with Swiss Chard and Pecorina Cheese - Giada's Family Dinners, Giada DeLaurentis, pg 148

TASTE: very good
REPEAT: yes
PREP : Average to easy

I didn't have pecorino for this so I had to substitute with the cheap Parmesan in a bottle. It is actually a recipe that calls for whole wheat spaghetti so the amount of liquid was already correct.  I liked the saltiness of the kalamata olives and the taste combination with extra cheese and pine nuts so I topped the serving off with more than what was called for.  Daimeian really enjoyed it and didn't seem to miss the meat.  Wish I had taken a picture.

Lemon-Pepper Pasta w/ Chicken - Better Homes & Garden Diabetic Cookbook p 53

PREP: Easy
TASTE : OK
REPEAT : Perhaps, with modifications

I don't remember the specifics on this one and only have a few scribbled notes from trying it some time ago. I think I didn't have the lemon-pepper pasta called for and used plain, probably whole wheat, pasta.  My notes stated that it needed more flavor. I suppose that if I used lemon-pepper pasta it would have tasted better.

Basically, cook flavored pasta, drain and toss with EVOO.  Cook chicken, red pepper wedges or thin strips, dried marjoram and garlice until chicken is cooked through.  Stir in 1 T lemon juice and scrape up brown bits. Toss in pasta and 1 c. thawed frozen peas.

Cinnamon Sopapilla Cheesecake - modified and lightened

The base recipe for this dessert can be found all over the internet.  When I made it I substituted Sucanat for refined white sugar.  When you substitute with Sucanat the molasses turns things darker. In this case it is a cream cheese filling that turns brown.  It will still taste great, but it changes the color and may not be as appetizing to some people.  Because this batch was made for a Christmas Party, I only substituted half of the sugar. 

My modifications include fat-free and reduced fat cream cheese in place of full fat and half the butter most recipes call for. Most recipes call for a full 1/2 cup of melted butter to pour over the top.  That's a full stick!  In this batch I used half of that, only a quarter, and felt like I could have used even less, perhaps only 3 tablespoons.  In the batch pictured above I melted 1/4 cup (4 T) and found there to be a lot of butter puddles over the crescent rolls half way through the process.  So, I stopped putting it on one half of the batch and added the rest to the other half to give it the equivalency to using just over half the recommended butter. I wanted to see how much difference it made. In the picture the half with more butter on top is the lower half from left to right.  Finally, I don't use as much sugar as is called for on the top.  You just don't need it.

The recipe below is my modified version. I haven't tried it with reduced-fat crescent rolls because I haven't seen them in the stores lately. Hand mixing is probably the standard method for the the cream cheese, butter and vanilla mixture. Whipping the cream cheese in a stand mixer will fluff it up and make the filling thicker.

2 8 count packages of crescent rolls
1 8 oz package, fat-free cream cheese, softened
1 8 oz package, reduced fat cream cheese, softened
1 c. sugar (or Sucanat or blend)
1 t vanilla
3-4 T butter, melted
2-3 T sugar
1/2 t cinnamon

DIRECTIONS :
1. Lay out one can of crescent rolls at the bottom of a 9x13 pan.

2. In a mixing bowl or stand mixer, mix both packages of cream cheese and sugar.  Add vanilla and mix until well blended.  Spread mixture over crescent rolls in the pan.

3. Lay second can of crescent rolls carefully over cream cheese mixture. 

4. Spread melted butter evenly over top of rolls.

5. Stir together 2-3 T sugar and cinnamon (amount listed is appx). Sprinkle over top.

In the future I will be attempting a slight reduction in the sugar for the cream cheese mixture. Perhaps even a sugar and stevia combination to reduce the overall sugar content further.

Apple Dumplin's Caramel Apple Cupcakes, Berry Yummy Cookbook, p 66-67

PREP : Normal
TASTE : OK
REPEAT : Probably not

This was fun to do for Liana and I since it was a recipe from her Stawberry Shortcake cookbook. I don't recall if I substituted whole wheat flour with all-purpose or not. Since we were in the mode of baking sugary stuff I probably just used unbleached all-purpose.

Tanner really liked these but the rest of us really didn't care for them. They were OK, but too sweet for me.

Creamy Chicken & Pesto WW Pasta w/ Sun Dried Tomatoes

PREP : Depends on having pesto on hand.
TASTE : SUPER yummy!
REPEAT : Yes!


This is a successful trial at a personal dish. I will include the basic ingredients that I used, but I didn't measure as I made it. While it is a creamy pasta, and tastes very rich, I don't believe it was nearly as high in fat as a similar pasta would be in a restaurant. This is due to using fat-free evaporated milk for the majority of the cream. In addition, this dish took advantage of whole wheat penne pasta.

I began the dish because I had just made homemade pesto and I had some ingredients that needed to be used, like thawed chicken, lots of frozen chicken stock taking up space in the freezer and sun-dried tomatoes in olive oil. The recipe for the pesto was from Joy of Cooking and was pretty much a basic basil pesto recipe. Lots of fresh basil, garlic, pine nuts, parmesan cheese, salt and olive oil.

My ingredient list is not exact. It was a couple months ago that I made this and I am trying to remember the details. I'm also going to have to learn to measure better in the future so I can be more precise at logging personal recipes and recipe modifications.

2 T light olive or grapeseed oil
1 box whole wheat penne pasta
1/2 medium yellow or white onion, chopped
1-3 cloves of garlic (as desired), minced
2-3 T sun-dried tomatoes, chopped
4 c of chicken stock/chicken broth
2 T unbleached all-purpose flour
2 cans fat-free evaporated milk
1/2 c heavy cream (opt., though I think it gave the rich flavor while adding a relatively small amount of fat)


1. Cook whole wheat penne pasta to al dente (still a bit firm) . Drain and set aside.

2. Cook up the chicken breasts with just a little oil heated up in the dutch oven. The chicken was patted dry, seasoned with salt, pepper and probably some Canadian Steak Seasoning (a favorite blend that I get from Sam's Club). I cook chicken breasts with the lid on for the first few minutes to heat up the inside of the meat. Once the meat is no longer translucent I take the lid off to get each side browned up well. After the chicken rests for a few minutes, slice up, or cut into cubes, as preferred.

*TIP* It is important to keep an eye on the chicken while cooking. If it starts to brown and the oil/fat around the chicken are getting dark in the bottom of the pot, shift the chicken around to loosen and pick up the bits so that they don't burn.

3. Add a little drizzle of oil and add chopped onions and garlic (optional) and chopped up sun-dried tomatoes. (I used the kind packed in olive oil. ) Deglaze with the vegetables and little bit of oil over medium heat. Cook to tender yet firm.

4. Add 2 T flour and appx. a quarter cup of chicken stock. Cook for 2 minutes over medium-high heat. Begin to add stock and fat-free milk in turns (about a cup at a time) with the pesto. Continue heating and stirring. Add cream.

*TIP* Step 4 should take about 5 minutes or so. At this point the cream sauce should fill about half, or more, of a 5 quart pot. In my experience, WW pasta tends to soak up more liquid and requires a larger amount of sauce then other pastas. I like my pastas creamy and I like the sauce to be plentiful. If you do not, you may wish to adjust with smaller amounts of broth and cream/milk.

5. Stir in pasta and warm through. Add salt to taste.

If you try this recipe, please let me know how it goes. I plan to try again in the future and will update this post with any changes necessary.

ENJOY!

Tortilla Pie with Chicken, Everyday Food # 61, April 2009, p96

TASTE: Very Good
PREP: Easy
REPEAT : YES (D' said, "it's a keeper)

This mexican type lasagna includes corn tortillas (toasted), cooked shredded chicken, sour cream, gr. salsa, green chili's and Mont. Jack cheese. I wasn't up to making the salsa so I bought jarred green salsa and used it. I also had a Monterey Jack/Colby cheese blend. Mont Jack only or Jack and Cheddar would have been better. Since I forgot about the canned gr. chilies and didn't have any on hand I used anaheim's fresh from the garden and a jalepeno with no seeds. It wasn't hot at all.

Would try again with homemade green salsa and red salsa.

Tilapia Tostadas w/ Roasted Corn Relish, Cooking Light, Aug 2009, 114

TASTE: Very Good
PREP: Medium
REPEAT: Yes.

Liana didn't want to try this one but both her and Riley ate it all up. The older boys weren't around to try it. The recipe calls for the tilapia to be dredged in cornmeal but I didn't have it because I couldn't get it fresh. I refuse to buy it enriched on the shelves so I used pecans for the breading. They were in the freezer so I just threw some into a coffee grinder and ground them up. I added a little ground flour that was in the freezer with the ground pecans. It ended up being a great blend.

For tostadas I had some homemade whole wheat flour tortillas and some corn ones that I put in the broiler of the toaster oven. The recipe calls for tortillas sprayed with oil and toasted in the broiler. Layered with finely shredded cabbage, pan fried (in this case pecan crusted) tilapia chunks, roasted corn salsa (corn, red bell pepper, red onion, jalepeno and onion) mixed with avocado and lime juice. All of this is topped with sour cream mixed with salsa verde.

Overall it was a pretty easy dish to make and it looked like a dish you might get at a nice restaurant. Nice change of mexican fare for us and I will likely repeat this one.