Tuscan Lemon Muffins ~ Light & Airy

Keeping in line with our new lighter and "better for us" menu, I subscribed to Cooking Light and was so pleased to find this recipe in their latest edition.  Muffins are super great for us with hubby being up and at 'em so early in the A.M. for the Army.  He can grab one, a glass of milk and a piece of fruit and he's ready to go.  So when I found a lemon muffin that was moist, tender and in the end good for you, I had to make them.  It was a no-brainer.

These muffins roll in at only 186 calories with 6.2 grams of fat.  Not bad!  And it uses part skim ricotta and heart healthy olive oil.  It is has a wonderful, light taste thanks to its lemon rind and fresh squeezed juice.  Crispy on top, tender in the middle - it became the perfect breakfast muffin in our house. Best part is, your family will never be able to tell these are "healthy" or "light".  They are seriously THAT delicious.   Hope you enjoy them as much as we did.  Here's to keeping it light and healthy!  *cheers*

Lighter Spicy & Creamy Chicken Enchiladas

Wow has it been awhile!  Its also been 12 pounds, 3 inches off my waist, 2 inches off my thighs and 1 inches off my arms ago!  YAY to healthier eating and exercising!  I thought I would start posting again....this time using some lighter fare for those of you who are battling the bulge like me!

One thing I thought about diet food - it was generally pretty yucky.  Reduced fat or low fat can be bland, rice noodles can get gloopy (it's a word - promise!) and skim milk is just like drinking badly flavored water.  I am NOT a diet foodie.  However, if you disguise diet food with spicy ingredients - it's winner.  I am not a fan of reduced fat cheese.  I think it had less flavor BUT in this format, it works really well, especially since cheese isn't the main flavor.  It's subtlety is nice and lends to the creamy, cheesy texture you're after.

I wouldn't dare call this diet food - as it does use a canned soup mix but it is LIGHTER than what I would normally make and I used reduced fat sour cream (you could even use Greek yogurt here instead), brown rice, white breast meat, low carb whole grain tortilla shells and reduced fat cheeses.  This in itself has been the mainstay of my diet - changing up what I can, when I can.  Making better choices where I can without sacrificing taste or texture.  Let's face it - if you can't bear to eat lighter foods because of the way they taste, you're going to turn to bad things to eat instead.

I hope you enjoy these ..we have them about once a week now.  They're amazingly good, cheesy, creamy, spicy and lighter than normal.  Perfect on all accounts.

Dark Chocolate Expresso Brownies w/ Almond Vanilla Bean Buttercream

Swirls of buttercream are good!

Yeaaa...this is how I re-cooperate from my little spill down the stairs!  Gimme chocolate and I'm good to go!  I'm doing MUCH better today, thank you all for your emails and messages.  I think I'm just badly bruised in my nether regions but I'll survive.  THIS was what I had planned for Monday to bake and share with ya'll but since I was laying on my back all day in bed, it didn't happen.  Let me introduce you to this sassy gem of a creation.

Awhile ago, on Tasty Kitchen, I stumbled upon a dark chocolate brownie recipe that blew my mind.  I am such a fan of dark chocolate so this just had to be made.  When you mix it up, the batter is near pitch black!  If you follow me on Facebook, I posted that I had made these and kinda left it at that.  But since then, I seriously make these every other week like clockwork.  They are so rich and sinful, it should be a crime...and I'm so willing to do the time for them.  (on the treadmill that is!)  Then, I had a King Arthur Flour cake recipe that called for expresso powder and it ramped the chocolate flavor to the heavens.  I put two + two together and added the expresso powder to this brownie batter and OMG.  Just OMG.  Not only do you get this thick, dark brownie with this deep, rich accent flavor but then you have molten pockets of chocolatey goo that just melt in your mouth too. 

And yet...that wasn't enough obviously.

Sweet & Spicy "Picnic" Chili

Forgive me for not using my own actual image but this morning I had a tremendous fall down 8 stairs or so trying to dodge a leg weaving cat and have severely wrenched my back, shoulder and wrist all wonky now.  I'm currently flat on my back in bed on my laptop.  I wrote this last night, thinking I'd get up, make it, shoot pics of it and post but that didn't happen per my slide on my butt down the stairs.   Hoping to be up and around tomorrow some...but wanted to give you all something today.  See you tomorrow hopefully.... *fingers crossed*

Since the last of the cool evenings seem inevitably upon us here in Georgia, I was wanting to pull out my chili one more time before its time for lighter spring fare.  Called "Picnic Chili" when I was given the recipe eons ago by a lovely, long lost internet forum friend, I was so intrigued by the ingredient list, not to mention the name that I immediately had to try it.  It has since become the ONLY chili my hubby will eat and has forever proclaimed it his absolute, dead favorite chili on the planet.  I'm not far behind him on praises but for different reasons.  For me, I think its great because its so dang easy to make with all the canned beans and condiments!  I am convinced that's where the "picnic" term came into play.  You simply brown your beef and then drop it all in a crock pot and let it go.  Its so simple but tastes like you've been working hard at it all day long in the kitchen. 

Yummy Sugar Free Dream Pudding Pie

Hate indoor lighting right now!  lol

Now, I know pudding pies are not anything new to the scene and neither is using Dream Whip but just stick with me a minute.  I started making this pie in a sugar free version for my diabetic boyfriend eons ago and just recently, I made another one for the Army lab here on base.  They have 4 diabetic lab techs there and I had sent a huge cake for a celebration for another solider and I felt bad for those 4 that couldn't indulge with everyone else.  How awful to nosh on a carrot stick when everyone else is eating Death By Chocolate cake?  There is just no comparison.  So I sent it along with the cake and don't you know, the pie was gone FIRST.  When they heard it was sugar free, they went nuts.  We figured it up once and at 21 grams of sugar for the whole entire pie (divide that by 9 slices), that is a relatively low dose of sugar AND its milk sugars and not processed cane sugars, which your body processes differently.  One soldier said "I've tried like every thing sugar free out there but this was the best sugar free dessert I have ever eaten."