I had a craving for my moms Date Bran Muffins, pregnancy has played some mean tricks on me. Ive been craving some really bad stuff (poutine for one- if you arent Canadian that is french fries topped with fresh cheese curds smothered in super hot gravy) so Ive been trying to find lower fat versions of my cravings. Im still dying for some Brie cheese, but thats just a no no in pregnancy. Itll have to wait till this baby is born.
Anyhow onto the awesome recipe!!
- 1 1/2 cups wheat bran
- 1 cup skim milk+ 1tbs of lemon juice
- 1/3 cup apple sauce
- 1 egg (or two egg whites)
- 2/3 cup brown sugar
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 cup all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1 cup chopped dates or raisins
Preheat oven to 375F
Mix up your skim milk and lemon juice and then add the bran. Let this sit for about ten minutes to get the bran softened. Beat together apple sauce,eggs, sugar and vanilla into your skim milk/lemon juice/bran mixture. Sift together your dry ingredients and then stir your dry ingredients into the wet ingredients until just blended and fold in your raisens or dates.
Bake in prepared muffin tin for about 15 minutes. This will make about a dozen. Check their doneness with a toothpick before pulling out of the oven.
Since becoming pregnant I havent been up to a lot of cooking. Morning sickness has hit me pretty hard, but my boys were asking for chicken nuggets yesterday, well we didnt have any, we generally dont keep those on hand so I pulled out my moms old chicken fingers recipe. I havent made it in ages and its not exactly low fat so I made a couple changes, here is my version- they really are awesome!!
3-5 chicken breasts cut into strips (I cut the strips in half so they are easier to handle for my boys, this way they are more ‘nugget like’ as well)
1 roll fat free saltine crackers
1/4c flour
2TBS seasoning salt (you can use less if you prefer)
1tbs garlic powder
1tbs onion powder
1/2 tsp pepper
1tbs poultry seasoning
2tbs oregano
egg whites for dipping strips
crush the crackers and mix all dry ingredients together. Coat the chicken strips in egg and then coat in the cracker mix, next place in a hot non stick skillet that has had a quick spray of oil. My moms recipe called for these chicken strips to be browned in oil and then drained. Totally not needed! These turned out great. I put the lid on for a few minutes while the strips are browning so the condensation moistens the cracker mix on the chicken. Once all are browned place in the oven at 350 until they are done. I cut my strips pretty thin so I generally only have to stick them in the oven for 10 or so minutes. Just cut a couple in half and check for doneness.
We enjoy these chicken strips with a fantastic dipping sauce. But its not low fat. I have made a fat free version and it was so runny, it just wasnt right. This was my big fat splurge- I just dump the ingredients together, I dont even have a recipe for it but Ill try- a couple tbs of mayonaise- remember fat free will not give good results. about a quarter as much honey as mayo and lots of dill. stir together. Ive made very sweet versions of this to very creamy versions, always with lots of dill. Next time I make this I will have to remember to measure!
Ive been craving steak for a few days so I finally broke down and got a nice marinade going and started trying to think about what to make to accompany it. I needed a couple veggies and maybe a dessert. I started rummaging through my cupboard and a can of lite peaches kept coming to the front. Ah hell…last thing I really need is a sugary fatty dessert. So I started playing with a peach cobbler recipe and came up with this- and its fabulous! My kids LOVED it, they both ate their dinner and then had some of this as dessert and asked for seconds AND asked for it at snack.
Ingredients for Filling1/3 cup packed brown sugar
1 tablespoon cornstarch
1/4 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
1/2 cup juice from lite peaches- you may need to add a little water to make it a half cup
1 regular can lite sliced peaches - make this two for more peaches! I only had the single can and the peaches were pretty sparse, eventhough it tasted fantastic!
Cooking Directions for FillingCombine brown sugar, cornstarch, and pumpkin pie spice in a microwave safe caserole dish or 8×8 glass baking dish. Stir in water. Cook, uncovered, at HIGH power for 1 minute, stirring midway, until mixture has thickend. Add peaches; heat again, covered, at HIGH power for 3-4 minutes, until its bubbly.
Ingredients for Topping
1/4 cup skim milk
2/3 cup flour
1/3 cup quick oats
1/3 cup sugar * feel free to omit this!
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 cup fat free yogurt
Mix dry ingredients together. Add yogurt and milk at the same time and stir until just blended. Pour over the hot fruit and bake at 350 degrees until golden.
OPTIONAL:
Combine 2tsp sugar and and 1/2 tsp cinnamon and sprinkle over the cobbler before baking.
This turns out nice and light and fluffy. Its pretty sweet- any of the sugar could be omitted. The lite peaches I use are in pear juice, so it is very sweet already.
My Dad and Step Mom sent me a great soup recipe the other day. Of course I had to go out and get the ingredients for it! It was based on a recipe for Weight Watchers 0 point soup.
4 cans fat free chicken broth
2 cans Italian stewed tomatoes
1 small can tomato sauce
14oz pureed squash
1 zucchini
6 carrots
3 stalks celery
half a sweet onion
1 can of corn- drained
1 cup of frozen peas
1 cup frozen green beans
1 cup uncooked pasta
salt, pepper, oregano, basil to taste
let everything simmer until just about cooked then throw in the pasta and let it simmer. The broth is really rich and yummy because of the tomato sauce and squash puree. I found the squash puree in the frozen veggie section at Safeway. It was beside the frozen spinach. Of course you can add more veggies or less if you chose, this is just a nice basic tastey soup! Yum!
I love McDonalds McGriddles. When they are fresh they are just mouth watering!! But they are really high in fat! A Cheese and egg McGriddle is 360 calories and has 16g of fat (40% calories from fat) a bacon egg and cheese is 460 calories and has 21 grams of fat, which is 41% calories from fat. Thats pretty steep. So I made my own-
two small low fat pancakes made with Krustease pancake mix (just add water) 1.5g of fat 158 calories
two egg whites -.1g of fat 34 calories
three thin slices of ham-cooked on the griddle-this is just lunch meat, 1g of fat per serving 60 calories
1 slice of fat free cheese-.2g of fat 31 calories
Lite syrup-1/8 cup (I dont measure, but thats pretty liberal)- 50 calories
total calories:333 calories- no thats not a huge calorie reduction but this is more food!! and only 2.8grams of fat!! That is 7.5% calories from fat!!! What a fantastic reduction from 40%! And its filling and satisfying. I know I can eat more than one McGriddle but eating more than one of these would absolutly stuff me far beyond comfort. A glass of V8 with this and YUM! A great way to start the day with lean protein (meat, cheese, eggs), carbs (pancakes,lite syrup) and just a smidge of fat.