Eat Skinny Be Skinny: GF Peanut Butter & Banana Ice Cream
PIN IT!Since it’s Monday morning, I’m assuming all of the celebrating/griping from last night’s game is all out of your system? I love football, I do, but as soon as the game is over, I’m onto the next thing. Which, in this house, means…
Valentine’s Day! For work, I’ve been spending the past few days working on some delicious (and adorable) heart shaped goodies! And, lucky for you, I have 5 days worth of cute, heart shaped treats and romantic inspired eats to inspire your Valentine’s Day! Starting tomorrow, it’s going to be all lovey and shizz on hurr.
But today? I’m sparing you my obsession with heart shaped goodies (I blame the 3 heart cake pans and cookie cutters I bought recently) and sharing something that is just plain good. Actually, not good, AMAZING, INCREDIBLE, FOOD-GASM inducing. And guess what? It’s easy and made from these delicious ingredients. [Plus, a few others].
So what do peanuts and bananas have to do with today’s dish? Well, everything!
This incredible skinny ice cream would be nothing without the amazing peanut butter and banana flavor! Made with reduced fat peanut butter, skim milk, light cream and soft, ripened bananas, this ice cream is not only incredible, it’s light! Each serving has less than 100 calories and 6 grams of fat.
Each bite has just the right balance of peanut butter and banana without being overpowering, and the texture? It’s creamy and has almost a custardy like finish. Smooth, sweet and oh-so-decadent, it’s impossible to tell it’s low-fat. Really. My friend Melanie was downright SHOCKED something so incredible, so delicious, so creamy and flavorful was low-fat and completely gluten-free!
I urge you to make this as soon as you possibly can. But I warn you. Once you make it (or any homemade ice cream for that matter), you will NEVER have the urge to buy the carton stuff again.
It’s like going from drinking Smirnoff to Grey Goose or Andre to Dom Perignon. And trust me, friends, downgrading from that is just plain wrong.
Skinny Peanut Butter & Banana Ice Cream
Serves about 7 – 8
Prep time: 10 minutes
Chill time: 2 – 8 hours
“Cook” time: 25 minutes
Ingredients:
- 1 cup reduced fat peanut butter
- 2 ripened bananas, chopped
- 1/4 cup white sugar
- 1/3 cup brown sugar
- 2 cups light cream
- 1 cup skim milk
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Directions:
- In a large bowl, beat peanut butter and sugars until creamy. Add milk and beat until sugar is completely dissolved. Add cream and vanilla and stir until combined. Add in chopped bananas. Cover with foil and chill for at least 2 hours, or overnight.
- Once mixture has chilled, pour into a FROZEN base of an ice cream maker. Turn ice cream maker on and let the machine stir/thicken the ice cream for at least 20 minutes. Once ice cream has reached desired consistency, scoop and enjoy! Immediately freeze after serving.
Nutritional information per 1/2 cup:
Calories: 95
Fat: 5 grams
Carbohydrates: 12 grams
Protein: 6 grams
Fiber: 2 grams
Weight Watchers Points Plus points: 3
Fast Food Friday: Skinny Szechuan Chicken with Noodles
HAPPY FRIDAY!! Have you joined in on the fun of Fast Food Fridays yet? Well do it!
How is everyone’s day going so far? I’ll be honest, I’m in a FABULOUS mood and this is awesome, given the two mental breakdowns I had earlier this week. Let’s just say this…the time of the month is not conducive to healthy emotional behavior, mmk? However, I’m proud that instead of eating Papa Johns pizza and a gallon of ice cream (which I’ve…um…never done), I made a super healthy version of one of my FAVORITE Chinese foods, szechuan chicken!
It satisfied my craving for something salty without adding unwanted weight and guilt (which inevidently turns to massive tears during said 4 days).
Okay, so maybe it’s not EXACTLY szechuan chicken, it’s what happens when szechaun chicken and lo-mein have a baby. You get the deliciously seasoned chicken and broccoli slaw of szechuan and the perfectly cooked rice noodles of lo-mein. The best of both worlds. Life is always better that way.
I love this stuff. I don’t love that we don’t have ANY LEFT. We ate…shamelessly…that whole pot in 2 days.
There might have even been some fork-to-pot action while I was “putting away the leftovers.” I put that in quotations because for each spoonful I put into the Tupperware, I ate about 1.5. Not an ideal ratio for someone trying to tone up and get rid of the middle jiggle.
But, in my defense, one heaping cup has only 7 grams of fat and 7 Weight Watchers Points Plus points. Which, in the realm of Chinese food you order in boxes, ain’t bad at all.
Make this over the weekend, or for the Super Bowl, for a healthier taste of your favorite Chinese food. (And so much better because you aren’t bogged down with those silly things known as MSG or massive sodium).
Adapted from Weight Watchers.
Szechuan Chicken with Rice Noodles
CLICK HERE FOR THE PRINTABLE VERSION OF THIS RECIPE
Serves about 5
Prep time: >10 minutes
Cook time: 10 minutes
Ingredients:
- 2 7 ounce boneless skinless chicken breasts, cut into skinny strips
- 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
- 1 onion, chopped
- 1 red bell pepper, chopped
- 4 garlic cloves, minced
- 10 ounces of broccoli slaw
- 1 t teaspoon crushed red pepper
- 4 ounces rice noodles
- 2 tablespoons reduce sodium soy sauce
- 1 tablespoon hot pepper paste (like this)
Directions:
- Remove rice noodles from package and place in hot water. This will loosen them up. Set aside.
- Heat 1 tablespoon oil in a large nonstick wok on medium high heat. Add onions and cook until softened, about 3 minutes. Add chicken and bell pepper and cook until chicken is fully done, about 7 minutes. Remove from pot.
- Heat second tablespoon of oil in the same wok. Add broccoli slaw and cook until tender and a bit crispy, about 5 minutes.
- Add pepper flakes and pepper spread and heat another minute longer. Add chicken and veggies back to pot, along with the cooked rice noodles and sodium sauce, and heat for another 2 minutes, or until mixture is fully combined.
- Serve with additional crushed red pepper to taste and enjoy!
Who needs takeout when you can make much better food at home?
Nutritional information per 1 cup:
Calories: 275
Fat: 7 grams
Carbohydrates: 27 grams
Dietary fiber: 6 grams
Protein: 25 grams
Weight Watches Points Plus: 7
Eat Skinny Be Skinny: Vegan Double Chocolate Chip Cookies
Happy Groundhog Day, friends!
I know, it’s not a real holiday but I like it anyway. As a kid, I would get abnormally excited for Groundhog Day. For one, the elementary school I went to always did it big. We had decorations, the moms brought in groundhog shaped cookies and we’d count down to see if Phil would predict 6 more weeks of winter (which I always wanted for snow day purposes) or an early spring. Then (when we were old enough) we got to watch the movie with Bill Murray BEFORE we had to do our homework. It was awesome.
Times are a little different now, of course. But, I’m still holding onto the kid in me by watching Groundhog Day while I work and eating cookies for breakfast. I know…what a rebel I am. Except, instead of groundhog shape cookies, I’m eating these skinny [AND VEGAN] double chocolate cookies.
No relation to Groundhog Day, but still absolutely delicious. They were thin with a bit of a crispy edge, but such a delicious soft and gooey inside. The perfect cookie made with absolutely NO dairy.
Not a bad way to celebrate any day, better yet Groundhog! My favorite thing about these cookies is how thin they are! I’m a huge fan of thin, crispy cookies. I’d much prefer this kind over the huge, thick, chunky kind any day. Plus, the thinner & smaller, the more you can have, right?!
I know, I’m a completely hopeless case. However, you should all be proud. I’ve only had ONE cookie today. And….a heaping spoonful of cookie dough last night but that’s neither here nor there. But I mean, look at these beautiful cookies, do you blame me?
I didn’t think so. Now, go enjoy Groundhog Day and enjoy a batch of these, STAT! Or, just make them regardless of your preference for furry weather predictin’ rodents.
Recipe adapted from Oh She Glows.
Vegan Double Chocolate Chip Cookies
Yields: About 4 1/2 dozen cookies
Prep time: >10 minutes
Cook time: About 9 minutes
Ingredients:
- 1/2 cup Earth Balance
- 1 cup unbleached flour
- 1/2 cup packed brown sugar
- 1/3 cup raw sugar
- 1 “egg” (2 tablespoons water + 1 tablespoon organic oil + 2 teaspoons baking powder)*
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon sea salt
- 2 heaping tablespoons of unsweetened cocoa powder
- 1/2 – 3/4 cup vegan chocolate chips (like these!)
Directions:
- Using a handheld mixer, beat Earth Balance until soft and fluffy. Add sugar and beat until creamed. Beat in the “egg” mixture and vanilla. In another bowl, sift flour, baking soda, salt and cocoa powder together. Add to the Earth Balance mixture. Mix in chocolate chips.
- Chill in a refrigerator for at least 2 hours. *
- Preheat oven to 350F. Line a cookie sheet with foil and spray with nonstick cooking spray. Using a teaspoon, spoon cookie dough onto the baking sheet and spread about 1/2 inch apart. Bake for about 9 minutes. Let cool on the sheet for 5 minutes then transfer to a wire cooling rack.
*For perfect cookies, place the dough in the fridge in between using it. This will keep the cookies from flattening.
*I didn’t have flax seed, so I looked up a different egg substitute for this cookies on PETA’s website. For additional alternatives, look here!
Serve with soy milk and enjoy! Just don’t say I didn’t warn you that these are addictive because they are. I recommend hiding them somewhere unreachable after you’ve had one.
Nutritional information per cookie: About 135 calories, 7 grams of fat, 19 grams of carbohydrates, 2 grams of fiber, >1 gram of protein and 4 Weight Watchers Points Plus points.
Eat Skinny Super Bowl Edition: Chunky Chicken Chili
Hi friends! Before we begin with chunky, chunky, CHUNKY delicious chili (it needed three chunky’s, you’ll see why) I have to first say one big thing.
[via Tiny Prints]
THANK YOU for making January the BEST month for my blog, by multiple thousands of views. I had a really rough day yesterday (a big thank you again to Kelly for listening) so seeing those numbers today really just validated everything. Plus, just having amazing friends I met solely through blogging and amazing fans (love every single one of you!) just makes every second I do this totally worth it. We birds of a featha gotta stick togetha, ya know? 🙂
Now, onto chunky, chunky deliciousness.
Told you, chunky! Luckily the only chunks are in the soup and NOT on my waistline, thanks to the healthy addition of white beans, the use of low-sodium organic chicken broth and the lean chicken breast. I love me a nice chunky soup, just not a chunky tummy.
Begin I dig into how delicious this chili is, I must first regale you with a slightly humorous story. I took these photographs this morning. For one, the lighting is RAD in the morning at my house and two, it wasn’t done stewing it’s magic until after we returned home from the gym last night at 7pm. So, in hopes to create a great shot, I poured a beer to accompany the chili in the photo. It is Super Bowl themed, after all.
Well, as I was busy snapping photos, my neighbors (who are wonderful elderly folk trying to sell their home) step out of their house to great someone. I look up? It’s their realtor and a nice little family, complete with an infant and 5 year old in tow.
And, there I was, just taking photos of beer and chili at 9:30 am. Their faces said enough. I shuffled back inside, with a big D for town drunk imprinted on my head. I wanted to say “Oh, this isn’t what it looks like, I’m just staging a photo for my blog!” But, the damage was done. I fear my neighbors may never sell their house. But one good thing did come out of this…
I got some pretty good pictures of the chili! Regardless of my embarrassment, this chili is a MUST-MAKE for Super Bowl Sunday. It’s warm, savory, comforting and has just the right kick of spice from the addition of crushed red pepper. Paired with an ice cold beer (at a time later than 9 am) and crusty bread, and you have the PERFECT main course for game day.
Plus, this dish requires minimal effort, since all work is being done by Sir Crock-pot. Oh, and because it’s healthy, you won’t feel chunky eating it. And that’s what we call a touchdown in cooking.
Okay, I’m done.
Chunky Chicken Chili
Serves about 5
Prep time: 15 – 20 minutes
Cook time: About 8 hours on low, 4 hours on high
Ingredients:
- About 1 pound of boneless, skinless chicken breasts
- 2 cans of white beans, drained and rinsed
- 1 can (14.5 oz) of diced tomatoes
- 2 cups of organic, low sodium chicken broth
- 1 medium onion, chopped
- 3 medium carrots, chopped
- 3 garlic cloves, chopped
- 1 bay leaf
- 1 tablespoon parsley
- 1 1/2 tablespoons crushed red pepper
- 1 tablespoon basil
- Liberal dashes of salt and pepper
Directions:
- Put chicken in a 4 quart crock pot. Pour broth, beans, tomatoes, onion, carrot, garlic and all herbs over chicken. Add dashes of salt and pepper.
- Set on low and cook for about 7 hours. Once chicken is done, remove from crock pot and shred with two forks in a separate bowl. Add chicken back to the vegetable mixture and cook an additional hour so chicken soaks up the flavor. Serve with crusty bread and beer and enjoy!
Oh, and if you wanted to have a beer at 9am, I wouldn’t judge you. Just sayin’ 🙂
Nutritional information per cup: 220 calories, 6 grams of fat, 24 grams of carbohydrates, 7 grams of dietary fiber, 28 grams of protein and 6 Weight Watchers Points Plus points.
Eat Skinny Super Bowl Edition: Fruit & Brie Canapés
Psst…have you checked out Kelly’s skinny snack roundup? Be sure to peep over there for more skinny Super Bowl ideas!
I’m on a big fruit and cheese binge lately. Even though I have a fridge, freezer and pantry full of goodies, I keep going for the cheese-fruit combo. I think it’s party due to the fact that I have a full drawer of cheeses and stumbled up a bag of apples. If you hate fruit and cheese, don’t worry, I have full intentions of blogging about something outside of the dairy fruit realm tomorrow.
But today? You’re stuck with these canapés.
And, I’ll be honest, I can think of far worse things to be stuck with. Fruit piled on soft, creamy brie on a crispy slice of French bread. Really, there are few things BETTER than that.
It’s like a bite size dessert BEFORE the main meal. I’m a dessert first kind of person anyway, so this can easily be “passed off” as an appetizer. No more judging glances for you, my friends.
In addition to be delicious, these canapés (which is just a fancy way of saying “open face sandwich”) are super light too, with less than 150 calories and 7 grams of fat per cheesy, sweet and gooey bite.
These canapés (I feel oh so fancy when I say that) are perfectly paired with crisp white wine or sparkling champagne.
Oh and by Super Bowl snack, I meant snack to enjoy with your white wine while watching Lifetime on your other TV because you don’t care about football. Enjoy!
Skinny Fruit & Brie Canapés
Servings: 14 canapés
Prep time: 15 minutes
Cook time: About 8 minutes
Ingredients:
Raspberry canapés:
- 7 thin slices of French bread
- 1/4 8 ounce wheel of Brie cheese, sliced and then cut into chunks
- 4 1/2 – 5 1/2 teaspoons sugar-free raspberry preserves
- 7 slices thinly sliced French bread
- 1/4 8 ounce wheel of brie, sliced and then cut into chunks
- 3/4 tart Granny Smith apple, thinly sliced
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- 1 tablespoon melted butter
- 1 tablespoon brown sugar
Directions:
- Preheat oven to 375F. Grease a baking dish with cooking spray. Assemble your ingredients.
- To make the raspberry canapés, place one chunk of cheese on a slice of bread.
- Top with about 1/2 teaspoon (more if you’d prefer) of raspberry preserves. Place fruit and bread in the baking dish and bake for at least 8 minutes, or until bread is crispy and cheese is melted.
- To make the apple canapés: bake remaining bread slices at 375F for 10 minutes, or until bread is crispy. Mix the apple slices, melted butter, brown sugar and cinnamon in a greased baking dish. Bake at 375F for 15 minutes, or until apples are soft.
- Working quick while apples are hot, place 1 – 2 slices of apple on top of cheese topped bread. Let sit for 5 minutes. [Note, the cheese will begin to melt under the apple]. If you’d prefer more melted cheese, bake for 2 -3 minutes.
Nutritional information per raspberry canapé: 120 calories, 6.5 grams of fat, 10 grams of carbohydrates, 3 grams of protein, 0 grams of fiber and 4 Weight Watchers points.
Nutritional information per apple canapé: 140 calories, 6.8 grams of fat, 16 grams of carbohydrates, 1 gram of dietary fiber and 4 Weight Watchers points.
