Crock Pot Chicken Wings
PIN IT!AHOY there mateys! Don’t ask me why I’m greeting you in pirate speak, just roll with it. If you’re new to this here bloggy, first of all WELCOME! Second of all, check out day one and day two of skinny tailgate week to get caught up! REMEMBER to also link up your favorite skinny snack in the bottom of this post!
Now, today’s recipe is as iconic to the football game as the football. I mean, can you really watch the game without chicken wings? But these aren’t just any ol’ wings. These crock pot chicken wings have half the fat as the fried kind!
Chicken wings have probably the worst rap of any foods. People shy away from them because they are “loaded with fat and calories.” Which is right, given how most of them are prepared; breaded and deep fried. However, chicken wings themselves are REALLY low fat and light in calories. One drumette (small drumstick) with skin and bone has just 55 calories and 3.5 grams of fat. Then you add the breading, the oil and the high sugared buffalo sauce and you are up to 103 calories and 7 grams of fat. Friends, that’s wack. Have your wings and still button your pants by preparing them a different way.
Like, in a crock pot! I know, I bet you are all just shocked by this revelation. Before you write me off as a crazy crock pot lady, let me share some facts. For one, these are the best wings I’ve ever had.
Two, they literally fall off the bone and melt in your mouth. The chicken is so moist and tender it’s like you’re eating a pot roast. Third, a serving of these (about 3 wings) has 220 calories and about 9.5 grams of fat, sauce and all! Sure beats the fried 310 calories and 21 grams of fat, right?
If you want the crispiness you get with a fried chicken wing, by all means, fry each one in a little oil. I personally loved the saucy, fall off the bone quality of these. Just be sure to pack TONS OF napkins. Or just get to tipsy on mimosas you don’t notice sauce all over your shirt. Which is obviously my plan of attack.
For the delicious recipe, check it out here on She Knows!
Nutritional information per serving (3 wings):
Calories: 220
Fat: 9.5 grams
Carbohydrates: 9 grams
Fiber: 1.5 grams
Protein: 15 grams
Weight Watchers Points: 5
Low-fat Bellini Bars
Welcome to day two of Skinny Tailgate Week, where I’m giving you goodies you can eat while still wearing your favorite skinny jeans. REMEMBER to link up your favorite skinny tailgate snacks below!
Friends, I’ve never been MORE excited to share a recipe with you than I am now. These low-fat bellini bars are not only my favorite dessert made TO DATE, but they are one of the healthiest too! These are the perfect bars to bring to early tailgates for a quick boozy breakfast bite and they pair fabulously with champagne 🙂 I know, what the what, how on earth could these gooey, decadent little squares be healthy. (Because there’s no way you can question the validity of how delicious they taste). But guess what, THEY ARE (healthy & delightful).
See, these bars only have 3 1/2 tablespoons of butter in them. TOTAL. In that whole luscious looking square. And not a shred of oil. So, I bet you’re wondering, “well then smart ass, how did you make the crust? and how does it not taste like cardboard?” Fair wonder, dear friends.
And no, I didn’t use black magic or Voodoo, although that would make me an infinitely more interesting blogger. I just used my go-to swap for everything, APPLESAUCE! Now, this is the first time I’ve gone all sauce in a crust before. For fear it would turn out gunky or chewy. Well, guess what, neither happened. The crust came out perfectly. A little flaky and crumbly with the perfect amount of chew.
I bet you’re curious where the name bellini came from, too. See, I really wanted a mimosa on Sunday. But my friend Barb (Creative Culinary) urged me to try her fresh peach bellinis instead. As soon as I saw the photo, my head went from “must drink” to “must find a way to make that edible.” Obviously I’m not well. Either way, that drink turned into THESE bars made with nectarines that were soaked in a bath made of champagne. (Lucky fruit!) Then, after they were placed on the crust before being baked, I drizzled a little more champagne on top, just in case they weren’t boozy enough.
Bring these to your next tailgate. Even if it’s just a bunch of sweaty, sweat-pants wearing guys with Doritos stains on their t-shirts. Give them one, watch them studiously stare at it in utter confusion and drunkly swallow it up. Then watch as their eyes light up in pure bliss once they realize “hey, that fruit sh*& tastes good!” It’s a win win for everyone, I promise.
Low-fat Bellini Bars
CLICK HERE FOR THE PRINTABLE VERSION OF THIS RECIPE!
Prep time: an hour
Cook time: 45 minutes
Yields about 16 bars.
Ingredients:
For the crust:
- 1 cup whole wheat flour
- 1 cup all-purpose flour
- 3/4 cup unsweetened applesauce
- 1/4 cup sugar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
For the filling:
- 3 1/2 medium nectarines or peaches, thinly sliced
- 1/2 cup champagne
- 1 tablespoon powdered sugar
For the topping:
- 3 1/2 tablespoons unsalted butter, cold and cut up
- 1/2 cup whole wheat flour
- 1/4 cup brown sugar
- 1/4 cup chopped walnuts
Directions:
- Prepare filling by placing nectarines, champagne and sugar in a medium bowl. Mix up well. Cover and chill for at least an hour (longer if you can).
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease an 8 x 8 glass pan with nonstick cooking spray. Set aside.
- In a medium bowl, mix together the whole wheat flour, all-purpose flour, applesauce, vanilla and sugar until fully combined. (Mixture will be crumbly, that’s good!) Pour mixture into the bottom of the greased baking dish and press it in using a spatula.
- Remove filling from the refrigerator. Using a slated spoon, scoop fruit out of the bowl and place them onto the crust. Drizzle about 2 – 4 tablespoons of the champagne juice over the apricots.
- Prepare topping by mixing the flour and brown sugar together. Using a pastry cutter or two knives, cut butter into the flour/sugar until mixture appears very crumbly (like coarse sand). Stir in walnuts. Sprinkle topping over the fruit until they are fully covered.
- Bake for about 40 – 45 minutes, or until golden brown and fruit is crumbly. Wait until the bars cool completely before you cut.
Nutritional information per bar:
Calories: 161
Fat: 3.8 grams
Carbohydrates: 28 grams
Fiber: 1.6 grams
Protein: 2.5 grams
Weight Watchers Points: 4
Red Cabbage Slaw Salad
Welcome friends and fans to the first annual…
I’m talking game day foods (and drinks, of course) all week so you can stay svelte while you watch your favorite team. All week I’ll be featuring low-fat, healthy snacks and meals you make while you tailgate. Plus, starting tomorrow, I’m going to have a link up so you can show off your favorite skinny football snacks too! Then, I’m concluding Friday with a round-up of all this week’s skinny snacks AND featuring a little football inspired giveaway for your faces! So let’s kick this week off right with a red cabbage slaw salad!
Salads are a MUST-HAVE for me on game days. For one, you need some green (or in this case, purple) to offset the wings and chips. Secondly, I just love salads. They are fresh, crunchy and I always feel so good when I eat them. But the same ol’ garden lettuce with tomatoes and cukes can get super boring. So, I decided to whip up a crunchy slaw with some fabulous toppings.
As much as I love traditional slaw salads loaded with mayo, they aren’t exactly healthy. Or low-fat. Or really good for you at all. So in place of mayo, I subbed a tangy and sweet lemon vinaigrette. Which, guys, is so good I wanted to drink it. I know, it’s a salad dressing Claire, get it together.
Besides the aforementioned dressing, my second favorite part of this salad has to be the fresh bites of mozzarella, the tart apple and slightly tangy pieces of artichoke hearts. The pairing sounds weird but mixed with the crisp crunch of the slaw, it’s absolutely heavenly.
This salad is PERFECT for your tailgate because it’s light (so you have more room for beer, duh) and even the menfolk will gobble it up (my husband was eating it with a fork directly from the serving bowl). That’s a win for the home team baby! (I had to).
FOR THE DELICIOUS RECIPE, head on over HERE and grab it on She Knows!
Nutritional information per serving (salad serves about 5):
Calories: 170
Fat: 9 grams
Carbohydrates: 9.2 grams
Fiber: 2 grams
Protein: 5.8 grams
Weight Watchers Points: 4
Claire
Tags:cabbage recipes, healthy recipes, lemon vinaigrette recipes, low fat dressing recipes, tailgate recipes
Vegetarian Chunky Pumpkin Chili
This is probably the most highly anticipated recipe I’ve ever put on my blog.
As soon as I snapped a photo of this hearty bowl on instagram, I got tons of requests (and even some begs) for the recipe. I guess peeps really like their chili?
Despite it’s pension for not being photographic at all (ugly chili, you’ll never be a model), this is probably one of my favorite chili recipes to date. And if you’ve been reading for a while (THANK YOU!) or just since yesterday, you can probably deduct why. PUMPKIN. The thick, creamy texture of the pureed pumpkin gave this chili an extra thickness that you crave with a chunky chili, am I right?
I paired these adorable little bowls (which I did NOT eat three of, no-sir-ee-bob) with bite size mini corn muffins. Because you can’t just have one mini thing for dinner, you need two! And really, how stinkin’ cute? My husband felt a wee little less than a man eating hearty chili out of a dainty bowl with a mini muffin, but oh well. It makes cuter food photos!
For these delicious mini muffins, I used my rosemary cheddar recipe as a base. Then, just swapped out cheddar for Parmesan and rosemary for basil and made them tiny! Really, that’s it! They are delectable on their own, but taste the best when crumbled on top of the pumpkin chili.
Now, what makes this chili extra chunky is the addition of the Gimme Lean ground meat substitute. It sounds gross, but trust me, it’s so good. It’s not ground beef, that’s for sure, but it has the same hearty texture you absolutely love in chili. I love all bean chili but it just doesn’t hold a flame to “chunky, meaty” chili. Oh, and um, IT’S FAT FREE. Yep, the entire 14 ounce container blob is devoid of ALL FAT. Which means each serving of this decadent chili has a MERE 3 grams of fat while still packing over 10 grams of protein. I know, YOUR MIND IS BLOWN.
So, I hope the chili lived up to it’s anticipation and you love it so much you want to take it out to dinner. Or marry it. Or shower it with flowers and gifts. Because that’s what a chili of this awesomeness (I didn’t sleep last night) deserves. Roger and out, I’m going to bed.
Chunky Vegetarian Pumpkin Chili
Serves about 10 People. Recipe adapted from Taste of Home.
Ingredients:
- 3 small shallots, chopped
- 4 cloves garlic, sliced
- 1/2 cup chopped mushrooms
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 2 3/4 cups vegetable broth
- 1/4 cup dry red wine
- 30 ounces (2 cans) black beans, drained and rinsed
- 14 ounces gimme lean beef style
- 15 (1 can) ounces pumpkin
- 1 can (14-1/2 ounces) diced tomatoes, not drained
- 1 tablespoon chili powder
- 2 tablespoons Italian seasoning
- Liberal dashes of salt and pepper
Directions:
- Heat oil in a large pan. Add shallots, garlic and mushrooms. Cook until fragrant and soft, about 4 minutes. Remove from heat and pour into the basin of a crock pot.
- Add vegetarian beef and break up with a spatula. Pour in broth, wine, black beans, diced tomatoes and pumpkin. Stir to mix up the ingredients. Sprinkle in salt, pepper, chili powder and Italian seasoning.
- Set the crock pot to low and cook for 6 – 8 hours. Serve with cornbread or your favorite bread and enjoy!
Nutritional information per 1/2 cup serving and 1 mini muffin:
Calories: 177.7
Fat: 3 grams
Carbohydrates: 29.2 grams
Fiber: 3.5 grams
Protein: 11.7 grams
Weight Watchers Points: 5
Whole Wheat Pumpkin Coffee Cake Bread
SURPRISE!! Today’s recipe d’jour has absolutely nothing to do with a crock pot! Are you shocked? In utter disbelief? Need a moment to make sure you read that right? I’ll repeat it, don’t worry. Today’s whole wheat pumpkin coffee cake bread has never and will never touch, look at it or hang out with the crock-pot.
The crock-pot and I are not fighting nor did we break up, we just…realized we need to slow it down. We’re moving way too fast and the only appliances are starting to get REALLY jealous. I hear them plotting my demise when I’m in the kitchen. So, to reassure them they haven’t been replaced (YET) I made this hunka-hunka-burnin’ love loaf of moist and decadent pumpkin bread the old fashioned way, in the oven.
This is no ordinary bread, as you can see with your very own eyes (and deduct from the title). This bread isn’t really bread at all, if you want to talk rhetoric here. It’s actually a CAKE that is disguised in a bread’s body. But if you walk like a cake and talk like a cake, you’re pretty much a cake, right?
For the sake of arugment, we’ll just say the cake is dressed up in a bread Halloween costume. Whatever you call it, this loaf is PURE GOLD. It’s so thick you practically have to eat it with a fork. It’s loaded with pumpkin flavor and spice with just the right amount of buttery and sugary topping. Each bite literally melts in your mouth it’s that moist. The reason for the amazing texture lies in the same ingredient that makes this bread low-fat. Can you guess? I’ll give you a hint. It rhymes with schmapplesauce.
You guessed it! Applesauce! The applesauce works as a fattening agent so you don’t need a ton of butter or oil. Awesome, right? Skinny and more moist than the regular version? Where do I sign?
Since this cake is hidden in the body of a bread, you can eat it for breakfast without any judgement stares from your colleagues, husband or puppy. In fact, you can have two pieces with your coffee and no one will blink an eye! I’ve found the loophole to eating cake for breakfast! (Or just eating it without the disapproving glances of others).
Oh, and don’t worry. I have a crock-pot recipe for you tomorrow. Me and my lovahhh are back in business.
Low-fat Pumpkin Coffee Cake Bread
CLICK HERE FOR THE PRINTABLE VERSION OF THIS RECIPE!
Yields about 10 – 11 slices. Recipe adapted from All You.
Ingredients:
For the bread:
- 1/3 cup all-purpose flour
- 1 2/3 cup whole wheat flour
- 1 cup brown sugar
- 2 1/2 tablespoons white sugar
- 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- Dash of salt
- 3 tablespoons pumpkin pie spice
- 2 tablespoons canola oil
- 3 tablespoons NEW Seasonal Coffee-mate Sugar Free Pumpkin Spice
- 7 ounces (3/4 cup + 1 tablespoon) unsweetened applesauce
- 15 ounces of pumpkin puree (NOT pumpkin pie filling)
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 2 eggs
For the topping:
- 2/3 cup flour
- 1/3 cup brown sugar
- 3 1/2 tablespoons butter, cut up
- 1 tablespoon pumpkin pie spice
Directions:
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease a loaf pan with nonstick cooking spray and set aside. Mix flours, baking powder, baking soda , pumpkin pie spice and salt together in a large mixing bowl. Set aside.
- In another bowl, mix pumpkin, oil, applesauce, vanilla and eggs together. Add in sugars and beat until fully combined.
- Make a well in the dry mixture and carefully pour the wet mixture into the middle. Stir well until the batter is fully mixed. Pour batter into the prepare bread pan.
- Prepare topping by mixing the flour, brown sugar and pumpkin pie spice together. Using a pastry blender (or knife) cut in the butter until the mixture resembles coarse sand. Sprinkle the topping over the bread.
- Bake bread for about 45 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out dry. Serve warm and enjoy!
Nutritional information per slice:
Calories: 314.3
Fat: 8.4 grams
Carbohydrates: 55 grams
Fiber: 2.5 grams
Protein: 5.1 grams
Weight Watchers Points: 8
Claire
Tags:breakfast recipes, coffee cake recipes, healthy recipes, low fat bread recipes, pumpkin bread recipes
