Eat Skinny: Whole Wheat Strawberry Bread Recipe
PIN IT!So, remember how I said yesterday’s post was going to be really short b/c I had 1,000 things to do? Well, this post will be like, half that size because as I’m typing, I’m also having a slight pre-flight induced anxiety attack. Ugh. I really wish I could just GET OVER THIS. However, talking about it won’t help so let’s talk about something else, like strawberry bread!
And not just any ol’ strawberry bread friends, WHOLE WHEAT strawberry bread made with brown sugar. It’s the perfect breakfast bread.
So, I have no idea why this happened (I’m no food scientist) but the brown sugar cooked into the bread in a way that it almost gave the edges a sugary, crispy kind of crunch. It’s unexplainable but makes the bread 100,000 times more delectable.
A little crunchy, deliciously soft and with the perfect amount of fresh strawberry taste. Given how much I love those plump, juicy berries, it’s a shocker I haven’t made a strawberry bread before! It’s definitely on my list again, for sure.
Now, if you don’t mind, I’m going to go scream into a pillow to prepare for my flight at 3.
Whole Wheat Strawberry Bread
Yields about 8 slices
Prep time: 10 minutes
Cook time: 40 minutes
Ingredients:
- 1 cup fresh strawberries, chopped
- 1 2/3 cup whole wheat flour
- 1/2 cup brown sugar
- 1/4 cup white sugar
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- Dash of salt
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 2/3 cup vegetable oil (can sub in applesauce too!)
- 2 eggs
Directions:
- Preheat oven to 350 degress F. Grease a loaf pan with nonstick cooking spray and set aside.
- Mix flour, sugars, cinnamon, salt and baking soda together in a large mixing bowl. In another bowl, beat eggs with oil. Slowly pour the wet mixture into the dry mixture and mix until fully combined. Gently fold in strawberries.
- Pour mixture into the prepared loaf pan. Bake for 40 minutes, or until golden brown and a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean.
Nutritional information per slice:
Calories: 325
Fat: 11 grams
Carbohydrates: 36.5 grams
Protein: 5 grams
Fiber: 2 grams
Weight Watchers Points Plus Points: 7
#WIAW: Rustic Pasta & Cream Cheese Eggs
Happy Wednesday, y’all! Before I dive into anything, I need to share a cocktail with you.
A fluffernutter martini. I made this like FOREVER ago (in December) and it was amazing. So, I made it again last week and guys? It’s just AMAZING. Really no other words! It tastes like sweet, marshmallow, peanut butter goodness. Make it immediately.
This post may be a bit short because I have 2 recipes to make, photograph and edit and 2 crafts to assemble! This is what happens when you take a day off and you work for yourself, right? The reason I’m taking a day off this week (Friday), is I’m going to Scottsdale Arizona for my soon to be cousin’s bachelorette!
[me, the bachelorette, and my twinny!]
I’m thrilled to be able to join her for this and can’t wait to see my twinny! However, I am LESS THAN EXCITED about the flight. Some of you may know this, but I have severe flight anxiety. So, yeah, there’s that. But, I will persevere! Let’s hop right into What I Ate Wednesday!
Breakfast
Scrambled eggs with chives and cream cheese. Guys, I may be tardy to this party (hehehe) but cream cheese in scrambled eggs makes the fluffiest, most delicate, most delicious eggs in all the land. Next time you make scrambled eggs, ADD CREAM CHEESE. I swear, it’ll change your life.
Plus, a gallon of coffee. Clearly.
Lunch
Rustic homemade pasta with a white wine sauce. It was my first time making pasta and they came out, a little weird. However, my dear friend Jackie was sweet enough to say “not weird, rustic!” so that’s what I’m calling it now. So incredibly delicious friends, you must TRY!
Dinner
Creamy rice pilaf, aka, the best thing ever. I did Jillian Michaels 30 Day Shred Level 2 and, um, could barely move after it. So I wanted something easy and filling for dinner since I’m pretty sure I lost 15 pounds doing that. She’s not well in the head.
Plus, since it’s add extra veggies month, I also munched on some healthy baked sweet potato chips (they count, right?) Basically, just thinly sliced sweet potatoes, a SMALL drizzle of olive oil and some salt and pepper! So much better than any chip I’ve ever had. Simply preheat your oven to 400 degrees F, lightly grease a pan, slice, sprinkle & drizzle and bake for about 15 – 22 minutes, or until crispy!
So friends, what have you eaten lately that was DELICIOUS?
Eat Skinny: Homemade Pasta with White Wine Mushroom Sauce
So, let’s just jump right into this. Homemade pasta? It’s a game changer.
I’ve been entertaining the idea of making pasta from scratch for a WHILE now, but I just never did. Maybe it was fear of failure, I don’t know, but this endeavor was a long time coming.
Also, it’s probably because I don’t have a fancy pasta press or a fancy long bread/pasta cutting knife, which is why my pasta looks fatter and a little more deformed than others. In high school, this pasta would not be invited to the cool parties on Friday nights and would probably not be asked to the prom.
But you know what? I don’t care. I love it just the way it is. Actually, no, scratch that. I like it just the way it is, I LOVE it when it’s drenched in a white wine mushroom sauce made from the delicious Robert Mondavi Private Selection Chardonnay! They so graciously provided me with two bottles to recipe create with!
I mean, really, what doesn’t taste like the high heavens when it’s drenched in a white wine mushroom reduction? RIDDLE ME THAT FRIENDS. This sauce, I could DRINK IT. As delectable as it is, it’s just one of those things, like beef stroganoff, that just doesn’t take a pretty photo on it’s own. It’s another food that would NEVER be asked to prom in food high school. However, when you gussy it up with a dash of Parmesan and a sprig of fresh rosemary, well, then it’s at least presentable. It might get asked by the onion, for example, to dance.
It may be ugly, but guys, it’s SOOOO DELICIOUS. The whole wheat pasta paired with the sweet, wine mushroom sauce is just the perfect harmony of flavors. If food could sing, this would be HITTING those high notes, Mariah Carey style.
I should probably wrap this up, given I’ve already talked about food being real, going to high school and singing. That’s a sign I’m probably close to certifiable.
Pasta adapted from the Pioneer Woman. Sauce adapted from the Food Network.
Homemade Pasta with a White Wine Mushroom Sauce
Serves 2 (with an extra 2 cups of pasta)
Prep time: 25 minutes
Cook time: 15 minutes
Ingredients:
For the pasta:
- 3 cups whole wheat flour
- 6 whole eggs
For the sauce:
- 2 tablespoons butter
- 8 ounces of mushrooms, sliced
- 1 medium onion, chopped
- 3/4 cup dry white wine (I used Robert Mondavi Private Selection Chardonnay)
- 3/4 cup low-sodium chicken stock
- 1 tablespoon flour
- Salt and pepper
- 1 sprig fresh rosemary
- 2 tablespoons Parmesan cheese
Directions:
- To prepare the pasta, pour flour into a large mixing bowl and make a well in the middle. Add the eggs, one at a time, into the well. Mix with your hands or a spoon. Pour dough onto a lightly floured surface and knead until soft and elastic, about 6 – 8 minutes.
- Bright a large pot of water to a boil. Liberally add in salt. Once dough is soft, let sit for about 15 minutes to rest. Once dough has rested, roll out on a floured surface until about 1/4 inch thick. Using a sharp knife (or pizza cutter), cut out thin noodles.
- Place pasta in the boiling water and boil for about 2 minutes (pasta cooks VERY fast). Once done, rinse in a colander and set aside.
- To begin the sauce, heat the butter in a large nonstick pan. Add onions and mushrooms and cook until mushrooms are soft, about 8 minutes.
- Add wine and cook until evaporated. Add in chicken stock and cook until mixture has reduced down about a third. Then, add in flour and mix, heating just until mixture thickens, about another 2 minutes. Keep warm on stove.
- Pour sauce over the pasta. Add Parmesan and rosemary and enjoy!
Nutritional information per serving (about 1 cup pasta with 1/2 cup sauce)
Calories: 365
Fat: 10 grams
Carbohydrates: 45 grams
Fiber: 2 grams
Protein: 14 grams
Weight Watchers Points Plus Points: 8
Weekend Recap: French Tapas Cooking Class
Hi friends!! I hope y’all are having a great start to your Monday! It’s a gorgeous day here in NOVA so I really can’t complain!
Before we begin, make sure you stop by All Day I Dream About Food to check out my newest recipe, whole wheat banana pancakes for two! Seriously, they are AMAZING.
Get the recipe here!
More importantly, I hope you had a wonderful Easter, ate tons of delicious foods and enjoyed a basketful of goodies! This Easter, since my family is about 11 hours away, I got a package full of goodies, including money. Which, trust me, is definitely all I needed! Besides eating my body weight in chocolate and cupcakes this weekend, E and I also did something SO fun on Friday! We went to a French tapas style cooking class in DC! [All are taken from my iPhone, sorry!]
We took our class at Culinaerie, an adorable little kitchen in DC, right of 14th street. Now, for all you Top Chef fans, Carla Hall from season 5 and 8 of Top Chef, also teaches here on occasion! Of course, she wasn’t our instructor. We had a lovely girl named Wendi who graduated from the culinary school I am APPLYING TO THIS YEAR!
Which, if you couldn’t tell by the French themed menu is Le Cordon Bleu in Paris. Yep, I’ve sort of been hiding that little factoid but it’s true! I’m applying in July to go to school IN PARIS. Where Julia Child went!!!! So, naturally my amazing husband thought it’d be important to at least understand French cooking, so he bought us this class as an anniversary present! We started off by preparing ratatouille croutons, or a French brushetta.
Um, SO AMAZING. So amazing that Elliot recreated the dish on Saturday at the little BBQ we held at our house! After this delicousness, we made a leek and gruyere tart.
It was good, although I’m pretty sure it was not baked long enough because it was SUPER liquidy. Which, wasn’t our fault since we didn’t have any control over the baking times. Next up was the fig and blue cheese flatbread, which was DEFINITELY one of my favorites from the night.
Now, we had some duck to add to this, but it was a little too rare for me. Like, completely raw in the middle. So, I didn’t eat that but the tart was AMAZING. The bread was so crispy and the blue cheese paired amazingly with the figs! After we devoured this, we moved onto one of our desserts, apple vol au vaunt [or just cute little puff pastries].
These were SO good but I could only eat like one of them. Because I was uncomfortably full and knew our last dessert, the decadent pot de creme, was going to be amazeballs.
And guess what? It definitely was. SO fluffy, so rich and was so amazing paired with the whipped cream and little chocolate covered malt balls. I would seriously make this over and over and over again.
All in all, it was an amazing time! It got me even more excited for French food, which, you know, if I get into school, is really all I’m going to be eating.
Drink Skinny: Southern Style Gin Cocktails
Hi friends! I can’t believe it’s already Thursday. Now, Thursday is great on it’s own accord (so close to the weekend), but this Thursday? One for the record books. See, I have a small little interview this afternoon with, you know, just this guy.
[source]
I’m going to be talking to him about the next season of No Reservations and um, can I just say, I LOVE MY JOB? Because I do. I’m so excited. So, guys, if you have any questions you want to ask the king of snark, sass and Travel Channel, EMAIL ME [realistic.nutritionist@gmail.com].
Despite my excitement for that, I’m just as excited to share these southern style gin cocktails with you! After perusing my recipe database (again, website revision) I realized something that just didn’t make me feel good. And that something is the fact that I don’t have ANY cocktail recipes. Not even one.
See that’s just plain wrong, given how much I enjoy dabbling in the occasional libation and given how many drinks I’m made for work! I mean, one entire month of my job was devoted to drinks.
So, I’m sorry for holding out on you guys. To make up for my lack of boozy delights, I’ve sharing TWO with you. Thanks to the lovely folks at Beefeater Gin for sending me some delicious samples to try!
Now, you’re probably wondering what constitutes them as “southern style.” And really? I have no actual answer. I just like to think that when I’m down in Charleston, wearing my head to toe Lilly Pulitzer, I’ll be sipping these fancy, elegant gin cocktails while I stroll down Broad Street.
Hey, a girl can dream. Either way, these drinks just remind me of those long, hot, southern summer nights where you’ve covered in sticky sweat and are being swarmed by mosquitoes but wouldn’t dream of being anywhere else.
For those who know me, I grew up in the Midwest but went to college in Georgia. It was there I fell madly, head over heels in love with the south and decided that’s where I was going to live. Minus this little stint in the nation’s capital, I know I’ll be calling sweet south home again soon.
And when I do? Y’all better believe I’ll be sipping on these tasty cocktails on my veranda.
And clearly they’ll be served up in mason jars. I mean, come on y’all, what kind of Southern would I be if there weren’t any mason jars?
Cucumber recipe adapted from Saveur.
Southern Style Gin Cocktails
Yields 2 cocktails each
Prep time: 5 minutes
Ingredients:
Grapefruit gin & juice:
- 4 ounces gin
- 6 ounces freshly squeezed grapefruit juice
- Mint leaves
- Dash of sugar (optional for sweetness*)
Cucumber cocktail:
- 4 ounces gin
- 4 tablespoons fresh lemon juice (about 1 1/2 large lemons)
- 1/4 cucumber, thinly sliced
- Splash of tonic water
Directions:
- To make the grapefruit drink, use a citrus juicer to extract juice from grapefruit. Remove seeds. Pour grapefruit juice into a chilled martini mixer with ice. Add gin and shake. Pour mixture over ice cubes in a chilled glass and garnish with fresh mint.
- To make the cucumber drink, pour gin, lemon juice and cucumber slices in a chilled martini mixer with ice, shake well. Pour mixture into a chilled glass filled with ice and top with tonic water, stir with a spoon. Garnish with thin slices of lemon and cucumber.
Nutritional information for ONE cocktail:
Grapefruit:
Calories: 185
Fat: 0
Carbohydrates: 10
Protein: 1
Fiber: 0
Weight Watchers Points + pts: 5
For the cucumber drink:
Calories: 165
Fat: 0
Carbohydrates: 10
Fiber: 0
Protein: 0
Weight Watchers Points + pts: 6
Claire
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