The Best Low Fat Chocolate Chip Cookies
PIN IT!When I’m stressed, I crave chocolate (and mashed potatoes, but that’s for a different post). I need it, have to have it and pretty much collapse if I don’t get it. Well, you can pretty much guess my stress level right now is OUT OF THE ROOF so I’m nearly addicted to chocolate and need some to suppress myself. Since my stress is due to my wedding, and my wedding means I am having 1 million photos taken in a snug white dress, I can’t just indulge in any ol’ chocolate. This has to be a very strategic process so I don’t gain ANY weight or break out in a massive hysteria of pimples. I wasn’t going to give up this elixir of life for me, so I had to find a lighter way to get my dosage. Enter light chocolate chip cookies!
Holy freaking YUM. This cookies were absolutely perfect. They had just the right amount of chocolate to sooth my sky rocketing stress and were so soft and chewy. Pillsbury? Eat your heart out, because these cookies rock. And each cookie has less than 95 calories. So, double win. Because I know I can’t be trusted around them, I left about 5 at home for Elliot and I to eat and sent the rest to Elliot’s work. Recipe was adapted from All Recipes.
Light Chocolate Chip Cookies
What You’ll Need:
- 3/4 cup packed brown sugar
- 1/4 cup white sugar
- 6 tablespoons butter, softened
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 egg white
- 3 tablespoons water
- 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
- 3/4 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 cup semisweet chocolate chunks
How To Make Them:
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
- In a medium bowl, cream the butter with the brown and white sugars. Stir in the vanilla, egg white, and water. Sift together the flour, baking soda, and salt; stir into the creamed mixture. Mix in the chocolate chips.
- Drop dough by heaping spoonfuls onto ungreased cookie sheets. Mine look like weird spiky balls.
- Bake for 8 to 10 minutes in the preheated oven. Allow cookies to cool for 1 minute on baking sheets before transferring to wire racks to cool completely. Then try to escape the kitchen without eating all of them!
They were so soft, chewy and delicious. I’m so glad I did not keep many lying around!
Nutritional Information per cookie: 94 calories, 4 grams of fat and 2 grams of protein.
St. Patrick’s Recipes Take 2: GF Corn Beef Stuffed Cabbage Rolls
I featured the cupcakes first for a few reasons. For one, who doesn’t eat dessert first? Secondly, I literally ate & made the cupcakes before dinner on Wednesday. Because of the cooking show, we didn’t end up eating dinner until like 9:30 pm. Whoops! This could be why I was so incredibly bloaty yesterday (sorry, TMI). But you know what? So worth it. I’m the world’s biggest cabbage fan (yes, I’m a weird vegetable person) and I especially love it boiled. You know the weirdest part? I’m not even Irish, I just love cabbage! Mix boiled cabbage, corn beef (holy, fatty yum), some onion/celery/rice and spicy mustard and I’m one happy non-Irish foodie.
Aren’t these just the prettiest things you ever did see? I know, I just called a vegetable pretty, my addiction might have gotten worse. Either way, this is a more non-traditional way to enjoy your corn beef and cabbage on St. Pats (or any day, really!) Plus, this recipe is completely gluten free so you can share with your friends with wheat allergies or family members with Celiac!
Disclaimer: If you have a gluten allergy, it’s always safe to check all ingredients before you use them!
Corn Beef Stuffed Cabbage
What You’ll Need:
- 1 pound of cooked corn beef
- Green cabbage, blanched
- 1 cup of cooked rice
- 1 egg
- 1 celery stalk, finely chopped
- 1 onion, finely chopped
- 1 tablespoon of gluten free spicy mustard
- 1 cup of Swanson’s beef broth
How to Make Them:
- Dice onion, celery and corn beef into small pieces and mix together.
- In another bowl mix the rice, mustard and egg together. Once mixed, add to the corn beef and veggies.
- Carefully spoon a tablespoon (or more/less depending on leaf size) of mixture into the blanched cabbage leaf. Roll up and tuck in sides, placing the cabbage roll face down on a sprayed cooking sheet.
- Once all rolls are on the pan, pour beef broth generously over them. Bake at 350 for 45-60 minutes, or until browned and soft. Add additional mustard (I love spicy mustard so I loaded it on) and enjoy!
Nutritional Information per roll: 520 calories, 14 grams of fat, 35 grams of protein and 17 grams of fiber!
St. Patty’s Day Boozy Cupcakes (and some rambling)
Happy St. Pats my dear friends! How are you celebrating this Irish holiday? Unfortunately there will be no bars in my foreseeable future, so instead I’ll be eating these boozey cupcakes and drinking something green! I’ve always had fun on St. Patty’s. For me, there’s something so silly about consuming drinks and food colored with green food dye, cheering in the streets and singing in Irish pubs. However, one year, after a few too many green drinks, we kind of got a little carried away with the food dye. I’ll let the photos tell you the story.
To many of these, led to…
Green nuggets and fries! But it gets worse…
Green hair doggy! Yep, it took a few days to get it out of his mo-hawk. Isn’t he adorable though?
Things didn’t get that out of control this year with the food dye, I just stuck with what it’s meant for, food! On top of making them in honor of St. Patty’s, I also made these cupcakes for another fun reason! Yesterday we hosted our first Cooking with Claire live cooking show, and this was the recipe on tap! The video is still being edited, but as soon as it’s finished, I will feature it! It was really fun to be a part of something like that. I used to be in broadcasting in high school and I never realized how much I like being in front of the camera! My fiancée said I was “eerily charming” so I guess that’s a good thing? Keep your eyes peeled for that! Now enough blab from me, it’s time to drool over some cupcakes!
Recipe is adapted from Tasty Pursuits.
Guinness Chocolate Cupcakes with Green Frosting
What You’ll Need:
- 2 cups of flour
- 2 cups of sugar
- 3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1 and 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 cup canola oil
- 1 egg
- 2 teaspoons vanilla
- 2 tablespoons milk
- 1/4 cup milk
- 1 and 1/4 Guinness
How to Make Them:
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees and line cupcake pan with holders.
- Whisk egg and oil into a bowl until mixed. Add Guinness, vanilla and milk until combined.
- With a fine mesh strainer (or flour sifter) sift the dry ingredients into the wet mixture. Make sure when sifting that the sifter does not touch the wet ingredients.
- Once dry is sited, mix well into the wet ingredients. Mix until there are no bumps or bubbles. Pour batter into the cupcake liners and cook for 17 minutes, or until you poke it and it’s dry.
I paired these cupcakes with my light cream cheese icing, dyed green of course for St. Pats! I also made a vanilla butter cream, which I will post later!
These were amazingly flavorful. You could taste the stout of the beer, but it wasn’t overwhelming. Guinness pairs so well with chocolate and that’s even more apparent in these delicious cupcakes! I’m also so glad I went with the light icing on half of them because of how heavy they are. The light cream cheese was a perfect, sweet and refreshing topping!
Nutritional Information per cupcake: 350 calories, 9 grams of fat, 1 gram of protein and 2 grams of fiber.
Like That? Try This: Peanut Butter and Jelly Muffins
Yes, you read that right. I turned a peanut butter and jelly sandwich into a muffin. Now, why would I go and do such a thing? It was time for this classic to get updated. I was also inspired to shake up the standard sandwich by my friend Lindsey of Gingerbread Bagels who made mini peanut butter and jelly cheesecakes! Sounds amazing, right? Now, I’ve always been a huge fan of the standard Pb&J and still eat it for lunch on occasion. My sandwiches now are a little different than they used to be. Instead of Wonder bread and full-fat Jiffy, I use whole wheat bread, extra crunchy low fat peanut butter and sugar free strawberry or cherry preserves. Yum! [Insert yummy muffin picture here]
The real reason I needed a fabulous sweet recipe is to support Operation Layla, an organization I’m a part of that has raised over $4500 to pay for a good friend’s surgery. You can read her whole heart breaking story here. The amazing thing with this bake sale is that all proceeds go towards covering the rest of her medical bills, as well as help to support the relief efforts in Japan. The best part? You can bid to win a batch of these delicious muffins baked by me and know you are doing your part to help improve the lives of those less fortunate. A win win! Please visit Operation Layla to learn more about the bake sale, bid on these and 39 other goodies and donate to help!
Original recipe courtesy of My Recipes.
Peanut Butter and Jelly Muffins
What You’ll Need:
- 1 cup all-purpose flour
- 3/4 cup whole wheat flour
- 1/4 cup granulated sugar
- 1/4 cup packed dark brown sugar
- 1 tablespoon baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1 1/4 cups skim milk
- 1/3 cup creamy peanut butter
- 1 egg
- 2 tablespoons butter, melted
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- Cooking spray
- 1/4 cup cherry preserves
How to Make Them:
- Preheat oven to 400°.
- Combine flours, sugars, baking powder, and salt in a large bowl; stir with a whisk.
- Combine milk and next 4 ingredients (through vanilla); add to flour mixture, stirring just until moist.
- Spoon batter into 12 muffin cups coated with cooking spray. Fill each cup half full with batter.
- Spoon 1 teaspoon jam into each cup.
- Spoon remaining batter on top to cover jam.
- Bake at 400° for 20 minutes or until muffins spring back when touched lightly in center. Let cool in pan 5 minutes. Remove from pan and enjoy!
These muffins are incredibly moist and flavorful. The jam gives each bite a jolt of sweetness while the creamy texture of the peanut butter gives the muffins a heartier flavor and consistency. What’s even better is that they stay moist for days! I made a batch on Sunday and they are still as moist as ever!
Nutritional Information per muffin: 185 calories, 6 grams of fat, 6 grams of protein and 1.8 grams of fiber.
Eat Skinny Be Skinny Dinner: Chicken Fried Rice
I’m not ashamed to admit that I ate about 4 helpings of this last Sunday. I know I should be. But this stuff?
It’s just THAT good.
I literally ate enough of this to feed a family and still want to make another batch to eat tonight. I may or may not have a serious problem/addiction. However, in the grand scheme of additions, I guess home-made chicken fried rice isn’t as bad as some. Right? What really makes this such a divine dish is the tangy flavor of the sauce I used. Because I don’t buy soy sauce (salt water?) I used a spicy, orange-terayaki sauce we bought at the market. The orange gives this dish a citrus zest, the spice adds a needed kick and the terayaki mellows it all out.
This sauce is the boss, my friends. What’s another fabulous plus of this amazing dish? 1 cup of home-made chicken fried rice has 100 less calories and 3 less grams of fat. Save your take-out money and make this instead, your wallet and waistline will thank you! Just try to control yourself, you’re going to want to eat it all.
Chicken Fried Rice
What You’ll Need:
- 2 cups of cooked white (OR BROWN) rice
- 2 cooked chicken breasts, about 2 pounds
- 1 and 1/2 cup frozen peas
- 3 tablespoons spicy orange terayaki sauce [or soy/regular terayaki sauce]
- 1 cup mushrooms
- 1 onion, sliced
- 1 egg
- 1 and 1/2 tablespoon of extra virgin olive oil
How to Make It:
- Chop cooked chicken into bite size pieces.
- Heat olive oil in a sauce pan on medium heat. Place onions in pan and cook until slightly browned. Add mushrooms and cook until tender, about 3 minutes. Add frozen peas to the onion-mushroom mixture, cook until peas are soft.
- Crack egg and scramble in a small skillet over medium heat, cook until finished, about 3 minutes .Cut egg into slices and set aside.
- Add rice, chicken and egg to the vegetable pan. Mix together and cook for an additional 3-5 minutes. Pour sauce over mix and enjoy!
This is my new go-to busy weeknight recipe. It’s easy and delicious, plus leaves you with leftovers for lunch and the next night!
Nutritional Information per 1 cup serving: 385 calories, 7.5 grams of fat, 15 grams of protein and 3 grams of fiber.
