Low-Fat, Low-Cal Chocolate Muffins

I found a recipe for low-cal/fat muffins on SparkPeople the other day and decided to make them.

They were delish and didn't last long! (I had company. I didn't eat them all by myself. Hehe.)

Here's the recipe:

Ingredients

Pumpkin, canned, without salt, 425.2 grams
Devil's Food Mix (Duncan Hines), 1 serving
Semi-Sweet Chocolate Chips (GV), 20 tbsp

Directions

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Mix all the ingredients well. The batter will be thick. distribute the mixture into muffin tins lined with paper. Cook for 15-20 minutes. Mixture should make 18-24 muffins. The calorie calculations I used for this recipes is based on 18 muffins. Servings = 1 muffin. (For even less calories use less or no chocolate chips)

Number of Servings: 18


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I forgot to add the chocolate chips but they were still good and satisfied my 'chocolate' cravings. The chocolate chips would only make it better!

Food Review: Guiltless Gourmet Baked Unsalted Tortilla Chips

I don't think I've ever talked about these chips before (I really don't remember) but they're great! They are baked, unsalted tortilla chips! And I believe they are less than $3 a bag so price-wise they are great as well.

These chips taste like corn chips. Duh. I mean, you don't feel greasy, or get crap-tons of salt. After all, the real star of the show is what you're eating the chips with! (SALSA) They are all natural and are also made with organic corn.

A 1 oz serving is about 18 chips and has 120 calories and 2g of fat. Not bad in my opinion. 18 chips is more than you think it is. Although, if you're mindlessly eating from the bag, it's also not as much as it sounds. :P

These chips are the new fave for me and Fiance when we're eating salsa.

Food Review: Rachel's Cucumber Dill Cottage Cheese

This morning I had Rachel's Cucumber Dill Cottage Cheese. Earlier, I had the Sun-Dried Tomato Pesto and it was SO GOOD.

I had high expectations for this flavor, since the other was so nom-a-licious.

I was a little disappointed. This flavor (to me) just is not as good as the sun-dried tomato. It was good, but something was a little off. I couldn't tell what. Too much dill? Vinegar? I'm not sure. In the end, I had to make myself finish it. Apparently there are many more flavors, but I only saw these two at my grocery store.

I probably won't buy them too often, as they are $1.75 each. But for an occasional snack, they are quite good.

It's Bakin' Time

So, previous posts indicate that I've got somethin' baking in my oven.

Bread.

So, yesterday for breakfast I made whole-wheat biscuits. I used this recipe from AllRecipes, but used all whole-wheat flour and cut out the sugar. I also did 'drop biscuits' because I didn't feel like rolling anything out. They came out okay--they were crumbly and I'm pretty sure I know why. Firstly, I would probably add a little bit more baking power. Secondly, I didn't add the butter correctly so there wasn't an even distribution of fat. Overall though, they were yummers.

For dinner last night, I made whole-wheat pizza crust. I got the recipe here from Tammy's Recipes. I used all whole-wheat flour, cut out the sugar, and used olive oil for the oil. The crust was good--mine was really thick because I didn't have a rolling pin (oops!). However, the crust was "substantial" and soft at the same time, without being soggy. Definitely a keeper and really quick to make by hand! We topped ours with sauce, FF cheddar, spinach, and turkey pepperoni.

Yesterday we bought a bread maker. We (attempted) to make a loaf last night, but alas! It didn't happen. I guess I put the pan in the machine wrong, because nothing mixed correctly and so half-mixed bread was baked. Sad day. It did, however, smell delicious. This morning, we attempted Round 2. It worked! The bread was smelling yummy all morning, tempting me with its goodness. We made one of the whole-wheat recipes in the booklet it came with. There are others I want to try, though. However, for a first attempt--it was pretty good. It was SO DELICIOUS fresh and warm with butter on top. :) Although, unless you're good with a knife the slices will be quite thick. The machine would be good though for mixing dough in general. The one we bought was one of the lower-priced ones and it was positively rated.

Sadly, I didn't think to take pictures of any of my food.

Farmer's Market

Fiance and I went to the Farmer's Market yesterday and picked up some neat things! We got some fresh cucumbers, salsa, apple butter, orient pears (delish!) and the "crown jewel"....

A GIANT CARROT.

Seriously. It is that big. That sucker weighed one pound all on its own. The lady that sold it to us said that carrots can get that big, if you use the right variety and let it stay in the ground long enough. She also said they're sweet. Needless to say, this is going to make a lot of carrot sticks for snacks. :)

We're going to try to buy as local and natural as we can, in terms of our food. The food industry is tricky, and you really need to read labels to know what you're eating.

Fiance and I are also testing out making our own breads and dough. I'll make a separate post for that. So far, I've made: whole-wheat biscuits, whole-wheat pizza crust, and I've got whole-wheat bread baking (crossing my fingers!).

Food Review: Rachel's Sun-Dried Tomato Pesto Cottage Cheese

Ok so the picture is a little small. I saw this at our semi-health food store and I immediately had to have it. I love cottage cheese. I usually eat mine with pepper but I have never seen flavored cottage cheese before! Sun-dried tomato pesto?! Needless to say, I ate it as soon as I got home and had an orgasmic food experience. It was so effin delicious. I really don't know how else to say it was nummy. Nom-tastic. The flavor part is on the bottom and you have to stir it up. YUM.

This is a great way to liven up your cottage cheese. Although, it was a little pricey at $1.75.

I also bought another flavor, cucumber dill, to try later. maybe tomorrow.

Review: Official Food, Inc. Movie

Official Food, Inc. Movie Site - Hungry For Change?






I watched this last night with Fiance.

I would recommend it to anyone concerned with how their food is produced. In fact, I would just recommend it in general since people often DO NOT know where their food comes from (I am part of that group).

It was amazing to see how large multi-national corporations have changed how we eat for their own profit, at the expense of our health, and the environment.

It was also disconcerting to see that most of our food does not come from farms (unlike what the labels imply). Chickens never see the light of day and animals do not roam free. E-coli gets in our food from feeding animals corn (since it's 'cheaper'), as opposed to grass, like nature intended. Instead of feeding them grass to get rid of the e-coli, we put an "ammonia-washed" hamburger filler in the patties to counter-act the e-coli. GROSS. I do not know any other way of describing it....

It was very eye-opening and Fiance and I are going to try and buy local as much as possible.

Food Review: Voskos Greek Yogurt (Fig)

Today, I tried Voskos greek yogurt, exotic fig flavor. I had wanted to try greek yogurt, since I had heard it was thicker than your traditional Yoplait/Dannon variety. And I saw "fig" flavor and though, "Why not? Let's be crazy." Upon my first bite (which was mere minutes ago) I thought two things simultaneously:

"I like this thickness."

"I do not like this sour aftertaste."

Overall, I do not think I'll be buying this again. I took two bites and threw it away. I just don't like that odd (to me) sour flavor. Now, those of you that enjoy your yogurt more tart/sour, will probably enjoy this brand.

So I'm left eating dry granola. Oh well. There's always cheese.... ;)

Food Review: Tofurky Kielbasa

Today the fiance and I tried out Tofurky Kielbasa. We had taken a run to the semi-health food store over the weekend and decided to try things out, like Soy Yogurt. Fiance had claimed before that he had eaten tofu dogs and proclaimed them tasty. Which is amazing, since he LOVES meat. Instead of tofu dogs, we decided to try this kielbasa. I cooked them on our little grill (like a George Foreman, but not as pricy). We put it on a bun (whole wheat) and served it up with sweet potato fries. I have to say, it was quite tasty. The texture is obviously not like meat. But the flavoring is pretty good and come on, it's supposed to be like a hot-dog. And who the eff knows what's in a hot dog.

All in all, I call this a dinner win.

Food Review: Soy Yogurt

The other day my fiance and I went to a semi-health food store to look around and see what they have to offer. I spoke earlier about making my own trail mix and granola and we bought all of our ingredients at this store in bulk containers (mostly fruits/nuts/seeds). Well, we also decided to try new yogurts. We each got a Soy yogurt. He got blueberry, I got black cherry. Yesterday he told me his was "disgusting" and "sour-tasting." I opened mine with trepidation today. I was suprised. Mine tasted sweet. It was not disgusting. In fact, it was quite palatable. You could taste that it wasn't "normal" (ie was made from soy) but it was a unique flavor that wasn't bad. I enjoyed my yogurt and happily ate it with the granola we made. The yogurt was not fat free (@ 2 grams) and had around 150 calories. So it's pretty comporable to other yogurts.

Not pictured was another brand I tried called Brown Cow. I tried the Boysenberry and found it to be quite delicious.

I'll keep you posted as I try more things.

OCD about food

I am constantly looking for a snack.

Bored? Snack.
Happy? Snack.
Tired? Snack.

It doesn't matter. It's like I have to be munching on something. I reach for food even when I'm tired, hoping it will wake me up. I look in the fridge when I'm bored. I look in the fridge just as I pass by. It's a compulsion.

As part of trying to eat healthy, we've been buying healthy snacks. You know, the usual fruit and veggies. The other day, we actually made our own granola/trail mix. It was fun and easy! And tasty too. Now, the granola was made to top yogurt while the trail mix was made as a snack. Yesterday was Day 1 of granola and I must say, it was yum! What accompanied this yum was a feeling I felt at odds with: not being hungry.

I ate my yogurt and 1/4 C of granola and didn't feel hungry for hours. I felt weird. I felt like I was "missing" something. It was so unusual to not feel hungry, and furthermore not snack incessantly. I was good! I didn't eat again until my lunch. But I must say, it felt weird. It's as if food is a part of my life in ways I never thought about. My friend that is always there, tempting me and keeping me company through events and emotions that other people haven't. It's kind of weird to try and say "good-bye" to such a loyal friend.

Which is of course why I have slip-ups. More to come later.