I’ve decided to forgo voting this month and make Meltaways. They came in second last month, and they’ll make a great Valentine’s Day sugar cookie.
[ photo from Landee See, Landee Do ]
But if you want to participate in the voting for March, here is the poll:
This may look like a regular package of greek yogurt to you, but trust me. It’s not
It’s a mixture of chocolately goodness. And it’s going to make some damn good frozen yogurt.
Did I mention that this frozen yogurt is 4 points + per 4 oz serving? That is kind of important to some people. Also, it’s made of whole foods. Which is always important to me.
chimes’s dark chocolate frozen yogurt
Ingredients
32 oz 0% plain Greek yogurt (I like Chobani or Fage, but couldn’t find either this day — Greek Gods was fine)
1/4 c (or a bit more) cocoa powder
3/4 c sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/3 c coffee
Directions
Mix together and put in your ice cream maker. We got an immersion blender for Christmas, so I used this and it made the yogurt super creamy. Follow ice cream maker’s directions.
I found this recipe for Skinny Chicken Parmesan from Feeding My Temple on pinterest a while back. It annoys me when I see “skinny” in the title of recipes, but it’s a fast way to know that somebody’s made an attempt at making a healthy dish.
As per usual, I made some modifications.
The recipe is simple: Bread your meat, pour sauce over it, top with cheese and bake. And for you people counting points, it’s 7 points + per serving — her recipe makes 8 servings.
Since I can’t eat gluten, I used our trusty food processor to crush up some corn flakes and rice krispies to use instead of bread crumbs.
Also, I don’t use fat free cheese. When they make fat free and reduced fat things, they add filler. Usually filler is something you don’t want to eat. Unless there is a MAJOR difference in fat or calories, I always choose the real deal.
I also recommend buying the bricks of cheese and making your own shredded cheese. Why? Two reasons: It’s cheaper and there’s less preservatives and salt in it that way. When they prepackage shredded cheese, all sorts of junk goes into the cheese to keep it from clumping together or drying out.
Okay, now that I’ve preached to you about the dangers of reduced fat, fat free and fake stuff, I’ll share a secret with you. The real reason we shred our own cheese (well Mark’s real reason anyway): We add a clove of garlic to it. Adding a clove to the cheese while shredding it pretty much infuses the cheese with the garlic.
He might kick my butt for sharing this secret … he seems to think it was HIS idea. But I bet there are other garlic lovers out there who’ve been doing this or something similar for years.
Ah, yes. Garlic cheese.
Bread your meat … put it in the oven with some sauce and cheese over it, and bake.
YUM.
Meet my latest obsession: Quinoa.
[ look how pretty it looks with some black and white mixed together! ]
It’s nutty. It’s different. It’s filling. It’s awesome.
Mostly eaten with savory foods, quinoa is often overlooked for breakfast.
But look at this? Doesn’t this look yummy? Trust me. It does.
And it’s gluten free. Which is a bonus. I have an issue with gluten and sometimes oatmeal bugs me, and I was REALLY missing oatmeal this winter.
I found this great recipe on pinterest [ of course ] from Martha Stewart [ who else? ]. But of course I added some extra flair.
chimes’s Breakfast Quinoa [ modified from Martha Stewart's recipe — 7 points + per serving ]
Ingredients:
2 c unsweetened almond milk [ or milk of your choice — moo works too ]
1/2 c white quinoa, rinsed
1/2 c black quinoa, rinsed
2 T honey [ or sweetener of your choice ]
1/4 t ground cinnamon
1/4 t ground nutmeg
1 c frozen blueberries
Directions:
Bring milk to a boil in a small saucepan. Add quinoa, and return to a boil. Reduce heat to low, and simmer, covered, until three-quarters of the milk has been absorbed, about 15 minutes. Stir in honey and spices. Cook, covered, until almost all the milk has been absorbed, about 8 minutes. Stir in blueberries, and cook until most of their water has been absorbed. Serve.
Makes 4 servings.
Of course, you can mix things up. If you don’t like cinnamon or nutmeg, use cocoa [ cocoa and blueberries go together really well ], add peanut butter, use all black or all white quinoa. Go nuts! Add nuts? It’s really good cold over greek yogurt too.
Recently I started WeightWatchers. I know, sounds crazy right? I am fit. Why would I want to join a group that’s focused on weight loss.
Well, two reasons: Because it’s easier to do WW when you have a partner-in-crime who’s “pointing” with you and Mark is doing WeightWatchers. And because I severely needed a sugar detox after this Christmas / New Year’s bingefest.
So the goal isn’t to lose weight [ I wouldn't argue with a 3-5 pound loss after December's gain though ]. It’s to be smarter about food, eat more fruits and veggies and help Mark reach his goal of being healthier.
Anywho, my mom made this really great chili over break and it’s actually a WeightWatcher’s recipe. It’s Cincinnati Chicken Chili. I realized after reading the recipe myself that it’s actually Cincinnati-style: POUR THE CHILI OVER NOODLES [ gross ... anybody I know actually do this? ].
[ this chili uses a LOT of canned ingredients ... it ended up being pretty salty for me, but I try to eat low-sodium ]
[ chop up your veggies ]
[ we used 1.5 whole chicken breasts ]
[ cook your veggies, then add the spices — there is a LOT of spice in this recipe ] 
[ cover and cook for a while longer — I pretty much included this shot to show off Mark's new pretty dutch oven he got for Christmas ] 
[ eventually you'll have chili ... and it will be pretty tasty ]
So the recipe says it’s 5 points + , but really, it’s more like 4 when you take into account the fact that you’re probably eating a bigger portion because you’re not eating noodles, and well, you’re not eating noodles. This is assuming that you’re not eating noodles. I did not [ gross ].
Other than the noodles, we followed the recipe. I added a can of [ rinsed ] black beans. And we used HOT salsa. Next time I’m going to omit the chiles — they don’t really add anything to the mix, except extra salt.
So a long long time ago, I had a birthday party. Yes. In October.
Regardless, you’re getting a recipe, so ignore the un-timeliness of this post. As you may know, I’ve been obsessed with everything spicy. Including chocolate. Chipotle chocolate to be precise. So for my birthday I made a spicy chocolate flourless cake. Because, as you may also know, I quit eating gluten in hopes of fixing my tummy troubles [ it worked ].
I used the Chipotle Flourless Chocolate Cake recipe from Simply Recipes. But there was one major problem: I couldn’t find chipotle anywhere. Apparently WalMart has it [ for future reference ]. So instead, I ground up about a teaspoon of crushed red pepper in the coffee grinder and added that.
Also, this is the easiest recipe ever. It’s basically 1 bag of chocolate chips [ semi-sweet or darker ] + sugar + butter + 5 eggs + any spices you want to add. And the end product? It’s like a slice of chocolate that’s the consistency of cheesecake.
[ melt the chocolate and butter together ]
[ stir up the eggs and sugar ]
Did I mention Danielle helped me bake? She’s my favorite baking partner-in-crime and we live so far apart we hardly ever get to do this anymore. My yearly birthday get-togethers are usually when we do such things. Last year we made Guinness Cupcakes.
[ grind up the spices ... or use chipotle ]
[ mix all together ]
[ bake in a springform pan ]
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[ serve! ]
So I know you’re all in “get fit and trim” and “eat healthy” mode.
But you know, you’ve been doing that for 3 whole weeks now. And the that means you’re probably pretty much done with all of that crap until January 2013.
Want something so naughty even I won’t eat it?
That’s right. You do.
That sounds kind of gross.
Trust me, it is awesome. I had a bite.
I’m not going to tell you how to make them. Because we didn’t do it right. I refuse to use processed cheese, even if it’s for something as unhealthy as this … so our version wasn’t so juicy.
But these guys will show you how to make them.
Here’s how ours turned out.
Okay. These look delicious. But seriously. I didn’t eat one. 
Traveling to Minnesota? Try one of these bad boys at one of these restaurants.
You voted, and the winner of the cookie for this month’s Cookie of the Month Club subscription was chocolate covered ritz peanut butter sandwiches, or as my family calls them: Bark cookies.
For the record, I really wanted to make Meltaways. Buuut I know my dad and Grandpa will really love getting a big package of these babies.
Also, mind didn’t turn out as pretty as Spoon Fork Bacon’s rendition (photo above). But, I used dark chocolate instead of almond bark and whole wheat crackers. They taste the same, and they’re covered in chocolate, so nobody is ever going to be able to tell I healthed these up a little bit. A little bit. They are still chocolate covered ritz crackers with peanut butter.
If you’re interested in making these, you don’t put much peanut butter on the inside. A little dab will do you. Same with the chocolate. And using a double boiler (or my makeshift double boiler — hot water in a pan with my pyrex bowl of chocolate on top) is the best method to keep the viscosity of the chocolate good for dipping.
I made about 60 of these. For the record, I ate 4.
In case anybody is counting, these are 4 points +. Per cookie. Try not to eat more than one. 
I have a problem. I’ve pinned too many cookies on Pinterest.
I have so many I want to try.
The good news is that I can’t eat most of them (gluten) and I gave my dad and grandpa a “cookie of the month” subscription for Christmas. Which means I’m making a batch of cookies to mail to them every month this year.
Now which cookie should I make? Can you help me out? I can’t decide. Vote for the one I should make.
If I get a lot of participation with the voting this month, I might turn this into a giveaway (as in you’ll get your own bunch of cookies mailed to you as well). This is going to be a monthly voting conundrum I feel.
The Contenders
Chocolate Ritz Peanut Butter Cookies (we call them bark cookies)
White Chocolate Topped Gingerbread Cookies
The Voting
Voting closes on January 10. I’ll announce what cookie won on January 15.
I’m ringing in 2012 by going to the Bears vs. Vikings showdown at noon today (aye carumba!).
Who will win? It is a tossup. When I bought the tickets I thought the Bears were sure to win … but now I don’t know. It’s sure to be an interesting game!
Happy 2012 everybody! If you’re suffering from a hangover and/or from watching football, why not try making one of these football-friendly comfort foods?
Amazing chili
Greek Turkey Burgers and Coleslaw
Best Chocolate Chip Cookies Ever
Nutter Butter Knockoff Blizzards
NACHOS.
Also, in case you’re wondering, I did NOT dye my hair red again. I snagged this pic from my facebook from last year. However, it is about this same length again!
