All posts in food

Health-Full® Nutty Grain Bread

by Erin on March 15, 2012 in bzzagent, food, pure prattle with 1 Comment

This is the BEST healthy, low cal bread I have had in a very long time. I love my carbs (unfortunately) and just can’t give up my bread. It seems though, that the good, hearty breads are always full of calories. So it’s hard to lose weight while not denying myself. There are low calorie breads but they are NOTHING compared to Arnold’s Health-full® Nutty Grain (the version I had—thanks to being a BzzAgent!).

This bread is thick and moist. And BIG! Not teeny little squares. True, we’re talking 80 calories a slice, but since most plain bread is about 120 for 2 slices, you’re only adding a teeny bit more calories into the mix, along with: whole grains, 5 grams of protein per slice, and protein—5 per slice for the Nutty Grain. And have I said this bread is thick? You see and taste the grains (and in my case, nuts). The bread is filling. And that is what you want. There’s nothing worse than eating a sandwich and being hungry 20 minutes later. Doesn’t happen with this bread!

Health-full® comes in 3 versions:

Nutty Grain
- 5g of fiber per slice
- 5g of protein per slice
- 80 calories per slice
- Baked with whole grains
- No artificial colors, flavors or preservatives

10 Grain
- 5g of fiber per slice
- 5g of protein per slice
- 80 calories per slice
- Baked with 10 whole grains
- No artificial colors, flavors or preservatives

Flax & Fiber
- 4g fiber per slice
- 5g of protein per slice
- 80 calories per slice
- Good source of Omega-3 ALA
- No artificial colors, flavors or preservatives

Have you tried this bread yet? What were your thoughts? If you want to try it, Arnold’s website has some great recipes to try with it! (I mean, check out that Autumn Turkey Sandwich!)

Yum.

My Birthday Cake

by Erin on February 19, 2012 in food, holidays with 2 Comments

Well after two weeks of various family members being sick, we all finally got together for my birthday. I decided to go with a cake I saw on Pinterest. And while I was a teeny bit disappointed in how close two of the colors were to each other, I say “Bravo!” to myself for not only making my first 4 layered cake but also for making my own icing!

And there you have it. :) I had a wonderful time with family and yummy food.

Directions for cake:
2 boxes of white cake mix (I used the 4 egg whites option)
Add in gel coloring (I used Wilton’s Violet)

Buttercream recipe as follows, from Glorious Treats:

American Buttercream Frosting

1 cup (2 sticks) butter (salted, or unsalted)
1/4 teaspoon salt (if using unsalted butter)
4 cups powdered sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract (best quality available)
2-3 tablespoons heavy cream, half and half or milk.

*Optional- As mentioned above, I like a cream cheese version of this frosting best. The cream cheese adds to the creamy texture, and cuts down on the sweetness just a bit. If desired, for a very light cream cheese flavor add 1/2 block (4 oz). cream cheese, leaving the other ingredients (as listed above) the same. For a more traditional cream cheese flavor, reduce the butter to 1/2 cup, and add 1 block (8 oz.) of cream cheese. If using a full block of cream cheese, you can reduce the cream or milk to 1 tablespoon total.

Directions-
* In the bowl of an electric mixer, fitted with the whisk attachment, beat butter (on medium speed) until completely smooth (30 seconds to a minute). (If you are adding cream cheese, add it now, then beat until smooth)
* Add salt (if needed).
* One cup at time, add 2 cups of powdered sugar, beating after each addition.
* Add vanilla, or other flavorings and beat to combine.
* Add about 1 tablespoon of cream, and continue beating.
* Add the remaining 2 cups powdered sugar, one at a time.
* Add an additional 1-2 tablespoons cream until desired consistency is reached. If you want to pipe the frosting on cupcakes, the frosting should be nice and thick. Continue to beat another minute or so. The frosting should now be smooth and fluffy.

I did go with the cream cheese option. I also made a thicker frosting even though I was just icing the cake (no piping involved). I was really shooting for a white frosting so I also added in a bit of Wilton’s White Icing Coloring. Made a world of difference (to me anyway, lol).

Diet Soda Cupcakes? Yep.

by Erin on January 30, 2012 in food, pure prattle with 2 Comments

I’ve been super obsessed with Pinterest as of late. Not surprising as the site feeds into my pack-rat mentality. Anyway, I’ve been determined to try out some of the things I keep pinning. (Notice how I’m doing a good job of not even mentioning that I stalled on day 3 of the challenge? More about that later.)

So w/out further ado, here are my Diet Dr. Pepper Cherry Funfetti Cupcakes (w/frosting, because, what’s a cupcake—diet or not—without icing???).

And here’s the recipe. Are you sitting down?

1 box of whatever cake mix you like (though I’d stay away from the specialty ones like Angel Food or Devil’s Food)
1 room temperature can of diet soda of choice

Combine cake mix (in my case I used Valentine’s Day Funfetti) and can of soda (I used Diet Dr. Pepper Cherry) until it looks like regular cake batter. (It will bubble at first, it’s normal.) Then here’s what I did: poured batter into cupcake liners (regular old paper ones – actually mine were Halloween ones because I thought I had plain ones but I didn’t) 2/3 full and bake at 350 for approximately 20 minutes. I probably could have gone 22 but I didn’t want to push it and ruin it (only had one cake mix on hand). I got 19 cupcakes out of the mix in the end.

You’re ‘supposed to’ eat them as is; no icing. I just can’t bring myself to do that. So I used Valentine’s Day Funfetti Icing.

They taste yummy! Not exactly like a regular cupcake (the husband ate them, but he’s dieting and was willing to eat anything with the mere mention of cake). But they will definitely do. I want to try a chocolate root beer with some kind of cream icing next.

So on with my major blog challenge failure. I had the best intentions, but it all went to hell in a handbasket. The kiddo got sick, the baby is teething, I’m exhausted and my eyes are shot to hell.

Apparently I’ve got two things going on: one being that I’m getting old. My eyesight is not what it used to be thanks to internet usage. Well, really, I’ve worked on computers since day one, starting at the bank and those horrible command type screens (ours was yellow-gold on black) and worked my way up to what I’m on currently. And since I work from home 6 hours a day, it’s a fair assumption that that isn’t helping matters. Anyway, my eyes are not focusing properly thus I’m having a hard time seeing, especially at night after being on the computer all day. (This resulted in eyeglasses.) The second issue is that I have high eye pressure that needs to be rechecked in April. Not fun. This will result in daily eye drops. <don don donnnnn> So not a fan of eye drops. But hey, if it saves my eyesight, I’m all for it.

So, between all this and just conking out at night, I’ve failed at the challenge. I’m thinking I’ll pick it up in a few days, so you’ll all have to forgive my ‘missing’ days. ;)

Ok, I’m outta here. Things to do, people to avoid.

30 Day Challenge, Day 2: What I Ate Today

by Erin on January 17, 2012 in Challenge, food with 5 Comments

Just a quickie today. I’ve cleaned up way more baby yuck than normal so I’m way behind in all my other stuff. So, I totally deserved to eat an ice cream sandwich. Just wish it wasn’t a “diet” one, though truthfully, these are the best ice cream sandwiches in the world. (I’m serious. If you haven’t had one, get one. Even if you’re not dieting!)

Tomorrow = hump day… couldn’t have been better timing. ;)

To Die For Cookies!

by Erin on February 5, 2011 in food with 2 Comments

Last month I came across a cookie recipe from Picky-Palate for Chocolate Chip Oreo Cookie Sandwiches. I immediately knew I just had to make them for my birthday. So I gathered all the ingredients (and honestly, check out the list—it’s super simple!) and waited and waited for the day. Today was that day!

I won’t go into detail since there are extremely well documented instructions included with the recipe, but I will share my final result:

Even before I tasted it, I began to crave milk—that’s how sweet they smell. And the smell was not misleading. These suckers are soooo full of chocolate that they will cure any hankering for something sweet.

I think I added a bit more chocolate chips than I should have (the recipe calls for a 10oz bag, I could only find a 12oz bag so I eyeballed the amount to put in). However, that didn’t stop me from sucking half of one down! (Yes, half of one. Believe me, when/if you make these you’ll completely know why!)

I only made 18 of them (I got a little tired after a bit) but I had made a cake right before it. I really can’t wait to see everyone’s faces when they see and then bite into these tomorrow!