Strawberry Cream Crescent Braid

This recipe and this picture is from the Pillsbury.com website.

Strawberry Cream Crescent Braid

1 can (8 0z) Pillsbury refrig. crescent dinner rolls (reduced fat kind is great!)

(OR 1 can (8 0z) Pillsbury Crescent Recipe Creations)

1/4 cream cheese spread (from 8 oz. tub) (1/3 less fat kind is great!)

1/3 cup strawberry preserves (or your choice of flavor)

Icing:

1/2 cup powdered sugar

2 to 3 tsp. milk

1/4 tsp. almond extract

1. Heat oven to 375. Spray large cookie sheet with cooking spray or grease w/shortening.

2. If using crescent rolls: Unroll dough into 2 long rectangles. Place dough on cookie sheet; overlap long sides to form 13 x 7 rectangle. Firmly press perforations and edges to seal. (see my photo below). If using dough sheet: Unroll dough; cut into 2 long rectangles and then follow same directions as above.

3. Spread cream cheese in 2-inch-wide strip lengthwise down center of dough. Top with preserves. Make cuts 1 inch apart on each side of rectangle just to edge of filling.


4. Alternating from side to side, fold cut strips of dough at an angle halfway across filling, slightly overlapping ends.


5. Bake 18 to 22 minutes or until golden brown. Cool 5 minutes; remove from cookie sheet. Cool at least 15 minutes.


6. Meanwhile, in small bowl, mix powdered sugar, milk and almond extract, adding enough milk for desired drizzling consistency; mix well. Drizzle over warm crescent braid.

Enjoy!!

I have made this recipe twice now, for an easy
and delicious Saturday morning breakfast...
and I highly recommend it! :)

What's cookin' in your kitchen?

If you ever try out a recipe I've posted, please let me know how it turns out, especially if you adapted the recipe at all... I would just love to hear feedback from anyone who reads this silly blog of mine. :)

Chicken and Broccoli Alfredo

So I tried a new recipe for dinner yesterday and I got it from kraftfoods.com and it turned out really yummy! I don't try new dinner recipes frequently - I hate making sure I have all the ingredients on hand, taking the time to make it, and then NOT knowing whether it's going to even taste good in the end.... So I was glad when this turned out delicious! I told Chris it tasted like the fettucine alfredo I get at Carrabba's - I was amazed I cooked such a good dinner. :)

Chicken and Broccoli Alfredo

Prep time: 10 minutes

Total time: 22 minutes

Makes: 4 servings, 2 cups each

8 oz. (half of a 1 lb. package) fettucine or spaghetti, uncooked

(I used linguine, since I wanted to use whole-grain noodles)

2 cups fresh broccoli florets

1/4 cup Kraft Zesty Italian Dressing

1 lb. boneless skinless chicken breasts, cut into bite-size pieces

1 and 2/3 cups milk

4 oz. (half of an 8 oz. package) Philadelphia cream cheese, cubed

1/4 cup Kraft grated parmesan cheese

1/2 tsp. dried basil leaves

Cook pasta as directed on package, adding broccoli to the boiling water for the last 2 minutes of the pasta cooking time. Drain pasta mixture.

Meanwhile, heat dressing in large nonstick skillet on med - high heat. Add chicken - cook 5 minutes or until chicken is cooked through, stirring occasionally. Sir in milk, cream cheese, parmesan cheese and basil. Bring to boil, stirring constantly. Cook 1 to 2 minutes or until sauce is blended and heated through. (* Note: It was still reallly runny when I added it to the noodles and broccoli, but it got a little thicker as it stood.)

.

Add chicken mixture to pasta mixture; mix lightly.

** Save 70 calories and 8 grams of fat, including 4 grams of saturated fat per serving by preparing with "Light" Zesty Italian dressing and Philadelphia Neufchatel cheese.

** You can substitute the broccoli with frozen peas, chopped red peppers or any of your favorite veggies.

Nutrition Info:

Calories - 570

Cholesterol - 120 mg

Total fat - 21 grams

Sodium - 510 mg

Saturated fat - 10 grams

Carbohydrate - 52 grams

Help!

So I am asking for your help. This morning I finally did it - I stepped on the scale. And I was not happy with the numbers which popped up. I have known for the past month or so that I've gained weight (because I could see it and feel it and my pants weren't fitting!) but I didn't know just how much. Well, I weigh more now than I ever have before (for not being pregnant..)

I have to do something or it's just going to get worse... so I need some ideas - ideas for eating healthy & snacking healthy. But I don't want to feel like I'm "dieting" - I just want to feel better about what I'm eating and make better food choices. So I know that I get hungry in between meals and I know that I don't usually eat things that are good for me. I just now searched the cupboards for a snack and decided to have a bowl of frosted flakes & milk (yeah, is that healthy? haha) - but after looking at the calories on the box - it seemed healthier than many other things!

So I wonder if you could e-mail me some ideas... especially for snacks... either post a comment on this blog or send me an email at kschrinel@yahoo.com

Goodbye evening bowls of ice cream!!

Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Muffins

Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Muffins

¾ cup butter or margarine, softened
¾ cup packed brown sugar
1 egg
1 cup all purpose flour
1 tsp. baking powder
¼ tsp. baking soda
¼ tsp. salt
¾ cup applesauce
1 cup rolled oats
1 cup (6 oz) chocolate chips

In a large mixing bowl, cream butter and sugar.

Chloe helped me! :)

Beat in egg. Combine dry ingredients (not oats); add alternately with applesauce to the creamed mixture. Stir in oats and chocolate chips. Fill greased or paper lined muffin tins 3/4 full. Bake at 350 for 25 minutes (or 10 minutes for mini muffins).

Yield: 12 muffins (or 52 mini muffins)

So how I adapted this recipe slightly..

1) I used "quick" oats instead of "rolled" oats. The only difference I've found is that the rolled oats are larger and quick oats are more.. what's the word... processed? I'm not sure if this makes a serious difference in recipes when it calls for one and you use the other.

2) I tasted a bit before pouring the mixture into the muffin pans and it tasted funny - I feel like whenever you put applesauce in a recipe, it turns out tasting really apple-y... which in some cases is NOT a good thing... and besides tasting the slight apple flavor, it didn't taste like much else... so I added 1/4 tsp. of vanilla extract at the last minute because I figure that always gives all other baked things a good flavor!

3) So then I used a spoon and put the mix in a 12 cup mini-muffin pan and a 12 cup large muffin pan - totally ignoring how many muffins the mix was supposed to make. (haha - just now realizing this!) Oh well, though... that means I had smaller muffins.

4) I put them in at 350 degrees and set the timer for 10 minutes... at that point the mini-muffins didn't seem completely done, so I left them in for 3 more minutes. The regular size muffins ended up being in the oven a total of 19 minutes.

5) No matter how eager you are to try one, don't take them out of the pan too soon (lesson learned here). :) They fell apart... they stuck to the pan... you name it. It's best to leave them sit & cool for at least 10 minutes or so. Oh, and for some reason I used mini chocolate chips and alot of them stuck to the bottom of the pan! Arghh!

6) I was not too impresed at first, but once I finished my entire muffin, after it had cooled, I realized they were pretty tasty after all! The texture is unique - I mean, I've had oatmeal chocolate chip cookies, but never muffins... and it's just different. (By the way, they didn't turn out tasting like apple!)

I still recommend you try the recipe, especially if you're a lover of anything chocolate, like me. :)

Orange Blueberry Coffee Cake

I made this recipe a couple months ago and took some to work with me for a Staff Meeting and got tons of compliments, so I'm sharing it with you! I am not real sure why I made it in a loaf pan - but it turned out fine. :)

Orange Blueberry Coffee Cake

1 1/2 cups flour
3/4 cup sugar
2 tsp. baking powder
1 egg
1/2 cup orange juice
1/4 cup cooking oil
1 or 2 cups blueberries

Topping:
1/4 cup packed brown sugar
1 tbs. flour
1 tbs. butter
1 tsp. ground cinnamon

Stir together flour, sugar and baking powder. Combine egg, orange juice, and oil and add to flour mixture. (My recommendation: Add some orange zest for more orange-y flavor!) Add blueberries. Turn into greased 9x9x2 baking pan. Combine butter, 1 tbs. flour, brown sugar and cinnamon. Sprinkle mixture over batter. Bake at 375 for 40 minutes.

Pillsbury Simply Cookies

So I've been tempted to buy these cookies since they showed up on the shelves next to the 800 other kinds of refrigerated cookie dough in the grocery store. But I haven't bought them, despite having a $1.00 off coupon and being able to get them pretty cheap when they're on sale.... Because I'm in "baking mode" lately and I would prefer homemade cookies than store-boughten any day! But my husband likes to snack on raw cookie dough and so we bought a package of each of these flavors of Simply cookies. I made some of the peanut butter cookies tonight after dinner. Now, the package only has 12 cookies in it, but that's because they are 12 normal sized cookies and not tiny ones, like most of the other brands! :) So anyway, I was pleasantly surprised - these peanut butter cookies were AMAZING. I undercooked them - but it's always better to have gooey cookies than burnt and crispy cookies, in mine & Chris' opinions! So anyhow, if you're looking for a yummy cookie and have no time to whip up a batch, find a coupon and go to the store and buy these. I'll let you know if the chocolate chip are just as good as the peanut butter!