Thursday, January 1, 2009






So I saw these cinnamon rolls that got rave reviews from some cooking blogs that I check out on a regular basis. I was looking for something special to make for breakfast on New Year's day so I thought I would give them a try.

THEY ARE FABULOUS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! So delicious and sinful! I would eat the whole damn pan if my calorie counting brain didn't get in the way (dang brain). Hubby thought they were wonderful and stood by the pan guarding them from my attempt to eat more....I got stabbed a few times by his fork but my hand will be fine in a few days I'm sure. I made mine much smaller than the normal size cinnamon rolls so that we would only have one pan to deal with. They came from the Pioneer Woman blog (which is great and should be checked out for other wonderful things). Her recipe is for a very LARGE batch of these rolls, so I only used 1/4 of what she called for. The recipe below is for the large batch.


SERVES 28 , 56 rolls
Ingredients
4 cups whole milk
1 cup vegetable oil
1 cup sugar
4 1/2 teaspoons active dry yeast
8 cups all-purpose flour (i used whole wheat flour)
1 cup flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 tablespoon salt
1 1/2-2 cups melted butter
1 cup sugar
generous sprinkling cinnamon
7 tablespoons melted butter
2 lbs powdered sugar
2 teaspoons maple flavoring
1/2 cup milk
1/4 cup melted butter
1/4 cup brewed coffee
1/8 teaspoon salt
Directions
1Mix milk, vegetable oil, and sugar in a pan (large soup-pot type). "Scald" the mixture (heat until just before the boiling point.) Turn off heat and leave to cool 45 minutes to 1 hour.
2When the mixture is lukewarm to warm, but NOT hot, sprinkle in yeast. Let this sit for a minute so the yeast gets all warm and moist and happy. Then add 8 cups of all-purpose flour. Stir mixture together. Cover and let sit for at least an hour.
3Now add 1 more cup of flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Stir mixture together. At this point, you could cover the dough and put it in the fridge until you need it—overnight or even a day or two, if necessary. Just keep your eye on it and if it starts to splurge out of the pan, just punch it down. Or, of course, you can just go ahead and make the rolls.


4Sprinkle surface generously with flour. Take half the dough and form a rough rectangle. Then roll the dough thin, maintaining a general rectangular shape. Rectangle should increase in both width and length as you roll it out.
5Now drizzle melted butter over the dough. Sprinkle sugar over the butter, followed by a generous sprinkling of cinnamon.
6Starting at the opposite end, begin rolling the dough in a neat line toward you. Keep the roll relatively tight as you go. Some of the butter / sugar / cinnamon mixture may ooze out toward the end, but that’s no big deal. Next, pinch the seam to the roll to seal it.
7Spread 1 tablespoon of melted butter in seven round, foil cake or pie pans. Then begin cutting rolls approximately 3/4 to 1 inch thick and laying them in the buttered pans. Repeat this process with the other half of the dough. This recipe makes approximately seven pans of rolls (56 rolls).
8Let the rolls sit for 20 to 30 minutes to rise, then bake at 400 degrees until light golden brown, about 15 to 18 minutes.
9While the rolls are in the oven, make the deliciously sinful maple frosting. To a mixing bowl, add powdered sugar, maple flavoring, 1/2 cup milk, 1/4 cup melted butter, brewed coffee, and salt. Stir until mixture is thick but pourable. Taste and adjust as needed.
10Generously drizzle frosting over warm rolls after you pull them out of the oven.






Once again I took the picture AFTER we had already dug in to them.

Do you boys like Mexi-Co?!

I love Mexican food, I could eat nothing but Mexican food all day and be perfectly happy and fat. But since I don't want the fat part of the equation, only the happy, I find the need to find "lighter" Mexican food recipes. So with that in mind one evening when I had a wicked craving for tamales I browsed my way over to Cooking light.com and came across this:




Chicken Tamale Casserole


by Cooking Light.com



1 cup (4 ounces) preshredded 4-cheese Mexican blend cheese, divided
1/3 cup fat-free milk
1/4 cup egg substitute
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1/8 teaspoon ground red pepper
1 (14 3/4-ounce) can cream-style corn
1 (8.5-ounce) box corn muffin mix (I used Krusteaz's fat free cornbread mix- it is the best boxed cornbread mix around)
1 (4-ounce) can chopped green chiles, drained
Cooking spray
1 (10-ounce) can red enchilada sauce


2 cups shredded cooked chicken breast
1/2 cup fat-free sour cream
Preparation
1. Preheat oven to 400°.
2. Combine 1/4 cup cheese and next 7 ingredients (through chiles) in a large bowl, stirring just until moist. Pour mixture into a 13 x 9–inch baking dish coated with cooking spray.
3. Bake at 400° for 15 minutes or until set. Pierce entire surface liberally with a fork; pour enchilada sauce over top. Top with chicken; sprinkle with remaining 3/4 cup cheese. Bake at 400° for 15 minutes or until cheese melts. Remove from oven; let stand 5 minutes. Cut into 8 pieces( 1 piece is one serving); top each serving with 1 tablespoon sour cream.


I love cooking light because they give you the nutritional info on the recipe, which is sooooo helpful for someone who counts calories....it truly makes my day easier.


Nutritional Information
Calories: 354 (36% from fat)
Fat: 14.1g (sat 7.1g,mono 3.3g,poly 1.2g)
Protein: 18.9g
Carbohydrate: 36.3g
Fiber: 2.5g
Cholesterol: 58mg
Iron: 1.7mg
Sodium: 620mg
Calcium: 179mg

I tallied mine up with the products that I used and it was pretty close, my calories for my dish was 332...so not too far off.
This is what it looked like after we had already eaten part of it. I forgot to take a picture of the finished product! Hubby loved it and asked that it be put into the regular rotation.

Friday, December 26, 2008

My new challenge!

It is challenge time! I have decided it is not worth losing all the weight I have lost (currently up to 161 lbs lost) if I don't challenege myself every once in awhile. So the other day my instructor in my early morning aerobics class asked for people to join her team to raise money for the American Lung Association. I immediately started listening (which is difficult for me at 5:15am) and once she said what the event was I knew I had to do it........ and this is the challenege:

Master the Met! http://www.mrsnv.com/evt/home.jsp?id=2141

Basically it is a vertical race up 42 flights of stairs.....YEAH!! Hopefully I don't die of a heart attack half way up. I started training a few weeks ago and so far so good. It is a fund raiser so if you'd like to donate that would be great!! Just click under sponser a climber and type in my name:Nicole Salvi

If I make it I'll post pics and a description of the day. If I don't....my husband will post what funeral home to send flowers to.

Dogs and Rainbows

I've had quite a bit of time off lately, so I've had some time with the dogs and gotten to snap some cute photos of them and the wonderful rainbow we had a few weeks ago.

Vinny looking into the house:The boys playing in the backyard:





Nap time for Connor

Vinny chilling on his fave spot

And the rainbow

Thursday, December 25, 2008

Christmas Dinner

So my family never has a traditional Christmas Dinner ...we always have something different. This year everyone wanted lasagna, and since I have no go to recipe I had to do some searching, and I came across this recipe on allrecipes.com.
The World's Best Lasagna
SUBMITTED BY: John Chandler
1 pound sweet Italian sausage
3/4 pound lean ground beef
1/2 cup minced onion
2 cloves garlic, crushed
1 (28 ounce) can crushed tomatoes
2 (6 ounce) cans tomato paste
2 (6.5 ounce) cans canned tomato sauce
1/2 cup water
2 tablespoons white sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons dried basil leaves
1/2 teaspoon fennel seeds
1 teaspoon Italian seasoning
1 tablespoon salt -i only used 1/4 of salt
1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
4 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley -i used about 6 tablespoons
12 lasagna noodles
16 ounces ricotta cheese
1 egg
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 pound mozzarella cheese, sliced
3/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
DIRECTIONS
In a Dutch oven, cook sausage, ground beef, onion, and garlic over medium heat until well browned. Stir in crushed tomatoes, tomato paste, tomato sauce, and water. Season with sugar, basil, fennel seeds, Italian seasoning, 1 tablespoon salt, pepper, and 2 tablespoons parsley. Simmer, covered, for about 1 1/2 hours, stirring occasionally.


Bring a large pot of lightly salted water to a boil. Cook lasagna noodles in boiling water for 8 to 10 minutes. Drain noodles, and rinse with cold water. In a mixing bowl, combine ricotta cheese with egg, remaining parsley, and 1/2 teaspoon salt.
Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C).
To assemble, spread 1 1/2 cups of meat sauce in the bottom of a 9x13 inch baking dish. Arrange 6 noodles lengthwise over meat sauce. Spread with one half of the ricotta cheese mixture. Top with a third of mozzarella cheese slices. Spoon 1 1/2 cups meat sauce over mozzarella, and sprinkle with 1/4 cup Parmesan cheese. Repeat layers, and top with remaining mozzarella and Parmesan cheese. Cover with foil: to prevent sticking, either spray foil with cooking spray, or make sure the foil does not touch the cheese.
Bake in preheated oven for 25 minutes. Remove foil, and bake an additional 25 minutes. Cool for 15 minutes before serving.




Was very good, hubby had two helpings so it must have been decent....if he only has one serving it is not that great. It is probably one of the best lasagna recipes I've tried.

We also had a Pasta House salad which my husband loves...and I hate making because of the onion that have to be cut.
PASTA HOUSE SALAD

1 head red lettuce


1 jar pimentos


1/2 jar artichoke hearts, or more if desired


1/4 c. Parmesan cheese


However much Pasta House salad dressing you'd like (I bought the fat free Pasta House salad dressing)


Few slices red onion
Clean lettuce and tear apart as for regular salad. Drain pimentos and artichoke hearts, chop up. Add onion slices. Add dressing and cheese a small amount at a time, tossing well. Can be made ahead and chilled but tends to wilt down. This does not affect flavor though. Tastes just like the Pasta House Restaurant Salad.

Catching up

Well I haven't posted anything in awhile. Things got kind of busy around here. I started my master's program and we had some house stuff to work on. But I'm going to try to be better. I even had some really good things that I made but didn't take any pictures or take notes about changes. But I will try to be better and update more often.

Sunday, September 21, 2008

Ummmm........doughnuts

I was sitting around the other day watching TV....and I flipped it over to Food Network. And there was Everyday Italian. Giada was making Italian Doughnuts! I love all things made with dough. But I am not very good or patient at baking bread, or anything else made with yeast. But when I saw her making these I smiled...because I could do these. So here you go......

Italian Doughnut
from Everyday Italian
I made a few minor changes

1 container/can rolled pizza dough crust(I used Pillsbury Pizza crust dough)
3/4 cup sugar
1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
Olive oil for frying (I used all Olive oil)
Vegetable oil for frying
Roll out the dough on a lightly floured surface to 1/2-inch thickness. Using a floured 2-inch cookie cutter, cut out doughnut rounds. Using a floured 1-inch cookie cutter, cut out a hole in the center of each doughnut. Gather the dough scraps and re roll. Cut out more doughnuts.
Whisk the sugar and cinnamon in a medium bowl to blend. Set the cinnamon-sugar aside.
Pour equal parts of vegetable oil and olive oil into a large frying pan to reach a depth of 2 inches. Heat the oil over medium heat until a deep-fry thermometer registers 375 degrees F. Working in batches, fry the doughnuts until they puff but are still pale, about 45 seconds per side. Using a slotted spoon, transfer the doughnuts to paper towels to drain. Cool slightly. While the doughnuts are still warm, generously coat each 2 times with the cinnamon-sugar. Serve warm.
Alternately, cool the fried doughnuts to room temperature

I also made a glaze which was just powered sugar and some milk made to the consistency you would like.
Please ignore the Santa platter the doughnuts are on.....it was all I had lying around to put them on.

Connor under the desk

Connor under the desk
"Mom's throwing a fit in the kitchen!"

Boys running

Boys running
The boys making their getaway