Non-LPL Birthday!

Happy 6th birthday to my second child!  The only one thus far without LPLD.  Maybe someday I'll be able to make a low fat cake for everyone and be happy with it... but I haven't reached that stage of maturity yet.

For now, I am stuck planning two cakes.  Stressing over two cakes.  Making two cakes.  Striving to get the cakes both tastey and beautiful and appealing to children.  Wow, it stresses me out.

Good thing she's worth the stress

When I'm able to find someone to outsource to, I LOVE paying someone to take over the anxiety and make the two cakes for me.  But so far here, I have had zero luck finding a baker or bakery willing to make very-low-fat-cake or -cupcakes for me.

So here I am, trying a new frosting recipe.

I rely on nonfat chocolate brownie mix as the only alternative to angel food cake.  Mix a full box with nonfat greek yogurt, and I can make little cupcakes or a bigger cake!  Because as amazing as angel food cake is, I don't blame my girls for wanting some chocolate in their lives, too.

The frosting has always been my challenge.  I don't get along with 7 minute frosting, I always manage to mess it up and let it go flat, or it slowly melts and drips off my creations in the days after I make it, before we've finished the whole cake.  I've made 'frosting' out of powdered sugar and nonfat greek yogurt, but it lacks a richness and creaminess that frosting deserves.

Today I took some firm coconut oil (the ambient temperature happens to be just right) and mixed a proportion of 1 tablespoon coconut oil to 1 tablespoon nonfat greek yogurt to 1 cup powdered sugar.  Plus a dash of vanilla extract and a dash of almond extract to detract from the coconutty-ness.

I am by no means a professional cake decorator, but it will have to do.

So far, it's a perfect frosting texture!  We'll see what the girls think of it!  In the future, I would consider making it with MCT oil to ensure it really has only the medium chain triglycerides that are good for my girls.  But then again, MCT oil doesn't solidify at room temperature in the same way coconut oil does, so maybe the texture wouldn't be right/   I'll worry about that next time!

What's for Supper? (link-up) - Volume 1

A favorite blogger of mine, Simcha Fisher, hosts a link-up every week where she posts what she had for dinner every night that week, for inspiration for other families.  Maybe this could help LPLD moms out there, too!  I have decided to link with hers, mostly to help encourage me to actually get my post up once in a while.



So, what did we eat last week?

Monday
frozen tuna filets with a side of roast butternut squash with fennel

Every time we move, it's an effort to find fish that we like.  We haven't yet found a source of fresh fish yet in Germany, but these were decent frozen ones!  The butternut squash is one of our favorite vegetables of all time.  It's basically this but without the apple... or the honey...  Hmm.  Well.  I think my mother-in-law made it up and it's the only thing I know to do with fennel.
***

Tuesday
St Daria's feast day - sushi in Trier!

My confirmation saint is a little-known saint, St Daria, and we love to celebrate our feast days in our family.  So!  Sushi it was!  It is amazing how much sushi our girls can put away.  The waitress doubted our choice of two full california rolls for them, but we showed her!  California rolls are just white rice, sea weed wrapping, cucumber, avocado, and (fake) crab.  So if you have the space in your fat intake for a little avocado, it's delicious!
***



Wednesday
Tamales (from a work fundraiser) and ratatouille

Monica had half of a tamale and mostly some leftover noodles with pasta sauce, one of her favorite foods.  And ratatouille because I definitely consider tomatoes a vegetable, so load them on that plate!  I don't think tamales can ever be LPLD friendly.  Sigh.  But ratatoulli is a family favorite - basically sauteed tomatoes, eggplant, and basil. It's what made me realize I liked eggplant and I highly recommend trying it!  Add some chicken or (fat free) mozzarella the first time you make it to be sure you like it :)
***



Thursday
Beef and mushroom stir fry from here

Well... loosely adapted.  Served over rice for the girls instead of noodles and without capsicum and just broccoli instead of broccolini.  And no kecap manis.  Just soy sauce.  It was good!
***



Friday
Pasta Primavera

My husband made the recipe up. He sauteed red peppers, onion, cherry tomatoes, probably some tomato paste and spices, and we served it over rotini.
***

Saturday

Chicken and sausage gumbo from Better Homes and Gardens

It can be tough finding smoked sausage that's low enough fat for LPLD. We use this:

Smoked turkey sausage

5 g of fat for 2 oz, or 1/7 of the package

I add twice the amount of okra that it calls for, since we all like okra, and it's both delicious and low fat.

We'll be having a lot of pictures of whatever was leftover from dinner until I can remember to take pictures on the day of the meal.... For now, behold my lunch this week!

***

Sunday:

Pork shoulder, roasted and topped with roasted bell pepper and gouda/Northwoods  Garden Vegetable cheese

We should have had another vegetable. But we forgot.

See you next week!  I hope!

Honey Mustard

It's embarrassing how long I took to figure this out, but you know what's really tastey, easy to make, AND fat free?  Honey mixed with mustard.

Recently Monica has had it on fish, toast, hamburgers.  They were all 100% Monica-approved.

The recipe?  Half honey and half dijon mustard.

German pretzels? AWESOME with honey mustard

A short post, but I highly recommend trying it!  A nice mix of sweet and savory!

Low fat chocolate cupcakes!

I am in love with a new recipe.  You have to LOVE chocolate, deep dark rich chocolate.  But my girls do!


Skinny Double Dark Chocolate Cupcakes



The only thing I changed was using coconut oil instead of the vegetable or canola oil listed in the recipe.  If you consider the full fat of the recipe, it comes out to 3 g of fat per cupcake.  If you count coconut oil as half the fat, then it's only 2 g of fat each!

Glorious low fat chocolate cupcakes in the oven

I LOVE it when I make a recipe with Monica and she can lick the bowl.  Isn't that the most perfect goatee?  Haha.

So many cupcakes!  The ones in the back with the lovely cracks across the top were in the top of the oven, the ones in the foreground were in the bottom of the oven.  Go figure.  It all gets covered with frosting anyway!

The frosting is certainly unique.  Basically just honey and cocoa powder.  Wha??  Right?!?  But it's a deep dark rich chocolate frosting, with really no hint of the milkiness of milk chocolate.  Interesting!  And tastey!

Ready for Monica's birthday celebration at school!

Kindergartener approved!

The recipe in the works!

Happy 6th Birthday Monica!  It seems we've finally found a chocolate cupcake recipe that works well!!!

Huevos Rancheros!

We went camping over the weekend (just plop camping, out of our car, still fun!) for a night, and this is what we had for breakfast.  So good! Monica devoured hers!

Can't get it in her mouth fast enough!

Ingredients:

Dash olive oil

Minced red onion

1 tablespoon sugar

Dash salt

Dash pepper

Dash garlic powder

Canned chopped tomatoes

Canned fat free refried beans OR canned black beans (or both!)

Corn tortillas (or other fat free tortilla of your choice)

Fat free cheddar cheese

Egg white OR egg beaters OR whole egg (5 g of fat per egg)

Optional: Diced avocado, fat free sour cream, minced fresh cilantro, jarred sliced pickled jalepeno

Heat olive oil over medium heat in a saucepan until hot; add onion, sugar, salt, pepper, and garlic powder.  Sautee until soft.  Add one can chopped tomatoes.  Cook until heated through.  Set aside in separate bowl.  Use hot greased pan to cook eggs to your liking (over easy, scrambled, whatever).

Assemble by smearing beans over tortilla, topping with the egg, and then tomatoes, cheese, and whatever optional toppings you like!

Our family doesn't even both to use forks.  Scoop it up with both hands and prepare to make a (delicious) mess!

Bunny Bread!

I wasn't planning on posting this, but my mom liked it a lot over Easter, so maybe you will, too!  It's a fun breakfast bread that we finished every scrap of this year.

Not perfect, but the girls thought it was sufficiently bunny-like

In your breadmaker, combine 4 cups whole wheat flour, 1/4 cup honey, 2 tablespoon yogurt, 3 eggs (or just egg whites), 2 teaspoons grated lemon peel, and 1/4 cup apple sauce.  Start on the 'dough' cycle to mix it well.  Turn off breadmaker once mixed, place 1/4 cup whole wheat flour on top of mixture, with 1 envelope yeast and 2 teaspoons of salt on top of the dry flour.  Allow to sit for 12-24 hours before running the 'dough' cycle fully.

Add 1/2 cup raisins and 1/2 cup dried cherries to the dough as you knead the dough until smooth and elastic.  Placed in a greased bowl, turning once to grease the top.  Cover and let rise for 1 hr or until doubled.

Shape into a bunny; cut off 2/3 of the dough and form it into an egg-shaped ball.  Place onto your baking sheet.  Cut the remaining dough in half, form one into a teardrop shape.  This will be the bunny head and ears.  Roll and pull the thin end longer, then cut the thin end down the middle to be the two ears, attached to the head.  On the narrow part of the egg-shaped body, press down on the edge of the dough to make an indentation where the head will rest and position it.

Cut 1/3 of the dough remaining, make a rope 6 inches long, make a u-shape and slide it until the body and head, leaving loose ends sticking out about 2 inches to make the front paws.

From the last of the remaining dough, make a rope 9 inches long, and make the ends fatter and the middle thinner.  Fold the rope in half and make a ball in the middle to be the tail.  Tuck the thin parts under the bunny body and leave the tail and ends of the back legs sticking out.

Cover your bunny and let it rise about 30 min.  If desired, then use scissors to form rabbit toes, slits for eyes, maybe tiny cuts for eyelashes.  Pinch the nose into place.

Bake at 350 for 40 min.

Serve with bunny salad (made with canned pear halves, cloves for eyes, marshmallows, and a maraschino cherry):

Cinnamon Rolls for Easter!

I have a new source of super low fat recipes!  Check it out!

The Goode Life is written by a fellow military mom, and her toddler has VLCAD (Very long-chain acyl-CoA dehydrogenase) deficiency, which sounds rougher than LPLD in some ways (I hope she writes up his diagnosis story some day, but it will be a hard  and emotional thing for her to put into words, I think).  Anyway, judging from the recipes she has on her blog, she has put a lot of effort into cooking beautiful and delicious food, even though her child is only a toddler!  I admit, sometimes I don't put all that much effort into trying new recipes for my girls, since I figure they are so young.  They won't miss cinnamon rolls since they don't remember them, right?  But she inspired me to try her recipe for Easter, and I'm so glad I did!

I followed her recipe posted here but since I like to soak my grains and use my bread maker, I combined the milk, apple sauce, flour, egg whites, and sugar and combined them in the bread machine bowl with 2 Tablespoons of non fat yogurt.  I put 1/4 cup white flour on top, and put the yeast and salt on top of the dry flour.  I let the whole thing sit in the breadmaker overnight, with the maker set to automatically finish the 'dough' cycle by the time I would be up for Easter morning.  That morning, I took the finished bread dough out and ended up having to mix another whole cup of white flour in to make a good doughy texture, and then placed it in a bowl greased with a little coconut oil like she recommends, to rise for an hour in a warm oven, covered with a damp, clean towel.  I used a pastry brush to paint the melted coconut oil onto the bowl, to keep it to a minimum.


I followed the rest of her directions for the inside filling and baking and the frosting, and topped them all with raisins (which were carefully picked off and avoided anyway, oh well.

Both my girls loved them!


Happy Easter!!!

Roasted Bell Peppers of Awesomeness

My latest fat free foot obsession is roasted bell peppers.  You can do other peppers, too, and the roasting process gives them a flavor that is just fantastic.  My LPLD girls just can't quite handle that (or any) level of spice (yet - I hope!).  I've always known they were tastey, but couldn't find an easy enough way to roast them to be able to incorporate them into every day life.  But now I've found one!  We had them on sandwiches last weekend and could have gotten by without lunchmeat, the peppers were so good.  I even but them on the fajitas we had last night, and Monica didn't even notice that she didn't have avocado on hers! (She had a high fat weekend, so we need to take a few days of low low low fattiness).  So, here's what works so well for us:

Stick as many bell peppers as will fit (or just a few, but why not mass produce these delicious things?!?) onto a cookie sheet and stick them in an oven preheated to 375 degrees.  Cook for 20 minutes.

Then rotate each one 180 degrees (flip them over) with some tongs.  Cook for another 20 minutes.

Dump them unceremoniously from the cookie sheet onto your stove top (if you're like me, though a plate would do fine too), herd them together with your tongs, and stick a cake dome on top of them.  Or a bowl.  Or anything that will trap the steam (and save your money instead of wrapping them in foil for that one time use).  Let them sit until they are cool.

We ate all the peppers... but these apples represent how to let the peppers steam and cool in a cake dome.  Or bowl.

Using gloves for hot peppers, use your hands to peel off the roasted skin, the stems, and the seeds out from the insides.

Eat that fleshy goodness!!  On a sandwich, with eggs, in crepes, whatever you would consider using plain old peppers in!

Rice Pudding

I have yet to find a way to make good chocolate or vanilla pudding fat free.  For now I rely on the little skim milk cups of pudding I can sometimes find in the grocery store.  But this morning I tried rice pudding for breakfast, and I thought it was fantastic.  I bet the girls would have eaten more of it if I had added cocoa powder, so I'll keep that in mind for fat free pudding in the future.  We made it with leftover brown rice, so it was extra healthy!  Yay fiber!

The recipe is adapted from one of my favorite cookbooks. It's not all low fat, but every recipe is perfected to full flavor (so making it fat free is generally still very tastey!).  (Don't tell, but this recipe technically was from the 'dessert' section... but in my book, all good breakfasts would also make great desserts...)

100% delicious

Cook a cup of rice according to the directions of the package.  We prefer brown rice for added nutrient density.  OR use 2 cups of whatever leftover rice is in the fridge and doesn't smell funny!

Put 4 cups fat free milk and 1/2 cup sugar in a medium pot, bring to a simmer, Add the rice and cook on a slow simmer, uncovered and stirring frequently (though I neglected it horribly and it still didn't burn! score!), until the mixture is thick (45 minutes ish).  Remove from heat and add a teaspoon of vanilla.  Serve warm or refrigerate and serve cold.

Breakfast this morning!

Flavor options:

• plain old vanilla
• add grated orange zest while it's cooking, maybe with a 2-3 almonds, chopped, on top
• add cinnamon, nutmeg, and 1/2 cup dried fruit at the end with the vanilla
• for a more Indian flavor (Yum!) add 1/2 teaspoon cardamom with the vanilla and sprinkle 1/3 cup toasted chopping pistachios on top of each bowl (if your fat intake can take it... let's see, 1/3 cup for the whole batch, it's supposed to serve 6 people, so slightly less than a tablespoon per person... 18 grams of fat in 1/3 cup of chopped pistachios, so... 3 grams of fat per tablespoon! not too bad!)
• unsweetened baking cocoa added with the vanilla would be great, too!  I'd estimate 1/3 cup for the whole batch would be about right, but add more for a darker chocolate flavor (another secret of our family is our oatmeal is often chocolate flavored for breakfast, using this same trick...)

Kettle Corn!!

I've finally figured out how to make a batch without burning it all.  The secret seems to be letting go of perfection - I cook popcorn in a whirley pop, which we were given by my parents, but I like to cook it until every.  single.  kernel.  is popped.  Which, when there is sugar added as for kettle corn, just doesn't work.  The sugar burns before every kernel pops.  Never fails.  Lower heat?  Doesn't matter.  Longer time cooking?  Doesn't matter.  Always burns.  So that's my secret.  Otherwise, here's the recipe:

Et voila!  Happy New year!

Heat a large pot (or a whirley pop) with 1/2 tablespoon coconut oil (olive oil works great, too) on medium high heat.  After it's getting warm, add 1/4 cup popcorn kernels, 1 teaspoon salt, 1/4 cup sugar, keep covered.  Toss around (or stir with whirley pop) at regular intervals until the popping  starts and then slows down.  Remove from heat at the first smell of anything burning, or when the popping has 1-2 second intervals between pops.  Let go of your perfectionism! Let some kernels be thrown out!

LPLD Pie Crust

The holiday season is rough without pie.  But as a fruit-based dessert, I was sure we could find a way to make it possible.

I grew up with my grandma's oil-based pie crust, nice and crisp.  I tried it with coconut oil and it worked great!  If you make a single crust (depending on the pie, you can put the one crust on the top or one on the bottom - who says you have to have two crusts?!?), put no fat into the interior of the pie, and eat an eighth of a pie, it will have approximately 7 grams of fat.  3.5 grams if you and your doctor have agreed your health allows you to consider coconut oil half the amount of fat due to its having a lot of medium chain triglycerides!  Certainly not an everyday food, but no longer on the 'never' list, either!

Grandma's Recipe:

Place 1 cup all-purpose, unbleached flour in a small bowl, add 1/2 teaspoon salt and stir.  In a 1/2 cup measuring cup, place 1/4 cup coconut oil (microwave it if it's solid), then add 2 1/2 tablespoons of cold water to the same measuring cup.  Add the whole measuring cup all at once to the flour/salt mixture, and stir with a fork until just combined.  Roll out dough between 2 pieces of wax paper that are roughly 12"x12" (square) until it makes a rough circle that fills to the edges on each side.  Peel off the top wax layer piece carefully and use the bottom waxed paper to place the crust into place on the pie.  Peel off the last piece of waxed paper carefully.  If you need to prebake the crust before filling it, bake it at 450 degrees for 10-12 minutes or until lightly browned.

Cherry pie with a top crust cut into overlapping stars.  So pretty!

Pie filling recommendations

• 6 cups thinly sliced granny smith apples, 1 tablespoon lemon juice, 3/4 cup sugar, 2 tablespoons tapioca, 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon, 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg (definitely a top crust)
• 5 cups blueberries with 1/2 cup sugar, a sprinkle of cinnamon,  and 1/4 cup tapioca (bottom crust)
• 5 cups strawberries with 1/2 cup sugar and 1/4 cup tapioca (bottom crust)
• Two cans of tart cherries cooked with sugar and cornstarch per the can directions (with a top or bottom crust)
• 3 cups chopped rhubarb, 1 cup strawberries, 1 cup sugar, 2 Tablespoons tapioca (with a top lattice crust)

What other pies do you wish you could make, or have you made successfully?

Pasta Primavera

This is a recipe for the summer... maybe I'm already craving all these fresh vegies in this cold, but it will be amazing to eat this again when zucchini is in season again!

Ingredients:
3 carrots, cut into thin strips
2 medium zucchini (or one large) cut into thin strips
2 yellow squash, cut into thin strips
1 onion, finely sliced
1 yellow bell pepper, cut into thin strips
1 red bell pepper, cut into thin strips
additional vegetables, as desired, consider a small buternut squash, fennel, or bok choi, also cut into small pieces
1 tablespoon olive oil
salt and pepper to taste
1 tablespoon dry Italian herbs (or a dash of parsley, oregano, and basil)
1 pound whole wheat linguine (our favorite for this recipe, but use whatever noodle you want)
15 cherry tomatoes, cut in half

Directions:

Preheat oven to 450.  In a large heavy baking sheet or brownie pan, toss all the vegies with oil, salt, pepper, and dry herbs.  Put half the vegies on a separate sheet or brown pan and arrange evenly across the bottoms.  Bake until the carrots are tender and vegies begin to brown, stirring every 10 minutes.  This should take about 20 minutes.

Meanwhile, cook the pasta per the directions on the box.  Drain, reserving 1 cup of the cooking water.

Toss the pasta with the vegies in a large bowl to combine.  Toss with the cherry tomatoes and enough reserved cooking liquid to moisten.  Season with salt and pepper to taste.  Serve immediately.

Yum! End of summer harvest! Ignore the pineapple...

Adapted from this recipe.

Lettuce Wraps

Similar to those served as an appetizer at a popular Chinese chain restaurant, and a big hit in our family.  We use ground beef, but chopped chicken is excellent as well.

Ingredients:
Filling:
1 tablespoon oil
1 lb ground beef (or two boneless skinless chicken breasts)
8 oz can of water chestnuts, minced
2/3 cup fresh mushrooms
1 small onion, chopped
1 clove minced garlic
1 cup+ of other vegetables, including peppers or zucchini, chopped

Dip:
2 tablespoons sugar
1/2 cup broth
2 tablespoons soy sauce
2 tablespoons rice wine vinegar
2 tablespoons ketchup
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1/8 teaspoon sesame oil (packs surprising flavor!)
1 tablespoon mustard
2 teaspoons water
1-2 teaspoons garlic and red chile paste (if desired for spiceness)

Stir Fry Sauce:
2 tablespoons soy sauce
2 tablespoons brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon rice wine vinegar

Directions:
Make dip by combining all ingredients, mix well and refrigerate until ready to serve.

Heat oil in large frying pan or woke, saute meat until cooked through.  Remove meat, allow to cool and mince (if using chicken).  Leave remaining grease in cooling pan.  Prepare stir fry sauce by combining ingredients.  Heat the greasy pan again, on high heat, and add chicken, garlic, onions, water chestnuts, mushrooms, and other vegies.  Add stir fry sauce and heat through, for a few minutes.

Serve filling scooped into whole lettuce leaves, rolled slightly, and dipped into the dip as desired.  It's messy, but delicious!

Adapted from this recipe

Wildly Successful Homemade Strawberry Ice Cream

We bought an ice cream maker with dreams of offering alternatives to the sorbets and sherbets offered in the grocery store.  We would make more varieties, healthier, with real fruit and less sugar!!!  But it turns out that low sugar with no fat really... isn't that popular.  So I'm embracing the sugar again, and I hope that in reality it's less than in the grocery store versions - I don't have to see the manufacturer add cup after cup to their batch like I do at home!  And at least it's real fruit, actually picked in season! (And sometimes frozen at home for later use).

Here's the one recipe that has really really gone over well:

Strawberry Ice Cream

Ingredients
3 heaping cups strawberries
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup sugar
2 large eggs
2 cups fat free yogurt
1 1/3 dry milk
1/3 cup honey
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Puree strawberries and salt in your blender or food processor, make sure there's still 2 cups of strawberries.

In a large bowl, beat sugar into the eggs until thick and pale.  Add strawberries, yogurt, dry milk, honey, and vanilla (all the rest of the ingredients).  Allow mixture to cool a few hours in the fridge and then follow the instructions of your ice cream maker.

Goes well with chocolate syrup - it's fat free!  Or make your own!

So it only has a cup of sugar and 1/3 cup of honey... not so bad?  Maybe?  It does have raw eggs, too, so use eggs that you trust are fresh and maybe don't serve it to any in poor health or low immune function.

Still not quite as good as plain old snow...

Dessert ideas!

Especially with a young child, dessert might be the hardest time to have LPLD.  Making sure Monica feels included in a special treat at holidays, family gatherings, and weddings, is almost always a source of stress for me!  So here is a list of our best ideas to make desserts feel special:

• Fresh fruit with sugar to dip in - by far the easiest for a restaurant or a wedding caterer to pull off, especially when it's a special rare fruit (strawberries!)
• Apple slices dusted with cinnamon and sugar and DELICIOUS
• Sherbet or sorbet - be careful, sherbet is sometimes fat free, sometimes not!  Serve with chocolate syrup, sprinkles, cherries, and/or marshmallow fluff
• Marshmallows!  Roasted over a campfire (s'mores can work with chocolate syrup instead of a bar of chocolate), or assembled with toothpicks into a 'snowman'
• Apple (or other fruit) 'pie' without the crust (or the crust removed)
• Fat free brownies (I'm still working on an imitation of Trader Joe's mix that's been discontinued)
• Angel food cake frosted with fat free whipped cream (or whipped topping), fresh fruit, or sweetened nonfat yogurt
• Fruit juice popsicles (buy them, make your own in dixie cups; maybe even with fat free yogurt, like a frozen smoothie)
• Merengue cookies are one guaranteed fat free cookie!
• Snow cones, either with a fancy snow cone maker or use a blender to crush ice, then cover it in sugary fruity syrup
• popcorn or kettle corn - easy to make on a stovetop, or airpop some popcorn, melt some honey with cinnamon, and toss the popcorn with the sticky delicious result.  I made about 8 cups of the stuff last night thinking it would be a sweet snack for the week.  Monica and Mary ate it all. in. one. night.  !!



So sick of Frozen, but it makes everything more special these days

What are your reliable dessert options when you need a sweet treat?

Snack ideas!

If you have the time and patience to walk through the granola bar and cookie areas of your grocery store and look at the nutrition facts of every box there, there may be a surprising number that is LPLD-safe!  Well, surprising if you're like me and you expect there to be ZERO, ha!  We let Monica have bars that have up to 3 g of fat per serving as snacks at school, since our school says it's too much of a hassle to require every Kindergarten parent that brings in snack to make sure it's Monica-safe AND we don't quite have the time and energy to bring in fresh cut up fruit and vegies every single day for snack AND lunch!  So there's actually a wide variety that she has in her own personal 'snack bag' at school for when the snack provided is too high fat (or the teacher isn't sure if it's too high fat).  Monica's favorites are the ones with chocolate!  But as for day-to-day, we like to stay away from snacks that come in bags and never ever seem to go bad.  Here is a list of our favorite snacks:

(Fat free) yogurt with jelly

(Fat free) yogurt with honey

(Fat free) yogurt with a tiny amount of granola or chopped nuts

Popcorn!  air popped or cooked in a small amount of coconut oil

Popcorn with salt

Popcorn with honey

Popcorn with salt and sugar (I am ALWAYS burning this kettle corn lately, sigh)

Carrots with fat free ranch dip

Kiwis cut in half and peeled

Apples with peanut butter dip

Strawberries, blueberries, blackberries, any berries!

Even better if you pick them yourself!

Frozen peas (crunchy and tastey, have you tried them??)

Peeled oranges

Other sliced fruit, especially with yogurt dip (yogurt, honey, and vanilla extract)

Sliced fruit with peanut butter dip

Edamame (look with frozen vegetables in the store)

Cucumber sticks

Pickles! Lots of varieties, all non fat!

Cherry tomatoes

Sliced tomatoes dusted with a little salt

Pea pods

Cauliflower

Broccoli

Sliced bell peppers

Fat free tortillas with lunch meat and nonfat cream cheese, rolled up and held with a toothpick

Cubes of fat free cheese (with grapes and apples to be extra fancy)

Low fat muffins!

Dates (super sweet!)

Honey/jelly sandwich

Honey/banana (or other fruit) sandwich

Jello jigglers! from a mix or from this recipe from Kitchen Stewardship

I was so happy with how these candy corn Jello things turned out!

Bean dip (mashed up canned beans, maybe with a little yogurt to make it more dip-y) with fat free tortillas (add cheese to make little quesadillas!)

Brown rice with pasta sauce

Applesauce!

Fruit smoothies with fat free yogurt

Raisins and other dried fruit

Egg white with a few vegies sauteed in

What else do you have to add to this list?

Self Frosting (Anise) Drops (COOKIES!)

Happy feast of St Nicholas!  In our family, St Nick fills our shoes overnight and also comes and frosts these cookies!  They are simple and a family tradition, and they also happen to be low fat; 15 grams for the whole recipe, which I've had make 7 dozen (very small, bite size) cookies!  Use whatever flavor extract you want; traditionally it's anise, but not everyone likes the licorice-ness, so I've also used plain old vanilla as well as almond.

Ingredients:
3 eggs at room temperature
1 cup plus 2 tablespoons sugar
1 3/4 cups all purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon anise extract

In a medium mixing bowl, beat eggs until fluffy.  Add sugar gradually, beating constantly.  Continue to beat 20 minutes more (we find another platform to rest our hand mixer on, cause 20 minutes - wow!).  In a separate small bowl, combine flour with salt and baking powder.  Gradually add flour mixture to egg mixture, mixing the whole time.  Beat another three minutes.  Add extract.  Drop by 1/2 teaspoonfuls onto greased and floured cookies sheets, swirling to form a round cookie (we use stoneware but they are hard to get off prettily, but we don't mind cracked cookies).  Let stand 8 hours, or overnight, to dry.  Bake at 325 F for about 10 minutes or until a creamy golden color on the bottom.  Store in air tight tins.  The 'frosting' forms while they are being baked.

Sweet and simple!  Happy Advent!

Angel Food Cake Cupcakes

I found this on a package of Angel Food mix and I never want to forget it!  I don't like to make a full batch (30-36!) of cupcakes at a time, since I usually just want one or two for upcoming parties, and frost and freeze the rest.  But if you want to make the whole box, follow the directions on the back of the box (it makes up to 36 cupcakes, refrigerate the batter while the first bunch is waiting if you don't have that many muffin cups to bake with, like me!)

Heat oven to 375 degrees F.  Place paper baking cups in 12 regular sized muffin cups.  Measure out 1 cup of purchased angel food cake mix (write on the box or bag how much you've used and how much there is left!  There are usually 4 cups of mix in a box that usually makes a whole cake).  Beat it in a glass or metal bowl with 1/4 and an extra little splash of water (you want 1/4 cup and 1/16 of a cup of water, for you who want the details), for 30 seconds on low speed, then for 1 minute on medium speed.  Pour into muffin cups so that they are 3/4 full (if at high altitude, fill 2/3 full).  Bake 12-20 min or until golden brown and cracks feel dry.

Frosting... is a whole other blog post.  I have yet to get it quite right!

My Favorite Homemade Bread

I've always wanted to make all our own bread, and after much trial and error I finally found a recipe that works for our family.  It tastes great, it holds up well enough for sandwiches and toasting, and the girls gobble it up!  What's more, it's 100% whole wheat and I've found a way that works with my bread machine to make a great loaf with really minimal work on my part.  See what you think!

Ingredients

1 1/3 cup water (I use just 1 cup in the summer when it's more humid)

1 tablespoon plain non-fat yogurt

2 tablespoons coconut oil (I zap it in the microwave to pour it out of the jar)

3  tablespoons molasses

3¼ c. whole wheat flour (divided)

2 teaspoons yeast

1 1/2 teaspoons salt

Mix the water, yogurt, oil, molasses, and flour together.  I like to put them in my bread machine's pan in the order and let it do all the work of mixing them together, on a 'dough' setting.  Cover the dough (or close the bread maker lid) and leave it for 12 to 24 hours.  This allows the water to soften the hard whole wheat and the bacteria in the yogurt to start breaking it down, as well.  I like to do this in the morning.

In the evening, after everything's been all mixed together and sitting for a while, put the remaining 1/4 flour on top of the dough and make an indentation in the middle of the flour, like a bowl for the yeast and salt, so that the flour is a barrier between the moisture in the dough, and the yeast and salt.  We want those mixed in at the last minute!

Set the breadmaker timer on a dough setting (again, I know; but this time you are mixing in that yeast and salt and letting it rise appropriately) so that it will be all done whenever you are up in the morning, to get it out and put it into a bread pan to let it rise for an hour, then into the oven for 35 minutes.

We like to use a stoneware bread pan to avoid having to put any extra oil to grease the pan.

Bake it at 350 degrees F for 35 minutes

My recent favorite way of eating it is toasted, with a thick layer of sand plum jelly.  Hurray for Oklahoma!

Adapted from Kitchen Stewardship

I can't help it.  I always take a picture when it comes out prettily!

Recipe Index

I want this blog to be user-friendly, so please let me know if you have any ideas to make it more so!  In that vein, I dedicate this post to categorizing all the recipes on the blog.  If you have a favorite low/no fat recipe, please email it to me at rachelklangley(at)gmail(dot)com.

Shrimp, grilled zucchini, sourdough crackers, and cocktail sauce.  Yum!

Breakfasts
Rice Pudding (also a dessert...)
Cinnamon Rolls
Pancakes
Huevos Rancheros
Bunny Bread
German pancakes
Pumpkin Muffins
Crepes
Banana Bread

Main Dishes
Vegetable Lo Mein
Shepherd's Pie
White Chicken Chili (links to the outside; perfect as-is, just use nonfat yogurt (or a nonfat sour cream) instead of sour cream!)
Lettuce Wraps
Roasted Bell Peppers of Awesomeness
Fast chicken tacos
Pasta primavera
Fish tacos
Potluck ideas
Bibimbap
Homemade tomato sauce

Snacks
Snack ideas in general
Pumpkin Cookies
Homemade Whole Wheat Bread
Kettle Corn
Pretzels
Chips

Fat free happy birthday sprinkles!

Desserts
Dessert ideas in general
Self Frosting Anise Drops (cookies)
Angel Food Cupcakes
Strawberry Ice Cream
Pie crust (and various pies)
Rice Pudding
Gingerbread cookies - links to an outside recipe that I love just the way it is! We just made these and the dough is just like the classic gingerbread I've always rolled out and made shapes out of!
Chocolate cupcakes
Homemade strawberry ice cream
Fruit pizza
Rustic apple tarts

St Nicholas Gingerbread!