The Result of Cravings

Bryce has a test tomorrow which means I have the task of finding ways to entertain myself in quiet ways so that he can study (hence, the two blog posts this weekend). Lately, almost all of the foods we normally eat just don't seem that appetizing to me. Luckily there are only a couple that make me gag, but I still find myself wanting things that I don't usually make.

So, over the past few months Bryce has been subject to many new and experimental recipes thanks to allrecipes.com. I know there are lots of you out there who are bored with your dishes, so I figured I'd post a couple of links to the things that have been good. Most of the ideas I've added come from the comments of others, so don't think I'm that creative with recipe alterations. The low-fat dairy substitutions are me though, as the normal stuff doesn't do nice things to my digestive system.

And to Tiff who sent me a recipe chain email which I neglected to continue on, here's my contribution to helping you try new things.

1) Chicken Chimichangas with Green Chile Sauce. I tend to try to make things less-fattening so I used fat-free cream cheese instead of regular and sprayed them with olive oil spray and baked them instead of frying. We only made half a batch (four), and although they looked small compared to what you get at a Mexican restaurant, one each was plenty.

2) Cinnamon Rolls III. For about the first 18 weeks of my pregnancy, the thought and taste of cereal didn't go over well. So, I started getting creative with breakfast options, especially when I grew tired of Toaster Strudels. Once again, I used lighter cream cheese for the frosting (maybe the 1/3 reduced fat) and omitted the nuts since we're not huge fans. My only mistake was not cooking them long enough so the middle ones were too doughy to eat. I've got to remember I don't live at high-altitude anymore and shouldn't assume the low end of the bake time is always the best move.

3) Easy Enchilada Casserole. I always buy the light sour cream (but not the fat free since it tastes a bit weird), and it worked fine. I didn't put the 4 tortillas on the top and didn't cover it, so it was a little soupy, but not too bad. It was also soupy probably because I used a large can of red enchilada sauce and threw in a little salsa with it instead of the 3 cups of salsa since I had that in the pantry. Next time I will probably add two tortillas to the top to help with the soupiness, but still use the enchilada sauce with a little salsa. It was still good regardless and Bryce, who hasn't been a big fan of enchiladas as of late, ate the leftovers at least 3 times. Oh, which means it makes A LOT, so if you don't like left overs, half of the recipe will feed 4 just fine.

4) Chris' Bay Area Burgers. Okay, these aren't new, but still really good hamburgers. Some of our friends and family have had them at our place and loved them. I use half the olive oil and they are still wonderful.

And in the next few weeks I'm going to try:

5) Three Cheese Manicotti. The recipe makes two pans so I'll cut it in half, and then of course, use my own fresh made Italian sauce instead of the spaghetti sauce in the jar. For the sauce, I won't use meat and I'll add the pint size Fat Free Half and Half (yes, it comes that way at Walmart) to make a creamy pink sauce. It is delicious and actually very healthy since the only fat in it is from the little bit of olive oil. I generally make a batch when I'm making pasta and then freeze the rest in little containers that I can take out and heat up when we have a pasta dish. I'd say it makes 6-8 cups easily.

6) Slower Cooker Carolina BBQ. When we went down to North Carolina for Labor Day we had some of the best pulled pork sandwiches. We bought the meat from a restaurant, and me, being used to thick red BBQ sauce, thought they had forgotten to put the sauce on. Little did I know the magic of a vinegar-based sauce that is very light, yet flavorful. The only downside I've found to the recipe is that it says it stinks your house up (from the vinegar), so I'm thinking I'll make it on a weekend and put the crockpot on the balcony since there's an outlet out there. I figure I'd better be home to watch it though so nothing happens. I'll let you know if it compares to the real thing.

I highly recommend the allrecipes.com site if you want good, home-cooking type recipes. They have some that are more gourmet, but epicurious.com is really the place to look for a fancy meal.