A yummy pick me up for 55 calories?!

Have you ever received a gift that you loved so much you were stunned when you received it?! Just a few months back I had this happen to me.. My mom gave me an espresso maker! I was pumped! I can now make low fat, sugar free coffees in my skibbies and not care what people may think because they don't know! (until now...) So, with a few months under my belt of perfecting the perfect non-fat coffees I have found one of my new favorites..
Have you ever thought you could have a yummy coffee for 55 calories or under?! I know, I know I didn't think it was possible either, I have always been that girl that I replaced a MEAL with my coffee, because each one equals out to about 400+ calories. Well now my friends our yummy coffees can be a part of our meals, not the whole thing :)

What you will need is..

Almond Milk (I use the original blue diamond, Almond Breeze, it is low in calories, low in sugars and has yummy vitamins :) )
Your favorite sugar free flavored coffee syrup (I used Almond Roca this morning)
Some espresso
Ice cubes


Fill your cup with ice.

pour 3/4 cup of almond milk over ice

2-3 Tbs of sugar free flavored syrup

two shots of espresso

Mix and enjoy :) If it is a little too strong add some more milk and syrup :) When following the recipe You are only consuming 55 calories! I know, I know, I think I am in love as well...

Apple Bacon Chicken

Recently my mom and sister bought me a whole chicken, okay they actually bought me four of them on the BOGO sale.... I was thinking to myself, what in the world am I going to do with 4 WHOLE CHICKENS!? The last time I ate white meat from a chicken I had to down water and almost choked it was so dry, this is when I started thinking of a way to make this the juiciest chicken I have ever had....

So I started creating my dinner in my head and this is what I got! 

One whole 4-5 pound chicken

5-6 slices of bacon

2 lemon slices 

1 Medium apple

half a yellow onion

1 tsp. Italian seasoning

1 tbs. olive oil

1 tsp. salt

1 tsp. pepper

Preheat oven to 400*

Mix olive oil, salt, pepper and Italian seasoning together.

Remove gizzards and place chicken on roasting pan, pull skin up from meat and spread olive oil spread in between skin and meat. Stuff chicken with slices of apples, onion, and wrap one wedge of apple in bacon.

Lay remaining pieces of bacon on top of chicken.

Bake at 400* for 1 1/2 hours or until chicken reaches 160*. 

Remove bacon, apple and onion before serving.

Now I served my chicken with steamed veggies, rice pilaf and garlic asiago cheese bread. BUT YOU can serve it with anything you like, maybe you are a huge potato person (I do looove me some potatoes) or you like noodles, whichever you prefer :)

Enjoy :) 

  

Cadbury Mini Egg Cookie Sundaes

With a family full of cadbury mini egg lovers, I try to come up with as many recipes as I can.

I go to target every year before Easter and fill my cart with around 20 bags of these delectable things, hoping they will last all year long, which so far they have! 

So Last night Mitch's sister Tammy came over for dinner, one of the crazy cadbury ladies herself! So while contemplating what I was going to make for dessert cadbury egg cookies popped in my head and then I thought hmmm smack some ice cream, whipped cream and chocolate sauce between two fresh out of the oven cookies and you will have the most delicious dessert. 

Lets get baking!

What you are going to need: 

Cookies:

2 1/4 cups of flour

1/2 tsp. baking soda

1/2 tsp. salt

1 cup of softened butter 

3/4 cup of brown sugar

3/4 cup of granulated sugar

1tsp. of vanilla

2 eggs

one 10 ounce bag of Cadbury mini eggs

Sundae:

Vanilla ice cream

hot fudge

 whipped cream

Preheat your oven to 375*

Combine the flour, baking soda and salt in a medium size bowl. 

In a larger bowl beat the butter, brown sugar, granulated sugar and vanilla until creamy. 

Add eggs one at a time and mix thoroughly.

Gradually beat in your flour mixture.

And lastly add in the whole bag of cadbury mini eggs.

Beat until most are crushed (I use a kitchen aid mixer so it does it for me, but if you are mixing by hand, crush the bag of mini eggs before adding them to your dough)

On an ungreased baking sheet drop a tablespoon of dough about an inch apart from each other. 

Bake for about 8-10 minutes (everyones ovens are different so watch these VERY carefully, you want to take them out when the are golden brown, DO NOT LEAVE IN TOO LONG! My cookies are soft for days, and when I say days I mean for five whole days they taste like they just came out of the oven, and they are only like this because I watch them and make sure they don't get over cooked) Watch closely because one extra minute could ruin your batch and once you take them out they will firm up a tad and get a tad bit darker.

So once you bake the cookies transfer them to a cooling rack or I like to use my large and in charge glass cutting board. once you but the next batch in the oven, grab as many bowls as you need for dessert and place a warm, fresh out of the oven cookie in the bottom of your bowl, next add in about a cup of vanilla ice cream, top it with whipped cream and hot fudge and last but not least add ANOTHER delicious cookie on top and serve :) 

Tada! Now you have my super secret cadbury mini egg cookie sundae recipe! Enjoy every little bite :)

I believe if I don't think there are any calories than there isn't, so think like me and this dessert is zero calories  :) 

30 minute throw it all together Potato Bacon Soup.

Ingredients:

6 red potatoes diced 

1/2 medium onion minced

1/4 cup of butter

3 Tbs. all purpose flour

2 cups of carrots

2 cubes of chicken boulin

3 cups of water

4 ounce of cream cheese

3 cups of milk

5 strips of bacon cut up

1 Tbs bacon grease

shredded cheddar cheese

1/4 cup of butter bring to a boil and add half a medium onion minced cook until onion is transparent

in another pot start cooking 3 cups of water 2 cups of cut up carrots 6 potatoes (i use red potatoes) 2 cubes of chicken boulin bring to a boil and cook until carrots and potatoes are soft

in a skillet cook cut up bacon until crispy

add 3 tbs of flour to onion and butter to make paste then slowly add 3 cups of milk and 4 ounces of cream cheese to mixture cook until cream cheese is melted and all is mixed together

add bacon and 1tbs of bacon grease to potatoes and carrots mixture then add in onion mixture

stir all together, and serve topping with shredded cheddar cheese and enjoy :)
Makes about 4 servings