TWD: Honey Wheat Cookies

Honey Wheat Cookies were the pick for this week's Tuesdays with Dorie. They're a simple little cookie with unusual ingredients - wheat germ, lemon, and honey. Very easy to put together and quite good, too!

The only other time I've baked with wheat germ was for the Granola Grabber cookies I made for TWD a while back. I pulled out that jar of wheat germ, only to find that it expired. But I'm happy to share my newfound knowledge - wheat germ can be frozen. So my new jar will NOT be going to waste! I also found a recipe for adding in wheat germ to oatmeal, so I'm planning to use up my wheat germ for that.


We've been enjoying these cookies. I wouldn't rate them as the best cookies I've ever had, though. I typically prefer chocolate or peanut butter in my cookies. But these are a great option for a healthier cookie and I love the honey and lemon combo. My 2-year-old son has been really enjoying these, and I haven't had to feel guilty when he chows down a couple of cookies in one sitting. They're healthy!

Many thanks to Michelle at Flourchild for selecting this week's recipe. If you'd like to make these, head on over to her blog to find out how.

TWD: Chocolate Chip Cookies

This week we made Chocolate Chip Cookies for Tuesdays with Dorie. These are Dorie's tried and true chocolate chip cookies. And since I always love a good homemade cookie, I decided I had to try them. That, and I had some company coming that I wanted to have something sweet for (thank you Rachel and Katie for being my guinea pigs!).


I read the comments about this recipe before I started and everyone complained about the cookies spreading and being really flat. So I cut back on the butter by about a 1/4 stick. Mine still spread quite a bit, but they turned out pretty good! I baked mine for the minimum amount of time (10 mins.) and thought they probably only needed about 9, since my edges were just a tad darker than I'd have liked. They were crispy on the outside and chewy on the inside. Overall, a solid chocolate chip cookie! We all enjoyed them!

If you'd like to make Dorie's chocolate chip cookies yourself, the recipe can be found on Kait's Plate.

Ooey Gooey Bars

I'm so excited to share this recipe. My Mom has been making these Ooey Gooey bars since I was little. She'd recruit me and my brothers and sister to help her unwrap all of the caramels. And we loved it, because it also meant we got to eat a few of the caramels. And of course we had to taste test the bars to make sure they tasted alright!

These are just too good for words. If you love chocolate and caramel, then this is the dessert for you. Ooey and Gooey just about sums these up. These will have you licking caramel from your fingers. They're easy to make and pretty easy to eat... way too many! They'll be gone before you know it, and then you'll be wanting to make another pan. I need to make these more often!



Ooey Gooey Bars

1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
60 caramels (from two 14 oz. bags)
1 box of German Chocolate cake mix
3/4 cup butter or margarine
1/2 plus 1/3 cup evaporated milk
1 cup pecan pieces (optional)

1. Melt 60 caramels with 1/2 cup evaporated milk in microwave (this takes about 5 minutes on 50% power - stirring often). Meanwhile, melt 3/4 cup butter or margarine and add to one box cake mix. Add 1/3 cup evaporated milk and mix well. Add pecan pieces if using.

2. Spread 1/2 to 3/4 of the mixture in a greased and floured 13 x 9-inch pan. Bake 8 minutes at 350°F. Cake will be puffy.

3. Take 1 cup chocolate chips and sprinkle them over cake. Pour caramel sauce over chocolate chips. Drop remaining cake mixture over top of caramel sauce by small spoonful. Bake 18-20 minutes. Cool at least 30 minutes before cutting.

Malaysian Chicken Pizza

Here's another great "light" recipe that I found in Cooking Light. And oh my word, this pizza is GOOD. Like, gotta have it again next week, good.

Be warned - Malaysian Chicken Pizza doesn't really taste like you're eating pizza. My husband took his first bite and said, "This is chinese food." And I said, "well sorta... but on pizza." And that's just how it tastes. It's so amazingly good. Take my word for it.

We usually have pizza night on Sundays. I'm not even sure how it came about, but somehow it's become our little weekly tradition. But with my diet, I figured it would be rather hard to keep pizza night going. Amazingly, it's just the opposite. I've found a lot of great low-cal pizza recipes out there. So far, this is my favorite. This one has about 295 calories per slice (1/6th of the pizza). And not only that, it's really quick and simple. This is a must-try!



Malaysian Chicken Pizza
(adapted from Cooking Light)

3/4 cup rice vinegar
1/4 cup firmly packed brown sugar
1/4 cup low-sodium soy sauce
3 tablespoons water
1 tablespoon minced peeled fresh ginger
2 tablespoons chunky peanut butter
1/2 to 3/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper
4 garlic cloves, minced
Cooking spray
1/2 pound skinless, boneless chicken breasts, cut into bite-sized pieces
1/2 cup (2 ounces) shredded reduced-fat, reduced-sodium Swiss cheese (such as Alpine Lace)
1/4 cup (1 ounce) shredded part-skim mozzarella cheese
1 storebought thin pizza crust (such as Boboli)
1/4 cup chopped green onions

1. Preheat oven to 450°.

2. Combine first 8 ingredients in a bowl; stir well with a whisk.

3. Heat a nonstick skillet coated with cooking spray over medium heat. Add chicken, and sauté 2 minutes. Remove chicken from pan.

4. Pour rice vinegar mixture into pan, and bring to a boil over medium-high heat. Cook mixture 6 minutes or until slightly thickened. Return chicken to pan; cook 1 minute or until chicken is done. (Mixture will be consistency of thick syrup.)

5. Sprinkle cheeses over prepared crust, leaving a 1/2-inch border, and top with chicken mixture. Bake at 450° for 10 minutes, checking often to make sure your crust isn't browning too much (crusts vary so read the instructions on the packaging). Sprinkle with green onions. Place pizza on a cutting board; let stand 5 minutes before serving.

Makes 6 servings.

Healthy Green Chile-Chicken Casserole

This is a really delicious, and HEALTHY casserole that the whole family will love. With chicken, tortillas, green chiles, and low-fat cream of chicken soup, it's creamy and has a lot of great flavors. I'm currently trying to lose all of that stubborn baby weight and have been trying out a lot of new low calorie dishes. But I hate the typical diet food that doesn't have any flavor. This one far exceeded my expectations and was great!

This dish makes 12 large servings, with only about 330 calories in each one. And it can be prepared ahead - just cover with cooking spray-coated tin foil and refrigerate until needed. If you go that route, you'll need to bake it covered for an hour, then uncover and bake an additional 30 minutes until bubbly. And it makes for great leftovers!


Green Chile-Chicken Casserole
(from Cooking Light magazine)

1 and 1/3 cups fat-free, less-sodium chicken broth
1 cup canned chopped green chiles, drained
1 cup chopped onion
1 cup fat-free sour cream
3/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
2 (10 1/2-ounce) cans condensed 98% fat-free cream of chicken soup, undiluted (such as Campbell's)
1 garlic clove, minced
Cooking spray
24 (6-inch) corn tortillas
4 cups shredded cooked chicken breast (about 1 pound)
2 cups (8 ounces) finely shredded sharp cheddar cheese

1. Preheat oven to 350°.

2. Combine the first 9 ingredients in a large saucepan, stirring with a whisk. Bring to a boil, stirring constantly. Remove from heat.

3. Spread 1 cup soup mixture in a 13 x 9-inch baking dish coated with cooking spray. Arrange 6 tortillas over the soup mixture, and top with 1 cup chicken and 1/2 cup cheese. Repeat layers, ending with the cheese. Spread remaining soup mixture over cheese. Bake at 350° for 30 minutes or until bubbly.