French Toast

I love french toast so when I saw some raisin challah at the local grocery store I couldn't resist. I love using challah for french toast and one of the best things about it is that I can cut the slices just as thick or thin as I want. Using raisin challah just allows me to add a little extra flavor without any extra work.

Ingredients:

• 1 loaf of raisin challah cut to 2oz slices - use 4 slices - two per person
• 1/2 cup egg beaters
• 1/4 cup almond milk
• 1/4 tsp cinnamon

Directions:

1. Pre-heat skillet to medium heat.
2. Mix the egg, milk, and cinnamon in a shallow container. Dunk the break into the mixture coating all sides.
3. Spray the skillet with your favorite non-stick spray
4. Cook the dunked bread on the skillet for about 3-4 minutes on each side. Serve warm.

Calories per slice: 185

Tiropita

My favorite thing to get in Greek restaurants is Tiropita. Unfortunately most Greek restaurants in NYC don't have this AMAZING appetizer. As I decided to make gyros tonight I thought I would try my hand at these little beauties as well. While they looked excellent they ended up not quite hitting the spot. I am used to the cheesy insides being a little cheesier. I guess I will have to try these again.

Ingredients:

• 4 oz fat free feta cheese
• 1 egg
• 5-6 sheets of phyllo dough
• Butter Pam spray

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees
2. Mix the cheese and the egg
3. Lay out phyllo dough. Cut in half length wise. Spray with Pam. Double the dough on top of itself so you now have two layers of dough. Place about 2 tbs of cheese mixture in the corner of the dough. Fold like you are folding a flag, tucking in edges as you go.
4. Repeat until you have used all the filling. Place all the Tiropita on a Silpat or baking sheet. Spray with Pam. Cook for 12-15 minutes or until golden brown.

Makes 5-6 tiropita - calories per tiropita - 50

Pizza Two Ways

Miles and I love pizza. We have starting making it on these flat pita breads that are way fewer calories and they are super for making pizzas on. Miles likes his pizzas with pepperoni and olives but I have recently converted him to a greek style pizza. This time I also made a spinach and artichoke pizza that was good but needed chicken.

These pita pizzas could really be made with any toppings you wanted.

Ingredients:
Pizza 1:

• Pita bread
• Feta cheese (I use fat free)
• Onion
• Tomato
• Tomato sauce
• Chicken
• Mushrooms
  
• Mozzarella
• Fresh Basil

Pizza 2:

• Pita bread
• Pesto Alfredo
• Fat Free Feta
• Mozzarella
• Artichoke

Directions:

1. Cook Chicken
2. Dice and arrange all ingredients on the pita bread to your liking
3. Heat oven to 350 degrees
4. Cook for 8-10 min.

Chicken Tacos

I wanted to try out the homemade tortillas again because after watching a short youtube video I picked up some tricks I thought would make them better. I didn't change the recipe but I added all of the water this time where as last time I left some of the water out as I didn't think I wanted the tortilla dough to be sticky. I was wrong.

These tacos used TJ chicken that was already seasoned. Other ingredients are listed below.

Ingredients:

• Lettuce
• Tomato
• Onion
• Sour cream
• Avocado
• Tortillas
• Chicken
• Cheese
• Red Pepper

Directions:

1. Make tortillas from the link above - or purchase from a store
2. Grill and shred chicken
3. Grill onions and pepper
4. Slice, chop, to your liking, lettuce, tomato, and avocado
5. Assemble

Chicken Flautas

Easter Sunday just screams Mexican food doesn't it :). We were telling Elliott about our recent vacation to Cancun and it came up that I have flautas for the first time while were were there. About 6 months ago Elliott said that she would make us flautas but it never happened. So, I decided to try making them myself. I made the filling, the tortillas, everything.

To be honest I didn't roll out the tortillas enough so they were a little thick but they were still yummy. The flautas needed something. I am still not sure what but they were a little bland. I think next time I will use some taco seasoning so spice them up a little. All in all it was a good dinner but not great. Definitely something I will try again with some modifications.

Tortillas Ingredients: Allrecipes

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 tablespoon canola oil
  
• 3/4 cup water

Directions:

1. Whisk the flour, salt, and baking powder together in a mixing bowl. Mix in the oil with your fingers until the flour resembles cornmeal. Add the water and mix until the dough comes together; place on a lightly floured surface and knead a few minutes until smooth and elastic. Divide the dough into 12 equal pieces and roll each piece into a ball.
2. Preheat a large skillet over medium-high heat. Use a well-floured rolling pin to roll a dough ball into a thin, round tortilla. Place into the hot skillet, and cook until bubbly and golden; flip and continue cooking until golden on the other side. Place the cooked tortilla in a tortilla warmer; continue rolling and cooking the remaining dough.

Makes 12 small tortillas - calories per tortilla - 80

Ingredients for Flautas - allrecipes

• 1 skinless, boneless chicken breast halves - cooked and shredded
• 1/4 (8 ounce) jar picante sauce
• 1/8 teaspoon ground cumin
• 2 ounces shredded Monterey Jack cheese
• 8 (6 inch) corn tortillas
• 1 teaspoon vegetable oil
• cooking spray
  

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
2. In a medium bowl combine the shredded chicken, picante sauce and ground cumin. Mix together.
3. Spray warm tortillas with cooking spray. Put 1 tablespoon of the chicken mixture in the center of a tortilla and sprinkle some cheese on top. Roll up tortilla and place on a seam side down. Repeat with all of the tortillas until chicken mixture is gone. If there is any cheese left over, sprinkle it over the rolled tortillas.
4. Lightly brush oil over the rolled tortillas. Spray with cooking spray.
   
5. Bake tortillas in the preheated oven for 15 to 25 minutes or until tortillas are a little crispy and golden brown. Check halfway to make sure they tortillas are not drying out too much. If needed add more oil or cooking spray.
   

Makes enough filling for about 8 flautas - calories in filling total - 37s
Calories per flauta with homemade tortillas - 125

Garlic Knots

I LOVE Annie of Annie's Eats. These garlic knots are awesome and super easy to make. I will definitely be making these again and I think they might be my go to roll. What is there not to love about a good garlic knot? I mean really, they go with every meal.

I followed Annie's recipe exactly (but cut everything in half). I have posted her recipe below as she has it on her website - linked above. I served these with Chicken Marsala. The entire meal was amazing.

Ingredients:

For the dough:

3 cups bread flour

1 tbsp. sugar

2 tsp. instant yeast

1 ¼ tsp. salt

2 tbsp. olive oil

¼ cup milk

1 cup + 2 tbsp. lukewarm water

For the glaze:

2 cloves garlic

2 tbsp. melted butter

½ tsp. Italian seasoning

Directions:

To make the dough, in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment combine the dry ingredients. Add the olive oil, milk and water. Mix until ingredients have formed a dough. Switch to the dough hook and knead on low speed until the dough is smooth and elastic, about 8 minutes. Transfer the dough to a lightly oiled bowl, turn once to coat, and cover with plastic wrap. Allow to rise for about 1 hour, or until doubled in bulk.

Divide the dough into 10 equal pieces. Roll each piece into a 10 inch long rope and tie into a knot. Take the end lying underneath the knot and bring it over the top, tucking it into the center. Take the end lying over the knot and tuck it underneath and into the center. Transfer shaped rolls to a baking stone, or a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Cover with a clean kitchen towel and let rise for 45 minutes, until puffy.

To make the glaze, finely mince the garlic or press it through a garlic press. Mix with the melted butter and Italian seasoning.

Preheat the oven to 350° F. Brush the glaze onto the shaped rolls. Bake until set and lightly browned, about 15-18 minutes.

Chicken Gyros

Annie's Eats is a huge inspiration for me. Yesterday I was looking for a lemon recipe for a friend so I typed "Lemon" into Annie's search function and while I was looking for a dessert one of the links that popped up was this recipe for chicken gyros. I knew at that moment I had figured out what I was going to make for dinner the next day.

So the next day rolled around and sure enough I made these gyros. They were fantastic. I even made the homemade pita also from Annie's blog. I was a little disappointed that Annie's pitas have nice browning and mine did not but I know that Annie is a far better cook than I am so I am just going to have to accept this.
I chose not to make the tzatziki sauce as I don't own cheese cloth and there is a great store bought option available to me at the local grocery store. The rest of the text below is all taken from Annie's blog I just adapted it slightly based on the changes I made.

Ingredients:
For the tzatziki sauce:
16 oz. plain yogurt (not nonfat, if possible)
1/2 hothouse cucumber or 1 regular cucumber, peeled and seeded
2-3 cloves garlic, pressed through a garlic press (or finely minced)
1 tsp. white wine vinegar
Salt and pepper
Squeeze of fresh lemon juice
Extra virgin olive oil

For the chicken:
4 cloves garlic, smashed
Juice of 1 lemon
2 tbsp. extra virgin olive oil
2 heaping tbsp. plain yogurt
1 tbsp. dried oregano
Salt and pepper
1 1/4 lbs. chicken pieces (I used boneless, skinless chicken breasts)

To assemble:
Pita bread
Fresh tomatoes, seeded and diced
Red onion, sliced thin

Directions:
To make the tzatziki sauce, strain the yogurt using cheesecloth over a bowl. Let strain for several hours or overnight, if possible, to remove as much moisture as possible.

Shred the cucumber. Wrap in a towel a squeeze to remove as much water as possible. Mix together the strained yogurt, shredded cucumber, garlic, white wine vinegar, salt and pepper to taste, and lemon juice. Drizzle lightly with olive oil. Refrigerate for at least 30 minutes before serving to allow the flavors to meld.

To prepare the chicken, combine the garlic, lemon juice, olive oil, yogurt, oregano, and salt and pepper to taste in a medium bowl. Whisk together until mixed well. Add the chicken pieces to the bowl and mix well to coat. Cover and refrigerate for about 1 hour.

Cook the chicken as desired. (I grilled mine on a stove top grill) Once the chicken is completely cooked through, transfer to a plate and let rest for 5 minutes. Cut into strips.

Heat pitas . Top with chicken, tzatziki sauce, diced tomatoes and sliced onions. Serve immediately. (I cut my pita in half and filled the inside with the chicken, veggies, etc.)

Makes 8-10 pitas. I cut the recipe in half and made 6 pitas - calories per pita (without extras) - 120

Cinnamon Bread - French Toast

This blog is really turning into a breakfast blog. I am not sure why I enjoy blogging about breakfast more than any other meal but I think it is partially because the pictures turn out so much better when taken in the light of day. Breakfast is really the only meal where most of what I make is made from scratch. Dinner often involves a pre-made sauce or pasta, or it involves a piece of meat that is seasoned and grilled. There just isn't that much that goes into dinner and meals that involve more difficulty are made so often that I don't really find them blog worthy. Trust me, I keep you from a lot of bad or boring meals.

So anyway, this post is about french toast but it is also about the bread I made to make the french toast from. I have been longing to have french toast. On the rare occasion that we go out for breakfast I ALWAYS order french toast. Of course when we do go out the french toast I order is always made from really interesting and wonderful bread. I didn't want to make my own french toast using regular wheat bread and then be disappointed but at the same time I have been looking for a bread recipe that isn't very high in calories, and that I could add yummy things to, for weeks without any luck. Well today I found something I figured I could alter.This recipe from Blissfully Delicious wasn't intended to be made into french toast but it looked so wonderful that I figured I would give it a try. I used light butter and substituted some apple sauce for some of the butter. I also used a combination bread flour and all purpose flour, egg whites only, and I used maple syrup instead of honey as that's that I had on hand. Oh, and I didn't wash it with an egg glaze. I guess with all these changes it isn't even really the same bread but the idea started with Blissfully Delicious so that's where the credit goes.

Ingredients for the bread:

• 6 tbsp warm water
• 3/4 tbsp granulated yeast
• 1/2 tbsp salt
• 6 tbsp egg whites lightly beaten
• 2 tbsp apple sauce
• 2 tbsp maple syrup
• 1 tbsp Splenda
• 4 tbsp light butter melted
• 1 cup all purpose flour
• 1/2 cups + 6 tbsp bread flour
• Cinnamon

Directions:

1. Mix water and yeast and allow to sit while you combine the next ingredients.
2. Combine egg whites, apple sauce, salt, maple syrup, butter, and Splenda in a large bowl. Whisk for about 1 minute to combine the ingredients and make the egg whites nice and fluffy.
3. Add the yeast and water mixture to the other wet ingredients. Then add the flour and mix with the whisk until combined. Do not over mix.
4. Cover and place in a warm location for 2 hours. The dough should double in size while sitting.
5. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
6. Lightly flour your working surface and move the dough to the work area. Add more flour if needed to make your dough manageable. Roll the dough into a large square.
7. Sprinkle cinnamon over the dough to your taste preference. Roll the dough into a log an place an a baking tray wrapping the sides of the log around until they touch on one side of the log.
8. Bake for 35 minutes checking after 30 minutes so as to not over cook.

Makes 12 servings - 100 calories per slice

Ingredients for French Toast:

• Bread from above recipe
• 2 tbsp flour
• 3/4 cup non-fat milk
• 3/4 cup egg beaters
• Cinnamon and nutmeg

Directions:

1. Measure flour into a large mixing bowl. Slowly whisk in the milk. Whisk in the eggs. Add cinnamon and nutmeg to taste. Whisk to combine all ingredients.
   
2. Heat a lightly oiled griddle or frying pan over medium heat.
3. Soak bread slices in mixture until saturated. Cook bread on each side until golden brown. Serve hot.

Makes 12 servings - calories per serving - 125

Cheddar Puffs

I have to admit, I was hoping for more of a biscuit than a puff when I made these but they were still very tasty. As usual I cut calories by using light butter and non-fat cheddar cheese. Apparently you can make these using just about any kind of cheese you want so next time I make them I might try something new. I love Simplyrecipies.com and will definitely be going back to this blog for more dinner ideas. I served the cheddar puffs with salmon and a green salad.

Ingredients:

• 1 stick light butter (8 Tbsp or 4 ounces)
• 1 cup water
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup all purpose flour
• 4 large eggs
• 1 cup (4 ounces) grated sharp cheddar cheese
• 2 teaspoons chopped fresh thyme (or rosemary)
• Freshly ground pepper

Directions:

1 In a medium sized saucepan, add the water, butter, and salt, and bring to a boil over high heat.

2 Reduce the heat to medium and add the flour all at once. Stir rapidly. The mixture will form a dough ball that will pull away from the sides of the pan. It helps to use a wooden spoon to stir as the dough will be rather thick. Continue to cook for a couple minutes.

3 Remove the pan from the heat and let cool for a couple of minutes. Stir so that the dough cools more evenly. You want the dough to be warm, just not so hot that when you start adding eggs they cook as they hit the dough. Add the eggs one at a time, stirring after each addition until the eggs are incorporated into the dough. (Do this part in a mixer if you want, or by hand with a wooden spoon.) The dough should become rather creamy.

4 Stir in the grated cheese, thyme, and a few grinds of pepper.

5 Preheat oven to 425°F. Spoon out small balls (about a heaping tablespoon) of the dough onto a Silpat or parchment lined baking sheet, with at least an inch separating the spoonfuls. Place in oven and cook for 10 minutes at 425°F. Lower heat to 350°F and cook for another 15-20 minutes, until puffed up and lightly golden.

Makes about 2 dozen. Calories per puff: 55

Cinnamon Rolls - with Raisins

I spent all Saturday cooking and looking at food blogs. Every time I looked at another blog I wanted to cook something else. After making muffins, macaroons, grilled sandwiches, and wanting to make a half dozen other things I finally settled on cinnamon rolls. I have been craving breakfast foods -hence the muffins- and last weekend Miles and I made waffles and pancakes. I can't justify having cinnamon rolls without Miles so I decided to freeze these (from all recipes) for a later date.

Ingredients:

• 1 (.25 ounce) package active dry yeast
• 3/4 cup warm water (110 degrees F/45 degrees C)
• 2 tbsp white sugar + 3 packets of Splenda
  
• 3/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 egg, room temperature
• 2 1/2 cups bread flour

• 5 tbsp light butter, softened
• 1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
• 1/3 cup brown sugar
• 1/2 cup raisins

Directions:

1. In a small bowl, dissolve yeast in warm water. Let stand until creamy, about 10 minutes.
2. In a large bowl, combine the yeast mixture with the sugar, salt, egg and 1 cup flour; stir well to combine. Stir in the remaining flour, 1/2 cup at a time, beating well with each addition. When the dough has pulled together, turn it out onto a lightly floured surface and knead until smooth and elastic, about 8 minutes. Cover with a damp cloth and let rest in a warm place for 10 minutes.
3. Roll dough out on a lightly floured surface to 1/4 inch thick rectangle. Smear the dough with butter and sprinkle with cinnamon, raisins, and brown sugar. Roll up the dough along the long edge until it forms a roll. Slice off and discard the ends. Then cut into the roll into 12 equal size pieces and place them in the pan with the cut side up.(At this point you can wrap the pieces in saran wrap allow to rise for 45 and then freeze)
   
4. Cover pan with plastic wrap and refrigerate overnight or cover and let rise at room temperature until doubled in volume, about 45 minutes.
5. Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Bake rolls until golden brown, about 15-20 minutes.

Servings 12: calories per serving 165