Still Not Easy

Now that I'm done with my third week of trying to reduce my sugar intake, I have noticed a difference in what I'm eating. I crave oranges instead of Snickers bars, and I am seriously in love with my blender and the smoothies it makes. I still have a bad habit of just eating things that are on the break table at work, just because they're there. I need to get me some better willpower when it comes to sweets.

I also have a pretty intense love of baking, which is not helpful to cutting out sugar. I made these Snickerdoodle Bars for Chris, because he loves snickerdoodles, and took some in to work. I ended up eating quite a few of them. And with 2 cups of brown sugar in them, they aren't exactly they healthiest. But they were soooo good.

I have been eating a lot of fruit, but not as many veggies as I would like. I found this recipe on Pinterest for spinach ice cubes, which sound and look super gross, but are actually super handy. Basically, I took a bag of spinach and some water and blended them together:

I found the easiest way to do this for my blender was to add a little spinach, then some water, and then more spinach, and a little more water. I originally just added all the spinach to the blender with a little water and tried to blend it, and ended up having to take some out and blend it better.
Then, pour the mixture into two ice cube trays:

They look so appetizing.

 And freeze! Chris now considers these ice cube trays "forever unclean", but I loved it! I added these to my smoothies instead of the regular ice cubes, and they barely changed the flavor at all. Even Chris didn't notice a big change. And by blending them beforehand, there weren't any awkward errant leaves floating around my smoothie.

Smoothie with spinach: Not really a difference

I also tried adding cucumber to the smoothies, but that flavor really overpowered the fruit. It didn't taste bad, just a lot like cucumber. I've switched from vanilla yogurt to a mix of plain and greek yogurt with some honey added for sweetness. I drink one of these pretty much every day after I work out, and I really do feel kind of amazing afterward. Which is probably because of the workout and not the smoothie, but that's ok.

My goal for the next couple weeks is to not eat any of the treats left out at work. I've been bringing an orange in with my lunch every day, and hopefully I can just stick to that instead of grabbing for the chocolate covered pretzels that are on the table (sweet AND salty? Irresistible). I think if I can stick to that, my sugar intake will be way better and become more manageable. Wish me luck!

Preztel Bites with Cheddar Sauce

I made these to eat for a snack before a football game. They were a process, to say the least. They were delicious though.The cheese sauce I was less impressed with, but I'm still going to post it because it seems like a decent base. I got the recipe from here and here.These would be great for a party, because the recipe makes a lot!

Ingredients:

Pretzel Ingredients

1 1/2 cups warm (110 to 115 degrees F) water
1 tbsp sugar
2 tsp kosher salt
1 package active dry yeast
4 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
2 tbsp unsalted butter, melted
10 cups water
2/3 cup baking soda
1 large egg yolk beaten with 1 tablespoon water
Pretzel or kosher salt

Cheese Sauce Ingredients

2 tbsp unsalted butter
2 tbsp all-purpose flour
1 cup milk
8 oz shredded extra sharp cheddar cheese

I used regular salt because I forgot to buy larger salt, and it tasted just fine. It didn't look as pretty, but it will still work.

Directions:

Pretzels:

1. Combine the water, sugar and kosher salt in the bowl of a stand mixer and sprinkle the yeast on top. Allow to sit for 5 minutes or until the mixture begins to foam.

Foaming yeast

 2. Add the flour and butter and, using the dough hook attachment, mix on low speed until well combined. Change to medium speed and knead until the dough is smooth and pulls away from the side of the bowl, approximately 4 to 5 minutes.

3. Remove the dough from the bowl and oil it with vegetable oil. Return the dough to the bowl, cover with plastic wrap and sit in a warm place for approximately 50 to 55 minutes or until the dough has doubled in size.

4. Preheat the oven to 450 degrees F. Bring the 10 cups of water and the baking soda to a rolling boil in an large pot.
5. Put the dough onto a slightly oiled work surface and divide into 8 equal pieces. Roll out each piece of dough into a 24-inch rope. Slice or tear each rope into 1-inch pieces.
Make sure to place a lightly damp towel over the pretzel pieces to prevent them from drying out while you roll and cut the other pieces.

I don't have space to oil my counter, so I wrapped plastic wrap around my table and put oil on that.

8 equal parts

Rolling out into ropes

Half of the pretzel pieces. Yup, that's only half.

6. Put a handful of the pretzel pieces into the boiling water and boil them for 30 seconds.

7. Remove the pretzel pieces from the water using a slotted spoon, or a potato masher, which is what I had on hand. Drain them on a paper towel and place them on the baking sheets.

Mashers: Not just for mashing anymore

8. Brush the top of each pretzel with the egg and water mixture and sprinkle with the salt.
9. Bake until dark golden brown in color, approximately 10 – 12 minutes.

Yummy!

Cheese Sauce:
1. In a small saucepan over medium heat, melt the butter.

2. Whisk in the flour and cook for 30 seconds, whisking constantly.
3. Slowly whisk in the milk until no flour lumps are left.  Stir constantly and bring the milk to a simmer over medium-low heat until it thickens, about 3-5 minutes.

4. Remove the pan from the stove and stir in the shredded cheese until all of the cheese has melted. Serve warm.

 

The cheese sauce didn't have a whole lot of flavor, and it definitely didn't reheat well. I don't recommend it. A beer cheese sauce would be excellent with these, though. I plan on trying one in the future.

The pretzels were excellent though, and I will definitely be making those again. I will probably just make them in the regular pretzel fashion though, instead of the bites. It took a long time to boil them all in small groups, and it would have been much easier to just have to do eight pretzels instead of so many bites.

Potato Skins

We ended up with a bag and a half of potatoes when we came back from my parents' house a few weekends ago. They apparently think we starve and like to load us up with food when we visit. I used some for a baked potato soup, but still had a bag left. I asked Chris what he wanted me to make with potatoes, and he immediately responded with potato skins. I've only ever had these maybe once, and now I know why because they take a long time! They aren't a lot of work, it's just a big time commitment to make them. They ended up being really tasty though, and worked perfectly for our dinner while we watched football on our couch. I used these two recipes as my base for how to make them, and then went from there.

Ingredients:

Potatoes 

  Shredded Cheddar Cheese

  Sour Cream

  Bacon Bits

Directions:

1. Wash your potatoes, and then coat them in olive oil.

2. Bake your potatoes. I chose to do mine in the oven at 400° for 50 minutes on a regular sheet pan. 

3. Once the potatoes have cooled, cut them in half lengthwise.

4. Take a spoon and core out the inside of the potato. Brush the inside and outside with another coat of olive oil.

5. Bake the potatoes for 10 minutes at 450°, then flip the potatoes over and bake for another 10 minutes.

6. Place the shredded cheese inside the potatoes and put back in the over just long enough to melt the cheese, about 2 minutes.

7. Cover your potatoes in delicious toppings and enjoy!

These had a delicious crispy crust and the toppings were a good addition. I think some chives are also normally added, but I didn't  have those around my kitchen. I would definitely make these again, even though they took so long. The time is worth it for a yummy perfect potato skin.

Cake Batter Popcorn

I found multiples of this Cake Batter Popcorn recipe floating around Pinterest and based my recipe off of two or three of them combined. I was meeting some friends for a night of snacks and watching Revenge, and wanted something sweet and easy to make. This fit the bill perfectly.

Ingredients:

9 cups of popcorn

1+1/2 cups of white chocolate chips

1/4 cups of vegetable oil

1+1/2 cups of cake mix (white or yellow)

Salt

Sprinkles

Directions:

1. Pop your popcorn: 9 cups or about two bags of microwave popcorn.

Lots of popcorn!

2. Melt the white chocolate in the microwave or double boiler. Be careful not to overheat it. I used the microwave and did it in three 20-second intervals.
3. Mix the vegetable oil into the melted chocolate, then add the cake mix. I used Funfetti, because it's the best. It will wind up being quite thick, but still mixable.

It should look like this.

4. Combine the popcorn and cake/chocolate mix. I ended up having to split the popcorn and mix in half, and use two bowls. It's very hard to mix a full bowl of popcorn without it all ending up on the floor.

Two bowls!

5. None of the recipes online had salt, but the mixture was very, very sweet to me. I mixed some sprinkles together with some salt, and added it to the popcorn for color and and to balance out the flavor.
6. Spread the popcorn out on a baking sheet and add more sprinkles on top. Then place the popcorn in the refrigerator to harden up.

I put the popcorn back into the bowl for a pretty presentation, and easier transport to girls night. I recommend keeping it in the refrigerator, or the chocolate gets a little melty. It is also still very sweet, but still very good.

Pretty and very sweet. Perfect for girls night.