Chocolate Chip Muffins

This is a family favorite in our house.  One batch is gone in a day. 
Recipe is from food.com

Ingredients
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/3 cup light-brown sugar, packed 
1/3 cup sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt 
2/3 cup milk 
1/2 cup butter, melted and cooled 
2 eggs, lightly beaten
1 teaspoon vanilla 
1 (11 1/2 ounce) package milk chocolate chips
1/2 cup walnuts or 1/2 cup pecans, chopped

 Directions: 
Preheat oven to 400°F. Grease twelve muffin cups. 
In a large bowl, stir together flour, sugars, baking powder, and salt. 
In another bowl, stir together milk, eggs, butter, and vanilla until blended.  Make a well in center of dry ingredients. 6Add milk mixture and stir just to combine.  Stir in chocolate chips and nuts. 
Spoon batter into prepared muffin cups.  Now bake for 15-20 minutes or until a cake tester inserted in center of one muffin comes out clean.  Remove muffin tin to wire rack.  Cool for 5 minutes.  Remove from tins to finish cooling.  Serve warm or completely cool. 
These muffins freeze well.

Overnight Baked Blueberry French Toast

This recipe was adapted from The Yummy Life.

Ingredients

• 1 (16-oz.) whole grain French bagette (or similar bakery bread loaf)
• 8 eggs
• 2 cups  milk
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
• 2-1/2 cups fresh blueberries; or 1 (12 oz) bag frozen blueberries, thawed, rinsed & drained
• STRUESEL TOPPING:
• 1/4 cup whole wheat pastry flour
• 1/4 cup old fashioned rolled oats
• 1/2 cup packed brown sugar
• 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/4 cup butter, softened
• 1/2 cup chopped pecans (optional)

Directions

Spray a 9x13 baking dish with cooking spray. Cut bagette diagonally into 1" slices. Layer slices in two rows in baking dish. 

In large bowl, whisk together the eggs, milk, vanilla, brown sugar, and cinnamon. Pour over bread slices, separating slices as you pour so the mixture gets between them. Sprinkle blueberries over casserole while separating the slices so that some of the berries fall between them. Cover and refrigerate overnight.

Struesel topping:

In medium bowl whisk together whole wheat pastry flour, oats, brown sugar, & cinnamon. Cut in butter. Mix until combined and crumbly. Add pecans, if desired, and mix. Set aside.

Remove baking dish from refrigerator and let sit for about 30 minutes. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Sprinkle streusel evenly over top of bread slices. Bake uncovered for 40-50 minutes, until cooked through, lightly browned, and there is no visible liquid. Center should be moist but not runny. To prevent over browning, loosely lay a sheet of aluminum foil over top during last 10 minutes, if necessary. Let rest for 10 minutes before serving. Serve with maple syrup or blueberry sauce.

Summer Spaghetti

This dish was amazing! My husband went on and on about how much he loved it. He said he would order this in a restaurant. 
This is very savory. Yum!


Ingredients

1 box of spaghetti noodles cooked
1 pound chicken breast fillets (cut into 1 inch chunks)

For the chicken marinade:
2 teaspoons fresh thyme, chopped
2 teaspoons fresh rosemary, chopped (if using dried, use half of the amount)
Zest of 1 lemon
Juice of ½ a lemon
2 Tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1 teaspoon coarse salt (not table salt)
½ teaspoon fresh cracked black pepper
2 Tablespoons extra virgin olive oil (to sauté the marinated chicken)

2 Tablespoons cornstarch

Recipe

- Add all the marinade ingredients into the chicken and marinade for at least 20 minutes or over night.
- Saute the marinated chicken in extra virgin olive oil until cooked (about 4-5 minutes) then set aside.

Ingredients

For the garlic gravy:
½ stick (1/4 cup) unsalted butter
2 Tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
4 large cloves garlic, finely minced
2 Tablespoons all-purpose flour
2 ½ cups chicken stock
1 Tablespoon fresh basil, chopped
salt and pepper to taste
¼ cup parsley, chopped (to sprinkle/finish the pasta)
½ cup grated parmesan cheese
2 cups whole cherry tomatoes

Recipe

- Place sauté pan over medium heat and add butter and olive oil.
- Saute garlic until fragrant and soft.
- Add the flour and cook for a minute.
- Add chicken stock and simmer gravy until thickened then add the chopped basil. I added the cornstarch here to help thicken.
- Season with salt and pepper.
- Add the sauteed chicken in the gravy then toss the cooked spaghetti into this sauce.
- Add the cherry tomatoes and finish the dish with the chopped parsley and grated parmesan cheese (serve extra on the side).

Wendy's Frosty

This was so yummy as you can tell by my son's face. :)


This was so easy and it tasted just like a Wendy's Frosty. It's hard to only eat one serving. ;)


Ingredients:
1 can sweetened condensed milk
1 8 oz. tub Cool Whip
1/2 gallon chocolate milk


Directions:
Mix the sweetened condensed milk,  cool whip and half of the chocolate milk.
Then pour the mixture into your ice cream freezer, and fill the remaining chocolate milk to the fill line.  
Follow your ice cream freezer directions to finish the ice cream.  

Stuffed Zucchini Boats

This was SO GOOD! My husband went on and on about it. It has a lot of flavor. So easy and good for you too. I hope you like it as much as we did. 
This recipe was adapted from Recipe Girl. 


Ingredients:

Three medium (8-inch) zucchini, ends trimmed, then cut in half lengthwise
1 tablespoon olive oil
1/2 cup finely chopped onion
3 medium garlic cloves, minced
3/4-pound Italian sausage
1/2 cup Parmesan cheese
1/2 cup mozzarella cheese
1/2 cup tomato-basil marinara sauce or spaghetti sauce (I used spaghetti sauce)
3 tablespoons chopped fresh basil
salt and pepper

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray a 9x13 pan with cooking spray. 

2. Use a small spoon to scrape out the insides of each zucchini half - the pulp. Don't scrape the zucchini all the way to the skin. Save the pulp and chop it.

3. Heat the olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add the zucchini pulp, onion, garlic and sausage. Cook together 4 to 6 minutes, stirring often, until the onions are softened and the sausage is cooked through. Pour the mixture through a fine sieve to drain the excess moisture. Transfer the meat mixture to a medium bowl.

4. In a small bowl, mix the cheeses together. Remove two tablespoons of the cheese and set aside. Add the rest of the cheese to the meat mixture, along with the marinara sauce and basil. Add salt and pepper, as desired.

5. Divide the meat mixture between the hollowed out zucchini, filling and mounding into each one. Set the stuffed zucchini into the prepared pan and sprinkle the reserved cheese on top.

6. Bake 30 minutes, or until baked through and tender.

Nutritional Information per serving:
Serving size: 1 zucchini boat
Calories per serving: 241
Fat per serving: 13.5g
Saturated Fat per serving: 4.8g
Sugar per serving: 3.9g
Fiber per serving: 3.9g
Protein per serving: 19.2g
Cholesterol per serving: 51.6mg
Carbohydrates per serving: 12.2g

WW POINTS per serving:
Points Plus Program: 6 Old Points Program: 5

Source: RecipeGirl.com

Baked Parmesan Tomato

• 
  
• This was yummy. We thought it tasted like pizza with out the dough. ;)
• 
  
• Ingredients:
• 
  
• 4 tomatoes, halved horizontally
• 1/4 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese
• 1 teaspoon chopped fresh oregano
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• Freshly ground pepper, to taste
• 4 teaspoons extra-virgin olive oil

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 450° F.
2. Place tomatoes cut-side up on a baking sheet. Top with Parmesan, oregano, salt and pepper. Drizzle with oil and bake until the tomatoes are tender, about 15 minutes.

Nutrition: 

Per serving: 91 calories; 6 g fat ( 2 g sat , 4 g mono ); 4 mg cholesterol; 6 g carbohydrates; 3 g protein; 2 gfiber; 375 mg sodium; 363 mg potassium.

Yogurt Blueberries

This is a nice healthy snack and very delicious!

Ingredients:


Fresh blueberries, 2 cups
Yogurt, 24 oz. You can use any flavor. I chose vanilla.


Directions:


Place blueberries and yogurt in a bowl. Stir.


Cover cookie sheet with wax paper.


Stick a blueberry with a toothpick, dip and swirl with yogurt. Once  the blueberry is covered with yogurt transfer to cookie sheet.

When all the blueberries are covered place cookie sheet in freezer for 15 minutes. It does not take long to freeze.


I transferred the blueberries to a zip lock baggie and kept in the freezer.


Enjoy!