A Lighter Monkey Bread

The other day, I had a hankering for some Monkey Bread.  However, I did not want to blow a bazillion calories on said treat, so here is what I did:

Recipe:

• 1 package of Pillsbury Grands Homestyle Wheat Reduced Fat Biscuits (on sale at Publix for $1.00).
• 12 packets of sugar substitute (I used the Publix version of Sweet-N-Low).
• 1/2 tsp of cinnamon
• Agave Nectar Light or honey (about 2 TBS)
• Brown Sugar (about 2 TBS)

Cut each biscuit into 6 pieces.

Roll in cinnamon and sugar substitute mixture.

Place 4 pieces  in each cupcake liner.

Drizzle Agave Nectar over each cup.

Sprinkle brown sugar on top.

Bake according to package directions.

Enjoy warm!

Makes 12 muffins.  Here is the nutrition breakdown per serving.

• Calories: 132
• Carbs: 25 grams
• Fat: 3 grams
• Protein: 2 grams

At 132 calories and about $0.10 a serving (as long as you have a well-stocked pantry), this is a steal!

Stay tuned….

This year, I am making an effort to healthify my baking and  show ways to keep the cost down.   I am not going to get crazy, but I am going to try some healthier alternatives in my baking and who knows, maybe even a vegan recipe or two for my new animal-free-food friends.  I just need to stock my pantry with a few more essentials and then I will be ready for anything.

If you have any delicious and semi-nutritious recipes that you want to share, feel free!

Here we gooooo….

Quick Tip: Cutting made easy!

One of the quick tips I have been using a lot lately really helps me when I am cutting either a brownie or bar recipe.

Check it out:

By lining your pan with aluminum foil before baking, the creation easily comes out of the pan and makes cutting much easier!  It prevents a lot of the edges from breaking.   Which may or may not be a good thing if you follow the “if it breaks, I have to eat it”  rule.

 

Recap: Holiday Baking

Forgive me loyal readers (all 8 of you ),  for I have sinned.  It has been 60 days since my last post.   While my blogging has been on hiatus, my baking has not.  Here is a recap of what I have been up to since my last post:

 

 

 

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Thank you all for all of your encouragement since I have started this new project.  It has been a blast.  A special thanks to my mom and granny for all of their help and advice.  Their guidance and support of this new hobby has been really motivating and I could not have done this without them.  The weekends I spent baking with them over the holidays are incredibly special to me and I look forward to many more!

May 2012 bring you all wonderfully sweet memories.

My First Wedding!

Well I did it- and boy was it an adventure!  So thankful to Lori and Sean for giving me this wonderful opportunity!

More details to come soon…

 

Getting Prepared!

It is time to start stocking up with ingredients to make some of my favorite holiday treats! Around this time of year, I really start to look for sales on key baking ingredients like flour, sugar, and chocolate chips….then I have to find a place to put them.  Granny recently went to ALDI to do some ingredient pricing for me and I think their prices may be better than Publix even with coupons (gasp!).  I will report back!

Holiday baking is one of my favorite family traditions and I cannot wait to get started this year!  What are some of your favorite holiday treats?

Quick Tip: Crisco Clean-Up!

I hate working with Crisco (or the cheaper store brand).  It makes a mess of my storage containers, my sink, my sponges, and especially my measuring cups.  A friend taught me this trick and I just had to share!

Line your measuring cups with plastic wrap- load the measuring cup up with that messy goop and then pop it into the mixer!  Makes clean-up way easy!

Voila!

 

Quick Recipe: Copycat Publix Buttercream Frosting

I have used this recipe quite a bit (remember Dora?) and plan to use it again for a special birthday cake I am working on…stay tuned!

Thought I would share it with you in a separate post (mostly so I can find it myself when I want to use it ).  Enjoy!

Publix Copycat Butter Cream Icing  (from Copycat Recipes)

Yield: Icing for 2 layer 9 inch round cake, or about 20 cupcakes
1/2 pounds butter
2 cups Crisco Vegetable Shortening
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon butter flavoring
1/2 teaspoon almond extract
2 pounds confectioners sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon milk if needed

Mix butter, Crisco, and salt together on low speed for 5 minutes. Add vanilla, butter flavor, and almond extract, beat until well blended. Turn mixer off and add meringue powder and 1/2 confectioners sugar. Turn mixer on the slowest speed the mixer has, add remaining confectioners sugar 1/2 cup at a time until the sugar is mixed in. Turn mixer up to medium and beat until smooth and creamy, this should take about 5 minutes.

Peanut Butter and Banana Pizza

Another item checked off the Baking Bucket List!  I tackled the pizza crust- and a whole-wheat one to boot!

I found this really simple-looking recipe in Shape Magazine.

Pizza Dough- makes one 11-inch crust

• 1/2 cup bread flour ($2.55/5lb)
• 1/2 cup whole-wheat flour ($3.99/5lb)
• 3/4 tsp active dry yeast (<$1.00)
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp sugar
• 6 tbs old water

First, mix all dry ingredients in a bowl like so:

Next, make a well in the center and add your water.  Be sure it is super cold.  Stir!

It will quickly form into a dough. Then knead this for about 10-minutes until it is smooth.

Roll it into a ball and then cover it with a clean kitchen towel for about 5 minutes.  I totally expected this thing to expand into a big ball of carbs.  It did not.  Don’t worry.

 

After 5 minutes, you can start to roll it out.  I used this thing that I found at Goodwill a few months ago.

It is supposed to make rolling dough easier.  Frankly, it just moves around on the counter a lot and kinda annoys me.  Ah well, it was worth the $1.99.  This dough was pretty easy to work with, add a bit of flour to your rolling pin/hands if it gets a little sticky.

Once I rolled it out, it looked like the profile of a Founding Father.  Right?

You gotta admit…there ARE some similarities!  Ok ok…I digress.

Next, I loaded this bad boy up!

Toppings

• 3 tbs Jif Creamy Peanut Butter (only the best!)
• 1 banana
• brown sugar to sprinkle on top of the banana

Bake for 7-10 minutes until delicious-looking!

 

This pizza was simply delicious.  I added a sprinkle of cinnamon on the top just for a bit of flavor.  You could also try this with Nutella!  Great for breakfast or a snackeroo!  Happy Baking- I hope you enjoy this as much as we did!

Nutrition:  100 calories, 5 g fat, 14g carbs, 4g protein, 2g fiber, 117mg sodium

 

 

 

Whoops!

So sometimes, bad things happen to your bundts.

I was way overdue for a cake catastrophe.  Lesson is to never grease your pan quickly.  Solution is to just scrape out the rest, place it back on the cake and slap some powdered sugar over the top.

Ah well- still tastes amazing.