Damn good pancakes

Whole Wheat Buttermilk Pancakes
Cooking Light Annual Recipes 2003 Copyright 2002

¾ cup all-purpose flour
¾ cup whole wheat flour
3 tablespoons sugar
1 ½ teaspoons baking powder
½ teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon salt
1 ½ cups low-fat buttermilk
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
1 large egg
1 large egg white
Cooking spray I fried them in a bit of Promise margarine
¾ cup maple syrup
3 tablespoons butter

1. Lightly spoon flours into dry measuring cups; level with a knife. Combine flours, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a large bowl, stirring with a whisk. Combine buttermilk, oil, egg, and egg white, stirring with a whisk; add to flour mixture, stirring until just moist.
2. Heat a nonstick griddle or nonstick skillet coated with cooking spray over medium heat. Spoon about ¼ cup batter for each pancake onto griddle. Turn pancakes when tops are covered with bubbles and edges look cooked. Serve with syrup and butter.

Yield: 6 servings Per serving: 351 calories, 10 gms fat, 7.6 gms protein, 59.7 gms carbs, 2.3 gms fiber, 55 mg cholesterol, 2.1 mg iron, 570 mg sodium, 176 mg calcium

One of the best things the internet has brought me is Pancake Day, the Tuesday before Lent. I never knew about this holiday before hearing about it online. This isn't traditionally celebrated in my area. We celebrate Fasnacht Day. Fasnachts are fried donuts, usually with potatoes in the dough. They are delicious if you have a good source but unfortunately I don't have a good source so no fasnachts for me this year. Which is just as well because as much as I love donuts, they really aren't a good nutritional start to my day. Neither are pancakes really (too starchy), which is why I rarely eat them. But I love pancakes, and I've totally embraced Pancake Day since it's a great excuse to have pancakes for dinner.

Usually I use a boxed whole wheat pancake mix and I even had an unopened box in the pantry but I opted to make this recipe instead and I can tell you right now, that box of pancake mix just lost it's job. These were so fluffy and flavorful. Mmmmmm. I wish I had another one right now.

This recipe is a prime example of why I like Cooking Light. These aren't the lowest calorie pancakes you could make, but they are lighter and healthier than traditional pancakes yet still incredibly delicious. They don't tell you to use reduced-calorie syrup and margarine on these beauties - they know pancakes as good as these deserve real maple syrup and real butter.

This book of annual recipes is exciting me a lot more than the Best of Cooking Light. You'll be seeing many more recipes from this book.

Question of the Day: Do you ever eat breakfast for dinner?

Note to self: Add this to my husband's list of favorites

Deep-Dish Chili Pie
Weight Watchers Five Ingredient 15 Minute Cookbook Copyright 2006

1 pound ground round I used ground turkey
1 (15-ounce) can seasoned diced tomatoes sauce for chili (such as Hunt’s) I used Del Monte
1 (13.8-ounce) can refrigerated pizza crust dough I couldn't find one exactly this weight so I just bought the storebrand
Cooking Spray
1 cup (4 ounces) shredded reduced-fat sharp Cheddar cheese, divided I used a 2% Colby/Jack blend
¼ cup grated Parmesan cheese

1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees.
2. Cook beef in a nonstick skillet over medium-high heat until browned, stirring to crumble. Drain well; return meat to pan. Add tomato sauce; cook 1 to 2 minutes or until heated.
3. While beef cooks, unroll pizza crust dough and press into bottom and halfway up sides of a 13x9-inch baking dish coated with cooking spray. Sprinkle ½ cup Cheddar cheese over pizza crust; top with ground beef mixture.
4. Bake, uncovered, at 425 degrees for 12 minutes. Top with remaining ½ cup Cheddar cheese and ¼ cup Parmesan cheese. Bake an additional 5 minutes or until crust is browned and cheese melts. Let stand 5 minutes before serving.

Yield: 8 servings Per serving: 6 points, 266 calories, 7.4 gms fat, 21.6 gms protein, 28.1 gms carbs, 1.5 gms fiber, 42 mg chol, 2.2 mg iron, 791 mg sodium, 128 mg calcium

My husband doesn't normally comment on my recipes, unless he really likes something or really never wants to be faced with it again. I don't mind this arrangement, as this is a man who puts barbecue sauce on almost anything, even if it already has a sauce. This is a man who ate my Mushroom and Chicken Risotto off of a cheap, paper plate. (Why? I don't know. He doesn't do the dishes but he thinks there is some advantage to not dirtying a real plate.) This is a man who would probably name my hot Italian subs (roll, mayo, pepper spread, meats, and cheese wrapped in foil and baked) as his favorite meal.

So, while I'm happy when he enjoys something, I don't seek out his praise. But this simple, could-definitely-see-Sandra-Lee-making-this-on-her-show recipe received high praise. I agree, that is was very good. That's why I paid $10 for another Weight Watchers Five Ingredient 15 Minute Cookbook. As I learned after buying last year's version of this magazine-style cookbook, these simple recipes may be simple but they're quite good too.

I had a bit too much liquid in my pie (not enough to ruin it) which may not have been a problem if I had drained the turkey properly (ground turkey has a lot more liquid than ground beef, I've found). Also, I used Del Monte diced tomatos, zesty chili style, which may be different from the Hunt's tomatoes that they suggested. I didn't read the directions carefully enough and threw everything together and cooked it all at once (instead of waiting to add the last bit of cheese) but it turned out fine.

I'll definitely make this again. I work 40 hours/week, spend about 1.5 hours/day commuting, and I have a 2-year old. Recipes like this give me a much needed break. We only do take-out or eat out on weekends in our house.

Question of the Day: How often do you grab take-out or eat out?

A pasta dish for ARF/5-A-Day Tuesday

Ditalini With Zucchini
Favorite Brand Name Pasta 365 Recipes Copyright 1997

8 ounces uncooked ditalini pasta
¼ cup olive oil I only used 2 tablespoons, probably could have used less
1 pound zucchini, trimmed and cut into thin rounds
1 onion, thinly sliced
1 tomato
1 tablespoon minced fresh parsley
salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

Cook pasta according to package directions until al dente (tender but still firm). Drain. In medium skillet, heat olive oil over medium heat until hot. Add zucchini and onion; cook and stir 10 minutes or until zucchini is tender crisp. Place tomato in small saucepan of boiling water; boil 1 minute. Place in bowl of ice water for 10 seconds. Remove skin with paring knife; chop tomato. In large bowl, combine zucchini mixture, tomato and parsley. Toss with pasta. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

Makes 3 or 4 servings.

Honestly, I chose this recipe because I had zucchini I picked up off the clearance table and this recipe didn't require any other special ingredients (I had ditalini on hand from making Pasta E Fagioli With Sausage). I didn't expect this to be anything special but this was so good, I almost couldn't stop eating it after I made it, and I was making it to take for lunch not to eat right away. Simple flavors but they worked very well together. Before tasting it I thought I might add some Parmesan or Romano cheese, which would have worked, but it wasn't necessary.

I'm going to admit that I used jarred tomato in this. Yes, jarred tomato! This time of year, even premium priced tomatoes aren't all that great and fresh tomatoes only excite me at their very best so I tried the new jarred petite diced tomatoes from Del Monte. They taste like canned tomatoes, just without the juice, but I like canned tomatoes so I was happy.

I was surprised to read that zucchinis are antioxidant rich. Maybe not near the top, but it sounds like they're more nutritious than I assumed they were. They may look a lot like a cucumber but they're way more advanced, nutrition-wise. So this is my contribution to Sweetnick's ARF/5-A-Day Tuesday this week.

This is only the second recipe I've tried from this cookbook but I'm sure they'll be many more in my future. Who doesn't love pasta?

Question of the Day: How many different shapes/varieties of pasta are in your pantry right now?

Awesome muffins

Overnight Oatmeal Muffins
Cooking Light Annual Recipes 2003
Copyright 2002

1 cup regular oats
2 cups low-fat buttermilk
1 2/3 cups whole wheat flour
¾ cup packed dark brown sugar
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
2 large eggs, lightly beaten
2/3 cup dried blueberries I used golden raisins

1. Combine oats and buttermilk in a medium bowl, cover and refrigerate overnight.
2. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
3. Lightly spoon flour into dry measuring cups, level with a knife. Place buttermilk mixture, flour and next 6 ingredients in a large bowl; beat with a mixer at medium speed until smooth. Fold in blueberries.
4. Spoon ¼ cup batter into each of 24 muffin cups coated with cooking spray. Bake at 350 degrees for 15 minutes or until muffins spring back when touched lightly in center. Remove muffins from pans immediately; place on a wire rack.

Yield: 24 muffins Per muffin: 105 cal, 2.3 gms fat, 3.1 gms protein,
19.4 gms carbs, 1.7 gms fiber, 19 mg cholesterol, 201 mg sodium, 49 mg calcium

I'm on sort of a muffin kick, having made my Apple Oat Bran Muffins the past two weeks but I thought it was time for a change. These Overnight Oatmeal Muffins were great. They're lighter and smoother than the Apple Oat Bran muffins. They don't have much sugar but the raisins I used added a lot of sweetness. The streaks you see in the picture are from the dark brown sugar. I've been having some lumping problems with my current bag.

I only made a half batch of these to see what they were like and they're disappearing quickly. My son and my husband have been enjoying them too. This recipe is definitely a keeper.

I received a gift subscription to Cooking Light back in 2002. I've kept the issues all this time but they were difficult to sort through so I broke down and ordered the book - used, but still almost $10. The book doesn't include as many pictures, which is disappointing, but it's a trade-off for having all the recipes in one place. I actually like this book better than the Best of Cooking Light. I did get really confused trying to find this book since I didn't realize it at first, but everytime I tried to look inside this book on Amazon it would actually show me a different year's version and I couldn't figure out why none of the books had the 2002 recipes (and why call it the 2003 recipes, when they were in the 2o02 magazines??)

Question of the Day:Do you hold onto old magazines?

Just an average dish

Whole Wheat Spaghetti With Sausage and Peppers
Food and Wine Magazine’s Quick From Scratch Pasta Cookbook Copyright 1996, 2001, 2002, 2004

1 tablespoon olive oil
1 pound mild or hot Italian sausage
1 onion, chopped
2 red bell peppers, cut into 1-inch pieces
1 ¾ teaspoon salt
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 cup canned crushed tomatoes in thick puree
1 cup canned low-sodium chicken broth or homemade stock
2 tablespoons dry vermouth or dry white wine I used red wine
3 tablespoons chopped flat-leaf parsley it's in there but I can't see it in the picture
¾ pound whole-wheat spaghetti I used Dreamfields linguine
2 tablespoons grated Parmesan cheese, plus more for serving

1. In a large frying pan, heat the oil over moderate heat. Add the sausage and cook, turning, until browned and cooked through, about 8 minutes. Remove. When the sausage is cool enough to handle, cut it into ½-inch slices.
2. Add the onion, peppers, and ¾ teaspoon of the salt to the pan. Cook, stirring frequently, until the vegetables begin to brown, about 5 minutes. Cover and cook, stirring occasionally, until the vegetables are soft, about 3 minutes longer. Add the garlic and cook, stirring, about 30 seconds. Add the tomatoes, broth, vermouth, the reserved sausage and any accumulated juices, the parsley, and the remaining 1 teaspoon of salt and bring to a simmer.
3. In a large pot of boiling, salted water, cook the spaghetti until done, about 12 minutes. Drain and toss with the sausage and pepper mixture and the Parmesan. Serve with additional Parmesan.

Serves 4.

This was okay but I really prefer my sausage slow-cooked for a long time. I should have just freestyled this but it wasn't like this was awful or anything. My son ate an unsual (for him) amount of this (just the pasta and sauce). I used Dreamfields because I really prefer it to the whole wheat pasta. I thought I had enough of the spaghetti but I didn't so I used linguine instead.

I wasn't going to make this unless I found red peppers on sale. I just refuse to pay $3.99 for them anymore. Quite often one supermarket I shop at has big bags of them for under $1.50, usually mixed with green, yellow, or orange peppers but this time they had all red. I got about 6 peppers for less than I would pay for one pepper at regular price. Yay!

Okay, I'm not even going to look into any of my Food and Wine Quick From Scratch books for a a couple of weeks since I'm sure everyone is getting sick of them. Between trying to lose weight and trying to work with what I have on hand, it's been a little boring around here and probably will be for a bit longer.

Question of the Week: Do you buy marked down produce and/or meat?