I feel as though I should preface this with a #PinterestWinning because 2 of the 4 recipes shared on here came from Pinterest (the two meals) and both were positively delicious! I can't believe that the year has flown by so quickly once again. 15 more days to Christmas morning! As a typical holiday tradition I have done my Christmas cookie making, and this year I decided to try out several new recipes. The first choice was a peppermint pinwheel:
http://www.christmas-cookies.com/recipes/recipe581.peppermint-pinwheels.html
I followed the recipe completely except for trading in peppermint extract for mint, only because I already had the peppermint and I had no desire to go to the store. I baked the first batch according to instructions but didn't like the way they turned out - they were slightly over cooked and the peppermint candies had melted through the fluffiness of the cookie. So for the second round I reduced the time to 8 minutes without candies, then pulled out the pan and added candies and baked them for one additional minute.
This is how they turned out after my slight adjustments:
Then for last week's dinner I found this gem of a recipe for a lighter chicken Alfredo from another blogger:
http://www.sixsistersstuff.com/2012/06/guiltless-chicken-alfredo-recipe.html
I mostly followed the recipe, but I did use regular cream cheese only because I already had it on hand, also I didn't have the more traditionally used fettuccine noodles, so I used the rotini from my pantry. I have always loved Alfredo but never made it from scratch, in part because it seemed difficult, but also because I didn't want to know just how fattening it was. Now I am not saying that this recipe is healthy, but the use of fat free milk and low fat cream cheese does make it more healthy than other versions. Also it didn't seem as overly rich as some full fat versions do. I highly recommend this recipe to Alfredo lovers. The only thing I might try different next time is to throw a few finely chopped fresh herbs from my garden in (maybe some basil and oregano) while cooking the garlic. (I am unfortunately missing the picture of this meal because my phone that it was taken on was stolen the next day.)
For my next cookie I played around with a classic cookie recipe for a little fun. I used a basic chocolate chip cookie recipe (found on the nestle chocolate chip bag) and followed it mostly. Here's what I changed:
- first I doubled the recipe
- instead of 2 tsp vanilla extract I used 1 peppermint and 1 vanilla
- instead of just chocolate chips I used 1 cup red and green M&Ms, 1/2 cup white chocolate chips, 3/4 cup chocolate chips, and 4 candy canes crushed up
**I took these to a Christmas cookie exchange and they won best tasting cookie!
For my very last recipe share, tonight I made Chicken Gloria from this recipe:
http://www.cookingwithsugar.com/moms-chicken-a-la-gloria-a-family-favorite-chicken-recipe/
I won't detail how to make it here because you can read it from the link, but can I just say that the creamy mushroom, sherry sauce smothering the chicken was to die for! I did use fat free milk instead of whole milk just for lower calories (not that it made it a healthy meal) and I used mozzarella cheese instead of the recommended (because I already had it). I paired this recipe with some simple green beans and brown rice. I want just thinking about it! Highly recommended!
Happy Christmas Season! Until next time friends.
