Honey-Apple Brie Bites

Source: Pampered Chef

These are pretty much the fanciest, most sophisticated thing I feel like I have ever made. They were easy to make and didn't take very long (the dicing of the apples took the longest) and everyone loved them. 

HONEY-APPLE BRIE BITES

1 lemon

1 c toasted walnuts

2 medium red baking apples (such as Jonathan)

¼ c honey

1 - 4” round (8 oz) Brie cheese w/ rind

2 pkg prepared mini phyllo shells (30 shells total)  (you can find these in the freezer section)

Preheat oven to 400F. Zest lemon using a microplane grater to measure 1 tsp zest. (Or, conversely, zest until there's nothing left to zest. My approach to lemon zest is similar to that of garlic: the more the better.)

Coarsely chop walnuts using Food Chopper. Finely dice apple. 

Combine zest, walnuts, apple, and honey in mixing bowl. (Note: if you feel like it's a little bit dry or not mixing as well as you'd like, and/or if you ended up with extra zest and a lot of apple and slightly more than a cup of walnuts because you figured you may as well just finish up the bag, and now you need to compensate with the honey too, just squirt some more honey into the mix. You'll have to eyeball this, I'm not sure how much extra I added.)

Cut Brie into thirty 1/2” cubes. (You will not use your whole wheel.) Arrange phyllo cups on large sheet pan. (You can fit all 30 onto one pan provided the pan is large enough and you're okay with breaking ranks and not having everything in even rows.) Place one Brie cube into each cup. Using small scoop, top Brie with a level scoop of apple mixture. (You know what happens when you try and use a scoop? Stuff falls everywhere. I ended up having to use my hands. It kind of felt like I was making little sculptures. I'm not sure what they mean by "level" but if your phyllo cups were anything like my phyllo cups, once you put the Brie in them, that takes up quite a bit of room, since they're not all even on the bottom, so your mixture will have to go around and on top of the little cube, and there will be nothing level about them. And you know what? That's okay.) (Note: I ended up with a lot of extra apple mixture - I probably could have gotten another 15count box of phyllo cups and filled those as well. I don't know if it was because of the size of my apples or my lack of accurate measuring, but... oh well. Who doesn't like having extra?) (Despite all of my commentary, these are actually quite easy to make.)

Bake 6-8 minutes or until cheese is melted. (I went 7.)

Verdict: Deeeeeeeelish.

Leftover quality: they all got eaten. This question is unanswerable.

Chili Lime Meatballs

They're not real photogenic, but damn, they're tasty

Source: Pampered Chef

I made these for a bridal show I did tonight and it was totally unnerving because we did the food prep before the show instead of a demo during the show, and we were just throwing things together and not much measuring was being done and I'd never made these before and I was really worried about how they were going to turn out. As it was, they turned out very well, and they're super easy, even if you're not 100% following the directions.

CHILI LIME MEATBALLS

Glaze

½ c teriyaki baste and glaze (we weren't sure what this was, exactly, so we just used a generic teriyaki sauce and it seemed to work okay)

2 tbs lime juice

2 tsp Thai red curry paste

2 garlic cloves, pressed (as per my usual motto, more garlic = better, so I used 4)

Meatballs

1 lb lean ground beef

¼ cup plain dried bread crumbs

1 egg

2 tbs Asian Seasoning Mix (this is a Pampered Chef item, but see below for a substitution that they helpfully provided)

2 tsp Thai red curry paste

2 green onions, sliced

Whisk together baste and glaze (or dump in your sauce, whichever), lime juice, curry paste, and garlic in a small bowl. Set aside.

Combine beef, bread crumbs, egg, seasoning mix, and curry paste in large bowl; mix well. (Note: if you're at a loss on how to do this, as I was, since it didn't seem to want to stir very well, just use your hands and knead that stuff together. It worked really well.)

Using small scoop, form beef mixture into 40 meatballs. (Here is where the recipe went slightly awry, because I think I was using a medium-sized scoop, and there is no way I got 40 meatballs. I actually gave up about halfway and just started shaping them with my hands anyway.) (The idea behind using the scoop is to make them uniform in size so they cook consistently)

Place meatballs in 12" skillet. Cook over medium-high heat 8-10 minutes or until browned, turning frequently. Remove skillet from heat. (I found that timing this endeavor was pointless and you really just have to eyeball them and poke at random samples to make sure they're not still pink in the middle. Again, mine were probably much larger than they were supposed to be.)

Pour glaze into skillet; stir meatballs to coat. Place meatballs onto serving platter and top with green onions.

This step wasn't mentioned, but next: sit back and let the compliments roll in. Everyone loved these.

To substitute the Asian Seasoning Mix, add 2 tsp grated fresh gingerroot, ¾ tsp salt, 1 pressed garlic clove and ¼ tsp ground cayenne pepper. 

Verdict: quite tasty, though I would like to try this again sometime when I'm not so rushed and can properly measure out ingredients and make the meatballs the right size. 

Leftover quality: Unknown. There were no leftovers to be had. 

Mango Confetti Salsa

Source: Pampered Chef

Weight Watchers Points+ Values: I didn't calculate, but I would assume it would be zero, given the ingredients.

MANGO CONFETTI SALSA

1 large mango (we used 2)

½ small jicama (we used the whole thing)

1/3 orange bell pepper (again, the whole thing)

1/3 red bell pepper (who has time to measure? throw the whole thing in!)

1 jalapeno pepper, stemmed (I guess we used this too, all of it)

1/3 small red onion (I believe all of this went in as well)

1 tbs fresh lime juice (we used... 2? Maybe 3? Look, there wasn't a lot of measuring going on)

¼ tsp salt 

½ tsp Chili Lime Rub (This is recommended as it is the official P-Chef rub, but we found a Mango Lime Rub at the local grocery store and it was perfect)

Cut/core the mango. Don't peel it.

Peel the jicama. (Pronounced "hick-a-muh" for those of you who are unfamiliar with Spanish. I'd never heard of this before but it's popular on the Weight Watcher circuit. Just... look for a sign, you'll find it. It looks kind of odd. I wasn't the one gathering ingredients so I still have no idea where this is located, but it's somewhere in the produce section.) 

Chop everything into little pieces. 

Throw the little pieces into a food processor.

Process!

Dump back into a bowl, add the lime juice and salt, and stir. Then throw some rub on there. I honestly didn't measure any of it, I just went by taste and had it right on the first try.

Eat! (Don't forget to buy some tortilla chips, that is helpful to the process).

Verdict: Holy yum, Batman! This was Delicious. Capital D. It does make quite a bit, especially if you use the entirety of your fruits/veggies (and why wouldn't you?), but if you're having a gathering of sorts, it should be the right amount.

Leftover Quality: Undetermined, as it was all left at the party in question. I'm sure it would be good though.

WW Creamy Lemon Pie (Modified)

Source: A Weight Watchers weekly handout; this was modified in various ways, both intentional and not. As such, I recalculated the points to see where it landed.

Weight Watchers Points Plus value (if you go by the original recipe): 4 pts+ (10 servings)

Weight Watchers Points Plus value (if you go by my recipe): 5 pts+ (10 servings)

Yes, I somehow managed to make it more. I'm awesome like that.

As always, my comments in italics, below.

WW CREAMY LEMON PIE

6 whole reduced-fat cinnamon graham crackers (because I am a genius, and only wrote "graham crackers" on my list, I ended up with reduced-fat honey graham crackers. I also used 8 instead of 6.)

2 Tbsp butter (I used margarine instead)

11 oz fat-free sweetened condensed milk (I used the whole 14-oz can)

2 large eggs (I was going to try egg whites instead, but I only had 2 eggs in my fridge, and it's a 2:1 ratio if you just use whites - 2 eggs worth of egg whites = 1 egg with yolk. So I'll maybe try that next time.)

1/2 cup fresh lemon juice (I didn't measure... I squeezed the juice out of two small lemons and called it good)

1 Tbsp lemon zest (again... didn't measure. Just zested one of the small lemons until I could zest no more)

Preheat oven to 350°F.

Grind graham crackers in a food processor until fine crumbs form. Or place crackers in a resealable plastic bag and crush with a rolling pin. (or, you know, find some way to smash them into little bits. I chose to mash them with the flat side of a meat tenderizer. Your choice.) Place crumbs in a small bowl.

Melt butter (or margarine) on stovetop or in microwave and pour over graham cracker crumbs, mixing with a fork until completely moistened. Press crumbs evenly onto bottom of a 9" pie pan; place crust in refrigerator while preparing lemon filling.

In a medium bowl, combine condensed milk and eggs; mix until smooth. Add lemon juice and zest; stir until incorporated and pour into prepared crust. ("until incorporated" -? Who writes this?!)

Bake pie for 15 minutes. Cool completely and for best flavor, serve chilled. Yields 1 piece per serving.

Note: This pie can be baked and frozen for up to two weeks. Defrost and serve chilled.

Verdict: Omg, yummy! Also, I am apparently incapable of figuring out how to cut a pie into 10 pieces, so I ended up with 12 pieces, which actually brings my point total per piece back down to 4. I also put a dab of fat-free cool whip on top, which adds zero points. Delish!

Leftover quality: I can't imagine it would suck... after all, it's a PIE we're talking about.

WW Slow Cooker Chicken Cacciatore

Source: a Weight Watchers weekly handout.

Weight Watchers Points Plus values: 5 pts+ (serving size = 1 cup)

WW SLOW COOKER CHICKEN CACCIATORE

1 lb skinless chicken thighs, cut into bite-sized pieces (I just used boneless/skinless chicken breasts instead, worked dandily)
1 cup fresh, frozen, or canned mushrooms, sliced (I don't like mushrooms so I didn't use these. I added a cut-up whole red pepper instead.)
1 cup fresh or frozen green peppers, sliced (I cut mine into fairly small pieces because I hate getting large chunks of anything; also, I didn't measure them, I just cut up the whole thing)
1 cup fresh or frozen onions, chopped (again, didn't measure... I used 1/2 an onion.)
1 medium garlic clove, minced (I prefer fresh ones. Also, for those of you that are unfamiliar, the PChef rep in me wants to remind you that a clove is 1 piece, not the entire bulb)
1 tbsp canned tomato paste (make sure you buy a tiny can. I thought I bought a little one and I had a ridiculous amount left so I put it in a little container and froze it. So if anyone around here needs some, holler at me. I don't know when I will use it again, probably the next time I make this.)
14.5 oz. can crushed fire-roasted tomatoes (yeah, good luck finding this, I tried 3 stores... I went ahead and bought the diced and it was just fine.)
1/4 cup dry red wine (after consulting my cooking guru friend Molly, I went ahead and used a Merlot. Add 4 pts if you drink a glass of it while you're cooking this) :)
3/4 tsp dried oregano, crushed (I thought I had this, but turns out I had ground oregano, seemed to work ok)
3/4 tsp salt 1/4 tsp black pepper

Throw it all in the crock pot and stir it up a little bit. You're supposed to cook on high heat for 5-6 hours or low heat for 6-8 hours, but I got a later start on this than I wanted, so I actually only let mine go on high heat for 4 hours and it was done... it might vary on the size of your crockpot? I have kind of a smaller one.

This recipe makes about 4 servings but I would imagine you could double it easily enough if you wanted to.

Verdict: Not too shabby! I'll probably make this again.

Leftover quality: really good! I think the chicken actually managed to absorb more liquid while in the fridge, so that was a bonus.

The Easiest Casserole Ever

Source: modified from a Kraft recipe due to forgetfulness and missing ingredients.

As I was driving home from work, I realized I needed some food. I also remembered I had some chicken in my freezer. I had a vague memory of some sort of chicken-broccoli bake that I'd made ages ago, and so made a detour to the grocery store.

Turns out I remembered the stuffing and the correct "Cream of" soup... but I totally forgot the damn broccoli. The recipe also called for some Velveeta.

And I was too lazy to go back to the store.

So I improvised with what I already had, and it turned out decently okay.

EASY CHICKEN-STUFFING BAKE, BROCCOLI OPTIONAL, APPARENTLY

2 boneless/skinless chicken breasts

1 box of stuffing for chicken

1 can of cream of chicken soup

1 bag of frozen broccoli (unless you don't have any or forget. Then you can use a bag of frozen mixed veggies that you totally happened to have on hand!)

cheese - either a block of Velveeta or a bag of cheddary stuff

Preheat oven to 400ºF.

Cut chicken into approximately 1" pieces. Mix the chicken, frozen veggies, and soup together and pour into a 9 x 13 pan. Mine looked really thin and I was skeptical that it was enough coverage to not burn to a crisp, but it totally worked, so trust me on this.

If you forget cheese, just sprinkle a crap-ton of the shredded cheddar cheese that you already have in your fridge. Trust me, it's there. Because everyone always has half of a bag of shredded cheese in their fridge. Don't ask me why.

If you get Velveeta "cheese product", you're supposed to cut 1" cubes and I think it was supposed to be mixed in with the original mixture.

Make the stuffing according to the directions on the box.

Put the stuffing on top of the chicken mix.

Bake for 30 minutes, or thereabouts until the chicken is completely cooked.

Bam. DONE.



Leftover quality: better be good, 'cause I've got a ton of it. ;)

Microwave Cake

Source: Passed down from Pampered Chef consultants since the dawn of... whenever someone realized they could do this.

Notes: The caveat is, of course, that you have to have a Pampered Chef rice cooker for this to work. However, these things make perfect rice, and there are a couple other recipes I have for this thing, so I would consider it worth the investment. ($25). I mostly made this on a whim since I wanted to try it out for a show I am doing next week. I used a lemon cake/frosting combo, but you can do anything you'd like.

MICROWAVE CAKE

Box of cake mix (any flavor)
Jar of frosting (any flavor)
Ingredients to make said cake, according to box

Mix cake according to package directions and mix right in the Rice Cooker.

When batter is mixed, "glop" the frosting right on top of the batter.


Cover and microwave for 8-9 minutes.

Remove from microwave and let stand for about 3-5 minutes. Remove cover and invert onto a large* platter or large shallow bowl. The frosting will spread all over the top and sides of the cake.

*Yes, you want something very large - the frosting will be sorta all over the place if you don't have a large enough plate/bowl to catch it. I think I went a smidge too long (I went 9 minutes) - mine was kind of runny. You can always spoon the extra on top of the servings, too.


Verdict: Not as good as a regular, oven-baked cake... but not horrible, and definitely a nice "party trick" of sorts. It's fun more than anything - kind of a novelty food. Texture is kind of spongey which I didn't love, but that's kind of my personal taste. I could tell I didn't mix it as well as I could/should have.

Also, I would recommend being slightly more graceful than I, and not just plunking it on a platter. Otherwise you lose the cool frosting-flowing effect that I think you are supposed to get.

Leftover quality: This is actually really good as leftovers... I almost like it better than when it was "fresh"- ! Yum.