Tag: recipes

Easy Cinnamon-Sugar Pull Apart Bread

Posted on by Meredith Rines, MBA, CFP®

pull apart bread recipe

One of my favorite desserts, breakfasts or snacks ever is pull apart bread.  The smell of fresh baked bread reminds me of summers at my grandparents when I was a little girl.  My Aunt and I would get together, wear our cutesy aprons, and spend the day making homemade bread and cinnamon rolls.  I have a lot of memories sitting around my grandma’s kitchen table kneading bread, rolling out dough…

Nowadays, I don’t have the time or the patience most weekends to make homemade pull apart bread.  So, when I can cheat and have fresh baked from a can – I do!

This past weekend I pulled out an old favorite for breakfast.

The pictures do NOT do this gooey, sugar filled dough any justice.  It was delicious!

Here’s what you need to make your own cinnamon-sugar pull apart bread with icing:

Pull Apart Bread:

1 can biscuisits, each biscuit cut into fourths
1 c. sugar
cinnamon
¼ c. brown sugar
¼ c. butter

Icing:

1 c. powdered sugar
½ tsp. vanilla
1-2 T milk

pull apart bread recipe

Preheat oven to 475 or as per the directions on the biscuits and spray a round cake pan with cooking spray.  Mix the sugar, cinnamon and brown sugar in a bowl.  Melt butter and let cool for a few seconds (that way you will not burn your hands).  Dip a piece of dough into the butter  and dredge in the sugar mixture.  Shake of excess and place in pan.  Bake per directions on the cannister, mine took about 20 minutes.

Mix the icing ingredients together.  The more milk you add, the thinner the icing will be.  I used mine as a drizzle, so I added the full 2 Tablespoons.  Drizzle the icing over the bread.

pull apart bread recipe

Enjoy!

Easy-peasy Healthy Breakfast Bar Recipe

Posted on by Meredith Rines, MBA, CFP®

Healthy Breakfast Bar Recipe

Looking for a healthy breakfast bar recipe?  Want a recipe for a delicious chocolate peanut butter banana oatmeal bar for breakfast?  Well then you have come to the right place.

J asked for breakfast food the other day and  suggested granola bars.  The pre-packaged ones are good don’t get me wrong, but I just have a problem with filling our bellies with junk.  I looked up a healthy breakfast bar recipe and found one that caught my eye.  I did a little edit to some ingredients to make it a little healthier.  And I ended up with a tasty, healthy breakfast bar recipe.

Healthy Breakfast Bar Recipe

Ingredients:

1 1/2 c. whole-wheat flour
1 c. rolled oats
1/2 c. sugar substitute
5 t. baking powder (you can use 2 t. baking powder and 1 t. baking soda, but I was out of baking soda)
1/4 c. milk chocolate chips
1/8 c. Peanut Butter
1 large egg
2 large egg-whites
1/2 c. unsweetened applesauce
1/4 c. milk, fat free
1 c. mashed bananas (approximately 2 full bananas)

Preheat oven to 400 degrees and grease 24 muffin cups

Stir flour, oats, sugar, baking powder (and baking soda) and chocolate chips in a large bowl.

Whisk egg and egg whites together; mix in applesauce, milk, peanut butter and banana.

Create well in middle of dry ingredients and pour in wet ingredients.  Stir until moisten.

Fill muffin cups until about 1/2 full.

Bake for about 16-18 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into center comes out clean.  Cool before serving.

Healthy Breakfast Bar Recipe

There ya have it a healthy breakfast bar recipe that was super easy to make.  Oh and the best part one of these little bad boys is only 2 weight watchers point plus value.  Sweet!

Looking for other uses for Oatmeal around the house? Check out how I gave my dog a homemade oatmeal bath to soothe her itchy skin.

Cheers!

I adapted from this recipe from allrecipes.com. 

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4 Tips for Healthy Eating

Posted on by Meredith Rines, MBA, CFP®

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAphoto source

In the past 3 years I have learned a lot about myself and a lot about eating healthy. I have my good days. I have my bad days. Just like the majority of us out there.

A few items I’ve learned about eating healthy.

1) You must be realistic with yourself. If you love chocolate (like I do) or salty foods (like J does) then telling yourself you will never eat a kit-kat again is just plain pointless.

2) Listen to your cravings. When I crave chocolate it could mean a variety of things. First, it’s that lovely time of the month and I’m feeling vulnerable. Second, you are having a bad day and your serotonin levels might be low; and you want a jolt of feeling good. Third, your magnesium levels might be low.

3) Moderation. I can put down a pack of cookies like no one’s business. I know this lovely fact about myself. I avoid putting myself in those situations.

4) Forgive yourself. When I was first on my journey to healthy eating I would get so upset with myself if I allowed my old habits to come forward. What happens when you’re sad? You want something to make you feel happy. For some of us that’s food. So we eat. Then we realize that we shouldn’t have done that. So we get sad again. What happens when you’re sad? You eat. It’s a vicious circle. The best thing you can do for yourself is to forgive yourself. Your mind, body, and emotions will thank yourself.

Just a little advice from a girl who has done the opposite of every single one of those points listed above and has learned the hard way. Take my advice.

Cheers!

Chocolate Peanut Butter Banana Smoothie

Posted on by Meredith Rines, MBA, CFP®

smoothie So this morning I concocted a yummy, healthy smoothie. It was super easy, super quick and did the trick.

Ingredients:
1/2 frozen banana (I already had it sliced and in the freezer)
1 c. fat-free milk
1 t. PB2 (powdered peanut butter is my favorite right now)
1 packet of Weight Watchers chocolate smoothie mix

Combine the ingredients in a blender until smooth. The frozen banana will give it a thicker texture and won’t water it down like ice will.
smoothie2
The best part of this smoothie? It’s only 4 PointsPlus values! The banana and PB2 are both 0 PP+ values.

If you haven’t tried PB2 yet then I recommend it. 2 Tablespoons are only 1PP+. It can be combined with water or your daily oil, which is my favorite because it makes it a bit creamier.

The only sad part about my smoothie was when I finished it! HA!

Cheers!

Diet 7-Up Biscuits

Posted on by Meredith Rines, MBA, CFP®

Happy Thanksgiving! I hope everyone had a day filled with love and yummy goodness!


J and I celebrated our first Thanksgiving together this year.  Due to work schedules we both weren’t able to make the drive home, especially since our drive is in opposite directions of one another.  It just made it too difficult.  So, we made the best of it and celebrated on our own.

I got there just in time for the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade to start, which is my absolute favorite part of the day.  I’ve seen a 7-Up Biscuit recipe on Pinterest lately and it looked delicious.  I adapted the recipe to be a bit more Weight Watcher friendly and the results were a-mazing.

Ingredients:

2 C. Heart Smart Bisquick
1/2 C. light Sour Cream
1/2 C. diet 7-Up
1/4 C. melted butter (I used I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter)

Directions:

In a large bowl, mix sour cream and bisquick together.  Add 7-Up to mix.  The dough will be really soft.  Melt the butter and pour into the bottom of a 9×9 pan.  Next, sprinkle some bisquick mix onto the counter and spread out the dough.  You don’t want to knead the dough, but just pat and spread to be about one-inch thick.  Use a glass or a biscuit cutter and cut out biscuits.  Place in pan and bake at 450 degree for about 8-10 minutes, or until golden brown.

Makes 9 servings – 4 WWPointsPlus per serving

I had one biscuit that didn’t want to cooperate when I was putting it into the pan… I’m sure you can figure out which one that was.  Oh well! Recipes can’t always be picture perfect, but they were still delicious.

Spinach Artichoke Dip

Posted on by Meredith Rines, MBA, CFP®

spinartdip
So, here is another delicious outcome from a recipe I followed from Eat Yourself Skinny! Are you seeing a trend with where I get my recipes from? Sure I like to make some up as I go or adapt them to my tastes, but I swear Kelly from Eat Yourself Skinny has the same tastes as I do.
spinartdip2
Spinach Artichoke Dip turned out great and was super easy. I actually put this dip into two smaller baking dishes before baking. The best part of this whole recipe was that 1/2 cup was only 2 PointsPlus. This dip is so doable during Sunday football.

Not too bad for you, oh so yummy Beer-garitas

Posted on by Meredith Rines, MBA, CFP®

beer-garitas1

I found a delicious drink recipe on one of my favorite cooking blogs – Eat Yourself Skinny! – check it out here.

I tasted tested it the morning after I made it and found that it was a bit too lime-y tasting for me.  I’m sure others would think that it was great, but I wanted to tone down the lime.  So, I altered the recipe a bit at that point.

Here are my final ingredients:
2 cups frozen limeade (see recipe below)
3 bottles of light beer (I used Select 55)
1/2 cup tequila

Ingredients for limeade:
1 cup fresh lime juice + 2 limes for zesting
1 1/2 cups of water
1/2 cup Splenda sugar blend
How to make the limeade:

In a large saucepan, combine water, Splenda and lime zest from the 2 limes.  Heat until Splenda is dissolved.  Remove from heat and  cool to room temperature.  Stir in lime juice and freeze until ready to use.

How to make the beer-garitas:
In a pitcher, combine frozen limeade, 3 beers and 1/2 cup of tequila.  Place pitcher in the freezer overnight or until frozen, then mix so that it is in slushy form and serve.
It made 6 servings and was at 3 PointsPlus per serving.  Now, I used different beer than the original recipe.  I prefer Bud products over here, now when calculating the beer it said that 1 can of Bud Select 55 was 0 PointsPlus and 3 beers was only 1 PointsPlus.  Now that’s hard to believe so please don’t go crazy if using Bud Select 55.

beer-garitas2

It was a perfect drink to have in hand while watching football this past Sunday.

Perfection!

Crispy Baked Shrimp

Posted on by Meredith Rines, MBA, CFP®

crispbakshrimp
I adapted this recipe from one from Dashing Dish.  It was simple, quick and can trick the mind into thinking you’re eating something fried.  If you’re like me and love fried food, but know that it’s not the best thing in the world to eat then this is a recipe for you.

Ingredients:

1 lb. of cooked medium shrimp
2/3 c. of whole wheat bread crumbs
4 T. Egg Substitute (I used Egg Beaters original)
1 pkt. Stevia
1 spray of cooking spray

Directions:

Preheat oven to 425.  Spray cooke sheet with cooking spray.  In shallow skillet heat breadcrumbs on medium heat for about 2 minutes.  Then pour crumbs into shallow bowl.  Dip shrimp into egg substitute, let excess run off.  Then dredge into bread crumbs, shake off excess.  Place in a single layer on cookie sheet.  Bake for about 10-12 minutes or until warm.
crispbakshrimp2
It will serve 4 at only 3 PointsPlus per serving.

“fried” mozzarella bites

Posted on by Meredith Rines, MBA, CFP®

friedmozbites
I found this recipe on one of my favorite food blogs Eat Yourself Skinny!  I made it just as the recipe called, no substitutions and it turned out perfect.  It was a great snack for football this past Sunday.
friedmozbites2
Plus a serving is only 3 PointsPlus, can’t beat that!