Cooking for Dummies

I am finally retiring my cereal dinners. I might be having cereal for lunch now, but that’s beside the point…I’m actually cooking! I’ve always used the excuse that cooking for one was hard because you basically cook on Monday and then eat the leftovers for the rest of the week. Well, now I have a husband–a hungry husband! So I’ve made it my goal to try new recipes (which is pretty much all recipes because I’ve never made anything) each night. I like to keep things healthy so it’s actually been kind of fun “healthifying” traditional recipes and tricking Chris into thinking they’re the real thing:) For instance, on Tuesday night we had Hungry Girl’s Fettucini Alfredo made with a tofu noodle substitute. Actually that’s a really bad example because it was horrible…but still, Chris had no clue that he was eating tofu and not fettucini. Am I wrong for thinking that’s funny? Okay, a better example might be the mini pizzas I made on Sunday night…whole wheat english muffins, fat free mozzarella, tomato sauce, turkey pepperoni and some spices. Okay, so it’s no Julia Childs recipe but I bet you twenty bucks they were better than bagel bites!!! Anyway, I might use this blog to share good, healthy recipes that I come across through my culinary journey. I think I’m going to give the Cooper spinach & artichoke dip a try over the holidays…thanks Erica!

While I like to make our meals healthy, I’ve also come to realize that I really enjoy baking really fattening foods for other people 🙂 Chris’ Christmas party at work was on Tuesday and I baked my first batch of cupcakes from scratch…red velvet with cream cheese frosting–pictured below. Now, there is one small problem…I didn’t try these before I sent them to work with Chris (in my adorable little cupcake tote, courtesy of my wonderful cousin Lindsey!) For one, I knew how much butter and sugar went into those babies AND I also didn’t want to send 23 cupcakes. So when the cute little tote came home with 18 cupcakes I was pretty bummed. I still don’t know if it was my cooking ability (most likely) or the abundance of desserts at the party (I think Chris probably made that up to make me feel better), but I learned a very important lesson. Husbands are good for a lot of things and one of them is being the taste tester. I will never send food out my door without having Chris or myself try it first! But regardless of the way they might have tasted, they were SO darn cute!!!!

One AMAZING find I thought I’d share are these delectable no-pudge fudge brownies. I randomly came upon them at the local Shop n Save and now I’m obsessed. They are easy to make (just add yogurt and bake for 30 minutes) and they are absolutely delicious…oh and did I mention they are fat free and 100 calories each? YEAH!!!!

Okay, if there is anyone still reading this you are a saint! I will wrap this up with some pictures of my other holiday baking projects. These coconut cupcakes will be heading to Pratt with us on Saturday along with some classically good rice krispie treats. I will never make them as good as my mom does, but I’ll keep trying 🙂

Well, it’s official…I have never taken so many pictures of food in my entire life!!!