Tuesday, November 13, 2012

Vanilla Eggnog Bundt Cake

My hubby LOVES egg nog. I find it pretty repulsive, but since I'm a nice wife, I grabbed a carton at the grocery store this weekend. Being in a hurry and not the egg nog expert he is, I didn't realize I'd grabbed a carton with a "use by date" that was far too soon and out of character for "usual" egg nog. My bad. Oh well, it gave me a chance to try out a recipe that called for egg nog that I've had saved for a year or so.

Vanilla Eggnog Bundt Cake
Adapted from Smells Like Home

15 oz (3 cups) all-purpose flour
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp nutmeg
2 sticks butter, unsalted and softened
14 oz (2 cups) granulated sugar
3 large eggs
1 cup eggnog 
1 Tbsp vanilla
  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
  2. In a bowl, combine flour, baking powder, salt, and spices; set aside.
  3. In a liquid measuring cup, measure out 1 cup of egg nog and add in 1 Tbsp of vanilla; set aside.
  4. In a stand mixer, cream together butter and sugar.
  5. Add in eggs one at a time until combined.
  6. Add 1/3 of the flour mixture and with mixer running, pour in 1/2 of the liquid.
  7. Scrap down the sides, and repeat.
  8. Scrape down the sides once more and add the remaining 1/3 of the batter and stir until just combined.
  9. Pour/spread into a well greased bundt pan (seriously, grease well, mine did not come out so pretty during this first attempt, delicious, but not pretty!)
  10. Bake at 350 for 45-55 minutes or until done.
  11. Cool for about 10 minutes in the pan before turning out on a cooling rack to finish cooling off the cake.

Wednesday, November 7, 2012

Chicken and Mushroom Stroganoff

Slow Cooker meals are always a tough sell around my house, but I've been trying to find a good knock-off stroganoff recipe for YEARS. My hubby is obsessed with the Mushroom Stroganoff at Noodles and Company, but that's anything but figure-friendly. I saw this on Pinterest (like I do) and decided to give it a shot, incidentally enough the same day another friend was testing out the same recipe, ha!

The results were pretty tasty. The original recipe called for Cream of Mushroom soup, but I had Cream of Chicken on-hand and while I'm sure Cream of Mushroom would have given this a solid mushroom boost, I was pretty pleased with the flavor. I also used fettuccine instead of egg noodles since that's what I had on-hand, but I'm sure either would be super yummy =)

Chicken and Mushroom Stroganoff
Adapted from Shrinking Jeans
Serves 6
Estimated Point Value: 8 pts

1.5 lbs chicken breast (4 frozen chicken breasts worked for me)
16 oz nonfat plain yogurt
1 can Campbell's Healthy Request Cream of Chicken Soup
1 package Lipton Onion Soup Mix
10 oz Mushrooms, quartered
12 oz Fettuccine (or Egg Noodles, whatever you have/prefer)
  1. Spray slow cooker with cooking spray and put chicken breasts on the bottom (I put mine in frozen; me = lazy one who never remembers to defrost).
  2. Combine yogurt, condensed soup, and soup mix in a small bowl and pour over chicken.
  3. Layer quartered mushrooms on top.
  4. Cook for 7 hours on low.
  5. Remove chicken, shred, and return to the sauce.
  6. Prepare noodles according to the package instructions.
  7. Serve noodles topped with stroganoff sauce.