Brandi Cooks: Weekend Eating

As part of my “relaxation” period, this weekend I decided to “relax” by cooking a number of new dishes. Two dishes via my favorite website SkinnyTaste. If I’m going to cook at home, why not try and cook healthy!

This Saturday, the Smithkowski’s watched football at home, so I made lunch, an app and dinner. On Sunday, I cooked up a little dessert. Here’s what I’ve been making.

·         Saturday Lunch: BLT’s with Canadian Maple Bacon on Pretzel Breads. Not so healthy, but all organic (and perfect for watching football since the little pretzel buns look like little footballs). These may have been my favorite thing I made all weekend – no recipe required!

·         Saturday Appetizer: I wanted to vary things up from the usual Buffalo Chicken Dip or Taco Dip, so I whipped up a BBQ Chicken Dip. It's unbaked above and missing the top layer of cheese. The verdict: It was a little too sweet for me. I may try this again with a different BBQ sauce. Oh and I love how this recipe calls for a rotisserie chicken. It used less than half of a $9 Whole Foods chicken, so we have the rest to eat as left overs. I’m also going to put some on a flatbread whole-wheat pizza this week!

·         Saturday Dinner: After I made the BLT’s, I threw the ingredients for some Turkey Chili into my crock pot. Can I pause for a moment that this recipe calls out that it is “Kid-Friendly.” That means if you effe it up, you really may need some cooking classes. It also means that it is SUPER easy to make! It think I would have liked this more if it had some beans OR was a bit more spicy. But as the hubs noted, it was almost better on day 2! Of course I served this with some Whole Foods Cornbread on the side. Yummm.

·         Sunday Dessert: I’m calling this a ½ fail. Today I made Skinny Pumpkin Spiced Snickerdoodles. So I didn’t follow the instructions correctly and my Snickerdoodles aren’t “camera-ready” to make an appearance on this blog. I mean they aren’t overcooked or undercooked, they just aren’t pretty and kinda spread out a little too much. This recipe calls for wheat flour to make them “skinny,” but if I make them again, I may go for the regular flour. They don’t taste bad, but they just taste a little off.

Key Learning from This Weekend: The $9 Rotisserie Chicken from Whole Foods (or your local grocery store) can be totally worth it. Brady put some on his Chili today, so we are getting like a dip and two dinners from one chicken. Shot of Mom has a chicken salad recipe that she makes that calls for Rotisserie Chicken, so hopefully I can get that to share with you all next week!