Last night I needed a fast dinner, and I knew we were making our Turkey Tacos the next night, so I knew I was opening all this anyway, so here’s my 432 cal dinner creation!
The Cast


This post apparently brought to you by Aldi.
Ingredients:

• 1 Tortilla
  Flatout bread would also work great for this, and would be better nutritionally.
• 1/2 cup 2% Shredded Cheese, I used Mexican
• 3 oz. Southwestern Grilled Chicken Breast
• 1 Tomato
• Spray Oil (I normally use spray olive oil, but I’m out).

Directions:

1. Preheat your oven or toaster oven to 300.
2. Line your pan with foil, lightly mist it with oil so your tortilla doesn’t stick.
3. Add your tortilla, lightly mist it.
4. Add a 1/4 cup of shredded cheese, followed by your tomato sliced, then a single serving of chicken, then top with another 1/4 cup of cheese.
5. Toast/Bake for 5 minutes until nice and melty and crispy.
6. Enjoy.

The nutritional breakdown based on my brands of ingredients and FatSecret.

Ingredient	Fat(g)	Carbs(g)	Fiber(g)	Protein(g)	Cals
1 Serving Flour Tortilla	3	24	1	3	120
3 oz Grilled Chicken Breast	2			22	110
½ cup shredded Mexican Blend Cheese	14.69	.94		11.58	182
113g Tomatoes	.23	4.43	1.4	.99	20
Total	19.92	29.37	2.4	37.57	432

Not too bad for a dinner that totally satisfied my pizza cravings!

Find the recipe here on their site, and no it's not $250 
http://www.neimanmarcus.com/store/service/nm_cookie_recipe.jhtml

These cookies are a great take on something a little different than the classic chocolate chip, Andrew AKA Mr.Coffee loves them!

Ingredients

1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, softened

1 cup light brown sugar

3 tablespoons granulated sugar

1 large egg

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1-3/4 cups all purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1-1/2 teaspoons instant espresso coffee powder
(So I used to make this with this, which is like real espresso.  But all I had in the house was some Kroger instant coffee ick. But I guess this is what you should really make it with is this but I never remember to look for it when I'm at a nicer grocery store that's likely to have it.

1-1/2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips

The recipe is pretty straight forward, I upped the instant powder a bit since coffee is weaker than espresso, which I think worked out well.

Don't forget that these are 'drop' cookies, so they aren't supposed to look perfect.

Baking tip: To get perfect cookie bottoms, place your ickiest sheet pan on the rack below your cookie sheet, this helps distribute the heat better giving you nice non burnt cookie bums.  (Tip courtesy of Bestie)

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 300 degrees. Cream the butter with the sugars using an electric mixer on medium speed until fluffy (approximately 30 seconds)

2. Beat in the egg and the vanilla extract for another 30 seconds.

3. In a mixing bowl, sift together the dry ingredients and beat into the butter mixture at low speed for about 15 seconds. Stir in the espresso coffee powder and chocolate chips.

4. Using a 1 ounce scoop or a 2 tablespoon measure, drop cookie dough onto a greased cookie sheet about 3 inches apart. Gently press down on the dough with the back of a spoon to spread out into a 2 inch circle. Bake for about 20 minutes or until nicely browned around the edges. Bake a little longer for a crispier cookie.
(Since was using my nice wilton non stick cookie sheet I didn’t grease my pan, since I didn’t want them to spread).

Yield:
  2 dozen cookies

Apple Braised Chicken  from Weight Watcher's Online

We loved how the chicken tasted in this recipe, you just have to realize due to the mush the apples and onions turn into you're only going to want a bite or two of them, they are there for flavor not eating.

Course: main meals

PointsPlus Value:    6

Servings:  4

Preparation Time:  20 min

Cooking Time:  35 min

Level of Difficulty:  Easy

Simmering poultry in fat-free liquid is a moist, low calorie way to flavor food. Experiment with other types of broths and juices, too.

Ingredients

• 2 tsp vegetable oil  
• 1 pound(s) uncooked boneless, skinless chicken breast, four 4-oz pieces  
• 2 Tbsp all-purpose flour  
• 1 large onion(s), sliced  
• 2 medium apple(s), firm, cored and sliced  (I used Granny Smith which don't cook as well as others)
• 1 cup(s) apple cider  (I used Simply Apple apple juice since it's not fall so I couldn't find cider) 
• 1 cup(s) fat-free chicken broth  
• 1/2 tsp table salt  
• 1/2 tsp ground ginger  
• 2 tsp cornstarch  

Instructions

In a large, heavy-bottomed skillet (I used my large stock pot), warm oil over high heat. Toss chicken with flour in a medium bowl, patting off excess. Place chicken in skillet and brown well on both sides. Remove chicken from pan and set aside. 

Beautiful light breaded chicken.

Reduce stove temperature to low and add onion to skillet. Sauté, stirring often, until onion is tender and lightly browned.

Stir in apples, cider, chicken broth, salt, ginger and chicken. Bring to a simmer, cover and cook for 30 minutes. Use a slotted spoon to transfer chicken, onions and apples to a serving dish.

Before adding the chicken.

30 minutes later. (The perfect amount of time to clean up your mess)

Rather than slotted spooning it, we pulled the chicken and then strained out the apples, then stuck the juice back in the pan.

In a small bowl, whisk together cornstarch and 2 to 3 tablespoons of pan juices. Combine cornstarch mixture with remaining pan juices, whisking constantly. Simmer for one minute. Pour sauce over chicken and serve. Yields 1 chicken breast and about 3/4 cup of apple-onion mixture per serving.

Thickening the sauce.

The end product.

In an effort to completely overload the sweet tooth's of our guests I made Bakerella's Congo Bars for our 80's party. These were super simple because they are a bar cookie, which means no scooping!!
They were nice and chewy from the brown sugar and taste great with coffee.
I've added gram conversions to all the ingredients, since I'm now a big fan of weight measuring for the bigger stuff since it's more accurate and I have my nifty Perfect Portions Scale.(I use TraditionalOven.com for my conversions)
Recipe from Bakerella:

Ingredients

• 2 3/4 cup all purpose flour (343.75g)
• 2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder 
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2/3 cup butter, softened (151.2g)
• 1 lb. light brown sugar (Oh my and thank you!) (453.59g) Learn how to make your own in this post You can MAKE Brown Sugar! 
• 3 eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 11.5 ounce package milk chocolate chips  I used PB & Chocolate Chips Mixed
• 1 cup chopped pecans (optional)  Skipped

By mixer:

1. Sift flour, baking powder and salt in a large bowl. Set aside. Use a fine mesh strainer not an annoying squeeze style sifter!
2. Combine butter and sugar using a mixer until blended. Speed up your softened butter by slicing it up on a plate.
3. Add eggs, one at a time to sugar mixture, mixing on low in between each addition.
4. Add vanilla and mix.
5. Add flour and mix until combined.
6. Stir in chips and then pecans.
7. Coat a 13 X 9 pan with non-stick spray and spread batter evenly into dish.
8. Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes or until top is golden brown. Make sure you don’t over bake.
   

No more leveling, just using measuring cups to scoop it out now!

Yummy!

Use plastic wrap to press it into the Baker's Joy greased pan so you don't get so sticky!

This was after about 30 minutes in the oven, I shielded it with aluminum foil for the last ten minutes, the bottoms got pretty crispy so I probably could have gone for a little less time.

This is my first real attempt at battering and baking something, it went better than I thought.

Recipe from Weight Watchers - Baked Chicken with Sun-dried tomato sauce

We skipped the sauce and made sweet potatoes as our side, A enjoyed his with some light blue cheese, I had some with some bbq sauce.

Ingredients

• 3/4 cup(s) wheat germ   (find it near the oatmeal, not as weird or scary as I thought it would be)
• 1 tsp table salt, divided  
• 1/8 tsp black pepper  
• 2 large egg white(s), slightly beaten  
• 1 pound(s) uncooked boneless, skinless chicken breast, four 4 oz pieces   

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 375ºF. Lightly coat a baking sheet with cooking spray.
2. Mix wheat germ, 1/2 teaspoon salt and pepper and pour onto a plate or flat bowl. Place slightly beaten egg whites in another flat bowl.
3. Dip each piece of chicken in egg white, then in wheat-germ mixture to coat. Place chicken pieces on baking sheet and bake for 20 minutes.

Ready  to go. 

Dipping, spinning, and coating was easier than I thought. (Yes I touched the meat...)

Our pound was 3 pieces, so we had left over wheat germ, so I'll prob use less next time.

Looks pretty "real" doesn't it.

We paired it with some red and yellow onions and sweet potato baked in the microwave.  

It was pretty awesome, we each ate just one of the big pieces, for 4 points. 

Ingredients

• Chicken
• Lemon zest
• Lemon juice 1/4 cup
  
• Fresh parsley
• Lemon slice as garnish

Sides

• TJ's Cornbread
• sauteed white onion

1. Combine chopped fresh parsley with lemon juice and the zest of one onion.
2. Stir together to combine
3. scoop onto chicken with a spoon, then pour lemon over the chicken, chicken should be sitting in the juice just a little bit, with the parsley/zest mixture on top
4. Let marinate for a while in the fridge (AKA as long as the cornbread takes to cook)
   
5. sauté to your liking
6. garnish with a lemon slice

This was a total experiment, and it surprisingly didn't turn out too lemony

Raw in the pan

TJ's cornbread mix is awesome!

Onions in olive oil with a bit of parlsey

Andrew's family has a cabin on the Tennessee River, we love to visit and I like to make it into a fun cooking experiment weekend since it's quite a drive to venture out.  Cabin food always equals indulgence, since Andrew, his Dad, and his Uncle are the normal crew up here, I try and stay clear of the chips and hoho diet of the cabin.
The other great thing about menu planning the cabin is I grocery shop at home and pack all we need so we get here stay here until Sunday.

Our Friday night meal pick was Macaroni and Cheese from this month's Better Homes and Gardens (it needed less stuff than the one in Cooking Light this month =) Find it here (BHG Recipe). 

The Kirsti Recipe commentary:
This supposedly serves 6, I guess as a side dish. This was just enough for Andrew and I as our dinner, with a snack for lunch leftover. As a side dish I'd say this is good for 4 or 5 people.

Ingredients

• 7  oz. dried multigrain or whole grain rotini pasta (about 1-1/2 cups) 
• Since they don't make whole grain macaroni, I used normal macaroni since I really wanted the elbows, rotini would work though
•   Nonstick cooking spray
• 1-1/2  cups broccoli florets, finely chopped carrots, or green beans, cut in 1/2-inch pieces 
• I used frozen broccolli and couliflower by microwaving it a bit, worked great
• 1/4  cup finely chopped onion
• 4  tsp. olive oil
• 1  6.5-oz. pkg. light semisoft cheese with garlic and herb 
• I used the Garlic and Herb laughing cow
• 1-2/3  cups fat-free milk
• 1  Tbsp. all-purpose flour
• 1/2  cup reduced-fat shredded cheddar cheese (2 oz.)
• 2  oz. Asiago, Gruyére, or Manchego cheese, shredded (1/2 cup)
• I skipped this and some slices of provolone since we had it (it all just gets melted in anyway)
  
• 1/2  cup crumbled whole wheat baguette or panko (Japanese-style bread crumbs) 
• Panko all the way, so easy and tasty (The directions kinda leave you hanging on the panko, so I just mixed them with the olive oil so they'd brown up)
•   Flat-leaf parsley or oregano 
• (Sprinkled some oregano on top when it was done which was a nice addition)  

• Kirsti & Andrew Bonus
• since this was our entree we added some turkey bacon into the brocolli couliflower macaroni mix, it worked great

Directions

1. Heat oven to 425 degrees F. In a medium saucepan cook the pasta according to package directions. Add broccoli, carrots, or beans during last 3 minutes of cooking. Drain pasta mixture. Return to pan; keep warm.
2. Meanwhile, in large saucepan cook onion in 2 tsp. of the oil over medium heat for 5 minutes or until tender, stirring occasionally. Remove pan from heat. Add semisoft cheese; stir until cheese is melted and combined.

• This step leaves you wondering as you empty out all the laughing cow in, but just go with it, even if it seems so wrong.

3. In a medium bowl whisk together milk and flour until smooth. Add all at once to onion mixture. Cook and stir over medium heat until thickened and bubbly. Reduce heat to low. Stir in cheddar and Asiago cheeses until cheeses are melted. Add cooked pasta mixture; stir to coat. 

• Since I was working with a limited 'cabin kitchen' I mixed the cheesey goop into the macaroni in the baking dish, which worked fine 

4. Transfer pasta mixture to 2-quart casserole. In small bowl combine baguette crumbles and remaining 2 tsp. oil; sprinkle on pasta mixture. Bake, uncovered, 10 to 15 minutes or until top is browned. Sprinkle with parsley. Makes 6 servings.

Ready for the oven

After

I love taking restaurant favorites and making them lighter at home. This is my and my Mom's version of California Pizza Kitchen's BLT pizza

 

What you need

• Wheat Crust
• Sharp Cheddar Cheese (normally do mozzarella but didn't have any but the sharp worked out great)
• Grape Tomatoes (Roma would prob work better)
• Turkey Bacon
• Red & Green peppers (since we needed to use them up CPK version doesn't have them, but they added some good crunch)
• Romaine tossed in light mayo (Duke's is the best =)
• Mayo lettuce is best when it's had some time to meld in the fridge, just pull out and put on top when the pizza is done