Cauliflower Soup with bacon and cheese

YUM YUM!
There really isn't a recipe. I found this "recipe" on another blog but it didn't have exact amounts of ingredients or anything. It's more of an idea of what to do for the soup.

1. Steam cauliflower, for approximately 20 minutes. I did half a head of cauliflower, thinking it would be plenty.
2. Blend the cauliflower with chicken broth. (I used about 16 oz or 2 cups of low sodium chicken broth.)
3. Season with salt and pepper. I added a little cayenne pepper, I don't know why.
4. Serve with small amounts of shredded cheese and bacon. (4 soup servings = 4 strips of bacon)

So it wasn't plenty. We loved the soup and it was more like side dish servings for 4 so I steamed the other half of the cauliflower and made more soup! It tastes creamy but without cream/milk which is GOOD for WW.

Each serving was only 2 Weight Watcher points, that includes the 1 strip of bacon and 2 T of RF cheddar cheese for each serving!

Ultimate Chocolate Cupcakes with...

ganache filling and Chocolate Swiss Meringue frosting. Yeah, that's a whole lot of chocolate! 22 ounces of bittersweet chocolate for 24 cupcakes!





I think this is one of the best chocolate cake recipes I've made. It's a deep chocolate flavor because of the added coffee and Dutch cocoa. Oh, and vinegar. I don't remember the reason for the vinegar but I've used it before in cake recipes.

And I actually like the frosting and I don't like overly sweet stiff frosting. The amount of butter is concerning but oh well :)

The ganache filling was interesting. A teaspoon of ganache is placed on top of the cake batter before you bake the cupcakes. It was supposed to sink to the middle and voila! ganache filling. Well, I'm happy with how mine turned out but the ganache is more on the bottom of the cupcake. It tastes the same so who cares?

They must have been good- Jim had TWO cupcakes.

The reason I made these was for my dear friend Sara's baby shower. She wasn't very specific about what kind of treat she would like for her shower, just "something chocolate". I think these will do!

Click here for the stolen recipe for Ultimate Chocolate Cupcakes with ganache filling. This recipe comes from Cook's Illustrated originally. You just can't beat their recipes.

Each cupcake is worth EIGHT weight watcher points. I figured it out. Worth it!

Apple Cranberry Bran Muffins

We have an abundance of apples thanks to our Saturday visit to the apple orchard. This muffin recipe only used ONE apple but I wanted to try it. I used wheat bran, which is a new-to-me ingredient. I found wheat bran in the bulk section of the grocery store, where you can fill a little baggie with however much you need. I only needed 1 1/2 cups so I thought this was a good way to buy it.

These muffins are healthy! And pretty good for being so healthy :) I just love any cranberry apple combination so I was sold at the recipe title. AND these came from a reliable, wonderful blog.

Each muffin is 2 weight watcher points.

Click here for the stolen recipe for Apple Cranberry Bran Muffins.

Salted Caramel Brownies

OMG! I am in love with Salted Caramel. A friend of mine suggested (to the FB world) that everyone should try the SC hot chocolate at Starbucks. I had one. And then another. Yeah, I like it :)


So I saw this recipe and I know that SC is kind of trendy right now. It seemed like an easy recipe and then miraculously I had all the ingredients. WHOA. Fate.


They are divine. Jim says they are "sweet but salty". Yeah, he should be a writer.




Please go forth and make these.

Click here for the stolen recipe for Salted Caramel Brownies.

Coconut Shrimp

Seriously one of my favorite foods. I don't know why I hadn't made this recipe for a few years, but it used to be one of our regulars. It was in a Cooking Light magazine way back when we used to live in our townhouse. It seems easier to make now, I think because I'm more experienced in the kitchen. I even did the extra step of toasting the coconut. Yum. It filled the kitchen with a lovely smell!

Easy recipe. And I have definitely conquered my fear of raw shrimp. I bought them frozen from Sam's Club. Easy. Cheap(er). Wonderful.

So originally I knew this recipe from a magazine but of course it's made it's way to online.

Click here for the stolen recipe for Coconut Shrimp. I skipped the pineapple salsa. We used Plum Sweet & Sour sauce from Big Bowl.

Quick Shrimp and Corn Soup

Wow, it's been a while! I've been cooking but nothing new. Certainly nothing blog worthy. This recipe is an old favorite. We love soups around here. When I first met Jim he didn't think a soup was a main course, that it couldn't possibly fill him up. I think the first soup I made for him was the Salsa & Meatball soup (Albondigas) and after that he was convinced. This soup is an easy meal to put together. I've cheated with this recipe and used cooked shrimp, not because it's hard to cook with raw shrimp but because well, I don't know.

I kind of consider this recipe cheating (raw shrimp or not) because it's using a bunch of canned foods. Canned tomatoes, cream of mushroom soup, creamed corn, etc. I usually don't use a lot of canned or processed foods in recipes. Well, it's good. I don't want to say it's not!

Click here for the stolen recipe for Quick Shrimp and Corn Soup. This recipe was originally from Cooking Light but I found it on another website.