I Betray My Cooking Principles

Yes, you read that right, Gentle Reader. On Thursday, I did three things I swore I would try very, very hard to avoid doing.

#1: I Use Real Sugar and All-Purpose Flour
Since I've had such difficulties with my usual white whole wheat and whole wheat flour combo in dessert recipes, I decided that I'd use real sugar and all-purpose flour--in limited quantities--when I made lemon snaps, which are very much like snickerdoodles, from a recipe I'd found in one of my Weight Watchers recipe magazines (the Quick & Easy Menus one).

Lemon Snaps2 C all-purpose flour
2 t baking powder
1/4 t baking soda
1 C sugar
1 T lemon zest, divided
1/2 t ground ginger
6 1/2 T butter, softened
2 t light-colored corn syrup
2 t vanilla extract
1 large egg
3 T sugar

1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Prep two or three baking sheets with nonstick cooking spray.
   
2. Combine the flour, baking powder and baking soda in a medium bowl, stir well and then set aside.
   
3. Combine 1 C of sugar, 2 t of lemon zest and the ground ginger in the bowl of a food processor. Process for 1 min. or until the mixture is lemon colored.
   
4. Spoon the processed sugar mixture into a large bow. Add the softened butter, then beat at medium speed until mixture is light and fluffy. Add the corn syrup, vanilla and egg, then beat well. Stir in the flour mixture; the resulting dough will be stiff.
   
5. Combine the remaining 1 t of lemon zest and 3 T of sugar in a bowl and mix well. Set this mixture aside.
   
6. Coat your hands with cooking spray, then shape the dough into 60 1" balls. Roll the balls in the lemon-sugar mix, and place them 2" apart on the baking sheets. Flatten each ball with the bottom of a glass.
   
7. Bake for 7 minutes. Let the cookies cool on the pans 5 minutes, then remove them to cool on a wire rack.

Yield: 5 dozen cookies
Serving size: 2 cookies

Nutritional Info
Calories: 88
Fat: 2.8 g
Saturated fat: 0.6 g
Protein: 1.2 g
Carbs: 14.8 g
Fiber: 0.2 g
Cholesterol: 8 mg
Na: 42 mg

The Faudie's Futzings

• I used 1 cup of all-purpose flour and 1 cup of white whole wheat flour. Sorry, Gentle Reader, I just couldn't bring myself to go all-purpose all the way.
  
• Because I used a whole wheat flour, I used 3 t of baking powder since Cook's Thesaurus advises to "add half again as much baking powder" when substituting a whole wheat flour for all-purpose flour.
  
• For the cup of sugar in the dough, I did use Clabber Girl Sugar Replacer. For the rolling lemon-sugar mix, I used good 'ol C&H.
  
• Even though I have eggs, I still cannot bring myself to use one. Stupid, huh? For the whole large egg I added the equivalent of liquid egg white. This substitution is probably one reason my cookies suck.
  
• I didn't go for "real" butter either. Nope, I went for the Promise. I figured I'd be safe since it would help meet that "add additional liquid" advice Cook's Thesaurus offers for whole wheat flour substitutions.
  
• Because I was lazy, I didn't initially zest a lemon even though I had one in the crisper. No, I dug out the 8-year-old bottle of lemon zest from the cabinet and used that. When I realized my dough had no lemon flavor, I put it in the 'fridge, went out to do the weekly HEB run (so I could hopefully miss the "Oh my sweet Jebus it's a hurricane and it's going to wipe out Austin!" crowds) and added to my cart a bottle of lemon extract. I think I added a teaspoon of that stuff--might have been two of 'em--and that helped add the missing lemon flavor.
  
• Then I did zest that lemon for the lemon-sugar stuff to roll the dough balls in. I got more than a teaspoon from it, so what was left after I dumped a heaping teaspoon into the bowl with the 3 tablespoons of granulated sugar went into the bowl of dough. Hey, I like lemon and so do the boys. Plus I just couldn't let the zest go to waste.

Yummy Sugar and Lemon Zest

I have to tell you, Gentle Reader, that I have no idea how the originator of this recipe managed to get 60 dough balls from it. I guess my idea of a 1" dough ball is way off--and that wouldn't surprise me in the least. Add to that challenge another major one: The dough didn't want to form into little balls. No, it was gooey and ooey and slimy and sticky. I managed maybe a dozen balls before I threw up my hands in defeat, whipped out my cookie scoop and plunked one scoop into the sugar-lemon mix, coated it as best I could, popped it onto the cookie sheet then repeated the process. I suspect the flour issue and the lack of a yolk screwed me in the rolled ball department. Le sigh.

But the cookies that did get a decent coating are quite tasty. The camera doesn't adequately capture the glistening sugar atop, but I dare you, Gentle Reader, to look upon this image and not drool.


#2: I Let My Son Eat Organ Meat
The boy comes home from school each day famished (lunch is at 11, dismissal is at 2:45 and no afternoon snack is served) and wiped out (the measly 30-minute nap he gets for the first nine-week period is nothing compared to the two-hour power nap he enjoyed at daycare). In hopes of curtailing his penchant for falling comatose in his room once he's home, waking to subject his parents to a couple hours of crankiness then bouncing off the walls after supper and bedtime, I thought I'd try to find more filling after-school snacks than the bananas and apples I'd been offering. Let me tell ya, Gentle Reader, finding quick, easy, nutritious, affordable snacks with a good quantity of protein that are low in fat, sugar and calories and that the boy will eat is damn tough.

So I caved. I know he's a great fan of sausage wraps--the cocktail sausages wrapped in some type of dough then baked to golden and greasy perfection. Hell, I'll admit that I loved those things in my time too. But sausage is...not something the boy needs in his diet. He has a tendency to be constipated anyway, so I don't need organ meats clogging up the works. Then again, I do want to spend an afternoon with a boy who isn't cranky or dead asleep, so I bought a package of Healthy Ones sausage. This brand is from Armour-Ekrich, and I hadn't seen it before. But at 2.5 grams 'o fat and 7 grams of protein, I could overlook the 480 mg of sodium and the fact that it was organ meat.

To accompany the sausage, I bought a small can of Texas-style buttermilk biscuits in a can that didn't have appalling nutritional numbers printed on the side.

The boy was all too happy to help me make him a batch of after-school sausage wraps. He was excited to wield a knife--with my help and constant supervision, of course--and he had a high 'ol time smashing half of a biscuit to enrobe the halved sausage piece I gave him for it. While he wasn't willing to put them in the oven himself, the boy was quite anxious to eat one right from the pan after the 7 minutes of baking were up. Such a desire is highly unusual for the boy since he prefers his food be ice cold or just barely lukewarm.

A Boy and His Organ Meat

The experiment with a heartier after-school snack was a success, in case you're wondering, Gentle Reader. After five or six wraps, the boy was fueled for some wicked Star Wars playing followed by some time building a Lego theme park on the computer.

#3: I Cook Italian
"What's so awful about cooking Italian?" you ask?

Well, here's the thing, Gentle Reader. Back before I lost my weight the first time, I lived on Italian. Lots of cheese, especially that Four Brothers alfredo sauce in a jar. Lots of pasta. Lots of carbs. Lots of heaping bowls. Lots of trips to Olive Garden. Lots of trips to Spaghetti Warehouse.

But then I lost my weight and all that ended. I lost my appetite for Italian. (I think the younger sister found it. She's nuts for Italian.)

Truth be told, I still really don't have much of an appetite for Italian either. But the boy thinks pasta is just this exotic stuff, so when I do make some kind of pasta dish, it's a real treat for him. And since I had some fat-free ricotta and some ziti waiting to be used, I dug out a recipe for baked chicken and ziti, also from a Weight Watchers publication (Weight Watchers: Simply the Best).

Baked Chicken and Ziti1/2 lb. skinless, boneless chicken breasts, cut into 1/4" strips
1 onion, chopped
2 minced garlic cloves
28 oz. crushed tomatoes (no-salt-added variety)
1 t Italian herb seasoning
1/4 t ground black pepper
2 C ziti or penne
2/3 C fat-free ricotta cheese
1/3 C shredded mozzarella
2 T grated Parmesan

1. Spray a large skilled with nonstick cooking spray and heat. Add the chicken and cook until lightly brown (5-6 min.). Remove the chicken to a container.
   
2. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.
   
3. Wipe out then respray the skillet with cooking spray. Add the onion and garlic, then cook until softened (about 5 min.). Add the tomatoes, Italian seasoning and pepper, then bring to a boil. Reduce the heat and let simmer uncovered, stirring as needed, until the sauce thickens slightly (8-10 min.).
   
4. Cook the pasta according to the package's directions. Drain and mix with the ricotta.
   
5. Pour half of the sauce into the bottom of a 13" x 9" baking pan. Atop it, layer the ziti, the chicken, then the rest of the sauce. Sprinkle with mozzarella and Parmesan.
   
6. Cover and bake until the sauce is hot and bubbling and the cheese is melted (15-20 min.).

Yield: 4 servings (of indeterminate size, although they've got to be some big servings)

Nutritional Info
Calories: 380
Fat: 5 g
Saturated fat: 2 g
Protein: 31 g
Carbs: 52 g
Fiber: 3 g
Cholesterol: 40 mg
Na: 209 mg

The Faudie's Futzings

• I used whole wheat ziti--but not much since I'd used more than I thought I had for the pasta with chicken, brocc and tomatoes (sans tomatoes) I made at the end of August. Since pasta is a rarity at Chez Boeckman-Walker, I had to make do with the whole wheat spaghetti I had on hand. Yup, I was basically making spaghetti pie. Gads, someone shoot me.
  
• I used fat-free mozzarella, and I didn't use anywhere close to a third of a cup. As I mentioned before, I've got a perpetually constipated boy to manage. Check that. I've got a perpetually constipated boy who'd eaten organ meat just a few hours prior to manage.
  
• I didn't put the Parmesan atop the dish before baking. I set the little shaker container on the table instead because, like Italian, Parmesan doesn't do anything for me. The boys, on the other hand, think it's great.

While I do have a Pyrex cake pan I probably should have used, I instead whipped out the no-name covered casserole dish I used to make cavatini in back when I was fat and ate glutinously. Ahh, sometimes I miss those tubes of Potter Pig. And the rotini. And the rotelle (not the Ro*Tel).

Actually, no, I don't miss these things.

While I unfortunately poured a bit too much of the sauce at the bottom, the dish came out beautifully--or at least I think so. See for yourself, Gentle Reader:


Because I'm not a fan of Italian and wanted a some veggie to accompany the pasta, I whipped up a lot of broccoli. I surprise myself by how much I love broccoli. I was eating it right out of the pot while I waited for the ziti to finish baking. Hell, I could have eaten just the broccoli. In fact, I think I did eat more brocc than ziti. Which is all well and good for the boys; they have plenty of baked pasta goodness for the weekend.