Lower Calorie Peanut Ramen Noodles!

Posted on January 23, 2013 by Mae

I have been busting my butt lately (literally and physically!) to lose the last of Munchkin’s baby weight. I have been counting calories and working out about 5 times a week!

I love food… check out my blog if you haven’t and there are TONS of recipes! I have been tracking calories and my workouts on Myfitnesspal.com. I love that it has about everything I eat (and LOTS that I don’t). I also enjoy that I can easily add favorite recipes.

I have been watching this recipe for Ramen Noodle Upgrade by Martha Stewart pop up on my Pinterest feed for weeks.

Today I took it and redid to make it a little bit lower calories.

Low Calorie Peanut Ramen Noodles

Ramen Noodle Chicken Flavor
2 tablespoons of PB 2
1/2 tablespoon of Lite Soy Sauce
Sriacha Chili Sauce (to taste)
1 thinly sliced green onion (optional but SOOO worth it!)
1 tablespoon chopped peanuts (if you need the crunch!)

Boil the noodles with about 1/4-1/3 of the seasoning packet. I did mine in the microwave with water just about the noodles. Drain off most of the water and then add the PB 2 and the soy sauce. Add the Sriacha sauce to taste, a little goes a LONG way with that stuff! Top with some green onions and if you need them peanuts.

I did NOT add the peanuts to mine (I didn’t have any and wanted to save calories!) With out the peanuts the entire package was 439 calories. Not the lowest of calorie meals, but it killed the craving and saved about 50% on calories.

Also, PB2 it looks like this:

They took all the oil out of the peanuts and left you with a powder. 2 tablespoons of PB 2 added to 1 tablespoon of water gives you peanut butter!! This stuff is awesome in shakes too. I am hoping to bake some cookies with it soon!

Enjoy!

A Birthday Party for Peanut!

Posted on February 5, 2012 by Mae

As I mentioned in a previous post Peanut turned one last month! How it happened is beyond me but we celebrated her special day yesterday. I love to plan parties and throw them. I was raised in a house where Birthday Parties were always a big to do. So I am going to blame my parents for my obsession with the ‘perfect party’.

I decided a few months ago that we were going to have an owl them for Peanut. She is still too little to really have any true likes. She isn’t in to TV or any certain characters. So I took the liberty of planning her a super special Owl party!

I found a great location at a local community center which worked GREAT! There was a cute Barn in the room and the walls were painted in a barn motif too! The best part it was reasonable in price and would be safe for Peanut. I was afraid of having her party at some other popular locations because she might get smushed since she is such a peanut!

It all started with a Google search.. Owl Invitations. The images were endless, but I came up with this super cute one! I called my super crafty sister and asked her if I thought we could come up with something similar.

On the back were all the juicy details! As I mentioned in an earlier post we offer a donation suggestion in Lieu of Gifts. This year we chose The Pajama Program. I included these details on the bottom of the party information section with the needs of the Pajama Program.

I looked a ton of Owl Themed plates but decided on these cute plates from Celebrate Express. I ordered the dessert plates and a couple of Balloons to match. I used light blue table cloths, bright pink plates, green and orange cups, and purple silverware.

I decided on a party during lunch time. Peanut usually is awake and happy during this time which is key for a one year old. This meant we needed to plan a meal. I thought about pizza but decided I would make it easier on some friends who have a dairy allergy. So I made a make your own sandwich buffet! It went over very well It was really easy to do and a great non-pizza option.

Check out the awesome walls!!

We did two crafts at the party! Since Peanut has an older sister I figured that would keep her and her friends busy. They love crafts and all go to preschool. I found this great paper bag owl craft online. She had templates which were AWESOME! So definitely check her out. I used craft paper that I had in my scrapbook stash which made things cheaper. I grabbed some paper bags at the dollar store and the kids really enjoyed it.

The second craft my friend Jennifer from Mosk Momma found at JoAnn Fabrics. During Christmas time they had wood ornaments that could be painted or colored. I got them for a STEAL… Less than .50 a piece. Each kiddo got to make their own. They used good old crayola markers. Here is a picture of Peanut working on her Owl with some help

Now I have a love for cupcakes if you haven’t noticed from reading this blog. So I will be doing a separate post on them soon! However, I will give you a peek at how cute they were! It was my first time dabbling with Marshmallow Fondant and I think you will see more soon. It wasn’t as awful to work with as I thought it might be. I made homemade Funfetti cupcakes that were pretty tasty and so easy to make.

The cute owl on the right was a mouse pad in the dollar bin at Target!!!

A sweet friend made Peanut’s Smash cake. She totally rocks! It was adorable and Peanut did a fantastic job smashing it to pieces

Here is the smash cake…

The last detail from the party was the Party favors. I really wanted to find something that was owl-y and usable. Every kid loves favors but they are usually expensive cheap toys. That is they work out to be about $5-$10 a kid and are toys that don’t last long once they go home. I spent HOURS looking for something and came up with crayon tote bags. Sue from SewnJust4U made my life so much easier! She made the process painless and her work is amazing!

I made a cute little coloring book with Owl images I found online and included it.

We had 3 bitty ones at the party and my AWESOME sister made cute owl crinkle taggies for them!

Inside the crayon totes were these treat bags. I was pretty proud of myself because I was able to recreate the owl face on my own! As you can see in the photo above I gave the little one cereal instead of gummy bears.

So there you have it… the ins and outs of Miss Peanut’s first birthday party! She had a wonderful time, we collected a ton of donations (more on this to come) and everyone seemed to leave with a smile on their face. I call that a success!

Crunchy Baked Mozzarella Sticks!

Posted on January 1, 2012 by Mae

Since graduating college I have spent every New Years Eve with Rand McNally. Okay, all but the one he spent working for Uncle Sam in a Desert. His family tradition for this night is a instead of a meal, they have lots of appetizers. So we have adopted this tradition in our house as well.

As I have mentioned several times I am slightly addicted to ‘pinning’ new things to try on Pinterest. I thought I found the perfect recipe while pinning one night for Mozzarella sticks, until I read the word ‘fried’. I don’t own a fryer and too many fried foods make us sick! So I continued the hunt for a baked recipe.

I came across a couple but wasn’t sold. I did use them for inspiration but changed it up… why not! The verdict.. they ROCKED!!!

Crunchy Baked Mozzarella Sticks

Ingredients

12 egg roll wrappers cut in half
12 string cheese sticks cut in half
water
1 cup Italian Bread crumbs
1 cup Panko Bread crumbs
2 eggs beaten
2 tsp extra-virgin olive oil (or olive Oil spray)

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or a silpat type baking mat.

2. Cut the egg roll wrappers in half (My kitchen shears were perfect for this! ). Cut all the Mozzarella sticks in half. You can choose to skip this step but I will say they are pretty big even cut in half!

3. Place an egg roll wrapper where it looks like a horizontal rectangle when you look at it. Place the Mozzarella stick in the middle. Fold in the ends and then roll to completely cover the stick. Use a little water to ‘seal’ the wrapper. Repeat for all the sticks.

4. Use a pastry brush or dunk the wrapped mozzarella stick in the egg wash. Then roll (use a spoon for better coverage) in the bread crumbs. Place on your prepared baking sheet. Repeat this step for all of the sticks.

5. Lightly brush the tops of the sticks with the olive oil. I used my Pampered Chef sprayer and this worked well!

6. Bake in the preheated oven for 10 minutes. Then place under broiler to finish. Don’t walk away from the oven!!! Sticks are finished when the edges turn brown. Allow to cool for a few minutes before serving, unless you want to scold your guests and family .

Serve with a marinara, ranch, or Alfredo dipping sauce.

Christmas Traditions!

Posted on December 27, 2011 by Mae

Well here we are the day after Christmas… It feels like last week has been a blur! That is partially because Peanut had surgery last Monday to have tubes put in. She has battled 4 sets of double ear infections since October! The first two nights of the week were sleepless. She was in a lot of pain (not from the tubes but from have 2 terrible infections going on!), and was up nearly every hour. I haven’t slept that poor since Munchkin was a baby!

Needless to say, this week came an went even faster than it would normally!

We were still able to do a few of our favorite Christmas traditions. We made a gingerbread house, baked and ‘painted’ sugar cookies, made a few more types of cookies, went to Church on Christmas Eve, went for a drive around our town to see lights, and listened to carols!

Here are two of my favorite cookie recipes!

Secret Kiss Cookies

Ingredients:

1 Cup Butter 1 tsp vanilla

1/2 cup sugar 1 cup ground pecans

2 cups flour 1 1lb bag of Hershey Kisses

Powdered Sugar

Directions:

Beat butter, sugar and vanilla. Add flour and nuts.

Chill dough for 30 minutes.

Preheat oven @ 350.

Wrap each kiss in dough (a little goes a long way!) Making little balls. Bake for 6-8 minutes. You can place many cookies on the tray I leave about an inch apart. They do not spread when baking.

Cool and then coat in powdered sugar. Be very gentle these are delicate!

Chocolate Mint Cookies

Ingredients:

3/4 Cup Butter 2 1/2 cups flour

1 1/2 Cups brown sugar 1 1/4 tsp baking soda

2 tablespoons water 1/2 tsp salt

2 cups of semi-sweet choc chips 2 (4.5 ounce) packages of Andes Mints

2 eggs

Directions:

In a sauce pan over medium heat, cook sugar, butter, and water, stirring occasionally until melted. Remove from heat, stir in chocolate chips until melted set aside to cool for 10 minutes.

Pour the chocolate mixture into a large bowl, and beat in the eggs, one at a time. Combine the flour, baking soda and salt, stir into chocolate mixture. Cover and refrigerate dough for at least 1 hour.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease cookie sheets. Roll dough into walnut sized balls and place 2 inches apart onto the prepared cookie sheets.

Bake for 8-10 minutes in preheated oven, be careful not to over bake. When cookies come out of the oven, press one mint (sometimes a 1/2 is more than enough!) and swirl with a toothpicks. Let them set (or don’t!) before eating!

Store cookies in an airtight container!

Christmas Bark!

Posted on December 15, 2011 by Mae

So I have been so busy with Holiday stuff I have been neglecting the blog some… so I am so sorry! I am going to do my best to post a few over the next couple days. Most of them will be holiday ideas.

This recipe I found on …. you guessed it… PINTEREST! Seriously, I might go broke or save money with all my pins!

Anyway, I made this great Halloween Bark back in October and thought, why not try a Christmas one. It is so simple and even the Non-baker types can make this with NO issues!

Christmas Bark

adapted from Cooking with K

32 Oz. Almond Bark Vanilla (2 Packages)
1 Box of Kellogg’s Crispix Cereal
4 cups Christmas shaped pretzels (or really any small ones will do!)
2 16oz. Bags of M&M’S (any variety will work-Peanut Butter Chocolate Candies, or Peanut Chocolate Candies, or Plain Chocolate Candies- I used Peanut Butter and Pretzel) in Christmas Colors

Holiday Sprinkles **Optional

In a medium microwave safe bowl, melt chocolate in the microwave for 2-4 minutes at 30 second intervals until chocolate is melted. While it is melting you can mi In a large bowl, mix the cereal, pretzels, and M&Ms (you should steal an M&M or two to make sure they are good enough to serve!)

Pour melted chocolate over the cereal mixture. Using a large spatula to fold all together. Try not to mash the cereal too much while doing this.

Once all the mixture is coated completely with the chocolate, pour out onto a table lined with waxed paper (I used baking trays lined with wax paper and set it outside because it cooled REALLY fast!).

Shake some holiday sprinkles on them for extra color!

Once cooled, break up into pieces and store in an air tight container-Ziplocks work well!

Christmas Bark!

Mae’s Got This is not responsible for any diets this recipe might ruin. ENJOY!!!