Piggy Chicken

Well, once again I have proven that I have the self control of a gnat.  I gained weight over the holidays.  And you can count the holidays starting with Valentine's Day, LAST YEAR.  So, I am trying to get a jump start on losing this weight by going back to VERY low carbohydrate eating.  You must understand that I think baked goods should be one of the most important food groups. Sugar?  White flour?  But, of course!

So now, I am trying to be good.  I like salad, but EVERY night?  Boring.  So I will be searching high and low for items to add in to my diet that are low carb.  And not boring.

Luckily I recent read Cinnamon Roll Murder, by Joanne Fluke.  She is one of my favorite "murder with recipes" author.  The other one being Diane Mott Davidson.  Joanne Fluke is best know for her cookie recipes.  And there are quite a few in this book that I will be making.  Eventually.  Especially the Cinnamon Rolls from the title.  Picture this, cinnamon rolls with chocolate.  I'm already drooling and I can't make these for months.  Unless I get a B&B customer.  Then I will have to eat one before serving it....to make sure it is OK...good business practices, and all.

 But she also throws in a bunch of other recipes and there is one she calls Piggy Chicken that will fit the bill.  It was our meal when watching the Super Bowl.  (Which bored me and I left half way through.)

Piggy Chicken is a chicken tenderloin pounded flat, spread with a cream cheese mixture, wrapped with a strip of bacon and baked.  I made a few minor changes to suit me in the cream cheese, but it is basically the recipe from the book.  I really liked them, but next time I make them, I will leave the bacon off.  Sure it was delicious, but I am trying to do low carb and not go crazy high fat, although it is allowed.  Can't be good for you, right?

 

Piggy Chicken

Chicken tenders   I used five from the package and will use the others in a soup later.
Bacon  Five strips for just the two of us. 
1/3 block of cream cheese, softened
2 teaspoons finely minced onion
dash garlic salt
Pepper

 

Preheat the oven to 375°.

 

Place a piece of plastic wrap on your cutting board and put one of the tenderloins on top.  I like to cut off the thick white tendon with a pair of scissors. 

 

Put another piece on top and pound the tenderloin flat.  I used a rolling pin.  You don't want it so flat that it falls apart, but you can easily quadruple the width.
 
 

Place the chicken "pancake" to one side and repeat for as many pieces as you are making.  I made five.

Find an oven proof dish (or two, if you are making enough for a family) that will hold your pieces about an inch apart, so the bacon can crisp.  Spray it with Pam.

 

Mince the onions and add them to the cream cheese in a microwave safe bowl.  You may need to pop it in the microwave to get it soft enough to spread on the chicken.  I added a dash or two of garlic salt, but regular salt works. 

 

Place one of the chicken packets back on your cutting board and peel off the top layer of Cling wrap. 
Use a rubber spatula to spread a layer of cream cheese on the chicken.  Sprinkle with a bit of pepper.  Roll it up from the long side in the shape of a big, fat cigar.  This is where you will discover if you pounded them too flat!  Take one piece of bacon and wrap it around the chicken cigar  You may have to stretch it a bit and not cover the whole thing.  Place your Piggy Chicken in the prepared dish and continue with the rest of the chicken.

 

Bake at 375° for 25 minutes.  Then turn the oven up to 425° for 5 minutes to crisp the bacon.  My bacon didn't get crispy and I didn't want to overcook the chicken, so I took it out after about 6 minutes and it was fine.  The bacon did get a bit more crispy as it cooled.

 

Then disinfect everything you touched with your raw chicken and raw bacon fingers.  I wiped the pepper mill, the Cling box, etc.   I sent the rag I wiped my hands on to the laundry and washed everything else in hot soapy water. 

 

I liked them and Lee liked it enough for me to make again.  I may add some chopped herbs to the cream cheese.  Like I said, I may leave off the bacon.  Of course, then I will have to call it something else.  Cream cheese chicken cigars???

 

Serve with a salad.  I made cole slaw.

Light and Airy Baked Cake Donuts

After baking the Magic Chocolate Flan Cake, I had every intention of stopping eating for at least a week.  Or maybe just massive dieting.  After all, the kids were leaving soon and I needed to get started on convincing my stomach that it does not require three big meals a day.  One meal and a few healthy snacks scattered throughout the day is adequate for me....really.  But then I was reading this book, Powdered Peril,  a few nights ago.  It is one of my favorite genres, murder with recipes!

These are also called cozies, because while someone always dies, you don't get (have) to experience the murder and mayhem up close and personal.   Someone no one really likes is found murdered and then the protagonist gets to help solve the mystery of who done it.  While making delicious food and finding a hot, usually a cop, guy to feed and fall in love with.  Love, food and murder.  A winning combination.  What's not to like?  Some of my favorite authors of mysteries with recipes include Diane Mott Davidson and Joanne Fluke.

I found this book while trolling the list of new books cataloged by the library system where I worked.  Why hadn't I read Jessica Beck before?  No idea. But I fired up my Nook and ordered the first four books in the series.  Right in my bed,  at night.  Love my Nook.   I like to start at the beginning and read a series chronologically. 

I also like when a recipe catches my eye and then I make it and I love it!  I wanted to try the donut recipe with chunks of apples, but that was a fried donut.  The one I chose is a baked donut and it made little ones.  Donut hole size.  So then I could just eat one and serve the others to the visiting family as a final treat.

You didn't buy that for a minute, did you?  Well, it made sixteen donuts and there are four of us.  Do the math.  I had four and if someone else didn't finish their share, I may have had another one.  Who's counting?

   

Light and Airy Baked Cake Donuts

1 egg
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup buttermilk
1/8 cup canola oil     Hey! Low fat, too!!!
1 Tablespoon butter, melted    Oh, well, it's only 1 Tablespoon
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 cup flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1/8 teaspoon salt


   

Heat the oven to 365.  If you have mini donut baker, you can use it with this recipe.  I used a mini muffin pan and they were just the right size for two bites...or three if you are polite and not too terribly hungry.  The recipe said it would make 6 - 10 small donuts. 

   

I used some Crisco on a piece of waxed paper to grease 10 little indentations in the mini muffin pan.  I saved the greasy waxed paper and it is a good thing, as I ended up needing 16 holes.  Don't grease holes you don't end up using.  Not good for the pan.

In a large bowl, whisk the egg and the sugar until blended.  Then add the buttermilk, oil, butter and the vanilla and whisk everything together.  Place your sifter on a small plate and fill it with the dry ingredients, flour, baking powder, nutmeg and salt.  I didn't measure the nutmeg.  I just finely grated what looked to me like the right amount.

   

Sift right into the bowl and then dump whatever is left on the plate into the batter.  Mix well.

I used the smallest cookie scoop and made a rounded scoop.  The recipe called for walnut sized portions and that looked about walnut size to me. 

   

Once again, the recipe called for baking 6 - 10 minutes.  That may work for a donut baker, but my oven took about 12 minutes.  They were just starting to get golden brown on top.

Serve with orange marmalade.  I didn't have marmalade but I did have some homemade blackberry jam leftover from this summer, so I used that!

These were a bit hit.  Really and truly, light and airy.  They were also delicious just plain with nothing on them.  They would also be good with some powdered sugar sifted on top.  I mentioned to Tara that the next time I make this (and I will) I may want to put in some lemon zest.  And then she suggested making some lemon glaze (powdered sugar with a bit of lemon juice) to pour over them.  Oh, man, does that sound good! 

 

   

Bad thoughts!  Go away!  Come again some other day, like when I have lost the weight I gained over Christmas!

Chocolate Sugar Cookies

I spent all last weekend in bed...and a long weekend, too. I had big plans and Tara had come for a visit, but I felt too terrible. I got sick Saturday after a day of doing errands and making a batch of cookies. So here is the recipe. They turned out great. A nice mix of chocolate and sugar cookies. They weren't as good on the fourth or fifth day, so eat them up early!
This recipe is from Joanne Fluke. I like my murder with a lovely cookie recipe!

Chocolate Sugar Cookies

Preheat oven to 325 degrees.

2 cups melted butter
4 one ounce squares of semi-sweet chocolate
2 cups powdered sugar
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla
1 teaspoon orange zest (This is optional, but it does make it taste like the chocolate oranges we love so much at Christmas)
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon cream of tartar
1 teaspoon salt
4 1/2 cups flour
1/2 cup sugar in a bowl for later.




Melt the butter and the chocolate in a pan on low or as I did in the microwave. I set it for 1 minute and stirred. Then another minute and stirred and it was enough. Then pour them out of the microwave bowl into a mixing bowl and add the two kinds of sugar. I used a mixer and then I let them cool for a bit. It wouldn't do to add the eggs and have scrambled egg in you cookie. Yuck.

Use the time while it is cooling to assemble the other ingredients and to zest the orange.




Once the chocolate and butter mixture has cooled, add the two eggs and mix them in. Then add the vanilla, orange zest, baking soda, cream of tartar and salt. Mix it again.

Add the flour in 1 cup increments and have the mixer set for low. You do not want a flour volcano in your kitchen.

Once the dough has been mixed roll one inch dough balls or use a scoop like I do. Drop them in the bowl of sugar and use a spoon to make sure they are covered. Transfer them to a greased cookie sheet or use the Silpats like I do. You may want to use the palm of you hand to slightly flatten the balls of dough or they will roll around while you are transferring them to the oven.




Bake the cookies at 325 for 10 to 15 minutes. It took mine 12. Cool then on the sheet for 2 minutes and then move them to a wire rack to finish cooling. Don't let them cool completely before you eat the first ones. Warm and chewy are the best! I wonder how they would be with melty chocolate chips in them? OOOH, maybe next time!