Baking, cooking day

I spent today baking in my kitchen. I decided that I needed to make some baked goods that I would like for my weight watchers diet. I found some yummy recipes and made them mine by changing some ingredients. They are so good! 

I started out making the Red Kidney Bean Brownies. Wow they are delicious. Rich, moist and delicious! I am very surprised at this recipe. Super easy and super good. Thanks Jenn!!! 

1 can Red kidney beans, rinsed

1 cup water

1 box of brownie mix, your choice

Puree kidney beans and water well. Mix with brownie mix. Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes. Makes 20 brownies- 2 points a piece.

I found a blog with recipes called For the Love of Cooking on a friends blog. She is always posting delicious recipes. I found a recipe for Banana, Blueberry, Coconut and Toasted Walnut bread. Well I can't resist anything that has Coconut in it! I decided that I didn't want to toast walnuts so I omitted them. Blueberry's are not in season right now and super expensive. Get rid of the blueberries and add in fresh pineapple I already had. I switched up a lot of the ingredients to make it healthier. I wanted to make muffins....they are already portion controlled. This recipe is delicious although my muffins didn't rise like normal muffins. I still like them...a lot! 

Next up was tomato basil soup! Mmmmmm.....fresh tomatoes from my garden, fresh basil and garlic were the main ingredients. It smells so good! 

4-5 fresh tomatoes, quartered

4 cloves garlic peeled

1/4 cup fresh basil

1 quart low sodium chicken broth

I stuck them all in my slow cooker so I could focus on all the other recipes I was making. After 4 hours on high, I used my submersible blender. This made 8 1-cup portions which are 0 points each. 

The soup to the right is called Zero Point Italian Vegetable soup. Pretty good. Spicy!

Weight Watchers has hundreds of recipes and one night I sat on the computer and went through the ones labeled 0-3 points per serving. I found 2 recipes that use butternut squash. First was Butternut Squash Fries and Garlic Mashed Root Vegetables. Butternut squash is not easy to chop and peel. It is so hard to get a knife through and I am already notorious for slicing my fingers that this made me nervous I would take a finger off! 

Butternut Squash Fries 

Butternut squash cut into fry strips 

1 tsp salt

1/2 tsp chile powder

olive oil spray

Spray a baking sheet with nonstick spray, line squash up, sprinkle salt and chile powder over squash, spray with olive oil spray. Bake at 450 degrees for 14-19 minutes turning half way through. 4 servings per recipe, 1 point per serving.

These were delicious! I would definitely make them again! Even Steve thought these were good. 

The Garlic Mashed Root Vegetables were not such a hit. I think it was due to the turnip. It's the only thing I can think of that I don't like the smell of. Maybe next time I will omit the turnip and reduce the garlic amount. 

All in all, today was a busy day for me with cooking and prepping food for dinner. I love baking and cooking. Some days I wish I had more time for it and the money involved in making recipes. It's hard when you end up not liking what you make and you spent lots of money on ingredients.