Chicken soup and oven-hot desserts warm the house
My sister moved out recently to an apartment nearby and she
invited my parents and me over for dinner last week. Now, when my
sister lived at home, she didn’t do much cooking. And as far as I
can tell, her roommate didn’t do much either.
Chicken soup and oven-hot desserts warm the house
My sister moved out recently to an apartment nearby and she invited my parents and me over for dinner last week. Now, when my sister lived at home, she didn’t do much cooking. And as far as I can tell, her roommate didn’t do much either.
But now that they are on their own, they are taking turns in the kitchen. With a Crock Pot that my cousin gave them as a housewarming gift, they had a Mexican-style chicken soup cooking for us all day. I had never had the soup, caldo de pollo, before. It is a simple dish with chunky vegetables and chunks of chicken.
Since they had prepared a one-pot meal, my sister suggested that we could bring dessert. We could have gone the easy route and picked up something from the grocery store bakery section or even just picked up some frozen cookie dough to pop in the oven. But since I had the chance to work from home on Friday because of a carpet installation project at the office, I figured I had time to make something from scratch. And of course, the weather was cooler than the near 90s that hit this week so having the oven on seemed like a fine idea.
My mom picked out the perfect recipe from a Kraft Foods e-mail for a warm chocolate pudding cake. See, last week we visited Crate and Barrel at Santana Row. I was really tempted to buy a brownie pudding mix by Ina Garten, which is described as having a cakey brownie layer over molten chocolate pudding in the middle. I resisted only because I knew I was going to a birthday party the next day and would have cake there. But this Kraft recipe seemed like a close proximity to the brownie pudding since the cake would be on top with the pudding sauce underneath.
We also wanted to have something low sugar for my dad and my sister’s friend who both limit their sugar intake. We found a recipe on the Splenda website, which offers tons of sugar-free or low-sugar recipes that substitute Splenda for sugar, for which we had most of the ingredients at home already.
Caldo de pollo (Mexican chicken soup)
Recipe courtesy of Cooks.com
1 medium cabbage, cut into wedges
1 1/2 lbs. chicken breast
Water to cook chicken (just enough to cover the chicken)
4 potatoes, peeled and cubed
4 carrots, peeled and sliced
1 small chopped onion
1 zucchini, diced
1 (14 1/2 oz.) can stewed tomatoes, undrained
salt and pepper to taste
1 tbsp. fresh cilantro, chopped
11/2 c. white rice, cooked
Cook chicken over medium heat in a large Dutch oven until it is tender. Add water, as needed, to keep chicken covered.
When the chicken will come apart with a fork, add the carrots to the chicken.
Bring to a boil; cover, reduce heat, and simmer 15 minutes, then add the rest of the vegetables and the rice and simmer until the potatoes are tender.
Add cilantro during the last 5 minutes of cooking.
Warm chocolate pudding cake
Recipe courtesy of Kraft foods
1 pkg. Devil’s food cake mix
2 pkg. (3.9 oz. each) Jell-O chocolate instant pudding
1/3 c. Sugar
2 c. cold milk
1 ¼ c. water
1 c. thawed Cool Whip whipped topping
Heat oven to 350 degrees.
Prepare cake batter as directed on package. Pour into 13×9-inch baking dish sprayed with cooking spray.
Beat dry pudding mixes, sugar, milk and water with a whisk, about two minutes. Pour over batter. Place baking dish on baking sheet.
Bake for 55 min. to an hour, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake layer comes out clean. Cool for 20 min. The sauce will thicken slightly as it cools. Spoon into serving dishes. Top with Cool Whip.
Makes 16 servings
Calories: 300, fat: 13 g., carbs: 45 g., protein 4 g.
Applesauce snacking cake
Recipe courtesy of Splenda Tastebook
1 c. all-purpose flour
1 tsp. baking powder
½ tsp. baking soda
2 tsp. cinnamon
½ tsp. ginger
½ c. reduced-calorie margarine
¼ c. molasses
½ c. egg substitute
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1 c. Splenda No Calorie Sweetener, Granulated
½ c. unsweetened applesauce
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Spray an 8×8 inch metal cake pan with vegetable cooking spray.
In a small bowl, stir together flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, and ginger. Set aside.
In a large mixing bowl, beat margarine and molasses with an electric mixer on high speed for approximately 1 minute.
Add egg substitute and vanilla and blend on high speed for 30 seconds. Mixture will be liquid.
Add Splenda Granulated Sweetener and beat on medium speed until very smooth, approximately 1½ minutes.
Add flour mixture and applesauce and beat on low speed until mixed, approximately 45 seconds.
Spread batter evenly into prepared pan and bake for 30 minutes at 350 degrees F.
Serving Size: 1 slice (1/8 of cake)
Calories: 170, fat: 7 g., carbs: 24 g., protein: 4 g.
