Deep Dark Chocolate Cookies

1/4/12

      I love easy, delicious food (hence why this contains lots of easy food). These cookies were easier than I thought they were going to be, because I had to make meringue first.

I got this recipe from Devine Baking and it looked delicious!

The ingredients are:

    -Nonstick vegetable oil spray
    -1 1/2 cups bittersweet chocolate chips (about 9 ounces), divided
    -3 large egg whites, room temperature
    -2 1/2 cups powdered sugar, divided (I used 2 cups)
    -1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
    -1 tablespoon cornstarch
    -1/4 teaspoon salt

1. Preheat oven to 350°F. 

2. Spray 2 large baking sheets with nonstick spray. 

3. Melt 1 cup chocolate chips in glass bowl in microwave, stirring twice, about 2 minutes. Let this cool while you do the rest

4. Using electric mixer, beat whites in large bowl to soft peaks. Gradually beat in 1 (I halved the sugar here) cup sugar. Continue beating until mixture resembles soft marshmallow creme and has stiff peaks (stays up when you put a spoon in it and pull the spoon out)

5. Combine 1 cup powdered sugar, cocoa, cornstarch, and salt in medium bowl to blend. On low speed, beat dry ingredients into meringue. 

6. Add chocolate and 1/2 cup chocolate chips (dough will become very stiff).

7. Place 1/2 cup powdered sugar in bowl. 

8. Roll 1 rounded tablespoon dough into ball; roll in sugar, coating thickly. Place on prepared sheet and spacing 2 inches apart. 

For step seven, I recommend only putting in 1/4 a cup at the beginning and adding more as needed because I had tons of left overs. 

I had never sprayed the sheets before I started doing this, but it is life changing! It is so much easier to get everything off the pans. Also, I recommend using a mixer because: 1. It's hard to make meringue without one and 2. The mixture gets very, very thick once you add the chocolate.

Honey Mustard Chicken

1/3/12

         Yesterday, I found a recipe on Pinterest for Honey Mustard Chicken. Now if you know me, you know that my favorite food combination of all time is honey mustard and fried chicken. Now that I've gone gluten-free again, however, I can't have fried chicken breaks my heart. This recipe made me regain hope, though. Also, it's a Weight Watchers recipe, which doesn't hurt anything at all.

You can find the original recipe here: http://www.weightwatchers.com/food/rcp/RecipePage.aspx?recipeid=57621

Sorry I don't have pictures, I just decided to start this blog after I made the next post.

The ingredients are:

    -Cooking spray (It says to use one but I used a couple more)

    -2/3 cup of light honey mustard dressing 

    -1/8 tsp of salt

    -1/8 tsp of black pepper

    -2tsp fresh dill finely chopped (I used 1tsp of dried and could have used less. Also, I feel like this is optional)

    -1 medium scallion, finally chopped

    -1 cup of cornflake crumbs

    -4-4oz chicken breasts

1. Preheat oven to 425F.

2. Coat pan with cooking spray. 

         -I also put aluminum foil over the pan before I sprayed it for even easier clean-up

3. In a bowl, combine 1/3 cup of honey mustard dressing, salt, pepper, dill, and scallions

          -set aside the rest of it for after

4. Place cornflake CRUMBS on a plate. Dip chicken into dressing then cornflakes and place in pan.

5. Drizzle (or dip) remaining dressing mixture over chicken and serve.

After making it, I recommend putting a wire cookie rack in the pan to keep the bottoms of the chicken from getting soggy. Remember to read the recipe first so you don't use whole cornflakes instead of crumbs; which I forgot to do and burned some cornflakes. 

We didn't use most of the dressing I set aside.

 Next time, I would just let people use what they want to so there isn't as much waste.