Cocoa Fudge Cookies and Picnik

I learned about Picnik reading this blog – I highly recommend it, even though it’s not about food; I found it while searching for good home décor ideas – my house could use some color right now.

It is a fun, easy to use tool. My sister absolutely loved it – she’s 14 and has tons of photos of her teen friends and dogs. You do the math. :)

I made these cookies ages ago, but wasn’t pleased with the photos. I kept postponing the recipe until I thought that it was good and deserved to be shared. I don’t have much experience with low fat baking but I want to learn more about it. If you are interested in that too, my friend JB has wonderful recipes on her blog.

Cocoa Fudge Cookies
from The All-New Complete Cooking Light Cookboook

1 cup (140g) all-purpose flour
¼ teaspoon baking soda
1/8 teaspoon salt
5 tablespoons butter
7 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa
2/3 cup (140g) granulated sugar
1/3 cup (60g) packed brown sugar
1/3 cup plain low-fat yogurt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 180ºC/350ºF; line 2 baking sheets with baking paper, lightly coated with cooking spray.

Lightly spoon flour into a dry measuring cup; level with a knife. Sift together flour, soda, and salt; set aside. Melt butter in a large saucepan over medium heat. Remove from heat; stir in cocoa powder and sugars (mixture will resemble coarse sand). Add yogurt and vanilla, stirring to combine. Add flour mixture, stirring until moist. Drop by level tablespoons 2 inches apart onto prepared baking sheets.

Bake for 8 to 10 minutes or until almost set. Cool on pans 2 to 3 minutes or until firm. Remove cookies from pans; cool on wire racks.

Makes 2 dozen – I got 28 even after eating loads of dough (1 cookie = 78 calories)

Roasted squash salad with tahini

My husband thinks I’m funny. He tells me that all the time – maybe I am. I find it a good thing, actually.
One of the things that make him laugh is when I almost scream “God I gotta eat that” while going through my cookbooks. Depending on the “reading”, I say that quite a lot.

I saw this salad on a book Monday night and more than quickly wrote down the ingredients I needed to buy, in order to make it for dinner last night. I made 2 changes: used lime instead of lemon and nigella seeds instead of black sesame seeds.

I bet Joao can’t tell you how many times I said “this is delicious” while eating the salad. Really – I stopped counting at the tenth.



This is my entry for the Weekend Herb Blogging, this time hosted by Rinku, from the blog Cooking in Westchester.

Roasted squash salad with tahini
from Marie Claire Easy

1 small butternut squash
1 tablespoon olive oil
sea salt and freshly ground black pepper, to season
3 tablespoons tahini
½ cup plain yogurt – I used non-fat
1 teaspoon ground cumin
½ teaspoon finely chopped garlic
1 tablespoon lime juice
3 ½ cups arugula (rocket)
1 large handful flat-leaf parsley leaves
1 tablespoon nigella seeds

Preheat the oven to 175ºC/350ºF. Peel the butternut squash and cut it into large chunks. Toss it in the oil, season with salt and pepper and then put the chunks on a baking sheet. Roast for 30 minutes, or until the butternut squash is tender, then allow it to cool.

To make the dressing, mix the tahini, yogurt, cumin, garlic and lime juice to a smooth paste; season with salt and pepper to taste.

Toss the arugula and parsley leaves together and pile them onto a serving plate. Top with the roasted squash, add a spoonful of the dressing, and garnish with a sprinkling of nigella seeds.

Serves 4

Tomato, hearts of palm, olive and parmesan salad with basil dressing

Every time I visit Kalyn's blog - and I just won't do it on a daily basis in case I'm sick or loaded with work - I feel like cooking everything she posts! Her food has a healthy tone and looks delicious. Hard to resist.

This is my take on one of her recipes - I have made this salad several times already and even João likes it, even though he's not into tomatoes (crazy, I know).

I used parmesan shavings instead of feta because I couldn't find it where I live. I also changed the dressing a bit.

Make sure you check the original version - you'll be glad to!

Tomato, hearts of palm, olive and parmesan salad with basil dressing

4-6 small tomatoes, sliced
1 cup hearts of palm, sliced (or more)
½ cup black olives
½ cup parmesan shavings

Basil dressing:
1 cup fresh basil leaves (packed)
extra virgin olive oil, to taste – I didn’t use a lot because I wanted a low-calorie salad
lime juice
salt
freshly ground black pepper

In salad bowl, layer tomatoes, hearts of palm, olives and parmesan.

Using a mortar and pestle, mash the basil leaves and salt together. Add the pepper, olive oil and lime juice, mix well.
Drizzle basil dressing over salad.

Serves 2

Vegetable crepes with cottage filling (and my eternal hate for Channel Fox)

That’s right, my dear readers. Channel Fox (Brazil) sucks, big time.
They have decided to air only dubbed movies and series - no more of my beloved original sound and subtitles that I decide to read whenever I want to.
I will never forgive Fox for making me watch the first episode of “Dexter” this way – btw, it is fantastic. I can’t wait to watch the next episode.

Back to food… These crepes are delicious! And they’re light – yep, healthy and NOT packed with thousands of calories. My type of food lately – so true that I had all 4 you see on the plate. :S

The batter is not thick as the usual crepe batter and I thought it would be difficult to transform it into crepes. Practice makes it perfect, though: my first crepe looked like a flower, there was nothing round about it… But after that first attempt I got to make the others without much trouble.

My opinion about the filling is that it’s OK, but the curry flavor is too overpowering (and I like curry). I liked the crepes so much that I have been thinking of making them again with a number of different fillings – use your imagination and you may end up liking this recipe as much as I did.

There were some crepes left and I had them later that day, cold, without filling. I told you I’d liked this recipe. :)



This is my entry for this Weekend Herb Blogging, hosted by the sweet and dear Susan.

Vegetable crepes with cottage filling
Weight Watchers Brazil

Crepes:
2 eggs
½ cup non-fat milk
5 tablespoons all-purpose flour
½ cup shredded/grated carrot
½ cup shredded/grated zucchini
4 tablespoons grated parmesan
salt
freshly ground black pepper

Filling:
¾ cup cottage cheese
½ teaspooon curry powder
1 tablespoon chopped chives
salt
freshly ground black pepper

Make the crepes: place the eggs, milk and flour in a blender and blend well. Add the remaining ingredients and mix well.
Heat a crepe pan over low heat until hot. Lightly coat with vegetable oil or cooking spray. Pour batter into the pan and tip to spread the batter to the edges. When bubbles form on the top and the edges are dry, flip over and cook until lightly browned on the other side and edges are golden. Repeat with remaining batter – you’ll have to get 8 crepes with this recipe. In order to achieve this number, I poured an almost full ¼ cup of batter into the pan.
Mix all the ingredients of the filling and spread small amounts of the mixture onto each crepe. Fold them as you wish and serve.

Serves 4.