Double Chocolate Pumpkin Cake

I admit it, I love chocolate....chocolate cake, chocolate brownies, chocolate candy….anything that is chocolate.  Most times the calories or in Weight Watchers terms the Points Plus are high in chocolate cake or chocolate foods.  That is why I was so excited when a cousin served this absolutely delicious cake.  It is only 3 Points Plus per serving.  The cake is baked in a 9” x 13” pan and is cut into 18 pieces so that is a pretty generous serving.

The secret ingredient is a can of pumpkin.  Yes, you read that right – pumpkin – the kind you use to make pumpkin pie.  The next thing you might think is that it will make the cake taste funny.  The answer is nope, can’t taste it at all and the cake is so moist.  I am drooling just thinking about it as I type.  OK, here is the recipe.

Double Chocolate Pumpkin Cake
Chocolate Cake Mix 15.25 oz  (whole package of dry mix)
 15 oz can of Pumpkin
1/2 cup Chocolate Chips   
1/2 cup Water   
Mix all the ingredients together and bake in a greased 13x9 pan @ 350 degrees F for 30 min. Test with a toothpick as you want it baked all the way through and with the added pumpkin it may take a bit longer to finish baking.  Cut 3x6 for 18 pieces.   3 WW P+  I don’t know what the calories would be so please don’t ask but know they would be lower because the you leave the oil and eggs out of the mix.  .If you leave out the chocolate chips you can lower the P+ and calorie values even more.  Serve slightly warm and the chocolate chips will be melty inside the cake. Yum! Add fat free cool whip for topping if desired.

Anybody that has eaten this cake has loved it and didn’t know they were eating a lower calorie version with pumpkin.  John really thought it was good and has asked me to make it again. 

Oh, I almost forgot….it is only low calorie if you eat one piece not several!

Lynn

Chicken Salsa Soup

I  recently got this simple hearty soup recipe from one of my daughters that is so tasty as well as quick and easy.   Here is the recipe in case you want to make it too.  As you can see there are not too many ingredients and you might already have them in the cupboard.1 (14.5 oz) can of Chicken Broth, low sodium, low fat

1 (13 oz) can of chopped chicken breast

1 (15.25 oz) can of Black Beans low sodium 

1 cup(s) fat free Salsa or Picante sauce

1/2 medium Onion chopped - optional

Put the chicken into a soup pot and break it up into small chunks then pour the rest of the ingredients into the pot and stir to blend. Bring it to a boil then turn down the heat and simmer for 15 minutes and serve.

I figured out the Weight Watchers points and it is 4 P+ for a 1 cup serving so is quite low. It is very filling and quite delicious.

I made it once with Salsa and once with Picante Sauce and it was good both times.  Both were a mild flavored sauce but you could use the medium or hot if you like it spicier.   Do use the low sodium beans and chicken broth as the Salsa and chicken have enough salt and the first time I didn't have the low sodium variety and the soup was a bit salty for my taste.  The original recipe didn't have the onion added but I like more onion than was in the Salsa but it is good without the onion.
See, I told you it was easy!

Enjoy,
Lynn

Noodles, Noodles, Noodles!

I made lots of noodles for gifts for Christmas this year.  A much appreciated gift to special friends and family.  My recipe calls for 4 1/2 cups of flour and I used 22 1/2 cups of flour over all…..that is a LOT of noodles.  I only kept 2 cups worth to make Chicken Noodle Soup the night our family arrived.  I have posted the recipe for the noodles below so if you want to make them you can follow my recipe if you wish.  The soup recipe is at the very bottom of this post.
Homemade noodles
4 1/2 cups bread flour  
2-3 tablespoons water
5 whole eggs
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
2 1/2 tablespoons olive oil
Mix the ingredients together with a large mixer (I use a Kitchen Aid mixer).  You may have to add more water if the dough just doesn't come together.  I then kneaded half the dough at at time with the dough hook on my mixer for about 5 minutes for each half.  I sometimes put the dough hook on to finish mixing before the kneading process as well.  If you knead by hand you should knead it for 5-6 minutes until it is very smooth and use more flour if it is sticky.  This step develops the gluten in the flour and is an important step.  If you have ever had noodles break apart into short sections when you cooked them this may have been the problem.  You can find more information about gluten on Wikipedia here.

I just don’t have the strength in my wrists and hands to knead by hand the traditional way (or maybe I am lazy) but the mixer does a good job with the dough hook so I can still get a good product.  I place my dough in a plastic bag and let it rest for 10-30 minutes and do this if you are hand kneading too.

At this point you can roll the dough out by hand to the thickness desired and cut into strips but I have a pasta attachment for my mixer and used that for the rolling and cutting.  I got the attachment a few months ago and had not used it before this marathon noodle making session and it worked so great.  It came with 3 pieces that fit into the top of the mixer.  The two that I used are shown below plus there is another cutter to make smaller noodles as well.  The one on the right has several settings to roll the dough thinner and thinner until it is the thickness desired.  The last step is to change attachments and put on the desired cutter and feed it through.  I cut each half of the dough into 3 parts and rolled and cut each part separately as each section gets pretty long by the time it is rolled as thin as I like it.  Each time through the rollers I fold it in half and in it goes again, next adjust the thickness to the next step thinner.  The more it gets rolled through the smoother it gets.  I would fold the dough lengthwise first then fold crosswise next until it is the width of the roller before adjusting the thickness knob to make it thinner.

The three strips from one half of a recipe laid on the counter to dry a bit before cutting.  As the noodles are cut I catch them with a dowel then hang the dowel on the my pasta drying stand that I inherited from my mother in law.   A neighbor made it for her years ago.  I think If I were making one now I would want one a little taller so I could put longer noodles on it and not have them puddle on the counter.

I let the noodles air dry for a day or two then break them into the lengths I want them to be and package in plastic bags.Now because some of you will ask, this is how I make chicken noodle soup.  I start with a large can of chicken breast meat (50 oz) that I purchased at Sams Club.  You could use any kind of chicken you want but my family doesn't think it likes dark meat so I just use the canned chicken breast.  (Personally the dark meat is my favorite!) This is a lot of chicken in the soup so if you prefer use smaller cans or less chicken.  Dump the chicken and the broth it is packed into a large cooking pot.  I find this chicken makes good soup and is very low in fat as well.  I  then add several cans of low sodium, low fat chicken broth.  I am not sure how many small cans I added but enough to give me the amount of liquid I wanted. (I know not a very exact recipe is this?)  I also added 2 medium carrots chopped real fine and one onion chopped fine since I have one grandson that thinks he doesn't like onion but.....what he doesn't see he doesn't know he is eating.  I simmered this for several hours to blend the flavors.  About a half an hour before serving I brought it to a boil and added the noodles.  The amount of noodles is personal preference but I probably added the noodles made from 2 1/2 cups of flour to this large batch of chicken noodle soup.  I turned down the heat on the burner after it comes back to the boil after adding the noodles.  Simmer until the noodles are cooked then serve and enjoy.  After cooking for 15 minutes test a noodle to see if it is done but also taste the broth to see if you need to add pepper or salt.  Mine just needed pepper as it was salty enough.  My family loves this soup and it is so easy to make too.

Until Later,
Lynn

Machine Quilting Needs More Practice

I finally got to machine quilting yesterday on the Mystery Quilt. The BSR is nice but there is a learning curve to it, especially when I have not done that much machine quilting. My first mistake was I bought a heavier thread than I intended. It is a beautiful shaded green 100% cotton Sulky 30 wt. I didn't even notice the wt. when i purchased it I guess. I had one motif almost done when I figured it out and didn't want to rip so continued quilting the motifs with this thread then changed to Bottom Line for the background quilting.

My machine quilting is really needing practice. I do fine for a while then quick as a wink i can get angles and jogs where there should be smooth lines. I am also having trouble with my top thread breaking at times. I have changed needles, cleaned the bobbin area and re-threaded but it still breaks occasionally. If anyone out there can advise me I would appreciate it. (Have the 730 Bernina with BSR - just to remind you)

Anyway this is what it looks like so far. Am doing a simple stipple stitch for the background then will have a design in the last border where I will change back to the 30 wt. thread.

I need to quilt in the centers of the leaf rings yet and about half of the stippling to go.

Our tomato plants are really producing now and I just love them. I don't do any canning anymore but we eat a lot then give a lot away too. The cucumbers have slowed down some but still finding a few to eat. The second batch of sweet corn is ready now too so enjoying eating that again. I do want to freeze some more and hopefully can get that done this week sometime. (Too busy quilting this morning to do it today.)

I want to share a really good recipe for baked zucchini that I got from a friend. It is wonderful! My sister gave me some zucchini last weekend as I don't grow it in my garden and I made the casserole a couple of days ago. Glad there is some left over as I plan to have it for lunch today!

Baked Zucchini

5-7 small zucchini. peeled
1/2 cup butter
8 oz. pkg. cream cheese
1/3 - 1/2 cups cracker crumbs (Saltines or Club crackers work great)
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon onion salt
1/4 teaspoon. garlic salt

Cut zucchini into slices and pan boil for 5 minutes. Drain. Melt butter and cream cheese. Add rest of ingredients and mix well. Put into greased 1 1/2 quart casserole. Garnish with buttered cracker crumbs . Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes.

Try it you will like it - my theory is if you put cream cheese on anything it will taste good.

Lynn