Oroweat Turkey Club (photo credit: Oroweat)

For anyone who's trying to watch their calorie and carb intake, we finally have a great alternative for sandwiches! I'm so hooked on these Oroweat Sandwich Thins!

They come in three varieties, Multi-Grain, 100% Whole Wheat and Honey Wheat. The Multi-Grain variety is my favorite!

These are much thinner than an English Muffin yet aren't dry at all, even when toasted. Myself, I prefer a thinner bread. I don't want the bread to dominate my sandwich. I've been toasting the sandwich thins and they end up a little crunchy on the outside but still a little pillowy on the inside. For being as tasty as these are, the entire roll is only 100 calories, 5 grams of fiber and only one gram of fat!

Since I work from home, I eat lunch at home almost every day.  I'm a creature of habit, too, so I usually end up having the same thing for lunch every day and it's usually a turkey sandwich of some kind.

The sandwich pictured here is the Turkey Club recipe from Oroweat. It's a great sandwich choice at only 343 calories and 8 grams of fat.

Turkey Club

1 Oroweat Multi-Grains Sandwich Thins Roll
3 ozs. thinly sliced smoked turkey
1 slice cooked turkey bacon
1 slice reduced fat cheddar
1 slice reduced fat swiss
1 t. honey mustard
red onion, tomato, and leaf lettuce

In an effort to cut back on the calories just a little bit more, I eliminate the bacon and I substitute one wedge of Laughing Cow Light Swiss for the two slices of reduced fat cheese. I just spread half of the Laughing Cow wedge on each sandwich slice on top of the mustard. By making just a few changes, you can have a healthy, filling sandwich for less than 300 calories!

For those of you that are lucky enough to have a Trader Joe's nearby, you'll have to try a Trader Joe's roasted chicken patty on a toasted Multi-Grain Sandwich Thin. I just recently discovered these chicken patties and they are only 140 calories and 4 grams of fat.  For a quick and easy lunch, I just spread a little mustard on each toasted sandwich thin, add the chicken patty, some lettuce and tomato and you end up with another fantastic sandwich for less than 300 calories.

And for a breakfast sandwich, I scramble up some Egg Beaters, spray a couple of squirts of “I Can't Believe It's Not Butter” on the toasted Sandwich Thins, add a slice of canadian bacon  and you've got a great breakfast sandwich for under 300 calories.

I sure hope these sell well because I would hate to see these disappear from the grocery store shelves as quickly as they appeared! If you give these a try, I don't think you'll be disappointed.

~LilSis

Posted under Food

A while back, LilSis showed us how much Urban Decay Primer Potion is left inside the cute little genie bottle even after you think it's empty.  I heard from an Urban Decay rep at Ulta one day that the owner of Urban Decay was committed to her purple genie bottle even though lots of us girls are grumbling about the waste it causes.  Her solution was to give us a bent wand, which may work a bit better but lots of us are still grumbling.

Guess what, we now have a breakthrough!  Urban Decay Primer Potion in a tube!

For $29, you get .85 oz of Primer Potion, compared to .34 oz in the genie bottle for $18.

I can't wait to grab a tube of this.  I apply the Primer Potion with my ring finger anyway, so the applicator isn't necessary in my world.

Lest we forget, let me take this opportunity to remind you how much I love Urban Decay Primer Potion.  I've tried several primer products, and this is my absolute favorite, hands down.  Why?  A normal day in my life is why:

• Makeup application with Urban Decay Primer Potion at 6 am

• 8 hours of stressful work

• Errands in 100 degree temperatures with 100% humidity

• 2 sweaty workouts

• Makeup removal at 10 pm: eye shadow is still perfectly intact!  No creases.  No fading.  Voila!

Bonus: this is a vegan product.  No animal testing, and no animal-derived products.

Run, don't walk, to get your tube.  Just don't get in my way!

~BigSis

Posted under Beauty and Skin Care

How about another colorful cupcake for Valentines Day?  By the way, have you made the Pomeranian Pomegranate Cupcakes that I talked about a few days ago?  If not, here's option #2 for your Valentine's Day, and it's another vegan one!

These are actually called Crimson Velveteen Cupcakes (I love the name!) and they're from Isa Chandra Moskowitz's book Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World: 75 Dairy-Free Recipes for Cupcakes that Rule. I have several of Isa's other cookbooks, but I just got this one and these cupcakes are the first thing I've baked from it.  This cute little cookbook was named the “Cookbook of the Year” by VegNews.

So, back to the baking.  There was nothing weird in this recipe that required an emergency trip to my favorite little hippie health food store (although that would be dandy with me since I love it there).  Just flour, sugar, cocoa, baking powder and soda, soy milk (I used almond), canola oil and flavorings.  It was super easy to whip up, so the recipe wins kudos for that too.

I also made the icing recommended for this cupcake, Old Fashioned Velvet Icing.  I can't say that I'm a fan of it though.  I thought I followed the instructions to the letter, but my icing came out grainy, and I hate to say, it was just a tad weird for me.  Sorry, Isa.  I only iced one cupcake for the photo, and just left the other eleven nekkid.  I'd rather have a nice traditional cream cheese icing on my red velvet cupcakes, so I'll try that the next time I bake these.

And I will bake these again.  They were easy, inexpensive, pretty, and most important of all: delicious and moist!  Run out and buy Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World, or use the Crimson Velveteen Cupcakes recipe I found online, but do make these cupcakes!

Happy Valentine's Day!

~BigSis

Posted under Holidays

Thanks for the info about the MAC free shipping offer, BigSis! I probably shouldn't order anything this time since I just paid a visit to the MAC counter. (That's going to be a real test of willpower.)

Back to your question about breakfast. Breakfast is my favorite meal of the day and has been for as long as I can remember.  I've never been crazy about pancakes, donuts, or french toast type breakfasts. BUT, if calories and fat grams were not a factor in choosing my favorite breakfast, I'd have to say that it would be something like the huge bacon and cheddar cheese omelet served with crispy shredded hash browns like I got at the restaurant in Vegas on your birthday! (I'm purposely not naming the restaurant since we won't be returning to that hotel.)

Unfortunately, my favorite spot for Sunday Brunch down on the beach in Cardiff had to close it's doors last year. My favorite thing on their menu was a Garden Omelet. It had spinach, asparagus, tomatoes, mushrooms, and just a little provolone cheese in it! That was such a perfect omelet!

So, those are a couple of my favorite breakfasts. Honestly, if I could, I would probably eat a big fat Sausage Egg McMuffin and hash browns from McDonald's every day, but since we are trying to eat healthy, I don't indulge in those!

450 Calories and 26 grams of fat

This may seem pretty boring, but I don't ever get tired of it. During the week at around 6:00, I have either a bowl of nonfat vanilla yogurt with a sliced banana and berries or a bowl of McCann's Irish Oatmeal, sprinkled with a little cinnamon.

That is followed by my only caffeine of the day, a Diet Rock Star. After a few hours of work and my exercise, I'll usually take a break around 9:30 or 10:00 and have a one egg omelet cooked in just a tad of olive oil for second breakfast.

So, that's it in a nutshell.  And you're right about someone cooking breakfast for you! I love that! It doesn't happen too often around here, but when it does, I definitely enjoy it!

Is anyone already bored with trying to plan a weekly menu of healthy recipes? I know I am. I am trying to change things up a bit and surprise my family with something that they don't have every week or so. Tomorrow, I'm going to share some of my favorite cookbooks that I like to peruse for healthy recipes.

~LilSis

Posted under Food

If you were reading a couple of days ago, I mentioned that I would share with you my some of my favorite healthy snacks. I've recently cut out a few that were too high in calories and/or fat and have narrowed down my favorites to these snacks that are all between 100 – 200 calories. Here's my Top Ten:

• Mott's Healthy Harvest Granny Smith Applesauce (mid-morning snack) (1 cup; 50 calories, 0 fat)

• Boiled or scrambled egg with Frank's Red Hot Sauce  (mid-morning snack) (1 large egg, 70 calories, 4.5 g. fat)

• Trader Joe's Multi-Grain Pretzel Nuggets with Sesame Seeds  (22 pretzel nuggets; 110 calories, 1 gram fat)

• The Laughing Cow Light Creamy Swiss Wedges or Cheese Bites  (1 wedge or 5 cheese bites; 35 calories, 2 grams fat)

• Weight Watchers Natural Light String Cheese (1 stick; 50 calories, 2.5 g. fat)

• Shelled Edamame (1/2 c. serving; 110 calories, 3.5 g. fat)

• Trader Joe's Everything Pretzel Slims (23 slims; 110 calories, 1/2 g. fat)

• The Laughing Cow Mini Babybel Light (1 piece; 50 calories, 3 g. fat)

• Trader Joe's Parmesan Garlic Pita Chips (1 oz.; 130 calories, 4 g. fat)

• Trader Joe's Roasted Garlic Hummus (2 T.; 50 calories, 3.5 g. fat)

I love to combine the pretzel nuggets with the cheese bites and the pita chips with the hummus, so I reduce the quantity of the pretzels and the pita chips in an effort to keep each snack around 150 calories.

You'll notice that several of my favorites are from Trader Joe's and I do know that not everyone has a Trader Joe's nearby, but you can definitely find similar products made by different companies. Rold Gold has some Harvest Wheat Pretzel Twists that are low in calories and fat and there are plenty of brands of pita chips and hummus. Or, when you have time, why not make your own pita chips and hummus?

And, you can also tell by my list that I don't crave sweets at all. But if I did, I'd be snacking on sugar free Jello snack packs, which only have 10 calories and zero fat per serving. You can't go wrong with that!

I would love to hear from you if you have a favorite low calorie, low fat snack! Come on…it's nice to share.

~LilSis

Posted under Food

We talk all the time about our love of Mexican food, and we don't need ANY excuse to indulge. This weekend is Cinco de Mayo though, and I'm inspired to get in the cocina and rattle some pots and pans instead of just heading to the nearest tacqueria and trying to find something without meat, lard or cheese.

One of my favorite everyday go-to quick meals is Super Speedy Mexican Stew. It's essentially just canned tomatoes, corn, kidney beans and green beans with any spices that strike me. It's not fancy and I can't really even call it cooking; it's just decent food on the table and in my tummy in literally 15 minutes on a weeknight.

My new go-to Mexican veggie stew when I have a touch more time is Terry Hope Romero's Quick Red Chile Posole from Viva Vegan!: 200 Authentic and Fabulous Recipes for Latin Food Lovers.  This is the first recipe I've tried from Terry's book, but it won't be the last.

It takes my simple little dish and turbo-charges it with flavor. It has a tomato base and includes a can of pinto beans and a can of white hominy. I just learned that the hominy is what makes it “posole”.

There's magic though in the combination of onion, garlic, poblano pepper, chile powder, mexican oregano, cumin and lime. I followed the recipe precisely, and was really amazed at how tasty this little stew was after just 25 minutes of simmering.  It's warm, spicy, creamy, chunky and bright…all at the same time.

Traditionally, you would top the posole with a variety of garnishes: onion, cabbage, tomato, radishes, cilantro, or tortilla chips. I initially thought I would add a pinch of Daiya pepperjack shreds, a dollop of vegan sour cream and some avocado.

After just one bite of the posole I decided that it needed nothing…except to be devoured. Quickly. So I could refill my bowl, and repeat.

I'll definitely add this dish to my rotation and hope you'll give it a try for Cinco de Mayo or any old time!

~BigSis

Posted under Food, Holidays

I just channeled Elly May Clampett for a minute there, didn't I?  I can't help it; sometimes my inner hillbilly comes out!  After all, I am from Texas.  Hey, fellow Texans; please don't be offended.  You know the rest of the world tends to view us as hicks or rednecks or bumpkins.  If we can't have a sense of humor about it, we're in deep horse doodie!

Back to the critters.  It's been 15 years since I had one on my plate; other than my cats trying to steal my dinner, that is.  And trust me, I have not withered away since I stopped eating meat.  People who know me know that I always say I don't eat anything with a face or with parents.  No chicken, no fish, no flesh.  But I'm strong and have good energy 15 years later.  I am certainly not a pale sickly twig!

Why'd I stop eating meat?  I read a book by John Robbins called Diet for a New America and decided to skip meat-eating for a week,  just to see if I could do it.  I never went back.  Once I knew about factory-farming, I couldn't forget that I knew it.  So there you have it.  I won't get preachy about it. People know where I stand, and as much as I'd like for everyone to be vegetarian, it has to be your choice.  You don't make a major lifestyle change like that because someone else is beating you up about it.  You do it because you want to.

I'm not vegan yet, but I'm always moving closer to it, and I'm intrigued by the raw diet.  I do eat an occasional egg, although if I think about it, it grosses me out to think of eating a liquid chicken.  And I do eat a little cheese.  Why can't someone invent a tasty, melty non-dairy cheese, for cryin out loud??

So what do I eat on a daily basis?  By now, you know I eat hummus…I talk about it all the time.  Green hummus. Healthy hummus. Hummus with sundried tomato pesto added.  Now I'm on a mission for the perfect artichoke hummus recipe.

But I do eat other things – not just roots and leaves – and I'm going to talk more about that soon so stay tuned!  Meanwhile, happy anniversary to me and to all of the critters I didn't eat!  In honor of this anniversary, check out this funny little Farting Cow video from Animal Planet.  Trust me, you'll laugh!  Just don't laugh so hard that you…well, you know!

~BigSis

Posted under Animals

Today, I'm sharing with you one of my favorite TomTom Santa photos. I did publish this one last year, but just in case you missed it, here it is again. Doesn't he look festive?

BigSis still hasn't been able to convince her two little furkids to pose in their new Christmas outfit she bought for them this year.  Since there's only one December ‘Caturday' left this month, I thought it might be fun to invite our readers to share any Christmas photos of their kitties dressed up for the holidays.

If you have a photo that you'd like to share and would love to see posted on our final December ‘Caturday' next Saturday, just send it to me as an attachment in an email to lilsis at bigsislilsis dot com. Make sure the photo is already resized to no larger than 450 x 340. I know this isn't much notice, but if I have the photos by Wednesday, December 23rd, I'll promise to have them up on Saturday the 26th!

Come on…it'll be fun. Don't tell me that BigSis and I are the only ones who dress up their furkids in Santa Hats and Reindeer Antlers! 🙂

~LilSis

Posted under Holidays

I'm so glad that I was reading Kahakai Kitchen the other day when Deb mentioned the new weekly cooking event, I Heart Cooking Clubs. Luckily, I found out about it just in time to join the fun!

The Cooking Club is presently featuring the recipes of Nigella Lawson and the first weeks' challenge is Party Treats. Yay!! My favorite course!

You all know that I LOVE appetizers!  I've mentioned more than once or twice how much I prefer hosting Hors D'Oeuvres & Cocktail Parties versus hosting a formal sit-down dinner. Most of the time when we have friends over, we end up standing around the kitchen bar and island talking, eating, having a few cocktails, and we never sit down. (It sounds rude, I know, but no one ever wants to sit, including myself!)

So, for this first week on IHCC, I decided to make Nigella's Shrimp with Garlic and Chili Pepper.  The original recipe can be found online at Food Network. I thought these would be a perfect little party treat to take to a get-together we had planned for last night; and, yes, they were a hit!

I changed it up a bit, like I always do when I cook!  I have three hungry men in my house, so I started with a pound of shrimp instead of a half of a pound. (I did want to have some left to take to my friends after the guys did their little taste test.) Since I started with twice as much shrimp as the original recipe called for, I used 3 T. of olive oil instead of 2 T. and 3 large garlic cloves instead of two. Also, my local store didn't have red chili peppers, (which ticked me off) so I used a half of a Serrano instead. And, I wanted some red color so I added 1/2 t. crushed red pepper flakes. The combination of the two turned out great!

Nigella's recipe called for unshelled shrimp but since I wanted to serve these individually on toasted baguette slices, I shelled the shrimp before I cooked it. I also decided to spread a little goat cheese on the toasted bread before sitting the pretty little shrimps on top.  Everyone loved these little party treats!

Shrimp with Garlic and Chili Pepper
(adapted from Nigella Lawson's Nigella Bites online at Food Network)

3 T. olive oil
1/2 serrano pepper
3 large garlic cloves, minced
1/2 t. crushed red pepper flakes
1 lb. medium to large shelled shrimp
1/2 c. white wine
Pinch of salt
5 oz. package of soft goat cheese
1 baguette bread, sliced diagonally
1 T. chopped Italian parsley

To begin, lightly brush the baguette bread slices with olive oil and toast at 400 degrees for ten minutes or so. Set aside to cool.

Pour the olive oil into a wide, heavy-bottomed frying pan. Then add the pepper and garlic and, over moderate to low heat, to infuse rather than to color, fry for 2 minutes, stirring all the time.

Then turn the heat to high, add the shrimp, and stir-fry them for another 2 minutes or until they turn pink and are just delicately cooked. Pour in the white wine and let it bubble up. Cook for just another minute or so. Season with salt, if necessary.

Spread some goat cheese on each bread slice.

Place a nice juicy shrimp on top, sprinkle with some parsley and serve immediately.

Enjoy! And, don't forget to check out I Heart Cooking Clubs today for the full roundup of awesome party treats!

~LilSis

Posted under Food

When I was about 10 years old, a peach almost killed me.  Yep, a sweet, juicy, fuzzy little peach was nearly the end of me!  I was spending part of the summer in West Texas with my grandparents as usual, and had been eating juicy fresh peaches as usual.  My grandmother made awesome peach fried pies and incredible spiced pickled peaches with cloves.  She had peach trees in the backyard and made great use of them.

So, one nice summer day, I went to my cousins' house for a visit.  I can remember sitting on a swing in their backyard, eating a fresh peach.  I can remember getting itchy, then starting to wheeze, and then getting swollen all over.  By the time I got into the house, I passed out, and then drifted in and out of consciousness for what seemed like hours before they took me to the emergency room to be pumped full of benadryl and adrenalin.

Since I grew up to be BigSis, clearly I survived that attack of anaphylactic shock.  My body just had enough of peaches, and said it wished to have no more of them, please.  When I heard that this month's You Want Pies with That event would have a Childhood Memories theme, those peachy memories came back to me.  My whole family has mouth-watering and sentimental memories of Grandmama's fried pies, although I obviously can't make her peach ones.  In her honor, I decided to make cherry fried pies, for my first time ever.

I don't have my own recipe for these little jewels, so I found recipes online for pie pastry and cherry pie filling that both sounded delicious and got 5 star reviews.  And being a bake-from-scratch snob, I was definitely not interested in using flattened biscuits with canned pie filling.  I did have one little complication right off the bat, which was that the filling was surprisingly too juicy for little fried pies, so I revised my plan a bit and made a whole pie.  No biggie, just a little adjustment.

Looks pretty good, right?  I was kind of happy with the golden brownness, and was feeling a little proud of myself since I love to bake, but I'm not a pie maker.  It intimidates me and intrigues me at the same time.  But so far, so good.  I cut into the pie, and still found more juice than I really wanted, but no worries!  It's yummy cherry juice, so it's all good!  And I thought the slice on the plate looked pretty tasty!  What do you think?  Not so bad for a novice pie girl.

The next test…take a bite!  I took a bite, and took another bite, and took another bite.  Guess what?  It was HORRIBLE!!  Not just bad.  Not just “oh, you're so overly critical of your own baking”.  No.  It was DISGUSTING!  It's actually in my sink at this moment, crumpled in bits and pieces, awaiting it's little trip down the garbage disposal.  THAT bad.

What could be so bad, you say?  Well, the pastry was not flaky and light.  It was the polar opposite: heavy and soggy on the top and bottom.  The juice soaked into it and just made yukky mush.  Even though I baked it the recommended amount of time, I don't think the bottom crust was even done.  Bleh.  On top of that, the pastry's flavor was just off and weird.  The tiny bit of almond extract in the filling was grossly overwhelming and the filling was WAY too liquidy.  Altogether, it was so nasty that not even HayHay-the-15-Year-Old-Eating-Machine would touch it.  I would be ashamed to offer it to him or anyone else.

So, why do I bother posting on this disaster?  Cause it's pretty damn funny to me!  It's hilarious, in fact.  I make such a big ding dang deal out of baking from scratch, and then I have a catastrophe of Titanic proportions like this, and it just cracks me up.  One thing I don't do is take myself too seriously, and it's a good thing!  Plus, you can't try anything new if you're too afraid to fail.  Chances are I'll have lots more beautiful disasters on my way to successful pastry baking!

Next time, I'll try to do you proud, Grandmama!  I'm not giving up!  Meanwhile, please visit You Want Pies With That on June 8th to see the work of successful pie bakers!  I'm off to the grocery store for biscuits and canned pie filling.

~BigSis

Posted under Food