Monkey Bread "Lite"

We need to face reality, rarely do you find a recipe that is just like the real thing when there is "lite" in the name. If you are a monkey bread fan who does not care about calories then move on to your next activity, there's nothing for you here. If you are a fan of most sweet things but are trying to watch calories, sugar, fat, etc you might be interested in this recipe. Josh actually found this blog site and sent it on to me. I think the author's husband is in a similar field as Josh and he found him on a site they both use.  Anyway, I love Dashing Dish's philosophy and really appreciate her work to make healthier alternatives to the favorites. You might see some other recipes taken from her site in the future.  There are two great things I like about this recipe. The first is that the portions are made individual sizes so you know exactly how much to take for a serving. Second is that it is made with alternatives and did not require many "fancy" ingredients that I don't know where to immediately find at Meijer.
Visit Dashing Dish to find the Monkey Bread Lite recipe.

This photo is from DashingDish.com (I didn't have time to snap my own, we were headed out the door for a family get together).

I made this to bring to Easter with the family. I warned everybody I had not made this before and that it was a lighter alternative to the real thing. They were a hit (thankfully)! I recommend making extra of the syrup/butter sauce because I ran out about half way through my tray of 12. The sugar free maple syrup I used was pretty runny, I think a thicker syrup would help this recipe as well. Definitely going in the cook book to use in the future!

Chicken Marsala

I feel like I haven't had much time to blog lately with all the travel. While I was on my trip to Reno I went out to eat in Truckee, CA with some colleagues. It is a very cute little western town. We ate at a great restaurant that unfortunately I cannot remember the name of. This was our first meal in 3 days that didn't consist of appetizers, finger foods, hotel coffee, or Starbucks oatmeal so everything on the menu looked good. I needed advice. I asked the waitress if she were hypothetically from out of town and may never have the opportunity to come back and eat here again what she might order.  Chicken Marsala was on her list. Coincidentally it was in my top 3 choices so I went with it.  Excellent decision, it was so very good.  I've been craving it every day since so I decided to look up the recipe online.  I trust allrecipes.com so I went with this one:

Ingredients

• 1/4 cup all-purpose flour for coating
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
• 1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
• 4 skinless, boneless chicken breast halves - pounded 1/4 inch thick
• 4 tablespoons butter
• 4 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 cup sliced mushrooms
• 1/2 cup Marsala wine
• 1/4 cup cooking sherry

Directions

1. In a shallow dish or bowl, mix together the flour, salt, pepper and oregano. Coat chicken pieces in flour mixture.
2. In a large skillet, melt butter in oil over medium heat. Place chicken in the pan, and lightly brown. Turn over chicken pieces, and add mushrooms. Pour in wine and sherry. Cover skillet; simmer chicken 10 minutes, turning once, until no longer pink and juices run clear.

Nutritional Information

Amount Per Serving  Calories: 448 | Total Fat: 26.6g | Cholesterol: 99mg

I would give this recipe a A- for taste and an A+ for prep time. We're talking 15 minutes to a delicious meal. I paired it with angel hair pasta and a glass of Little Black Dress pinot grigio.

I have a lot of leftovers too!

Now as for my trip to Reno. Well... whatever image you have in your head of Reno, it is probably true. It lived up to every expectation that I had before I left.  Here is a picture of my hotel room:

But here is me at Lake Tahoe!

And here is me not getting run over by cars while standing in the middle of the main street in Reno to get my picture taken:

I'm so glad to be home.

The Kitchen Remodel

We're doing it! 2011 is the year of the kitchen remodel. We plan to start demo the first week of May. You haven't seen many pictures of my cabinets or counter tops because I'm not proud. Here is our current situation:

I didn't remove the clutter because there is always clutter due to lack of cabinets and no dishwasher. And that little guy standing in the middle, he gets to stay. Compare to picture #1 below.

Orange appliances = awesome. Compare to picture #2 below.

We will take everything out and the new layout will look something like this:

Picture #1

Picture #2

The cabinets will look something like this:

We'll add a few appliances that look like this:

And some counter tops that look like this (sort of):

We'll do most of the work ourselves with the help of Uncle Sean. I can't wait to get started!