Sunday, February 13, 2011

Sassy's Rice Krispies Bars!

As promised, I finally made sassy's award-winning recipe for my nephew's 6th birthday party, and they were delicious! Check this out.



First you add 1 cup of granulated sugar and 1 cup of corn syrup to a pot and boil. As you know, I've been on a diet this past month and so for me to work with this much sugar and corn syrup was a bit gross at first. But I've learned that working with corn syrup is really easy. It helps melt sugar quick, doesn't burn and even after it solidifies, heating it up again makes it just as easy to scoop up as before.  But gods help you once it gets into the sink, you need to soak that shit right away or you're fucked.




After the cup of peanut butter was added and blended (I used smart balance, it's all I had) you add a full 6 cups of rice krispies to the mixture. I found that 6 cups was a bit too much, actually. I needed to heat up an extra 1/4th cup of the syrup, sugar and peanut butter just to get it all coated. By then it was really difficult to work with and clumped. A lot. I eventually got it into the block-like shape I wanted.



Now that the block was made, I melted the chocolate and butterscotch chips. The recipe calls for a bag of each but I only used 1/2 bag of each and it coated the whole thing pretty well. I just didn't like the consistency of the chocolate when it melted so I added a drop of almond milk. Still didn't come out creamy enough so I added a few pats of unsalted butter. Even then it didn't look right but I decided to spread it anyway. It had the consistency of peanut butter, so weird. Not sure what I did wrong, I put a pot of boiling water under the mixing bowl and allowed it to melt slowly while stirring.  I stretched it out over the whole thing, but it wasn't a thick layer. Why should it be anyway? Too much chocolate would take away from the rice krispies base, after all.


The final product was badass. When I cut it up for the baking tin (easier transport) a piece crumbled and so Tammy and I shared it. I think my piece was barely 1" x 1". But it was enough to taste the badassery. This was absolutely delicious. My only regret is forgetting to take a good pic of a single bar for display purposes. But I did get a few pics of the reactions to these bad boys.


These went over very, very well at the party, with the kids and adults alike. The kids were too busy running around to pose for pics, but they snubbed the regular food in favor of these- it made the parents furious. Sassy, you get two thumbs up!!


The best part of these things is that they're gluten-free, so even my father can enjoy them! There's your second thumbs up, my dear. An all-around hit! Thanks so much for posting and I will have to make these again someday.

And yes. *Sigh* That is Spongebob in the background. It was the theme of the party and Marcus' grandmother had the pleasure of dressing up and getting mauled by all the excited children hopped up on all that sugar. lol



Ingredients:
1 cup light corn syrup
1 cup sugar
1 cup peanut butter
6 cups Rice Krispies®
or 6 cups Cocoa Rice Krispies®
1 package (6 oz., 1 cup) semi-sweet chocolate morsels
1 cup butterscotch chips



Directions:

1. Place corn syrup and sugar into 3-quart saucepan. Cook over medium heat, stirring frequently, until sugar dissolves and mixture begins to boil.
2. Remove from heat. Stir in peanut butter. Mix well.
3. Add KELLOGG’S RICE KRISPIES cereal. Stir until well coated.
4. Press mixture into 13 x 9 x 2” pan coated with cooking spray. Set aside.
5. Melt chocolate and butterscotch chips together in 1-quart saucepan over low heat, stirring constantly. Spread evenly over cereal mixture.
6. Let stand until firm. Cut into 2 x 1” bars when cool.
Note:
Before measuring the corn syrup, coat your measuring cup with cooking spray—the syrup will pour easily out of the cup.




Thursday, February 3, 2011

Semi-Healthy Turkey Manicotti

Well, this special 1,800 calorie a day diet I'm on has been kicking my ass. It's annoying, inconvenient and frustrating as hell, but like, at least my style of cooking and eating has completely changed which I'm kinda proud of. It took a lot of work and this was definitely a screw up that put me way over my caloric limit, and my stomach is still paying the price... but for those who want something decadent with half the guilt, this is the dish for you.



This was so good. Looking back, despite all my suffering, I'd do it again.


Ingredients
12 large manicotti tubes, cooked to al dente
2 lbs ground turkey
3 cloves of garlic, diced
1 Cup pepper, diced (any type or an assortment of colors is good, whatever suits your tastes)
1 Cup leeks, diced
1 1/2 Cups Part-Skim or fat free Ricotta cheese
Tomato Sauce, either leftover, jarred, canned, homemade, whatever
8 oz block of part-skim or fat free mozzarella cheese
1 Cup Parmesan-Romano cheese, separated
Italian herbs: Basil, Oregano, Parsley, Thyme, pepper
*The mixture needs an egg to help keep it together once you cut into it. I didn't have any eggs but really wish I did. You should use an egg, you'll be glad you did.



Okay, so first you want to sauté the peppers, leeks, garlic and ground turkey in a saucepan over medium heat until cooked, blended and chopped into smallish pieces with a wooden spoon. You can use grapeseed oil or cooking spray, whatever you want.



Put some herbs and spices in there while it's cooking if you want. Prepare the pasta sauce during this time too if it hasn't been already. Put up the manicotti tubes around now too, but don't let them cook too long or they'll rip and be a real pain in the ass to work with. And don't leave them in the water once done either because they keep cooking. Yeah, I learned this the hard way.



Preheat the oven to 375 F.

In a large mixing bowl, blend together the cooked turkey meat with the veggies, pour in the ricotta, extra spices, 3/4 of the cup of parmesan-romano and the egg once the stuffing has cooled down. Mix well. In the pan they're going to be cooked in, put a layer of pasta sauce so it doesn't burn.



Stuff the manicotti tubes with a spoon or pastry bag and lay them in a single layer in the baking dish, you can squeeze them together, it doesn't matter. Spoon more sauce over them when the dish is full, then sprinkle the grated mozzarella cheese over it, then the remaining 1/4 Cup of paremsan-romano, color it with parsley and/or basil and bake at 375 F for about 35-40 minutes.



Once it's done, let it rest a few minutes before serving. It really is too delicious to be diet food. I tried to do the math for how many calories and fat and stuff it would be per serving, came up with something like 386 calories and 22g fat per piece, but my math skills are horrible and I miscalculated a few things so if you're inclined to figure it out for yourself, maybe we can compare notes.
For now, just have fun, eat and enjoy.