Peanut Butter Oatmeal Softies

It’s FUN-DAY MONDAY again! Today is a special fun-day monday because both Mike and I decided we wanted a super special dessert! I’ve only done one dessert so far from the Hungry-Girl book, and it was from her other cookbook “200 under 200“. I wanted to stay true to this particular cookbook so I searched and searched for a perfect fun-day monday dessert! This is what I found:

THE RECIPE:

Peanut Butter Oatmeal Softies

PER SERVING: (1 medium-large cookie): 170 calories, 6.25g fat, 169mg sodium, 23.5g carbs, 2.5g fiber, 7.5g sugars, 5.5g protein

Few quick side notes: It is 3 weight watchers points per cookie, but it also say that the average peanut butter cookie this size has more than 300 calories and 18 grams of fat. Ok, that makes me feel a little better!

Second side note: HG Alternative, If you can find Better ‘n Peanut Butter, use it! If you do, each Softie will have 140 calories, 3.25g fat and 2g fiber. I honestly didn’t think I was going to find this product, never even heard of it! I FOUND IT! So stinkin’ excited, and it’s a fantastic low-fat peanut butter for all my peanut butter and banana sandwiches! Woot!

Third side note: The recipe previous to the Peanut Butter Oatmeal Softies is Oatmeal Raisin Softies. It calls for all the same ingredients minus the raisins sub peanut butter and they’re the same. (This was actually the one I was gonna make until I found the Better ‘n Peanut Butter) It says “These are 50 percent cookie, 50 percent muffin top, and 100 percent delicious!) So, my point, don’t expect a full on cookie swap! K? K!

INGREDIENTS:

1/4 cup brown sugar (not packed)

1/4 cup reduced-fat peanut butter, room temperature

2 tbls. Splenda No Calorie Sweetener (granulated) (you know, the non-packet kind)

2 tbls. light whipped butter or light buttery spread, room temperature (I used I can’t believe it’s not butter light)

2 tbls. no-sugar-added applesauce

2 tbls. fat-free liquid egg substitute

1/4 tsp. vanilla extract

1/3 cup whole-wheat flour

1/2 tsp. baking powder

Dash salt

3/4 cup old-fashioned oats

 

DIRECTIONS:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

In a bowl, combine brown sugar, peanut butter, Splenda, butter, applesauce, egg substitute, and vanilla extract. Mix thoroughly with a wire whisk.

Add flour, baking powder, and salt, stir until completely mixed and smooth.

Add oats and mix until they are thoroughly coated with the batter.

(Fyi, I find taking step by step pictures of cookie baking a bit boring looking, so I honestly didn’t take any pics except the final product)

Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper. (I used aluminum foil, parchment paper is so expensive and I”m kind of cheap) Spoon batter onto the sheet in 6 evenly spaced mounds. Using the back of a spoon, spread and flatten batter into circles about 3 1/2 inches wide. (My estimating skills are CRAP! I totally don’t know how big they were!)

Bake in the oven for about 10 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into the center of a cookie comes out clean.

Remove from the oven, and allow cookies to cool for 1 minute. then slide parchment paper onto a cool surface, and let cool COMPLETELY! Really, they taste best once they’ve totally cooled. Enjoy! (This was not easy to do, they smelled so good!)

Makes 6 servings!

 

Kinda look like they could be burgers.

Close up of a Softie!

 

THE REVIEW:

My first bite reaction: UUUHHHH…..ick! I don’t like this at all! (I actually spit it out!)

Mike’s first bite reaction: It has a funny taste. (Ha! He didn’t say I like it!)

Taste: I really don’t know what happened! All I tasted was the wheat flour! Don’t get me wrong, I like wheat flour, I use it all the time, I just don’t want it to be the only thing I taste when I’m expecting something a little more peanut buttery! Such a shame, they smelled so good! (And the dough was tasty too, yeah, I licked the bowl!)

Texture: Just as Hungry-Girl said, 50 percent cookie 50 percent muffin top! I liked the texture, just couldn’t get past the taste!

Satisfaction: I will not be making these again, hell I didn’t even eat more than one bite (that I spit out) satisfaction gets a big thumbs down! I wanted a cookie damn it! HAHA

Creativity: Good try Hungry-Girl. It was a good try! Fail, but nice try!

Instead, we went with these pumpkin shakes/smoothies I threw together:

3/4 cup vanilla light soymilk (yes, use soymilk it’s thicker)
4 tablespoons canned pumpkin (not canned pumpkin pie mix)
2 splenda packets
3 dashes of pumpkin pie spice…
3 ice cubes (ya know, the kind you get when you make them in a tray)
pulse in a blender till blended!
top with a little cool whip if your feeling up for it! 🙂

Any failure stories to share? I know they happen to the best of us!

Honey Mustard Pretzel-Coated Chicken Fingers

Today is FUN-DAY MONDAY! For those not in the “know” fun-day Monday is a day where Mike and I throw caution to the wind; we say screw our diets that we tried so hard to keep up on all week-long and pig the “you know what” out! Mike watches football, I watch my computer and/or video games and try my best to ignore football and eat pretty much what we want when we want! (yea, nobody said it was the healthiest “holiday”) It’s something we started doing a few years ago during football season only, (it obviously has not been so great on our waistlines) it gives us a little something to look forward to:  for me it’s to celebrate the end a work week and for Mike something to start the work week with. Yes, we’re kind of weird! Even though we’re both trying to stick with our diets (did I mention the two of us are having a competition, whoever loses 5% of their body weight first wins an awesome prize) we didn’t want to give up on FUN-DAY MONDAY! So, if anyone has been following along so anxiously in their cookbooks, the next recipe (a salad btw) in line is not the recipe I’ve decided to do today! This recipe just screamed (REALLY REALLY LOUD) FUN-DAY MONDAY!

THE RECIPE:

Honey Mustard Pretzel-Coated Chicken Fingers

PER SERVING: (entire recipe) 349 calories, 2.5g fat, 928mg sodium, 38g carbs, 1g fiber, 13.5g sugar, 37g protein

It’s 7 weight watcher points, and if it was any other day than monday I probably would have made the whole thing and shared it with Mike instead of doubling it like I did! 🙂 Besides I busted my ass today and earned myself 11 activity points, so I deserve it!

INGREDIENTS

3 tbls. honey mustard

2 tbls. fat-free liquid egg substitute

5 oz. raw boneless skinless lean chicken breast, cut into 4 strips

2 dashes salt

2 dashes black pepper

1 oz.  (about 10 twists) hard salted pretzels, finely crushed (so I think I bought the wrong kind of pretzels one ounce of the kind I bought was about 30)

2 tsp. granulated sugar (I wonder why she didn’t use splenda………..)

DIRECTIONS:

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

Mix honey mustard and egg substitute together in a small bowl. Season chicken strips with salt and pepper, and then submerge in the mustard-egg mixture. Set aside to marinate for at least 5 minutes. (I started writing this entry while they marinated and kind of lost track of time, I think it was about 15 minutes)

"All mixed up" (sung to the tune of Elvis' "All shook up")

These chicken strips got all dressed up in a pretty egg and honey mustard dressing for this special occasion.

Mix crusted pretzels with sugar and spread mixture out on a plate. Spray a baking sheet with nonstick spray.

An aerial view of the pretzels before they were blitzed in my magic bullet.

Thoroughly coat chicken strips with the pretzel-sugar mixture, and then transfer to the baking sheet. Discard excess mustard-egg mixture. (Duh!) Mist the tops of the strips with nonstick spray.

Don't look great even before they've been cooked? This is gonna be the longest 20 minutes ever!

Bake in the oven for about 20 minutes, flipping chicken halfway through baking, until chicken is cooked through.

Eat and enjoy!

Took this picture with the flash on my camera on, it made the chicken look pale but my veggies looked fantastic!

And this picture without flash, veggies look like poo poo but the chicken is better represented! So therefore, I post both!

THE REVIEW:

My first bite reaction: Great fun-day monday pick!

Mike’s first bite reaction: I like it! (the variety in his choice of words are so limited sometimes!)

Taste: I love me some fried food! (obviously or I wouldn’t be on Weight Watchers haha!) These reminded me of a sweet and salty version an old long-lost friend! (aka fried chicken strips) The pretzel wasn’t as overly “pretzely” as I would have thought, but it lended a great crunch! And the sugar? Who knew that it could be so good! The honey mustard just helped tie it all together so eloquently! (if you can even speak that way about food without being mocked, I dunno!) Needless to say (and so I stop rambling) I liked these a lot!

Texture: Not too crispy, not too soggy! Pretty much just how I imagined oven fried chicken would be! I do believe the honey mustard “marinade” helped the chicken stay nice and moist!

Satisfaction: For 7 weight watcher points, I wasn’t 100% satisfied. Maybe 99%, but like I said before, I’m kind of stingy with my points! Luckily today was FUN-DAY MONDAY and I had a super low point breakfast and lunch to make up for it! Satisfaction gets 4 out of 5 stars, just simply because it has too many points for my frugal points spending self!

Creativity: I believe that I am pretty creative when it comes to cooking. I think outside of the box and put weird things together all the time! This I could have never imagined in a million years! Honey mustard, pretzels, chicken; it makes sense on paper right? Oh, it will make sense in your tummy too! (I was gonna say in your mouth but that sounded dirty, haha)

I love fun-day monday! And now I have a new favorite to add to the repertoire!

What kind of odd combinations have you used to “bread” oven fried chicken?