Frightening Fingers

I got this wonderful recipe from a Taste of Home mega book. It's 3 Halloween cookbooks in one and I love every bit of it! This one is on page 20, and let me tell you, these are crowd pleasers for sure! And O so tasty!!

Ingredients:

* 1 cup butter, softened

* 1 cup confectioners' sugar

* 1 egg

* 1 tsp. vanilla extract

* 1 tsp. almond extract (I just use an extra tsp. of vanilla)

* 2 3/4 cups flour

* 1 tsp. baking powder

* 1 tsp. salt

* Red decorating gel

* 1/2 cup sliced almonds

1. In a mixing bowl, cream butter and sugar.

2. Beat in the egg and extracts.

3. Combine flour, baking powder, and salt; gradually add to the creamed mixture. Cover and refrigerate for 30 minutes or until easy to work with.

4. Working with one piece of dough at a time, roll into 1-inch balls.

5. Shape balls into fingers. Using the flat tip of a table knife, make an indentation on one end of each finger for the fingernail. With the knife, make slashes for knuckles. Place 2 inches apart on lightly greased baking sheets (or on a parchment paper lined cookie sheet). Bake at 325 for about 15-25 minutes, or until lightly browned.

6. Let cool 3 minutes.

7. Squeeze small amount of red gel on nail bed; press sliced almond over gel for nail (sometimes I slide it gently into the cookie). Remove to wire racks to cool.

Yield: 5 dozen (or less, it all depends on the size of your fingers!)

*Have a spooktacular time with these scary fingers!!*

Chicken in Wine Sauce (A new twist)

So I made this back in June and have been playing with the recipe ever since. Tonight I used chicken instead of fish and added a pack of spinach to the sauce before pouring over the chicken. I baked it at 375 for about 25-30 minutes. It was a little chewy so next time I would probably cook it the same amount of time but at 350 instead.

Holy Moly Cannoli Cones (thanks to HG)

So I LOVE cannoli's, and when I heard Hungry Girl had a recipe on them..I just HAD to try it! This recipe is on p. 258 of her book, Hungry Girl 1-2-3: The Easiest, Most Guilt-Free Recipes on the Planet. If you don't own one of her books, get out there and buy it! I think I said this on another recipe, but there hasn't been a single recipe of hers that I don't like!! Now without further ado (so I can get back to my cannoli's) here is the recipe!

Holy Moly Cannoli Cones

Ingredients:

1 cup plus 2 tbsp. fat free ricotta cheese (I use low fat because my store doesn't carry FF)

2/3 cup cool whip free, thawed

1 1/2 tbsp. no cal sweetener (I use 1 tbsp. less than the original recipe, and I use truvia)

1 tbsp. FF SF vanilla instant pudding mix

1 tbsp. powdered sugar

2 tbsp. mini semi-sweet chocolate chips, divided

6 sugar cones

Directions:

1. Place all ingredients except chocolate chips and cones in a medium bowl and mix well. (The recipe says to use a hand mixer). Fold in half the chocolate chips.

2. Transfer mixture into a sandwich bag and snip one corner off to use as a piping bag.

3. Gently squeeze mixture between 6 cones and evenly distribute choco chips. ENJOY!

***Each cone is 3 WW points

Barilla No-Boil Lasagna

My mom made this for me growing up and I never knew the recipe was on the Barilla No-Boil Lasagna box! This is it! (I used my mom's famous homemade spaghetti sauce)

No-Boil Lasagna

Ingredients:

* 1 (9 ounce) box of barilla no-boil lasagna noodles

* 2 eggs (I used egg whites)

* 1 (15 ounce) container ricotta cheese

* 4 cups shredded mozzarella cheese

* 1/2 cup parmesan cheese

* 1 lb. ground beef or sausage, browned (I used spicy italian sausage)

* Spaghetti or pasta sauce

Directions:

1. Pre-heat oven to 375 and spray 9x13 baking dish.

2. In a bowl, mix together eggs, parmesan cheese, ricotta cheese, and HALF (2 cups) of the mozarella.

3. Spread 1 cup of the sauce in the bottom of the baking dish.

4. Overlap 4 of the uncooked noodles.

5. Top noodles with 1/3 of cheese mixture.

6. Top cheese with 1/2 of the meat.

7. Top meat with 1 cup mozarella cheese.

8. Top cheese with 1 cup of the spaghetti sauce.

9. Layer 4 more noodles overlapping.

10. Add another 1/3 of cheese mixture.

11. Top cheese mixture with 1 1/2 cup sauce.

12. Layer another 4 overlapping noodles.

13. Top with remainding 1/3 cheese mixture.

14. Add remaining meat.

15. Top with 1 cup sauce.

16. Layer remaining 4 noodles, overlapping.

17. Add 1 cup sauce.

18. Top with remaining cup of mozarella.

19.Cover with foil and put in preheated oven. Bake for 50-60 minutes. Uncover and cook an additional 5 minutes to melt cheese (if its not already melted).

20. Let stand 15 minutes before serving. Enjoy!!

Spicy Pumpkin Pancakes

Spicy Pumpkin Pancakes

This recipe originally comes from the Bisquick Cookbook. I had to make some changes to make it WW friendly. In the end it should make about 26 pancakes at a little under 1 WW points a piece.

Ingredients:

* 2 1/3 cup Heartsmart Bisquick

* 2 tablespoons sugar/truvia mix

* 1/4 tsp. ground cinnamon

* 1/4 tsp. pumpkin pie spice

* 1 1/4 cups 1% milk

* 1/3 cup canned pumpkin

* 1/4 cup SF Applesauce

* 2 Egg Whites

Directions:

1. In a large bowl, whisk ingredients until blended.

2. Pour batter by 1/4 on warm griddle.

3. Flip.

4. Serve.

***I like to add a few semi-sweet chocolate chips to mine!

Crock Pot Chicken Taco Chili

I got this recipe from here. It was good, but I changed some of it around (not too much). It said that there was only 5 WW points per 10 oz. (1 1/4 cup), which seems a little low, but either way, it works for me!

Crock Pot Chicken Taco Chili

Ingredients:

• 1 onion, chopped
• 1 16-oz can black beans
• 1 16-oz can red beans
• 1 15-oz can tomato sauce (fill with water and add to pot as well)
• 10 oz package frozen corn kernels
• 2 14.5-oz cans diced tomatoes w/chilies (I used mild and medium)
• 1 packet taco seasoning
• 1 tbsp chili powder
  
• 1 lb. boneless skinless chicken breasts (thawed)
• chili peppers, chopped (optional-I didn't use these)
  
• chopped fresh cilantro

Directions:

1. Combine beans, onion, chili peppers, corn, tomato sauce, chili powder and taco seasoning in a (lined) slow cooker.

2. Place chicken on top and cover.

3. Cook on low for 10 hours or on high for 6 hours. Half hour before serving, remove chicken and shred.

4. Return chicken to slow cooker and stir in the chicken and cilatro.

*I had it with 2 tbsp. fat free cheddar cheese (add .5 point) and 5 wheat saltines (add 1 point).

This lady had several good chili recipes that I want to try, so check out the site!

Breakdown:

per 1 1/4c. serving: 5WWPP

203.7 calories

1.4g fat

33.3 carbs

10g fiber

16.9g protein

Hungry Girl Tremendous Tiramisu

Ok, so the first time I made this I did half coffee, half rum (because the one at Buca Di Beppo is made out of rum)..wellllll...the rum ended up being so strong that it overwhelmed this recipe and was bad. So I ventured out and tried it again, staying closer to the actual recipe, and it was just SOOOO amazing! I think I will make another one this week! Also, the recipe below is quadrupoled from the original recipe. The recipe is on p. 211 of Lisa Lillien's Hungry Girl: Recipes and Survival Strategies for Guilt-Free Eating in the Real World.

Servings: 4

Each serving WWPP: 6

Tremendous Tiramisu

Ingredients:

*12 soft ladyfingers

*2 cup strong-brewed flavored coffee (or espresso), cooled and sweetened to taste with no-cal sweetener

*1 cup fat-free ricotta cheese

*1/2 cup FF cool whip

*4 tbsp. unsweetened cocoa powder, divided

*3 tsp. no cal swetener

*2 tsp. vanilla extract

Directions:

1. Line up 6 ladyfingers in a serving dish.

2. Drizzle as much as half the cooled coffee over the ladyfingers until you are happy with the saturation.

3. In a small bowl, combine ricotta cheese, sweetener, cool whip, and vanilla. Mix well.

4. Spread half of the mixture on top of the ladyfingers.

5. Top with half of the cocoa.

6. Layer remaining ladyfingers.

7. Saturate with more coffee.

8. Spread remaining cheese mixture on top. Sprinkle remainder of cocoa powder and serve immediately.

Hamburger Cheese Pie (Grandma's)

I got this recipe, along with the other hamburger pie, from my Grandma Flitty. This one is also VERY good! One day, I might try adding the cheese to the normal hamburger pie.

Hamburger Cheese Pie

Ingredients:

1 ½ lb. ground beef

1 egg

3 tbsp. milk

3 tbsp. ketchup

1/2 cup bread crumbs

1 tsp. salt

1/8 tsp. pepper

2 tsp. Worcestershire sauce

¼ cup finely chopped onion

¼ lb. grated American cheese

Directions:

1. Slightly beat egg; combine with milk and ketchup.

2. Add to ground beef along with ½ cup bread crumbs.

3. Mix all ingredients until just blended.

4. Press half mixture into a 9 inch pie pan.

5. Cover with cheese.

6. Cover with remaining mixture.

7. OPTIONAL: ¼ tsp. oregano on top.

8. Bake at 425 for 15-20 min.

9. ENJOY!