"Skinny" Chocolate Chip Buttermilk Scones

Yet another Pinterest find!  I love finding exciting and delectable recipes for things, and it's an added bonus when they're healthy or "skinnified" (made with substitutions to lower the calories).  I had been wanting to try these scones for the longest time, and I finally made them the morning after my last exam of my first year of med school, right before my parents came to pick me up.  I dropped off half of them to my sister (who shares my love of Pinterest and recipe hunting) and the rest were for my mom, but we all ended up devouring them.  I made another batch last Friday and made sure to take pictures this time!

Warm chocolate chip scones fresh out of the oven

The original recipe can be found here.

Ingredients:
3/4 cup cold buttermilk *
1/4 cup sugar
2 tsp vanilla extract
1 large egg
1 cup all purpose flour
1 cup whole wheat flour
1 tbsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
3 tbsp chilled butter, diced
3/4 cup chocolate chips
cooking spray
1 large egg white, lightly beaten
1 1/2 tbsp sugar

*if you don't want to buy a full quart of buttermilk just for one batch of scones, you can make a buttermilk substitute using milk and either vinegar or lemon juice.  Just put a tablespoon of either white vinegar or lemon juice in a cup measure, and fill up the rest of the measuring cup with the milk of your choice.  Let it sit for about 5 minutes, then measure out what you need.  The lemon and vinegar adds acidity and curdles the milk slightly, which is what buttermilk is!  I made my first batch slightly healthier by using skim milk and lemon juice, but I used buttermilk when I made them at home.  I didn't notice any difference in the taste or texture, so it obviously worked! :)

Wet and dry ingredients, about to be mixed!

Preheat your oven to 375 F and spray a baking sheet with non-stick cooking spray.  Combine the wet ingredients (the first four ingredients) in a bowl and whisk it together to dissolve the sugar.  Combine the dry ingredients (flour, baking powder, salt) in a large bowl.  Cut the chilled butter into the flour mixture, using a pastry cutter or a fork, until you have pea-sized pieces of butter throughout.  Mix in the chocolate chips, then add the wet ingredients and mix just until everything is combined.

Flour your surface and your hands, and knead the dough four times.  Then place the dough on the baking sheet and form a circle 9 inches in diameter.  Cut the dough into 12 wedges.

Lightly beat the egg white and brush it over the dough.  Sprinkle the top with sugar.  Bake for 18-20 minutes, watching for the tops to turn golden brown.

While they're still hot, separate the scones from each other and place them on a cooling rack.  Enjoy the chocolatey goodness!! 

White Cheddar Spinach Turkey Burgers

I know I haven't posted in a while, but I also haven't tried out a new recipe since the ginger chicken last month. Immunology kinda took over my life for a while, but I'm back to cooking some healthy and delicious food!  Check out this mouth-watering burger:

It definitely tasted as good as it looked!  And by using 99% lean ground turkey, veggies, and just a bit of cheese, it's a very healthy alternative to a regular burger.  The original recipe (here) was for a chicken burger, but I had a bunch of turkey in my freezer, so I made the swap!  I tweaked some other parts of the recipe, too: the onions didn't look too good at the store, so I used a shallot instead, and left out the green onion and cayenne pepper.

Makes: 7 burgers

Ingredients:

1 pack (about 1.5 lbs) of 99% lean ground turkey

Fresh baby spinach (as much or as little as you like!)

1 large shallot, minced

1 large clove of garlic, minced

3 oz grated sharp white cheddar cheese

2 tsp balsamic vinegar

2 tsp low sodium soy sauce

1 tsp lemon juice

Bread crumbs (optional)

Parsley, salt, and pepper to taste

Mince the garlic and shallot and cook over low heat until browned and sweating (adding a little salt helps).  Add the spinach and cook until wilted.  Once the mixture is cooked, remove it from the heat and allow it to cool.  The original recipe recommends putting the mixture through a food processor, but I don't mind the larger chunks of the aromatics or full pieces of spinach (plus I don't have a food processor).  In a bowl, mix the turkey, cheese, vinegar, soy sauce, and lemon juice together.  Add the onion/garlic/spinach mixture once it's cool.  Add salt, pepper, and parsley to taste.  If the meat is sticking to your hands, add breadcrumbs until it is not sticky anymore.  I barely had to add any.  Form the mixture into 7 patties and broil for 8 minutes on each side or until cooked through.  To keep the meal healthy, serve on a whole wheat sandwich thin with some more fresh spinach!

It smelled wonderful!

I just made one burger and froze two raw patties for later, and I plan to use the rest for making meatballs, which are much more versatile and microwave-friendly for taking to school.  Should still be just as tasty! :)

Baked potato chips (again!!)

One of my new kitchen gadgets from Christmas was a mandoline.  I got to try it out over break when I made baked potato chips (original post) for a New Year's Eve appetizer feast!  I had to leave for Pittsburgh early on the 1st, so I stayed in with my parents for a quiet New Year's celebration.

Using the mandoline!

Perfect slices

Baking to a crisp!

Healthy homemade potato chips!

Our New Year's Eve feast: honey-lime shrimp, the chips, cheese and crackers, hummus, and chips for our leftover Mexican chicken/Spanish rice/black bean fiesta!  Yum!

OMG CHICKEN!

Chicken is easy to make, but it gets boring quickly.  I have a ton of chicken recipes pinned on Pinterest and several packs of chicken sitting in my freezer, so I need to start actually making these recipes!  Some pinner called this "OMG chicken," but it's just a much healthier version of Hellman's Parmesan crusted chicken, using fat free plain Greek yogurt instead of the mayo.  While the chicken cooked, I made a quick veggie stir-fry with mushrooms, yellow squash, orange bell pepper, and grape tomatoes.  Yum!

Did you know that a serving of chicken is about the size of a deck of cards and weighs 3-4oz?  I usually cut chicken breasts in half (butterflying them like this, but cutting the whole way through to make 2 pieces).  I'm still left with more than a serving of chicken (4-6oz depending on the size), but it's a lot more manageable and cooks more evenly.


Here's the easy recipe for "OMG Chicken"!

Ingredients:
2 boneless skinless chicken breasts, each butterflied in half
1/2 cup fat free plain Greek yogurt
1/4 cup grated parmesan cheese
Sprinkle of Italian breadcrumbs

Mix the yogurt and cheese together and slather the mixture over the chicken.  Sprinkle some breadcrumbs over the top and bake at 350 degrees for 20-25 minutes.  How easy was that?

Study break munchies

Original Recipe: Baked Spiced Chickpeas

I have a minor obsession with Pinterest, mainly the food & drink category.  My board of "Recipes I Want to Try" is nearing 50 pins, so I should probably start working on actually trying them instead of just drooling over their pictures!

I chose to make the baked spiced chickpeas because I've been looking for a healthy, nutritious snack food to satisfy the munchies I get when I study.  I NEED something crunchy (I think I get that from my mom and her need for something crunchy on long car rides!)  Carrots and apples only go so far, and I usually crave something salty/savory anyway.  These take very little time to make, and not only do they taste great, they have a lot of protein and fiber!

I linked to the original recipe at the top of the post, but I made a slight alteration in the recipe by leaving out the cayenne pepper and using less sugar and oil.  I also only used 1 can of beans, because I've only used my oven twice and I wanted a backup can in case I burned these!

Ingredients:
2 cans chickpeas
1 tbsp olive oil
3 tsp spice mix

Spice mix:
1 tsp sugar
1-1/2 tsp ground cumin
1-1/2 tsp sweet paprika
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1/2 tsp salt

Drying the chickpeas

Ready to be baked to a crisp!!

Looking toasty and delicious!

Rinse the chickpeas and lay them out on a towel to dry, and make the spice mix while they are drying.  Set the oven to 400 degrees and line a cookie sheet with aluminum foil and non-stick spray.  In a small bowl, mix the chickpeas, olive oil, and 3 tsp of the spice mix (save the rest of the mix for use later - it smells amazing!!).  Put them in the oven for 40-60 minutes, or until they are firm and crunchy!  I set a timer for 20 minute intervals and mixed them around a bit each time.  It took 40 minutes in my oven, but different ovens may vary!  I used the skins turning black as my cue to take them out.  They will get crunchier as they cool.

Enjoy!

Refrigerator Oatmeal

I like to sleep.  I'm one of those people who rolls out of bed with JUST enough time to get ready and run out the door.  It was great last year when it took me a whopping 5 minutes to walk to my first class, but now that I have to walk a couple blocks and wait for the bus to take me to school, so I find myself having to wake up over an hour before class starts (I know, I know...the horror!!).  Since I try to maximize on sleep, I would always just grab a breakfast bar and run out the door, only to be starving an hour later.  I needed a filling meal that I could grab and go!

Over the summer I discovered this refrigerator oatmeal (also called summer porridge, muesli) from the blog The Yummy Life.  It's AMAZING.  The author concocted recipes using different fruits, and the results are nutritious, delicious, and more than enough to get me from 8am to lunch.

The author just came out with 8 new recipes, so I went out to buy some ingredients to make the "Cherry Garcia" oatmeal.  It did not disappoint!

All the fixings for a delicious and nutritious breakfast!!

 What you need:

• 1/4 cup old fashioned rolled oats
• 1/4 cup fat free Greek yogurt (the black cherry works perfectly with this one!)
• 1/3 cup fat free milk
• 1-1/2 tsp dried chia seed (or flax seed)
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• Lots of cherries, quartered
• Dark chocolate - use as much as you desire, I used half a serving of Hershey's Special Dark (about 1/6 of a big bar) and it was more than enough chocolate!

Look at all those cherries!

 Throw everything but the cherries into a mason jar or other sealable, portable container.  Mix with a spoon, then add the cherries.  I like to stuff it with fruit so it almost fills up the whole jar.

All mixed, ready for the fridge!

Once it's all mixed, put it in the fridge and let it sit at least overnight so the oatmeal and chia seeds can soften.  It will be ready by morning, and you'll be enjoying Cherry Garcia for breakfast!  Once I'm out of cherries, I'll experiment with the other recipes.  I'm looking forward to the mocha and the pineapple coconut.  Out of the old flavors, I have made the Mango, Banana Chocolate, and Raspberry Vanilla, and I recommend them all!

A note about the chia seeds - they're not a necessity (I made my first batch of oatmeal without them) but I think they add a nice texture, plus they're nutritious.  You can apparently use flax seeds as an alternative, or leave them out.  If you do leave them out, be sure to use less liquid, as the chia seeds absorb some of the liquid.

Enjoy!