Merry Christmas Everyone!

We did Christmas in New Mexico this year. Christmas Eve was spent with our friend’s Mary and Zach and their two kids Wyatt and June. We enjoyed Mary’s homemade spaghetti and meatballs and my homemade chocolate mint chip cookies and peanut butter cream pie. Although the kids refused to eat the homemade cookies, instead opting for O.reos (who could blame them), but that’s ok, more for me!  For entertainment, we watched Wyatt and June dance to a game on the Wi.i, June worked up such a sweat she insisted on dancing in just her diaper.

We went home before 9 to make sure we could get to bed early before Santa came. When we woke up, we found that sure enough Santa did come, however, his elves and reindeer must be on vacation this year because he decided to use Amazo.n and U.PS this time around. He piled the gifts under our homemade Christmas trees, so we decided to put them back so that you all could see what we got. Somehow, he knew just exactly what we wanted! He must have gotten our letters. He must also have known that we all got a cold because he left cold medicine in our stockings.

We rounded out the morning with a homemade breakfast. I experimented with my new crepe pan (Thanks Santa, aka Matt and Alyssa…we think…there was no name attached to this one) and came up with a meal that would rival something you could order at IHO.P.  Breakfast included cream cheese stuffed crepes with apple topping. It is my take on a combination of several recipes I found online.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Recipe for Chocolate Mint Chip Cookies

Use standard Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipe, but substitute 3/4 cup cocoa powder for 1/2 cup of the flour. Add Ande.s mint chips for baking instead of the chocolate chips (use the whole bag) makes about 55-60 cookies, oh and skip the nuts in this recipe. I had to cook for 10 minute because you can’t tell when they are brown like you can with regular cookies.

Recipe for Apple Topped, Cream Filled Crepes (can’t be made totally healthy but there are slight alterations made based on what we had)

Crepes:

1 cup Bisqui.ck (we use Heart healthy version)

1 cup Milk (skim preferably)

2 eggs (local, large, organic cage-free)

Beat all ingredients together, scoop 1/4 cup of the mixture into a crepe pan (I used Pa.m just in case), cook on low for about 1.5 minutes or until batter seems cooked/dried, flip and cook for another 1.5 minutes. Store in pancake/tortilla keeper (thanks Santa…aka mom), makes about 6 crepes

Filling:

1 premade vanilla pudding cup (sugar free)

1/3 of an 8 oz block of cream cheese (low fat)

1/4 cup heavy whipping cream (no alternative)

2 Tbsp butter or margarine (smart balanc.e buttery spread)

Melt butter in small pot, on the stove, add whipping cream, soften cream cheese in microwave and add to pan, cook on low continuously stirring until cream cheese is mixed in (will still be lumpy) remove from pot and combine in separate bowl with pudding. Set aside to cool.

Apple topping:

2 large apples (I used red delicious)

3 Tbsp butter or margarine (smart balan.ce buttery spread)

1/4 cup brown sugar (no alternative)

1/2 Tbsp cinnamon (I had Penzey’s spice baking spice)

Peel, core and cube apple. Melt butter in pan, add brown sugar and spice, stir until brown sugar is slightly dissolved. Add apples and cook (cover if you like) on medium-low until apples are soft.

How to combine:

Spoon 1/6 of filling onto the center of each crepe. Fold crepe over just under half way and use fingers on outside of crepe to spread cream along the inside of the crepe. Fold over again and leave seam-side down on plate. Line all three up on plate. Top with apples and the sauce from the apple pan. Add a small amount of sugar free maple syrup (if you don’t have enough liquid from the apples. Enjoy!

Let me know if you decide to try any of the above and how they turned out.

-Shells