Sometimes I worry that people think I’m way better at this while cooking/baking thing than I actually am. But if anyone is to blame for this perception, it’s obviously me because I’m always telling you how easy this or that recipe is to make and blah blah blah…look how great it turned out, too! Here’s what you should be taking away from any recipe I post on this site: If I can make this thing, then you most definitely can as well. Because the truth is I’m still learning and I make mistakes ALL the time. But the awesome thing about learning to cook is that the more you do it, the more you learn little tricks and shortcuts so that you can fix your mistakes and learn to steer clear of them next time. But even then, things don’t always go your way.

I cannot tell you how glad I am that this raspberry pie is delicious because if it hadn’t been I probably would have thrown the damn thing out of window. First of all, I should say that this recipe is NOT complicated in the slightest, but I just kept doing stupid things every step of the way. This pie has three main components: a chocolate cookie crust and raspberry puree that is mixed into a meringue. When it’s frozen, the texture is a like a super light and airy ice cream.

The recipe says to use crushed chocolate cookies like oreos for the crust, but my inner overachiever decided that instead of buying cookies, I would make them from scratch! Sigh. You know where this is going, right? I put them in my food processor with the other ingredients to make the crust and instead of the sandy/crumbly texture you’re supposed to get, I got a big wet ball of dough. But I persevered and kept adding more flour and cocoa until it wasn’t sticky and then I pressed in into the pie pan and baked it. In the end it actually tasted really good, basically like a giant chocolate cookie. This would be great for a normal pie, but since this a frozen pie it resulted in a “crust” that was almost impossible to cut. So anyway, just take my advice and buy the cookies.

My next problem came from the raspberries. I had bought black raspberries from my CSA just for this pie and when I took them out of the fridge I noticed mold growing inside some of them. I was so pissed! I wish I had read this article when I got them. In end, I couldn’t bare to throw them all out so I just picked out the bad ones and washed the rest in hot water. What’s a little mold? And luckily, I had enough frozen red raspberries to supplement what I lost.

After I had gotten over the crust and raspberry hurdles, I only had one step left: the meringue. My first attempt was a complete failure. It’s entirely possible that I just suck at making meringues but I’m going to go out on a limb and say that the recipe is at least partially at fault here. Because after doing a little research the recipe seemed to be making it way more complicated than it needed to be.

If you’ve never made a meringue before, it’s just eggs whites, sugar and a little cream of tartar all whipped together until big and fluffy. Since this is a frozen pie the filling is, obviously, not cooked. And many people don’t want to eat uncooked eggs. Me? I’m not one of these people. I eat cookie dough and cake or brownie batter all the time and have been for so long that I wouldn’t be surprised if my first sentence was “Can I lick the bowl?” I’ve never gotten sick. And in fact, a little research on the internet — which is always right — shows that getting salmonella from eggs is pretty rare these days.

But anyway. I get that it’s irresponsible to put out a recipe where people could even hypothetically get food poisoning, so the recipe required that the egg whites get heated to 160 degrees. This required having to whip the egg whites over simmering water, which means I couldn’t use my faithful stand mixer. After 15 minutes and using two different (and inferior) hand held mixers my whites weren’t even close to 160 degrees but had basically been whipped into oblivion. That’s when I gave up and turned to google who pointed me to a much easier method to get the whites to the correct temperature before you whip them, so then I could let my real mixer do the rest of the work. Thankfully, my second try was success. I’ve adjusted the recipe to use this better method so you don’t have to waste any of your precious egg whites like I did.

In the end, the pie was totally worth it. I don’t even like raspberries that much by themselves, but chocolate and raspberries always taste fantastic together. The raspberry meringue is a little sweet and a little tart; freezing it gives the filling structure, but then it melts perfectly once you take a bite. And it’s a relatively guiltless dessert since it’s mostly egg whites and fruit. I bet it would be great with strawberries or cherries or different kinds of cookies in the crust, too. There’s lots of possibilities for this simple summer pie!

Get the recipe for Frozen Raspberry Pie »

In a perfect world, this would be purely a baking blog where I posted one decadent dessert after the other, but since this is not a perfect world I often struggle with my desire to make these decadent desserts and the reality of trying to be a healthier (and lighter) person. It’s especially hard in a two person household where a whole cake can be entirely too much…and entirely too tempting. So I’ve found the key is to make what I want, but try to give as much away as possible. This strategy has been working out well lately and Brandon’s coworkers seem to be quite happy to eat all of our extra sweets. We also regularly attend a Saturday game night and that has turned out to be the perfect event for trying out new cookie recipes. I get to satisfy my sweet tooth but by the end of the night all the cookies are gone so I don’t have anything tempting me the next day.

I made these Magic Peanut Butter Middles for our last game night and they were a giant hit with everyone there. One person told me that they must have crack in them because she couldn’t stop eating them. Well, I can assure you the filling inside does not have crack in it, but it is made with peanut butter and powdered sugar which is quite an addictive combo in its own right. The cookie is chocolate with even more peanut butter mixed in the dough, which makes them soft and chewy on the outside. Basically these are like peanut butter cups, but in cookie form. If you like chocolate and peanut butter you’ll love these cookies.

I wound up making these twice since I realized after making the first batch that it was not going to be enough cookies for everyone. The original instructions I followed were a pain and frankly, I thought they did a disservice to the cookies. You are supposed to roll the peanut butter filling into little balls, but that takes forever and when I was done the chocolate dough had dried out and it was difficult to fold it around the peanut butter and then when I flattened the cookie at the end, the sides cracked open. Not pretty!

The second time I made these I changed up the process and it was much easier and faster and the cookies came out perfect. You don’t need to bother rolling the filling into balls, it’s totally unnecessary! Just scoop out the filling and plop it right in the middle of a flattened disc of cookie dough and fold the dough around it. If you set all the ingredients up in front of you, you can bang these cookies out in about 10 minutes whereas my first attempt took more than double that time. Much better!

They may take a little bit of work, but I assure these cookies are worth every minute when you watch someone bite into one and get that first taste of peanut butter. The name says it all, these cookies really are magical!

Get the recipe for Magic Peanut Butter Middles »

After last week’s fried indulgence, I wanted to make something totally guilt-free that used up a bunch of fruit I had sitting in my fridge and freezer. I’m always on the lookout for homemade versions of the store bought snacks I love, so after reading this post about Fruit Bars I immediately headed down to the kitchen to make my own.

I am so glad to have found this recipe because I will never need to buy fruit bars at the grocery store ever again. These taste so much better than anything store bought and they are filled with natural ingredients.

My bars have a crust of ground up almonds and oats along with flour and just enough butter. It’s like a healthier version of shortbread, but it tastes just as good. I had lots of berries and some beautiful blood oranges so I made two different fruit fillings: cranberry-orange and blueberry-orange. The fruit is cooked with some juice, sugar and cornstarch until it thickens and then it’s poured on top of the crust. The fruit is topped with a streusal made with that shortbread-like crust and more oats. Then the bars are baked until the topping is nicely browned and crunchy.

Here’s the great thing about this recipe: it’s incredibly flexible. I made my crust with a mixture of almonds and oats, but you can use all nuts or all oats. It doesn’t have to be almonds, either, you can use any kind of nut you want. And possibilities for the fruit filling are basically endless: apples, strawberries, pears, peaches, cherries, etc. Combine your favorite fruits or add spices like cinnamon or ginger. I didn’t put nuts in my streusal topping, but if you love nuts, go for it!

Tip: make these in 9×5″ loaf pans for easy slicing. They hold together pretty well and would be easy to transport to eat at work or a hike or anything like that. Mine are wrapped individually and stored in the fridge so I can grab a bar to go with my morning coffee or as an afternoon snack. They’ve replaced the muffin as my new favorite snack. I love these things!

Also, I would be a bad Browncoat if I were to make fruit bars with oats and not call them “Fruity Oaty Bars”. If you have no idea what I’m talking about watch this:

Yep, that song will probably be stuck in your head all day now. Sorry, I couldn’t resist. Now go rent the movie Serenity (it’s nothing like that video, I promise). You can thank me later.

Get the recipe for Berry-Orange Fruity Oaty Bars »

I hope everyone had a nice weekend! Brandon and I had a pretty laid back Christmas, we stayed in and watched movies and played video games all weekend. It even snowed a little bit on Saturday so we got the proverbial white Christmas. After going all out for Thanksgiving last month, I really wasn’t in the mood to kill myself making a big dinner again so instead we had a small ham and I made my favorite Pineapple Stuff to go with it. But it is Christmas, so I couldn’t resist having fun with dessert.

One of my presents this year was a set of mini springform pans. Cheesecake is most definitely our favorite dessert, and we agree that the recipe I use is the best cheesecake we’ve ever had (two years later I still get regular comments from people who love the recipe) but I only make it on special occasions for two reasons: 1) a 10″ cheesecake is A LOT for two people to eat and 2) we never ever agree on which flavor we like the best. I like to experiment with different flavors like Dark and White Chocolate or Pumpkin while Brandon just wants plain ol’ no frills cheesecake with a boring fruit topping. Well, these mini springform pans solve both problems, because now I can make half the amount of cheesecake I usually make and each mini-cheesecake can be a different flavor. Brandon gets his plain cheesecake, I get a fun one like peppermint bark or red velvet and then we can split the Oreo cheesecake, which we both like. Everyone wins!

When I was deciding which flavors I wanted to make, Peppermint Bark was at the top of my list because I’ve already had a bunch of questions from readers about making one. I’ve never eaten peppermint bark cheesecake before and I didn’t really look for a recipe, I just decided to have fun with it and come up with something that sounded good to me. It’s a white chocolate cheesecake marbled with white chocolate-peppermint flavored cheesecake (dyed pink for fun) and then topped with a peppermint-chocolate ganache and sprinkled with crushed peppermints. Let me tell you…it’s as good as it sounds. I was worried peppermint and cream cheese might be kind of weird together but adding the white chocolate makes it work perfectly. It honestly wasn’t even as minty as it you would think. I preferred keeping it subtle because I didn’t want to cover up the white chocolate flavor but you may want to increase the peppermint extract if you really like peppermint.

Red Velvet is another cheesecake I’ve never had before, but it sounded good and I thought the beautiful red color would compliment the red of the peppermint and the red of the cherries in the other cheesecakes. It’s flavored with cocoa and topped with a layer of cream cheese frosting because why not add some more cream cheese to your cheesecake? It’s Christmas, go all out!!

If you’re like Brandon and you prefer to keep your cheesecake simple, the other two are just as good as those crazy cheesecakes. The Oreo cheesecake has an Oreo crust, Oreos mixed in and more sprinkled on top. It’s pretty much your ultimate Oreo cheesecake.

Last but not least there’s the good ol’ basic cheesecake with a sweet cherry topping. And it’s not those weird fake looking cherries in a jar either, you can use fresh or frozen dark sweet cherries. Brandon said it was exactly what he wanted, so it will surely become a staple every time I make cheesecakes in the future.

I realize the most people won’t have these mini springform pans, so there are directions for making each of these cheesecakes full size and in smaller pans. But since it’s Christmas and these pans are so awesome I decided I want to give a set of four 4.5″ pans away to one lucky reader! This isn’t a sponsored giveaway, I just love these pans and I want to give something back to you guys for making this such a great year for Back to the Cutting Board.

All you have to do to enter is leave a comment on this post. Next Monday, January 3rd, I will pick a winner at random and announce it on this post as well as on the Back to the Cutting Board Facebook page.

To get extra entries for the giveaway:

1. “Like” Back to the Cutting Board on Facebook (it counts if you’re already a fan, too).
2. Tweet a link to this post about the giveaway or the recipes in this post.

Just come back here and add a new comment after you’ve “liked” me to get another entry. If you tweet a link to this post, it should automatically appear here as a comment, but if not, then add a comment with a link to your tweet.

Good Luck!

UPDATE 1-3-11: The contest is now closed. The winner is Intisar:

Those look great! I would love to have a set of mini springform pans, I love cheesecake, but DH doesn’t so this would be perfect!!!

Thanks so much to everyone who commented and tweeted and liked Back to the Cutting Board on Facebook! I will definitely be doing more of these kinds of giveaways in the future!

Get the recipe for Holiday Cheesecake Sampler »

Finally! I’ve been looking for this recipe for years and I finally found it. You see, Chicken and Dumplings is my boyfriend’s favorite dish and he’s always wanted me to make it at home. And I have tried, but the problem is there are lots of different recipes for chicken and dumplings and all the recipes I’ve tried haven’t been “right”, according to him.

Here’s what the right kind aren’t: the kind with actual little round dumplings on top. Because I guess that would just be too easy? I’ve tried several recipes like that, one from Martha Stewart, and while Brandon agreed that those recipes weren’t bad, they still weren’t “right”.

The right kind of chicken and dumplings are the kind that Brandon’s grandmother makes. They are the kind you get at Cracker Barrel. They are true southern style, and they don’t actually have dumplings, it’s more like slabs of tender and delicious biscuit dough. You could think of them as really big, thick noodles. There are no silly things like vegetables in here, it’s just chicken, chicken stock and dumplings. Period. You can eat your green beans and fried okra on side like the real Southerners do. Every single time we go to Cracker Barrel, that’s what Brandon gets. EVERY. SINGLE. TIME. And you know that’s going to be hard to live up to because I’m sure Cracker Barrel makes those things with lard and crack cocaine like everything else they serve. (I kid, I love Cracker Barrel, lard and all!)

That’s why I was so happy to find this recipe. I showed Brandon a photo and he said it looked right and then I made it and he said it was perfect. I have bested Cracker Barrel and his grandmother! In fact, a few weeks after I made this recipe for the first time we actually went to Cracker Barrel and he did not order Chicken and Dumplings!

I, on the other hand, took a bit more convincing. Even though I grew up in Mississippi and Tennessee, I was never a fan of Chicken and Dumplings. I don’t think I’d ever eaten them before I started on this search. I’ll be the first to admit that was based entirely on looks. These aren’t the best photos I’ve ever taken, but even if I had perfect lighting, it’s just not a very pretty dish. So you’ll just have to take my word that I’m a Chicken and Dumplings convert now. This recipe is the ultimate comfort food. It will make you feel warm and fuzzy and very, very full.

This is great with Turkey as well as chicken. I made it with chicken the first time, but this last time I used my leftover Thanksgiving turkey and the stock from it. Just as good!

This is not the easiest recipe ever, but it’s not complicated either. It’s somewhat time consuming, so this may be more of a weekend dish. But a lot of that is just waiting for the chicken to cook, so you can go do other things. If do want a faster dinner, cook the chicken the day or weekend before. I like fast and easy dinners as much as the next person, but some things you just have to put in the time and effort to get right. This recipe is worth it!

Update: This has become one of the most popular recipes on my site and I’ve gotten lots of feedback from people with tips on how they make their own Chicken and Dumplings, so make sure to read through the comments if you have time!

Also, for people who are averse to using shortening, one of the tips I got was to substitute chicken fat. It’s healthier and it will give the dumplings more flavor. You’ll need to prepare the chicken at least a day ahead so you can put the broth in the fridge and let the fat harden on top. I haven’t tried it yet, but I plan to the next time I make this dish!

Get the recipe for Southern-Style Chicken and Dumplings »

Well, I tried. I told myself I was going to stay away from desserts for a while. But….TWIX BARS. I really tried, but come on. TWIX BARS!!! Plus, with Halloween coming up I actually had a good excuse to make them. It’s not me, it’s Halloween. Halloween made me do it. Really, it couldn’t be helped. (In my head this is a perfectly logical argument.)

Whatever the excuse, I am so glad I made these because they are fantastic. Brandon, cynical person that he is, would like you to know that they are not exactly like a Twix because the ratio of cookie to caramel to chocolate is off, but BLAH BLAH BLAH (I am sticking out my tongue right now). No they aren’t exactly the same, but they have the same essence. That’s all I ask for in a homemade version of something, I don’t need an exact molecular copy. In fact, I love that there’s more caramel and a thicker cookie because I like those parts the best (and even if you don’t you can control how thick you want to make each layer). The shortbread cookie is crisp, the caramel is sweet and smooth and the chocolate tops everything off perfectly. It’s an awesome treat.

But I couldn’t be happy with just replicating a Twix bar. We’ve already established that pumpkin is on my mind. So as soon as I saw that the cookie part of the bar was just shortbread, the wheels started turning in my head and I thought: What if you replaced it with pumpkin shortbread? I know I like pumpkin and chocolate and I know I like pumpkin and caramel, so it only makes sense that I’m going to like pumpkin with chocolate and caramel!

And I was right, the flavors really go great together. My only complaint about the pumpkin version is that the pumpkin shortbread just isn’t as crisp as the other shortbread. But since pumpkin is so moist, I’m not sure this can be helped. I tried out several pumpkin shortbread recipes and this one has the right texture, even it’s softer. When comparing the two recipes, the pumpkin shortbread has a lot more butter, so I think reducing that would help.

This recipe (well, recipes, but both versions are exactly the same except for the shortbread) seems like it might be complicated but it’s pretty simple to make. First, you bake the shortbread, then you make caramel and pour it over the shortbread and then you spread chocolate ganache on top. The part that takes the most time is the caramel, but don’t be scared off by it! I’ve made caramel before and I’ve messed it up plenty of times, but I didn’t have any problems making this. The only issue was my own impatience waiting for the temperature to rise because that’s the part that takes the longest time, but you don’t have to actually do anything but watch it, you’re not even allowed to stir! And once it finally gets to the right temperature you just have to whisk for a little bit and you’re done.

All-in-all, these are fun to make and I was very happy with the outcome. Now I’d love to try making more of my favorite candy at home! Along with Twix, my other favorites are Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups and Kit Kats. I buy those every year for Halloween, hoping we don’t have many trick-or-treaters, so I can have them all for myself. What’s your favorite Halloween candy?

Get the recipe for Homemade Twix Bars and Pumpkin Twix Bars! »

So I know the actual first day of Fall isn’t for a few weeks, but as far as I’m concerned Labor Day is the end of summer. After that it’s Fall. Even when it’s still 90 degrees outside. A year ago Brandon had just gotten a job here and we were preparing to make the move from Florida to Virginia. I cannot tell you how much happier I am in Virginia and the main reason for that is because of Fall (and Winter, Spring and even Summer). There are actual seasons here! Maybe I’m strange for being so affected by the weather, but I found the static-ness of Florida’s temperature and landscape to be utterly depressing (I probably would’ve felt differently if we had lived closer to the ocean, which I love, but unfortunately we were right in the middle of the state). Since I wasn’t here this time last year it’s nice to go out and see the beginnings of Fall; leaves are already starting to change color and fall off. In short, I’m really excited about Fall. Probably more excited than a normal person should be, but there ya go. I lived in Florida for more than 5 years, so there’s going to be at least couple of more years of me being totally enamored by this season.

Besides the beautiful weather, the other thing I love about Fall is the food. I am so ready for lots and lots of soups, stews and chili. And also the baking, lots and lots baking. I discovered the versatility of pumpkin last year, so I really want to take advantage of it this year. Unfortunately, I heard there is still a canned pumpkin shortage, so you should stock up while you can! But if you can’t find it canned, wait until they start selling fresh pumpkins and you can easily make your own pumpkin puree. I’ve included the directions at the bottom of this post, all you need is 15 minutes and a microwave!

Luckily, I still had a can left in my pantry from last year, so when I saw this recipe I decided to make it immediately. It’s a perfect Fall recipe! Plus, I love cinnamon buns, I love pumpkin and I love streusal. How could I not love these?

And I did, in fact, love these. They are moist and delicious, and even better, since the recipe is from Cooking Light, they aren’t terrible for you. I made a few changes, though. First, there was not nearly enough of the streusal filling so I added a bit more. The streusal is the best part, you can’t skimp on that even if it adds a few more calories. I also thought it could also use more pumpkin. These buns are a beautiful color, but the flavor wasn’t quite there, so next time I will add at least 1/4 cup more pumpkin (the recipe below reflects this change).

As with any kind of yeast breads, these take some time to make, but in the end it’s only about 2 hours from start to finish. Since you can be off doing something else the majority of that time, these aren’t difficult or time consuming at all. You can even prepare these buns the night before, refrigerate and then just pop the pan in the oven the next morning. What’s better than fresh, hot cinnamon buns on a crisp Fall morning?

Get the recipe for Pumpkin-Cinnamon Streusel Buns »

I did it again. I bought a bunch of bananas and let them sit there until they looked worse and worse. Tell me I’m not the only one who does that? Please? In the grand scheme of things bananas are cheap, but still…starving kids in blahblah and all that…so I always feel bad about wasting food. I cannot tell you how much I didn’t want to make banana bread, though. I don’t even really like banana bread, I much prefer my mom’s applesauce bread. But what do you make with mushy bananas besides banana bread? I searched for alternatives but didn’t find anything interesting that I had all the ingredients for or that wasn’t a million calories.

Since I was stuck with banana bread, my next thought was that I should do something to make it less banana-y.  Of course, chocolate popped right into my head.  Chocolate makes everything better.  You might know I’m kinda obsessed with marbled chocolate desserts, so I decided to do a marbled chocolate banana muffin.  It’s just more fun that way! (Also, I wanted to use the new extra large muffin tin I recently bought.)  And since my favorite muffins are the ones with streusel on top, I made a streusel using chocolate graham cracker crumbs and sprinkled it on.

I’ve never had any kind of chocolate banana bread before, so I wasn’t sure if I would like the flavor combo, but they turned out really good.  These muffins actually made me like (possibly even, dare I say it…love) banana bread for the first time ever. They are super moist and I highly recommend that you make them the night before and let them sit in an air-tight container or the fridge overnight because the flavors are even better the next day.  But I have to say, if you don’t want to deal with the marbling, double the amount of chocolate/cocoa and put it in all the batter instead of half.  I liked the chocolate parts of the muffin better!  There’s nothing wrong with the plain banana part, it’s good, but it just tastes like banana bread, everyone knows what that tastes like.  Adding the chocolate definitely elevates it beyond boring banana bread.

I did want to at least attempt to make these healthier, so I used white whole wheat flour and non-fat buttermilk.  You could make them even healthier by using egg substitute and replacing some of the butter with applesauce. You don’t really need the streusel either, but I love chocolate graham crackers and I love streusal and I think it works great on these.

Wanna know how much I like these? See those bananas in the pictures? I hid them in the pantry so they can get good and ripe and I’ll have an excuse to make some more muffins.

Get the recipe for Marbled Chocolate Banana Muffins with Chocolate Graham Cracker Streusel »

I’ve been looking for this recipe forever. These Quaker granola bars are just about my favorite snack and I’ve been eating them my whole life. I like them because they are soft and chewy and not hard and tooth breaking like other granola bars I’ve tried. I also like the rice cereal in them because it makes them seem more like Rice Krispy treats with granola in them rather than boring old “healthy” granola bars. Healthy food isn’t inherently fun, Rice Krispy treats are always fun.

But have you noticed how expensive those granola bars are? Especially if you buy a box or two every week like I do. I’ve been on the look-out for a recipe, but haven’t found anything before now. All the recipes I saw were just granola, no rice cereal; they were hard, not chewy. That won’t do! But finally after some serious googling I found this recipe and it’s perfect. It’s exactly the same. In fact, it’s better because you know all the ingredients in it and there aren’t any preservatives and whatever else they put into pre-packaged food. Also? It’s about the simplest thing that ever was. No baking. It takes about 5 minutes to mix together and 15 minutes to firm up in the fridge.

These granola bars are so easy to make that I deviated from the original recipe to recreate my favorites: peanut butter/chocolate chip, s’more, and oatmeal raisin. There are endless possibilities for add-ins to these granola bars, so you can create your own favorite version.

Each recipe makes enough granola to fill a 9×13 11×7 inch pan, about 18 bars. Since I wanted to make all three kinds (and don’t have room to store 54 bars), I halved the recipes and made them in 9×5 inch loaf pans. I found these to be perfect as I could just cut straight across and get perfect sized bars, 6-8 depending on how wide you want them. I found it easier to remove the whole slab of granola from the pan first (run a knife around the sides and turn it upside-down on your counter and it should come out pretty easily) and then slice it.

I cut out strips of parchment and wrapped them up individually, which on second thought is pretty wasteful, but it looks cute if you wanted to give a bunch of these away as gifts or wrap them for your kid’s school lunch. Otherwise store in layers, in an airtight container with a sheet of wax/parchment between each layer.

Note about Granola: I had a really hard time finding plain granola. Maybe I wasn’t looking in the right place? I don’t know, I’ve never bought granola before. I wound up using this granola cereal because it was the only thing I could find at my grocery store. I liked it but it has a lot more fat/calories than I would have thought so I may buy this low-fat version for next time. The original recipe recommends this granola. I honestly don’t know if there’s a difference between granola and granola cereal. I’m open to granola recommendations if you have them!

Update: I’ve started making my own granola for the granola bars instead of trying to find it in the grocery store. I especially like this recipe for low-fat granola. I increase the oats to 3 cups and omit the nuts, seeds and raisins but you could leave them in if you like that kind of stuff in your granola bars.

Get the recipe for No bake, chewy Granola Bars (just like Quaker!) »

I’m not sure why it’s taken me so long to post this recipe. I’ve been making it since last year . It’s one of my favorites and something I make regularly. I have another more traditional chicken pot pie recipe which I like a lot, but that recipe is most certainly not low fat so I don’t make it as much (usually only after holidays to use up the extra chicken/turkey). This recipe is a lighter version of chicken pot pie, but it tastes just as good. I got it from the Weight Watchers website and while I’ve made some modifications to it, it’s still pretty light, especially compared to other chicken pot pie recipes you’ll find.

As I’ve mentioned before, I love using ramekins to make individual portions of my favorite recipes. I’m not so good with the portion control so I like having things portioned out for me in advance. It’s just easier that way. You can make this in 4 small ramekins (10 oz.) or 2 large ramekins (20 oz.). I got some large ramekins recently, so I’ve been using those.

The big modification I made to this recipe was to make the biscuit topping from scratch. The original recipe says to use those biscuits in a tube that you get in the grocery store. I tried it that way and wasn’t impressed. Yes, it’s easy, but I don’t trust dough in tube. Who knows what crap is in those things? Plus biscuits from a tube don’t taste as good. Sorry, they just don’t. Homemade is always going to be better.

And I can understand the thinking that it’s faster to use pre-made biscuits, but making them from scratch adds no extra time to this recipe. Seriously. The filling has to simmer for 15 minutes, so you make the biscuits while it’s simmering. It doesn’t even take the full 15 minutes either, it only takes me about 10. Also, I’m pretty sure (though I haven’t checked, so I could be wrong) this biscuit recipe is lighter than pre-made because it’s made with low fat yogurt. You could use buttermilk, too, but Mark Bittman says the yogurt version is better and I trust him!

Typing this out, I realized this has a lot of steps, but it’s actually a pretty simple recipe. I think it’s a lot easier and faster than my other chicken pot pie recipe. Chicken pot pie is pure comfort food and great for snowy/rainy day. Usually I feel guilty when I make comfort food (hello macaroni and cheese!) so it’s nice to be able to make this recipe and still feel like I’m eating well.

Get the recipe for Individual Chicken Pot Pies »