Recipe: Stupidly Easy French Dip Sandwiches

I love this sandwich recipe because it's so darn easy to adjust for CFers and non-CFers! One can of beef consommé has 34% of the daily recommended value of sodium. Plus there's always the option to add more cheese if preferred.

It's also a great all-season option. In the spring, you can add a side salad with high-fat ranch dressing. For summer we pair with corn on the cob (with lots of butter and salt of course). In the fall it's great with roasted red bliss or au gratin potatoes. And in the winter it goes well with baked beans.

Credit has to go to the original cook at AllRecipes.com, where I often find great menu options. I made a few alterations based on some of the reviews. This recipe makes four sandwiches.

Ingredients:
1 10.5 ounce can of beef consommé
(make sure to get consommé and not beef broth)1 cup water
1 pound thinly sliced rare roast beef (we like Sara Lee's rare roast beef)
8-12 slices of high quality provolone cheese (swiss or white cheddar can also work)
4 french rolls (we prefer the french rolls over the Italian rolls but any hoagie roll will do)
1/2 tsp dried rosemary
1 tsp onion powder
garlic powder and butter for the bread

Instructions:
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Open the hoagie rolls and lay out on a baking sheet. Spread soft butter on each side of the roll, sprinkle with garlic powder and warm for a few minutes in the oven.
2. Heat the beef consommé, water, rosemary and onion powder in a medium saucepan over medium-heat heat to make rich beef broth. Then place the roast beef in the broth and warm for 3 minutes - do not overcook!
3. Remove the buns from the oven. Arrange the meat on the rolls and top each with 2-3 slices of cheese.
4. Return the sandwiches to the preheated oven for 5 minutes, or until the cheese just beings to melt. We like to use the convection feature when baking. Serve the sandwiches with small bowls of the warm broth for dipping.

Recipe: Flourless Peanut Butter and Chocolate Chip Cookies

Sometimes I think it would be a lot easier if Big Guy had CF instead of Lil Guy. Not that I would wish this disease on any child. But Big Guy has an "eat now, ask questions later" approach to food while Lil Guy is suspicious of anything food I put in front of him.

In particular, Lil Guy has strongly established that he does not like the following high-protein foods...
cheese
yogurt
eggs
and
peanut butter

WTH - who doesn't like peanut butter?! Well we've found a solution to the peanut butter problem and it's this cookie recipe. Lil Guy cannot resist cookies. When the cookie tin is empty, he walks around holding it and plaintively calling "cook cook?" It's like something out of the Charles Dickens Oliver Twist book - "Please sir may I have some more?"

I love this recipe because it's high in protein and low(er) in carbs without the flour. Plus, there is not much to the ingredient list. These cookies still tend to be a bit sweet so I haven't tried substituting in Splenda or similar for the sugar yet. 

Flourless Peanut Butter and Chocolate Chip Cookies
1 cup super chunky peanut butter*
1 cup packed golden brown sugar
1 large egg
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 cup mini chocolate chips

I like to use Skippy's Natural Super Chunk Extra Crunchy with 17g of fat per 2 tbsp serving

Preheat oven to 350F. Mix the first five ingredients, then add the chips.
Using moistened hands, form generous 1 tbsp dough balls per cookie (or use a small ice cream scoop).
Place dough balls on baking sheets about two inches apart - flatten with fork. Bake about 10-12 minutes. The cookies may not look done but they are - they will taste burnt if left in for too long.
IMPORTANT NOTE: Do not try to move the cookies right away - instead, cool on the baking sheets for 5-10 minutes to prevent crumbling!
Makes about 18-24 cookies.


If you're looking for a bit more fiber, I have made these Flourless Oatmeal Peanut Butter Cookies from another recipe blog I follow. But they kind of taste like hippies made them and they only taste fresh up to 48 hours after baking.

Recipe: Chocolate Nutella Cookies

I'm nuts for Nutella. Here’s what I love about it:

Just two tablespoons per serving size is four grams of saturated fat and 12 grams of fat total. Plus pretty simple ingredients as long as you or your little CFer doesn't have a nut allergy.

110% of credit for this recipe has to go to my friend Sarah over at Simply Social. She is a million times more creative than this mom.

Chocolate Nutella Cookies

1 1/4 cup flour (can sub in half whole-wheat flour)
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
2/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 stick (1/2 cup) unsalted butter
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup dark brown sugar
2 tsp vanilla
1/3 cup Nutella
1/3 cup skim millk (could sub in whole milk for CFers)

Preheat oven to 325F. In a small bowl, whisk flour, cocoa powder, and baking powder together.

Beat together the butter (room temp), sugar, and brown sugar with mixer. Add vanilla and Nutella and mix until at medium speed until smooth.

Add half of the flour mixture and mix until combined. Add milk. Then add remaining flour mixture and mix completely. Wrap dough in clear wrap refrigerate the dough for an hour.

When you are ready to bake, line pan with non-stick baking mat or parchment, scoop and roll dough into 1 inch balls and press down with the bottom of a glass to make cookies.

Bake for 10-12 minutes depending on your oven. Cookies are done when they start to crack on top. Let cool on pan for 5 minutes before moving to cooling rack.

Sarah actually used this recipe to make football whoopie pies in honor of the 2013 Super Bowl. If you’re ambitious enough, follow this link to her recipe for the marshmallow creme filling.  

Recipe: Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins

These muffins are a staple in our house, I can't keep them in stock. They don't make exceptionally large sized muffins - they are more the size of a cupcake. Perfect for toddlers. Easy to add calories by using full fat sour cream and whole milk.

Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins

Makes about 16 muffins - sometimes I can squeeze in 17 if I'm lucky!

1 and 3/4 cup flour (I use half white, half wheat)
3/4 cup sugar (I used half white half brown)
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1/4 cup sour cream
1/4 cup whole milk
3 large overripe bananas (you want about one cup mushed bananas in the end)
1/2 to 3/4 semisweet chocolate chips - when I use the mini chocolate chips I use about a 1/2 cup but if I only have the regular size, I increase to 3/4 cup.

Instructions:
Combine dry ingredients in one bowl.
Combine wet ingredients (except the bananas) in another bowl.
Fold wet into dry ingredients until just folded.
Then fold in the bananas, then fold in the chocolate chips
Fill muffin pan with paper holders, then fill each holder two-thirds of the way full with batter.

For regular sized muffins, bake 22-25 minutes at 350 degrees Farenheit until brown on top. Cool 5 minutes on rack. Makes about 16 muffins.

For mini muffins, bake for 18 minutes at 350 degrees Farenheit until just brown on top. Cool on rack. Makes about 55-60 mini muffins.

For banana bread, just use a loaf pan and bake at 350 degrees Farenheit for a little more than 1 hour or until fork comes out clean in center.

Notes:
I will often toss our uneaten overripe bananas in the freezer whole, then thaw them out in the microwave for a few minutes (or on the counter for an hour) and use them in this recipe. These muffins freeze nicely in a ziploc freezer bag. When I make the mini sized ones, I pop frozen ones in the kids' lunch bag in the morning and they are thawed out by snack time. I use half white flour/half whole wheat flour to include some fiber. This dries out the muffins a little bit and makes them tastes a little like bran muffins. But the kids still eat them!

Q: Who likes yogurt?

A: Unfortunately not Lil Guy. Which really stinks because after much searching I just finally found a great full fat yogurt.

Yoplait Simplait is marketed as "Made with only six natural ingredients, each cup of Yoplait Simplait delivers a spectacular taste experience."

Shh...don't tell anyone but it also delivers a nice chunk of fat with it - 7 grams and 200 calories. That's almost as much fat as in the Stonyfield Farms whole fat yogurt - which, incidentally, I can never find in our supermarket. And nearly twice as much fat as the YoBaby baby yogurt.