Weight Watcher Friendly Double Chocolate Cupcakes

These are SO yummy! And for only 3 or 3.5 points, a nice little chocolate indulgence :)

Double Chocolate Cupcakes

2 T butter, softened
3/4 c. sugar
1 egg
1 egg white
1/2 c. plus 2 T 1% buttermilk
1/3 c. water
1 T white vinegar
1 tsp. vanilla
1 1/2 c. flour
1/4 c. baking cocoa
1 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
1/3 c. miniature semisweet chocolate chips

In a mixing bowl, cream butter adn sugar. Add egg and egg white, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat on high speed until light and fluffy. Stir in buttermilk, water, vinegar and vanilla. Combine the flour, cocoa, baking soda and salt; add to batter just until moistened. Stir in chocolate chips.

Fill muffin cups coated with cooking spray 3/4 full. Bake at 375F 15-18 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. Cool for 5 minutes before removing from pans to wire racks.

YIELD: 14 cupcakes (I make 12 and they are 3.5 WW points each; 3 if you make 14).1 (if making 14) = 139 calories, 2 g. fat, 1 g. fiber

A couple pictures!!

Wow! It could have been so much worse!

What a weekend!!

Friday night we were waiting for Doug to get home. It was late and he barely made it, but called about 10 to say he made it in the nick of time, was going to unload his truck and head home.

About 10:30 he called to tell me he was in an accident. He was turning left at an intersection with a green turn arrow. A drunk driver blew through the light coming the other way and hit him head on. Doug is OK. His pickup is totaled UGH.

The police arrested the drunk driver and then searched his truck and found a loaded gun. Before the police happened upon the accident, the man was yelling at Doug not to call the police. Thankfully they happened upon the accident just minutes after it happened and thankfully this man did not freak out and start shooting!

Doug called me and I went to get him and took him to the ER. We spent 5 hours there to find out his spinal xrays are fine PTL! We got home about 4am.

Saturday morning Doug was stiff and sore in his neck and upper back. My entire body was sore. Five hours in the ER chairs did not bode well for me. I think I feel worse than Doug!

He's at the doctor right now for follow-up and hopefully to get a full-release to return to work in the morning.

He's going to wherever it is they towed his pickup to clean it out and take pictures. All the boys want to go along LOL.

Saturday and Sunday was spent doing a few errands and relaxing around the house.

Isaac was in a bowlign tournament on Saturday. As of Saturday evening his team was in first place. Not sure how the Sunday teams bowled or what his placement is now, though.

I hope your weekend was better than ours :)

Yummy comfort food! It is SO cold here now. We didn't school today, so I spent a little more time making some soup and bread bowls. YUM!

Hearty Potato Soup

6 medium potatoes, peeled and sliced
2 carrots, diced
6 celery ribs, sliced
2 qts. water
1 onion, chopped
6 T butter
6 T flour (I used soft white whole wheat)
1 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. pepper
1 1/2 c. milk (I use FF organic)

In a large kettle, cook potatoes, carrots and celery in water until tender, about 20 minutes. Drain, reserving liquid and setting vegetables aside.

In the same kettle, saute onion in butter untiol soft. Stir in flour, salt and pepper and cook for a few minutes; gradually add milk, stirring constantly until thickened.

Gently stir in cooked vegetables. Add cooking liquid, 1 c. at a time, until desired consistency is reached.

YIELD: about 3 quarts. 1 c. = 4 WW points


Bread Bowls

1/2 c. water
1 c. warm milk
2 T butter, melted
2T sugar
1 1/2 tsp. salt
4 c. flour
4 1/2 tsp. active dry yeast
1 egg, beaten

Combine milk, butter, sugar, salt and yeast in a bowl and allow to sit until foamy. Whisk in 2 c. flour and salt for 2 min. Gradually add remaining 2 c. flour and stir until dough forms a ball.

Turn onto a floured board and knead until smooth and elastic.

Place in a greased bowl, cover and let rise 1 hour.

Punch down and divide dough into 6 balls. Place on greased baking stones (cookie sheets), cover and let rise until doubled, about 30 minutes. Brush with beaten egg.

Bake at 375F for 20-25 minutes. Cool on wire rack.

YIELD: 6 bread bowls; 1 BB = 8 WW points.

We had a FABULOUS weekend!

We were supposed to go to IL for the weekend. Doug's company Christmas dinner was yesterday. We decided not to do that, but since we already farmed the kids out to Gramma and the in-laws, we made other plans (Thanks guys :)

Friday we went to Panera Bread for dinner and just sat there talking. No need to rush around. We also browsed the mall for a bit to kill time. Then we went dancing. The band we heard for the first time last week was playing close to our home, so we went. Doug already met the entire band, so they came to talk to us and ask him for sound advice LOL. That man is funny. It was nice to meet and talk with new people. I like Savoy's music selection (the band Doug helps) better, but this band is GOOD!

We came home late and slept in. Saturday morning we went to my dear friend's memorial service. It was the MOST touching service I've ever been a part of. Then we drove over to PA to stay at a hotel. We planned to swim, but the pool was SWARMING! with kids. So we hopped into the in-room jacuzzi instead. Normally kids aren't a problem, but I wasn't up for all the splashing! I just sat in there for about 45 min. letting the jets hit my sore muscles. Man what I wouldn't give to have a whirlpool tub like that at home. I'd feel SO much better. Then we took a nice, long nap. We woke up about 6:30 and ordered in pizza. Doug went to get it and the band was already there setting up. Savoy played the lounge, so that is nice. The lounge was so crowded, so we didn't dance as much as we'd like to, but we had a great time!

So we had pizza and went dancing. We slept in again this morning. Then had a liesurely breakfast down in the atrium. They have the nicest breakfast buffet, included with the room, on Sundays. We came back up and I soaked in the tub again. I want a whirlpool tub with jets at home! I need to soak in there every night. It felt so much less pain and slept so much better!

We're home now. We went grocery shopping on the way home. Doug is napping since he has to leave for work. I'm finishing up his laundry, made 3 loaves of banana bread so he could have some for work, prepped and packed his food.

So that was our weekend. What did you do??

I made an apron!

I am rather proud of me! I am not a seamstress AT ALL! I can sew flat hemmed things such as a table cloth, etc.

I LOVE my Pampered Chef apron. The strap is adjustable and I love that.

So I used my PC apron as a guide. I am rather pleased with the way it turned out. Escept the curved seam on the side. I am not sure how to do that. So any tips?? I'd like to try another one.

I am happy that I matched the pocket up with the pattern and you can't tell where it is :)

My latest knitting project!

I made a pair of fetchings (fingerless gloves). It was my first project on double pointed needles AND making cables.

It was surprisingly easy! and quite fun. You can whip these out in a couple of movies :::snort::: It took me a couple weeks, though, because I did not work on them diligently.

The pattern is from knitty.com

Happy New Year!!!

OK, so I'm 9 days late and a dollar short :::snort:::

It's been hectic around here. I had some kind of ongoing food poisoning. I thought it was the flu. It was from my juicer being moldy, without my knowing it! It's clean now :) And I'm better.

We started back into the old grind this week. Doug back to work for 6 days :( Started back with school by doing 1/2 days of only math and science. Although Monday took FOREVER! Nobody was happy to be back............

We celebrated Doug's 42nd birthday. I told him only 8 more years until he is 50! He didn't care for that reminder :::snort:::

I have a new little box in my sidebar for a blogring. It is a ring of blogs from people on the Sonlight forums. I finally got it working today after being approved. I'm not sure everybody on there is up and running, so you may hit a wall for a couple days.

I'm working on a new knitting project and will be posting pictures soon.

That's pretty much it. Just the same old thing. I need to think of some things to post, because we got up, we did school, we went to bed gets boring on a daily basis LOL..........

How has your new year been so far??