Back with lots of unhealthy eats - yum!

Whew, I'm back!  Morning sickness really derailed my love for food for a while - and my motivation in general.. my husband had to do the dishes for like 9 weeks because I didn't have the energy to stand there and wash them.  He's a good man :)

 Here are a few delicious things we've had since I've gotten back to normal.*  Actually, these are just from yesterday and today.

Black Forest Brownies.. or Cheesecake.. or something?

* this was created in a moment of temporary pregnancy insanity.  This was created from a pregnancy craving, and my husband's chocoholic mind.

I thought the can of black cherry pie filling we had would be amazing mixed with chocolate cake mix or brownies.  My original idea was to put the pie filling on top of the baked brownies, but I saw that there was a recipe for Black Forest brownies on the can and it said to put the cherries in the batter.  I spooned the cherry filling onto the batter in the pan and then swirled it in.

Add to that the desire for creamy cheesecake *drools*.  We had a box of Jello No-Bake so we mixed up the filling and spread it on top of the baked and cooling brownies.  Then my husband melted chocolate frosting and drizzled it on top.  These were mouth-watering good.  I want another one just thinking about it.. but I sent the leftovers with my husband for his poker buddies so I'll stop eating them.  (They were good warm, but even better after being in the fridge.)  All of the textures were perfect together, and I couldn't get enough of the sweet cherries hidden in the brownies.

Boneless wings and Buffalo Chips with cheese

 

My husband's longed-for birthday meal: Homemade "Buffalo Wild Wings" boneless chicken and "buffalo chips" with cheese.  I use this recipe for boneless chicken, though we don't use the hot sauce recipe.  Hubby prefers BWW's Caribbean Jerk, so he buys a bottle or two from the restaurant.  Instructions are the same, just skip the sauce-preparing steps and coat with sauce of your choice.  (FYI, this does work with powdered buttermilk.  I never buy actual buttermilk because it goes to waste.  For this recipe, I mix the buttermilk powder and water until smooth and use rather than following the directions on the canister.)

I have no idea how the "buffalo chips" are made in the restaurant but I fry thick-sliced potatoes in oil until tender, cover with cheddar cheese and bake until cheese is melted.  My husband loves them!

This is a cinnamon roll waffle. Genius.

Finally, a pinterest find!   I wanted to surprise my husband for breakfast this morning - his birthday - and decided on waffles.. something I usually hate to make for some odd reason.  We had a tube of cinnamon rolls in the fridge so I decided to go with those rather than mixing up a waffle batter.  To make, drop a cinnamon roll or two (the photo is of one) in each waffle spot, on a hot waffle maker.  Cook until desired crispness.  Serve with cream cheese icing or syrup.

Hassleback potatoes: take two

Okay, so I tried that Hassleback Potatoes recipe again last night.  I forgot to add butter this time *sigh* but it was delicious anyway!  I just pulled it apart and ate it with my fingers.  This is definitely a Pinned recipe that's being moved onto my "favorite recipes" board.

A tasty Pinned meal

Here is an example of a full meal planned with Pinterest. I know the picture isn't very pretty because I
used my phone rather than my digital camera - not that it's much better sometimes - so I apologize for that. Anyway, I had to post this because these pork ribs were amazing!

My husband usually like to use certain sauces on his ribs, and he had planned to grill these pork spare ribs. However, he'd decided to go play golf or something (my how my memory is short these days!) and I didn't want to wait around for him so I hopped on Pinterest to search for BBQ pork ribs. What I found now has a permanent place in my recipe book.

These ribs were moist and the sauce was bone-sucking good.  (I kid you not: I literally sucked the sauce off one of the ribs before my husband threw them to the dogs)  I like nice sticky ribs, and these were definitely that!  I did make a couple changes:
1. I used vinegar because I didn't have lemon juice.  I figured it wouldn't matter since it was probably the acidity needed, not the lemon flavor; it didn't seem to matter.
2. I threw in some sliced onions before baking simply because I love onions.  (I'm sure glad my love for garlic and onions didn't scare away my husband.)
3. I didn't use garlic salt and salt.  We aren't big salt junkies, so we were fine with just the garlic salt.

Delicious!

The noodles are Taste of Home's Parmesan Herbed Noodles. We're kind of on a whole-grains kick and I didn't want to use the egg noodles called for in the recipe, BUT I did have egg noodles to use.. and proably the last of our fresh basil (left out the thyme).  I liked them, my husband needed more flavor. (I threw together a similar side dish last night with whole wheat shells.. but they were a little bland.  My husband actually reheated his with milk and Velveeta *sigh*)

The Hassleback potatoes looked yummy, but I didn't cook them long enough.  I won't give my opinion on those until I give them a fair shot.

This was not exactly a "healthy" meal, but the ribs were a worthy splurge.

Nutrional Info*

BBQ Pork Ribs (Calculated as about a 5-ounce serving)
Calories: 455
Total Fat: 20.6g
Saturated Fat: 7.6g
Monounsaturated Fat: 7.4g
Cholesterol: 82.4mg
Sodium: 290.2mg
Carbs: 49g
Sugars: 46g - yowza!
Protein: 20.4g

Parmesan Herbed Noodles (As a side dish, I calculated these as 1/2c. servings)
Calories: 200
Total Fat: 14.7g
Saturated Fat: 4.7g
Polyunsaturated Fat: 1.3g
Monounsaturated Fat: 6.7g
Cholesterol: 15mg
Sodium: 106.7mg
Potassium: 9.2mg
Carbs: 13.7g
Sugars: 1g
Protein: 4.7g

Hasselback Potatoes (info only for one 5oz potato, not including the drizzle of olive oil, garlic or pad of butter I used)
Calories: 139
Total Fat: 0
Cholesterol: 0mg
Sodium: 21mg
Potassium: 1645mg
Carbs: 3g
Fiber: 7g
Sugars: 3g
Protein: 8g

*Nutritional info is approximate, is calculated using MyFitnessPal, and accounts for all revisions/substitutions made when I made these dishes.