PIZZA!!!

Annie and I have been blogging for some time now (or maybe its just been a week...) but I think its time to start combining some of our blogs. So.. if we take 1part diet coke bread recipe and 1 part trader joe feta and combine them (along with some other stuff) we get DIET COKE BREAD PIZZA!! Pizza is amazing, I think we can all agree on that. But sadly, it can be really high in calories and fat and all that stuff. So by using the diet coke bread as the pizza dough, you save a lot of calories! And, its super yummy. So... here is what you do...

1) Make diet coke bread up until the point of letting it rise in the oven. Once you take it out of the oven you want to spread some flour on it (so as to keep it from being super sticky) and spread it out on a baking sheet. Spray the sheet first!! You want to spread out the dough so it touches all the corners of the sheet. (see picture)
2) Put in oven at 350 degrees for about 10 minutes. (There is nothing on the pizza yet)
3) While the dough is precooking you want to chop up all your favorite toppings. I'm a fan of basil, tomato, mozzarella, and feta. Annie makes a super good one with olive oil and pine nuts and some other yummy things I cant remember (but maybe she can comment on this post and let us know? :D)
4) After the 10 minutes take the dough out and put on some pizza sauce. I use regular tomato sauce and I like to add a little bit of Splenda (a trick Annie taught me, shes so smart), Italian seasoning, garlic powder, and a little bit of chili powder (I like a little kick with my food), after sauce put on your toppings. For my recipe its 1 cup part skim mozzarella, a bunch of chopped up tomatoes, and chopped up basil, and then about 1/3-1/2 cup feta (yay trader joes!).
5) Plop it back in the oven (still at 350) for another 10 minutes. And there you have it!! Awesome pizza that if you cut into 6 BIG pieces its about 6-7 points a piece. Not too shabby :) And no one can tell it comes from diet coke :D

If others have great topping ideas, leave some messages so we can try them out too!

Second Installment of the Wonders of Diet Soda!

Annie's excellent discussion of the how to's of making wonderful magical guilt free cupcakes inspired me to share another super fabulous item that also uses diet soda! One would be amazed at all the things we can do with diet soda. Today we are going to focus on our friend the diet coke and make diet coke bread!...which may sound strange, but its amazing and a great way to impress people, which is something Annie and I are always trying to do :)

first, turn your oven on for around 150-200 degrees.

then, mix 3 cups of ordinary flour with 1 1/4 cups diet coke (which leaves you a little to sip on while you cook!) and one package of yeast. Mix this all together. its will be a little gooey at first, but should be able to get mixed to a dough consistency.

once you have a nice ball of bread dough, get a damp towel and place it over the bowl and put it in the oven, but turn the oven off at this point!!

Now you just wait (which, for me, is the hardest part) let the dough rise for about 30-45 minutes. Afterward, you might have to add a little bit of flour to make it not super sticky to your hands, and kneed it a few times before putting in a bread dish. Then plop it back in the oven for 20-30 minutes (Oven should be preheated to 350 for this part)!

Some fun additions to this bread is adding some salt and garlic powder. Or, i've tried it with mixing some honey in with it after it has risen. You want to make sure that its all mixed together though, or else you get hard baked honey spots, which is no good. try this fun recipe and you'll amaze people that its just a little diet coke with flour!

if there is one thing i love in life, it's a good cupcake.  quality cupcakes are hard to find, but what's even harder to find are good guilt free cupcakes.  lexy and i are here to tell you to look no further.  here's what you do:

*pick a box of cake mix, any ol' box will do.  i, personally enjoy vanilla, and lexy enjoys confetti cake.

*mix the cake mix with one can of diet soda-- take your pick...  lexy enjoys diet cherry coke with her confetti cake, and i am partial to diet root beer or pepsi max with my vanilla.

*mix thoroughly, try to get out all the lumps of powder, although it's not always possible.

*pour into cupcake holders and bake at 350 until a toothpick comes out clean.

what a magical treat!  

for those of you counting, this is around 2 ww points without frosting.  yummmmm........