Zucchini Tots

Well, I've gone on Weight Watchers once again.  Sigh.  I know that's the best way for me to lose weight because you can eat whatever you want.  That being said, I'm trying to find the smallest point recipes that I can so I can eat more!  The other thing that needs to be said is...I hate zucchini!  It's almost always mushy and watery and yucky.  I WILL eat it, but just don't like to cook with it, so I was pleasantly surprised when I found this recipe for zucchini "tots" on Skinnytaste.com AND also on simpletasty.recipes.  Enjoy! It's 2 SP for 3 tots.

INGREDIENTS

• cooking spray
• 1 packed cup grated zucchini
• 1 large egg
• 1/4 medium onion, minced (not grated)
• 1/4 cup grated cheddar cheese
• 1/3 cup seasoned breadcrumbs, or gluten-free crumbs
• 1/4 tsp kosher salt and black pepper to taste

INSTRUCTIONS

• Preheat oven to 400°F.  Spray 12 holes in a mini muffin tin
• Grate the zucchini into a clean dish towel until you have 1 packed cup.  Wring all of the excess water out of the zucchini, there will be a lot of water. In a medium bowl, combine all of the ingredients and season with salt and pepper to taste.
• Spoon into muffin tins, filling to the top and packing into each hole.  Cook for 15 minutes until brown. 

Quick Cinnamon Rolls

It's been a while since I posted, but had to keep this one for posterity.  Yes, I'm supposed to be on a diet (all the time, right?) but I just HAD to have something sweet, so here goes.  I adapted this recipe from Kevin and Amanda at https://www.kevinandamanda.com/easy-cinnamon-rolls/.  It's pretty much the same as hers, but I did make a few tweaks. You can head over to her site to see step by step pics, though.  Here are the ingredients:

Ingredients
  2 rolls Pillsbury crescent roll dough (or sheets)
  8 T. butter, divided
  1/4 cup brown sugar (I used brown sugar Swerve)
  1 T cinnamon (I prefer Saigon)
  1/4 cup sugar (I used Splenda)

Icing
  1/2 cup sugar (or sugar equivalent)
  2 T. butter, melted
  2 T heavy cream, milk, or half and half (try using just 1 at a time)

Instructions:

1.  Heat oven to 350 degrees.

2.  In a glass pie plate, melt 4 T butter.  If you don't have a glass pie plate, just melt the butter and pour it into the pie plate.  Mix the 1/4 cup brown sugar with the butter.  Set aside.

3.  Open first dough roll and pinch seams together.  Open the second dough roll and lay it on the long side of the first one.  Pinch all seams together.

4.  Soften the other 4 T of butter.  Do not melt it completely, just soften.  Mix the cinnamon and 1/4 cup sugar with the butter.  Smear it on the dough.  Roll the dough tightly from the longest side.  Cut it in the middle, then each half into 4 pieces creating 8 total rolls.

5.  Place rolls in the pie plate.  Cook for 20-30 minutes watching the tops of the rolls.  If the outside gets darker than the middle, put foil around the buns that are darker so the middle can cook a little longer.

6.  Once out of the oven, let them cool for about 10 minutes and then turn the rolls onto a plate.  After they have completely cooled, make the icing.

7.  Icing:  Combine all ingredients.  Use milk sparingly until you get the consistency you want.  Spread on completely cooled rolls.  The longer they sit, the harder the icing will be.  Enjoy!