Peanut Butter Cookie Yogurt

This is barely even a recipe. I did not plan it ahead of time, and I did not intend on blogging it.

I was simply trying to get breakfast in my stomach before class. So how did this end up so delicious?

Well, I happened to have a coincidentally magical trio of ingredients within my immediate vision. The play of events went like so:

7:32am: While getting my coffee creamer, I see a lonely tub of plain Greek yogurt that expired tomorrow.

7:36: I pull out the yogurt thinking I can eat it plain. Unfortunately, plain yogurt tastes like sour cream.

7:37: I look up. Sitting on top of my fridge is a jar of local raw honey. I buy it from a friend who raises bees. It is the most delicious honey I’ve ever had.

7:38: Behind the honey I find a tub of powdered peanut butter. Low-fat, low-sugar, and perfect for stirring into smoothies, milk, and…yogurt

7:40: Pure cookie dough bliss

And thus, a regular Wednesday morning became a thing of wonder. The boring routine of bland breakfast had been broken by an awakening of the spirit.

Want to share in my weekday miracle? Mix 1/2 cup of plain Greek yogurt with 1-2 tablespoons of honey and 2 tablespoons of powdered peanut butter.

Yes, I wrote all that for a one sentence recipe, and I am not ashamed!

Skinny Pizza Stuffed Peppers

As a relatively normal 20-year-old, I don’t think I have to tell you that I love pizza. Cheesy, saucy, garlicky, meaty pizza. All of the saltiness and heartiness that we  learn to love at a very young age.

But, let’s face it, pizza is pretty terrible for you. Sure, if you make it at home with good ingredients and eat moderate portions, it’s not a bad dinner. But at the end of the day, if all I want is a supreme pizza, it’s hard to justify going through the effort and cost of making my own when I can order one. And, thus, I take the healthy potential out.

So, I like to find ways to make pizza truly healthy without going through the work of making a pizza dough. Sure, there’s cauliflower crust. A delicious vehicle for all of our favorite toppings. There’s also pizza soup, which I have posted here before. Warm, filling, and very easy.

But what about when the cauliflower craze has me sick of the stuff, and I don’t have time to let a soup simmer? What’s my other option?
Enter: Pizza stuffed peppers.

So much easier than making a cauliflower crust, all you do is put your favorite toppings right into the pepper! There’s no hassle whatsoever, and it tastes exactly like pizza.

INGREDIENTS:

• 4 Bell Peppers, blanched (pop into boiling water for 2 minutes, then put into an ice bath) and sliced in half lengthwise
• 1 pound ground Italian Turkey Sausage (or the links all chopped up)
• 1 onion, diced
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 2 cloves garlic
• 2 cups pizza sauce
• 2 cups pepperoni
• 1/4 cup black olives
• 1 cup mushrooms
• 2 cups pizza-blend cheese

TO PREPARE:

Preheat the oven to 350.

Melt olive oil in large skillet over medium heat. Add onion and garlic and cook until fragrant. Add sausage and brown.

Pour in the sauce, pepperoni, olives and mushrooms and stir until everything is hot.

Place the peppers in a lightly greased 9×13 pan, and stuff as much of the sausage mixture as you can into each pepper.

Top with cheese and bake for 10 minutes.

Pizza’s here!

Messy Citrus Ricotta Cake with Cookie Crumble

This is a bit of a hodge podge cake. You know how sometimes you see a recipe that’s like “chocolate coconut cookie dough peanut butter strawberry marshmallow cookies” and you’re like, “Why did anyone create that?” Well, now I know.

Those recipes are clearly created for someone specific in mind, as a means of combining all of their favorite flavors. Someone couldn’t decide what flavor to make for a loved one, because that person never really picks one overall favorite, so they just combined everything. And, naturally, when you spend all of that time developing a recipe, you have to share it, even if it is crazy.

Thus, here I am, sharing a cake that’s a cheesecake layer topped with moist lemon cake topped with whipped orange-vanilla frosting and toasted sugar cookies.  Again, here I am sharing a cake that is so soft and crumbly, I could not get a pretty slice for a picture. Here I am, sharing a recipe that does not fit with my usual POV.

But I am sharing it, because it was delicious, and I made it for my mother. I took all of her favorites and combined them, and we all ate way too much of it. So, for anyone out there that can’t decide between 4 different desserts, here’s a start.

Also, it has riccotta, marscapone, butter, cookies, pudding, and cool whip. So why not share this masterpiece?

INGREDIENTS:

• 1 standard sized lemon cake mix, plus ingredients to mix it up
• 30 oz ricotta cheese
• 6 oz marscapone cheese
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 4 eggs
• 8 oz whipped topping
• 1 4oz vanilla pudding mix
• 8 oz canned mandarin oranges (don’t drain)
• 1.5 cups crumbled sugar cookies
• 2 tablespoons butter

Preheat the oven to 350

Prepare lemon cake mix according to package directions, and pour into a well-greased 13×9 cake pan

With a whisk, beat together the ricotta, marscapone, and sugar until smooth. Beat in the eggs one at a time, and gently pour mixture over lemon cake mix and spread into an even layer

Bake for 60 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean and the lemon cake layer has risen about the cheese layer.

While it’s baking, you can make the cookie crumble. Melt the butter in a skillet. Break up the cookies into course crumbs, and add to the butter. Toss around for about 5 minutes, until it smells like cookies. Spread onto a baking sheet or paper plate to cool.

When the cake is room temp, pop it into the fridge for 20 minutes and get it chilled while you make the frosting.

Combine pudding mix and juice from the mandarin oranges in a large bowl, and whisk until smooth. Gently fold in the whipped topping and oranges until combined.

Spread over the cool cake- use all of it! I promise, you want to. Then, sprinkle on the cooled cookies.

It’s a weird one, but oh my it’s delicious. Enjoy!

Green Beans with Dijon Sauce

If you read my last post, you know I did a French night recently. Well, I cannot do French without some delicious fresh green beans! This is loosely inspired by a salad nicoise.

Let’s face it, though. Green beans are a pretty boring vegetable. They bring back memories of poorly drained canned stuff plopped next to frozen Salisbury steak and instant potatoes. Which, by the way, I have the upmost respect for. America was built on meals like that!

However, I can do a bit better now. But how do you make green beans exciting? Bacon-wrapped bundles with brown sugar is a popular side down south, but I wanted something healthier and more savory. A chilled three-bean salad is lovely, but I wanted something warm.

So, this side dish was born. A creamy sauce, crunchy almonds, and perfectly-cooked green beans. I can’t sell this healthy side dish anymore.

Serve with pasta, chicken, fish, beef, or do what I did with the leftovers and plop a fried egg on top!

Need I say more?

INGREDIENTS:

• 1/2 pound fresh green beans, trimmed and cleaned
• 1 tablespoon butter
• 1/4 cup slivered almonds
• 2 tablespoons Dijon mustard
• 1 tablespoon honey
• 1 tablespoon milk
• 1 dash Worcestershire sauce
• salt and pepper

TO PREPARE:

Melt butter in a small pan over medium heat. Add the almonds and stir until toasty, about 5 minutes. They’ll be slightly brown, but the real indicator is the smell of almonds!

Bring salted water to boil. Plop in the green beans for 5 minutes or until desired doneness.

Meanwhile, combine the remaining ingredients in a small bowl.

Drain the beans and transfer to serving dish. Drizzle over the sauce and sprinkle on almonds.

Happy Spring!

 

 

Roasted Pears and Grapes with Maple Yogurt Cream

I had a major conflict in my relationship last week: Brent had never seen Julie/Julia! How did that happen? How, over the 4-year course of our relationship, had he never seen my favorite movie?

Add to that, he’d never seen a full episode of The French Chef! There was no way I could stay with a man who did not fully understand the influence of Julia Child on both myself and the entire American food industry. Foodies would not exist without Julia! This blog certainly would not exist.

I would, naturally, have to make a French-inspired meal…in costume. Unfortunately, the French are famous for their buttery, chocolate-dipped, jam-filled pastries. Delicious, but not always in my diet.

So, I started googling classic French fruits. Obviously, being wine country, grapes came right up. Surprisingly, pears were number two.  In fact, pear and grape tarts are a very common French dessert.

I did not really want the carbs, sugar, and effort of a tart. But, the idea of cooked pears and grapes was intriguing. I had seen roasted grapes and sausage before, so I figured it worked. Some quick research revealed that grapes and pears both get sweet and tender when roasted.

The natural sugars pull to the outside of both fruits, making them taste sweetened when I did not add any sugar! They become caramelized and soft. The pears remind me of baked apples, and the grapes taste like little pods of hot grape juice.

Maple seemed like a natural pairing with both pears and grapes: more so than lemon, chocolate, or vanilla, as were my other options. Plus, using maple syrup could cut down on white sugar.

A creamy, maple yogurt on top of hot fruit, with some candied nuts for garnish, suddenly became my healthier French dessert that even Julia would be proud of.

INGREDIENTS (4 small servings):

• 1/2 cup chopped pecans
• 3 tablespoons butter
• 4 tablespoons maple syrup
• 2 cups chopped Bosc pears (get the chunks to the same size as the grapes)
• 2 cups red globe grapes
• 1 cup plain Greek yogurt
• 1 tsp maple extract
• 1 tablespoon brown sugar
• 1 dash allspice

TO PREPARE:

Firstly, make the candied nuts. This can be done days in advance. Brown the butter in a small skillet over medium-high heat. Get it nice and dark. Then, add the pecans and 2 tablespoons maple syrup. Stir occasionally until the nuts smell toasted and the syrup has largely thickened, 15 minutes. The nuts should be slightly sticky but not one big clump. Spread them out on a plate and let dry.

Make the cream: combine yogurt, the remaining two tablespoons maple syrup, the extract, the brown sugar, and the allspice. Taste for sweetness; I like mine pretty sweet, so go easy if you want it more tart. Let chill in the fridge.

Preheat the oven to 350. Grease a baking sheet and spread out the grapes and pears. Spray the top with cooking spray or drizzle with canola oil/butter. Bake for 25 minutes, until the fruits are softened.

Layer fruit in four serving cups, top with nuts, cream, and more nuts.

Bon’ Apetit!

 

Three-Ingredient Healthy Pumpkin Apple Cobbler

So, I am trying to eat healthy over spring break, because I’d eaten terribly during midterms. Happens to the best of us.

I’d planned healthy dinners all week, and they were all satisfying and flavorful. But, there’s that sweet tooth. It’s a troublemaker, I tell you.

Luckily, I had just what I needed. Normally, berries and fat free whipped cream is my go-to sweet after dinner. That night, however, it was rainy, dark, and 40 degrees. I wanted something warm, with winter spices. I opened the pantry and found a pumpkin cake mix, a can of apple pie filing, and a diet cream soda.

Voila, dessert is done! Actually, this makes a pretty good breakfast too (just sell it as a coffee cake).

It’s a riff on the idea of a dump cake and a soda cake combined. Obviously, you can change the flavors based on what you have. I currently have a vanilla cake mix and a can of peaches next to my extra diet soda, so that combination may happen this weekend.

It really does work. I am not lying to you here. The soda moistens the mix and produces a perfectly normally-textured cobbler or cake. I don’t think it would ever make a fudgy result, but a semi-fluffy, very moist result is pretty much certain.

This recipe is so easy, it’s barely a recipe, but here you go!

INGREDIENTS:

• 1 pumpkin cake mix
• 1 can apple pie filling
• 1 zero calorie canned cream soda (or root beer)
• Optional: raisins and walnuts, additional cinnamon and pumpkin pie spice, whipped cream

TO PREPARE:
Preheat the oven to 350
Generously grease a 9×9 baking pan
Pour in the apple filling.
In another bowl, mix the cake mix, soda, raisins/walnuts, and pour over the apples.
Sprinkle additional spices on top
Bake for 35-40 minutes, until a toothpick comes out clean

Serve with whipped cream and no guilt! I’m no nutritionist, but a similar recipe I found weighed in at 160 calories for 1/10 of the cake.

Healthy Peach Cheesecake Parfait

Spring has sprung! And may I just say, THANK GOD. I always get so excited for winter in November, and go crazy with soup, casseroles, cobblers, etc. But, by February I am ready for light, fresh, crunchy things!

It is also the perfect time for fruity, cool desserts! These are usually healthier than baked desserts to begin with, but the right ingredients can make them super skinny .

The best part about this one is the ingredients are mostly pantry-stored. As a college student, I cannot invest in fresh peaches that spoil in a couple of days. Using canned makes this so much easier; I can just whip it up whenever I feel like it!

And let’s face it, marshmallow cream and cheesecake pudding is a mouth-watering combination. Using sugar-free, fat-free pudding made with skim milk keeps the calories down and the flavor up.

Add some crunch with reduced-fat vanilla wafers or graham crackers, and you won’t miss out on any texture and flavor by missing out on fat and calories!
I really can’t sell these anymore. I will say, these are not sugar-free or keto or anything. They are simply a lower-calorie way to satisfy a sweet tooth.  Plus, they’re no-cook and can be made ahead.

Feel free to switch up the pudding flavors, fruits, a cookies! Chocolate pudding, strawberries and reduced-fat Oreos, vanilla with cinnamon graham and cherry. You can’t go wrong!

INGREDIENTS:

• 1 package instant sugar-free fat-free cheesecake pudding
• 2 cups skim milk (or whatever the mix calls for)
• 1 jar marshmallow cream
• 1 large can peaches packed in juice or syrup
• 1/2 cup sweetened, shredded coconut
• 2 cups crushed reduced-fat vanilla wafers or graham crackers
• fat-free whipped cream, for serving

TO PREPARE:

Mix the pudding and milk as directed by the package. Chill until set.

Fold in the marshmallow cream and chill for another 15 minutes.

In 4 mason jars, layer peaches, coconut, pudding, crackers, peaches, pudding, crackers, whipped cream. The order doesn’t matter that much, I only did this one to avoid direct pudding-to-cracker contact so they don’t get soggy.

These can be served immediately or chilled from the fridge!