I just made THE best dessert I have EVER made.

Homemade peanut butter cups?

Not quite.


Recipe coming soon!

Its snowing!

In Austin!
That means no school, which I'm actually not too happy about because I'd rather go to school instead of extend my school year another day. This also means that I couldn't go to the gym like I was planning to ):

The good news is that I got to sleep in a couple extra hours!
My dad took some snow pics, so there really wasn't much left for me to photograph so I'm just using some of his.

It never snows here, so this amount of snow is a huge deal!!

After I eventually woke up, I had one of my favorite breakfasts...the egg sandwich!

With a slice of jalapeno jack cheese, absolutely yummy. On the side I had my fave Greek yogurt w/blueberries and lemon curd combo so this breakfast was definitely up there on the yum scale. (If you're curious about my egg cooking method then take a look a this post.)
And for lunch I had a humongous Greek salad!

So big I had to mix it up in a huge Tupperware container :P
The salad includes:
*spinach
*romaine lettuce
*leftover chicken
*artichoke hearts
*blob of hummus
*feta cheese
*cucumber
*tomatoes
*dash of light sun dried tomato salad dressing
Super delish but so big.. had a hard time finishing it all!
For dessert I had a gingersnap cookie-

I made these yesterday because my mom wanted me to buy her gingersnap cookies at the grocery store and I was convinced I could make her some at home that were just as delicious. The kind we get is a good brand with a good list of ingredients (Sprouts brand) that really aren't too bad nutritionally as far as cookies go, but I really wanted to try out a unique recipe I found.

This recipe seemed unique because it had ingredients like black pepper, balsamic vinegar, and real bits of crystallized ginger that stood out compared to the other recipes I've seen. I halved it and changed it up a bit:

 Gingersnaps with Crystallized Ginger 

Yields: 26 cookies

Ingredients

1/4  cup  unsalted butter, at room temperature
3/4  cup granulated sugar, plus 1 to 2 tablespoons more for coating
1 large egg, beaten
1/4 cup  molasses
1/2  tablespoon  balsamic vinegar
1/2  teaspoon  pure vanilla extract
1 cup whole wheat pastry flour
1 cup + 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1/2  tablespoon  baking soda
1/4  teaspoon  salt
2  teaspoons  ground ginger
1/2  teaspoon  cinnamon
1/4  teaspoon  cloves
1/4  teaspoon  cardamom
1/4  teaspoon  freshly ground black pepper
1/4 cup crystallized ginger, chopped

Preparation

Heat oven to 375° F. Cream the butter and 3/4 cup sugar in a large bowl with an electric mixer on high speed. Lower to medium and add the egg, molasses, vinegar, and vanilla. Sift together the flour, baking soda, salt, ground ginger, cinnamon, cloves, cardamom, and pepper. With the mixer on low, slowly add the flour mixture to the butter mixture. Beat until incorporated. Fold in the crystallized ginger. Place dough on a sheet of plastic wrap and form into a log about 13 inches long and 1 1/2 inches in diameter. Wrap and chill for 2 hours. Slice the log into disks, 1/2 inch thick. Drop into the remaining sugar, and flip, giving it just a light coating. Place on a parchment lined baking sheet, 2 inches apart. Bake until crinkly around the edges, about 10 minutes. Let cool on sheets for 5 minutes, then transfer to wire racks.

 Mmm! I think these gingersnaps were a lot better than the kind we get at the store. I like my snaps with a little less snap and a little more chew so I made half cooked a little less and half cooked a little more so my mom could have her snappy ones and the rest of us could enjoy ones that are crunchy on the outside but still a little chewy on the inside. 

I did my calculations and these cookies came out to be a little less than 100 calories a cookie and unlike the Sprouts ones, these have the benefit of some whole wheat flour. I'm sure you could probably get away with all whole wheat flour since the flavors in this cookie are so prominent and I definitely want to try using Brummel & Brown butter to see if that works out. But since these cookies are already pretty low fat, it would only shave off around 10 calories and 1 gram of fat each. 

The bits of crystallized ginger are so good and add a great pop of gingery flavor; don't make these without them. Oh, and these cookies get even better with age!

***

Ever wonder what to do for dinner when you want something fast and healthy? A couple nights ago it was just me and my mom for dinner so we decided to make Mexican pizzas! 

I got the idea from Taco Bell's Mexican pizzas that I used to get all the time as a kid. I also used to get their Crunch Wrap Supreme, so this is kind of a mix between the two that is, of course, much healthier and not filled with their 36% actual beef "mixture".  I ate so bad as a child... I loved Taco Bell night, frozen pizza night, papa johns, and would put butter on EVERYTHING. Butter on rice, butter on pre-buttered popcorn, I even spread butter on my cinnamon frosted pop tarts!

Anyway, we had non fat "refried" black beans left over from the night before that gave me the idea. We get the Sante Fe Bean Co. brand that is super awesome. Its not canned, but comes in bags with flakes of dehydrated black beans. The only ingredients are "Black beans, salt." gotta love that! They're great because all you have to do is combine the flakes with some water on the stove and cook them for 5 minutes and you got yourself super tasty "refried" black beans :D

In case you're unfamiliar, a Taco Bell Mexican pizza has- Two crisp pizza shells filled with seasoned ground beef, hearty beans and then topped with pizza sauce, a blend of three real cheeses – cheddar, pepper jack and mozzarella – melted to perfection, and topped with diced ripe tomatoes.

 

and the Crunch Wrap Supreme has-A warm, soft, flour tortilla filled with seasoned beef, warm nacho cheese sauce, a crunchy tostada shell, reduced fat sour cream, lettuce and tomatoes and then wrapped up and grilled for maximum portability. (descriptions from their website)

We went with- a baked tostada shell topped with non fat refried black beans, hot chunky salsa, and a blend of sharp cheddar and habanero jack cheese toasted to perfection. Each tostada is then topped with chopped plum tomatoes, romaine lettuce, green onions, and a dab of Greek yogurt.

These tostadas are H-E-B brand and are baked instead of fried. They are a great canvas for a multitude of applications!

With salsa and Greek yogurt ("sour cream")-

And all the veg!

Here's mine (times three)-

Uh yeah, who needs the "beef" when you have this? Super fresh and satisfying. Taco Bells got nothing on me!

We also have Santa Fe Bean Co.'s non fat refried pinto beans so I plan to make some of that, add some seasonings, and use these tostada shells as dippers (just like their Pintos N' Cheese.. another one of my old favorites).

***

The other day I experimented with another store bought short cut that was on sale at Sprouts. Its the Simply Organic Alfredo mix.

The mix said to blend milk, 1 1/2 tablespoons of butter, and just a quarter cup of Parmesan cheese in with the mix to achieve alfredo-y goodness. My mom would only let me make this if I used white alfredo noodles because she said the whole wheat would be way too overpowering... pshhh whatevs. I decided to bulk up the pasta and add a little more flavor by adding steamed broccoli and grilled chicken that I marinated in a mixture of oil, vinegar, lemon juice, and Italian seasonings.  The sauce said it was enough to sauce 8 ounces uncooked noodles, but even with the extra add ins there was a little extra sauce!

Served with a spinach salad on the side-

So how did the sauce taste? Hmm it was alright.. it needed a sprinkling of pepper and some red chili flakes but was still kind of boring. Also the pasta was kind of cold, but that was my fault. Eh, I wouldn't get again but it definitely wasn't bad and it was almost all eaten by the three of us with only a little bit leftover. 

I really want to try this recipe that uses greek yogurt as the "creamy" agent and has chicken stock in it that I think would add more depth to the flavor. And I'll be using whole wheat fettuccine :P

And last night we had a quick-to-come-together dinner of veggie stir fry with grilled chicken that was marinated in a soy ginger sesame sauce. Served on top of quinoa (which I have missed soo much!!)-

I love,love,lovee quinoa. We used up the last of a bag of Costco frozen stir fry vegetable blend which was around 1/3 of the 5.5 pound bag. This stir fry was packed to the brim with veggies :D

And I'd just like to point out that I've hit many different cuisines in this post: Greek (salad), Chinese (stir fry), Mexican (pizzas), and Italian (Alfredo pasta)!

I love variety :D

***

And I thought this was funny so I wanted to share it with you guys. Someone in my neighborhood accidentally left the sprinklers on in just one small area where there is a couple bushes and the water froze overnight!

My dad and my dogs.

It wasn't icy anywhere else but in this small little area so it was quite a sight to drive by!

The bushes

The grass!

It was like a miniature winter wonderland :D

Cheesecake!

Hey guys! Everybody enjoying the weather?

I came across this lighter cheesecake recipe as I was browsing through Baking Bites' page the other day and was immediately inspired to try it out.
You see, I've made a couple cheesecakes in my lifetime, and they have only been sub-par. It's tough to make a healthier cheesecake when you don't have enough experience making much of anything. But now that I have become more experienced, I decided it was about time to tackle cheesecakes again.

This recipe is supposed to make a big, dense, New York style cheesecake that uses cottage cheese, greek yogurt, and neufchatel cream cheese instead of full fat cream cheese and (sometimes) sour cream. In order to achieve that nice, dense texture you strain the cream cheese and greek yogurt so it is less watery.

I decided to take a short cut and bought a graham cracker crust (this was before I made homemade graham crackers). I didn't want to buy overly expensive organic graham crackers (since the name brand stuff is full of things I would never consume) and then only use some of the package. Plus, I spotted this organic Arrowhead Mills graham cracker crust a couple of weeks ago that I really wanted to try out.
It has a great ingredient list:
organic evaporated cane juice, organic wheat flour, organic whole wheat flour, organic palm shortening, expeller pressed soybean oil, organic evaporated cane juice syrup, soy lecithin, organic corn starch, salt, baking soda, natural flavors.

Okay, so maybe buying a premade crust kind of opposes my "too expensive organic graham crackers" argument, but I just really wanted to try this crust out!

Obviously there's a difference between a 9-inch pie dish and a 9-inch spring form pan that I completely forgot about when skimming through the recipe...woops!
Anyways, everything was going well and I followed the recipe exactly (except let the greek yogurt/cottage mixture drain for longer, about an hour and a half) until I noticed that my food processor was eerily close to overflowing because there was so much filling. Hmmm did I follow the recipe correctly? Yes...How is this going to fit into my pie dish?
I filled my pie crust to the brim with filling and still had over half leftover!! I then followed her directions for cooking the pie, which ended up burning the crust and leaving a big crack in the middle because I was using the completely incorrect pan. *sigh*
After it had cooled completely, I covered the cheesecake with a frozen berry blend (cooked on the stove with a little sugar) to cover up the unsightly crack.

Not the prettiest, but it's all about the taste!
I cut it into 8 slices...

Ohhhh yeah...looking better by the second!

The verdict?
SO AMAZING!!!! The texture was off the charts! The is by far the best cheesecake I've ever had-low fat and full fat alike!! I would have never guessed there was cottage cheese in this at all and the crust was amazing too! The best part about this recipe? It calls for a tablespoon of lemon zest so obviously I was in love with the lemon-berry combo. If I ever wanted to do a more decadent cheesecake (with something like chocolate and caramel sauce, or a chocolate crust) then all I have to do is omit the lemon zest! I love how cheesecakes are like blank canvases.

What to do with the extra filling? Why, make another cheesecake, of course!
This time with a homemade graham cracker crust (with homemade graham crackers) and in a pan that would actually fit the rest of the filling. I used a 10-inch spring form pan, so the cheesecake was thinner then my first one, but a lot wider.
I ended up following directions on the side of the spring form pan's box for cheesecake that said to cook it at 375 for 40-50 minutes until it only slightly jiggles in the middle, then turn off the oven and leave it there till it has cooled. This way the cheesecake isn't exposed to super cold air all of the sudden and prevents it from cracking.
Yay, my first cheesecake I've made that didn't crack!!

This time topped with a fresh blueberry sauce that I made the same way I made the first one.

Sliced up..

Mmm...
This cheesecake was even slightly better than the first because the filling had a lot of time to mix and mingle in the fridge. Also, since I cooked it right, the texture was absolutely perfect. The crust turned out great. It was a mixture of 1 1/2 cups graham cracker crumbs, 1/4 cup melted Brummel and Brown, and two tablespoons of sugar that I prebaked for 10 minutes at 375 before putting the filling it.

I can't wait to make this recipe again, as one big cheesecake in my spring form pan! Guys, you MUST make this recipe!!
***
I finally ran out of my homemade chocolate hazelnut butter, so I decided it was about time I made chocolate almond butter! This time I made it less sweet and added some salt.
2 cups freshly roasted almonds
1/4 cup-1/3 cup powdered sugar
2-3 tablespoons coconut oil
1/4 cup cocoa powder
1/4 teaspoon (or a little more) salt
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
Process almonds until you've reached the butter stage, add the rest of the ingredients adding the oil in a slow stream while processing.

It fit perfectly in this jar!

Yumm..this was surprisingly pretty smooth as far as homemade nut butters go! It wasn't as chocolaty as my chocolate hazelnut butter, but I think that's because I used normal cocoa powder instead of dark cocoa powder. Either way, its still super yummy and addicting. So far no oil separation issues, either!

I also recently made ginger cinnamon swirl bread!! I used this recipe for ginger applesauce bread I found. I made the small 1 pound loaf and used a different combination of flours then what it stated using 1 cup white whole wheat flour, 1/2 cup bread flour, and 1/2 cup graham flour. Instead of cooking it up in the bread machine, I put it on the dough cycle and rolled it out into a rectangle slightly longer than my bread pan. I sprinkled a mixture of 2 tablespoons sugar and 1/2 tablespoon cinnamon over the top and rolled the whole thing up, folding the long ends into the bottom. I let it rise for a little over an hour (and it rose very well)-

Just a one-pound loaf!

 and then baked it at 350 for about 20-30 minutes (I wasn't really looking at the time).

Ta-da! I brushed it with a little butter to give it that nice shine. This loaf was so light!

Cute swirl!

Okay so I definitely needed more swirl, so next time I will probably double the filling.  The taste and consistency was like that of a cinnamon roll, especially spread with a little cream cheese...

I spread one slice with cream cheese and ginger jam, soft and pillowy (holy yum) and the other I toasted and spread with chocolate almond butter, delectably crispy, with pops of cinnamon in each bite.
I can't wait to make this again!! Next time I could try raisins in the swirl, or do a chocolate swirl instead...ah! So many possibilities... I need more ideas!
Any help? :D

What do you do when you finally run out of lemon curd?

You make some!  I finally got up to making my own lemon curd and just so happened to come by this recipe over at Baking Bites when I wasn't even looking for a lemon curd recipe yet!
Obviously what caught my eye was the fact that it was low fat lemon curd. The only fat in this recipe is from the egg.
I thought that surely there had to be a big difference between a lemon curd made with butter and a lemon curd made without, and there was a difference. I'll get to that later...
Here's what you need to make your own lemon curd-
1/3 cup fresh lemon juice
2 teaspoons lemon zest
1/4 cup sugar (original called for one more tablespoon of sugar)
1 egg (room temperature)
1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract (original recipe called for 1/2 teaspoon)

First combine the lemon juice, sugar, and lemon zest in a small saucepan over medium heat and stir until all the sugar has dissolved.

On the side, whisk an egg thoroughly.

Then add sugar mixture in a steady stream whilst continually whisking the egg.

Add this mixture back to the sauce pan through a sieve.

And cook on low heat until its thickened up to your liking! (but a little less thick than to your liking because it will thicken even more as it cools.)

The original recipe said to wait till it came to boil, but mine never did and just continued to get thicker and thicker so I cut it off right around here._^
Then, take the pan off the heat and add  the vanilla extract. I didn't add as much as the original because I wanted the curd to keep it's tang.
Mine made about 1/3 cup.

After I put it in the(empty store bought lemon curd)  jar I added a dash of water to it because I think it got a little too thick on me.
I sampled the last smudge of the store bought lemon curd and then my lemon curd to compare the two. Wow! The low fat lemon curd actually tastes better! I did a blind taste test on my dad to see what he thought and he picked mine as the clear winner. After tasting the two side-by-side, it was clear that the store bought lemon curd's lemony flavor was clouded by the butter flavor that didn't really add much of anything, but actually took away. The low fat one is so intensely lemony!! I can't wait to try other curds, like lime curd or grapefruit curd..is there even such a thing?
I utilized my homemade lemon curd on a batch of lemon blueberry muffins that I wanted to make for my friend. She came over when I still had my first batch, tried one of them, and couldn't stop raving over them! When I told her they were fat free and whole wheat she exclaimed "how is that even possible? These are amazing!!"
I love those types of reactions :D
So I made her a batch to enjoy (and kept one for myself...for quality control, ya know...) sans the almonds cause she's semi-allergic.

Close up of the homemade lemon curd!

That looks like a swimming pool of good eats that I would love to just dive right into :P

I was in a "make food" mood, and my plans got canceled for the day, so I decided I would make my other friend mock girl scout cookies for her birthday that was a couple days ago. Her favorite are the Lemonades but I decided to go with her second favorite, Caramel de-Lites. Mostly because the Caramel de-Lites sounded more fun, and also because I couldn't find any recipes for Lemonades (and I was all lemoned out at the point!)
I used another recipe from Baking Bites! Nicole had a whole list of mock girl scout cookie recipes (I most definitely bookmarked the Thin Mints! Totally making those soon.) including the famed Caramel de-Lites. Though time consuming, I went with it anyway and just did a couple shorts cuts.

The cookie recipe is comprised of a shortbread base, caramel/coconut topping, and chocolate drizzle and dunk.
Since I didn't have a normal round cookie cutter ( I know, who am I?!) I just went the simple route and rolled the dough into balls and flattened them to around 1/4 inch thick. Unfortunately, they turned out pretty thin. Too thin to dunk in chocolate, so I went with plan B. I sandwiched the cookies and added a chocolate layer in between, then added the coconut topping. Everything was smooth sailing from there besides the fact that my coconut caramel mixture needed a lot more milk then called for. A slight drizzle of dark chocolate and these babies were done!

They may not completely resemble Samoas, but they're in the ballpark!

A flaky, buttery cookie sandwiched in between dark chocolate, topped with toasted coconut and caramel and then drizzled with more dark chocolate. Is your mouth watering yet?
I saved one for each of my family members to try and they absolutely loved them, which is always a good sign, but the real person to please was of course the friend I was giving them to.
Lets just say that 24 hours after I gave them to her, she told me she ate them all and couldn't stop because they were that good! Is that not incentive enough to head on over to Baking Bites and try out this recipe yourself? :D
***
The last thing I made on my day of free time was graham crackers! Well actually, I made the graham cracker dough only, because it has to sit in the fridge over night. I then made the actual graham crackers the day after.
I used this recipe from All Recipes because it seemed to have pretty good reviews and had a low butter to flour ratio (which I like).  I read reviews saying they were kind of bland but those were the minority, so I ignored them and went with the many reviews that raved them.
I followed this recipe exactly except I used butter instead of margarine (and you can bet I'll be trying Brummel & Brown next time!) whole wheat pastry flour instead of AP flour, and Graham flour instead of whole wheat flour. I figured that if I actually had graham flour that I had to use it in a graham cracker recipe! I also ended up adding 1/4 teaspoon of salt because I noticed the recipe called for none.
Here they are, all baked up!

Eh, I wasn't trying to be exact. But some turned out super purdy!

Some of them I rolled too thin, so you want to watch out for that (because then it turns into a wafer, not a cracker) and a few were a bit too thick and didn't cook at the same time as the rest of them. Consistency is key!
Next time I will probably add 1/2 or maybe even 3/4 teaspoon of salt and a teaspoon of cinnamon because these were a bit bland. I do really like them, but they don't really taste like graham crackers from the store. I couldn't stop eating them, though!
And of course I had to try them out in the classic s'more combo..

The easy way, with toasted marshmallow fluff and nutella. A little too sweet for me(because of the nutella), but it definitely brought back memories of good ol' s'mores. I tried another with dark chocolate chips melted a bit in the microwave that tasted even better.
When's the last time you had a real s'more with actual toasted marshmallows by the fire?