Banana "Soft-Serve"

I love soft-serve ice cream, and have been known to drive around to find it (Hi, Mom!!).  I found a new blog the other day called EightyTwenty.  It's written by a registered dietitian/personal trainer who shares 80% healthy recipes, and 20% "just plain good" recipes.  I stumbled across her recipe for banana creme and had to try it out.  The link to her recipe is above.  What follows is my steps in recreating her recipe.

Ingredients:  Bananas, milk  (That's it, really!)  I used 3 ripe bananas and 1 Tbsp. milk  (made 4 small servings).  A little serving is satisfying...it gives you the texture of soft-serve ice cream with a ingredient list you can feel good about.

1.  Lightly grease a baking dish and place banana chunks inside.  Leave a little space between each chunk.  Place in freezer for 2 hours.  I left it in there for 6 hours.

2.  Puree the bananas for 2-3 minutes.  (The original recipe uses a food processor to puree the banana, but I used  my immersion blender.)  

 About 1 minute in...you can still see some banana chunks and the puree beginning to form.

3.  Scrape the sides and add milk. (I used 1 Tbsp of milk instead of the original 3).

4.  Enjoy!!

Yum!  My plain banana "soft-serve".

 Serge's bowl....with chocolate chips and a cherry!

He says he's trying it with peanut butter mixed in next time.

Southwestern Chicken Soup

I must be crazy, I know.  Making soup in the summer time.  I don't know what it is about soup, but I just love cooking it.  It might be all the chopping (which I love), or maybe its the way it makes your house smell like garlic (at least in my case), or maybe it's the way that soup just soothes the soul.  I decided to take a twist on my chicken noodle soup recipe and make it southwestern.  I hope you enjoy!  And I won't think you're crazy if you wait until winter to make it. :)

You will need: 

 Frozen chicken tenderloins, 1 can of black beans, 1 carton of reduced sodium chicken broth, 1/2 can of corn, 1/2 red onion, 1 zucchini, 3 garlic cloves,  roma tomatoes (for garnish), and carrots.

1.  I oven roasted the chicken while I started chopping my veggies.  I have learned some knife skills through Pioneer Woman's site, and by watching Food Network.  I've taken some photos of my chopping, in case you're interested.

2.  First, peel the carrots, then cut off the top and bottom.  I used 5 carrots, because we like carrots over here. I would say they are Serge's favorite vegetable.

This is a step by step picture.  (Imagine a little number 1 next to the first carrot, 

a 2 next to the 2 halves, etc).First I cut the carrot in half, then cut each half in half.  Now the carrot is in quarters.  Then I line up the carrot quarters horizontally and slice them vertically.  Voila!  Diced carrots.  

3. Next, dice 1/2 of an onion. I owe all my knife skills on this one to Pioneer Woman.  Seriously, check out her site!  It's amazing. 

 First,  slice the onion vertically.  I usually follow the ridges already on the onion.  Start about 3/4 of the way towards the root of the onion.  You want to keep the onion together for now.

 Next, starting at the cut side, make horizontal cuts about 3/4 of the way towards the root of the onion.  Again, you want to keep it together for now.

 This is 4 horizontal cuts.  See how a little grid is starting to form?

Last, starting at the cut side, slice down from the top of the onion and 

you will have a nice pile of diced onions.  Now, wasn't that easy??  

Keep slicing until you reach 3/4 of the way back where you  stopped  your grid earlier.

4. Add olive oil to a large pot and let it heat up over medium heat.  Add  onions and carrots.

.

5. Add spices to make it southwestern:  coarse salt, pepper, cumin, chili powder and cayenne pepper.  Make it as spicy as your family likes.

6. When the carrots and onions became tender (after about 5 minutes), add in pressed garlic.  I added 3 cloves.  This only needs a minute or two to soften.  Don't let it burn!!  Trust me on this.

I wish you guys could've smelled my house at this point.

7.  Add the carton of low-sodium chicken broth. I like to use low-sodium broth so I can control how much salt is going into the soup

8.  Once the broth comes to a boil, add the zucchini.  To prepare the zucchini, I lop off the top and bottom.

 This is another step by step picture.  The top is one half of the zucchini.  

The middle and bottom pictures are the other half: the middle shows (the half of a half) a quarter of the zucchini and the bottom picture shows the other quarter cut in half (or 2/8 of the zucchini).

You should end up with 8 zucchini sticks

 I have found that the seedy middle of a zucchini can get mushy when put in soup, so I tend to seed the zucchini.  I start on the side of the seed line closest to the green skin, and then cut down at an angle.  You should still have a nice fleshy stick of zucchini to work with.

Then, I line up the zucchini sticks horizontally and slice them vertically.

Here's a shot of the zucchini added to the boiling broth, carrots, onion, garlic and spices.

9 .Once the zucchini is tender, turn down the heat to low. 

10. Add  your can of rinsed black beans.

 11.  Add 1/2 can of corn.

 13.  Add shredded chicken.  I used 3 tenderloins which was about a cup of shredded chicken.

14.  Let all the ingredients simmer together for 5-10 minutes.

15.  Enjoy!

I added diced tomatoes, and salsa to my soup, and accompanied it with some "Flat-Out" chips I baked while the soup was simmering.  This soup is spicy, flavorful, healthy and filling. 

Flourless Chocolate Cake

So, I don't know if you're like me, but sometimes, I just need something sweet.  By nature, I am much more of a savory food person.  If given the choice between chips and ice cream, 99% of the time I'll choose chips....but there's that 1% where I just need a sweet treat!  Serge and I are really trying to eat healthier these days, so this evening I baked a flourless chocolate cake.

I used a recipe from allrecipes,.  To make it a little more "me" I used splenda instead of sugar, and chocolate chips instead of chopped chocolate.  I love to bake, but this was my first attempt with a flourless cake.  This recipe was easy to follow and yielded a great result!

 Flourless Chocolate Cake

1.  Preheat oven to 300 degrees.

2.  Grease an 8 inch cake pan and then dust it with cocoa powder.

3.  Place 1 stick of butter and 4 oz of chocolate chips inside a glass bowl and put on top of a sauce pan of simmering water.  (Make sure the bottom of the glass bowl does not touch the simmering water).

4.  Melt chocolate and butter completely.

5.  When melted, stir in 3 eggs, beaten, 1/2 cup of cocoa powder, 3/4 cup of splenda, and 1 tsp. vanilla.

6.  Pour batter into prepared cake pan and bake for 30 minutes.

7.  Remove pan from oven and let cool for 10 minutes.  Then, flip onto a cooling rack.

By this point, we were salivating over this delicious looking treat.  

I skipped the cooling rack, and flipped it onto a plate.

8.  Enjoy!!  

I served mine with fresh strawberry slices and vanilla yogurt.

This cake is dense, moist and rich.  A little goes a long way!

Magic Fairy Wands

Today was my smart, beautiful and loving niece Emma's 7th birthday party.    In honor of her "Rainbow Fairies" party, I made some magic fairy wands for her and her friends.

I used Paula Deen's recipe for "Animal-shaped sugar cookies" from her cookbook, Paula Deen & Friends:  Living It Up, Southern Style, and added my own little twist.

You will need:

1 Cup (2 sticks) of butter at room temperature, 2/3 cup sugar, 1 egg, 1 tsp vanilla, 2 1/2 cups of sifted flour (plus more for dusting work surface), 1/2 tsp salt (not pictured above....sorry!)

1.  Using an electric mixer on medium speed, cream the butter and sugar.

2.  Beat in the egg and vanilla.

After adding in the egg.  

This is my homage to Pioneer Woman and her excellent photography skills. :)

3.  In a separate bowl, combine the flour and salt , then stir into the butter mixture with a wooden spoon.

 I add in about this much flour and then start stirring.  This is an arm workout...so I feel like it balances out some of the sugar and butter you will eat later. ;)

 It will look like this when it is all mixed together.  If you noticed my ring in the upper left corner, I often take my rings off when I bake, so I can work the dough by hand if needed.

4.  Cover the dough with plastic wrap and chill for 30 minutes.  You can also chill during this time....you've earned it after that stirring workout!

5.  Preheat the oven to 350 and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

6.  On a floured board, roll out the dough to 1/4 inch thickness and cut into shapes with cookie cutters.  

A picture of my floured "board".  I LOVE this pastry mat from Pampered Chef.  Sorry, no pictures of my rolled dough or cookie cutting, my hands were too busy and messy.

7.  Place the cookies on the prepared cookie sheet and bake for 8-9 minutes , until the edges are just beginning to brown.  Transfer to a wire rack to cool.

Here's where I went rogue.  I cut out a star shape from the dough and then stuck a lollipop stick into each cookie.  If the stick pokes through the dough, I just pinch the dough back together.  In a few extreme punctures I rolled  a little extra dough into a thin strip and placed it on top of the exposed stick.

Here is one fresh out of the oven, chilling on the wire rack.  

Now, for my favorite part....Decorating!!

I used a simple powdered sugar icing recipe (powdered sugar and water) and dyed it yellow.  Then I added sprinkles in rainbow colors to go with the party theme.  Here are some examples.

And a special one for the birthday girl!

When I got to my sister's house I packaged each wand in a cellophane bag and tied it with ribbons.

 

Happy Birthday, sweet girl!!  

With love, Aunt Carrie

Healthy Favorite

One of my current favorites.....a healthy and tasty smoothie.  Substitute or add your family's favorite fruits or fruit juice (in place of milk).

Cast of Characters:

Yogurt,  frozen strawberries, frozen mango, milk and spinach (yes, spinach)

1.  Add between 1/4 cup and 1/2 cup yogurt

Today, I used fat-free vanilla, but I often use fat-free plain.

2.  Add between 1/4 cup and 1/2 cup milk

 Sometimes, I use orange juice, it gives the smoothie a nice, tart flavor.   Oh, and I realize this is more than 1/2 cup, I had to finish off the milk jug. :)

3.  Add 1/2 of a mango, frozen, and about 1/2 cup frozen strawberries. 

I dice up fresh mango when I find it on sale and freeze about half of a mango in each bag.  Sometimes I use mixed berries in place of the strawberries.  

4. Add about 1/4 cup of spinach.  

 I like to tear off the leaves into small/medium sized pieces because sometimes the stems don't blend well.  Who wants to get a stem caught up in their straw??  I know spinach seems weird in this recipe, but trust me on this one.  It doesn't affect the taste, it just adds extra nutrients.  Don't believe me??  This recipe is Serge approved.   He asked what the little green flecks were about halfway through his first spinach smoothie. :)  Shout out to my sister, Kelli, for passing on this little nutrient boost!

 Now, for one of my favorite kitchen appliances, the immersion blender!! 

 You might notice that we have a thing for white Kitchenaid appliances in our house. 

Although I would be open to other fun colors like this......

or this.....

Hint, hint, Serge! ;)

Back to the smoothie.....

5.  Blend the ingredients together by slowly pushing the immersion blender into ingredients until you reach the bottom.

 This is about 3/4 of the way done....see the pretty green flecks?

 6.  Now, pour the smoothie into your favorite glass and enjoy!

Oh, and Go Gators!!