Chocolate Peanut Butter Protein Frosty

I'm not going to pretend that this is low calorie. Not even remotely. BUT, that being said, it is super filling and I find that when I eat it for breakfast, I'm not hungry again for hours. And that can be a good thing. Because then I eat fewer calories throughout the day.  Think of this as a meal replacement shake.  Or two meal replacement shake!  Oh, and you should also know that it is delicious. I found the recipe in a runner's magazine and it's my favorite thing to drink after a long run. It's so filling and I feel like the protein is good for me. We can pretend, right?

Source: Laura Scudder
Serves: 2 (Or in my case, 1 really, really tall glass, all for me!)

1/2 cup chocolate soy milk (I use regular) or low fat chocolate milk
4 oz. chocolate whipped yogurt (I used 1/2 a container of Yoplait Chocolate Mousse)
1/3 cup chocolate protein drink (I never use this much... I found that 1/2 a scoop with the enclosed scoop of my protein powder was plenty)
2 Tbsp. peanut butter
ice cubes
cinnamon, for garnish

This is easy folks:
1. Combine everything in the blender and process until smooth and frosty. I usually just add enough ice cubes to get the right consistency... or enough to equal 2 cups.

2. Pour it into two tall cups and garnish with cinnamon, if desired.

Mini Potato Bites

OK, so this recipe was one of the first recipes I ever posted on here and they continue to be one of my all-time favorite appetizers.  But I'm reposting them because I'm afraid they're lost back there at the beginning of the blog and I finally have a picture of them!  I've never posted a picture before because they never last long enough to get one.  They're usually gone in an instant.  But I made them tonight for just me and my boys and insisted on a picture BEFORE they were allowed to touch them.  They're quick, easy, delicious and always popular. I  love these things.

1-1/2 lb. new (red) potatoes (about 10-15 potatoes--smaller ones work best)
4 oz. (1/2 of 8-oz. pkg.) Sour Cream and Chive Cream Cheese, softened (regular cream cheese will work in a pinch)
2 Tbsp. Sour Cream
2 Tbsp. Parmesan Cheese
4 slices Bacon, cooked, crumbled
2 Tbsp. snipped fresh chives
shredded cheese (optional)

1.  PLACE potatoes in large saucepan; add enough water to cover. Bring to boil. Reduce heat to medium-low; cook 15 min. or until potatoes are tender.

2.  MEANWHILE, mix cream cheese, sour cream and Parmesan cheese; cover. Refrigerate until ready to use.

3.  DRAIN potatoes. Cool slightly. Cut potatoes in half; cut small piece from bottom of each potato half so potato lies flat. Place on serving platter. Top each potato half with 1 tsp. of the cream cheese mixture. (I usually pipe the topping on, as I would frosting, for nicer presentation.)  Sprinkle with bacon and chives, and cheese if desired.

 I always like to pop mine back in the oven for a couple minutes to warm them up and melt the cheese on top.

Nutella Cupcakes with Triple Cream Cheese Frosting

I'm not one to try a whole lot of new recipes- I usually let Em try it first and then do it when she says it successful or not. But when I saw these on this blog, I couldn't stop drooling and was determined to try them myself! Not only did they look beautiful, but delicious as well...and better yet... made with NUTELLA! I love Nutella so much. It makes me happy. It makes baby happy too (or at least she kicks a lot when I eat it...)

This was one of the first cupcake recipes I've made from scratch (and despite the fact that I almost ruined them by completely forgetting to add the butter) and they were soooo good! Beware- this recipes makes 3 dozen cucpcakes- so don't make them unless you are really in the mood for nutella cupcakes or you have some friends to give them to.

Here's the recipe and I'm also linking the blog where she details how to do the tripple cream cheese frosting, swirled. She didn't list what size bags she used- but I used 3 12 in. disposable decorating bags and one big 18 in. bag. It worked great!

Chocolate Cupcakes with Nutella, Peanut Butter, and Vanilla Cream Cheese Frosting

For the Cupcakes:
2/3 cup Nutella
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 1/2 cups cake flour
1 1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
3/4 tsp salt
3 large eggs
1 1/2 cups sugar
3/4 cup butter, softened
2 1/2 cups buttermilk

Vanilla Cream Cheese Frosting
8 ounces cream cheese, softened to room temperature
5 tablespoons butter, softened to room temperature
1 pound powdered sugar (about 3 3/4 cups), sifted
2 teaspoons clear vanilla extract -only necessary if you want your cream cheese frosting to stay white

Nutella Cream Cheese Frosting
6 ounces cream cheese, softened to room temperature
2 tablespoons butter
1/2 cup Nutella
1 pound confectioners’ sugar (about 3 3/4 cups), sifted
1 teaspoons vanilla extract
black and brown food coloring, optional

Peanut Butter Cream Cheese Frosting
6 ounces cream cheese, softened to room temperature
2 tablespoons butter
1/2 cup Almond Butter or Peanut Butter
1 pound confectioners’ sugar (about 3 3/4 cups), sifted
1 teaspoons vanilla extract

For the Cupcakes
Line 3 dozen muffin cups with cupcake liners or grease using non-stick spray. Set aside. Preheat oven to 350 F.

In medium sized bowl, sift together flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder and salt. Set aside.

In a large bowl, beat the eggs and sugar for 5 minutes, until it is pale and thick. Add in the butter. don't forget the butter...I almost did. It would be sad to ruin 3 dozen cupcakes. ;) Mix until combined. Add in the nutella. Next add the buttermilk. Beat until well incorporated.

Add the flour mixture in 3 increments and beat until smooth. Divide batter into the cupcake tins. Bake for 25 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. Remove from oven and let cool completely before frosting.

For the Frostings
Cream the butter and cream cheese in medium sized bowl. Add the vanilla. Add the nutella or PB. Slowly incorporate the powdered sugar as you continue to cream. Scrape down the sides of the bowl. Beat on high speed until fluffy and smooth, adding milk or additional sugar (if needed) to reach desired consistency.

Once you have the three frostings ready, put each in a 12 in. decorating bag (ziplock bags won't work here- believe me- I tried it and it was a ROYAL disaster!) Then take a large 18 in. decorating bag and attach the coupling ring and the tip you'd like to use. Place all three frosting bags inside the large bag and begin piping. For more detailed instructions, see this post.

Seriously- these were sooooo good and I was so pleased with myself that I actually got the frosting to work right. And I love this nutella frosting so much, that I think I will use it again, and again and again...and maybe even just eat it plain. :)

Recipe source: Good Life Eats

Delicious Fruit Dip

Since being pregnant, my diet has gone from bad, to worse. It seems that all I crave now are cookies, brownies and donuts. At least you can't really tell how bad this is since I can cover it up with "I'm pregnant." Well every once in a while, I do get a craving for some fruit. But not just fruit- fruit with some kind of dip or yogurt or something. I am usually too lazy to make a dip, so yogurt suffices.

But now that the munchkin has been rather ill, I don't really want her to eat much other than fruit. So I cut up a bunch of fruit for her and then perused the web for a dip, for me. :)

I found this one on AllRecipes.com and it was good. But once I added a few things, it went from good to really good- Really good as in "having a little fruit with my dip" good.  So now I can have some fruit (healthy) and some dip (tasty, but not so healthy) to quench my need for "fluff".

I know it's super lame to only use half of a small instant pudding mix, but that's all it needs. If you use the whole package, you probably need to add more milk.

What you'll need:
half of a 3.4 oz. instant pudding mix - Vanilla, cheesecake, lemon etc.
4. oz. whipped topping
4 oz. cream cheese
1/2 c. powdered sugar
1/2 c. milk
3 oz. fruit yogurt- I used raspberry and it was delish
3-4 T. lemon juice

Combine all ingredients until blended well.  Served chilled and enjoy!

Perfectly Fluffy Pancakes

The Hubster is always asking me to make pancakes from scratch because he doesn't like how thick and heavy the ones from a mix turn out. He likes McDonald's pancakes- the ones that are fluffy but really flat. Leave it to him to like McDonald's better than homemade. Just to "show him"- I always make them from a mix anyways. Who wants to mix a bunch of ingredients when you could just add water!?

Well, since today was Valentine's Day, I finally gave in. I found a few different recipes on AllRecipes and compared ingredients and just mixed them up a little. Although these aren't the thin pancakes he wanted, they were really good. They weren't overly fluffy, but they were really light and airy. And in honor of Valentine's Day- I even made them heart-shaped. :) And to top it off, I got to use my stinkin' adorable new polka-dot plates! The pancakes tasted much better on the cute plates. ;)

So here ya go!

1 c. flour
1 T. sugar
2 t. baking powder
1/2 t. salt
3/4 c. milk
1 egg
1/4 c. oil

The directions say to mix the dry ingredients, then make a well in which you pour the wet ingredients, already mixed together. I didnt' do this- like I said- who wants to mix all these ingredients AND dirty two bowls!? I mixed the dry ingredients and then just added the wet, and they turned out scrumptious. Don't overmix though.

Enjoy! And Happy Valentine's Day!

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies

I'm not a huge fan of anything pumpkin, but I do like pumpkin cookies...IF they have chocolate chips in them...lots and lots of chocolate chips.  Well, I came across this recipe on MADE. I stalk her blog for crafting stuff, but this past Fall, she decided to do a bunch of posts with Pumpkin recipes. I've been looking for a good pumpkin choco chip cookie recipe for a long time and this one was perfect! It is a little different- seeing as how you don't use eggs (so it's also safe to eat the cookie dough...not sure I'd reccommend it, but you still could...if you wanted to) but very good!

So here it is:

Cookies (makes about 3 dozen cookies)
½ cup shortening
1 cup sugar
1 cup pumpkin puree
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 cups flour
¼ tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1 ½ cups semi-sweet chocolate chips

1. Preheat oven to 350. You can either grease your cookie sheets, or be lazy like me, and use parchment paper. :)
 
2. In medium bowl, cream the shortening and sugar. Stir in the pumpkin and vanilla.

3. In separate bowl, stir together the flour, salt, baking soda, baking powder, and cinnamon; stir into the creamed mixture.  

4.  Add your chocolate chips. 

5.  Drop dough on your cookie sheet and bake for about 10 minutes. 

NOTE- These cookie will maintain their shape in the oven, so however they look when you drop them on your cookie sheet is how they will look when they come out. This doesn't technically matter since you coat them with the most scrumptious cream cheese frosting...but just so you are aware. :)

Cream Cheese Frosting (makes enough for two batches of cookies)
1 8oz pkg cream cheese
½ cup butter
1 lb powdered sugar
1 tsp vanilla
dash of salt 


Mix together and frost your cookies!  Enjoy!
Sorry I forgot to take pics of them frosted- they didn't last long enough. :)

"Goulash" Soup

So I was in the mood for some Hungarian goulash the other night, but we were having a family "soup" night and so I needed to make a soup version of Goulash... I was just really craving that flavor. I adapted this from an existing goulash recipe and ended up loving it. Plus, it was super easy to throw together and even my kids ate it. It's a perfect fall stew.

1 lb. beef stew chunks (or ground beef)
8 oz. small pasta, such as macaroni, or shells
1 small onion
2 stalks of celery, sliced
1 clove garlic, minced
16 oz. mushrooms, sliced
1 can diced or stewed tomatoes
1 6 oz. can tomato paste
2 cans beef broth (or equivalent water with beef bouillon)
3/4 cup cream or half and half
1 cup sour cream
2 tsp. paprika
1 Tbsp. chili powder
1 Tbsp. Worcestershire sauce
salt to taste (I used about 3/4 tsp.)

1. In a large pot, cook noodles to al dente. Set aside.

2. While the noodles are cooking, in another large stockpot, on high heat, brown the beef and drain any excess fat.

3. Add the onions, garlic, celery, and mushrooms and saute until celery is tender crisp, about 5-6 minutes.

4. Add the tomatoes, beef broth, tomato paste, paprika, chili powder and salt and pepper. Bring to a boil and then simmer for about 30-60  minutes. (Or however long you'd like...)

5. Remove from heat and add noodles, cream and sour cream. Adjust spices as necessary.