Strawberry Nutella Pie

Happy June! I was called out by not 1, not 2, but FOUR people this weekend about not posting... and only ONE of those four was my mom. Just saying.

If I gave you a slice of this strawberry nutella pie would you forgive me?

Thought so.

It's a good thing I decided to make up a new recipe out of nowhere tonight. Perfect blog fodder. Not that you're looking for posts from me anymore. Maybe I should explain. We had much going on this past 1/2 year that caused a lack of posting. The thing that caused the most rukus it seems was a got a new job. Seriously awesome opportunity and great people! However the schedule is a bit more jam packed and when I get home at night all I want to do is chill with the husband and Hobbes.

Trail hike anyone?

So that brings up back to this pie. This deliciously gloriously easy to make pie. Horror of horrors I realized too late I was at the bottom of my jar of nutella, so next time I'll be adding a bit more of the sweet stuff, both to the inside and the top of this pie. But for the mean time, this hit just the spot.



Strawberry Nutella Pie
recipe by steph chows

1 pre-made graham cracker crust
4oz fat free cream cheese
2- 6oz containers fat free strawberry yogurt
2 Tbs nutella
4oz fat free cool whip thawed
6 large strawberries sliced
chocolate sauce to drizzle (or just use more nutella)

Beat cream cheese yogurt and nutella until smooth. Fold in cool whip and scoop into the graham cracker crust. Top with sliced strawberries and chocolate sauce.



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Raspberry Linzer torte- and a giveaway

My Aunt Carol makes a bazillion cookies every year for Christmas. What is my all time favorite that she makes?

Yup, she let me have her recipe. And what do I do? I make it healthier, because I have a problem. My newest problem is realizing I can't control myself around linzer torte. Even though it's healthier, it's still not healthy for you. Yet somehow I kept saying, oh it's ok to have another square... and the next thing I knew 1/2 the torte was gone. WHOOPS.

Seriously. Amazing. I can't stop eating it. This can be served sliced like a cake, but she always cut them into little squares so I followed suit here.

Instead of using 1/2 POUND of butter, I used a 1/2 CUP of Melt. It's an organic butter substitute that uses healthy for you fats (think coconut butter). It gave the torte an amazing texture and this thing was so super delicious, I can't help myself... must go eat more...

Want to win your own Melt giveaway pack! (coupons to try melt for FREE, a cutting board, and a cool spreader). Just comment below and tell me what flavor you'd like to try first. US entries only, you have until Sunday Oct 6th to enter. Wow, when did October get here??

Linzer Torte- healthier
recipe adapted from Aunt Carol

1/2 cup Melt Original
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
1/2 tsp lemon powder (or 2 Tbs lemon zest)
1 cup whole wheat flour
3/4 cup ground walnuts
1 tsp baking powder
2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp cloves
1/4 tsp salt
1 cup raspberry jam

Preheat oven to 350, lightly spray a 8" springform pan. Beat melt and sugar together until light and fluffy. Add eggs one at a time, beating each in. In a separate bowl mix together flour, lemon, walnuts and spices, salt, baking powder. Mix dry into wet and stir until incorporated. Place 2/3 of the batter into the spring form pan. Top with 1 cup raspberry jam, and then remainder of the dough. Bake for 50-60 minutes or until edges start to pull away from pan. Fully cool and then cut into bite sized squares.


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Going bananas

I go through a ton of bananas in a week. I eat one in a green monster every morning, and John brings one to work most days. In reality it's pretty easy math to figure out how many we need in the week... but somehow we end up eating more or less, and when it's less... you end up with brown overripe bananas. And there is only so much banana bread one feels like eating. So instead of bread this past week, I made cookies. Delicious amazingly soft and chewy hot out of the oven cookies.

Here's the bad part, they were only ehhh once they cooled off. SAD. I'd make them again, but plan on less... or having people over to gobble them up. Because out of the oven they tasty buttery and gooey and decadent. The next day, they taste... kinda bland, and ehh texture. But based on how tasty they were hot I had to share this recipe and not just scrap it.

Do you have recipes where things taste great day 1, but not so great day 2?

Banana chocolate chip cookies
recipe by steph chows
dry
1 cup whole wheat flour
1 cup oats (old fashioned)
1 tsp baking soda
dash of salt
1 tsp cinnamon
2 Tbs flax

wet
1 large ripe banana (mashed)
1/3 cup brown sugar packed
1/2 cup apple sauce
1 tsp vanilla

3/4 cup chocolate chips

In a small bowl mix together dry ingredients. In a medium bowl beat together wet ingredients. Add dry and gentle stir, add in chocolate chips and stir until everything is incorporated. Drop heaping tablespoons on a silicon mat lined baking sheet and bake at 350 for 10-12 minutes. Eat warm with a tall glass of milk.

Use dark chocolate chips and serve with a non dairy milk to make these vegan.



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Salad Toppers - and a giveaway

Giveaway Closed: Congrats to Katie! I will be emailing you!

I tend to eat salads more when I'm out then at home. Why? Because I'm lazy. No really I am. I'll bake up all types of things that take forever but ask me to chop up individual veggies and toppings for a salad, and I run the other way. You can imagine I was pretty excited when Lean Cuisine asked me if I wanted to try their new Salad Additions line. UMM YES PLEASE!


The box comes with three things inside. A steamable pouch filled with veggies and protein. A pouch of dressing. And a pouch of crunchy deliciousness.

Step 1: Place the pouch of frozen salad dressing into a glass of room temperature water to thaw.
Step 2: Place the veggie/protein bag in the microwave and cook 3 minutes (then let sit 3 minutes)
Step 3: Get out your favorite salad greens (I buy the triple washed field green/spinach mix). Top with the veggies/protein, crunchies, and dressing.

They weren't at all stingy on the dressing (and it was super tasty! can you say bacon spiked??), I could have easily added twice as many greens and still had enough to go around. The chicken strips were surprisingly tender (I was expecting chewy since it was frozen and microwaved so I was super excited about their texture). The veggies weren't over cooked either, no mushy veggies in sight! The onion crunchies were a flavor packed addition that gave it a nice crunch.

Overall I give these an A, I'd totally buy them to leave at work for a quick healthy option. I will admit I was still a bit hungry after it but I'm also a bottomless pit. Paired with a bowl of soup this would be a perfect lunch for me.

Want a chance to try yourself? Leave a comment hear telling me which variety (Asian-Style Chicken Salad, Bistro Chicken Salad, Cranberry & Chicken Salad, Southwest-Style Chicken Salad) you'd like to try! Winner will be picked by random.org

PS if you haven't already make sure to also enter my 5 year blogiversary giveaway here!

Salad additions provided to me by Lean Cuisine, opinions are all mine.




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Amazeballs sweet potato soup

Amazeballs is totally a word right? Sorry people using google translate that probably makes zero sense. Basically I took amazing and balls and made it a word, hopefully that makes more sense, no? Sorry! :) Anyway John for years has told me he doesn't like soup... then in the past month he's eaten soup at 1) thanksgiving 2) multiple restaurants, and 3) LOVED IT. So he has been asking for soup lately, most recently he asked for some yellow sweet potato soup. Yup there are yellow sweet potatoes, they sell them near the orange ones. I'm sure you could sub in the orange ones but I highly recommend trying this with the yellow ones! According to Wegmans they come from NJ! Yeah Jersey! So they must be good right? ( I grew up there, hence the fanfare).

It may not look the most appetizing but man is it flavorful. I need to make more. Seriously, I'm in love, John is too. Feel free to add more chicken stock (or veggie stock to make this vegan) if you want a thinner soup. I tend to like them thick and hearty! Perfect after you come in for a nice long snowshoe and look like this:

Yellow sweet potato soup
recipe by steph chows
olive oil (enough to lightly cover bottom of pot- less than 1 Tbs)
3-4 medium yellow sweet potatoes (2lbs -ish)
1 large sweet onion (about 1/2 lb)
5-6 garlic cloves
1 tsp jojo potato seasoning (ingredient list: garlic, paprika, salt, rosemary, black pepper, basil, parsley, oregano)
1/2 tsp Hot chili powder (more or less to your spice level)
4 cups low sodium chicken stock (or veggie stock to make this vegan)
sea salt and pepper to taste

I used a food processor with a grater attachment to make quick work of this. Heat large soup pot, drizzle in olive oil. Grate garlic and onion and simmer in pot until lightly brown. Grate sweet potatoes whole (leave skin on). Add grated potatoes and spices to onion mixture and stir. Add stock and cover, let simmer for 20 minutes. Using an immersion blender (or a regular blender in small batches) blend until smooth. Serve warm with crusty bread.




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Aloic

We always had an aloe plant in the house growing up. Burn yourself taking a tray of cookies out of the oven? No problem *snap* put some of this on it. We never however tried eating or drinking it... maybe we should have?


The wonderful people at Aloic asked if they could send me a bottle of their aloe drink to try. Aloe... to drink? Hmmm I fully admit this isn't something I would have on a whim grabbed off the shelf, but I was willing to give it a try. Organic, 60 calories a serving, only 11 grams of sugar (surprising since it's rather sweet tasting), and no artificial colors or preservatives. There are a ton of health benefits listed on their website here. Drinking it alone was tasty, although if you are adverse to pulp in your drinks you might want to skip this one. After drinking a bottle on its own I decided to get creative and use it in my morning green monster smoothies. It ads a lot more sweetness than the milk I normally use so I had to cut down on the banana so it wasn't overpoweringly sweet. Definitely a healthy tasty way to start your day!

Aloe green monster
1 cup Aloic aloe very drink
1 cup kale torn into small pieces (stem removed)
1/2 banana
1/2 cup ice

In a high power blender blend Aloic and kale until smooth, add in banana and ice and blend until incorporated, serve imediatly


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Fat Free Pumpkin Muffins

It's fall, I love fall. John and I keep taking random hikes and drives into the country. I mean how could you stay inside when it looks like this out?


Secondly how could you stay inside when this furface is along for the ride?

Love it.

Fall always brings the need to involve pumpkin into things, who am I kidding, I bake with it all year long. But there is an even stronger pull when the leaves start to fall. So I went back and revisited my old pumpkin muffin recipe, the old one was always hearty and maybe a bit too heavy. This time I have a lighter airier version for you. And with an entire 15oz can of pumpkin to boot.

Bring. It. On.


Pumpkin Muffin
recipe by steph chows
makes 12 muffins

1 cup whole wheat flour
3/4 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoon baking powder
dash salt
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 15oz can canned pumpkin puree
3/4 cup splenda (or white sugar)
1/4 cup light brown sugar
2 eggs
1/2 cup skim milk


In a medium bowl mix together flours, baking powder, salt, and cinnamon. Set aside.
In a large bowl whisk together pumpkin sugars and eggs.
Gradually add flour mixture to wet, alternating with 1/2 cup skim milk.
Pour into greased muffin tins and bake in a preheated oven a 350 for 23 minutes or until tester comes out clean.


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New Look- and healthy scotcheroos

You may have noticed things are looking a bit different around here... I'm still working out all the kinks so please excuse the mess or random moving of things that may be happening. Anything you like? Don't like? Please let me know, I don't want to scare you all away with my crazy need to redesign things :)

Tell you what how about you have a healthed up scotcheroo to tide you over? I was so very excited when I came across this recipe. John's sister makes these and he secretly loves them, but hates how horribly bad they are for you. Enter in these:

YUMMMM!!!! Now I'm not saying they are super health food or anything, but they don't have any butter or oil, and they use maple and brown rice syrup to sweeten them, add in brown rice crispies and we're golden right!??

If you're allergic to peanuts just sub in some nutella or sunbutter (unless you're allergic to those too... if that's the case, don't do that.)


Scotcheroos: [no bake, high protein, GF, vegan]
(makes 9 large treats) recipe by: Chockohlawtay

150g (5 cups) Crispy Brown Rice Cereal
48g (1/2 cup) Old Fashioned Rolled Oats (gluten free if you like)
13g (2 tbs) Ground Flaxseed
1/8 tsp Salt

168g (1/2 cup) Brown Rice Syrup
128g (1/2 cup) Natural Peanut Butter (no sugar/salt/oil added)
42g (2 tbs) Pure Maple Syrup
1 tsp Butterscotch Extract
64g (2 scoops) Vanilla Protein Powder

4oz Unsweetened Chocolate, chopped (or dark chocolate)
84g (1/4 cup) Pure Maple Syrup

Directions:
1. Line a brownie pan with parchment paper both ways.
2. In a large bowl, stir together the cereal, oats, flax and salt.
3. In a large microwave-safe bowl, stir together the rice syrup, peanut butter, maple syrup and butterscotch extract (not the protein powder yet!). Microwave at 30-second intervals, stirring between each one, until mixture is runny. Stir in the protein powder one spoonful at a time. Scoop this mixture over the dry ingredients and fold together. Scoop into the prepared pan and flatten.
4. Add the chocolate to a small microwave-safe bowl and microwave at 30-second intervals, stirring between each one, until melted. Stir in the maple syrup (it should look like a frosting). Scoop this over the krispy treats and spread to the edges, trying to make the surface somewhat flat. Refrigerate for ~30 minutes, flatten the surface with a pastry roller or a cylinder object (like a mug). Slice and serve!

CHOW!!!

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Who wants tomatoes!? Giveaway

What's for dinner? We don't want the same old thing we have every week... and I'm hungry so get moving fast... and make it healthy I ate too much thanksgiving day chow last week.

Sound familiar? Don't worry, with a little help from Red Pack and the recipe below we'll have something healthy and delicious on the table in 30 minutes flat. Is that what you were looking for? :) Oh and if you leave a comment below you'll be entered to receive a fun care package from Red Pack filled with all kinds of goodies! (more info below)

Armed with 6 varieties of canned tomatoes (thanks you red gold!) I started thinking up what exactly we should have for dinner last night. I was craving some carbs in the form of whole wheat pasta, so it was a pretty easy decision to make my own sauce and bake up some zitti. Don't go thinking carbs are all bad for you either, just get a whole grain variety and making your own sauce is the sure fire way to a healthy dinner. This way you know EXACTLY what's going into your meal... no random sugar, or excessive fat here, just straight up fresh tomatoes, a little seasoning, a few more veggies, and DONE!

Using what we had on hand I went with some vegetarian "ground beef", which really takes on the texture of real beef when you put it in pasta sauce! (Bonus, it's low in fat and high in protein so it fills you up). I started with one medium onion and 3 gloves garlic (chopped) with some olive oil in a heavy bottom pan (heat the pan first!). Then added in the "ground beef" and toss everything until it is nice and browned. Next pour in 1 can of seasoned diced tomatoes (basil, garlic and oregano, seriously even more of a time saver!) and 1 can of tomato puree (no blender needed here!). I added in some black pepper, a dash of red hot (if you don't put red hot in add a little salt to taste), and a drizzle of red wine vinegar. I let this simmer for 10 minutes and it was good to go! See, easy.

While you're doing all of the above boil a pound of small shaped whole wheat pasta until desired done-ness, I'm an al-dente kinda gal how about you? Drain the pasta and toss it in with your sauce along with a handful (or two) of part skim shredded mozzarella, and some grated parmigiana cheese. Now here's the tricky part... how hungry are you really? If you're starving, serve it up now and you're done. If you can still wait a little, toss your concoction in the oven (make sure your pot is oven proof) and bake for 20-30 minutes at 350, or until the top is nice and browned. Baked or not this thing is delicious.

Truth time: I can never wait and bake it, we always just end up eating it right away! Can you wait or are you impatient like us?


Now for the giveaway. US entries only (sorry my international peeps). To enter leave a comment below telling me what your favorite thing to make with canned tomatoes is. Additional entries if you tweet or FB about it. (leave separate comments to let me know you did). (example text: Want to win some @RedGoldTomatoes with @steph_chows enter at stephchows.blogspot.com ) You have until Monday the 12th to enter.


Sponsored by Red Pack

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Slaw

The first thing I think of when I have a head of cabbage in the house is coleslaw. I'm not a fan of cooked cabbage but serve it be me raw and I'm on board! Our household isn't a big mayo fan so we do a spicier route.

Celery carrots, red peppers, cabbage, red onion, apple cider vinegar, italian dressing, red hot, celery seeds, honey... the amounts... not a clue since John is the maker of this badboy in our house :)



He's also the one who "styled" the photo since tastespotting keeps rejecting me for composition... John said if he did it they would accept it... will keep you updated :)
What's your favorite way to serve up some slaw?

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Green Monster

We're not talking about a green eyed monster here, we're talking about green monster smoothies!! I first heard about them on Oh She Glows and was scared. VERY SCARED.

I closed my eyes and down it went... I waited for the grassy disgusting taste to hit me in the face... but it never did. Opening one eye at a time I did indeed drink the green monster, but it didn't taste green? It actually just tasted pretty darn good! I've been against trying one of these for what feels like years now but I finally decided to try it for the better of my body. I'll explain more tomorrow, I was sent a book to review and although I went into it 100% skeptical it kinda got me thinking... and changing up a few things... enter in the green monster. Tune in tomorrow(here) to hear more about it :) But for now... go try a green monster, you actually just taste the sweet of banana and milk, nothing green or grassy about it. Believe me, I was TOTALLY skeptical about these, but John and I have been drinking them every day the past few days and loving them. We've tried adding some different berries/ nut butters as mix-ins too. Delicious!



I never would have guessed John would be drinking one of these with me, but I'm glad he is, if I'm going to be staying healthy and living a long time, he sure as hell better be along for the ride with me :)

Have you tried a version of the green monster? Think you will now? If you want to come over I'll make you one to try :)


Green Monster
Recipe via oh she glows
makes enough for 2 people

2 cups baby organic spinach
1 cup milk of choice (we used fat free milk but I want to give it a go with almond milk soon)
1 Tbs ground flax seeds
1 banana
ice

Layer in a blender, spinach, then flax, then banana, then milk. Blend until spinach is totally liquefied. Add ice and blend some more. Drink immediately, if you let it sit it will separate into layers and then it looks weird.

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Summer

Even though it's September and the kids are back in school I still felt the need to make this very summer style salad. I've been eating it as a side dish, on sandwiches as the main event.. pretty much on everything, it's just that good!


Delicious and simple as simple can be: tomato, thinly sliced cucumber, crumbled feta, a splash of red wine vinegar, and a little seasoning in the form of oregano and black pepper. Perfection.

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Frozen no bake Brownie Balls

Sounds good right? Considering Monday I posted about mashed potatoes and someone equated them to looking like a pile of poo... I figured I might as well post these bad boys. Although amazingly delicious and seriously addicting, John has lovingly nicknamed them poo balls. Yes folks I just went there. I know I should be talking about such things on a food blog... but seriously as pretty as I tried to dress them up...


Yeah they're poo balls.

Don't be discouraged though, these are oh so very very addicting. I found the recipe over at Cooking al(a) Mel and made them within a day. (her's look less poo like... why is that???)

Brownie Dough Bites
recipe from Cooking al(a) Mel

1/2 cup cashews (I nixed the walnuts and used 3/4 cup cashews instead)
1 cup Medjool dates, pitted
2 T cocoa
1/2 t vanilla
1 T maple syrup or agave nectar (I've used both)
1/4 t salt (I used a little less)
1/4 cup chocolate chips
1/4 cup unsweetened coconut
1/4 cup chopped walnuts

In a food processor, grind the cashews and walnuts until they are fine crumbs. Add in the dates and pulse until chunky. Add the cocoa, vanilla, maple syrup, salt and coconut. Pulse until well blended and a dough forms. Stir in the chocolate chips or pulse them in for finer pieces. Roll into bite sized balls and place in an airtight container in the freezer!

PS> I sent out jam exchange partners last night so if you think you signed up and you didn't get an email from me comment below and then email me at stephchows (at) gmail.com too please!

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Xyla and cookies

Happy Monday! Did everyone have a good weekend/ Easter / Passover? What did you all do to celebrate?

Recently I was asked if I'd like to give a product called Xyla a try. I'd never heard of it so let me explain a little to start. "Xylitol is an all natural sugarless sweetener from birch trees. It's the same sweetness and consistency as sugar and is completely natural. Many people call it birch sugar. However it has 40% fewer calories, 75% fewer carbs, and is safe for diabetics. Xylitol also has a laundry list of health benefits like cavity prevention, and much more."

I was very interested in giving this all natural sweetener a try. As you can see it really does look like sugar, and it acts like it when you cream it with butter, or mix it with other ingredients (something that doesn't always happen with some alternative sweeteners).

I first whipped up a batch of those whole wheat chocolate chip cookies that we've been loving up at our house. They came out great subbing Xyla for the white sugar in the recipe!

Next a made a batch of those PB cupcakes I told you about on Friday. Again, amazing! In all truth it's making me question my go to "fake" sweetener... hmmmmm

Other things that make me question what I buy... a sweet deal!

Now here's the fun part. First they are offering us a 10% off coupon if you want to go try some. Just use the coupon code: FIRST It will takes 10% off any order at www.emeraldforestxylitol.com

But an even better deal is this one: "We are giving away the first 5,000 bags (of Xyla) at no charge. All you have to do is add $20 of products to your cart online, and a complimentary 1lb bag of Xylitol will appear in your cart immediately - no charge - no coupon required. That's an $8 value at no charge." So if you were planning on give some products a try, go check it out!

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Honey Oat Bread

Dear Bread,

I'm still madly in love with you. Why do we go so long without seeing each other... I want to see you everyday and run through fields of daisies together...
Love steph chows

In all truth, if I let myself, I'd probably bake a loaf of bread 3 times a week... and I'd probably weigh a good 20 lbs more than I do right now. Who we kidding, it would be more like 5 times a week and 50 lbs. It's a good thing I have at least a tiny bit of self restraint... Not once the bread is made though, all bets are off and I'm eating half the loaf... but self restraint in allowing myself to bake said bread. As my dad always said "you've got to pick and choose your battles" I think he said this after discovering I had unstapled and torn up the carpeting in my bedroom... and I was surprised I wasn't getting yelled at for said spur of the moment redecorating session. Oh come on you know you did something similar to your parents.. spill it :)

Back to the love of my life, bread, I mean John... Hi honey! This Honey Oat Bread was hanging out over at the Baking Barrister, and if she said it was tasty, I knew it had to be, that girl knows what she's talking about. Her loaf is much prettier than mine.. and she remembered to do the egg wash with oats on top for added flair... I forgot... cause I'm awesome like that.


The other ironic thing is she warned she used too large of a loaf pan, so I haphazardly grabbed the smaller of my two loaf pans and figured i was good to go... nope, it was still too big. Score another one for me being awesome.

So if you actually follow the directions this will look like sandwich bread. The only change I made was using 1/2 whole wheat and 1/2 all purpose flour. Otherwise I stuck to the recipe.

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