I love frozen yogurt.  On Fridays, my husband and I like to go to Tutti Frutti’s. It’s this awesome frozen yogurt place that has done a really good business here in Fargo. We now have 3 of them in the area. They change the flavors everyday and it gets really hard to decide which one to go to. I love topping my yogurt with fresh fruit. For some reason though, we have yet to figure out why they have a tip jar when it’s a self serve place.

I think I finally figured out a good base recipe for frozen yogurt. I used 2 cups of greek yogurt, Choboni by the way. Plain yogurt just doesn’t cut it and, it isn’t thick enough to be the way I like it. I boiled about a cup and 1/2 of fruit with 1/4 cup of sugar and put the fruit and sugar in the food processor with the yogurt to make it smooth. Watch out Tutti Frutti’s there’s going to be a new frozen yogurt place in town. I want to try different flavors. We just had frozen berries on hand.

Servings: 4

Points Plus: 4

Ingredients

1 1/2 cups of frozen mixed berries (thawed)
2 cups of greek yogurt (I used Chobani)
2 tsp fresh lime juice
1/4 cup sugar

Directions:

In a small sauce pan, bring the sugar and fruit to a boil for 5 minutes. Cool Completely.

Combine greek yogurt and fruit in a food processor until blended and let chill over night. A long with your ice cream
maker attachment.

The next day, poor the yogurt into a mixture and let the ice cream maker do it’s majic. You’ll
have thick creamy yogurt in no time.

I’ve been fascinated with caramelized onions lately ever since I tried that fig, proscuitto and caramelized onion pizza in Minneapolis the last time I was there with my family. The technique is pretty simple and makes onions taste so good. Just cook some onions in a pan over medium/low heat for about 10 minutes until they’re almost see through. They will eventually start to brown and turn all golden yumminess on the outside.

I love french onion dip that you can find in the dairy aisle. They’re good with pretty much any kind of chip. These onions tasted so sweet in this dip and I don’t think I’ll ever go back to buying the store bought stuff again.This recipe makes about 2 1/2 cups of dip which I figured it out to be about 15 servings. 2 tablespoons each per serving. The only thing I changed about this recipe was using 2 teaspoons of olive oil instead of 2 tablespoons.

Ingredients from Simply Recipes

2 Tbsp olive oil
4 cups chopped yellow onions (from about 2-3 onions)
1 teaspoon brown sugar
2 Tbsp balsamic vinegar
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
1 cup sour cream
1/2 cup mayonnaise
1/4 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
1/4 teaspoon garlic powder

1. Heat olive oil in a large, thick-bottomed deep pot (I used a 5-quart Dutch oven) on medium high heat. Add the chopped onions and cook until translucent and starting to color, about 10 minutes. If at any point during the cooking of the onions they start to dry out, add a tablespoon of water to the pot. Stir in the brown sugar, balsamic, salt, and pepper. Lower the heat and cook gently, uncovered, for about 25 to 30 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the onions are nicely caramelized. Then set aside. (You can caramelize the onions up to 2 days ahead and chill until you make the dip.) Let cool a bit before adding to the other ingredients.

2. In a medium bowl, mix together the sour cream and mayonnaise (a rubber spatula works well for this). Stir in the caramelized onions. Sprinkle with garlic salt and stir to incorporate. Stir in the Worcestershire sauce.

3. Chill until ready to serve. Serve with potato chips.

It’s been awhile since I’ve tried anything from Martha Stewart’s magazine. I’ve been getting 2 versions of each issue lately, because I got a subscription as a gift for my bridal shower. (Already had one version before that.) This dish was easy to make, since I had everything in the kitchen.  I love shrimp and I buy mine frozen at Sam’s Club. I was expecting this shrimp to be really spicy, since it had cayenne pepper and curry in it, but I think the curry powder kind of balanced the spice out. The shrimp was even better with some cilantro and lime on it. Look how pretty it looks on a white plate.

Ingredients

3/4 teaspoon coarse salt
3/4 teaspoon smoked paprika
1/2 teaspoon cumin
1/2 teaspoon curry powder
1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1/8 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 1/4 pound large shrimp, peeled and deveined
1 tablespoon unsalted butter
chopped cilantro

Directions

1. Combine salt, paprika, cumin, curry powder, cayenne, and cinnamon. Sprinkle over shrimp and toss to combine.

2. In a large skllet, melt butter over medium-high. Add shrimp and cook, stiring occasionally, until opague throughout, 3 to 5 minutes. Serve shrimp with cilantro, lime wedges, naan, and yogurt if desired.

179 calories, 6 grams of fat, 29 g protein, 2 g of carbs, 0 g fiber

I don’t know if you’d really call it a recipe, just an idea. Take two tortillas and slice up a banana. Add about a tablespoon of mini chocolate chips and a tablespoon of brown sugar. Top it with some fat free cool whip and you’ve got yourself a dessert quesadilla. We normally have bananas in our pantry (great source of potassium) and chocolate chips. It didn’t take long to make this either. It was kind of hard to flip though.

This was really easy to make lighter. Just omit the butter and use cooking spray. I also like to use those high fiber low carb tortillas, the ones for 2 points each. I think the ones for only a point are too small. Got this idea from watching Paula Dean’s show this weekend. It’s so good, and I want to try it with some nutella.

Servings: 2 (cut in half)
Points Plus 4

Ingredients:

1 High Fiber Low Carb Tortilla (smart & delicious) I like the the big ones for 2 points.
1 tablespoon of mini chocolate chips
1 tablespoon of brown sugar
1 large banana
cooking spray

Directions:

Heat a non stick skillet on medium high heat. While the skillet is heating cut up your banana. Spray the skillet with non stick cooking spray and layer your bananas on half of the tortilla. Then the chocolate chips and brown sugar. Fold the tortilla and wait for each side to brown.

This is my first time trying quinoa. I was first interested in quinoa when I was searching for foods that were high in potassium. High potassium foods can help with blood pressure. One cup of quinoa has 1,258 mg of potassium! That’s a lot. I made this salad last night and I’m going to have some with some salmon tonight for supper. Yum. Quinoa tasted like rice if you’re curious as to what it tastes like.   I got this tri-colored quinoa from Trader Joe’s.

I wanted something tex/mex today since it’s Cinco de Mayo, and Food Network had on a bunch of shows about that this morning. This was one of them and it’s from Giada. I’m not a really big fan of Giada for certain reasons but I’ll watch her to get some inspiration since I love pasta. Ben won’t eat it because it has cilantro in it, and I think it’s best served as a cold salad. Thanks Giada, for a good quinoa recipe.

Servings: about 12 (makes  a lot with 1 cup and 1/2 of quinoa)

I used about 1/4 cup of quinoa per serving. Also subbed corn instead of hominy.

Points Plus: 4

Ingredients

Quinoa:

1 1/2 cups quinoa
2 cups low-sodium chicken broth
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
Zest of 1 large lemon

Dressing:

1/4 cup grapeseed oil
3 tablespoons agave nectar
2 tablespoons fresh lime juice (from about 2 large limes)
1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar
1 tablespoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
Two 15-ounce cans hominy, rinsed and drained
One 15-ounce can black beans, rinsed and drained
1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 head butter lettuce, leaves separated

Directions

For the quinoa: In a 2-quart saucepan, bring the quinoa, chicken broth, salt and lemon zest to a boil over medium-high heat. Reduce the heat, cover the pot and simmer until the liquid has been absorbed and the quinoa is tender, about 20 minutes. Remove the pan from the heat and allow to rest for 10 minutes.

For the dressing: In a small bowl, whisk together the grapeseed oil, agave, lime juice, vinegar, cumin, salt and pepper until smooth.

In a serving bowl, combine the quinoa, hominy, black beans and cilantro. Add the dressing and toss until coated. Season with salt and pepper. Spoon into the lettuce leaves and serve.

Fresh strawberries are in season right now and the ones I picked up at the grocery store this weekend were ginormous! I’ve been eying this strawberry cake that’s been on pinterest lately. This cake is very moist and delicious even without the whole stick of butter it called for. If I ever make this cake again, which I probably will… I’d add a lot more strawberries than what the cake called for. This cake would be good even with rhubarb in it which I have plenty of that in my garden right now. This cake used to be 469 calories and 16 grams of fat per serving with all that butter. I got it down to 191 calories  and 4.7 grams of fat per serving and made the slices a little bit smaller.

I like to experiment with baking and see how much butter I can get rid of in a recipe and still have it taste good. Some recipes call for 2 or 3 sticks of butter sometimes, and lately I’ve been getting away with only using 4 tablespoons of butter. I still think baked goods need at least some kind of fat in them whether it’s butter or oil. Otherwise, they just don’t seem to taste right using real healthy ingredients ya know?

Recipe adapted from Food.com
Servings: 15

Points Plus: 5

Ingredients

1/4 cup of butter, softened
1 cup of sugar
3 eggs
3 tablespoons of lemon juice
1 lemon zested
2 1/2 cups of all purpose flour
1 /2 teaspoons of baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
8 oz of plain fat free greek yogurt
12 oz of fresh strawberries

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 325*. Grease and flour a 10 inch Bundt pan. Sift together the 2 ¼ cups of flour, baking soda and salt. Mix in the lemon zest and set aside.
2. With an electric mixer, cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in the eggs one at a time, then stir in 1 Tb. lemon juice. Alternate beating in the flour mixture and the yogurt, mixing just until incorporated.
3. Toss the strawberries with the remaining ¼ cup of flour. Gently mix them into the batter.
4. Pour the batter into the Bundt pan. Bake in the preheated oven for 60 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean.

The first time making these peanut butter and jelly bars it didn’t turn out so well. That’s because I was experimenting with the dough. I thought I could mix together the flour with the butter and peanut butter and have it be a short bread type crust. That didn’t turn out so well. Instead it was a big crumbly mess.

The second time, I creamed the butter and the sugar together first. That worked a lot better. Hey, we all learn from our mistakes an sometimes, for some reason I like to mention them on this blog. Bet you all get a kick out of that. Oh yah, I also wrote this blog post after drinking a manhatten. This was inspired by Ina Garten’s Peanut Butter and Jelly Bars too. Try them if you love peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.

Servings: 12 bars
Points Plus: 5
If using with Better N Peanut Butter it’d be 4. Not sure about Pb2. Couldn’t find that on the Weight Watchers site.

Ingredients

1/4 cup of butter
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup of peanut butter
1 cups of flour
1/2 cup of flour
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 egg
3/4 cup of your favorite jelly
1 teaspoon of baking soda

Directions:

Mix together butter and sugar until soft and creamy. Add in peanut butter and vanilla. Next add in all the dry ingredients and the egg at the very end. You can add the dry ingredients into a seperate bowl
if you wish but they’ll come together eventually.

Layer about 3/4 of the dough mixture on to the bottom of the pan. I used an 8 X 8 pan. Next spread the jelly on top of the dough, and then sprinkle on the remaining dough. Bake at 350 degrees for 25 minutes.

I saw this pasta recipe and started to figure out the nutrition info for it and didn’t like the amount of carbs that were in it. It was pretty scary. I was thinking of ways to make it a little more carb friendlier so it became soup. Chicken florentine is basically chicken, pasta, spinach and tomatoes. Sounds good doesn’t it? Ben asked me if I added in the pesto and I wish I would have now. That would have given it even more flavor. I know it’s almost summer time, but it doesn’t hurt to have soup every now and then. Especially when fresh produce is becoming more available.

I went to Minneapolis this weekend to visit my brother. It turns out he’s a pretty good cook. He made this shrimp dish which he still has to give me the recipe for. It had 4 heads of garlic in it. We went to this place called Mozza Mia and they had the best pizza there. I bought all the ingredients I needed to make this fig, caramelized onion and prosciutto pizza. Plan on seeing that post sometime later on this week. That bowl in the picture came from Pottery Barn too. The plate underneath it, I want to find a plate holder for it to hang up in my kitchen.

Servings: 6

Points Plus: 6

calories: 219, Fat 6.2, Protein: 23.7, Carbs: 17.1, Fiber: 2.4

Ingredients from Oxmoor House

1/2 cup uncooked ditalini (very short tube-shaped macaroni)
1 1/4 pounds skinless, boneless chicken thighs, chopped
3 cups fat-free, less-sodium chicken broth
1 cup water
1 (14.5-ounce) can diced tomatoes with basil, garlic, and oregano
1 (6-ounce) package fresh baby spinach
2 tablespoons commercial pesto
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
Grated fresh Parmesan cheese (optional)

Preparation

1. Cook pasta according to package directions, omitting salt and fat. Set aside.

2. While pasta cooks, combine chicken, broth, and water in a large Dutch oven. Cover and bring to a boil. Reduce heat, and simmer 3 minutes or until chicken is cooked. Remove chicken with a slotted spoon; keep warm. Stir in tomatoes; cook 1 minute or until thoroughly heated. Stir in spinach; cook 2 minutes or until spinach wilts. Add cooked chicken and pasta to pan; cook 1 minute or until thoroughly heated. Stir in pesto and pepper. Ladle soup evenly into 6 bowls, and sprinkle with Parmesan cheese, if desired.

I’ve never made anything with vanilla beans before. Thought they were too expensive to begin with. My friend wanted to place an order for some online and I asked if I could order some too.  The smell was almost intoxicating when opening up the package. The vanilla beans smelled way better than vanilla extract. They’re kind of hard to work with, and you should have a really sharp knife.

I wanted to make vanilla ice cream. The real stuff, with heavy whipping cream, egg yolks, and half and half. Perfect ingredients for an expensive spice! Wouldn’t you say so? My search for vanilla bean ice cream ended when binging (yes I Bing) and there was a recipe for vanilla bean ice cream at my favorite food blog: the Pioneer Woman. Woohoo, this ice cream did not disappoint either.

The first time I tried making this with my ice cream machine the mixture didn’t get cold enough, and I had to wait another day. Then when the ice cream finally was ready it had to set for another day. Booo, it was well worth the wait though. So rich and creamy.You know, I like to try the full fat on version of something before I like to try to and make it lighter. So, even though this may have 6,000 calories per serving be on the look out for a lighter version later on down the road.

I’ve been really obsessed with the sky lightly. I took this picture of Venus and Crescent moon last night. Been trying to get a shot of the Northern Lights lately and on Tuesday I missed a chance. They’ve been really active around where I live for the last couple of nights. Last night was cloudy though.

Recipe from the Pioneer Woman

Ingredients

1 whole Vanilla Bean, Split And Scraped
3 cups Half-and-half
2 cups Sugar
8 whole (up To 9) Large Egg Yolks
3 cups Heavy Cream

Preparation Instructions

Heat half-and-half and 2 cups sugar in a saucepan over low heat, adding vanilla “caviar” to the mixture. (You can also drop in the scraped vanilla bean, just to extract all the flavor. Make sure to discard the bean before moving to the next step.) Turn off heat when mixture is totally heated.

Beat egg yolks by hand or with an electric mixer until yolks are pale yellow and slightly thick. Temper the egg yolks by slowly drizzling into the 1 1/2 cups of hot half-and-half mixture, whisking constantly. After that, pour the egg yolk/half-and-half mixture into the pan containing the rest of the half-and-half mixture. Cook over low to medium-low heat (depending on how hot your stove gets) until quite thick, stirring constantly. Drain custard using a fine mesh strainer, then pour into a bowl with the heavy cream. Stir to combine.

Chill mixture completely, then freeze in an ice cream maker until thick. Place container in freezer to harden for at least eight hours.

You know what, I’m starting to like the Cooking Channel a lot better. They actually post pictures a long with their recipes un-like the Food Network. There are still a few of my favorites on the Food Network though, like Ina Garten and the Pioneer Woman. I was watching Bobby Flay make this on his show one morning (Brunch with Bobby or something like that) and it looked so good. He made this a long with some peach muffins, a breakfast burrito, and a smoothie that I also have to try to try. I had all the ingredients on hand so I decided this would be my dinner on Sunday night. Ben didn’t want to try and he just had a plain old waffle instead of this yummy sandwich.

I made this waffle batter and they turned out great with the corn meal. Never tried making a waffle batter with that stuff before. I came up with about 7 waffles. On Bobby’s show he used two waffles to make the sandwich and I thought that would have been way too much, so I just used one waffle and cut it down the middle. The mustard/maple syrup was good over the bacon and cheddar cheese. I tried to figure out this recipe the best I could to make it lighter but to heck it with it. Did you know there’s a such thing as low sodium bacon and cheese too? (for those of us who like to watch how much sodium we intake) Who would have thought. This waffle sandwich was the bomb.

Servings: 6 (I used only 1 waffle to make the sandwich, 1% milk instead of buttermilk, and 2% cheddar cheese)

Points Plus: 9

Ingredients
Recipe adapted from Bobby Flay

1 cup white cornmeal
1 cup all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
2 cups buttermilk
5 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons pure maple syrup
2 large eggs
Nonstick cooking spray
2 tablespoons Dijon mustard
1 1/4 cup grated sharp Cheddar
6 slices bacon, cooked until crisp
Special equipment: a waffle iron

Directions
Preheat the oven to 300 degrees F.

Whisk together the cornmeal, flour, baking powder and baking soda in a medium bowl. Whisk together the buttermilk, butter, 1/4 cup of the maple syrup and eggs in a medium bowl until combined. Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients, and stir until just combined.

Heat a waffle iron according to the manufacturer’s directions. Spray the grates of the waffle iron with nonstick cooking spray. Use a scant 1/2 cup of the batter per grid, close the cover and cook until golden brown or when the steam stops emerging from the waffle iron, about 4 minutes. Repeat with remaining batter. The recipe will make 6 waffles.

Meanwhile, whisk together the Dijon mustard and the remaining 2 tablespoons of the maple syrup in a small bowl.

Place 3 waffles on a large baking sheet in a single layer and spread some of the mustard over the tops of each waffle. Sprinkle the cheese evenly over the top. Place in the oven until the cheese has melted.

Arrange one-third of the bacon slices on the cheesy waffles and drizzle with a little more of the Dijon mustard mixture. Top with the reserved 3 waffles. Slice on the diagonal and serve warm.