Category Archives: sweets

High Protein Granola Balls

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High Protein Granola Balls 1 - My Daughter and I

So this was our first attempt at making some delicious and nutritious trail food. Since we are leaving on an 8 day backpacking trip in just 66 days (but who’s counting). We thought we’d better get cracking. You can read a bit more about our upcoming trip here.

This recipe was a combination of many recipes we found, along with extra ingredients we had on hand. It turned out great. Calorie and nutrition dense, it seems perfect to schlep around in our packs. However, I think the shape is bad. Next time we will try it in an 8″ square pan and then cut it into packable, smashable squares. This is not a low calorie recipe. It is meant to have maximum calorie/protein/sugar punch in a small package!

High Protein Granola Balls 2 - My Daughter and I

High protein granola balls
1 cup old fashioned oats
1/2 cup chunky peanut butter, or any nut butter you have on hand
1/3 cup honey
1/3 cup coconut flakes
1/3 cup mini chocolate chips
1/3 cup peanut butter chips ( this made the balls pretty sweet)
1/4 cup slivered almonds, chopped a bit
1/4 cup sunflower seeds
1/4 cup dates, chopped
1 – 2 T chia seeds
1 – 2 T wheat germ
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 – 1 tsp cinnamon

Mix peanut butter, honey and vanilla together. Add in the rest of the ingredients and mix well.

Using a cookie scoop form into balls, using damp hands to form further. Put onto a cookie sheet or plastic container. We put ours into the refrigerator for the time being. Can stay at room temperature. They should keep for about a week.

Cindy

Meltaway Cookies

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Meltaways 1 - My Daughter and I

How was your Easter? Ours was great- we went to a wonderful sunrise church service and then had a great early dinner with some friends. In between those two events, I whipped up these delicious cookies. The recipe is very unusual and only calls for four ingredients. I definitely had my doubts as I was making them. I knew I had an apple pie and also two creamy yogurt pies, just in case these failed miserably. However, they turned out great and they were so light and buttery. Everybody loved them! Like the name states – they meltaway!

I think these cookies would be great to serve at a baby or bridal shower. They are a bit delicate, so don’t try to mail them to anyone! I kept the frosting white, but I thought that they would be beautiful with pastel blue frosting and those mini pearl cookie decorations. How ever you decide to make them, they will be delicious.

Meltaways 2 - My Daughter and I

Meltaways
1 cup butter, softened
3/4 cup cornstarch
3/4 cup powdered sugar
1 cup flour

Cream butter until fluffy. Add cornstarch and powdered sugar and mix well. Beat in flour until thoroughly combined. Drop by small scoops onto baking sheet and flatten out with the bottom of a glass. (Dip glass in powdered sugar to prevent sticking). Bake at 350* for 10 – 12 minutes. Cool on wire rack and frost with cream cheese frosting, recipe listed below.

Cream cheese frosting
3 ounces cream cheese, softened
1 cup powdered sugar
1/2 tsp. vanilla

Mix all ingredients together. Color with food coloring, if desired.

Using our cookie scoop, this recipe only yielded 21 cookies. You could make them smaller.

Cindy

Springtime Creamy Yogurt Pie

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springtime yogurt pie 1

Are you still putting together your Easter menu? This pie would be a great addition. It’s very light and probably pretty low calorie. After a big meal, this would be a nice light dessert option. I loved the springy colors too. I made this last weekend and got requests to make it again for Easter.

springtime yogurt pie 2

This original recipe came from A Taste of Home and I got it from my friend Jeannette. When she made it, she did the lime variety and also a lemon. I made the lime and then decided to try orange. You can do any flavor that sounds good to you, you just need to modify the recipe. I thought strawberry with some fresh strawberries would be good too. The directions from the original recipe said to refrigerate the pie but when I had it, Jeanette froze the pie and then let it defrost a bit before serving. I liked that, so that is what I did. You can play around with the recipe a bit and see how you like it best. You can whip this pie up in less than 5 minutes, but just allow enough time for it to set, either in the refrigerator or the freezer, allow for several hours. If you freeze it, just allow it to soften a bit before serving.

The recipe below is for one lime pie. You can modify the flavors any way that sounds good to you. You could choose nonfat or light varieties of the Yoplait yogurt and the Cool Whip, if you’d like.

Happy Easter!

Creamy Yogurt Pie
1 graham cracker pie crust
1 3 ounce box Jello Gelatin, lime flavor
12 ounces of yogurt (2- 6 oz. containers) I used Yoplait Key Lime
1 8 ounce container Cool Whip

Pour the yogurt into a medium sized bowl and add the Jello. Mix well. Fold in the entire container of Cool Whip and mix completely. Spread into graham cracker crust. That’s it! Freeze or refrigerate for several hours. Enjoy!

Easter Breakfast Casserole

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easter breakfast casserole 1

Easter is such a great holiday and such a wonderful time of year! We often go to a sunrise church service and by the time we get home, we are all ready for a delicious breakfast. This breakfast casserole is so simple and delicious and we all love it! At Christmas time, this recipe was our most popular post ever and I can understand why.

You mix the casserole up and leave it in the refrigerator overnight and then pop it in the oven the next morning. We serve ours with fruit and either muffins or cinnamon rolls. Listed below are a few of our favorite breakfast sweets. Enjoy your Easter!

easter breakfast casserole 2 edited

 

1./ Blueberry Muffins 2./ Fresh Blackberry & Lemon Cake  3./ Apple Crisp Muffins

easter breakfast line-up

 

Easter Breakfast Casserole

4 cups of shredded hash brown potatoes, thawed
10 eggs
8 pieces of cooked bacon,chopped
1 1/2 cups cheddar cheese, shredded
1/2 cup cottage cheese
1/3 milk
4or 5 green onions, chopped
Hot sauce to taste
Salt and pepper to taste
1/2 cup of additional shredded cheese for top of casserole

Mix all the ingredients together except the 1/2 cup of cheese. Pour into a greased 9×13″ pan. Top with the shredded cheese. Cover and put into refrigerator overnight. Let sit on counter for 5 to 10 minutes and then bake uncovered at 325* for about 45 minutes or until the eggs are cooked.

Cindy

 

Fresh Blackberry & Lemon Cake

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Fresh Blackberry & Lemon Cake 1 - My Daughter and I

I found some beautiful fresh blackberries on sale at the store the other day. They were so plump and juicy- I needed to make something wonderful out of them. I decided to pair those delectable blackberries with one of my favorite flavors – lemon! I took the fresh apple cake that we posted several months ago, and just modified it a bit. The results were delicious – a keeper recipe for sure!

Fresh Blackberry & Lemon Cake 2 - My Daughter and I

Fresh Blackberry and Lemon Cake

Ingredients:

1/2 cup butter, at room temperature

1/2 cup vegetable oil

2 cups sugar

1/2 cup sour cream, I used light

3 eggs

1 tsp. vanilla extract

1 T fresh lemon juice

3 cups flour

1 tsp. baking soda

1 tsp. baking powder

1/2 tsp. salt

Zest from 1 lemon

3 cups fresh blackberries, rinsed and drained well

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 350*. Generously spray a Bundt pan with nonstick spray, set aside.

In an electric mixer, beat butter, vegetable oil, and sugar until pale yellow, about 2 minutes. Add sour cream, then beat to combine. Add eggs one at a time, beating until combined before adding the next egg. Add vanilla then beat to combine. Finally add the lemon juice and beat to combine.

In a separate bowl, stir together flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, and lemon zest. Remove 2 Tablespoons of flour mixture then toss with the fresh berries in a separate bowl.

Add remaining dry ingredients to wet ingredients in three batches, mixing until just combined before adding the next batch. Gently fold in the fresh blackberries.

Pour batter into prepared Bundt pan and bake for 60 to 65 minutes, or until a wooden skewer inserted into the center comes out clean. Check cake at 20 minutes- if top is turning too brown, place a sheet of non-stick sprayed foil on top. Cool for 10 minutes in the pan, then run a knife along the inner rim and invert cake onto a wire rack to cool completely.

For an extra bit of sweetness you could drizzle the cooled cake with a glaze made from powdered sugar, milk and lemon juice. Or you could dust the cake with powdered sugar. We just sliced it and gobbled it up!

Glaze
1 cup powdered sugar
1 T lemon juice
2 – 4 T of milk
Mix the powdered sugar, lemon juice and 2 T milk in a small bowl, mix well. Add additional milk by tablespoons until glaze reaches desired consistency. Drizzle over cooled cake.

Cindy