desserts

Peanut Butter Energy Bites – Modified

| shannonmw11

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I’ve been making delicious no-bake energy bites for a while and I love them so much that tonight when I MEANT to make peanut butter protein balls, I ended up just making a slightly less caloric version of these delicious bites. Fine by me!

It’s not many fewer calories per bite, about 30 less, but if you “accidentally” eat four (or six or eight…) instead of one, it adds up (or subtracts up?).

I’m hyper-focused on eating better and working out more right now, which has been very beneficial since I started in early November. I avoided weight gain over the holidays (!!!!), can feel myself getting stronger and just overall feel a little better (when I’m not exhausted from spin class).

This also means that I can be a little obsessed (annoying) with my calories/nutrients. My tried and true method for keeping my weight in check is to count what I eat. I’ve been doing it for 16 years. I’m eternally grateful to my mother for encouraging me to start counting “points” when I was 12 and giving me the baseline knowledge about food and health that I have been using ever since. I’ve also matured from the days when I would ration my calories to eat a McFlurry after dinner (calorie math according to a seventh grader) and now try to get the right balance of nutrients in addition to sticking to a specific calorie range.

WHICH MEANS these bites are the perfect treat for my birthday week! Don’t get me wrong, I fully indulged over the holidays (hello, homemade ziti, cinnamon rolls, cookies, etc) and plan on eating REAL cake and brunch and BBQ on my birthday this weekend (I hope my husband reads this), I just don’t want to do that all week….

Not that these bites are much of a compromise. They are delicious and their texture is out of this world. omnomnomonomonom

Ingredients

  • 1 cup oats
  • 1/4 cup ground flax-seed
  • 1/4 cup lite agave nectar
  • 5 tbsps peanut butter
  • 1 scoop of protein powder (I used cookies n cream flavored whey protein because I got a huge 5lb barrel of it on sale, which side note, made me feel like a total badass (cough, poser, cough) carrying around Costco)
  • 1/4 cup coconut flakes – I only had sweetened, but unsweetened would probably be better!
  • 1/4 cup chocolate chips, slightly chopped up so they go further
  • 1-2 tbsp water as needed

Directions:

  • Add all ingredients except water in a large mixing bowl
  • Add water before forming into balls. The mixture will be a little dry since it’s modified and you will need extra moisture to bind them.
  • Use a measuring table-spoon to section out the bites and form into balls. Recipe makes about 22 bites.
  • Refrigerate!

Nutrition info per bite:

  • Calories: 80
  • Fat: 4
  • Cholesterol: 4
  • Sodium: 32
  • Carbs: 9
  • Fiber: 1.5
  • Protein: 3

Cinnamon Buttercream Icing/Frosting…Friceting

| shannonmw11

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I created this recipe from combination of recipes I’ve used before and some I was looking at right before making it. It’s really easy and I made it to put on cinnamon roll bread pudding – so dangerous! It’s a frosting icing hybrid because I used less butter than most butter creams and more milk. 

Ingredients:

  • 3 cups confectioner’s sugar
  • 6 tbsp butter (almost an entire stick)
  • 1/4 cup – or more depending
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract
  • 1/2 tbsp or more cinnamon

 

Directions:

Combine ingredients in a bowl and whip it up with a mixer on high speed. That’s it! I will be posting my version of the cinnamon roll bread pudding if it turns out good!

Easy Peach Melba on Cinnamon Toast

| shannonmw11

As you may notice with several of my recipes, I like to modify existing ones to fit my needs. The same applies for the amazing, dangerously easy dessert I made last night. I tasted the original recipe for Peach Melba Cinna-bun at Publix, in their Apron cooking samples section. It was incredibly delicious, but called for things that felt a little extravagant. As much as I wanted to spend extra money on raspberry sauce, frozen peaches and (AMAZING) cinnamon buns, I felt like I should forego the extra charges. Also, I don’t need cinnamon buns lying around my house begging to be eaten.

So I got home and made dinner as usual, only briefly noticing the canned peaches in my pantry until they popped into my mind as my husband and I watched TV. I thought that with leftover cinnamon bread from Easter, I might have enough ingredients in my house to make something similar, and I did!!!

This was such a quick and easy thing to make, I didn’t have time to even take a picture of it, so I took a picture of the ingredients to show how simple it is to throw together.

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Ingredients:

  • Two pieces of bread for toasting (cinnamon or raisin bread)
  • 1 cup sliced peaches (preferably fresh, but canned or frozen work)
  • About 2 tbs strawberry or raspberry jam
  • Cinnamon, clove, nutmeg
  • Whipped cream (not pictured because my husband makes it from scratch and it’s too good not to use up)

 

Directions:

  1. Toast bread
  2. In a small sauce pan, add peaches and jam and stir on low heat until they are mixed and create a syrup
  3. Add cinnamon, nutmeg and clove to taste (about two dashes of cinnamon, a dash of nutmeg and a half dash of clove)
  4. Serve over the toast, making use of all of the sauce/syrup you just created
  5. Add whipped cream

 

That’s it!

Bed and Breakfast Scones

| shannonmw11

Bed and Breakfast Scones

My husband and I stayed at the best bed and breakfast for one night on our honeymoon, on our way up to the Smoky mountains. One of the things they served for breakfast were chocolate chip scones, which we thought were one of the most delicious things we’d ever tried. The Inn actually has their own blog full of all kinds of delicious recipes, but I haven’t seen their chocolate chip scone recipe yet (if you find it please tell me!!!), so I was left to rely on the Internet for the second best thing. I’ve made these so often they are practically the dessert mascot for our marriage. I found the following recipe here and here and sort of combined the two techniques for shaping the scones.  I believe it’s originally a Hershey’s recipe. I’ve copied it below, with the technique I use for getting wedge-shaped scones.

 

Ingredients:
  • 1½ cups plus 2 tbsp. all-purpose flour
  • ¼ cup sugar
  • 2 tsp. baking powder
  • Pinch of salt
  •  1 cup chocolate chips
  • 1 cup heavy cream
  • 2 tbsp. butter, melted
  • Additional sugar for sprinkling (optional)
Directions:
  1. Preheat the oven to 375˚ F.
  2. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or a silicone baking mat.
  3. Combine the flour, sugar, baking powder and salt in a medium bowl; stir to combine.
  4. Toss in the chocolate chips and stir to blend.
  5. Add the heavy cream to the flour mixture, stirring just until a dough forms and the dry ingredients are incorporated.
  6. Knead the dough very briefly with well floured hands to ensure even mixing.
  7. Take dough ball and place on baking sheet. Flatten it out into a circle and slice into 6-8 triangle wedges, separating wedges from one another so they bake as individual pieces.
  8. Melt butter and brush onto each piece and then sprinkle extra sugar on top.
  9.  Bake 20-25 minutes, until lightly browned (original recipe says 15-20, but with my oven it always needs  a little extra time).

 

I’m making perfect potato soup tonight with these for dessert. It’s the newlywed special since I made this so often in the first few months of our marriage. I can’t believe it’s almost been a year!