Posts tagged dessert

You know how great ice cream is? You can’t have it all the time, but as a now-and-again treat, it’s pretty much the greatest. It makes running that extra mile, having a granola bar instead of the waffles, and ordering the dressing on the side totally worth it at the end of a long week. Now imagine getting your very own personalized ice cream flavor in the mail! It’s not a fantasy, it’s eCreamery. Choose between a base of gelato or ice cream; then your main flavor, or mix two or three together; and finally the add ins. OMG the add ins! Everything from snickers, to almonds, to cherries, and everything in between. Design your package, name it whatever you like, and it ships to your (or your super awesome girlfriend’s #notetomyboyfriend) doorstep. As my five-year-old nephew said when I told him about a design your own mac and cheese bar: “That sounds AMAZING! I love it.” Ditto. Click, explore, pass it along to friends and never give boring old flowers as a gift again!

You know how great ice cream is? You can’t have it all the time, but as a now-and-again treat, it’s pretty much the greatest. It makes running that extra mile, having a granola bar instead of the waffles, and ordering the dressing on the side totally worth it at the end of a long week. Now imagine getting your very own personalized ice cream flavor in the mail! It’s not a fantasy, it’s eCreamery.

Choose between a base of gelato or ice cream; then your main flavor, or mix two or three together; and finally the add ins. OMG the add ins! Everything from snickers, to almonds, to cherries, and everything in between. Design your package, name it whatever you like, and it ships to your (or your super awesome girlfriend’s #notetomyboyfriend) doorstep. As my five-year-old nephew said when I told him about a design your own mac and cheese bar: “That sounds AMAZING! I love it.” Ditto.

Click, explore, pass it along to friends and never give boring old flowers as a gift again!

“Sometimes treat”!

“Sometimes treat”!

niggawelovefood

I had my final Diet Coke today...for real this time.

It’s time to say goodbye to my vice. I justified it for so long, but the evidence against it is now just too overwhelming to ignore. Aspartame probably causes cancer. It effects your mood (anxiety and depression). It leads to weight gain. And so much more! I figured for the longest time that since I didn’t smoke crack, or cigarettes, or something really bad, a Diet Coke a day was totally fine. I mean, I haven’t even tasted butter in years at this point! So what’s a Diet Coke a day?? But it’s bad too. I think it would probably be better to eat a real live cookie every day if it’s a small one, than have a DC.

So this afternoon, I went next door to the Pizza Hut (I’m so Midwestern) and bought my final DC. It was a perfect one to be the final. It was slushy with ice it was so crisp and cold. And the caffeine rush was fantastic! But as I threw the bottle away I thought of everything I’m gaining - a release of my building anxiety, a chance to not get cancer (at least not from aspartame), and not to gain weight. All pretty good things, in exchange for giving up the sweet, refreshing, oh-so-satisfying first sip of a fountain DC…plus all the fake crap that comes along with it. And who doesn’t need less fake crap in their life?? I’m pretty sure I’m the one coming out on top of this break up.

foodfuckery: Blackberry No-Bake Cheesecake - Pre Valentine’s Day Dessert Recipe

foodfuckery:

Blackberry No-Bake Cheesecake - Pre Valentine’s Day Dessert

Recipe

wellthatsadorable: The top 1% of monsters eat 99% of the cookies. Fact.

wellthatsadorable:

The top 1% of monsters eat 99% of the cookies. Fact.

Tis the season to eat and not exercise!*

It’s no secret that November and December are challenging months to lose weight. With the temperature dropping and schedules filling up, exercise is hardly at the top of the “to do” list. Even if you don’t celebrate Christmas or Thanksgiving, you’re still inundated with cookies in the office, holiday parties, and the 100s of other ways we find to eat and drink to excess these two months. You can’t even get away from it in your own home! The gift baskets start to arrive in early December and the kids are clamoring to decorate Christmas cookies. Well one client of mine had a brilliant solution to that last issue…

Every year she and her kids make a ton of cookies and spend a sugar-filled afternoon decorating them in all sorts of fun ways. Now, I don’t have a thing against spending quality time with children or cookie decorating parties in general (ie. like my super cool cousin/food blogger, Kate, who chose to spend her 28th birthday decorating cookies with her girlfriends, how fun is that??). However, unless you have enough will power to not eat what you decorate or to give/throw away the end product, then you’re stuck with a hundred evil snowmen/wreath/tree cookies tempting you every second you’re inside your house. Her solution? It’s so simple you’ll hate yourself for not coming up with it on your own…make them ornaments instead! You make a an inedible dough that bakes for a long time and hardens and then decorate as you would a cookie! Except now you haven’t gained any extra calories, you’re not crashing from a sugar high, you don’t hate yourself for having binged, you haven’t thrown up all over your kids from pre-said binge and made them cry and thus ruined Christmas - in short, you’re way better off all around.

Original Dough Ornament Recipe Yields 15 ornaments

From AllRecipes.com

  Ingredients
  • 4 cups all-purpose flour
  • 1 cup salt
  • 1 1/2 cups warm water

Directions

  1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees F (165 degrees C).
  2. Mix flour and salt well. Gradually add water, stirring with a large spoon. Finish mixing with hands. Knead until soft and pliable.
  3. Roll out on floured surface about 1/8 inch thick. Cut shapes with cookie cutters. Place on cookie sheets. With a toothpick make a hole in the top of the ornament for threading string. Bake at 325 degrees F (165 degrees C) until hard, about 1 hour. Decorate with paint and varnish to preserve.

*Thanks to my bf for the slightly modified title ;)

allrecipes.com

If you treat yourself all the time it becomes routine and thus loses the specialness it once held as a once-in-awhile present to yourself. Instead, by telling yourself you can treat yourself on Friday, for example, the anticipation builds in the preceding days, making the treat seem even more amazing than it probably is! Cookie Monster says it best…

If you treat yourself all the time it becomes routine and thus loses the specialness it once held as a once-in-awhile present to yourself. Instead, by telling yourself you can treat yourself on Friday, for example, the anticipation builds in the preceding days, making the treat seem even more amazing than it probably is! Cookie Monster says it best…

Craving a cupcake? Give this makeover version a try. Less fake stuff, but the same satisfying sweetness: The entire country has been immersed in a cupcake bakeshop craze for the past decade or so, but we still have a soft spot for the queen bee of gas station snacks: The Hostess Cupcake. What makes them so delicious? Is it the shelf-stable soft “ganache” frosting? The light and airy milk chocolate cake? The textural contrast you get from a bite that includes cream filling, cake, ganache, and the vanilla frosting squiggle? Swoon. Or is it simply that each package comes with two? Who knows. But unfortunately, with this deliciousness comes fat, calories, and wildly artificial ingredients that we’ve too often overlooked in the heat of an intense chocolate craving.  Read More at Bon Appetit Junk Food Makeover for the rest of the article and the recipe. A shout out to Good Things to Eat by Kate for the link!

Craving a cupcake? Give this makeover version a try. Less fake stuff, but the same satisfying sweetness:

The entire country has been immersed in a cupcake bakeshop craze for the past decade or so, but we still have a soft spot for the queen bee of gas station snacks: The Hostess Cupcake. What makes them so delicious? Is it the shelf-stable soft “ganache” frosting? The light and airy milk chocolate cake? The textural contrast you get from a bite that includes cream filling, cake, ganache, and the vanilla frosting squiggle? Swoon. Or is it simply that each package comes with two? Who knows. But unfortunately, with this deliciousness comes fat, calories, and wildly artificial ingredients that we’ve too often overlooked in the heat of an intense chocolate craving. 


Read More at Bon Appetit Junk Food Makeover for the rest of the article and the recipe.

A shout out to Good Things to Eat by Kate for the link!

bonappetit.com

Celebrate Friday and the end of Summer today with a fruit cobbler. I was fortunate to have both a peach cobbler AND a mixed berry cobbler last week. No, I did not win the lottery (since obviously cobbler is a big part of what I would spend my winnings on), I was just in the right place at the right time. “Which was better?” you ask. That’s like asking which period of MacGyver is more entertaining: the early years when he faced down injustice with reckless abandon, a neatly trimmed mullet, and flannel? Or the later episodes when he still cared deeply when others were wronged, but did so begrudgingly in a motorcycle jacket and wildly overgrown do? Obviously both have their perks and can be enjoyed independently of each other. So celebrate all cobblers this weekend before the pumpkin flavored goodies take over! Thanks to: boyfriendreplacement: Individual Blueberry Cobblers Recipe

Celebrate Friday and the end of Summer today with a fruit cobbler. I was fortunate to have both a peach cobbler AND a mixed berry cobbler last week. No, I did not win the lottery (since obviously cobbler is a big part of what I would spend my winnings on), I was just in the right place at the right time. “Which was better?” you ask. That’s like asking which period of MacGyver is more entertaining: the early years when he faced down injustice with reckless abandon, a neatly trimmed mullet, and flannel? Or the later episodes when he still cared deeply when others were wronged, but did so begrudgingly in a motorcycle jacket and wildly overgrown do? Obviously both have their perks and can be enjoyed independently of each other. So celebrate all cobblers this weekend before the pumpkin flavored goodies take over!

Thanks to:

boyfriendreplacement:

Individual Blueberry Cobblers

Recipe

Gorgeous! I love artsy food pics. You really don’t have to do much to fruit to make it look appetizing, but this photo manages to capture in 2D the sweet juiciness you’d get biting into any one of these fruits in real life. Just don’t forget that fruit does have calories so you can’t nosh uncontrollably (ie me in front of a bowl of grapes. It is my crack.) Serving sizes for whole fruit are about the size of a baseball. So a regular size orange or apple. If it looks so huge it could be genetically engineered it’s two servings. On the flip side, if the fruit is small, like a tangerine or a plum, you can have two to make a serving. For berries, a serving size is a cup. Throughout the day you should shoot for 2-3 servings. I do half a cup of blueberries on my cereal in the morning, a peach for a snack after lunch, and then another half a cup of berries on my JELLO dark chocolate mousse at night with a spoonful of light cool whip :) How do you get your fruit serving in each day?

Gorgeous! I love artsy food pics. You really don’t have to do much to fruit to make it look appetizing, but this photo manages to capture in 2D the sweet juiciness you’d get biting into any one of these fruits in real life.

Just don’t forget that fruit does have calories so you can’t nosh uncontrollably (ie me in front of a bowl of grapes. It is my crack.) Serving sizes for whole fruit are about the size of a baseball. So a regular size orange or apple. If it looks so huge it could be genetically engineered it’s two servings. On the flip side, if the fruit is small, like a tangerine or a plum, you can have two to make a serving. For berries, a serving size is a cup.

Throughout the day you should shoot for 2-3 servings. I do half a cup of blueberries on my cereal in the morning, a peach for a snack after lunch, and then another half a cup of berries on my JELLO dark chocolate mousse at night with a spoonful of light cool whip :)

How do you get your fruit serving in each day?

changingathletics

I hate coffee, but have somehow acquired a taste for coffee ice cream. And obviously I have always loved and always will love chocolate. So this looks phenomenal. A good portion size too for a splurge! Make this your treat this weekend and invite some friends over to share along with you (and send them home with the leftovers!) boyfriendreplacement: Smoky Vanilla Coffee Ice Cream Recipe

I hate coffee, but have somehow acquired a taste for coffee ice cream. And obviously I have always loved and always will love chocolate. So this looks phenomenal. A good portion size too for a splurge! Make this your treat this weekend and invite some friends over to share along with you (and send them home with the leftovers!)

boyfriendreplacement:

Smoky Vanilla Coffee Ice Cream

Recipe

Too pretty to eat! (Almost…) Speaking of beautiful food - I have to give a shout out to the incredible food blog, Good Things to Eat. Full disclosure, the author is my cousin, but she also happens to be an incredible baker. Her food is a work of art and I can personally attest that it also tastes delicious. Check her out, you won’t be sorry! Thanks: quaintcafe: Vintage Style Cupcakes (by Chaos Cakes (Emma))

Too pretty to eat! (Almost…)

Speaking of beautiful food - I have to give a shout out to the incredible food blog, Good Things to Eat. Full disclosure, the author is my cousin, but she also happens to be an incredible baker. Her food is a work of art and I can personally attest that it also tastes delicious. Check her out, you won’t be sorry!

Thanks:

quaintcafe:

Vintage Style Cupcakes (by Chaos Cakes (Emma))

Flickr / emkatt

I recently moved in with my sister-in-law and am spending a lot of time with my 4- and 2-year-old nephews. I thought this would be a sure fire weight loss plan as all they do is play chase, hide and seek, wrestle, or just run around in circles. I’ve even done such unorthodox exercises as “running through knee deep water pulling a 35-pound-boy on a boogie board” and “galloping laps around the yard chasing one boy while carrying the other on my back.” However, even these calorie burners aren’t enough to stave off the calories earners found from eating their food. In the past week on our road trip we’ve eaten at McDonalds, Wendys, Chilis, and Pizza Hut. And then let’s talk about the food at home: grilled cheese, hot dogs, waffles, pancakes, and my most favorite discovery of all - Nilla Wafers! The rule needs to be that I just keep eating how I did when I lived by myself, however, I will make an exception for this last item. Nilla Wafers are the perfect cookie and such a childhood mainstay. Nostalgia alone is enough to keep them stocked in the pantry, but then you realize that they’re actually really, really tasty too. Light, sweet, crisp and yet somehow soft all at the same time. And even though I haven’t tasted it yet, I found this recipe for a 4th of July Pie on Fashion Meets Food using a Nilla Wafer Pie Crust! If anyone tries this, let me know how it turns out. I would replace the cream cheese with the light stuff, as I can’t taste a difference when it’s mixed with other ingredients. Happy Holiday!!

Did your best friend’s boyfriend just dump her? Here’s the perfect pick-me-up treat! Feel like you’re causing someone evil pain, but really, it’s just a delicious little smore. nebraska-admiral: This just really speaks to me, you know?

Did your best friend’s boyfriend just dump her? Here’s the perfect pick-me-up treat! Feel like you’re causing someone evil pain, but really, it’s just a delicious little smore.

nebraska-admiral:

This just really speaks to me, you know?

neatorama.com

Go Banana Go Banana Go Banana GO! I hear so many people say they’ve cut bananas out of their diets because of the sugar, but I strongly disagree. If you get used to eating a banana with a spoonful of peanutbutter for dessert instead of something laden with fake sweetners, you’ll be much better off in the long run. My favorite banana dessert is a Roasted Banana with Honey: Turn on the broiler and let it get hot. Slice a banana in half the long way (keep the peel on). Lay it on a baking sheet with the flesh side up and drizzle with honey. Roast for 5 minutes, but keep an eye on it. Take it out when it’s just turning brown. Devour and relish in the natural sweetness! Thanks to idontgetrunnershigh for the gif!

Go Banana Go Banana Go Banana GO!

I hear so many people say they’ve cut bananas out of their diets because of the sugar, but I strongly disagree. If you get used to eating a banana with a spoonful of peanutbutter for dessert instead of something laden with fake sweetners, you’ll be much better off in the long run.

My favorite banana dessert is a Roasted Banana with Honey:

Turn on the broiler and let it get hot.

Slice a banana in half the long way (keep the peel on).

Lay it on a baking sheet with the flesh side up and drizzle with honey.

Roast for 5 minutes, but keep an eye on it. Take it out when it’s just turning brown.

Devour and relish in the natural sweetness!

Thanks to idontgetrunnershigh for the gif!