Peanut Butter Frozen Yogurt with Peanut Butter Cups

I wasn't lying when I said the next couple posts were going to be about different flavors of frozen yogurt.  I am seriously obsessed with it right now.  As I was reviewing the other recipes and photos that  I have in waiting, I realized a lot of them are desserts.  I guess I am on a dessert kick or something these days.  I will be honest and say I have absolutely no problem with that.  I always say that if someone put a bag of chips in front of me and a piece of cake in front of me, I would take the cake 100 percent of the time.  Desserts are my absolute weakness.  My absolute delicious weakness.

Before getting started with this peanut butter frozen yogurt recipe, I want to give a shout out to my sweet sister.  She sent me and Matt a beautiful bouquet of flowers for our 1 year and 9 month anniversary.  It was a super sweet surprise!  I loved having the flowers sitting on our kitchen table.  Waking up to a beautiful bouquet of daisies can make any morning just a little brighter.  Thanks, Aud for being so thoughtful and kind to us!

And now on to the frozen yogurt!!  Here's the link to the recipe that I used Peanut Butter Frozen Yogurt

It is from a website specifically focused on creating and baking healthy desserts.  That is right up my alley!  This recipe was ridiculously easy and delicious.  Matt said that he wanted to peanut butter cups in his frozen yogurt so I just chopped up some Reese's Cups and threw them in.  They only added to the deliciousness factor. I hope you enjoy!

Cinnamon Peach Frozen Yogurt

I am going to issue a warning right now.  The next couple posts that come from this blog will probably involve some sort of frozen yogurt recipe.  I am becoming slightly obsessed with frozen yogurt these days.  Although I type "warning" like there is some type of threat or worry that comes along with all these frozen yogurt recipes, the only real concern is that you will start to love different types of frozen yogurt like I do.  I also have been cooking and baking a lot in the last couple weeks, I promise!  You just wouldn't know that because I have been so busy I have not been blogging at all.  I promise many new recipes will be coming the next couple weeks.  Now on to the delicious recipe!!

The other day I found myself with a heart full of adventure and five peaches that were on the verge of going bad.  I thought, how can I use peaches up in a quick manner?  Well, what about a frozen yogurt?  And after that brief thought flitted through my mind, I knew how I was going to use them.  I am going to make them into a peach frozen yogurt.  After looking over some frozen yogurt recipes, I got a basic idea of what I need to do and started on my way.

First I cut up three of my five peaches and placed them in a pot with water, sugar, and a tad of butter. 

I cooked the peaches down until they were very soft and the juices could be strained off.  I discarded the peach skins after pushing as much juicy syrup out of them as possible.

The magic ingredient in this recipe is cinnamon.  It is actually the best ingredient in my opinion.  After all the peach juice was strained, I added cinnamon to the hot syrup.  I stirred it in and let the syrup cool in the freezer for about 15 minutes.

After the syrup had cooled, I added it to fat free vanilla yogurt.  I also added an additional sploosh of vanilla just for fun. After mixing well, it went into the Kitchaid ice cream maker. 

After about 20-25 minutes of mixing, the yogurt was done!  I added the remaining fresh, chopped peaches and mixed well.  Below is the beautiful finished product!

I loved getting to experiment with the flavors in this frozen yogurt.  What amazed me most in the final product was the amazing addition of the cinnamon.  I had actually thrown it into the peach syrup at the last minute because I had actually forgotten to add it to the peaches before they were cooked down.  This was an amazingly delicious accident!  This frozen yogurt base is by far the best one I have made to date.  Matt said this yogurt doesn't even need the additional fresh peaches next time.  He loved the cinnamon-y peach flavor all by itself!

I think when I make this recipe in the future, I am going to experiment with the type of yogurt I use.  I used Publix's fat free vanilla yogurt this time.  I am beginning to realize that the yogurt might freeze differently if I use a higher fat content.  We will see...  I will continue to keep you up-to-date with my frozen yogurt adventures!  I hope you enjoy!

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Cinnamon Peach Frozen Yogurt

1 cup water
1/3 cup sugar
5 peaches total (3 peaches chopped for the syrup and 2 peaches chopped to be added into the yogurt)
1 tablespoon butter
1 24oz container of fat free vanilla yogurt
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon vanilla

Add water, sugar, butter, and 3 of the chopped peaches to a medium-sized sauce pan.  Cook peaches down on a medium heat for about 15-20 minutes or until very soft.  Stir often.

While peaches are cooking down, chop your remaining 2 peaches into small bite-sized pieces.  Set to the side.

Once the cooked peaches are very soft, strain the juice off into a large container.  Push as much juice as possible out of the peaches.  Throw away the skins and remaining pulp.  Stir cinnamon into the peach juice/syrup that is remaining.  Place syrup into the freezer for 15-20 minutes to let cool.

Add the yogurt into the cooled peach syrup.  Mix thoroughly and place in ice cream maker according to the manufacture's instructions.  Once the yogurt is frozen, add the fresh peaches that were set aside earlier.  Stir the peaches in and enjoy!  (The yogurt can either be eaten right then or frozen for later enjoyment.)

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Fresh Blueberries + a KitchenAid = Homemade Frozen Yogurt

I am going to start blogging again with a bang. A blueberry bang to be exact.

This past week as I was trying to think what I wanted to blog about, I came across a blueberry frozen yogurt recipe on one of my new favorite websites.  It is called 'Cookie+Kate' and the author (Kate) only cooks vegetarian.  That fact alone was a draw for me.  She focuses on using fresh produce and ingredients in innovative ways.  Another draw!  So when I came across her Blueberry Frozen Yogurt recipe and realized it only had five ingredients (what?!?) I knew I needed to give it a chance.  Here's a link to the recipe I used: Cookie+Kate "Blueberry Frozen Yogurt"

So as you all know, I don't always enjoy following recipes exactly as they are written.  I like to say I am being "creative" as I veer from the original author's recipe.  However, for this recipe, I followed the instructions almost exactly.  The only ingredient change I made was the type of yogurt I used.  The author calls for full-fat yogurt and instead, I used Chobani's non-fat plain greek style yogurt.  I figured it would add more protein, less fat, and less guilt about enjoying the finished product.

As you can see in the above picture, I decided to save the mashed blueberries to add to the yogurt at the end.  Matt likes his frozen yogurt to have fruit chunks in it.  He says it adds texture.  I figured if I am making him try this homemade frozen yogurt, I would at least give him some satisfying fruit chunks in the end.

I will be honest, even with the fact that this recipe only has five ingredients, I was still slightly concerned about making this frozen yogurt when I initially looked at it.  First, I didn't know if the full-fat vs. non-fat yogurt would make a difference.  Second, I had never used our KitchenAid ice cream maker so I was forging into new cooking territory by trying this recipe.  However even with those concerns, my excitement to see how this recipe was going to turn out canceled out all those fears, and I decided to plug ahead.

And oh my goodness, I am so glad I did!  This frozen yogurt was so much fun to make and so ridiculously easy.  The KitchenAid ice cream maker appliance makes it as simple as can be.  I watched a couple youtube.com videos of how to use the appliance before actually beginning the ice cream making process.  That turned out to be a good idea and I would recommend that to anyone who is just learning how to use their ice cream maker.

This frozen yogurt is so light and delicious!  I cannot wait to try other combinations of ingredients.  My mind is literally spinning right now with all the possibilities.  Should I make a peanut butter yogurt?  What about lemon?!  That sounds really great too!  We will see.  I just know that this ice cream maker is definitely going to be getting a lot more use now that my eyes have been opened to its remarkable possibilities!

I hope you enjoy.

Hip-Friendly Chocolate Peanut Butter Swirl Brownies

I have never made a swirled anything.  I thought that if something had a swirl in it (i.e. candy cane, ice cream, or Swirled Desserts) it would be a difficult and even arduous task. (BTW- the word 'arduous' was Matt's addition to this post.  It means considerable physical or mental effort.  I definitely didn't know that before he told me.) When I ran across a Chocolate Peanut Butter Swirl Brownie recipe on WeightWatchers.com, I wasn't quite sure if I was up for putting in the effort it might take to make this recipe.  However, I would like to say that I was very wrong in assuming that this recipe would be an arduous task. (How many times do you think I can use this word before it gets old?)  In fact, this recipe was very easy and beyond delicious in results.   The original recipe from the Weight Watchers website is below the photos.

Here are the recipe adaptions I made:

1) I used all 8 oz of the Neufchatel cheese I had.  The recipe calls for 6oz.  I didn't want 2 oz of the bar just lying around so I used it all.

2) I didn't have apple butter so I used natural applesauce instead.  

3) I used fat free half-and-half. 

4) I used egg whites instead of the fat free egg substitute.  I used 2 egg whites when it called for 1/4 cup of the egg substitute and 3 egg whites when it called for 1/3 cup.

These brownies were so good!  I couldn't believe they were a Weight Watchers recipe.  I made them for a Super Bowl party that we had on Sunday.  No one else could believe they were a Weight Watchers recipe either.  They were that good.  If you need a dessert sometime soon and want to impress people with a swirl and a low WW point value, I would highly recommend giving these a try.  I hope you enjoy!

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Chocolate Peanut Butter Swirl Brownies

recipe taken from WeightWatchers.com

32 servings with 4 points per brownie

6 oz Neufchatel cheese, softened

3/4 cup reduced fat peanut butter

1/4 cup cup fat free egg substitute

3 Tbsp half-and-half cream

1 package regular brownie dry mix

1/4 cup vegetable oil

1/4 cup apple butter

1/3 cup water

1/3 cup fat free egg substitute

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  

Mix cheese and peanut butter in a medium-sized bowl until well combined.  Add 1/4 cup of egg substitute and beat with an electric mixer until incorporated.  Add half-and-half, mixing until creamy and smooth; set aside.

In another bowl, beat brownie mix, oil, apple butter, water, and remaining egg substitute until combined.

Spread half of brown mixture into a 13x9-inch baking pan.  Dollop with half of peanut butter mixture and swirl with edge of spatula or knife.  Repeat with remaining batter and peanut butter mixture to form a second layer.  Bake until a toothpick inserted in center comes out clean, about 30 minutes.  Cut into 32 pieces and serve.

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An Apple Crisp for A Friend's Birthday!

Two Mondays ago, my wonderful friend Sarah celebrated her birthday.  In honor of her entering another year of life, we decided to have a little birthday dessert celebration for her at our church small group.  Because I love to experiment with dessert recipes, I volunteered to take on this aspect of the celebration.  Sarah said she wanted an apple or peach crisp.  I said let's do it.

Because I was cooking for other people and because it was a birthday celebration, I didn't feel comfortable just improvising with the dessert like I normally do while baking.  I knew I needed a solid apple crisp recipe that would not disappoint.  After doing some research on my favorite cooking websites, I came across an apple crisp on allrecipes.com that looked out of this world.  Here's the link to the original website's recipe: Apple Crisp II.  At the time approximately 3,150 people had reviewed this dessert and had given it a whopping 4.5 out of 5 stars.  As I studied the reviews and recipe, I decided if that many people can review a dessert and it is still ranked so high, it has got to be amazingly good!

And this recipe was so good!  Everyone at small group just ate it up and seemed to really enjoy it.  We topped the apple crisp with a dollop of cool whip but that could have easily been replaced with some type of ice cream.  If you could find a cinnamon ice cream and put that on top of this dessert, this dessert would be over the top in deliciousness.

Below is my journey in recreating this birthday apple crisp.  I added a little cinnamon here and there but overall left the recipe just about the same as the original.  I just remembered that I also halved both sugars.  So to clarify, other than halving the amounts of white and brown sugars called for in the original recipe and adding a little cinnamon to the crumble crust, I did not change anything else.  Maybe one day I will stop making improvisations and actually follow the ingredients and directions a recipe calls for...

Until then (which in all honesty probably won't be happening any time soon), I hope you enjoy this recipe!

Almond Layer Cake with White Chocolate Frosting

When I am searching for a new recipe to try, if the recipe has a picture along with it I am about 1000 percent more likely to give it a shot.  I am one of those people that eats with their eyes. With that in mind, today's post is a photo montage to the Almond Layer Cake with White Chocolate Frosting from Food Network's December issue.  When I saw the recipe in this month's edition, I was immediately drawn to it.  Almond cake?!? Yes, please.  Cream cheese white chocolate frosting?!? Yes, please again! I would not normally make such a decadent dessert if I was wanting to try a new recipe for myself and Matt.  Luckily for me, we had a church small group dinner party on Monday night and I was asked to bring dessert.  If that isn't Providence, I don't know what is.

Here's the link to the recipe: http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/food-network-kitchens/almond-layer-cake-with-white-chocolate-frosting-recipe/index.html

From what I can tell from people's reactions and comments, it was a really good cake.  This was actually the first cake I have ever made from scratch.  I don't really have the opportunity to make cakes that often so this probably isn't that big of a deal.  But considering this was my first time, I really do think it turned out well.  The frosting was to die for!  It was so good!  Just so you know, the recipe's frosting amount will easily cover the entire cake and leave you with a little extra.  Having enough icing for cupcakes and/or cakes is always a concern of mine because I love eating some icing.  In my mind, cake isn't cake unless it has a good cake to icing ratio.  If you have the same concerns when trying a new cake recipe, please rest assured with this one.  If it have a reason to try this recipe, I hope you enjoy it too!