Blueberry Cranberry Bread

 

We wanted to find an easy recipe for a blueberry muffin bread and found this great recipe from the Frugalmomeh site.  So the name is for Frugal Mom eh! (because they are Canadian).  Lots of great recipes on the site.  We wanted something to make an easy breakfast bread that could replace nutbreads.  I think we found it.  I tweaked this recipe a bit and loved the way it turned out.  A nice treat for a morning - or really anytime.

Ingredients (makes one loaf)

Cooking spray

1 cup White sugar
1/2 cup Butter (one stick), unsalted
2 Eggs
1 tbsp Vanilla extract
1 cup Skim milk
2 cups Flour (all purpose)
2 tsp Baking powder

1/2 cup Cranberries, dried

1/4 cup Almonds, sliced
1 1/2 cups Blueberries (fresh or frozen)

Directions: 

1. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.
2. Grease a 9 inch loaf pan with cooking spray.
3. Cream together the butter and sugar.
4. Add the eggs, vanilla and milk beating well.
5. Beat in the dry ingredients and until well combined
6. Add blueberries and mix by hand gently with a spatula being careful not to crush the berries.
7. Pour batter into your loaf pan and bake for 75-80 minutes or until a cake tester comes out clean.
8. Allow to cool in pan for 10 minutes before removing to finish cooling.

Enjoy!

Oatmeal Cranberry Cookies

Normally I try to find my own twist on a recipe or come up with something from scratch.  But here is a recipe that Pam and I simply love.  Given the fact that we are spending a good deal of time in home, we need a recipe that will make the time feel better.  So this is one of our favorite recipes.  It is not exactly health food - but it is really, really good!  It is really just this recipe: Craisins Dried Cranberries Oatmeal Chocolate Chunk Cookies.  Ocean Spray has a really nice collection of recipes that are freely available and will be a great addition to everyone's recipe list.  Long story short - we always have the ingredients to make these in a pinch.  They often save the day!

Ingredients (Makes around 20 large cookies)

2/3 cup Butter, softened
2/3 cup Brown sugar
2 large Eggs
1 1/2 cups Old-fashioned oats
1 1/2 cups All-purpose flour
1 tsp Baking soda
1/2 tsp Salt
1 cup Ocean Spray® Craisins® Original Dried Cranberries (or any kind of dried cranberries or raisins)
1/2 cup Baking chips - white (vanilla) or chocolate or whatever!  Adjust to taste

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 375ºF.
2. Using an electric mixer (ideally), beat butter and sugar together until light and fluffy. Add eggs, mixing well. 
3. In a separate bowl, combine oats, flour, baking soda and salt. Add to butter mixture in several additions, mixing well after each addition. 
4. Stir in dried cranberries and baking (vanilla or chocolate) chunks.
5. Drop by rounded teaspoonfuls onto ungreased cookie sheets with parchment paper. Bake for 10-12 minutes or until golden brown. 
6. Cool on wire rack.

Enjoy & repeat!

Hungry Girl Brownies

We have started making these incredibly easy brownies that are a bit better for you. So maybe it is not like eating carrots and celery - but if you need a treat - this is definitely a great way to go.  We have taken the basic recipe from the Hungry Girl website.  We have played with the add-ins that we like and think that we have a good basic recipe here to match our tastes.  This is super easy and very delicious!  It is more 'cakey' than we normally like - but with fewer calories - it is a good trade off.  

Ingredients

Cooking Spray
1 box moist Devil's Food Cake
15 oz can, Pumpkin puree (do not use pie mix)

1/2 cup-3/4 cup Semi-sweet chocolate chips
1/2 cup-3/4 cup Pecans or walnuts, loosely crushed

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.

2. Spray the bottom of a 9"x13" plan with cooking spray.

3. Add the mix to a large mixing bowl.  Add the pumpkin and slowly blend both ingredients.

4. Fold in the chocolate chips and pecans and mix thoroughly.

5. Bake 25-27 minutes.  Be sure to check that a knife inserted comes out clean.

6. Let cool 1-2 hours then serve.

Enjoy!

Coconut Chocolate Cookies

I was given a simple task, find a recipe for a cookie or dessert that was healthier than the normal fare that we might get at a grocery store or, let alone, out at an ice cream place.  Something to enjoy after dinner that is satisfying as a dessert.  Well, I did not have a great deal in the house, but I found an amazing recipe at Cooking Light for Toasted Coconut Chocolate Chunk Cookies.  Using the coconut really was fantastic.  I will play with this recipe some more - but I love the flavor that the toasted coconut gives to the cookie.  This is definitely a keeper and you likely have all the ingredients right now in your kitchen (maybe you will have to pickup the coconut).  Very easy and delicious.  The batch is around 20 large cookies - with my guess that each has around 100 calories.

Ingredients (Makes around 20 large cookies)

1 cup Flaked sweetened coconut
1 cup All-purpose flour
1/2 tsp Baking powder
1/4 tsp Baking soda
1/8 tsp Table salt
3/4 cup Light brown sugar, packed
1/4 cup Unsalted butter, softened
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 large egg
1/2 cup Semi-sweet Chocolate chips

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 350°.
2. Arrange coconut in a single layer in a small baking pan. Bake at 350° for 7 minutes or until lightly toasted, stirring after four minutes. Set aside to cool.
3. Into a mixing bowl, add flour, baking powder, baking soda and table salt.  Stir with a whisk until blended.
4. Place sugar and butter in a mixing bowl or mixer.  Beat at medium speed until well blended. Add  vanilla and egg and mix until blended. Slowly add flour mixture, beating at low speed, until combined. Then add the toasted coconut and chocolate also at low speed.
5. Drop mix by rounded tablespoons 2 inches apart onto baking sheets covered with parchment paper. 6. Bake at 350° for 11 minutes or until bottoms of cookies just begin to brown (one sheet at a time).  Remove from pan, and cool completely on wire racks.

Enjoy!

Baked Apple Pie Rolls

Well...this is amazing!  I found this recipe for Fried Apple Pie Rolls from Eating Well and it looked too good NOT to make.  I am not someone that has made apple pies at home - but since it is harvest season and there are apples everywhere.  I love this recipe because it is relatively low calories for a baked good.  Following one of the comments under the recipe who suggested baking it instead of frying it, I thought I would give it a shot.  I played with the recipe, lowered the sugar a bit and I have to figure this new version is probably around 170-180 calories each (the original was around 207 calories).  That is just an estimate - but it is good enough for me.  These tasted great.  I might need to put in a little less filling or spread it over to a 9th pie roll.  We heated them up in the microwave for around 15-20 seconds to give it a bit of warmth before eating.  I am sure they would be great with ice cream - but we are trying to watch calories!

Ingredients (makes 8 pie rolls)
2 tbsp Butter
4 Apples, peeled & diced (I used granny smith and honeycrisp apples)
2 tbsp & 4 tsp Sugar, divided
1 3/4 tsp Cinnamon, divided
1/4 tsp Ground nutmeg
1/4 tsp Kosher or sea salt
1 tbsp All-purpose flour
2 tsp Lemon juice
8 egg roll wrappers
Olive oil spray

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees.
2. Heat butter in a large skillet over medium-high heat until melted.
3. Add diced apples, 2 tbsp & 3 tsp sugar, 1 1/2 tsp cinnamon, nutmeg and Kosher salt. Mix thoroughly and cook, stirring occasionally, until the apples are softened, 8-9 minutes.
4. Add flour and cook 1 minute longer. Remove from heat and stir in lemon juice.
5. Place a piece of parchment paper on a baking sheet - and lightly spray with olive oil.
6. Place an egg roll wrapper on a clean work surface with one corner facing you. Brush the edges of the egg roll wrapper with water. Place around 1/3 cup of the apple filling in the center of the wrapper. Take the corner facing you and fold it over the filling.  Then fold both sides of the wrapper over the filling, then roll up as tightly as possible. Place on the prepared baking sheet.  Repeat with the remaining wrappers and filling.
7. Lightly spray the top of the pie rolls.  Combine remaining 1 tsp of sugar and 1/4 tsp of cinnamon and sprinkle on top of the pie rolls.
8. Bake for 15 minutes.  Turn over and bake for 10 more minutes.

Enjoy!

Almond Joy Cookies

When you see someone of facebook sharing a cookie recipe - it is typically one of the easy ones.  In fact, the lasted trend are the video recipes - making a good looking dish super easy to make.  Thus is the case for these really easy and tasty cookies that we are calling Almond Joy cookies.  There are a bunch of variations on the web for these Macaroon-like cookies.  They make a great addition to any holiday tray - or for a cold winter's day when you do not want to leave the house.  They are super easy, super tasty and super....well, maybe not super healthy.  I guess just don't have them as a meal replacement!

We made these a bit big - but just as tasty!

Ingredients (makes around 20-24 cookies)
14 oz bag Sweetened coconut flakes
2 cups (or 12 oz bag) Semi-sweet chocolate chios
3/4 cup Slivered almonds
1/4 tsp Sea salt
14 oz can Sweetened condensed milk

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 325°.
2. Place parchment paper on two cookie sheets
3. Combined all ingredients in a large bowl and mix well.
4. Using a small cookie scoop or large spoon, place balls of the mixture on the parchment paper.  They should be around 1 1/2-2 inches round (or 4-5cm).
5. Bake for 12-14 minutes until brown.
6. Cool on the baking sheets.

Enjoy!

Chocolate Coconut Cookies

Browsing a recent issue of Cooking Light (my favorite cooking mag), I stumbled across this recipe for a healthier cookie (Crunchy-Chewy Salted Chocolate Chunk Cookies).  I played with the recipe a bit and LOVED the way it came out.  We have been really smitten (as so many people are) with having sea salt added to cookies.  At our local grocery store, they make this amazing cookies with sea salt and caramel.  Funny story - we were shopping there one night when a fellow shopper (and older woman) came over to us and told us that we HAD to try these cookies.  As they often do at Busch's in Saline - they have samples out.  Well she practically forced us to try the cookie.  Well, it was love at first bite (as they say).  The cookies were simply put - the best I have ever had.  Healthy?  Probably not.  So that put us on an Odyssey to find a good alternative that we can make at home.  And boy did we find one.  I played with the recipe for the first go around.  I will play more over the coming months - but this is definitely a keeper.  These cookies came out great.  And are they healthy?  Well, they are healthier than the ones we find out and about.  Baby steps....

Ingredients (makes 36-38 cookies)

1 cup Light brown sugar (packed)
4 tbsp Canola oil
8 tbsp Butter, softened
2 tbsp Honey
2 tsp Vanilla extract
1 Egg (large)
2 cups plus 2 tbsp Whole-wheat pastry flour
1 tsp Baking soda
3/8 tsp Salt
1/2 cup Semisweet chocolate chips
1/4 cup Shredded coconut, packed
1/2 tsp Coarse sea salt

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 375°.
2. In a stand mixer, place the brown sugar, oil and butter in the bowl.  Beat at medium speed until  blended. Add honey, vanilla, and egg and mix until well combined.
3. In another mixing bowl, add flour, baking soda and salt, stirring with a whisk. Add flour mixture to sugar mixture; beat at low speed until almost combined. Add chocolate chips and shredded coconut  until combined.
4. Spoon dough by rounded tablespoonfuls onto parchment paper-lined baking sheets (12-14 cookies per sheet).  Sprinkle a small amount of sea salt over each cookie (lots will end up on the baking sheet).  Bake in batches at 375° for 8 to 10 minutes. Cool cookies on pan 3 minutes, then move to a  wire rack to cool.

Enjoy!  BTW - These are so good that we needed protection from eating them all...

Easy Mini Pecan Tarts

OK - this is not really healthy - but you have to enjoy every so often right?  So we ended up with an extra package of Athens Mini Filo Shells and wanted to do something fun.  We found a great recipe for Mini Phyllo Pecan Tarts on the Athens Foods site - and made it a little bit healthier.  Well...a little healthier....its all good right?

Ingredients (makes 15 mini tarts)

1 egg
1 tbsp Butter, melted
1 tbsp Brown sugar
2 tbsp Light corn syrup
1/2 tsp Vanilla extract
1/4 tsp Cinnamon
1/2 cup plus 2 tbsp Pecans, chopped (total of 10 tbsp)
1 package (15 count) Athens® Mini Fillo Shells

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 350°F.
2. While one egg in a bowl.  Add butter, brown sugar, corn syrup, vanilla, and cinnamon.  Mix thoroughly.  Stir in chopped pecans.
3. Place parchment paper on the baking sheet.  Arrange mini shells on a baking sheet. Fill mini shells with one rounded teaspoon of pecan mixture.
4. Bake for 12 minutes. Let cool before serving.

Enjoy!

Hazelnut Blondies

I found this great recipe from Cooking Light for Whole-grain Pecan Blondies.  I love carbs and could eat a whole pan of brownies...or blondies (essentially the same without chocolate).  So if you have not heard - brownies are not that great for you.  Yeah...you're surprised also....  Anyway, I wanted to make something that is a flat-out treat that I could eat with slightly less guilt.  I think we have found something here!  I played with the recipe a bit and swapped in Hazelnuts - which I love.  These were fantastic and not that much work.  So it is a two-time winner in my book.

Ingredients (makes one 8" by 8" pan of blondies)

2/3 cup Hazelnuts (chopped)
6 tbsp Butter (unsalted)
1/4 cup Canola (or vegetable) oil
1 cup Brown sugar
2 tsp Vanilla extract
2 Eggs
1 1/2 cups Whole-wheat flour
1 tsp Baking powder
1/4 tsp Salt
Baking spray with flour

Directions

1. In a saute pan, toast the hazelnuts over a low heat for 12-16 minutes, stirring often.  Be sure to watch so they do not burn.  When done, remove from heat and let cool in a mixing bowl.  Wipe the pan.

2. Preheat oven to 350°.

3. In the same pan that you used to toast the hazelnuts, place butter, oil, and brown sugar and bring to a boil. Cook 1 minute, stirring constantly. Pour mixture into a separate bowl.  Let cool 8-10 minutes. Stir in vanilla and eggs.

4. In the bowl with the hazelnuts, add whole wheat flour, baking powder, and salt. Whisk and then add flour mixture to the butter mixture; stir until completely combined.

5. Coat the bottom of the 8" x 8" pan with baking spray with flour.  Add the blondie mixture to the pan. Bake at 350° for 24 minutes.

Cool completely in pan and enjoy!

Berry Peach Fruit Crisp

We have a great program at the University of Michigan (where I work) called MHealthy.  They are focused on improving the health and well-being of the University's staff, faculty, students and their families.  Periodically, they offer cooking demonstrations where they showcase healthy recipes that are easy to make at home.  They also have recipes available to everyone over the web.  I adapted the recipe for this great dessert from their Peach Blueberry Crisp recipe.  This dish is a new favorite.  Its very easy to make and it tastes fantastic!  Did I mention it is healthy...really healthy!

Ingredients (makes 9" x 13" pan - serves 6-8)
12 oz-16 oz Frozen peach slices
12 oz-16 oz Frozen cherries or mixed berries
12 oz Frozen blueberries
2/3 cup Brown sugar, divided
3 tbsp Instant tapioca
1 1/2 cup Old fashioned oats
1/2 cup Almonds, sliced
2 tsp Cinnamon
1/4 tsp Nutmeg
2 Egg whites

Directions
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
2. Combine the frozen fruit, 1/3 cup brown sugar and tapioca in a large bowl. Mix well.
3. Spread fruit mixture into a 9" x 13" baking dish.
4. In a bowl (the same one that you used for the fruit is fine), mix 1/3 brown sugar, oats, almonds, cinnamon, nutmeg and egg whites. Distribute topping evenly over the fruit in the baking dish.
5. Place dish in the middle of the oven and bake 45-50 minutes or until topping is golden brown.

Let sit for 10 minutes before enjoying!

NOTE: You want to have around 2 1/2 to 3 lbs of frozen fruit - mix and match as you like!

Corey's Chex Mix

There are 100 recipes for variations on the classic Chex Mix, this is mine.  You can use any of the Chex or Chex-like cereals.  We always love this and it is the go to comfort snack for us at our home.  We use a big roasting pan for this and it works great.  We use our roasting pan more for this than anything else!

Ingredients (serves many - or one....)
6 tbsp Margarine or butter
5 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
1 1/2 tsp Seasoned salt
1 tsp Garlic Powder
3/4 tsp Onion Powder
9 cups Cereal (any mix you want - we normally go 3 cups each Wheat, Corn and Rice Chex)
2 cups Bagel chips or rye chips
2 cups Pretzels

Directions
1. Preheat oven to 250 degrees.
2. Slowly melt the margarine or butter in a microwave (no more than 20-25 seconds at a time).  When melted, mix in Worcestershire sauce, seasoned salt, garlic powder and onion powder.  NOTE: Adjust ingredients as desired.
3. In a large roasting pan, mix the chex cereal, bagel chips and pretzels.  Add the butter mix to the cereal and gently mix together so the cereal mix is well covered.
4. Cook for around 60 minutes, mixing every 15-20 minutes.
5. Let cool to room temperature before eating.

Enjoy!

BBB (Better Blue Buckeyes)

I was at a party for Mosaic Feline Rescue volunteers and these were around for dessert (here are my pictures of the cats at Mosaic). These were amazing and I shared some with my family - who wanted more...more...more!

These are adapted from a no-bake recipe that I was pointed towards on the VegNews site. The recipe is for Chocolate-Covered Crunchy Speculoos Balls. I tweaked this a bit to make it slightly better for you - given that I use Simply Jif (it has less sugar than regular). Low-fat peanut butter might work as well. Well, about the name - being a Michigan person...can't very well call it just Buckeyes....so I am calling it BBB....or Better Blue Buckeyes.

Ingredients (Makes 18-20)

2 cups Peanut butter (you may use an variety including low-fat or low sugar)
1/4 cup (4 tbsp) Butter or margarine (softened)
3 cups Crisp rice cereal
1 cup Powdered sugar
1 lbs Chocolate candy coating (like CandiQuik)

Directions

1. In a large mixing bowl, blend the peanut butter and butter or margarine until well mixed.
2. Add crisp rice cereal and mix well.
3. Add powdered sugar and mix well.
4. Mold around 2 tablespoons of peanut butter mix into a ball (slightly smaller than a golf ball). Place a toothpick in the balls and place them in the refrigerator for around an hour.
5. Melt the chocolate coating as directed, and dip the balls (by the toothpicks and spoon if needed) until coated. Let cool for another hour.

Enjoy!

ROLO Pretzel Delights

(Adapted from the Hershey's Kitchen recipe. These are simple, taste amazing and are kinda fun to make. I changed the recipe because I think the original cooks too long - making for a messy candy treat. Perfect for the holidays...or any day!

Ingredients:

You will need equal numbers of the following (up to around 40 on a cooking sheet at a time)

• Small pretzels (I used mini twists) 
• ROLO Chewy Caramels in Milk Chocolate 
• Pecan halves (raw)

Directions

1. Heat oven to 325°F. Line a flat cookie sheet with parchment paper. (NOTE: use a cookie sheet without a lip for easy removal)
2. Place pretzels on the cookie sheet (they can be as close as 1" to each other). Top each pretzel with one unwrapped ROLO Chewy Caramel in Milk Chocolate.
3. Bake 3 minutes and remove from oven.
4. Carefully, slide the parchment paper off the cookie sheet onto a flat surface (NOTE: This will help it not melt as much)
5. Top each pretzel with Rolo with a pecan half, pushing down onto the ROLO. If you want, add sprinkles here before the chocolate cools.
6. Leave on parchment paper until cooled completely. You may speed up the cooling in the fridge (use a plate or tray under the parchment paper). If they touch as they cool - that is not a problem as they break apart nicely.

Enjoy!

No Points Pie (Jell-O and Fruit)

This is completely simple and completely amazing. I noticed that there were a number of problems when I was looking up the recipe (Malware sites, etc.) so I thought I would get this down. This is known commonly as the Weight Watchers "No Points" Pie. Simply put, you can eat this until your head explodes. It is really great and everyone at home loves it. A great dessert or snack is easy and you can eat a ton of it!

Ingredients (can be doubled without problem):
2 Cups water
1 Package cook & serve sugar-free vanilla pudding (we use Jell-O also) - do NOT use instant pudding
1 Package sugar-free gelatin in fruit flavor (we use Jell-O Raspberry)
6oz Raspberries
6oz Blueberries
NOTE: The fruit here is what we use - but you can put in anything that you like. The amounts here work well.

Directions:
1. Put water in a sauce pan and turn on high heat.
2. Immediately, add the pudding and whisk until well blended. This can get clumpy so you want to make sure that it is smooth.
3. Once it is smooth, add the gelatin package and continue whisking until it comes to a boil.
4. When it boils, remove from heat. Add to container and then carefully add the fruit (so it does not splash).
5. Place in refrigerator and let it solidify. It should be ready in around 2-3 hours for a single batch. Double batches add one hour.

ENJOY!