Strawberry Shortcake Bars

I made this for when my husband's family came to visit for my mother in law's birthday.  My sister in law told me her favorite desserts were strawberry shortcake and Key lime pie.  Since I thought strawberry shortcake for a crowd might be too fussy I thought this would be a good alternative.  It was a big hit!

Strawberry Shortcake Bars via Kraft
2 pkg. (3.4 oz. each) JELL-O Vanilla Flavor Instant Pudding
2-1/2 cu cold milk
1 tub (8 oz.) COOL WHIP Whipped Topping, thawed
3 cups sliced fresh strawberries plus extra for decorating top
22-1/2 graham cracker sheets

Beat pudding mixes and milk in large bowl with whisk 2 min. Stir in Cool Whip. Gently stir in strawberries. Break whole graham sheets crosswise in half. Arrange 15 squares on bottom of 13x9 pan; cover with 1/3 pudding mix. Repeat layers twice. top with extra halved strawberries.  Chill at least 4 hrs before serving.

Fudgy Choco-PB-Nana Smoothie

I've made a few frozen treats with the chocolate/pb/banana combo.  I think this one is by far my favorite.

Thick Fudgy Chocolate PB Soothie via Averie Cooks

2 large or 3 med ripe bananas, peeled and frozen into chunks (no ice necessary this way)
3/4 c vanilla unsweetened almond milk (Don't sub this with soy or cow milk)
heaping 1/3 c creamy peanut butter (don't use chunky)
1/4 c unsweetened natural cocoa powder
1 t vanilla
sweetener, to taste

Add bananas,  milk, cocoa, peanut butter, vanilla, and sweetener to blender. Mix on high until smooth. Add additional milk only as necessary or until desired smoothie consistency is reached.
Serve immediately. Any leftovers taste great as popcicles!

Peach Crisp Smoothie or Popsicles

I made a double batch of this smoothie one night for dessert and we froze what we couldn't drink in popsicle molds.  This smoothie tastes just like it sounds - like a peach crisp! 

Peach Crisp Smoothie adapted from My Happy Place

1/2 banana- frozen

1 frozen peach - I used frozen peaches

small handful of raw walnuts

1 t vanilla

1 t pure maple syrup or pancake syrup

2 T  quick cooking oats

1/2t cinnamon

2 T unsweetened vanilla almond milk

Place all ingredients in a blender and blend on high until smooth. Add ice or milk as needed. Pour into a glass and serve immediately. Makes one large smoothie.

30 Days of Pumpkin-Day Six: Cinnamon Pecan Pumpkin Ice Cream

I really like cinnamony flavored ice cream.  I think I might actually prefer cinnamon ice cream on a slice of apple pie over a piece of chocolate cake.

 I know!
You didn't think it was time for shocking confessions. Did you?

However much I love ice cream, it does not love me.  I'll be naughty every once and a while and have some, but no more than a single scoop...or I'll be doubled over in pain.

So, in order to save myself a literal butload of pain, I'm always on the lookout for a good non dairy ice cream recipe.

I found this recipe for a Creamy Pumpkin Smoothie from Oh She Glows that I thought I could adapt into something fun and autumnal.  I added extra cinnamon, cinnamon chips, coconut and pecans.

The resulting concoction was good, but I messed up.  Instead of just placing the mixture in the freezer I should have churned it in the ice cream maker.  The ice cream that was placed directly into the freezer still tasted good, but the texture had ice crystals in it.  If you churn this in an ice cream maker that won't happen.  It will be nice and smooth like a good ice cream should.


Cinnamon Pecan Pumpkin Ice Cream adapted from Oh She Glows
2 c unsweetened almond milk
heaping 1/2 c rolled oats
1 c pumpkin
1/2 T molasses
2 frozen ripe banana- sliced into coins
3  t cinnamon
3/4 t ground ginger
1/4 t ground nutmeg
2 T maple syrup
1/2c cinnamon chips
1/2c salted pecan pieces
1/2 c sweetened flaked coconut

In med bowl whisk milk and oats. Place in fridge for 1 hour or preferably overnight. Add soaked oat mixture to food processor with pumpkin, molasses, frozen banana, maple syrup and spices. Blend til smooth. Slowly add to ice cream maker and blend per machine instructions.  Fold in chips, nuts and coconut.  Eat immediately for soft serve ice cream or chill for 1 hour for a more firm ice cream.

Frozen Golden Oreo Lemon Yum

There's just something about Golden Oreos and lemon that pair so nicely together.  

Then add frozen Cool Whip to the mix?

Sold!

I decided to make a whole huge dessert out of this and prepare it in a 9" Springform pan.  I did this basically because I only had a 8x8 pan, so my 9" springform pan was the only dish that was large enough.  I bought a 16 oz container of Cool Whip so I decided to use all of that instead of the 12 oz the original recipe called for.  I filled the spring form pan all the way to the top.

This made for lovely slices of "cake" that was nearly like ice cream.


Frozen Golden Oreo Lemon Yum adapted from Crazy For Crust
36 Golden Oreos, divided (This is one full package.  I may have only used 35 cookies because one might have fallen into my mouth.)
3 T butter, very soft
1 box (3.4 ounces) french vanilla pudding (you can switch up the pudding flavor if you prefer)
1 c unsweetened vanilla almond milk
18oz Cool Whip
1 cup lemon curd (jarred or homemade) (I used some homemade stuff that never thickened properly, but wound up working great)

Place 20 cookies in a gallon sized plastic zip bag. Seal bag except for 1 corner so air can escape and mash with a rolling pin to coarsely crush cookies. Place cookies and butter in lg bowl. Mix til combined. Place in bottom of 9” springform pan.  Wipe out bowl and add pudding mix and milk. Whisk til smooth and set aside for 2 min. Fold in heaping 1 c cool whip. Carefully spread over cookies in pan. Crush all but 2 remaining cookies in a new zip bag. Sprinkle over pudding.  Mix lemon curd gently with heaping cup cool whip. Spread over pudding. Spread remaining whipped topping over the curd mixture. Coarsely crush remaining 2 cookies and sprinkle over top.  Cover with plastic wrap and freeze overnight.

Watermelon Slushy Fail

A few weeks ago I bought this massive watermelon.  The large ones were cheaper than the personal ones for some reason.  A large watermelon is way too much for the three of us to eat before it spoils.  I looked to see if there was some other way we could consume the melon aside from just eating it normally in cut up cubes.

I came across this recipe for Watermelon Lime Frosties over at My Life in Food.  So I froze the remaining watermelon, which just happened to be exactly 3 cups-exactly what the recipe called for.  It must be kismet, right? 
Hmmm.

Not so much.

First off my wimpy blender did not like the frozen watermelon.  I thought I was going to burn out the motor on the poor guy.  As luck would have it, I did not and I managed to puree the mixture after adding an additional cup of water.  That and pulsing and poking at the concoction for a good 20 min.

Then I thought to myself, "Man, this better be worth it."

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Sadly, not so much.  Although, it wasn't nearly as bad as the Cucumber Drink of Slime.

The drink was a beautiful pinkish red though.  I think that was the biggest improvement over the Failed cucumber drink.  It actually looked like it was going to taste good.

So what was the problem with the drink?  It tasted bitter.  I even added additional maple syrup - 3 additional Tablespoons for a total of 5 Tablespoons.

I'm pretty sure the culprit was the seeds.  Huh?  Well, you ask, why didn't I pick out the seeds?  It was a seedless watermelon.  What?  I thought you said the seeds were the problem.  Gee you should get your story straight. 

Yes.  The seeds WERE most likely the problem.  Even seedless watermelon has seeds.  They are usually those tiny puny little seeds that are impossible to pick out.  Normally, they just get eaten and you can't taste them at all.  But in pureeing the melon...they get pulverized and their bitter qualities overwhelm the entire drink.  This is the only thing that I can think of that would make the drink bitter as the lime juice was sour, and the banana and maple syrup were sweet.

To be fair, this drink wasn't a total Fail.  Blockette loved it.  I'm not sure why.  I gave her a big old glass and she slurped and gulped that bad boy down.  I poured some of the leftovers into Popsicle molds, but tossed the rest.  Mrblocko didn't even want to try it.  I think he was still reeling from the cucumber drink debacle. 

This slushy concoction could have been salvaged by adding some booze.  Something like Malibu would have added sweetness and I believe the coconut flavor would have overwhelmed the bitterness.  However, it was a school night and Alcohol and I are not friends.  I didn't think the experiment was worth the pain I'd have to suffer the next morning. 

Hangover + walking into traffic = Pancake Mrsblocko

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Watermelon Lime Frosty from My Life in Food
3 c watermelon, cubed and frozen
1 ripe banana, peeled and frozen
2-5  T  maple syrup
Zest from 2 limes
Juice from 2 limes (about 4 tablespoons)
1/2 -1 c water

Blend all ingredients until smooth, adding more water as needed to keep the mixture moving. Add booze as needed.

Snickerdoodle Frozen Dough Balls

What do you do when you want cookies, but it's too hot to turn the oven on?  Make cookie dough balls.  These bad boys from Shugary Sweets are egg free so no need to worry about that nasty salmonella!

Actually, I made these dough balls more because I had some cream cheese in the fridge that needed to be used up.  It was just good luck that I found something that used a small amount of cream cheese AND didn't need the oven.

I didn't coat these in chocolate like the recipe suggested because I was lazy.  All I had were chocolate chips and on a humid day, they take forever to set up.  So these snickerdoodle balls are nekkid! eek!

Because these truffles weren't chocolate dipped they needed something to help keep their shape.  My dough was so sticky and loose that I increased the flour from 1 1/4 c to a full 2 cups.  I think this makes them taste even more like cookie dough.

Those of you who are long time blog followers might be thinking, wait didn't she make snickerdoodle truffles once before? Yes.  Those truffles were much sweeter as they contained a whole can of condensed sweetened milk instead of 4 oz of cream cheese.  Both versions are good in their own rights.

I think I prefer the condensed milk version for a winter treat because it is so rich.  Sometimes rich sweets are overwhelming when it's hot out.  Of course you should really try both versions out to know for sure.  Because of science.  Do it in the name of science!!!

Snickerdoodle cookie dough balls adapted from Shugary Sweets
4 oz cream cheese, softened
1/2 c butter, softened
1/2 c granulated sugar
1/4 c brown sugar
2 c flour
1 t vanilla
1/4 t kosher salt
1 1/2 t cinnamon
1/4 t cream of tartar

In large bowl, beat cream cheese and butter with sugars til smooth and creamy. Beat in flour, vanilla, salt, cinnamon and cream of tartar. Scoop by small tablespoon (I use a 1 Tbsp scoop) onto a parchment or wax paper lined  baking sheet or plate.  Freeze for 2 hours until hard then move to plastic bag or other storage dish. Store in freezer, the dough will still be soft enough to bite directly from the freezer. 

Peanut Butter Pudding Pops

Who doesn't love a good pudding pop?  Why buy them when they are so easy to make!  Besides these pudding pops are peanut butter and chocolate, plus they were made with almond milk instead of moo juice.  Try finding that in the store!

This recipe for Peanut Butter Pudding pops from Craft, Bake, Sew, Create yielded 6 star pops with about half a cup  leftover.  I just froze that in a small container and ate it like ice cream.

What I like about pudding pops versus popcicles (or even most homemade non dairy, egg free ice creams) is how they stay relatively soft after being frozen.  Sometimes homemade popcicles and ice cream get rock hard after 24 hrs in the freezer. 

This is not the case with the peanut butter pudding pops.  They are chompable straight out of the mold.  This is particularly awesome because it takes Blockette FOREVER to eat frozen confections on a stick.  She is willing to chomp on these pudding pops unlike even a store bought Popsicle. 

As with all things using cocoa powder, I suggest you use a high quality cocoa powder.  The better the cocoa, the better your pudding pops are going to taste.  I do NOT like Hershey Cocoa powder.  That's because I'm spoiled.  Once you use a high quality cocoa powder you won't be able to go back to using the cheap stuff.  It will taste like dirt.  Consider yourself warned.  Personally, I LOVE chocolate, so it's one of the few things I'm willing to splurge on.

For those of you with a peanut allergy, I'm sure these pops could be made with other "butters" other than peanut.  Nutella and Biscoff come to mind as tasty alternatives!

Chocolate & Peanut Butter Fudgsicles from Craft, Bake, Sew, Create
2/3 cups granulated sugar
1/4 cup cocoa powder (use the good stuff, I love Penzeys)
1/4 tsp. salt
3 T. cornstarch
2 1/4 cups milk (I used unsweetened almond milk)
1 tsp. vanilla
2 T. butter or margarine
1/2 cup creamy peanut butter

In med pan, whisk sugar, cocoa, cornstarch, and salt. Gradually whisk in milk. Cook over med heat, stirring constantly, until mixture starts to boil. Boil for 1 min. Remove from  stove and stir in butter, vanilla and peanut butter. Pour into popsicle molds. Freeze overnight. (While you're waiting for the pops to freeze, go ahead and lick the pan you cooked the pudding in.  I won't tell!)

M and M Oatmeal Cookie Ice Cream

I made this Oatmeal Cookie Ice Cream from Chocolate Covered Katie.  The recipe suggests using raisins, but I'm not a fan of raisins so I used 1/3 c M and M's.

How in the world do they make M and M ice cream that doesn't wind up puce colored?  Because it's homemade ice cream, it always winds up rock hard. So, you've got to either let the ice cream sit and thaw on the counter or nuke it a bit on defrost before you can scoop it.   If you don't you'll end up with a broken spoon or ice cream container.  Not that I've learned from experience or anything.

When you let ice cream with M and M's sit out, the color melts off the candies.  And they bleed.  Leaving you with a hot mess of ice cream.

Not unlike our friend here.

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It's not a pretty sight. 

Ack!  I wasn't going to show you that.  And this was the GOOD picture.  From the first day that I made it.  By the third time it had thawed and refroze...shudder...well let's just say I ate it with my eyes closed.

Luckily, the ice cream was tasty!  I made it with unsweetened almond milk.  Not cause I'm against milk or anything.  I love milk.  Dairy does not love me.  I can only consume a small amount and I choose to eat that in cheese.  (Cheese makes the world go round!  Anyone else ever sing that song?) I can make my own non dairy ice cream, but it's a lot harder to make my own non dairy blue cheese.

I think this tastes just like an oatmeal cookie in ice cream form.  I'd love to ramp this up next time by adding oatmeal cookie dough pieces too it.   I'd also leave the M and M's out to avoid the disgusting color swirls.

Oatmeal Cookie Ice Cream from Chocolate Covered Katie
2 2/3 c milk of choice, or creamer
1/3 c oat flour ( grind rolled oats to powder in a food processor. Measure after blending.)
 1/2 t salt
1/4 t baking soda (for flavor; can be omitted)
1/2 t cinnamon
1/3 c raisins (or other add in just beware that your M and M's will bleed)
1/2 c brown sugar
 3 T sugar
2 T “butter” (Dairy or non dairy)
1 t vanilla

Combine all ingredients except vanilla (Do include raisins, but not M & Ms or they will melt), Nuke 3 1/2 min, stir, and nuke another 2 min. Add vanilla.  Chill in fridge til cold again (about 4 hrs). Pour into ice cream maker and churn per manufacture instructions.  Transfer to an airtight container. (Fold in M and M's at this point if using.) Freeze for about an hour.  If you choose to freeze this longer than an hour, it will be very hard and you will need to let it defrost for a bit before servin.

Chocolate Syrup

I want some chocolate milk!
I want to drink it now.

-Well, just make some faux quik mix.

But I don't want THAT kind of chocolate milk.  The mix kind has little foamy floaties.  That's great and all, but I want the smooth and rich sort of chocolate milk.

-So go get some chocolate syrup from the store.

 But I'm too lazy to go to the store.  That would require putting on jeans and a bra and that is way too much effort.  Ack!  What's a lazy creamy chocolate milk craver to do?

-Shut up and make this Chocolate syrup from Dough Puncher.

Boom.
Problem solved.  
Go about your daily chocolatified milky day.

Seriously, this syrup took 5 minutes to make.  Much less time than it takes me to go to the grocery store, let alone get dressed. 

The above photo is a half batch.  A half batch is enough to fill one of those 8 oz freezer jam jars.

Chocolate Syrup (full recipe) from Dough puncher
1 c water
1/2 c unsweetened cocoa powder ( I like penzey's cocoa)
2 c sugar
1/4 t vanilla
pinch salt

Mix water, cocoa, and sugar in med pan (a larger pan is better than one you think is just the right size.  This stuff will bubble up.) Over med heat, dissolve cocoa and sugar with whisk. Bring to boil and cook 3 min, watching carefully to make sure it doesn't boil over-- turn down the heat if necessary (You don't want to clean this molten lava off your stovetop.) After 3 min, remove from heat. Add   vanilla and salt.

Store in fridge up to 2 months. It will thicken to similar consistency of store bought syrup as it sets up in refrigerator, if you can wait that long.  

Vegan Pumpkin Crumble Ice Cream

Ice cream in the winter?  Yes.  I'm one of those weird people.  Growing up ice cream was such a treat that I would eat it when offered, no matter the weather.

This ice cream is healthy to boot!  Well, healthier than a poke in the eye.  And it's Vegan too.

I guess this ice cream could be super healthy, but I had to go and ruin that!

The original recipe called for pumpkin, bananas, vanilla and spices.  I added 1/4 maple syrup because the banana taste was too strong for me.  I think I also over seasoned the ice cream.  I added 1 t of cinnamon and 1 t of pumpkin pie spice.  Next time I'll reduce the spices to 1/2 t each.

As if adding maple syrup wasn't enough, I had to go and add a crumble crust topping!  Do you remember this Dutch Apple Pie with a crumble crust?  Well I used that crust recipe for the topping.  Yes it was amazing!

OK.  Maybe Mrblocko didn't think it was amazing.  I think he is all pumpkined out so what does he know.  Blockette and I sure enjoyed it!

Vegan Pumpkin Crumble Ice Cream adapted from Vegan Ventures and My Culinary Companion
3 1/2 bananas, frozen and cut into coins
heaping 1/3c pumpkin puree
1/2 t each pumpkin pie spice and cinnamon
1 t vanilla
1/4 c maple or pancake syrup

topping
1c flour
1/2 c br sugar
1/4 c oats
6T margarine

Puree all ingredients in a food processor until smooth.  Chill for 2 hours.  While the ice cream is hardening, preheat the oven to 350F.  Combine the topping ingredients and press on a silpat or parchment lined cookie sheet.  Bake for 15-20 minutes until light golden brown.  Let cool and break into bite size chunks.  The edges will be crispier than the middle.  We liked having the mixture of crunch and soft pieces in our ice cream.  Serve the ice cream in bowls and sprinkle with crumble pieces!   Don't eat it too fast or you'll get a brain freeze!

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Maple Cinnamon Banana "Ice Cream"

I liked the Peanut Butter Banana Chocolate chip Ice Cream so much, I had to make another batch the next day! This time I decided to switch things up a bit with maple, pecans and cinnamon flavors.

Which one is better?  I can't decide!

If you're a fan of maple or cinnamon, you'll love this version as much as I did.  Wanna know what the best part about this dessert was?  The maple and cinnamon flavors are so strong, I couldn't taste any banana.  Double super bonus!

Maple Cinnamon Banana "Ice Cream"
2 frozen bananas, sliced into coins
2 scoops of peanut butter (I used a tablespoon, not the measuring kind.)
3 regular tablespoons of Maple syrup (I used basic Pancake syrup.  In my opinion, it has a stronger maple flavor than the real stuff.)
1 1/2 tsp cinnamon (use less if you are not a total cinnamon junkie like me)
small handful of pecan pieces
small handful of Hershey's cinnamon chips

Pulse the frozen bananas in a food processor.  Add the peanut butter, syrup and cinnamon.  Blend until smooth and fluffy.  Pour into shallow container.  Fold in pecans and chips.  Eat now if you like soft serve, freeze for 2-4 hours for firmer consistency.  Serves 2.

Raspberry Lemonade Bars

I made pink raspberry lemonade freezer pie from Averie Cooks the other day when some friends came over for dinner.

I was a space cadet and forgot to take a picture.

Take my word for it that they looked similar to the ones over at Averie Cooks.

The original recipe calls for pink lemonade, but I used raspberry lemonade instead. We prefer raspberry lemonade to regular lemonade in our house. I'm not sure that was the best substitution though. I think the raspberry cut into some of the tartness that was needed to offset the sweetness.

As I was preparing this dish I was really afraid it would be too sweet. I gave the batter a test taste as I was preparing it and wow. Was it ever sweet. Freezing things tends to lessen the intensity of thinks like sweetness, so I was holding out for that. That did help, but I think this dish was still a bit over the top.

Of course the sweetness didn't stop us from eating the leftovers. We muddled through, making that sacrifice. Ok. In all honesty the bars were actually pretty good, it's just that they could have been better. I liked the saltiness of the crust. I cut the sugar in the crust by half, and next time I'd omit it. The desert is sweet enough, the crust is fine without it. If I were to make this dessert again, I think using concentrated limeade would be fun to try out.


Pink Raspberry Lemonade Bars adapted from Averie Cooks
2 1/2 sleeves of Ritz Crackers (about 3 cups of crumbs)
3/4 c butter, melted (1 1/2 sticks)
1 12-ounce can raspberry lemonade concentrate, thawed to liquid
1 14-ounce can sweetened condensed milk
1 8-ounce container COOL WHIP Whipped Topping, thawed to room temperature
red or pink food coloring, optional (I used about one dozen drops of neon pink food coloring)

Line a 8x8 or 9x9" pan with foil and spray with cooking spray. (I used 8x8.) Place crackers in food processor/blender and pulverize.  Place crumbs in bowl, add melted butter, and stir . Press a little less than 3/4 of mixture into bottom of prepared pan, set pan aside, and reserve remaining 1/4 crumbs.

In a lg bowl, combine lemonade concentrate, condensed milk. Add COOL WHIP. If desired, add food coloring drops to desired shade and stir until color is uniform. Pour mixture over crust, noting that you may have extra  mixture depending on the height of the pan; do not overfill the pan. Use extra mixture for a mini-tartlette, fruit dip, or just eat it. Top mixture with the remaining cracker crumbs by sprinkling them over the top. Place pan into the freezer to set up for at least 4 hours before slicing and serving. Store extra dessert in the freezer.

PB 'Nana Chocolate Chip "Ice Cream"

This September has been so hot and humid. Hey! Mother Nature! Don't you know school is on and that means it's like Fall now? I mean the tree in the front yard knows it's fall. It's already lost it's leaves. Ok. So it has Emerald Ash Borer and the tree is half dead anyhow, but that is beside the point.

What is the point? It's hot out. And I come home from standing outside for an hour and I'm dripping wet with sweat and grossities.  I wanted me something cold to eat for dessert. My tummy had been a bit on the wonky side so the milk based popsicles that were already in the freezer were not appealing in the least.

Then I remembered reading about "ice cream" made from bananas.  I had bananas...loads of them in the freezer.  Seemed like a match made in heaven.

I thought this recipe for Peanut Butter Banana Chocolate Chip Ice Cream from Got Chocolate sounded particularly yummy.

Because I was all hot and sweaty I got all scientific with precise measurements.

I hacked up 2 frozen bananas into coins and tossed them in the food processor.

(In my opinion, the food processor is the key to the success of this recipe.  I've made banana smoothies before and the bananas always get caught in the blade, and don't blend very well unless you add a LOT of milk.  The Food processor really mashes them up nicely before they melt too much.)

Then I took a big cereal spoon and scooped out 3 blobs of peanut butter.  Then I added 3 regular spoonfuls of honey.  I pulsed it all together until it looked like creamy smooth mashed potatoes.  Next, I poured the mixture into a shallow container, and folded in a large handful of chocolate chips.

At this point the ice cream was soft serve consistency.  I could have eaten it right then and there, but it was only 4pm.  So I stuck it in the freezer for after dinner.

By the time homework was done, dinner was prepared and eaten, 2 hours later, the ice cream had hardened enough to be just barely scoop-able. 

This was what was leftover after Blockette and I got a hold of the ice cream.

How did the dessert taste?

Surprisingly, this did not have an over powering banana taste.  I think this had something to do with the bananas being frozen.  Maybe it masks some of that gross banana flavor. Anyhow, the "ice cream" was super delicious!

After  Blockette went to bed, I devoured the leftovers.  Because you know, I had not had enough fruit that day.  I wasn't a pig, just trying to be healthy!

Pina Colada Sorbet

Ugh. I made this sorbet at the beginning of the summer and somehow forgot to write about it.

The recipe for this pina colada sorbet is from Back to Her Roots.  Well at least the original is.  Of course I switched the recipe up a bit.

I had made my own coconut milk with a recipe I found over at Whole New Mom.  That didn't work too well as I have a sad wimpy blender.  I don't recommend doing this unless you have a good blender.  A bad blender will give you chunky coconut milk.  It turns out chunky coconut milk isn't so bad in sorbet.  It's really not the best on your breakfast cereal though. 

Another downside to poorly made coconut milk vs the canned stuff you can buy at the store is the consistency.  Mine was quite thin and that canned stuff is so thick and creamy.  Using the canned stuff would probably have resulted in a creamier sorbet.

The last change I made to the recipe was to add some booze.  I had some Malibu so why not!  More coconut-y goodness right?  Besides, the alcohol helps prevent the frozen mixture from getting as hard as a brick.  Well, it's supposed to anyhow.  I think I needed a full cup of the Malibu, not just 1/4 c.  I'll try that out next time.

Pina Colada Sorbet adapted from Back to her Roots
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup water
1/4 c Malibu (I'll use 1 cup next time)
1-20 ounce can crushed pineapple (I used chunked pineapple as it was going into the blender anyhow)
1-13.5 ounce can coconut milk (13 oz home made coconut milk, strained)
1/4 cup lime juice (this was exactly the juice of 1 lime)
1 teaspoon vanilla

combine the sugar, water and booze in a small saucepan.  Boil on med heat for about 3 minutes.  Set aside to cool. In a blender add pineapple, coconut milk, lime juice and vanilla.  Blend until smooth and frothy.  Transfer to a bowl and whisk in boozy syrup. Cover and chill in the fridge for 3 hours.  Once the mixture is completely cool, add to your ice cream maker per manufacture's instructions.  

German Chocolate Fudge Bites

Ok. So apparently peanut butter week is over. 

This recipe does have ground up pecans in it, so that sort of counts.

You know. If you squint and hop on one foot.

These German chocolate fudge bites from Chocolate covered Katie are a pretty healthy treat.  The main sweetness of these chocolate-y treats comes from dates!

Apparently I like dates.  Even though they look like bugs.  But with this recipe, it's not like you're popping a squishy buggy shaped critter in your mouth.  The dates get pureed in the food processor along with pecans, cocoa and coconut. 

I'm sure if you used unsweetened coconut and omitted the chocolate chips, they would be even better for you.  Of course I did nothing of the sort.  Momma's got a sweet tooth that must be satisfied!

The fudge-y treats were perfect when I wanted just a little something sweet.  They were chocolate-y without being overwhelming.  Sometimes in the summer I don't like the way a piece of chocolate melts and coats the inside of my mouth.  For some reason it makes me feel warmer. 

I stuck these little babies in the freezer because they didn't seem to want to hold together properly otherwise.  This helped them last a bit longer as I don't go into the freezer nearly as much as I do the fridge.  They were a nice cool little snack.  They were firm from the freezer, but not jawbreakingly so.

Oh and did I mention that there is no baking involved?  Yeah.  Another reason why these are the perfect sweet for summer!


German-Chocolate Fudge Bites from Chocolate Covered Katie  (Makes 10-14 balls)
3/4 cup pitted dates  (120g)
1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract
1/16 tsp salt
2 T cocoa powder (or raw cacao powder)
2 T shredded coconut
1/3 to 1/2 cup raw pecans
optional: feel free to add some mini chocolate chips

Blend all ingredients together very well. (I recommend using a food processor.) Squish the dough together. Roll into balls, cookie-cuttered shapes, or bars… or you can even use it for a pie crust!

Graham Cracker Frozen Treats

A few weeks ago I got this crazy notion to make some graham crackers.

Weird, huh? Why make graham crackers when they are so cheap at the store?

Cause I wanted to see if I could.

It turns out they weren't any harder than making cookies.  The hardest part was rolling them very very thin.  I wound up making graham crackers from the recipe over at Culinary Adventures in the Kitchen.  I chose that particular recipe because it was so unusual. It uses whole wheat flour instead of white, and instead of butter, the fat is olive oil. 

No one could taste the olive oil in the crackers.  I'm not sure if that was because they just don't taste olive oil-y, or because I sprinkled the tops of the crackers with a cinnamon sugar blend that had orange zest in it.  All you could really taste was the orange cinnamon goodness.

But it wasn't enough to just make the Graham crackers.  Nope.  I had to take it one step further. I made them into "ice cream" bars using sweet puddin'head filling, an idea I pilfered from Not Just Cute.  Sweet puddin'head is basically a mixture of Cool Whip and pudding.  I used sugar free vanilla pudding mix and Lite Cool Whip, cause that makes it healthy, doncha know.  And we are all about the healthy desserts in this house.  (Insert eye roll here.)

 

MMMMM! Delicious!

What is great about these frozen goodies is that they don't turn into a brick after chilling.  They firm up nicely in the freezer, but aren't so rock hard that a child with two missing front teeth couldn't consume them.   It did take the toothless child a considerable amount of time to eat her ice cream bar, but I am not entirely certain that had anything to do with her lack of pearly whites.

While I won't be making the graham crackers again this summer, (unless we get another cool spell,) I will make these treats again with store bought crackers.  I can't wait to try other pudding flavors.  I'm particularly looking forward to the cheesecake pudding flavor.  

Graham Crackers from Culinary Adventures in the Kitchen
2 cups whole-wheat flour
¼ cup sugar
½ teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 large egg
¼ cup extra virgin olive oil
¼ cup honey
2-3 tablespoons milk
additional milk for glaze
cinnamon-sugar (optional)

In a mixing bowl, combine whole wheat flour, sugar, salt, cinnamon and baking powder. In a separate bowl, beat egg till light, then add oil, honey and 2 T milk. Stir into dry ingredients until you have a fairly stiff dough, adding additional milk if necessary. Wrap dough in plastic wrap and chill until firm, about 1 hour (or longer, if it’s more convenient). Preheat your oven to 375°F. Turn the dough onto a floured surface and knead gently until it holds together. Roll dough out till it’s about 1/16-inch thick; make sure rolling surface is well-floured, or you’ll have trouble transferring crackers to baking sheet. Cut dough into 3" squares (or cut out using cookie cutters), prick each square several times with a fork, and place on lightly greased cookie sheets.  Brush tops with milk, sprinkle with cinnamon-sugar, and bake 15-20 min, til crackers are lightly browned. Remove crackers from oven, transfer to a wire cooling rack, and cool completely.

Sweet Puddin'head from Not Just Cute
8oz cool whip or similar
1 package of pudding mix
half milk suggested on pudding box

Combine milk and pudding until thick.  Fold in cool whip.  This recipe is actually just a guideline. Use any combination or size of cool whip or pudding.  You can even add some cream cheese if that suits your fancy. 

Just try not to eat the whole bowl in one sitting.  Save some for ice cream sandwiches! 

I stuck the filling in a zip bag and piped them onto the crackers. This made things a lot less messy for me.

Koolaid Jello Pops

My daughter is the slowest Popsicle eater on the planet.  Seriously. I don't know what it is. She was even like this before she lost any teeth.  When she was younger I'd only feed her popsicles outside. That way I'd only have to clean the sticky mess off of her, and not the entire kitchen and dining room.  Even now, I make her eat over a plate .

I have no idea where I found this recipe for drip-less wonders.  This was in my recipe binder before I started up this blog. It's another one of those, "why did I wait so many years to test it out?" kind of recipes.  These bad boys really live up to their name.  They really are Drip-less wonders.  My child only had two small drips on her plate, and none on her hands, face, clothes, floor, etc.  They should be called drip-less miracles.

What I liked about these freezey pops is that they don't get rock hard like some home made popsicles do.  Unlike Blockette, I like to take big chomps out of my frozen treats.  You can take huge bites without having to worry about breaking off any teeth.

They do have a slight jell-o-y taste to them.  However, the jell-o flavor wasn't so strong that I didn't like them.

We used sugar free strawberry jello and strawberry kool aid.  I couldn't find the sweetened version so I added a scant 1/3 c of sugar.  For the next batch I think I'll cut it back to 1/4 c. 

"Drip-less wonders"
1 pkg kool-aid, presweetened (or unsweetened with 1/4-1/3c sugar or substitute)
1 pkg jello (same flavor as kool aid)
2 c boiling water
2 c cold water

Mix Kool aid, jello, sugar and boiling water until the powders are dissolved. Add the cold water.  Stir.  Pour into molds and freeze.  Refrigerate leftovers for easy refilling of molds. If the concoction has set up, microwave for 15-20 seconds to liquify.

A Nearly Festive Ice Cream - For the Rest of Us

I was never a big fan of Seinfeld before it was syndicated. However, for a long time I didn't have cable/satellite, so that was the only thing to veg out to. Needless to say, I've watched more episodes than I care to admit, for a show I don't even like.

Anyhow, there was one episode where they talk about Festivus, an alternative holiday to the commercial aspect of Christmas. Ben and Jerry's even made a special limited edition ice cream named after this fictional holiday.

It was a brown sugar ice cream with gingerbread cookies and a ginger caramel swirl.  You really had to be a fan of gingerbread to like this flavor.  Apparently, it was not a popular flavor with the masses as they stopped releasing batches, even over the seasonally appropriate wintertime.

I was pretty lukewarm about this flavor.  I liked it well enough to eat it when it was around, but if I had another ice cream flavor choice available, I'd take it.  I wasn't super sad when the flavor was discontinued.  My husband and best friend, on the other hand, were very very put out.  They both LOVED this flavor.

So when I happened upon this Gingerbread ice cream recipe over at Kate's Short and Sweets, I just had to make it.  The ice cream base was obviously not the same as Ben and Jerry's.  I'm fairly certain that their ice cream has an egg base.  That's all fine and dandy as they are professionals.  I don't like to mess around with salmonella.  Go ahead.  Call me chicken.  ::groan:::

I didn't care for the cookie dough recipe that was linked up on Kate's Short and Sweets.  It called for Ener-G egg replacer and frankly, I didn't feel like going on a wild goose chase, just to find one random ingredient.  I settled on using this recipe for egg free gingerbread from Well-fed Everyone to use as cookie dough.

OK.  So the original Ben and Jerry's  Festivus uses actual baked gingerbread bits.  I was afraid that any gingerbread cookie I made would get soggy in the time it takes for the ice cream to set up.  So I went with gingerbread cookie dough instead.

Let me tell you, that cookie dough was awesome. I could not stop eating it.  Even with all my nibbling and snacking, there was enough cookie dough for this batch of ice cream, and another down the road.

Instead of a ginger caramel swirl, I just used dulce de leche that I made in the crockpot.  Truth is, I'm scared of making caramel.  I'm terrified of burning it or myself; I don't have the best of luck with molten sugar.  I played it safe went with what I know.  And I know how dulce de leche in the crockpot tastes.  (Damn good!) If you are feeling adventurous, why not try this basic Ginger caramel sauce from Food and Wine, or this slightly fancier version from My Man's Belly. They both look really good.

So to sum up, while this wasn't an exact copy of the original Festivus ice cream, it was a very tasty facsimile. Make some for the gingerbread lover in your life.  They will thank you for it!

Festivus Fake-y Faker-ton  Ice Cream adapted from Kate's Short and Sweets and Well-Fed Everyone
2 C milk
2 Tbsp molasses
1/2 C brown sugar, divided
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/2 tsp cloves
pinch of salt
2 Tbsp cornstarch
1 C cream
1/2 - 1 c frozen gingerbread cookie dough balls
Dulce de leche or other caramel sauce of your choosing (I used about a 3rd of the can)

Add milk, molasses, 1/4 C brown sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, and salt to a small saucepan. Heat, whisking occasionally, on med til steam rises from milk 3-5 min. Remove from heat.

Meanwhile, whisk cornstarch and a couple T cold cream in a small bowl. Whisk away as many lumps as possible.Whisk cornstarch mixture into heated milk, along with remaining 1/4 C brown sugar. Heat, stirring constantly, until thick. This mixture is ready when it thickly coats the back of a spoon and a line drawn across with your finger remains intact, 3-5 minutes.

Cool completely (about 1-2 hours in the fridge), then stir in the remaining cream. Freeze in an ice cream maker according to the manufacturer's instructions.

Pour the ice cream into the container you're going to freeze it in.  Fold in the frozen gingerbread dough bits. Drizzle on the caramel and swirl into the ice cream base.  Freeze for about 2 hours or until the ice cream is just set.

Frozen Gingerbread dough bits
1 3/4 c flour
1/4 t salt
1/4 t baking soda
1 tsp gr cinnamon
1/2 t ground ginger
1/4 t ground nutmeg
1/4 t ground cloves
1/4 c butter or margarine
1/4 c  brown sugar
1/4 c. unsulphured molasses
2 T water
1/2 t vanilla extract

Combine the dry ingredients in a small bowl and set aside. In the bowl of an electric mixer, combine butter and brown sugar.  Beat until light and fluffy, scraping bowl and paddle occasionally, about 5 min. In a small bowl or measuring cup, whisk molasses, water, and vanilla.  Stir into buttery stick mixture (it will separate and look all funky and gross).  Scrape bowl and paddle.  With mixer running on low speed, slowly add dry ingredients until evenly incorporated.  Flatten dough into a disk and refrigerate for at least an hour or up to three days, or freeze for up to three months.  Once the dough is no longer super sticky, roll into small marble sized balls.  Freeze balls on a wax paper lined cookie sheet until they have hardened, about an hour.  Transfer to a freezer safe storage container.

PBJ Ice Cream a la "The King"

What this ice cream should really be called is a "hunka chunka freezin' love".

A few weeks ago I accidentally bought a gallon of milk when we already had over a gallon in the fridge! Yikes. It was pretty crowded in there so I thought there was no better way to get rid of all that extra milk than to make us some ice cream. This recipe for peanut butter cup ice cream from Recipe Girl seemed like it would really hit the spot.

Hmmm...but I had a lot of other things that I wanted to use up. Like frozen bananas and strawberry freezer jam that never set up properly. (Man do I ever have lots of that stuff.)  But jelly goes well with peanut butter.  And Elvis teaches us bananas go well with peanut butter too.  So why not do both!

My husband proclaimed that this is the most disgusting looking ice cream ever. Of course he redeemed himself by saying it was also the best tasting ice cream ever.  It really was! (Gross looking and super duper yummy.)  And this coming from the man who has repeatedly said he doesn't care for peanut butter desserts.  (Maybe I shouldn't listen to him when he says stuff like that cause I know what I'm talking about when it comes to desserts.  If I know one thing, it's the goodness of desserts.  Yeah!)

Anyhow, back on track!  I didn't use any cream, just 100% skim milk.  There is so much sugar and other things going on, no one missed the cream.    If you are super picky about the texture of the ice cream, by all means, use a more fatty filled cow based mammary glad liquid product. 

As we had lots of little bunny shaped peanut butter "cups" left over from the Easter bunny, I chopped those little suckers up and used them instead of the traditional Reece's PB cups.  I probably had a little too much fun mutilating the peanut butter bunnies.  It was a good thing that no one else was home to hear my maniacal laughter.  (It's the little things that get me through the day.)  Unfortunately, I was about 1/8c shy of the required amount of pb cups.  So, I did the next best thing and chopped up a Hershey bar that I had leftover from when I made S'more Cookies last month.  They did the trick quite nicely.

I can't decide if I like this peanut butter ice cream, or the chocolate peanut butter swirl Ice Cream I made last year.  While they are both peanut butter ice creams, they are so different.  This one has peanut butter flavored ice cream with chocolatey peanut butter bits, while the other one is chocolate ice cream with peanut butter blobs.  They might seem like they should taste the same, but they are really so different.  I suggest you make both and decide for yourself!

Hunka Chunka Freezin Love - PB Banana Ice Cream with Mutilated Peanut butter cup bunnies and Strawberry jelly swirl adapted from Recipe girl
1 1/4 c creamy peanut butter
3/4 c sugar
1 large very ripe banana
3 1/4 c milk (or 1 1/4c milk and 2 c cream)
1 1/2 t vanilla
1 1/2c chopped pb cups (or bunnies if you are into that sort of thing)
strawberry jelly/syrup (if you use jelly nuke it until it is melted and liquidy - about 30 sec or so)

With a mixer, combine peanut butter, sugar and mashed banana until smooth.  Slowly add in 1 c of milk.  Mix on low for 2 minutes until sugar is fully dissolved and no longer grainy.  Add the remainder of the milk and vanilla.  Beat until smooth.  Pour into your ice cream maker and prepare as suggested by the manufacturer.   It will probably take about 25-30 minutes.  I tried to add my pb cups at the last 5 minutes of blending, but my ice cream maker didn't like that, so I poured the ice cream into a shallow freezer safe container and then stirred in my pb cups.  Once the pb cups were evenly distributed, I added in a few swirls of strawberry syrup.  I eyeballed this so I'm not certain of the amount I used.  It was probably somewhere between 1/8 and 1/4 c.  At this point the ice cream will be very soft.  It is best after it sits in the freezer for 3-5 hours.  If you should have leftovers at this point, be advised that the ice cream will be diamond hard.  I usually leave the ice cream on the counter while we are eating dinner and it is scoop-able by the time we are done.