Nominally Nom - Healthy Chunky Monkey Ice Cream!

Yes, you heard me right... And the name says it all. Which is why it is nominally nom. It is also officially delicious. And I am so full of om-nom-ness right now.

Tonight's dessert was...
Healthy(er) Chunky Monkey Ice Cream

*Clicking on advertisements will add pennies (not yours) to my college loans fund. Thanks!* /plea for help


*Recipes and/or sites that we used will be at the end of the meal's post.*

And this recipe can be dairy-free if you use dairy-free chocolate!

Okay, so I added in some "extra stuff" which may or may not have put back all the calories I just worked off at Zumba, but the main recipe itself is actually not so bad.

I could snack on walnuts all day...

I bet you can't guess what the secret ingredient is in this ice cream. No, seriously. And it's not the Reese's.

I'm actually pretty proud of my somewhat
artistic photos this time. I used props!

The secret ingredient is... [drumroll please]...

BANANAS!

Aw, look! They're spooning.

Five bananas. Sliced and frozen. Of course, I put 'em in the freezer in a container, so they came out one giant frozen chunk o' bah-nahn. I would recommend laying the slices out on a cookie sheet, or else you'll be chopping the big mass of banana (massive banana?) by hand before your food processor can handle it.

It really does come out like soft serve ice cream though. Except it's banana cream.

Mmm... Creameh.

I put in a little more than a tablespoon of peanut butter, and then i mixed in some quartered Reese's peanut butter cups and walnuts. Then I put an extra spoonful of peanut butter on top. And that's why I just canceled out all the healthy eating I've been doing this week.

At least it's banana and not real ice cream. :)

So if you want to be healthy(er), lay off of these things:

Pieces of Reese's.

Also, although the recipe I used calls for 5 bananas to make 2 servings, pretty much one banana's worth of cream was PLENTY. I didn't even finish my bowl. It was too rich and full of goodness. However, I did whip up the rest of it so I wouldn't have to dirty the food processor again. I'll use the little processor to add some peanut butter to a single serving when I decide enough time has passed that I can handle this treat again. I will put more than 1 tablespoon in this time, so I don't have to add extra on top.

That's about it. Hope you enjoy it! And yes, I'm really proud of my photography skills in this post. :)

May you be nominally nom this week! And may everything you make be as well, so you are not an OMNOMALY! But that would be quite the phenomenom... Okay okay, I'm done now.

Happy Tuesday,
Sarah

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Recipes and Sites
Thank you to FoodGawker for helping us find recipes!

Healthified Supreme Chunky Monkey Ice Cream

Site:
http://www.healthfulpursuit.com/2011/07/healthified-supreme-chunky-monkey-ice-cream/

*Notes:
Five bananas, for me, is WAY more than two servings. Also, I replaced the chocolate chips with quartered Reese's peanut butter cups. I skipped the coconut, 'cause I don't like it.

Summer treat update!

Hello and happy Sunday! I hope you all have enjoyed your weekend.

*Clicking on advertisements will add pennies (not yours) to my college loans fund. Thanks!* /plea for help

Here is the update, as promised, on the strawberry-banana freeze pops.

OH MY GOODNESS SO GOOD.

Pix!

One of the bowls I enjoyed making.
Unfortunately, the glass bowl broke.
DON'T FREEZE IN GLASS.

Mah spoon is not too big.

Frozen goodness.

Bite!

Freeze pops are like onions...

The layers came out really well, and the slices of fruit inside were really nice little surprises. My mom said should would have liked more of the strawberry puree, and I personally liked the yogurt/puree mix more, so next time I'll layer them to our preferences. Also, I will put in way more slices. I thought there wouldn't be enough room for more than a few, but I could definitely fit more in there. In fact, I could just dump a bunch in and put the yogurt and puree over top, and it would probably be fine.

Let me know if you try it with other fruits!

Chica love,
Sarah

3-in-1

That's what today's post is. Three recipes, one mega-post. I've got a bit of a backlog from the past two weeks, and I'm about to fill you in on all the yummy goodness!

This post's meals consisted of:
Baked chicken taquitos
Vegetable loaded sloppy joe's (/chili)
Strawberry-banana freeze pops! (or ice pops, or popsicles, or whatever you call them)

*Recipes and/or sites used will be at the end of the post.*
*Clicking on advertisements will add pennies (not yours) to my college loans fund. Thanks!* /plea for help

Talk about some good meals.

Link: This is from a t-shirt.

MEAL NUMBER ONE!

So let's start with the taquitos. We wanted something simple, and my mama loves Mexican food, so this was a great pick. We prepared it early, then while I was at Zumba (if you don't know what that is, go check it out - it may change your life) my mom put it in the oven, so it would be ready when I came home with the guacamole. Which I forgot. Oops.

The recipe called for a couple of things we did not have. We were out of cumin, for example, so in order to avoid the bland taste everyone dreads, we added a little extra chili powder and an extra dash of crushed peppers. We also had no cilantro or scallions, but that was no big deal. We had no Pepperjack cheese, so we doubled our cheddar. We had no lime, so we put in a squeeze of lemon (not enough to ruin the flavor) and a little extra salsa juice to make sure it wasn't too dry.

While I was mixing all this up, my mom was shredding the chicken. Then we put it all together and it was time to roll 'em up! In soft taco shells, that is.

All dressed up from my interview earlier. Yay job hunting.

Close up on the action!

They went in the oven like this:

Chickens in a blanket. Pigs aren't kosher. :)

And came out of the oven like this:

Perfectly browned.

These were our toppings:

My hand is holding the invisible guacamole that
I wished I had remembered.

The finished masterpiece:

Delight!

Mom also made brown rice to go with it - she remembered I like brown rice! My mom's the best. It took forever to cook, but was totally worth it.

MEAL NUMBER TWO!

Moving right along, next we have vegetable loaded sloppy joe's. See, my brother's away at camp being a boy scout, so it's just my parents and me in the house. This means we can try new things that are full of vegetables and my brother probably wouldn't eat. My sister might try things, but she's off being a counselor at a different camp.

The awesome thing about this recipe is that it is actually designed for picky eaters who don't want vegetables. My brother would probably have enjoyed this meal had he been here and not watched us put the veggies in it. THEY ARE TOTALLY UNNOTICEABLE. Seriously. We put carrots, mushrooms, onion, and garlic in our mix, and my dad had to guess wildly for several minutes before getting all four. You couldn't see them and you couldn't tell by taste that they were there (unless you're a super-duper-taster, of course). And it was so delicious.

We chopped 'em up real good.

Again, we were missing a few things from the ingredients list, but we decided to wing it and see how it came out. Still no cumin, and no coriander or cloves either. So we added some extra chili powder and crushed peppers (sound familiar?). Apparently an extra teaspoon was a little much! My mom took a taste and went "Whoa!!" So I took a taste... And waited a moment... And then said, "There it is!" Boy, it took its sweet (spicy) time to kick, but what a kick. I pretty much felt the back of my mouth and throat go WHOOSH. We decided it would be chili instead of sloppy joe's.

Meat left, more veggies right.

And we discovered halfway through that we had no tomato paste, but only one tablespoon was called for, so we just skipped it.

Also, we weren't quite sure was a "tin" measured out to be, so we guessed a little. It came out a little liquidy, but we let it boil away, and by the next day it had thickened considerably. Enough to put it on a bun and eat it as a sloppy joe!

Anyway, you can put cheese on top, or you can skip the cheese. I skipped it because I keep kosher style and don't mix my dairy and meat products.* (See note below for clarification about chicken.)

Dad's on left, mine on right.

And we whipped up a peas and corn mix for a side, as well as some cornbread.

Daddy graciously let me use his bowl because
it was more colorful than mine. :)

And that was a fantastic meal. The next day I had leftovers on a bun. Wicked good. No pictures of that though, sorry.

*I keep kosher style, which means I don't eat non-kosher foods such as shellfish or pork, and I don't mix dairy with meat products. As you might have noticed, I do eat chicken with dairy. This is because after studying different texts, I feel that fowl is parve (neither meat nor dairy) just like fish. By my kosher diet, "meat" is an animal that produces milk. Have you ever seen a nipple on a chicken?


TL-DR: In short, a chicken does not produce milk, therefore it is impossible to boil a chick in its mother's milk.

MEAL NUMBER THREE!

Okay, this isn't really a meal. This is a dessert! Even better, right? And what's more, it's really good for you. Today I made strawberry-banana freeze pops. They are in the freezer as I type.

I showed my mom two dessert recipes that needed bananas, so she went out and bought a few. I had the day off from work, and I had the house to myself, so I decided to make a Shabbas (Sabbath) treat before anyone came home.

I <3 teh froot.

Since we had only about a cup of yogurt left and it was going to go bad very soon, I decided to double the recipe. Except for the honey. I only used one tablespoon of honey total. I'm not a huge honey fan, but I do like to put it in smoothies (and freeze pops) so that I can eat it without tasting it.

Doubling the strawberries meant a LOT of extra puree, which is not really a bad thing. There was simply more of it than the yogurt. Also, mixing two tablespoons of the puree with the yogurt made swirls until it blended completely. This made me very happy.

Happy swirls.

I found six popsicle molds hiding in one of our cabinets. I was pretty excited when I saw them. Layering the yogurt, puree, and sliced fruit into them was pretty fun. And a little messy.

Made with Real Froot!

And on a whim, I stuck a slice of banana onto the popsicle stick part before putting it on top. I hope that doesn't make it impossible to get them out of the molds.

Creativity at its best.

Since there were only six molds, and I had enough for 8+, I grabbed two little glass bowls and got to work.

Ready for the freezer.

They are freezing right now, and I can't wait to try them! I will put an update after Shabbas to let you know how they turned out. :)

Phew. That's it!
Happy weekend, everyone!
Sarah

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Recipes and Sites
Thank you to FoodGawker for helping us find recipes!

Baked chicken taquitos

Site:

http://www.blissfullydelicious.com/?p=1943

Vegetable loaded sloppy joe's

Site:

http://simply-delicious.co.za/2011/07/21/vegetable-loaded-sloppy-joes/

*Notes:

We used extra chili powder and crushed peppers in place of some of our missing spices. Also, with a little extra beef stock, it turned out more like a very tasty chili than sloppy joe's. I enjoyed it as a sloppy joe the next day when it thickened.

Strawberry-banana ice pops

Site:

http://tast-e.blogspot.com/2011/07/strawberry-banana-ice-pops.html

*Notes:
I doubled this recipe except for the honey (agave) - only put a single tablespoon in the puree, and did not add any more anywhere else in the recipe. I also used a few extra strawberries. Very easy and very fun to make!

Two desserts!

...and one dinner. :)

Last Friday I went to a potluck dinner, and decided to bring a dessert. It was a meat meal, so the dessert couldn't have any dairy in it. I was very happy to try out my first dairy-free dessert!

In addition to that, I made dinner and dessert for my family last night - a dairy meal this time.

This week's meals include:
Dairy-free chocolate chip cookie bars and dairy-free brownies
Baked ravioli
Chocolate chip praline brookies (that's right, brownie and cookie in one delicious mouthful)

*Recipes and/or sites that we used will be at the end of the meal's post.*

Once again I didn't get any pictures from the dairy-free desserts, but let me tell you: My friends questioned whether they were really dairy-free. Which is good, 'cause that was my goal!

Unfortunately, I tossed the recipe for the cookies when I threw away the chocolate chip bags, but you can use any chocolate chip cookie recipe. Just use margarine, vegan buttery spread, or some other dairy-free butter substitute as well as dairy-free chocolate chips. Tip: If you know about kosher symbols on packaging, look for "parve." That means there's no meat or dairy products in the package.

As for the brownies, again, you can use any generic recipe. Just be sure to use a dairy-free butter substitute if your recipe calls for it, and use pure cocoa powder because it is dairy-free. My mom's recipe is at the end of the post.

On to last night's dinner! Baked ravioli, mmm...

Raviaviaviavioliiiii.

And I hope these pictures more than make up for the lack of cookie bar pictures. I couldn't find my camera because I was running out to my Zumba class, so I figured I'd have no pictures of the dinner either. But my mom is the best mom in the world, and took pictures with her phone. A lot of pictures. Yay mommy!

So, as my mom pulled the onion out of the fridge, I said, "Can you chop the onion tonight? Last time I chopped an onion I wore sunglasses and STILL couldn't stop crying..." (Haha, remember that?)

And she didn't say anything, but her face said "No..." And then she pulled a little appliance out of the cupboard and I said, "Is that a chopper??"

"Mhm," she replied. SWEET! It chopped the onion for us! I am totally getting one of those when I move out one day.

Anyway, we used the little garlic cubes again. So no sticky garlic mincing either.

And since the majority of people in our house don't love tomatoes, we swapped out the can of whole tomatoes for a second can of crushed. Perhaps next time we'll try one can of puréed and see how the sauce turns out.

Saucy. ;)

Also, the recipe calls for either thyme or oregano. We couldn't decide, so we put in a little of both. Oh, also also, we ran out of black pepper, so we put in some garlic pepper. "You can never have too much garlic," my mother declared as she sprinkled it in.

Tossin' the paaasta.

I had my Zumba workout class at 6, so we did all this prep before I left. We let the sauce simmer until about a half an hour before I got home. Then my mom tossed it with the partially cooked pasta and baked it until I got home.

Pre-cheese.

Post-cheese.

AND HERE'S THE FINISHED BEAUTY.

So cheesy. So saucy. So tasty.

Everyone enjoyed it, although both my brother and sister agreed that we should try using the puréed tomatoes in the future. My brother said the sauce was "too chunky" and my sister simply said "lay off the sauce next time." But still she liked it enough to eat leftovers for dinner tonight. :)

Mama added garlic bread!

*Not pictured: Rainbow salad with red peppers, orange carrots, yellow croutons, green lettuce, peppers, and cukes, and white mushrooms. Om nom.

Now the dessert is one I've had in my bookmarked recipe list for a while.

Yeah, not all the cookie dough made it to the pan. We ate some.

I mentioned it to my mom as a possible birthday dessert (her birthday was in May and I still intend to make her something), and these brookies got my brother's vote. My mom has her eye on something else (ooooh, but that's for a later blog post!), leading me to bake the brookies for my brother.

There's a hidden layer of ooey gooey goodness underneath.

What is a brookie, you ask? It's a brownie with a layer of chocolate chip cookie on top. :) So bad for you, but sooooo good...

Ours turned out pretty gooey. The website with the recipe had some pictures that made them look much drier and cookie-cutter (brownie-cutter?) shaped squares.

Add milk for optimum happiness.

They were very yummy, but I don't think I'm dying to make them again any time soon though. They are VERY rich and full of calories - I mean, it's a cookie on top of a brownie, what do we expect?

*EDIT* The brookies are WAY BETTER as leftovers. Just saying.

That shiny bit is the caramel that glues the cookie to the brownie.

Only take one!

That's it for now. Until next time,
Sarah and company

---
Recipes and Sites
Thank you to FoodGawker for helping us find recipes!

Mom's Brownies (with dairy-free modifications)

Ingredients:
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup flour
2 eggs
2 squares unsweetened chocolate (1 square/1 ounce unsweetened baking choc = 3 level tbsp cocoa + 1 tbsp shortening or oil)
1/4 lb (1 stick) butter or margarine
1 teaspoon vanilla

*Optional middle and top layers. (We couldn't because we were baking dairy-free.)

Middle layer:

1 cup powdered sugar

1 tbsp milk

2 tbsp butter

1/2 teaspoon vanilla

Top layer:

1 square unsweetened chocolate

1 tbsp butter

Instructions:
Melt chocolate and butter.
Combine all ingredients; mix well.
Bake at 350 degrees for 1/2 hour.

Baked Ravioli

Site:
http://www.tasteandtellblog.com/2011/04/baked-ravioli/

Notes:
We replaced the can of whole tomatoes with a second can of crushed. We used a little bit of thyme and a little bit of oregano.

Chocolate Chip Praline Brookies

Site:
http://sheisdallas.com/chocolate-chip-praline-brookies/

Notes:
There is an OMISSION in the recipe. The ingredients list contains vanilla, but the instructions never say when to add it in. Just put it in the saucepan with the butter, milk, and sugars. Oh, PS - we didn't use pecans.

CHICKEN!

Rebecca had work tonight, so Sarah was on her own for dinner. As such, she decided to make a chicken dinner (since Rebecca does not eat chicken, and it is not usually part of our culinary repertoire). GOOD CHOICE. She also invited her lovely friend Chaz to be treated to a home-cooked meal.

Tonight's meal consisted of:
Jamaican chicken curry
Cookie dough ice cream
Blue raspberry mixed drink

*Recipes and/or sites that we used will be at the end of the meal's post.*

Earlier today, Sarah donated a musical performance to Healing Hooves, the fund-raiser Chaz helped organized to benefit local therapeutic riding organizations. She knew Chaz had been working hard all day, and thought it would be nice to offer to cook dinner for her. So Chaz came shopping for ingredients, ended up having fun assisting with the cooking, and along with Sarah, very much enjoyed the eating part.

Okay, first of all, the onion we got had super powers. Sarah started chopping it first, but when her eyes started smarting, Chaz offered to take over. She said she usually doesn't tear up with onions. But she did. And then Sarah tried again. She ended up putting on SUNGLASSES to try to block the oniony fumes from getting to her, but it was too much. We are not sure how we managed to chop it up enough.

You probz can't see it, but she's cryin' like crazy.

Also, while Sarah prepared the rice, Chaz chopped carrots. We swear, those carrots knew they were going to be eaten, because they kept flying off the cutting board. With practice, perhaps Chaz can perfect the art of chopping carrots so that they jump right into the pot!

Anyway, we made a boo-boo. The recipe called for skinless and boneless chicken thighs. We guess Sarah was so excited to see "thighs" on the package that she failed to notice that it was a skin-on, bone-in package amongst the skinless and boneless. When we got back to school and opened it, Sarah wailed, "Oh no, it's not boneless!!!" Oh well. We were reassured by the fact that chefs everywhere (all over the interwebz) swear by the better flavor in bone-in chicken.

They look like blob monsters!

We prepared the chicken and then got the curry sauce going.

Soup of Great, in Chaz's words.

While it was all coming to a boil and then simmering, Sarah opened up the package of frozen peas...

Dear Sarah's Mom and Dad, we know you're reading this. Yes, Sarah began eating frozen peas by the bunch. Chaz had to stop her, reminding her we needed to save some for the food. Sarah pointed out it was a 12-oz bag and we only needed 10 oz... She even caught a handful as Chaz was pouring them into the pot. What a goofball.

HAHAHAHAHA ohhh Sarah...

When it was finally ready (and we were thoroughly hungry), we put a layer of rice on our plates and then spooned the curry chicken on top of it. It was soooo delicious. Okay, first, a picture of how beautiful it looked on the plate:

So yummy.

And now, please, take a look at that tender, juicy, moist inside:

Look at that!

Mmmm.... Holy guacamole! Seriously, this was wicked good.

And we accompanied dinner with a yummy mixed drink of sprite and blue raspberry vodka. Chaz's treat. Sarah was a big fan of the name of the bottle: Blue Bombsicle.

You da bombsicle!

It looked so pretty!

We have no "pics to prove it," but we polished off dinner with (too much) yummy cookie dough ice cream. Om nom nom...

And that's all for this week. Sarah is so proud of herself for cooking for a friend! Even though Chaz was very helpful. It was all very exciting.

Time to get our beauty rest - tomorrow is Goucher's Gala (like prom for college). Sarah is so happy to be going to a formal for the first time! And she's lucky to be borrowing a dress from Chaz too. We can't wait!

Tootles,
Sarah and Chaz

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Recipes and sites
Thank you to FoodGawker for helping us find recipes!

Jamaican Chicken Curry

Site:
http://onehungrymama.com/2011/04/recipe-jamaican-chicken-curry/

*Notes:
As said, we accidentally used skin-on and bone-in chicken thighs. Still turned out delicious.
Our curry powder was regular, as opposed to Jamaican. The recipe said any curry would work, and this is what Sarah had (thanks, Sarah's mom!).
We used oregano instead of thyme.
Chaz is allergic to coconut, so we substituted skim milk for the coconut milk.
Even with these changes, the meal was fantastic.

Matzah, Pasta, same thing...

Sarah definitely tried to read the word "matzah" at one point this evening, and "pasta" came out instead. Freudian slip? Secret desire for chametz? Probably...

Happy Passover!

Tonight's meal consisted of:
Spinach and feta mina (a mina is a layered matzah pie)
Matzah apple kugel
Peppermint hot chocolate

*Recipes and/or sites that we used will be at the end of the meal's post.*

Sara-without-an-h joined us again! (That would be Sara S, Rebecca's future roommate, from three weeks ago.) And she helped prepare the dishes with us which was delightful, as was her company.

Hard at work. Look at that blurry mixing!

So after we got the mina filling done, we set it aside in the fridge to chill while we prepared the kugel. Rebecca asserts that Gala apples are great for baking, and they certainly were. She had to sauté them half at a time though, since Sarah's pan hasn't grown since the pancakes.

Sizzly sizzly sizzly.

While she did that, Sarah prepared all the matzah-stuff. For the kugel, she soaked the five slices in a bowl with the orange juice and water (it's not as crazy as it sounds - check the recipe), and for the pie, she held each slice under the faucet and then stuck it under a towel. Then they could soften.

MATZAH IS THE BEST FOOD EVARRRR.

The kugel mixture ended up going into Sarah's pie tin twice, since it was supposed to cook in a casserole dish and the pie tin was half that size. We layered the mina filling and matzah slices into a baking pan, but didn't use the whole space.

We also were a liiiiittle short on matzah slices.

We cooked the first half of the kugel, then the mina, and then the second half of the kugel, which went right into our tupperware containers. :) ALL OF IT WAS SOOOO DELICIOUS!

They came out looking like this:

Matzah apple kugel.

Spinach and feta mina.

Dsijflkasdjfiskndfvsiojv!!!! Passover food can taste good????

Well, this is seconds, so it must taste pretty good.

After dinner and clean up, Rebecca and Sara S went to a Doctor Who new season party. When they returned to Sarah's room, Rebecca brought a happy little bottle of hot chocolate mix with a "hint of mint."

Just a hint.

Mixed with some skim milk and some leftover cream from the soup, this was really good. For an added kick, you might wanna try adding some peppermint schnapps...

"Now this is contentment..." - Sarah

Just sayin'...

That's all for this week.
Love, hugs, and deliciousness,
Rebecca, Sarah, and Sara

---
Recipes and Sites
Thank you to FoodGawker for helping us find recipes!

Spinach and feta mina

Site:
http://www.npr.org/2011/04/13/135345886/a-passover-recipe-as-easy-as-matzo-pie?sc=fb&cc=fp
(The mina template is the first recipe, and there are several filling options below it. Spinach and feta is the FOURTH FILLING recipe.)

*Notes:
We skipped the dill because we didn't see any at the supermarket. Was still crazy yummy. Also, we got a bag of baby spinach (6 ounces) instead of a small bunch. Was a good amount, in our opinion. And we used 5 slice of matzah in the template - but 6 would have been better.

Matzah apple kugel

Site:
http://www.honeyneverspoils.com/2010/04/matzo-kugel.html

*Notes:
Again, we used 5 slices instead of 6, but this time it didn't seem to matter. We omitted raisins from the recipe since Sarah doesn't like them. And as we said before, we cooked it in two halves, each for about 30-35 minutes.

Peppermint hot chocolate

A 3/4 filled mug with a milk of your choice. We added a little cream to our skim milk.
Microwave for 1 to 2 minutes on high. (Times may vary depending on your microwave.)
Mix in your favorite chocolate syrup/powder.
Add a dollop of peppermint schnapps for an optional kick.