Chocolate Fudge Sundae Cupcake with Homemade eggless vanilla ice cream

Sometimes the best ideas start out as a mistake. I hade all my friends over for a potluck grill-out and my intention was to have chocolate cupcakes with whipped cream icing for everyone. I also got the ice-cream KitchenAid attachment for Christmas, so I was excited to show my friends how it worked. I absent mindedly used all my heavy cream for the ice cream mix. So, obviously we decided to just use ice cream instead of icing. Best idea ever! It's the perfect amount of cake & ice cream in one cute cupcake. I made the cupcakes from my moist chocolate cake recipe. (Below) Baked for 18-20 minutes. Once cooled I scooped a little from the center and filled with chocolate fudge frosting. Once you are ready to eat these beautiful babies, scoop a small amount of ice cream (I use a cookie scoop) and plop on top! Eat up before they melt!! 

The ice cream recipe:

2 cups heavy cream

1 cup milk

1 tablespoon vanilla 

3/4 cup sugar

Mix and pour into the mixer. Mix on low for 12 minutes. 

Chocolate cake recipe:

http://debrasfoodtravelsandfun.blogspot.com/2014/02/moist-chocolate-cake.html

Zucchini Lasagna

When my husband requested this dish for dinner, I have to admit that I wasn't that excited to make it or eat it. But it easily exceeded my expectations! This will be a staple in my house from now on and it doesn't hurt that it's healthier than it's original lasagna version. My secret ingredient for the meat sauce is one packet of Stevia. You don't have to add it, but I LOVE it in my marinara sauce. That and balsamic. Yum yum!

Ingredients:

1lb Ground turkey 

2 T Olive oil 

3 minced Garlic cloves

1/2 diced sweet Onion 

1 stevia packet

2 T Balsamic

1 T Dried oregano

2 T Dried or fresh basil

S&P to taste

28 oz crushed tomatoes 

3-4 zucchini 

1/4 cup Parmesan cheese

1 1/2 cup Ricotta

1 Eggs

16 oz Mozzarella 

Preheat oven to 375

Cook the ground turkey in a large skillet. Then set aside.

Sauté onion and garlic in 1 T olive oil and then add meat again.

Add crushed tomatoes, oregano, basil, s&p, balsamic and stevia. 

In a seperste bowl mix together ricotta, parm cheese and egg. 

Sauté zucchini in olive oil until golden.

Spray a 9x13 baking dish with cooking oil.

Pour about 1/2 a cup of the meat sauce on the bottom of the dish, then a layer of zucchini and ricotta mix. (The ricotta was hard to spread, it's ok if it moves the zucchini around a little bit) 

Sprinkle with mozzarella. 

Repeat for 3 layers.

Bake covered for 30 minutes, then uncovered for 29 more minutes. 

Strawberry Balsamic Coconut Ice-cream

Strawberry balsamic ice cream might sound weird to some people, but if you've lived in Seattle or worked for Whole Foods Market (which I have done both), then it's totally normal to you and you already know it's the best ice cream flavor EVER! This gourmet recipe is vegan, gluten free and has no refined sugars. It's as guilt free as it gets. Serve it with some chocolate chips if you want to spruce it up even more. 

1 pint of strawberries 

1/4 cup maple syrup 

3 T balsamic vinegar 

1-2 teaspoon vanilla 

Preheat oven to 375

Clean and cut in half all strawberries

Mix syrup, balsamic and vanilla together 

Coat all the strawberries in the balsamic mix

Bake for 30 minutes

Mix in a blender baked strawberries and juices with: 

2 cans of coconut milk 

1/3 cup maple syrup

Store in a container in the fridge until cold. 

Make in your ice cream maker or place in freezer and stir every 30 minutes until the right texture. 

NOTE: recipe from www.glutenfreeveganlove.com

Beer marinated Steak with tomato Chimichurri

Is your mouth watering already and you don't even know what's in the recipe yet??  For all you steak lovers I bet it is! This recipe is a compile from two recipes I love. The Skinnytaste Cookbook by Gina Homolka and Great Food Fast by Martha Stewart. It's a flank steak, which is my favorite because it's thin and cooks super fast fast on the grill. It's so soft and flavorful to eat. It's also low in calories. About 250 per serving!  Even though the steak doesn't take long to cook, you still need to allow at least 2-3 hours for the meat to marinade to maximize the flavors.

 Wondering what chimichurri is? It's a green sauce from Argentina made for grilling  meats. Originally the base ingredients have been parsley, garlic, oregano and olive oil. This recipe's chimichurri is more like pico de gallo and chimichurri had a baby. It's SO good!  

Ok ready? Here it is: 

Ingredients: 

Flank steak 

1 teaspoon cumin

1/2 teaspoon oregano

1/4 teaspoon salt

Dash of pepper 

3 diced green onions

Olive oil 

2/3 light beer (I used Ommission Lager b/c it's gluten free 👏) 

Score the steak in a criss cross pattern on both sides. 

Rub a little olive oil on steaks then Dry rub all the seasonings on both sides. 

Place in a shallow dish with beer and green onions. 

Cover and marinade in fridge for 2-3 hours. 

Grill each side for 3-4 minutes for medium rare. 

Chimichurri:

2 diced plums 

3-4 diced green onions

1/4 C chopped cilantro 

1/2 tablespoon vinegar (white, red wine or apple cidar. You pick!) 

Dash of salt 

1-2 fresh squeezed lime juice

1 tablespoon pickled jalapeño relish

1 tablespoon olive oil

Mixed everything together and place in a jar in the fridge until you are ready to eat.

Scoop generous amount onto your steak. 

Enjoy! 

Served with a side of potatoes. 

Snickerdoodle Cookies - gluten free

I want to start out by saying I am NOT trying out a gluten free diet for fun or to be trendy. I've been having stomach pain since September and I've seen a few doctors already. I've been putting this experiment off for a long time because I love food too much to want to change my diet just for fun.

My symptoms include migraines a few times a month and stomach pain EVERY day. Gluten can take several weeks to get out of your system, so if you try to go gluten free for real results give yourself 1-2 months. 

Feeling depressed about this decision and how hard it's going to be, I decided to make a delicious dessert that's gluten free. Snickerdoodle cookies!!! I was skeptical and thought there was no way these would taste as good as the real deal. The cookies turned out so perfect that my husband says "whose to say what the real deal is?? These cookies ARE the real deal!" He also asked if they are considered healthy because they are gluten free. Which a lot of people think is true. Let me clarify what gluten is. Gluten is a protein found naturally in wheat, rye and barley. It helps food have structure to rise. When baking a gluten free recipe you need to add xanthan gum (found at whole foods market) I found a gluten free flour blend that already has xanthan gum in it. Which is awesome because it's going to make baking so much easier than I thought. 

But, anyway back to my husbands question about gluten free bring healthy. These are cookies made out of real butter and sugar. Of course it's not healthy! But it's sooooo yummy! So, just because it doesn't have gluten doesn't mean it's healthy people!  Ok enough with the gluten free educational lecture, here's the recipe. I hope you love it! 

Ingredients:

2 3/4 cups gluten free all purpose flour (I used gluten free flour that already had xanthan gum in it) 

3/4 teaspoon xanthan gum 

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon cream of tartar 

1/4 teaspoon salt 

1 teaspoon vanilla

2 eggs 

1 1/2 cups sugar 

1 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon + 2 tablespoon (mix together set aside) 

1/2 cup soft butter 

Directions:

Preheat oven to 400

Whisk together flour, xanthan gum, baking soda, cream or tartar and salt. 

Cream sugar, butter, eggs, and vanilla. 

Slowing add in dry mix. It will be very thick when finished. 

Chill covered in fridge for at least an hour. 

Take 1" cookie balls and roll in cinnamon sugar mix

Bake for 10 minutes. 

NOTE: What is cream if tartar anyway?? It's an acid called potassium hydrogen tartrate used in the fermentation process in wine making. The white powder is used in baking alongside of baking soda. It help makes the cookie rise and soft. 

Chick Pea Curry

I found this recipe on Cooking Light. I was a little skeptical of it because I've never really loved chick peas and I had never cooked anything with garam masala. But this recipe turned out to be delicious, healthy, easy and cheap to make. I didn't even need to measure anything as I cooked. I've started the Tone It Up frisky fall challenge. Its a fun and challenging workout plan that's free if you sign up. It's 8 weeks long and you run 100 miles by Halloween, the trainers give you a different work out each day. Here's the site if you're curious, http://toneitup.com

Besides the workouts I've made a few goals for myself to get back into pre pregnancy weight. One is meatless Mondays. This is my first Monday doing this, hopefully I'll have more yummy recipes to share for you guys. 

This serves about 4 and is 305 calories per serving.

Ingredients:

1 can of chick peas, drained

1 can of crushed tomatoes or petite diced 

1/2 diced sweet onion

1 T olive oil

2 handfuls of sprinach 

1 1/2 teaspoon garam masala 

1/4 cup plain Greek yogurt

Salt to taste

1/4 chopped cilantro 

Brown rice 

Cook the rice directed as on the box

In a large pot heat up olive oil and sauté onions for 5 minutes

Add garam masala 

Stir in chick peas, tomatoes, spinach and salt. Occasionally stir for 2 minutes.

Remove from heat and add yogurt and salt. 

Serve over rice, garnished with cilantro. 

Lemon Chicken Pasta

At first when I saw a recipe with lemon juice in the pasta sauce I thought it sounded strange and I was a little hesitant to try. But now I LOVE it and I even add extra. It's so delicious! So here is an easy pasta dish for you to try. And kids will love it too. 

Ingredients:

Penne pasta 

3 lemons

4 chicken breasts 

1/2 stick of butter

1/4 cup half & half 

3/4 cup whipping cream 

1/2 cup fresh Parmesan cheese

Lemon pepper

S&P

Basil

Cherry tomatos 

Cook pasta as directed on box 

Grill, bake or George Forman your chicken. Sprinkled with lemon pepper and lemon juice

Melt butter in sauce pan on medium heat.

Squeeze in lemon juice from 3 halves of lemons.

Whisk in half & half and whipping cream. 

Dice basil and sprinkle some into the sauce, leave some to sprinkle on top of pasta. 

Let sauce simmer about 8 minutes, whisk every 30 seconds or so. 

Remove from heat and sprinkle in cheese.

Serve pasta with halved cherry tomatoes, chicken, basil, S&P and a healing scoop of lemon sauce. 

I hope you like it! 

This recipe is for 4 servings.