cherry sangria with peaches & mango

July 16, 2012 by 7 Comments

If you follow me on Twitter, you know that I went for a nice, healthy bike ride this weekend on the Vineyard. Destination: the liquor store. Oops.

It my defense, it actually made the bike ride a better workout because pedaling back with a jumbo bottle of wine strapped to my back was challenging. Anyone who says alcohol is bad for your health is clearly lying. And if you’re going to completely negate your workout by indulging in a few adult beverages, trust me, this sangria is worth it. It is SO delicious.

Here’s what you’ll need:

  • A 1.5 liter bottle of fruity white wine (I chose Cavit Riesling)
  • ½ cup of brandy
  • 2 cups club soda
  • 4 cups pitted, halved cherries
  • 2 mangos, skin removed and sliced
  • 2 peaches, sliced
  • 6 sprigs of thyme

To make this heavenly beverage, mix the wine, brandy and cherries together in a bowl. Refrigerate for 7 hours.

Add in the peaches and mango and refrigerate for another hour. The reason I held off on adding them was to give the sangria a predominately cherry taste. I also love eating the fruit at the bottom of my glass, and the less time the fruit spends in the wine/brandy, the less booze-sodden it is.

Add the thyme and club soda before serving.

I adapted the recipe from a cherry sangria featured in Cooking Light magazine, but removed all the sugar for a healthier twist. And, as I find with most recipes, the sugar wasn’t even necessary—the sangria turned out perfect.

And even more perfect? Enjoying it on the deck on a warm summer night. Seriously why does this season ever have to end??

Hope you all enjoyed your weekends as much as I did!

P.S. Can you tie a cherry stem in a knot with your tongue? This girl can. It’s pretty much my only special skill.

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greek yogurt & crushed almond banana popsicles

July 12, 2012 by 14 Comments

There’s just something about summertime that makes me want to put popsicle sticks in any and all things edible. Bananas were a perfect place to start.

This recipe is super easy—both to make and on your waistline. To make 4 popsicles you’ll need:

  • 2 bananas
  • 1 cup vanilla Greek yogurt
  • 2 handfuls almonds, crushed
  • 1 tbsp peanut butter
  • Popsicle sticks

You can buy the almonds crushed, crush them in a food processor, or take a more hands-on approach (sorry for the loud banging, neighbors)…

Mix the Greek yogurt and peanut butter together in a bowl. My friend told me she loved eating yogurt with peanut butter and my first reactions was BARF. But it is actually delicious. And as someone who can easily take down a jar of peanut butter in two days, I’m ashamed that I ever doubted the combination. Peanut butter makes all things (most importantly, life) better.

Set up a little banana popsicle assembly line with your bowl of pb yogurt, a bowl of crushed almonds, and a plate or pan covered in parchment paper.

Cut each peeled banana in half and carefully insert the popsicle stick in the cut end.

Coat the banana in Greek yogurt. It’s easiest to roll it in the bowl and then spead evenly with a knife.

Coat in crushed almonds.

Lay the banana on your plate. Repeat the process with each banana piece.

Once you have your batch of banana popsicles, put them in the freezer for 3 hrs. Hopefully your freezer isn’t as sad-looking as mine (i.e. empty except for three nips of cheap vodka). In my defense, I rarely buy frozen foods and do the majority of my shopping in the produce aisle.

Last up, enjoy! These popsicles can be a healthy dessert choice or a guilt-free midday snack to beat the summer heat. I took a bunch of pictures of me enjoying one outside but…I think rule #1 of being classy is to not be photographed eating a banana or banana-shaped food. If you catch my drift…

The pictures were probably even too awkward for a bloopers album haha. Suggestive food photography aside, I hope everyone has a great Thursday—get out there and enjoy happy hour!

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red, white & blueberry gelatin cheesecake with graham cracker crust

July 2, 2012 by 11 Comments

Blueberries, why must you be PURPLE?!? Just humor me, pretend they’re blue, and marvel at this festive Fourth of July dessert.

As you’ll see, I’ve done my best to make it as healthy as dessert can be. I’ve cut out a ton of sugar, and I’ve swapped out some junk for applesauce and Greek yogurt. I’ll start with general assembly instructions (it’s a time-intensive one!), and break down each layer in detail below. I will say, one thing I’ll do differently next time I make it is put the cheesecake layer on top as a frosting instead of down below. It kinda mushed everywhere under the weight of the gelatin layers.

GENERAL DIRECTIONS see below for layer details

  1. De-leaf and chop pint of strawberries, toss with 1 tbsp sugar and set aside (it’ll make them soft and syrupy for when it’s time to puree).
  2. Make and bake graham cracker crust.
  3. Make cheesecake layer, spread evenly over graham cracker crust, refrigerate 30 minutes.
  4. While crust and cheesecake layer chill, make blueberry gelatin mixture and let it sit at room temperature. When time, pour evenly over cheesecake layer. Refrigerate for 30 minutes.
  5. While crust, cheesecake layer and blueberry layers chill, make lime gelatin mixture and let it sit at room temperature. When time, pour evenly over blueberry layer. Refrigerate for 30 minutes.
  6. While crust, cheesecake, blueberry and lime layers chill, make strawberry gelatin mixture and let it sit at room temperature. When time, pour evenly over lime layer. Refrigerate over night (or at least 3 hours).

GRAHAM CRACKER CRUST

For the graham cracker crust, I gave this recipe a complete healthy makeover. I cut out almost all the sugar and replaced half the butter with applesauce. You can make this applesauce substitution for butter in any recipe, but because graham crackers, cinnamon and apples are a phenomenal flavor combination on their own, it was more than a health swap—it was a definite taste-enhancer for the crust.

  • 10 graham crackers (about one package; I used low-fat organic)
  • 1 tbsp sugar (honestly, I think you can even omit this)
  • 3 tbsp melted butter
  • 3 tbsp unsweetened apple sauce
  • ½ tsp cinnamon

Finely crush up all the graham crackers. I took a rolling pin to a heavy-duty Ziploc bag filled with them.

Mix together all ingredients. (Taste the mixture; it’s delicious!) Use the back of a spoon to evenly flatten the mix into the bottom of a greased 10×5 loaf pan.

Bake for 9 minutes at 375 degrees. (Time will depend on the size of your pan and the thickness of your crust.)

LOW-FAT NO-BAKE CHEESECAKE LAYER

Low-fat cheesecake? Thanks to EatingWell.com, I can confidently say it’s possible! Granted, is any cheesecake going to help you loose those last five pounds? No. But who cares, close enough. Greek yogurt is truly a godsend when it comes to making healthy baking substitutions, and this is no exception.

  • 1 package Neufchatel cheese (it’s exactly like cream cheese but has 1/3 less fat)
  • 1 cup plain Greek yogurt
  • 3 tbsp powdered sugar
  • ½ tsp vanilla

Whisk everything together until smooth. An electric mixer is ideal, but a fork worked fine for me—plus I got in a great arm workout.

BLUEBERRY PUREE GELATIN LAYER

I adapted all the gelatin layers from this recipe from Food Network Magazine, but cut out half the sugar and sweetened condensed milk.

  • 1 pint blueberries
  • 1 tbsp sugar
  • 1 packet gelatin (¼ oz)
  • ¼ cup water

Toss the blueberries with the sugar. Puree in a blender. Heat on the stove until hot. In a separate bowl, sprinkle gelatin packet in the water and let stand 1 minute. Mix in the hot blueberry puree.

LIME GELATIN LAYER

  • 2 tbsp lime juice (about 1 lime)
  • 2 tbsp water
  • ¼ cup sweetened condensed milk
  • ½ cup water
  • 1 packet gelatin (¼ oz)

Boil the ½ cup water and pour it in a bowl with the condensed milk. In a separate bowl, sprinkle the gelatin over the lime and 2 tbsp water. Add to the boiling water/milk mixture and stir.

STRAWBERRY PUREE GELATIN LAYER

  • 1 pint strawberries
  • 1 tbsp sugar
  • ¼ cup water
  • 1 packet gelatin (¼ oz)

Puree the strawberries and sugar in a blender. Heat on the stove in a saucepan until hot. In a separate bowl, sprinkle gelatin over water and let it sit 1 minute. Mix in the hot strawberry puree.

You can serve it with a dollop of whipped cream on top or with some slices of fresh fruit. It’s DELICIOUS. I don’t even want to admit how much of the pan I ate for “dinner” last night…

What are your plans for the 4th of July? (Besides making this patriotic gelatin cheesecake dessert).

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thai curry coconut shrimp with pineapple

June 27, 2012 by 3 Comments

I would never blog about a recipe that didn’t taste good, so I suppose it’s a little redundant and unnecessary to start every post with “OMG THIS IS THE BEST THING EVER! EAT IT NOW! Jkfewlwlskldk om nom nom SO GOOD!!!” but seriously…this Thai curry coconut shrimp with pineapple is delicious. And, best of all, it’s easy.

I adapted the recipe from SkinnyTaste.com, one of my favorite food blogs. May through August all I can think about is fruit, fruit and more fruit, so I wanted to incorporate pineapple into the recipe. It was a phenomenal choice, if I do say so myself.

The following portions will make 2 servings.

INGREDIENTS

  • 1 tsp oil
  • 2 scallions (finely chopped and separated by white root and green leaf-ish part…”leaf-ish”—that’s a super advanced vocab word straight outta gourmet culinary school)
  • 1 tbsp green curry
  • 2 cloves garlic (minced)
  • ½ lb shrimp (deveined and shells removed)
  • 4oz light coconut milk
  • 1 tsp Thai fish sauce
  • 1 tbsp fresh basil (chopped)
  • A sprinkle of salt
  • ½ cup chopped fresh pineapple
  • 1 cup dry brown jasmine rice

DIRECTIONS

  1. Prepare brown jasmine rice according to package. (Boil 2 cups water, add rice, reduce heat to a simmer for roughly 30 minutes.)
  2. Heat oil on a skillet over medium-high heat. Add scallion whites and curry. Sauté for about 1 minute.
  3. Add shrimp, garlic and a sprinkle of salt to the skillet and sauté for 2-3 minutes.
  4. Add in the pineapple, coconut milk and fish sauce and reduce heat to a simmer for another 2-3 minutes.
  5. Remove from heat and stir in the scallion greens and basil.

Pour the Thai curry coconut shrimp and pineapple mixture over a serving of rice and enjoy!

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strawberry kiwi lemonade puree popsicles

June 20, 2012 by 13 Comments

I always feel that summer starts Memorial Day weekend, but the calendar begs to differ. Today is the official start to my favorite season, and there’s no better way to celebrate than with fresh fruit popsicles.

I LOVE the textured consistency of pureed popsicles, which is why I decided to blend my own fruit instead of just dumping a bottle of strawberry lemonade into popsicle molds.

These are super simple to make. Blend together the following ingredients. Make sure to set aside a few thin slices of kiwi and strawberries.

  • ½ cup water (for a thicker, more textured consistency, use less water or none at all)
  • 4 cups chopped strawberries
  • 2 kiwis
  • The juice from 2 large lemons

Fill up your popsicle molds with the mixture and then drop a couple slices of kiwi and strawberry in each one.

After I’d filled that all-star mold, it was time to bring in the Popsicle Mold Farm League. Tell me this is not that sorriest looking bunch you’ve ever seen.

Freeze your popsicles for at least two or three hours and then enjoy!

BOOZEY BONUS!

Save some of the mixture, pour it in a glass with an ounce of vodka or rum and you have an amazingly delicious, healthy summer cocktail. I used vodka, and it was such a tasty drink I almost regretted using the mixture to make popsicles in the first place.

 

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