Yogurt Parfait Bar

My cute sister-in-law is having a baby boy in the next few weeks, so we got together to throw her a baby shower. This was a morning time shower, and we were having some trouble coming up with things to serve that were not sweet and carby. (it's a word, right? As in "loaded with carbs"?!) My sister-in-law called and said "What do you think about a yogurt parfait bar?". My mind started going about a million miles an hour, thinking of different combinations of yogurt, fruit and granolas. I was so excited!

So, I'm going to share with you what I did! I think that it turned out great, and we received a lot of compliments. (My mom-in-law did the decorations...aren't they SOOOOoooo cute?!!)

I decided on 3 different parfaits that people could assemble, and made a little sign to show the delicious suggestions! Some people followed the suggestions, and some people just threw things together.

There was an Apple Pie Parfait made with an apple pie type filling that I made (recipe to follow), vanilla yogurt, and graham cracker crumbs. It surprised me, but this one ended up being my favorite parfait overall.

Then, we had a Berry Berry Parfait with Strawberry Yogurt, mixed berries (strawberries, blueberries and blackberries), and Triple Nut Cranberry Granola (recipe to follow). The berries were fabulous and so sweet. Thank goodness Costco sells good produce even in the middle of the winter!

The last was a Tropical Paradise Parfait that consisted of vanilla yogurt, mixed fruit (pineapple, kiwi, bananas, and mandarin oranges), and a fabulous Coconut and Cashew Granola that I found on Mel's Kitchen Cafe Blog. I adore Melanie and all of her yummy recipes! This granola was to die for. I still can't stop eating it...days after! Visit her blog and make it!

My awesome mother-in-law ran to IKEA for me and picked up these cute jars so that I would have something fun to put the granola in. They worked out great, and were a pretty good deal!

Now for the recipes!

Triple Nut Cranberry Granola

2 cups regular oats
1/3 cup chopped pecans
1/4 cup chopped walnuts
1/4 cup chopped slivered almonds
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1/3 cup apple juice
1/3 cup honey
1/4 cup packed brown sugar
2 teaspoons canola oil
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Cooking spray
1/3 cup dried cranberries (Craisins work well)

Preheat oven to 300°. Combine first 5 ingredients in a medium bowl. Combine juice, honey, and brown sugar in a small saucepan. Cook over medium heat just until sugar dissolves, stirring frequently. Remove from heat and stir in the oil and vanilla. Pour honey mixture over oat mixture, stirring to coat. Spread mixture in a thin layer onto a jelly-roll pan coated with cooking spray (or you can use a silpat). Bake at 300° for 10 minutes, then stir well. Bake an additional 10 to 20 minutes or until golden brown. Spoon granola into a bowl and stir in dried cranberries. Cool completely.

Note: Store completely cooled granola in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 2 weeks. Yield about 4 3/4 cups (serving size: about 1/2 cup) **If you’re going to double this, use two cookie sheets or else it doesn’t get done enough!

Apples and Cinnamon Filling/Topping

(this makes a pretty large amount...you can cut it in half!)

2 pounds Granny Smith Apples (about 6-7 medium sized apples)

1 Cube Butter

3/4 C Brown Sugar

Cinnamon (to taste)

Dash of Nutmeg

1/2 Tablespoon All Purpose Flour

Peel and chop apples into small pieces. Place butter into a large frying pan and turn heat to medium. Melt the butter, and then add the apples. Sprinkle apples with brown sugar and stir to coat apples. Liberally sprinkle apples with cinnamon (this is to taste...I went back and added more at the end). Sprinkle with a dash of nutmeg (or more if you really like nutmeg!). Cook apples for 4-5 minutes and then add the flour towards the end to help thicken the butter/juices just a little. I cooked my apples for a total of about 7 minutes before they were the consistency that I wanted. I didn't want them too soft and mushy.

I didn't get a good picture of the apple topping at the shower, but the next day I heated it up and topped our pancakes with it, and oh my goodness... I may never eat another pancake without this topping. It was to die for! The tart granny smith apples are so good with the caramely sweet brown sugar and spicy cinnamon. I thought that this would also be fabulous over vanilla ice cream or frozen yogurt as well. Mmmm....now I need a snack!

P.S. We also served delicious cinnamon rolls, some mini apple muffins and my favorite Chile Eggs! It was a delicious brunch!

Tip - Freezing Pesto

I hope that everyone had a wonderful holiday season! I apologize for being MIA. I usually have lots going on during the holidays and lots of family visiting from out of town. So, if it doesn't really need to be done, then it doesn't get done...hence no blogging!

I have a couple of good recipes that call for pesto, but since pesto has a strong flavor, it doesn't take much to put some good flavor into a dish. My favorite place to purchase pesto is at Costco (so, it's a big bottle!), and instead of letting it go bad because I can't use the entire jar at once, I freeze it! My favorite way to freeze it is in an ice cube tray. I just spoon it into the ice cube tray, and then once it's completely frozen, I pop them out and seal them into a Ziploc freezer bag. Then, I can just pull out a few at a time when I need them.

You can use pesto in this recipe for pizza rolls, or you can thaw a few and drizzle it over some pasta. Stay tuned and I'll be posting a recipe for a yummy panini that uses pesto in it too!

You all are sure quiet! I'd love to hear if you've tried any recipes and how they worked for you. What's your favorite way to eat pesto?

Pumpkin Cheesecake Pops

I'm kind-of a cheesecake freak. I like almost anything to do with cheesecake. You may recall that I am not a fan of pie, so every year at Thanksgiving time, I make a pumpkin cheesecake. Well, this year I will be in Connecticut for Thanksgiving, so I decided to bake my cheesecake early and make it into these cute little treats! This is my Aunt Vicki's pumpkin cheesecake recipe, and it is SO big and dense and creamy and good. But, the dense part is what makes it work well in these cute little pumpkin cheesecake pops!

First you start out by baking the cheesecake, without a crust. The crust is not needed for these sweet babies. You just want that creamy, yummy center.

Aunt Vicki's Pumpkin Cheesecake (sans crust)

2 lbs (4 packages) Cream Cheese at room temperature (NO lite cream cheese!)

1 ½ C sugar

5 Eggs

¼ C flour

2 tsp Pumpkin Pie Spice

1 15 oz can Libby’s Canned Pumpkin (I always use Libby's because it is consistently the same

color and flavor, while other brands are not)

Set out cream cheese and eggs a few hours before you are going to make the cheesecake. You want everything at room temperature to avoid lumps! Wrap the bottom (the outside of the pan) of a 9 inch spring form pan with foil. Because this cheesecake doesn't have a crust, some filling may leak out the bottom of your pan. Preheat oven to 350. Whip cream cheese until fluffy, then add sugar and eggs, one at a time. Beat well, and then gradually add flour and pumpkin pie spice. Mix in pumpkin and pour into pan (no need to grease). Bake for 1 hour and 30-45 minutes, or until center is firm. You want to avoid browning the cheesecake too much because the creamy center part makes the best pops, so try not to over bake it. It's fine if it's still a little wiggily in the middle, but definitely not really wiggily or liquidy. Cool cheesecake and chill in the refrigerator over night.

Before starting the cheesecake balls, first make sure that you have enough room and clearance for a cookie sheet or other pan with sucker sticks sticking out of the top in your freezer. Next, take your small or medium sized cookie scoop and scoop out balls of cheesecake. Roll them into pretty balls and place them on a parchment lined cookie sheet. Then, stick a cute dowel or sucker stick into each one. (You can do these more like truffles and omit the sucker stick,

but the stick makes these super easy to dip!) Freeze for 3-4 hours or overnight.

Once the cheesecake centers are frozen, you can dip them in white or milk chocolate. Refer to my Chocolate 101 tips for melting and dipping info! Because the pops are frozen, the chocolate will set really quick, so I would suggest making sure that your chocolate is pretty melty. If it starts to thicken up, it will coat the pops too thick, and then the chocolate may crack. So, every now and then, pop your chocolate back into the microwave for a few seconds to keep it nice and smooth. Also, if you're going to use cute sprinkles, you need to work quickly before the coating is set up. I rolled the white chocolate pops in these cute little sprinkles, but I wouldn't suggest doing this. It made that part of the pop really crunchy, so if you want to decorate them with sprinkles, just sprinkle them on.

These pops are so fun and SO delicious. I love that you can make the cheesecake a few days ahead of time and get the pops to a frozen stage, and then just dip 'em when you have a minute. It really is a very easy process, and not too time consuming if you spread it over a couple of days. I made 24 pops using my small cookie scoop, then I used some of the rest of the cheesecake to make pumpkin cheesecake milkshakes (and I wonder why I gained 5 lbs in the past 2 weeks! ) So, you could probably get more like 30 out of this recipe. Kids and adults can't resist these! Make them for a fun Thanksgiving day treat!

Mmmm...the cheesecaky middle....mmmm.

Yummy Yummy Yams

Since I can remember, my mom would make the Thanksgiving day yams from real, baked, yams. I think that they taste so much better than the canned yams that lots of people use. Yams are easy to bake and really don't take that much more time than the canned variety. My husband is a sucker for toasted marshmallows on top (and really, who isn't?), but of course, you can make these without the extra little clouds of sugar on top!

The great thing about this dish is that you can make it a day or two in advance and then bake it and add the marshmallows just before dinner.

Yummy Yummy Yams

2 large Sweet Potatoes/Yams (about 2 lbs)

¼ C + 1 Tbs. Brown Sugar

2 oz (1/4 C) chopped pecans (optional)

1 apple, finely chopped

¼ C Butter (1/2 stick)

Mini Marshmallows (optional)

Line a large baking pan or cookie sheet with aluminum foil. If the yams are very large, cut them into big chunks so that they will roast evenly. Bake yams at 350 until softened, 1 1/2 -2 hours. Remove yams from the oven and let them sit until slightly cooled. Remove skins and put the yams into a large bowl. Mash cooked yams with the butter and brown sugar. Then, stir in the pecans and apple. Mix well and pour into a greased 8x8 baking dish. (At this point, the yams may be stored in the refrigerator up to 2 days.) Bake yams at 350 for 30 minutes, or until hot and bubbly. If desired, just before serving, top the yams with mini marshmallows and place under the broiler until the marshmallows are toasted. Don’t leave marshmallows unattended! Serve immediately. Makes 8 side dish servings.

Butterscotch Pumpkin Cake

I kind-of forgot about this cake, but for some reason it came to mind when I picked up a bag of butterscotch chips at Walmart. Then, we were having a neighbor over for dinner who doesn't like chocolate (I know...who doesn't like chocolate?? It's hard for me to fathom!). So, I decided to make this cake, and oh boy...I'm so glad I did. It's moist and pumpkiny with a hint of butterscotch, and then you can boost the butterscotch flavor by dumping...um...I mean drizzling on some of the butterscotch sauce. It's a slice of fall on a plate!

Butterscotch Pumpkin Cake

Source: Verybestbaking.com

1 2/3 C butterscotch morsels, split (11 oz pkg)

2 C flour

1 ¾ C sugar

1 Tbs baking powder

1 ½ tsp. cinnamon

½ tsp. ground nutmeg

1 tsp. salt

1 C canned pumpkin

½ C veg. oil

3 large eggs

1 tsp vanilla

Powdered Sugar

Butterscotch Sauce (recipe follows)

Preheat oven to 350 and grease/flour a bundt pan. Microwave 1 cup morsels in small bowl on medium high heat for 1 minute, stir. Morsels may retain some of their original shape. If necessary, microwave at additional 10 to 15 second intervals, stirring until smooth. Cool to room temperature.

Combine flour, sugar, baking powder, cinnamon, salt and nutmeg in a medium bowl. Stir together melted morsels, pumpkin, oil, eggs and vanilla in a large bowl with a wire whisk. Stir in flour mixture. Spoon batter into prepared bundt pan. Bake for 40-50 minutes or until wooden pick inserted comes out clean. Cook in pan on wire rack for 30 minutes; remove to wire rack to cool completely. Dust with powdered sugar. Serve with Butterscotch Sauce.

Butterscotch Sauce: Heat 1/3 C evaporated milk (I just used regular milk and didn't ever let it boil. Just heat it until warm enough to melt the chips, whisk in chips, and cool.) in a medium sauce pan over medium heat just to a boil; remove from heat. Add remaining morsels; stir until smooth. Return to heat, stirring constantly. Bring mixture just to a boil. Cool to room temperature. Stir before serving.

Did you know?

Did you know that if you cook your buttermilk
syrup until it's a deep amber color...then you refrigerate the leftovers, and it thinkens up...(if you never have leftovers, make a double batch...please!)

It's pretty much caramel?

Caramel that's perfect for dipping apples in or eating with a spoon? Or...probably drizzling on ice cream?

Well, I may or may not have tried one or three of those ideas in the past 5 minutes.

Zucchini ideas and Zucchini Bread

I love this time of year! I'll be posting some fun fall recipes soon...but recently we have been harvesting lots from our garden! Since I'm not a pro at canning (yet!) I have been doing simple things like making freezer jam (raspberry peach...yum!) and shredding some zucchini to freeze and use during the winter. If you like baking with zucchini and you have some big ones from your garden, this is a must!

I made some low fat zucchini cookies while we were shredding.

We had this pasta for dinner this week. I used peppers and zucchini out of my garden. Mmmmmm....

Also, Zucchini Bread! When I have those big zucchini's sitting on my counter, all I want to do is make zucchini bread. Zucchini Bread is so moist and yummy. I experimented with my recipe and made a healthier version so that I can eat it more often, or eat more in one sitting...or (insert here whatever YOU tell yourself to make yourself feel better about stuffing your face).

When I say "healthier", please don't think "yuckier". I really try not to sacrifice taste to make something healthier. I thought this bread turned out really good and I got some good reviews from others as well! I have included the original recipe, and in the parenthesis, I included the changes I made to make it a bit healthier. I may or may not have added a bunch of mini semi-sweet chocolate chips to my "healthier" recipe. shhhhhh!

Zucchini Bread

3 cups all-purpose flour (substitute half whole wheat pastry flour)

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon baking powder

3 teaspoons ground cinnamon

3 eggs

1 cup vegetable oil (substitute half vanilla yogurt, so 1/2 C oil, 1/2 C yogurt)

1 C brown sugar

1 1/4 C white sugar

3 teaspoons vanilla extract

2 cups grated zucchini

1 cup chopped walnuts or chocolate chips (optional)

Cinnamon and sugar (optional)

Grease and flour two 8 x 4 inch or two 9x5 inch pans. Preheat oven to 325. Sift flour, salt, baking powder, soda, and cinnamon together in a bowl. In a large bowl, beat eggs, oil, vanilla, and sugar together for 1-2 minutes, or until well combined. Add sifted ingredients gradually to the creamed mixture, and mix just until combined. Stir in zucchini and nuts or chocolate chips. (Tip: Combine nuts and/or chocolate chips in a small bowl with 1-2 tsp of flour before mixing into the batter. Sometimes this helps the nuts and chocolate chips not sink to the bottom of the pan.) Pour batter into prepared pans and sprinkle the top with some cinnamon and sugar. Bake for about 60 minutes (or about 50 minutes for two 9x5 pans), or until tester inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool in the pan for 10 minutes. Carefully remove bread from pan, and completely cool.