Whole-Wheat Chocolate Chip Cookie Cake

Whew, that’s a title that takes a breath out of you! And it should, really, because it is darn delicious! I love it when I have a reason to bake (even though I don’t always need one). This time it was for a co-worker’s birthday. I had just recovered from the flu, so I didn’t want to leave the house for materials. So after using the thinking cap for a moment or two, I came up with the perfect idea–chocolate chip cookie cake. Perfect for celebration as a cake, but great because I always have ingredients to make cookies. To throw a healthy spin on it, I used whole-wheat flour and not much sugar at all. One of the best parts about this recipe is that it is super simple and easy!

Start with the dry…

Fold it all together

Nom nom nom

Whole-Wheat Chocolate Chip Cookie Cake

2014-06-17 22:21:46

A healthier version of the cookie cake

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Prep Time

10 min

Cook Time

10 min

Prep Time

10 min

Cook Time

10 min

Ingredients

1 1/4 cups whole-wheat flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1/4 cup brown sugar
1 egg
1/2 cup butter
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 cup milk
1 cup chocolate chips

Instructions

Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees F
Mix together flour, baking soda, and salt in a small bowl
Get a big bowl out and either a beater or your best whisking-arm
Beat the butter and sugar together until creamed
Continue to mix the egg, milk, and vanilla extract in
Now, beat in the dry ingredients--flour, baking soda, and salt
Finally, fold in the chocolate chips. Not with a beater but with a whisk or a spoon
Spread the dough out on a 12-13" baking sheet. Make it nice and even
Put in for 8-12 minutes
Take it out, let it cool, decorate (optional) and then serve!

By Hungry and Fit

Adapted from 100 Days of Real Food

hungry and fit https://hungryandfit.com/

Next time you’re thinking of baking a cake, why not go the simple route! It’s easy and everyone will be complimenting your baking prowess. It’ll be between you and I that it wasn’t too tough to produce. 😉 Have fun with it, put decorations on it! You can also add nuts or raisins, whatever be your fancy. Let me know how the recipe turns out for you! And as always…stay hungry and fit!

BONUS PUPPY PIC

My baking partner, best of the best

May052014

Healthy Frozen Treats

If every day was like yesterday, then I’m going to need constant refreshing things to put down my gullet. Unfortunately, that may lead to unhealthier things like overdoses of ice cream and other sweet treats that don’t exactly lead to the bathing suit body we want to present in the upcoming season.

Well, ladies and gents, we have come up with a solution: SILK. No, not the nice pajamas. Silk Milk, the kind that makes you feel great and keeps you kickin‘. We have come up with a few ridiculously easy and healthy frozen treat recipes. We love that Silk appreciates keeping the calorie count low while giving us tons of flavor and goodness. No GMOs and tons of calcium. That’s what Hungry and I need. Silk keeps us healthy and strong while appeasing our taste buds.

These sweet treats will keep your frozen sweet tooth satisfied without added sugars and heavy fat. We used various kinds of Silk milk (from plain Almondmilk to Soymilk) and mixed it up with frozen and fresh fruit. These sweet treats are on a stick, so all you need are freeze pop molds!

The three Silk products we used

From top to bottom: Tropical Freeze, Dreamsicle, and Chocolate Strawberry Pop

Ready to freeze!

Ready to eat!

Healthy Frozen Treats

2014-05-04 20:38:03

Serves 6

Three delicious, healthy freeze pop recipes that will take under 10 minutes

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Prep Time

5 min

Cook Time

4 hr

Prep Time

5 min

Cook Time

4 hr

Tropical Freeze

1/4 cup Silk Unsweetened Almondmilk
1/3 cup fresh or frozen blend of tropical fruits (pineapple, mango, etc.)

Dreamsicle

1/4 cup Silk Original Soymilk
1/4 cup orange juice of your choice

Chocolate Strawberry Surprise

1/4 cup Silk Dark Chocolate Almondmilk
1 strawberry

Tropical Freeze

Put the Silk Unsweetened Almondmilk with the tropical fruit into a blender
Blend until mostly smooth
Pour into mold
Freeze for 4-6 hours (all freeze pop molds are different though)

Dreamsicle

Pour Silk Original Soymilk into molds along with the orange juice
Freeze for 4-6 hours

Chocolate Strawberry Surprise

Pour Silk Dark Chocolate Almondmilk into the freeze pop mold (only 2/3 of the way to the top)
Chop up the strawberry and put it in (make sure you don't let it overflow!)

Notes

Every freeze pop mold is different so your freeze pops may take shorter or longer to freeze
Going along with that, you may need to alter the amount of ingredients as it could be too much or too little

By Hungry and Fit

hungry and fit https://hungryandfit.com/

These freeze pops are light, refreshing, and delicious. They are sure to cool off any hot day and keep those around you smiling. What’s spring and summer about if it isn’t happiness? We use Silk in recipes like this so we can feel like we are indulging ourselves while staying healthy. Sign up for the Silk newsletter to get free coupons and chances of winning Silk products! I always try to stay current with the Silk Facebook page as I am always finding new recipes and tips for using Silk. Use Silk in your recipes to stay hungry and fit!

This is a sponsored conversation written by me on behalf of Silk. The opinions and text are all mine.

Apr022014

Chocolate Spinach Brownies

The first thing my dad said when I told him I made spinach brownies was “Eeew!” almost exactly. And I don’t blame him. Spinach…and chocolate…? It sounds like a weird combo, but it works. I wanted to make some sort of healthy treat for our management meeting today, and I remembered a recipe that I had bookmarked from Brooklyn Farm Girl. Perfect! Plenty of chocolate without the guilt. Now, that is something I can get behind. Especially after the cleanse, I’m trying to be good and stick to my macros (post on that coming later this week).

Whisk that mixture!

The dry mixture you stir into the wet…

To put in the oven for 30-ish minutes

To come out like this

CHOMP

Things got a little weird in the kitchen…

Chocolate Spinach Brownies

2014-04-01 23:01:30

A healthy version of the traditional brownie

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Prep Time

15 min

Cook Time

33 min
Prep Time

15 min

Cook Time

33 min
Ingredients
1. 1/2 cup regular flour
2. 1/2 cup cocoa powder
3. 1 cup pureed spinach
4. 1/4 cup melted butter
5. 3/8 cup (little less than half) regular sugar
6. 3/8 cup brown sugar
7. 2 tsp vanilla
8. 1/2 cup melted chocolate chips
9. 1/3 cup chocolate chips
10. 1/2 tsp baking powder
Instructions
1. Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees F and grease up a 8x8 (or a cake tin) pan
2. Puree the spinach in a blender or food processor, using a few tablespoons of water
3. Mix the melted butter with the regular sugar and brown sugar
4. Melt the chocolate chips and mix into the butter/sugar mixture
5. Mix in the spinach puree and the vanilla extract into the buttery sugary mix
6. In a smaller bowl, mix together the flour, baking powder, or cocoa powder
7. Slowly, add the dry mix to the wet until it's all in
8. Fold in the non-melted chocolate chips into the mixture
9. Put in the oven for 30-35 minutes and let cool
By Hungry and Fit

Adapted from Brooklyn Farm Girl

Adapted from Brooklyn Farm Girl

hungry and fit https://hungryandfit.com/

Mine didn’t turn out as fluffy as I had intended because first off, I didn’t have as much spinach as I needed and second, I accidentally omitted the baking powder. OOPS! Hey no worries, they still taste divine. They’re my little short adorable brownies and I love them. Play around with the recipe and have fun! Bake spinach brownies to stay hungry and fit!

BONUS KITTY PIC

Cuties

Feb142014

Homemade Scones and Cream Recipe

This recipe is perfect for Valentine’s Day if you want to create a treat for the special day! Some of my favorite Valentine’s Day memories involve my dad putting those little candy hearts allll over the house and me getting to look and find them. Onto the yummy stuff. I have watched my mum make her scones year after year growing up throughout my childhood, but I never actually made them myself. Sure, I helped her put on the jam or whip the cream, but I was just helping, not creating. I was thinking of what I wanted to bring to work for Valentine’s Day (I’m not a huge proponent of this day because it’s normally too gushy, but I always like an excuse to make something yummy), and then it came to me! Mum’s scones! Simple, delicious, and not too sweet. Looking back, I have to laugh, because when I asked mum for the recipe, and then when we were FaceTiming while I was making it at 6:30am (5:30am her time–sorry, Mum!), the way she actually did it was completely different. Here is a family recipe, rooting back in New Zealand that promises to not be too heavy or sweet but a definite crowd-pleaser.

The finished product

Scones

Prep Time: 10-15 minutes
Baking Time: 10 minutes
Makes: 20 scones (40 halves)

Ingredients

3 cups unbleached white flour
1/4 tsp salt
5 level tsp baking powder
1/2 stick butter
1 1/4 cup milk

Directions

Pre-heat oven to 450 degree F
Mix the flour, salt, and baking powder in a big bowl
Heat the butter in the microwave for 5 seconds and then chop up into itty bitty pieces. Throw those pieces into the flour mixture and start rubbing it in until it gets gritty similar to bread crumbs

Pre-rubbed

Now slowly pour the milk in, mixing as you pour. It should end in a dough-like consistency

Put a dusting of flour on a large cutting board and knead it out, but not a lot. You want them an inch, inch and a half thick

Now cut them all at once, vertical lines and then horizontal lines into two inch pieces. Place on the baking sheet, no greasing needed

Check on it after 8 minutes and until 10 minutes. Check the bottom of them, don’t let them burn. After you take them out of the oven, they should cool for at least 10 minutes before you put the toppings on them

All cooked!

Okay, so while they are cooling….let’s make some cream! Super easy.

Cream

Creation Time: …1 minute

Ingredients

1 pint heavy whipping cream
1/4 tsp vanilla
1 tsp sugar

Directions

Put ingredients into bowl and beat them until it turns into the whipped cream you know and love

NOW to put it all together! This is what you’re going to need to finish these puppies up…

jam (any kind you like)
chocolate

Directions

Cut open the scones into halves and lay them out
Spread jam on each one (yes, takes some time)
Dollop the cream on each one (you can make it pretty by spreading it out, I didn’t)

Use a grater that can grate super finely and grate chocolate over the scones. I added some red sprinkles to make it more Valentine-y

And you’re done. I know this was a long post, but it actually doesn’t take that long and is worth it ten times over. These were a HUGE hit at work and they don’t leave you feeling guilty because they are certainly not heavy nor are they too sweet. That’s why Americans sometimes don’t like these kind! I am very proud to have successfully produced these, they taste very close to my mum’s. Whip these up for this lovey-dovey weekend and make people happy! You can thank my mum, not me! And as always…stay hungry and fit!

BONUS KITTY PIC

Sleeepy baby

Aug132013

Whole-Wheat Churro Balls Recipe

Boy am I ecstatic to have found this recipe. And boy am I even happier to have not looked ahead and not have any regular flour on hand. What do I do when I don’t prepare properly (aka too busy drooling over the thought of churros)? I improvise! Would whole-wheat flour work with this recipe? Not so sure! Try it anyways? Sure! And guess what–I lucked out! Even though it wasn’t exactly a smooth recipe process for me, they turned out delicious and fuller with fiber without the processed flour. Yay for steps in a healthier direction! Anyone who knows me knows that I have a bad addiction to churros…and anything cinnamon. When I stumbled upon that recipe, I couldn’t contain my excitement. I finally finished my contest, so I jumped on the opportunity to do this.

Mmmm-mm!

Prep Time: 5-7 minutes
Cooking Time: 4-5 minutes

Macronutrients (per ball)

Makes: 10-15 balls (but it depends on the size you make them, mine came to 11)
Calories: 58
Fat: 1g
Carbs: 11g
Fiber: 2g
Protein: 1.5g

Ingredients

1 cup water
1 tablespoon white sugar
1 cup whole-wheat flour
1 tablespoon oil
oil for frying
1/4 cup white sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon

Directions

Combine the water, tbsp sugar, and tbsp oil in a saucepan over medium heat. Bring to a boil
Stir in the flour until it forms into ball-like structures

Keep mixing!

There we go

Heat up oil in a deep pot to fry the churro balls in. Should be 190 degrees F and that’s when you need a thermometer (which I don’t have and consequently slightly burned them…only some!)
While the oil is heating up, mix together the 1/4 cup sugar and cinnamon in a bowl

I could just eat this plain

With your hands pick up the dough in the cooled saucepan and roll them into donut hole-like balls. Make them whatever size you want. Pop them into the hot oil and let cook for 4-5 minutes. I didn’t put enough oil in so I had to roll them around. Make sure the oil isn’t too hot so you don’t smoke the apartment out (oops)!
Take them out and drain or pat with paper towel. When cool to touch, roll them in the cinnamon-sugar mix. Get them nice and covered!

Serve as a pile or just eat them all yourself! I couldn’t help myself and had four as soon as they were done. Oops.

Mmmm-mm!

This is such a simple recipe–I mean look at the ingredients! If you want to follow the traditional recipe, you can use regular white flour, but why not go a little healthier? Add some more fiber and whole-grain into your diet through deliciousness! They are a perfect treat for after dinner or to serve to friends. This is a recipe I will continue to use and perfect upon. I think next time I might add some cinnamon-sugar to the filling…Use this recipe to stay hungry and fit!

Don’t mind if I take another…four!

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BONUS KITTY PIC

Nymeria being ridiculously cute…what’s new

Aug032013

Healthy Greek Yogurt Mini-Cheesecake Recipe

I’ve been wanting to make these for a loooong time. First, the problem was I couldn’t find one ingredient anywhere. Then, it was that I was prepping for the contest, so I stayed away from dairy. Finally FINALLY, both those problems are over. I found the ingredient (Green Mountain Farms Greek Cream Cheese) at Wal-Mart (unfortunately) and this past Monday, my contest was complete!

I can hear you saying, HEALTHY cheesecake?! Give me a break! Sure, it may not be better for you than a protein shake, but hear me out. This magical ingredient cuts half the normal fat of a cheesecake and deals twice the protein. Can you say SERVE ME ANOTHER?! I thought so. I got this recipe from here and cut it in half. It was very easy and so so good. Creamy, delicious, and light—and it doesn’t leave you feeling like you have a bowling ball in the tummy, which I appreciate. This is a recipe I will often go back to as Chris and I love cheesecake. You could do it with or without the lemon twist (we happen to like it).

You pretty thang

Prep Time: 10-15 minutes
Cooking Time: 25-30 minutes

Macros

Serves: 6 (you can always double it for a bigger party)
Calories: 182
Fat: 8.9g
Carbs: 19g
Protein: 6.8g

^_^

Ingredients

3 cinnamon graham crackers
1 tbsp butter
¼ cup sugar
zest of ½ lemon
1 egg
1 8-ounce package of Green Mountain Farms Greek Cream Cheese & Greek Yogurt
1/8 cup heavy whipping cream
½ tsp vanilla extract

Directions

Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees F
Line your muffin tin with cupcake liners (I used ones that were waaaaaaay too big)
Ground your graham crackers finely—I used the bottom of a glass and a bowl…and eventually my fingers

Mix in the butter with the graham cracker crumble
Put the crumble at the bottom of each cupcake liner, try to make it even

Bake for about 5 minutes and let cool
Grate some lemon zest
The recipe asks for a stand mixer, but we don’t have one of those. So I used a whisk! Mix all the rest of the ingredients together in a medium sized bowl. Make it smooth.

Pour into muffin liners about 2/3rds full. Mine definitely were not all even. Do what you can.

Put in the oven for about 20-25 minutes. Mine were good at 23. A little cracked, but after refrigeration, they smoothed out.

Make sure to let them cool. Then pop them into the refrigerator for about 3 hours before you serve.

Oh so goooood

That’s it! You can garnish it if you’re feeling fancy, but I like ’em plain. These are just so good and mini…it’s perfect. And the macros don’t leave you feeling bad. It’s easy to make, easy to eat–what’s better than that? Use this delicious recipe to stay hungry and fit!

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BONUS KITTY PIC

A hot Sajah just chillin’

Jul072013

The Perfect July 4th Treat: Stuffed Strawberries

Now that I think about it, it doesn’t need to be July 4th…it can be any nation’s pride day who has red white and blue. And you aren’t limited just to July 4th either because it’s a healthy and delicious treat! I may have served these on July 5th, but that’s only because we already had rhubarb pies made by my grandma. This special dish involves fruit, dairy, and happiness and doesn’t take longer than 15-20 minutes to make! I got it from here and added a bit of lemon into it and took out some sugar.

Prep Time: 15-20 minutes

Cooking Time: …non-existent

Ingredients

a tin of strawberries (I just usually get the regular pound at the grocery)
a tin of blueberries (same thing)
5 oz marscapone
juice of a lemon
lemon zest
2 tbsp powdered sugar
1 tsp vanilla

Directions

Wash the fruit and pat dry all of it

Beautiful sight

Take the strawberries and cut the green ends off and also a little portion of the tip so they can stand upright on a platter
Take a melon baller and ball out of the bottom, creating a crevasse.

Once your strawberries are all “pitted” and plated, let’s turn to the filling. Put 5 ounces of marscapone cheese and put it in a small-medium bowl

I would next do the lemon juice. Cut the lemon in half and squeeeeeze all that juice out.
Next, grind the lemon on a grater and get a good amount of zest (people say 1 tsp, but I eyeball it)
Then, throw the powdered sugar and vanilla in and stir! Mix it all up really well

Hard not to eat it all

Now comes the most difficult part: take the marscapone mixture and put it into a re-sealable bag and snip a corner off. Use this contraption to fill the pits in the strawberries up with the mixture

Once all the strawberries are filled to perfection, place the blueberries on top of the cream in the strawberries. And that’s it!

Yum yum yum

This is an easy, healthy treat you can substitute for pie or something else you’d like to stay away from on those holiday food feasts. Fresh fruit and sweet cheese. How could it go wrong? It’s easy to do, pretty to the eye, and delicious enough to impress. Make this recipe if you’re looking to stay hungry and fit!

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Mar252013

The Easiest Healthiest Dessert Recipe Ever: Sweet Baked Pears

I really need to cut down on these title lengths. Anyways, to the recipe. I discovered this recipe through a program I work with at the YMCA, called MEND. It’s a free program to fight childhood obesity and change the lifestyle to a healthy one at home. It’s been very successful! During each session, the participants get a MEND “cookbook”–a compilation of MEND-friendly (aka HEALTHY) recipes. This is from there. This is a guilt-free recipe. It’s basically fruit, cheese, and cinnamon. ENJOY!

Finished product

Prep Time: 5 minutes
Cooking Time: 20 minutes

Ingredients [serves 6-8 people]

6 pears (if you’re less-hungry people, you can use less)
1 1/3 cup ricotta
1 1/2 tbsp cinnamon
2 tbsp agave nectar (or honey)
1 1/2 tbsp vanilla extract

Directions

Pre-heat oven to 325 degrees
Wash the pears and cut them into halves

Scoop out the seeds and most of the middle

Put the pears on a baking sheet (no oil required) and put in the oven for 20 minutes
Let’s now turn our focus to the mixture. Put all the other ingredients (ricotta, vanilla extract, cinnamon, and agave/honey) into a small-medium bowl and mix! Feel free to taste

Put the mixture into the fridge to chill until you serve.
Take out the pears from the oven after 20 minutes
When ready to serve, put dollops of mixture in the hollowed part of the pears!

And that’s IT! Seriously amazing, delicious, and you don’t feel bad eating it because there isn’t any crap in it. This is a recipe I will be frequenting. I whipped it up very quickly after a gym session before we went to a friend’s house for dinner–it’s amazingly simple for how delicious it is. Enjoy!

BONUS KITTY PIC

Someone’s sleepy…

Dec122012

Berry Delicious! HEALTHY Berry Whole-Wheat Pie/Crumble

First of all, yes, yes, I know…brilliant title. I thought of it myself. And second of all, it IS healthy and GUILT FREE. Why? There’s barely any sugar in it. It’s weird. But I don’t lie. And for record, this is my first pie/crumble/whatever-you-want-to-call-it that I’ve made by myself from scratch. I took it from here, but as usual, modified. It didn’t take too long either. It was a very pleasant process.

Ingredients (Pie Filling)

2 boxes of blackberries
2 boxes of raspberries
1/3 cup sugar
2 teaspoons flour

Ingredients (Crust)

2 cups whole wheat flour
1.5 sticks butter
1 teaspoon salt
12 teaspoons cold water

So first, let’s take care of the pie filling (will take approx…2 minutes!).

Directions (Pie Filling)

Put the berries, flour, and sugar into a bowl (take note that it’s just the 2 teaspoons of flour)

Directions (Crust)

Preheat oven to 400 degrees
Combine the flour and salt in a big mixing bowl (this time 2 cups flour)
Cut up the cold butter into little pieces and place in flour mixture

Next, add enough cold water for the flour to stick together and can be rolled into a massive ball of dough.

Place in the freezer for 15 minutes
Take out of freezer, and use glad wrap or wax paper to really roll it out as thin as you want the crust
Once the crust is rolled out, place half of it on the bottom of your pan (or whatever you may use)