Greek Frozen Yogurt Chia Truffles (Guest Post by Free Spirit Eater)

Today I have a special guest on my blog, Kym from an awesome healthy eating blog Free Spirit Eater. She and I decided to do a recipe swap of sorts by using one of our recipes as inspirations. I was inspired by her awesome rice pudding cheesecake and created a similar one but different… I decided to switch some ingredients around and played around with the prep a bit differently. I created a Rice Pudding Protein Cheesecake with Berry Chia Jam. Check out my recipe on her blog here and let me know what you think.

Anyway, I’m letting Kym take over from here. Don’t drool too much!…..

“Hello there lovers of food, seekers of the next tastiest item to devour in seconds and coo over for days. My name is Kym. I am the author of Free Spirit Eater, the blog devoted to all things food, writing, fitness and photography. Nothing is off limits and my recipes portray that.

Once upon a time I graduated from culinary school and began cooking in professional kitchens in NYC and NJ. I stepped foot into the food writing biz by starting my food blog, then branching out to reviewing restaurants, developing recipes and taking photos along the way. My love for photography has branched out from just food to events, lifestyle, fashion, fitness and boudoir to name a few.

My recipes are usually on the low calorie side, satisfying and guilt free versions of some of my favorite foods or just experiments gone right. But Kamila and I are swapping recipes and I happened to be in a bit of an indulgent mood. So when trying to recreate her Chocolate Chia Pudding with my own twist, I added a bit of some childhood favorites into my dessert. But by shaping them into bite sized truffle pieces I can practice portion control while enjoying the melt in your mouth feeling from the gooey morsels.

I had been curious about trying Ben & Jerry’s Greek Frozen Yogurt. So I purchased a pint of their strawberry shortcake flavor, crushed up some pretzels, smoked almonds, chia seeds, semi sweet chocolate chips and a splash of coconut milk. The tartness of the Greek frozen yogurt was made even more subtle by the coconut milk, and the addition of the almonds added a pleasantly smoky surprise. The chia seeds add a tiny pop when bit into with the pretzels and chocolate chips. For the final touch I melted some chocolate and made bite sized frozen yogurt treats.

Thank you so much Kamila for allowing me to guest post and taking the time to guest post on my site as well. Enjoy!”

Reese’s Overnight Oats (high protein)

I loved these because of how creamy they turned out. I made them before and I had to write down the exact proportions because of how well they turned out. Now I made these again last night but I ran out of almond milk! So I improvised and used some of the nonfat kefir I had in the fridge. The original written down recipe calls for 2/3 cup almond milk so you can try it either the original way or the way I’ve written it down in the recipe. Both results in creamy delicious oaty goodness. Mmmm.

My preference is for multi grain hot cereal rather than Old Fashioned oats simply because they have less calories. But then again they are also tastier, there is more of a complex flavor to them. But both kinds will work here, of course.

I was actually surprised how much these overnight oats truly taste like a peanut butter cup. But better! Because it’s healthier, fills you up more, packed with protein, not much sugar, AND it’s creamy (who doesn’t like creaminess?). These proportions are much recommended.

Happy Chocolate Day & Enjoy Life Crunchy Cookies Review

Happy National Chocolate Day! Such a lovely day to celebrate… Here are some of the chocolate recipes I’ve done in the past:

• Coconut Brownie for One
• Chocolate Cupcakes with Vanilla Pudding Filling and Chocolate Yogurt Frosting
• Molten Lava-esque Mocha Microwave Cake for One
• Chocolate Chia Pudding
• Surprise Cookies
• Chocolate Avocado Banana Pudding

Check out all of my chocolate recipes here! I use chocolate a lot. Like a lot, a lot. Yes, I am a huge fan of chocolate.

And thank you for continuing with the entries for my Arctic Zero giveaway. If you win that one, your freezer will welcome 8 pints and 8 bars of this delicious low calorie and high protein frozen dessert. Pictured above is the chocolate peanut butter Arctic Zero flavor topped with two Enjoy Life’s double chocolate crunch cookies. Which are the topic of today’s post. Well not those specific cookies but just the crunch cookies in general.

I got to try out Enjoy Life Foods crunchy cookies. Truth be told, I haven’t had cookies in a long time. Not the packaged kind. If I’m to have cookies, I’ll bake them myself or I’ll go for ones that are freshly baked in a bakery or whatever. Which isn’t often anyway. It used to be often, but I’ve tamed myself when it comes to processed and packaged foods. However, these cookies don’t necessarily make me concerned or guilty when eating them (as opposed to bakery goods or other store bought goods).

Coconut Brownie for One (vegan/low cal/low fat)

As a girl living on her own, without a family to feed, I’ve come to really appreciate single serve desserts. One, I don’t have to make a whole bunch of whatever it is I’m craving and then feel obligated to overeat because I don’t want it to go to waste. Two, in case the recipe doesn’t work, I don’t feel bad because I didn’t waste a whole lot of ingredients. And three, I don’t have to share 😉

I’ve come to love coconut flour for its flavor. I’ve been craving something coconut-y… but I also wanted to use some more Arctic Zero as a topping. A combination of ice cream and cake is perfect. Obviously.

You would never guess this beautiful dessert is healthy. And the whole thing (WITH the ice cream) is under 250 calories. That’s the beauty of healthy baking. And the beauty of Arctic Zero ice cream which you can try to win if you enter in my giveaway. It’s worth it.

Foodie Pen Pals: June

Yay it’s my second time participating in the foodie pen pals created by the awesome Lindsay over at Lean Green Bean! I haven’t participated in last month but this month it’s back on! This month my foodie pen pal was Mary from Where’s The Zoom blog . I told Mary I wanted something healthier and that I try to watch my sugar intake and that I’m health and wellness obsessed individual. This was enough for Mary to get what to buy me, she was right on with all of her purchases and I freaking love the box!

No worries, you were right on point with all of the goodies and I have never tried any of the products you got me before so it was perfect! Such an awesome surprise, very pleasant 🙂 Here are the contents of the foodie package:

Enjoy Life Chocolate Products review

I just seem to have awesome luck, or maybe it’s just good timing? As soon as I ran out of chocolate chips the other day, I get a package from Enjoy Life with these semi-sweet chocolate mega chunks and double chocolate crunch granola. I love good timing!

All Enjoy Life products are gluten free and allergy friendly. I really like companies that are committed to helping people lead healthier lives without sacrificing flavor and quality. Enjoy Life is one of those companies. All of their products contain NO: wheat, dairy, nuts, egg, soy, fish, shellfish and most are free of potatoes, sesame, sulfites, and casein. In addition to the allergen info, the products contain no artificial ingredients, no GMO ingredients, nor trans fats. Love these stats. We all know I’m more and more of a health freak as I get older and I spend a lot of time searching for the right products, it’s nice to find companies which are totally and entirely dedicated to healthy lifestyles.

Chocolate Cupcakes with Vanilla Pudding Filling and Chocolate Frosting (low calorie!)

Happy Father’s Day!

My dad is a huge fan of cream-based desserts. He loves all of those creamy fattening desserts such as eclairs, but is a sucker for Wuzetka, which is a Polish cake that has chocolate cake layers on top and bottom and in the middle it’s a very thick cream. He always buys that cake when they go grocery shopping in Polish deli stores. My mom hatess it. The cake is so fattening and it doesn’t really even taste all that good when it’s made in a store anyway. The way we remember it, from Poland, was much much better. Especially when it’s homemade.

Well I totally went off track. I’m not even making this cake for Father’s day. I don’t think my culinary experience is high enough to tackle this just yet. One day though, I might. A healthier version, of course. So for today, the cupcakes I made (of course it’s cupcakes, of course, haha) were inspired by Wuzetka.

It’s a deep chocolate cupcake with a homemade vanilla pudding filling and a chocolate frosting. While this dessert looks and tastes completely sinful, it really isn’t! Healthy chocolate frosting tastes just as good as the butter laden one, if not better, and it definitely makes you feel better about eating it guitlessly. The delicious creamy pudding filling is a wonderful contrast to the deep chocolatey cupcake. The outcome is simply wonderful.

Not one person could tell this cupcake had such incredible stats. A cupcake that has 4g of sugar? And only 120 calories for such an amazingly sinful-tasting treat! How’s that for “indulge without the bulge”?!

Now this is my take on a cream dessert – make cupcakes, and make them healthy 🙂

Molten Lava(-esque) Mocha Cake for One

This delicious microwave cake only looks and tastes sinful. Seriously, it tastes more than sinful. I feel like it’s a cheat day. Or worse, like I’m going off-track with my healthy eating. But thankfully, it couldn’t have been further from the truth – this delicious microwave cake is not only quick and simple, it is also probably the healthiest mug cake I’ve ever had. As far as I know anyway.

It started with a craving for chocolate… hard to figure out how to use that, it wasn’t just a simple chocolate craving. Actually, I initially wanted my chocolate chip cookie protein pancakes but I had no chocolate chips, and for some odd reason I kept thinking they required liquid egg whites which I’m currently out of. I didn’t check, they actually don’t require any egg whites because the recipe is vegan, haha. Oh well. Anyway, I really wanted that melty chocolatey feeling of a dessert… I also wanted it right NOW. I remember I made the peanut butter chocolate cake for one a while back and thought it would be a perfect thing to do it again. Except different this time. Changed enough to satisfy my cravings exactly.

While I’ve never had a real molten lava cake, I have no idea if this is what it would actually look or taste like. I only know from pictures. But either way, to ME this was a molten lava cake. I think it only has to be a cake with melty chocolate inside right? Whatever. It tasted phenomenal and it satisfied my craving. I have no idea if you would be able to take this out of the ramekin like in all those pretty pictures you see everywhere but let’s be honest – who cares about the appearance when the taste is amazing? Plus you’re clearly alone if you’re making this — this is not a very impressive recipe to make for a gathering. Hence the “for one” 😉

This tastes AH-MAY-ZING with some raspberry reduced-sugar jam on top. Oh man! Imagine this – melty chocolate and cold raspberries… Oh man, Oh man. You don’t even know what you’re in for!

Chocolate PB Protein Pudding

I randomly made this. I didn’t realy know what to expect out of it but oh man, I have been addicted to this creation ever since. It works especially well with the chocolate zucchini protein mini muffins I made a while back (yeah, I’m only now finishing them – the beauty of baking and cooking for one person).

I don’t usually like eating muffins or anything alone. I felt like these muffins definitely needed something on the side. I ate it with plain yogurt a few times but I ran out of yogurt and purchased organic kefir recently so I thought I would use that.

The consistency of kefir by itself is pretty liquidy and it was too liquidy for me to use as a dip for the muffins. So I thought I should thicken it up. Plus, since I always get the plain flavored ones, flavoring it up wouldn’t be a bad idea either.

Out came this addicting delicious pudding. Packed with protein. So good!

Chocolate-Dipped Yogurt Bites & This or That Quiz

I love quick and easy snacks. I especially love when they are healthy. ESPECIALLY when they also taste sinful. Like these little babies.. I used to make frozen yogurt bites all the time. I usually used Yoplait flavored yogurt though. That was before I realized the horrible additives pretty much everything has. So this time I used plain Greek yogurt.

The beauty of plain yogurt is that you can flavor is however you want. Want to add honey? Go for it. Cinnamon? You got it. And thanks to flavored liquid Stevia, you are able to flavor your yogurt whatever you want while adding sweetness without the calories of processed sugars.

Now take it a step further and dip the creation in melted chocolate. Can you say healthy heaven? Mmmm..

And then there’s one of those “This or That” quizzes on the bottom of the post. I’ve been seeing them around quite a bit and I thought, might as well.