Easy Cream Cheese Brownies

What's better than cream cheese and chocolate? Not much. Except meat.
But no, there's no meat in this. These yummy delicious, wonderful things are absolutely delicious! So easy to make since the recipe calls for a boxed brownie mix of your choice (I always go with Ghiradelli mixes because they are always quite YUMMY.) The bake time below really depends on your brownie mix. I had to bake mine closer to an hour because the Ghiradelli mix calls for 50 or 55 minutes, I forget right now. It's difficult to tell when it's done, I used the toothpick test. Either way, this was so good warm with a scoop of vanilla bean ice cream. Happy baking!

4.5 stars out of 5.

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Adapted from recipe from here.

SERVES 16

Ingredients

1 package fudge brownie mix
1 (8 ounce) package cream cheese
1/3 cup sugar
1 egg
1/2 teaspoon vanilla

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 F degrees.
2. Prepare the brownie mix according to package directions.
3. Pour into a greased 13x9-inch baking pan.
4. Beat cream cheese with electric mixer on medium speed until smooth.
5. Add sugar and mix. Add vanilla and egg; mix until well-blended.
6. Place cheese mixture in dolups over the whole pan, leaving some brownie showing inbetween.
7. Cut or swirl through batter several times with a knife or fork for a marbled effect. It can be tricky to get a good marble effect so be careful not to over work it.
8. Bake for 35 to 40 minutes. Cool; cut into squares. (These will also freeze well).

Ice Cream Brownie Cake

Happy VERY belated birthday, Elyse! Haha, oh man. So I wish I had the opportunity to take a picture of the inside of the cake, however I was the cake cutter at the party and felt it was a little too--weird-- if I stopped everything to do that. So this is what you get. :)

Yes, I know, it's SUPERBLY uneven, the frosting is terrible, the writing is crooked, but man oh man, was it good. I bought a Ghiradelli's Dark Chocolate brownie mix from the store as well as some frosting and went at it.

I say this is a budget dessert because this in comparison to buying an actual ice cream cake---well, those can run you $30-40 depending on where you get it and it wouldn't be this large. I was lucky enough to get my ice cream (Breyer's Vanilla) on sale for $2.88 per container. Can I just take a moment to say how things keep shrinking in size?? It used to be a half gallon container, now its a slim 1.2 L container selling for an original price of almost $5! Are they joking? Too bad the brownie mix wasn't on sale, but $3 for a bit of heaven without making my own brownies from scratch on the same day that I was making lemon bars--well, I'm willing to deal. Since I'm seriously unemployed, cheaper (for the most part because I can't say the same thing for cheap napkins from Target) is better. This was my birthday present to Elyse--a homemade ice cream brownie cake.

Recipe:

1 prepackaged cake or brownie mix
3 quarts of ice cream
1 13 x 9 x 2in baking dish
1 can of frosting
1/4c sprinkles
Foil or parchment paper

1. Line your baking dish with foil or parchment paper for ice cream. Scoop softened ice cream onto lined baking dish and try to smooth or even out as best as you can. Making it even is always the hard part. After you've made a layer a little under 1" high freeze baking dish with ice cream covered with foil until hardened.

2. After a few hours, remove ice cream from baking dish. This should be easy because of your foil underneath. Replace ice cream in freezer. I used a larger baking dish and put the ice cream in it with the foil on it still.

3. Prepare brownie mix and bake as directed in the same baking dish you originally used for the ice cream. It will be a thinner layer of brownie than the directions call for, so keep an eye on it to cook faster and not burn. Luckily because you'll be freezing it later, if your brownie comes out a little more done or underdone than normal, it will be fine because it firms up.

4. After your brownie is done baking, cool it down to still a little warm and place layer of ice cream on top. This way, hopefully your ice cream will melt just a little into the brownie to help the brownie and ice cream stick together when you cut it. (I had a little bit of a problem with this.)

5. Top ice cream layer with frosting, filling in any cracks. Of course if you had ice cream cracks, you can always add in more ice cream.

6. Sprinkles, flowers, etc. As you can see, I had some leftover beautiful baby blue sprinkles from my sister's baby shower and proceeded to carefully draw out Elyse on the top, cuz I wasn't crazy enough to write out Happy Birthday.

There are other ways to do this too. You could always take a page from Baskin Robbins and use a wire or string and after removing the carton from the ice cream, proceed to cut the ice cream in horizontal slices and place them on top. This didn't work well with the size of my dish so I ditched this option.

Obviously all of these things can be tweaked to your own specifications. I used the Dark chocolate brownie mix, but feel free to use a vanilla cake, a funfetti cake, a lemon cake, etc. The possibilities are endless. Same goes for the ice cream, maybe try a sorbetto instead which could be light and fun. You could also use a cream cheese frosting or a funfetti frosting. (Can you tell I like the funfetti? It's so pretty.) You could also get crazy and use a sheet cake and cut that in half horizontally and then have a layer of cake followed by a layer of ice cream followed by a layer of cake again and then frosting. That looks so much prettier than my ugly second cousin cake. :)

Needless to say, it was an absolute hit. The dark chocolate brownie complimented so well with just plain ol' vanilla ice cream by balancing out the sweetness. It was very well received and most of it was gone. Just have fun and enjoy!

5 of 5 stars! YUMMY.

Healthy Apple Cobbler

Alright, yet another recipe I made awhile ago...sorry for the delay. I wanted to try this because there's no butter and no sugar and it still turned out really quite good. The recipe below uses berries, but I used apple instead, and it still turned out quite good.

So, I kinda cheated because I took a tbsp of butter, cut it into tiny little pieces and then stuck it all over the topping for baking. This worked well, but was completely unnecessary. Also, one thing that I didn't like so much about this recipe is, the topping wasn't enough for the amount of fruit it asks for and it didn't specify which size pan to use. So I used like an 8" x 8"--gosh, I hope that's right. Here I am criticizing them about not including pan size and I'm too lazy to get up off my butt and go look at the size dimensions of the pan in the kitchen. :) I also doubled the amount of topping cuz let's face it, that's the best part. I used little organic fuji apples and they turned out quite well. I imagine the tartness of granny smith would work well too. Overall, I think this is a great healthy, non-chocolate, budget friendly dessert that's super quick and easy! I was lucky enough to be at Fresh 'n Easy earlier in the day and the bag of organic apples was on clearance because a few were bruised and what not. One man's trash...With the apples, it reminded me a little of apple pie---who doesn't like apple pie??

I served this plain, but it would no doubt be awesome served warm with ice cream. Yummy!! It smells delicious when cooking.

4 out of 5 stars! So many attributes--quick, delicious, cheap, and healthy!

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Recipe below from here.
Ingredients

• 3 cups Mixed Berries Or Any Fruit, Fresh Or Frozen
• ¼ cups Plus 1 Tablespoon Whole Wheat Flour
• ½ cups Honey, Divided
• ½ cups Rolled Oats
• ¼ cups Chopped Walnuts
• 1 teaspoon Cinnamon
• ½ teaspoons Ginger
• ¼ teaspoons Nutmeg
• 1 teaspoon Canola Oil

Preparation Instructions

Preheat oven to 350°F.

Spray an 8″ x 8″ baking pan with cooking spray and set aside. In a large bowl, toss fruit and 1 tablespoon flour together. Add 1/4 cup honey (reserve the remaining 1/4 cup of honey for topping) and use your fingers to thoroughly combine ingredients. If using frozen berries, the honey may cause them to bunch together, so you’ll have to pick them apart by hand. Pour fruit mixture into the baking pan.

In a medium bowl, mix remaining flour, oats, walnuts, cinnamon, ginger and nutmeg until combined. Add remaining honey and canola oil. Use your fingers to thoroughly combine the ingredients. Sprinkle the flour and oat mixture evenly over the fruit.

Bake for 40 to 45 minutes until fruit is bubbly and the topping is browned and crisp. Let cool for 20 minutes. Serve plain or top each serving with vanilla yogurt.

Coffee Cake Loaf

And we're back! Alright, I finally uploaded some pictures from the past few weeks of baking, so get ready. Yes, miracles do happen.

A recipe with, ironically enough, no coffee in the ingredients. :)

This cake loaf was actually made a few weeks ago so of course now I don't remember what the heck I was listening to when I made it. So the funny thing about this recipe is it's really for cupcakes...jumbo cupcakes. But it didn't work out when I made it. I have these blue silicone muffin-y type "tins" (yea, I know, silicon does not equal tin, hence the quotes), and my mix just didn't go well into them and it started rising and getting too full, so I didn't want to continue baking them. Anyway, the point of that really long sentence was to say that I turned it into a coffee cake loaf. The reviews of this recipe, which can be found on the linked page, were correct---the amount of topping you make for these cupcakes is really an absurdly large amount. In fact, I mixed it a great deal of the topping before even putting it on top of the loaf because there was just too much. But you know what? It turned out great that way. I did a bit actually mixed into the dough and a bit folded into the dough. That way, there were some swirl-ish type of things within the loaf when you cut it as well as a nice overall cinnamon flavor. :D

I used light sour cream, but I have a desire to remake this and use low fat greek yogurt instead. It's better for you, or so they say. If you're down for that experiment, I love Fage Yogurt which can be found at your local Trader Joe's or Fresh 'n Easy. I also completely left out the confectioner's sugar for the dusting. It really didn't need it. The mix produced enough dough to fill my jumbo loaf pan, which is saying a lot. It baked for around 50 minutes on the usual baking setting not the convection oven setting. What came out smelled and tasted quite delicious. This could easily be a breakfast on the go type of thing (not particularly healthy, but who's counting?), or an after dinner snack heated up in the microwave with a scoop of vanilla ice cream...oh, I'm salivating already. Oh, right, and a slice with coffee. Enjoy!



Picture of the loaf right after it came out of the oven...oh yes. :)


And another picture after I sliced it up and put it in this nifty plastic container that used to hold Vegetable Pork Buns, lol!! I assure you, I made these, they were not purchased from the local store, despite their suspect container.

4 out of 5 stars!
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Below from here.

• FOR STREUSEL
• 1 cup packed dark-brown sugar
• 1 cup all-purpose flour (spooned and leveled)
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup (1 stick) cold unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
• FOR MUFFINS
• 1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature, plus more for pans
• 1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour (spooned and leveled), plus more for pans
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 cup sour cream
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 2 large eggs
• confectioners' sugar, for dusting

Directions

1. Prepare streusel: In a medium bowl, stir together brown sugar, flour, cinnamon, and salt. With a pastry blender or two knives, cut in butter until mixture resembles large coarse crumbs; refrigerate until ready to use.
2. Prepare muffins: Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Butter and flour two jumbo 6-cup muffin pans. In a small bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, and baking soda; set aside.
3. Using an electric mixer, beat together butter, sour cream, granulated sugar, and vanilla on medium speed until light and fluffy. Beat in eggs, one at a time, until well combined. With mixer on low, beat in flour mixture just until combined.
4. Divide half the batter among muffin cups; top with half the streusel. Cover with remaining batter; top with remaining streusel. Bake until a toothpick inserted in the center of a muffin comes out clean, 25 to 30 minutes. Cool in pan 5 minutes, then transfer to a rack to cool completely. Dust with confectioners' sugar before serving.

Homemade Tahini Sauce

I love the idea of making my own tahini, especially because that leads to hummus! Enjoy the following recipe and try it for yourself! You could always use it to make your own hummus! Yummy!
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Recipe taken from here.

Tahini

Ingredients

2 cups sesame seeds
1/2 cup olive oil

Procedure

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Place sesame seeds on a rimmed baking sheet and toast sesame seeds for 5-10 minutes, shaking the seeds frequently with a spatula. Do not allow to brown. Cool for 20 minutes.

2. Pour sesame seed into the bowl of a food processor and add the olive oil. Blend until smooth, about 2 minutes. The tahini should be thick, yet pourable. Add more oil and blend again if it's too thick. Store in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to a month.

Homemade Cinnamon Sugar Pita Chips

Yes, it's been forever. Sorry! I kept saying I would post up a bunch more recipes, but then I got really busy and went away this weekend so it turned into zero time to post or even bake for that matter. Thanks for your patience! Back to cooking...

Wow, I've been saying I'd post this for so long now I don't even remember what song I listened to when I made this. I think I was listening to the Sookie Stackhouse book on CD.

Anyway, this recipe is super easy and it's so nice that you have more control over the foods in your life. I made these with organic white wheat and corn tortillas I bought at Trader Joe's. One thing's for sure, these are better for you and have no preservatives because I left a few tortillas and they went bad within the week when I left them out. The weather was pretty cool that week too.

I changed the recipe by adding in some nutmeg along with the cinnamon and sugar. Actually, to be honest, I think I added too much, so I'll have to dial that down next time. The baking time is off too. I just baked it til the chips started to curl. I felt like that was a better indicator.

These turned out delicious and really were quite easy. Oh! And Today, I have my own pics! So all the pictures below were from my point and shoot. Enjoy!



The package of delicious tortillas I used, cut into slices.


The finished product in all its glory! Yum!

4 out of 5 stars!

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Recipe from here.

Ingredients

• 10-12 flour tortillas
• vegetable oil (or spray)
• spices

Directions

1. Cut tortillas into 8 wedges.
2. Brush or spray baking sheet with oil.
3. Arrange tortilla wedges in a single layer on the baking sheet and brush or spray lightly with oil.
4. Sprinkle with seasonings: salt or seasoned salt, chili powder, cinnamon sugar, etc.
5. Bake at 325 until crisp and lightly browned, approximately 10 minutes.

I made this for a potluck to send a friend off. We needed something healthier and greener. Overall, this is good, but I think I just got confused/messed up on some aspects. First off, I didn't research what a "bunch" of scallions meant, and I didn't really measure the parsley, which was a big mistake. I also don't have a zester or a microplane, so I made do with a smaller grater when zesting the lemon. Oooh--I also don't have white wine vinegar so I combined 1c. vinegar + 1c. white wine. Let me tell you, it doesn't produce the same effects, lol! After some research online, it is confirmed...can't substitute those for each other, they're quite different. Hilarious.

Additionally, either I'm ridiculously slow or else this recipe took a heck of a lot longer than 15 minutes prep time. It took me about 2 hours, start to finish to make this dish. Getting the scorched skin off the bell peppers after I roasted them over my gas stove is time consuming.

Either way, I put too much parsley in, and apparently not enough lemon juice. Instead of whisking the dressing together, I found shaking it in a tupperware much more effective. Also, because I had to make this ahead of time, I had to have it cold and not warm. I think that makes a big difference.

The salad was good. Made more according to the directions, it would have been much better.

3.5 out of 5 stars, probably closer to 4.5 out of 5 stars if I had followed the recipe more closely. :)

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below taken from here.

Warm Vegetable Salad

Recipe courtesy Giada De Laurentiis

Prep Time:15 min

Cook Time: 25 min

Level: Intermediate

Serves: 4 to 6 servings

Ingredients

• 2 whole red peppers
• 1 1/2 pound assorted red and white new potatoes
• 3/4 pounds green beans, trimmed and halved
• 1 bunch scallions, sliced
• 1/2 cup chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 2 tablespoons chopped oregano leaves
• 1 lemon, zested and juiced
• 2 tablespoons white wine vinegar
• 1/2 cup extra-virgin olive oil
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

Directions

Preheat the broiler. Place the red peppers on a foil lined baking sheet.

Place the red peppers under the boiler. Turning every 2 to 3 minutes cook the peppers until the skin is blistered, about 8 to 9 minutes total. Place the blistered peppers in a plastic bag. Seal the bag and allow the peppers to sit for 10 minutes to allow the skin to separate and to let cool.

Meanwhile, bring a large pot of salted water to a boil over high heat. Add the potatoes and cook until tender, about 10 to 12 minutes. Remove the potatoes to a cutting board. Add the green beans to the pot. Cook the green beans until tender, about 3 minutes. Remove the green beans to a large bowl. Slice the potatoes in half while still warm and combine them with the green beans in the large bowl. Remove the peppers from the plastic bag. Peel off the skin from the peppers. Slice the pepper flesh into wide strips and remove the seeds and veins. Place them in the bowl with the potatoes. Add the scallions, parsley, and garlic

and toss to combine.

In a small bowl combine the oregano, lemon juice and zest, and white wine vinegar. Whisk in the olive oil. Stir in the salt and pepper. Toss the warm vegetables with the herb vinaigrette. Serve immediately

One Ingredient Ice Cream

I stumbled upon this ingenious recipe for low fat ice cream from thekitchn.com. What an absolutely awesome idea. I experimented by adding a little bit of skim milk (more like non-fat lactaid, but who's counting?) while blending, but I think it's better if you kept that out. I made two batches because I had two frozen bananas. I used a blender and on the first try forgot to break or cut the banana into smaller pieces prior to blending. Do it, it helps. Also, freeze the bananas without a skin, works a lot better.

First batch: 1 frozen banana + 1/5c water + 1/3c skim milk + 1/2c assorted frozen berries (blueberries, raspberries, and blackberries) --> really good smoothie. lol, not ice cream like whatsoever, but delicious, nevertheless. Jamba Juice, move over. Not only was this better tasting, it was cheaper, and I knew exactly what was in it, no weird stuff at all.

Second batch: 1 frozen banana + 1/4c skim milk + 1 1/2 tbsp peanut butter --> soft serve banana peanut butter ice cream. Once again, really don't need the milk, and honestly I think adding a tsp or more of honey would really have made a difference. The consistency was really great, not watery like the first batch. It was so thick, it wouldn't pour out, I had to scoop the mixture out with a spoon. I added some almond slices and it was really great, added a whole new dimension to the "ice cream." I will definitely be making this again!

The great thing is you can use this recipe to make all kinds of things, any kind of ice cream concoction you want! Add peanut butter, honey, any kind of nuts, jams, chocolate chips, chocolate shavings, caramel, butterscotch...your imagination is the limit!

4 of 5 stars
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Below taken from here:

That mystery ingredient, of course, is banana! The smidgen of fat in bananas makes a magic trick when they are frozen and blended up. They turn creamy instead of crumbly, with a smooth texture any home ice cream chef would love to have in their frozen treats.

Here's a step-by-step slideshow of how to do it. The major tips can be summed up as:

• Peel your bananas first.
• Cut them into small pieces.
• Freeze for just 1-2 hours on a plate.
• Blend, blend, blend - scraping down the bowl when they stick.
• Enjoy the magic moment when they turn into ice cream!