Ice Cream... semi-fail

I gave myself a fun little experiment last night. Over the break, my mom "surprised" me with the task of cleaning out our entire basement! It wasn't quite so fun... BUT in the cleaning and organizing I found an amazing little appliance! I found a mini ice cream maker!!

I absolutely LOVE this find! I have no idea when we got this, but in my 22 years of being alive, this is the first time I've seen it. I actually tried to google it and its so old, you can only find them on ebay.

I am obsessed with anything in miniature, so I was so excited to try it out! Because of the small size of the chiller, any ice cream recipe would be too much for it to handle, so I had to wing it! The machine can only hold a maximum of 1.5 cups (or so says the instruction manual). But I think its only able to hold 1 cup.

Size comparison - that is a teaspoon!

So, I got out some random ingredients, and developed a chocolate ice cream recipe! The ice cream batter tasted good, but my ice cream chiller was ALOT different than I had expected. I used an electric ice cream maker before and that has a crank that continuous turns as the mixture freezes. I thought that the concept would be the same for my mini hand-crank ice cream maker, but that was not the case!

After continuous stirring the mixture for about 30 minutes with no change in texture, I kind of gave up and just put it in the freezer until the morning. When I finally got around to reading the directions, continuously turning is not what you are supposed to do!

Apparently, you should turn the mixture once or twice every 3 - 4 minutes for proper freezing to happen. And since I was semi-impatient, I may have not refrigerated my ice cream mixture long enough. Nonetheless, the chocolate ice cream turned out pretty well! I'd like to try it again sometime, with the proper technique, but here's my recipe for now!

Print this recipe!


Chocolate Ice Cream

Note: the recipe can be doubled/tripled based on the capacity of your ice cream maker! 

Ingredients

• 1/8 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
• 1 teaspoon butter
• 1/4 cup + 1 tablespoon dark cocoa powder
• 1/4 cup unsweetened almond milk
• 1/4 cup sweetened condensed milk

Directions

• In a microwave safe bowl, melt the chocolate chips and butter in the microwave, stirring every 15 - 20 seconds until fully melted.
• Whisk in cocoa powder. The mixture should look like a smooth, but thick paste.
• Whisk both milks into the chocolate paste, until everything is fully combined and smooth. 
• Chill mixture in refrigerator for at least one hour. Freeze in the method of your choice. 

Banana-licious

Happy Friday the 13th!

Well, my first week back at school is over! It was nice getting back to a regular schedule, but the information overload was a bit much. Nonetheless, I love school (dork alert) and seeing my class again!

But I wanted to share with you my favorite after school/ after dinner treat! I am a sucker for ice cream, but I get a little ashamed of myself when I have a half gallon of the stuff in my freezer, and within the week it is gone! That was me not putting my nutrition education to good use.

Lately when a want something cold and creamy, I've been making some delectable Banana "Fro yo"

Now, don't be fooled by the name, because there is absolutely no yogurt or dairy in it! There's actually only one ingredient... Bananas! (surprise!) I just call it "fro yo" because the bananas have that creamy soft serve texture you find in fro yo.

This dessert literally takes about 1 minute to make, and almost the same amount of time to enjoy! Super simple and a great alternative to a high fat ice cream. So go make some and get your daily dose of potassium in a quick, vegan friendly way!!

Step 1: Freeze Bananas

Step 2: Put Bananas in Food Processor

Step 3: Pulse, pulse, pulse until the banana beings to chop up and get creamy. Warning: do not turn your food processor on and walk away. Bad things may happen and your food processor might blow up, so just don't walk away!

Half way through chopping, the bananas will look like the above picture. But you're not done! Keep pulsing away!

It's magic! The bananas are now nice and creamy like fro yo!

Step 5: Devour

Garnish with your favorite accompaniments!

What are your favorite mid day snacks or treats? Do you have any recipes that need a healthy makeover? I'd love to hear your thoughts!

Hot and Crusty Carbs

I love Indian food, and one of my favorite parts of any meal is the bread! (Nice and delicious carbs.)  And I LOVE my naan, especially the garlic-y stuff! But most Indian restaurants usually don't have a whole wheat naan option. I've seen whole wheat naan in the grocery store, but it just never lives up to the bread they usually serve you at the authentic places.

So, as I was making my Indian food last night from the best cookbook ever, and I decided I want to try to make my own whole wheat naan recipe. I try to eat whole wheat whenever possible, so I was excited to see how my recipe would turn out! I adapted the naan recipe in my cookbook to make it a (mostly) whole wheat version.

The result: well worth the effort! It was nice and golden brown with the right amount of texture. If you are ever brave enough to make your own Indian food, I highly recommend it!

Print this recipe!

Whole Wheat Naan
Ingredients

• 1/2 cup stone ground whole wheat flour
• 1/2 cup unbleached bread flour
• 1/4 t salt
• 1/2 heaping tablespoon instant yeast aka: highly active yeast
• 2 tablespoons lukewarm unsweetened almond milk
• 1/8 teaspoon sugar
• 1/2 tablespoon canola oil
• 1 tablespoon plain, non fat greek yogurt
• 1/2 tablespoon ground flaxseed
• 3.5 - 5.5 tablespoons water, divided
• Butter and garlic (optional)

Directions

Sift or whisk together the flour and salt in a medium bowl. Set aside.

In a small bowl, combine the yeast, warm milk, and sugar. (If you are using cow's milk, omit the sugar.) Set aside this bowl for 15 minutes. After that amount of time, the yeast should have at least tripled in size. Like this:

The yeast grew!!

Combine the flaxseed with 1.5 tablespoons of water in a small bowl. Stir mixture to remove any lumps. Once yeast has risen, combine the yeast mixture, oil, yogurt, and flaxseed mixture, and 1 tablespoon of water with the flour. Combine together with you hands. If the dough is too dry, add water 1 tablespoon at a time, until a soft dough has formed. 

Turn out dough onto a lightly floured surface and knead on the counter for 10 minutes, or until the dough is smooth. If dough gets too sticky, knead in more flour. Ideally, the dough should be soft and tacky, but not sticky.

Dough before kneading

Dough after kneading

After kneading, shape the dough into a round ball and set it in a lightly oiled bowl covered with plastic wrap. Set aside for 1 - 1.5 hrs or until dough has doubled in size.

Pre-rest

Post-rest... It's doubled!

Turn out dough back onto a floured surface and briefly knead for about 2 minutes. Divide dough into 3 equal pieces and flatten out into oblong, or naan shaped pieces. Like so:

Naan Dough

Preheat the boiler to its highest setting and place a baking sheet covered with foil in the oven to preheat. Once preheated, place the dough on the baking sheet and bake for 3 - 4 minutes, until browned and slightly puffed.

Brush with a little butter and/or finely chopped garlic while hot, and enjoy!

Yummy!

Best Indian Cookbook.... EVER

Chicken Tikka Masala

That is what I made tonight for dinner.

I have made this before with the same recipe and it never fails to disappoint. And it is comparable in delicious-ness to any Indian restaurant.

What is the recipe you may ask? Well, I can't give it away, but I can tell you where to find it!

The Best Ever Indian Cookbook. They name speak for itself, so don't underestimate it.

I was gifted this book by a family friend, who comes from a very traditional Indian family. He was raised in India and has never tasted a piece of meat. When he gave me this book, I was excited to try out the recipes.

The best thing about the cookbook? The PICTURES!! I'm very picky about my cookbooks because I like a lot of pictures. I just want to know what the dish looks like before I make it! Is that so much to ask? This book is amazing, because there are literally pictures for EVERYTHING. Every dish, every meal, and most ingredients! There are even step-by-step pictures in the recipe that breaks down how to do everything. Very helpful if you are not familiar with Indian cooking.

The book also has a nice glossary and in the beginning, it has a multitude of pages explaining the unique spices of Indian cuisine. There is also some pages on making the sauce bases that you will need for many of the recipes in the book.

Overall, I wish all cookbooks used this template. So many pictures and lots of step-by-step instructions, it truly is the Best Ever Indian Cookbook.

On my plate tonight? Chicken tikka masala with whole wheat naan bread. yummmmmmmmy.

Go get this book now! But you can't find the whole wheat naan recipe in the book. Check back tomorrow for that!

Sticky Weekend Breakfast

ok, so I know I went on and on yesterday about healthy food, but I really want to share a seemingly complicated, but really simple technique with you. (I promise I'll get back to healthy food ASAP!)

Yes! It's cinnamon rolls!! And making your own is WAY healthier than buying one from a bakery or cinnabon - even if they do smell delicious! I recipe I used was from my favorite, Alton Brown. And this recipe is really nice, because you make the cinnamon rolls the night before, let them sit in the refrigerator over night, and then in the morning you bake and enjoy! These make your kitchen smell DELICIOUS too!

So, go get your recipe, ingredients, and I'll show you step-by-step what to do! It might look scary, but I promise, its super simple!

First step, start by whipping your eggs, sugar, butter, and buttermilk in your favorite stand mixer using the whisk attachment. Once it's evenly combined, add your flour, salt, and yeast. Mix very briefly with the whisk attachment, and then to the dough hook on your stand mixer.

The dough hook looks like this:

Once your dough hook is in, mix the dough for 5 minutes on low speed. After 5 minutes, the dough should be clearing the sides and bottom of the bowl. If the dough looks a little sticky, add a bit more flour. Once your dough is soft, but not too sticky, knead it my hand on your counter for a minute. After that, it should look like this:

Lightly oil the dough, and place it in a bowl to proof. (As shown above). Cover with plastic wrap, and let the dough sit in a corner for a few hours until its doubled in size. Like this:

Next comes the fun part! Take your dough on a lightly floured surface, and pound it down with your knuckles. The idea is to get as many of the air bubbles out of the dough as possible. (The "air" is actually the CO2 that the yeast produced!)

 Oh, and make sure you have your filling combined. Mix the melted butter, brown sugar, and cinnamon together until it looks crumbly and delicious, similar to this:

Now roll out your dough into a rectangle-ish shape (it doesn't have to be perfect). And keep your filling at the ready! PS: The filling is WAY better than anything you would get elsewhere. Only 1.5 tablespoons of butter for 12 cinnamon rolls?!?! I'll take that any-day!

Now, is your dough rolled out?

Good! Now brush the dough with melted butter. I used a mere 1 Tablespoon over the entire sheet!

Next, take your delicious cinnamon sugar mixture and evenly spread it out over the dough, so it looks like this:

Now, start rolling your giant piece a dough into a log. Roll the dough starting from the long side away from you, like this:

Once in a nice long log, cut the dough into even quarters like this: (and trim up the edges that don't have any sugar in them)

Now, cut each "mini log" evenly into thirds, so they look like cinnamon rolls! Once they are all cut, spread them evenly out onto your baking dish.

They look sooo good already and you can't even eat them! Now, cover this pan in plastic and place in the refrigerator overnight. In the morning, cook cinnamon rolls according to the recipe instructions, and voila! 

You have warm, homemade cinnamon rolls! Ice and devour!

First Post of the New Year!

I have been a bad blogger....

I have NOT blogged in over a week!! And I didn't even wish everyone HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

New Year's Eve Dinner!

New Year's Resolution: Blog a minimum of 5x per week! 

I never wanted to start this blog to soon after forget about it and never let it see the light of day again. So, my new year's pledge to all my readers is that I WILL blog! And my goal of 5x per week is very realistic I believe! That allows me a weekend off if I choose, or a night off of blogging in case I have a super hectic week/ big tests coming up. But I will never forget you!


I also wanted to take a moment to address my blog's theme. Now as I had said before, this will be a food blog highlighting my passion for food! But I also want to address that this blog will also emphasize a healthy lifestyle. For me, good health starts with good nutrition. But eating healthy, and what some people may call "bland food"  is not what I'm talking about! A well rounded diet can be fun and delicious! I'm not getting my RD/ Masters in Nutrition for nothing!

Example:

Eggplant Stuffed Poblano Pepper

And no way am I forgetting working out! Exercise is another component of a healthy lifestyle that is super important to me. So every so often, I will talk about fun ways to exercise!

Workout with friends! It's fun!

Basically my main points are, this blog will be primarily a food blog incorporating aspects of a healthy lifestyle!

I would love to get feedback from you all as well! If there is anything food related that you are interested in or have ideas for me to blog about, let me know! Leave a comment, or email me at eatssweetstreats@gmail.com

I'll get back to you ASAP! Happy, Healthy Eating!