Oh my goodness… I’ve been so bad about planning and preparing meals this summer. I swear 5 o’clock just pops up out of nowhere and suddenly I find myself in the kitchen scrounging around like a mad woman trying to find something that I can throw together in 20 minutes and call a meal. As a result, there’s been a whole lot of quinoa salad and other one bowl dinners happening around here this summer…
Tag Archives: recipe
Wholewheat Sugarless Apple Strudel {a bake off}
There is no doubt that Miss G and I miss our Canadian mama and munchkin friends terribly despite being very happy here in the desert. Two of those pairs include Tairalyn of Little Miss Mama and her little lady, Sofia Marie, and Hillary of Hillary with two Ls (please) and her petit monsieur, Grady. Gracen sees both of her little friends via Instagram photos and videos, and I stalk both mamas via all of their social media outlets to make sure I don’t miss out on a single thing. Last month, when Tairalyn posted about a naughty recipe full of white flour, butter, Velveeta, and cream cheese, a crazy fun idea came together. You see, the three of us mamas all love to cook and bake. The only difference is that our approaches vary quite widely. Hillary loves to play with ingredients and try to find healthy(ish) alternatives to traditional ingredients, but despite her daily green juices and veggie-packed dinners, she’s a butter lover at heart. Tairalyn, on the other hand, unapologetically cooks up indulgent recipes in their full sugary, buttery glory, and spares nothing when it comes to taste.
…And then there’s me. Yes, lame-o ‘I bet I could make that sugar-free and wholewheat and butter-less, and, and, and…’ me. I once attempted to make a banana healthier. Enough said.
Healthier Mini Mason Jar {Birthday} Cheesecakes
Yesterday, when I told Gracen that we’d be celebrating Papa’s birthday soon, the first thing she said was, “We need to make a cake!” Then she went on about painting him party hats and getting 3 pink gifts, but I digress. Originally, I was thinking about doing two cakes. Something delicious and wildly unhealthy from Pioneer Woman for Brad, and something wholesome, wholewheat, and sugar/butter-free for Miss G to enjoy. Buuuuut, when I thought about doing a cheesecake for Brad (one of his favourites), I realized that I could probably do a modified version that would suit everyone’s needs since cheesecake is mostly just cream cheese. My main obstacle was coming up with a yummy crust without using the usual graham wafer/sugar/butter combo, but I played around a little bit and I’m happy to report and it turned out really well.
As for the cheesecake itself, I wasn’t sure about it at first. It tasted good fresh out of the oven, but it was light and bubbly instead of thick and dense the way proper cheesecake is supposed to be. In the words of my husband, it tasted “healthyish”. I had come to terms with the fact that I’d have to do some recipe revamping in the future, until we tasted it again tonight. After sitting in the refrigerator overnight, it had densed up significantly and was actually really good! Good enough to make again, that’s for sure.
Here’s the lineup of ingredients my little sous chef and I used to make our mini mason jar cheesecakes… Sour cream, cream cheese, lemon zest, pure maple syrup, pure vanilla, almonds, an egg, and coconut. Plus the mini mason jars themselves, of course. 5 of these little jelly jars works perfectly with this recipe.
To make our crust, we added some coconut, some raw almonds, a little bit of pure maple syrup, and a little bit of pure vanilla into our food processor and blended until it was thick and sticky.
Then we scooped the crust mixture evenly into our 5 jars, and Miss G used a cork to flatten them out.
This was the end result.
With our crusts ready to go, we switched our focus over to the actual cheesecake part. First, we added our room temperature cream cheese and egg into our mixer and beat until smooth.
Next we added our sour cream, pure maple syrup, pure vanilla, and lemon zest, and mixed again.
Baking is ridiculously fun, wouldn’t you agree?
With our cheesecake filling prepared, we poured the mixture evenly into our 5 mason jars.
Then we placed them into a high-walled baking dish, filled it halfway up the jars with hot water, and baked the entire thing.
When they’d finished baking, I topped the ones for Gracen and I with stewed blueberries…
And the birthday boy’s with deliciously naughty Nutella. Of course the options are endless really… Fresh berries, shredded coconut, sliced bananas, or mini dark chocolate chips would all make yummy toppings too.
The biggest perks to these little desserts is that they already come in a storage container, they’re super easy to hand out at parties, and they tuck easily into picnic baskets and backpacks for a treat on the go.
Healthier Mini Mason Jar Cheesecakes
{adapted from this recipe}
- 5 4 oz. mason jars
- 1/3 cup of raw almonds
- 1/4 cup of unsweetened coconut
- 1 tablespoon of pure maple syrup
- 1 teaspoon of vanilla
- 250 grams of cream cheese, at room temperature
- 1 egg, at room temperature
- 1/4 cup of sour cream, at room temperature
- 1/2 teaspoon of vanilla
- zest of 1/2 a lemon
- 2.5 tablespoons of pure maple syrup
Blend almonds, coconut, maple syrup, and vanilla in a food processor until thick and paste-like. Divide the mixture equally into 5 mini mason jars and use a cork to create a flat, even crust.
In a mixer, combine the cream cheese and egg until smooth. Add in the sour cream, vanilla, lemon zest, and pure maple syrup and mix again.
Pour the cream cheese mixture evenly into the 5 mason jars. Place the jars in a high-walled baking dish, fill it with water until halfway up the jars, and bake for 30 minutes at 325 degrees.
Allow to cool on the counter. Top with toppings of your choice before or after refrigerating overnight.
Enjoy!
♥
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{1 ingredient} Cheese Crisps
These little cheese crisps are Gracens ULTIMATE favourite snack. We don’t make them that often, but when we do, they have to be kept in a high cupboard hidden from both Grae and Bradley if they have any chance of surviving more than a day or two. They’re the kind of snack you pull out when your little one’s getting his or her hair cut, or when you’re attempting to complete a 10 kilometre seawall walk with your munchkin strapped into a stroller for an hour and a half. The bonus is that they’re ridiculously easy to make and take all of 3 minutes from start to finish.
All you need is some cheese (we normally use an all-natural cheddar and today we also tried some jalapeño havarti) sliced and cut into squares {the thickness doesn’t really matter – both thin and thick work perfectly} and a griddle or a frying pan and a stove top.
We start with the griddle unplugged and off so that Miss G can help out like a little sous chef should. Place the cheese squares on the griddle leaving plenty of space in between each (we placed ours too closely together today and ended up with a couple of GIANT cheese crisps).
Once your cheese is on the griddle, plug it in and crank it up to 300 degrees {when we use the stove, we just start with a hot frying pan over medium heat}.
Watch closely as the griddle begins to warm up and work its magic.
Give it a few minutes so that all of the cheese is fully melted and bubbly. Here’s the key… For the first bit, the cheese will look melty and very oily (yes, gross). But suddenly, the oil will seem to disappear and the cheese will look slightly browned, crunchy, and ‘dry’. Dry is the key. At this point, you want to use a spatula or flipper to remove the rounds from the griddle. Place them on a couple of paper towels to cool and use another paper towel to gently blot any extra oil from the tops of the crisps (I despise using paper towel because it’s not at all environmentally friendly, but I have tried using a cloth towel, and it just doesn’t seem to do the job quite as well).
When they’re done, your cheese crisps should look something like this.
Give a couple to your toddler and watch her gobble them up like you haven’t fed her in a week. Quickly hide the rest and hope they last longer than a day.
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