Sweets

Peppermint Almond Steamer with a Chocolate Twist

2 · Nov 5, 2014 ·

+ This Peppermint Almond Steamer post brought to you by Silk® Almond Milk +

I LOVE it when the weather turns chilly… I can’t say that I’m totally in love with deep winter, but I sure love the turning of the seasons. I especially love the warm drink season for sure!

There is really nothing better then curly up with your sweetie by the fire sharing a mug of some kind of warm treat. A few weeks ago I shared a new warm treat that I discovered and fell head-over-heels in love with…

An Almond Pumpkin Steamer made with Silk® Light Vanilla Almond Milk!

Oh my stars… If you haven’t tried this yet, you NEED to. Run and grab some pumpkin syrup before it’s gone for the season.

Now that we are transitioning from pumpkin season and moving into the peppermint season, I thought I would try a peppermint version of my Silk® Almond Steamer. It’s quite simply… Divine!

I love using Silk® products for my warm drinks. First off, they warm up especially well and you can feel good about indulging in a special treat when you are harnessing the power of plant protein. At 60 calories per serving, Silk® Light Vanilla Almond Milk is happiness in a glass. You heard right—that’s 1/3 fewer calories than our regular almond milk and still 50% more calcium than dairy milk. With a hint of vanilla and plenty of nutty goodness, our almond milk just got even easier to love especially when you pair it with the flavors of the season.

For those of you with dairy issues… Here is a special treat that you CAN have! I’m sure it becomes quite frustrating when everyone is snuggling with cups of hot chocolate. Here is a dairy-free option just for you!

For those of you who would like to up the ante a bit… You can add a little twist of chocolate to your steamer! This will make it so that it’s not dairy-free anymore, but if you like a smidge of chocolate in your steamer, this is the way to go.

I created some chocolate stirring spoons to serve with your steamers…

+ wood bead trivet by the little red cabin +

Won’t these be super cute to serve at a steamer bar?!

I added some holiday embellishments that I found at Target in the gift wrapping section on top of the wood spoons along with some Washi tape. Those are the extra special touches that take your simple treat and elevate it to something EXTRA special!

Chocolate Spoon Directions

Just make up a few of these chocolate spoons by melting some chocolate chips and dipping your spoon in the melted chocolate. On a baking sheet lined with wax paper, place your chocolate dipped spoons and then place the tray in your freezer for 10 minutes, so the chocolate will harden. Then place the spoons in a bowl for your guests.

Then all they have to do is swirl their spoons in their warm Peppermint Steamer to give it a touch of chocolate!

Peppermint Almond Steamer Recipe

2 cups Silk® Light Vanilla Almond Milk

1/4 teaspoon Watkins Peppermint Extract

Warm the almond milk slowly in a small sauce pan over medium heat. Remove from the heat as soon as you see steam, after about 3-4 minutes. Make sure you don’t over heat. Add the peppermint extract and serve immediately.

Garnish with crushed candy canes and serve with chocolate spoons.

For more ideas on how to use the family of Silk® products this Holiday season, visit the Silk® Facebook page and sign-up for the Silk® Club for all kinds of ideas and special offers!

This conversation is sponsored by Silk. The opinions and text are all mine.

Chocolate Berry Pudding Surprise

1 · Oct 28, 2014 ·

+ Chocolate Berry Pudding Surprise +

Who doesn’t love to be surprised?

I ADORE a good surprise!!

This last weekend, I was hanging out with some of my favorite people…

This is my friend Sara Nitta and her sweet family. You may recognize her from The Biggest Loser season 11.

Isn’t she a cutie!! We were sitting around chatting the other day, talking about my blog work and stuff. I told her that I had a fun post coming up with Tofu…

Yes, tofu!

I already had a game plan in play and I was ready to share about my tofu adventure. To be quite frank… I really like tofu. I have never shied away from a dish because it had tofu in it.

I love having a plant based protein in my diet. I love that it can take on whatever flavor profile that you want. Did you know that? Tofu doesn’t have a flavor of it’s own. It’s a blank canvas. It takes on whatever flavor you give it.

Worried about the texture… Don’t!

You can get Mori-Nu Tofu in several different textures. If you like a firm tofu that you can season and pan sauteé, you’ll want to go with an extra firm tofu. You like a lighter, creamier feel? Then I would go with a Silken Soft Tofu. The softer tofu is perfect to add to smoothies, dips and sauces. You can even get a lite Tofu with lower calories and fat, but still packed with protein!

What makes Mori-Nu Tofu from Morinaga special, is it’s innovative packaging. With their special box system, you can keep your Mori-Nu Tofu right in your pantry for up to a year. It’s shelf stable and perfect to keep on hand for all kinds of recipes. Not only is is shelf stable, it’s verified Non-GMO, Kosher, Gluten-Free and doesn’t have any preservatives.

Now, when I told Sara about my Tofu recipe, she immediately said… You should create a dessert!

WHAT!

A dessert? For real?

I had a great savory recipe all ready to go, but this intrigued me. Sara had just returned from a week at Fitness Ridge and she told me about these parfaits that they served for dessert at the resort. She loved them! When she asked what the secret was to this creamy dessert… They told her, the secret was the tofu!

YEA, for real!!

She challenged me to come up with my very own parfait…

This is how I came up with my Chocolate Berry Surprise!

This is such a simple dessert to make… AND, it’s packed with protein so it’s not just empty calories. The funny thing, you would NEVER know that it had tofu in it!

First thing I did was throw my Mori-Nu Tofu into my mixer and mixed it up well. Then I a large Jell-o Chocolate Instant Pudding Mix and then continued to whisk on high speed. The mixture then turned into something that looked like brownie mix. Then I slowly added 1 1/2 cups of cold milk. You could even use Almond or Soy milk if you like to keep it dairy-free. Place the pudding mix into the refrigerator to chill.

Then all you have to do is layer your pudding with berries, granola and Cool Whip for a fun parfait!

Now, thanks to Sara, you have a tasty dessert that is packed full of protein and you can feel GREAT about indulging a bit!

Ready to add a little Tofu into your life?! You can check out all kinds of recipes and ideas at Mori-Nu’s Facebook, Pinterest and Twitter feed.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

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

The Classic Jif Peanut Butter Cookies Giveaway

3 · Oct 20, 2014 · 6 Comments

+ This Classic Jif Peanut Butter Cookies Giveaway sponsored by Jif® Peanut Butter +

As much as I love old recipes dolled-up with fun new ingredients, I am a huge fan of the classics. Sometimes you don’t need to mess with a good thing. I have fond memories of my Mom baking peanut butter cookies when I was a kid. Everyone tends to lean towards the classic chocolate chip recipe when it comes to cookie baking, my Mom sure did. When she broke out of the norm and baked peanut butter cookies I thought I was something pretty special. Don’t get me wrong… I love a good chocolate chip cookie, but there was just something extra special about baking those peanut butter cookies with my Mom. I would push a chair up to the counter and my job was to press the cookies with the fork. I thought had made it to the big times then…

I would dip the fork into a bowl of sugar and then gently pressing the cookie with the fork creating that classic peanut butter cookies hash tag!

Ahhhhh, sweet memories! Have you baked peanut butter cookies with your kiddos lately?

Here’s a link to the perfect Peanut Butter Cookie recipe from Jif®

What an even bigger excuse to make some scrumptious Peanut Butter Cookies? How about a fun GIVEAWAY from the folks at Jif®!

Jif® Peanut Butter Cookie Prize Pack Giveaway

Here’s what you may win from Jif®, this is a $80 Value…

Jif® Creamy Peanut Butter
Crisco® Baking Sticks All-Vegetable Shortening Pillsbury BEST® All Purpose Flour
Jif® apron
Customized J i f® cookie j a r
J i f® branded fork for cookie imprint

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Brownie Ghosts

2 · Oct 12, 2014 · 9 Comments

+ This spooky Brownie Ghosts are brought to you by Pillsbury Baking +

I love the whimsey that this time of year brings. There is just something special about Halloween and all of the cool little treats you can make for your little ghouls and goblins. This super cute treat is so easy to make, you can even do it with your kiddos.

All you need is a box of Pillsbury Brownie mix, some Cool Whip topping and some of the super cute candy eyes.

Mix-up your brownie mix according to package directions and then bake in cupcake liners rather than your typical brownie pan. Reduce your baking time a bit to account for the smaller size. I baked mine for about 30 minutes. Remove from the oven and let cool completely.

Next, fill a pastry bag that is fitted with a jumbo round tip with Cool Whip. (I order all my baking supplies from Sweet Baking Supply, love that shop!) Then I pipe the ghosts on top of the brownies. They don’t have to be perfect. Ghost come in all shapes and sizes, don’t ya know.

Then I place the candy eyes on my cute ghosts.

Isn’t it so cool how you can whip something up so easy with your kiddos and feel like a ROCKSTAR! No advanced skills needed here, just a little box of Pillsbury and a little spooky love!

For more fun baking ideas, visit the Pillsbury Baking site or their Facebook, Pinterest & Instagram feeds. Each of these sites are packed full of ideas that can turn your ho-hum cake mix into something aaaamazing!

Disclaimer // This post is sponsored by Pillsbury Baking. All thoughts, ideas and opinions are my very own. However, I want you all to know that I will never promote a product or company that I do not love and use in my normal day to day life.