Star Pops and other fun

Another busy day (who knew finding cute flats was so hard!) and another opportunity to eat on the fly and forget to beef up the protein.  Ha, I kill myself.  Beef.  Protein.  I’m funny.

1. Kashi Honey Almond Flax with Liberte Greek Vanilla Yogurt and fresh blueberries.

2. Water (x 3 all day) and coffee with almond milk.

3. Celery, rice crackers, Laughing Cow, and hummus.

4. Big leafy salad with tomatoes, cukes, red pepper, avocado and cheddar.  Where’s the beeeeef?  I meant to use tuna. 

5. 1/2 leftover Larabar I had in my purse.

6. Starbucks tall non-fat half sweet vanilla iced coffee.

7. Leftover Thai Green Curry with tofu over brown rice.

8. Pinteresting Pina Colada Popsicle!

What’s harder to find than cute brown flats?  A freaking popsicle mold!  I pinned this Pina Colada Popsicle recipe ages ago but it’s taken me a couple of months to find a popsicle mold.  Every time I checked the obvious places they were sold out.  Thankfully a second trip to a popular local store, Capital Iron, provided me with these cute star shaped molds.

And now I have my very own homemade 100 calorie frozen fruity treats!

Pinteresting Breakfast Cookies

I have made a handful of things I’ve discovered on Pinterest.  Some with fairly great success, some with utter failure.  Such is the way it goes when trusting instructions found randomly on the internet.

So when I came across this easy-sounding breakfast cookie recipe I wasn’t entirely sure how it would go.  I mean, no sugar…no flour…no butter…what kind of cookies were these?!  But since I had all of the ingredients on hand, including exactly three frozen overripe bananas, I decided to give it go.

And they worked!

Instead of just raisins, I reduced the oats a little bit and added coconut and sunflower seeds…just to make the flavours a little more interesting…but I kept the ratios of wet to dry the same.  Going forward it will be easy to mix up the add-ins with whatever I happen to have in the cupboard at the time. 

These are definitely not a sweet cookie.  The sweetness comes only from the bananas so be prepared when you take your first bite.  More like a dense banana oatmeal muffin, minus the 250 grams of fat.

Michael loves them.  He’s stockpiling bananas just to get them overripe so I’ll make another batch. 

Breakfast Cookies (adapted from Wisebread.com)

yields 13 cookies

Ingredients:

• 3 mashed overripe bananas
• 1/3 cup unsweetened apple sauce
• 1/4 cup UVAB (or milk of your choice)
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1 1/2 cups rolled oats
• 1/2 cup unsweetened, shredded coconut
• 1/3 cup raisins
• 2 heaping tablespoons unsalted sunflower seeds
• generous sprinkle of cinnamon
• scant pinch of salt

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Mix all ingredients together until moist throughout.  Scoop into individual cookies on a parchment lined baking sheet.
3. Bake 18-20 minutes until bottoms begin to brown.  Let cool on tray 5 minutes.  Finish cooling on counter or rack.
4. Store in an airtight container or zipper bag in the refrigerator.

According to MyFitnessPal this version comes out to about 145 calories per cookie.

Every Day I’m Truffling

Well, we can all thank Pinterest for this one.  The biggest thing I’ve learned since signing up a month ago is that apparently damn near anything can be turned into a truffle.  Particularly any kind of cookie.

Pinterest definition of truffle:  Ball of yumminess dipped in chocolate. :)

Kind of like a cake pop in that you pulverize the cookies, add icing, roll into balls, dip and decorate.  Good times, good times.

Sugar Cookie Truffles

*yields approximately 24 tasty treats

Ingredients:

• 24-30 sugar cookies, not frosted (homemade or store bought)
• 4 tbsp cream cheese, room temp
• 1 tbsp butter, room temp
• 1 tbsp icing sugar
• wee splash of vanilla
• drizzle of milk for thinning
• 2 cups chocolate of your choice (I made a batch of white chocolate and a batch of semi-sweet chocolate)
• 2 tbsp butter, shortening, or coconut oil
• festive sprinkles (optional)

Directions:

1. Break up your sugar cookies, place in food processor (or good blender) and process until a fine crumb is reached.  If you have any chunks larger than your pinky fingernail, sift those out.  Set crushed cookies aside in mixing bowl.
2. Use the food processor again to mix together cream cheese, butter, icing sugar and vanilla to make a quick, slightly thick butter cream.
3. Start adding the crushed cookies to the frosting in the food processor, pulsing to incorporate.  If the mixture gets too dry add a tiny drizzle of milk.  When the mixture comes together without crumbling apart too much it’s ready.
4. Scoop by the heaping tablespoon into your hand, squeeze and roll into balls.  Place on a baking sheet and let set in the freezer for 15 minutes before dipping.
5. When ready for dipping use a double boiler over medium-low heat (or microwave) to combine chocolate and butter/shortening/coconut oil.  Stir frequently until smooth.
6. Using a skewer, poke each cookie ball and dip into chocolate mixture.  Place back on baking sheet.  Before chocolate completely dries, add sprinkles if using.  When all cookie balls are coated, place in refrigerator or freezer to set.
7. Store in refrigerator or freezer, covered.

*Baker’s notes: This took some trial and error to get the right consistency.  I really had to squeeze them tight when initially rolling into balls.  Also, my food processor isn’t big enough for step 3 so I made the icing in my stand mixer using the paddle attachment and added the cookie crumbs that way.

These took a bit of work, but are such a fun way to present a festive cookie!  They make a super cute gift and if you don’t tell the recipient what’s inside they are a tasty surprise.  :)

What cookies would you turn into truffles?  I’m thinking ginger snaps would be be deeeeelish coated in dark chocolate.  nom.