Saturday, August 13, 2011

Ice Cream Cake!


Ready for the easiest but tastiest ice cream dessert ever? I've made this a handful of times and it always gets rave reviews. My mom found it somewhere and I was skeptical but I love it!

Ingredients
2 boxes ice cream sandwiches
2 reg. sized tubs of cool whip
choc. syrup caramel syrup

in a 9x13 pan open and lay out 1 box of ice cream sandwiches. I cut up 1 to fit the sides. Then put 1 tub of cool whip on top, spreading around. You don't have to use the whole tub if you don't want to. Drizzle choc on top of cool whip (or caramel, or both, whatever)

Lay second box of ice cream sandwiches on top of cool whip. Smooth cool whip on top and then top with caramel and choc. You can also add crushed candy bar (any flavor) on top. Put in fridge and serve frozen. YUM!

Wednesday, August 10, 2011

No bake energy bites (there must be a better name?!)


Energy Bites

makes approximately 2 dozen depending on size NOTE-This is the recipe copied from the website. I'll put my changes in blue. LOVED these!

  • 1/2 C nut butter(almond butter, peanut butter, sunflower seed butter or any other nut or seed butter. Anything will work here) I used natural PB once, and regular once. Both were great.
  • 1/3 C honey(I believe brown rice syrup would also work. I’m not sure of thinner sweeteners such as maple syrup and agave though as they may not hold together as well) used honey
  • 1 C old fashioned rolled oats(you can toast for a nuttier flavor at 350 degrees for about 10 minutes)
  • 1 C shredded unsweetened coconut(you can substitute any dry ingredients for this, wheat bran or germ, oat bran, some ground flax seed(I wouldn’t recommending using an entire cup!), any kind of ground nuts or seeds. For a cookie dough type bite try adding a few tablespoon of your favorite whole grain flour) used 1/2 cup coconut (we only have sweetened, but oh well) and 1/4 cup ground flax seed, and 1/4 cup wheat germ
  • 1-2 tsp vanilla
  • pinch of sea salt if using a natural nut butter with no added salt
  • 1-2 tsp your favorite spices or spice combinations(optional) cinnamon
  • 1/2 C other addins(any kind of whole or roughly chopped nuts or seeds, dried fruit, good quality chocolate chips, etc) choc. chips (mini, or I also chopped a few dove dark choc. pieces) and poppy seeds. :)

In a large bowl add the nut butter, honey or other sweetener, vanilla and salt if needed. Use less vanilla if yours is very strong or more if you really enjoy the vanilla flavor and don’t buy an alcohol based kind. If all your ingredients are room temperature you should be able to stir to combine. If this is difficult you can warm in the microwave for a few seconds or even place the bowl in an inch or two hot water for a few minutes to soften everything. Once this is combined add the remaining ingredients.

In this case I used almond butter and for my addins I used equal parts sesame seeds, poppy seeds and mini chocolate chips. Mix well. Once it’s all combined place in the fridge for about 30 minutes. Then remove from the fridge, scoop out some dough and roll into a ball. I find it’s much easier, and works better to squeeze the handful together to compact it and then roll it into a ball.

If yours are too sticky you can considering adding more dry ingredients into them or rolling them in something like ground nuts, coconut, etc so they aren’t as sticky. Place the balls in an airtight container either in the fridge or freezer for quick and easy snacks.