Puppy Chow-Two Ways!

I can't believe the week is already winding down.  I have had such a nice break.  Between a visit to St. Louis, Passover Seders, a getaway to a spa with my mom, and now a trip to Champaign-Urbana to visit my little brother, it has been an amazing Spring Break.  I am in for a rude awakening when my alarm goes off at 5:55 on Monday!

Need another Passover snack? I know I do!  Guess what? Puppy Chow can be totally Passover friendly! I keep passover by basically going gluten free for the week.  This has not been that much of a challenge and it has been fun to come up with ideas for every meal of the day.

Puppy chow is great because you can use Chex Cereal that comes in many different gluten free flavors! Then, I substituted butter for coconut oil and went a little crazy with some different flavors for my puppy chow.  I hope you enjoy...I did!

Basic Puppy Chow

Ingredients:
4 1/2 cups Chex Cereal
1/2 cup chocolate chips (semi-sweet or milk)
1/4 cup natural, creamy peanut butter
2 tbsp coconut oil
1/2 tsp vanilla
2 cups powdered sugar (about)

Cookie Butter Puppy Chow

Ingredients:
4 1/2 cups Chex Cereal
1/2 cup white chocolate chips
1/4 cup Cookie Butter (from Trader Joe's)
2 tbsp coconut oil
1/2 tsp vanilla
2 cups powdered sugar (about)

Directions (They are the same for both types):
1. Place chex in a large bowl, set aside.
2. Place coconut oil, peanut butter/cookie butter, and chocolate chips in a microwave safe bowl.  Microwave for 1 minute, stirring after 30 seconds.  Stir in vanilla.
3.  Pour mixture over the chex and toss until well coated.  Place chex in a large plastic bag and add about 1/2 cup of powdered sugar.  Shake the bag.  Keep adding powdered sugar and shaking until your puppy chow is well coated in powdered sugar.

Enjoy :)

Simple Greek Yogurt Fruit Dip

Looking for a healthy and gluten free dessert to have during Passover?  Actually, this is perfect for your Easter brunch as well!  This versatile fruit dip is the perfect thing to have on hand for a healthy dessert, great breakfast, or snack during the day! Just mix some honey in with some non-fat plain greek yogurt and serve with fruit! It tastes sweet and delicious and it is perfect healthy!

Today is my Spa Day with my Mom and I felt like this was the perfect sweet treat to talk about.  Plus, it is perfect for Passover when you basically have to be on a gluten free diet.  This is one awesome fruit dip!

Simple Greek Yogurt Fruit Dip

Ingredients:
1 cup non-fat plain greek yogurt (I used Chobani)
2 tbsp honey

Directions:
1. Mix together and serve with fruit! I had tons of strawberries and this was a great dip!

Enjoy :)

Mini Broccoli and Cheese Omelets

I am off on a mini vacation with my mom but I just had to share this lovely little recipe that is perfect for breakfast during Passover!

I made these mini broccoli and cheese omelets at school when I needed to use up some eggs. They are so simple and super yummy! Plus they are healthy and perfect for this week where breads are not allowed! This recipe makes 8 mini omelets.  You can serve them all at your Passover/Easter Brunch or wrap them up and stick them in the fridge for later.  They reheat really well.  I even brought leftovers with me for school lunch!

Mini Broccoli and Cheese Omelets

Ingredients:
8 eggs
1 cup low fat sharp cheddar cheese
2 cups frozen broccoli, cooked and drained
Salt and pepper

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 350 and lightly grease a cupcake pan.
2. In a large bowl, beat eggs until scrambled. Stir in cheese and broccoli. Season with salt and pepper. Divide egg mixture among 8 cupcake wells. Sprinkle with more cheese if you want.
3. Bake in oven for 20 minutes.

Enjoy :)

Farmer's Market Veggie Burgers with Chipotle Avocado Sauce

I have another great Kosher for Passover recipe and it's vegetarian! Bri and I recently went to the Soulard Farmers Market and we got: sweet potatoes, spinach, red peppers, onions, avocados, and a chipotle spice mix.  We then, made some Homemade Sweet Potato Veggie Burgers with a Chipotle Avocado Cream Sauce.  This was some delicious food and to keep the veggie burgers together we used a little quinoa and eggs.  Everything is Gluten Free and everything is healthy! It was an amazing meal and definitely a great option for your vegetarians on Passover!

I am also on Spring Break and so in between Passover Seders and getting some much needed sleep, I'm doing a lot of running, cooking, and applying for jobs.  So relaxing? It's a tad stressful, but I'm glad I have all this time to get some applications complete.  Anyone hiring teachers in the Chicago-land area?  I'm pretty good...and I make a mean veggie burger!

Sweet Potato Veggie Burgers with Avocado Cream Sauce

Ingredients:
For the Burgers:
2 lbs. sweet potatoes, peeled and sliced
2 red peppers, chopped
1 medium sweet onion, chopped
1/2 lb. fresh spinach
4 cloves garlic, minced
3/4 cup white wine
1/2 cup uncooked quinoa
olive oil
salt and pepper
1 tsp chile power
2 eggs, lightly beaten

For the Avocado Sauce:
3 small avocados, peeled and sliced
1 packaged chipotle spice seasoning (about 2 tbsp)
1 cup non-fat greek yogurt (I used Chobani)
1/2 fresh lime juice

Directions:
1. Cook quinoa according to directions and set aside.
2. Place sweet potato slices in a microwave safe bowl and microwave for about 7 minutes or until you can pierce the pieces with a fork.  Smash sweet potatoes with a fork.
3. Heat 1 tbsp of olive oil in a saucepan.  Place in minced garlic and onion.  Sautee until onion starts to become translucent, about 5 minutes.  Add in red pepper and wine.  Let cook until wine mostly evaporates, about 10 minutes.  Add in spinach and stir until wilted.  Season with salt, pepper and chile powder.
4.  Stir the sweet potato with the veggie mixture.  Add in the cooked quinoa and stir to combined. Stir in the eggs until mixture is well combined.
5.  In a non-stick skillet, form veggie burgers and cook for about 4 minutes on each side.  Burgers will be lightly browned and should stay together when flipped.
6. To make the sauce, puree the avocado in a food processor until creamy.  Stir in greek yogurt and spices.  Stir in the lime juice and serve with the burgers.

Enjoy :)

Happy Passover! Flourless Chocolate Cake

Last night my family and I had a lovely Passover Seder.  We had a feast of delicious food and my mom even baked a flourless chocolate cake.  Everything was perfect and it really made me appreciate my family and being able to be together for this special holiday.

Passover celebrates our freedom from slavery in Egypt and I love how the entire ceremony presents objects that represent various things about the story.  If you don't know the story of Passover, just run out and watch the movie, The Prince of Egypt.  First of all, its a great movie, second, it does a great job of telling the story and third, it has awesome music.  I even watched this movie while I was in Hebrew school.

The Seder Plate 

Matzo Ball Soup!

During Passover, for eight days you are not supposed to eat any leavened bread.  So, I think I am going to attempt to be gluten free for the week and try out some gluten free cooking and baking.  We will see how it goes!

The Feast! Grilled Veggies, Boiled Potatoes,
Brisket, and Chicken!

Today I have that great cake my mom made.  It had an amazing chocolate flavor, was rich, moist, and simply amazing.  We topped it off with some powdered sugar and TruWhip (healthy cool whip) and it was perfect!

Flourless Chocolate Cake

Ingredients:
1 lb of chocolate (we used half bittersweet and half semi-sweet)
1 cup hazelnut liqueur
1 cup unsalted butter
1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
7 eggs
1 cup sugar

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 350 and line or lightly grease a 9 inch springform pan.
2. In a medium saucepan, over medium heat, stir the chocolate, liqueur and butter until melted and smooth.  Stir in the vanilla. Remove from heat.
3.  In a large bowl, beat eggs with the sugar on medium-high for 5 minutes or until pale yellow and fluffy.  Slowly pour in the chocolate mixture and beat on medium until just combined.
4. Pour the batter into your prepared pan and bake for 1 hour.  Cake should look crisp on the sides and an inserted toothpick should come out with a few crumbs.  Remove and let cool in pan for 1 hour.  Top with powdered sugar.

Enjoy :)

Spring Break! St. Louis Adventures

It's Spring Break! I am finally off on Spring Break and I couldn't be more ready to relax.  I left for St. Louis on Friday and I have been having an amazing weekend.  Of course, I kept up with my running and this week officially starts the beginning of my 10-Week Half Marathon Training Schedule! I even got in a 7.5 mile run through beautiful Forest Park before St. Louis got hit with a crazy snowstorm! But anyways...

Friday was great because I got to just chill with Bri before heading off to dinner at the Cheesecake Factory with a bunch of his friends.  After, we hit up FroYo for some great dessert.  I know you must think I am crazy for skipping the cheesecake for froyo, but I just can't handle a dessert that rich.  I know I'm lame, but I wanted to do something light and healthy.  Maybe next time I will splurge a little.

On Saturday, after my 7.5 mile run, Bri and I got ready to head out and check out the Soulard Farmers Market.  It was a ton of fun.  We had yummy mini donuts, bought a ton of produce to make dinner and dessert (more on that later) and then found a great place for lunch!

We had lunch at Blues City Deli.  This was great because they had awesome vegetarian options (I got the Cheese Po Boy and it was amazing) and we heard some great live music! After lunch it was off for a few groceries to complete our dinner.  We planned on Homemade Sweet Potato Veggie Burgers with a Spicy Chipotle Avocado Sauce and Zucchini Bread for dessert.

Dinner was a hit.  We had a ton of food leftover for Sunday night dinner and then some! Plus, it was so cheap with all those veggies from the farmers market! After dinner, we got ready to go out and check out a great bar in the area with a bunch of friends.

We went to the Flying Saucer Draught Emporium.  It was right by Busch Stadium and had a crazy huge selection of beer as well as wine and other drinks! I got to try two new ciders and both were great.  Then, of course, I got super tired and we came home.

Sunday turned out to be quite snowy.  I woke up and did a little work out in the apartment, and then Bri and I went to Jilly's Cupcake Bar and Cafe for an amazing brunch! It was $15 dollars a person and it included drinks, an all-you-can-eat buffet and a dessert bar.  Oh my it was awesome.  The food was great (definitely get the scrambled eggs and 6-cheese macaroni) and then dessert was fantastic.  They even had a make-your-own cupcake table.  We left pleasantly stuffed and headed home for a cozy "snowed in" Sunday filled with movies and leftovers.

Now, it's time for me to head home for a nice week off from school! Happy Spring Break!

Foodie Friends Friday: Easter Brunch!

This week, Foodie Friends Friday is back with purses!  This week you can win from our sponsor, Sandi, at Bagsnthings.biz.  Sandi is giving away a purse that is worth $40!!! This is a great giveaway! Just follow the rules and link up your recipes! Also, host favorites will be featured on Daily Dish!  This week I'm linking up Mini Spinach and Feta Frittatas, Peanut Butter and Jelly Cinnamon Rolls, and Carrot Cake Cupcakes with Cinnamon Cream Cheese Frosting!

Top 3:

1. White Chocolate Mint Ice Cream

2. Banana Bread

3. Coconut Rice and Shrimp

Most Clicks:

1. Key Lime Cake Pop Pie

2. Easy as Can Be Coconut Pie

3. Ultimate Brownie Pie

And here was our winner from last week!

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Oreo Pie

Today was exhausting.  I felt like I ran a marathon.  I taught all day, tutored after school, ran 5 miles, met up with Max for dinner at Roast and now I am, finally, sitting down and relaxing for a bit.

School was pretty great.  I set up 7 stations for the students to rotate through.  These stations had context problems to help the students apply new information, a few review problems on old information, and two mini quizzes to formatively assess the students on a variety of information.  One of my students even thanked me for the fun activity.  It was pretty great.  I wouldn't want to do this too much, but this was a nice way to get students up and moving around.  Plus, it allowed me to work with a bunch of students on problems that were more of a struggle.

After tutoring and my run, it was great to see Max for dinner and I had an awesome sandwich.  Now, I am chilling, watching Grey's Anatomy, waiting for a cake to get out of the oven, and getting ready to sleep! Tomorrow is a test day, so I am excited to relax a little and get caught up on some grading.  And then...SPRING BREAK...well, after Friday, but still, I'm so close!

I have yet another pie to share today.  This one was a huge hit and all the kids were asking for the recipe.  Well, here you go! Cookies and Cream Pie.  It's a no-bake pie that requires FOUR ingredients.  Yep, thats all.

Cookies and Cream Pie

Ingredients:
1 oreo pie crust
8 oz cream cheese
2 cups cool whip
1/3 cup sugar
8-10 oreos, crushed

Directions:
1. Beat cream cheese and cool whip until well combined.  Beat in sugar until creamy.  Stir in cookie crumbs.  Pour into pie crust and let chill for at least 2 hours.

Enjoy :)

Chocolate Chip Cookie Pie

Today was such a good day of teaching and I have such a good recipe to share!

Math today was all about inverse trig functions and reciprocal trig functions.  To ensure that every student had a sketch of the graphs of these functions, we did various jigsaw activities.  This was great because students were able to investigate one inverse trig function and one reciprocal trig function in depth.  That is, they worked in new groups to graph these functions without calculators.  They had to analyze domain and range for each and use the original trig function to help them to graph the new functions.  After their in depth analysis, they returned to their original teams and shared their findings while also learning about their team-mates findings.  Every student ended up with a sketch of all six graphs.  This way, they all had the information and the process, but did not need to repeat the process over an over.  This would have been tedious and unsupportive of the learning goals.  Instead, the majority of the time was spent investigating what these functions are, what they represent, and how we can use them.  We learned a ton of information and it was really great to see the students up and moving around.  Plus, we had time for a nice game of Flinch as a small break in the middle of class.  I felt really great about today!

Now, it was Pi Day last week and I brought in FOUR Chocolate Chip Cookie Pies since I was helping host FOUR Pi Day celebrations.  This meant that I needed a recipe that was not complicated and would not take a ton of time to make.  I found the perfect one.  This Cookie Pie, adapted from Nestle Tollhouse, was simply amazing.  I bought pie crust, multiplied the recipe by 4, and put all the pies in at once.  I spent 15 minutes making the filling and then had 60 minutes to plan for school and clean up while the pies baked.  There you go, simple and delicious.

Chocolate Chip Cookie Pie
for one pie

Ingredients:
1 9-inch pie crust
2 eggs
1/2 cup flour
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
3/4 cup unsalted butter, softened
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 tsp cinnamon
2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips (or 2 cups of whatever mix-ins you want)

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 325 and place your unbaked pie crust in a pie pan.
2. Beat eggs until pale yellow.  Beat in both sugars until well combined.  Beat in flour, cinnamon, and vanilla.  Beat in the butter until well combined.  Stir in chocolate chips.
3.  Pour filling into the pie crust and bake for 55-60 minutes.  Pie will be lightly browned.  Let cool for at least 20 minutes.

Enjoy :)

Carrot Cake Cupcakes with Cinnamon Cream Cheese Frosting

With Spring Break right around the corner, I am having a hard time staying focused!  This is actually okay as I have already come up with a plan for every class I teach this week and I am on top of grading! Plus, I am really motivated to keep up with my half marathon training and this is helping me stay on track.  I am super busy, but in a good place!

Also, I have a great recipe to share today! This is perfect for Easter since it features a bunny's favorite food: carrots!  I recently made mini Carrot Cake Cupcakes with Cinnamon Cream Cheese Frosting for my friend, Lauren's, birthday.  This is one of her favorite desserts...I made her a cake last year.  And so I wanted to do something "sweet" for her again this year.  Also, how cool is this? I had these mini cupcake papers that you do not need to put in a cupcake pan! They stand up on their own!

Lauren's birthday was a fun night out complete with dinner and cupcakes for dessert.  Lauren says that they are the best dessert I have ever made...quite the claim! I love my Mom's Carrot Cake recipe, so I made half of that, made cupcakes instead of a whole cake, and then whipped up some amazing frosting.

Carrot Cake Cupcakes with Cinnamon Cream Cheese Frosting

Ingredients: 
1/2 Carrot Cake Batter
8 oz low-fat cream cheese
1/2 cup unsalted butter
2 cups powdered sugar
1/2 tbsp cinnamon

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 350 and prepare cupcake pans.
2. Make carrot cake according to directions and fill cupcake wells about 3/4 full.  Bake for 20 minutes and let cool.
3.  To make the frosting: beat butter and cream cheese until creamy and well combined.  Slowly mix in powdered sugar until light and fluffy.  Mix in cinnamon.  Frost cooled cupcakes!

Note: The frosting is not super thick and is more like a glaze.  For a thicker frosting, add another cup of powdered sugar and 2 tsp milk.

Enjoy :)

Strawberry Champagne Cupcakes

I think I want to start off this week with a great recipe that is all about cupcakes.

But first, I am still training for my half marathon and this week was pretty great.  I was able to get in two 3 mile runs, one 4 mile run and one 5 mile run during the week.  I am also working on a "Six Pack March Madness" where you do push ups and crunches every day to work towards a six pack!  Then, on the weekend, I ran 4 miles one day and did the Shamrock Shuffle 10K the other day! It was a lot of fun to run a race with some of my friends.  Lauren, Patrick and I all did the 10K since we are all training for the half.  I think we are going to do great!  Oh, and Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Today's recipe is a yummy cupcake recipe.  I really like the recipe for champagne cupcakes that I made ages ago.  So I decided to make those again and then, inspired by my strawberry loving friend Tamara, I topped them off with a Strawberry Champagne Buttercream Frosting.  Yes, you read correctly, champagne in the cupcakes and the frosting.  They were delicious.

Champagne Cupcakes with Strawberry Champagne Frosting

Ingredients:
For the Cupcakes:
6 egg whites
5 oz unsalted butter
1 1/2 cups sugar
2 2/3 cups flour
1 tbsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
3/4 cup Champagne
For the Frosting:
8-10 strawberries
1 cup unsalted butter
3 cups powdered sugar
2 tbsp Champagne

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 350 and prepared cupcake pans.
2. Beat egg whites in a medium bowl until stiff peak forms.  Set aside.
3. In a medium bowl, whisk flour, baking powder, and salt together.
4.  In a large bowl, beat butter and sugar until light and fluffy.  Alternate adding in the flour with the champagne.  Start with the flour and end with the flour.  Fold in egg whites.
5.  Fill cupcake wells about 3/4 full and bake for 20-23 minutes.
6.  Make the frosting: beat butter until light and fluffy.  Puree the strawberries in a food processor until you have a liquid mixture.  Beat in strawberries.  Beat in powdered sugar, 1/2 cup at a time until frosting thickens.  Beat in the champagne.  Add more powdered sugar if needed.  Frost cooled cupcakes!

Enjoy :)

Foodie Friends Friday: "Green Foods" for St. Patrick's Day

This week, Foodie Friends Friday is back with Eco Natural Soaps!  This week you can win from our sponsor, Alicia, at Eco Natural Soap.  Alicia is giving away 5 items ($29.95 retail value!).  Winners may select two bars of bath & body soap, one Dry Skin Balm, one Lip Balm, and a Cuticle Relief Balm!  This is a great giveaway! Just follow the rules and link up your green recipes! Also, host favorites will be featured on Daily Dish!  This week I'm linking up Cream of Asparagus Soup, Green Veggie Risotto, and Green Bean Almondine.

Welcome to Foodie Friends Friday!

Please take a moment to read through the rules before getting started, Thank You!

*By linking up you agree that you read these rules and all photos/recipes are original and belong to you. You agree to allow Foodie Friends Friday and any of it's affiliated websites or publications (Social Girls Media, LLC) to use photos, links, and recipes for reprint and/or republishing and distribution without monetary compensation to you. If photos & recipes are used, proper link backs to you will be included.

Adding Links back to Foodie Friends Friday and our Button is our only form of advertising to bring in more people to see YOUR recipes.

Please remember to do this. It benefits you! To thank you, we will continue to feature those with links throughout the year on various outlets.

<div align="center"><a href="http://www.foodiefriendsfridaydailydish.com/" title="Foodie Friends Friday" target="_blank"><img src="http://i1271.photobucket.com/albums/jj628/busyvegetarianmom/FFFDDButtonNEW150Darker_zpse238f637.jpg" alt="Foodie Friends Friday" style="border:none;" /></a></div>

Meet our Co-Hosts at Foodie Friends Friday:

  Now Let's meet our sponsor this week! *Giveaway Disclaimer: Facebook is in no way associated with this website or giveaway and holds no liability for this giveaway. "Liking" facebook pages is optional, not mandatory for entry. Sponsors will be responsible for shipping- if there is a delay or problem with prize, you must communicate directly with sponsor.

Last Foodie Friends Friday was sponsored by Bagsnthings.biz and here were the winners:

And, of course, here were your top 3 voted and clicked recipes!

Most Votes:

1. Milk and Cookies Cupcake

2. Easter Basket Cupcakes

3. Plantain Lasagna

Most Clicks:

1. Chicken Fried Rice

2. Lemon Lemon Cake

3. Sweet Fire Chicken

Enter below and you might be a lucky winner!!

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