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Skinny Spinach Meatballs

March 7, 2012 by 1 Comment

Spinach is one of those things that I hated when I was younger, but I kind of love it now. Although it has to be fresh spinach (not frozen), and it has to actually be IN something. I can’t just eat it by itself. It has to be in Lasagna, stuffed inside of chicken, or in a meatball! I love a good meatball, but not all meatballs are waist-friendly. I’m trying to eat less processed foods, and I’m also trying to watch  my fat intake.  I came across a recipe for Skinny Spinach Meatballs from Skinnytaste. I’ve made a few recipes from that site before, so I knew this would probably be a good one. As usual I made a few changes which are show below. If you’re looking for a flavorful meatball, this is the one for you!

[Adapted from this Skinnytaste recipe]

INGREDIENTS

  • 1 lb 93% lean ground turkey
  • 2 tablespoons olive oil; divided
  • 1 bag of Fresh Baby Spinach
  • 2 slices whole wheat Weight Watchers bread (or any lite bread)
  • 1 large egg
  • 2 clove garlic, minced
  • 1/2 tablespoon of dried parsley or 2 tablespoons fresh parsley
  • 1/2 cup Pecorino Romano cheese
  • salt and pepper
  • 2 jars of your favorite sauce
  • 1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
  • 1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
  • freshly cracked pepper

 INSTRUCTIONS

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.

Chop up your baby spinach into smaller pieces; set aside. Heat 1 tablespoon of olive oil in a large frying pan. Add in 1 minced garlic clove and don’t let it burn. Add in your spinach and toss around with tongs until it’s completely wilted and cooked down. Put the spinach and garlic in a bowl and set aside.

Wet bread with water then mash up with your hands. Add to large bowl and combine with ground turkey, spinach, egg, garlic, parsley, grated cheese, salt and pepper.

Mix all ingredients well until thoroughly combined. I used a medium cookie scoop to get the right amount of meat for each ball.  Roll into little meatballs and set them on a plate.

Meanwhile, in a large nonstick skillet, add 1 tablespoon of olive oil on low heat. When oil is hot add half of the meatballs (if your pan will allow) and  cook on low. Make sure you flip them so they brown on all sides. Once all sides are browned, remove them from the pan and place on a foil lined baking sheet.  Repeat with the other half of the meatballs.

Place the baking sheet full of meatball into the oven for about 10 – 15 minutes. This will assure that they’ve cooked all the way through. It also gives you enough time to get your sauce ready.  Pour your 2 jars of sauce in a large saucepan over low heat. Add in your balsamic vinegar, oregano and freshly cracked pepper.

Once they are done, drop meatballs into the sauce and let them sit in the sauce for about 15 minutes or so.

Serve with your favorite pasta, or you can even eat them on a long roll!

Filed Under: Healthy, Italian, Recipes · Tagged With: , , , , , , , , ,

Country Club Chicken

February 29, 2012 by 1 Comment

Whenever I see a recipe that involves bacon, I immediately know that I need to make it. Bacon is one of my favorite foods. I don’t think I’ve ever come across something with bacon in it (aside from a Bacon Martini) that I didn’t like. So when I came across Country Club Chicken I immediately put it on our menu. It has chicken, bacon, cheese, and it’s creamy. What’s not to like?

[adapted from the original recipe located here]

INGREDIENTS

  • spaghetti or another kind of pasta
  • boneless skinless chicken breasts (I used 5)
  • salt & pepper
  • 1 large onion
  • 1 garlic clove, minced
  • 1 package mushrooms (about 10 medium)
  • 1 can cream of mushroom soup
  • 2 tablespoons sour cream
  • 4 or 5 slices bacon
  • 1/4 cup dry white wine
  • 1 cup sharp cheddar
  • 1 apple (I used a gala apple)

INSTRUCTIONS

Preheat the oven to 400 F.

Cook the bacon in your favorite cast iron skillet. After the bacon is done cooking, don’t clean out the pan. Drain the bacon on a paper towel and set aside.

Season the chicken breasts with a generous amount of salt and pepper. Brown the chicken on both sides in the cast iron skillet. You may or may not have to take out some of the bacon grease. It all depends on what kind of bacon you used (Center Cut?) and how much grease accumulated in there.

Transfer them to a plate and set aside.

 Cook the onion for about 4-5 minutes. Add in the mushrooms and the garlic. After about 4 minutes or so add in your minced apple and cook it for another 4-5 minutes.

Season everything with some salt & pepper, if desired. Pour in the white wine and make sure all of the flavorful bits come off the bottom of the pan.  Add in the cream of mushroom soup and the sour cream. Add in all but ¼ cup of the cheese. Mix it altogether and let it cook for a few minutes.

While that’s cooking, place the chicken in a casserole dish. Crumble up the bacon and place some bacon on top of each piece of chicken. I did it this way so that everyone was sure to get some bacon!

After the soup mixture cooks for a few minutes, pour it over the chicken.

Put the casserole dish in your preheated oven for about 30 minutes. While the casserole is in the oven you can cook the spaghetti according to the directions on the package.

 
Serve!

I have to say this was pretty delicious! It was packed full of flavor and I loved the creaminess of it. The apple gave it some sweetness and it really added to the dish. I loved the apple in it so much that the next time I may add in some more.

I know some people don’t like cooking with wine, but I think the wine is a key ingredient here. You could substitute chicken broth for the wine, but I don’t think you’d end up with the same flavor. The wine took it up a notch, if you ask me.

I made a few changes from the original recipe, and I’m glad I did. Although the next time I make it I think I’m going to omit the cheese that’s inside the dish and just put 1/2 cup of cheese on top before baking. That would cut the calories a bit, which is always good.  This would also be very good with some boneless pork chops! I think I’m going to try to turn this into a crock pot meal!

Filed Under: Poultry, Recipes, Slow Cooker · Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , ,

Homemade Granola Bars

February 24, 2012 by 1 Comment

So as I was browsing on Pinterest I came across a recipe for some Homemade Granola Bars. I thought they looked pretty good and I had everything on hand so I figured why not trying making them? I knew I would be the only one eating them since the Mister isn’t into Peanut Butter like I am (Don’t ask – I don’t know what is wrong with him!). I threw a few in the freezer so we’ll see how they keep that way!

[Adapted from this recipe]

INGREDIENTS

  • 2 ½ cups Rice Krispies
  • 2 cups Oats
  • ¼ cup Mini Chocolate Chips [optional]
  • ½ cup Honey
  • ⅓ cup Brown Sugar
  • ½ cup Peanut Butter
  • 1 teaspoon Vanilla

INSTRUCTIONS

Line a 9 x 13 baking dish with wax paper. If you’d like chocolate on your bars you can spread some chocolate chips on the bottom of the dish.

Please note: The chocolate chips will melt a bit. I don’t think I’ll add them in the next time. I didn’t feel like they really added that much to the bars.

Place honey and brown sugar in a medium sauce pan.  Heat the mixture over medium heat until it boils; stir constantly. Once it begins to boil, remove from heat.

Stir in the Peanut Butter and the Vanilla until it’s well blended.

Pour your peanut butter & sugar mixture over your dry ingredients. You want to quickly blend the two together until they are well combined. I thought this was the most challenging part! since the larger bowl I would normally use was being occupied!

Press your granola mixture into your prepared dish. I used a sheet of wax paper spread the granola evenly and to compact it down. Set the pan aside to cool completely.  Once they are cooled,  cut the bars and wrap individually!

I thought these bars were pretty good! I definitely like them better than the ones (Quaker, etc) you buy from the grocery store. I think the next time I would cut the Rice Krispies down a 1/2 cup (and use 2 cups). I felt like they could be a bit moister.  If you look at the original recipe you will see they add a few more ingredients in there, but I didn’t want to add those items. And like I mentioned before the next time I’d leave the chocolate chips out.

If you want some chocolate with your granola bar you could always melt some chocolate chips and lightly coat one side of the granola bar with the chocolate. That would probably look prettier than the melted globs of mini chocolate chips. It wasn’t all that pretty so I didn’t take a picture of that side! :)

I’m sure you could also change up the flavors a bit to suit your tastes.  Imagine Nutella in place of the Peanut Butter?! Oh the possibilities are endless…

Filed Under: Recipes, Snacks · Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Teriyaki Meatball Bowl

February 15, 2012 by Leave a Comment

One thing Pinterest has been good for is finding new recipes to try! Making the same things for dinner gets old so it’s so nice to make 2 – 3 new recipes a week. Sometimes we love them, sometimes we don’t. But it gets us to try new things and experiment a little bit!  I feel like I’m always making something with chicken, so it was so nice to find a recipe for Teriyaki Meatball Bowls.

(I made a few changes from the original recipe that can be found here)

INGREDIENTS

Meatball:

  •  1 lb. ground turkey
  • 1 large egg
  • ½ cup panko breadcrumbs
  • 1 clove garlic, minced
  • 1 tablespoon fresh ginger, grated
  • ½ teaspoon soy sauce
  • 2 whole green onions
  • 1/8 teaspoon freshly cracked black pepper

 Teriyaki Glaze:

  •  ½ cup soy sauce
  • ½ cup brown sugar
  • ½ cup water
  • ½ tablespoon sesame oil
  • 1 tablespoon rice vinegar
  • 1 teaspoon fresh ginger, grated
  • 2 tablespoons corn starch
  • Sesame seeds

INSTRUCTIONS

STEP 1: Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Place the ground turkey in a large bowl. Peel the ginger and then grate it using a small holed cheese grater into the bowl. Mince the garlic, slice the green onions, and add them to the bowl. Also add the egg, breadcrumbs, soy sauce, and black pepper.

Mix these ingredients really well until it is all evenly combined (clean hands work best).

STEP 2: Cover a baking sheet with foil. Roll the meatball mixture into small balls, about one tablespoon each. I ended up using a cookie scoop.

You should yield about 30 meatballs. Place the meatballs on the baking sheet as you roll them. Bake in the preheated oven until golden brown; about 30 minutes or so.

STEP 3: While the meatballs are in the oven, begin cooking the rice according to the package directions; or if you’re like me you can throw the rice and water into your rice cooker!

STEP 4: While the meatballs are in the oven, also prepare the Teriyaki glaze. In a medium pot combine the soy sauce, water, brown sugar, rice vinegar, and sesame oil. Peel and grate the ginger into the pot. Heat over a low flame until the brown sugar is dissolved (just a few minutes).

STEP 5: Dissolve the cornstarch in just enough water to make it pourable. Pour it into the pot with the glaze ingredients. Turn the heat up to medium high, stir and cook until thickened. It should thicken as soon as it begins to simmer.


 STEP 6: When the meatballs come out of the oven, transfer them from the baking sheet into the pot with the glaze. Stir to coat.

Fluff the rice with a fork. Build the bowls by placing one cup of rice in a bowl, add five meatballs and a couple of spoons of extra teriyaki glaze, then sprinkle a few sliced green onions over top.

MY THOUGHTS

These were a huge hit in my house. I used 99% fat free ground turkey that I had on hand but I would not recommend using something that lean.  They were a bit on the dry side. Next time I’ll try using 93/7 ground turkey and I won’t cook them for as long.  I think I may also add a little bit of beef broth to moisten the meat a little as well. But overall we were very happy with how these came out. They’ll definitely be making it onto our dinner table again!

Filed Under: Beef, Recipes · Tagged With: , , , , , , , ,

Kraft Fresh Take & Homestyle Hearty Four Cheese Macaroni & Cheese [Product Review + Coupon]

February 10, 2012 by Leave a Comment

I love to cook and so I use any opportunity I can get to play around in the kitchen. I try to make dinner every night, and I try my best to make everything myself and not use a lot of pre-packaged foods.  For instance, I’d rather make my own macaroni and cheese than buy a box of it; I’d rather make my own au gratin potatoes than buy a box; I’d rather season up some panko bread crumbs myself and bread chicken that way. But sometimes I don’t have the time to do it, especially if it’s during the week.

Last night was one of those evenings where I had some things to do after work so I was short on time. But I didn’t want to go out for dinner or get take-out. So I tried a few of Kraft’s new products.

I had some boneless skinless chicken breasts that were thawed so I got that new Kraft product called Fresh Take. It’s a special blend of Kraft Natural Cheeses and seasonings that can dress up your chicken, fish, pork, beef, pasta, vegetables, etc. It sounds like the possibilities are endless – there were ideas on the packet for chicken, meatballs and even baked potatoes!

They have several different flavors – Chili Lime & Panko, Southwest Three Cheese, Italian Parmesan, Cheddar Jack & Bacon, Savory Four Cheese and Rosemary & Roasted Garlic. I picked up the Cheddar Jack & Bacon because I love anything with bacon in it! You can find this in the Dairy aisle.

It comes in a large ziploc type bag that separates the cheese and the seasonings. When you open it up you pull apart the separation and mix the two things together. I just coated my chicken breasts in the mixture and baked them for 25 minutes. They turned out really good! This isn’t something that I’ll do all of the time, but it’s nice for something quick, easy and flavorful!

Click here to print out a $1 coupon!

 

I also decided to give the new Kraft Homestyle Hearty Four Cheese Macaroni & Cheese a whirl as well. I thought it was pretty good! it was quite easy – you boil the macaroni for about 7 minutes and drain it. Then you melt a few tablespoons of butter in the saucepan and add a seasoning packet. This also has a thickening agent in it. Once you incorporate the seasoning packet with the butter, you stir in some milk and let it thicken. Once that’s thickened a bit you add in the cheese sauce (which is quite thick) and whisk it together until it’s creamy & smooth. I added in the macaroni and combined them together. They also provide a bread crumb topping if you’d like to use that.  I thought this macaroni and cheese was good – much better than the blue box!

***I WAS NOT COMPENSATED AT ALL FOR THIS POST. I PURCHASED THE PRODUCTS MYSELF AND FORMULATED MY OWN OPINIONS.***

Filed Under: Poultry, Product Review, Side Dish · Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Slow Cooker Honey Sesame Chicken

February 9, 2012 by Leave a Comment

Ever since I got my new Wolfgang Puck Multi-Cooker that you can brown/sear in, I’ve been in heaven. That thing is wonderful! I love that I don’t have to dirty any extra dishes. Everything can be made in 1 pot! I don’t have to pour anything into a saucepan so that I can thicken it on the stove. I can do it right in the crock pot. I’ve definitely been using my crock pot more because of this.  So this recipe is AWESOME if you have a Multi-Cooker, but if you don’t you can still make it in a regular crock pot.

A friend posted a recipe for Slow Cooker Honey Sesame Chicken on Pinterest and it sounded wonderful! I knew I needed to add it to my long list of recipes to try. And what made it even better is that I had everything on hand to make it already. Don’t you love that?

(Adapted from Six Sisters Stuff)

INGREDIENTS

  • 2 pounds of boneless skinless chicken breasts
  • Salt and pepper
  • 1 cup honey
  • 1/2 cup soy sauce
  • 1/2 cup diced onion
  • 1/4 cup ketchup
  • 1 tablespoon sesame oil
  • 2 cloves garlic, minced
  • 4 teaspoons cornstarch dissolved in 6 tablespoons water
  • Sesame seeds (Penzeys, of course!)

INSTRUCTIONS

Preheat crock pot to the sear setting if you have a Multi-Cooker. If you don’t, you can skip the browning step OR you can brown the chicken in a pan on the stove. That’s totally up to you. Season both sides of chicken lightly with salt and pepper. Add in 1 tablespoon of Sesame Oil.  Brown the chicken.

In a small bowl, combine honey, soy sauce, onion, ketchup, oil and garlic. Pour over chicken.

Cook on low for about 4 hours or just until chicken is cooked through.

Remove chicken from crock pot. Turn the crock pot setting to “Sear” and let it heat up. Shred the chicken.


Dissolve 4 teaspoons of cornstarch in 6 tablespoons of water and pour into crock pot. Stir to combine with sauce.  It should thicken up pretty quickly. If you don’t have a crock pot that will heat up quickly to allow you to thicken the sauce, you can try one of two things. Once you add in the cornstarch mixture you could replace the lid and cook sauce on high for ten more minutes or until slightly thickened (I would think that it would take longer than 10 minutes, but this is what they had in the Six Sisters Stuff recipe so I’m guessing it works?); OR you could transfer the sauce to a saucepan and thicken it that way. It’s totally up to you. As you can see below, the sauce is bubbling away and thickening very nicely.

After the sauce has thickened, add the shredded chicken back into the crock pot and toss with the sauce before serving.


Sprinkle with sesame seeds and serve over rice or noodles.

MY NOTES

As usual I usually change or tweak a few things. So this is the part where I tell you what changes I made from the original recipe I saw. To start, I used 2 lbs of boneless skinless chicken because I wanted leftovers! This worked out well because we got a few more days out of this meal. Perfect for lunch!

Since I used my handy dandy Multi-Cooker, I decided to brown the chicken first. So what I did was I put 1 tablespoon of sesame oil in the crock pot and browned the chicken in that.  I did not use the 2 tablespoons of vegetable oil that the recipe called for. I thought the sesame oil gave it some great flavor.  If I wasn’t going to brown the chicken first I probably wouldn’t even add in the oil.

I’m usually a “double the sauce” kind of girl when it comes to recipe. I feel that some recipes skimp on the sauce. But not this one! There is no reason at all to to double the sauce – you get plenty, trust me!

Instead of serving the chicken in chunks, I decided to shred it. I thought this was a great idea – the sauce gets mixed in and it’s nice and sticky – goes well with the rice!

And we don’t like heat, so I didn’t add in the red pepper flakes. But if you like heat I’m sure you can add in however much you want! :)

Filed Under: Penzeys, Poultry, Recipes, Slow Cooker · Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Turkey Pepperoni & Sausage Pizza Puffs

February 6, 2012 by 1 Comment

So yesterday was Super Bowl Sunday! I’m still in disbelief that it’s already February. Where has the time gone?!  We decided to just do some snack type foods for the big game.  So we had some of our favorite appetizer foods:  Chicken Fingers,  Potato Skins and Chips & Dip! We also added a new kid to the block and tried something new:  Turkey Pepperoni & Sausage Pizza Puffs! I found the recipe on Pinterest and I thought they looked delicious! We ended the night with some Mini Cupcakes – just how I like it! :)

(Recipe from Plain Chicken)

INGREDIENTS

  • 3/4 cup flour
  • 3/4 tsp baking powder
  • 1/2 tsp garlic powder
  • 3/4 cup whole milk (I used 2%)
  • 1 egg, lightly beaten
  • 4 oz mozzarella cheese, shredded (about 1 cup)
  • 2 oz mini turkey pepperoni, (about 1/2 cup)
  • 4 oz low-fat sausage, cooked and crumbled (I used Turkey Sausage Crumbles)
  • 1/2 cup pizza sauce

INSTRUCTIONS

Preheat the oven to 375°. Grease a 24-cup mini-muffin pan. In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, garlic powder and baking powder; whisk in the milk and egg.

Stir in the mozzarella, sausage and pepperoni.


Let stand for 10 minutes.

Stir the batter and divide among the mini-muffin cups.


Bake until puffed and golden, 20 to 25 minutes.


Meanwhile, microwave the pizza sauce until warmed through. Serve the puffs with the pizza sauce for dipping.

I thought these were so good! They were kind of a pain to get out of the mini muffin pan, and I even greased the pan very good before putting the batter in there. I just had to run a knife around the edges of each of them. No big deal though. Otherwise these were so simple and easy to make. Next time I may try putting half of the shredded mozzarella cheese in the batter and then topping the puffs with the other half of the cheese after they bake for about 20 minutes.

It was a wonderful finger food for the big game!

What did you eat during the Super Bowl?

Filed Under: Appetizers, Recipes · Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Tilapia with Soy Sauce and Mandarin Orange Scallion Rice

February 1, 2012 by 1 Comment

One of my favorite healthy meals is one that I got out of a Clean Eating Magazine years ago. I don’t recall which issue it was in, but it’s definitely a favorite in our house.  It’s Tilapia with Soy Sauce and Pineapple Scallion Rice. I love love love it. So I wanted to try a different variation – Tilapia with Soy Sauce and Mandarin Orange Scallion Rice. And let me tell you – it came out so good!  I was very happy with it. I’m going to post the recipe for the dish with the Mandarin Oranges, but if you want to make the Pineapple version, just use Pineapples in place of the Oranges.

(Adapted from Clean Eating Magazine)

INGREDIENTS

  • Steamed Jasmine Rice (or Brown Rice)
  • 4  Tilapia fillets (I’ve used fresh and frozen – either works!)
  • 2 Tbsp low-sodium Soy sauce
  • 1 8 oz can no sugar added Mandarin Oranges; drained and juice reserved
  • 1 Tablespoon packed Brown Sugar
  • 6 scallions, white and green parts, sliced
  • Salt & Pepper

INSTRUCTIONS

Preheat oven to 450 F.

Place Tilapia fillets in a baking dish coated with cooking spray.  In a small bowl combine soy sauce with three tablespoons Mandarin Orange juice, pour over tilapia.  (Note: I like to double the sauce because I love the sauce drizzled on top of the rice!)  Season with pepper, to taste. Bake 15 minutes, until cooked through. It should flake easily with a fork.

While the Tilapia is cooking, coat a skillet with cooking spray (or a tiny bit of olive oil) and heat on medium low. Add the scallions to the skillet (reserving 2 tablespoons of scallions for garnish) and cook for about 2-3 minutes. Add in the Mandarin Oranges and cook for a few minutes.    Fold the Scallion Mandarin Orange mixture into your steamed rice and season with salt and pepper to taste.

Mound one cup rice onto each plate. Place a tilapia fillet off  over each mound of rice. Drizzle pan juices over fillets and garnish with reserved scallions.

 

The original recipe didn’t call for the brown sugar; I added that in myself and I loved the little bit of sweetness that it brought to the dish.  So you can feel free to add it in or leave it out.

Filed Under: Healthy, Recipes, Seafood · Tagged With: , , , , , ,

Homemade Ice Cream Cake

January 23, 2012 by Leave a Comment

It’s not often that I have spare room in my freezer. So when I noticed that there was a little bit of room, the first thing that came to my mind was that I had to start trying to make Ice Cream Cake! Isn’t that the first thing that would come to your mind too? I didn’t follow any recipes or anything like that. There’s not a whole lot that goes into it. But the most important part of it is the center; the crunchy part! Wouldn’t you agree?

WHAT YOU’LL NEED

  • loaf pan
  • parchment paper
  • off-set spatula
  • half gallon of ice cream (if you are using two flavors, use half of each container)
  • hot fudge sauce
  • oreo cookies

ASSEMBLY

I decided that I was going to make mine in a loaf pan. It doesn’t take up a ton of room in the freezer and I figured it’d be easy to slice. So I started out by lining my loaf pan with some parchment paper. I cut a strip for it to go long ways, and then I cut another piece that would fit the other way. This way it would be easy to take it out of the loaf pan to cut.

I let the base flavor (chocolate) of my ice cream soften a bit before starting on the assembly of my ice cream cake. I wanted it to be easy to work with. I used a medium sized cookie scoop (you could use a regular ice cream scoop if you prefer) and scooped the ice cream out of the ice cream container and placed it in the bottom of the loaf pan. I placed one scoop right next to the other scoop so that they were closely touching. Once I was done that I took an off-set spatula and smoothed it all out so that it was a nice flat surface. You want the ice cream to come almost halfway up the loaf pan, but not quite all the way.

I don’t know about you, but my favorite part of the ice cream cake is the middle! I put some oreo cookies (maybe like 10 cookies?) into my Vitamix and broke up the pieces. I didn’t make it a fine crumb or anything. They were little round pieces of cookie. I tried getting it as close to those Dairy Queen “crunchies” as I could. It’s hard, though. I took half of the cookies and put them on top of your base layer. I pushed them in a bit so that they would stay kind of glue themselves to the bottom ice cream layer.

Next it was time for some hot fudge sauce! I recommend using some amazing homemade hot fudge sauce, and you can find the recipe here. Take some of your hot fudge sauce and drizzle it over the cookie pieces. It would be easiest to use a squeeze bottle, but make sure it can be heated up a bit so that it’s squeezable (recommendation: pancake syrup bottle that can be heated up!). If you can’t use a squeeze bottle then just take a spoon and lightly drizzle it over the cookie pieces. Once you have an even layer of hot fudge on top of the cookies, take the rest of your cookie pieces and place them on top of the fudge sauce. Push down a bit to make sure it sticks to the fudge sauce.

Take your top flavor of ice cream (in my case it was cookies n cream) and scoop the ice cream and place it on top of the cookie mixture (just like how you did it for the base). You want to make sure you cover the entire cake. Once that’s done take your off-set spatula (rinsed off, of course!) and smooth out the top. Do not cover it yet; place in the freeze for about 30 minutes and let it firm up a bit before covering.

After it’s firmed up a bit, cut a piece of parchment paper that fits right on top (so the length of the loaf pan) of the cake. Then take some saran wrap and wrap up the loaf pan and place in the freezer.

I know that Dairy Queen does that whippy icing on top, but I’m not a fan of that so I left it off. But if I were making a round ice cream cake for someone’s birthday I would probably pipe some real buttercream icing around the edges.

TRIAL & ERROR

Now on my first trial run of this ice cream cake when I was making the middle layer, I combined my hot fudge sauce and the oreo crunchies. That didn’t really turn out all that well. When we went to eat the ice cream cake the center was quite hard. So this is when I knew I had to go back to the drawing board to find “the perfect recipe.”  Don’t get me wrong, we ate that ice cream cake! But I knew it needed work.  So then I tried doing the cookie/fudge/cookie layer in between the two flavors of ice cream and that worked out so well. It was not hard and it had the right amount of hot fudge to go with the cookie pieces. I was so pleased with how it came out!

This is probably as close to Dairy Queen’s ice cream cake that I’ll get without buying a cake from them. I’m pretty happy with how it came out. There are so many different flavors you can use! I really want to try cake batter flavored ice cream with the chocolate ice cream.  I also plan on experimenting with middle layers – like perhaps a brownie batter middle layer. How amazing would that be?!

 

Filed Under: Desserts, Recipes · Tagged With: , , , , , , , ,

Homemade Hot Fudge Sauce

January 19, 2012 by 2 Comments

So we’re currently on this Homemade Ice Cream Cake kick in my house. Now that we’re in a tiny apartment we don’t have an extra freezer, so I don’t have a ton of room to store frozen items. An ice cream cake from Dairy Queen is usually quite large (which is a good thing, don’t get me wrong!) but I don’t have room for it. So I decided to work with what I do have and I set out to make my own! I’m still working on “the perfect recipe,” but in the midst of it I made an amazing Homemade Hot Fudge Sauce. Once I get the Ice Cream Cake recipe down pat I’ll share that with you all. It’s definitely something that you should make at home as opposed to spending $20 – $25 for one.  I made mine for less than $5.

Okay – now let’s talk about this Hot Fudge Sauce! I used up the Hot Fudge that was purchased from the grocery store on the first Ice Cream Cake run. I needed some for my second Ice Cream Cake (since the first one was all gone!) and I didn’t have any more. I didn’t feel like going to the grocery store, so I started looking up some recipes online to make my own. I came across one on Allrecipes called Sue’s Hot Fudge Sauce. It got 4 1/2 stars and looked pretty simple so I figured I’d use that as a base recipe and make a few of my own modifications to it. You can find the original recipe here. The ingredients/instructions below include the changes that I made.

INGREDIENTS

  • 1 cup butter
  • 1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
  • 2 1/2  cups white sugar
  • 1 (12 fluid ounce) can evaporated milk
  • 1/4 cup chocolate chips
  • 1 cup mini marshmallows
  • 1 teaspoon espresso powder
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

INSTRUCTIONS

Combine butter, cocoa, sugar, chocolate chips, espresso powder, marshmallows, and evaporated milk in a saucepan over medium heat. Use a whisk to combine everything. Continue to whisk while the mini marshmallows melt.

Bring to a boil and boil for about 7 – 8 minutes.

Remove the pot from the heat; stir in vanilla. Pour the hot mixture into a blender and blend for 4 minutes.  I would not skip this step – it’s essential. Some people have used a hand blender – you could probably try that if you wanted. I used my Vitamix and it worked perfectly.

Once it starts to cool it will thicken up.  Store in refrigerator.

 

This Hot Fudge Sauce was amazing.  I really loved the addition of the marshmallows – it seemed to make it more fudgy. The espresso powder brings out that rich chocolate flavor. It’s not the end of the world if you don’t have the espresso powder. I think it’ll be fine without it. I don’t think I’ll ever buy jarred Hot Fudge Sauce again!

 

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