Goat Cheese Coconut Cheesecake Frozen Yogurt

Ok, so I know that title is a mouthful, but really, what part of that was I supposed to leave out?!  How about the fact that this is ridiculously easy to make, SUPER creamy, delightfully tangy, subtly sweet, and STILL healthy... :)  It really doesn't get much better than this!

I was looking through Pinterest at various blog posts for "Goat Cheese Cheesecake", and "Greek Yogurt Cheesecake", when I thought to myself... "Why couldn't I make a Goat Cheese AND Greek Yogurt Cheesecake"?  And then I thought, "And what if I didn't have to bake it?  And what if I froze it into icecream?!"  Once in a while I do have a moment of genius.

Ingredients:

For the Yogurt:
6 oz. Goat Milk Cheese
1 cup Nonfat Plain Greek Yogurt
1 can (13.5-14 oz.) Light Coconut Milk
2/3 cup Xylitol (you could use regular sugar)
1 tsp. Vanilla Extract
dash sea salt

For the topping:
2/3 cup Granola (use your favorite)
1/2 tsp. Cinnamon
-OR-
1/4 cup Almond Meal
2 tsp. Xylitol
1/8 tsp. Cinnamon
dash sea salt

For the Yogurt, leave goat cheese out to soften.  When softened, combine goat cheese, greek yogurt, coconut milk, Xylitol, vanilla, and salt in a bowl and mix thoroughly until smooth.  Pour into icecream maker and follow manufacturer's directions for freezing.

While the yogurt freezes, place granola and cinnamon in a blender and blend until it resembles graham cracker crumbs.

Once yogurt has frozen, serve in a dish and top with granola crumbs!  Enjoy!!

Hippie Homemade Toothpaste...

Ok, so I've bought just about every kind of toothpaste the store has to offer.  Every "WHITENING" toothpaste just left my teeth even more dingy and yellow looking, and I started to notice that the inside of my mouth felt burned quite often.  I was even having the skin on the inside of my cheeks and lips peel off throughout the day.  Gross.

I finally settled on Tom's of Maine as my favorite because it didn't have fluoride or many of those strange mystery ingredients that all other toothpaste has.  What's more, the kind I was buying, which made no claims to teeth whitening, started making my smile whiter and brighter!  Imagine that!!  But...$4-$5 for a tube of toothpaste was beginning to take it's toll on my pocket book!

It began innocently enough.  Reading the ingredient list on the back of my Tom's while brushing my teeth one morning.  I noticed that the first ingredient was CALCIUM CARBONATE.  Having just watched an awesome episode of Myth Busters where they used calcium carbonate to blast open the door of a jail cell, I knew right away that this was the primary ingredient in antacids.  I kept reading... GLYCERINE - well, I still had some of that from a failed batch of handsoap I had tried to make, WATER - yup, plenty of that around, SODIUM BICARBONATE - good ol' baking soda.  I quickly realized that I had most of the ingredients already in my house!  So I set off to create my own.

Admittedly, the first few batches didn't turn out so well.  Sure they did the job, but they tasted simply awful, and my kids wanted nothing to do with the stuff.  Then today I came across this super helpful blog post and even though I didn't use her recipe, the last few pieces fell into place on my own recipe.  You could absolutely use some essential oils to make the flavor better, but I just opted to use some peppermint flavored antacids to save a little dough.

Ingredients:
40 tablets Calcium Carbonate Antacid (I bought the Equate brand because it was cheap) - choose whatever flavor sounds good!
2 Tbls. Organic Coconut Oil
1 Tbls. Xylitol (you could use Stevia instead, though I haven't tried this)
1 tsp. baking soda

Crush the antacid tablets.  (I used a well cleaned electric coffee grinder to crush those things into a fine powder.)  In a bowl, mix the crushed antacid, the coconut oil, xylitol, and baking soda.  This should make a good paste the same consistency as the store bought stuff.  Pour into a small condiment container, or even a travel shampoo bottle, it just needs to have a screw-on lid with a hole so you can squeeze the toothpaste out.  There you have it!  Homemade hippie toothpaste with no fluoride, and at a fraction of the cost of the store bought stuff!  Happy brushing!

Coffee Infused Almond Milk...

I MAY have been a little too excited about this idea.  It MIGHT have actually kept me awake last night imagining all of the flavors in the cold brew coffee and the soaking almonds just down the hallway in the kitchen.  I DEFINITELY had to keep telling myself that it probably wouldn't be as good as I was dreaming.  But guess what?  I was wrong!  This turned out AMAZING!!

I started by following these super simple directions for cold brewing coffee.

Then I started soaking my almonds so that in the morning, when my cold brew coffee was ready, my almonds would be prepped to make this delicious recipe for homemade almond milk.

But here's where I mixed things up a bit...  I decided to replace half of the water for the almond milk with the cold brew coffee.  Let me just say, this is some of the creamiest, smoothest, most delicious coffee I have ever tasted.  Make sure you start with some really good coffee beans, because cold brewing those bad boys really brings out all the fullness of their flavor.  This recipe is somewhat time consuming, but you'll be glad you did it!

Ingredients:
1 1/3 C. fresh fine ground coffee beans
4 C. filtered water
2 C. raw almonds
4 C. filtered water (plus more for soaking the almonds)
1 tsp. vanilla

Begin by cold brewing the coffee.  Grind coffee beans and place in a glass container large enough to hold all of your grounds and 4 cups of filtered water.  My french press can just hold all of this, so that's what I used.  Cover the top with plastic wrap and set aside.  You'll want to let this sit out on the counter anywhere from 24-12 hours.

The night before (or 12 hours or so before) you want to make your almond milk place the almonds in a bowl and cover with water.  Place a good amount in there because my almonds absorbed a full cup of water during this process.  Cover and leave to soak.

In the morning pour the coffee through a filter.  I used my french press to pour the coffee into a glass container, and then I poured that through a paper coffee filter to get all of the silt out.  If you like a little grit in your coffee feel free to skip this step.  Set the coffee aside.  Drain and rinse the almonds and place them and 1 tsp. vanilla in a blender with 4 cups filtered water.  Blend water, vanilla and almonds for a good 5 minutes.  If you have a nut milk bag place it in a bowl and pour the almond milk into it.  If you don't want to fork out the money for a nut milk bag... place a clean t-shirt inside a colander.  Place the colander over a bowl and pour the almond milk into the t-shirt.  Allow to drain through, then gather the edges of the bag or t-shirt and twist and then squeeze the milk through the fabric and into the bowl.  The almond meal will stay in the fabric while the milk drips out.  Now that you have your concentrated coffee and almond milk, pour them into a pitcher and stir to combine.  Refrigerate and stir before serving.

If you want to make a ridiculously delicious mocha, add 1-2 Tbls. of chocolate syrup to 3/4 cup almond coffee, stir well and pour over ice.  Or you can blend the coffee and ice together.  Be aware that blending may cause the coffee to be more icy than smooth as the majority of the almond milk is water.  Enjoy!!

PS - SAVE THAT ALMOND MEAL!!   Spread it out on a cookie sheet and leave it in an oven on a low temperature for a few hours to dry it out.  You can use it to bake delicious gluten-free short breads and cookies, or to coat and bake chicken, or use it as a flour replacement in your favorite recipes.

Say good-bye to store bought chocolate syrup!!

I found a blog post about homemade chocolate syrup.  I'd come across it a few times before, but seeing as how we hardly use chocolate syrup in our house, and I've bought it only a handful of times during our almost 14 years of marriage, I quickly ignored it and went along my merry way.  Yesterday however, for some unknown reason, I saw this post AGAIN, and this time it just kind of struck my fancy.  Simple ingredients, minimal time investment, my kind of recipe.  So I decided to go ahead and give it a try, but I opted to replace the sugar with a Xylitol blend that I buy at my local Ralph's to make it a little healthier, and let me tell you, it's pretty fantastic!

Ingredients:
1 1/2 C. Xylitol (or sugar)
3/4 C. Unsweetened Cocoa powder (I used good ol' Hershey's)
1 C. Water
dash of salt
1 tsp. vanilla

In a small saucepan, add Xylitol, cocoa powder, and salt.  Whisk together well.  Add water and bring the mixture to a boil, stirring occasionally.  Reduce the heat to medium and cook 1 min.  Remove from heat and add vanilla.  Cool and store in the refrigerator.

Easy Peasy Crock Pot Bread!

I have two sick kids this week.  Nothing terrible, just some colds and sniffles, but as a result we had a "down day" yesterday.  A whole day at home gave me the opportunity to try out some new recipes that I've been really curious about.  So I spent the whole morning making homemade cottage cheese, ricotta cheese, and cannoli filling.  Sounds amazing, right?  Well, let me share a little lesson I learned...use full fat milk instead of skim or all your cheeses will turn out pretty tough instead of smooth and delicious.

This morning, in the light of a new day, and with all the failures of yesterday's attempts behind me, I decided to go to a recipe that I have made a number of times and know to be a winner...Crock Pot Whole Wheat Bread!  I found this recipe a couple months ago over at Food.com, and it's made regular appearances on my dinner table ever since.  Super simple to make, and better than any whole wheat bread I've ever attempted to make before - my whole family loves this one!  Slice it up while it's warm and slather it with some honey butter for a little whole wheat perfection!

Crock Pot Whole Wheat Bread

Ingredients:
1 Tbls. yeast
1/4 C. warm water
1 C. warm whey (if you've made crock pot yogurt, save the whey and use it here, if not, use skim milk or buttermilk)
1/2 C. rolled oats
1 tsp. salt
2 Tbls. olive oil
2 Tbls. honey
1 whole egg
1/4 C. wheat germ (in a pinch I've been known to use Cream of Wheat...)
2 3/4 C. whole wheat flour

Directions:
Grease a deep metal or glass bowl, or a 1 lb. coffee can, (I use the crock from a 1.5 quart crock pot!) and turn the crock pot onto high to pre-heat.  Dissolve the yeast in the warm water, and then combine all ingredients except the flour.  Once combined, add the four and knead until smooth and elastic, about 5 min.  I actually just throw everything into my Kitchen Aid mixer and use the kneading hook to knead the dough for a few minutes until all the dough clings to the hook.  Turn the dough into your baking dish and cover loosely with foil.  Place a piece of crumpled foil or a small trivet (or canning lid) in the bottom of your crock pot with 1/2 C. water.  Place your can or bowl in the crock pot, cover and bake on high for three hours.

Holy Healthy Peanut Butter Balls Batman!!

Looking for a quick, easy, and healthy snack?  Look no further!  This treat is delicious, requires no baking, and is healthy to boot!  I found this recipe on one of my favorite blogs - Chocolate Covered Katie!  Seriously, if you haven't checked out her blog before, you need to get yourself over there right now!  Trust me, you'll thank me.

My kids love this as an afternoon snack.  In fact, my son Hudson would eat an entire plateful in a single sitting if I would let him!  Now admittedly, my neighbor kids all snicker when I ask if anyone "wants some peanut butter balls", but one taste of these treats and the snickering stops.  It's really hard to snicker while you're asking for seconds...

Peanut Butter Cookie Dough Balls

Ingredients:
(These quantities are for a double batch, which is just about right for my family!)
1/2 C. peanut butter (I find that all-natural chunky PB works best)
1/2 C. plus a generous 1/3 C. raisins
1/4 C. roasted peanuts
1/4 tsp. pure vanilla extract
salt to taste

Directions:
Here's the best part...throw it all into a food processor and combine until smooth.  You'll know when it's ready because the ingredients will all kind of pull together into a giant ball and just roll around the inside of the processor with the blade.  Then just scoop it into balls, cookies, bars, or just grab a spoon and dig in!!

The Brotherhood of Love...

I'm often amused at the situations God uses to teach me more about Himself, or to grow me in my walk.  It usually occurs in the mundane, day-to-day activities.  There I am, completing a task I've done a thousand times before, and BAM!  God hits me over the head with some profound realization about His goodness, His provision, or a million other little lessons He gently teaches me in the midst of busy days.

Parenting has proven to be one of God's major tools in my life.  I had absolutely no idea of the depth of God's sacrifice on my behalf until the first time I held my little girl in my arms.  I certainly had never noticed what an obnoxious backseat driver I could be (my poor hubby!) until I heard a little mimicking voice call out from the back of the car.  Listening to my children's prayers has taught me the power and beauty of simple faith.  And here I thought I was the one who was supposed to be teaching them!

This week one of my boys made a bad decision and lost his pocket knife as a result.  The offending child was pretty heart broken, as he clips that thing onto his belt loop every morning (you know, just to be prepared!).  A little later that morning his brother came to me and asked if we could talk in private.  We went into my room, and this child proceded to plead with me on behalf of his brother.  He begged me not to take the knife away, or at the least, to only take it away for a limited time.  His little heart was broken for his brother, and he was moved to plead his brother's cause with me.

And there it was.  Am I moved in that way to plead before my heavenly Father for my brothers and sisters?  Do I bear their burdens and carry them before our Father who wants good things for His children?  If I was moved by my child, how much more so must God be when His children come to Him on behalf of one another?

So, I'll pray.  And I'll pray that God would not allow me to grow weary in praying.  And I'll trust that He will do what is best for His children.  And I'll trust that He will never stop teaching me new truths in the everyday moments...

Can it be?? Crock Pot Greek Yogurt!!

So, this is a recipe that I have only recently started making, but it is so fantastically simple and foolproof, that I just have to share!!

Our family is relatively new to the whole Greek Yogurt scene, but since discovering how amazingly healthy it is, how remarkably versatile it is, and how protein packed this deliciously creamy treat is, we've spent our fair share of money purchasing buckets of this stuff!  So, I began researching what makes yogurt Greek, and if I could do this myself at home.  And do you know what I discovered??  I could indeed make it myself, and for about a fifth of the cost of the store bought stuff!!  I generally followed the basic directions for crock pot yogurt from this super great post: http://www.nourishingdays.com/2009/02/make-yogurt-in-your-crock-pot/  though I made a few changes based on some other research I did.

Crock Pot Greek Yogurt

Ingredients:

• 1/2 gallon of Milk (you can use any kind of milk you would like - lowfat, whole, organic, I just use non-fat)
• 2-3 Tbls. Plain Yogurt (I used Chobani Plain Non-fat Greek Yogurt, but you can use any plain yogurt as your starter as long as it has live cultures)

Directions:

  Allow me to begin by saying that due to the amount of time the yogurt has to sit to actually become yogurt, I usually start this process around 2-3 in the afternoon so my yogurt can culture overnight.  Just figure out what time you want your yogurt ready in the morning, and count back 14-18 hours for your start time.

  Using a 4-4.5 quart crock pot, plug in and turn crock pot on to the low setting.  Pour a half gallon or 8 cups of milk into the crock pot.  Put the lid on and leave it to heat for 2 hours and 45 minutes.  After it has heated, turn off and unplug the crock pot, then just leave it alone for 3 hours.  After this, pull 1-2 cups of the milk out of the crock pot, and whisk in your starter yogurt.  Pour back into the crock pot with the rest of the milk and whisk thoroughly.  Wrap the entire crock pot in a thick towel and place in a warm spot (like the oven) for 8-12 hours.  At this point you have good old plain yogurt.  

  To make plain yogurt into Greek yogurt, you want to line a colander with a clean t-shirt that has no print or screening on it.  You want about 2 layers of material, so a t-shirt works great for this!  Place the lined colander into a large bowl, making sure that the colander is resting at least an inch above the bottom of the bowl.  Now pour all of that yogurt into your colander, cover the top with a little plastic wrap, and place in the fridge for about an hour.  What you'll see is that the yogurt solids, or yogurt cheese, is left sitting in the t-shirt, while a clear-yellowish liquid called whey, is drained into the bowl.    You may need to stir the yogurt every once in a while if you see whey sitting on the top.  You want your yogurt to reduce by about half, but once the whey is drained you are left with some lovely, creamy Greek yogurt!  I throw my whey out, but I'm sure you could probably find some recipe somewhere that uses the whey.   I also read that dogs really love the stuff, so if you can't bear with letting it go, find some sweet little pup to give it to and make their day!  Let your yogurt sit in the fridge for a good couple of hours before you use it for the best flavor, and remember to save at least a couple tablespoons so you can make another batch soon!! :)

Ah-mazing Chocolate Chip Cookies!

Here's another one that is tucked away in my brain and has been refined, and dare I say, perfected, over the years.  I mean really, who doesn't love a good chocolate chip cookie??

1 C. butter, softened (I always use salted butter!)
3/4 C. granular sugar
3/4 C. packed brown sugar
2 large eggs
1-2 tsp. vanilla (if you like a stronger vanilla presence, use 2 tsp.)
1 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. baking powder
2 tsp. sea salt (trust me on this!)
2 1/4 C. all-purpose flour
12 oz. semi-sweet chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 425 degrees.  In a large bowl cream butter and sugars together.  Add eggs until well blended.  Add baking soda, baking powder, salt and vanilla and mix in thoroughly.  Add flour, blending until just combined.  Stir in chocolate chips.  Drop cookie dough by the spoonful onto ungreased cookie sheet.  Bake 8-10 minutes in the center of the oven.  I like these to look ever-so-slightly gooey in the center when I pull them out, and then I leave them on a cooling rack to set up.

Variation: Double Dark Chocolate Chip Cookies
Add 1/3 C. Cocoa powder to the flour, and use dark chocolate chips instead of semi-sweet.  You'll also want to reduce the heat to 375 degrees, and bake for about 10 minutes.

The Tried and True...

So, before delving into some of the new things I have tried, I thought it would be best to share of few of my very favorite recipes.  These are the ones I have been using for years, and don't have to run to the ol' cookbook to grab the recipe.  We'll start with one of our family favorites...

Honey and Sea Salt Popcorn

1/2 C. popcorn kernels, air popped
2 Tbls. butter
2 Tbls. honey
Sea Salt, to taste

This one's pretty easy.  Pop the popcorn in an air popper.  In a small dish or cup, microwave the butter and honey together for 40 sec. on high.  Pour the honey butter mixture over the popcorn, season with sea salt to taste, and toss to coat the popcorn evenly.

Now the really fun thing about this recipe is you can mix it up by adding cinnamon, cayenne, or any of your favorite seasonings to the honey butter.  I've also replaced half of the butter with coconut oil to add a bit of a coconutty flavor.  Mix it with some Honey Chex cereal and chocolate chips dried fruit for a quick and healthy snack mix.  The possibilities are rather endless here.  What would you toss in?

Trying, and failing, and trying again...

Confession: I have typed and then promptly erased what I have written on this post about 10 times so far.  This is one of my main hesitations with starting a blog.  What should be a simple few sentences will cause hours of agonizing over choosing just the right words, of communicating just cleverly enough to not be thought stupid, of reading, then re-reading over and over again to make sure everything is just so... (sigh).

But, this is life.  We try, we fail, and we try again.

Since joining Pinterest not too long ago, I have had much experience with this whole trial and error process!  So many great ideas!!  So little time!!  But I have tried quite a few of the ideas I have come across, and a few friends suggested that I start a blog to share my successes (or failures).  So, here we are.  I hope you find this helpful, and maybe even mildly entertaining...